Congratulations to the Japanese women soccer team for winning the 2011 FIFA World Cup in soccer!
They fought courageously, coming back from a goal down twice reasonably late in the game to tie it 2-2 in extra time. Then they won it decisively on in penalty kicks, not needing to finish the set to win it 3-1, becoming the first Asian soccer World Cup champions. Absolutely true to their underdog label to the very end!
The US may have seemed to have dominated play, with 27 shots to a dozen or so by the Japanese. However, it was all an illusion. The Japanese had more shots on goal than the US, at 6-5. The Japanese also had the ball 53% of the time.
The US was the flashier team, but the Japanese was the more consistent team.
The Lucky Few is an hour long documentary about the story of the USS Kirk and its crew in their incredible mission to rescue Vietnamese refugees during Operation Frequent Wind in the final days of the Viet Nam War.
As the War was coming to an end on April 29th to 30th, 1975, Operation Frequent Wind airlifted about 7100 “at risk” Vietnamese (to death from the Communist Viet Cong) and American civilians out of Sai Gon, the capital of South Viet Nam. Some lifts were scheduled. Others were not. The relative American small warship USS Kirk, a destroyer escort, and its crew suddenly found themselves in the midst of a flock of unscheduled airlifts, to which it admirably accommodated even though it was neither meant nor ready to do any such thing.
With the 2011 March Madness Tournament over, the results and in and Barack Obama’s 2011 Barackets beat 87.4% of ESPN’s 6 million or so bracket entries. This was despite having had no teams past the Elite 8 as da Prez picked heavily for the favourites in a year where parity was more the rule than the norm. However, he was bailed out by the fact the parity was so strong that less than 30% of entries had even one team in the Final Four. Translate that and it meant less than 30% had an entry that potentially had a chance to get points past the Elite 8 round or half the tournament! That’s one way to get bailed out for not being able to get points for half the tournament.
Now, if only the POTUS’ political foresight and planning only worked as well!
Did you know that in Nova Scotia, farmers get 80 cents per food dollar spent when selling directly to customers, like at the farmers’ market, compared to 9 cents when selling to retailers? (The Coast, July 15 2010)
My annual list of Best New Songs I Heard is usually reserved for songs I had never heard before. Sometimes, I throw in songs I had heard before, but never nearly as good that a version I just heard for the first time. This song falls in that second category, though it doesn’t quite have the gap for me to put on my list this year because of how many great versions I have heard in the past. Still, it was good enough that I know, for me, it was the best rendition of this song that I have ever heard among the many I have heard.
The Star Spangled Banner is played at so many events I watch, on television or in person, that I am sure I have heard over 1000 renditions of it over the years. Naturally, there have been some outstanding versions among them, as well as some pretty grotesque ones. To me, though, Colbie Caillat’s version at the opening game of the National Football League season between the Minnesota Vikings and the New Orleans Saints was the best rendition of the song I have ever heard. Sorry, I don’t know the guitarist’s name.
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She sung it quietly and built it, without having to rely on volume power to peak. She didn’t need more drums or instruments to come in, or additional parts, either. She just rocked it gently a tad more each time and achieved the effect. That’s a hard thing to do!
The television footage of the players and crowd were also inspiring, and credits go to the NBC camera crew for capturing all that. Lots of players and coaches with hands over their heart, standing pretty still mostly, too. I also liked the shot of Jared Allen with the helmet held high. The New Orleans fans deserve credit for being in such solemn attention. A little cheer here or there in the right places can have just as good an impact as a roaring crowd all the way through like at some events. But you know, the right rendition will help you be like that to listen and be proud rather than not pay attention for any number of reasons.
All and all, I thought it was just superb. Too bad the online version I have above had the image and sound timing just a tad off to make it look like Colbie badly lip synced it.
I saw some online articles today on the rendition by Colbie Caillat. She’s got the Net talking about it, that’s for sure. There were likes and dislikes, and loves and hates, as to be expected. However, I’ve got to say the reasonings given for those who didn’t like it weren’t very sound. If the reasonings those people generally gave were valid, they should just go plunk it out on an out of tune synthesizer, or just get their computer to mechanically play it. They should appreciate how flexible their national anthem is that they could think so poorly of such a performance and yet, some people like myself think it’s the best rendition they’ve ever heard!
Leave me a comment with some other favourite renditions of the Star Spangled Banner if you care to share. Thanks!
Meanwhile, I’m going to look up some more of Colbie’s music. I had never heard of her till last night, but man, did she impress and got a new fan for that performance!
The Lucky Few is an hour long documentary about the story of the 
Did you know that in Nova Scotia, farmers get 80 cents per food dollar spent when selling directly to customers, like at the farmers’ market, compared to 9 cents when selling to retailers? (
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