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I used my Sydney Film Festival press passes to review 3 films with a “journeys” theme: “Space Tourists”, “Cane Toads: The Conquest” and “Turtle: The Incredible Journey”. This shouldn’t surprise anyone considering my other website is called Road Less Travelled

“Journey” photo credit: Neerav Bhatt

Review of “Space Tourists” documentary

As a fan of space travel books, films and documentaries, watching the Sydney Film Festival documentary “Space Tourists” invoked a mixture of despair and hope in me.

Despair because I wonder if the glories of NASA and the Russian space agency golden days will be reduced to displays at museums and Kazach farmers using space junk as roofing material and agricultural implements.

Hope because it is possible that private companies like Virgin Galactic and Space X will compete vigorously and succeed in creating cost effective rockets and space ships that can take civilians to LEO (Low Earth Orbit) and beyond.

The film weaves two parallel storylines together to contrast the experience of magnum photographer Jonas Bendiksen’s exploration of decaying soviet era space infrastructure and roving scrap metal scavengers who track down space junk falling from the sky with American/Iranian entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari’s experience as a space tourist to the International Space Station (ISS).

In the end the viewer is left to wonder whether humanity will become earthbound and preoccupied with the many terrestrial problems or continue a long tradition of exploration and satisfying the urge to see what is beyond the horizon.

As Ansari says in the film:

“Space is our future. We backup our computers … we backup everything but we never think about backing up our own species.”

“What happens to our race if something goes wrong on our planet here? We have to have a plan to save at least part of our race, a portion of our species”.

Space Tourists was awarded the World Cinema Directing Award for Documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

I also wrote an article for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) website about the future of manned space flight, inspired by watching this Space Tourists documentary.

Review of “Cane Toads: The Conquest” documentary

Forget the war on drugs and terrorists, theres a seemingly unstoppable force which has been invading Australia since the 1930’s and now numbers over 1,500,000,000 (1.5 billion) … the Cane Toad (Bufo Marinus).

To many people, voluntarily watching a 3D documentary about Cane Toads would be unthinkable.

However the Sydney Film Festival screening of “Cane Toads: The Conquest” was well attended and the audience clearly enjoyed the experience, with regular outbreaks of laughter across the theatre.

Nicknamed “Ava-Toad” at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, “Cane Toads: The Conquest” is the first Australian feature film shot in 3D from start to finish.

While some films being shown in theatres at the moment have been converted from 2D to 3D to cash in on the Avatar phenomenon, Lewis said his film was shot in native 3D to immerse the audience in the toad world. The 3D effects were quite good on the whole, especially for still or slow motion scenes.

The film takes us from the lush canefields of QLD to the dusty heart of Australia and is just as much about the great Australian characters who live in the tropical north and outback as the relentless toad colonisation march westward.

During the post-screening Q&A session the Director Mark Lewis explained that Cane toads have evolved as they travel, to the extent that the fastest and strongest toads on the front line breed with each other in “Olympic Village” style to create even more superior future generations of toads.

Lewis said that his goal was to be entertaining and switch between serious science facts and personal stories like a pet dog that is addicted to licking Cane Toads for the mild LSD-style high it gives him.

The award winning short animated film “Cane-Toad” (completely unrelated to “Cane Toads: The Conquest”) by Andrew Silke and David Clayton is about a cane toad called Dazza visualising the possible gruesome deaths that his missing cane toad friend Baz could have experienced. To counter the cane-toad problem the Australian people (especially Queenslanders) have unsuccessfully tried to kill cane toads in several creative ways outlined in the short video below.

Review of “Turtle: The Incredible Journey” documentary

I like documentaries but was disappointed with “Turtle: The Incredible Journey“.

The documentary is based on the true story of a loggerhead turtle and its remarkable 20+ year journey around the North Atlantic ocean.

Narration is by the british actress Miranda Richardson whose voice should be familiar to viewers from her appearances in the classic Blackadder tv series and more recent Harry Potter movies.

Born on a beach in Florida, the newly hatched turtle rides the Gulf Stream up towards the Arctic and ultimately swims around the entire North Atlantic across to Africa and back to the beach where she was born. But the odds are stacked against her; just one in ten thousand turtles survive the journey.

She faces many hazards, her siblings are lost in the doldrums of the Sargasso Sea, she comes face to face with creatures of the deep and nearly dies at the hands of fishermen. She travels up north but she drifts from her life current, the Gulf Stream, into dangerously cold waters.

When she finally reaches the Azores on the other side of the Atlantic, she sees the greatest celebration of life on the Earth as sperm whale and baitballs explode from the water. But deep and powerful changes are happening in the oceans – the fish are disappearing, sea levels are rising, the turtle’s birthing beach could be washed away and bring a way of life to an end.

Then her calling comes, she must return to her beach. When she finally reaches the shores of Florida, 25 years will have passed!

Under a million stars, she crawls out of the sea to lay her own eggs and keeps the Turtle’s Journey alive.
- Film synopsis

Although I am concerned about the plight of sea turtles because their numbers are declining due to over-fishing, at almost one and a half hours in length i felt the film is too long and needed editing to be shorter and more punchy with its message. It would have been more effective if roughly an hour long instead.

Find out what you can do to help sea turtles at the Save our Seas website.

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ABC TV’s new locally produced 6 part documentary series Voyage To The Planets offers the viewer a chance to imagine they have gone on a journey to explore our outer solar system, giving them a guide to what’s needed to be prepared for the trip and living on the planet.

Have you ever dreamed of going somewhere special? Far from the crowds and off the beaten track … it’s possible to take the Road Less Travelled on Earth but going off-world is not so easy.

Catching a rocket to the red planet Mars and seeing some of the most barren scenery in the whole solar system would be fun and that’s where the first episode of the ABC TV media preview DVD took me, revealing interesting issues like having to design space suits and habitats which stop the fine red martian dust from entering.

We then travelled further and further away from Earth towards the outer limits of our solar system and beyond as the series progressed with episodes featuring Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, Venus, Mercury and the asteroid belt containing the Planetoid Pluto.

Most documentaries shown on Australian TV have an American or British voiceover so well done to the production company for choosing Australian actor/director Richard Roxburgh (Blue Murder, Hamlet, Romulus My Father) as the narrator. The soundtrack is energetic without getting in the way of narration, it reminded me of the soundtrack in the recent Bourne trilogy movies based on Robert Ludlam’s novels.

Voyage To The Planets is sure to have a broad appeal, with children for whom Space & Dinosaurs are perennial favorites as well as adults who want to learn more about our planetary neighbours.

It is of course a given that space/astronomy enthusiasts like me will enjoy the series as we have movies in our collection like Star Trek, Star Wars and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and wish that humankind was still putting serious efforts into exploring the Universe as we did decades ago with satellite surveyors like the Voyager missions to interstellar space as well as manned missions to the moon.

Voyage To The Planets is broadcast in 6 one hour weekly episodes on ABC1 TV from Thursday May 13th at 830pm onwards and will most likely appear in ABC shops on DVD/Bluray in the near future. Visit the program website for more educational information about our Solar System.

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Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs is an animated movie from Sony Pictures now available on Bluray and DVD whose use of vibrant colours really shows off the capabilities of new LCD/LED/Plasma TV’s and manic pace reminiscent of old Looney Tunes cartoons will delight both children and adults who retain a child’s ability to imagine.

The storyline focuses on the life of socially inept Flint Lockwood, a madcap inventor whose obsession with trying to solve problems has frequently landed him in hot water from a young age.

Flint lives in a world like ours, where risk taking and originality are all too often crushed by an education system that values high test scores and conformity with the aim of churning out loyal “worker bots” for the mills of corporations and industry.

When Flint succeeds in creating a machine that creates food from mutated water particles he draws the interest of weather girl Sam Sparks … with unanticipated results in both cases.

You can buy Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs on Bluray or DVD from Chaos.com

Other Reviews of Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs

Writer-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have expanded a 30-page children’s book by Judi and Ron Barrett into a 3D animated feature which boasts intricate design and goofy humour. The thrust of the narrative is that being an obsessive, indoors, kid isn’t necessarily a bad thing as long as you wind up creating something useful, but the message – as always in this sort of film – takes a back seat to the inventive design and animation
- ABC TV At The Movies

This first animated feature by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who cut their animation teeth writing the short-lived “Clone High” on MTV, spins a predictable tale of youthful ambition, love and the quest for approval, yet without leaving a sappy or snarky aftertaste. (Fathers, for example, don’t always know best, but sometimes they do.) Parents will enjoy tracking the endless stream of movie and television sendups. If the filmmakers opt to make only light statements about junk food, obesity and solid waste, they at least leave the audience sated on a single serving of inspired lunacy.
- New York Times

But if Pixar are the modern equivalent of the sweet artistry of Walt Disney’s best, then Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is the slightly-skewy offspring of Chuck Jones and his Warner Bros. cartoons. Flint is a gentler but no less self-confident variation on Bugs Bunny, never foregoing belief in himself no matter how harebrained his schemes are or how hilariously dire the consequences. The film’s humour is grandly-staged and impossibly physical – a Wile E. Coyote / Road Runner classic, transplanted from the desert to the dessert. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs draws from the lunatic inspiration of Jones and his contemporary, Tex Avery, and is perhaps the funniest American animated film to date because of their legacy.
- SBS Films

You can buy Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs on Bluray or DVD from Chaos.com

NOTE: the Bluray copy of Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs which I watched and reviewed was a media preview disk supplied by Sony Pictures.

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At the beginning of this review of How To Train Your Dragon I have to make it clear that I’ve always been interested in dragons and the expectation that this movie would feature many scenes of dragons soaring through the air was enough incentive to make me go to IMAX to watch it.

“How to Train Your Dragon” is a Dreamworks film, the same studio that brought you “Shrek”, “Madagascar” and “Kung Fu Panda”.

Set in the mythical world of burly Vikings and wild dragons, and based on the book How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell, the action comedy tells the story of Hiccup, the scrawny teenage son of the Viking chieftain, who seems destined to fall short of his fathers hopes that he will follow in the footsteps of his ancestors and become a heroic dragon slayer.

A classic tale of the outsider defying the odds to become a hero, How To Train Your Dragon tells the tale of how Hiccup is initially mocked by his tribe but ends up successfully changing their belief that dragons are pests by revealing the true reason for constant dragon raids on Viking sheep herds.

The real star of the show is the facial expressions and puppy-like behaviour of the dragon “Toothless”. Toothless initially fears Hiccup because he trapped and injured the dragon with a net but then acts more like a Labrador puppy once he’s offered a few fish and sees that Hiccup is just as scared of him as he is of humans.

When I saw the initial movie trailer months ago I was unconvinced that his accent would work but Canadian Jay Baruchel is great as the squeaky teenage voice of Hiccup.

Baruchel, America Ferrera (who plays his love interest Astrid) and the other Viking teenagers all have North American accents which jars at times because all the adult characters inexplicably speak English with strong Scottish accents.

I watched the movie in IMAX and found it hard to give the visual effects a thumbs up or down because the giant wrap around IMAX screen was well suited to the flying scenes but the 3D effect was best during still or slow moving scenes.

During fast moving scenes I felt the 3D effect got quite blurry as if there aren’t enough frames/second to create a proper motion effect. I suspect that watching a 2D version of the movie at IMAX would have looked better overall.

How To Train Your Dragon opened in Australian cinemas including IMAX on March 25th. I watched it at IMAX with a media pass.

Other Reviews of How To Train Your Dragon

Well my doom-laden expectations were dashed because this is such a nice film, with a lovely message. Hiccup admits that he couldn’t kill the dragon because he saw he was as frightened as he was. It’s not so cutesy funny as other animated features, possibly because it was based on a book by Cressida Cowell, the story is everything.

There’s lots of action but there’s even more heart. And I must admit I like not being able to recognise the voices of the actors who voice the characters. George Clooney was a bit too present as Mr. Fox for me. I’m a bit over 3D, I’m not sure that the extra visuals compensate for wearing those glasses through a whole movie.
- Margaret Pomeranz on “At The Movies” (ABC TV)

If you’re an overgrown kid, and susceptible to the hypnotic effects of 3D computer-animated films, you’ll fall down the rabbit hole of this DreamWorks dragons and Vikings fantasy within five seconds. The animation is staggering. The look of the Vikings’ coastal village, lined by massive rock formations that jut out from the sea, is sublime, while the fantastical dragons that terrorise the townsfolk have been unleashed from wildly fertile imaginations.
- Annette Basile for Filmink

“How to Train Your Dragon” plays more like a game born to inspire a movie. It devotes a great deal of time to aerial battles between tamed dragons and evil ones, and not much to character or story development
…
Note: The movie is being shown in both 3-D and 2-D. The 3-D adds nothing but the opportunity to pay more to see a distracting and unnecessary additional dimension. Paramount has threatened theaters that if they don’t clear screens for “Dragon” despite the current glut of 3-D films, the studio won’t let them show it in 2-D. This displays real confidence in 3-D.
- Roger Ebert for Chicago Sun Times

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This is an analysis of Network 10 TV (Channel 10, ONE SD, ONE HD) exclusive Australian live TV coverage of the 2006-2015 Formula One Grand Prix World Championship (Practice & Qualifying sessions, Race Day and highlights packages) including Q&A with Host Greg Rust about the 2010 season.

In 2009 and 2010 Australians have finally been able to watch more Live F1 coverage on TV than ever before with the launch of the new Network 10 “ONE” HD/SD sports channel.

Jake Humphrey presents the BBC TV coverage shown by Channel 10 in Australia, joined by 13-time Grand Prix winner David Coulthard and former team boss Eddie Jordan as pundits. Jonathan Legard commentates alongside award-winning broadcaster and former F1 driver Martin Brundle and the pit lane reporters are Ted Kravitz and Lee McKenzie.

In essence Ch10 relay the feed from the host broadcaster BBC in the UK with their expert commentators for much of the race with additional commentary from Australian hosts. F1 fans are well known for complaining about badly timed interjections from the Channel 10 hosts which many people feel really ruins the telecast.

In fairness F1 coverage in Australia has improved in leaps and bounds compared to a few years ago and it must be hard for ONE HD to time breaks for ads and Australian comment because we have to have ads and the host broadcaster BBC doesn’t.

However I think Greg Rust (Rusty) did a better job in 2009 and from what I’ve seen swapping Cameron McConville for the new co-host Craig Baird and James Allen filing news from the race will improve coverage further. Not so sure about the addition of former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer Darryl Beattie as the other new co-host, he seems a nice guy but not sure if he truly knows F1 as much as a host should.

Network 10/ONE HD F1 Host Greg Rust’s Thoughts on 2010 Season

I recently had the opportunity to interview Network 10/ONE HD F1 Host Greg Rust and ask him some questions about the 2010 season. Here are his answers after the 3rd F1 Grand prix of the year at Sepang in Malaysia:

Neerav Bhatt:
1. Regarding the shock comeback by Schumacher, what more is there to achieve after all he’s done already besides perhaps hitting 100 wins?

Greg Rust:
It’s a big risk isn’t it? Will we remember Michael for his comeback or his prior results? For me nothing will change his incredible achievements either way. I was fortunate enough to conduct a 1 on 1 interview with him in Melbourne for Bridgestone as part of the Make Cars Green campaign. He seemed more relaxed but still a very driven human being. He said he’s fitter now than when he retired in 2006 and I believe him.

With each outing he’s getting quicker. When the series gets back to Europe I think Mercedes will take a step forward and already Michael’s great skill of motivating the team is making a difference. Hopefully he cracks the 100. I reckon he’ll be on the podium this year for sure. And you’re right we have definitely noticed a greater interest in the sport in 2010 thanks, in part, to his return.

Neerav Bhatt:
2. I like the extension of points to 10th place because it hopefully encourages 11,12,13 etc to scrap and try to get into the points towards the end of a race. Your thoughts?

Greg Rust:
I agree. Already I think we have seen evidence of this at the end of some races. It’s good to see the likes of Jamie getting a breakthrough and Force India stepping up. Its early days but even the race for the points lead of the driver’s championship tightened up in Malaysia so hopefully we have a close battle for the bulk of the season.

Neerav Bhatt:
3. What priority will live F1 qualifying and races take on ONE HD/SD considering the huge increase in rights for other live sport rights network 10 has this year?

Greg Rust:
Although I work very closely on our coverage of the series, as you can appreciate, I don’t get involved in rights deals, scheduling of programs or the timing/volume of commercial breaks etc. That kind of question you would need to ask of management. Ten/One is a business and in my opinion the management team run it exceptionally well. They make television for everyone.

I am very conscious of looking after the passionate supporters of F1 as much as the casual viewer and that’s not always easy. The best way I could answer this is to give you an insight into the culture at One.

I am lucky to work there because a number of people genuinely love/follow motorsport and they’re also very talented at making TV. From the top and right across our network there is a strong commitment to Formula One. That’s the reason why we broadcast qualy and provide a detailed race preview show complete with information from a correspondent at every Grand Prix. In 2010 that commitment to you doesn’t change.

Neerav Bhatt:
4. Which is your dark horse team to watch out for this year to unexpectedly steal some points? Perhaps Sauber with de la rosa and kobayashi?

Greg Rust:
During the pre-season testing Sauber looked pretty reasonable but man I hope they can sort the reliability and finish some races. It’s odd to think of Renault as a dark horse. Doesn’t feel like all that long ago that Fernando Alonso was winning races for them. Robert Kubica is doing a very good job there. He was a smart acquisition and they seem to be quietly toiling away rather than boasting about their potential. I don’t reckon Melb. will be the only time we see them on the podium this year.

Neerav Bhatt:
5. If Webber doesn’t have a good year in 2010 will last year’s effort be good enough for him to keep his seat at Red Bull?

Greg Rust:
I guess it depends on who is on the market at the time. Clearly RedBull was impressed with Daniel Ricciardo at the end of ‘09 season test too. I haven’t spoken to Mark about this but my read is that the rivalry is escalating between he and Sebastian. How RedBull manage this will be interesting. And how Mark deals with it to for that matter. I have no doubt Mark will win more races this year. The car is strong and he knows he can do it. Sebastian is a special talent so this will require Mark to dig deep and push himself to another level.

Neerav Bhatt:
6. No refueling. Everyone’s talking about it and many worry that it will reduce the number of passes in a race because everyone will start with a heavy fuel load. What’s your reaction to the new rule?

Greg Rust:
I said from the very beginning I didn’t like it. This is a team sport and we should showcase that. 3-4 second pit stops is certainly impressive but it severely limits strategy choices if the race is straight forward like Bahrain.

Some drivers are turning up to the track now on Sunday and their engineer is telling them “sorry mate 6th is the best we can hope for today” for example. The options are that limited. I get the need for cost cutting but how much of a saving are we really making with no refuelling? I also understand the safety aspect and that is important.

I think the real reason we went down this path is to give a greener perception….to show the wider community the drivers/cars could do the entire race on 1 tank of fuel. Frankly I don’t think that fools anyone.

Bringing back KERS and introducing other measures will send a better environmental message and that is something we should make a priority! Motorsport stands to lose the next generation if serious green measures aren’t brought in. Not band aid stuff….real change. But it still has to look and sound exciting.

With 3 different winners from 3 rounds here’s to a great remainder of the F1 season. Enjoy. Rusty

Technical Aspects: Widescreen, High Definition & Internet Streaming

In 2008 LIVE High Definition coverage was available on Channel 10 HD However ONE HD was not be able to provide F1 coverage in high definition for the 2009 and 2010 seasons because they rely on Formula 1 Management (FOM) for all of it’s video/audio and FOM decided not to film F1 in HD until 2011 at the earliest

In previous years: 2007 Channel Ten finally decided to broadcast qualifying sessions for every round which was a key request that fans had made for years and F1 finally moved to widescreen digital TV coverage as well which was much appreciated.

Formula One Management’s deal with the BBC includes Internet / Mobile rights (but only from UK internet connections) but Aussie F1 fans who know how to setup a private VPN will be able to get around that difficulty as in previous years.

Coverage Overseas and on the Internet

1. Visit Australian Formula 1 driver Mark Webber’s official website to find out more about him and read his latest race report or join his supporter’s club
2. To view live F1 driver lap times and rankings as races are in progress visit www.scorespro.com/formula1/ or more detailed live stats at the Official F1 site (which requires registration)

3. Australian F1 fans should be quite jealous of their British counterparts who will be able to customise their viewing experience through the BBC’s multi-platform offering with options such as: split-screen action; a live leaderboard; in-car cameras; choice of commentary; live online streaming; live text; video highlights from classic F1 races in the past; extensive post-race video highlights; video race reviews by Murray Walker; interactive circuit guides; several blogs, including a diary-type F1 mole; columns; and comprehensive results and statistics.interactive forums; circuit guides; and blogs.

Experiment: LIVE view of F1 Fans Chatting on Twitter

This is an experiment to allow F1 fans to see LIVE what other fans and news organisations are saying about F1 on Twitter. It includes all the comments using the hashtags #f1 or #formula1. If you’d like to suggest other hashtags to add please tell me.

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GUEST ARTICLE: Australian interest in “The World Game” is likely to turn hysterical this year as the focus shifts moves from the local A-League to the much anticipated appearance in the FIFA World Cup 2010 South Africa by Australia’s Socceroos. But will that hysteria by Aussie “soccer” fans come anything close to the diehard supporters of football teams around the world who live here in Australia?

Football Victory photo credit: Greg Robbins

To understand our hotblooded passion, you have to understand the sometimes illogical rationale behind that passion. You have to understand the despair we feel when we see how they’ve allowed “Media” companies to buy and sell OUR “content”.

When facilitated Sponsor hanger-ons take OUR seats in the vain attempt to make us consumers of their trash. Our disdain when we see how they try to turn OUR players into Superstars of gossip magazines, billboards and chat shows.

How they’ve ruined our team Jerseys in the name of Marketing, unimaginative design or even “Fabric Technology”. And, most worryingly, changed our football team logos to Trademark them or make them ‘modern’.

But while they think they’ve taken our game from us, consuming our cash, knowing we give it freely, overpricing the seats, removing the terraces, knowing all the while we will still go, thinking it’s just another product to sell, they forget it’s still OUR game. They try to associate themselves with us in the hope of providing some credence to their existence, but they’ll be gone and we’ll patiently still be around.

We’ll be the ones who will devotedly resurrect the team after they run it into the ground, we’ll be the ones who’ll steadfastly bail their failed consortiums out after yet another disastrous new “business model”. We’ll ardently prevent our teams from “merging” with others in order to save “our identity”, we certainly won’t let them move to a city we hate.

We resolutely remember our history, they may try to appropriate it, but soon they’ll be forgotten just like their predecessors. We’ll still be there following unwaveringly even if they run our team into the ground. We’ll turn out in rail, hail or shine, all over the globe, to groan as the referee makes another absurd decision.

We’ll rail against the poor efforts of our own players and delight when a great tackle stops a goal, a save out of nothing is made or a great cross from the left is headed with power into the back of the net with 2 minutes to go. We’ll fervently remember that victory in songs, written by us, commemorating the event, the players, the manager. Giving them legendary status.

We’ll disagree with our fellow supporters over the importance of the timing of the sacking or departure by ‘mutual agreement’ of a manager 10, 15, no 25 years ago. We’ll speculate whether the dreaded ‘vote of confidence’ means just that or ‘we’re looking for someone else but need to keep him charge for now’.

We’ll argue long into the night about whether the squad merits a 4-4-2 formation, or if it would be better as 4-3-2-1 in order to prevent a loss rather than going for the win.

We remember seasons where we did the ‘double’ over the local rival, despite finishing outside the top 10. Actually we remember when only winning the championship was important. Before they changed it’s name so they could sell it, before they allowed the losers to be part of ‘Champions’ tournaments.

We remember when players went ‘abroad’ to ’see what it was like’, before our team ended up having more ‘foreigners’ than local talent. Mate, we remember when the only ‘foreigners’ were Scandinavians, Irish or Scots.

We expressively shout at the television, even if the game was recorded in the middle of the night and its now 5am. Yes we ONLY have Cable or Satellite so we can watch the football.

Or we’ll get up at 2 am to watch our team, even in their most mediocre of seasons in the hope that one of ours will show a dazzling flash of brilliance to make you forget what time it was we got up or the season so far.

We’ll proudly wear our teams jersey after a win, even though we know most locals won’t have a clue what it is or why we are wearing garb with a gambling company’s logo splayed across the front of it.

We despise our opponents, we don’t have “number 2″ or B teams, we’d rather go to our own teams reserve games or watch a DVD of classic goals from the 70’s rather than watch anyone else. We especially detest players or managers who leave us for one of the absolute enemy or grubbingly turn up at one of those enemies late in a career in order to prolong it or just for the money.

We show scorn for referees – unless he gives us a contentious penalty or gives one of the opposition a red. Then, we’ll defend him to an inch of our life. We’ll make a mockery of the efforts of the opposition or the referee in witty, acerbic or even bile filled songs. Songs which haven’t been “commissioned” by “franchise owners” or the League – we wrote them.

Ex-players from one of those opponents we disdained, even if he scored an important goal against us at some point, will soon become our darling if he joins us and stands out in a team of mediocre talents or wins us an Cup Final.

We might seem unpredictable, inane, exasperating, infuriating, divisive and yes annoying. But we are eloquent, heartfelt, poignant, spirited, sturdy, and, most importantly, loyal.

We are football supporters and we are coming your way. We claim a global passion about sport that your local sports really can’t match, hard as they try. We are expats, immigrants, sons and daughters of immigrants, Wogs, Paddies, Poms, Scots and Brazilians.

Every 4 years we gather in Pubs, clubs, bars, your house, his house in the middle of the night (except 2002), to watch “our” teams play in the hope they can knock over the big teams or claim a glorious loss.

Now you’ve decided to join us in South Africa, we’ll join you for each 90 minutes. Let’s make them good ones. And may OUR team win.

This guest article has been written by my friend and mad-keen Liverpool FC Supporter Gavin Costello (@gavincostello on Twitter). Gavin is a Product Manager at one of Australia’s telecommunications companies.

If you’re a blogger or an expert about a topic I cover on this blog I encourage you to contact me and I’ll consider publishing your guest article here including generous attribution and back links back to your website as thanks for your contribution

Visit the Rambling Thoughts Blog regularly to read articles about Technology, Personal Finance, TV Shows, Politics, Environment, Books and more