Welcome to part one of The Lowdown’s 2009 Formula One Season preview. Over the next three days, I’ll do a thorough breakdown of the upcoming F1 season. Today, I take a look at the 10 teams and 20 drivers that will contest the world championship. Continue reading
Month: March 2009
Lowdown Music Show Play List
So we tried our hand at being a music show on Sunday. If you were interested, here’s the songs we spun while acting like real DJ’s. A special thanks to those who called in to chat and make requests. Another shout out to our recurring guest Graham Page who chatted with us about soccer, motorsports and cars in the run up to 2:00 AM. The songs listed in red are what I picked and the songs in turquoise are Jackie’s picks. Continue reading
Weekend Link-Off: I Wish I Was An Ice Cream Cone
That is the luckiest ice cream cone in the world. On either side of it are Blake Lively and Leighton Meester of Gossip Girl fame. I might just be a fan of that show now. More pics of them after the jump.
Don’t forget that The Lowdown takes over UWO Radio at midnight to play music. Email your requests to thelowdown@live.ca or call 519-661-3600.
The first rule of fight club: Don’t talk about fight club. Second rule of fight club: Don’t hold it in a high school. [Dallas Morning News]
Anything the Florida Panthers can do, the Las Vegas Wranglers can do better. Especially strippers. [Lion in Oil and Total Pro Sports]
Sydney councillor puts forward a motion to buy an MP a vibrator so she can screw herself. [News.com.au]
Horror movie monsters are nearly as scary as this sea monster that would make Jaws look like chihuahua. [Times Online]
The president of a soccer team you’ve never heard of does a drive-by. [The Spoiler]
Florida student gets suspended for passing gas. I guess no one in Florida has a sense of humour. [WDBO]
I was right about Florida. Always look both ways before getting flattened. [WFTV]
You’re not drunk or high. There really are pink elephants. [BBC]
The truth is out there. Or it’s near a British air force base. [Daily Telegraph]
Wow! A flying car! But where do you land it? [CBC]
Manny Ramirez takes time out from his non-existent spring training schedule to go cricketing. [The Australian]
Time Inc., which runs such LD go-to sites as SI.com and EW.com, will start charging for some online content. [Business Insider]
Doing a Music Show: How Hard Can It Be?
This Sunday at midnight (as Saturday becomes Sunday), The Lowdown is taking over the airways in London for two full hours. The only difference between this and the usual Tuesday night editions of The Lowdown is that this is supposed to be mostly music.
We’re taking over for one night only, subbing in for regular host Simon Machina. Except where Simon does electronic music, we have carte blanche. The only rules we must abide by are 25% new music and 25% Canadian content.
Since we don’t have the same time constraints on a usual half-hour episode of The Lowdown, we can take calls and chat on air. I suppose that means we can take requests for songs too. You can call us on Sunday at 519-661-3600.
So, hosting a music show: how hard can it be? Find out on Sunday, March 22nd at midnight and listen to our account of this ordeal on The Lowdown on May 12th at 6:30PM.
This Guy Says What We Can’t
I know we portray Lowdown radio and the blog as no holds barred radio. Well, at least for radio, that’s not quite true. We speak the truth as much as possible but we’ve “crossed the line” a few times on radio and been formally reprimanded, threatened with suspension and the like.
That means, while I’m very limited in what I can say about what I think about CHRW’s owners / broadcasting licence holders, the University Students’ Council, I can still talk about other people talking about them.
Take this article from the blog wriseup.com. Continue reading
Random Entertainment Update
To the TV Executives: A Nutless Monkey Can Do Your Job
The first topic falls under the “what were the thinking?!” category. While the cancellation of Kyle XY was announced back in January, it really didn’t hit home until the “series finale” aired on Monday night. Since the cancellation was announced so late, the writers and producers did not have enough time to write and film a proper send off for the series. Instead all the fans were left with one hell of a cliffhanger on Monday night. It was almost like a Sopranos send off, except this was not a planned series finale. Continue reading
We’ve Been Nominated
The Lowdown radio show on 94.9FM CHRW in London, ON has been nominated for the Best Talk Show award at this year’s CHRW Awards. Hopefully this year’s awards goes better than last year’s when we were shut out in our combined five nominations.
In addition to the show’s nomination, I’ve been nominated for Outstanding Sports Commentary and Volunteer of the Year.
If you want to find out what makes The Lowdown one of the best radio shows in London, check out our archives at myspace.com/lowdownfm.
F1 Shoots Itself In The Foot
If you want someone to predict the finishing order of the 2009 Formula One World Championship, their job just got a lot tougher.
The FIA, F1’s sanctioning body, has changed the method of determining the World Champion from the 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 points system that has been in use since 2003 to one where the driver with the most wins over the season is the champion. If there is a tie for most wins, the title goes to the driver that scored the most points under the old system. Additionally, only the champion is determined by most wins. All other places in the championship will be determined by points.
The FIA marched to the beat of their own drum in coming up with this solution. F1’s commercial rights holder, Bernie Ecclestone, inspired by the 2008 Olympics, thought that a medal system was the best solution. The world champion would be the man with the most gold medals with silvers then bronzes breaking any ties. The Formula One Teams Association proposed a modified point system which gave more emphasis on winning with a 12-9-7-5-4-3-2-1 system. I don’t know how the FIA came up with this solution or how they figured that this was a good idea.
The main problem with this new championship solution is that it doesn’t change anything regarding the championship. Sure it means the more you win, the better chance you have of winning the title. But will it really encourage drivers to fight to the end of a race. I don’t actually believe that drivers don’t already fight to the end of the race and push for every tenth of a second they can wring out of their car. They do eventually back off but that’s only when there’s nothing left to fight for.
What this will do is put more emphasis on fuel strategy and qualifying. While this year’s changes to the rules and cars should help with overtaking, it’s no guarantee that it’ll make that big of a difference. Therefore, it will be up to the teams not to screw up strategies and pit stops. Similarly, if you can qualify on pole or near the front, you have the best chance to pick up the win. (I’ll admit, that one is pretty obvious.) Drivers that realize that their only good chance to win a race is to be in the top two or three after the first turn will likely also try some banzai maneuvers to get ahead (not just at the start but throughout the race) which is going to lead to a lot of small fields by the end of the race.
The final big problem is that it will just confuse everyone. As simple as it seems to crown the man with the most wins as champion, every position below that will help to confound fans. Who is really second in the standing during the season? Is it the guy with four wins and 47 points or the one with two wins and 52 points? And what happens if Ricky Bobby wins the championship with 7 wins and 70 points to the second place guy’s 5 wins and 94 points? Can F1 legitimately be the top level of motorsports if that happens?
I think the FIA made a hasty decision in switching to making the champion the man who won the most races. One race is about who did the best over the course of the race while a season is about the man who did the best over the whole season. The FIA got caught up in thinking that the Olympic system was the best one without thinking what that even meant for racing. Here’s hoping that we’re not debating some other stupid points system this time next year.
Fighting In The Stands Isn’t Just For Hockey Parents
There’s a long held perception in Canada that hockey moms and dads are more into the games and more intense than the kids on the ice. Fights among parents in the stands, yelling at coaches, police being called in and brawling with the refs all seem to be the status quo in Canadian youth hockey.
It turns out, though, that the crowds at NHL games can degenerate into near brawls like as this recent one in Vancouver:
According to a commenter on YouTube (treat as [sic’d]):
The kid was throwing peanuts at the bearded guy. The bearded guy got up and jokingly said “Ok, who’s the tough guy?” The kid couldn’t man up though. So the woman sitting behind the kid pointed to the “Tough Guy” and mouthed the words “He did it”. So the bearded guy had a few choice words, including the offer to “step outside like a man, punk” But the kid could only work his gums and had no cajones to back up cowardly assault from the rear.
Maybe we should chalk this one up to “Only in Canada” but seeing as fans are becoming increasingly violent, I’m not so sure. I don’t want to get sanctimonious but can’t we just unwind for a few hours at a game without trying to kill each other. But that’s coming from a guy who was “kindly” informing a referee on Saturday night that he was letting the visiting team make all his penalty calls.
The Mustangs Lose A Heartbreaker To Carleton
With 4.9 seconds to go, the bar on the UWO campus erupted in an almost deafening cheer as Matt Curtis drained two free throws to put the Western Mustangs up 65-64. With the loudest two-dozen people in the world on their feet, Carleton’s superstar player Stu Turnbull would deflate the room by sinking a mid-range jumper as time expired to win the national semi-final for the Ravens. Continue reading
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