The Silver Fern

<p>I'm guessing many of you have seen this, but I coach (not rugby) for a living so it was great to see all that excellence distilled into 15 points!  Maybe it helps answer the question, maybe not.  You guys would know better than me.  But interesting, nonetheless. </p>

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<p>Thanks RC. The problem with accessing from outside US is not so much the VPN; I use a (free) geo-unblocker all the time. It's more about maybe having to give a physical address in the USA if you have to sign up for something or that you may have to use an American credit card etc to pay. Or literally being required to use certain equipment to access tv/video channels.</p>
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<p>(I understand from the USA Eagles twitter that some games are broadcasted delayed on the<strong> CBS Sports network, or isn't that television?</strong>)</p>
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<p>yes it is a CBS tv sports channel.  they finally got around to airing the USA Russia game last night. </p>
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<p>Thanks again Rusty for tipping me off about the ESPN coverage.  I spent the weekend getting caught up, and I'm excited to see some Super Rugby again!</p>

<p>that's terrific...thanks!</p>
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<p>rustycruiser, at the risk of sounding dumb, how did you find out about this?  i never saw any announcement...just saw the channel disappeared and when i called directv, no one knew anything about it. </p>
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<p>i almost never watch anything on espn, so maybe that explains it?</p>

<p>Since Directv did away with their southern hemisphere rugby feed (ch. 490), it seems there's nowhere to watch the games.  I'm 0-3 on the Wales tour and I'm wondering if anyone knows of another option.  It would be terrific if I could watch the SA and AUS games this year on my 46inch screen in hi def, vs. relying on dodgy illegal streams.</p>

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<p>Just 'cos it's a small pet-peeve of mine, and because this is the 21st century, the game is "American Football" and never called grid-iron (certainly not in the past 50 years). (Ratpoo or a Herald sub-editor made same mistake today, made me groan.)</p>
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<p>Sometimes, and then only very rarely, will somebody (a commentator, maybe) refer to the <em>surface</em> or <em>playing field</em> as a "grid-iron," but never the game itself.</p>
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<p>No big deal, shurely, and I would say you are correct. But then I get equally irritated when people up here call <em>my code</em> "rugger." For many years people up here actually believed that's what the sport was called, although that has mostly evaporated the past 20 years as the globe has gotten smaller. Certainly few can probably tell the difference between Union and League, yet most here can now uniformly recognise the game as "rugby" and blessedly it seldom-if-ever gets called "rugger" any longer.</p>
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<p>And thankfully, nobody up here as far as I can tell has ever called the game "paddock" or "pitch" or "field" (although a certain expat Sydney Swans supporter up here always calls it "outdoor wrestling.")</p>
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<p>I love that he called it "gridiron!"</p>
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<p>I was chatting with a guy in NZ 10 years ago (has it really been that long... :morning: ) and he called it that...I though it was very cool.</p>
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<p>You know what my pet peeve is?  People here in the US trying to "Euro-ize" their soccer teams' names to make them sound more important...they call them "F.C. this $ that" and "blah blah Union" and "whatever United."  Total douche move, because no one in the history of organized sports in this country every called a sports team any of those things until we started seeing Euro soccer here in TV. </p>
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<p>Did I mention I'm not really a soccer fan?  World Cup soccer got disturbingly trendy here last time around, while the RWC will once again get no attention whatsoever.  Meanwhile, there is no question which is better to watch.</p>
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<p>Anyway, don't sleep on the Bills.  They've upgraded at coach, rb, wr, ol, from last year's 9-7.  If they can somehow go from the bottom to the top 20 in QB play, they will be a 10-11 win team.</p>
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<p>Unless of course, they get ravaged by injuries, which can certainly happen (didn't last year, which is a big reason they won what they did), and makes this sport so absurdly unpredictable.</p>

ive been on a huge gbv bender lately (i know- that's redundant):<br />
[video=youtube;u30i19DhXxc]

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[video=youtube;z4Eq4qd5--g]<br />
[video=youtube;-ET1I2Dkhhw]

[quote name='Duluth']Yeah.. surely thats an intentional homage from SY?<br />
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One of the best concerts I've been to was SY playing Daydream Nation in its entirety at the Roundhouse to mark the 20th anniversary of its release. Such a great album that one.. <br />
[video=youtube;4z_ipRtcnqM]

that show in 80-whatever-it-was (88?) when it passed through philly. i think it was steve albini who used to say sonic youth shows were either shit-hot or really dire/...luckily i saw one of the shit-hot ones. big fun.

And to tighten the circle into a tragic little dot (from my view at least!), it was at a Dean and Britta/Mercury Rev show three years ago that I acquired a blaring case of tinnitus that has never relented for one moment since. Oops. <br />
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Anyway, that is a brush with fame that I can tip my cap to! Is any of this work with Gira accessible online? <br />
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I have known this guy since 1983, met him through a mutual friend. But I've hardly seen any of his work because I find Springsteen really uninteresting. I'd rather watch Swans any day!<br />
[video=youtube;KAkDzc_Pt5c]

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I don't remember how they got together, but Thom is a really talented guy and grew up really close to where Springsteen's from. He's also won Emmys for his work on The Wire.

the 80s were great, but not for the reasons most people seem to think...<br />
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[video=youtube;ddgVgeDLhio]

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<br />
speaking of interviews, Michael Gira permitted me to waste his time by submitting to an interveiw with me for hte shittylittle fanzine i wrote 3 or 4 stories for in 1988. I was a fan, but I hadn't heard enough of the catalogue or knew enough about the band to ask what needed to be asked. But I did get to sit in a room and b.s. with him for 30mins or so. He tolerated me quite nicely, but broke his promise to put me and my fanzine buddy on the "guest list" for that nights show at the old "Revival " club on 2nd and Chestnut in philly. To my everlasting shame we let our bruised egos get in the way of common sense, refused to pay the $10 cover, and by all accounts, missed the greatest piece of performance art, this side of GG Allin, that city ever saw. <br />
<br />
Sigh...

[quote name='red terror']He left there when he was very young, yes? But Luna did include bassist Justin Harwood, ex-Chills, who is a genuine Kiwi. (I met Wareham several times, Galaxie 500 and Luna, and did a cover story interview for an arts rag with him for that first Luna record. Nice, down-to-earth guy.)[/QUOTE]yeah he was a kid when they moved to NYC and his accent is almost gone. what I didn't mention is that i was only in Wellington a couple of days an didn't meet many locals. So he was the coolest Wellingtonian out of 3 or 4. I didn't mean for it to work out that way, but that's another story. in fact, we were there the Thursday and Friday before the 05 lions test in the Wellington and the city was so full of Lions fans i think i met more of them than I did locals.<br />
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i had a gang of friends in philly and DC who from 2000-2005 would meet up at every luna show in philly Baltimore and dc that we could get to. sometimes nyc as well. And lucky for us there were lots of them. one of the girls was a huge flirt and managed to get us backstage after the DC shows most times. the kind folks at the 9:30 club provided way more booze than the band could drink, and Dean, being the generous sort, invited us to help liberate the club of the excess. then I'd get really shitfaced and offer to give Dean and Britta a ride back to the hotel. And my friend who didn't drink quite as much would wind up driving and everyone would be cool with that. Stupid, good times, and I miss them. Now I am married and my wife would be right there beside me if we didn't have cute little papooses to watch over at night. Luckily, I'm sure when they're old enough that we can go back to having fun, D & B will still be performing...

[video=youtube;N-FEtjoH3Yo]

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The coolest Wellingtonian I've ever met, Dean Wareham.

[video=youtube;-HTD8AUG3Vc]

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it's about time you bastards got in shape.

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swear on my life i still remember listening to this game on the radio with my grandfather who was a huge pirates fan and taught me to be one too. different times those were...