The Day after St. Pat's

Having trouble finding a decent title for my blog. Finally came up with the not so original “The Day after St. Pat’s.” Yesterday, of course, was St. Patrick’s Day, hence this title (when I post this blog St. Pat's was probably the day before yesterday ;)).

St. Patrick’s Day makes me think about my favorite teams from an Irish-American stronghold: Boston (or “Bahstun” as people pronounce it over there). There are the Boston Celtics, basketball, with their green jerseys (in honor of Boston’s Irish heritage). The Celtics have been a stellar team for quite a while now. This year one of their main challengers for the NBA title might be the Chicago Bulls. I am delighted that the young Bulls are finally having a breakthrough season (guard Derrick Rose is on his way to becoming one of the youngest MVP’s ever). Unfortunately, the Celtics and the Bulls are in the same division (East), so they can never meet in the NBA Finals :(.

In basketball, I might not be able to choose between the Celtics and the Bulls. With baseball, I don’t have any of these problems. I probably should be a fan of the Kansas City Royals, since I lived in KC for a year. But, alas, the Royals are not an appealing team to support. They lose, a lot ….. Nope, when it comes to baseball, it is the Boston Red Sox for me. I guess I became a Red Sox fan when I lived near Boston as a five year old. Like any other Red Sox fan, I also don’t really like –understatement here– the NY Yankees. I had the privilege to be in Boston when the Red Sox reached the World Series in 2007 (during my time in Boston I came across this lovely t shirt: “I support the Red Sox and every team that beats the Yankees,” darn should have bought that shirt!!). When the Red Sox clinched the World Series, I had left Boston for, oh irony, New York!!! There I was, in a New York bar cheering for the Red Sox! Surprised I actually survived that ;) (the Red Sox were not playing the Yankees in the World Series, but still). Since 2007, the Red Sox have failed to reach the World Series. Hopefully, that is going to change this year. The baseball season is about to begin, and the Red Sox have acquired some really strong players in the offseason. The Boston Red Sox play in one of the oldest baseball stadiums in the USA named Fenway Park. It is almost impossible to hit homeruns over the Green Monster (here is Boston’s Irish heritage again). Green Monster is a high green (duh!) left field wall. In case you are wondering what the Green Monster looks like, just check Google Images and an image of the mighty wall will come up soon enough. One day I am really hoping to be able to see the Red Sox play live (I did see them practice live in 2007). And I am going to sit behind the Green Monster lol!!

Let’s just stay with sports for a little while longer. Liked the performance of the Dutch speedskaters last weekend (World Championships). The Dutch team came home with quite a few medals. Especially impressed with “good old” Bob de Jong, who soared to two golden medals by winning the 5 and the 10k (his time in the 10k was actually the second fastest ever). After a long and tiring season, Ireen Wust proved she still had enough left, by bringing home the gold in two superb races: the 1500m and the 3000m. Unfortunately, Stefan Groothuis disappointed, once again. He is a good skater, but he never delivers when it really counts...

The Dutch soccer league is on its way to another nail-biting finish. Three teams still in the hunt for the championship: FC Twente, Ajax and my favorite PSV. PSV has no real striker after losing Jonathan Reis for the rest of the season to a knee injury. Marcus Berg, although he always works really hard, doesn’t score (enough). I have seen Berg miss the easiest chances, chances he did not miss when he played for FC Groningen a couple of years ago. Danny Koevermans plays his best games as a sub, when he is allowed to start he usually plays poorly. Genero Zeefuik, the fourth striker, is talented but a little inexperienced. The lack of efficient strikers might cost PSV the championship. Although, they are scoring quite a lot. And the replacement of Ibrahim Afellay (who left for Barcelona in the winter) is doing a suprisingly good job. Atiba Hutchinson, from Canada, always works his butt off. He is probably more of a team player than Afellay ever was. So I still have high hopes for PSV to win their first title in three years, but it is going to be tough!

Then there are the European soccer competitions. Champions League. Barcelona rebounded from their abysmal second half performance against Arsenal (see the blog before this one). Barca beat the Gunners quite easily in the return game in their own Camp Nou. My favorite to win the CL? I don't really know, it might be Barca. But honestly I am happy with any winner, as long as it is not Inter or Real. Champions League’s “ugly” brother is the Europa League. Two Dutch teams are still in the running, my team PSV and a tough Twente team. Technically, PSV and Twente could meet in the finals.

Oh and MOTO GP is starting again this weekend, with a night race in Qatar. Valentino Rossi will be riding for his new team Ducati. His shoulder is still troubling him (Rossi was operated on the shoulder in November and has yet to fully recover from the tricky surgery). But Rossi is a fighter, so I am not counting him out for Sunday’s race. GO VALE!!!!

I am just thinking if I have any other sports “stuff” to share! Yes, I am a sports junky and I always will be :D. Just love watching sports (writing about it) and doing it myself. Me and the treadmill in the gym have become very good friends in the past couple of weeks ;). Unfortunately, it appears that I HAVE injured my rib while coughing (had an awful cough at the end of January when I had pharyngitis and practically no voice left). I went to the doctor today and she suspects that there is a small tear in one of my ribs :(. And my upper leg is sore too, probably have overstretched a muscle. I am getting old….:(, so did not go running today. Weather was awful, so that was a good excuses as well! Will go running tomorrow, otherwise I will become lazy lol. But might have to part with dear treadmill temporarily and pick the hometrainer for the next workout in the gym.

Here, finally a topic that has absolutely nothing to do with sports: musicals (another favorite topic of mine, as you might know :D). Turns out that I was right about thinking that Jeffry Tambor was the wrong guy to play Georges opposite Harvey Fierstein’s Zaza in the Broadway version of La Cage aux Folles. Granted, I am really picky when it comes to the role of Georges (for one obvious reason lol ;)). But Jeffry Tambor just looked “wrong for the part”. He was out within a week, eventually being replaced by a man named Christopher Sieber. Sieber has a good voice (he is on the cast recording I have of the musical Spamalot), so he will be ok as Georges. Although I do think he is a tad young for the role. The age difference between him and his “leading lady” Harvey Fierstein is quite big. I do applaud Fierstein for finally taking on one of the leading roles in “his” La Cage. He helped create this grand old musical, which has won numerous awards over the years.

From La Cage is it straight onto Mary Poppins, the Australian production that is. Lucky for me, a cast recording just came out of this particular production. Naturally, I ordered the cd immediately and received it within a week! Yay!! This musical is just so infectious and upbeat!! Already knew a couple of the songs quite well: Practically Perfect, A Spoonful of Sugar and of course Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (my sincere apologies if I just made a spelling error :D). But there are so many other lovely songs in the musical: Anything can Happen, Step in Time, Precision&Order, Jolly Holiday, Being Mrs. Banks and so on…..(this recording also works very well on the treadmill in the gym :)).

The songs (there is also quite a bit of dialogue as well) are performed by a standout cast . I am starting to realize why they are referred to as the “dream cast”. Verity Hunt-Ballard as Mary Poppins is great, blessed with a beautiful voice. Kudos to the producers for casting the inexperienced Ballard in the lead role (their "gamble" is clearly paying off). Matt Lee is utterly charming as chimney sweeper Bert. Judi Connelli gives me the creeps as the mean Ms. Andrew (and I am just hearing her on the cd!!). Debra Byrne (why does her name sound so familiar to me??) makes the most of her small role as the Bird Woman (at least her role seems small on the cd). Marina Prior is a lovely Mrs. Banks. My opinion of Philip Quast, who plays Mr. Banks, is well known to most of you :P. So let’s just say he is quite (long live understatement!) good as Mr. Banks :D. One of my favorite parts on the cd is his solo in Precision&Order, truly delightful :).

The music and the dialogue was recorded live so that gives a special dimension to it (makes the cd the closest thing to seeing the show live on stage). Rumor has it that producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh (along with one of the co-producers of the show) spent the entire flight from Melbourne to London editing the music and the dialogue. His name might not ring a bell with everyone. But here are three of the musicals this guy produced: Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera and Cats. Enough said (of course Mackintosh is now a multi, multi, multi etc. miljonair). Also, he did cast Philip Quast as Javert in Les Mis and later as Mr. Banks in Mary Poppins. Smart man ;).

Oy, also found out that The Producers (another favorite musical of mine) is coming to the Netherlands, with Johnny Kraaijkamp jr. in the lead. You’ve got to be kidding me??? That they want to bring The Producers to the Netherlands, I can understand (the musical has been successful all over the world), but to cast Kraaijkamp as Max Bialystock….Euhm….

To end this blog on a positive note, I was absolutely overjoyed with the Academy Award for Colin Firth. His performance in The King's Speech was sensational (overall, The King's Speech was just a wonderful movie, one of the best movies I have seen in quite a while). Finally a very well deserved Academy Award for "Mr. Darcy"! :D

PS. I am missing Masterchef Australia already :(. Withdrawal symptoms here!