So much for "crisis"

Manchester United is not in crisis and has not been in crisis at any point in the last few years since their last Premiership title. A team in the top 5 of the most widely watched soccer League in the world can never be said to be in crisis. And really, why all the talk about a crisis at Old Trafford? Sure, exiting the Champs League and drawing with Everton in the same week is less than ideal. But hardly a crisis.

Want to talk about crisis? Go have a chat with Harry Redknapp down in Portsmouth or poor old beleaguered Mick McCarthy and his seemingly doomed Sunderland outfit. These are teams elbow-deep in crisis.

Man Utd has had a rough time of late. That's about as apocalyptic a pronouncement as anyone can and should make about the team. Results in the Champions League have not been ideal, but their league form is more than decent. They had a bit of a kerfuffle over the Roy Keane thing, but this is one player in a squad brimming with internationals. I think they can survive the loss, and the repercussions of Keano's MUTV interview. As they proved this morning with a 4-0 trashing of Wigan, reports of their demise have been grossly exaggerated.

In the same spirit, Arsenal is not in crisis, despite their recent losing streak. They will survive the season with Premiership status guaranteed, which is more than can be said for many other teams at the wrong end of the table. They are still in the Champions League and still favoured to seal up one of the top 4 spots in the Premiership. Let us not forget that their two losses were to Boltin and Newcastle, two teams that have some reason to believe themselves capable of mixing it with the big boys. It is not a disgrace to lose to these teams. NOT a crisis.

Soccer is so transient that the prophets should really refrain from pronouncements of doom. Not too long ago, Frank Lampard was off-form, Chelsea was facing a player revolt, Everton was doomed to relegation and Charlton was second in the table. It's not even Christmas yet and see where they are now.

Views from Mount Faber

This is about as good as it gets in Singapore, as far as scenic views go.

Collective Famewhoring: Star Awards 2005

Another year, another Star Awards. Another opportunity for the "stars" of Mediacorp to show off dubious fashion on stage. Another windfall for telecom companies. Another piggy-bank busting bout of phone-voting. Another blatant display of self-congratulations.

I didn't watch the whole thing from start to end (I tend to tune out of the long introductory banters, and the musical performances), but I caught all the main awards.

Talking points:

1) I think Zoe Tay hates Fann Wong.
Their rivalry for the Number 1 position at Mediacorp has always seemed friendly, although neither pretended to be bossom buddies with the other (I think they are just much too different in personality and temperament to be really close). But tonight, Zoe Tay displayed a bit of manipulation that reminded me of the concubines in War and Beauty. She again took it upon herself to push Chris Lee and Fann Wong together. Last year, she was pushing for them to kiss. This year, she was pushing him to propose. It was just painful to watch how obviously embarassed and distressed she made Fann Wong. This is not the action of a well-meaning friend. I suspect that Zoe Tay was engaging in a deliberate bit of bitchery disguised as good-natured teasing and matronly patronage.

2) Zoe Tay: errr, what was she doing there?
Since she was not nominated for an acting awards, and was not eligible for the Top 10 awards, she seemed like surplus requirement most of the night. And yet, there she was, interjecting when Chen Han Wei won his Best Actor award. I know that they are good friends, but was that really necessary? As for the bit of nonsense with Christopher Lee and Fann Wong, who made her the resident match-maker? She just came across as such a typical nosey-parker, busy-body housewife. I hate to say it, but that display was rather low-class. So much for the glamourous clothes and the endorsements of diamonds and other such classy products.

3) Cut out the pointless banter
While I am getting on Zoe Tay's case, the discussion with Christy Chung about beautiful mothers was really self-indulgent, self-promoting and more famewhorish than any of the thank-you speeches we had all night. (To be fair, Christy Chung brought it up first). But it wasn't just these two; the Taiwanese presenters for the Hosting award went up to where the nominees were seated, and did ... what, exactly? That exercise did not achieve anything other than to delay proceedings by another few minutes.

4) Cameramen and producers: learn some subtlety!
When the presenters of the Lead Acting awards were discussing how actors can convey emotions and communicate using their eyes, we were treated to a gratuitous shot of Kelvin Tan, the visually impaired winner of Project Superstar. Oy, could we try to be less heavy-handed about these things?

5) Lost in translation.
Every year, there are foreign stars invited who do not speak Mandarin with a high degree of comfort. I am all for inviting such talent to up the glamour quotient, but could we grant them the dispensation to speak the whatever language they are more comfortable with? In Hong Kong, I have seen them invite stars from Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China. The invited presenters speak their own languages, and have a co-presenter who is able to translate to Cantonese.

6) Who's the bigger superstar?
Okay - Lydia Sum vs Christy Chung; Patrick Tse Yin vs Andy Hui. Chung and Hui are definitely younger, and probably more "in", but in terms of legend status, we are definitely looking at Sum and Tse. And yet, the plum presenter slots - ie, the last two of the night, the Top 10 Awards - were given to Chung and Hui.

7) Fashion statements
When Joanne Peh had to push up the neckline of her strapless dress, I thought she should have worn her shawl on stage. That just did not look good of TV.
The female shoes this year went the high stilletto way. Huang Biren is probably the tallest woman there and still she wore the highest heels of the night! Wow, those must be killers to walk on.
Zoe Tay's dress was very nice indeed, especially next to Christ Chung's overly-fussy number.
I really liked Jeanette Aw's white dress, but the netting showing below the hemline was too precious.
The men were very soberly dressed, very conventional suits seemed to be the order of the day.
In all, an elegant night, fashion-wise.

Gentleice's Hell: East Asian Celebrity Edition

I would not exactly want to condemn them to hell, but these are people that I really dislike, for various reasons. Some I dislike for their apparent lack of talent, some for being plain misguided, some for their famewhorish ways, some for their general asshattery and sheer unlikeability.

Terence Chao, Rachel Lee, Gigi Lai, Lee San San, Jolin Tsai
Circle I Limbo

Ken Lim, Sylvester Sim, Anthony Png
Circle II Whirling in a Dark & Stormy Wind

Fann Wong
Circle III Mud, Rain, Cold, Hail & Snow

Sylvester Sim supporters
Circle IV Rolling Weights

Kelvin Tan supporters
Circle V Stuck in Mud, Mangled

River Styx

Zhang Ziyi, Andy Lau
Circle VI Buried for Eternity

River Phlegyas

Jacelyn Tay
Circle VII Burning Sands

Maia Lee, Bai Ling
Circle IIX Immersed in Excrement

Jackie Chan
Circle IX Frozen in Ice

Design your own hell

Even more normality (plus something less so)

This is what the top of the EPL looks like as of this moment:

1 Chelsea
2 Manchester United
3 Arsenal
4 Liverpool

I reckon soccer is like an economics system. There is a long run equilibrium which will ultimately be established. You get a few shocks and temporary equilibria, but in time, everything adjusts back to the long term state.

I just drew parallels between soccer and economics. Kill me now.

On a slightly more blasphemous note, let's talk Best. You know what, I was saddened by his death when I heard about it on the news last week. But now, a week later, I am starting to wonder if the extended mourning in the UK (especially in England) isn't going overboard.

In their own way, the British can be a rather sentimental lot. Witness the mourning over Princess Diana a few years back. George Best is not getting quite the same degree of posthumous adulation, but he is getting a lot more coverage and attention than seems warranted.

See, I understand the mourning by Man Utd fans, the one minute silence at Old Trafford, the respectful words pouring out of the Man Utd team. The man is after all a Man Utd legend.

But nation-wide press and media coverage for several days? One minute silences at all grounds? Am I missing something here? The man did not play for England, and yet the whole of England is supposed to be bereaved.

Maybe his talent transcends such piddling matters as club allegiance and national identity. People are mourning not the death of a Man Utd legend or a Nothern Ireland legend. They are just mourning the passing of a footballing genius. Fair enough, I suppose.

For me, though, it seems over-the-top that talent on the soccer field can inspire such depth of feeling in non-supporters. Especially when you consider the mess that his life was. I know it's fashionable in some circles to romanticise George Best's life as some sort of broken genius trapped in a glamourous decadence. Well, he was trapped, but it was not romantic and not glamourous and the sad thing is that he trapped himself. Addiction is a cruel disease, but it can be kicked. Paul Merson did it, Tony Adams did it. George Best got a liver transplant after he burnt his own liver through years of alcohol abuse. And then he continued drinking. For me, this kind of thing transcends his talent and his genius. The footballer was scintillating, the man was indisciplined and self-destructive. I could celebrate the footballer when he was alive, but I cannot mourn the man much in his death, when he brought it upon himself.

Perhaps there would be less hype if he had led a more exemplary life. Here's the crux: I don't think he is being mourned as much as the media coverage seems to suggest. It's all in the hype and George Best, in life and in death, was perfect hype-fodder.