Soccer primed for the challenge, but will it last?
The News Review:
- Soccer primed for the challenge, but will it last?
- Advance Australia where?
- The fast talking governor who has a plan to fuel the American dream
- The Peninsula On-line: Qatar’s leading English Daily
- Newmarket: A town in pictures
Soccer primed for the challenge, but will it last?
The Age – Jun 17, 2006
All this is happening at a time when the indigenous game iscoming under fierce scrutiny for its crowd appeal and level ofphysical contact. The best of the rest is on display while the AFLis vulnerable. It’s a warning that the home grown game has to develop andpresent itself as effectively as it can and it can never becomplacent. To do anything less in the years ahead will be aninvitation to its rivals to make inroads. Yet there’s no serious threat to the Australian game from therugby codes. It’s as though they’re not really striving for slicesof the same cake. Perhaps they are too much alike, and becomingmore so in terms of physical contact and method, to truly challengeeach other.
Advance Australia where?
The Age – Jun 17, 2006
Since Sydney producer John Frost took The King and I toBroadway in the 1990s and scored some Tony awards, there’s been asteady trickle of enterprising Australian producers taking coals toNewcastle. Producer Kevin Jacobsen backed turning the popular US filmDirty Dancing into a musical, which, after its originatingproduction here will have its West End premiere in October. It hasbroken sales records and is now booked at the Aldwych until October2007. The former Australian Ballet principal dancer Josef Brown, whoplayed the Patrick Swayze role here, will play the same rolethere. Meanwhile, Melbourne’s John Michael Howson and others haveturned Dusty Springfield’s songs into the jukebox musicalDusty,which with a lot of re-working may have legsoverseas. And this weekend producers Richard East and Tim Woods are in NewYork presenting a workshop to investors of a musical NaturalWoman, based on Carole King songs, with a book co-written byMelbourne playwright Hannie Rayson. The Geelong-based East clearly has a way with getting musicallegends to hand over their songbooks – he was one of the originalproducers of the global hit Mamma Mia, based on Abbasongs… Meanwhile, Canadian production TheDrowsy Chaperone (pictured) took out five prizes. The musical,which originated in Toronto, is a celebration of madcap Broadwayshows of the past. It was a mostly lacklustre year for home-grown American dramaand musicals – other Tony winners were a revival of The PajamaGame, the jukebox musical The Jersey Boys (based onFrankie Valli the Four Seasons’ music) and the musical version ofthe film The Color Purple. Culture continues to eat itself. And it seems we all likeAmerican candy whether it’s made in New York, London, Toronto orMelbourne. Arts and entertainment has dissolved into one sweetAmerican blancmange.
The fast talking governor who has a plan to fuel the American dream
Telegraph.co.uk – Jun 17, 2006
It looks like diesel. Indeed you can pour it into the fuel tank of a diesel car and drive away. Yet it just may be the magic potion that will help Americans to win independence from Middle Eastern oil and fill up their tanks with home-grown fuel. Or so at least hopes Montana’s ebullient Democratic governor, Brian Schweitzer. Article continues advertisement.
The Peninsula On-line: Qatar’s leading English Daily
Peninsula On-line – Jun 17, 2006
South Korea is one of the world’s most Internet-connected nations and only recently began allowing sales of video game consoles that are so popular in Japan and the West. As a result, all of the country’s gaming efforts have gone into online games that offer open-ended stories set in virtual universes that can support tens of thousands of players. South Korean Internet cafes, known as PC baangs, are the launching pad for online gamers and such a vital part of the social fabric that it is not unusual for youngsters in the throes of puppy love to visit one while on a date. With domestic growth opportunities crimped by a relatively small and saturated market, South Korea’s leading game makers, NCsoft Corp and Webzen Inc, are looking abroad… South Korean Internet cafes, known as PC baangs, are the launching pad for online gamers and such a vital part of the social fabric that it is not unusual for youngsters in the throes of puppy love to visit one while on a date. With domestic growth opportunities crimped by a relatively small and saturated market, South Korea’s leading game makers, NCsoft Corp and Webzen Inc, are looking abroad. Publisher NCsoft is already a contender in wealthy and comparatively red-tape-free Western markets with massively multiplayer online games like