Grapeviney

Yay, a book thread on Demonland! Good work Macca. Interesting back story to the new / old Harper Lee book, with claims that the publishers basically took advantage of her age and the death of her sister to line their pockets with the riches that would inevitably follow with another book. The Harper Lee 'Go Set a Watchman' Fraud. I've read Murakami's "Underground", which was fascinating, but couldn't get into "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running". Will check out the others you have recommended hardtack. Must admit that my reading habits have been disrupted by my decision to get Foxtel for the footy this year; instead of reading before bed, I find myself watching late night crap, or overseas sport. I've just started on a collection of essays by Noel Pearson called "Up From The Mission", but the best book I've read in recent months would be Paul Kelly's "Triumph and Demise", which tells the story of how the Rudd / Gillard / Rudd governments squandered so much political capital in such a short amount of time. No-oe understand power and politics like Kelly, and no-one writes with the same authority and clarity. Like his earlier books on the Hawke Government (End of Certainty) and Howard / Keating (The March of Patriots), this one will become the definitive account of the Labor era.

Tim Watson did say last year that Jack had his father's DNA, so I think you could be on to something..

When Smith and Rogers were in the 90's last night, I found myself praying (for want of a better word) that they'd both make tons. It later dawned on me; why are my cricket prayers answered so often, yet my footy prayers almost always fall on deaf ears?!

And we all saw this one earlier in the season - the most important tackle of the season so far, in terms of its impact.

Latest entrant: Maverick Weller. This one looks particularly painful. http://www.afl.com.au/video/2015-06-14/viney-slams-weller-in-fierce-tackle

The Copa America kicks off in Chile tomorrow morning, with coverage on beIN sports channel, for those who have it. You'd have to think Argentina and Brazil start favourites, but it should be a cracking tournament regardless, and Mexico, Colombia, and the hosts would all consider themselves a chance too. Suarez is still suspended but there's plenty of other talent on display obviously. Was astonished to learn that the South American football federation, Conmebol, is headquartered in an area of Paraguay that is basically protected from prosecution. "In 1997, the Paraguayan Government passed a law that granted virtual diplomatic immunity to the Conmebol compound, its property, documents and archives, similar to the privileges enjoyed by the embassy of a foreign nation." That protection looks like it's about to be rescinded by the Government, which would allow investigators to probe more rigorously into its affairs.

And so it proved, Macca. Was an entertaining game, despite Barca's dominance, and they could have easily finished with another one or two. Juventus were disappointing. Aside from the short period after Morata's goal, which itself came against the run of play, they never looked threatening. Juventus 1 - 3 Barcelona That completes the treble for Barca, too - La Liga, Copa Del Rey and now UEFA. Neymar, Messi and Suarez bagged more than 120 goals between them across all three competitions.

The commentary last night and the news today have all compared Bishoo's dismissal of Haddin to Warne's 'ball of the century'. It was a great ball, but it's not in the realm of the Warne delivery. We're a good chance to sew this up tonight.

I guess it was inevitable given our bid, but Australia is now embroiled in the FIFA mess, with a $500,000 payment that was earmarked for a facility in Trinidad & Tobago allegedly being pocketed by Jack Warner. Even without Warner's involvement, it's beyond farce that our bid money should underwrite so-called 'soccer development projects' elsewhere in the world, especially at a time when we've substantially cut foreign aid spending. Australia's $500,000 payment under scrutiny Champions League final this weekend - 4.30am Sunday morning. The much anticipated match-up of Luis Suarez and Giorgio Chiellini won't happen, with the defender ruled out because of injury. Perhaps a case of once bitten, twice shy. Boom-tish! Preview: Juventus v Barcelona

Wow!! Cheers for posting, as I'd seen the result but not the goal - absolute magic. Back on the FIFA corruption, there was a funny little sideshow over the weekend with one of the officials using a story in the satirical newspaper, The Onion, as part of his self-defence. Hard to believe you could mistake it for a genuine news outlet, but it's happened before. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/01/world/americas/ex-fifa-official-jack-warner-cites-onion-article-in-defense.html?_r=0

Villa never looked like it. The goal from Sanchez was a beauty, but all in all, it was a disappointing game, contest-wise.

Massive story. The only surprise is that it's taken this long to come out. The IOC should be next.

I know the EPL's pretty much done and dusted but just caught the second half of what was a cracking finish at Arsenal, with Sunderland holding on for a 0-0 draw to avoid relegation. Gunners had 28 shots on goal and most of the play i saw was in their penalty box. Great scenes after the game with Sunderland's coach in tears. Was thinking about how many relegation games we would have been involved in during recent years if there were two divisions here - the club would be in permanent survival mode from Round 1 !

Barcelona will play Juventus in the final in Berlin on June 6. We were on track for a super-classico until Juve levelled with Real in the 57th minute to secure a 1-1 draw in Spain. Although Real had lots of the ball and peppered the goals, they were lucky to be in the lead courtesy of a controversial penalty which looked soft at first glance. Yesterday, two early goals to Neymar - thanks to some lovely passing from Messi and Suarez - put to rest Bayern's finals hopes, before the Germans scored some late junk time goals. Semi Final Second Leg Results: Bayern 3 - 2 Barcelona [barca win 5-3 on aggregate] Real 1 - 1 Juventus [Juve win 3-2 on aggregate] Interesting to hear that there's talk of ditching the away goal rule.

Juve 2 - 1 Real Barca 3- 0 Bayern Messi scored twice in 3 minutes after it looked like Barca were going to be held to a scoreless draw at home. He and Ronaldo have now scored a combined 153 goals in UEFA matches!

Beware of fake celebrity supporters. In the UK, the PM David Cameron was giving a televised speech and urged people to support West Ham. Unfortunately he's an Aston Villa man. This was his explanation for the mix-up, and it's not particularly coherent: “I want to say how sorry I am. "All I can explain is I went past the West Ham stadium the day before and I just said the word West Indies in my speech and I was making a point about the cricket Test and all the rest of it. “I meant to say Aston Villa and I am profoundly embarrassed.”

Champions League semi finals draw is out and Bayern v Barca and Juve v Real sets up the delicious prospect of an all-Spanish final. May 5: Juve v Real @ Turin May 6: Barca v Bayern @ Barca May 12: Barca v Bayern @ Munich May 13: Juve v Real @ Madrid Saturday June 6: Final

Got Foxtel connected the other week and gotta say I'm loving the amount of football, and all in HD. It's like being at the game. But it seems Fox only has rights to the EPL, La Liga and UEFA on ESPN. What about Serie A, the Bundesliga and the South American leagues? I miss the old days when SBS on a Sunday was basically soccer all day, and you pretty much saw every single goal that was kicked around the world during the week. Edit: Turns out Fox does have those other leagues (German, French, Italian, Argentinian and Brazillian) - the beIN sports channel apparently. Re-Edit: Turns out I don't get the beIN channel, even though I have the sports package! WTF?!?!

Not playing the West Indies leg of the tour because it will clash with the birth of his first child, but will be available for the Ashes.

Yep, was a cracker of a game with the momentum shifting back and forth throughout. SA only have themselves to blame with the missed catches and run-outs. How about Steyn calling for the doc with 4 balls to go!

I live a few tram stops away dc and the parking all around st kilda is shite, with inspectors always out on the weekends. If you can get on a train I'd go to Balaclava station and then you can just tram up the road. There is parking on the beach side of Luna Park but not a lot and it's busy on a normal Sunday, let alone with the GP on.

from the Daily Telegraph in London

Anyone else listening to the ABC broadcast and the excellent commentary from a female commentator? Anyone know who it is? British accent, so I'm guessing it might be Alison Mitchell from the BBC? Whoever it is sounds a natural. Edit: Nope, it's Ebony-Jewel Rainford-Brent: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebony-Jewel_Rainford-Brent

No-one said anything about channel 9 broadcasting into India (although pay TV there does show our domestic season via ch9 on Star Sports). The ICC could have structured the broadcasting rights deal however which way it wanted, separating the international deal from the local one here. It's not like the pay tv audience here is substantial - it's the market on the sub-continent that really matters. Anyway, that was a ripping finish with some great bowling from Starc. At the start of the day you would never have guessed that the two teams combined wouldn't be able to get 300 runs between them.