Monthly Archives: March 2014

Mercedes dominates the 2014 Malaysian Grand Prix

Kuala Lumpur – From the very start, Mercedes AMG Petronas dominated today’s F1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix at Sepang International Circuit in Kuala Lumpur. Lewis Hamilton started off at pole and didn’t look back for the next 56 laps, finishing a full 17.3 seconds ahead of the next closest driver, his German teammate Nico Rosberg. 

Mishaps and misfortune were afoot once again amongst the drivers as Force India’s Sergio Peréz (MEX) did not start due to a gearbox failure. 6 other drivers would follow him into retirement from the race for various reasons including Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) whose bad luck from the disqualification in Melbourne followed him to Malaysia in the form of leaving the pits with his front left tyre not properly attached. The mistake leaves him with a 10 spot grid penalty for the next race in Bahrain.

One of the more interesting struggles to take place in the race was between Williams drivers Felipe Massa (BRA) and Valtteri Bottas (FIN) the former having been ordered by the team to let the latter pass him by, as Bottas had the faster car. Massa didn’t make Bottas’ attempts at passing easy, resulting in the Fin finishing just behind the Brazilian in 7th and 8th respectively.

McLaren’s Jenson Button (GBR) did fairly good, finishing in 6th with his rookie Danish teammate Kevin Magnussen coming in 9th. This comes just after the 2 McLaren drivers finished in 2nd and 3rd on the official tables following the season opener from Albert Park in Melbourne.

Ferrari suffered this weekend, with only one of their two drivers, Spaniard Fernando Alonso, scoring any points. Alonso finished in 4th place, whereas his Finnish teammate Kimi Räikkönen finished in 12th after suffering damage to his right-rear tyre following a collision with Magnussen.

Thus far 2014 has been the year of the Silver Arrows. For a while, it certainly seemed as though the years of Red Bull dominance might well be over, but after German Sebastian Vettel’s 3rd place finish that previous assessment may prove to be false. Certainly between the seasoned champion Vettel and the young, quite talented, if not a bit unlucky, Ricciardo I’d say Red Bull stands a chance at making a strong mark on this year’s championship. Whether they will win outright for the 5th time in a row is for the future to tell.

The results for the 2014 Malaysian Grand Prix are as follows:

  1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes (GBR) 25 pts. 1:40:25.974
  2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes (GER) 18 pts. +17.3 secs
  3. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull (GER) 15 pts. +24.5 secs
  4. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari (ESP) 12 pts. +35.9 secs
  5. Nico Hülkenberg, Force India (GER) 10 pts. +47.1 secs
  6. Jenson Button, McLaren (GBR) 8 pts. +83.6 secs
  7. Felipe Massa, Williams (BRA) 6 pts. +85.0 secs
  8. Valtteri Bottas, Williams (FIN) 4 pts. +85.5 sec
  9. Kevin Magnussen, McLaren (DEN) 2 pts. +1 lap
  10. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso (RUS) 1 pt. +1 lap
  11. Romain Grosjean, Lotus (FRA) 0 pts. +1 lap
  12. Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari (FIN) 0 pts. +1 lap
  13. Kamui Kobayashi, Caterham (JPN) 0 pts. +1 lap
  14. Marcus Ericsson, Caterham (SWE) 0 pts. +2 laps
  15. Max Chilton, Marussia (GBR) 0 pts. +2 laps

  • Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull (GER) 0 pts. Retired.
  • Esteban Gutierrez, Sauber (MEX) 0 pts. Gearbox
  • Adrian Sutil, Sauber (GER) 0 pts. Power unit
  • Jean-Éric Vergne, Toro Rosso (FRA) 0 pts. Turbo
  • Jules Bianchi, Marussia (FRA) 0 pts. Accident damage
  • Pastor Maldonado, Lotus (VEN) 0 pts. Power unit
  • Sergio Peréz, Force India (MEX) 0 pts. DNS, gearbox

Formula 1 returns this coming Friday, 4 April at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain. The race will begin the following Sunday, 6 April, at 18.00 Bahrain (10.00 Chicago, 14.00 London.)

Rainy F1 Malaysian Grand Prix Practise and Qualifying sets stage for Race

Kuala Lumpur – This weekend marks the second leg of this year’s Formula 1 World Championship: Malaysia. The tropical setting always offers extreme heat and humidity for the teams to compete in, leading to often surprising results. This year’s Grand Prix however is overshadowed by the tragic disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, the passengers and crew of which are being honoured this weekend by the teams.

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Practises 1 and 2 saw the same general issues marring the various car’s performances. Neither of the Lotuses nor Force India’s Sergio Pérez (MEX) set lap times in P1. Meanwhile, the Mercedes, McLarens, Ferraris, and Red Bulls held the upper echelons of the leaderboard throughout most of Friday and Saturday. P1 concluded with Lewis Hamilton’s (GBR) Mercedes on top. Practise 2 was the only one of the 3 to be fully televised here in the United States by NBC Sports. Hamilton’s lead was taken by his teammate Nico Rosberg (GER). Practise 3 was once again a Mercedes 1, 2. Close behind the silver arrows came the Ferraris, Red Bulls, Force Indias, and Williams.

Qualifying however cut the tempo of the weekend short a bit as what the NBC lads called a “monsoon” sailed over the track at Sepang. After a good 45 minutes, as Q1 began, the teams went out in a variety of mostly intermediate tyres, which proved to be troublesome for the still quite wet track.

Tyre trouble became the main bane of the teams as they struggled to set good qualifying times for tomorrow’s Grand Prix. The more woeful incident of Q1 was Marcus Ericcson’s crash at the end of Q1, which led to a red flag and a premature end to the session with 0:36 seconds remaining on the clock.

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Marcus Ericsson / BBC Sport

Q2 was equally final for the grid placements for the two Williams of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas, who placed 13th and 15th respectively. Russian rookie, Daniil Kvyat just barely remained at the top of the elimination group at the end of Q2. His teammate Jean-Éric Vergne was able to advance to Q3, qualifying in 9th.

Q3 was marked by a bit of a hurry in the end to get the laps in before more rain hit the circuit. The two McLarens had had their own tyre issues in the previous two qualifying sessions, having chosen to go on the intermediate tyres and soft tyres in such an order that was counterproductive to their own qualifying times.

What should be noted is just how much slower the qualifying times of this year’s Malaysian Grand Prix are in comparison to last year’s, with Lewis Hamilton taking pole with a time of 1:59.431 as opposed to Sebastian Vettel’s 2013 pole a full 9 seconds faster at 1:49.674. The grid positions are as follows:

  1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes (GBR) 1:59.431
  2. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull (GER) 1:59.486
  3. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes (GER) 2:00.050
  4. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari (ESP) 2:00.175
  5. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull (AUS) 2:00.541
  6. Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari (FIN) 2:01.218
  7. Nico Hülkenberg, Force India (GER) 2:01.712
  8. Kevin Magnussen, McLaren (DEN) 2:02.213
  9. Jean-Éric Vergne, Toro Rosso (FRA) 2:03.078
  10. Jenson Button, McLaren (GBR) 2:04.053
  11. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso (RUS) Q2 2:02.351
  12. Esteban Gutirrez, Sauber (MEX) Q2 2:02.369
  13. Felipe Massa, Williams (BRA) Q2 2:02.460
  14. Sergio Peréz, Force India (MEX) Q2 2:02.511
  15. Valtteri Bottas, Williams (FIN) Q2 2:02.756
  16. Romain Grosjean, Lotus (FRA) Q2 2:02.885
  17. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus (VEN) Q3 2:02.074
  18. Adrian Sutil, Sauber (GER) Q3 2:02.131
  19. Jules Bianchi, Marussia (FRA) Q3 2:02.702
  20. Kamui Kobayashi, Caterham (JPN) Q3 2:03.595
  21. Max Chilton, Marussia (GBR) Q3 2:04.388
  22. Marcus Ericsson, Caterham (SWE) Q3 2:04.407
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Lewis Hamilton / BBC Sport

The 2014 F1 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix will start at 16:00 Kuala Lampur (03:00 Chicago, 09.00 London) and will be broadcast live in the United States in English on NBC Sports y en Español en diferido en Univision Deportes a las 10.00. In Canada at 04.00 Eastern on TSN in English et il sera dans le même temps sur RDS en français. In the United Kingdom it will be broadcasted at 08.00 on BBC1 and at 07.30 on Sky Sports 1. In Australia it will be broadcasted at 18.30 on One.

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Care – a good aid organisation

Washington, D.C. – This afternoon, I was stopped by a Liberian gentleman working for an organisation called Care, which does aid work around the globe. We talked for about 10 minutes, in part because he was doing his job trying to raise money for that organisation’s aid work, but also because frankly I was rather interested in what he had to say.

Every penny can help the poor and needy around the world. Those of us who live rather well, who don’t have to worry nearly as much about finding food for the day or clean water can easily give to those who do have to go through those struggles. As is written in Leviticus, “Love your neighbour as yourself.” That is something worth living by. I explained to him that I didn’t have much money to give to him at the time, but what I could do was to write an article promoting Care, which would go out to my readers around the world.

If my Liberian friend does read this, peace to you and thank you for the enlightening conversation that we had today.

Australian Grand Prix a memorable start to the 2014 season

Melbourne – From before the start, or rather before the start, this year’s Australian Grand Prix was one not to miss. After a false start resulting from Frenchman Jules Bianchi’s Marussia dying on the starting grid, the race began with a crash at the first corner caused when Caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi (JPN) ran into Brazilian Felipe Massa’s Williams, forcing both of their retirements from the race.

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Kobayashi retired at Turn 1 on Lap 1 after crashing into Felipe Massa of Williams. / Photo Credit: AP, from BBC Sport

Further along, mechanical issues forced Mercedes’ British driver Lewis Hamilton, who had started off at pole, to retire, whilst a couple of laps after that Red Bull’s 4 time world champion Sebastian Vettel (GER) retired due to software trouble with his car.

From those two bombshells, the race continued onwards, surprising the world with each passing lap. Williams’ Valtteri Bottas (FIN) had a bit of a scare after hitting the wall at the exit of Turn 10, which caused his right rear tyre to puncture and fly off, but thankfully for him and for Williams, Bottas was able to return to the box and get a new tyre on the back of the car in time that he finished 6th.

More excitement was to follow as Bottas’ countryman, Kimi Räikkönen of Ferrari, had an issue with his tyres locking up fairly often throughout the race. In turn, this caused Räikkönen, last year’s winner in Australia, to finish 8th. His teammate, Spanish driver Fernando Alonso, did fairly well for himself in the first weekend of the new season, finishing in 5th just behind McLaren’s Jenson Button (GBR).

Today was by far a race for the drivers who either didn’t perform as well last year, or were new to the sport in general. McLaren’s rookie Danish driver Kevin Magnussen finished in 3rd today in his first ever Formula 1 race. Likewise in firsts, Russian Daniil Kvyat of Toro Rosso finished in 10th, making him at 19 years of age the youngest driver to ever win points in Formula 1.

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Daniel Riccardo on the podium in Melbourne / BBC Sport

The two biggest names at the end of the day in Melbourne were by far race winner, Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg (GER), and second place, Red Bull’s Daniel Riccardo who’s first Formula 1 podium came happily in his home country of Australia. Unfortunately for Riccardo, the FIA revoked his 2nd place finish after the race because his car, “exceeded the required fuel mass flow of 100kg/h.” (Source: F1.com).

According to the article on F1’s website, the Red Bull team decided to use a different fuel sensor on Riccardo’s car starting on Saturday after finding that the original one was unreliable. The stewards ordered the team to replace the new sensor with the old one in the parc ferme on Saturday evening, but Red Bull decided not to do so, “considering the sensor unreliable.” Rather they used their own internal measurement models, which was “in violation of the procedure outlined in the technical regulations,” according to the stewards. Red Bull Racing is appealing the steward’s decision, and good on them for that. Following Riccardo’s disqualification, the results stand as follows:

01. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes (GER): 1:32:58.710
02. Kevin Magnussen, McLaren (DEN): +26.7 sec
03. Jenson Button, Mercedes (GBR): +30.0 sec
04. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari (ESP): +35.2 sec
05. Valtteri Bottas, Williams (FIN): +47.6 sec
06. Nico Hülkenberg, Sahara Force India (GER): +50.7 sec
07. Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari (FIN): +57.6 sec
08. Jean-Éric Vergne, Scueria Toro Rosso (FRA): +60.4 sec
09. Daniil Kvyat, Scuderia Toro Rosso (RUS): +63.5 sec 
10. Sergio Pérez, Sahara Force India (MEX): +85.9 sec 
11. Adrian Sutil, Sauber (GER): 1:45.6 +1 lap
12. Esteban Gutierrez, Sauber (MEX): +1 lap 
13. Max Chilton, Marussia (GBR): +2 laps
NC Jules Bianchi, Marussia (FRA): +8 laps
Ret. Romain Grosjean, Lotus (FRA): ERS
Ret. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus (VEN): ERS
Ret. Marcus Ericsson, Caterham (SWE): Oil pressure
Ret. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull (GER): Power unit
Ret. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes (GBR): Engine
Ret. Felipe Massa, Williams (BRA): Accident
Ret. Kamui Kobayashi, Caterham (JPN): Accident
DSQ: Daniel Riccardo, Red Bull (AUS): +24.5 sec
 
For more information on today’s race, I recommend these articles from the BBC, NBC Sports, and F1.com.
 

2014 Australian Grand Prix Qualifying questions 2013 norms

Coming out of the Free Practice sessions, qualifying for this year’s F1 Australian Grand Prix was bound to be both exciting and up in the air until the last minute. Not only did the famous Melbourne weather raise its standards with silver, though mostly grey, celestial trumpets which heralded the rains that would mark the session at the end of Q1, but the regulation changes equally added to the excitement of today’s highlight.
 
The rains greatly impacted the routines of the teams and drivers, leaving some like Lotus’ Romain Grosjean (FRA) in the paddock with a back of the line grid place. Other typically top tier drivers like Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen fell quite further back than usual with an accident in Q2. Alongside him in the paddock throughout Q3 was 4 time and defending world champion Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel (GER) who earned the 12th spot, eliminating him from Q3 for the first time since the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix. Likewise Williams’ Felipe Massa (BRA) and McLaren’s Jenson Button (GBR) were eliminated from Q3, having trouble in the second qualifying session.
 
Q3 was marked by surprise and excitement. Red Bull’s Daniel Riccardo went out to please his home crowd at Albert Park, making an excellent finish at 2nd place in his first race with Red Bull. Riccardo was outrun by Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton (GBR) who finished .3 of a second faster than the Australian. Hamilton’s German teammate Nico Rosberg came in third by less than a tenth of a second slower than Riccardo. He was followed by rookie McLaren driver Kevin Magnussen (DEN), and 2 time world champion Fernando Alonso (ESP).
 
The 2014 Australian Grand Prix will begin tomorrow morning at 01.00 Chicago (17.00 Melbourne, 14.00 London) and will be broadcast on NBC Sports in the United States, BBC1 in the United Kingdom, TEN in Australia, and TSN and RDS in Canada for English and French viewing audiences respectively.
 
The full qualifying results are as follows (Source F1.com):
 
01. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes (GBR): 1:44.2
02. Daniel Riccardo, Red Bull (AUS): 1:44.5
03. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes (GER): 1:44.5
04. Kevin Magnussen, McLaren (DEN): 1:45.7
05. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari (ESP): 1:45.8
06. Jean-Éric Vergne, Scueria Toro Rosso (FRA): 1:45.8
07. Nico Hülkenberg, Sahara Force India (GER): 1:46.0
08. Daniil Kvyat, Scuderia Toro Rosso (RUS): 1:47.3
09. Felipe Massa, Williams (BRA): 1:48.0 
10. Valtteri Bottas, Williams (FIN): 1:48.1
11. Jenson Button, Mercedes (GBR): 1:44.4
12. Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari (FIN): 1:44.4
13. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull (GER): 1:44.6
14. Adrian Sutil, Sauber (GER): 1:45.6
15. Kamui Kobayashi, Caterham (JPN): 1:45.8
16. Sergio Pérez, Force India (MEX): 1:47.2
17. Max Chilton, Marussia (GBR): 1:34.2
18. Jules Bianchi, Marussia (FRA): 1:34.7
19. Esteban Gutierrez, Sauber (MEX): 1:35.1
20. Marcus Ericsson, Caterham (SWE): 1:35.1
21. Romain Grosjean, Lotus (FRA): 1:36.9
22. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus (VEN): No result

2014 F1 Australian GP: Practice

Melbourne – The 2014 season is here! Watching the live television feed through NBC Sports and the F1 timing app on my phone, I can tell you that practise down in Melbourne has been quite interesting, and possibly a cache full of interesting signs for Sunday’s race.

The first session began at 20.30 Chicago (16.30 Melbourne, 01.00 London), and was characterised by a mix of mechanical issues, good runs, and the lack of a completed lap for 4 of the drivers, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton (GBR), Catheram’s Kamui Kobyashi (JAP), and Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado (VEN) and Romain Grosjean (FRA).

Out of all the teams, Lotus had the most trouble. Frenchman Romain Grosjean didn’t make it out of the pit, whilst his Venezuelan teammate Pastor Maldonado did make it onto the track, only to continually slide and skid off of it before having the Lotus pit crew meet him in the Pit Lane carrying fire extinguishers with 8:00 minutes left in the session.

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Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton was unable to finish a lap in FP1 / BBC Sport

Likewise, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton made it out of the pit, but didn’t stay on the track for long, according to BBC Sport having oil pressure issues. His teammate, Germany’s Nico Rosberg finished FP1 in 6th at 0.764 seconds behind leader, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso (ESP). Also from Germany, reigning world champion Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel did fairly well in the session, however he was called back to the pit with 1:30 remaining due to some worries of mechanical issues.

My favourite team, McLaren, did fairly well for themselves in Free Practise 1, with veteran Jenson Button (GBR) coming in second with a time of 1:32.357, and Danish rookie Kevin Magnussen finishing in 8th with a time of 1:32.847. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso finished at the top of FP1 with a time of 1:31.840.

Free Practise 2 began at 00.30 Chicago (16.30 Melbourne, 05.30 London) with Sahara Force India’s Adrian Sutil (GER) being the first out onto the track. He was followed 3 minutes later by Hamilton, who at last managed to get a lap in. Soon there after an equally unlucky driver from FP1, Romain Grosjean of Lotus, made his way onto the track, however with 1:24:00, the Frenchman was reporting power steering issues, in particular using the words “force neutral” with his car. Defending world champion Sebastian Vettel came out at 1:22:00. Interestingly enough, at the start of FP2, according to the lads at NBC Sports, the top speed in the speed trap at Albert Park is 7 mph faster than in 2013.

For most of the first half of FP2, Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg (GER) was on top in regards to lap time. To give an example of the speeds being reached on this track, Vettel, with 1:15:00 left, went around Turn 1 in his Red Bull at around 140 mph. There certainly is some concern among Red Bull fans this year, as well stated on NBC that, “If Red Bull manages to win the race on Sunday it’ll be a minor miracle.”

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All of the teams have had overheating problems on Friday. Pictured: Valtteri Bottas (FIN) of Williams / AP from BBC Sport

Ferrari had a set of issues around the hour mark, with both cars overheating. Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen (FIN) ended up having to be pushed back to the pit from the lane’s entrance. At the same point, Red Bull’s Daniel Riccardo (AUS) set the fastest time at the 1:00:00 mark. Soon there after, Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) became the first driver of the session to switch to the soft tyres. Meanwhile, by 00:58:00, all of the drivers save Caterham’s Kamui Kobyshai (JPN) and Lotus’ previously ill-fated Pastor Maldonado (VEN) had yet to leave their respective garages. Caterham continued to have issues when their only driver to leave the pits on Friday, Marcus Ericsson returned to the garage with, according to the team radio, hydraulic issues. Another rookie, 19 year old Russian Daniil Kyvat of Scuderia Toro Rosso had his own troubles, radioing in that, “It is impossible to warm the tyres.”

On the lighter side, Caterham’s new nose design is “pretty cool,” at least according to NBC Sports’ David Hobbes. Pit commentator Will Buxton said of the new designs, “I love this season because not all of the cars are the same in the pit lane.”

The great tragedy of the end of the session came when Lotus’ Romain Grosjean began to have issues at around 27:00, when his wheels began to lock up around T1. Meanwhile, most of the drivers in the top half of the table were working on their longer runs, in particular Massa and Bottas at Williams. Grosjean’s troubles came to a head when he hit the barriers at Turn 6, which snapped his rear suspension, initial observations according to the BBC said that it was the right side, whilst their friends at NBC said it was the left. Luckily, Räikkönen was able to avoid any sort of collision with the debris from Grosjean’s car.

At the chequered flag, Briton Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes AMG Petronas finished on top with a 1:29.625. In general at the end of Friday’s run, the major issue for all the teams was dealing with overheating. These new cars are certainly something to get used to, as comically pointed out on Twitter by one Brian Hambling, “Fantastic visual spectacle but the cars sound like Mopeds??” Generally, Lotus and Caterham are in the deeps, having trouble even getting cars out on track. Meanwhile, Caterham’s main competitor Marussia stands a decent chance of doing better in this race than in the past, perhaps even scoring their first point. Their driver, Briton Max Chilton said on the topic that, “There’s a lot more there for us to use.”

Free Practise 3 began at 22.00 Chicago (14.00 Melbourne, 03.00 London). This round ended much the same as the prior one, with Mercedes on top, only this time Nico Rosberg being the leader followed by the McLaren of Jenson Button and the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso. The session was also noted for three drivers: Williams’ Valtteri Bottas (FIN), Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez (MEX), and Lotus’ Romain Grosjean (FRA) remaining in their garages for the duration of the practise session due to various mechanical issues. Grosjean’s teammate Pastor Maldonado did make it out, only to break down whilst on a lap. This session was Caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi (JPN) first time out on the track of the weekend, during which he completed 19 laps, finishing 16th out of 22.

Looking at the practise information, I’d say that qualifications will be a fairly open field. I’d imagine that either Mercedes or Ferrari will take the first 2 rows on the starting grid with McLaren and Red Bull close behind. As for the rest of the field, it’s still pretty open and unsure to say just what will happen.

Qualifying starts at 01.00 Chicago (17.00 Melbourne, 14.00 London), and will be broadcast here in the United States on NBC Sports. Seeing as it’s starting so very late my local time, my upcoming article on qualifying will be out a few hours after the actual event. If you would like an online readable feed of what is going on at Albert Park in Melbourne, see this link to BBC Sport’s Formula 1 section.

What’s to come in March

Kansas City – March is always a big month on the calendar. It’s the Trinitarian month, the month when the activities of Winter begin to give way to their Summer counterparts. It’s a month of change. Often, for my fellow Catholic and Orthodox Christians, March is completely consumed in one of the holiest seasons of the year: Lent.

If you want to know my views on Lent, don’t worry, I’ll be brief: Yes, if it is in your tradition do observe it! I take a more simple route compared to some of my fellow Catholics: no meat on Fridays, and fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. This means only 2 big meals and 1 small meal on those days, and no meat. Also, key is the giving up of something which you feel can keep you from Christ. I tend to take this more spiritually than physically, meaning that I don’t give up sweets or chips (fries). Rather, in the past few years I’ve given up negative emotions and mentalities such as hate, irrational fear, and this year excess and unnecessary worry. Yes, I haven’t always been successful with these: hate was simpler to give up than irrational fear, but I find it to be a good exercise in self control, which is a habit that is necessary in any and every social setting.

A huge part of this is foregoing the self, not focusing on one’s own person as much, and instead focusing that energy upon the wellbeing of society in general. We should try to challenge ourselves to forgo having “I” at the top, favouring “We” instead. Many Christian mystics have argued that the first step towards a fuller relationship with the Divine is to forgo one’s own self in favour of the will of another, in this case God.

Now that’s sorted out, onto some of the articles you can expect to find on this website in the coming weeks.

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Courtesy of Red Bull Racing

Thursday evening for us in the States (Friday morning for Europe and the Middle East, and Midday Friday for Australia and New Zealand) marks the start of the official race schedule for the 2014 Formula 1 World Championship! This weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, taking place at Albert Park in Melbourne, is sure to be a thriller. With longtime contender Mark Webber out of the running, the starting grid will seem a bit more empty, and without the old V8 engines it’ll certainly be a wee bit quieter, but undoubtedly it’s bound to be an eventful and exciting race weekend from the capital of Victoria. I’ll begin my coverage of it on Friday afternoon with thoughts on the Practice sessions, continuing Saturday and Sunday with the qualifying and race results in due course.

One thing to make note of regarding Formula 1: considering that I’m writing from North America, most of these races take place in the middle of the night my time, as I’m on Central Time (March to October GMT -5, November to early March GMT -6) I’ll probably be posting my articles up to 24 hours after the actual events occurred, in part because I’ll be watching tape-delayed, and also because as much as I do enjoy F1, it’s not generally something that I’ll get up at 3 in the morning to see. Now, I will write on the races in Western Europe and the Americas closer to time, but I’ll let the lads at NBC Sports do the graveyard shift for the rest of us here in the States.

Next, and closer to home, is the start of the summer sporting season here in the US and Canada. In particular, I’m referring to Major League Baseball’s Spring Training and Major League Soccer’s season’s start. I highly recommend to anyone who enjoys baseball to watch the season opener between the LA Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks in Sydney, Australia. It’ll be broadcast as a double-header on Saturday 22 March at 3.00 and 22.00 CDT, and will be nationally broadcast in the United States on MLB Network. The Cubs’ home opener will be on 4 April vs the Phillies at 13.20 CDT, and will be broadcast as per tradition and reason on WGN (hopefully nationally as well.) The Royals’ home opener will also be on 4 April at 15.10 CDT and will be broadcast locally on Fox Sports Kansas City.

Major League Soccer began its 2014 season last weekend with much gusto! Though Sporting KC didn’t leave Seattle with a win, they still played quite well over the course of the 90 minutes. I was also glad to see the Vancouver Whitecaps give the New York Red Bulls a stunner, beating the Supporter’s Shield winner 4-1 on Saturday evening in Vancouver. Hopefully tonight Sporting KC can return home and play for a win over Mexico’s Cruz Azul in the CONCACAF Champions’ League. We’ll just have to see…

Haifa Symphony Orchestra warms its audience’s hearts

Kansas City – Arriving at the Kauffman Centre this evening, I found myself pleasantly surprised at the choice of repertoire by this evening’s entertainment. Israel’s Haifa Symphony Orchestra as a part of the Harriman-Jewell Series performed a programme of Weber, Rachmaninov, and Tchaikovsky, which did a good job at exciting, and thrilling the audience with each passing note. Sadly, that audience was only at about half capacity, in large part due to the inclement weather in the form of snow that is currently falling upon a Kansas City unhappy at its presence.

Under the direction of Polish Maestro Boguslaw Dawidow, the orchestra made a resounding and fantastic proclamation of presence with their performance of Carl Maria von Weber’s Overture to Euryanthe. The music, which was quite striking of the period and art of its day, resounded about the hall, thrilling everyone who was there to listen.

The Weber was very well an overture for the brass and percussion, setting the stage for their spectacular performances in the second piece, Rachmaninov’s Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18. The orchestra was joined by excellent Israeli pianist Roman Rabinovich, whose talents at the piano are absolutely fantastic! I thoroughly enjoyed Rabinovich’s performance. His encores were equally thrilling, the former of which exhibited his prowess and the power of the music itself, which ended with the piano being forced back at the emotion of the piece itself as Rabinovich jumped up to take his closing bow. His performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Angel of Music was quite charming, calling forth reminiscence of sweet memories.

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Helzberg Hall at the Kauffman Centre in Kansas City, tonight’s venue.

The second half was made of Tchaikovsky’s powerful Symphony No. 4, which began thrillingly, continued melodically and joyously in the second movement, danced through the third, and concluded with a bang in the fourth movement. Dawidow’s prowess as a conductor was quite well exhibited in this performance, in which his control and leadership of the orchestra was unlimited and omnipotent, like the music he conducted.

I was equally happily surprised by the two orchestral encores, the Theme from Schindler’s List and Sousa’s always happy Stars and Stripes Forever. The concert seemed themed at a mix of, “Well, we have tickets, might as well go,”, “They’re from Israel!”, and “Let’s enjoy the music.” After all, the latest reports from the motherland of Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky have not been promising for peace. God willing, things will improve there.

In totality, I fully enjoyed tonight’s concert by the Haifa Symphony Orchestra, and I look forward to hearing them again in the future. If any members of the orchestra do read this review, I would just like to wish them good luck and safe travels out of Kansas City in the next few days.

 

“Son of God” – Appealing to its core audience

Kansas City – As a Catholic, whenever I think of the Life of Jesus the image of sitting in Mass when I was in 1st grade during the 1999-2000 school year springs to mind. Not only was the Church celebrating the new millennium, but also honouring the 2000th birthday of Jesus of Nazareth, at least according to the traditional calculation. For me, it still seems a bit odd to make a film about the Life of Christ, after all how does one find an actor to portray, well, the Son of God? In this way I do kind of agree with my Muslim friends and neighbours in using their arguments for not portraying Muhammad in art by saying that perhaps such a holy figure as Jesus should not be portrayed on film as He is God. However, Jesus was also a human being, and a fairly well-spoken one to boot, so in another way it does make good sense to depict his life on the screen.

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Diogo Morgado who plays Jesus. Courtesy of IMDb.com

To be brief, Son of God was not quite my cup of tea. I found myself laughing through much of the first half, between the corny dialogue, at times poor CGI, fairly unconvincing acting, and the fact that Jesus was wearing makeup. However, the film began to lose its serious tone when they introduced the characters by their modern English names. Yes, yes, I know, this film was made to be seen by the masses, much more so than Mel Gibson’s epic of 10 years ago, but at the same time it just sounds weird to hear a little boy running down a street in a small Jewish town shouting “It’s Jesus!” I feel that in this instance, as in any historical film, the best first step towards keeping the seriousness of the piece there is to keep the characters’ names the way they were in their lifetimes. So, rather than Jesus, call Him Yeshua (ישוע), or instead of referring to our narrator, St John the Evangelist, as “John”, why not call him Yovhann (יוחנן). I will say on that matter, that as an Irish speaker, referring to Jesus as Yeshua makes more sense as in Irish His name is Íosa. And while I’m on the topic of names, the whole “You are Peter, the rock, and upon you I will build my Church” loses its meaning when Simon Peter is referred to as Peter rather than Simon before that in the film. Also, I wasn’t aware that St Thomas was ginger until tonight. That must have made him stick out quite terribly during his mission in India.

My biggest complaint with the film is its directing. Firstly, we didn’t need the “hero shot” of Jesus and St Peter in the latter’s fishing boat just after making the big catch. After that is the repetition of captions whenever the scene changed to a different location. I think after the first time seeing the poor CGI overview of Jerusalem the viewer should be able to remember what they’re looking at, we don’t need reminding thereafter. Finally, there were some key elements of the Passion that were missing from this depiction: the Washing of the Feet, St Veronica fully enfolding Jesus’ face in her cloth, Jesus stopping to talk to the Women of Jerusalem, and the mixture of blood and water coming out of the wound pierced by the Holy Lance. Portuguese soaps actor Diogo Morgado gave a mixed performance as Jesus. Like the film itself, I found that his acting improved from when he arrived in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

On the other hand, Son of God does a good job appealing to its target audience: Protestant Americans. I saw a few episodes of the original History Channel miniseries The Bible from which much of the footage in Son of God comes, and have to say that I was turned off of the show quite quickly by the fact that every time a commercial break came, along with it was at least one, though often two, ads for Christian Mingle. Honestly, the show’s creators did a good job at avoiding any major sort of controversy in this film, which is more than I can say about the miniseries, but in the attempted avoidance, so much of the reality of first century Palestine were lost.

For example, I find it hard to understand why there had to be characters of every racial background, except East Asians, Pacific Islanders, and Amerindians in the film. If the director was that concerned with avoiding racial issues, why not just make all of the characters, um, I don’t know… Middle Eastern? Then again, it might concern the core audience that Jesus and the Disciples were from a region of the world that today is by majority Muslim. After all, the present must be taken into account when portraying the past. Oh, and don’t get me started on some of the oddities involved in the film’s Romans.

In the end, I’d say if you want to go see Son of God, then go see it. It is an interesting film, that has a unique take on the Life of Christ. However, the full heart-wrenching emotion of the Passion simply is not entirely there in this production, nor is the true majesty of just how fully human and fully divine Jesus was. If you want to see that full emotion, my recommendation would be to watch Gibson’s Passion of the Christ.