Latest news with #EmeraldCity
The Age
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
David Williamson skewered greedy Sydney - and bought the Harbour view anyway
Sydney features large in David Williamson's earliest memories. Aged three-and-a-half, the Melbourne-born-and-bred playwright was visiting an uncle with his family, and remembers 'sitting in a backyard on a very bright, sunny day, surrounded by bougainvilleas and subtropical flowers.' 'The fact my first memory was in Sydney obviously imprinted something on me about the exotic nature of the city: the colours, the brightness, the greenness of the grass,' he says. He contrasts this with Melbourne's winter and summer brownness, while another early memory was gazing from a ferry at a harbour that 'seemed a deep translucent green, not blue'. Hence, the title of his iconic 1987 play Emerald City. Although Williamson is eternally grateful to the Melbourne theatre companies that launched his career, he was less enamoured of that city's critical response. 'When the plays were done in Sydney, it was a totally different reaction,' he explains. 'John Bell did a terrific production of The Removalists, and John Clark did a great production of Don's Party, and I have to say that the talent at their disposal was probably greater, when you consider that I was playing the removalist in Melbourne, and Chris Haywood played him in Sydney. 'The critics were terrific, and they recognised the genre. The Melbourne critics thought The Removalists was an earnest play about police violence, that didn't succeed because the characters weren't three-dimensional. Whereas Sydney immediately saw it as a darkly satirical play about appalling Australian male behaviour.' Loading Williamson also wearied of his left-wing Carlton circle dimly viewing financial success, whereas in Sydney, making money seemed 'a legitimate pursuit'. He acknowledges Sydney's shady history of 'beleaguered convicts and corrupt prison guards, but,' he insists, 'it was a vibrant and very Australian city. So I thought to myself, 'Why do I have to put up with these Melbourne dinner parties where people start abusing me that I've sold out because my plays were being done in the state theatre companies, and because I might be making roughly as much money as a suburban GP?''
Sydney Morning Herald
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
David Williamson skewered greedy Sydney - and bought the Harbour view anyway
Sydney features large in David Williamson's earliest memories. Aged three-and-a-half, the Melbourne-born-and-bred playwright was visiting an uncle with his family, and remembers 'sitting in a backyard on a very bright, sunny day, surrounded by bougainvilleas and subtropical flowers.' 'The fact my first memory was in Sydney obviously imprinted something on me about the exotic nature of the city: the colours, the brightness, the greenness of the grass,' he says. He contrasts this with Melbourne's winter and summer brownness, while another early memory was gazing from a ferry at a harbour that 'seemed a deep translucent green, not blue'. Hence, the title of his iconic 1987 play Emerald City. Although Williamson is eternally grateful to the Melbourne theatre companies that launched his career, he was less enamoured of that city's critical response. 'When the plays were done in Sydney, it was a totally different reaction,' he explains. 'John Bell did a terrific production of The Removalists, and John Clark did a great production of Don's Party, and I have to say that the talent at their disposal was probably greater, when you consider that I was playing the removalist in Melbourne, and Chris Haywood played him in Sydney. 'The critics were terrific, and they recognised the genre. The Melbourne critics thought The Removalists was an earnest play about police violence, that didn't succeed because the characters weren't three-dimensional. Whereas Sydney immediately saw it as a darkly satirical play about appalling Australian male behaviour.' Loading Williamson also wearied of his left-wing Carlton circle dimly viewing financial success, whereas in Sydney, making money seemed 'a legitimate pursuit'. He acknowledges Sydney's shady history of 'beleaguered convicts and corrupt prison guards, but,' he insists, 'it was a vibrant and very Australian city. So I thought to myself, 'Why do I have to put up with these Melbourne dinner parties where people start abusing me that I've sold out because my plays were being done in the state theatre companies, and because I might be making roughly as much money as a suburban GP?''
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
‘Winning pedigree.' Mariners select LSU pitcher with No. 3 pick in '25 MLB draft
College baseball's best pitcher is coming to the Emerald City. The Seattle Mariners selected Louisiana State's Kade Anderson with the third overall pick in the 2025 MLB First-Year Player Draft, a strikeout machine who carried the Tigers to last month's College World Series title. Seattle never expected the 21-year-old to fall into their lap at No. 3, but the Mariners wound up with the top player on their board, adding another standout arm to an embarrassment of pitching riches in their highly-touted farm system. 'He told us on a call a couple of months ago that his goal was to be the best pitcher in the country,' Scott Hunter, Mariners vice president of Amateur Scouting said while smiling ear-to-ear in T-Mobile Park's main interview room. 'To get a kid with this kind of stuff, his kind of make-up, and that kind of drive is special for us.' Baseball America's 2025 College Pitcher of the Year went 12-1 with a 3.18 ERA (119 IP) with 180 strikeouts and 35 walks in 19 starts for LSU this spring. He threw a complete-game shutout in Game 1 of the Men's College World Series over Coastal Carolina, allowing three hits with 10 strikeouts en route to being named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. Anderson is the No. 2 overall prospect on MLB Pipeline's annual draft rankings and the top college prospect. The 6-foot-2, 186-pounder notched 10+ strikeouts in 11 games for the Tigers, including a career-high 14 at Oklahoma on April 3, and led the nation with 180 strikeouts in 2025. With the 3rd pick in the 2025 MLB Draft, the Seattle Mariners select Kade Anderson! @KadeAnderson32 | @Mariners — LSU Baseball (@LSUbaseball) July 13, 2025 'When you get a pitcher that can command four pitches … and can touch 96 miles per hour on the 130th pitch of a big game, I think the sky's the limit for guys like that,' Hunter said. 'Obviously, it's something that we believe in here … that's where (we) said it's going to be a match made in heaven.' Seattle struck gold by landing the third overall pick in the MLB Draft Lottery at the Winter Meetings in December, a dozen-pick jump over their 15th-overall projection. Parity among top prospects brought uncertainty to the first round's official order, though it was assumed Anderson would land with the Washington Nationals (No. 1 pick) or Los Angeles Angels (No. 2). Washington took 17-year-old shortstop Eli Willits with the No. 1 overall pick, and Los Angeles grabbed RHP Tyler Brenmer second — and the Mariners aren't complaining. Hunter's best description of Anderson? A combination of Mariners rotation staples in George Kirby and Logan Gilbert, both former All-Stars. '(Kade) wants to learn and wants to develop his pitches like Logan, and he's kind of stoic like George is,' he said. 'Just that silent competitor that may not say a whole lot, but when you talk to him, he says the right things.' The Mariners entered Sunday's draft with the second-most total bonus pool money in MLB ($17,074,400) behind Baltimore. This story will be updated.
Irish Times
04-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Matt Williams: Lions' insulting attitude is nicely stoking Australian pride
The Lions have departed Bris Vegas and the muddy Brisbane river, affectionately known as the Brown Snake. They are now 1,000km south in the Emerald City. Sydney is a city that is a mere bystander to the majesty of its watery jewel. Sydney Harbour's vast beauty never ceases to astound. The harbour has to be experienced, not simply viewed. With the sharp vertical outline of the flying white sails of the Opera House cutting the skyline beneath the towering single arch of the coat hanger that is the Sydney Harbour Bridge, their combination represents a rare human addition to the aura of mother nature's grandeur. Why am I banging on about the beauty of the city that Australian rhyming slang calls steak and kidney? Because the team the Waratahs have selected to take on the might of the Lions at the Sydney Football Stadium means it is not going to be much of a contest. With the exception of Taniela Tupou – the Tongan Thor – at tighthead, it is a dangerously weak and inexperienced tight five. The tourists supporting the Lions might as well soak up the local beauty, because unlike some of the memorable past contests between these two long-time protagonists, sadly this Waratahs team appears incapable of recreating another chapter in their classic rivalry. READ MORE These two foes first met on June 2nd, 1888, with the Lions winning 18-2. Since that day the relationship has only deteriorated. I am unsure if it's the British part of Lions name that triggers some of Sydney's convict DNA to bitterly dislike the representatives of their former imperial overlords, but the animosity has thrown up some wonderful contests across the past 137 seasons. The rivalry culminated in the most unlikely of legendary brawls in 2001 between Duncan McRae and Ronan O'Gara . Two bantamweight roosters who went toe-to-toe. In the days before the Lions match against the Waratahs in 1989, Sydney was hit by what is called an 'east coast low'. This is a rare cyclonic rain bomb that is generated in the Tasman Sea and dumps an unimaginable amount of rain on to the New South Wales coastline. In 1989 there was so much rain that it forced the game to be relocated to the wonderful surrounds of North Sydney Oval. This small, beautiful stadium is a restored replica of the colonial era, similar to the grounds the 1888 players would have experienced. The ornate grandstands that once stood at the Sydney Cricket Ground have been painstakingly transferred to this gem of a footy field. At North Sydney Oval in 1989, in a dramatic and highly skilled exhibition, the Lions won via a drop goal in the dying seconds of what was a magnificent game of rugby. This week another of the rare giant east coast lows has lashed the New South Wales coast, delivering floods, fallen trees and giant waves. Let's hope the rugby and the rain follow the same pattern. The management of the Lions have cast their own dark and stormy clouds across Australia as they have badly misjudged the reaction to their loud and ignorant complaints about the Wallaby players not being included in the Australian provincial games. Despite the fact the Wallabies are playing Fiji on Sunday, the Lions management strangely appears to have expected Joe Schmidt to not prepare his team for a Test match and send his players back to their provinces for the benefit of the Lions. The Lions management should consider the statistics over the last 33 years of provincial matches before embarking on insulting their hosts. Across the eight Lions tours of the professional era, including the two matches on this tour, the Lions have played 44 matches against provincial teams and won 40. What other outcome should we expect when the best players of four nations combine against a single province? Tony Underwood (left) of the British and Irish Lions tackles Wynand Lourens of Northern Transvaal in Pretoria, South Africa, in June 1997. Photograph: David Rogers/Allsport The last provincial game the Lions lost in South Africa was in 1997 against Northern Transvaal. Despite the perceived might of South African rugby, they have not won a single provincial match against the Lions this century. We did not hear any of the midweek moaning when the Lions dominated their provincial games in South Africa in 2019. In the previous four Lions tours to Australia in 1989, 2001, 2013 and including the current tour, the Lions have won 18 provincial matches and lost just one. That was to the Brumbies, 14-12, in 2013. The uncomfortable fact for the Lions management is that despite these provincial victories and the perceived weakness of Australian rugby, every Lions series played Down Under since 1989 has been determined in the deciding third Test. While all of that is ancient history, the Lions of 2025 should view their history with caution and respect, while keeping in mind that Schmidt was not only Ireland's coach, he is also the former assistant coach of New Zealand. The man knows how to win. Schmidt has either coached or coached against almost all of these Lions players. He has also mentored Andy Farrell , Simon Easterby and Johnny Sexton . That is not nothing when considering the future of this series, because knowledge is power and in every battle the opposition get a say. After the Wallabies take on Fiji on Sunday we will get a glimpse of just how much say the Australians will get. There is more than a healthy amount of resentment building up inside those who wear the wattle green and gold of the Wallabies against what is being interpreted as an attitude of entitlement and rugby imperialism from the so-called home nations. All of which is nicely stoking the fires of Australian pride and competition. While the depleted Waratahs should fall beneath the Lions juggernaut and the Brumbies, as the best performing Australian province, could prove to be a handful next week, like every series of the professional era, the provincial games are an historical rump provided by the host nation to make money and help the Lions select their Test team. Nothing more and nothing less. The only thing that matters are the Test matches and those will once again be close and fascinating.
Geek Feed
08-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Feed
Why aren't Dorothy's Slippers Red in Wicked: For Good?
Wicked starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo was one of the biggest movies to come out last year, ad Universal is set to close the story with the sequel Wicked: For Good . The movie is set to come out this November, and we have a new trailer which showcases the aftermath of the events of The Wizard of Oz , but fans have noticed one odd detail. Check this out: Instead of the ruby red slippers that Dorothy wore in the original movie, she's instead wearing silver heels—the same ones that Nessarose wore in the first movie. While some would hope that they would keep the iconic red slippers, it is speculated that Universal wasn't allowed to use them, seeing that the original movie is currently owned by Warner Bros—and the red slippers were something they made for the film since it popped better onscreen; in the original books, the slippers were silver. Though some think that they could have just made some kind of deal like they did with Spider-Man and Marvel, director Jon M. Chu told Variety that it was always his plan to steer away from the ruby shoes—they did reference it in the Popular musical number in the first movie. It's funny that these Wizard of Oz adaptations try to stick close to the books because the movie is owned by another studio, but ultimately the original film is so influential to the story that they can't help but be inspired by it—from Dorothy's look to the citizens and appearance of the Emerald City. Either way, if it gets more people to check out the original film, I'm sure these new Wicked movies would have done their job. Catch Wicked: For Good when it comes to cinemas on Nov. 21.
