This is the kind of love
that never goes out of style.
There are rare moments where entire nations come together, for good. Those moments donโt happen often, so itโs worth cherishing them when they do.
The Matildasโ 2023 World Cup run was one such extended moment but if you had to narrow down the whole journey, it was really that penalty shoot-out against France.
It was the longest penalty shootout in World Cup history, men's or women's.
Apparently 7 million of us watched the shoot-out, and more than 11 million of us tuned in a few days later to see the loss to England, the sadness offset by a brief flash of Sam Kerr brilliance.
Just two moments in Australian sporting history come close to the Matildasโ run - the 1983 Americaโs Cup win, and Cathy Freemanโs gold medal at the Sydney Olympics.
On that timeline, it might be another twenty years before we share a moment like it again.
Related: For a fascinating deep-dive into the Matildasโ World Cup build-up, Disneyโs 6-part documentary series has you covered.
Cathy Freeman's race as commentated by American network NBC.
When it comes to timeless Australian cultural moments, John Farnhamโs โYouโre The Voiceโ has held up remarkably well.
Here he is, singing that โAustralian National Anthemโ alongside Coldplay.
Coldplay- You're The Voice (with John Farnham) Sound Relief Concert
John Farnham: Finding the Voice tells Farnhamโs story in fascinating detail. From his early rise on the back of his โSadie the Cleaning Ladyโ fame, to long years of irrelevance, to his improbable return in 1986 with the release of โWhispering Jackโ.
My favourite snippet from the whole documentary: after they had finished recording, they decided โYouโre The Voiceโ needing something extra. Farnham suggested bagpipes. The only problem: the song was in F, and the bagpipes can only be played in F Sharp. Undeterred, they redid the entire song in F Sharp.
Like Keith Jarrettโs half piano in โThe Koln Concertโ: โSometimes the limitation of the instrument is the very thing you need to make something great.โ
The wonders of Farnhamโs voice are best captured in this live rendition of The Beatlesโ โHelpโ, alongside the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
John Farnham - Help (LIVE with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra)
โPeople disappeared into their own lives and conflicts, and in doing so they lost perspective, not only on where they were, but also on who they were, and who they had been or could become.โ
โKarl Ove Knausgรฅrd, The Morning Star
A weekend away after the hardest year of my life
Mystery Clicksโฆ
"The thrill of winning is in direct proportion to the effort I put in before."
-Rafael Nadal
The Most Beautiful 2 Minutes of Music | Keith Jarrett
Ryuichi Sakamoto is a Japanese composer, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2014, and died in March of this year.
On his album, โ12โ you can hear him breathing throughout the recording. Most noticeably perhaps on โ20211201โ, which opens with a single breathโฆ itโs deeply affecting.
The minimalism of the albumโs synth and piano lines gain existential weight as you realise those breaths were some of his last.
This bear was carved out of a single block of amber 3,500 years ago.
Recommended Reading
How a suburban skate ramp drew skateboarder Tony Hawk to Tasmania in the 90s ๐น
CLINT EASTWOOD BY GORILLAZ IS MADE FROM KEYBOARD PRESET ๐ฆ
An All But Definitive Guide to the Hollywood Nepo-Verse ๐จโ๐จโ๐ฆโ๐ฆ
Lifeโs Work: An Interview with Jerry Seinfeld ๐
Mexican food is the best in the world ๐ฒ๐ฝ
The Avant-Garde Origins of 'Gumby' โณ๏ธ
The last of the Flying Wallendas ๐ช
Do you know about "รญsbรญltรบr"? ๐ฆ
Why Bill Watterson Vanished โ๐ผ
Trance never stopped rolling ๐น
Sweetness and strangeness โ๏ธ
Tasmanian Devil ๐ช๏ธ
on being known ๐ก
Scorpion Party ๐ฆ
Being There ๐ฏโโ๏ธ
The Colonel๐๐ผ
Rest ๐ด
WeChat founder Allen Zhangโs speech at WeChatโs Open Class Pro event in 2019 is a product-thinking masterclass.
โIโm very happy that I can accompany a product for eight years. Moreover, Iโve always seen myself as a product manager, not a business manager. I believe this is necessary, because a good product requires a certain degree of โdictatorshipโ, otherwise it will embody all sorts of different, conflicting opinions and its personality will become fragmented.โ
Like Evan Spiegelโs email exchange with Benchmark partner Mitch Lasky (when Evan was 23 no less) Iโve read, and reread Zhangโs speech since I first found it on A Letter A Day - one of the highest signal (but lesser known) Substacks I read.
Some others in that category:
Call-Up Reactions: Watch the moment Matildas players found out they made the squad for the #FIFAWWC
GRAHAM: You know what we do in YC interviews? We basically start YC, the first 10 minutes of YC is the interview. You see what itโs like to work with people by working with them for 10 minutes, and thatโs enough, it turns out.
COWEN: So, you think the 11th minute of an interview has very low value.
GRAHAM: Iโve thought a lot about where the cutoff is. Like, whereโs the point? If you made a graph, whatโs your probability of changing your mind after minute number N? After minute number one or two, the probability of changing your mind is pretty high. I would say YC interviews could actually be seven minutes instead of ten minutes, but ten minutes is already almost insultingly short, so we kept it at ten. We could have made it seven.
COWEN: I think thereโs often a threshold of two, and then another threshold at about seven, and after that, itโs very tough for it to flip.
GRAHAM: Yes. Although that doesnโt mean youโre always right.
COWEN: It could just be, after three hours, you would still be wrong.
GRAHAM: Itโs just not going to flip. I didnโt say seven minutes is enough to tell, notice. [laughs] I said seven minutes is the point where youโre probably not going to change your mind.
-Paul Graham on Ambition, Art, and Evaluating Talent (Ep. 186)
The Cost of Leadership
More than a decade ago, obsessed with the music selection in the Entourage soundtracks, I went deep on Scott Vener, the man responsible for them.
Under the moniker โbrokemogulโ he maintains a radio playlist - a live collection of the songs heโs loving at a given moment. When he falls out of love with those songs, they go on to his archive playlist.
Naturally, I started doing the sameโฆ and itโs a practice I maintain still today.
I keep nickcrocker radio for all the songs Iโm listening to right now (eg. an epic Pearl Jam โTenโ live version, the new Oneohtrix Point Never, Shannen James) and then an archive playlist for when I get done with them.
13 years later, the archive playlist now includes 5,962 songs and occasionally Iโll hit shuffle on it and spend an hour or two jumping through my memory, transported to the disparate moments in time attached to each song.
Susanne Sundfรธr - Fade Away (Official video)
โWhile on top of Everest, I looked across the valley towards the great peak Makalu and mentally worked out a route about how it could be climbed. It showed me that even though I was standing on top of the world, it wasn't the end of everything. I was still looking beyond to other interesting challenges.โ
- Sir Edmund Hillary
I read somewhere (and I sadly canโt find the article anymore) that there will come a day where your child is suddenly too big to be picked up and put into their bed asleep.
My eight year old fell asleep in our bed this week and as I tried to pick him up to move him to his own bed, all sleepweight, and kid limbsโฆ it dawned on me that Iโm getting close to that day.
Getting my hands under his arms, walking him up the stairs, manoeuvring him under the blanketsโฆ this time next year I wonโt be able to do that any more.
Slowly But Surely. Time Flies.
Slowly But Surely. Time Flies.
Slowly But Surely. Time Flies.
Slowly But Surely. Time Flies.
Slowly But Surely. Time Flies.
Slowly But Surely. Time Flies.
Slowly But Surely. Time Flies.
Slowly But Surely. Time Flies.
Slowly But Surely. Time Flies.
Slowly But Surely. Time Flies.
Slowly But Surely. Time Flies.
Slowly But Surely. Time Flies.
Slowly But Surely. Time Flies.
Update. I found the quote:
"There was a night I carried my son to bed for the last time but I donโt remember it. Iโm sure he was tired since he fell asleep on the couch. I lifted him up, placed him in his bed and kissed him goodnight. I would pay any amount of money to relive it."
https://www.reddit.com/r/daddit/comments/okdf4s/there_was_a_night_i_carried_my_son_to_bed_for_the/