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 don’t happen often, so it’s worth cherishing them when they do.
The Matildas’ 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 Matildas’ run - the 1983 America’s Cup win, and Cathy Freeman’s 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 Matildas’ World Cup build-up, Disney’s 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 Farnham’s ‘You’re The Voice’ has held up remarkably well.
Here he is, singing that ‘Australian National Anthem’ alongside Coldplay.
Coldplay- You're The Voice (with John Farnham) Sound Relief Concert
John Farnham: Finding the Voice tells Farnham’s story in fascinating detail. From his early rise on the back of his ‘Sadie the Cleaning Lady’ fame, to long years of irrelevance, to his improbable return in 1986 with the release of ‘Whispering Jack’.
My favourite snippet from the whole documentary: after they had finished recording, they decided ‘You’re The Voice’ 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 Jarrett’s half piano in ‘The Koln Concert’: “Sometimes the limitation of the instrument is the very thing you need to make something great.”
The wonders of Farnham’s voice are best captured in this live rendition of The Beatles’ ‘Help’, alongside the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
John Farnham - Help (LIVE with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra)
“People 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.”
—Karl Ove Knausgård, The Morning Star
A weekend away after the hardest year of my life
Mystery Clicks…
"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, ‘12’ you can hear him breathing throughout the recording. Most noticeably perhaps on ‘20211201’, which opens with a single breath… it’s deeply affecting.
The minimalism of the album’s 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 🛹
CLINT EASTWOOD BY GORILLAZ IS MADE FROM KEYBOARD PRESET 🦍
An All But Definitive Guide to the Hollywood Nepo-Verse 👨👨👦👦
Life’s Work: An Interview with Jerry Seinfeld 🍜
Mexican food is the best in the world 🇲🇽
The Avant-Garde Origins of 'Gumby' ✳️
The last of the Flying Wallendas 🎪
Do you know about "ísbíltúr"? 🍦
Why Bill Watterson Vanished ✍🏼
Trance never stopped rolling 🎹
Being There 👯♂️
Rest 😴
WeChat founder Allen Zhang’s speech at WeChat’s Open Class Pro event in 2019 is a product-thinking masterclass.
“I’m very happy that I can accompany a product for eight years. Moreover, I’ve 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 ‘dictatorship’, otherwise it will embody all sorts of different, conflicting opinions and its personality will become fragmented.”
Like Evan Spiegel’s email exchange with Benchmark partner Mitch Lasky (when Evan was 23 no less) I’ve read, and reread Zhang’s 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 it’s like to work with people by working with them for 10 minutes, and that’s enough, it turns out.
COWEN: So, you think the 11th minute of an interview has very low value.
GRAHAM: I’ve thought a lot about where the cutoff is. Like, where’s the point? If you made a graph, what’s 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 there’s often a threshold of two, and then another threshold at about seven, and after that, it’s very tough for it to flip.
GRAHAM: Yes. Although that doesn’t mean you’re always right.
COWEN: It could just be, after three hours, you would still be wrong.
GRAHAM: It’s just not going to flip. I didn’t say seven minutes is enough to tell, notice. [laughs] I said seven minutes is the point where you’re 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 ‘brokemogul’ he maintains a radio playlist - a live collection of the songs he’s 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 same… and it’s a practice I maintain still today.
I keep nickcrocker radio for all the songs I’m listening to right now (eg. an epic Pearl Jam ‘Ten’ 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 I’ll 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 Sundfør - Fade Away (Official video)
“While 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.”
- Sir Edmund Hillary
I read somewhere (and I sadly can’t 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 limbs… it dawned on me that I’m getting close to that day.
Getting my hands under his arms, walking him up the stairs, manoeuvring him under the blankets… this time next year I won’t 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 don’t remember it. I’m 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/