Sunday Musings, The Temple of Speed and Liverpool V ManU

 

My favorite time of the year is here, the weather is getting a little cooler and its EPL season is starting, while the Formula 1 season heads into the final stretch with a finish that promises to end in an epic fashion, but more on that in a bit.  First up coffee.

This weeks beans come from Houston roaster Slowpokes.  A mexican origin medium roasted coffee, I used my typical pour over method. It produced chocolatey notes with notes of red pepper, and a mild sweet vanilla note.  A lovely cup to start the day.

Recommendation:

One of my all time favorite TV shows is West Wing.  Regardless of where you lie on the political spectrum this show highlights the best of politics and where I think we would love politics to be, not in the gutter where it currently resides.  There is new book titled What’s Next that documents behinds the scenes of this fantastic show, giving insight into how the show came to be as well as highlighting some specific episodes and honoring the late great John Spencer.  Its a fantastic book written by two people who were actually in the show: Melissa Fitzgerald (she played CJ’s assistant Carol Fitzpatrick) and Marcy McCormack (she played Deputy NSA Kate Harper).

Formula 1

We’re at the temple of speed this week!  The Italian Grand Prix at Monza!  A great start to the weekend with both McLaren drivers starting at the front of the grid.  Surprisingly both Red Bull Drivers struggled during qualifying and started further back at 7th and 8th.   This is the 5th different pole sitter at Monza in the last 5 years.  Hopefully Lando can break the curse as the previous 5 pole sitters failed to win.  One big change to this weeks lineup is that Williams have made a switch in drivers.  Sitting Sargent (rumor is he may be done for the year) and replacing him with Argentinian driver Franco Colapinto.

Most of the drivers are starting today’s race on the Medium compound tire, hoping for a one stop, means they need to get to around lap 20 or 22 before changing.  A few drivers chose the hard compound tires, including the two Red Bull drivers.

Norris got a slightly pour start but recovered and stayed in the lead. Russell went off track at the first turn, however a few turns later both Piastri and LeClerc passed Norris and once again he won’t finish the first lap in first when he sits on the pole.  Seemed to get a little chippy between the papaya drivers.  Let’s see how this develops over the race.

First retired car was Tsunoda in lap 8.

Russell who had received some damage to his front wing at the beginning of the race was asked to pit at lap 12 to change out his front wing.  He chose to switch tires, from Medium to Hard.  Will be interesting to see if he can make it a one stop race changing tires out this early.  

Norris called into the pits at lap 15 to undercut LeClerc, a nice quick stop of 2.2 seconds.  Norris went in at P3 and came out at P9. With Norris on hard tires he should be able to finish the race without another stop.  

Piastri called into the pits at lap 16, this will put Sainz in first with the Red Bull drivers in P2 and P3 since they started on Hard Tires.  Piastri came out in P4 ahead of his teammate.

The pit strategy could be the deciding factor in how the drivers finish the race.  When and where the Red Bull drivers pit could lead to them being out of the top 5.

Ferrari Driver Sainz who was in P1 pitted at Lap 20, came out in P6 leaving the Red Bull drivers in P1 and P2.

Verstappen is called into the pits at lap 22 to go from Hards to Mediums.  I don’t see how he does a one stop race with Medium tires, that doesn’t seem like he will be able to get to the end of the race.  He could do a two stop race and switch to soft tires at the end to get more speed.

And he stayed on Hard Tires, so definitely doing a two stop race.

Norris was told that he is allowed to race Oscar, so as we go forward in this race, things could get interesting.  By lap 24, Team Papaya is back in P1 and P2 with Norris gaining on his teammate.  Although it does seem that Norris for whatever reason doesn’t have the pace of his teammate.  Norris got almost within a second of his papaya partner, but Piastri quickly seemed to separate himself and got the gap over 2 seconds.

Norris is struggling today, his tires aren[t holding up and he is falling back further behind his teammate and has allowed LeClerc to climb back to him who is putting a ton of pressure on him.

Norris pitted at lap 33, not a great pit stop that put him in P6 in between the two Red Bull drivers.  He switched to new hard tires, so his previous tires were old which makes sense now with how little he ended up getting out of the old tires.  

Piastri called to pit at lap 39 and stayed on hard tires, but not a great pit.  He came out in P3 ahead of Red Bull driver Verstappen with Norris also on his tail.

Both Ferrari drivers are in P1 and P2, but they have only pitted once and I don’t believe they will be able to make it to the end without another pit.

Lap 41, Norris passes Verstappen into P4 now behind his teammate and Ferrari still in the lead

Verstappen pitted at lap 42 going to Medium tires, he went in at P5 and acme out in P6 behind Hamilton.

Lap 45 Piastri passed Sainz and moved into P2, can Norris get up there and McLaren get a double podium finish?  There are 7 laps left, Push push push!

Lando passes Sainz in lap 48 up into P3.

An outstanding race, Ferrari winning at Monza is always cool to see, with LeClerc ending the race in P1.  He raced a fantastic race, I honestly wasn’t sure he could hold on with doing a one stop strategy.  McLaren gets a double podium allowing them to eat into the leads in both the driver championship and the constructors championship.  Norris also got the fastest lap which gives him an additional point to eat into Verstappens lead who finished back in P6.  While some will say that McLaren had the wrong strategy, I am not sure I agree.  Their strategy was consistent with most of the other teams, honestly I think this was Ferrari’s day and they got a little lucky.  LeClerc’s tires looked like trash at the finish, and Sainz had nothing left and fell back to both Piastri and Norris.  There was a good chance that LeClerc wasn’t going to make it, and if he hadn’t McLaren would have looked like geniuses.  LeClerc played the role of ultimate tire whisperer today, but it very easily could have gone poorly for Ferrari.

Quick notes:

Drivers Championship standings: Verstappen - 303; Norris - 241; LeClerc - 217; Pastri - 197; Sainz - 184.  Getting tight at the top with Norris only 62 points behind the leader.  There are enough races left that he can continue to chip away and win the championship.

Constructors Championship: Red Bull - 446; McLaren - 438; Ferrari - 407; Mercedes - 292.  Its turning into a 3 team race with team Papaya only 8 points behind Red Bull and Ferrari less than 40 points behind.  My bold prediction is that McLaren passes Red Bull at the next GP in two weeks at Azerbaijan and that Ferrari will pass them shortly thereafter. Red Bull will end up finishing 3rd in the constructors cup something no one would have predicted at the start of the season.

Kevin Magnussen was penalized once again which put him over the limit in a 12 month period meaning he is out for the next race.

Liverpool

Match 3 of the new season pits the Reds against their hated rivals ManU at the historic Old Trafford pitch.  The Third match for new manager Slot and he is leading his unit against a team they must win against to show they are a team to be worried about.  The lineup for today is consistent to where what they have put out so far this season.  They have shifted away from Klopps format and are in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Jota at the top and Diaz, Szoboaszlai, and Salah backing him up.

Liverpool in their Whites while ManU plays in their Red kit.

Liverpool’s TAA scores within 6 minutes, the ball barely getting over the line, but a fantastic start for the reds.  Unfortunately, the goal was called offside not because TAA was offisde, but because the ball hit Salah who was.  The score was reset to 0—0.

25 minutes into the match and it remains deadlocked.  ManU is taking ownership of the match with a hefty lead in possession at 63%, more passes, but LFC has more shots on target.  LFC defense is doing well.  A strong D is a mark of Slots teams in the past, but their offense continues to struggle to take control of a match.

At the 34th minute Diaz makes a fantastic header into the back of the net!  This one is going to stick as he was fully on sides.  Sloppy pass from ManU that was intercepted by Liverpool, and Salah got the assist with a lovely pass to Diaz who knocked it in with his noggin.

ManU’s Martinez picked up the first yellow card when he took down Szoboazlai in a ridiculously aggressive manner that raised VVD’s ire.  Could have been worse than a yellow, he got lucky.  

Luis Diaz takes another great pass from Salah and one times it into the net at the end the 1st minute.  Diaz is on fire this season and Salah is really stepping up to be the set up man this season.

5 minutes of stoppage time is announced to end the half, let’s see if LFC can get another score before they head into the locker room.

The first half ends with LFC up 2 - 0 against ManU.  Possession has evened out more compared to what it was earlier in match with United only up 51% to 49%.  LFC is really taking charge of the match, and with their penchant for halftime adjustments I expect more of the same in the second half.  

Right at the start of the first half, Jota and ManU player Mazroui come together and the United player goes down.  He laid on the pitch for quite sometime as the trainers check him out.  Eventually at minute 50 he got up and moved to the sidelines and play restarted.

In the 54th minute VVD gets a Yellow Card for fouling Man U player Bruno Fernandez.  It didn’t look like a major foul as VVD just stuck his leg out and Fernandez tripped over it.

LFC drove quickly back and Salah got his goal at Old Trafford for the 7th consecutive time.  LFC up 3 to nil against their rivals and the mood couldn’t be worse at Old Trafford.

ManU player De Ligt received a yellow card for a dangerous tackle on Diaz in the 64th minute.  Honestly it could have been a red.  It was a reckless cleat up tackle.

5 minutes of extra time added to finish the match.  Liverpool remains up 3-0 and has done a great job of holding off any attempt by ManU to make a drive and score.  Their defense is so far ahead of where it has been in the last couple of seasons.

Liverpool gets a much needed win and a clean sheet for Allison.  So far a great start to the season under new manager Slot.  

Amazing to see ManU fans exiting the stadium with 10 to 15 minutes left in the match.  They are abandoning their team already.  While I have no love for ManU its amazing how far the United owners the Glazers have gone to disenfranchise their loyal fanbase. They have driven a once proud franchise into consistent mediocrity.

After the match Liverpool and Man City sit atop the EPL standings. Both with perfect records and similar goal differential.  

Sunday Musings: I'm Back and so is the EPL

Back to posting on the blog after a short Summer break.  Needed some time off and a couple of trips, but now that school is back in session, so is the blog.  And good timing too.  While the F1 season is still on its on summer break, this weekend the English Premiere League season started which means my beloved Liverpool is back in action.  More on that later.  First, coffee.

The team behind Greenway Coffee owns one of my favorite coffee shops in Houston, Blacksmith Coffee.  I've known that team for a long time, and even once upon a time many many moons ago hosted a beer education class at their home.  This particular coffee is their Contemporary Blend, kind of their everyday blend. Nothing crazy, but just a beautiful roast and blend of beans from around the world.  A smooth fruit forward chocolatey cup.  You can't go wrong with it at all.

Recommendations

As I mentioned before F1 is still out on their summer break, however, there is a new F1 book out. Grand Prix the Illustrated History of F1 by Will Buxton has recently been released. If you've ever seen the Netflix series Drive to Survive, or watched any F1 Televesion than you are VERY familiar with Mr. Buxton.  His sense of humor and level of detail shine in the book, as do the amazing illustrations.  It's a great book that goes into good detail on rules and regulations, as well as a decade by decade review of F1's history.  While some of it is very basic and most F1 watchers would know it, some of the details were new to me and some of the history especially the stuff back in the 50s and 60s was extremely interesting.  Worth a pick up should you see it in your local book shop.

EPL

The Reds are back, but they aren't the same Reds of the last few season.  The change starts at the top of course.  Long time manager Jurgen Klopp has stepped away and new manager Arne Slot has taken the reigns.  While Liverpool hasn't picked up anyone over the summer break there is still some time before the 30 August deadline so I won't go into a full predictions yet.  That being said with Arne at the top, he has made some significant changes.  Out is Clops standards format of play and in its place is a 4-5-1 that puts more emphasis on a single striker.  How will that play out, only time will tell.  To open the season up they played newly promoted Ipswich Town. As has been the case in recent years, the Reds started off slow, you could tell that they were still getting used to the new formations and how Arne called a match.  The first half was very uneventful, with a few chances here and there, but nothing that was a sure footed fire at the net.  However that all changed after half time.  Slot made some adjustments, and team started to gel.  Diego Jota scored first at the 60th minute with a beautiful shot.  However, it was seeing Liverpool legend Mo Salah score at the 65th minute that put a huge grin on my face.  Without his familiar flowing hair, Salah made a now familiar goal, and a record 9th season in a row where he has scored in the first game of the season.  Mo looked truly happy out on the pitch, so here's hoping that he sticks around at least another season.  While LFC should have easily beaten Ipswich, Arne Slot becomes the first LFC manager to win his debut, so it wasn't a sure thing by any stretch of the imagination.  I have hope that LFC can finish near the top of the table this year.  Not predicting a League win, but at the top, and maybe a trophy in one of the other tournaments they will compete in would be a great way to kick off the Arne Slot era.

Sunday Musings, F1 and the final day of Premiere League

 A fun sports Sunday with a F1 Race and the final day of the Premiere League season.  But coffee and recommendations first.  The coffee today comes from local Houston roaster Fusion Beans.  I've been enjoying Fusion Beans since they were selling them direct to customers at the Seabrook farmers market years ago, even before they opened up the fantastic Southside Espresso that has now sadly closed.  A great team that I always wish good things for.  This particular coffee is a single origin Guatemala coffee.  Used a Chemex to make this cup and got some really wonderful notes of chocolate, cream, and tropical fruits.  Lacked a little clarity, but that could have been my fault as I haven't dialed in the grinder for the Chemex filter.  Still a great cup, but will try this in my normal pour over to get the clarity and acidity I typically enjoy.

My recommendation this week is the newest season of Dr. Who which is now streaming on Disney+ here in the US.  I think that Jodie Whitaker gets a lot of undo flack for her time as the Doctor.  In mind the blame lies at the feet of the writer, so I was extremely happy to see Russell T. Davies back at the helm, along with the newest Doctor Ncuti Gatwa.  A couple of episodes in and I am thoroughly enjoying myself.  It's a mix of pushing the current boundaries while also being a bit of a throwback, a bit silly, but fun as Dr. Who should always be.  Can't wait for the rest of the season.

Formula 1

Today was the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Imola, the first of two GPs in Italy.

Overall McLaren had a good start to the weekend.  Both drivers were in the top 5 in qualifying.  Oscar was actually P2 after Q3, but got penalized 3 positions due to a run in with Magnussen in Q1, which put Lando at P2 and Oscar fell back to P5.  Surprising no one Max Verstappen was once again a top the Pole.

The start of the race was fairly pedestrian with most drivers starting on Medium tires.  Not a lot of crazy passing or anything at all really.  Imola can be a tough track to pass, with only one DRS zone, as well as being fairly narrow compared to other tracks not named Monaco.

The top of the leaderboard started pitting around lap 22 with Mercedes Driver Russell the first in the pit.  Followed by Lando pitting in lap 23 switching from Medium tires to Hard.  Lando tried to come out in front of Red Bulls Perez but the team just didn't time it right, however within in a lap he had passed the driver from Mexico.

Piastri also came in and pitted in lap 24 also switching to hard tires.

Norris eventually got up to P2 as others pitted, but he still felt like he wasn’t getting pace of the drivers behind him.  The McLaren crew fell that the other drivers were burning through their tires at a much higher rate than Norris was and that in the end it would work out.

Norris was solidly in P2 but it was obvious that this was yet another race where Verstappen and the Red Bull car were on another level.  At least for a little while, as the laps progressed Norris  started to nibble at Verstappen’s heals, as Max started to complain that his tires were shot.  LeClerc who had been attempting to get within striking distance of the McLaren driver began to fall back a little bit.  With11 laps to go at this point, the question was if there was enough left in the race for Norris to pull closer.

Norris showing once again that he is truly a tire whisperer, doing an outstanding job of nursing his tires allowing him to have some left for a fight at the end of the race to battle Max.

The last 5 laps Norris was pushing incredibly hard.  Some of the best driving I have seen all season.  Not just nibbling, but gulping down the space between him and the leading Red Bull. Getting it down to 1.5 seconds with 4 laps left.  Getting within DRS zone striking distance.

This was a rare race that actually had some excitement at the end of the race.

But it was for not. Norris may have pushed his car and tires to the limit and started to complain that he had lost all grip on his tires.  He still valiantly fought on through the remaining 3 laps, still nibbling, still fighting.  While Norris was running out of tires, Verstappen's battery was running out.  A great finish to the race with two drivers leaving it all on the track.  Unfortunately, Lando just ran out of time, narrowing Max’s lead to almost a half a second by the end of the race, but ultimately finishing P2 with Oscar finishing P4 and LeClerc at P3.  Some great points for Team Papaya.  Lando gaining on LeClerc in the Drivers championship and McLaren gaining on Ferrari and RB on the constructors championship.

Ferrari finally got on the podium at Imola for the first time since Schumacher thanks to the hard driving of LeClerc.

7 races into the season and we see some shuffling in the drivers championship:

Verstappen at top with 161 points,

LeClerc passed Perez and has 113 points to Perez's 107 and Norris is at 4th with 101 and Sainz rounding out the top 5 with 93 points.  Very close 2-5.

In the constructors championship, Red Bull stays atop with 268 points, Ferrari with 212 and McLaren gaining a little ground with 154 points.

Premiere League

I love how the EPL finishes their season.  All teams playing on the same day at the exact same time.  It makes for a great time of flipping among channels to see how everyone is doing especially when your team is playing for the championship.  Alas that is not the case for the reds this season.  They unfortunately played extremely poorly down the stretch.  They seemed lackluster and played with very little heart which was the most disappointing thing to see especially considering that this is to be Jurgen Klopps last season with the Reds.  Klopp came into a team that was struggling and in a short time has lead  them to multiple championships winning multiple different types of titles.  I had hoped that they would win another premiere league for him this year, but it wasn't meant to be.  

One of the coolest scenes today was the crowds lining the Liverpool Streets as the team bus made its way to Anfielf, the fans singing and changing for Jurgen showing him a tremendous amount of love and appreciation for all that he has done for the city.  He will go down as one of the great managers that Liverpool has had and is incredibly beloved by every Reds fan.

While the Reds didn't have anything to play for today, I had high hopes that they would step and play their hearts out for Klopp, especially considering there were some players like Mo Salah who were probably playing their last match for LFC.

A rather frustratingly lack luster start to the match.  At the 28th minutes, a Wolves es player got sent off with a red card leaving them a man down for the rest of the match.  McAllister finally put one in the net for the Reds at the 34th minute.  Giving them the lead hopefully for the rest of the match.

Shortly after Quansah scored on an assist from Salah to make it 2-0 at the half.  The reds slowed down the second half, but still gave Klopp a win in his final match.  It was nice to see him give the fist pump one last time and the crowd was amazing in their outpouring of love to Jurgen.

They started chanting for him with 5 minutes left in regular play and kept it up throughout extra time and afterwards.  I can't imagine what it must have been like to be there live, how loud and loving it would ben.

Overall after having some high hopes for this season, I end on a disappointment.  Yes the Reds win, but Man City once again finish the season on top of the table.  Worse, I have to believe that the Reds are going to take a big step back next season.  While I think Slot will be a good manager he will need a season or two to put his stamp on the team.  Plus I believe there will be significant turnover with not only Salah leaving, but a few other players as well.  The team will look and feel completely different next season so not sure how far up the table they will finish.  Cheers to Jurgen and all the success he has had with this team.  He has done so much for the team and the city, I wish him all the happiness in what ever he does next.

Sunday Musings, Texas Coffee Edition

Happy Sunday, another week, and I missed my midweek post, so apologies, but already have something lined up for this week so should be good to go and back on track.  I hope everyone is enjoying a nice weekend.  Kicking today off with some coffee, which got me to thinking about Texas Coffee roasters, something that I have mentioned in previous posts.  For today, I am enjoying another cup of beans from Dallas based Ascension Coffee.  This particular bag is a blend of central and South America beans.  Made my traditional pour over and it produced an outstanding cup of coffee, full of notes of milk chocolate covered almonds, some fruity notes, slightly sweet, medium bodied, but does a good job of coating the mouth.  A good cup to wake up with and love the new cup from Bark And Jack, the same place I pick up most of my watch straps (that icy blue on my Hamilton is amazing looking).  Love that type of cup, and it goes well with my other enamel cups that I have.  Getting quite a selection.  

I don't have any recommendations this week, but we did have a Formula 1 race this week, and as always we have Liverpool to chat about. But before we get to that let's talk Texas coffee.  While there are states that get more love for their home grown roasters.  States like California, Washington, Oregon, and Illinois (due to the coffee culture in Chicago), I think Texas Roasters are holding their own.  Yes there may not be a ton of small roasters here, but the quality of what that small group produces is as good as any in other states.  Here are my top 5 roasters in the state, in no particular order:

1. Greenway

2. Amaya

3. Greater Good

4. Tenfold

5. Ascension

What are some of your favorite Coffee Roasters in Texas?

EPL 

I can't explain how frustrated I am right now as a Liverpool fan.  The last couple of weeks they have completely fallen apart.  And I don't even understand why.  They are actually getting healthier with players like Salah and their star keeper Allison coming back and they still are playing like crap.  2 weeks ago they had an opportunity for 4 trophies, 3 to add to the earlier Carabou cup.  Now?  They may end up with only 1.  The have been knocked out of the FA Cup, and the Europa League, and are third in the EPL after being first since before the New Year.  It's been frustrating matches to watch because it's not like other teams are playing lights out.  The Reds have just looked lack luster and uninspired.  When they should be playing lights out for Klopp it seems they just don't have any more heart and Klopp has lost the ability to inspire them.  Maybe it's true, that Klopp realized he was losing the team and knew that it was time for him to leave.  It sure looks like this team has left Klopp behind.  Now we may see City once again win the League which is incredibly disappointing.  The reds could still step up as they have a relatively easy end of the season, but there are so few matches left, I don't think it matters if they win out or not.  I would love to see them end the season playing some inspired football, but the team outside of the always amazing Salah has been bad.  TAA is just not stepping up and Captain VVD isn't the same player he was a few years ago.  Our midfield is lifeless as well.  OK OK that's enough venting.  Let's see the reds step up and beat on Fulham today!

Formula 1

After a 5 year hiatus the teams were back in China.  Having had to skip the Shanghai GP due to Covid restrictions since 2019, the teams were able to go back, very differently than they were in 2019 when Hamilton and Mercedes were at the top of the grid.  They are no longer a top team instead being replaced by Red Bull.  Another early morning start that I honestly didn't stay up for, but I as always do have thoughts on the race.  

Firstly it seems that McLaren may have figured some things out. After a decent, but not great start to the season after the first two races, the last couple they are doing very well. Norris was at the top of the grid for the Sprint Race start, and finished P2 in the actual GP.  He continues to be the bridesmaid and not bride, having his 8th (I think) 2nd place finish with never a top finish.  

Time may be undefeated, but Aston Martins Alonso is doing one heck of a job of holding it off.  His racing today was absolutely lights out.  His passing in the turns had me holding my breath.  It was just tremendous.  Unfortunately for the team they don' have a great second driver, which will be what ends up hurting them in the constructors cup.  Lance Stroll finished a very dissapointing 15th.  While I know that Papa Stroll won't fire his son, part of me wonders if sponsors will start making noise now that it is evident that if they had a better second driver they could finish higher in the constructors championship.

Ferrari continues to be a strong second contender to Red Bull.  Both Ferrari drivers finished in the top 5 with LeClerc finally finished ahead of Sainz.   But both drives overall looked good.

Haas continues to surprise by gaining some points and being one of two (along with VISA Cash APP RB) other teams beyond the big 5 to score points this season.

Overall, while it is unfortunately evident that Max is going to run away with the top spot this season and Red Bull is going to win the Constrcutors cup, I don't think its a 100% garauntee that Perez finishes second and spots 2-5 in constructors is fairly wide open which does make for some exciting watching.

We have a week off before the Miami GP on 5 May.  Racing and Cinco De Mayo?  Sounds like a winning combination to me.

Sunday Musing, Recommendations and Japanese GP

Happy Sunday!  It's a great Sunday when there is Formula 1, Liverpool on the TV, and a great coffee to drink.  Today I decided to make a pot of French Press, using a classical Bodum press.  There is no crazy technique, just time.  Seems perfect for a semi lazy Sunday.  Today's coffee comes from Dallas roaster Ascension Coffee Roasters.  I've been going to their original spot in the Dallas Design District for close to 15 years, every time I go back home to visit family.  They are probably my favorite Dallas area roaster, and one of my favorite in Texas. Which makes me think that at some point I need to do my list of top Texas Coffee Roasters.  Maybe in a few weeks I'll put that together, whether it's a separate post or part of a Sunday musings will be TBD.  

Anyways back to this particular coffee.  Is a light roasted Ethiopian that went through a natural processing.  The cup is incredibly fruity. Honestly the first taste brought back Saturday morning memories of eating a bowl of Fruity Pebbles.  There is a juiciness to it as well, but it's the fruitiness that is the focal point here.  Well rounded, not a lot of acidity here, coats the tongue (that may be an effect of using a French Press).  Overall I really enjoy this, it has a tone of character here but nothing is overpowering or hitting you in the face.  

Before I get into sports talk, I do have another weekly recommendation.  This time from a show on Apple TV+.  A little over a week ago they released a two part documentary on the great comedian Steve Martin and I must say it is tremendous.  Part 1 really focuses on his early days growing up and doing stand up, discussing the struggles he went through as he was really ahead of his time with what he was doing on stage.  The second part focuses mostly on where he is now with being a dad late in life and doing stand up with Martin Short.  While it touches on his movie career and talks about some of the highs and lows over the course of his films, that is definitely not the focus.  It's very much about his life now.  Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the doc, and really love the insight it gives into his long friendship with Short.  I do wish they had talked about some of his films more, but I would still recommend this to anyone that is a Martin fan, or standup comedy.

F1

Before I get into Liverpool, I figured I'd discuss the latest GP race first.  Full disclosure, I did not stay up this time to catch the race live.  The start time for me was after midnight and I just couldn't make it that late this weekend.  But watched the replay this morning and I must say it was a great race.  To recap things that happened during qualifying and leading up to the race, Williams Driver and American Racer Sargent has been given Albon's old chassis for the rest of the year (or at least until Miami when Williams could get a 3rd chassis).  You may remember that Alton wrecked his chassis a few weeks back during a practice session.  McLaren did very well during qualifying with Landon starting in P3.  Unsurprisingly Red Bull finished P1 and P2 in qualifying to start the race at the front of the grid. 

The Race started with a bang, shortly after lights out, Albon and Ricciardo touched going through the turns and crashed out of the race.  Ricciardo's no good very bad season continues and it kicked off a Red Flag not even a lap into the race.  No shenanigans at the restart occurred and we were off to the races so to speak.  Overall the race was fun.  The track has a ton of turns and is quite narrow in certain places, but that didn't stop passing from occurring.  Some drivers like McLaren driver Land Norris, and the Ferrari drivers just went for it, making their move in the middle of turns and narrow tracks.  It was fun to watch.  Unfortunately the streak of Red Bull not winning only lasted one race as they were back on top in P1 and P2.  Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz continues to prove to everyone that Ferrari is making a HUGE mistake letting him go for the struggling Hamilton.  Sainz finished third, Hamilton finished 9th (for comparison his Mercedes team mate finished 7th).  McLaren drivers finished P5 (Norris) and P8 (Pastry) and Sainz teammate Charles LeClerc finished P4.  The finish of this race continues to provide some separation for Red Bull and Ferrari from the rest of the pack.  With McLaren increasing the gap between 3rd and 4th where Mercedes sits followed immediately by Aston Martin.

Other quick thoughts from the race:

• RB Driver Yuki Tsunoda finished in the points recieving the hometown cheers.  Which, as much as I love the honey badger Yuki is showing that Ricciardo just may not have it anymore.  Yuki has pretty much beat him in qualifying every race and finished ahead in all but one race.  
• Lance Stroll continues to show that the only reason he in the Aston Martin car is his daddy.  While Alonso continues to carry the British team on his back, Lance doesn't finish in the top 10.  Where would Aston Martin be without the spaniard? They would be Haas if they were depending on Stroll.  That's how bad it is.
• I truly feel bad for Williams.  They have made so many bad decisions in the past decade and now the whole team is paying the price.  They have had some back luck this season for sure with bad wrecks that could damage both the chassis of both their cars.  The fact that they don't have a spare is just absurd and shows how poorly they have been mismanaged.  I think team principal Vowles can bring them out of where they are, if they are given the time they need, but with where the money is at in F1, I am not sure they will given the time they need.
• The rest of the F1 drivers better hope that the Red Bull car has more mechanical issues like they did in Australia or this season is going to look a lot like last season did.  The only positive thing is that the next 5 spots are up for grabs and the racing from McLaren and Ferrari is outstanding.
• Prediction time:  In the next 3 weeks it will be announced that Sainz is going to Mercedes which will mean that if he races next season Alonso will do so for Aston Martin.  With all the open spots, we may not see as much shuffling as we anticipated, at least from the top clubs.  Assuming of course that Checo stays at Red Bull (anyone that thinks Verstappen is leaving is not being serious).

Liverpool

Liverpool had a mid week Premiere League match against Sheffield United that they won keeping them safely atop the table.  However today, as I am writing they are facing the hated Manchester United.  While ManU is not any good this season, at least not up to their standards, this isn't a gimme match.  ManU showed that a couple of weeks ago when they knocked the Reds out of the FA Cup competition.  So far as we hit half time the Reds look good.  It's a dreary rainy day in Manchester but Liverpool is up 1-0.  If that lead holds they win and stay atop the table ahead of Arsenal and Man City.  Liverpool hold the championship in their hands.  They are the masters of their destiny at this point with 6 more matches to play. Can they pull out another premiere league title for Klopp before he leaves?  I say yes!

Sunday Musings and First F1 Race of the Season

 

It's Sunday morning and I am sitting down enjoying a wonderful cup of coffee from Dripping Springs based roaster Greater Goods.  Used my trusty Hario 60 Pour over, with a medium grind from the Sculptor Timemore grinder to make the cup.  It was full of flavors of a proper English Tea, stone fruits, and honey.  A delicious cup that inspires me to take a break, think about the last couple of days and write some. 

I've got some sports thoughts that I'll get to in a second, but first, a quick TV recommendation.  If you are not watching the outstanding HULU series Shogun you are really missing out.  Starring the always great and criminally under utilized Hiroyuki Sanada along with Cosmo Jarvis this adaptation of the classic James Clavell novel pulls you into the show from the very first scenes.  Tremendous cinematography, wonderful fight choreography and top notch acting makes this a show that you need to sit down and check out.  In total there will be 10 episodes, although only the first two are currently out.  It's been ages since I have watched the original Shogun adaptation that came out in the early 80's, but from what I remember this one just feels better.  While the acting in the original was good (you had Richard Chamberlain and Mifune in it after all), this just looks and feels more realistic.  Go check it out.

On to sports.  First some thoughts on my dear Liverpool football club.  A slow start to a midweek 5th round FA Cup match against Southampton ended strongly with a 3-0 victory and an advance to a match against the hated ManU.  I was a little worried that the very young squad Klopp threw out there wasn't going to pull it out, but a score before half let them into the locker room up by 1 before the Reds fully took over in the second half.  The Reds more traditional experienced squad hit the pitch yesterday morning against Nottingham Forrest.  Once again the cardiac Reds kept the fans in suspense as to whether or not they would win the match.  Back up keeper Kelleher continues to do a great job while Allison is out, but the Reds struggled to put the ball in the net.  Just when I thought the match was going to end in a 0-0 tie Darwin Nunez scored at the 98th minute to win the match with a beauty of a header.  Just a tremendous goal that got me out of my seat.  The Reds stay busy this coming week with a Europa League match against Sparta Praha before facing a must win Premiere League match up against Man City.  Fingers crossed that the Reds can put it to City and get the points to stay on top of the table.

Not only did yesterday morning have a great match from the Reds it was also the first race of the Formula 1 season, the Bahrain Gran Prix.  Unsurprisingly, Red Bull's Max Verstappen lead from lights out to checkered flag with no one making an attempt at challenging his dominance.  His teammate Checo came in second allowing Red Bull yet another 1-2 finish.  Somewhat surprising was a third place finish by a Ferrari Driver, just not the one you expected. It wasn't LeClerc, but Sainz leading Ferrari to a third place finish that was surprising.  My team, McLaren finished slightly lower than I had hoped at P6 and P8.  I really had hopes that Lando was going to track down Russell and finish ahead of the Mercedes driver.  Overall though, still MUCH better than last year's start, so hopeful that McLaren continues to improve and put pressure Ferrari and Mercedes.  

Which leads me to overreactions after one race:

1) A year from now Ferrari will have a worse driver line up than they do today.  Look Hamilton was a great driver, maybe the greatest of all time, but he isn't that driver anymore.  Sainz is better and will go somewhere next year making a big impact.

2) Maybe not an overreaction, but Red Bull will walk away with the top of the Constructors championship and driver champions with Max.  But the competition for P2-5 will be tremendous and one of the best in recent years.  Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Aston Martin will all be fighting for those positions every race.

3) Those 4 teams along with Red Bull are so good that there may be a lot of teams with hardly any points as I expect most of the teams above to score double points each race.

Next week's race at Jeddah should be good as everyone finished the race and there weren't any crashes or damaged cars coming out of Bahrain.  Hopefully McLaren can crack a podium position, but so far I'm pleased with how team papaya are doing.

What are your overreactions after one race?  

Greater Goods Coffee and Sunday Morning Musings

 

Sunday mornings are my favorite.  It's a day that has no real plans.  It starts off quietly, me getting up early because well, I always get up early, everyone else is asleep so I get to make myself coffee and have some time to do things for myself.  The first thing I always do of course is make a cup of coffee.  I'll talk about my coffee set up another time, but know that usually I make some sort of pour over, or French press.  Today is no different, and I used my new MIIR Chemex style carafe that I supported last year on Kickstarter.  I use it when I want to make a larger amount of coffee that I can drink on all morning, in other words, it's perfect for a Sunday.  The coffee I used, I just received in the mail from Texas Roaster Greater Goods.  They are based out of Dripping Springs, and roast some amazing single origins and blends that I have been a big fan of for many years. Today's particular brew is a blend that celebrates the Year of the Dragon.  It seems everyone is releasing something special (this is never truer than in the watch industry where everyone seems to have a dragon related watch out).  But I digress, back to the coffee. This particular blend, called Prosperity Blend is made with beans from Kenya and Mexico.  It's medium roasted and I used a ratio of 15:1 which is my standard.  It makes a beautiful cup with chocolatey and plum notes, maybe slightly sweet, with a nicely balanced level of acidity.  Well balanced for a long morning of drinking.  

In addition to sitting down with a nice cup of coffee, Sunday's are for musing, so join me while I express some thoughts on a couple of things near and dear to me.  First up is Liverpool F.C. my favorite football club in the world.  I've been a LFC fan for almost 20 years dating back to 2006 when I had the opportunity to live over in Europe and became infatuated with European football.  LFC has one of the best managers in the world in Jurgen Clop who surprisingly announced that this year will be his last with the club.  Shortly after the announcement the Reds played some inspired matches, charged up to make Klopp proud, but the last few matches they've had to eke out wins or even ties.  That won't be good enough if they want to stay atop the table.  So it was with that in my mind that I sat down to watch their match yesterday agains the lowly club from Burnley.  On the positive side of things before the match it was announced that Mo Salah would be back in the lineup after a month away playing for his national team and being injured.  On the negative side it was announced that their starting keeper Allison would be out.  Liverpool doesn't have great depth between the poles so I was a tad worried, but hoped that because we were playing Burnley we would be OK.  Luckily I was right.  The Reds (even though they were playing in their atrocious lavender inspired third kits, they are always the Reds) dominated.  Salah played like he had never been gone, making some tremendous assists and getting his own goal as he helped lead the team to a 4-1 win.  In other good news Man City tied, allowing the Reds to stay 4 points ahead at the top, and 3 points ahead of Arsenal.  I am hopeful that the Reds can stave off the gunners and city and allow Klopp to ride off into the sunset with another Premiere League title.  You can't write a better ending to his stay than that.

Speaking of endings, that leads to me to my next topic.  I'm an unabashed petrol head.  While I have never had the pleasure of owning a performance car, I love them.  I love watching racing, particularly Formula 1, and I love the engineering behind high performance vehicles.  As a petrol head, my leaders have always been that British Trio of Clarkson, May, and Hammond.  The crazy, imbecilic, moronic, hilarious and yes educational group behind Top Gear and then Amazon Prime's Grand Tour.  I've been watching them diligently for over 20 years.  Yes sometimes they make me grimace with the comments, but they also make me laugh out loud and cry because I am laughing so much.  A few weeks ago they announced that the Grand Tour would be ending and they would be breaking up the band so to speak, which honestly doesn't come as to much of a surprise.  Yes they are getting older, but they do have their own shows, Clarkson with his farm show, May with his travel shows, and Hammond with his own business and show on Discovery. But with this announcement came the release this past Friday of their penultimate episode Sand Job.  The idea of the show is for them to build a high end Dakar Rally vehicle for cheap, so they modify a Jaaaaag Type F (called the F-off of course), and Aston Martin DB8, and a Maserati.  Their usual hijinks ensue and while I felt this show wasn't quite up to par with some of their other excursions it was a lot of fun and it is always nice to see these three back behind the wheel.  They honestly do hide some smart and intelligent insights in between the bickering, insults, and pranks.  I look forward to their last show together (for now) coming out later this year.  With a trip through Zimbabwe it should make for good TV at least.

Enough musing, I need more coffee.