#but in 2017 they were equally good and in 2018 kimi was better

[kimisicecream]

The most impressive thing Ferrari has ever done is somehow convince the entire world of F1 that Kimi Räikkönen is the only driver they ever did right by when in reality they did him so fucking wrong.

[f1]

Lewis Hamilton reacts to Fernando Alonso comments about value of his seven titles

Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton were McLaren team-mates in 2007 Lewis Hamilton has reacted to his old rival Fernando Alonso questioning the value of some of his championships. The Spaniard said in an interview with the Netherlands' Telegraaf this week that a championship has "less value when you've only had to fight with your team-mate". Hamilton then posted a picture on social media from 2007, when he and Alonso were McLaren team-mates, with him on top of a podium and Alonso second. The seven-time champion posted a thumbs up symbol with the photograph. Alonso had tried to reduce the impact of his comments with a post on Twitter on Saturday. He wrote: "Please, all the titles are amazing, well deserved and inspiring. Incomparable to each other and let's enjoy champions and legends of our current time. "Tired of the continuous search for headlines. Let's enjoy them." Hamilton made his debut in F1 in 2007 and he and Alonso staged a close and sometimes bitter fight. Both ended up losing out to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen by a single point. At the end of the season, Hamilton and Alonso were tied on points and both had four wins, but Hamilton was declared ahead in the championship by virtue of having more second places. Hamilton's Twitter post was a response to the social media reaction to Alonso's interview, in which he compared his own two world titles in 2005 and 2006 with those of Max Verstappen this year and last, against Hamilton's record-equalling seven. Alonso said: "This year Max is very dominant and at some point he was able to cruise to the world title. Last season it was different. I thought he outperformed Lewis in the end and I think he is a worthy champion. "I also have a lot of respect for Lewis. Still, it's different when you win seven world titles, when you've only had to fight with your team-mate. "Then I think that a championship has less value than if you have fewer titles but you have had to compete against other drivers with equal or even better material. "In 2005 and 2006, I had a good start to the year and I was able to create a lead. Then others may have had a better car, but I was able to manage that gap. "I never had to fight with my team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella to win the title. I also didn't see Max fight Sergio Perez or Alex Albon to win races. "But [Michael] Schumacher mainly fought with his team-mate Rubens Barrichello to become champion five times in a row and Hamilton with Nico Rosberg and Valtteri Bottas. That's different, I think." Alonso's comments are a questionable interpretation of some of the titles won by Schumacher and Hamilton. Schumacher and Ferrari dominated in 2001, 2002 and 2004 and the German driver had only his team-mate to beat, but in 2003 he had a close fight with McLaren's Raikkonen and Williams' Juan Pablo Montoya. And while it is a fair comment to say Mercedes were unbeatable from 2014 to 2016 and in 2019-20, in 2017 and 2018 the Ferrari was arguably the quicker car for the majority of both seasons. Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel's led the championship for much of both of those years, only for his title campaign to be undermined by mistakes from both driver and team, as well as problems with reliability and losing the development war late in the year. via BBC Sport - Formula 1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/

[micropopmirror-blog]

・・・・・・・・・ -「」(2018) Album Review

Dots, also known as dotstokyo, and typographically presented as “・・・・・・・・・” is the hottest shoegaze band in Japan right now. But are they really a shoegaze band? The girls popped up in Tokyo’s pop idol underground scene as self-described “Tokyo shoegaze idols” and are very much interested in pop and noise music. In some ways, Dots are almost like a shoegaze version of Babymetal, in that they blend shoegaze and experimental pop with J-Pop as an idol band. Really though, the combination of shoegaze with J-Pop makes more sense than Babymetal’s sort of haphazard combination, and the music dots makes is clearly better than anything Babymetal has put out; they should be welcomed by any fan of shoegaze who also enjoys pop music. Their first release, 2017′s CD, turned a lot of heads in the shoegaze and underground pop scenes in Tokyo for it’s ambitious blend of “Idol” style pop music, indie rock, and noise music into an hour long single release. The novelty of the release was enough to make people pay attention, especially those Japanocentric internet subcultures that are drawn to J-Pop and Merzbow in equal measure, but the band’s ideas were a bit ahead of their execution and some saw the commitment to noise and quirky labeling of an hour of music as a single as off-putting and edgy.  

Their latest release「」(untitled), however, sees them begin to hit their stride as songwriters (with help from Azusa Suga of Japanese shoegaze band For Tracy Hyde, among others) and develop more chemistry as musicians. Throughout the entirety of the record, the girls of dots commit themselves entirely to fuzing shoegaze and J-Pop in equal measure, and quite often the final product exceeds expectations for what could seem to be a strange blend of influences.

The trick that make the album works is that the J-Pop influences of energetic and even bouncy electronic production is mostly applied sparingly, rather than manifesting in herky jerky bursts of those over-the-top choruses and synth chords that are common on Japanese pop charts. The second track “Kimi ni Ochiru Yoru” is the most overtly J-Pop, and it is preceded by a song that wouldn’t feel out of place beginning a Burrrn or NYAI LP. Outside of the dancey synth loop on “Kimi ni Ochiru Yoru,” most songs are crafted as shoegaze songs that absorb some poppier melodies, or take more cues from pop in vocal mixing and delivery. One of the stronger examples of this working on 「」is  “Soda Float Kibun” hinting at City Pop influence with a smooth sax solo between the synths of it’s choruses. Some complaints I’ve seen about the record online include boredom because “all the songs blend into eachother” and some gripes about the lack of imaginative melody writing throughout, but these seem relatively unfounded and curiously directed among the hundreds of more core shoegaze and dream pop albums that lack the diversity in sound of「」. The album isn’t perfect, a few tracks are just uninteresting or gimmicky, but overall it is very cohesive, fairly bold, and the more straight-up shoegaze songs like “Nee,” “Satellite” and “Bungaku Shouju” are as good as most any modern revival act. In some ways I understand the intrinsic resentment held by aesthetic snobs who believe any and all “shoegaze” music should be delivered by bone thin, androgynous British ‘student types’ who only stare at their shoes. The mythos of the cool of early shoegaze (and just early indie rock in general) is the alluring spectre that looms above all bands who operate in their wake, and will always define the peak of the genre’s look and sound. However, it’s stupid to get upset when Japanese girls are too happy when they perform their music or believe there should be gatekeepers for a scene that disappeared 20 years ago. Most modern shoegaze acts are very derivative, and the bold experimentation found on this album is a rare bit of variety that should be welcome. Rating: 3.5/5 - Ean