...like you.
I have been thinking about writing a bit about the WorkChoices stuff, but, to be honest, it’s a little daunting. I started to list a few points I could discuss and it ended up heading for ten pages. If I’m going to write that much, I should probably direct the energy to some uni work.
It did get me thinking about the reason people support it, that is, support tipping the scales back in favour of the employer.
The first group that might support it would be the employers, obviously, but it turns out that most Australians consider themselves workers so that doesn’t explain it all.
Then we have the one eyed Howard supporters who see their little man through weird reality distorting glasses.
The people with some knowledge of economics tend to support the idea that labour is a commodity and therefore should be treated in the same manner as any other input, such as materials or land. Those people obviously slept through everything past first year, though.
I figure it all boils down to the FYIAJ* syndrome. But that’s the problem with liberals, both small and big ‘L’, isn’t it? Even thought the Libs here are more of a conservative party when it comes to actually using your own mind, they like to be pretty liberal economically. It’s a pity this free for all doesn’t extend to human rights.
If you don’t make it, it’s your fault. If I make it, then all is right with the world, although I might buy the Big Issue from time to time to assuage my guilt.
Maybe, though, it is the economists fault? Having studied a bit of physics before this stuff, I do have trouble with the assertion that economics is a science.
Yeah, just like intelligent design.
One of the basic rules in the science world is, roughly, that you don’t get something for nothing. So how does economics come up with the idea that, in total, the world economy can always grow?
By assuming a closed system, which is obviously crap. If someone’s getting more, someone else is getting less. End digression.
I was looking around on the net and read someone use the quote, supposedly from Churchill, “if you’re not a radical in your twenties you have no heart, and if you’re not a conservative in your forties you have no brain” to support a neo-Conservative argument.
Putting aside the idiocy of using questionable throwaway lines from dubious historical leaders to support an argument, the idea itself is garbage. The fact that Churchill probably only used it to justify his own politics doesn’t help.
Perhaps it is telling.
Clearly, the idea is that having compassion is not intelligent. Caring a bit about what happens to others is somehow stupid? ‘Bleeding heart’ *insert own label* is an insult. Apparently it means you are weak, naïve and unable to use your brain.
I don’t suppose this is anything new, but the gutlessness displayed by people in this country is. As long as they have a new tv, cheap childcare, a four wheel drive and a low interest rate, they really couldn’t give a shit.
And both major parties are equally culpable.
As someone more intelligent than me pointed out, Labor is compromising their founding principles to get elected – but they never compromise to the left. Going on strike will continue to be as close to illegal as it is possible to get under Labor.
It is not weak to worry about other people. Just because my job is secure and my family is doing well doesn’t mean I won’t join a union and sing out at the occasional rally.
Perhaps it is significant that coming up to ANZAC Day we all talk about the sacrifices the soldiers made to give us the way of life we enjoy.
I don’t hear anyone thanking unions (which are made up of workers, for god’s sake) for enabling people to have the bloody day off in the first place, as well as every other condition employers would prefer not to pay for.
Bugger it, I’m going to South America. I hear they’re having a socialist revolution.
¡Viva Chile!
Tuesday 24 April 2007
Friday 20 April 2007
Dis 'ere is a old dodo boid...
...whatchoo got a dodo boid fo'?
I first remember hearing music known as “The Blues” about the time my sister and I thought “One Summer” by Daryl Braithwaite was the most topsest song, ever. It was the summer of ’89 – those were the best days of…..
Sherd, of course, was into a bit of NKOTB action when not rockin’ out to Roxette. About the bluesiest I got in those days was my new Ian Moss tape. (Oh, by the way, people that tell you they had decent music taste before their teens are either lying or still have crap taste in music.)
Saturday morning. June, 1989. Two kids have been up since seven, keen as mustard to…watch Rage.
Eventually, the parents drag their sorry arses out of bed and saunter downstairs.
“Alright! Time to go!” the bearded one hollers, almost as if he wasn’t the one holding up the process in the first place.
“But, daaaaaaad! Can’t we just watch the number one song?” comes the confident, forthright reply…oh, okay…whining complaint.
“One saaahhhmaaahh, I’ll find a waaaaaay!”
Barely had the image of a dorkily grinning Daryl Braithwaite faded from the hastily killed telly than the kids were packed off to Wongabilla.
No, not an paddlepop flavour, but an equestrian centre.. As a kid, the place was pretty cool. We got to ride around on horses, the cops taught you stuff, there were other kids on horses. As an adult looking back it takes a slightly different slant. Wongabilla was run by the cops, situated next door to the prison, the rich kids went to Pony Club instead, and the horses there had names like Redeye and Ghostkiller (or something).
It wasn’t long after that I heard a bit of Robert Johnson on an interminable trip down South (which means everywhere else but Darwin to you Brisvegans). To be honest, I had been listening to some BB King, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and the like at that stage so I wasn’t that impressed with the raw scratchy recordings.
That came later, when I actually got to listen properly, rather than just waiting until it was my turn to put my Soundgarden cd on in the car.
Fast Forward ten years (geddit?) and we’re watching Michael Veitch on Sunday Arts. Accidentally, mind you. I think we were hungover, woke up late, and were flicking.
We caught the end of the program and Veitch was interviewing a strange looking white bloke called CW Stoneking. He has the weirdest accent I’ve heard in a while.
Turns out his parents were Californian, he was born in Katherine in the NT, and grew up in a community called Papunya. He’s ended up with a weird combination of an American drawl with a Territory inflection – if you don’t know what that sounds like, maybe visit Taminmin.
Anyway, he has this awesome dobro style guitar, and he closes the show with a song…
..and is like Robert Johnson reincarnated.
So when we heard he was on at Bluesfest, we had to go.
And it was absolutely brilliant. It was just him on the stage with a guitar and a banjo, and he seems to become a different person.
He engages in dialogue with himself in different personas, he mutters to himself and it sounds like the background noise you can hear in those 1930’s blues recordings, and the Dodo bird song is a classic.
He really was the highlight for me, mainly because it was the only real Delta blues type stuff on offer over the weekend. I mean, I love my electric blues stuff, and the more modern rock blues, but this sort of real blues really is the greatest.
Anyway, pictures later (I’m doing this from work :)
I first remember hearing music known as “The Blues” about the time my sister and I thought “One Summer” by Daryl Braithwaite was the most topsest song, ever. It was the summer of ’89 – those were the best days of…..
Sherd, of course, was into a bit of NKOTB action when not rockin’ out to Roxette. About the bluesiest I got in those days was my new Ian Moss tape. (Oh, by the way, people that tell you they had decent music taste before their teens are either lying or still have crap taste in music.)
Saturday morning. June, 1989. Two kids have been up since seven, keen as mustard to…watch Rage.
Eventually, the parents drag their sorry arses out of bed and saunter downstairs.
“Alright! Time to go!” the bearded one hollers, almost as if he wasn’t the one holding up the process in the first place.
“But, daaaaaaad! Can’t we just watch the number one song?” comes the confident, forthright reply…oh, okay…whining complaint.
“One saaahhhmaaahh, I’ll find a waaaaaay!”
Barely had the image of a dorkily grinning Daryl Braithwaite faded from the hastily killed telly than the kids were packed off to Wongabilla.
No, not an paddlepop flavour, but an equestrian centre.. As a kid, the place was pretty cool. We got to ride around on horses, the cops taught you stuff, there were other kids on horses. As an adult looking back it takes a slightly different slant. Wongabilla was run by the cops, situated next door to the prison, the rich kids went to Pony Club instead, and the horses there had names like Redeye and Ghostkiller (or something).
It wasn’t long after that I heard a bit of Robert Johnson on an interminable trip down South (which means everywhere else but Darwin to you Brisvegans). To be honest, I had been listening to some BB King, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and the like at that stage so I wasn’t that impressed with the raw scratchy recordings.
That came later, when I actually got to listen properly, rather than just waiting until it was my turn to put my Soundgarden cd on in the car.
Fast Forward ten years (geddit?) and we’re watching Michael Veitch on Sunday Arts. Accidentally, mind you. I think we were hungover, woke up late, and were flicking.
We caught the end of the program and Veitch was interviewing a strange looking white bloke called CW Stoneking. He has the weirdest accent I’ve heard in a while.
Turns out his parents were Californian, he was born in Katherine in the NT, and grew up in a community called Papunya. He’s ended up with a weird combination of an American drawl with a Territory inflection – if you don’t know what that sounds like, maybe visit Taminmin.
Anyway, he has this awesome dobro style guitar, and he closes the show with a song…
..and is like Robert Johnson reincarnated.
So when we heard he was on at Bluesfest, we had to go.
And it was absolutely brilliant. It was just him on the stage with a guitar and a banjo, and he seems to become a different person.
He engages in dialogue with himself in different personas, he mutters to himself and it sounds like the background noise you can hear in those 1930’s blues recordings, and the Dodo bird song is a classic.
He really was the highlight for me, mainly because it was the only real Delta blues type stuff on offer over the weekend. I mean, I love my electric blues stuff, and the more modern rock blues, but this sort of real blues really is the greatest.
Anyway, pictures later (I’m doing this from work :)
Thursday 19 April 2007
My reflection…
…dirty mirror.
Thought for a boring Thursday.
I think blogging used to be primarily a pastime of self indulgent tossers – people who fervently believe the rest of the world needs to hear what they have to say.
And a lot of it still is, especially in the so-called political blogosphere. But not any more. There are some good blogs out there outside of that, a lot really – here’s one I found via the trusty next blog button (pet hate – wankers that remove that bar from their template so you can’t skip from their blog). http://4thavenueblues.blogspot.com/
Some get a bit wanky, but most are okay.
But in the political world, people tend to think they’re smarter than everyone in the room (and I by no means exempt myself from that – not that I can make any real claim to actually being a political blogger). As an example, there is a particular Australian blog which epitomises everything the proletariat dislike about the latte swilling intelligentsia - which is to say in their language they have quite a reasonable world view but carry on like wankers at every opportunity. Frankly, it gave me the shits every time I read it – the Castle comes to mind “Get your hand off it, Daryl.”
The problem is, though, people are so desperate to speak they’ll say anything. And, even worse, people want you to know how smart they are, so they use obscure words and concepts they secretly hope others won’t really understand.
That said, there are many political blogs which aren’t chock full of insular academics.
Blogocracy, on the news.com.au site is not bad – especially given its location. It is somewhat anti-conservative, but still pretty balanced. Some of the American blogs are good – Huffington Post, etc – and onlineopinion (more of a forum, really) is good too.
There’s plenty, really, even if some of them you go to have zero comments – and no one ever wants to be the first person at the party, do they?
Now, back to work.
PS. I completely forgot to talk about the best act at Bluesfest - CW Stoneking. I have pictures - wait till then.
Thought for a boring Thursday.
I think blogging used to be primarily a pastime of self indulgent tossers – people who fervently believe the rest of the world needs to hear what they have to say.
And a lot of it still is, especially in the so-called political blogosphere. But not any more. There are some good blogs out there outside of that, a lot really – here’s one I found via the trusty next blog button (pet hate – wankers that remove that bar from their template so you can’t skip from their blog). http://4thavenueblues.blogspot.com/
Some get a bit wanky, but most are okay.
But in the political world, people tend to think they’re smarter than everyone in the room (and I by no means exempt myself from that – not that I can make any real claim to actually being a political blogger). As an example, there is a particular Australian blog which epitomises everything the proletariat dislike about the latte swilling intelligentsia - which is to say in their language they have quite a reasonable world view but carry on like wankers at every opportunity. Frankly, it gave me the shits every time I read it – the Castle comes to mind “Get your hand off it, Daryl.”
The problem is, though, people are so desperate to speak they’ll say anything. And, even worse, people want you to know how smart they are, so they use obscure words and concepts they secretly hope others won’t really understand.
That said, there are many political blogs which aren’t chock full of insular academics.
Blogocracy, on the news.com.au site is not bad – especially given its location. It is somewhat anti-conservative, but still pretty balanced. Some of the American blogs are good – Huffington Post, etc – and onlineopinion (more of a forum, really) is good too.
There’s plenty, really, even if some of them you go to have zero comments – and no one ever wants to be the first person at the party, do they?
Now, back to work.
PS. I completely forgot to talk about the best act at Bluesfest - CW Stoneking. I have pictures - wait till then.
Sunday 15 April 2007
What's up my Negus?
So, kids, a Bluesfest review. How do I do it? I mean, the Big Day Out is easy – spiky haired shirtless wankers, orange girls who need to eat more, emos who need to eat less, all poncing about in the burning sun occasionally glancing at the stage – festival tragics, one and all. Oh, there’s the occasional punter who actually came for the music – they're the ones in the corner, looking wide eyed and panicked, wondering what happened to the 90’s.
To be honest, after a disappointing Future Music Festival experience (I thought it was going to be a great dance music day – turned out to be full of boozed up, iced up wankers too), I was a little scared Bluesfest might have been the same.
I did not reckon on the power of old people – sorry, oldER.
Bloody brilliant, it was.
Three days of mud, drizzling rain, beer and blues (and roots, and modern folk, and rock, and neo-folk, and arguments about what was what), and only scatterings of wankers. Like those stupid silver cake decorations that break your teeth – a bit annoying, but you can always flick them off.
One discordant note – the whingeing locals of Byron who seem content to gouge the tourists over Easter, but would prefer they not come.
So I might just post a list, being quite lazy. I’ve gone through the timetable to write down everything we saw a bit of.
Amos Lee – Very good. A bit smooth, although the set he played was pretty bluesy, due to the setting, I guess. (On the strength of this the Mangoes bought a double album which turned out to bit a lot more poppy). Sort of your standard American city soft blues rock stuff, a bit whiny, but good. Download some Go and purchase a cd today.
Bo Diddley – Great to see him, he’s the same age as my grandma, but I think she’s more genki than him. The music was good – standard rock blues stuff. Personally, a little to 50’s pop for me, but then, that was all him anyway, wasn’t it? He seems to getting a bit old – I saw him at Bluesfest two years ago and he was a bit more lively then. Still, great show.
Eric Burdon and the Animal(s) – One for the parentals, really. He was a bit like an aging rocker with a bunch of session musos – hang on, there was one original band member. Well, maybe, but there was certainly an old dude, with grey hair in a pony tail, on the keys. The show was good, though, because everyone knew all the songs, As expected, House of the Rising Sun brought the house down. Listening to a record I borrowed from the parentals I realised he had lost all of his edge.
Lucky I love BB King then. Fantastic electric blues show, awesome guitar playing.
Fred Eaglesmith - Redneck rocker, Steve Earle without the heroin, and from
“I been on that many folk festivals, all this fuckin’ patchouli. Y’all got patchouli down here? Tried to get a workers compensation claim – fuckin’ lungs filled up with patchouli, can’t breathe right.” Absolute gold.
He also had a nice word to say about our PM – “In
Kieran Kane, Kevin Welch & Fats Kaplan – Nice set. A bunch of middle aged dudes sitting down playing acoustic country blues stuff, tending more towards country, I guess.
Kill Devil Hills – Not bad, but not great. Australian mob, I think, almost hillbilly blues – the drummer was the best performer.
The Fumes – One of my personal highlights. Fantastic! Go out and buy their album, I did. Don’t download it, either. If you listen to JJJ you would have heard a couple of their songs. Great Aussie Blues Rock, a real dirty sound. Electric slide with great vocals.
John Butler Trio – Obviously, the set was mega packed, and sucked in the wankers as well. I don’t want to sound like a tosser (but I will) but the first time I saw JBT it was me and about a hundred other people, crammed into the backroom at Beachcombers in Darwin. They played for a good two and a half hours, then did a half hour encore. Since then I’ve seen them a fair few times, each time the gigs getting progressively larger. I know it’s a good thing that more people are listening to his music, especially as he has a lot of good stuff to say, but the crowd was too big to get a good feel for the music. And the same goes for…
…Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals– Although I’d not seen him live before, so that was good. There were a couple of songs where I danced about in the pouring rain, sans emergency poncho, in a true festival experience. Great stuff.
Xavier Rudd – Not bad, although he’s to John Butler what Disney is Warner Brother cartoons.
Kasey Chambers – I have never liked her stuff, she’s far too whingy, but I have to admit she played a good show for a woman as fat as she was (she may have been pregnant :)). Best bit – Bernald Powderfinger does a surprise guest appearance and the parentals ask “Who the hell is that bloke?”
Paul Kelly – What can I say? Awesome. Just as packed as some of the others, but we got a good spot. Knew all the songs, the whole crowd singing along. He played How to make Gravy, I swear I got goosebumps.
And he was introduced by George Negus! All good. (Incidentally, I saw a tshirt with a picture of George Negus on it wearing lots of bling – Caption: What’s up, my Negus.)
Vanessa Amorosi – I saw a bit, so I have to list her. What the hell was she doing there? Absolute rubbish. I had thought there was a chance. At the last Bluesfest I went to they actually had Joel Turner and the Modern Day Poets playing – you know, those clowns from Idol that did the beatboxing – and they surprised everyone with a decent blues set.
Not this time. Shite.
With a capital I.
Taj Mahal – Awesome. Risqué lyrics, rocking blues tunes, great atmosphere.
Chris Smither – Solo acoustic blues stuff, a little bit of country folk in the mix. A nice, middle of the afternoon set.
Imperial Crowns – A mix between Aerosmith and a pub band – shite.
Normie Rowe – What the f…? Shite, again. His only shining moment was when he clocked Ron Casey on Midday.
Missy Higgins - I first saw her when she supported JBT once and she was pretty good. Now she is far too whingy – didn’t watch much of her set. It was okay.
The Waifs – I thought they were great, the parentals didn’t agree.
Bonnie Raitt – Fantastic. She put on a great show, and the crowd really got into it.
Ash Grunwald – I’ve seen him a couple of times before, the last time was at the Prince of Wales in
This time it was great. He puts on a great show, one man band style. Or at least a man with a guitar and a couple of drums.
I highly recommend getting an album.
Oh crap, there’s heaps more, well a few anyway, but I’m all done.
Suffice to say it was a fantastic weekend.
Oh, you missed out?
Sucks to be you.
I’ll put some photos up a bit later – turns out we’ve been shaped and they take a while to upload.
Cheers
Wednesday 11 April 2007
Everything I do...
In other news, it turns out I have a watertight claim to a “Merry Man” ancestor.
Yes, that’s right, it turns out one of my ancestors was born around Derbyshire and then got busted in
I see your “First Fleeter” and raise you a Prince of Thieves, sucker!
A Bluesfest wrap up shortly. Spicks and Specks is on at the moment.
Whoa! Even more freakily, the movie of the week on ABC is Robin Hood and his Merry Men!
Tuesday 3 April 2007
Don't come over here...
...and piss on my gate.
So said Señor Cornell.
And it's true.
What gives people the right to tell me if I can kill myself, take drugs, marry a bloke, marry a goat, eat poo or anything else which doesn't impinge on their right to have a nice day? (not that I actually want to do any of those things - poo tastes like...poo).
I watched Insight tonight, in case you were wondering. I had been too distracted lately to whinge about anything, but I had clearly forgotten about the inspiration SBS could provide.
It was about voluntary euthanasia. Happily, they had Marshall Perron (which always sounded like a type of bird to me as a kid) and good old Phil Nietschke (yes! I spelt that correctly! first time!) on. Took me back...to a time when a bunch of fat middle class white men overrode the wishes of an elected legislature because of a bunch of outdated, narrow minded Western morals.
And the idea that a mere spark of life somehow has more value than the respect, dignity and choices of a capable, cognizant human being.
Same as the abortion debate, really.
I noticed, though, that the arguments used by the conservatives have morphed into the standard 'for your own good' line they use for most things.
In a way, one of the arguments they carry on with seems at odds with basic neo-liberal garbage in general - the focus on personal responsibility.
Chris Pyne, the Ageing Minister (incidentally, he must be a good friend of Costello's - he came up with a wonderful range of contemptuous smirks this evening) piped up with the 'what if the person would have changed their mind' line. Hypocrite.
Yeah? What if?
What if they didn't?
Isn't that up to them?
Isn't it their mistake to make?
And don't talk to me about seat belts, etc. That's about keeping idiots alive, not providing choice to an adult who has considered their options carefully.
I do have a challenge, or two.
First, come up with an anti-euthanasia argument that does not have, at its heart, a spiritual moralistic basis.
And then (and I ask this not as a rhetorical, but I actually am wondering what there is) come up with a victimless crime which you don't think had its roots in religion.
Now, if what I have said above is really quite stupid, I apologise. I'm tired, and haven't run this past my legal team :)
Really, I felt a bit lazy just putting photos up so I thought I'd try to write something.
And here's a photo!
Of my street.
cheers
So said Señor Cornell.
And it's true.
What gives people the right to tell me if I can kill myself, take drugs, marry a bloke, marry a goat, eat poo or anything else which doesn't impinge on their right to have a nice day? (not that I actually want to do any of those things - poo tastes like...poo).
I watched Insight tonight, in case you were wondering. I had been too distracted lately to whinge about anything, but I had clearly forgotten about the inspiration SBS could provide.
It was about voluntary euthanasia. Happily, they had Marshall Perron (which always sounded like a type of bird to me as a kid) and good old Phil Nietschke (yes! I spelt that correctly! first time!) on. Took me back...to a time when a bunch of fat middle class white men overrode the wishes of an elected legislature because of a bunch of outdated, narrow minded Western morals.
And the idea that a mere spark of life somehow has more value than the respect, dignity and choices of a capable, cognizant human being.
Same as the abortion debate, really.
I noticed, though, that the arguments used by the conservatives have morphed into the standard 'for your own good' line they use for most things.
In a way, one of the arguments they carry on with seems at odds with basic neo-liberal garbage in general - the focus on personal responsibility.
Chris Pyne, the Ageing Minister (incidentally, he must be a good friend of Costello's - he came up with a wonderful range of contemptuous smirks this evening) piped up with the 'what if the person would have changed their mind' line. Hypocrite.
Yeah? What if?
What if they didn't?
Isn't that up to them?
Isn't it their mistake to make?
And don't talk to me about seat belts, etc. That's about keeping idiots alive, not providing choice to an adult who has considered their options carefully.
I do have a challenge, or two.
First, come up with an anti-euthanasia argument that does not have, at its heart, a spiritual moralistic basis.
And then (and I ask this not as a rhetorical, but I actually am wondering what there is) come up with a victimless crime which you don't think had its roots in religion.
Now, if what I have said above is really quite stupid, I apologise. I'm tired, and haven't run this past my legal team :)
Really, I felt a bit lazy just putting photos up so I thought I'd try to write something.
And here's a photo!
Of my street.
cheers
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