Running out of ideas

Took my kids to see “Shrek the Third” yesterday …it had its moments but its obvious that the writers are quickly running out of ideas. Time to call it quits I think, but no doubt there will be a Shrek 4 made. We thought the last 20 minutes or so was the only really funny bit of the movie that lived up to the standards of the previous two.

The big moments in Australian music

A bunch of music experts have come up with a list of the 50 most significant moments in Australian rock and pop music history. The list was put together to celebrate Australian Musician Magazine’s 50th edition. According to them, the number one moment was the moment George Young met Harry Vanda in 1964 and formed the Easybeats.

The full list:

1 VANDA AND YOUNG Meet in migrant hostel
Had Harry Vanda and George Young not met in the Villawood migrant hostel in Sydney 1964, there would not have been an Easybeats as we know them, possibly no Stevie Wright solo career, certainly not the Albert productions that made AC/DC a huge success, and none of those classic Countdown songs by artists such as John Paul Young, William Shakespeare, Cheetah etc, as well as their own hits under the Flash and the Pan name. The obvious choice I suppose. The Easybeats were good, the other stuff that Vanda and Young did was mostly crap.
2 COUNTDOWN Goes colour - I watched Countdown fairly religiously in its heyday. Lots of crap but the occasional gem made it worthwhile.
3 MEN AT WORK Number one in USA and UK simultaneously - bleh!
4 THE SAINTS I’m Stranded Record of the Week-UK Sounds magazine - great song, great band. Ed Kuepper and Chris Bailey both went on from here to do lots of good music.
5 MIDNIGHT OIL’S Sydney Olympics protest - was the best thing in the closing ceremony, and I guessed placed the aboriginal rights issue in the spotlight at least for a while. Also renewed my interest in Midnight Oil for a while.
6 SKYHOOKS Release Living in the 70s with 6 songs banned - was a breath of fresh air compared to the music around at the time, one of the first records I paid much attention too. I remember 2JJ playing “You just like me coz I’m good in bed” as its first song.
7 LEE GORDON Arrives in Australia
8 MUSHROOM RECORDS The label legend begins - Mushroom was good for having many of the best Australian bands
9 SILVERCHAIR All five albums go to number one - don’t mind them
10 BIG DAY OUT Goes national - never been to one
11 BEATLES Tour Australia and launch a thousand bands - I’ve never really been impressed by the Beatles.
12 TRIPLE J Goes National - were good, see my comment about Skyhooks. Too much(c)rap and crap now.
13 BON SCOTT dies - proved to be a mere bump in the road for AC/DC
14 CROWDED HOUSE Farewell concert - very nice, Crowded House produced a great body of work, as have the Finns in other guises
15 AC/DC It’s A Long Way To The Top … on the back of a truck - heavy metal is not my cup of tea, but it was always fun to sing “Its a long way to the shop if you want a sausage roll” (usually done while drunk, around a campfire, and when I was much younger)
16 GO SET Our first real rock magazine - too early for me … RAM and Juke were the music mags of choice for me when I was at uni and had plenty of time to kill catching trains to and from home - I used to read a shitload of papers and magazines then.
17 SUNBURY FESTIVAL - too early for me.
18 JOHN BUTLER first independent artist to top national chart - good for him, I don’t think he’s anything special
19 SLIM DUSTY releases 100th album - hardly rock or pop, but a worthy achievement
20 AUSTRALIAN IDOL The juggernaut begins - haha! They must be joking to include this rubbish.
21 JET The band that launched a million ipods - don’t like them at all!
22 JOHN FARNHAM Jack’s back - boo! hiss! piss off!
23 JOK Our first national rock star - I only really know “Shout”
24 COLD CHISEL Khe Sahn-A legend begins - I liked Chisel, my favourite being “Flame Trees”; can’t say the same for Jimmy Barnes solo work.
25 KYLIE dates MICHAEL HUTCHENCE and changes forever - Kylie gained credibility when she did “Where the wild roses grow” with Nick Cave.
26 INXS Sometimes you Kick! - INXS were good for about their first 3 records … then they went bland. They really lost the plot after Michael Hutchence died (I was going to say wanked himself to death while hanging from a belt with a plastic bag over his head, but I thought that was in bad taste)
27 FAIRLIGHT COMPUTER Beginning of sampling - yeah ok.
28 SICK PUPPIES 13 million You Tube hits and US fame - whatever
29 NORMIE ROWE joins the army - good on him, but hardly memorable or significant except for him
30 YOTHU YINDI our first charting koori band - Warumpi Band were better, “My Island Home”, “Blackfella, whitefella” are better than “Treaty”
31 RATCAT redefine ‘indie’ - why? Nothing special about them

32 WAVE AID A nation reacts - it was decent, but hard to say it was particularly astounding or that significant
33 OLIVIA NEWTON JOHN Grease is the word! - bleh! to ONJ …although (guilty confession time here) Grease is/was fun.
34 UP THERE CAZALY Music and Sport unite - bland pap!
35 LRB Reminiscing - please fill my ears with putty/cement so I don’t ever have to listen to LRB again ….boring, bland (no wonder they did so well in America)
36 THE BIRTHDAY PARTY Arrive in Berlin - great band, and Nick Cave and Mick Harvey are still making great music. Saw them once, must have been just before they left for Europe, and it was great, wild and on the edge of out of control.
37 SEVEN AUSTRALIAN ALBUMS IN TOP 10 - when was this?
38 SAVAGE GARDEN most played song for the year in USA for 2000 - see comment for #35, although I’ll concede Savage Garden were not as bad as LRB
39 THE RECORD BAN ushers golden era of OZ music - ok I’ll believe it
40 STAN ROFE switches from 3KZ to 3UZ - who?
41 BEE GEES return to England, sign to Stigwood. - why does Australia lay any claim to the Bee Gees? They are in the same boat as LRB as far as I’m concerned.
42 ABBA mania in Australia - why is this significant to Australian music?
43 HOADLEY’S BATTLE OF BANDS shape changing event - before my time
44 HELEN REDDY Australia’s first Grammy Award - I assume this was for “I am woman”?
45 DADDY COOL First #1 Album by Australian band - yeah, they were decent.
46 SEEKERS First Aussies to have UK number one - their song “We are Australian” would make a nice national anthem
47 the WHITLAMS meet Whitlam - so what? A mediocre band meets a mediocre (and failed) politician
48 ROGER SAVAGE arrives in Australia - who’s he?
49 DELTA GOODREM breaks Jack’s back - errrk! Her cancer was timely for her …it created more interest than her music was ever likely to.
50 ARIA CHART our first official chart - wow!

Honour killings

There’s something really wrong with a culture that believes killing a daughter for “dishonouring” their family is acceptable. It was wrong in the dark ages, it is wrong now. It is wrong when it happens in a backwards village in Kurdistan, Pakistan, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Egypt or wherever, and it is wrong when it happens in a modern country like England. In fact, I think it is more warped when it happens there, as those responsible have been exposed to the norms of a civilised society and could not possibly claim that their behaviour was in any way tolerable in that society.

The case of Banaz Mahmod, in England, is tragic. She was strangled last year. Her dishonourable behaviour, the “crime” in her father’s mind, was ending an abusive arranged marriage, becoming too westernised and falling in love with a man who did not come from their Iraqi village. And it seems her execution by her family was nothing remotely spur of the moment, or a crime of passion. Her father and uncle were found guilty of her murder, and two other men have pleaded guilty in the case …two others have fled the country - so it was quite a communal effort.

Banaz Mahmod ran away from home when she was a teenager, but was later sent an audio tape in which her father warned he would kill her sisters, her mother and himself if she did not come home, her sister said. She returned home and was later hospitalised after her brother attacked her, her sister testified. The brother said he had been paid by their father to finish her off, but in the end was unable to do it, the sister said, testifying in a full black burqa. She said she still feared for her life. She first went to police in December 2005 when she suspected her uncle was trying to kill her and her boyfriend. On New Year’s Eve, she was lured by her father to her grandmother’s home and believed she would be attacked after he forced her to gulp down brandy and approached her while wearing gloves. She escaped by breaking a window, and was treated at a hospital. After she was released from the hospital, she returned home and tried to convince her family she stopped seeing her boyfriend … but friends told the family they spotted the couple together, in January 2006. Soon after, a group of men allegedly approached her boyfriend and tried to lure him into a car but he refused. It was that event that prompted Banaz Mahmod to go to police again. This time officers tried to persuade her to stay in a safe house. She refused, believing her mother would protect her, according to court documents. But her mother and father left her alone in the house the next day.

Her body was not discovered until three months later.

More than 25 women in Britain have been killed by their Muslim relatives in the past decade for offences they believe have brought shame on their family. More than 100 other homicides are under investigation for potential honour killings.

How others in their communities condone, or at least turn a blind eye, to such barbaric beliefs and practices, escapes me? Surely exposure to the modern world would inform them that these things are just not acceptable in modern civilisation. Even given many remain in cultural enclaves, it is not as though they are immune from absorbing some of the more important values of the country and culture they have been living in. In the case of Banaz Mahmod’s family, they had been in England since 1998 - ie the best part of 8 years before killing her.

Now this is the piece of information that staggers me …. Some Muslim communities in Britain practice Sharia law, or strict Islamic law. Wow, who were the geniuses who allowed that? No one telling the immigrants anything like “this is Britain and British law is the only one that counts here”? If not, why not? This sort of thing needs to be nipped in the bud absolutely ruthlessly. Why would any modern country tolerate barbaric laws from the dark ages in its midst?

Cough, cough, splutter, splutter

That pretty much sums up my long weekend. I’ve had a cold since the middle of the week (so has my daughter … who I blame for mine, and son) and over the weekend I was coughing and spluttering most of the time. Makes it hard to do much, and especially hard to sleep properly, so I’ve been getting by on 3-4 hours a night lately.

Saw “Zodiac” at the movies on Saturday though (managed not to cough too much, though it wouldn’t have mattered much because there were only 4 people apart from us there - unlike the Shrek 3 lines which were out the doors). Very interesting movie, based on a true story (which I had never heard of before) about a serial murderer in California in the late 60’s. The story is intriguing enough to motivate me to read about the case some more.

Would have liked to go to the football on Saturday night, but cough, cough, splutter, splutter, sit in nice warm lounge and watch on TV vs sit at Canberra Stadium on a cold Saturday night was a no brainer. Would have been a good game to see, the mighty Canberra Raiders beat Parramatta 38-10.

Took advantage of the cheap Monday lunches at one of the local clubs today - always good for a steak or schnitzel, usually a beer or two, but today I didn’t think that would go well with all the cough medicine and lollies I’d been drinking and sucking on.

To add to the joy of my weekend, I went to log onto my work’s network yesterday to do a few things to pass the time, and found that the configuration file that enables the connection software to connect up to work had shat itself sometime since I had last used it on Friday. So, ring the help desk, solution - have to go to the office and reinstall the software, this because I needed to be on the work network and because the connection software was what I needed to download (circular problem here). Now I hardly ever go to my office, seeing I work at home most days, so this was a hassle (I mean its a whole 20 minutes drive …I know, nothing by most standards, but this is Canberra …). I did this today to get it out of the way - and to save time tomorrow when I know things will be busy at work.

Excitement plus? Cough, cough, splutter, splutter …going to bed now to try to sleep.

What odds Paris makes a miraculous recovery?

Paris Hilton (the bimbo who’s famous for god knows what) was released from jail three days into a 23 day term (which had already been reduced for “good behaviour” from the original 45 day sentence for breach of probation from previous driving offences. She was apparently released from jail for “medical” (***cough, cough***bullshit***cough, cough***) reasons.

Because of the “medical” condition she has been transferred to home detention. Now she’s back in luxury, rather than the spartan cell she was in, whats the betting that her “medical” condition miraculously disappears?

Paris claims to have learnt a lesson from her time in jail. She said:

“I am going to serve the remaining 40 days of my sentence. I have learned a great deal from this ordeal and hope that others have learned from my mistakes”.

Yeah, sure! I suspect the only lesson she’s learnt is that if you cry and carry on, hold your breath until you go blue in the face, and refuse to eat your food, mummy will let you off your punishment.

Did I hear someone say “one law for the rich and famous, another law for the rest of us”?

Update (09/06/2007): Turns out her freedom was shortlived … she was sent back to jail by one pissed off judge. Funnily enough, evidence of the “medical” condition was not able to be provided to the court at today’s hearing. Paris’s words as she left court to be returned to jail:

“It’s not right!” “Mom!”

Surprise, surprise, privatised Telstra taking cost out

Must say I’m amused by the faux indignation from Treasurer, Peter Costello, and Communications minister, Helen Coonan, about Telstra’s decision to shut down a bunch of call centres, involving headcount reductions of around 500. What exactly did they expect would happen with a privately owned Telstra?

Given its a pretty bloated company still (imagine how it must have been when it was public service?) what else do people expect competitive pressures to drive, other than cost takeout and profit improvements. Telstra’s job is quite simple … provide customers with world class telecommunications services that are competitively priced, and provide acceptable returns to its shareholders. It does not exist to provide jobs that are not required to meet its business objectives, whether they are in regional areas, marginal seats or whatever. I would argue that this should always have been the case regardless of ownership of the company. Even as a government owned telco, its job was to provide telecommunications services as competitively as possible (whether measured against actual competition or against international benchmarks), not to employ people who are not actually needed to provide these services. If governments want jobs in places like Launceston, Wollongong, Newcastle (and Canberra in the case of these call centres) it is not up to Telstra to provide them if they are not business critical …. they need to encourage growth of other industries which do generate necessary jobs in those places using levers such as incentives and subsidies.

Lets see what the government does with broadband

It will be interesting to see what the government comes up with in the way of broadband internet. The impasse between Telstra and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has seen luts of huffing and puffing, but no actual action on getting on with building a decent high speed broadband network. However, election approaching, its become a bit of an embarassment for government, this lack of progress, so they need to at least be seen to be doing something, particularly as the ALP opposition has already laid its cards on the table.

One thing I can confidently predict … as with most new-ish technologies, the policy will be designed to protect existing players, and to hell with innovation and the interests of consumers. Or, to put it bluntly, the government will fuck it up! Just as was the case with digital TV and pay TV (probably others, those are the ones that come to mind immediately).

Bogan (or is this actually cool?) baby names

Australian Idol winner from last year, Damien Leith, and his wife, have named their new baby boy Jagger Ramone. I’m undecided on whether this is just another of those pretentious bogan names, or is it somehow cool. Personally, I’m not so sold on the Rolling Stones connection (the Jagger part) … never have thought they were anything special, but I do like the Ramones.

Another 10k bites the dust

Another 10,000 visits to my blog, now up to 70 k today. Thats 37 days for the last 10 k. Haven’t had the boost from Candice Falzon and Sonny Bill Williams, or Melissa Scannell this last month or so, to the same extent as in the previous two.

Looking through the things people come looking to my blog for, here’s some highlights:

• there is an inordinate interest in small dicks, with “small dicks”, “small dick”, “men with small dicks”, “pictures of men with small dicks” all featuring in the first page of search terms … this comes from my post about gun nuts a while back
• but at least my readership is balanced in their interests, someone was after “big dick pictures men in 40’s”.
• Sonny Bill and Candice Falzon did attract a few visitors still
• there is plenty of people wanting to see or read about Jessica Rowe (and her boning) and Joanne Lees
• people are still fascinated by shit …”crapping” is popular - someone was looking for “kind girls crapping” - is that somehow different to nasty girls doing it?
• as is “home made porn” and variations on it
• anyone know Penelope Cruz’s breast size … there were 3 visitors looking for that vital fact? Someone also wanted to see Brooke Satchwell’s. And J.K. Rowlings’ pussy!
• not just focusing on women, someone was looking for “men with 2 dicks” (which reminds me of an insult we used to have when I was at school, along the lines of “you must have 2 dicks, you couldn’t have pulled yourself that stupid with only one”)
• anyone know what a “fucking knife” is? Someone wants pictures of them. The mind boggles!
• and for a wide ranging search, try “tell me something I didn’t already know”.

Glassworks