Sunday, August 22, 2010

the donkeys voted

Never over-estimate the intelligence of the Australian electorate.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

proven redneck formula

One of the best from the Chaser... Libra-L

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

misterabbitt talking about the kettle

I just heard Tony Abbott on the telly accuse the *Labor Party* of running a fear campaign during this election!

The man who wants us to believe that we are about to be overrun by a tidal wave of boat people, even as we drown in a sea of government debt as a result of our sinking economy! While he stands up for 'realection' and promises to cancel everything and return us all to the dark ages.

I hope I get to see this lying little ferret buried at the polls on the weekend.

... and in the meantime, I'll content myself with watching him squirm as he tries to avoid Kerry O'Brien's questions on the 7:30 report. What a sleazy, untrustworthy dog. I don't know how O'Brien can stand to listen to his lies and waffle... I feel like grabbing his throat thru' the tv screen! :-P

Friday, August 13, 2010

graffiti union

I'm a relatively late convert to the merits of graffiti.

That's largely because it's taken me a long time to learn to differentiate between graffiti ART and graffiti VANDALISM (aka tagging) (and possibly that's partly because the vandals often manage to tag the art as well).

Now that I've learned to chill out about the existence of graffiti *in appropriate locations*, I find myself looking out for it and enjoying a good graffiti display as much as I would any art gallery exhibition.

I was especially pleased to find the terrific display in Union Lane in the city last weekend. Dunno when it got there, but there's a some excellent works on the walls of the lane now, and it's well worth checking out (in the daytime - it doesn't look like a place to be in after dark!)

Thursday, August 12, 2010

from Glee

Another current favourite YouTube clip, the kids from Glee performing an old favourite, To Sir with Love. I remember loving the movie (and the theme song, by Lulu) when I first saw it, whilst I was in High School... some time last century...

silence of the fish

On Saturday last, having noticed a small promo in MX the day before, I dropped by the Ian Potter Centre at Fed Square to take a look at a new exhibition by Australian artist John Davis.

It was one of the best trips I've had to the Potter. There was no major exhibition running there (with this year's Winter Masterpieces happening at the NGV St Kilda Rd and ACMI), so it was really very q.u.i.e.t.! No crowds, no competing to see the exhibits, no jostling for space or trying to see past the human statues who feel the need to try to dominate the space in front of every display; just the freedom to wander at leisure and take in the sights.

I really enjoyed the Davis exhibition, especially his wonderful fish (which would look lovely on my bathroom wall, if they'd thought to sell some facsimiles in the shop downstairs), and the adjoining installations by Mari Funaki. I then took a little more time to wander around and re-visit some old favourites, including Bracks and some new acquisitions by Sid Nolan. I have to make time to go there more often. It's a truly great place to visit, and we're so lucky to have free access to the wonderful exhibits there.

winter at the beach

aaarrgghh... they've won! I've turned this blog into a political rant; not what I ever intended to spend my time writing about. Time for a change of pace.

Although I've lived near St Kilda for the past several years, I've never had much love for the beach. I've wandered down now and then during summer, only to have the masses of tourists, day-trippers, backpackers, sunlovers, cyclists and skaters remind me of how uncomfortable the beach is when *everyone* goes there; not to mention the further discomfort caused by sunburn, salt air and flies.

Last Sunday, in the middle of a sunny but damn cold winter's day, I dropped by Fitzroy St for lunch, and then went for a stroll in the weak winter sun down to Catani Gardens. The St Kilda pier and recently-rebuilt pavilion caught my eye as I turned to head home, and I decided to take a stroll along the pier and take in the view before I left.

Although the wind was, to say the least, brisk! along the pier, it was a delightful stroll, with relatively few other foolhardy souls braving the cold, and the views at the end of the pier, of the bay, of the city skyline behind the boats at the marina, and of the pavilion itself, made it well worthwhile.

I still doubt I'll go back to the beach come summer, but I'll certainly take advantage of the next sunny winter's day for another stroll.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

lunatics trying to take over the asylum

And thanks to the Chaser team for pointing this out (it was SO obvious, really!)

time warp

Funny stuff from the ALP:

back to the future

Would anyone really be surprised that Tony Abbott isn't 'across' broadband? After all, they didn't have that in 1950! He can protest that he's not a 'tech' head, but he can't deny he's another type of 'head' :-P

Monday, August 9, 2010

blind leading the handicapped

I'm sure that when Andrew Peacock said "You'd need to be pretty handicapped not to appreciate that this [Labor] government is dissolving before your eyes daily" (Age, 9/8) he wasn't referring to the ALPs blind candidate in his old electorate, but to himself and Liberal voters in general. Most of them still wouldn't understand what the fuss is about.

the scariest woman in politics

Julie Bishop. I swear, when she was holding that cane toad on the news tonight, more people were backing away from her than from the frog!

the power and the inglory

I had to laugh when I heard John Brumby and Peter Batchelor claim on the news tonight that moving power lines underground would be too costly, and 'would cause an increase in power bills'.

Since when has any Victorian government in the past 15 years cared about increasing power costs for consumers?? When they virtually gave away electricity for free to Alcoa to power its highly polluting aluminium smelter at Portland? When they privatised the SEC and gave away our power creation and retail ownership to private companies?? When they decided to foist unnecessary and ineffective new meters on everyone, like it or not?? When they decided to build an unwanted and highly-polluting water 'putrification' plant in Gippsland??

Give me a break, Brumby! We already pay far too much for electricity, thanks largely to your government and the Kennett government, but I'd gladly pay a little more if it meant helping to remove a major cause of summer bushfires, removing the threat of summer blackouts when power lines are burnt out, and improving the aesthetics of the whole State by hiding these ugly and dangerous power lines underground.

It already happens by default in new communities, and it's time that you stopped hiding behind lies and implement it across the rest of the state.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

smoked out

I have GOT to stop paying attention to election news, no matter how hard it is to avoid, or my blood pressure is going to explode.

Now I find out, from Tony Jones on Lateline (which I wasn't even planning to watch, but it just cleverly started up on the tail of Yes, we Canberra!), that sleazebag Abbott is in bed with the international tobacco lobby to overturn the plain packaging legislation on cigarettes. Apparently, the budgie-smuggling 'action man' of Australian politics doesn't care how many other lives he helps to ruin if it gets him a little more in political donations or a few more votes.

And btw, just how stupid do the big British and American tobacco companies think we are, to imagine that they can bankroll an organisation that purports to represent the interests of Australian retailers, when it is clearly just a lobby group for the tobacco-murder industry? Give me a break!

no means no Abbott

It's clearly been a long campaign already for the Mad Monk.

Julia has at least had the chance to escape her minders and campaign as her 'real self', and it's a vast improvement.

No such luck for Tony. As his own daughter once famously said, he's a "lame, gay, churchy loser" (and doesn't her choice of language say heaps about her own upbringing?).

Only the most desperate conservative would vote for the real Tony Abbott, so he has to keep a tight lid on that side of himself and make sure that he only shows his campaign persona for the cameras.

It's inevitable though, that at times, his real thoughts and feelings are going to show through.

What sort of moron would attack his political opponent by using a well-known catch-cry related to rape and the abuse of women, with no apparent understanding of its sub-text? Maybe the same sort who gets a woman pregnant (or thinks he did) and then absconds and leaves her 'carrying the baby'.

This man is a moral midget, who has no empathy or understanding of the modern world, and would take us back 100 years if he gets the chance.

I'm not a fan of the current government, but I'll vote for anything that keeps Abbott away from political power.

our own axis of evil

I used to think that institutionalised religion and crime were the biggest threats to democracy and social justice in this country, but now I can see that the private school system belongs in the same league. A veritable Axis of Evil and injustice within our own borders - crime, religion and private schools. Come to think of it, both crime and religion have a lot to do with private schools!

I've read the news several times, but I still can't believe my eyes. The Labor party has agreed to maintain the Howard government atrocity that funnels huge sums of public money into the privileged private school system, at the expense of our public schools, for another 3 years! For what? So these children of the rich and nouveau-riche can continue to enjoy their birthright privileges (including practising the fine art of shoplifting), subsidised by all tax-payers? Children whose parents no doubt can already afford to avail themselves of the many tax-avoidance and minimisation schemes not available to the masses trapped in the PAYE system that supports private schools.

This is one of the worst, most unfair and unjust policies that this country has ever been subject to, and it disgusts me that the Labor party has allowed the private school lobby to influence and control it in this way.

My electoral options this month are shrinking by the day.

p.s... and here's a great article by Kenneth Davidson in the Age 9/8 on government funding of private schools.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

loose Abbott sinks boats

TONY Abbott is promising to reopen the two Nauru detention centres and restore temporary protection visas within weeks if he wins the August 21 election as part of his strategy to ''stop the boats''. The Age 3 Aug 2010

When I read crap like this, it makes me want to get on the first boat out of this country.

Liberal party polling has apparently discovered a deep vein of fear and ignorance in enough parts of the country that they expect to be able to get more votes than they'll alienate by taking this stance, and Abbott dutifully mouths the platitudes, and whistles to the dogs. Nah, he's not whistling now; he's shouting to the ignorant dogs of 'middle Australia' to join him in sinking innocent victims of war trying to find a safe haven in this country.

I feel sick to the stomach thinking about Abbott and his swinging bigots; I mean, swinging voters.

I like to believe that the majority of these troglodytes are located in the backwards parts of Queensland, WA and western NSW, and that a majority of Victorians and other educated people in south-eastern Australia share my revulsion of the insularity and hysteria whipped up by the northerners.

Victoria has a long, proud tradition of small 'l' liberalism and social conscience. Being bound to the ignorant masses of the north and west makes me wish at times that there was a way out of this federation, so that we wouldn't have to have leadership candidates from, especially, the far right-wing of the NSW conservative parties (Abbott, Howard) foisted on us at election time.

p.s... and thanks to the Age for providing a neat image for me to borrow today (4/8!)

poor cow

"A woman has been airlifted to hospital with serious head injuries after she crashed her quad bike into a cow, which then fell on top of her." The Age, 3 Aug 2010. Very unfortunate for both quad bike rider and cow, I'm sure, but... LMAO, that's a great sentence!

things that make you go hmmm

Ok, well, somebody has to say it - a little girl is reported missing 3 *weeks* after the last time anyone else sees her?? That makes me go hmmmm.

Monday, August 2, 2010

two down...

It's August at last... only one more month of Winter to go. Has this been the coldest Winter in years, or am I just getting old? (rhetorical question only, thanks!) And I wasn't even here for most of June! Spring can't come fast enough for me. But I must admit, there are a few things about Winter that I like... one of them is the visual impact of the branches of deciduous trees.

I dropped by the Conservatory in Fitzroy Gardens recently, and not only was the building itself looking magnificent, but so was the display inside, *and* the setting outside, with the city skyline softened by the bare branches of the trees in the gardens. I have to visit more often; it's a real treat.

me and an off-putting cinema visit

I made time on Saturday to run down to the George again to see 'Me and Orson Welles', a movie based on Welles' preparations to debut his play 'Caesar' at the Mercury Theatre on Broadway in 1937.

As a period piece, it was nicely done, with an authentic sounding (well, to my ears, anyway; it was long before my time!) script and great attention to detail in the visuals.

There were strong performances by the lovely Clare Danes, Christian McKay (as Welles), and even Zac Efron, and several nice supporting performances (including the guy who played the dad in tv's 'Beautiful People'!).

The story was well-written, with a good twist at the end... but one element distracted me throughout the show, and kept taking me 'out of the moment', and I don't know whether or not it was intentional, but the whole movie was presented in sort of washed-out colours; at times, it almost looked as though it was sepia. It was really annoying, but I don't know if it was intentional on the part of the movie producers, as a way of trying to capture the look of the period (in which case, they failed miserably and detracted enormously from the look of the film), or whether I was just watching a very poor print of the movie. At any rate, I'll probably try to catch it again on dvd down the track, even if only to verify that colour issue.

To make matters worse, for the second time in consecutive visits, the heating was broken down in cinema #1, and given that it was a rather chilly day, I ended up almost shivering in my seat by the time the credits rolled (again - just like at 'Inception')... another unwanted distraction whilst trying to enjoy a movie.

As David might say, "I can only give this movie 3 stars"... but maybe if I see it again on blu ray, in the warmth of my living room and with reasonable colour saturation, I might like it a bit more!