Indulgent pre-birthday tunes on a Wednesday

Some of my faves - tune in if you like - http://www.2xxfm.org.au/2xx.m3u or 98.3fm in Canberra

The host of Seraphim    Dead Can Dance    Wake (Disc 1)    6:17
The Collaborator    Gareth Liddiard    Strange Tourist    4:59
New Race (Orig)    Radio Birdman    Do The Pop - Oz Garage Rock 76-87    4:28
Crazy    Cordrazine    From Here To Wherever    4:37
Islands in the stream    Phillipa Nihill and Dave McCormack    Dead Sad    3:19
(I Know) A Girl Called Jonny    Rowland S. Howard    Pop Crimes    3:51
Don't Explain    Paul Kelly    A-Z Downloads    3:06
Free Way    Beaches    Beaches    4:09
The Night I Couldn't Stop Crying    The Devastations    Coal    4:59
My Pal    God    God    3:26
Aeroplanes    Paradise Motel    Flight Paths    4:53
(Are You) the One I've Been Waiting For    Jimmy Little    Messenger    4:08
In The Pines    The Triffids    In The Pines    2:36
Swansong    seaville    Swansong    4:10
Neon Flux    Bit By Bats    Let's Go Romeo    4:29
Alone With You    The Sunnyboys    Sunnyboys    4:00
For A Short Time    Tiddas    Lethal By The Kilo    4:59
She finally gets to travel    The Beautiful Few    Metal for Melbourne...and other stories    4:04
Chuck It Out    Wild Pumpkins At Midnight    The Secret Of The Sad Tree    2:25

Playing some music, being on the radio

 ✓    Palaces of Montezuma    Grinderman    Grinderman 2    3:32
✓    Bellringer Blues    Grinderman    Grinderman 2    5:31
✓    Meditation Song #2 (Why oh why)    Cloud Control    Bliss Release    4:13
✓    The Rolling Stones    Cloud Control    Bliss Release    4:13
✓    How To Make Gravy    John Butler    Before Too Long: triple j's Tribute to Paul Kelly    5:31
✓    This Room    Fat Freddys Drop    Based on a True Story    5:01
✓    I Like Your Old Stuff Better Than Your New Stuff    Regurgitator    Unit    2:37
✓    Solo Trip    prop    Small Craft - Rough Sea    3:55
✓    Goth    Cooperblack    Great Big Squiddy Fun - A Baterz Tribute    3:49
✓    Harry Was A Bad Bugger    Tex, Don And Charlie    All Is Forgiven    5:20
✓    Power Ring    The Lighthouse Keepers    Lipsnipegroin    3:00
✓    Over & Over    Sarah Blasko    As Day Follows Night    3:59
✓    Liar    Randall Blair And The Wedded Bliss    Tattoos And Taillights    4:57
✓    California    Paradise Motel    Still Life    3:09
✓    Caught Out In The Rain    Tom Woodward    32-20 Blues    3:24
✓    Crazy Thinker    TZU    Computer Love    4:34
✓    Run    Spiderbait    J Files - Best covers of all time    1:57
✓    Chuck It Out    Wild Pumpkins At Midnight    The Secret Of The Sad Tree    2:25
✓    Guenevere And The Fire    Penelope Swales    Justifying Your Longings To The Doctor    3:21
✓    Sweet 16    Tex Perkins And His Ladyboyz    No 1's and No 2's    3:13
✓    Farewellin    theredsunband    Peapod    2:12

Tunes for the post-election blues

Ok, I'm on the old-timey wireless again shortly - 2XXfm 98.3 if you're in Canberra and http://www.2xxfm.org.au/2xx.m3u if you're more of an online type person.

Also using the hashtag #2xx during the show if you're Twitter inclined.

These are the tunes I'll be choosing from today.

Drunk On Election Night    Dan Kelly & The Alpha Males    Pirate Radio EP    3:50
What Did I Do    John Ellis    Praise    3:10
Antony Green    Drowsy Drivers    Keating!    1:59
Make It Count    Barb Waters & Kim Salmon    Rosa Duet    3:36
couchAngelOfDeath    Brown Couch    Brown Couch Soundtrack    1:17
Foreign Objects Waltz    Mikelangelo & Undine Francesca    Great Big Squiddy Fun - A Baterz Tribute    5:09
Giant Squids    Baterz    Baterz For Beginners    1:35
The Night I Couldn't Stop Crying    The Devastations    Coal    4:59
Sell My Soul    Midnight Oil    Diesel And Dust    3:37
Don't Dig My Grave Too Deep    Fred Smith    Texas    5:54
Lucky To Be Your Friend    Liz Frencham + Rebecca Wright    You & Me Volume 1.1 - A collection of live Duets    1:52
Stage Presence Featuring BVA (Mnemonic Ascent) and Nfamas (1200 Techniques)    Koolism    Part 3 - Random Thoughts    4:30
Under the Milky Way    The Church    El Momento Descuidado    4:52
Good Ol' Boys    The Fuelers    Hot Dang    3:19
Pop Star Girl    Tom Woodward    32-20 Blues    3:53
Jazz Song    The Lighthouse Keepers    Lipsnipegroin    2:06
All Cultures    Curse Ov Dialect    Lost In The Real Sky    4:28
Computer Love    TZU    Computer Love    3:50
In The Pines    The Triffids    In The Pines    2:36
Red Right Hand    Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds    The Abattoir Blues Tour 2004 (Disc 1)    5:25
Pop Crimes    Rowland S. Howard    Pop Crimes    7:23

We Think You're Dishy    B(if)tek    2020    3:54
revision    love of diagrams    e.p.    4:24
Master And Slave    Beasts Of Bourbon    Little Animals    4:51
The Clock    The Go-Betweens    The Friends Of Rachel Worth    4:06
(Are You) the One I've Been Waiting For    Jimmy Little    Messenger    4:08
For A Short Time    Tiddas    Lethal By The Kilo    4:59
Hearth    Philippa Nihill    A Little Easy    4:38
Fitzroy Strongman    Sodastream    Looks Like A Russian    4:11
Aeroplanes    Paradise Motel    Flight Paths    4:53
Dirty Harry    Gorillaz    Demon Days    3:44
Drowned    Youth Group    Rock Against Howard    4:16
7 Sisters    Wild Pumpkins At Midnight    The Secret Of The Sad Tree    3:04
Evil (Steve Miller)    Lisa Miller    Car tape    4:31
Mr Cheapskate    Cosmic Egg    Cosmic Egg    4:39
Waiting, Wanting, Holding    Jodi Phillis    Love Is A Four Letter Word    3:08
Labour Of Love    Frente!    Marvin The Album    3:03
Sandman    Tex Perkins And His Ladyboyz    No 1's and No 2's    3:55
A Midlife's Tale    My Friend The Chocolate Cake    Parade    3:27
Ocean Of You    The Black Eyed Susans    Reveal Yourself    3:29
A Can Of Lemonade And A Pastie    Rob Clarkson    Shirts & Skins: Songs 90-96    1:13

Returning to Sunset

Well I've had a bit of a break from playing tunes on 2XX but now I'm back - on a new day (Wednesday - today) and with a slightly new format (more emphasis on the local music scene and Oz tracks) but still at the same time - 4.30 to 6.00 (AEST)

If you're interested, you can even listen to the stream - http://www.2xxfm.org.au/08/2xx.m3u

Here is the selection for today - though the laws of time and space mean that I won't get through all of it.

Hoodoo You Love The Drones Stoneage Cameos 2:48
Girl In A Sweater The Hard-Ons Born Out Of Time - The Australian Indie Sound 1979-88 2:45
Four Photos Fire On The Hill Endless Smiley Sunstar 5:41
Generation Abc Justin Heazlewood The Bedroom Philosopher - Living On The Edge Of My Bed 2:24
Party Started The Cat Empire Two Shoes 3:47
Bird On A Wire Sarah Blasko As Day Follows Night 3:14
April Of The Dickheads Tex Perkins Great Big Squiddy Fun - A Baterz Tribute 3:44
Twee Penelope Swales Great Big Squiddy Fun - A Baterz Tribute 2:57
The Cops The Paradise Motel Australian Ghost Story 4:00
Familiar Stranger The Paradise Motel Australian Ghost Story 3:47
Heathen Child Grinderman Grinderman 2 4:55
Long Days In Bed Lee Memorial The Lives Of Lee Memorial 3:26
Hoedown Beaches Beaches 2:51
Pop Crimes Rowland S. Howard Pop Crimes 7:23
(I Know) A Girl Called Jonny Rowland S. Howard Pop Crimes 3:51
Sweet Guy Adalita Before Too Long: triple j's Tribute to Paul Kelly 3:51
Wedding Day Sam Evans Brown Couch Soundtrack 2:54
Better the devil you know The Meanies Bigger than Tina 3:05
Mistakes The Devastations Yes, U 3:05
Shivers - 1 Nick Cave and the Dirty 3 Single 5:11


Quick Way To Hell The Fuelers Hot Dang 3:43
World Divided The View From Here Songs Of Protest 3:16
A Big Star The City Lights Rock Against Howard 2:55
Blade-running Elf Preview 4:13
Wired For Sound B(if)tek 2020 3:52
12 Gates To The City Suzie Higgie Songs Of Habit 4:57
Pop Star Girl Tom Woodward 32-20 Blues 3:53
The Illustrated man Konrad Lenz Living with the spirits of the dead 3:58
Under the Milky Way The Church El Momento Descuidado 4:52
Dirty Water Randall Blair And The Wedded Bliss Tattoos And Taillights 4:46
Blue Guitar Fred Smith Bagarap Empires 5:29
The Black Sea Waltz Mikelangelo & The Black Sea Gentlemen Mikelangelo & The Black Sea Gentlemen 3:24
Life's So Hard God God 4:02
My Pal (Live) God GOD 6:56
Electrical Storm (Live) Ed Kuepper This Is The Magic Mile 6:37
The day we lost Fitzroy The Bites White lines and runways 3:06
The Sandringham line The lucksmiths Naturaliste 5:27

Kill Bill Yakety Sax

It's a little bit nuts how well the music works with this clip.

(Not for the squeamish)

Bravo to wickedexp on YouTube

The Mechanical Man

Robots, old timey cars and some very nice music - taken from a 1921 sci-fi silent film called The Mechanical Man

Ok, seriously, WTF - The Human Centipede

Just watched a little bit of Charlie Brooker's You Have Been Watching that featured a clip from a 2009 (according to IMDB) or 2010 (according to Wikipedia) horror film called The Human Centipede.

I really want to see this now so I'm not going to look for a trailer or other info (even though a quick scan of Wikipedia has given away more of the plot than I already want to know) - suffice to say it's a story with a distinctly Cronenbergian vibe about a mad surgeon that creates what he calls a human centipede by sewing three people together mouth-to-anus.

That is a seriously screwed up idea - kudos to the creator.

All day long, Tory leader thinks about...

This has to be the best photo taken during a U.K election campaign ever.

Conservative Party leader David (call me Dave) Cameron with a giant thought bubble that continues the proud tradition of closeted Tory politicians

I just wish that they were still using their slogan from the last election - "Are you thinking what we're thinking?"

(Photo credit to Michael Schofield, original at http://ow.ly/i/1g5M/original )

Elegant in simplicity - Mister Nice Hands

Sometimes you stumble across something online that makes you extra glad to have the Internets.

Presenting, Mr Nice Hands
(needs sound)

Doing what now to unicorns?

There's not a whole lot to be said about this video - let's just be thankful that the occult menace that is Latin words has finally be brought to light.

In fairness, it does look like there has been some judicious editing going on here - hard to say whether that was from the original producers of the video or the people at www.everythingisterrible.com - even then that could be to maximise the lols or make it fit into a viewer friendly 3:40.

Still, the fact that there is an audience for this makes me wonder about people sometimes

Alcoholic whipped cream in a can? Why yes, I believe I would, thankyou.

One of my fave sources for pop culture info is the AV Club via The Onion website.

Their latest review/taste-test of Whipped Lightning, alcoholic whipped cream in a can, only confirms that I'm right.

As with the range of other taste tests that these guys do on only-in-America type products, they put a funny and informative description of the product together for you and follow it up with a range of quotes from the willing bunnies that they round up in the office to try out the new taste-sensation of the day.

My fave quote from this one:

I imagine this is what alcoholics think clouds taste like.

Pixels - this is why I like Twitter and YouTube

Found this as a link on Craig (The Chaser) Reucassel's twitter feed - it's pixeltastic

From the pages of fail blog

Or, to put it another way - LOL WTF

Law abiding engineer - beautiful game/movie mashup

Stumbleupon, that amazing web timesink pointed me towards this video on YouTube that brilliantly integrates game footage from Team Fortress 2 and the trailer for the movie Law Abiding Citizen.



There is also a split screen version of this, with the original trailer that is well worth a look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js2ixPcRT7U

It's not really that hard out here for a pimp

Went to a costume wedding on the weekend and rather enjoyed my costume - I've always wanted to get a pair of red pants but until now have felt that they were a little too lairy. Maybe they are but so what.

Also quite enjoyed rockin' the cane - managed to get a bit of a strut happening by the end of the night.

There's nothing like - dumb ad campaigns and internet smart-arses

A day after Tourism Australia launched their ill-fated (yes, I'm calling it - it's the iSnack 2.0 of tourism campaigns) new marketing scheme for Australia - "There's nothing like Australia" - a group of proud pisstaking Aussies have responded with their own version.

I don't know which band of coke-fuelled marketing gurus came up with this replacement for the charmingly desperate and sad "Where the bloody hell are you?" campaign that gave us tabloid darling Lara Bingle but it hasn't done this country, Tourism Australia and marketing doofuses any credit at all.

If for no other reason than half decent writing - surely it should be "there's nowhere else like it" - this slogan just begs mockery. Why on Earth would you put a negative word in the same phrase as the product name and no other words that cast a positive light on it. Even "you can't beat the feeling" has "feeling" in it.
Dropping "else" in there immediately invites you to think about other places - which, whether we like it or not, actually do have most of the cool things that we have here - particularly if we are focusing on nature. (Of course we have very nice nature and great diversity but there are still beaches, mountains, rivers, forests etc elsewhere, despite what the slogan might have you believe)

Fortunately, we do have a proud tradition of pisstaking, which makes me proud to see the response version of the ad campaign up and firing so quickly. (In fairness, credit should go to Tourism Australia for not setting the lawyers on these guys for parodying their IP - that part at least is classy)

These are some of my personal faves so far.

The Phantom •

Hmmmmm, kind of having my doubts about this.
So now we have a reimagining of The Phantom, due for tv this year.

Looks a little generic - could be any modern chosen-one/superhero actiony thing.

Happy to be proven wrong though - but if the word badass comes out of this guy's mouth I'll know it's all over.

Castle: "Space Cowboy" (Firefly/Serenity)

Got to respect the Firefly love still being shown in Nathan Fillion's new show Castle.

Hey Dad...! - "Was it good for you?"

Clearly the whole Hey Dad alleged child-groping/etc is a terrible terrible story - either if it happened (and the weight of evidence seems pretty damning) or if it didn't (let's not completely forget presumption of innocence and due process). Clearly Robert Hughes is totally fucked either way.

All of which makes it extra unfortunate that there are so many track titles on this 1991 compilation of audio tracks from the popular Oz sitcom that seem to be darkly inappropriate.

From the obvious opening track "Was it good for you?" and "Electric touch" to the prescient "For whom the bells toll", you could almost believe that someone in the know was sending a message that they couldn't put out any other way - or perhaps more darkly having a quiet laugh to themselves.

Of course, its ridiculously easy to attach a double meaning that was never there in the first place to any innocent phrase or statement with hindsight, but there's still a whole lotta yick to all of this. (Including the fact that this story made me voluntarily watch both A Current Affair and Today Tonight)

For me, I never liked the show - I never knew exactly why, at the time I assumed I was being mr snobby highbrow-pants but it never seemed to ring true.

Sometimes though it's just better when you're not right about something.

The cd itself I picked up in a bargain bin for $3, figuring that I would one day get around to re-editing the wholesome/dorky dialogue tracks into something perverted/darker and clearly more hilarious. Never did though - and now I guess I never will. Some shit just isn't funny when it might be true.

What is it with the left and being hilarious?

Nice work here from some Melbourne comedians with a lefty slant - they have a show on at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival that looks well worth checking out.

Find out more on their blog - http://thefirst3.blogspot.com/

Treme Trailer #2

If you're a fan of The Wire, this show may not be news to you but it looks pretty cool nonetheless. Starting in April apparently.

Corporate much?

So when 11 out of 32 of the words on the page at the start of your iPhone app description have little trademark or registered symbols, do you think that maybe you're going too far?

The Internet Is Made Of Cats

It's not super brilliant but it's about cats and the Internet, so it gets a pass.

Lars Von Trier invites you to visit his Denmark

Big fan of Lars Von Trier - love his thoughtfulness, his imagination, willingness to push the limit and his darkness.

Can't say that I would've chosen him to direct a tourism campaign though - but what do I know about marketing.

(Bless those Onion folks for showing us how things might have been)


Denmark Introduces Harrowing New Tourism Ads Directed By Lars Von Trier

From Kirk to Spock via the worst Aussie accent ever?

Completely unintentional juxtaposition here of two of the leads of Star Trek TOS - sometimes you just get lucky I guess.

No idea what the film was, I'm guessing mid to late 60s, but I think I'd like to see it now.

Can't stop saying Denny Crane

I'm a late-comer to Boston Legal but now that I'm there, I'm kind of hooked. 

It's not that I think that it's the most amazing tv show ever made or anything - The Wire and pretty well anything that's ever screened on HBO is still well ahead there - but there are a couple of things about it that I seem to be fixated on at the moment. 

For one thing, while it's a fairly clever show and definitely well made, it's relatively light and fluffy in comparison to the excellent/worthy shows on my "to-watch" list. We're talking about The Corner, Generation Kill (both from The Wire creator, David Simon), Breaking Bad, Caprica and a few others. Truth be told, these are all fantastic shows - I do believe that we live in a golden age of tv - but over all, there is something of a seriousness, even a modern grimness to all of them.

Boston Legal creator, David E Kelley, has an admirable track record in sharp, funny production over the last few years - Ally McBeal and The Practice of particular note. Shows that take a very tv look at current events and issues by popping them into the middle of a busy, big-time law firm peopled with fascinating and ridiculously good looking and witty staff. Rather unlikely in reality but perfect for tv. 

Boston Legal's core is the great Denny Crane - played, of course, by William Shatner. A more than a little bit eccentric, larger than life character who has never lost at anything. His catch-phrase is simply his name, repeated frequently as though the words themselves are simply all that need to be said. And, like songs on commercial radio, after a little while, the repetition really does its job. 

The phrase "Denny Crane" becomes shorthand for "don't worry, it's me, what bad thing could possibly happen" or "of course we won, it's me". It's a call of absolute and utter confidence, mixed with that dash of justified egotism and there is something incredibly affirming about just saying the words. It says - everything is ok and yes, I am freakin awesome. 

Forget that Denny Crane is a full-blooded right winger, forget that he is gun-crazy and even shot Omar (yes, from the Wire) in the head with a paint-ball gun in one episode, all that matters is Denny Crane. 

(Personally, I'd like to be more like his best buddy, the brilliantly played James Spader character Alan Shore. Incredibly intelligent, wry, sound lefty, incredibly magnetic and with a nice measure of dark self destructiveness to keep things entertaining. One day. ) 

Denny Crane

Hep cats demand Miaow

It's clearly the cat lover in me but I'm rather tickled by the name of the new moral-panic of the week party drug Miaow.

Can't say I'd heard of it before reading this story on the ABC website (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/12/2818459.htm) but it seems to be similar to ecstasy and cocaine, with a come-down that's a "little bit more subtle. "

As you would expect, the police report also mentions links to psychotic episodes and possibly deaths and so on.

Still, I can't help wondering if it makes people purr. :)

Daybreakers - what do vampires do when the blood runs out?

Daybreakers is the new film from Oz genre-masters the Spierig Brothers. It is set in the near future (2019) and tells the tale of what happens when vampires rule the earth and the supplies of humans are seriously dwindling. It offers a refreshing new perspective on the genre as well as through in some spectacularly gratuitous (but fun) gore and effects.

I saw Daybreakers last night and Undead, their low-budget zombie effort, a few years ago. I'd call it a really solid film but not yet a great film or a classic. The style, effects and gore are unmatched for an Oz genre film and the story and pacing held together really well until the final act. The guys also have a real knack for putting action sequences together. (There's a nice reference back to one of the highlights of Undead, when a zombie vampire hangs by his feet from the ceiling in mid-battle)

It is an improvement over Undead but mainly because of the evolution of fx technology and (of course) the larger budget. The Sperig Bros have some interesting ideas and aren't afraid to look at a genre from a new perspective - the concepts alone in Daybreakers are worth the price of entry. (Maybe a tv series would have been a better direction?)

Having said that, let me say this - they do seem to have a bit of trouble finishing stories. Undead had an interesting but unsatisfying finish and this one was more solid but still seemed to end with everyone distractedly wandering off to look at something else. For such a strong build up, a much bigger finish was needed. (Unless they are eyeing off a sequel?)

For the cast that they had to work with, the performances all seemed a little flat. Could be the George Lucas effect - strong with the whizbang but less so with working with actors. (Either that or the direction was all about underplaying things but I couldn't say why)

If you are looking for a smarter than average actiony/sci-fi/vampire pic, it's hard to go past this one.

Tony Soprano is a Wild Thing

James Gandolfini's role in Where the Wild Things Are revoiced with his work in The Sopranos. What's not to love?

iPad pwned by MadTV - back in 2006

It's a name that just begged to be messed with.

Jon Stewart is with me

I posted about a fairly under-reported but significant piece of American political news the other day - the Supreme Court decision to remove restrictions on corporate political campaigning.

Jon Stewart explains it much better than I ever could. (And sidekick Jon Oliver delivers a blindingly funny response celebrating the end of discrimination against corporations)

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Supreme Corp
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

The big deal is really that for a bit over 100 years, corporations have enjoyed the same legal status as individual citizens.

Even Barack Obama is less than impressed.

Brother Ali - Uncle Sam Goddamn

I've been listening to this guy for a few weeks now - I knew he was from Minnesota but never realised that he was white. Not that it matters I guess - great tunes.

Update: I just noticed that poster image that YouTube decided to take from the video - not the most appealing one I know but the song is still well worth checking out (yo)

Scarier than Skynet - the corporations are winning

I've posted more than a couple of times here about advancements in military robot technology that make me a little concerned (and probably make me look like a tin foil hat wearer but that's neither here nor there)

This news story from the US though leaves me seriously troubled.

WASHINGTON — Overruling two important precedents about the First Amendment rights of corporations, a bitterly divided Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections.

The 5-to-4 decision was a vindication, the majority said, of the First Amendment’s most basic free speech principle — that the government has no business regulating political speech. The dissenters said that allowing corporate money to flood the political marketplace would corrupt democracy.

The ruling represented a sharp doctrinal shift, and it will have major political and practical consequences. Specialists in campaign finance law said they expected the decision to reshape the way elections were conducted. Though the decision does not directly address them, its logic also applies to the labor unions that are often at political odds with big business.

Maybe I'm missing the finer detail but it seems to me that corporations in the U.S are now free to spend as much money as they can raise on making sure that the people they like get elected. They can potentially spend billions of dollars if they choose on tv advertising and all the other costs of campaigning - money that they have never before been able to kick in.

The most telling part of this case for me is the almost Orwellian name of the body who brought it to the court - Citizens United. ( funnily enough, one of the anti-internet lobby groups in the GTA universe is Citizens United Negating Technology - although it just doesn't seem so funny any more)
This isn't going to end well.

Update: got some more info that reveals that things could be worse -

"The judges also struck down part of the landmark McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill, enacted in 2001, which barred union and corporate-paid issue ads in the closing days of election campaigns.

The court's ruling leaves in place a prohibition on direct contributions to candidates from corporations and unions and did not touch a ban on unlimited donations from corporations and unions to political parties."

(from The Age)

Still, there's a whole lot of wrong about this. Supporters might (disingenuously) argue that this is a matter of free speech but if you have the money to ensure that yours is the only voice heard over and over and over, what does that do to the free speech of everyone else?

How about some fair speech?

Breaking news Breaking Bad great

So, sure - Breaking Bad has already finished its second series and the lead actor Bryan Cranston (the dad from Malcolm in the Middle) has already won two Best Actor emmys for his role in the show  but until last night I hadn't seen it so in Couch Media world, I guess this passes for breaking news.

It was just the pilot that I saw - possibly the hardest episode of a series to make because you have just under an hour (or half an hour) to set up your premise, introduce your characters and give viewers a reason to come back. Tick, tick and tick.

In a nutshell, Cranston plays high school chem teacher Walter White who is struggling to make a living and then discovers that he has inoperable lung cancer. Cheery start right. (Did I mention that he also has a mildly disabled son?) After learning just how much money is to be made in the production of crystal meth (ice), he decides to go into business, with the intention of setting up his family for the future. Despite the premise, it's not a depressing story - it's real (but not too real) and Cranston's White is a genuinely interesting and likeable character. (And it's always good to see kinda-nerds being a bit badass)

It's also won the Emmy for Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series for the last two years - one was for the episode that I saw last night - guess it helps to have a good editor.

Pay Attention

A great spiel about why if you're not using technology in teaching, you're losing your students.

Countries with the Southern Cross on their flags

I've seen the stars of the Southern Cross painted, tattooed, on stickers and hand drawn in texta across the persons and vehicles of any number of  nationalistic young people in recent years. Personally I think these kinds of displays of nationalism - while often made by perfectly decent people - are a little American - over the top and tinged with a kind of intolerant tribalism.

Saying that everyone who feels proud of this country is an ignorant bogan or redneck is to oversimplify things - there is a lot to still celebrate about Australia (something that the joyless, overcritical wowsers on both sides of politics forget sometimes). The things that I like most about Oz is the laid back but practical nature of how we do things. The whole quiet achiever thing. This strikes me as the greatest sign of confidence - not needing to jump up and down and wave your arms around.

The rise of the Southern Cross as a sign of national pride is extra puzzling because it's a constellation that can be seen from most places in the Southern Hemisphere. Four other countries like it so much that they have it on their flags. You could argue pretty easily that the Federation star, with its 7 points representing the states and territories is a more distinctive symbol of national pride. (Let's overlook our colonial master's flag still perched up in the top corner - even the Barmy Army has been heard to say "get your shit stars off our flag")

The Eureka flag - which has been adopted by a range of groups from trade unions to white supremacists - could also be ripe for reclamation. Of course, it would be better if it was accomplished by some kind of meaning popular movement against unfair oppression - but like that's going to happen.

I've got nothing against the Southern Cross itself - it's a good looking group of stars and handily can be used to find south without a compass - but it's not uniquely Australian.

Australia

Brazil

Brazil actually wins in the story about why the Southern Cross is on their flag. It represents the stars they saw on the morning of the 15th of November, 1889, the day the Republic of Brazil was declared. Each star on the flag represents one Brazilian state. On top of this,

the flag portrays them as they would be seen by an imaginary observer an infinite distance above Rio standing outside the firmament in which the stars are considered to be placed.(flagspot.net)

New Zealand

Papua New Guinea

Samoa

(images from Wikipedia and in the public domain)

Exciterrifying - Augmented ID

The Astonishing Tribe (TAT) has a video up of a prototype of a system for your phone that excites and terrifies me. In essence, you point your phone cam at someone (with an account set up presumably) and it displays on screen a range of info from their social networking footprint.

I'm excited because it's another step forward in this amazing digital era we find ourselves in, where the concepts of knowledge and information are being radically reimagined every other day and terrified (ok, perhaps not that extreme but it worked well with my exciterrify portmanteau) because of the potential for evil it displays. When you think about it though, face recognition has been around for a while and who knows what the powers that be are doing with that tech. 

Or, in their words:

Augmented ID is a TAT concept that visualizes the digital identities of people you meet in real life. With a mobile device and face recognition software from Polar Rose, Augmented ID enables you to discover selected information about people around you. All users control their own augmented appearance, by selecting the content and social network links they want show to others. Modifying your augmented ID is easier than fixing your hair in real life and, of course, TAT Cascades will make sure you look great!

Time for a new hairstyle?

Time for a new hairstyle?
Originally uploaded by couchmedia

Just found a nifty iPhone app called OldBooth that makes it verrrry
easy to Photoshop your face into other styles.

Beautiful and simple interface.

Dreaming

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Henry David Thoreau

Because C3PO needs a more obvious package.

It seems like almost every day Youtube gives me something to be thankful for. I'm not sure where to start with this but it does appear to have answered my questions about what Star Wars would have been like with more C3POs and Darth Vaders - dancing badly and in too-much-information tights.

Thankyou late 70s French tv.

The guy who did the spider drawing to pay a bill has a whole website

You must have seen the email detailing the amusing email exchange between a guy trying to pay his power bill with a drawing of a seven legged spider and his power company right? It's gold.

Anyway, I found out today that he in fact has a whole website of similar exchanges - either he's a massive smart arse or a very imaginative writer. Either way, it's entirely worth a look.

Personal highlights for me include his response to a client asking him to do some graphic design work for free (a not-uncommon request in the design world) as well as creating some pie charts.

The general modus operandi seems to be responding to irritating and/or officious requests with a beautiful hybrid of rambling, absurdity, trolling and sarcasm. I'm not normally that great a fan of sarcasm - on its own it's generally what people who overrate their intelligence use to feel witty - but in combination with everything else, it works a treat.

Other posts seem to be even more random, possibly grabbing images from social networking sites and concocting bizarre stories around them. One resulted in a threatening legal letter (which he of course took the opportunity to play with) before agreeing to "change the name" of the target - the name which funnily enough remains listed in the legal exchange.

In fairness though, the guy does have a very clear message on the complaints page of his site to

Go away

this site contains none of your business
and is for my amusement only.

You do not have permission to access the content and if you do decide to enter this site, you agree to waive all rights.

From what I can gather, this guy is also from Adelaide (for which he has my deepest condolences)

WiFi winners

It's been a little while since I've visited Passive Aggressive Notes.com - a very amusing site that allows people to share some of the notes that get left around the place.

This particular post made me lol - mainly because it reminded me of the all-time best/worst wifi network name I have ever seen. I was riding through the industrial part of Footscray (near Melbourne) just before Christmas and my phone asked me if I wanted to connect to a network called cuntseepage.Classy.

Belated Win

Love this pic that I found up in the Win section (the antithesis of the Fail section) on the ICanHasCheezburger.com site - natural home of lolcats.

I can only imagine the neihbours wondering if this guy is taking the piss. (sorry)

Penisly? Oh Portia De Rossi, is there anything you can't say?

From old sitcoms to new (and apparently cancelled but never mind) - just started watching a new(ish)y called Better Off Ted.

Taking laser guided aim at corporate culture but with a strong cast of likable characters and some sparkling writing, this show is quickly growing on me. So far each ep has also made beautiful fun of corporate videos and even, in the last ep I watched, foretold a recent problem where a company's webcams (I think) didn't recognise black people.

Portia De Rossi absolutely pwns with immaculate delivery of lines like these:

I bought you some new boxers - they didn't highlight your assets. Penisly.

And

Walk away tall. Walk away - tall.

Whoever knew that the dad on Growing Pains was cool?

So it turns out that not only did Alan Thicke write the theme songs for Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life, but he also worked with Richard Pryor in his 70s heyday.

And to think that I just thought he was a funny looking twat in a pisspoor 80's sitcom.

This interview in The Onion'sAV Club tells all.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/alan-thicke,36751/

Loving: Stuff white people like - the Melbourne version

I seem to have been in something of a Melbourne frame of mind lately - enjoying a few weeks down there, catching up with best friends and family, going to Meredith - complaining about the country-ness of the music scene there and then promptly stocking up on "good" alterna-country as soon as I got back to Canberra, and reading (and loving) Christos Tsiolkas' The Slap.

So I guess I got a few extra lols when my housemate pointed me towards this blog post - Stuff White people like - the Melbourne Version.

A couple of the highlights:

Not Liking Football
Sport is popular with the wrong type of white Melburnian, and the most popular sport amongst these people is Australian football. It is no accident that Melbourne is considered Australia’s sporting capital AND its art capital because art is the best way to hide your love of football. In the white Melburnian brain, art and football are mutually exclusive. If you profess an interest in one, everybody will assume you hate the other. Melburnian white people do this to hide their shame, because all of them carry around little shards of pain in their hearts caused by North Melbourne’s shock loss to Adelaide in the 1998 Grand Final, or the 1996 merger of the Fitzroy Lions with the Brisbane Bears, or Essendon’s agonising one point loss to Carlton at the ‘G in 1999.

This one resonated particularly with me as a North Melbourne supporter, remembering only too well an increasingly drunken pub crawl around Richmond on Grand Final Day in 1998 with some close friends and realising in almost slow motion that North was done for.

I got nailed by a few other items but mostly recognised people or at least types that I've known over the year: most of it fortunately relates to the hippy trendies I've known but never entirely bought into the bullshit of.
This comment in particular though got me:

Talking about how Meredith isn't as good as it used to be (despite the fact that most people who go these days only started going a few years ago)

(At least I was there in 99 - and still have the tshirt to prove it)

I've never been to Confest but love this description:

Confest
Filled with oppressively friendly men who ‘just want to give you a massage,’ Confest is sort of what you imagined the seventies to be like, except with a lot more AIDS and variants of hepatitis. White Melburnians like Confest because they get to experiment with creating a perfect society, which for them means being able to fuck anyone they want. Don’t sit down in the sauna because it’s the equivalent of touching a thousand naked and sweaty assholes.

The Wire - 100 greatest quotes

If you haven't converted to The Wire-ism yet, why don't you take a moment to hear the truth and feel it.



(There aren't any major spoilers in this one but if you haven't seen the whole thing, I'd stay away from the second 100 greatest quotes vid as there are some major ones)

Getting it done - 2009 style

Last year was a pretty good year for me - all things considered.

Maybe it is the looming 4-0 but after years of pfaffing about, I decided that it was time to start taking action and I decided to make 2009 my year of determination. Both in terms of helping me to determine who I really am as well as being determined to make some progress on a number of life things that I've been dissatisfied with.

No more would I see, think or hear about something and say to myself - I really must do that sometime - my new resolution was to actually do it. No more excuses, laziness or procrastination (which I must say I'm bloody brilliant at - it can sometimes take me days or weeks before I even realise that I'm procrastinating about doing something) - just doing. As Yoda says, there is no try, there is just do or do not. Even failing is still doing on many levels.

So Mr bloody Wonderful - what did you do then?

Well, the short highlights list (and I'm pretty sure that I'm going to miss a few things here):

• Took a tandem hang glider flight
• Travelled to Tasmania and more extensively around Darwin and Kakadu
• Started learning piano
• Became a dual AUS/UK citizen
  
• Presented at a (reasonably large) education conference
• Took up mountain biking (strained back aside I'm calling this a win)
• Put a towbar and bike rack on the car (not huge but had been on the list for years)
• Rode some very pretty rail trails, including a ride longer than any I've done before in a day (100km)
• Made some real progress on the second draft of my loooong neglected script
• Lost 8kg
• Put some solid work into improving my posture
• Bought some Aboriginal paintings
• Went away for a cycling weekend with a group of complete strangers 
• Developed some useful work skills
  

Mostly the achievement for me came in gradually shifting my mindset to be more focussed and determined.

Taking the time to understand how I work and particularly how to get past the equally determined procrastinator in me has also been really useful. Something I worked out very early on was that I've long used relationships and the attendant lack of independence while in one (or the quest for a new one when out of them) as my do-nothing excuse numero uno. Which has clearly been unfair to the girlfriends I've had (and loved) - in terms of using them as the excuse for my own lack of will and perhaps even trying to blame them, knowing all the while that it was probably actually my fault.

So to be sure of this, item number one was that the year had to be a solo mission - remove the excuse/scapegoat and take complete responsibility. So now I know that there are times when I can be completely slack (I had hoped to finish the second draft of the script entirely rather than the 10 - 15% I currently have done - though I'm pretty happy with the quality so far at least) and times when I can push myself to get things done. On reflection, I probably haven't actually answered the question of whether relationships have slowed me down or just been an excuse (and I am very sorry for any confusion I may have caused on this front as well - a man's not a camel, as the poets say and my head has been turned a couple of times this year before I got back to the project.

As for this year - probably still leaning towards keeping things going as they are at present - I'm really enjoying the sense of taking control of my destiny and the lack of complications that singledom brings. Honestly though, who knows what might happen - at least now I think I have enough self-awareness to know what's an excuse and what's an obstacle.

So for this year - the plan is more of a sketch at this stage but so far:

• Finish 2nd draft of Boonsville script.
• Try Fencing
• Piano – continue lessons and practice
• Present or co-present at an International educonference
• Organise 2011 NZ cycle tour
• Under 90 kg
• Have at least $12,000 in savings by setting a solid budget and sticking to it
• Resume Couch Media blog
• Resume Gamer/Learner blog
• Become a Moodle/Equella/Wimba guru
• Focus

There's probably still more - but the wheels are slowing turning and I've come back here.

So what about you - how are you going with your goals/dreams/etc and what do you want/need to do?

Can't stop listening to Monsters of Folk

It was only a few weeks ago that I was sitting at the Meredith Music Festival, Melbourne's alterna-music mecca, wondering to myself if the current trend in music toward the folky/country-edged had run its course.

Band after band seemed to be churning out very competent and polished performances that just left me thinking meh. They seemed to be drawing directly from the old school sounds of 50s and 60s country and I really just found myself longing for some good solid dirty rock or even just something with some edge. Scene faves Wagons and Kitty, Daisy & Lewis  seemed to fit particularly into this mire but there were a number of other less memorable bands that were much the same.

The one artist who really seemed able to work this style was the great Paul Kelly - even Jon Spencer's Heavy Trash had me wandering off for a bite to eat half way through the set. (All of this might well be more a reflection of my non-addled state of mind, an overreaction to drinking/etc too much last time I hit Meredith and trying to balance the scales by swinging to far the other way this time around or maybe I'm just old and/or jaded)

Anyway, track forward to a small end of the year cd binge at JB (2010 plan is to budget much more effectively but any pre-2010 purchases don't count, right) - where I pick up new stuff from Calexico, Roland S Howard (vale), The Dead Weather (new Jack White supergroup), Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Monsters of Folk. All of them solid gold selections based on buzz read or heard from reputable sources.

It's Monsters of Folk though that has utterly dominated the cd player since I bought it on Thursday. This made all the more impressive by the fact that there's actually a small crack in the cd that renders the first 3 tracks pretty well unlistenable. I couldn't tell you exactly what it is about this album that has me so enthralled - one or two of the tracks veer dangerously close to the wrong side of the country line for me but taken as a whole, it just seems perfectly balanced and flawless. It's definitely got twang and all the other country touches that I heard at Meredith, there's just something extra in there that takes it to a whole new level.

Of course, it's not really fair comparing some well-liked and highly skilled Melbourne acts with a super group composing M Ward, Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis from Bright Eyes and Jim James from My Morning Jacket, all hugely regarded artists in their own right. For me the issue just seems to be that the Americans do it better and just get it more. Having been out of Melbourne for coming on to a decade now, I can't help but wonder (slightly tongue in cheek) whether the RRR mafia that guides the Melbourne sound has lost it's touch.

Or maybe it's a Melbourne thing. (though I have made the same criticisms of the Canberra music scene)

Anyway, if you haven't heard much of Monsters of Folk, here's a few samples

Daybreakers - from the people who brought you Undead

I remember hearing murmurs of The Spierig brothers working on some vampire film and thinking - hmm, this could be interesting - but imagine my surprise when I found this trailer for it. (Watch the HD one if you can, go on, treat yourself).



Apparently coming out in Oz on the 21st of Jan.

I have to confess that this post was initially going to titled - Claudia Karvan in a sci fi vampire film OMFG - there may be a small fancrush going on there (but I do think she's a great actor)

Here's the Undead trailer if you haven't already seen it