Preparing : My radio show

For those who came in late - I do a weekly two hour radio show on the local community radio station here in Canberra, 2xxfm. (I'd like to change the name to XXfm but that's another story).

I've been a fan of community radio since before I knew what it even was. I remember times sitting at home in Melbourne in the mid 80's twirling the radio dial and on occasion coming across a faint station playing all these songs that I'd never heard of. It was a couple of years before I realised that these must have been 3RRRfm and 3PBSfm - two of the coolest radio stations anywhere. (This is a measurable fact, by the way)

Community radio to me has always been about the music first and foremost - the talk and other content is great as well but it was (and still is) through community radio that I have been exposed to virtually all the great bands that I know and love today.

(For those reading this from somewhere else, community radio in Australia is non-corporate, independent, non-government, volunteer run radio)

Anyway, my show is in the drive-time slot (4-6pm) and is of a generalist rather than specialist nature. XX aims to play music that people don't generally hear elsewhere (ie overly commercial music) but beyond that, announcers have free reign. (We have to be mindful of the community sector code of practice as well as playing a certain proportion of Australian and Canberra music as well).



We have two cd players on the desk in the studio and generally speaking it's a matter of cueing up a track on one while the other is playing.

Unless, of course, you burn your songs onto one or two cds (I usually need about 1 and a bit) and you just leave them in the machines.

Selection of tunes is the key thing there - being the music junkie that I am, there are usually a few new cds floating around each week so I like to find something interesting on these, even a couple of tracks if they are particularly noticable.

From here, I like to mix it up a little - cool songs from good albums from the last 6 months or so, a few more from the last decade and generally always a few old school alterna-classics from the 70's and 80's.

Iconic English DJ John Peel had a philosophy with his show that he'd play some songs that he knew people would like and some songs that he thought they'd like.

You can see listings of the tracks I've selected on the (rather neglected) Monday Sunset blog.

(by the way, that isn't the official 2XXfm logo at the top of the page, it's just one I've been playing with. The existing logo hasn't changed in the better part of a decade to my knowledge and I think a revamp is in order)

Interviewing: housemates (day 2)

Well, we started well today with a no-show and then the next one was something like 40 mins late. (I think calling someone when you are running late is a pretty simple common courtesy.)

The first was a little older than our other candidates (but sadly I'm still older) and it's her first time out of home in a share place - she's lived with four brothers and in her own flat but didn't seem particularly prepared for share housing.

Part of her problem unfortunately was that she seemed highly conscious of this and so all these things just served to make her more nervous. It's hard to say how to work around this issue but given the quality of other applicants, it didn't help her.

The next (and last) person was a webdesigner from Melbourne, working for a government department with an amusing acronym. (DIC)(DIAC my arse. You were never DIAMA or DIMIAA, where does the sudden use of And come from? You didn't think your acronym through and you just have to wear it I'm afraid)

Very personable guy, seemed easy going and interesting and Eric and I had a great chat with him after Abi thought that he was all talked out and wandered off to the shops. (So consequently she missed the most interesting stuff about him)

This was (just quietly) also the guy who had seemed the most promising during the week and I was thinking that he would have a good shot.

Abi (not surprisingly) thought otherwise - she had particularly bonded with the first girl today - the same girl that was pretty well at the bottom of our shortlist. (well, perhaps before the multimedia girl and the noshow anyway).

After trying to work out the fairest way to assess and balance everyones preferences (scoring out of five outright seemed a little cheap), we eventually decided to rank our choices from one to five, total the numbers and the person with the lowest number wins. (Still perhaps a little odd but it seemed the fairest option).

And our choice:

AusAID girl.

(alright, we have a housemate)

Interviewing: housemates (day 1)

Ok, the email scrutinising/culling process is past, now onto the meeting and the greeting.

We had 4 people pencilled in for today and another who just happened to call at the right time and find a slot - bypassing the first level of filtering. (More on this shortly)

Our first girl (no names, no pack drill - what the hell does that expression mean, by the by) who we shall call ABC girl for obvious reasons turned up pretty well bang on time.

Now those who know me a little will know that I'm something of a media junkie - if I can read it, listen to it, watch it or play it, I'm there. I'm particularly interested in the people and organisations that look at our world and tell us what is going on - most particularly when they try to do it with less of a corporate slant - so public media such as the ABC, community media and the "quality" papers (The Age, SMH etc) score higher points here.

So ABC girl is off to a good start as far as I'm concerned just by virtue of being there. She's part of their cadet programme, so is one of only 7 selected for the year, making her a little special.

Of course, it didn't take too long to figure out that she kind of knew it. (This was mostly my take - my housemate Abi thought she seemed quite down to earth)

Maybe I'll digress for a moment to bring some context to the house.

There's me - 35 year old multimedia guy from Melbourne, there's Eric, 30 year old evolution Ph.D from France and there's Abi, 26(?) year old student from Sydney. (I've asked her half a dozen times now what she is studying - I know that it's Asian studies and something - law? - but I keep forgetting - she's only been here a week, really).

Ok, so back to ABC girl - like everyone today, she's young, hip*, keen to get a house and cluey enough to have made it to interview. :)

(*Whatever the hell that means)

So we do the tour - first one for a while so there are the odd stumbles here and there but ultimately, it's a great house (and we're great housemates) so the place really sells itself. We move on to the kitchen table chat and while she seems interesting, there's a too-cool-for-school Sydney-ness that raises my long dormant Melbourne hackles.

I like the idea of a house where we're all a bit of a unit - not living in each other's pockets necessarily but able to hang out and do things together a bit.

So we get towards the end of her slot and the next girl arrives early.

Next girl (let's call her grad for now) settles in the loungeroom with outgoing housemate Tim in front of the telly to give us a little more time to wrap up with ABC girl.

I don't actually remember which city she has come from - the Sydney/Melbourne thing thus was no issue - as she was entirely charming.

Eminently personable, she's either putting on the charm or is the real deal, just a genuinely nice and interesting person. She speaks a fistful of languages and is going to work for a govt department (AusAID)(which coincidentally I seem to know at least half a dozen people in now) that scores high on the right-on meter.

Third up we have a local girl just about to start work in the press gallery at Parliament as a researcher for one of the aforementioned quality papers. Again, great, personable, interesting and stepping into a world that I find fascinating at a particularly interesting time (leading up to a federal election). Abi makes the point that she doesn't need a place as much as the other girls (she's currently staying with her parents a hop, step and jump away from Parliament House) which I hadn't considered but is quite true.

Lucky (?) last we have a 20 year old multimedia student who's also working for a media production company in town. Another Canberra native, she's nice but really quite young and makes a big show of the fact that she doesn't want to be in a house where she's expected to hang out / do things with the other housemates. (A little bit of a suburban Cheryl as well perhaps).

So we have a nuh-huh and 3 prospects with 3 more to come today. (Actually, the 12.30 hasn't shown up - no phone call either - so I guess it's two).

More to come.

Preferences so far:

Abi - 1.ABC girl, 2.AusAID, 3. Age
Eric - 1. AusAID, 2. ABC girl, 3. Age
Me - 1. AusAID, 2. Age, 3. ABC

More news as it comes to hand.

(Oh and the fourth scheduled girl called and cancelled - nice to see manners alive and well)

Meh'ing: Stranger than Fiction

Stranger than Fiction is a well made and clever film about a man who realises that he is the hero in a novel by an author who always kills her heroes off at the end.

Will Ferrell (a favourite comic actor of mine after his work in Zoolander, Starsky & Hutch, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back and Anchorman - and dare I say Elf) plays IRS agent Harold Crick, a taxman.

He is also the main character in the most recent novel by Kay Eiffel, a novelist who for some reason reminded me of Peter Carey. (This could well be because he has a book called the Tax Inspector but I think it was also just the style of writing in general).

Kay Eiffel is played by Emma Thompson, who I think I've fancied ever since I saw her in The Tall Guy with Jeff Goldblum. (This really is a classic rom-com if you haven't seen it)

Dustin Hoffman pops up as a professor of literature, Maggie Gyllenhaal is pretty hot as an activist baker and there is some nice work with the computer graphics which show some of the inner workings of Harold Crick's mind. Musically it's great as well - I'm not that familiar with most of the bands on the soundtrack but plan to check it out at lunchtime if possible. (If you think of the soundtrack to Garden State but with less - well no - The Shins, you're probably getting close).

So why am I meh'ing about this whole thing? (I assume you understand that meh'ing means "It's ok/good but... meh")

On paper it all works really well and I like the concept, the performances all worked, the writing was snappy and it looked great - but it's just not one of those films that sticks with you.

You know you've seen something good when you go out for dinner or coffee afterwards and the conversation is all about the movie. (Even for a little while).

With this though we enjoyed it while it was on (we being me and my two exes), walked out the doors and said how much we enjoyed it (for all the reasons above) and that was it. There didn't seem to be anything more to say.

Perhaps it was because the idea didn't seem all that fresh - you certainly think of Adaptation or The Truman Show with the whole post-modern writing-about-writing thing - and I think also I was expecting it to be a little funnier.

I'm a believer that comic actors can make the best serious actors given the right script and as I mentioned, Will Ferrell has put in some inspired turns in previous films. The prisoner with a dragon fetish in Starsky and Hutch, Ron Burgundy - anchorman and jazz flautist in Anchorman and even his performance in Elf as the 6+ ft adopted elf were inspired. Here perhaps he played things a little straighter than I liked.

There's nothing really wrong with this film and perhaps it deserves a second viewing - it just seemed a little postmodern/clever/quirky-by-numbers. I think I was smiling throughout but never really lol'ed. (and there was certainly no roflmfao'ing)

3 cushions. (out of 5)

(Stranger than Fiction is currently playing at Dendy Canberra Center)

Hunting: a housemate

Looking for a housemate is infinitely better than looking for a house (unless rent is two days overdue and everybody sucks).

Since December I've been living in a great place in Turner with some really nice people - in many ways it takes me back to my better house sharing days in Melbourne in the 90s. Good vibe, nobody is overly uptight (which means that the house is perhaps a little slobby but not unhygenic), we hang out together and have a laugh.

It's also one of those houses that people are in and out of a bit - international students heading home, people moving in with their new lurrves and the latest to move on is Tim, who is heading for Europe.

Which means that for the last week or so we've had some ads up for a new housemate.

Now if you're not in the rental market at the moment, you might not be aware that it's extraordinarily tight - the vacancy rate is around 1% and so rental properties and share houses are at a bit of a premium.

Couple this with the fact that January is a busy busy time in the A.C.T with new students at ANU (in the suburb next to Turner) as well as an influx of graduates taking positions with various government departments and there's even more of a crush on than ever.

Which is why it's a bit of surprise to get emails like this one:

I'd like to see the room to rent today or tomorrow. I am a postgraduate student. My phone number is (04blahblahblah)

Now don't get me wrong - I'm not expecting grovelling or out and out sucking up in these emails but I think if you're in a position where you want people to think you would be cool to live with, you might be just a little friendlier. No "hello", no "how are you", no "cheers", no "hope to hear from you soon", not even a name (other than the one in the header of the email).

Eric made the point that at least he didn't ask for more information about the house and for this he gave him half a point in our out of 5 scoring system. (Giving him a grand total of .5/20). (Panel was myself and Eric, Tim - who is leaving - and Steph, Tim's gf)

Ok, so maybe he was just responding to the tone of the ad I hear you thinking. (Oh yes, I can do that). Well, in the interests of fairness, here are both of the ads. Yes, they are a little brief perhaps but surely not to that extent.

Suburb TURNER
Rent $150.00 per week
Bond $600.00
Ensuite? No
Furnished? No
Heating? Yes
Car Accommodation? Yes
Air Conditioning? No
Built In Wardrobe? Yes
Smoking? No
Available from: 14 Feb 2007
Contact Name Colin
Contact Phone
Contact Email myname@myemailaddress.com
Additional Information Modest room in a large house with study area, to share with 2m & 1f. Looking for someone easygoing and relatively mature (creative would be a bonus). Close to ANU and Civic, quiet street

Modest sized room available in a large house in a quiet street in Turner. Close to Civic, ANU and O'Connor.

We are 2m & 1f and are looking for someone easygoing and reasonably mature. (Creative is a bonus)

We have a study area (of sorts), ADSL2 and a smallish backyard.

Both of these are based on a bit of a template that the respective websites have so there are limitations to how much you can say and I guess we probably should have mentioned unfurnished in one of the ads (this is a big thing with international students) but overall, surely there's enough, right?

Anyway, as I mentioned, to sort through the contacts we've had, we sat down last night over a drink or two and read through the emails, rating them out of 5. (We briefly changed this to a tick/question-mark/cross rating but realised that this was too snaggy).

I'll spare you the details of everyone but might just mention a few of the more eyebrow raising lines as some vague kind of public service. :)

Hi,

I am going to do the Master of Finance at the ANU and have a few months work experience in this area, so I think I qualify for your requirements.

My initial response to this was - ewww, Finance. Tim made the point that it reads more like a job application and we should write back offering a position in our Loans dept. (.5/20)

The next one rang alarm bells as soon as we saw the email address - dsto.defence.gov.au. (Yes, I'm sure there are plenty of perfectly nice people in defence, I just haven't met any yet and the ones I have met and/or shared with have just been a little bit to - well - defensey.). Signing the email with your full work title as well just didn't seem right either. (Points were also lost for slab-text - not breaking eight lines of information up into paragraphs - though this is probably more my issue). (2/20)

Next.

I can also arrange for a friend in Canberra to inspect your place.

Ok, so it would be hard arranging a place from OS (New Zealand) but this email essentially said that the guy would like to move in on the 12th. Nothing about meeting us beforehand - although we could meet his friend and presumably make a decision on that basis. Bub - bowwwwww. (4/20)

(I really hope I'm not working up a mess of bad karma here - I'm not trying to be mean or arrogant, these are just the things that didn't work for us)

The next one is probably something that many people would like, it just didn't quite read right to us.

We are very quiet and clean and tidy and considerate and work and study a lot.

I guess if we call a spade a spade, we are generally considerate and relatively quiet but the rest, um, not so much. Emphasising clean and tidy (yeah, I know it's an expression) probably didn't help either. (10/20)

And then there was the travel agent.

I am a 21 year old Aussie female.

Aussie? Female? Ok, so she's young but after the recent nationalism furore, identifying yourself by race just feels kind of wrong. As for female, well I know that a lot of country people say this instead of girl/woman but in tandem with the other, again, bub-bowwwwww. (2.5/20)

On the other hand, these ones seemed a little more appealing.

moving to Canberra to start a job with AusAID

Ok, so this one wasn't much more personable than the others necessarily but I know a few people at AusAID and they seem like a nice bunch. Unfair perhaps but the fact is, you will bump up against the ideologies of your prospective new housemates and it's nice to live with "fellow travellers". (12.75/20)

This also worked for the next girl, who's about to start work for the ABC.

I'm a tidy non-smoking Latino music-liking coffee and interesting tea-addict, the last place I lived was Newtown in Sydney and I can give you the numbers of ex-housemates if you'd like to run a background check.

It was nice to have a little more detail here - personalising the experience a little more. The Newtown thing worked for the ex-Melbournians (Newtown being as close as we can see to Little Melbourne in Sin City) and while we weren't sure if the background check thing was tongue in cheek or not, it appealed on either level. (15/20)

I'm really into a relaxed, friendly house that's clean (but not over the top), good for studying and relaxing. I play piano when I can, am into music, cooking (would love to have a little herb garden) and going to theatre (and the pub)

Again, it's the extra detail here that makes the person more interesting. While we don't expect massively personalised emails in this process, putting some detail about yourself in your form-letter goes a long way. The fact that this girl is also studying French (Eric is French and I have a smattering and would like to learn more) also helps in this instance. (16/20)

Similar story here -

Anyway, a little about me:

- I'm 32 years old.
- Work in the web field but an not a geek (not in the classic sense anyway)
- Big on photography, music and movies
- Am a writer, when I can get myself motivated
- Struggle to do something about my fitness from time to time

It's personal, addresses the whole "creative is a bonus" part (my personal preference and not an overriding factor but something nice) and we have shared interests. It also included a link to his website, which is really impressive. (17/20)

Ok, so now we get into interviews and seeing who is still looking and so forth.

I'll keep you posted. :)

Keating!: The Musical 2

Ok, just a couple more things - if you've seen the show and would like the soundtrack, you can find it here.

Also, how could I forget a musical number featuring both Anthony Green and Kerry O'Brien? (This was pretty close to my favourite number - a scat tune about the 93 election coverage)

And one more thing, which is a little more poignant. This is one of my favourite Keating speeches - given on the evening of the 1993 election victory, known simply as the "True Believers" speech.

Thank you ladies and gentlemen. Well, this is the sweetest victory of all. This is a victory for the true believers: the people who, in difficult times, have kept the faith.

And to the Australian people, through hard times, it makes their act of faith all that much greater.

It’ll be a long time before an opposition party tries to divide this country again. It’ll be a long time before somebody tries to put one group of Australians over here and another group over there. The public, the public of Australia, are too decent, too concientious and they’re too interested in their country to wear those sorts of things.

This, I think, has very much been a victory of Australian values, because it was Australian values on the line and the Liberal party wanted to change Australia from the country it’s become: a cooperative, decent, nice place to live where people have regard for one another.

Keating! : The Musical

I'm not normally one for the musical - every time you get to an interesting part of the story some fool or fools jump up and make a big song and dance of everything (sorry) - but Keating! the musical might just have changed my mind.

Billed as

the country soul opera we had to have

Keating! celebrates the political life of the last good Prime Minister we had, Mr Paul J Keating, from his rise to Prime Minister to the 1996 election against John Howard.

You could probably see this show without knowing anything about Australian politics in the 90s and still enjoy the songs and performances but I'm guessing you'd miss the jokes in every other line (it is cram packed with intelligent gags).

Musically (backed by five very talented musicians) the show wanders through a spread of musical genres - country, soul, a tango, the mambo, rock, cabaret and even a hiphop battle between Keating and John Hewson in the 93 election. (If I ruled this country, all elections would now have to be decided in this manner).

The performances were uniformly strong and you got the sense that everyone on stage was having a lot of fun, something which is always pretty infectious. The musical agility of all the performers - but particularly Mike McLeish as Keating - as they quickly switched between styles over and over was particularly impressive. Tony Serio also puts in a highly impressive (scary and depressing) performance as John Howard and the writer/creator of the show Casey Bennetto is truly frightening as the Frankenfurteresque Alexander Downer, singing about what a freak he is.

There is (as far as I can recall) no dialogue at all in this show - everything is told through song. Though I didn't realise it at the time, one of the songs even features a relatively word for word rendition of Paul Keating's renowned (in left circles) Redfern speech about the unjust treatment of Indigenous Australians over the last 200 years.

I won't give away the ending (the show finishes with the 96 election) but I will say that you are left with a nice case of the warm gooeys.

I was lucky enough to chat briefly with Casey Bennetto after the show (very nice bloke) and he told me about the show's opening performance in Sydney, where the man himself, Mr PJ Keating was in the audience and mamboed his way onto the stage to appear in the encore number. The crowd of luminaries that hung around after that show
were all most reluctant to leave at closing time, enjoying the warm glow of a world where a decent, caring and forward looking man was still running the country.

Evidently Keating and Kevin Rudd are the only two federal politicians to have seen the show so far.

The current season of Keating! at the Canberra theatre is sold out but there is a return season towards the end of March - which is also selling quickly.

If you like your politics and love your music, this is a show to see.

(Big big thanks to Sylvie for the ticket)

Lol'ing: Someone's going to hell for this

Thanks Yardo

Pimping : My ride

So as you can see, I have a snazzy new sticker decorating the frame of my bicycle - it's part of the ACTU campaign promoting unionism, which in this time of ridiculous worker-hating, corporate driven IR law changes is a bit of a must.

It replaces my The Corporation sticker, which asked the question - "Is your boss a psychopath?". Great sticker and a particularly great documentary but truth be told it was getting pretty ratty and this sticker is all shiny and new.

Given the limited space available on the frame of the bike (and the need to more or less stick with the bike color scheme of basic black), sticker placement is a bit of a fine art and I guess that in some ways it works as a bit of a moving billboard of my beliefs and interests. There are a couple of community radio stickers on there - XXfm (the station I'm involved with in Canberra) and RRR (one of the two great stations in Melbourne), a TAFE works sticker from a work thing and now this baby.

Anyways, I have two more of these bumper stickers available to the first two people to ask for them. (They're shiiiiiiny :)

Lol'ing: Spiders on drugs video.

I'm not normally one to resend a lot of things that come in email but I thought this was particularly funny.

I'm sure you've seen the pictures of spider webs when the spiders have been given different drugs




Well this is the video.

Attending: Poetry Slam

Ok so strictly speaking this happened on Friday but we've had a long weekend here and it's been nice moving away from the 'puter for a bit. (But it's ok baby, I'll never leave you again :)

Uh - anyways, the ANU Writers (group? kollective? liberation front?) puts on a poetry slam at the Front Cafe in Lyneham on the last Friday of every month - a night of open mic uni student poetry as well as a mixture of local bands.

My housemate's band Snowbug was playing and there's often some fairly decent poetry thrown into the mix (you still get your quota of the other as well but pretentious, overly personal/intellectualised guff read in earnest poet voice is all part of the entertainment really) so it was all a bit of a fait accompli.

The Front Cafe is a nice space, light and open with retro stylings, comfy couches and a gallery space - they also sell drinks now. (Although, they haven't quite gotten around to organising the key ingredients in a Gin & Tonic - uh gin and tonic). It's the kind of place that Canberra needs a lot more of - preferably with a big lush beer garden out the back.

The event itself has a really friendly vibe and is often a bit of a wall to wall crush of people - being a long weekend in Summer before uni is back though this one was a little more spacious which was nice.

I have to confess that I was one of those people that I've known myself to tut-tut about in my less easy-going moments at shows - I didn't make a big effort to catch the poetry this time around as it seemed that half the people I know in Canberra decided to turn up this time around (as well as some new friends) so it was nice to get some quality catching up and chatting time in. (At least I wasn't doing this in the performance room, so it's not like it was really rude).

The Snowbug sets were (obviously) a highlight though, the band appeared as a stripped back 3 piece this time around which suited their sound (offbeat loud keyboard-edged pop-rock) and banged out a range of songs to popular acclaim. This is one of their last shows in their current form - singer Tim Gummersall is UK-bound shortly - so it will be interesting to see where they go from here. (But just quietly, there is an outside chance I'll be hopping on stage in a backing vocals capacity sometime soon - stay tuned for details).

As I said earlier, I didn't hear a lot of the poetry although I did note one girl doing a pretty impressive line in Ani Di Francoesque hiphop delivery that I wish I'd heard a little more of. (My cynical ex thought it had something to do with the fact that she was quite cute but to that I say Tish Posh. )

One of the things I liked best about the night was the sense of being in a little hub of creative energy - in addition to everything that was happening on stage there were pockets of discussion all around, people talking about ideas and projects and teaming up - it was great.

And nary an Australian flag to be seen.

Finishing: Scarface: The World is Yours.

Ok, this is the last post on this topic for sure - honest.

So I finally get 100% completion of the game after driving around for an eternity, dodging gangs, delivering drugs, over and over and over and over, like a monkey with a miniature cymbal. (Sorry, I think I was briefly possessed by Hot Chip)

Do I get the aforementioned fireworks shooting out of the cd tray of the Xbox? Well, no, that probably was never going to happen. Are there onscreen fireworks? Some kind of triumphant fanfare? Flashing lights and colours? Again, no.

What I do get is plain white text, all capitals that says "You are Scarface".

I kid you not.

I can still "play" the game, drive around, do deals, kill gangs (which again, I though I had already done) and accumulating money. There are some changes. When I walk down the street I'm now accompanied by the six women from my mansion, all clad in black lingerie and according to the internets, they will defend me from bad guys.

The bank no longer charges me interest to launder my money and instead of being able to carry 3 types of weapon, I can now carry four.

But where I ask is the closure?

There was some reference at the end of the storyline missions to going to Bolivia. Maybe I need to have X amount of cash in the bank to be able to do this but frankly, I don't think I will. The game says it's 100% complete and that will do.

Time to spend hours at a time in slightly more constructive pursuits perhaps.

(Of course, I did also get the The Sopranos: Road to Respect game - maybe just five minutes of that... :)

Explaining : Neighbours

I enjoy watching Neighbours. I'm not even sure that this is on any kind of post-modern/GenX/ironic level either - there's just something about the show that reels me in.

Yes it's simplistic, yes it's whitebread, yes it's toned down for its 6.30 slot and yes, like all dramas (soap operas if you will), storylines move sometimes at a pace approaching continental drift.

Recognising all these things (which aren't unique to this programme and should be considered the price of admission to soap land), Neighbours is still a good show.

It's lightweight escapism for the modern age. In Ramsey St (incidentally - why is it called a street when it's clearly a court? - Pinoak Crt in Vermont Sth, Victoria - and I must say I like the fact that it's right near Billabong park).



Sorry, got sidetracked there. In Ramsey St, everyone knows each other and for the most part cares about each other as well. There is no terrorism, water is plentiful, the disadvantaged are taken care of and everyone with a job is treated well and paid fairly. If you don't have a job, you probably have some other kind of problem (eg alcoholism) which your family and friends will help you through.

There certainly aren't idiot politicians jumping up and down about the sanctity of the flag or the Maoists ruining education by teaching biased history. (And if they did, Susan would no doubt set them straight).

It was last night though that I really got my full appreciation of Neighbours - my housemate Tim had his girlfriend Steph over and in the course of bringing her up to speed on happenings and characters (most people have watched a bit of Neighbours at some point or another), I realised how funny and jam packed of soapy action the show actually is.

In the last six months or so we've had an evil twin (the other was in a coma), the hot girl with a dark past involving drugs, car stealing and what we hoped was hardcore porn (but was only FHM level) - who was also in a coma briefly, a Russian mail order bride (I love hearing the word "bogan" in a bad Russian accent), two brothers arguing which is the father of their girlfriends baby - and threatening to sue the doctor (Dr. Karl - old skool Neighbour) for malpractice, not to mention the evil twins' sister playing pranks (to drive him mad) on the guy who ran over the good twin (thinking it was the evil twin) while trying to save the hot girl.

Add to this mix a teenage goth girl who never listens to goth music, self mutilates, hangs out with other goths, watches vampire movies, writes bad poetry or does anything remotely gothlike beyond dress like one and the this-would-be-so-much-funnier-if-they-were-gay odd couple comic moments between Harold and Lou (old skool Neighbours) as well as Paul Robinson (Neighbours very old skool) returning and dumping his wife on their wedding night and you have dramatic gold.

Other things I like about Neighbours are the writing - it's usually tucked away, almost subversively, but every once in a while, there is a line that beautifully takes the piss out of the whole suburban dream or the construct of soapies or some other aspect of Neighbourilia and makes me think that there are some very cool people writing for this show. Yes, they have a tight formula that they work within but this is where the creative types really get to shine. (I noticed that a one off character late last year was named Bob Mould - the lead singer of alternaRock band Husker Du)

I must confess that I also like the Melbourne feel of the show - I've been in Canberra for 5 years now and have no plans to return to Melbourne in the immediate future but I guess it will always be "home" in some way. When compared to the very Sydney styled Home and Away (which I should admit I really never watch beyond what I might catch for a minute or so while flicking around during ad breaks), even the look of the programme is quite different.

I can't tell exactly but Home and Away looks like it's been shot on some glossier higher definition digital system while Neighbours still has that slightly older, warmer Betacam feel. (I'm sure Neighbours uses digital as well now, it just seems a little softer - but in the right way).

Home and Away has always seemed to use more dramatic lighting as well - for years Neighbours sets were illuminated by what is known in the industry as wank-banks - massive ceilings full of fluoro-like lights that washed the whole set in soft light, killing all shadows - but of late, there seems to have been a shift in this approach, introducing a little more contrast.
(Ever seen a ceiling in a soap opera?)

Anyway, there you have it, my love of Neighbours in a nutshell. Putting aside the fact that Erinsborough is one of the whitest neighbourhoods I have ever seen (token ethnic families have lived in Ramsay St but they never stay long), Ramsay St is just a nice place to visit for half an hour on weekdays.

If you want to get up to speed on happenings in the neighbourhood, you might like to check out The Spin Starts Here - they do a weekly Neighbours wrapup (with a healthy dose of humour). Enjoy.

(Some of the other stuff on that site is a bit patchy and web-cliquish but the wrapup is a highlight)

Actually, before I go, I should mention that I also really like the Howard Arkley inspired opening titles of the show - this is what the NGV has to say about him.

Simultaneously serene and edgy, Arkley’s work creates an intriguing tension between the inherent beauty of suburbia and its darker more menacing side.

Neighbours on the other hand, has taken the style and removed the menace - but you can't help feel that behind the selection of this style there was again just a little subversion.



So there you go.

Alright, one more thing - here's an interview with the supervising story editor from a Neighbours fan site.

Writing: Boonsville

(For those who came in late...)

Four hundred weeks ago a washed up man in a remote Richmond sharehouse, sole survivor of a call centre, was rescued by friendly pygmies. (ok, they weren't that short).

He swore on the skull of George Romero "to devote my life to the creation of piracy, comedy and horror.... My sons shall follow me." His sons, and their sons, will follow -- and will be thought to be the same man . . . immortal. "The Ghost Who Walks," the "Man Who Cannot Die." Now the 1st Phantom, nemesis of mediocrity everywhere . . . he writes alone.

(And apologies to those who aren't as familiar with The Phantom as I am :))
(If you're not, here's an interesting article about Phantom history - particularly from an Indian viewpoint.)

Anyway, just when I was trying to make an effort to make these posts more reader friendly and put the gist of the story in the first paragraph. (Actually, strictly speaking I did, in my own way).

(But while I'm side-tracking, I might just give a little cheer on reaching 50 posts in this blog - huzzah)

Ok, back now.

Anyway, 8 or 9 (maybe 10) years ago I started to try some serious writing on a film script that had been buzzing around my head for a little while. It's a zombie film (at which point let it be recorded that the readership decided that they really needed to get on with work stuff) which tries to follow in the Romero tradition of infusing a healthy dollop of humour and pointed social commentary.

So without giving too much away, we have a story with evil corporations, feisty leftwing community radio dj's (the radio stuff in the story came long before I ever got into community radio), meathead bogans, technohippies, psycho religious fundamentalists and the war on terror.

Anyway, after a productive burst of writing, the first draft was labouriously born from the (every analogy I can think of here is very wrong) of the worlds slowest printer.

And there it sat. I've shown it around, scribbled on it, jotted down ideas, changes, lines of dialogue that have occurred to me in the intervening years but as yet there is no draft two.

Hopefully though, this is about to change. After a productive screenwriting short course run by AFTRS last year, I got back on the horse and have been fleshing out my characters. I found a really interesting character questionnaire online which forces you to think about every nuance of your character and their life and history. This has also been good in terms of working out what happens to them in the story.

I took a small writers retreat to the coast last year, just me in a house with notepads galore (I like to write in pencil - as a left hander it's less messy and the sound of the pencil on the paper is more appealing) and I started to nut out the main characters.

And to bring you up to date - pretty pointless trying to do too much over Christmas, got stuck into typing these up last night. The typing process is interesting as there isn't as much creative pressure but it still allows for tweaks and tightenings and changes if needed.

So Sharyn, the surprising heroine of the story, is much more formed now than ever before. She's more corporate and snobby - name is pronounced Shah Ryn, or Shah for short - where it used to be Cheryl. She has a phobia about being stabbed by junkies with HIV needles and she loves Rove live. Not necessarily details that will come out but helpful nonetheless.

Stay tuned.

Cringing about : Big Day Out / Australian Flag Kerfuffle

Moves to discourage patrons from bringing Australian flags to the Big Day Out (Australia's largest music festival)in Sydney sparked ugly displays of outrage from politicians and other morons across the media and web.

Fortunately there were still some voices of reason - I recommend checking out these columns in particular: Noise Pollution by Clem Bastow in The Age and The Daily Truth with Jack Marx in the Sydney Morning Herald.

(And this is an image I borrowed from Clem's column :)


Here are a few choice quotes from the two. Clem first:

I have many fond memories of my various Big Days Out: sooky Goths stomping around in the heat as their make-up melts in the lead up to Nine Inch Nails; disgusting sauce-covered Dagwood Dogs and loads of Hare Krishna nosh falling off pitifully inadequate environmentally-friendly plates; Frenzal Rhomb's gleeful destruction of comedy effigies of politicians; singing The Darkness' I Believe In A Thing Called Love with Andrew G in a brief moment of televisual infamy; and, of course, the music.

You'll note that not one of those happy reminiscences included "Being given a spray by brick-headed tools insisting I 'kiss the flag!' or face the consequences."

Certainly my stance on the BDO has changed through the years; where I would've once studied the line-up intently, highlighting favoured acts and noting possible clashes with blue biro, more recent line-ups have been average and the day more a chance to hang loose, drink, and catch up with mates - oh yeah, with music in the background - and I don't think I'm alone.

As such, the crowd becomes less populated with various gaggles of die-hard fans and more a generalised scrum looking to party. The "good old days" of packs of roaming fairies, frog-people, colour-coded pals and sombrero-wearing nongs have gradually been replaced by beer hats, shorts, flags and thongs. Who wears thongs to a festival, anyway? Someone who doesn't think it's an epic day of music appreciation and is just there to have "fun" in the sun, clearly.

And when "fun" means drinking to excess, punching-on, groping women and intimidating just about everyone, the real motivation for attending the Big Day Out - MUSIC - becomes irrelevant. And if music is irrelevant to your day, well, I suppose you may as well wave a flag, given that for all intents and purposes you are not at a music festival.

So, it's dickheads that are the problem, and if the Australian flag makes them easier to spot - and weed out - I'm all for discouraging its use. After all, Lees and West have a duty of care when it comes to BDO patrons, and if they reckon discouraging Our Flag's use means I'm less likely to be punched in the face by a drongo with delusions of patriotism, then I thank them.

and now here's Jack:

Traditionally, politicians aren't known for harmony, which is why it's notable that there's a "chorus of disapproval" from John Howard, the RSL and assorted trumpeters for the opposition, all belting out a tune against Ken West's discouraging punters flying flags at the Big Day Out.

They say the Australian flag should be allowed at concerts, though I suspect they're only referring to the sorts of concerts politicians don't attend - somehow I don't think I'll be allowed to wave one at the Opera House, particularly if the Prime Minister's in the seat behind me.

The New South Wales premier says a flag "ought not to be used to be making political points", which is not only a trifle ridiculous of him, but utterly hypocritical.

Discussion has been heated - the comments sections under both of these posts have been unsurprisingly supportive of the bloggers - the fun sections have been on the discussion boards on the Herald Sun (right-wing Murdoch owned newspaper in Melbourne) and it's also been interesting getting an international perspective on things from Digg.com.

(Damn, can't find the comments on the Herald Sun site any more)

For what it's worth, I was at the Australia Day Sydney Big Day Out last year and the mood was ugly. The Australian flag was being used as a clear sign of "whiteness" and was draped all over aggressive obnoxious drunken young men and women all over the place. If people weren't wearing it as capes, it was temporary tattoos on cheeks and arms.

In addition to the story of the guy being bashed for refusing to kiss the flag, I know of another girl who felt a similar level of discomfort with the vibe, went off and bought an Aboriginal flag badge with the word sorry on it and was promptly surrounded by a group of these people chanting Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi at her.

Nobody needs a flag at a music festival - what are they going to do, barrack for Australian bands?

If you want to look at it from a truly conservative perspective (outflank Howard and the other dickheads - Rudd and Iemma included), the use of the Australian flag in the way that these people have chosen to do so (as a fashion accessory) is actually quite disrespectful to the flag. Dragging the flag along the ground is one of the worst things you can do. (Personally I'm not so precious and think that it's ultimately just a bit of fabric but if these people want to make a fuss about it, they should do it right).

There is even government policy about the proper handling of the flag -

Australian Flag Protocol: 'The Australian National Flag should be displayed only in a manner befitting the national emblem. It should not be subjected to indignity... It should always be flown aloft and free and should not be allowed to fall or lie upon the ground. When the Australian National Flag is raised or lowered, or when it is carried past in a parade or review, all present should face the Flag, men should remove their hats and all should remain silent. Those in uniform should salute.' (http://www.australianflag.org.au/protocol.php)

From a purely political perspective, I can see the reasons for Kevin Rudd to come down on Howard's side - John Howard is a master of wedge politics, inflating unimportant but highly emotional issues to a point where it's almost impossible to express an opposing/sensible view without being shouted down. Flag stuff is always a wedge issue and Kruddy would know that. (I'm just glad Julia Gillard didn't do the same).

All in all, another day in Howard's Australia. (I just hope things don't get ugly on Thursday).

(Update) - Something else that has just occurred to me is the economic hypocrisy in this fuss from our Prime Minister. John Howard is a dyed in the wool free-marketeer - taking the position that the market works things out and that as long as business follows the letter of the law, they should be allowed to behave as they wish. If people disagree with the way a business behaves, they are entitled to take their business elsewhere.

Following this logic, he could perhaps advise people not to go to the Big Day Out but he can't suddenly tell them what policies to impose on their customers.

I'd like to see Lees and West take a stand, declare an outright ban on flags and make all patrons wear a burqa or something similar. (Maybe a "Sorry" tshirt with an Aboriginal flag).

Whinging about : Scarface : The world is yours

Ok, so this is the last one (unless something amazing happens if/when I get 100% completion in this game - but I'm talking actual fireworks shooting out of the cd tray of the XBOX kind of thing, which at this point I feel like I deserve)

So as you may have guessed, I'm still hanging on with my Scarface game on the xbox - well past the point where any sensible and less ridiculously stubborn person would have said "to hell with it", I find myself still driving around, dealing drugs, buying stupid things I don't need and killing gangs.

Actually, technically speaking, I shouldn't need to kill gangs anymore and this is the subject of my (hopefully brief) whinge today.

I mentioned in a previous post that there is a stats screen that shows you in absurd detail everything that you have done in the game and the things that you have not yet done as well. A big part of this is removing all the enemy gangs from your four territories. All up I think there are something like 70 of the bastards and when you are out and about doing your big drug distribution missions, they make life hard, chase you, try to kill you and attack the front businesses that you are attempting to take the drugs to in the first place.

Ok, so that's the cost of doing business. Anyway, yesterday I finally cleared out the final gang - beauty, I thought. I should be able to jump in my slowest, most rickety 1920's car and cruise from front business to front business at my own pace, mindful not to run over too many pedestrians and attract the police and off I go.

Yet mysteriously, the city was again full of rival gangs. Trashing my jewellry shop, my clubs, the cigar shop and the pawn shop and raising merry hell on my antique car into the process.

For a game that is all about "the American dream" - working hard (or being ruthless) and earning the rewards - where is my reward?

I can see from a game developer's point of view that they might worry that people would get bored if things got too easy but why not simply ramp up the police vigilance? I mean, here's me, good Miami entrepreneur and employer to hundreds of people, making the streets safe from gang warfare and what do I get? Nothing. (Ok, aside from big slabs of cash).

(I'm a little worried at this point that I'm getting into this character's headspace just a tad much here :)

Brown Couch - Ultrahuge

Brilliantly written and acted by our main two female stars, Ruth Carroll and Tania Watson, this was just a matter of turn the camera on and let them go.

Brown Couch - Couch Crisis

A simple gag but we're like that :)

Brown Couch - Rent Day

The Brown Couch team was lucky enough to have some talented musicians (Sean Barley, Chris Magor, Tony Sawry,) who played in a swag of Melbourne bands including Mullgrinder, Beanflipper and Stoney Creek Backwash in addition to doing other musical/techno/stunt/etc projects and when it all came together it sounded pretty impressive.

Again, technology limited us to SVHS and 4 track mixers and there wasn't time to work on a proper video so it was a matter of scavenging existing footage but all things considered, it worked out ok.

Working on : Brown Couch episode 3

For some reason I had it in my mind that Brown Couch episode 3 was a big pile of alternate clips and an unholy mess waiting for me to make some sense of, so when I finally got on with the job, it was fantastic to see that the whole 22 min show was broken up into 4 clips, all taken from the edit master. (Excuse the jargon - the edit master is the final tape of the show that was broadcast and given that this was all in SVHS - a step about standard VHS - and video technology has moved on somewhat since then, it's good to not have to use second or third generation copies).

Anyways, this is our take on the lifestyle genre - which was just in it's early days at the time but it has always begged to have the piss taken out of it. The recycled toilet paper gag I saw on one of the late night comedy shows fairly soon after - some say it was Vizard but I think it might have been Denton. Nice to see that our ideas were sound - ok, some of them.

There are three more to come.