Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Rock And Roll Over


With everyone from The Veronicas to Robbie Williams claiming rock'n'roll cred, is rock in danger of becoming just another adjective?

It doesn't take much to be "rock" these days. Once upon a time it took a modicum of edge, perhaps a captivating stage persona, sometimes you even had to play rock'n'roll to be rock!

Now, all you have to do is wear a certain t-shirt, mix some Boss overdrive in with your chintzy pop, and/or pose with a guitar, and bingo! Instant rock.

Read more...

My favourite part of the article was this quote:

If the issue had been called "Women in Music". or maybe "Some Cute Girls with Top 10 Records out Right Now". I would have no beef with it. Corny as it may sound, ROCK is something which is still meaningful and even sacred to some of us. Use the word "rock" in bold letters next to a picture of Britney F--king Spears, and you're turning your whole publication into a joke... and an offensive joke at that.

So f--king true!

Sunday, October 22, 2006

...And a good politician says goodbye



I don't think Joey (or Nur for that matter) care about this, but i am so incrediably disillusioned by Natasha Stott Despoja's decision to quit federal politics. She was the one who really got me interested in Australian politics, not to mention my favourite politician ... and i don't know what else to say! I don't think i'm going to get over this any time soon. And Joey shall hear me whine about it hereafter.

Stott Despoja set to quit
October 22, 2006

Former Australian Democrats leader, Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, has announced she will quit federal politics when her current term ends in 2008.

Senator Stott Despoja told reporters in Adelaide today she would not be nominating for the senate ticket for the next federal election, due by next year.

[...]

Senator Stott Despoja said she would continue to pursue social justice and human rights issues "in ways that enable me to spend more time with my son Conrad, especially when he reaches school age."

"The prospect of not being a legislator is heartbreaking for me: I love the cut and thrust of the parliament, the opportunities to change laws and therefore lives for the better.

"This passion has sustained me even through tough political and personal times."

Senator Stott Despoja said her commitment to the Democrats was unshakeable and she believed they could retain her senate position at the next election.

She said there was a lot more she wanted to achieve on behalf of the Democrats before her term was completed, including the passage of advanced stem cell research laws, national paid maternity leave, and greater investment in education.

The senator, who was close to tears during her announcement, did not rule out a return to parliament in the future.

She did, however, rule out any involvement in state parliament in South Australia.

- AAP

Monday, October 09, 2006

Tales from the toilet block


I know this is probably going to sound very strange, but one of the most interesting parts of my day at university is visiting the toilets in the Baillieu Library. I love the Baillieu. It’s weird I know, to love a library. But I feel like it’s my second home. It’s filled with science students, architecture students, engineering students…you name it. But mostly it’s filled with arts students. Loud, messy arts students! I guess that’s why there’s no one telling you to “shush” in the Baillieu. It’s more likely that the person next to you is making more noise than what’s heard on the 4th floor of the law building in one day.

But you know what the best part of the Baillieu is? The fact that we can take in, wait for it……FOOD! Need I say more?

Anyhow, here’s some stuff I read on the toilet walls. There’s also quite a heated pen-discussion going on on the walls of one of the cubicles about Descartes and what he really meant with cogito ergo sum. Maybe I’ll put that up one day!


Hah! Fat chance. I hate Descartes. :)


You cannot go through the front door with a red fist. You must change the world through the back door, with a suit and a better plan.


Today I wonder:

What for?

Freedom lives in constraint.

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Aussie Aussie Oi


Samuel Johnson famously declared that patriotism was the last refuge of the scoundrel, but the American satirist Ambrose Bierce may have been closer to the mark when he said that it was the first. In any case, the fog of patriotic fervour now lies so heavy on the Australian political landscape that it is necessary to clear some of it away lest we lose direction entirely.

Attachment to the good habits and institutions of one's country and a modest pride in the genuine achievements of one's co-nationals is a commendable attitude, capable of forging ties and cementing community feeling. But patriotism has a strong tendency to go beyond this. The slogan, "My country, right or wrong" is palpably absurd, but the more seductive, though equally foolish, idea is that my country can actually do no wrong, or, at any rate, no serious wrong. The emotions of patriotism all too often blind us to the moral crimes and follies that "we" have committed and can again commit. When this is combined with the political advantages of populism, the mixture can be lethal. It is not only scoundrels who misuse patriotism; the foolish and opportunistic also do it.

Our politicians are falling over themselves to reach the peak of Patriot Hill. They vie with each other to make new and more dramatic proposals for pulling the rest of us into line with some opaque vision of Australian values. The proposals range from the conspicuously silly, such a Kim Beazley's visa pledge to Aussie values for tourists to the downright unpleasant, such as Andrew Robb's proposal to force migrants to wait four years for citizenship instead of the present two. There is even a whiff of it in Julie Bishop's call for a common national school curriculum designed to fend off Marxist, feminist and even (God help us!) Maoist interpretations apparently being foisted on our unsuspecting Aussie kids by ideologues in state education bureaucracies.

Much of this combines exaggerated fear with extravagant attachment to a comforting fantasy of a stereotypical Australia. The fantasy is supposed to protect us from the fear. The fear itself is partly a genuine if overwrought fear of terrorist acts, and partly a formless dread of unusual foreigners, especially, nowadays, Muslims.

I remember when Australian patriotism used to be a quiet and modest affair. The 1950s that our Prime Minister is so fond of was actually a time when loud affectations of "Aussie values", condemnations of "anti-Australian behaviour", and indulgence in flag-worship would have been greeted with astonishment and scorn. I can only hope that some of that earthy, cynical realism remains in our make-up, but decades of exploitative advertising ("C'mon Aussie, c'mon") and imitation of the most sentimental elements in American culture have undoubtedly had their effect. The idea that respect for law, regard for justice ("fair go"), and concern for women's rights somehow flourish distinctively here ("Aussie values") and languish everywhere else is of course nonsense, but that is the impression regularly conveyed by many of our political leaders, and reinforced in much of the media.

[...]

Thursday, October 05, 2006