…here's a whosit

I have settled into life at the motel. The bed isn’t great – a little more firmness would be good but I’ll probably get used to that soon. Internet service is provided by a prepaid 4-day period for the Jimojo hotspot that the motel hosts, so I have online diversions to keep me busy. This morning I went down to the main street and bought a paper and sat at the cafe across the street and had coffee and eggs on toast for breakfast. Then I went to the supermarket and bought some proper tea to have in place of dodgey motel tea, as well as some salami to go with the cheese, apples and crackers that Danya dropped off. That should suffice for lunches for the next few days. The motel has washing machines and dryers so I can wash my dirty clothes on Monday before heading off on Tuesday morning.

I’ll have to see what is open on weekend nights in town for dinner; last night, Jim invited me to dinner with him and Beryl – a pizza split between us and Danya. I guess I can get pizza again if nothing else is open, but I’m not sure that pizza several nights in a row is a great health option

I walked into the bookstore on the main street, tempted to pick up a slim novel or something, but only browsed as I decided that I had more than enough ebooks on the tablet to keep me busy. I’d like to ride out to the valley and see what’s happening near the school, but I guess I wouldn’t be able to get close enough to see anything useful; I’ll have to check the council website for updates.

Today was meant to be a quiet day. All we had planned was perhaps seeing a movie in Byron in the afternoon. I went out and moved the water pipe back off the verge and over the fence to the creek (as close as I could, given debris) in the morning and had lunch.

Just after that, Barbara – a friend of Kath’s – called up and said that she’d heard (from her Landcare sources?) that the Council was going to start remedial work on the slip near the school as more cracks in the road surface had been seen, and the whole road might collapse. Apparently the road would be mostly closed for maintenance from the end of the day for most of next week, which would prevent Danya going to the Ballina Airport on Saturday and me leaving on Tuesday morning. Council advice was for residents to stock up on food for more than a week of being trapped.

Danya and I immediately raced around to organise getting out as soon as possible. Kath rushed to town to get groceries and I packed up the bike and    arranged to stay in a motel in town for the duration, while Danya is hoping to be able to stay at Jim’s place and get him to drive Danya to Ballina.

Riding past the slip, council workers are already moving rocks in place to shore up the bank. It might have not been such a problem if the rain wasn’t going to continue but everyone is worried that the extra massive downpour is going to bring the whole hillside down, and there were a lot of people rushing back and forth to town to get supplies. It’s another reminder of what a small isolated commmunity is there in Wilsons Creek and Huonbrook. Mind you, I think it takes a flood to bring people together as they’re too busy rushing around at other times.

Anyway, my schedule hasn’t changed – leave Mullum on Tuesday morning and ride to Coffs Harbour for the morning train to Sydney. I’ll ring CountryLink now to check that they don’t know of any rail problems that could affect that.

car interior, a photo by wamblicious on Flickr.

Today we had a flood. I woke early feeling that the ground was a bit soggy under the tent; over the last week we already had to cut trenches to let water drain, but this time there was way too much come down for that.

After moving the tent onto the verandah, putting clothes in the dryer and having breakfast, we noticed how high the creek was way and how much rain was falling heavily and steadily. Checking the road, we found that the main creek had burst its banks at the dip where the house creek met it.
Danya and I stood in the rain for a while stopping drivers from plunging headlong into what had become more than knee-high water.

Over the course of the day, the water steadily rose, and eventually a stupid person driving back from town went through water that had, by that time, almost reached the bonnet of his BMW jeep. Of course he stalled in the middle of the flood, with his young son there as well and water pouring in the windows. The water later rose until it reached the roof-racks and we could barely see it above the flood. They got out quickly with no harm, but I think the car might be a write-off.

Once the main creek broke its banks opposite the driveway, we noticed the asphalt cracking and sheets of it washing away. The entire lower yard became part of the creek and birds-nest ferns were washing out. Luckily the water peaked for just a short time and fell fairly quickly. What was revealed was a car filled with mud and a whole stretch of road in pieces. We also heard about a power pole almost washed into the creek and hanging by the wires, down by the primary school. As I write this, the power is out and about 180 homes are without power.

I’m here a day early. Last night I went to bed with a headache and some lower back pain (taking two of the super-strength pain tablets) and woke up with no headache but still sore in the back. My legs were also a bit rubbery and it didn’t help that I had some hay fever overnight – I  think that was triggered by something when I was resting in the bus shelter at the Coombell turnoff.

It was just after 7am when I left the motel and I struggled the 25km to Lismore, having decided at about 7km that I wouldn’t make the 100km to Uki. I wasn’t having much power to climb any rise and was just ticking over the pedals. Also, there was a strong wind kicking up that was mostly in my face. You know things are rough when you have a fantasy about being hit by a car just to get the trip over with; as I passed through Lismore’s auto-alley I was noting the price of cars and daydreaming that maybe 6 grand wasn’t unreasonable to just get me something to stick my bike in and get going again.

At 9, I called Kath from the Lismore Arts Center. We agreed to meet at the Lions Club park on the outskirts towards Bexhill. I think it was about 10:30 when she picked me up and we drove back to the valley with a brief stop in Mullum for shopping. All-in-all, this hasn’t been the best trip but at least I wasn’t hit by a car

This is one of the sad lions guarding the park. I don’t think the Lions Club really cares about the park any more – it’s quite decrepit.

I left Grafton at 6:30 this morning and the temperature stayed low, although I was starting to feel the distance in my hands and shoulders by the time I reached Whipore at just after 10.

The temperature climbed over the second 50km, although there was a bit of cloud cover and a slight breeze. At 20km to go, I stopped at a bus shelter and lay down for 10 minutes and I had just about run out of water by the time I reached the Leeville school at 8km to go, so I refilled my bottles there.

I arrived at Casino just after 3pm, absolutely shattered. Someone remind me why I do this…

Walking down to the Cecil at 6pm for dinner, it feels like 40 degrees. I really hope tomorrow is cooler.


Posted from Surry Hills, New South Wales, Australia.

I left Coffs with the promise of rain – all my gear wrapped in layers of plastic. It never materialised though, and the temperature stayed down until I reached Glenreagh at about 10am.

Unfortunately I discovered a new problem: the front chainring wouldn’t cleanly shift to the lowest ring. A while back I got the bike shop to readjust the derailleur as it was over-shifting off the lowest ring. Playing with it in Grafton, I was unable to find the happy medium so I’ve left the under-shifting in place. I’ll just have to get off and physically change down at the foot of big climbs.

The last 20km was spent under baking sunshine. Even now at about 6pm, it’s really hot. I hope tomorrow is cooler.


Posted from Surry Hills, New South Wales, Australia.

I’m in Coffs Harbour again for my annual cycle trip. Getting off the train, I realised that I couldn’t find my handlebar bag. I’m certain that I put it with the panniers in the luggage rack, but I guess there’s a slight chance I left it at Central.

Assuming that someone walked off with it, they got about $450 of rain gear and I’m going to get wet. I’ve spoken to the station staff, who called the train and lost property, and I hope I get it back, but I’m not optimistic.

Neil Gaiman at The Factory, a photo by wamblicious on Flickr.

I saw Neil Gaiman last night. – he was backed by Fourplay who did a set before Neil and then came back on to accompany him on a new (I think) piece called The Feminine End, and then as he sang The Problem with Saints from the 8in8 project.

It was a packed house with a bit of a line as I arrived just before 8pm. I bought a couple of signed books from the Kinokuniya stand (his Batman story and Who Killed Amanda Palmer) and then a beer, which was 8 dollars! I almost walked away but I was thirsty, they had no water, and I’d queued for a drink so I bought it. At that price, you think they might as well start printing warning labels on the labels as with cigarettes – something like “this product causes severe social problems” and a photo of a battered wife, a car crash or a pool of vomit

Neil introduced Fourplay who played for about 45 minutes, I think, doing pieces from various albums; a new piece, the Doctor Who theme in honour of Neil, finishing with their cover of Killing In The Name and then there was a half hour interval. As well as the crowd heading for the bar, there was a crowd who stayed in their seats and started checking their twitter or tumblr etc. feeds – smart phones everywhere.

Neil started his performance (about 2 and a half hours almost solid speaking!) with a new horror story called Click Clack, The Rattle Bag which he only had on his phone as an email to his daughter from a few days ago. Then he read Chivalry – an old but good piece that he said he hasn’t performed much since he used to do it all the time and felt he’d worn out its welcome.

I can’t recall all he read, but there was a poem about the bucks’ night before his wedding, which was wonderfully eclectic and arty. The Feminine Ending was a stalkery love story from a living statue (inspired, I guess by Amanda’s old profession) that I whimsically thought could be the POV of a Weeping Angel.

Neil warned us before The Trouble With Saints that he could get in trouble for entertaining us because of visa restrictions – I guess he’s here on a tourist visa not an entertaining visa – so we shouldn’t be entertained by his performing it. That, of course, highlights the idiocy of restrictions on overseas performers. In this age of celebrity they “entertain” just by being noticed, let alone opening their mouths, and no-one rationally could claim that a non-Australian performer is taking jobs away from Australian performers by anything they do.

Neil, of course, entertained from the moment he started speaking, and it was a very good night. Now I’m looking forward to Amanda Palmer as half of The Dresden Dolls in a week and a half.

Update: the set-list contained Orange, The Day The Saucers Landed, and How to Talk to Girls at Parties. The first on is a bit gimmicky IMO, but I quite like the others – especially HTTTGAP.

 

Posted from Surry Hills, New South Wales, Australia.

I’ve decided there’s three classes of riders, from slow to fast: people who walk up hills, me and everyone else.

Danya came over to my place just before 7am – Duncan had left just before him and went straight to the start. At morning tea (Loftus) Danya got a text from him to say he’d got to the end and was waiting for us. There was another text sometime after lunch saying that he was tired of waiting and was catching a train back. That means he rode the route without stopping and took about 3:30 to get to Wollongong. More power to him Danya took about 4:10 ride time, I think, and I was just under 5 hours with Danya waiting for me at various places along the way. We finished just about 2pm, had a long wait in a queue for some dodgey nachos, and then caught the train home, arriving at about 4pm.

I rode the whole way, unlike some people who walked up hills, but it was a hot day for it. Across the top of the ridge at Waterfall, it was clear and sunny at 27 degrees, which dropped to 24 in the RNP, but after we hit the coast, it reached 38 on the road, which would have been around Clifton. We both soldiered on and refilled water bottles at all the stops. Also near Clifton, after the final big climb, there was a fresh fruit stand with orange pieces; I took a couple but Danya must have gone through 7 or 8.

Overall we’ve raised $925 for the MS Society, but we’re still open for sponsorship. You can click on the widget on the left of this blog and get there. I’d like to get us to $1000 (in my dreams, of course )

Posted from Surry Hills, New South Wales, Australia.

The Up And Coming Events section at the Integeo website has an item about me riding the ‘Gong. Of course, I was asked if I would like a mention, and of course, I said yes.

Here’s the text

Integeo’s Systems Administrator Eric Rose has been a fundraiser for the MS Society for almost 10 years. Once again, he’s taking part in the Sydney to The ‘Gong ride on November 6 on its 30th anniversary. You can sponsor Eric here

Yay! (not that it’s led to any sponsorship yet, but I can dream). By the way, I’m getting closer to my updated target of $500. Hopefully I’ll make that by the time the ride rolls around in less than two weeks.

Posted from Surry Hills, New South Wales, Australia.

Late last week, I received the ride pack for the 2011 ‘Gong – my jersey (like I really need another one ). Unfortunately, they forgot to include my  lunch voucher, so I’ll have to contact the MS Society about that.

The donation bar to the left doesn’t show much activity. Finding a cure for MS is a worthy cause, but money is also needed for ongoing care of sufferers, especially while there is no cure. Every little bit helps, so please donate. Click the donate button, or contact me and I’ll come and collect money in person (within a reasonable distance of Sydney).

 

Posted from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

This is a really interesting talk on “living by numbers”. I’ve seen reference from other people on fitness blogs about sleep monitoring on a regular basis, and the idea that you can track personal health data and adjust your lifestyle to improve health (or reduce household CO2 emissions, etc.) is a nice ideal. I have a few reservations, however…

Chris Anderson speaks at TEDx Silicon Valley 2011 from TEDx Silicon Valley on Vimeo.

1. Privacy. The Withings scale among others all put your data on the web. Can you trust these companies not to share that data? Insurance companies are a prime example of who you might not want to get hold of personal health data. I think you need strong assurances that you control the dissemination of that information and, at the least, I think it should all be encrypted beyond the ability of the company providing the service to look at it.
2. Chris talks about everyone performing experiments on a personal level – as if we’ll all be scientists taking charge of making discoveries about how the world works. I know he says that such small-scale monitoring is not equivalent to a proper sleep laboratory, but there’s a risk that some people will believe in that equivalence. This is actually two problems; understanding how to properly separate out factors like stress and diet on sleep patterns, and understanding the data – what does it mean that you spent 10 minutes in REM sleep less than the previous night?

I’m currently monitoring my blood pressure via a little battery-powered thingy and manually recording the results in a diary. It appears that nobody really understands all the factors that regulate blood pressure on a macro-level (although various cardiovascular mechanisms are known and there are drugs that target these, so I’m conscious that my work supplements real medical tests and advice, but doesn’t supplant it. For instance, I can decrease or increase coffee intake (and as a side-note, how many people will deliberately increase their coffee intake, if they fear it’s a factor, to test how it affects them, let alone how do they deal with the problem of controls when there’s only one subject ) but there’s no way I can totally isolate that factor from the issue of work stress for instance. It’s all very… unscientific, I guess.

Secondly, the device includes warnings about improper use and how you may get bad data; you have to average readings, as any one reading may be an outlier; you shouldn’t eat or drink for half an hour before taking the reading… There’s a whole set of schooling required to know how to take readings and how to interpret them. Then there’s statistical analysis required to make sense of the data over a longer period. Do you know the difference between median and average? What’s standard deviation?

Chris Anderson is predicating this brave new world of living by numbers on a society that is vastly more literate and numerate than the one we live in. Instead we live in one where a large segment of the population can’t or won’t understand the science behind global warming and evolution and basic maths is a mystery; a world where science resources are repeatedly stripped of government funding in favour of arms and advertising. I like the idea that we can track and make use of a “data effluent” to improve our lives, but I think he’s talking about icing on a cake that is getting increasingly staler. Maybe we should improve the basics first.

Update: Oh, and vaccines. Given that the anti_vax crowd is so wilfully ignorant of the basic principles of science, who knows how they’d abuse all that data collected from minute updates of the state of their BP or sleep patterns.

Posted from Surry Hills, New South Wales, Australia.

and you can all rush to sponsor me now

I received an email early in the week stating that priority entries are now available, targeted at last years entrants. Once again, they’re capped at 10,000 riders, and the online entry states that a condition of entry is that you commit to fundraising $250, which is bound to spark a renewal of last years acrimony in the Herald among those who just want to take part in a mass ride. Me, I’m happy to promise to try to raise $250, as long as the MS Society accepts a good-faith effort that may not actually meet that target

I’ve create a basic fundraising page on the Gong Ride site, as well as creating a team in case Danya plans on taking part again this year (hint, hint). I’ve arranged for a fundraising book for chasing donations in person for those that want to pay cash or to use this as a way to get me to get out and talk to people in person The same conditions as last year apply to me collecting money in person (sorry, James).

[gplusbutton]

 

Posted from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

There’s an old slogan in Sydney: “Is that true or did you read it in the Tele?”. Now they’ve upped the ante to declare war on truth.

The Herald published a funny piece taking aims at the “bogan” mentality, and the lazy consumerist mentality that follows the decrees of both populism and celebrity in the context of the latest climate change campaign with Care Blanchett. The self-described aim of the Boganomics column is to highlight the “…the gullibility of the modern Australian consumer”, and I thought it did that reasonably well in this case.

But , oh no, the Tele gets all huffy and claims that so called climate change believers have “decided that the problem is you, because you’re stupid”. Rejecting offers of simplified explanations for the science, they declare a class war is taking place between the “self-appointed intelligent folks” and the “common morons they despise”. Unfortunately the Tele denies that there is such a thing as objective facts that have been independently verified across decades in various disciplines, showing that global warming is a fact and that it is the man-made component of it that is causing the greatest problem. People are willing and able to explain the research  and identify the fallacies that deniers depend upon to confuse people, but the Tele is obviously part of that camp of deniers.

I laughed at the speciousness of this argument:

Having witnessed general rejection of various do-as-I-say high-profile climate activists, what was the latest tactic from pro-taxers? They got a list up of 140 “Australian leaders” who want the carbon tax.

If anything is going to drive people further away from their cause, it’s a “We Say Yes” letter from the likes of Rebecca Gibney, John Hewson, Suzie Wilks and Malcolm Fraser. The title “Australian leaders” is enough to cause a double-digit support drop. Who made Rebecca Gibney the boss of us?

Under most uses of the word “leader”, I guess that Gibney is not one, but she is a reasonably well-known Australian celebrity and probably looked up to by the segment of the population that would rather buy New Idea than a newspaper. However, the Tele brushed past other names on the list – Hewson and Fraser. Who made them the boss of us? All the people who voted for them and their political parties when they became Prime Ministers.

And, of course, no-one has a “unquestioning belief” in climate change. In fact the topic would be non-existent if there wasn’t scientific research that indicated there was a problem, and an overwhelming amount of further evidence that supported the initial research. This is not religion – we don’t deal in beliefs. There are hypotheses that are tested (using data from the real world) by assuming the falsehood of those hypotheses. When we can’t prove one wrong it becomes a theory, like gravity, and global warming is a fact.

Not only do they want a war but they appear to condone the use of threats of physical violence against scientists. By comparing humorous videos etc. calling people stupid to actual threats of scientists becoming “collateral damage in the war”, the Tele is making light of the damage that might be carried out by people who feel validated in their fundamentalist anti-science beliefs, and are effectively egged on,  by the stand the Tele is taking. I just hope that the ACMA starts investigating them (as is happening for Alan Jones, I understand).

Update: I forgot to mention when I originally wrote this that it’s my opinion that the Telegraph is the entity that is undervaluing its readers intelligence. Rather than linking to the Herald article it complains about, it engages in quote mining to try and hide the context of the extracts used. The Telegraph obviously feels its audience is too dumb to ask for evidence to back up the claims made,and makes it hard for anyone who isn’t dumb to chase up that evidence.

I for one, don’t assume my audience is dumb, and I have nothing to hide – unlike the Tele – so I link to the source material on both sides.

 

Posted from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

The Sydney Morning Herald has taken the strange step of making The Guide (the TV section) optional in Monday’s paper. They now also sell it on Sunday and it has an 8-day range from that day. It seems apparent that this is an attempt to boost falling sales on Sunday, but I’m not sure how well that will work; I certainly won’t be buying that crappy rag.

Not only that, but I went to get milk and the paper at the corner store and the Monday paper wasn’t supplied the now-optional section, meaning they lost a sale. Checking with the newsagent, I heard a story about people asking if they could buy The Guide on its own. On being told no, they walked out without buying anything. That means lost sales there as well. Does Fairfax know how many people only buy a paper on Monday because they wanted the TV schedule? I guess they’ll find out by the drop in revenue on Monday.

I’m on of those who’ll now rely on the EPG on the television, not available when I started buying papers but it’s now a good, free alternative. News, I can also now get online so I have no need at all for a paper on Monday at all. So long, SMH.

Posted from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Direct marketing spam.

They bought or rented a list of names and addresses from ADMA (that’s a link to their opt-out page). Not only that but the Guide Dogs marketing campaign involves sending toys through the mail, and the cost of that can’t be insignificant. Instead of sending people unsolicited crap, they could funnel resources into training guide dogs. Wouldn’t that be a better use of money?

I am on the ADMA do-not-mail register now, but Guide Dogs Australia is now on my DO NOT list, as will be anyone from whom I get unsolicited mail (physical or electronic). No way will I give money to that organisation or any other; no way will I buy goods and services from a spammer and it doesn’t matter if any of those are charities or not. If you invade my privacy repeatedly you can go fuck yourselves.

Just to clarify this, it’s not that I have anything against Guide Dogs Australia, but it’s ADMA and that evil business model that involves selling private customer information without your consent. I would be very happy if ADMA went to hell, assuming such a thing existed. As it is, I will boycott anyone who does business with them, if I can identify such a link.

Posted from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

I just returned from seeing one the musical icons of my youth, Joan Baez being probably the only other artist that I was so taken with during that period – seeing her at her peak would have been wonderful. Probably Buffy at her peak would have been better than tonight, since her voice has faded, but the politics and presence haven’t from what I can tell.

I noticed that the crowd must have had a median age somewhere in the 60s. Some younger people were there but mostly accompanying their parents who must all be aging hippies. There was certainly proof that white people don’t have tribal rhythm, and a lot of people were reliving their hippy youth – disconcerting for anyone who thinks that the older generation should probably have grown up by now and left fan-boy displays for the youth

The evening started out with Kev Carmody, who strolled onto stage with his guitar and made us feel like we were around a camp-fire while he told tales and sung folk songs. He only had about 20 minutes but did a wonderful version of Moonstruck from One Night The Moon. Then he followed that up by ending with From Little Things Big Things Grow, getting us to sing the chorus.

Michelle Shocked came out for about 40 minutes. She started with Anchorage, with the band (keyboard, bass and horn/percussion players) coming on bit by bit. Then she went into Memories of East Texas, spinning it out into telling us about getting dumped before the prom and getting a Facebook  friend request from the brother of the dumper years later, and also the story of how she tried to follow the life of Kerouac and ended up with an album that she didn’t know she made (the bootleg campfire tapes). She left the stage for a song – letting the band perform a composition by the horn/percussion player, which was an impressive latin jazz groove with the melody taken primarily by the bassist on a six-string instrument. It was quite impressive.

Michelle came back for a wonderful version of The L&N Don’t Stop Here Anymore (that’s not Michelle’s version, but it’s a wonderful one). She finished with one of a series of collaborative pieces she’s done with her partner – and artist – about important women in American history, This one was about Ella Fitzgerald, and the musicians handled a series of reasonably complex changes of styles that documented Ella’s career.

Buffy came out with a four-piece band – a guitarist, bass player, drummer and her – and they covered a range of pieces from early folk (Piney Wood Home was the first song off the blocks) to stuff from her latest album in 2008 which is much more rocky, but less political than her 1992 album. As the previous clip shows, she can’t hit the high notes for any duration any more but she works around this; the voice much more suits Codeine now. One of the other highlights was Universal Soldier, which had much the same introduction as the clip. Country Girl was also done quite nicely as was Cripple Creek, with the mouth bow (and she reminisced about the Sesame Street performance with a horse).

One of the songs she could have passed on, in my opinion, is Up Where We Belong. I guess she feels that she is entitled to reclaim it from Joe Cocker (and it’s the title of her 1996 best-of CD), but it’s one of those period pieces that I think should stay in that period Still, it was fun to see these burly rock musicians with the semi-mohawks and low-slung instruments  being all sensitive for this and other pieces.

Buffy was also (almost shyly, it seemed) appreciative and amused by having her songs covered by people like Bobby Darren, who sent her a bouquet of yellow roses, and Elvis Presley among others. They all covered Until It’s Time For You To Go and she talked about throwing her own songs into the mix of standard 400 year old Welsh songs that were the standard folk repertoire. Apparently she was down in the basement listening to artists like Elvis and Carl Perkins when she should have been doing the ironing; writing and recording rockier pieces appears to be a welcome change for her.

As well as Universal Soldier (in terms of protest songs), she performed a few pieces off Unlikely Coincidences, including Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and Priests of the Golden Bull. Unfortunately  the mix wasn’t great and the guitar parts were a bit lost . They were still great, though, and she ended up with Star Walker followed by an encore of Indian Cowboy in the Rodeo.

It was a wonderful evening, but I find that I’ve now linked to a couple of Youtube clips which are arguably better than what I saw The problem is that it was just her and three others tonight, whereas some of the songs benefit from backing singers. In some places Buffy attempted to sing backing parts as well as her own, and in some others I think they had  a backing tape. The guitarist and bass player contributed a bit of singing, but I really wish she’d had a full entourage to help out. I had a great time, however, and don’t begrudge the experience of seeing an icon of North American folk singing and songwriting and of political and cultural activism for native rights.

Coming out of the concert I realised that it’s really a little sad hearing protest songs that are as old as me being sung by their originator, and knowing that they’re still as relevant as they were when they were written. Lots may have changed over the course of my life in terms of technology and understanding the way the world works – better medicines, and all that – but governments and business still operates in the same way and we still have to fight for basic human rights every day. We need people like Buffy Sainte-Marie to continue telling us that we’re fighting wars that we shouldn’t be; that raping and pillaging the land in search of fossil fuels and uranium is wrong. We need protest songs to be front and centre again

 

Posted from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Never Let Me Go is a wonderfully bittersweet film and a great example of how to adapt a book into a movie. First get the author involved and make sure that you can justify your changes to him; make sure that he’s aware that a change of medium necessitates a change in what can be presented to the audience and how the story is told. Since I know that there are readers who haven’t read or finished the book and those who haven’t seen the movie, I’ll continue the review after the fold (thar be spoilers ahead, matey!). Just let me say that I think this film is very good and much better than most of the commercial pap currently showing.

Read the rest of this entry »

I answered my summons for jury duty today, turning up at the criminal court on Liverpool Street before 9am. I hadn’t been summonsed for about 15 years, if I recall correctly (sometime in the mid-90s when I was still with Telstra).

First, the members of my panel were given cards with random numbers on them and a brief talk about what to expect. Apparently there were two trials we might participate in – the 5 week one mention on our forms or a 12 week one they were soliciting jurors for (although, as it turned out, that wasn’t the case in the end).

We then all went and sat in the waiting room for a couple of hours until a bunch of numbers were called out, mine among them, for what turned out to be a 3-day trial for robbery with assault at Bankstown. Selection involved numbers called at random out of about 24, until 12 people were seated in the panel, at which point each defendant and crown prosecutor could challenge – no reason given and you just go back to the back of the court and someone else randomly got selected. When 12 people with no challenges were selected (I wasn’t one), the rest of us  trooped back to the waiting room.

There we spend another couple of hours until a second case came up. This one was a superannuation fraud scheme involving three people charged with handling money (about 5 million and 42 cents, if I recall correctly) which they knew was the proceeds of crime. This case was expected to take 6 to 8 weeks, which was a bit longer than I liked, but not outrageous.

Since the judge in each case (and it was also mentioned in the brief talk when we arrived) explained that people who had been involved in similar crime or knew the people involved (and the prosecutor read out a list of names) should mention that fact, I decided that it would be prudent to mention that I had been ripped off by Astarra and the Trio group. While I don’t think I would be biased on that basis, it’s better not to have it become an issue later so the judge excused me from being selected.

This selection process was different than the first in that, rather than 2 challenges, almost all the prospective jurors were challenged; 8 of the first 12 and then more until only 10 jurors were finally available. It appeared to me that the prosecution decided that people who looked like they had the same cultural background as the defendants weren’t suitable, and they in turn decided that older women in general weren’t (perhaps representative of their alleged victims?). Anyway, as there weren’t enough people for a panel, the case was adjourned and we were all sent back to the waiting room.

There we were told that no more cases were on the day’s docket, so we were all done and could go. As I understand it, we are off the list for about 12 months. I’m a bit sorry that I didn’t get to actually be on a jury as it all looks quite fascinating, but them’s the breaks.

My old HTC magic decided to not get along with the Micro-SD card again (I’ll be glad to upgrade to newer hardware), so I ended up wiping everything on it and rebuilding my music on there. It’s 8Gb of storage, so I’m limited, so this is what I’ve ended up out of 60Gb of assorted MP3s:

• Laurie Anderson – the classic Home of the Brave, the anthology Talk Normal and the newest  Homeland, which has some great stuff on it like Only an Expert
• Dean Gray – a great mashup of Green Day’s American Idiot with the Daleks, The Bangles and others – some wonderful stuff
• Best of Bootie (collections from 2005 to 2010) not all great, but some wonderful mashups in there. For my money, 2005 is the best collection if I had to choose one.
• Falling Joys – partly a bit of nostalgia since they date from my first years going to see local Sydney bands. Also, some glorious pop songs
• Fats Waller – an old vinyl rip of Valentine Stomp. Probably some of the first jazz I listened to and I love it.
• The Kleptones – masters of mashup and probably the stuff I would keep if I had to throw the rest away. If I had to choose, I guess I’d keep Night at the Hip-Hopera
• Fourplay – I quite like their newer mix of classical and electronica.It’s something I reach for to break up the pop/rock stuff that is the majority of my collection.
• Thelonious Monk – wonderful piano-based jazz that just hits the spot.
• The Triffids – another Australian nostalgia choice and classic pop. Born Sandy Devotional is my favourite with Calenture close behind.
• Frank Zappa – He was so smart, funny and irreverant and is a delight to listen to; a real pick-me-up. I have heaps, but You Are What You Is is my favourite.
• Billy Bragg – I don’t have much of his latter work, but Workers Playtime is a must-have for me
• Joni Mitchell – Classic American (well, Canadian) folk.
• Tom Waits – Ok, maybe not the Kleptones. Blue Valentine and The Black Rider are my favourites, I guess, but it’s all good and I pity the people who can’t stand him.
• King Crimson – If you hate prog. rock, I guess we don’t have much to talk about  . I can’t really pass up In the Court of the Crimson King.

Ok, that’s a fairly eclectic and arbitrary mix… some more might have made the cut, including Weddings, Parties, Anything, Paul Kelly and Jaco Pastorius but you have to stop somewhere. The above was chosen to keep a bit of variety in genre to avoid being bored (and the mashups help with that, I guess), and a themed selection would probably be totally different.

 

Posted from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.