Spring must be the season when people turn their minds to starting blogs, or at least spring 2005 was when some excellent people did. It’s the three year blogiversary for both Pavlov’s Cat and Hoyden About Town. Warm salutations and felicitations to both!
Since we don’t live by politix alone (I sincerely hope), what did people get up to this weekend? Join in, share some tales, regulars and lurkers all!
Although it’s been uni break over the last week, I’ve been a busy boy. I now have a date with destiny for my doctorate - I’m presenting to a final seminar on 30 October. This is the internal examination stage of phd completion according to the QUT rules - it’s a bit like a viva voce where you talk about what you’ve done and found and are questioned by a panel of senior academics (and the audience!) - in my case from QUT’s Humanities Program (once was a Faculty…) I more or less wrapped the thing up on Friday, did a little revision yesterday, and lazed around last night and watched Maggie Cheung movies on dvd, and today and tomorrow before the teaching and marking onslaught resumes, I’m giving the thesis a final spit and polish.
So I’m very chuffed!
Folks might also remember I’ve been doing a bit of travel writing - of the insider’s guide to where you live variety. I filed my copy for that and sent in the invoice on Tuesday arvo, and it was a really neat gig. On Monday, I went for a wander around Paddington and took some photos - not for the project itself - but as an aide memoire. It turned out to be a dodgy day to be walking - 35 degrees maximum. But it did also prompt me to decide that walking for about an hour a day was a good custom to be revived - so I’ve been doing that ever since - in the late afternoon on cooler days and at night on hotter days. Anyway, here’s the photographic record of my Paddo perambulations. It’s a really nice part of the world, and somewhere I wouldn’t mind living. But the real estate market would really have to collapse before I could contemplate buying there!
Jennifer Schuessler at the New York Times has been boosting the “turn the Veep debate into a poetry slam” movement. Two poems selected from her Paper Cuts blog post:
Haiku’s not the form
For Senator Joe Biden
Because the last line may come out slightly longer than is absolutely necessary due to the subject’s ability to analogize all topics to a seminal moment in the history of this great nation of ours, America, the UNITED states of America
-Henry Alford
So jobs, they … you know,
Health care’s really …. it’s — Katie,
That bridge? I said no.
On a day when fear ran rampant around “the markets”, some distraction from the Apocalypse might come from considering horror movies.
Incidentally, lots of the pre-tribulationist Rapture watchers in the US have been expecting the world to end on Rosh Hashanah - the Jewish New Year - which is why Congress is closing down for two days. Weird!
Anyways, back on topic. I agree this is the scariest movie scene ever. From Mulholland Drive:
Negotiators had worked all weekend to accommodate some of the doubts of conservative Republicans who objected to such a massive outlay of taxpayer funds on the financial sector. But in the end the largely superficial changes made to the original plan were not enough and more than three-quarters of Republicans voted against. Worse, perhaps, more than a third of Democrats also opposed the measure, which they saw as a handout to rich bankers on Wall Street.
Now, in effect, the politicians have called the bluff of Hank Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary. Since he first proposed the plan ten days ago he has repeatedly warned that its passage was absolutely essential to avoid a complete freezing-up of the US financial system.
Working on the picture being worth a thousand words concept, Pundit Kitchen (from the ICHC team) encourages reader submissions. It does tend to lean leftish, which doesn’t bother me, but if it bothers you then leave a link to contrarian PolMacros in comments. Here follows an assortment (image heavy, so unfriendly to dial-up (sorry):
Andrew Norton argues that the controversy over Julie Bishop’s lifting of a form of words from the Wall Street Journal is irrelevant, and tries to excuse it by arguing that politicians recite speeches written by departmental or political staff all the time. Hmmm… I don’t think it’s quite the same thing, for two reasons:
(a) Bishop is being heavily touted by the Opposition and their cheer squad in the media as being part of the magic restoration of the Liberals’ putatively natural advantage on economic management. This despite the fact that Malcolm Turnbull has given zero evidence of departing from either Nelson’s populist nonsense or his own wildly incoherent “inflation doesn’t exist, and if it does, it’s Wayne Swan’s fault” puerilities from earlier in the year. Bishop is a lawyer, and I suppose lawyers prosecute a case for their clients. Perhaps therefore lawyers can be excused from not understanding what they’re saying? Her alleged forensic skills as an advocate are supposed to be one of her pluses - according to the aforesaid press gallery boosters. But isn’t there a problem - as with Peter Costello - when lawyers holding financial portfolios basically know stuff all about the actual economy and are only touted as having “credibility” because they’re able to argue a case?
(b) This stuff sticks. Just ask Joe Biden. He’s still living down having plagiarised Neil Kinnock (of all people) in his unsuccessful run in the presidential primaries in 1988. So in the terms of realpolitik, it doesn’t matter if it should be a problem when politicians plagiarise. When they do, particularly - as with Bishop - right at the start of their tenure in an important new job - it won’t be forgotten by the public.
No, this is not, as you may expect a post about the recent Brisbane Writers Festival. They deserve a few brickbats in my opinion, for always scheduling the event just before the uni break at the very time when folks associated with universities find it very hard to find any time for extra-curricular stuff. A couple of weeks later, and they could instantly solve that “getting teh yoof” to attend thing and magic themselves up a crowd of uni students. Maybe some marketing wiz is reading this - if so, please take note!
What I actually wanted to share was a writing experience I really enjoyed. I was auditioning - as it were - providing a writing sample on demand - for a gig (which I got, and which I’ll talk about later on when I can link to the finished product). The brief was to write about something in Brisbane in a hundred words - a restaurant, a bar, a street, whatever. It’s really quite a neat exercise to try, particularly because what you are attempting to do is convey something of your own city, and something about the bits of it you love, to people who might have varying levels of knowledge and perhaps varying preconceptions.
So here’s my 98 words about The Alibi Room. I haven’t gone back and edited the passage, as I will be doing for the rest of what I’m writing for this project.
It’s been almost three weeks since we had a good condemn. Here’s a twenty sixth open condemnation thread. What’s getting up your goat this month so far? Which evil political, cultural, social, musical, religious and other phenomena need condemnation? (Or loud denunciation?)
You can condemn anything you like except the old Beverly Hills 90210. And particularly Kelly. Although you can condemn the new 90210. If you find it worthy of condemn.
“Having brought the European version of the Eurovision Song Contest to the Middle East and North Africa, we are now delighted that viewers across Asia will enjoy one of the best established entertainment shows in the world,” said Eurovision TV’s Bettina Brinkmann.
Asia’s version will start in 2009, and involve competitors from Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Macao, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
I note that while Asia lets us play soccer against them, there’s no sign of letting us in to this contest. But it’d be so good for the contest! Just think, Asiavision 2010 rolls around…and from the Beijing Egg, Australia gives Asia…the Chaser crew…
These guys have too much time on their hands? Or the most pressing public issues of the day are related to positions adopted in the late 1960s on Suharto’s crimes in Indonesia?
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