28 September, 2010

something small to make you smile.

the internet is full of crap. i think, we can all generally agree with this statement. we fill a vast majority of our time with complete trash. not that it isn't highly entertaining or interesting, but still not exactly plumbing the depths of human achievement. having the most friends on facebook may get you interviewed by some vacuous morning show host, but probably not a nobel prize or even a job.

this brings me to this photo. i found this yesterday and am inclined to believe that it is easily the shining peak of my internet surfing. a golden ray of light, through the otherwise dark intellectual vacuum of online content. the picture of elisebeth and dave mitchel, in kings cross circa 1965, is just so lovely to me. it speaks of a seemingly more exciting time in history. a time when people tried, or maybe just pretended, to care about the sucky world they lived in and endeavoured to fix its problems.

now, i know this is an incredibly idealised view of australia in the 60s. still, it made me genuinely smile at the two people (presumably married) and the way they seem to just casually 'fit' the world at that time.

23 September, 2010

wine wine wine.

there are many things in this world that me and my father do not agree on, but thankfully wine is not one of them. there really is nothing wrong with wine. i actually think sometimes that homeless wineos have the right idea.... ok so maybe not, but they do get to drink an inordinate amount of wine, the amount of wine i wish i could drink were it not for the sheer fact that my uni grades would plummet and i would probably get fired from my job from either being pissed or recently pissed.

however, i digress. red wine is the best wine. there really are no down sides, aside from the yumminess and being drunk the only thing that could even approach being more exciting is the lack of stress when buying a bottle. if you have stress about picking a bottle to consume then, well you are an idiot. there is no other perishable good that has such a simple code for its scale of shit to awesome. THE PRICE. its right there, on the bottle following the $ sign.

don't worry, i'll explain. you walk into a bottle shop, its full of sluts in ugly shoes (oh so yes, maybe i am retelling my recent trip into wollongong for alcohol) and you stand in front of the 'shiraz' section. a few hundred bottles stair back at you. which to choose, which to choose? hmmmmm. now here, is where my stress just fades away. a cheap bottle of wine, lets say under $10 in australia is RUBBISH. but if you want to marinate some brain cells, a good choice because you can get 2. now above $10 is my price range. i like a $13 to $15 bottle. affordable, red, and most importantly will not taste like lighter fluid. from here up i'm not really interested, but they get even better.

the more expensive the better the wine. it really is that simple. all this fetishisation of wine is bourgeoisie wank. i blame the french! i also love the french for this. they do pleasure well and have inserted a handy system for wine goodness.... so thank you france.

stay tuned to my next thrilling blogpost regarding my love of cheese.

22 September, 2010

group work anger!

right, so i have been quite absent from here of late and it is to some probably not surprising that the issue that brings me back is one that has sparked an angry fire-breathing dragon within me. university group work! now, i have in the past 3 years somehow managed to avoid this situation i now find myself in. mostly, my experience has been very positive largely due to the wonderous brain that lives in alex's head. now though, my faith in the intelligence of humanity has been shaken to its core and where else, but in the graduating class of the university of wollongong's communications and media studies class. as a result, i have come to the conclusion that this exercise is not in an effort to prepare students for communal projects in the work place but rather, a communist plot to weed out the people in a group (like me) that will just go, 'awh frak it, i'll do it myself!'.

my group, made up almost entirely of not just stupid but lazy students has gone from mildly irritating me to full blown psychotic rage. as someone once said, "a fail mark doesn't mean your stupid. a pass mark means your stupid. a fail means you are stupid AND lazy!". i don't mean to diminish the work one member of the group has contributed but for fraks sake, i built a freaking website for these people and haven't received so much as a, 'huh cool' from them.

the final straw to this absurd debacle came today, when one girl announced to the group (via email mind you) that she wouldn't even be attending the tutorial for the submission of the assignment. ok so yes, this is the student that asked a tutorial full of second year politics students, what democracy was. then to add further insult to her obviously injured brain, if iran and afghanistan were, "essentially, like the same country". age isn't an excuse for everything.

so, what to do? submit the assignment, that i have done a vast majority of, and hope for a decent mark? the problem is i am so far beyond caring about the media studies degree. not that i don't think it is both fascinating and important but, come on i don't want a job within its correlated industry, my group members do, why the hell should i bother.

but, i have bothered and now i will tell you why. there aren't many opportunities outside of internet comment bashing, when one has the compulsion, nay duty, to smack down someone they hate with every fibre of their being. in a way that caitlin has termed, 'oxbridge style'. essentially, this means veiling rather horrible insults with a vocabulary that one would find within the halls of academic excellence, oxford. think stephen fry insulting catholics and/or david mitchell attacking with angry logic the idea of fastidious male grooming. yes, they both went to cambridge.... but, you must concede my point.

oh my point, right. for this assignment there is a pretty exciting up-side. the opportunity to bitch about my group 'colleagues' in a manner that, i think, will not only tickle my tutor with its unreserved anger/ honestly but also make me feel a lot better about this entirely unsatisfying experience.

as such, i have decided to begin my 1000 word academic rant with, "during the past few weeks i have discovered that, copernicus was wrong about the earth being the centre of the universe; as clearly each member of my group believes that this right is reserved solely for each of them. were it not for my ability to discern this fact early on, in the creation of this assignment, i feel that all we would have to show today is a quote from 'jersey shore' regarding the state of politics in the world. this is not to say that my group members believe solely what they are told about the wider world simply from one reality television 'star' they are big believers in getting a wider perspective. kim kardashians blogpost on barak obama was considered and aptly rejected. laziness was also an issue. now, im not saying my group didn't contribute. however, a link to julia gillard's twitter account in my mind should not be considered indept research. simply put, my groups lazy approach to this assignment made me look like roadrunner, compared to their not only slow but, wildly incompetent wile e coyote."

what do we think? too harsh?

21 September, 2010

i love my life as a dickhead!

we are having NEW AGE FUN with a VINTAGE feel.


courtesy of my lovely wife, with her hipster hate.

14 September, 2010

tourism australia.... oprah's new bitch.

it was revealed today that the queen of day time television, oprah, is planning a visit to our shores. in a deal with tourism australia, she hope to go out with a bang at the sydney opera house. celebrating her final season on television, this move is to me completely unexpected. are we just the highest bidder? or simply, the most desperate for fat american tourists with big wallets and even bigger mouths to come here and misunderstand our culture and get peeded on by a koala?

this will also be the first show to be filmed outside of america. ok so two things: 1, who cares? and 2, why here?

so i do care a little, only as a passing fancy and the 'ha cool' factor. the later point i think interests me more. surely oprah doesn't give two shits about our economy and its reliance on foreign tourism, so what's her motivation. my guess is money. although, tourism australia isn't spilling on how much money they have put into this scheme, new south wales has admitted to putting up $1 million (usd) towards this.

the episode announcing the trip 'down under' was viewed by 40 million americans and an estimated 30 million people internationally. 70 million people! almost 4 times our population. if even a sixth of them actually make a trip here that's.... well i don't know exactly but ALOT of people.

moreover, i can't see your average sydney-sider getting a seat in her opera house audience. the nicole kidmans of australia maybe, but me? probably not. ooh well, nothing we can do about it now.... welcome oprah. i suppose its better that she comes and visits than mel gibson.

05 September, 2010

kasparov, deep blue, 1996.

i'm not sure if anyone knows this but, apparently the suburbs are the place to be. 'what? surely not!', i hear you say. i didn't believe it myself but the arcade fire do not lie, and their latest album the suburbs has been hailed as their best yet. now, it is good.... amazing even but better than funeral hmmm i'm not sure.

still, they have gone back to the idea of making an album in a very radiohead type way. it is meant to be listened to as a whole, in order and rewards this continuous listening. with every song in some way linked to the idea of the suburbs it has an understated, almost innocent, likeablity that give you a nice warm and fuzzy feeling. reminds me of home, but that could just be me.

mike diver hailed the cd as, "a complex, captivating work that, several cycles down the line, retains the magic and mystery of that first tentative encounter. you could call it their 'ok computer'. but it's arguably better than that."

now, i love radiohead and this review i agree with completely, but only because 'the bends' is my favourite album EVER. but still, breaking the golden rule of, 'thou must not speak ill of radiohead' may in this case be warranted. anyone who knows be gets how massive a deal this is.

anyway, get your ears a copy. i think 'the suburbs' will make them happy.