i hate that i live in a country that would give matty a second chance!

as you may or may not know i hate rugby league, almost as much as i hate the foo fighters and the red hot chilli peppers. the whole game and the culture that surrounds it glorifies recreational violence, binge drinking and elevates brainless steroid riddled sexist 'athletes' to the status of gods.

this all comes from my anger that i live in a country that would give matthew 'matty' johns a second, wait third, hang on sixth chance. how many times are australian league fans willing to look past sexual impropriety because....well the guy is funny? he can make a penis joke AND insult the sexual revolution at the same time. and who said men can't multitask?

though this has larger ramifications in my mind as none of this raises any alarm bells anymore. no one really cares or is even remotely surprised when our great athletes are caught in a hotel room with cocaine and prostitutes! just so long as the police don't lay charges it's all ok. rugby league is perhaps not the only or even worst offender in raising athletes with the emotional range of a teaspoon. but, as i live in new south wales they are all over the media i consume. now i'm not saying that all of the members are like this but, they are happy to play on teams with men who at very worst rape women and on the tamer side strip down to their undies, dance on a table top then drive home with a blood alcohol reading three times the legal limit.

these are the men who are role models to young new south waliens! teaching young boys that if you train real hard and show up every saturday morning at your match you could grow up and get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars. then you can run people down with your car and be famous enough to get away with it. not to mention the way they will look at women. as objects to use as an attractive date to some sort of awards show who really love them for their winning personality, ability to quote episodes of the footy show and not their cash.

there is some 'hope' though. the balmain tigers have implemented etiquette classes for its players. how to ask a question without ending the sentence with a proposition and using unfamiliar words like 'please' and 'thank you'. it is also frowned upon calling a date a 'hoe' and instead telling her she looks pretty and holding a door for her. this isn't in my mind enough, but it is a start. it's a bit like teaching a monkey sign language and how to not throw faeces, difficult. moreover, it is a bit late. by the time these men reach the professional level of the game they aren't likely to change their behaviour. and why should they? they are at the peak of their physical fitness, are rewarded handsomely for that and are getting laid by cheap flooseys. they don't need to change the habit of a life time. not when it's working for them.

the australian rugby leagues institutional sexism needs to be stemmed earlier in these athletes careers and men like matthew johns should not be given an unlimited amount of second chances. the real world doesn't work that way. not for us poor folk at the very least.

'the moonlighting effect'....gah its all the 80s fault!

SPOILER ALERT for bones fans, if you don't want to know what happened in this weeks (in america) 100th episode do not read any further.

now that i'm done with the legalities, on with the rant.

after watching this weeks great episode i was left sad and angry. the impassioned bitch session i had with my sister this afternoon has spurred on this post. the fab ep finished with the booth/bones love going the way of the dinosaurs. the possibility of them ending up married in a house in the suburbs with 2.5 children ended in a spectacular car crash of disappointment. g-man booth declaring his love to odd-ball scientist bones was met with a definitive no, on the later character part. fans of the show have jumped on the idea of killing the producer of the show hart hanson for shooting down all their hope and i'll admit i did this to for about an hour or so. that is, right up until i figured out whose fault it REALLY was. moonlighting!

bit of tv history, moonlighting was a show in the late 80s. half way through the shows run gave fans what they wanted. madeline and david having hot hot sex after two years of ust (unresolved sexual tension, you all don't want to know how i know that). this has been largely attributed to the shows declining ratings and the shows eventual cancellation. after this producers have for some reason figured that americans don't want happy couples on their screens. they prefer them moody and well, horney.

there are many MANY examples of this in recent tv shows. mulder and scully are a prime example. the x files creator chris carter was terrified that the show would get cancelled if he put his dynamic duo in a official romantic relationship. even when they did eventually 'hook up' in season 7 it was never clarified and even in the shows season 8 finale is wasn't made clear if scully's son was mulder's also. why is this? is it really all about keeping audiences happy and thus keeping the studio happy? or does no producer have the guts to subvert the norm, have some confidence in their characters and their writers and give the shippers what they want?

now i know this is trivial but it is really starting to piss me off. how many episodes must i watch of house and cuddy make googlie eyes and spew dialogue with barely veiled sexual subtext? EVEN when we all thought house and cuddy had finally done the underpants charleston, it was all a drug addled delusion! but no we are forced into the same dysfunctional cycle season after season. 'common greg yaitanes take a risk! put them together or rip them apart at this stage i no longer care, anything is better than this emotional merry-go-round!

the thing of it is, 'the moonlighting effect' doesn't actually stand up to much serious scrutiny. the reason the show wasn't renewed for a 4th season was because cybill shepherd (madeline) and bruce willis (david) HATED each other. the set was a battle ground by all reports. that and glen gordon caron (the shows creator) is a hack, for gods sake he went on to create medium. eeewwww. no one likes to see patricia arquette employed.

for a longer more eloquent account of television romance check this article out.

"fuck off germany", yea i said it, what of it!?

i'm australian, and as such i crave the joy that can only be found in beating other, larger, countries in any sport. the type of sport seriously doesn't even matter. curling, swimming, cricket, base jumping, rugby and/or women's mud wrestling.

still, this need for national pride and gratification seems when pondered for all of 5 seconds slightly weird. i'm not entirely sure where it comes from, but it is rife in this country. we spend millions of dollars each year on making our athletes the best in the world, for what? a few gold medals every four years (that are 92% silver btw), that aren't actually worth much. they might b able to get you a few weatbix tv ads but other than that. who seriously cares!?

this all came from a funny scottish bastard, frankie boyle. who with regards to the upcoming summer olympics in london said, 'they say that the 2012 olympics is going to rekindle english national pride. i mean, for £9.2 billion they could have written "fuck off germany" onto the moon.'. not only is this HILARIOUS because well, germans are still free game to comedians. you never hear people say, 'oh leave the germans alone, the have been through enough!' but also because it speaks to countries motives when hosting and competing in the olympics.

tourism dollars and beating our past foes in synchronised swimming is lets face it, our political leaders real motives. all this celebrating our culture and good will amongst nations is a lot of old bollocks. we need to come to terms with our real motives in australia! we need to stop putting all our time and effort into the idea that we can get some international kudos and self worth from winning a few games or world records.

perhaps, we could put some money into stopping the welfare cycle or hospitals or public schools OR even just give the money to me and see what i come up with. it has got to be better than spending a few millions bucks a year shipping our douche bag cocaine prostitute loving top sports athletes around the world to win at sports that so many of our tax paying citizens don't give a crap about. perhaps we could find some semblance of national identity elsewhere. might keep the bogans off the street at the very least.

the strokes....my precious.

now this is bit of a fluffy blogpost. just wanted to 'squee' over the strokes latest australian tour. i have seen this band play twice before and my love for them shows no signs of ebbing away. if you are now going, the strokes? who? what? then you deserve a slap! but let me give you a mini education before i resort to senseless violence.

the amazing american (but we won't hold that against them) rock band was formed initially in 1998 in new york. with julian casablancas (vocals), nick valensi (guitar), albert hammond jr. (guitar), nikolai fraiture (bass) and fabrizo moretti (drums). their very first studio album 'is this is' was released in 2001 and is a masterpiece of radiohead proportions. it could be the mix of old world money and new world american life, but the combo breeds an AMAZING sound.

they are scheduled to play at the byron bay festival, splendour in the grass, this year and have announced one sydney side show in july. it's for some reason at the shit hole horden pavilion. tickets go on sale next monday and for the low low price of $90 you can buy yourself a little bit of modern rock experience!

ALSO, the pic above is my current wallpaper.

two heads are better than one.

i've never really been one to believe in the term 'soulmate', it has always seemed just a bit too simplistic. the idea that out of the seven billion people in the world there is only one person out there who is perfect for you is just too insurmountable. the statistical possibility (or rather impossibility) is well, depressing. moreover, there are too many happy couples out there for it to be that black and white.

the other problem i have with the term is the idea that to be with your soulmate is to be complete. as though i'm not a whole person without a romantic partner. now the germiane greer feminist in me is just plain offended by that assertion because it means that once i find a romantic partner i cease to be the person i was before meeting that said person. it's ludicrous! i like being me. being me is fun, i'm not about to change that for regular sex.

still, having said all that i do understand why so many people pay into the idea of there being one perfect partner for them. it's an attractive romantic notion. one that is first spoken of by a very smart man about 2500 years ago. aristocles (or plato) had a very interesting and to be honest mad opinion of the idea. he believed that early man consisted of four arms, four legs and one head with two faces on it. but that a being was far too powerful and the ancient greek god, zeus, the father of all gods, feared such a being and so cut the being in half. the two halves of the one being, now modern man, were forced to spend their entire lives looking for their other half.

now i'm not saying that this isn't mad, it clearly is. but rather, that it is a powerful compunction that we all seem to have. to find that person who 'fits' us and an equal or other half of the whole. one complements our inner and outer strengths whilst tempering our failings or weaknesses. oh i don't know maybe i'm reading far too much into this. or maybe, i'm just another person looking for their 'better half'.

foodwink does lee and me.

another sneaky re-blog as my cadbury expose didn't quite pan out. sorry emma, too late now, defs next yr. it unfortunately didn't quite get past the r and d stage (research and development for you non sg1 people).

anyways moving on.... yesterday i was trolling through my favourite blogs and low and behold in my fave food one was a sweet post on my work. how cool is that?! loving LOVING my new job, great atmosphere to dine and work in with awesome people who are really passionate about the things im obsessed with.

foodwink also are a goldmine of local information on the best places for breakfast, lunch and dinner. check their lee and me post here.

damn attractive indie kids!

initially i was just going to post about the cool new band i have discovered this week (blood red shoes, check em out they are really easy to like) but after having a little wander through their film clips and finding the one below, i've decided to change direction a bit. if you watch the video clip below you will notice the insane attractiveness of not only the bands members but the other kids involved. this level of indie attractiveness is really starting to piss me off.

now i've not usually got anything against exceedingly hott people, the ones that are my friends are disgustingly nice. still, my problem is with this kind of frakin hottie is their invasion of my eye-line. ALL THE BLOODY TIME! i remember a time when cool musicians, that play(ed) songs that i love, were different and usually had a face like a smashed crab. mick jagger, cool dude, ugly as all hell. aretha franklin, now she needed a lot of room to eat her chicken wings. even matthew bellamy, is a scrawny old man.

but all that seems to have changed, even in the last 5 years. indie kids have now gone from being weirdos with jeans that are far too tight for polite society to cool fashion forward people in the eyes of normal surf shop wearing folk. i started to wonder if this was actually a good thing about 6 months ago. i mean, it is time to question things when big w starts selling $20 skinny jeans. it seems now that anyone with a slightly baggy shirt and a pair of cons (converse) is as indie as pete doherty. buy a $600 pair of shoes, develop a cocaine addiction and hang out with kate moss and then i might allow you entry into the indie cool club.

this all leads me back to the good duo, blood red shoes, they make great music and look fucking shit awesome doing it so props to them. BUT the flip side of this is vanessa amorosi. her latest venture into the indie rock side of video hits pissses me off to no end! this is the woman that not 10 years ago told us to 'shine, shine on shine on'. her songwriting capabilites im afraid have not improved much over the last decade and she has returned to us as her real self. her REAL 'self' is now heavily tattooed and sporting fashion looks ripped straight from 'the satorialist'. eeewwww. making money off looks started by poor university students who spend all their centre link money on designer shoes and smack is just so tacky!

anyway, rant over. check this vid and the band out.