Monthly Archive for July, 2005

Occasionally I read a blog from Arkansas, USA. Steven Jarvis writes it. He’s been a bit quiet lately, probably because in the last few years he’s become a father (to a baby and a mini).

Steven was passed one of those Friday Five style music memes and much to my surprise he listed a Hunters and Collectors song as one of the “Five Songs (or Albums) I listen to a lot or that move me.” The Hunners? Are they known outside Australia? Those were the first two questions I asked myself when I read his choice of “Throw your arms around me,” one of the Hunners most memorable compositions.

I suppose it’s very territorial of me to consider a certain song Australian.

Only about 24 hours to go until I have 6 and a half weeks worth of excuses not to go to work on time. And anyone who calls my tardyness into question is, as Bob Hawke once put it, a bum. Yep, The Ashes test series is about to start.

I was lucky enough to catch an Ashes series in England during 1997. I went to two days of the Lord’s test and 3 days of The Oval’s test back then. It was a fantastic experience for a wide eyed 25 year old. One thing that made it a better experience was that I avoided sitting with Australian supporters. Every second utterence they spewed forth was ‘Oi Oi Oi’, and I can’t believe people still drag out the old ‘Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi’. It’s tired, worn out, kaputski.

Middle aged English cricket fans were a buzz to sit with. They’d bring their transistor radio along, sip beer while wearing their white panama or towling hats and soak up every deleivery as if it were the last ball ever thrown down the length of a cricket pitch. They were all very interested in Australian cricket too. Especially interested in how it is played in just about every school, public or private. They found that astounding for some reason. It wasn’t until I married my wife (who taught at a west London school) 2 and bit years ago that I found out that many English government schools sold off their cricket grounds and playgrounds in the early 1980s. Maggie’s work no doubt.

SBS will do well out of covering this series. I just hope they don’t pepper it with advertising though.

I’ve hit a brickwall again. So have a few other bloggers. So I’ve decided to make something that will help us all out. It’s a die you can roll when you’re stuck for ideas on what to post to your blog. You have to print the die out, cut along the outside lines, then glue it together. That in itself will take the average blogger 2 or 3 hours. Resize it, copy it, alter it. Just click below and have fun.

I must say that I didn’t design it. It’s a Lucky Strike (cigarettes) promotional postcard I picked up in London about 10 years ago. The original postcard says, “So the bar’s closing up and you don’t know what to do next. Easy. Just make up the dice (sic), give it a roll and leave the rest to chance.” The words in the red circles on the original are: Kebab, Curry, Home, Clubbin’, Tattoo, Cinema. I actually used it a few times back in London too.

I finally got to see Revenge of the Sith the other day. Good old Westfield at Hurstville was heaving with teenage hormonal activity. Teenage boys hanging out, smoking Marlboros at every entrance, teenage girls doing the same, but with chewing gum. By the time I got past all the cigarettes and chewy, I, along with the other 5 people in theatre 2 settled down to enjoy the movie. It was great, but all the ‘link-ups’ came on too thick and fast for my liking. Also the fact that there are so many Kiwis in the empire is so disappointing for me. All those ‘Jakes’. Crikey, no wonder I didn’t like the stormtroopers when I saw Star Wars at age 7. They were all Kiwis (is that right though? – are all the stormtroopers clones?). Now for the box set.