Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Pretty Pretty Calendar.


Hey people, please go to Readings in Lygon Street tomorrow night at 6pm to make up a crowd for the launch of this lovely calendar. I'm not asking this of you because I helped out with producing it, but only because I know you want to be where lefties are.

Also, please buy the calendar. Phillip Adams thinks it's fab, apparently. So you desperately need to own one now. There are details and stockists and stuff at the 3CR website. You really do want one.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Mass.







What a pleasant day out that was.

Friday, November 11, 2005

It's time [to go]...


Oh yes, it's the 30th anniversary of the Whitlam Dismissal today. A watershed moment, a national disgrace, etc. My dad left the country in disgust, so he SAYS (he also had the travelling bug, mind). Anyway, on Tuesday morning's radio show, I interviewed my legendary Politics teacher from school. It was a completely legitimate interview too, because he also runs whitlamdismissal.com, and even features in today's Age article about the Dismissal's dimming legacy wif da yoof [ignore fucking Marcel White, please]. Anyway, when Mr Farnsworth says "the kids are less interested in politics generally", he's not talking about ME, obviously. I'm sure I was his favourite student EVER. But I have a few friends who will fight me on that. Anyway, Happy Dismissal Anniversary, you fucked country!

EXTREME FIERY FURNACES APPRECIATION!!!!



Before we get back to Extreme Kate Bush Appreciation (more is coming), I would just like to sneak in some Extreme Fiery Furnaces Appreciaion. There is a new album, and it is fantastic. Oh yes, we do love us a concept album, especially when it's done by one of the best bands around. I was going to point you in the direction of this entirely correct EG review, but then I found the following 'From The Artist' note on Amazon, which I think gives a better sense of it:
Dear Listener, Tracks 3 and 4 take place in the 40s; tracks 5 and 6 in the 20s and 30s; track 7 in the later 50s; track 8 starts in the very early 40s; track 9 goes back and forth; track 10 takes place in the early 60s; the final track takes place in the early 90s. Track 2 takes place a few years ago; track 1 took place when it was recorded. The action depicted in "The Wayward Granddaughter" and "Slavin' Away" does not include the character Olga Sarantos plays on the rest of the record. "Slavin' Away" imagines that character--the main character-- fantasizing, a bit remotely, about the hard lot of other women. Now, I wouldn't guess that the Main Character actually thought the woman concerned was riding around in a Norton side-car and operating her own cottage industry trinket assembly/sweatshop: but it might have pleased her to picture it so. "The Wayward Granddaughter" is about a different Greek-American grandmother and her popular granddaughter ("Connie"). They're from Chicago's south suburbs and don't figure in the rest of the record; I wanted to have another (slightly younger) grandmother and family in there for perspective or comparison's sake, so to speak. Thank you for your time, Matthew Friedberger
I offer this for your consideration because it's very fucking good.

Sunday, November 06, 2005

EXTREME KATE BUSH APPRECIATION!!!!


Was anyone else awake really late last night? Did you SEE every single Kate Bush video clip being played in succession on Rage? Did you? BECAUSE I DID. And it was the BEST THING EVER.


Wuthering Heights - The Man With The Child In His Eyes - Hammer Horror - Wow - Breathing - Babooshka - Army Dreamers - Sat In Your Lap - Suspended In Gaffa - The Dreaming - Running Up That Hill - Cloudbusting - Hounds of Love - The Big Sky - Experiment IV - Don't Give Up - The Sensual World - Love and Anger - This Woman's Work - Rocket Man - Rubberband Girl - Moments Of Pleasure - And So Is Love - The Man I Love - King Of The Mountain - Wuthering Heights (Studio Version)


Seriously, it was the most exciting and enjoyable television I have watched in my entire life. And I even taped some of it, so now I can watch Kate Bush videos whenever I want. SCREAM! Because they are AMAZING. The dancing, the trenchcoats, the gold fluttering confetti, Donald Sutherland being Kate's dad. And watching them all in one go was like an education. I am a better person now. And the new clip for King Of The Mountain makes so much SENSE now. There's a trenchcoat, there's an Elvis suit flying around. It [needs more dancing, but] WORKS! Would really like some kind of DVD with all of Kate Bush's video clips on it to be made and distributed, á la Björk. Please.

Now, if someone had passed on Dave's message about Aerial being in Polyester already, I might be listening to it now. But I'm not. Which only means MORE EXTREME KATE BUSH APPRECIATION WILL FOLLOW.

Saturday, November 05, 2005


I just feel like I'm living in the worst democracy in the western world right now, and it's fucking lame and wrong.