my enemies enemies

From Salon:

Pope Benedict XVI has made some Anglicans an offer he thinks they can't refuse. The pope has opened his arms to welcome, en masse, Anglican and Episcopalian priests, bishops and even whole congregations into full communion with the Catholic Church -- so long as they disagree with Anglican decisions to accept women priests and gay bishops. The Anglican priests and bishops can even bring their wives and kids with them. [..read more..]

and from closer to home - well a tiny bit closer - WA. From WA Today:

Pope Benedict has shown himself to be the ultimate short term thinker. He has dealt with his putative partner, Anglicanism, the third largest church after Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, with such sleazy opportunism that he has killed off all hope for a more unified wing of the European higher churches.  
... 
What has he done? After decades of gentle negotiation and muted love calls between these two behemoths, he made a desperate grab for a fringe of Anglicanism – the bells and smell sector. He has offered a deal to the small number of Anglo Catholics to come within his Roman fold (who in Australia will bring no property or assets). As my wry wife observed, this will increase the average IQ of both Anglicanism and Catholicism.

Benedict has shown himself to be a naked empire builder whose friendship cannot be trusted. His avarice is palpable and reveals him to be untrustworthy.

end of an era - or not

It’s traditional on blogs that after a hiatus in posting one announces that it’s over. Kaput. Finished. Dead. Old art form no longer relevant. The well of inspiration has dried up. There’s nothing new left to say. Others are doing it better. Life is too short too blog. Some mysterious affliction prevents one from tapping the creative key tapping juices. 

Then after a month or so one announces a return. Without any real explanation but by actions naysay the whole previous rationalisations. So here I go..…..

Nah stuff it. I’ll quasi stick around.

I’m off to Aberdeen on Sunday for a week. Where the current summer temperatures are exactly what we are having here - 16C plus rain. Touring the whiskeries, driving up to Braemar. Then doing a spot of workish stuff and going to see my one of my brother’s bands play at a Céilidh  or two and a 60th birthday for a singer, this guy, then off to Ireland for a week then over to Netherlands for a week of bicycling around rural areas and Amsterdam and another spot of workish lunching in Rotterdam.

I might post about it or not.

See yas

strine swine flu

I called the Swine Flu hotline today but I couldn't get through... all I got was crackling.

How do you know if you have Swine Flu? You keep getting these rashers.

Doctor, Doctor. I think I have Swine Flu! Don't worry, just rub in this oinkment.

Doctor, Doctor. I've just eaten a bacon sandwich, am I going to die? Depends if the bacon was cured or not.

Doctor, Doctor. My daughter woke up this morning in pigtails. Should I be worried?

The British Government issued warnings of the importance of hand washing, cleaning and general hygiene. Special web sites have been set up to explain to the English what soap, water, washing, cleaning and hygiene are.

venceremos or whatever

30 something clothing sales person:

“Yeah the print .. it looks like that guy…… y’ know ..Che”

30 something customer: "Che? Who’s he again"?

Sales: “Um.. he’s famous”

Customer: “Oh”

Sales: “Yeah – he was a famous Russian ambassador .. or something”

lucinda live melbourne

Something happens to country singer songwriters as the get older, more established and famous. For one their songwriting and singing gets more mature, assured and to some extent this results in simultaneously, but paradoxically, more risk taking and less need to be different. A fan can often get the freshness of new material and fresh approaches to old material and the artist can feel relaxed enough to do some cover versions of old standards well.

Another thing seems to happen. Singer / writers seem to want to get in front of a good old bar band and rock out, dropping all but the genetic country influence. Steve Earle. Great songs but last time I saw him it was simply too loud and too rocky with not enough light and shade and not enough slow songs. 

Lucinda Williams last night was a good concert. At times approaching very good but never reaching great. Lucinda herself said several times that the venue was great for sound and that several songs were the best live version they had ever played. I’ve no reason to doubt she was sincere.

But therein lies my problem. It was Lucinda rocking out with a very very good bar band. Too loud. At times her vocals seemed to bump the limits of the headroom on the amps and speakers and there was too much rock. Almost no twang. Sure there was a bit of pedal steel on a few songs but it was drowned under a wall of sound.

No mandolin, no banjo, no lap steel, no piano except for one minor tinkle, no accordion, no Hammond, no fiddle. No fun for me. I got hopeful at one time when the drummer/percussionist dude popped up with a Frottoir. But no luck no zydeco.

Lucinda seemed to be enjoying herself immensely with the band and I’m sure rocking out with a group of boys like Buick 6 is super relaxation for her or anyone. 

Sadly even the encore of about 6 songs were all mediocre covers of Fats Domino, Guitar Slim, a few others and weirdly The Faces, (Rod Stewart), Every Picture Tells a Story. Hell almost any other song of Rod’s album I would have enjoyed. She could toast up Maggie May, Tomorrow Is a Long Time, a Dylan song or Mandolin Wind. Just imagine what Lucinda’s voice could do to Reason to Believe.

Even sadder was their ending an all rock out version of Long Way to The Top. It almost works on the album but failed in concert last night. Geez Lou. You are in Australia. Everyone knows Long Way. Grannies, hipsters, nerds, little kids. We love it. But the backing goes Char-unka Dink, Chunk, Char-unka Dink, Chunk, Char-unka Dink, Chunk. Not the strange sound we heard last night. I, and most other people there last night, have heard a million better versions live.

I love Lucinda, she can proudly stand beside George Jones, Willie, Bob, Neil Young as a singer and a song writer. Last night was a good concert but disappointing. Lucinda please visit Kasey Chambers while you are here and may I even be so bold as to suggest you get her, her dad and brother to get you a backing band and do a few gigs. Show off your voice and lyrics. You’ll enjoy and we’ll enjoy it.

Update: Anne at Cat Politics seems to have much the same view as me.

I do disagree with Anne about Buick 6. I enjoyed their opening set as themselves. Intelligent guitar rock instrumentals almost orchestral at times, with a huge surf/ Dick Dale influence. I could see then drifting into Allman Brothers at times too. I’d buy the CD. Backing Lucinda they reminded me of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. Or more likely the time when Bob toured with the Heartbreakers as his band.

modern times

In November 2008 I purchased a cheap,  $87 on special, colour inkjet printer to work off a computer in another room for convenience. Last week it ran out of ink. Today I found out it will cost $120 to replace all 4 cartridges.

This caused me to say a rude word out loud in the shop.

The nice lady said "Yes I agree".

She then said "We have this clearance printer on sale for $50 including full size cartridges"

I now have another new printer.

virgin on the ridiculous

Mobile phone plans seem to be designed to drive people to despair or at least confuse one enough to defer switching to another day. Even economists like Joshua Gans and Nic Gruen , who no doubt have hundreds of research assistants slaving away, have trouble figuring stuff like this out.
I‘ve had a reliable Siemens phone now for a few years and seeing I mainly only text and talk and don’t need a camera or an MP3 player in my phone I have seen little need to enter into a contract involving a “free” phone. Much of the last 5 or 6 years I’ve been out of contract. Occasionally I have gone into contract and got a cash rebate of around $150 per phone from a local independent phone agent.

I have avoided Capped Plans because my usage varies a lot from month to month, and being an old fashioned kind of guy, I tend to not yap for long on mobiles if I’m paying. Capped plans come with super offers of $200 for $49 or so but the trouble is most capped plans aren’t really capped at all and the charges are at two or three times the normal fee.

Firstly I set about to find out exactly what plan I’m on and the item charges. No luck. As far as I can see my provider's site has not been operational for the last two weeks. I tried to complain to them but got nowhere. Talking on the phone to Optus owned M8, in the Philippines I think, is hopeless. All they seem to do is spout scripted sales blurbs.

Anyway I sniffed around and somehow got to Slimtel a small Vodafone reseller. They have a nice bring your own phone, no contract, no minimum monthly, no flagfall, 1 Second billing, 11c per 30 seconds to any landline any time, 11c per 30 seconds to Vodafone Mobile any time, 17c per 30 seconds to Non-Vodafone Mobile at any time, 18c per SMS, Voicemail d 7.5c per 30 seconds and only $11 exit/porting fee. Seems pretty good to me.

Old geeky habits die hard so I thought I’d have a squiz at Whirlpool to see what the sadly obsessed had to say. There a person aptly called G WiZZ has taken the effort to set up a spreadsheet with what seem to be all the possible current plans and providers available. G Wizz has also placed a nice little usage calculator in the top right had corner of the spreadsheet so that you can adjust for your usage needs. Download the spreadsheet here.

The very strange thing about all this is that the Virgin Pre paid no contract, no monthly minimum, no cap, el cheapo, for the kids Bean Counter plan seems to outperform almost any other plan or be in the top 5, no matter what figures I punch into it. I’m about to buy myself into the Virgin Bean Counter and give it a go. After all with no contract and no monthly minimum I don’t think I can lose. The weird thing is Virgin Mobile, at least in Oz, is owned by Optus.

I’d be keen to hear what others think.

rudd gropes stripper

I'm sick of these politicians.

Outflanked by Howard on the pork barrelling and throwing money at any project dreamt up by a rural town of less than 10,000 people Rudd and his spin doctors have cynically either constructed an "incident" out of two pots of light beer and a walk past a lap dancing venue or they have resurrected one of the total of three known occasions of Kev's actual and real nights on the turps and refashioned it, in a less than springsteenesque narrative of a subsequent stagger around the late openers and fleece joints around New Jersey.

The timing is suspicious - just when the average voter is getting truly jack of Kristian Kev and his Hillsong Happy Clappers- here we have, oh so conveniently, a concocted misdemeanour, which will turn out not to be a downer (nb: pun) but will turn out to be a fillip to Rudd’s poll rating. Watch the Opposition other mob led by Howard and Downer look pathetic while trying to land a blow, below the belt, so to speak and not succeeding. Watch the woman in the cul-de-sac at Caroline Springs shrug with a yes-it’s-a-bit-sleazy-but-so-what, into the “current affairs” camera and watch her eyes say “Perhaps he’d make an ok PM after all.”