TV, movies, music, that kind of thing
On Sunday afternoon a few weeks ago I was digging through the old video tapes and found the Bargearse compilation. (For non-gen-Xers and those outside Australia, Bargearse was a version of the 70s cop show “Bluey”, starring Leo “Lucky” Grills, dubbed-over in the early 90s by the D-Generation Late Show). I thought I’d give the ... [More]
It’s been a while since I’ve been to church, but on Sunday I found myself at an Anglican service, for a christening. I think if you had to sum it up briefly, that kind of mild suburban Christianity could be best described as a 2000 year old advertising campaign to try and get people to ... [More]
The Choir of Hard Knocks, made up entirely of homeless or disadvantaged people, played the Town Hall last night. But on Friday night they were singing in the Campbell Arcade (Degraves Street Subway), evidently opening an exhibit down there of portraits of the choir members. You could barely see or hear them amongst the big ... [More]
The Doctor Who spinoff series Torchwood starts tonight on Channel 10. I’ve seen a few episodes — at first it seems to revel in its adult timeslot, with (arguably gratuitous) use of sex, swearing and violence. Then it settles down a bit and starts telling some good stories, though none seem as deep or well ... [More]
Shrek the Third — was okay I suppose, a few amusing moments, but nothing outstanding. The first Shrek is still the best one… egads they have a Shrek 4 planned — I hope it’s better than the Third, though I bet they’re all successful. I suppose worth watching if someone else is paying, but fails ... [More]
Should I feel guilty for buying my kids secondhand school clothes? They’re in very good condition — no doubt donated by kids who have legitimately had no use for them anymore because they’ve grown or left the school. $2 per item, about 90% cheaper than buying new. Reduce, re-use, recycle, right? So I’m covering 2 ... [More]
(Well okay, forty years and 3 days ago actually.) Sgt Pepper was the first cassette I owned, back in the late-70s. It lacked a lot of the non-musical extra bits and pieces of the original release: the cardboard cutouts and lyrics and so on. At that age I don’t think I really “got” the concept ... [More]
My dad didn’t wear ties during the later part of his working life, and certainly doesn’t now he’s retired. So I was taught to tie a tie by Norm, who worked at Hattams in Elsternwick when we bought my first school uniform for Melbourne High, in summer ’84-’85. I’ve been thinking for a while about ... [More]
I pick up catch-phrases from various places. One is “Shimasu!”, which I use as a kind of Japanese expletive, when struggling to wake up in the morning, or when exerting myself in some extraordinary way. shimasu.mp3 (MP3 format; 2 seconds; 9Kb) Said the right way, it sounds like something they might have said on one ... [More]
Dishwashers: On the subject of water (I think Andrew or somebody mentioned this a while ago) in last Sunday’s Age M magaziney thing, there was an article noting that dishwashers generally use less water than handwashing. Dishwashers are in the 13 to 20 litre per cycle range, whereas handwashing is up around 40 to 60. ... [More]
I get some terrific comments on this blog. Quite a few of them, too. The database reckons over 6000, though I think there might be some suspected spams in there. Then again, there are some old comments from 2003 that haven’t been imported into WordPress yet. Here’s some followups on some recent comments, and on ... [More]
I don’t normally watch much TV, but I’ve got a few things earmarked for the coming weeks. Tony has reminded me: Life On Mars starts this Sunday night on ABC. Everything I’ve heard says it’s good. Series 3 of Doctor Who is hotly rumoured to be coming on Saturday nights at 7:30pm again, starting in ... [More]