TV, movies, music, that kind of thing
Robots — This had its amusing moments. It didn’t suck. But it fails my “if it were the only thing playing on a long plane flight, would I watch it?” test. It wasn’t engaging. It wasn’t interesting. I felt little sympathy for the characters. It felt like a poor man’s Monsters Inc. Uninspired. Wallace and ... [More]
Since Rob, not I, won Tony’s footy tipping competition this year, yesterday it was my melancholy duty to give Rob the World’s Ugliest Trophy. You can tell from the look on my face how disappointed I was to give it over. (Pic by Tony) In happier news yesterday, my friends Josh and Cathy’s baby arrived. ... [More]
I got a survey to do in the mail. Not one of those silly lifestyle surveys, preparing you to be bombarded with advertising, but an anonymous university-based one: the Australian Survey of Social Attitudes. It was interesting stuff. It asked about my views on such issues as immigration, education, government spending, the war in Iraq. ... [More]
A few plugs for things spotted recently… Gardens A while back I was getting a couple of enterprising students, Keith and David, to do my mowing. They’d turn up with their dad driving a stationwagon full of gardening implements of destruction, and do the gardening. But a couple of months ago they bowed out, saying ... [More]
A couple of weeks ago I caught a programme on Compass about near death experiences. (Compass may be billed as a religious show, but contrary to what you might think, isn’t always deadly dull and boring. They have some quite interesting stuff.) I’ve long been interested in what might be out there after death. The ... [More]
I’ve written a guest piece over on Tony’s blog, about the footy tipping trophy.
Look Both Ways: A man walks in front of a train and is killed, an all-too common event these days. The story follows the events in the weekend afterwards, for the victim’s girlfriend, a witness, a journalist, a photographer, their editor, and the train driver. It reminded me a lot of Lantana, seeing that one ... [More]
Yesterday morning. The crowd stood there, in front of the old Treasury building, holding their banners aloft. “Viva the revolution!” the banners proclaimed. I looked closer. Nobody was moving. No shouting. No cops. Just a lone security guard. A boom mic loomed above them. A car was in the middle of the crowd. A shout: ... [More]
Fight Club — The first rule of Fight Club is don’t talk about Fight Club! But I will. Fight Club has been on my (long) list of “great movies that came out ages ago but for some reason I didn’t see when they were new”. I must have been busy at the time. A colleague ... [More]
I had it all worked out — 15 more minutes mucking about, then we’d go outside. I’d bring my laundry in off the line — it would be about dry — the kids could jump on the trampoline, or get their bikes out, whatever. 15 minutes later I glanced outside. It was pouring with rain. ... [More]
On any other day I might care what you say But every Saturday is Father’s Day And you might call it sad And you might call me mad But I’ve got one — who calls me Dad. — Weddings, Parties, Anything: “Father’s Day” I seem to recall Mick Thomas saying he was surprised at how ... [More]
I started writing a list of my five favourite songs of the moment about a fortnight ago, but only got as far as three tracks. Then the “five songs” meme arrived, and Kathy tagged me, so here we go, I’m jumping on the bandwagon. List five songs that you are currently digging – it doesn’t ... [More]