Google Romance — dating. HP had an advert for Scratch’n’sniff servers in The Age. The Age on Helen Demidenko taking up a career as a lawyer. Is this an April Fool’s Day story? BBC says airlines have banned a Swedish fish-flavoured drink. Any others? (Pranks last year. My 2004 prank.) PS. 4pm. Wikipedia has a ... [More]
Tickets for the Ben Harper concert have suffered from a similar fate as Belle & Sebastian: The concert is on a “school night” plus expensive at $79.95 plus booking fee equals Stuff it, just buy the CD, old man. (And wait to see if they schedule a second concert on a better night.)
Speaking of branding, what about personal branding, eg your name? Perhaps in the western world it’s not really an issue for most men, though I was born Daniel Quinlem, changing to my mother’s maiden name, Bowen, when she divorced. I have the option of changing back, but don’t really want to, partly because it’s hard ... [More]
For a while earlier this month one of the hot email memes going around was a Number One In History web site, though it’s been taken offline now. Happily there’s another site which is online, and even better, it can tell you the number one hits in Australia, the USA and the UK. Like many ... [More]
I’m no marketing expert, but even I know that branding is a powerful and valuable thing. If you’ve got a well-established brand, you have to be careful if you tweak it or change it. As far as possible, you’d have to make the transition as smooth as possible, for your users/customers, including the once-a-year ones. ... [More]
Bye bye to the Commonwealth Games. I’m not normally that enthused by sport, but going to see the athletics at the MCG enthused me somewhat. I also saw the big fish thingies on the Yarra on Friday night, and enjoyed wandering amongst the big crowds. I watched some of the TV coverage, and noted that ... [More]
When I was growing up, we always used Redhead matches, made at the Bryant and May factory in Richmond. I don’t honestly know back then if there were any other brand matches available. Manufacturing has gone to Sweden (half-surprised they haven’t been renamed “Blondes”) but I’ve kept buying them. I think the quality is dropping ... [More]
Spotted last Friday night: Well, it’s one way through the traffic. He got up to a fair speed zooming down Elizabeth Street, too.
Years ago an Australian Scholarships Group (ASG) fund was established for the kids. It seemed reasonably convincing at the time; that you’d put in a bunch of money each month and it would accrue interest and pay out when they went to uni, to pay for their expenses. But after some years in it, I’m ... [More]
Okay okay, it hasn’t really been that bad. But I had to laugh when seeing about five of these signs in a row going up St Kilda Road the other week. One really did say “Avoid inner suburbs.” See also: Blame the Games A day at the athletics (Note March 2016: originally this was a ... [More]
Amidst the awfulness of the impact of Topical Tropical Cyclone Larry, one of the side effects will be the impact on bananas. Apparently about 80% of the crop has been wiped out, perhaps causing prices to double, and a dire shortage expected for the next 9-12 months. In my family we chomp our way through ... [More]
Goodnight and Good Luck — A dramatised version of the campaign against Joe McCarthy by 50’s CBS programme See It Now, but with so many modern parallels in today’s climate of terrorism, fundamentalism, secrecy and censorship. Beautifully shot, and compelling. My eyes didn’t waver from the screen for the full 90 minutes. On a couple ... [More]
Australia’s Kerryn McCann says she was prepared to be beaten in the women’s marathon, until she heard the roar of the MCG crowd. — The Age Such a thrilling thing I haven’t seen in a long time. She didn’t know it, but 76,500 of us in the MCG were watching her progress against Hellen Cherono ... [More]
Tagged by Rae: Seven songs I am listening to right now and a lyric or two that sounds good New Mistake, by Jellyfish — I have no idea what this song is about, but I like it. Got hooked on this band after seeing the music video for it (which is just as confusing) on ... [More]
So the other week I opened up the Good Weekend A2 (Saturday newspaper colour magazine). I ask you, does the world really need another profile of Barry Humphries? I’m not asking for him to go and die or anything, and I find Dame Edna as amusing as the next person, but this continuing fascination for ... [More]
Ahhh… the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony… the flying tram… landing on a giant Melway. You know what, if I had designed the opening moments, that’s probably how I would have done it. Didn’t understand the juxtaposition of ballet dancers and trail bikes though. … I noticed in a city drycleaners the other day a sign ... [More]