A Mind Is a Terrible Think
Before we get too, well, radical, and do something we might regret later, like, for example, allowing students to sue their college professors if they disagree with what’s being taught, maybe we should take a moment to think about what we really want: shutting down northeastern liberal campuses, like, for example, Harvard, who sometimes beat Yale in sporting events and are located in states where Ted Kennedy is from. (Does Florida State Representative Dennis Baxley really want to try to create a theocracy? It’s worked so well for Iran. Unfortunately, we’re talking about Florida, so it’s actually possible for this to make it all the way to Jeb.) I’m going to disagree with the Medium Lobster on this one.
30 March 2005
Introducing the Pot & the Kettle (with a Smack in the Face from the Frying Pan)
James Morrow is wrong. The UN is troubled, but in Morrow’s editorial, he puts a lot of the blame elsewhere than where it belongs. He does this because he has an agenda: the dissolution of the United Nations.
First, Morrow refers to UN peacekeepers as being under the direction of the Secretary General. That’s not accurate. UN peacekeepers are troops supplied by member nations. If those troops act criminally, that isn’t the fault of the UN’s oversight, but of the countries supplying troops without a command structure in place to regulate their behavior. They go in and join in. When Australian troops went to Timor, did any of them commit crimes? No, yet they were there under the auspices of the UN.
The oil-for-food scandal does present a problem for Kofi Annan, but the UN’s examination of the actions of his son have cleared the Secretary General of any wrongdoing. Morrow ignores this, although the argument he’d make is obvious.
So what’s Morrow’s real problem with the UN? It’s the report from the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Once again, as in 2000, the UN has come to the conclusion that Australia has a problem in how it treats ethnic minorities, including its indigenous population. Typically of his kind of anti-intellectual, Morrow concludes that there is nothing to learn from the UN’s report, that it is unwarranted interference in Australia’s governance, and that the UN has been deluded by lobbyists or is simply acting out against Australia because of its participation in Gulf War II.
In his final paragraph, however, Morrow proceeds to make the UN’s point for it:
"These days, the UN has got a lot more than a bloody nose - it is also facing a crisis of legitimacy that has been coming for years. From the start, its biggest problem has been that, to paraphrase the old joke about the Holy Roman Empire, it is neither united nor comprised of nations. Far too many of the member-states did not earn their nationhood in any sort of real way (by, say, populating and cultivating territory or fighting a war of independence) but because someone a long time ago drew some lines on a map. And as modern history has proven, the resulting governments treat their citizens with about as much respect. For the UN to call Australia out for racism and human rights violations would be a joke if it weren't so serious."
What he fails to note is that the “someone[s]” who “drew some lines on a map” were largely the members of the Security Council: Britain, France, the U.S., et al., but he treats these nations as if they were squabbling children who’d scribbled out their boundaries themselves, and are undeserving of nationhood. In fact, many of those nations did indeed fight for their independence, countries like Kenya, India, Iraq, Iran . . . and they fought against the imperialism Morrow apparently misses in the world today.
The UN’s report is indeed serious, and Australia wouldn’t go wrong in a sober assessment of its contents. Having another round of Alexander Downer spitting the dummy shows just how ingrained intolerance is, as is Morrow’s tantrum.
James Morrow is wrong. The UN is troubled, but in Morrow’s editorial, he puts a lot of the blame elsewhere than where it belongs. He does this because he has an agenda: the dissolution of the United Nations.
First, Morrow refers to UN peacekeepers as being under the direction of the Secretary General. That’s not accurate. UN peacekeepers are troops supplied by member nations. If those troops act criminally, that isn’t the fault of the UN’s oversight, but of the countries supplying troops without a command structure in place to regulate their behavior. They go in and join in. When Australian troops went to Timor, did any of them commit crimes? No, yet they were there under the auspices of the UN.
The oil-for-food scandal does present a problem for Kofi Annan, but the UN’s examination of the actions of his son have cleared the Secretary General of any wrongdoing. Morrow ignores this, although the argument he’d make is obvious.
So what’s Morrow’s real problem with the UN? It’s the report from the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Once again, as in 2000, the UN has come to the conclusion that Australia has a problem in how it treats ethnic minorities, including its indigenous population. Typically of his kind of anti-intellectual, Morrow concludes that there is nothing to learn from the UN’s report, that it is unwarranted interference in Australia’s governance, and that the UN has been deluded by lobbyists or is simply acting out against Australia because of its participation in Gulf War II.
In his final paragraph, however, Morrow proceeds to make the UN’s point for it:
"These days, the UN has got a lot more than a bloody nose - it is also facing a crisis of legitimacy that has been coming for years. From the start, its biggest problem has been that, to paraphrase the old joke about the Holy Roman Empire, it is neither united nor comprised of nations. Far too many of the member-states did not earn their nationhood in any sort of real way (by, say, populating and cultivating territory or fighting a war of independence) but because someone a long time ago drew some lines on a map. And as modern history has proven, the resulting governments treat their citizens with about as much respect. For the UN to call Australia out for racism and human rights violations would be a joke if it weren't so serious."
What he fails to note is that the “someone[s]” who “drew some lines on a map” were largely the members of the Security Council: Britain, France, the U.S., et al., but he treats these nations as if they were squabbling children who’d scribbled out their boundaries themselves, and are undeserving of nationhood. In fact, many of those nations did indeed fight for their independence, countries like Kenya, India, Iraq, Iran . . . and they fought against the imperialism Morrow apparently misses in the world today.
The UN’s report is indeed serious, and Australia wouldn’t go wrong in a sober assessment of its contents. Having another round of Alexander Downer spitting the dummy shows just how ingrained intolerance is, as is Morrow’s tantrum.
My Brilliant Career
M. has a theory that everyone has a “best decade” or even “best year,” this being the time when everything about you was at its peak: physically, in your strength and health and in your appearance; mentally, in the clarity of your thought, or at any rate how you perceived it, and in the scope of your knowledge (although that, too, is equally and for the same reasons fallacious); and so on, through all the aspects and permutations of what makes up our lives from day to day and decade to decade. There’s a photo of M.’s dad from the 1970’s, and he’s handsome, debonair, clearly satisfied with every element of his life, however much that may not even have been remotely true.
The theory doesn’t play out too well when you look at it in detail, but it’s a pleasant enough exercise. In a similar meme, The Counsellor is looking back at 1978, musically, anyway, and promises a report. That’s a pretty good year to pick, but I’d say 1980, myself. That was the year I was far enough away from everything that had shaped me previously to break out from my influences into areas that at least felt more personally definitional. Musically, that was discovering X (the L.A. version, and the other L.A. punk bands, as different from NYC as from London, that difference, and each scene’s distinctions being revelatory themselves), the Gang of Four (who never surpassed their first two-and-a-half albums), the Psychedelic Furs (who only had the one good record, and it was really just versions of the same three songs, a clear example of getting a recording contract a little too soon, which was happening to a lot of bands then), and (God help me) U2 (I mean, “The Edge”; c’mon, really). I listened to Jim Carroll’s “Catholic Boy” and developed my Robert Fripp appreciation, and I found Fela Kuti’s afrobeat. Over about the next ten years or so, I got so eclectic, nobody could talk to me about anything, and it took at least that much time before I could get out from under the weight of all that Husker Du and Mission of Burma and start moving into more than pop music inventiveness.
By 1990-1995, I’d been a long time growing up, and there was more to come, as there is yet, but there’s more to life than music, even if it wouldn’t be nearly so much fun or so interesting without it, so I have to abandon the idea of the “perfect year,” once or future, hoping instead to manage to stay ahead of intellectual entropy, if only just.
M. has a theory that everyone has a “best decade” or even “best year,” this being the time when everything about you was at its peak: physically, in your strength and health and in your appearance; mentally, in the clarity of your thought, or at any rate how you perceived it, and in the scope of your knowledge (although that, too, is equally and for the same reasons fallacious); and so on, through all the aspects and permutations of what makes up our lives from day to day and decade to decade. There’s a photo of M.’s dad from the 1970’s, and he’s handsome, debonair, clearly satisfied with every element of his life, however much that may not even have been remotely true.
The theory doesn’t play out too well when you look at it in detail, but it’s a pleasant enough exercise. In a similar meme, The Counsellor is looking back at 1978, musically, anyway, and promises a report. That’s a pretty good year to pick, but I’d say 1980, myself. That was the year I was far enough away from everything that had shaped me previously to break out from my influences into areas that at least felt more personally definitional. Musically, that was discovering X (the L.A. version, and the other L.A. punk bands, as different from NYC as from London, that difference, and each scene’s distinctions being revelatory themselves), the Gang of Four (who never surpassed their first two-and-a-half albums), the Psychedelic Furs (who only had the one good record, and it was really just versions of the same three songs, a clear example of getting a recording contract a little too soon, which was happening to a lot of bands then), and (God help me) U2 (I mean, “The Edge”; c’mon, really). I listened to Jim Carroll’s “Catholic Boy” and developed my Robert Fripp appreciation, and I found Fela Kuti’s afrobeat. Over about the next ten years or so, I got so eclectic, nobody could talk to me about anything, and it took at least that much time before I could get out from under the weight of all that Husker Du and Mission of Burma and start moving into more than pop music inventiveness.
By 1990-1995, I’d been a long time growing up, and there was more to come, as there is yet, but there’s more to life than music, even if it wouldn’t be nearly so much fun or so interesting without it, so I have to abandon the idea of the “perfect year,” once or future, hoping instead to manage to stay ahead of intellectual entropy, if only just.
29 March 2005
Easter
There were four days off and only the one chocolate rabbit (but it was delicious). And then there was the second tsunami. At least this time, the 3-meter waves weren’t the source of death and destruction, area residents and government services having been sufficiently alert following on from Christmas. If you didn’t think the first one was a message from God, wouldn’t you think this one was? First Boxing Day, then Easter Monday. If we didn’t have the Biblical promise to Noah, you’d start to get all apocalyptic, too, I suppose. 2,000 more dead now, though, as if the situation didn’t remain difficult enough, despite Aceh moving from relief to reconstruction.
There were four days off and only the one chocolate rabbit (but it was delicious). And then there was the second tsunami. At least this time, the 3-meter waves weren’t the source of death and destruction, area residents and government services having been sufficiently alert following on from Christmas. If you didn’t think the first one was a message from God, wouldn’t you think this one was? First Boxing Day, then Easter Monday. If we didn’t have the Biblical promise to Noah, you’d start to get all apocalyptic, too, I suppose. 2,000 more dead now, though, as if the situation didn’t remain difficult enough, despite Aceh moving from relief to reconstruction.
24 March 2005
Does Miranda Devine really believe her own revisionism? So it was the conservatives who wanted to free the refugees all along after all? And everyone else were just opportunistic members of “socialist, atheist and green groups”, bent on fomenting hatred? What idiots she must think we are. Based on the rest of her rewritten history, it’s pretty clear that Ms. Devine has only come to this conclusion now that there are new Christian converts behind the wire. Madam, you are welcome to join the compassionate side of the argument, but we’d all be grateful if you could be honest about it. Just for once.
Passive Capacitance
7,551 kilowatt hours annually doesn’t sound like a lot (20.69 kwh per day, which is actually more than you’d think), but a good idea is a good idea. I’d be interested in knowing how much electrical capacity the mall’s system ends up replacing. (via Rebecca’s pocket.)
7,551 kilowatt hours annually doesn’t sound like a lot (20.69 kwh per day, which is actually more than you’d think), but a good idea is a good idea. I’d be interested in knowing how much electrical capacity the mall’s system ends up replacing. (via Rebecca’s pocket.)
Covering Costs
When I first started working, one of the benefits my employer offered was life insurance. As I moved from one company to another, seeking a career, workplace benefits increased in number so that I soon had medical insurance, too, fully paid for by my employer. Within a short period of time, I was paying a portion of that cost, and every year thereafter, my percentage of the premium rose right along with the annual rate increases imposed by the insurers. My second job post-graduate school was in a small employee-benefits consulting outfit, where we sold mid-size companies restructuring plans to save money on benefits offerings even as they increased what they made available to their employees. “Cafeteria”-style programs, where the “value” of a group life plan was sold as part of a total compensation package, and HMO’s, PPO’s, and conventional hospital coverage presented different advantages and costs to be borne by employees along with their employers (the 401(k), relatively new at the time, and because it was little understood, became the hook on which the sale of our services depended) . . . all these now familiar offerings are a seemingly inextricable part of operating a business today. The employer subsidization of these offerings was translated by Human Resources departments into alternative compensation. You don’t just get a salary, you get all these things, too. As this became more common, more expected, the salary savings never materialized. Maybe because the cost of the insurance kept growing, even for the employee, as did the cost of accessing the care provided for in the insurance package, with co-pays and out-of-pocket minimums and deductible thresholds, all of which also grew, year-by-year. Employers have become increasingly disgruntled over providing insurance, giving rise to contract hires and the use of temporaries, all to avoid giving out benefits the value of which have increased right along with the price tag, despite group experience ratings (or because of them). It’s a Catch-22 situation, increasingly, in the States: you need a large enough group to get the lowest possible rate, but utilization of plan benefits increases the experience rating, raising premiums. It’s a system that’s breaking down, and Australia’s buying into it even as it starts to collapse in America. There are many opponents, but socialized medicine seems a better alternative (even while it’s under attack here) than allowing the present situation to continue through to its apparently inevitable failure, where only a few can afford insurance and health care itself grows further out of reach for the rest of us.
When I first started working, one of the benefits my employer offered was life insurance. As I moved from one company to another, seeking a career, workplace benefits increased in number so that I soon had medical insurance, too, fully paid for by my employer. Within a short period of time, I was paying a portion of that cost, and every year thereafter, my percentage of the premium rose right along with the annual rate increases imposed by the insurers. My second job post-graduate school was in a small employee-benefits consulting outfit, where we sold mid-size companies restructuring plans to save money on benefits offerings even as they increased what they made available to their employees. “Cafeteria”-style programs, where the “value” of a group life plan was sold as part of a total compensation package, and HMO’s, PPO’s, and conventional hospital coverage presented different advantages and costs to be borne by employees along with their employers (the 401(k), relatively new at the time, and because it was little understood, became the hook on which the sale of our services depended) . . . all these now familiar offerings are a seemingly inextricable part of operating a business today. The employer subsidization of these offerings was translated by Human Resources departments into alternative compensation. You don’t just get a salary, you get all these things, too. As this became more common, more expected, the salary savings never materialized. Maybe because the cost of the insurance kept growing, even for the employee, as did the cost of accessing the care provided for in the insurance package, with co-pays and out-of-pocket minimums and deductible thresholds, all of which also grew, year-by-year. Employers have become increasingly disgruntled over providing insurance, giving rise to contract hires and the use of temporaries, all to avoid giving out benefits the value of which have increased right along with the price tag, despite group experience ratings (or because of them). It’s a Catch-22 situation, increasingly, in the States: you need a large enough group to get the lowest possible rate, but utilization of plan benefits increases the experience rating, raising premiums. It’s a system that’s breaking down, and Australia’s buying into it even as it starts to collapse in America. There are many opponents, but socialized medicine seems a better alternative (even while it’s under attack here) than allowing the present situation to continue through to its apparently inevitable failure, where only a few can afford insurance and health care itself grows further out of reach for the rest of us.
22 March 2005
Poor Terry Schiavo: is life so limited a concept now that it cannot encompass death? Alas, her parents have lost their daughter, but refuse to let her go. Alas, her husband has lost his life companion and cannot be allowed to let her go. Alas, Congress is now dominated by ideologues so intent upon legislating morality from the cradle to the grave that they now intervene with all their powers, corrupting their sphere to do so. Some heartless demagogues have opined that there’s nothing wrong with Terry Schiavo except that she cannot eat, but that belies her diagnosed persistent vegetative state. Poor Terry Schiavo is not a machine, but she is being treated as one, not by those who would allow her to die, but by those who believe her life must be maintained at all costs, even the costs to her. This is not life, it is torture, prolonged and just as meaningless. She has no thought, no consciousness, nothing more than autonomic processes. It is only different from being killed outright in a violent accident or from some other catastrophic bodily failure other than that her death has not yet been accomplished in the event. These medical events happen frequently, from one cause or another, much more frequently than Congress could reasonably act, unless they do so for all of us, requiring for the future that every instance of such total incapacitation be met with an on-going maintenance response, that we all be fitted with feeding tubes, or breathing apparatus, heart-lung machines, and so forth, until such time as even machinery fails, our bodies rot away beneath the cold steel and plastic. If Congress had to insist on intervening in this case, perhaps they might have done so to provide the funding, the equipment, the personnel necessary to keep this woman’s body alive. I’m sorry for her parents, whose grief is so great they cannot act with compassion; for her husband, whose grief is perpetuated in the highest reaches of government; for Terry Schiavo herself, who luckily is well beyond the debate; for all of us, because we contribute to the pain of all if we will not contribute to its surcease.
20 March 2005
All Publicity Is Good Publicity (Especially When It's Good)
"What do Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have to do with the Australian music scene in the 1980s?" Christine Sams writes in today's edition of the entertainment section of the Sun Herald, and goes on to answer: "The A-list Hollywood actors have shortlisted a script written by [M.] about the Australian rock music scene in the 1980s as part of their Project Greenlight search, which invites script writers from around the world to submit previously undiscovered work. [M.], who worked as a songwriter in Sydney in the 1980s before moving to the US, is among the final 50 entrants in the Project greenlight competition, which attracted thousand of entries."
I've always been a fan of a bit of goss, and never more so than today. The facts may be a little off, but that's alright.
"What do Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have to do with the Australian music scene in the 1980s?" Christine Sams writes in today's edition of the entertainment section of the Sun Herald, and goes on to answer: "The A-list Hollywood actors have shortlisted a script written by [M.] about the Australian rock music scene in the 1980s as part of their Project Greenlight search, which invites script writers from around the world to submit previously undiscovered work. [M.], who worked as a songwriter in Sydney in the 1980s before moving to the US, is among the final 50 entrants in the Project greenlight competition, which attracted thousand of entries."
I've always been a fan of a bit of goss, and never more so than today. The facts may be a little off, but that's alright.
17 March 2005
When I heard that my Uncle John had died, my initial feeling was simply frustration that I would be unable to perform the (usually) simple act of attending his funeral, being present to offer Mom, my aunts and cousins, that small sympathy. We’ve had a fair few funerals here in the antipodes, and I already knew, even without those episodes for evidence, that being in company during such times is the best comfort we can have or give. Uncle John was an intimidating figure for me as a child, not least because my most significant memories of him center around his service in Vietnam, making him that much more remote, but also that much more awesome. He was a voice on a transistor radio-sized reel-to-reel tape deck, a system used for letters home. He would tape his letters to his wife and sisters and brother, and they would re-record over them their own communications. I have one of those tapes here, but nothing to play it on (and I think it’s actually a tape of the audio portion of the television broadcast of the moon landing anyway). Uncle John would appear periodically over the course of my childhood and early adolescence, and his strength and bearing (and periodicity) made him not to be trifled with, even as his status as a Floridian made him (and his children) exotic, requiring of scrutiny. As an adult, I only met him again a very few times, but by then I was able to at least experience him as having a sense of fun and adventure. Following his military career, he took a law degree and worked diligently as a public defender and later as a public prosecutor, both roles born from his desire to engage with his community and spend his life’s energies well. I was sorry to hear of his cancer, but heartened, to the degree possible, by the frequent emails from his wife keeping all of us up-to-date with his struggle against the inevitable outcome. As always, he did all the right things, including, in the end, making peace with death and helping his family to do the same. Bill’s got a better eulogy at his ‘blog than I’ve managed, but we all do the best we can under these circumstances.
Wolves Among the Sheep
So Paul Wolfowitz is to be rewarded with becoming president of the World Bank. And there’s any question that his ideology would influence development aid decisions? I’m sure he’s technically qualified, but I don’t think this is going to go any great distance in making the U.S. appear any less imperialistic.
Meanwhile, in the same press conference where he announced the Wolfowitz nomination, Bush claimed to use rendition to send terror suspects “back to their country of origin with the promise that they won’t be tortured.” This is a blatant lie. Otherwise, why would Mamdouh Habib have been sent to Egypt? His “country of origin” for the twenty years prior to his capture was Australia (who don’t ever torture anyone). And Maher Arar, a Canadian who was sent to Syria? Oh, right, Canada doesn’t use torture either. The extraordinary rendition system was established to put terror suspects into the hands of torturers. We’ve known that all along. That the Bush Administration has increased the use of rendition is something we’ve also known. He promised to do it following September 11, and he did. It’s the shame of the nation, or it would be if George Bush had any shame.
And in the Senate, the oil companies have been set loose upon the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, 51-49, all because oil prices have gone up significantly since the beginning of Gulf War II. Another vote on a different measure has to pass before the ANWR is actually open for drilling, and then the House votes (and they’ve already shown which way they’ll go), but this isn’t looking good for pristine wilderness anywhere, let alone Alaska.
So Paul Wolfowitz is to be rewarded with becoming president of the World Bank. And there’s any question that his ideology would influence development aid decisions? I’m sure he’s technically qualified, but I don’t think this is going to go any great distance in making the U.S. appear any less imperialistic.
Meanwhile, in the same press conference where he announced the Wolfowitz nomination, Bush claimed to use rendition to send terror suspects “back to their country of origin with the promise that they won’t be tortured.” This is a blatant lie. Otherwise, why would Mamdouh Habib have been sent to Egypt? His “country of origin” for the twenty years prior to his capture was Australia (who don’t ever torture anyone). And Maher Arar, a Canadian who was sent to Syria? Oh, right, Canada doesn’t use torture either. The extraordinary rendition system was established to put terror suspects into the hands of torturers. We’ve known that all along. That the Bush Administration has increased the use of rendition is something we’ve also known. He promised to do it following September 11, and he did. It’s the shame of the nation, or it would be if George Bush had any shame.
And in the Senate, the oil companies have been set loose upon the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, 51-49, all because oil prices have gone up significantly since the beginning of Gulf War II. Another vote on a different measure has to pass before the ANWR is actually open for drilling, and then the House votes (and they’ve already shown which way they’ll go), but this isn’t looking good for pristine wilderness anywhere, let alone Alaska.
16 March 2005
Democratic Iraq
There's a government in Iraq now. Although having a set of democratically elected representatives hasn't actually resolved the situation, and appears to present some complications the Bush Administration might have preferred to avoid, the new Iraq may yet prove itself when it sits down to write their constitution. Allawi's party seems pretty clearly out of the running for significant influence on the proceedings. With only about 15% of the seats, even allying with the majority Shiites (51%) just barely edges into 2/3's range for forging the constitution, whereas if the Shiites can form a coalition with the Kurds (27%), they'll have a lock on how the country shapes up. So how the groups align and how they act in the formation of the constitution and how they behave thereafter - whether they maintain amicable relationships or start bickering along ethnic or sectarian lines - will determine the success of Bush's second venture into nation-building.
There's a government in Iraq now. Although having a set of democratically elected representatives hasn't actually resolved the situation, and appears to present some complications the Bush Administration might have preferred to avoid, the new Iraq may yet prove itself when it sits down to write their constitution. Allawi's party seems pretty clearly out of the running for significant influence on the proceedings. With only about 15% of the seats, even allying with the majority Shiites (51%) just barely edges into 2/3's range for forging the constitution, whereas if the Shiites can form a coalition with the Kurds (27%), they'll have a lock on how the country shapes up. So how the groups align and how they act in the formation of the constitution and how they behave thereafter - whether they maintain amicable relationships or start bickering along ethnic or sectarian lines - will determine the success of Bush's second venture into nation-building.
Ethnic Enclaves
Nearly every city I’ve been to has a “Chinatown,” and some have a “Little Italy,” “Little Japan,” “Koreatown,” etc. Last night I discovered that Sydney has a Deep South pocket. No offense to Democrats Abroad Australia or to Scott, whom we were gathering to farewell as he prepares to return from the Lucky Country to the Land of the Free, but the highlight of the evening was Victor’s Soul Food Kitchen, a restaurant attached to the Glasgow Arms Hotel in Ultimo, just a few steps north of the Powerhouse Museum. I could have stayed for more meals than the one I managed. Victor, originally from Birmingham, Alabama, runs a deep south kitchen supplying victuals from his native region, and not excepting New Orleans, thankfully. The gumbo was easily as delicious as any I’ve had, and the jambalaya looked good, too. Various blackened preparations were also available, as well as traditional soul food fry-ups. Having elected a “pescatarian” diet, most of the menu was off my list, but that shouldn’t stop anyone else seeking an authentic southern (U.S.) dining experience. I’m sure that for Scott and his partner, it was an opportunity to re-acclimate tastebuds unused to the use of cayenne pepper (although Thai sweet chilli sauce is common enough, it doesn’t really compare). Meanwhile, we wish him all the best back State-side, and thankfully have Victor’s to ease our pain.
Nearly every city I’ve been to has a “Chinatown,” and some have a “Little Italy,” “Little Japan,” “Koreatown,” etc. Last night I discovered that Sydney has a Deep South pocket. No offense to Democrats Abroad Australia or to Scott, whom we were gathering to farewell as he prepares to return from the Lucky Country to the Land of the Free, but the highlight of the evening was Victor’s Soul Food Kitchen, a restaurant attached to the Glasgow Arms Hotel in Ultimo, just a few steps north of the Powerhouse Museum. I could have stayed for more meals than the one I managed. Victor, originally from Birmingham, Alabama, runs a deep south kitchen supplying victuals from his native region, and not excepting New Orleans, thankfully. The gumbo was easily as delicious as any I’ve had, and the jambalaya looked good, too. Various blackened preparations were also available, as well as traditional soul food fry-ups. Having elected a “pescatarian” diet, most of the menu was off my list, but that shouldn’t stop anyone else seeking an authentic southern (U.S.) dining experience. I’m sure that for Scott and his partner, it was an opportunity to re-acclimate tastebuds unused to the use of cayenne pepper (although Thai sweet chilli sauce is common enough, it doesn’t really compare). Meanwhile, we wish him all the best back State-side, and thankfully have Victor’s to ease our pain.
15 March 2005
Idiot Wind
Gale Norton is either stupid or she thinks everyone else is. As Secretary of the Interior, her job, part of it, anyway, is to protect the national wilderness areas of the United States. As Secretary of the Interior for the rapacious George W. Bush, her job is to get into the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and drill for oil. Never mind that she is doing so at the behest of two oil magnates now occupying the highest offices in the land for the benefit of Big Oil, according to her, we can get in, extract the oil, and never harm any aspect of the environment. But if you look at her arguments, it’s clear that she has little concept of “ecosystem” beyond plants and dirt. Stupid. The arguments against drilling in the ANWR go far beyond the set-up requirements. Regardless of ice-built roads, helicopters, and computer-assisted drilling decisions, the effect on the environment of oil exploration are potentially immense and well-known. In addition, there are few enough places on earth where we haven’t stuck our footprint, and plenty of other, non-environmental reasons we shouldn’t do it in Alaska anyway. There’s a reason for having a wildlife “refuge” in a wilderness, and drilling for oil doesn’t support it. Foreign oil dependency should move us off oil, not into destroying more of our few remaining wilderness habitats to get only potentially more. This isn’t about not having enough to heat our homes and run our businesses, this is about having enough to run our SUV’s, enough to profligately expend when a little - just a little – conservation would reduce our needs, and more innovation could replace the requirement for oil altogether. Gale Norton is trying to recast the argument in her master’s service, and we’d better not let her get away with it.
Gale Norton is either stupid or she thinks everyone else is. As Secretary of the Interior, her job, part of it, anyway, is to protect the national wilderness areas of the United States. As Secretary of the Interior for the rapacious George W. Bush, her job is to get into the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and drill for oil. Never mind that she is doing so at the behest of two oil magnates now occupying the highest offices in the land for the benefit of Big Oil, according to her, we can get in, extract the oil, and never harm any aspect of the environment. But if you look at her arguments, it’s clear that she has little concept of “ecosystem” beyond plants and dirt. Stupid. The arguments against drilling in the ANWR go far beyond the set-up requirements. Regardless of ice-built roads, helicopters, and computer-assisted drilling decisions, the effect on the environment of oil exploration are potentially immense and well-known. In addition, there are few enough places on earth where we haven’t stuck our footprint, and plenty of other, non-environmental reasons we shouldn’t do it in Alaska anyway. There’s a reason for having a wildlife “refuge” in a wilderness, and drilling for oil doesn’t support it. Foreign oil dependency should move us off oil, not into destroying more of our few remaining wilderness habitats to get only potentially more. This isn’t about not having enough to heat our homes and run our businesses, this is about having enough to run our SUV’s, enough to profligately expend when a little - just a little – conservation would reduce our needs, and more innovation could replace the requirement for oil altogether. Gale Norton is trying to recast the argument in her master’s service, and we’d better not let her get away with it.
14 March 2005
Then There Were 50
M. has gotten through to the next round. From 100, Project Greenlight has been winnowed to 50. Of course, now there's more work to be done to advance to the next group (20). Each contestant will have to produce a 3-minute "screenwriter video." The official rules say the video will consist of the screenwriter "perform[ing] a scene" to pitch the screenplay, but the actual guidelines haven't been published yet, so that may yet be different. In any event, congratulations; I knew it.
M. has gotten through to the next round. From 100, Project Greenlight has been winnowed to 50. Of course, now there's more work to be done to advance to the next group (20). Each contestant will have to produce a 3-minute "screenwriter video." The official rules say the video will consist of the screenwriter "perform[ing] a scene" to pitch the screenplay, but the actual guidelines haven't been published yet, so that may yet be different. In any event, congratulations; I knew it.
The Damage Done
We finally got around to seeing Collateral - on DVD, of course, because we don’t make it up to the theatres nearly often enough – and it was splendid. Violent, a thriller in the final sequences, but overall a worthwhile piece of cinema. Tom Cruise was, as everyone’s already said, nearly unrecognizable and turned in the best piece of acting I’ve ever seen from him. The political philosophies of the two men, and how they expressed the choices they made from their respective world views (not to mention the choices themselves), were presented in the best tradition of post-modern cinema: subtly, making use of the medium, exploiting what it means to see and to be seen, even while never leaving anything untold.
On the other hand, Dogville, which would usually fall into the post-modern classification, was, ultimately, so tremendously flawed, that even what was good about it, and what was post-modern, failed, perhaps not least because of John Hurt’s narration throughout. It wasn’t entirely the fault of the movie being presented as a stage play, because it was obvious immediately that Lars von Trier was twisting Our Town inside-out, although that did make for some wooden performances, but the script itself was so over-moralizing, and explicated every element of the film’s action and intentions, and not just in the voice-over, as to spoil the entire film. Does von Trier really believe this is all there is to present-day America, that there are no such flaws elsewhere, in Europe, for example? The bloodbath in which he resolves his critique is simplistic, and a surprise coming from the director of Breaking the Waves and Dancer in the Dark. Everything worthwhile in the movie was lost. The Idiots is playing on SBS late tonight, and we’ll probably tape it, but I don’t know if I can screw up the courage to watch it.
We finally got around to seeing Collateral - on DVD, of course, because we don’t make it up to the theatres nearly often enough – and it was splendid. Violent, a thriller in the final sequences, but overall a worthwhile piece of cinema. Tom Cruise was, as everyone’s already said, nearly unrecognizable and turned in the best piece of acting I’ve ever seen from him. The political philosophies of the two men, and how they expressed the choices they made from their respective world views (not to mention the choices themselves), were presented in the best tradition of post-modern cinema: subtly, making use of the medium, exploiting what it means to see and to be seen, even while never leaving anything untold.
On the other hand, Dogville, which would usually fall into the post-modern classification, was, ultimately, so tremendously flawed, that even what was good about it, and what was post-modern, failed, perhaps not least because of John Hurt’s narration throughout. It wasn’t entirely the fault of the movie being presented as a stage play, because it was obvious immediately that Lars von Trier was twisting Our Town inside-out, although that did make for some wooden performances, but the script itself was so over-moralizing, and explicated every element of the film’s action and intentions, and not just in the voice-over, as to spoil the entire film. Does von Trier really believe this is all there is to present-day America, that there are no such flaws elsewhere, in Europe, for example? The bloodbath in which he resolves his critique is simplistic, and a surprise coming from the director of Breaking the Waves and Dancer in the Dark. Everything worthwhile in the movie was lost. The Idiots is playing on SBS late tonight, and we’ll probably tape it, but I don’t know if I can screw up the courage to watch it.
11 March 2005
The New Feudalism
The credit card companies have won. Barring defeat in the House (and how likely is that?), the Senate has sold out the country to the interests (and that's at nearly 20%?) of their corporate masters. God forbid anyone should ever get into such debt as to need to declare bankruptcy, but with these "reforms" it may not even be possible. Is there a provision in this bill for debtors prisons or workhouses?
The credit card companies have won. Barring defeat in the House (and how likely is that?), the Senate has sold out the country to the interests (and that's at nearly 20%?) of their corporate masters. God forbid anyone should ever get into such debt as to need to declare bankruptcy, but with these "reforms" it may not even be possible. Is there a provision in this bill for debtors prisons or workhouses?
Public Art
I almost want to live in this building. Dupain’s photos are often truly amazing, right up there with the works of Bresson et al., and Australia, especially Sydney, hangs on to their imagery as quintessentially iconic. Etching one of them into a building may seem to be going a little far to some, but I think the whimsy, as much as the iconographic element, is one of the more worthy architectural efforts I’ve seen. I suppose, if I'm going to quibble, I'd wonder why this isn't out at Bondi itself, rather than over by Darling Harbour, but maybe Bondi's seen enough development for now.
I almost want to live in this building. Dupain’s photos are often truly amazing, right up there with the works of Bresson et al., and Australia, especially Sydney, hangs on to their imagery as quintessentially iconic. Etching one of them into a building may seem to be going a little far to some, but I think the whimsy, as much as the iconographic element, is one of the more worthy architectural efforts I’ve seen. I suppose, if I'm going to quibble, I'd wonder why this isn't out at Bondi itself, rather than over by Darling Harbour, but maybe Bondi's seen enough development for now.
Crying Hitler
As A. points out, Senator Robert Byrd deserves to be listened to, and if he's pulling out the comparison, its legitimacy has to be seriously considered. The restrictions of civil liberties and the procedural changes being instituted to the benefit of a single party presently in the majority aren't simply matters of "well, if the Democrats (or Left or [insert anti-GOP affiliation here]) were listening to what Americans wanted, they'd be doing this themselves or would be the majority," but rather a consolidation of power entirely consistent with the actions of the fascist governments of the 1930's. As eminent mathematician Kurt Goedel once showed, it can happen here. It can happen anywhere. The Consitution isn't a complete safeguard, only the people it serves.
As A. points out, Senator Robert Byrd deserves to be listened to, and if he's pulling out the comparison, its legitimacy has to be seriously considered. The restrictions of civil liberties and the procedural changes being instituted to the benefit of a single party presently in the majority aren't simply matters of "well, if the Democrats (or Left or [insert anti-GOP affiliation here]) were listening to what Americans wanted, they'd be doing this themselves or would be the majority," but rather a consolidation of power entirely consistent with the actions of the fascist governments of the 1930's. As eminent mathematician Kurt Goedel once showed, it can happen here. It can happen anywhere. The Consitution isn't a complete safeguard, only the people it serves.
09 March 2005
Water Park
Cook & Phillip Park, situated in front of St Mary’s Cathedral, is mainly a skateboarder hang-out. For some reason, the designers of the plaza decided to build the area in front of the water features as a sort of amphitheatre. I suppose events of one kind or another are held there, but the main result visible has been the damage to the stone benches along the inclined areas. There’s something to be said for building skateboard parks.
Meanwhile, one of the more attractive features of Sydney is the water, and not just in the harbour
or at the beaches. The city has, as so very many do, a wealth of fountains, some more creative than others. Cook & Phillip, for example, turns the concept into a miniature wetlands:
More traditional waterworks are also present:
I’m not sure of all the figures represented, although Perseus and Diana are definites. That may be Jason with the goat and ram, and the guy on the top? It would have been helpful if any of the plaques didn’t just say the fountain was a gift of the Archibalds, but perhaps I’ll encounter someone with a better grounding in Greek or Roman sculptural representations. But at least they’re pretty, unlike some others:
Cook & Phillip Park, situated in front of St Mary’s Cathedral, is mainly a skateboarder hang-out. For some reason, the designers of the plaza decided to build the area in front of the water features as a sort of amphitheatre. I suppose events of one kind or another are held there, but the main result visible has been the damage to the stone benches along the inclined areas. There’s something to be said for building skateboard parks.
Meanwhile, one of the more attractive features of Sydney is the water, and not just in the harbour
or at the beaches. The city has, as so very many do, a wealth of fountains, some more creative than others. Cook & Phillip, for example, turns the concept into a miniature wetlands:
More traditional waterworks are also present:
I’m not sure of all the figures represented, although Perseus and Diana are definites. That may be Jason with the goat and ram, and the guy on the top? It would have been helpful if any of the plaques didn’t just say the fountain was a gift of the Archibalds, but perhaps I’ll encounter someone with a better grounding in Greek or Roman sculptural representations. But at least they’re pretty, unlike some others:
Too Old to Fly, Too Expensive to Ship
Cui Yu Hu is 104 years old and, until yesterday, an illegal immigrant. Now Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone has kindly allowed her to stay. For the last 10 years, she’s been “illegal,” having been denied an aged parent visa. She had what’s known as “bridging visas” issued over that time, so how exactly she’s been illegal is hard to figure. One of those technicalities, I suppose. Meanwhile, she’s also been denied passage on any airlines as too frail to make the passage back to China. Now, not only can she stay with her adopted daughter and son-in-law, but she’ll also get Medicare. Not that she’ll cost much to the system, I expect, at her age.
This should never have become such an issue, but the focus on MP Vanstone’s portfolio and performance over these past months has been deservedly intense, and the requirements to get her attention on anything sufficiently formal as to ensure a protracted and painful process. With the policy of mandatory detention for refugees regardless of whether family or community support is already established and regardless of age, followed by the high-profile Cornelia Rau case, various other diplomatic screw-ups, and now bureaucratic efforts towards deportation of helpless centenarians, it’s pretty clear there’s a problem.
Government is hard; there are many competing interests clamoring for preference; but it doesn’t have to be hard-hearted: that’s why these ministers have these positions; and, sure, there is a problem with an open immigration policy in Australia, as in many other places, although perhaps for many other reasons. It’s pretty much undeniable that Australia simply cannot support too large a population. We’re pushing the water-use borders right now, and the housing and transportation infrastructure is getting a bit stretched. With socialized medicine and other economic safety-net programs, there has to be some concern that the bludgers don’t take all the rest of us for a ride, but there doesn’t appear to be any substantial concern that the country is approaching an inability to meet the requirements it’s set out for itself, unless you want to count the apparently about-to-fail private health insurers Tony Abbott keeps throwing our money at.
We’re told over and over that we live in a “post-September 11” world and that our policies and actions need to reflect that, but what I see is a hardening of previously set positions or a return to Cold War strategies and paranoia. Every immigration issue that comes up, among other policy-related events, points to the entrenchment of fear and makes me suspect the cynical motivation of those digging in up on the hill.
Cui Yu Hu is 104 years old and, until yesterday, an illegal immigrant. Now Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone has kindly allowed her to stay. For the last 10 years, she’s been “illegal,” having been denied an aged parent visa. She had what’s known as “bridging visas” issued over that time, so how exactly she’s been illegal is hard to figure. One of those technicalities, I suppose. Meanwhile, she’s also been denied passage on any airlines as too frail to make the passage back to China. Now, not only can she stay with her adopted daughter and son-in-law, but she’ll also get Medicare. Not that she’ll cost much to the system, I expect, at her age.
This should never have become such an issue, but the focus on MP Vanstone’s portfolio and performance over these past months has been deservedly intense, and the requirements to get her attention on anything sufficiently formal as to ensure a protracted and painful process. With the policy of mandatory detention for refugees regardless of whether family or community support is already established and regardless of age, followed by the high-profile Cornelia Rau case, various other diplomatic screw-ups, and now bureaucratic efforts towards deportation of helpless centenarians, it’s pretty clear there’s a problem.
Government is hard; there are many competing interests clamoring for preference; but it doesn’t have to be hard-hearted: that’s why these ministers have these positions; and, sure, there is a problem with an open immigration policy in Australia, as in many other places, although perhaps for many other reasons. It’s pretty much undeniable that Australia simply cannot support too large a population. We’re pushing the water-use borders right now, and the housing and transportation infrastructure is getting a bit stretched. With socialized medicine and other economic safety-net programs, there has to be some concern that the bludgers don’t take all the rest of us for a ride, but there doesn’t appear to be any substantial concern that the country is approaching an inability to meet the requirements it’s set out for itself, unless you want to count the apparently about-to-fail private health insurers Tony Abbott keeps throwing our money at.
We’re told over and over that we live in a “post-September 11” world and that our policies and actions need to reflect that, but what I see is a hardening of previously set positions or a return to Cold War strategies and paranoia. Every immigration issue that comes up, among other policy-related events, points to the entrenchment of fear and makes me suspect the cynical motivation of those digging in up on the hill.
UNaction
God knows the United Nations needs a shake-up, and maybe putting one of the more aggressive critics in as ambassador will help, although I’m not convinced just from Condoleezza Rice’s say-so. It isn’t so much whether the UN was good or bad on Iraq – because in the last round in Iraq, they weren’t allowed to do their job or believed insofar as they were able to produce anything towards a result – but the inaction in Africa has been an embarrassment, or would have been to any remote observer, if any such were possible, whereas for most of us, well, were as complicit as our governments fail to act, whether with the UN or in some other coalition or even alone, as happened in Rwanda and now in Sudan. So oil-for-food scandals aside, there are diplomatic progress problems.
Unfortunately, it’s the permanent members of the Security Council who, in wielding their absolute vetoes, cause the problems, and the U.S. isn’t the least of the trouble-makers there, even if the neocons and Iowa farmers believe it’s the French. Pressing for action, getting movement more than mere resolutions, those are the kinds of activities I want to see, but I expect, perhaps cynically, something much different. The UN could be effective, if the rich and powerful nations of the world would make it so, and starting with the U.S., and then John Bolton’s concept of shifting and opportunistic alliances, the kind that have gotten us into trouble in various other regions of the world, wouldn’t be necessary, allowing more idealistic, global efforts. The appointment of John Bolton seems to perpetuate the worst diplomatic tendencies of the Bush administration.
God knows the United Nations needs a shake-up, and maybe putting one of the more aggressive critics in as ambassador will help, although I’m not convinced just from Condoleezza Rice’s say-so. It isn’t so much whether the UN was good or bad on Iraq – because in the last round in Iraq, they weren’t allowed to do their job or believed insofar as they were able to produce anything towards a result – but the inaction in Africa has been an embarrassment, or would have been to any remote observer, if any such were possible, whereas for most of us, well, were as complicit as our governments fail to act, whether with the UN or in some other coalition or even alone, as happened in Rwanda and now in Sudan. So oil-for-food scandals aside, there are diplomatic progress problems.
Unfortunately, it’s the permanent members of the Security Council who, in wielding their absolute vetoes, cause the problems, and the U.S. isn’t the least of the trouble-makers there, even if the neocons and Iowa farmers believe it’s the French. Pressing for action, getting movement more than mere resolutions, those are the kinds of activities I want to see, but I expect, perhaps cynically, something much different. The UN could be effective, if the rich and powerful nations of the world would make it so, and starting with the U.S., and then John Bolton’s concept of shifting and opportunistic alliances, the kind that have gotten us into trouble in various other regions of the world, wouldn’t be necessary, allowing more idealistic, global efforts. The appointment of John Bolton seems to perpetuate the worst diplomatic tendencies of the Bush administration.
07 March 2005
Creature Features
While M. was out flying the high-culture flag with her Hollywood friends at the top-100 after party, I was similarly engaged in ensuring that only the highest examples of filmic art came anywhere near my brain. Alien vs. Predator is right up there with all the finest of the "x meets x" horror genre. You can take that however you like, but for just over an hour and a half, I was marginally entertained. Like most of the Frankenstein entries, the biggest problem is that the main characters don't speak English. "Hiss" says Alien. "Click-click-click" says Predator. "Aiee" says all the humans. "Ugh" says I. What is it that compels me to watch these things?
While M. was out flying the high-culture flag with her Hollywood friends at the top-100 after party, I was similarly engaged in ensuring that only the highest examples of filmic art came anywhere near my brain. Alien vs. Predator is right up there with all the finest of the "x meets x" horror genre. You can take that however you like, but for just over an hour and a half, I was marginally entertained. Like most of the Frankenstein entries, the biggest problem is that the main characters don't speak English. "Hiss" says Alien. "Click-click-click" says Predator. "Aiee" says all the humans. "Ugh" says I. What is it that compels me to watch these things?
04 March 2005
Taxing Spending
Here in Australia, there's been the GST, the Goods and Services Tax, for a few years already. The GST applies to everything you spend money on, with the exception of "essential food items." But a coffee, pay a tax. Hire a lawyer, pay a tax. 10% of the purchase is tax. In New Zealand, I understand it's 15%. Is that, essentially, what Alan Greenspan is proposing? In would be a big shift, but it sounds more like a ploy to distract everyone from privatizing Social Security.
Here in Australia, there's been the GST, the Goods and Services Tax, for a few years already. The GST applies to everything you spend money on, with the exception of "essential food items." But a coffee, pay a tax. Hire a lawyer, pay a tax. 10% of the purchase is tax. In New Zealand, I understand it's 15%. Is that, essentially, what Alan Greenspan is proposing? In would be a big shift, but it sounds more like a ploy to distract everyone from privatizing Social Security.
03 March 2005
Gains, and Ill-Gotten Gains
Does Tony Abbott own stock in the private health care companies? Over the last 3 years, premiums have been increased by more than 7% annually under his watch, with a nearly 8% average increase this year as well. Inflation doesn’t account for it. In fact, according to Abbott, it’s due to gains in the standard of private health care. I don’t really get that. Was private health care substandard? Or is private care now so advanced beyond what’s available under the Medicare scheme that my coverage should be able to keep patients alive and healthy substantially longer than the rest of the population? The truth lies in his statement regarding future rate rises: "All I can say is that the only rises that will be approved by this Government are rises which are absolutely necessary to ensure that the funds can continue to pay out benefits to members." In other words, the insurance companies are doing such a lousy job of managing their business that they can’t afford to stay in business unless they keep raising rates. As the Howard government attempts to force more and more of the population to sign up for private cover, it’s possible that we might eventually see a “group rate” effect, but I’m not counting on it. If it wasn’t for the dental, I’d have dropped our coverage already.
Does Tony Abbott own stock in the private health care companies? Over the last 3 years, premiums have been increased by more than 7% annually under his watch, with a nearly 8% average increase this year as well. Inflation doesn’t account for it. In fact, according to Abbott, it’s due to gains in the standard of private health care. I don’t really get that. Was private health care substandard? Or is private care now so advanced beyond what’s available under the Medicare scheme that my coverage should be able to keep patients alive and healthy substantially longer than the rest of the population? The truth lies in his statement regarding future rate rises: "All I can say is that the only rises that will be approved by this Government are rises which are absolutely necessary to ensure that the funds can continue to pay out benefits to members." In other words, the insurance companies are doing such a lousy job of managing their business that they can’t afford to stay in business unless they keep raising rates. As the Howard government attempts to force more and more of the population to sign up for private cover, it’s possible that we might eventually see a “group rate” effect, but I’m not counting on it. If it wasn’t for the dental, I’d have dropped our coverage already.
02 March 2005
Coelacanth
Actually, thylacine, the “Tasmanian Tiger.” Could they still exist? I’d have to add it to my list of creatures to be spotted in the wild, along with a platypus and an echidna, but I'll have to get out more in any event. Parramatta Park's got little more than kookaburra, cockatoos, and lizards.
Actually, thylacine, the “Tasmanian Tiger.” Could they still exist? I’d have to add it to my list of creatures to be spotted in the wild, along with a platypus and an echidna, but I'll have to get out more in any event. Parramatta Park's got little more than kookaburra, cockatoos, and lizards.
What Goes Up
In April it’ll have been a year since we opted to renew our mortgage with a fixed rate, which we did anticipating the official rate rise that’s only now come to pass. That gives us just two years for the economy or my wage to perform better before we have to feel the pinch, and the Reserve's already touting next month's meeting for another bump-up. (Anyone who bought the line PM Howard was running during last year's campaign had better be more ready than we are.) In one year, my contract will be up for renewal, but because the period is two years, I’ll have to think pretty hard about whether it’s affordable to take the “sinecure” and hope the Reserve Bank’s actions don’t set me up for a problem in 2007, or to look for a job with less security but a higher wage and hope for no repeat of 2004’s events. How many mergers can there be? It depends, I suppose, on whether tougher economic conditions overall result in more or fewer companies becoming targets, or whether that happens when there’s generally more cash around. Maybe I should buy that lottery ticket. . . .
In April it’ll have been a year since we opted to renew our mortgage with a fixed rate, which we did anticipating the official rate rise that’s only now come to pass. That gives us just two years for the economy or my wage to perform better before we have to feel the pinch, and the Reserve's already touting next month's meeting for another bump-up. (Anyone who bought the line PM Howard was running during last year's campaign had better be more ready than we are.) In one year, my contract will be up for renewal, but because the period is two years, I’ll have to think pretty hard about whether it’s affordable to take the “sinecure” and hope the Reserve Bank’s actions don’t set me up for a problem in 2007, or to look for a job with less security but a higher wage and hope for no repeat of 2004’s events. How many mergers can there be? It depends, I suppose, on whether tougher economic conditions overall result in more or fewer companies becoming targets, or whether that happens when there’s generally more cash around. Maybe I should buy that lottery ticket. . . .
Hollywood or Bust
M.'s had her script accepted into the top 100 in Project Greenlight, an outcome I fully expected, of course, but also an achievement worth no little pride. Although nearly 2,000 scripts were submitted, only 720 met the basic criteria, and after a gruelling peer review process, they've been whittled down. Next, the top 50, then 20, then 10, then "Action." At this point the competition is truly fearsome, I expect, although none of the scripts we read made it through, so it's hard to judge precisely. If the titles are any indication, I think M. should anticipate moving ahead. (I mean, "Physics & Chips"? "Where Boys Fear to Tread"? Really. I hope those're just working titles.) Anyway, congratulations; next stop: Oscar.
M.'s had her script accepted into the top 100 in Project Greenlight, an outcome I fully expected, of course, but also an achievement worth no little pride. Although nearly 2,000 scripts were submitted, only 720 met the basic criteria, and after a gruelling peer review process, they've been whittled down. Next, the top 50, then 20, then 10, then "Action." At this point the competition is truly fearsome, I expect, although none of the scripts we read made it through, so it's hard to judge precisely. If the titles are any indication, I think M. should anticipate moving ahead. (I mean, "Physics & Chips"? "Where Boys Fear to Tread"? Really. I hope those're just working titles.) Anyway, congratulations; next stop: Oscar.
01 March 2005
Thank You, Thank You
No big surprises in the Academy Awards last night, except maybe in the rearranged presentations. Having groups up on stage or seated together and introduced from the audience is a good idea; it highlights, however, a certain elitist element, leaving the big award nominees to perform the usual crawl to the aisle and walk to the stage shaking hands with everyone you pass or at least the ones you don’t kiss. But Best Director or Best Actor/Actress are bigger deals, in respect to box office and the price you can subsequently command for your next contract, than are Best Sound Editing or Best Key Grip or whatever. I hadn’t realized that Scorsese has never gotten the gong for Best Director, and now Clint’s gotten it twice. I did think Unforgiven was terrific, and I expect to thoroughly enjoy Million Dollar Baby, once we get to it, but Scorsese must be the most deserving director to ever not win. Some fundamental flaw in his movies? Or is it because he’s never done a western? (Oh, and Hillary Swank’s dress looked like it was on backwards, until she turned around to reveal it had no back. Who dresses these people?)
No big surprises in the Academy Awards last night, except maybe in the rearranged presentations. Having groups up on stage or seated together and introduced from the audience is a good idea; it highlights, however, a certain elitist element, leaving the big award nominees to perform the usual crawl to the aisle and walk to the stage shaking hands with everyone you pass or at least the ones you don’t kiss. But Best Director or Best Actor/Actress are bigger deals, in respect to box office and the price you can subsequently command for your next contract, than are Best Sound Editing or Best Key Grip or whatever. I hadn’t realized that Scorsese has never gotten the gong for Best Director, and now Clint’s gotten it twice. I did think Unforgiven was terrific, and I expect to thoroughly enjoy Million Dollar Baby, once we get to it, but Scorsese must be the most deserving director to ever not win. Some fundamental flaw in his movies? Or is it because he’s never done a western? (Oh, and Hillary Swank’s dress looked like it was on backwards, until she turned around to reveal it had no back. Who dresses these people?)
Closing the Gates
And now it’s over; the biggest art event in NYC since King Tut’s tomb’s contents toured through the Metropolitan Museum. Wrap-up’s, if I can be permitted the pun, are expected from those who were there. And, courtesy of Gothamist, a fitting, seasonal farewell photo:
And now it’s over; the biggest art event in NYC since King Tut’s tomb’s contents toured through the Metropolitan Museum. Wrap-up’s, if I can be permitted the pun, are expected from those who were there. And, courtesy of Gothamist, a fitting, seasonal farewell photo:
Fourth-Form Politics
It wasn’t enough to pay for news stories or to hire male prostitutes into the White House Press Corps, George is so desperate for America to believe Social Security needs to be in the hands of Wall Street fat cats that he’s hiring nine-year-old children to stump for him. He’s nine, but he’s cute, so we ought to believe him. The sad thing is, there are fifty million people who actually will believe this kid, just because arguing against believing him means to them you’re anti-family. I’m not; he’s nine. And a head full of trivia doesn’t make you a genius.
It wasn’t enough to pay for news stories or to hire male prostitutes into the White House Press Corps, George is so desperate for America to believe Social Security needs to be in the hands of Wall Street fat cats that he’s hiring nine-year-old children to stump for him. He’s nine, but he’s cute, so we ought to believe him. The sad thing is, there are fifty million people who actually will believe this kid, just because arguing against believing him means to them you’re anti-family. I’m not; he’s nine. And a head full of trivia doesn’t make you a genius.
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