Short Notice
Almost missed the Bunnies third-in-a-row win, beating the hapless Newcastle Knights by a substantial margin, but luckily stopped in for a beer at the pub across the road, where there are reliably two or three of us Souths supporters, unusual for venues so close to Sydney University, where Union is the prevailing code, if not Aussie Rules. Still, it was a good match, even though both sides showed a lack of form in carrying the ball - so many knock-ons it was hard to keep track of who's scrum it'd be. And if I called the Knights hapless, it wasn't for lack of trying. They broke tackles and ran well; just couldn't seem to get it across the line for a try when it counted. This puts us mid-way up the ladder. If we can make it four, we'll be going well, about 1/5th through the season.

Round 4
Of course South Sydney beat the Bulldogs tonight: the Bunnies have to win on Easter.

Dissent into the Maelstrom
It's so much fun living in another country and having to answer questions like "why don't Americans want health care?" and "is everybody over there crazy?" Because clearly they don't and clearly they are or at least some noticable proportion. How has it come to this? Is having a black man in the Oval Office so maddening to some people that they cannot approach any issue he raises with rationality? Is the thought of others having equality, the availability of a social safety net something to make these people sociopathic? Or is it that 8 years of fear and loathing under GWB has deranged this part of the population so that anything and everything that smacks of denigration for the bedwetters' heroic torturers sends them into a rabid fury? Maybe Obama really should take away their guns.

Downside
I have to wonder whether the NY Times’s assertion that “a sizable part of the nation is unenthusiastic” about the health care [insurance] reform bill is another example of their Judith Miller reportage – i.e., we got it from a press release transfusion – or whether it’s more simply the usual broad-brush approach to analysis media outlets seem prone to indulge in for sales purposes. Yes, there’s much to disparage, and yes, many people wish the outcome had been different, but the majority of Americans elected this President and this Congress with the knowledge that “socialised” medicine was on the agenda, among other things, no less so than closing Guantanamo or getting out of Iraq, also recognising, one would hope that none of these issues were any less fraught than another, although that’s clearly hoping for too much. The “tea baggers” – and who among them could possibly be so naïve as to have missed out the alt-sex nuances of the phrase (oh, right, all of them) – and their GOP enablers have decided that a black President and a Democratic Congress must equate to the apocalypse, but anyone capable of taking a deep breath and not triggering an embolism must know that however flawed the present bill really is, and it is, the modern world does not, cannot, allow its population to rely for health care on catch-as-catch can “market forces” because that only leaves the most vulnerable, the most likely to succumb most disastrously to even the most common ailments, unprotected, and solely to maintain an unequable distinction to the least vulnerable. This is the same thinking that has led to CEO salaries of 250% more than the lowest paid workers in some companies, a variable that used to be magnitudes more reasonable, and yet the selfishness on parade is being exhibited by thousands of people who fall into exactly these categories, as if precluding government intervention in such areas would ever give them a chance to close either gap. The “American Dream” has, at least since the so-called Regan Era, become the American Mythology, and many of us now worship these false idols. The wake-up call cannot come soon enough, but I fear for the nature of the alarm.

Gavel: Pen
So Speaker Pelosi used the Medicare gavel to ring in Health Care [insurance] Reform (at last), which leaves me wondering if Obama's got a corresponding set of pens to sign it with? Man, I'd give almost anything to get me one of those socialism biros.

Hooray for the Democrats and another major step forward into the modern world for the US of A.

More Rabbit-woes
I don't really know enough about the rules to be sure of what I'm seeing all the time when the referees call a penalty, and I really think the sledging that goes on is probably more than a little over the top, especially the whole off-sides business, given that our side does it too, but I do think tonight's match was decided as much by penalties as by performance, and that's a shame. The Titan's got a penalty kick through to tie the game at the "golden minute", putting the match into overtime. A subsequent call in their favor put Gold Coast into scoring position, and they capitalized with a one-point field goal, giving them a sudden death win at 19-18. It was an exciting match, all the same, very aggressive and energized, but we failed to take advantage when we had it. I'd guess that some of that aggression also accounts for the number of calls against us. More fundamentals drilling this week for the boys in red & green.

Round One Wrapped, Not Rapt
The Mighty Bunnies performed miserably today. I had to come home to watch the news just to validate I'd seen some of what happened out there. 36-10 is not a result anyone can be happy with, except the Roosters, of course, but the score only tells half the story. Souths went out and dropped the ball regularly and spectacularly, seemingly on every set. Passes were desperate and misguided. Meanwhile, Easts seemed to have an extra man on the field. Every pass they made, every off-load was picked up, as were all of our errors. Our side seemed mired and easily misdirected, leaving the opposition free reign over the field, regularly bringing the ball back to the try line with long, unopposed runs. Only desperate goal-line defense saved the score from being even worse. Russell Crowe's presence at past games has seemed to fire up the Rabbits, but not this time. I'd guess he's hoping for something requiring a distant location shoot soon.

Happy GBLT New Mardi Gras Nudes News
Photographer Spencer Tunick (note: NSFW) came to Sydney at the invitation of New Mardi Gras and as a result, more than 2,000 people turned up at the Opera House this morning at 4 a.m. to get their kit off and stand around for about three hours. We had to wait for the sun to come up, which it was slow to do, a grey, cold morning, made rosier by the blushing. I've been colder in Sydney, but not by much.

It was an odd thing to do, I suppose, but interesting insofar as human behavior goes. I was a little surprised by the numbers of groups there were, not just couples, but four or five people, college students and the like, all about to become just that much more intimate with one another. It got a little uncomfortable when were directed to embrace and kiss, especially as the guy I was standing next to was a good head taller than me.

Somehow it was even less comfortable once we went inside the theatre, which is perhaps why one woman left in tears and one was booed into disrobing. (I rather like the idea of one dressed person; I'd have left her alone.)

It must be said, however, that it's obvious why Mr. Tunick is a photographer: he has zero verbal skills and minimal management skills. "This group here"; "you, with the tan lines"; "this way"; "that way" - these are not useful directions. Dude, take the picture, please.


Correction: 5,200 people.

Rabbitohs, Ho
Rugby League season is underway, with Souths vs. the Dragons at the Charity Shield, a late-starting game that ended at ANZ Stadium in a draw, 26 all. With new players and a new coach, I thought I might see something different from last seasons, and at least insofar as we were aggressive throughout, I did. Nevertheless, one call missed by the ref and some sloppy attempts at on-side kicks and a flagging second half kept us from keeping St George from responding to every try we posted. Only a missed kick at the end kept us from losing outright. Still, it was an exciting, high-scoring game, with 3 trys for Fetuli Talanoa. He ought to make the NSW Blues this year on that result alone.

”You Know, They Call Them ‘Killer’ Whales”
It’s always news when animals kill people, but hardly “man bites dog”, is it? These are wild animals, howsoever trained they may be, and without regard to whether or not it’s a zoo or we’re rehabilitating the creature. I’m sorry when people get hurt like this, I was sorry for Steve Irwin and his family, too, but nobody should be surprised. I’m glad to hear that they won’t be “putting down” the fish. That kind of retaliation is always wrong, too much like trying a pig for witchcraft.

(Thanks to Neko Case for the lyric; came to mind as soon as I heard the story.)

Rings
I don't think I watched any winter Olympics since moving here, so I'm a little intrigued this year to try to catch some and compare the coverage I'm used to - it's all about the women's figure skating - although given that this year we're pretty well assured of being constantly reminded of the dangers now, I reckon it'll be hard to judge. Shame about the luge guy, but aside from ski jumping, and apparently these other new X-Games entries, flying around the ice like that is pretty reckless.

Grey
The post-apocalyptic landscape of The Road is cold and bleak, warmed only by the father's love for his son and the determination to bring him to whatever small salvation may yet remain. This is a movie that reaches into your sense of mortality and shakes it hard, leaving dread and a taste of ashes, even as it offers a final hope. I see why Cormac McCarthy was so happy to endorse the resultant film of his novel: it's better, even while remaining so largely faithful as to be almost bookish itself. It's a hard emotional task to watch this film, like few others before it, but it would have been harder still to have missed it and to deny its power.

Bush Walking with the Ex
Ex-Father-in-law, that is, and only virtually. Russell Atkinson has finally published a sequel (of sorts) to Diary of a Drop-Out: Gone Bush. This is the story of the period during which Russell was well and truly a drop-out, not just an "alternative", but living off the grid up in Bellingen, NSW, and making one good decision after every bad one (if not quite to such an equivalence). The chapters are short and not entirely sequential in time, but each rely on the characteristic Australian dry, ironic sense of humor, although it is a vein of humor that has a fairly universal appeal. I could wish for more - no, really, I do wish for more, as I know there is more to come. When you're ready, Russell, but don't wait so long this time.

Daylight Cinema Limitations
I've kind of made it a practice to wait a couple of weekends before hitting any new releases at the movies and to attend early sessions. This ensures good seat selection and few immediate neighbors, which latter can be important when the room between the edge of my seat and the seat-back in front is restricted to the minimum required by your average dwarf. It can be a problem when the movie selection is something like Fantastic Mr. Fox, at least insofar as the former principle of movie-attendance, due to the increased likelihood of small children. Who were surprisingly better behaved than their parents, who choose to read aloud and otherwise narrate pretty much throughout, due to the children being a little on the too-young side, which became especially apparent at about an hour in when they all started needing to be taken to the toilets. I had hoped that the more "realistic" elements of the film, the growling and other more animalistic behaviors, would send a few out in tears, but you can't have everything.

Mr. Fox was very entertaining, if a little mannered, although it's hard to see how that could have been avoided. Roald Dahl was not a childhood staple for me, so I hadn't encountered this story before, but it's got the same element of not talking-down to kids that Charlie & the Chocolate Factory had, the one Dahl book that came into the household while I was still reading such fare. I enjoyed the animation - and to say the characters were animated should be taken in both senses of the word: yes, puppets; and yes, expressive, active, lively. Wes Anderson's done a good job with the material, and I look forward, as ever, to his next film, whatever it may be.

Bush Legacy: Supreme Court Hates Democracy
The latest ruling from the Supreme Court, making corporations more equal than people in regard to campaign finance, ensures our elected officials will act to the benefit of business - big business, at that - rather than those of us who actually vote. I suppose a 5-4 decision offers some hope that we can get a law back in place, maybe even something more far-reaching than we've had before, but with the teabaggers and haters in a position now to stand pat and block anything from happening, it doesn't seem likely. This is the Reagan-Bush-Bush legacy for the country: democracy doesn't live in America anymore.

More Festival Festivities
Why do event promoters use thirty-year-old photos in their advertisements? John Cale's got to be like 70, so I'm not fooled. For Xmas, M. got me tickets to the show at the Enmore theatre. This is a nice, civilized venue, often putting on the best local, national, and international rock concerts anywhere in town. Cale put in a hard-rocking set, covering pretty much the full span of his early career, up to and including Sabotage. In some ways this was disappointing. I appreciate his early stuff, but it's largely characterized by screaming, crashing finishes after an extended period of seeming to be incapable of bringing the song to a conclusion. His pop sensibilities were perhaps a bit more honed later, and that might have been to the good for this set. Still, with a full band backing him, it was a relief that it wasn't to be a repeat of the last few shows I saw, with him reprising his catalog on solo piano. And thank goodness that his 90's turn into "classical" composition wasn't featured. Songs for Drella and his Dylan Thomas song cycle were dreadful. So, all up: a good night out and a fine performance from a grand old man of rock.

Running
Last year I focused in training in running on my forefoot. I found that I maintained strength in my legs for longer than when I allowed myself to land heel-first. Except for wet conditions, where it seemed a forefoot-strike slid more, I even maintained this gait during the half-marathon. So I was intrigued enough by a capsule article in Wired over Christmas to make a point of finding a local store here that carries the Newton running shoe and to spend more than I ever have on a shoe that wasn't going to get me back to Kansas. I've only been using it in the run-up to the May SMH half for three days now (and 20k) so I don't know if this is really going to work, but so far I like them and they really seem to work. Due to shipping errors, the shop only had my size in the racer, but since I already run this way, I figured the trainer was superfluous. We'll see how it lasts and whether, when the race time approaches, a new pair is required. I'm thinking I should get through the next couple of months o.k., but as I intend to also run the Blackmore's half in October, I probably will need to replace them.

Devastation
Haiti would have been entirely unprepared for the earthquake, such events being probably quite rare in the region, not to mention decades of endemic poverty and governmental corruption. I don’t doubt that the death toll will be terribly high and that recovery will be a very long time coming. I can’t even imagine coming back from this without some very open and forthright assistance from the wealthy nations of the world. I worry that the response will be great pledges of aid that come to little actually spent and less spent where it’s really needed. This is often the problem with underdeveloped countries with entrenched governments with high levels of corruption or despotism, that they insist on sovereignty and keep much of what passes through their hands, favoring this contractor or that who themselves operate similarly, not to mention that charities and even donor nations have “administrative” costs built into their pledges. A million dollars pledged in aid isn’t a million dollars spent on the ground rebuilding homes and hospitals. A better system is needed. Humanitarianism needs to be more open at both the giving and receiving ends.

Meanwhile, could God please call Pat Robertson home, heaven or hell, I don’t care, just please get him off the planet: who knew that Toussaint L’ouverture was the Devil? (Maybe if a white man had freed Haiti from the French it would have been o.k. with Pat?)

A Fan’s Notes
To Neko Case Monday, thanks to the intervention of a Sydney Festival staff member, to exorcise the songs from Middle Cyclone that play on endless repeat in my head day and night. Well, that didn’t work.

The venue is home to the Australian Chamber Orchestra, which may explain the acoustics, unless it’s just the curse of trying to build a concert hall. Has anyone ever successfully built a “sound” opera house? As Ms. Case commenced the first song of the set, she stopped on the first note, taken aback by the room’s lack of acoustical warmth. For someone with such a tin ear as I’ve got, the sound had to be bad that I noticed it, too (but I’d have thought Neko would have noted the quality in the sound-check; guess not). So it was an odd show, and for other reasons, too. For one thing, the backup singer seemed to run most of the stage patter. And while I knew nearly all the songs inside and out (a couple of pieces at the end were from albums I haven’t heard), the lack of warmth, if I can continue to use that expression, kept the experience from replicating or exceeding that of listening to the recordings. I probably should have made more of an effort to get out to the Blue Mountains for the set she did in Katoomba, which was a pub venue.

Finally, the show was perhaps somewhat rushed and shorter than it might have been, which probably affected the performance, due to the fact that Grizzly Bear were due to take the stage at 8:30. This meant Neko was operating with a curfew, annoyingly, especially as I can’t stand Grizzly Bear so see no reason for them to be preferenced. For a band with one of the most critically acclaimed albums of 2009, I just don’t get them.

Glad I went, happy not to miss out, just the same.

Traffic
There was a time in the States when holiday road deaths were publicised, and it may be that years in NYC made this less conspicuous to me, but it seems this time has long passed. So it was surprising to me to be seemingly barraged with details over each long weekend or holiday period with state-by-state deaths on the road figures, perhaps most especially because the figures never seemed so high as to warrant such attention. 10 deaths in NSW vs. 12 in QLD or wherever just didn’t seem statistically significant for a three+ day period. And because nothing ever seems to be done to alleviate what must be of concern to Australians, the focus of the reporting would better serve public interest by shifting to the do-nothing public servants.

Not that I take such criticism as does focus on government entirely seriously. There are an awful lot of pundits whose hearts just bleed over traffic light cameras and speed cameras – as if running a red light or exceeding the speed limit isn’t dangerous. These same commentators say little about the stepped-up holiday period random breath tests.

But it’s been a terrible time to be out on the roads this year, with a week to go, unofficially, for the holiday period, including a tremendous accident involving a petrol tanker exploding, killing the truck driver, two small children and their dad, and leaving the mother seriously injured. The visibility of the incident has people up in arms over the particular roadway where it took place and which is regarded as a neglected stretch of infrastructure and over long-haul truckers sharing space with passenger vehicles, particularly in regard to dangerous materials transport.

I don’t recall what prompted me to read Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says about Us), but I did, and it highlighted some things for me, not least that accidents between trucks and cars are most usually because the car driver does something stupid rather than that the truck driver is hopped-up on speed, overtired, or aggressive, but also that the large majority of car drivers are overconfident and under-trained.

Unfortunately, that’s not news, or not within the consciousness of journalists, anyway. Certainly any reporter pointing fingers at the majority among his or her audience is going to lose credibility. We all know it’s the truckies, the cyclists, the pedestrians, the government – not us behind the wheel. (You, that is, since I’m a life-long pedestrian.) I won’t say, and neither does Tom Vanderbilt, that these other parties don’t share blame, but the majority share should lie where it belongs. I’ve seen enough of Sydney traffic to know that aggression is pretty nearly a universally innate behavior once behind the wheel.

Tom Vanderbilt suggests taking the “How’s My Driving” technique to another level, where the driving performance of everybody is recorded and fed back into a system that rates them and offers penalties and incentives accordingly. The technology only partially exists, but it might focus our attention more appropriately than the usual “He did it” approach.