Believers Yesterday was the People's Climate Mobilisation, and around the world, people gathered to let their politicians know the time for action is now, not later. BBC coverage includes the gathering in Glebe, where we formed a "human sign": Beyond Coal & Gas". Now that China has reduced its imports of our brown coal, we can hope they will make further progress towards emissions reductions, but also that our Prime Denialist, Tony Abbott, will take renewable energy production seriously, regardless of whether Treasurer Joe Hockey finds wind turbines objectionable intrusions on his aesthetic sense while driving between Sydney and Canberra, or not. (What did we do to deserve these lunatics as our government?)

No Contrition So former Prime Minister John Howard was ”embarrassed” there were no WMD in Iraq? He bought the American line without question, tens of thousands of people have died, and that’s as close to an apology as we’ll ever get from that man. It also makes every subsequent assessment he makes more than a little suspect. He didn’t have the nous to evaluate information then, and he doesn’t now. He lied then, he’s lying now. He is, as he was famously dubbed within his own party, a lying rodent. Shut it, Howard, you creep.

Perspective Down to Melbourne over the weekend, for the Anywhere Festival, in Frankston, a series of theatrical events of one kind and another, set in unusual venues, such as, and specifically, Affinity Circus, featuring some spectacular acrobatics, and set, cleverly, in a skate park, with the audience perched along the rim of the bowls, for a most unique vantage. Highly enjoyable, with an enthusiastic crowd, and seasoned professionals performing. Would definitely make a point of this again.

Seriously I'm not sure who has less shame, the Republicans and their racist supporters or the media for reporting on such stupidity. The suit looks o.k., I thought. Creeps, cretins, idiots - and this is what passes for international news? Lift your game, morons.

Comics Is Guardians of the Galaxy as good as the trailers, or even the music on the trailers? Yes, it is (and so's the soundtrack, which I picked up as soon as it was available). It is, of course, a movie adaptation of yet another comic book franchise, and a fairly marginal one at that, one I'm not familiar with more than to know the name of the raccoon (Rocket, if you hadn't heard), or that it involves the Marvel universe's intergalactic characters, notably the Kree. It's full of little unreconcilable anachronisms and loose ends, not least being the nearly unintelligible Kree/Thanos subplot, but then again, so what? Sure, Peter Quill, Starlord, has access to spacecraft capable of taking him back to Earth, but why would he do so? Sure, Rocket is a raccoon, but he's smart, fairly talkative, and good with a gun; what's not to like? Groot, Gamora, Drax, well, maybe in the next movie we'll get more out of the latter two. The tree-guy's going to be the tree-guy and apparently not develop much further in his vocabulary than an additional pronoun. And we have the prospect of Awesome Mix volume 2 comprising the sound track in the sequel! Very entertaining, well-performed, very good to look at. Can't really ask for more in a movie and not be churlish, can you?

Bushwalkers Not a Ned Kelly among them. Oh, that's bush rangers. Never mind.

They Might Be Giving It Away They Might Be Giants are giving away music to their fans. I count myself a fan from the early days of Dial-a-Song. Thanks, Giants.

Fishing Out for whale-watching season to the Botany cliffs, where we saw no whales. Too choppy. Just when you'd think "thar!" there was none. Or maybe, but probably just spray, not spume. Still pretty. And still a working port.

Mountains Up to the Blue Mountains for a weekend get-away. Very brief. Stayed at the old Carrington, ate at Leura Garage and Niagara Cafe, walked along Evan's Lookout to Govett's Leap, with not much view due to the dense cloud cover. It was like walking in front of a blank movie screen sometimes.

X-Notes Xmen-Days of Future Past" over the Queen's Birthday long weekend. A nice return to form, although I would have let it end more ambiguously. From the stinger after the credits, it's clear where they're going next, so I only wonder at the composition of the Four Horsemen, Death in particular, originally Angel, only a very minor character in the third of the film series, and last I saw still in possession of his wings. So, 2015 or 2016? Bryan Singer or someone else? Meanwhile, Guardians of the Galaxy was never in my rotation, but how can it be bad if it's got Rocket Raccoon?

End of Life Planning So our Federal Treasurer thinks we should work until we die, because life ends at retirement. No, Mr. Hockey, you bullying creep, life does not end at 65 or 70 or at whatever age we retire. Work does not define life. The economy is not society. We are not your serfs. Who voted for these jackasses?

Visiting Sauron On Thursday, we flew over to Auckland and drove down with friends to Tongariro National Park, one of the world's oldest national parks, to tramp the crossing. ("Tramping" being the word used in NZ to refer to long hikes, usually involving an overnight stay, and sometimes referred to as a bushwalk in Australia.) This is the first time I've ever gone "camping" on this scale in a very long time. We had packs and boots and all the Icebreaker gear you'd ever want, sleeping bags, etc. No food or cooking equipment, though, as we'd hired a guide, and the service included meals. New Zealand's Great Walks, of which there are eight (you can look them up if you're interested) allow camping proper or you can book into huts along the way, which we did for our two overnight stays. These huts are communal, sleep about two dozen, all lined up in bunks, and include gas and wood stoves and water, so it all sounded very unarduous. The description of the tramp we booked was a three-day hike; 6-7 hours on the first day, 3-4 on day two, and finishing with a 6-7 hour walk. We shared carrying the additional material necessary, food and so forth, on top of the 10 kilos of our own stuff, so that wasn't hard. The rain, on the first day, was relentless and cold. I can't say as I was terribly happy by the time we reached the hut, but we made the best of it, and after a bit of rest felt better. The prospect of day two's limited tramping seemed promising of an easier time. On day two I discovered that taking pictures in the rain was bad for my camera. It's working again, but some of the very best scenery was not documented. I also discovered that a 3-4 hour walk in showers and a driving wind was not any more enjoyable that just downpours on day one. And some of those "easy" hills our guide promised were pretty tough. Even with all the walking and running and trying to keep up a level of fitness that we'd done in the weeks since booking this trip in January wasn't enough for me, so I was pretty sore. And more glad to reach the hut than I was on day one. While most of the others went out to view the local terrain, two of us stayed back and watched the rain and wind increase and judged ourselves to have made a better decision. Day three was the true test. We left the cabin and proceeded across the plains of Mordor - not kidding; some of the Lord of the Rings scenery was shot here. This has led me to a newfound respect for hobbits, as we had to climb for an hour up a lava flow ridge, barely wider than me, with gale force gusts and freezing rain. My visibility was reduced to nearly zero, so watching my feet and staying low was my only option. And to think that some people do this for fun. We didn't climb all the way up this cone, and we abandoned the idea of doing the crossing, opting to get out as quickly as possible, via the alternative route, which took us past the area where there'd last been an eruption, two years ago, still smoking away. On the morning of our last day, the weather cleared, and we could see what we'd been battling with. We could also see that one more day might have given us more to contend with, based on the snow that had fallen on the higher peak overnight. Let's go bushwalking, says B. Sure, says I. Bushwalking indeed. A walk in the park, turned into mountaineering. Next time, I pick the holiday. Update: Here's a map, with the tramp highlighted.

Whistle Stop Yesterday we headed out early for a bushwalk, from Taronga Zoo to Balmoral, along the harbour foreshore. We had only just started, really, when, upon reaching Bradley's Head, where the HMAS Sydney memorial is, we ran across a small group of metalworkers, promoting a worldwide event, that started long ago in Germany: Spengler mit Pfiff. The story goes that there was a tinsmith who wanted to promote his business, so he made up hundreds of whistles, bending strips of tin and wrapping them around one another, embossed his business name on them, then went around town handing them out to children. Seems to have worked, as 5 April is now Spengler mit Pfiff day, effectively, and in 80 cities around the world yesterday, metal workers associated with the original business in one way or another, and seeking to promote their trade as something for young people to pursue, set out to make 20,000 whistles. They made over 50,000. The group we met, on our return trip, about an hour later, had made over 500. B. & I each made one, a simple process, where you wrap one end around a metal rod, bend back the rest of the strip, clip the ends, wrap another strip around it, and holding the rounded ends shut, blow, for a high, piercing note. Keeping the gap between the rounded end and the flat strip narrower or wider will alter the tone. Excelsior, Spengler mit Pfiff! I'm keeping my eye out for next year.

Anachronism What I like about repeal day is that this is an exercise every new government should undertake. Getting outdated laws off the books is very sensible, even though my ex-father-in-law once successfully defended a charge of public urination on the basis of one such, wherein a specific exemption was provided for if the act was performed, as I recall the story, against the wheel of a gentleman’s carriage, and since he was pissing on a car tire, well, there you go. Still, here we are, new government well into its first year, and what have we gotten? Most of the revisions are typographical, dropping or adding punctuation. Not much substance, even if a comma here or there can indeed change the meaning and the use of or over and even more so. But the “red tape” repeals the LNP really wants are getting set aside or watered down, thank goodness. The idea that financial planners should be free from restrictions specifying that they act in the best interests of their clients, for example, which is, in reality, a means for banks to allow their staff to sell dodgy products their clients don’t need and won’t benefit from. Removing provisions in the anti-discrimination act to allow offense, intimidation, and humiliation and exempting any words or images “in public discussion of any political, social, cultural, religious, artistic, or scientific matter” is extraordinarily broad, and, as the Attorney General himself has stated, accords everyone not only the “right to be a bigot” but full protection from acting like one, too. I guess if I tell everyone your taste in ties is the worst of anyone’s that might fall afoul of the proposed change, except it’s social. Or is it fashion? Is that artistic? I give up. What is this government on about? Is it all just repealing whatever Labor did for the sake of it and “stopping the boats”? (Have the boats actually “stopped”? Seems not, although they are getting turned back, the ones they allow us to know about.) Come July, when the balance in the Senate changes, Abbott will have quite a romp, if he wants it, or can think of what to do with it, which latter I rather doubt, as he’s shown no capacity for actual ideas so far. While he was leader of the opposition, he was very good at attacking. It seems as though as leader of the government he doesn’t know how to lead but still expects everyone to follow. Unfortunately there’s no evidence of anyone among the LNP, front bench or back, with the capacity to do any better. It’s going to be a long three years. Let’s hope it doesn’t get any longer.

Rolling Clover From day one in Sydney I have witnessed the attempts by both sides of politics to rid themselves of their troublesome colleague, Clover Moore. They have forced her out of State Parliament, they have changed the City of Sydney Council to alter the voting base, they exaggerate and obfuscate. Whatever it takes. Now they are proposing to change the voting laws to require absentee business owners and landlords to vote, with the idea that they will swing the balance against her. Sure, because they'll have a two-votes-to-one advantage over residents. Yes, if you run a business or rent out commercial or residential space in Sydney you get two votes, whether you live in the city or not. This is anti-democratic. Corporations are not people, my friends, and they are not worth two of you. The problem we face is that Labor, now in opposition, hates Clover as much as the Liberals do, and the Greens would be more than happy to see her go, especially if it meant a chance for them to dominate the Council. Will all hands turned against her, the only hope for Clover, and for a progressive government in Sydney, is to fight this proposal, tooth and nail, and for even those who oppose green energy, bike lanes, and whatever lies her opposition trots out, to vote her back. We want government of the people, by the people, for the people, and this ain't that.

Royalist Pain Tony Abbott wants to name Knights and Dames as higher honors than otherwise accorded by the Order of Australia, but will they be supplementary or in replacement of any such honors conferred by his monarch, QEII? Does he get to whack them with a sword? What is it with this buffoon? A republic can't come soon enough.

Is Everybody Happy (Nowadays)? See? This is why the UN is bad: world government telling us we're happy, black helicoptors surveilling unhappy people . . . .

The Poor You Will Have with You Always (but not when you can make a buck off them) The decision by the current NSW government to sell the public housing in the Rocks and Millers Point isn't just heartless, it's corrupt. With the development of the former shipping wharves into a high-profile high-price precinct, complete with a high-rollers casino, was bad enough, bypassing normal planning reviews to largely benefit a single enormously wealthy man, but to now divest the poor of their homes to capitalize on the increased property values shows just how far the Liberal Party is willing to go to line their pockets and those of their wealthy patrons (read: masters). Community Services Minister Pru Goward says AUD$7 million has been spent on the public housing stock to be sold over the last two years and that this money could have been used to build more housing or conduct maintenance elsewhere in the State. I would suggest that the money has been badly managed in the first place, and in the second, spending $7 million on housing for the poor in the city is not "better spent" elsewhere - the poor deserve our compassion and our government's money. It's one of the things we pay our taxes for. 300 properties to be sold for upwards of 1.3 million apiece is certainly a lot of money, but it's a one-off. Less than half-a-billion dollars isn't going to get this government very far, not when it's committing itself to spending billions on unnecessary tunnels and freeways. The poor can't live in the street, but this heartless mob will have them there if they can. There just isn't time enough to get the ICAC onto this lot. (Link fixed.)

Two by Two Last year, Russell Crowe was Jor-El in Man of Steel. The Rabbitohs, of which he is part-owner, issued a limited edition commemorative jersey with the Superman 'S' on it. (No, I did not buy one. There's a limit to fan-boy gear even I will own. Besides, they only have "ladies" and kids left in stock.) This year he's in Noah. Will they do a special rain day match? Wear wet jerseys? Sell wet jerseys? Will mascot Reggie Rabbit come onto the field two-by-two? Will Russell get drunk post-game and fall asleep naked on the pitch? If they win the championship this year, will all the other teams and fans be denied access to the stadium while the climate-change floods rage outside and the South Sydney faithful huddle within, waiting for an opportune moment to send out pigeons and meanwhile subsisting on ANZ Stadium pies and hot dogs? Man, I can hardly wait.

Quiet, Loud, Both So, Yo la tengo at the Opera House last night. Don't think B. liked it much, but then again, I think I like them better as recording artists than performers. Yes, I'll listen to their records, but going to see them highlights some points recorded music disguises. Their singing voices seem to be quite weak. This may be deliberate. Their reliance on feedback effects is something I blame on Jimi Hendrix and Adrian Belew but don't get the impression they have the same . . . purpose. It seems more introspective and less playful. They have some good lyrics, when you can hear them, so maybe even when you can't, but who could tell? Finally, the Opera House is probably not the ideal venue. A smaller theatre or other venue would be more suitable. This, however, is a problem with Sydney. There aren't enough places for an international act to draw an adequate crowd, perhaps only from a promoter's perspective, though, as the New Pornographers, for example, played the Manning Bar and the Annandale Hotel, and even the Enmore would do better. I wonder about the "politics" of music promotion sometimes. Enjoyed the music, but it might have been a better night, somehow.