Things I Once Enjoyed

Ageing is by definition both insidious and relentless.

Whilst you hold on, in desperation, to those memories of experiences dear to you, the influx of new information crowds, distorts and hides them.

Occasionally, the dam of irrelevant trivia will burst, allowing memories to flood your sensorium. The trigger might be a smell, a sight, a sound or some other prompt.

I recently had the opportunity to lay on the beach, in the sun, undisturbed.

How I loved doing this years ago. The warmth on my skin. A faint cooling breeze. The silence.

Other things I liked, but never do now...

Sleeping in till 12 noon.

Walking to the City and back for no particular reason.

Talking to someone I don't know  in public.

Reading at the park.

Photographing stuff.

Playing music REALLY loud.

Walking around at home in my jocks.

Eating raw carrots.

Rockwiz Star

You might have seen a delightful performance by Kate Miller-Heidke on Rockwiz last Saturday night.

I'm not familiar with this Australian singer-songwriter, but her solo at the start of the show was excellent.

She followed up with an interesting duet with Paul Dempsey, singing a Wham! classic from the Eighties.

What a great new talent. There are some free music downloads on her website.

Demand and Supply.

A Meo245 cd available on eBay at $65.

Is that good value?

Right Wing Art?

 

I came across a short article recently where the author lamented children not being exposed to right-wing poetry at school. Our scribe opined that such is the prevalence of left-wing writing, the young of today may not even be aware of the existence of such verse.

I was gob-smacked.

Like today’s neglected youth, I too am ignorant of this great body of work.

The odes of Andrew Bolt, verse of Franco and the limericks of Ronald Reagan have all escaped me.

To give them their due, they must be some wordsmiths these conservative poets. It’s no easy task finding words to rhyme with 'detention centre', 'xenophobia' and 'axis of evil'.

Hmmmmm.

There is no shortage of topics though…….. environmental scare-mongering, dangerous refugees, single mothers, university drop-outs, abortion, sedition and those pesky indigenous races…..all grist for the mill for an eloquent bourgeois lyricist.

 

Could be a dollar in it……..

 

Newscorp and Fox need content…….

 

Let’s try…..

 

There was a young lad from SA,

Captured in Kabul one day,

Alas Mister Hicks,

For your terrorist tricks,

In Cuba you’re going to stay.

 

 

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Monday Movie Review

It was a busy day at the Nova Cinema in Carlton today. 

The lovely weather and discount price attracted plenty of punters.

However, "Breaking and Entering" was a major let-down. Certainly, the most daft film I've seen for some time.

Photographically beautiful and with a strong cast, this piece of fluff was let down by woeful story-telling.

Major plot twists, seemingly at odds with the prevailing circumstances, were largely left unexplained.

One sideline ended inexplicably and might have finished on the editing-room floor had it not provided the only good humour in a gloomy two hours.

While I wasn't too sure of the message here,  it appeared to be either that a good hug will fix anything or that, if you are rich and stylish enough, it is okay to exploit those less privileged than yourself.

Mind your P's and Q's

Mathew Dunkley reports in the Financial Review (Saturday 10 Feb) that there appears to be an increase in plaintiffs claiming damages, due to defamation, against authors of web-sites and blogs.

The conventional 'retraction' is also being tested in the courts in a case involving the Managing Director of the Housing Industry Association.

Bloggers may be well advised to keep to establisherd facts when expressing their opinions online.

Further, comments from readers should be reviewed and, if necessary,  edited as soon as possible.

Happiness

I was speaking to a psychiatrist today, not as a patient but as a colleague, when the topic of happiness came up.

I told her of a study I had seen which suggested that one's general level of happiness is fixed and will tend return to "normal" despite the occurance of either very joyous or very devastating events.

She told me that indeed, a person's cheerfulness is relatively fixed, but that there were some factors ( borne out by a longitudinal study of MDs in the USA) which were more highly associated with long-term happiness.

These factors were strong personal relationship(s), good health, not overexercising and sufficient funds to live comfortably.

Sounds plausible.

I am surprised that overexercising is in the mix though! I'd better be careful.

PS The tennis team played its first game. I was unavailable. We lost.

Executions in Australia

It's now forty years since the execution of Ronald Ryan in Victoria.

It was  Australia's last execution.

Last week I heard former journalist Brian Morley, a witness to the execution, describe the event on the Jon Faine radio program on 774 ABC.

I have heard Morley's description before. It has changed very little.

His description is of a ritualised killing, that so disturbed those present that some were physically ill and others, including Morley himself, remained profoundly affected for the rest of their lives.

Morley's story is harrowing. The horror of institutionalised killing is thrust into the listener's consciousness as Morley struggles to force words between sobs, such is his emotion.

By contrast, the Prime Minister John Howard coolly remarked on 3AW on August 8, 2003, "I am not supporting the reintroduction (of capital punishment) , I mean my position, let me repeat, is for reasons of pragmatic concern that the law from time to time will make mistakes".

A Four Corners report from 2002, contains some quotes from Brian Morley.

Amnesty International