Tuesday, 27th of August, 2002

We've decided to get broadband at home, finally. Hurrah! So in a few days or a week or so, we should have cable internet at home. Now the downloading really begins! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

Monday, 26th of August, 2002

Amusing stuff here: Cheesygraphics.com. This guy, who's called himself King VelVeeda most of his life, has been sued by Kraft for apparent "brand dilution" of their Velveeta product, which is some revolting cheese spread thing. It's all ridiculous, and VelVeeda was quite naive it seems, but has become highly politicised by his experience. Check out some of the satirical images, in particular the Ciga-Roni: "KRAPT Cheese Filtered Cigarettes". Mmmm! Kraft are of course owned by nicotine-spewing giant Philip Morris, a fact which is nicely exploited here.

Tell you what: smoking totally fucking sucks. I hate going out to pubs or clubs for the express purpose of experiencing great music, and having to breathe in filthy smoke which makes my eyes go blurry and my throat constrict and my nose fill up, and stinks. It's a fucking disgrace, so I say. Smokers, just get over it. Honestly…

Tuesday, 20th of August, 2002

The ABC Report has changed its headline to "Greenpeace action takes protesting to new heights". The story is that Greenpeace activists today scaled the flagpole of Parliament House in Canberra, and replaced the Australian flag with a big banner saying "Ratify Kyoto Now" This has been timed to coincide with the beginning of the Earth Summit in Johannesburg, which the Australian government has basically ignored (we've sent someone, but only as lip service at best).
Seven activists were arrested and charged with trespassing, it says – that's the 3 climbers and the 4 people at the bottom blocking the Federal Police… Just got a call from Tim (my aforementioned brother and co-founding-member of FourPlay) who said that all seven have been bailed already, and the only charge was trespassing on Commonwealth property. So it's a big success for Greenpeace.
All the ABC stations have been covering it all day, which is really great to see. It was lead story on the ABC news site for most of the day too. Hurrah!

And Rupert's News Ltd has a breaking news article on it here. Sydney Morning Herald haven't mentioned it yet, and nor has Melbourne's also-Fairfax-owned The Age (whose website is strikingly similar *grin*).

Someone I know rather closely (could even be related…) might be involved in this ;) Although not actually climbing as such. A little message to our government to sign up to the fucking Kyoto Protocol already – courtesy of Greenpeace Australia and some rather amazing pole-climbing. Here's Greenpeace's press release on the event – probably written by my liddle brother Tim, who is communications officer in the greenhouse section…

This is important stuff (possibly the most important stuff, given that the implications of global climate change stretch far beyond "tree-hugging greenie" issues, with huge social and poilitical upheaval inevitable as things get more out of control) and it's great to see Greenpeace taking some peaceful but highly public and inventive action. I doubt that it'll change Johnny Howard's tiny mind on the subject though. Lead story at the moment at ABC News – cool!

From a US radio show Morning Becomes Electric, that elusively great band the Flaming Lips did a live cover of Radiohead's Knives Out – and rather lovely it is too, as you can hear from this mp3 download. Not a bad cover. audio link via this entry at sax and sunshine, and thanks to Alexander for adding this blog to his mainly-music-blogs sidebar!

Coincidentally, FourPlay are currently working on a cover of How To Disappear Completely, one of the more beautiful songs from the previous Radiohead album, Kid A. Superfun! We expect it will be a bit more rocky and intense (cf our cover of Depeche Mode's The Sweetest Perfection, a fab late-'80s-type synthgoth tune that we turned into a dark and dramatic rock crescendo of a piece), although fairly true to the original, and we'll be using looping pedals and stuff like that. Hm.

My mates Seb & Luke of Sub Bass Snarl run an excellent electronica club in Sydney called Frigid (disclaimer: I've DJed there a number of times, and played cello in various forms too), and have just re-launched their zine Cyclic Defrost. It's free in print form in Australia, but all the content plus lots of extra stuff is available on the website – including music reviews from yours truly! And the cover article on the very nice and talented boy Tom Phillipson for issue #1 is written by one Angela Stengel, my own #1 :)

Well well. That bastion of free speech the BBC have decided to retain the ban on atheists from Radio 4's Thought For The Day. Among the many atheist public figures who have signed a letter of complaint are playwright Harold Pinter, brilliant sf/mainstream author Iain (M) Banks, and Philip Pullman, whose His Dark Materials trilogy I'm currently finishing (and it's pretty scathing with respect to organised religion!)

Friday, 16th of August, 2002

Here's an article from the Guardian about the widespread opposition (political and diplomatic as much as civilian) in the UK to a war against Iraq. Tony Blair (and no doubt Johnny Howard) is dead bent of following Cowboy Dubya Bush into the fray – which could well have disastrous consequences.

Among the many people quoted are playwright David Hare ("It is wonderful to see the church exhibiting a moral point of view.") and the great biologist and populariser of science Richard Dawkins (who describes 'President' Bush as "this unelected and deeply stupid little oil spiv").

Tuesday, 13th of August, 2002

Roger Langridge's Fred the Clown is one of the funniest and best-drawn comics in existence, and this week's comic is too good to miss. If the one up there is no longer the Pooh parody, you may be able to see it here.