a new stadium

the new stadium looks like it's going ahead and i must say i don't see the point. there are still memberships available for freo and as far as i'm concerned, the weagles have been around for 20 years so if people are only just trying to join up now then they've got no right to whinge about having to join a waiting list. the fair dinkum supporters of both clubs are already members. as for soccer and rugby, well they don't even sell out the grounds they've got now so why they reckon they need to use a 60,000 seat stadium i've got no idea. i reckon there's far more important things to spend a billion bucks on so they should can the stadium idea and put the money to better use.

but if it must be built surely they can't be stupid enough to build it in east perth. it's gotta stay in subi!

music

i finally picked up my cds and records from sal yesterday and have unpacked them. i file my cds in order of release year and sorting them today yielded some interesting statistics. the year from which i have most cds is 1994, followed by 1991, 1993 and 1996. i have at least one album from each year since 1961 with the exception of 1973 and 1976. and there are a number of cds in my collection that i look at now and wonder what i was thinking. after all, why on earth would anyone buy albums by the spin doctors, sonia dada or extreme??? oh the shame...

smoking banned on beach

in the news today was the story that the city of joondalup has banned smoking on the beaches from marmion to burns beach. now i'm sure that some people will start bleating the usual cliches about us being a nanny state and that they should have the right to smoke wherever they like but i reckon it's a great idea. it's about time that those of us who don't smoke stop having the cancer causing smoke of those who choose to smoke forced on us. this is a good start but i believe it needs to go further. as far as i'm concerned, anyone who smokes around a child is guilty of a form of child abuse. i've said before that i reckon it should be made illegal to smoke around kids and i still believe that. it should also be illegal to smoke anywhere food is served, whether inside or outdoors. it's time to start taking the health risks of smoking seriously and protecting those who don't smoke. if people want to smoke then they are free to do so but there needs to be restrictions on where they do it.

putin - man of the year

time magazine has named vladimir putin as their 'man of the year' which i find very interesting. he's a leader of such dichotomy. on one hand he seems to have put russia back under an iron grip and restricted many of the freedoms we take for granted and which russia seemed destined to embrace. on the other, he's brought economic prosperity to the country and stood up to the multinational oil companies in a way few others would have the balls to do. he seems to have such massive popularity in russia and there's no denying he's elevated the country back into a position of power in the world. i guess time will judge the merits of his time in power.

the greatest band ever?

ok, maybe not the greatest band ever (probably not even in the top 1000 or so) but enough time has passed now to be able to admit that i did really like v capri back in the day. i remember the day in 1986 when they rocked up to my high school to play a lunchtime gig in the gym and i was one very excited bunny even though i did get a certain amount of derision from a number of my mates. i still have my old vinyl copies of the 'in my world' album and 'that's the way' single and have found out that the album was reissued on cd last year so i reckon i'll be adding it to my collection as soon as i can find it.

i don't remember what happened to the band but obviously we all know and love the singer, tod, as the former channel 9 weatherman and he now does an afternoon radio show on (i think) 6PR on the weekends.

"it's been a day, it's been a week but time just looks the same/ i look through my misty window - can you tell me if there's sun or rain?"... indeed!

history repeating

not that many years ago intelligence was coming out that iraq had no links to international terrorism, no weapons of mass destruction and was not a threat to anyone. nevertheless, george bush jnr pressed on with his claims that they were the devil incarnate and had to be stopped before they ended civilisation as we know it. history shows that bush's rhetoric was a prelude to an illegal invasion of the country and the complete mess we see today.

to expect bush to have learned from his past mistakes is entirely reasonable but given the events of the past couple of days it's evident that he hasn't. we now know that iran has not had any sort of nuclear weapons programme in the past four years but this hasn't stopped bush from insisting on further international sanctions or led him to rule out a military attack on the country. it's all eerily similar to the leadup to the invasion of iraq in 2003. thank goodness this amoral warmonger has to leave office next year. hopefully the american people will have learned from their mistakes and elect someone with a decent moral compass... and more than half a brain.

what a fraud

i guess it was only a matter of time but now that it's happened i've gotta say it really stinks. warnie's record has been broken by a charlatan who's built a career on chucking the ball and taking bucketloads of wickets against third rate sides. it's a shame that the ICC has been so terrified of being labelled racist by sri lanka that they've not backed the umpires brave enough to have no-balled him for throwing the ball and nipped it in the bud. instead they've bent the rules to accomodate him and in the process allowed unfairness to flourish. it's a legacy on which they will be harshly judged.

dullsville?

ok.. it's confession time.. hand up whoever coined the term 'dullsville' to describe perth. right.. go stand in the corner for half an hour and stop being so silly. for anyone with even a modicum of initiative perth is far from dull. the fact is there is a lot to keep one entertained. admittedly we don't always have overt passive entertainment shoved down our throats but i reckon there's something lacking in people who aren't able to find their own entertainment once in a while. unfortunately perth is burdened with some exceptionally lazy journalists who latch onto catchphrases and then mindlessly repeat them ad infinitum so it would appear that we'll be stuck with news reports referring to the city as 'dullsville' for a long time yet.... sigh. is it too much to ask for journalists to present reports that are balanced, intelligent and well thought out and to avoid using hackneyed mindless phrases? surely they can leave lazy irrelevant journalism to 'today tonight' so those who want their prejudices reinforced have somewhere to turn. thank goodness for the abc and sbs news services!

old times

looking through some old photos recently has brought back a lot of memories. in 1981 i was in year 5. i'm in the second last row, 4th from the right with a nice full head of hair!! our classroom was located in a demountable building which is no longer there, having been replaced by tennis courts quite a few years ago. year 5 is a pretty good year as you're no longer one of the little kids but don't have the 'pressures' of being in the upper grades. even in those days the trend of banning any activity with even a vague chance of causing injury had started and i remember playing the recently outlawed 'british bulldog' behind the demountable away from the eyes of the teachers. marbles were also a bit of a favourite although i wasn't particularly good at them. i also remember the odd bee swarm settling in trees near our demountable which we would spend play time annoying and then running and hiding under sprinklers so the bees couldn't reach us.

year 5 was also the beginning of my love afair with the claremont footy club as they went on to win their first premiership in my lifetime. since then we've won another 5 and lost 8. it was also the year duran duran released their first single and album. ahhh.. what a good year it was!

politician tells the truth

wilson 'ironbar' tuckey yesterday said "i'm the village idiot.. no one listens to me anymore". never has he spoken a truer word

matt price rip

how sad today to hear today of the death of matt price. he was a great journalist with a fantastic wit. he was also a passionate freo supporter who wrote a really good book on the early days of the club. he'll be missed

the draft

well, the afl draft has happened and i'm still digesting our choices. i'm not sold on the wisdom of picking mark johnson. i think we should have been concentrating on picking youngsters who'll be around for years to come but there must be something that the recruiting panel have seen in johnson so i hope they're right. i am happy with us picking up kepler bradley though. he's young with significant experience and offers a lot. i don't know a lot about palmer, hinkley and mayne but the word is that they have very good potential. i have very high expections for freo in 2008 and hopefully these draft picks will add enough to the mix to tip the balance in our favour.

the pearly gates of kevin

how sweet it is! not only has the worst prime minister in my lifetime been kicked out of office, but it's looking very much like he'll be only the second prime minister in australian history to be voted out of his own seat. there's no doubt that rudd faces some challenges. under the libs interest rates have been continually rising and this is something that mr rudd will have to address. he takes the reigns at a time when the economy is under pressure from the subprime mortgage issues in the usa and inherits an unrealistic expection that the australian economy will forever feature extremely low inflation and interest rates. still, i believe he has the best interests of the country at heart and has obtained the mandate of the electorate without resorting to the dubious tactics of his opponents. let's just hope he can maintain that standard.

tourney no. 1

i've just got home from my first ever live poker tournament and am a rather happy chappy. i've registered with the APL (australian poker league) and wandered down to the contacio pub in scarbs tonight to play my first tourney. given that my only exposure to poker thus far had been online tourneys & ring games and a few games amongst mates at eu-jin's place in london, i found things rather daunting to start with. the first few hands i didn't know if i was arthur or martha but as the game went on i found myself feeling more and more like i knew what i was doing. by the end of the night i ended up in third place which pleased me no end. it was a free game with no prize but still, i don't play the game to win money. it's the fun of poker that i enjoy and i'm pretty happy with my debut. they play every thursday night at the contacio so i reckon i'm gonna be a regular from now on.

the jebs are back!!

well, it's been a pretty good month for me as far as my favourite bands are concerned. first i find out that not only are sugarchild an ongoing concern, but they're back based in perth and playing gigs again. i've not been able to see them yet but there's still one more gig for 2007 at the railway hotel in freo and i really hope to make it down there to see them, even though it's my mum's birthday and all.

now, i hear that the mighty jebediah are back and recording album number five and also touring. i know that some nay-sayers haven't rated the jebs all that highly since the heady days of 'slightly odway' but i personally reckon 'braxton hicks' was just as good an album and i can't wait to hear the new one. my fave memory of 'braxton hicks' was listening to in non-stop during my time in plovdiv (second largest city in bulgaria) and even adding some jebediah graffiti to the various other bands' graffiti under the big statue there.

now the only thing left to make the trifecta for me is if karl, harry and adam join forces to ressurect thermos cardy. ahh.. one can only dream..

politics.. finally

i've avoided making many comments on politics in the lead up to the election but this massive liberal scandal can't go uncommented on. i'd already made up my mind prior to the breaking of the news regarding the latest liberal devious trick but this has really confirmed that voting for labor is the right move to make. the libs are now showing their true colours as they go down swinging low blows. the continual attempts to play the union card were bad enough but to now try and play the race card (yet again..) is completely contemptible. this current government is rotten to its core and it is time we got rid of them.

one thing that has annoyed me from both major parties is the lack of advertising that informs the electorate of their own policies. instead, pretty much all of the advertising is aimed at denigrating the opposition and trying to scare the electorate. surely it's time the major parties started treating the electorate with a bit of respect.

drug cheat?

there's an article in today's west australian in which it is stated that the drugs ben cousins has allegedly been taking are, in fact, performance enhancing. a medical authority is quoted as saying that whilst there is divided opinion over whether cocaine aids sporting performance, medical opinion is unanimous that methamphetamines do enhance sporting performance. now, i don't know for a fact which drugs ben's been on, but should reports be accurate then this adds a new dimension to his drug abuse. after all, the fall back line for weagles groupies until now has been that even if he has been on drugs it's only a personal problem and doesn't have anything to do with his onfield performance. this is now clearly not true and should raise questions about any unfair advantages he had in 2005 on his way to winning a brownlow medal. should he be stripped of the medal? hmmmm... that's an interesting proposition. after all, other sports people are stripped of their medals when they're found to have won them whilst using performance enhancing drugs so why should the afl be any different?

regurgitator at the indi

one of the bands to really hit me at my first BDO many years ago were a young regurgitator. i remember standing with steve carter watching this strange asian guy in a dress making some very loud noises and being quite impressed. well, many years on i headed down the road to the indi bar last night with megan and some of her friends to see them playing and again was very impressed. the indi bar is a pretty small venue but it's only a few minutes walk from home which is fantastic. the gurge played many of the old faves.. everyday formula, black bugs, kong foo sing, the song formerly known as !, i sucked a lot of cod to get where i am amongst them. some of the newer stuff was also pretty good.

also very impressive were the support bands, in particular a band called new pants who have a great synth and sound like some of the great early 80s moments.

this saturday at the indi is the stems so hopefully i'll get down there for that.

murali the chucker

i reckon it's a pretty sad indictment on the ICC that a bloke who seems to me to be clearly a chucker will soon overtake warnie as the world's greatest wickettaker. the guy's built a career on throwing the ball and taking bucketloads of wickets against third rate teams. it's time for the doubt over his action to be settled once and for all by having extensive testing and analysis of his action done during match situations. anyone can ensure they're bowling within the rules when they're tested in a lab but it's a different story in the middle. the tests should also be done on random deliveries so that he's not aware of when he's being tested. until he's tested in match conditions and cleared there will be a question mark over him which is not only bad for cricket but i'm sure is something he'd want sorted out as well. until he's been proved to have a legal action i'll always think of him as a chucker!

rudd showing off?

so kevin rudd's a showoff now? he does an interview with chinese tele in chinese and lexy downer has got his nose out of joint. sounds to me like someone's feeling the heat of an impending election loss and is a bit tetchy. i wonder what language mr downer would expect an english speaking chinese diplomat to use if he was doing an interview with a mainstream australian tele channel? thank goodness it's looking likely that this clown is on his way to obscurity!