Saline Drip for My Ego

THE ARCHBISHOP ON 'GAY MARRIAGE'

2004-02-28T19:52:00.000+11:00

I concur with the Archbishop on most all of what he says here. His understanding that as an Anglican churchman he is subject to a constitutional separation of church and state is admirable. He touches on why Anglicanism appears to be in crisis. As the name implies, Anglicanism is very English. A lot of things simply aren't spoken about. My more vociferous critics will insist that that suggests we are being silenced. Far from it, we are being allowed a voice that is heard without judgment. My sex life is a matter for my conscience.

All emphasis mine:

LOCATION: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2004/s1053387.htm

Broadcast: 25/02/2004

Archbishop Peter Carnley suggests 'lifelong friendships' over gay marriage

TONY JONES: President Bush's statements have naturally echoed here in Australia, where, late last year, the Prime Minister argued passionately against legalising gay marriage.

"You're talking here about the survival of the species," Mr Howard told an interviewer in Darwin.

But at least one very senior churchman is offering up a third way -- not gay marriage as such, but recognition of lifelong friendships between two homosexuals which would give them the same legal status as a heterosexual married couple.

I spoke to Archbishop Peter Carnley in Perth a short time ago.

TONY JONES: Archbishop Carnley, President Bush says he's been driven to act by activist courts to prevent the meaning of marriage being changed forever.

Do you have any sympathy for his action?

ARCHBISHOP PETER CARNLEY, PRIMATE OF THE ANGLICAN CHURCH OF AUSTRALIA: I think I understand where he's coming from.

I think he's wanting to defend the concept of marriage as a union between a man and a woman from attack.

Whether he's quite right in his analysis of that I very much doubt because I think you have to remember that homosexual people only make up less than 10 per cent of the community and I think the other 90 per cent is able to sustain the institution of marriage if it wanted to.
I think the interesting thing about the present is that marriage between heterosexual peoples is a bit shaky these days.

I think there's so much divorce and fracture of relationships and de facto relationships and a disinclination to commit at all so I think that's probably more serious than what is happening amongst gay people.

TONY JONES: Do you think it would change the equation at all if gay couples did not use the term 'marriage', did not appropriate that term?

ARCHBISHOP PETER CARNLEY: I personally do think that.

I think it would help their cause, their own cause, in fact.
I've always argued that marriage is properly used of male and female relationships and we should in fact term same sex relationships, friendships in the first instance, rather than marriage.

I don't know of too many gay people who think of themselves, if they are in a long-term committed relationship, who want to see themselves as husbands and wives, for example.

I think it's a much more equal relationship of friends.

TONY JONES: Tell me, George Bush was obviously horrified by this, but what did you think when you saw the thousands of gay couples lining up to have their unions made legal outside San Francisco or lining up at San Francisco City Hall to have that done?

ARCHBISHOP PETER CARNLEY: Well, I was rather uncomfortable with it myself a bit.

I thought it was all a bit frivolous and you had to ask yourself whether these relationships were really serious long-term committed relationships or if this was just a bit of a stunt.

And I think real, solid relationships probably are formed in private and quietly rather than that very public festive kind of atmosphere.

TONY JONES: But you're not opposed to gay unions being made legal.

ARCHBISHOP PETER CARNLEY: Well, it depends on the reason.

I think I understand it if same sex partnerships want to be legalised in some way -- for holding property together, for example, to secure inheritance, superannuation payments and, very importantly, to claim the responsibilities or the rights of next of kin if one of them happens to die.

I think I can understand all that.

So to register a relationship for those purposes I think is understandable and I don't think you have to use the term 'marriage' of it.

TONY JONES: The President and here the PM have got themselves deeply involved in this issue.

Do you think it would be divisive in Australia if it became an election issue here as it's clearly going to be in the US?

ARCHBISHOP PETER CARNLEY: Oh, I think it would be divisive because I think people take strong views on either side on this issue.

Some people are very threatened by gay people claiming to be entering into a relationship which is more or less a marriage.

I think people would divide over it.

It would be a divisive issue.

I have no doubt about that.

TONY JONES: Since our laws are essentially based on a system of morality, would you be at all concerned that changing the laws to create legal gay unions would somehow give moral righteousness to those unions?

ARCHBISHOP PETER CARNLEY: Yes.

That would be the next step, I think.

That's a question that is very greatly debated at the moment, particularly in the Christian churches themselves.

There is a very open debate about how we should deal pastorally with gay and lesbian people at the moment.

I think we have to acknowledge that and I think we have to acknowledge that even Christian people read the biblical texts relating to homosexual relationships in different ways so there's certainly a debate going on about that, but I think that's quite a different debate from the debate about legalising relationships so that one person can be recognised as the next of kin of another, for example.

I don't think that's a difficult moral question at all.

TONY JONES: I know that a few years ago you recommended that your church consider blessing monogamous committed gay relationships.

Do you still believe that?

ARCHBISHOP PETER CARNLEY: I think I was talking in terms of the blessing of a friendship.

If you think of same sex relationships in the terms of the category of friendship, I think that takes a lot of heat out of it because I think there's nothing wrong with blessing friendships.

I think that's perfectly all right.

But that avoids, of course, or doesn't address the moral question of what is to happen in terms of behaviour within those relationships.

I think that's another question.

TONY JONES: But it is effectively a way of blessing a gay marriage without calling it marriage, a sort of splitting hairs, isn't it?

ARCHBISHOP PETER CARNLEY: Well, no, I don't think it is splitting hairs because I think it is possible for people to be friends, even to live together in the same house, for example.

We used to think when I grew up of same sex relationships as relationships between people we called bachelors, and we didn't even think of what might happen in bedrooms.

And I think what happens in bedrooms is very much more an individual decision that couples must make according to their own conscience, and I think the churches can give them advice on that.

Unfortunately, the churches' advice at the moment is probably pretty various -- different advice -- and that's because we've not reached the point of a mature mind on it.

We're still debating the issues.

TONY JONES: A mature mind.

I mean, you have suggested to your own church that it needs to come to terms with the reality of gay relationships.

What do you mean essentially by that?

ARCHBISHOP PETER CARNLEY: Well, they exist.

Gay relationships certainly exist.

And whilst some heterosexual people might say that those relationships are unnatural, if you talk to the gay people themselves, they'll say what is unnatural for them would be a heterosexual relationship, so you can't appeal to a kind of natural law to solve this problem.

I think it's a much more complex problem and I think the churches have got to look again at the biblical material, they've got to look at the natural law argument and just think through the whole issue, and I think you have to do that realising that there certainly are in the world real people who are in real same sex relationships.

You cannot avoid it.

TONY JONES: You mentioned, looking again at the biblical material, and to some degree you have been doing that in one of your recent papers, which has been put forward for discussion, let's put it that way, you seem to suggest that there are parts of the Scriptures which appear to accept same sex relationships.

ARCHBISHOP PETER CARNLEY: Oh, well, yes, the story of David and Jonathan, for example, a very intense friendship of two males.

I think that's a very clear story in the Scriptures, and the story of Ruth and Naomi too, two women with a very intense and loyal friendship.

I think they are clear stories that can be brought to bear on this particular issue.

TONY JONES: In the case of David and Jonathan, it's in the Book of Samuel, I think, it talks about a relationship that is wonderful, even greater, than that of a woman -- a love even greater than that of a woman.

Are they, do you believe, are the Scriptures there talking about a homosexual relationship?

ARCHBISHOP PETER CARNLEY: No, I don't think they are.

I think they're talking about a relationship between two men of a very deep and loyal kind.

I think they're not talking about a homosexual relationship as we would think of one today because the concept of a homosexual person, an exclusively oriented homosexual person, is a 19th century concept.

It was a discovery of the 19th century.

So that certainly wasn't in the minds of the biblical writers.

I think when the biblical writers wrote, they thought that all human beings were heterosexual and what we could call today homosexual behaviour was therefore a deviant behaviour, but we might not think of that in that way today.

TONY JONES: There are not hints, do you believe, in that section of the Scriptures that their relationship may have been sexual?

ARCHBISHOP PETER CARNLEY: I don't think there are too many hints.

Some writers try and read that into it, but I think it is a neutral text on that one myself.

TONY JONES: And you also raise, somewhat ambiguously, if I may say so, the question of Jesus and his relationships with men.

And in particular you refer to the disciple, the male disciple in this case, whom Jesus loved.

ARCHBISHOP PETER CARNLEY: Yeah.

A good example of a same sex relationship, of what I would call friendship, a deep loyalty and love.

It is nothing to do with sexuality at this point.

TONY JONES: But when the issue of sexuality is raised alongside these examples, what is the point you are seeking to make because those who oppose your way of looking at it would simply say if there's no sex involved, it isn't a homosexual relationship, no comparison?

ARCHBISHOP PETER CARNLEY: Well, I think the first category to clarify is whether you are going to speak of same sex relationships as marriage or basically friendship, and I think they are two different things.

Marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman, a husband and wife, basically for the purpose of mutual support but also for bringing children into the world and to create an intergenerational family.

And I think basically a homosexual relationship is a relationship of a different kind and that's why I don't want to use the category of marriage in relation to it.

I think it's fundamentally a friendship.

Now just what behaviours can go on in that relationship is what we have to sort out.

TONY JONES: In recognising, though, as you call it, the reality of those relationships, do you believe the Church should ultimately accept gay sex as being a legitimate part of that relationship?

ARCHBISHOP PETER CARNLEY: Well, it's hard to know.

I think if you did a count of Christians in churches these days, you'd get a mixed message, but there are certainly a lot of people I know in Christian congregations who are not too fazed by the presence of gay couples in the congregations.

Just what those gay couples do at home and in their bedroom is just not a question that people raise.

They accept them simply as human beings and relate to them as human beings and support them as human beings and I think that's probably a good thing.

TONY JONES: Can I ask what do you think about that?

Do you believe what they do in the privacy of their own homes -- that is, gay sex -- is immoral?

ARCHBISHOP PETER CARNLEY: I think it's basically a question for them to decide.

I think it's a personal question, an individual question, and they have to decide that in accordance with their own conscience.

And I think the Church is in the position where it must clarify its teachings so that it can point them in one direction or another.

And it just is a fact in the Christian churches at the moment that there is great diversity on that matter.

So my role in the Anglican Church, for example, is to try and lead our congregations through a study process to come to terms with the complexities of the issue and to study the texts and the various arguments that are put together for and against homosexual behaviour and just commend it to homosexual people as the best advice we can give them for the moment.

But I think in the course of time that will clarify.

TONY JONES: Archbishop, one final question -- it comes out of what you just said.

Do you regard sexual morality as being subjective?

ARCHBISHOP PETER CARNLEY: No, no, I don't.

I think it has to be argued publicly.

I think it's possible to say, for example, that it is objectively quite clear that promiscuity is a bad thing.

I think we can say that and we can say it for good reason.

We can say it is a health hazard, for example, and so I would say very clearly and objectively that promiscuity is a bad thing and that faithfulness in relationships is a very good thing.

I think that's objectively supportable too.

I think the problem is when you start to talk about same sex relationships, long-term committed relationships, you have got something which can qualify to be called faithful.

And if the Bible is in support of faithful relationships, that particular argument would lead you to support faithful same sex relationships so that's the kind of debate we're in.

TONY JONES: Archbishop Carnley, I'm afraid we are out of time.

We could probably talk about this for a great deal longer but we thank you very much for taking the time to join us tonight.

ARCHBISHOP PETER CARNLEY: It's a pleasure, and the churches will talk about it for a great deal longer, I can assure you.

THE QUEEN HAS RESUMED HER THRONE. LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!

2004-02-06T19:34:00.000+11:00

AMERICA'S SWEETHEART IS BACK. DID YOU MISS HER?

Courtney Love once promised that her debut solo album, America's Sweetheart, would have "one song about a fictional boy who saves fictional rock and roll in a fictional town." Change "boy" to "girl" and the premise remains the same

Love's ironically titled album, set for a February 10 release, is as much about herself as about the state of rock, with a thematic structure similar to Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville. Love, however, isn't simply answering one particular album, as Phair did with the Rolling Stones classic Exile on Main St. Sweetheart, even more audaciously, takes on the entire male rock pantheon, offering Love herself as its redeemer.

"Hey, God, you owe me one more song/ So I can prove to you/ That I'm so much better than him," she wails in the opening battle cry, "Mono," whose intro riff echoes the sound of early MTV promos.

The layers of meaning evoked by the title and lyrics of the song are purposeful: They suggest being on one's own, the recording process, kissing and disease — motifs that repeat throughout the album.

The "him" remains unidentified, but one can't help but imagine she's referring to either her late husband, Kurt Cobain, and to the rumors that the Nirvana frontman had a hand in writing Hole's Live Through This, or to Eric Erlandson, her main songwriting partner in Hole. Of course, Love has also claimed the song is actually a "Fred [Durst] murder fantasy." Or, as she later hinted, about Eminem. Or even Jack White. In the end, the real "he" behind the song is irrelevant; it's every He.

Love drives that point home throughout the rest of this fast-moving album, citing past and present punk and rock heroes: Black Flag's "Rise Above" and the Damned's "Smash It Up" in "Mono"; the Velvet Underground's "All Tomorrow's Parties" in "Sunset Strip"; Prince's "Erotic City," the Ramones' "Pinhead" and the Clash's "London Calling" in "But Julian, I'm a Little Older Than You" (whose title refers to Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas); and the self-explanatory and intentionally misspelled "The Zeplin Song" ("Why does the song remain the same?" she quite reasonably inquires).

The list goes on, and Love never fails to note where she stands in all of this. Like a boasting, battling MC, she promises hope (she's going to "come and save the day"), threatens danger (she knows "where you live" and she's "coming for you") and brags that when all is said and done, she's still going to be the best you'll ever have ("You'll never ever ever f--- like me/ So baby why why do you even try?").

Love's at her best when she links her bravado to raging riffs, as in "Hello." You almost believe she'll deliver the goods when she sings, "You're going to hear the lost chord tonight." That chord's a myth, of course, and not every promise can be fulfilled.

America's Sweetheart embraces other contradictions as well. "Hold on to Me" is about vulnerability, and she has said it was inspired by the time she stayed up all night scribbling poetry with Russell Crowe, broke down in tears and had to be comforted in his arms. Yet the song is sung as though she were the strong one offering comfort rather than needing it.

"Sunset Strip," meanwhile, concerns a girl who's either moving or about to kill herself. It mourns her position at first, then celebrates her self-destruction and "no tomorrow," defiantly listing all the reasons she pops pills: "I got pills 'cause I'm bored/ I got pills 'cause you're dead/ I got pills 'cause you're not the one".

The bottom-heavy, bluesy "All the Drugs" takes the addiction theme further, as if the layered guitars' texture imparts meaning to the damage and delight implied by "all the drugs in the world."

Love's always more impressive as a banshee than as a sweetheart — even she realizes this, swiping at her most tender moment on the album, a nostalgic power ballad, by giving it the title "Uncool." She's a fascinatingly messy bundle of contradictions, a destroyer and creator in equal parts, who gives voice to things we dare not say. America's Sweetheart may not save rock and roll — but can anything?

-------------------------------------------
Three chords in your pocket and you think you're going to bring back punk-rock?- Courtney

COURTNEY SONGS

2004-02-06T16:55:00.000+11:00

TEENAGE WHORE

When I was a teenage whore
My mother asked me, she said, "Baby, what for?
I give you plenty, why do you want more?
Baby, why are you a teenage whore?"

I said, "I feel so alone and I, I wish I could die"
I've seen the things you put me through and I, I wish I could die

When I was a teenage whore
The rain came down like it never did before
I paid good money not to be ignored
Then why am I a teenage whore?

I've seen your repulsion and it looks real good on you
Denying what...what what you put me through

Get out of my house...get out of my house!
Get out of my house...get out of my house!

When I was a teenage whore
My mother asked me, she said, "Baby, what for?
I give you plenty, why do you want more?
Baby, why are you a teenage whore?"

I've seen your repulsion and it looks real good on you
I don't want to live what you had...you have put me through
I wanted that shirt and I, I wanted those pants
It's all the lying put me through and I
I never...whoa!

AWFUL

Swing low, sweet cherry
Make it awful
It's your life, it's your party
It's so awful
Let's start a fire! Let's start a riot!
Yeah, it's awful
It was punk
Yeah, it was perfect
Now it's awful

They know how to break all the girls like you
And they rob the souls of the girls like you
And they break the hearts of the girls

Swing low, cherry, cherry
Yeah, it's awful
He's drunk, he tastes like candy
He's so beautiful

He's so deep like dirty water
God, he's awful
You're lost, oh, where's your daddy?
It's so awful

And they royalty rate all the girls like you
And they sell it out to the girls like you
To incorporate little girls

Hey, run away with the light
Run away, it's divine
Let's run away, yeah, tonight
And we'll steal the light of the world

Swing low, sweet cherry
Yeah, it's awful
You're ripe for the picking
It's so awful
You've got your youth
Don't waste your money
Yeah, it's awful
I was punk!
Now I'm just stupid!
I'm so awful

Oh, just shut up you're only sixteen (2 x's)

If the world is so wrong
Yeah, you can break them all with one song
If the world is so wrong
Yeah, you can take it all with one song

Swing low, sweet cherry
Make it awful
They bought it all, just build a new one
Make it beautiful
Yeah

RETARD GIRL

Retard girl makes us sick
Retard, poke her with a stick
Well, she walks funny
Kind of like a pig
God, I hate that retard girl
See the retard girl walking in the schoolyard
In the same dress from fourth grade
See the retard girl cross-eyed in the schoolyard
Looking for the friend she made
The retard girl, retard girl
The retard girl
Yeah, don't forget her face
As shines the moon among the lesser fires
She is sucking dick out in the yard
Well, she walks funny
Kind of like a pig
God, I hate that retard girl
Hey, the retard girls all walk funny
She don't think like the others do
See the retard girl squirming in the mud
Throw her in the trash can
See what she does
The retard girl, retard girl
The retard girl
Yeah, don't forget a face
I asked her mother, "Why'd you implode?"
Well, her head's so big
It just might explode
And she walks funny
Kind of like a pig
God, I hate that retard girl
Hit her
See that retard girl staring at the sun
What does she see?
See the retard girl stare at everyone
I hope she doesn't see me
Retard girl, the retard girl
The retard girl
Yeah, don't forget her face
Retard girl
The retard girl (2 x's)
Don't throw her away

DYING

You see the cripple dance
Pay your money, baby
Now's your chance
Eyes like cyanide

I am so dumb
Just beam me up
I've had it all forever
I've had enough

Remember, you promised me
I'm dying, I'm dying, please
I want to, I need to be
Under your skin

Our love is quicksand
So easy to drown
They steal the gravity, yeah
From moving ground

Remember, you promised me
I'm dying, I'm dying, please
I want to, I need to be
Under your skin

And now I understand
You leave with everything
You leave with everything I am
Withering

And now I know that love is dead
You've come to bury me
There's nothing left here to pretend
Anything

Remember, you promised me
I'm dying, I'm dying, please
I want to, I need to be
Under your skin

I'm dying, I'm dying, please (3 x's)
Under your skin

Under your skin

WHAT DO YOU DO WITH A BA IN ENGLISH?

2004-02-06T11:17:00.000+11:00

Cathy Lumby is an amazingly clever person. The brightest star in the Australian Cultural Studies firmament and very good at pushing just the right buttons. Cathy was one of my favourite tutors as under-grad. To be a professor at Sydney Uni so early in her career is exceptional.

So, Catharine Lumby on why Arts Degrees scare the horses. Enjoy.

No claptrap - the truth about cappuccino courses
By Catharine Lumby
February 5, 2004

As the academic year revs up again, it's clear our universities are confronting enormous challenges. Thousands of students failed to get a place. Only the most academically gifted have a hope of a government-funded place in the most desirable courses. Resources in many institutions are stretched to breaking point.

In such an environment, you might expect our Federal Government to be leading discussion on the big questions. Are Australians prepared to mortgage their houses to put their kids through uni? Should universities stay generalist or specialise? How do we compete on the global stage?

Instead we're getting rants about how "political correctness" and "cappuccino courses" are warping students' minds.

John Howard led the charge years ago when he branded academics idle and claimed English departments were being subsumed by "claptrap" such as cultural studies. And now the federal Education Minister, Brendan Nelson, is pursuing the same ill-informed agenda.

And ill informed it is. I know because I teach some of the very stuff this Government claims is poisoning the educational well.

It's true that students in my first-year course in cultural and media studies, for instance, are exposed to feminist theorists, Marxist thinkers and scholars who think the Western media trade in racist stereotypes.

They are also asked to think about how things like class, gender and sexuality are represented in popular culture.

Proof, you might think, that I'm intent on turning them all into dutiful lefties. Certainly that's a mistake some students make in the first few weeks of class.

But leftists aren't the only thinkers they're asked to read. And after they've actually attended a few lectures they discover that the whole point of the course is to debate and critique the ideologically diverse thinkers they've been asked to read. If they're really paying attention they learn that scepticism is the essence of academic inquiry and that they can take any position they want as long as they can back it up with evidence and a reasoned argument.

But why encourage them to think about this political stuff in the first place anyway? Why not just settle them down with a good play or novel and teach them to appreciate the prose?

Well, partly because if the playwright is Shakespeare or the novelist is Jane Austen, then concepts such as race or class or gender are pretty much unavoidable. And partly because a good humanities education equips students to grapple with the ethical dilemmas of their time.

Students are hungry to debate these concepts because they are trying to formulate their own values. And a focus on values is what Howard keeps telling us our education system needs.

But if brainwashing isn't a problem, then surely dumbing-down is. What about all those trendy courses on Madonna? Oddly enough I can't find a single pop star in the University of Sydney course handbook. Reassuringly, Virgil, Descartes and God do rate mentions.

All that's happened is that a handful of courses in a variety of disciplines now examine popular cultural texts as well as the classics. Ranking things in order of aesthetic merit isn't the only reason to study them.

Cultural and media studies courses are popular with students because they offer tools for thinking about the world around them.

Next time federal politicians decide to dispense free advice about what ought to be taught in our universities, they ought to do what all first-year students are expected to do in their essays. Do some real research first. And put reason ahead of emotion.

Catharine Lumby is associate professor of media studies at Sydney University.

DUMB JOURNALISM.

2004-02-05T20:27:00.000+11:00

NYT this time. This has made it through whatever processes exist for picking up howlers and nobody saw it. Basic journalism, avoid cliches. Here's a good example of why:

Discussing new Mel Gibson film, the Passion

-------
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

The same brutality in the film that has caused such an emotional response among many Christian filmgoers has alarmed some Jewish leaders who say it could stoke animosity toward Jews.

Christian supporters of the film say it merely adheres to the Bible. But some Jewish leaders say that it distorts the Scriptures and that they are alarmed at the prospect of the movie's being accepted as gospel.
--------

And the obvious problem is that the movie IS quite literally gospel. The entire point of the film is to present the gospel narrative. It is not as Ms goodstein suggests a film of the Scriptures.

I imagine that our writer means that the film is an inacurate portrayal of history. If so, why use a word so open to causing confusion? Ignorance that 'gospel' in that usage is colloquial? Ignorance of what the gospels are? I do think that even the most vociferous of Jewish critics would agree that the gospels are well... the gospels.

I wonder if the people at NYT have a dictionary, or can work out how to find one on the web?

It wasn't too hard for me and I did very poorly in journalism as an undergraduate- it was my weakest unit.

-----
gospel

\Gos"pel\, n. [OE. gospel, godspel, AS. godspell; god God + spell story, tale. See God, and Spell, v.] 1. Glad tidings; especially, the good news concerning Christ, the Kingdom of God, and salvation.

And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom. --Matt. iv. 23.

The steadfast belief of the promises of the gospel. --Bentley.

Note: It is probable that gospel is from. OE. godspel, God story, the narrative concerning God; but it was early confused with god spell, good story, good tidings, and was so used by the translators of the Authorized version of Scripture. This use has been retained in most cases in the Revised Version.

Thus the literal sense [of gospel] is the ``narrative of God,'' i. e., the life of Christ. --Skeat.

2. One of the four narratives of the life and death of Jesus Christ, written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

3. A selection from one of the gospels, for use in a religious service; as, the gospel for the day.

4. Any system of religious doctrine; sometimes, any system of political doctrine or social philosophy; as, this political gospel. --Burke.

5. Anything propounded or accepted as infallibly true; as, they took his words for gospel. [Colloq.]

MICHAEL RIEDEL- UGLY, UGLY, UGLY!

2004-02-05T19:05:00.000+11:00

Journalists are the lowest form of life there is.
SPECIAL SALINE-DRIP MANHATTAN JOURNAL SUPPLEMENT

Meet Michael Riedel, the man with a complex about his penis size who led the critical charge against Taboo. He intentionally published mis-information regarding Taboo in the New York Post. A sane journalist might stop propogating mistruths after being required to publish a correction in NYP. Bur Mr Riedel is neither an ethical nor even a competent journalist and continued to make the same 'mistake' in several other forums. I am yet to see him produce anything that isn't anti-Taboo vitriol.

What could cause one person to be so hateful?

The really sad thing about this man? THIS is his big moment in the sun. He can be terribly proud that he helped sink Taboo today, tomorrow he'll be a nobody. Notcie that he effectively concedes same in the first paragraph.

A question that arises for me is how Mr Riedel reviewed opening night. Given that his 'review' was online while he was still schmoozing at the after-party I have to wonder whether it was pre-written.

Those who can, do. Those who can't, become critics.

-------------------

Michael Riedel
Wednesday February 4, 2004
The Guardian

At War With Boy George

When Boy George's career as a Broadway performer comes to a grinding halt next month with the closing of his sad little musical Taboo, I want to hire him as my press agent.
By regularly attacking me in print, on TV and even on stage during his show, George has elevated me from obscure theatre reporter to, in the words of the Toronto Star, "one of the most influential (and feared) media figures in Manhattan". I want George to know I am grateful, so grateful that when I learned he has taken to calling me a "fucking cunt" on stage, I decided not to retaliate in my New York Post column.

As soon as I heard Rosie O'Donnell was going to plunk $10m of her own money into an autobiographical musical about Boy George (he wrote - what? - two songs that are famous), I knew this had the makings of a bomb. O'Donnell may be many things (loud, vulgar, brash, even funny) but an experienced, level-headed Broadway producer with taste she is not.

She hired a British director who was fired from his last Broadway show. She designed a freakish ad campaign that sold about two tickets and had to be revamped. She fought with the actors and gave George too much control (he vetoed her plan to replace the director). I reported all this (gleefully), which prompted Boy George to write me a thoughtful letter. I printed it in my column. Then, in a New York Times interview, George turned into a vicious beast, saying he wanted "tear my head off" and challenging me to a "duel of wits".

O'Donnell banned me from the opening of Taboo, but I snuck into the party anyway and introduced myself to George. He was polite. We agreed to battle it out on a TV programme I host. On the show, George was warm, funny, well-spoken and made a good case for his show.

We parted, I thought, friends. And then, on America's highest-rated national morning show, he called me an "idiot". After that, our relationship steadily deteriorated. Sadly, George's wit has deteriorated as well. Calling me a "fucking cunt" and "ugly, ugly, ugly" on stage is not exactly the stuff of Noël Coward. I'm sure he dreamed of a big stage career, of replacing Nathan Lane in The Producers maybe, or playing Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest for the National. Alas, those dreams have been dashed by a little tabloid reporter whom George has put on the map.

MY FIRST FAUX-PAS IN MANHATTAN- entry8.

2004-02-04T21:48:00.000+11:00

A memory.
SPECIAL SALINE-DRIP MANHATTAN JOURNAL SUPPLEMENT

Funny creature, memory. A completely random train of thoughts just led me to realise that within my first hour in Manhattan I completely bombed out on ordering a drink. I did what I'd do in Sydney and simply asked for a VLT. The few places in Sydney that I am likely to order a drink that is a perfectly clear order; vodka, lime & tonic.

In Manhattan it was enough to cause a mild situation with the waiter.

I now suspect that my fundamental mistake was that no such drink exists in American parlance. My order means a vodka and tonic with a trace of 'lime' syrup in it. In no way does the syrup taste like lime as nature knows it. It does add a refreshing edge to the vodka and tonic.

My guess is that it sounded to the waiter as if I was going to be as difficult as to ask for a vodka and tonic with lime fruit in it. The waiter clearly didn't want to say no, good Manhattan service is like that. She was probably desperately searching her brain for solutions.

It's probably lucky I shut up. I can only guess Gareth used sign language for 'don't worry, he's Australian' to rescue the situation or somebody at the bar was sent to fetch me a lime! Either way I got a gin and tonic and enjoyed it immensely.

COURTNEY LOVE IS REVENGE!

2004-01-30T21:32:00.000+11:00

The inimitable, unstoppable and sometimes unconventioal Courtney Love is back! The new song is available and it's the real shit- good Courtney. Maybe fresh hope for rock? If the track 'mono' is any indication this album is the first rock & roll masterpiece of this century.

Courtney is going to sell lots of albums and piss lots of people off at the same time.

I'm already preparing to maim and maul to be front-centre when Madama la Courtney tours.

True to the ideals she's been espousing Courtney's giving Mono away via the net. No need to risk dodgy file-shares, no illegality, no bullshit: a good chance for you to decide whether the album is interesting or not. Virgin seem to be giving her a lot of space in which to do whatever it is Courtney does. Courtney's already shaping herself for the rapidly impending end of the record industry.

go to www.courtneylove.com to download MONO, see the jucilicious Farrah-porn cover-art and sign up to be Courtney's Love Slave. I did. :)

Frances Farmer will have her revenge on Seattle.

MANHATTAN DAY 1 pt2 - the Chelsea Boy Diary Continues

2004-01-26T10:54:00.000+11:00

Chelsea Boy- Rob's Manhattan Journals. [part four]

entry seven
CODE ORANGE- WITH GLITTER.

When last I updated I was back at the Chelsea from a morning zipping about downtown. Two simple tasks awaited, a phone call and some time to relax before Taboo at 8pm. The story continues...

I walked into my Chelsea room, by now feeling completely at home, and switched on CNN to get some sense what time it was. CNN was in full hysteria mode about Code Orange Security and how everything was focussed on a 'credible threat' to Times Square. Very truly I never feared I was going to be blown up by terrorists. I did, however, find myself drawn into CNN's hyperbole. It began to dawn on me that the New York I had just travelled through was having a far from normal day. I began to think about the reality of terrorism, hung out my window watching the blackhawks circle and started to get uptight. Not scared, more numbed at the scale of it all. 'It was like being in a movie' is too applicable a cliché to avoid.

CNN kept churning statistics and became shriller and shriller until the really spooky bit hit home. Times Sq, the theatre zone, was to be blocked off so that every individual could be searched. Theatre goers were being advised to allow up to two extra hours to be seated in time for curtain.

Missing curtain is a particular dread of mine that borders on being a neurosis. I simply don't miss curtain and may all the angels in heaven protect anybody who tries to prevent me making it. This curtain, Taboo, was one I certainly wasn't going to miss. The small problem in my philosophy in this situation was that the people between me and the theatre were mostly US military armed with very big guns. The snipers hiding in the buildings above and circling choppers suggested against doing anything extraordinary at all.

Boy George versus risking being shot. I admit I weighed risks for a few minutes.

As things stood I had already been [politely] warned by a NYPD Officer not to cross against the lights in New York. I really wanted to respond that Manhattan couldn't scare anyone who has spent years crossing King St, Newtown. Rather, I reverted to 'ooops I'm Australian- I must have looked the wrong way'. Americans and Australians drive on different sides of the road- I never adjusted to it. I kept seeing driverless cars!. The droll stupidity of this answer seemed to baffle and then satisfy the officer who wished me a happy day. Each of a few encounters with NYPD officers suggested that in their day to day dealings they could teach the NSW Police a bit about being efficient, courteous and how to drop the smarm. I very quickly worked out that 'I'm Australian' can earn forgiveness for all kinds of blunders in New York.

At least this question about reaching the theatre distracted me from the bigger question of whether I had just collected VIP passes to be at the epicentre of the next major terrorist assault on New York. Either way the theatre put me very close by and terrorists wouldn't keep me away from Taboo if they turned up in person. What better way to go out than New Years Eve than house-seats for Boy George in Taboo? Excellent company for a stylish exit, I concluded. I don't think terrorists crossed my mind in any serious way again that night.

The next hour was wasted on ultimately futile efforts to work out how to use a NY phonecard. I felt pretty good that I'd worked out which bits of a phone number to dial and learned to identify a quarter from the other pointless coins that Americans seem to feel compelled to issue. After several tries at using the card from the 'phone in my room I gave up and took it to the payphones downstairs. After several more failed attempts at using the card I gave up. I felt a bit less stupid when nobody at the Chelsea reception counter could work it out either. In the end, I bought more quarters and made the call.

In retrospect, I can only give praise to God that I had an experienced New Yorker on the other end of the phone. Gareth didn't flinch at my increasing angst, simply agreed to call the theatre for advice and assigned me to some research about the implications of the closures for us. As things turned out, the Plymouth Theatre where Taboo is playing is a little off Times Sq. My imagined Broadway, where all the theatres sit side-by-side on Broadway turned out to be fantastical. There is a distinct 'theatre' row where theatres dominate but they scatter over several blocks.

I returned to my room and had to take some time to slow the pace of my brain, bring my heartbeat and breathing back into check, generally reach for something a bit closer to sanity. I was building up to see a show that I wanted to see more than I have ever wanted to see anything, I was overwhelmed by my first experience of Manhattan and I was in the heart of a city under high level military security. It's fair to say that I was running on a large proportion of adrenaline at this point. My central nervous system felt like I was connected to a car battery. I know no word for how excited I was other than 'absurdly'.

Meanwhile, it was 14:00 and I hadn't chosen an eye colour for the night. I'd packed for plum tones and then bought the blue pigment. At some point I went back to the Matesse NY supplier across the road and grabbed a lifting neutral glitter. At the speed my brain was going I couldn't process the options. Having a full range of affordable Matesse and Ben Nye directly across the road didn't help my confusion!

After some more C.N.N I decided that they weren't going to provide anything helpful and got clever. I went outside and asked a Police Officer. The officer with whom I spoke was wonderful. I used the 'Could you help me, I'm from Sydney...' intro and simply asked whether reaching the Plymouth was going to be hard. She confirmed earlier thoughts suggested by Gareth that we could probably go around the closure zones and would be OK. We had a hilarious conversation that revealed the degree to which Taboo had earned itself a reputation as a turkey. The officer really did look at me in a bemused amazement when I told her I'd flown half the planet to see Taboo. When I said I was staying at the Chelsea I got a sage nod as if that somehow explained it. FREAK!

Having reported that advice in to Gareth and returned to my room the sun was well and truly vanishing. That was sufficient to kick-start me on the torturous process of dressing for Taboo. Everything was thought through on the assumption that I could be confronted by any number of fabulous people including the Boy himself. The objective, therefore, was to do what I do humbly and well. Nothing too ambitious that might leave me looking like a walking Picasso! There's no point trying to out stupid George when it comes to face-paining and dressing up! In the end, I inadvertently pulled together something that looked like I'd come as Philip Salon, one of the central characters in Taboo. That's not especially surprising as Philip was always the most stylish in my book. He always looked liked he'd just woken up in a clothing bin and knew how to deploy the classic punk iconography to full effect. Vivienne Westwood once described him as being the master of 'getting it all perfectly wrong'.

Finding the Sharon Osborne show on cable proved an all new challenge. Having settled on modest makeup Sharon paraded inspiration like Kelly Osborne, Ozzy Osborne and Marilyn Manson to tease me. I now have no idea what I ended up doing to my face- only that I was nowhere near settled enough to do as good a job as I usually do. I did end up with blacked out eyes with lots on inbuilt sparkle. If I'd known that I was going to cry for 80% of Taboo I might not have fussed so much.

Once I realised that I was simply circling the room and adding more accessories, exactly what I do when I'm over-excited, I decided to make my debut socialising in the Chelsea foyer. The foyer is used like a living room by the residents and guests. I have very little memory of the next few hours except that everyone I talked to at the Chelsea commented on my looking good- that boosted me on my way. About five minutes before I was due at Gareth's I farewelled my fellow Chelseans and launched myself into the contained madness of Manhattan, on orange alert, on New Years Eve.

The evening was to prove every bit as dazzling as the backdrop suggested.

80s RETHOUGHT?

2004-01-26T10:02:00.000+11:00

“The 80s was the decade everyone loved to hate,” says Boy George, “but it seems like a wonderful era compared to now.

“Just look at how generic and unrebellious young people are today, their way of thinking and what they want from the world. They’ve got no fight in them anymore. They’re complacent.

YOU TWISTED MY REALITY AND ALL MY POSSIBILITIES

2004-01-22T22:59:00.000+11:00

No amount of joy and new found optimism is enough to withstand the calculatedly brutal spite of my 'family'.

FATAL PLATIC SURGERY- THE ULTIMATE MAKEOVER

2004-01-17T22:02:00.000+11:00

Dying to look younger?

Her Death Scrutinized
'First Wives Club' author had complications from plastic surgery

By Kathleen Kerr

January 17, 2004

An attorney for author Olivia Goldsmith - whose novel "The First Wives Club" became a hit movie that celebrated middle-aged women - said Friday that her death Thursday following complications during anesthesia for plastic surgery will be carefully scrutinized.

"It's premature and no decision has been made one way or the other, but everything will be looked at in a professional and orderly manner," said Steven Mintz. "This could just be a terrible tragedy or it could be something else."

Goldsmith, 54, lived in Manhattan and East Hampton. She died at Lenox Hill Hospital, where she was transferred after complications during anesthesia for plastic surgery on Jan. 7 at Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, a subsidiary of Lenox Hill. Goldsmith suffered a heart attack during anesthesia, Mintz said, then went into a coma.

Mintz, a Manhattan attorney, said Goldsmith had previously indicated she wanted to donate her organs. He would not describe her operation except to say it was "personal elective plastic surgery." Melissa Weisstuch, a spokeswoman for Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, would not comment on Goldsmith's surgery.

Anesthesia-related deaths have declined dramatically from 1 in 10,000 cases a generation ago to 1 in 250,000 today, said Roseanne Durril, a spokeswoman for the American Society of Anesthesiologists. "With healthy patients, it is even lower - 1 in 400,000," Durril said.

Rob Kenny, a spokesman for the New York State Department of Health, would not say whether the health department is investigating Goldsmith's death, although he did say, "We are investigating the death of a patient there due to complications with anesthesia."

Before her writing career, Goldsmith was a management consultant and was one of the first women to become a partner at the firm Booz Allen Hamilton. In 1992, she published her first book, "The First Wives' Club" - about three middle-aged women abandoned by their husbands.

The 1996 movie version of "The First Wives Club," a comedy, starred Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton and Bette Midler; Hawn's character submits to collagen injections to achieve pillowy lips. Goldsmith used her books to comment on many women's desperate attempts to remain youthful-looking.

Goldsmith grew up in Dumont, N.J. She was born Randy Goldfield and changed her legal name to Justine Rendal. Olivia Goldsmith was a pen name. She is survived by her mother, Estelle Goldfield, and two sisters, Kate Goldfield and Barbara Turner.
Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.

BEING MEAN TO ROSIE SPECIAL SALINE-DRIP MANHATTAN JOURNAL SUPPLEMENT

2004-01-17T00:38:00.000+11:00

This is probably meaningless if you don't know the complex story of how Rosie O'Donnel blew $10mil on staging Taboo. Even more useless if you don't know the song that it parodies [Ode to Attention Seekers from London Taboo] but there is some warranty that these lyrics would replace the existing song effectively.

Ode to Visionary Producers

ROSIE
Hello everyone, I'm Rosie... Queen of nice, raving mad dyke...

I opened Taboo on Broadway
It’s one of those flops
You'll never forget
And those who may not have seen it
Can just go and eat shit
Cause Rosie knows best
I lost ten mil and didn’t even cry
Cause there's so much more cash for me to try
To spit in Broadway’s collective eye
Yes it’s spite!
I'm coming back with Cyndi – and trying off-Broadway!

Those rags don't tell the whole story
I live for the glory
Of dining with stars.
And while I’m off my medication
I have no intention
Of taking the hint.

I'm the next big thing on Broadway
And Chita should really just hurry up and die
Cause I’m banishing all the old conventions
I'm uncontrollable
An out of check ego on a roll.

CRITICS:
You've got it all wrong
We think you’ve backed a loser honey, it’s about a poofter.
Wanna know what works on Broadway? Family fare & Fosse! Get it, right

AUDIENCE:
She opened Taboo on Broadway
It’s one of those flops
We’ll never forget
God help Taboo on Broadway
It’s one of those flops we’ll never forget.
She’ll never forget
We’ll never forget

GOODNIGHT TABOO SPECIAL SALINE-DRIP MANHATTAN JOURNAL SUPPLEMENT

2004-01-15T22:26:00.000+11:00

Good night Taboo.

I've sat up too late playing Taboo and thinking about it. I feel better now- seeing it was so emotional I had it locked away to deal with later...

I'm ready to write about it after a big sleep.

Pretty Lies

GEORGE

I can never get this muck from round my eyes
Dunno why I bother sometimes
Painting my face up, for the kill
A little bit of glitter goes a long, long way
But if you never see my face
How will you know if what you feel is real
I've been trying to be something, I'll never be
But I'm nothing special, there's no mystery
I've been hiding from the world, and from myself
Wanting love so desperately, oh so desperately
If you see all the hurt in my eyes
Will you laugh, will you run, will you carry me
If I tell you that I'm weak and I'm scared
Will that seem absurd
I'm the loneliest girl in the world

I can never let you see the girl inside
Won't let my defences slide
I can't let you see my tears
A little bit of fire drives the boys away
But maybe I might let you stay
If you show me that your love is real
I've been trying to be something, I'll never be
But I'm nothing special, there's no mystery
I've been hiding from the world, and from myself
Wanting love so desperately, oh so desperately
If you see all the hurt in my eyes

Will you laugh, will you run, will you carry me
If I tell you that I'm weak and I'm scared
Will that seem absurd
I'm the loneliest girl in the world

Talk Amongst Yourselves

JOSIE [LONDON] / BIG SUE [NYC]

Staring my life in the face
Haunted by what could have been
What should have been
What might have been
Was not
You're just a living disgrace
Drag on another cigarette
As you try to forget
You're tired of saving face
I live among these ruins
I've wasted so much breath
As dreams fade into nothing
There's no one there
There's nothing left
Talk amongst yourselves
But I know words won't make it better
You think you know me well
I know my faults down to the letter
Wiping these tears from my face
Wave goodbye to memories
You holding me, you loving me
You've changed
Take me away from this place
Far from all my bitterness
From promises broken everyday
I live among these ruins
I've wasted so much breath
As dreams fade into nothing
There's no one there
There's nothing left
Talk amongst yourselves
But I know words won't make it better
You think you know me well
I know my faults down to the letter
So talk amongst yourselves
But I know words won't make it better
You think you know me well
I know my faults down to the letter
I know my faults down to the letter

IT'S ALL OVER- TABOO SPECIAL SALINE-DRIP MANHATTAN JOURNAL SUPPLEMENT

2004-01-14T13:16:00.000+11:00

fresh from Playbill.com

Tuesday night, producers told the company of Taboo, the Broadway musical with original music and lyrics by Boy George, it will play its final performance on Sunday Feb. 8.

Taboo was produced by Rosie O'Donnell and Adam Kenwright in association with Daniel MacDonald, Lori E. Seid and Michael Fuchs. O'Donnell saw the London version of the show, which celebrates the glitter, pain and personalities of the '80s London club scene, and fell in love with the world and the sound of the show. The musical tells of the origins of pop sensation George O'Dowd (a.k.a. Boy George).

"Taboo was by far the most fulfilling experience of my career," O'Donnell lied in a statement. "Many lessons were learned, and so it goes. For this experience I am profoundly grateful and have no regrets."

O'Donnell suffered the slings and arrows of critics, many of whom disliked the show's storytelling, but there had been a growing cult of fans for the work. The evocative music in the show (most of it new, but including some hits from Boy George's heyday) has been embraced by fans of pop.

However vocal its cult of fans may have been, it failed to catch fire with a wider audience, despite a splashy TV ad campaign.

O'Donnell enlisted American playwright Charles Busch, no stranger to camp and glitter as author of Psycho Beach Party and Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, to pen a new libretto for the Broadway version.

Taboo began performances at The Plymouth Theatre (236 West 45 Street) on Oct. 28, 2003 and opened on Nov. 13, 2003. At the time of its closing, Taboo, which also stars Boy George, will have played 16 previews and 100 performances.

Taboo had its world premiere at the Venue in London, produced by Kenwright and Michael Fuchs. The London production opened Jan. 11, 2002 and had its final performance April 26, 2003.

The show was directed by Christopher Renshaw and choreographed by Mark Dendy.

Musical supervision is by John McDaniel and orchestrations by Steve Margoshes. Kevan Frost is the co composer.

Taboo stars Sarah Uriarte Berry, Jeffrey Carlson, Raúl Esparza, Donnie R. Keshawarz, Liz McCartney, Euan Morton (playing Boy George), George O'Dowd (a.k.a., Boy George, who plays artist Leigh Bowery) and Cary Shields.

For the remainder of its run Taboo will perform on the following schedule:
Tuesday through Saturday at 8 PM, Saturday and Sunday at 2 PM and Sunday at 7:30 PM.

A cast album has yet to be released.

DIVERSION FROM MANHATTAN.

2004-01-12T00:17:00.000+11:00

It's hot, I'm jet-lagged [yes, the adrenaline stopped] and I feel like I have just had a life time of experiences packed into a few, frantic days.

"I lay spent", to remobilise a cliche.

In other words, no new Manhattan diaries today. After contemplating it, I have decided to post an essay from CounterPunch instead. It isn't inconsistent with some of the political questions that face an Australian in New York under pressure to cheer the military. The writer foreshadows the themes of *Wicked* [a musical I saw and should get to write about this side of easter!] pefectly. Always cast a second eye over the 'good witch', she mayn't be all she seems.

__________________

The Cloaking of Evil
Jesus vs. the Beast of the Apocalypse
By GLEN MARTIN
Recently, I have been reading the gospels of Jesus Christ once again (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). The teachings of Jesus about how to live our lives are astonishing. Essentially, Jesus says that all our worldly values must be turned upside down, for God's judgment is on the rich, on "the nations" and on the powerful of the world. God's love and mercy are for the poor, the downtrodden and the oppressed.

In this spirit, Jesus condemns the Pharisees, the respectable religious people of his day, for they perform the empty rituals of worship but do not live authentic lives of service to the kingdom of God. Jesus says he has come to bring the kingdom of God to Earth. But the respectable religious and civil leaders of his day do not care for the poor, the downtrodden and the oppressed. They prefer to be seen as respectable, as upholders of the established social, economic and religious order.

As a professor who teaches philosophy of religion at my university, I have read extensively in the theology of Latin American Christians who have produced much wonderful Christian thought since the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65. One theme that emerges again and again in this literature is the deceptive nature of the great beast of the apocalypse (the Antichrist), symbolically described in the Book of revelation. For evil in our world does not present itself as evil.

Evil presents itself as "respectability," as the established way of doing things, as the accepted social morality of a society. Evil hides, they say, in everydayness, in business as usual, in what is given honors and the highest praise. Evil poses as its opposite, for the goal of the Antichrist is to prevent the realization of God's kingdom on Earth, to destroy the possibility of human beings living together in love and peace upon the precious planet granted to us as our home by God.

If one thinks about it, this is fairly obvious. Evil could not be successful in preventing people from living together in peace and harmony on the Earth if it appeared to us as a hideous monster (the traditional image of the devil). We would see it for what it is and turn away in horror. But if evil can cloak itself in the image of good--if it can appear as its opposite--then the destruction of God's kingdom on Earth can proceed unhindered.

This cloaking of evil is all the more necessary given the simplicity and clarity of Jesus' teachings. He sums up his teaching with astonishing focus in the "great commandment" of Matthew 22. All of the law and the prophets (including the Ten Commandments), he says, are summed up in the most fundamental command from God: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. ... And like unto it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

When his critics asked him, "And who is my neighbor?," he again answers with great clarity through the story of the good Samaritan. A man is beaten and left for dead on the side of the road. A priest and a Levite pass by the man on the other side, for they don't want to take risks and this might be a trap laid by the thieves. These are the respectable religious and civic leaders of Jesus' day.

But Jesus says a Samaritan stops and helps the wounded man. To the respectable ears of Jesus' day, this was outrageous. The Samaritans were foreigners. They were not Jews (who considered themselves the true disciples of God in Jesus' day). They were considered dirty, ignorant and deluded foreigners not worthy of mention. They were heathens, not followers of the true religion. Yet Jesus says a Samaritan loved his neighbor as himself. And he says that all people, like Samaritans, are our neighbors who must be loved as we love ourselves.

One wonders where the followers of Jesus are today. St. Paul tells us that the early Christian communities were persecuted by the respectable established system of their day (the Roman Empire), for they refused to serve in the military and refused to recognize the established religious orthodoxy and social morality of their society. The early Christian communities were not about to send their children into the military to
destroy the lives and countries of Samaritans and others who were their neighbors on this precious Earth.

Who are the Samaritans of today that we should love as ourselves? I'll bet they are the good people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Cuba and North Korea. I'll bet they are people of the Muslim faith, or people of no faith at all. Who are the followers of Jesus today that are persecuted in his name by the dominant system of evil that cloaks itself in the appearance of goodness and respectability?

I'll bet they include the founder of the Christian group Voices in the Wilderness, who was recently brutalized by U.S. military personnel at Fort Benning, Ga., for doing nonviolent civil disobedience against the U.S. Army School of the Americas. This top secret "school" trains foreign military in methods of torture and repression. Like economic exploitation, training in repression is another gift that our country gives to our "neighbors" in Latin America.

I see among the followers of Jesus today the three Catholic nuns in their 70s recently sentenced to federal prison for painting Christian symbols on the tip of a nuclear warrhead in the Midwest. They are resisting the respectable building of more and more hideous weapons of mass destruction by the great beast of our day. I'll bet there were also many Christians among those brutally attacked by police recently in Miami. They were shot with rubber bullets, sprayed with cruel pepper spray and beaten with clubs for nonviolent witness to the evil system of economic exploitation being pushed
on Latin American countries by the United States. This system is called "free trade," for evil presents itself with the appearance of respectability.

I see among the followers of Jesus the priest in New Mexico who has been preaching in his church against the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He is author of many books on Jesus' teaching of nonviolent resistance to evil and injustice. This priest recently had a platoon of military recruits jog to the street in front of his house and stand there shouting at him, chanting "kill, kill, kill."

If we want to find the followers of Jesus in our day, we need to look in the prisons, to those in shackles, to those being beaten and brutalized.

We don't have far to look. They are from all sects and churches within Christianity, but they have one thing in common: They are nonviolently resisting the system of respectability and evil. If one has any doubts about who is who, just read the gospels. Read the teachings of Jesus about how his followers are to lead their lives.

If we want to discern the great beast hiding under the cloak of social morality and respectability, look to a country that spends nearly $400 billion a year on weapons, bombs and mechanisms of destruction. If we want to discern the evil built into business as usual, look at the U.S. corporations exploiting the labor of starving people in horrible sweatshops to produce the clothing that you and I purchase as "Christmas gifts" in our local superstores. Look at the corporations firing millions from their jobs
in the United States so they can move overseas to increase their profit margins.

If we want to see the apocalypse in action, look at the invasion and destruction of the Iraqi people, or the nightmare of chaos and suffering our government has forced upon the good people of Afghanistan. Evil is a system, not a person. As the Christians of Latin America say, it is a "system of sin." It is a system of people wearing suits and ties, driving fine cars and giving the appearance of the highest respectability.

In reality, it is a global system of economic and military domination and exploitation, just like the Roman Empire. Evil is a system designed to prevent us from loving God and loving our neighbors as ourselves. Our neighbors include every person on this Earth. The purpose of evil is to prevent the realization of the kingdom of God on Earth. For the simple command of Jesus was to "love one another as I have loved you" and to live together in peace and harmony on our common home.

There is a fitting bumper sticker that reads "God bless the whole world. No exceptions." If we are to follow the teachings of Jesus, we need to change
the system that prevents this from happening.

Glen Martin is a professor of philosophy and religious studies at Radford
University in Radford, Virginia.

MANHATTAN DAY 1 - the Chelsea Boy Diary Continues

2004-01-09T18:20:00.000+11:00

I woke up quickly and a little bit startled. A run of thoughts went through my head,
*I'm in New York
*I'm at the Chelsea
*Tonight I finally see Taboo
*I'll be only metres from George
*I have to do things this morning
*What the hell time is it?
*Have I woken up in time to go and see Katie & Matt broadcasting the NBC Today Show from Rockerfeller Plaza?

I put the TV on to the default CNN exactly at 8am NY time- precisely as they crossed to the Sydney midnight fireworks. So much for my plans to avoid thinking about time differences! After searching an infinite number of stations I confirmed Katie and Matt were in place. My agenda for the day was relatively simple
-Rockerfeller Plaza for Katie
-Downtown to collect Times Sq passes
-Back to Saks to buy the right understated eye-colour at MAC professional to wear to Taboo that night.

Admittedly, Katie and Matt are a fairly daggy ambition to set off with but somehow it felt like a good way to confirm that I was in New York and it's one of those things I have always said I will do. Katie has a special place in my heart. So I did the tourist thing and waved at the cameras as they came past- knowing very well that it was 2am New Years Day in Sydney and that nobody was likely to be in Sydney watching NBC Today on off-chance of spotting me! I swallowed the indignity of the disloyal, selfish behaviour of my fans and had a look at Katie and Matt through the studio window. In about 30 seconds I confirmed it looked just like it did on TV and moved along.

Being at Rockerfeller Plaza meant I happened upon the ice-skating and the Manhattan Christmas tree. It was a great bonus to see that. The skating was quite romantic to watch- even disregarding that the cold was about to freeze my fingers off my hands leaving them to snap and shatter on a Manhattan sidewalk.

I bought the first of several hats that I would leave scattered through Manahattan at a discount store, added some gloves on the assumption I'd want fingers when I got to the theatre and then I found my first major New York distraction. A wonderful shop called Ricky's NYC. It was sort of a party stuff and gorgeous little things shop- everything from wigs and costumes through to the most mind-bogglingly inane Hello Kitty merch I have ever encountered. Lots of collectibles, ironic kitsch- all that on a scale I've never seen.

The great delight was finding a counter full of Mattesse NY and Ben Nye makeup. I could have gone wacky but I refrained. I found the perfect Taboo colour, a very dark blue bordering on black with a denim-blue sparkle. I managed not to gasp 'are you for real?' when I was told I could have the pure pigment in a substantial tub for $10! At that price I chucked in a neutral glitter shimmer pigment that could be used to give most anything a sparkly edge. In Australia I simply don't look at pure pigment, it's too far beyond my finanial reach to endure the humiliation.

A McDonalds logo proved totally succesful in deceivig me into thinking I could order an easy and recognisable breakfast before I took on a New York deli with newish false-teeth. Besides, I needed to check the map to get a sense of where I was in relation to my next mission post!

How wrong I was... The woman at the counter was from another borough and just couldn't [or wouldn't?] understand my accent. I might just as well have been speaking Martian converted into pig latin.

Finally, I secured the 'Sausage McMuffin' and huge Coke that I thought would fuel me for a few hours. The coke was great- supplies en voyage didn't meet my level of dependency! I was very surprised just how hard it is to buy Coke in central Manhattan.

Sausage McMuffin was a whole different story. It sort of looked like what would be offered here under the same trademark but it was shrivelled into a death pose and floating in fat. Just looking at it was enough to suggest I immediately banish it but the need for empty-carbs and being adventurous in a new country [!] I bit into it.

Utterly repulsive is the kindest I can say. A completely non-scientific guess would be that it contained about ten to twenty times as much fat as the Australian version. I could only taste salty lard. I fled, leaving the artery assassin to its own fate.

Having decided that the map I was looking at was a conspiracy designed to confuse me I set off for Downtown using a combination of intuition and faith in the [wonderful] New York grid system for naming streets. Sure enough I found a subway station, perhaps Penn Stn?, and decided that an A train to Christopher St had to be getting me in the general area. Never underestimate psychogeography- it was too easy to work out Christopher St station would put me in the vicinity of Bleeker St.

[I readily admit I may not have made the most correct choices in any of this! I had fun anyway]

The bigger challenge proved to be getting onto the subway. First I learned that you have to enter from the correct side of the street according to your destination. At most stations the platforms aren't connected. With that sorted out and the Downtown A Train identified I faced a real challenge- getting a ticket. I could find no explanation of the fare system and was confronted by machines that refused to take notes. Eventually a station attendant sold me a ticket to match my needs and I was underway.

It was an historic day to ride the New York subway, the last day on which the traditional subway tokens would be recognised for entrance to the subway.

After taking a surreptitious look at my map on the train [never look at maps in public- one might look like a *gasp* tourist!] I was fine to navigate my way across to Bleeker St. I had to set myself to a certain level of numb to walk through the Village and not get too distracted by the history and recognisable sites. That was fairly easy to manage with Taboo curtain at 8pm- nothing was going to stop me being there.

With the Bleeker St mission complete I got really bold and set off in a slightly different direction. That was sort of OK but it didn't take me to a subway or anywhere that seemed particulary interesting. Given that the sun was already starting to fade [sunset by 4pm in winter- perfect!] and that I had failed to restart my watch when setting it to local time, I cabbed back to the Chelsea. It was taking that cab trip that led to my first major breech of Manhattan behaviour rules. I did what one would do travelling alone in Sydney and got in the front of the cab!

WRONG! The poor driver looked at me as if his life had officially ended.

My next project seemed easy enough, phone in to report that passes and my person were both secure and intact and then relax before Taboo.

Easier said than done. Manhattan does not take afternoon naps.

TABOO IS DEFYING THE ODDS!

2004-01-08T23:24:00.000+11:00

After a disastrous initial box-office Taboo is picking up enough steam to become a viable show.

If my memory serves Rosie O'Donnel [producer] said she needs 65% capacity to stay afloat. In the most recent figures it has crept up to 62%. The week before I was there it jumped to 60% from a very down 40.3% low. The lesson for Broadway producers is that having me in the house seats immediately lifts box office a full 20%.

If 65% or thereabouts can be sustained until Tonys time it will buy them a few more months. I hope so- the show deserves to be seen.

And I want it to be still playing when I return in Summer. If Mr Esperaza insists I'll fill in as Philip Sallon for a week. I'm sure it was written for me to play.

CHELSEA GIRLS FOR CHELSEA BOY?

2004-01-08T13:56:00.000+11:00

In my wanders last night I discovered the Warhol masterpiece Chelsea Girls has been released on DVD.

This is a true treat as the format of Chelsea Girls as Andy conceived it has made it all but impossible to access in its proper form. The original idea and screening involved three 8mm cameras projecting different reels at different times. Beyond the vague connecting theme of the Chelsea Hotel there is no obvious reason to the reels- the film is totally non-narrative.

Warhol had an assigned projectionist for the original cinema season who improvised with the reels each night deciding within a broad trajectory which reel to play when, which screens to leave blank, what soundtrack to run etc. In essence, each screening was a different experience- a scratch-mix film.

A later cinema release fixes three panels into one frame and is not considered 'authentic'. I haven't seen this version but it is very poorly reputed. The famous 'sensational' scenes are there but much was cut before launching the film commercially.

We were incredibly privileged to see Chelsea Girls projected by the original projectionist in Sydney, 1991. My recollection is that it was a 'cultural gift' from the US. I sat through five torturously wonderful days of back-catalogue Warhol films. The real things- not the Paul Morrisey films that are more commonly seen.

The screening that I saw ran well over the official 210mins to something more like 225mins. I don't know but I think the extra time was the projectionist riffing on a reel of Nico pinned and staring into the camera- her eyes empty with death. My intuition said that it was the projectionists personal elegy for the dead- Nico had only recently passed. I *think* that VUs All Tomorrows Partys played on repeat but the hypnotic effect of Warhol's best film-making leaves me a little memory impaired on that detail.

Only about 10% of the house survived until the end.

So, I'm very pleased to find that a DVD version approved by the Andy Warhol Foundation has been issued. DVD technology probably allows as close to the original experience as can be recorded for posterity. I'm running on an assumption that the original projectionist worked on the DVD.

I didn't see where to buy it but one day it will come to me. I am Chelsea Boy!

Other Films to see the Chelsea in:
Sid & Nancy
Ciao! Manhattan [the recent region zero DVD release is a treasure. The refound footage is a gold-mine for the Warhol fans including the only known moving image record of Max's Kansas City and a decadent Factory party getting out of control]]

HAPPY LANDINGS AND MEETING THE CHELSEA. More of the Manhattan Journals.

2004-01-08T01:20:00.000+11:00

"Everyone talks about the energy of the [Chelsea] hotel. It's kinda like one of those creepy movies where the building is alive." Maria Beatty (resident)

Long story short... I made it to JFK and was duly collected by my host. I had somehow made it all the way through to 'freedom' at JFK without realising that New York was on the highest level of terrorism alert 'since NYE 2000'. Arriving in New York was a bit confronting. Giant images of George Bush and even bigger flags dominate the arrival processing section of the airport. As we drove into the city the high military and police presence gave a very distinct feeling of entering a fortress city.

Security issues were not enough to distract me from flipping out all the way into Manhattan. As the city became visible and I could pick out landmarks I was becoming very excited. At one point on the road in one can distinctly see the skyline depicted in the Miramax logo. Once we were in Manhattan proper I was squirming as landmarks flashed past and I could see real New Yorkers in the real New York. If I was able to contain my excitement to any substantial extent on the drive in I undid it all when we pulled up outside the Chelsea. [Correctly Hotel Chelsea but 'the Chelsea'.]

I have wanted to go there since I became obsessed with Andy Warhol in my mid-teens and now I was sitting across the road. As arrivals go this one counts as one of the most significant in my life. I reacted by hyper-ventilating and crying. A slightly wacky way to begin a passionate five night affair with the grand old dame of W23rd. Once I was composed Gareth left me while he took the car back to his home a few blocks away and I was alone in Manhattan. I stood on 23rd looking across at the Chelsea for a moment, checked which way the traffic was coming at me from, picked up my bag and took a very deep breath.

[I've put in a history of the Chelsea below. If you don't know about the place it might be worth skimming down to the history and coming back for the next bits]

I think I passed for 'composed' when I made my entrance under the familiar awning, across the familiar doormat, through the familiar doors and foyer and to the desk without incident. I checked in and was shown to the most perfectly charming room. My fear that the Chelsea might have been 'cleaned up' and lost it's history was totally misplaced. The building borders on decrepid in some parts but it almost lives and breaths. My room was very plain, last renovated in the late seventies from what I could work out. It was perfectly clean and warm but certainly not pretty! The furniture comprised a motley assortment of pieces. A bed with a night-stand and lamp, a dressing table and a TV atop a chest of drawers. The lights were bare of shades, the paint and carpet time worn. It was exactly as I imagined! A comfy bed and a strong hot shower are my main requirements- both were met. A long shower is a genuine treat- with Sydney in drought I am conscious about my water usage.

I was put in room626- the corner of the building known as kangaroo corner because Brett Whiteley and Rosaleen Norton ['the witch of the Cross' a great Australian eccentric] spent a year there. I'm sure that implies many other significant Australian's in exile. A part of the Chelsea's charm is that they are very relaxed about history- little has been documented.

Something about the room compelled me to immediately get to work marking out my space by covering the top of the mirror with pamphlets for Taboo and pics from a junk magazine I picked up en route. Quickly enough Gareth was back to organise the final details on our NYE plans and give me the rundown on subways, how the streets run, how much to tip- everything I needed to know. We retreated to the bar in the Chelsea basement and imbibed customary local beverages to relieve some of the cramps from 20 hours flying. The bar is not a part of the hotel as such, leased to a separate party. A reasonably smart [I think?] establishment with wonderful pictures of people who had been there. I only remember Grace Jones now.

The short walk from the bar to Gareth's apartment was enough to overload me. We only travelled a few blocks but there was so much life packed in- retail life, domestic life, night life... I was still noticing things on the block I stayed on until the night I left. The YMCA that the Village People sing about across the road took three days to discover but it's closed down so maybe that's OK. I don't know anywhere else that one can go out to the 24hr art-supply shop on a whim. From Gareth's I took my first solo walk through Manhattan and made it home without reference to a map. After a couple of hours exploring the art in the hotel I crashed and had my first and last substantial sleep in Manhattan.

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE CHELSEA HOTEL

2004-01-08T01:11:00.000+11:00

THE CHELSEA- A NAME DROPPING HISTORY.

The Chelsea began as an idea from the salons of lower Manhattan. In the 1890s these salons were central to New York intellectual and cultural life. The tradition is strongly dominated by liberal anarchists.

The idea was that the building could house the co-operative investors cost-free if the ground floor was leased for retail and the upper floors rented out to paying tenants. This version of the Chelsea survived until the Great Depression when the co-op bankrupted and the building was moved to private ownership. It was 'refurbished' to be a hotel.

In the 1920s the area was the theatre zone. Single gentlemen who worked in the theatre & showgirls made the core residency. The fine-line between acting and prostitution obviously played out in the rooms. Lily Langtree 'the most beautiful woman in the world' moved in and the Chelsea became very fashionable. A pattern of people staying at the Chelsea for many years was established during this era and continues today.

By the 1950s the theatre zone had shifted to Times Square and Chelsea was considered a 'bad' area. This made the hotel affordable for a new generation of artists to move in. William S Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg led the charge.

That mob were followed by the Warhol acolytes. Amongst the most famous of the Warhol superstars to live at the Chelsea were Edie Sedgwick, Brigid [Polk] Berlin, Viva, Holly Woodlawn' Ultra Violet, Jon Giorno, Andrea 'whips' Feldman and Valerie Solanis. Nico and various members of Velvet Underground also had rooms. Andy shot many of his early experimental films at the Chelsea and the hotel provides the connecting theme and main backdrop for his film opus, Chelsea Girls.

The entire cast of original NYC 'Hair' moved in- that would have been smelly. Dirty hippies and patchouli- ick! :)

The logical next step was for the emerging New York punk scene to drift Chelseawards. The most famous of the NYC punks to occupy the Chelsea was Dee Dee Ramone [RIP] who spent most of his life there. Patti Smith was an important player in generating creative collaborations from the Chelsea talent pool.

Probably what the hotel will always be most famous for is being the site at which Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen finished up. Rm 101 was where Nancy was murdered. [I don't believe Sid killed her- the evidence all suggests it was a drug dealer they owed money] The room no longer exists in it's original form and I made no effort to seek it out.

Other names of people who have resided at the Chelsea include:

Kathy Acker
Laurie Anderson
Sarah Bernhardt
Henry Cartier-Bresson
Christo
Arthur C. Clarke wrote 2001 there
Quentin Crisp
Robert Crum
Simone de Beauvoir & Sartre shared a room.
Bob Dylan
Jane Fonda
Milos Forman
Keith Haring
Dennis Hopper
Barry Humphries
Jasper Johns
Grace Jones
Janis Joplin
Madonna [pre-fame]
Robert Mapplethorpe [shared with P Smith]
Arthur Miller
Claes Oldenburg
Yoko Ono
Robert Oppenheimer
Edith Piaf
Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo
Susan Sarandon
Sam Shepard
Patti Smith
Dylan Thomas
Brett Whitely
Tina Weymouth
Tenessee Williams
Thomas Wolfe

I was very happy at the Chelsea!

note: No warranty on historical accuracy in implied. In some places I'm running on memory. The myth that surrounds the Chelsea sometimes makes it hard to seperate fact and fiction.

POME FOR THE CHELSEA

2004-01-06T23:17:00.000+11:00

I'll have a lot more to say about the Chelsea yet. For now this poem that I wrote in my last few hours there is offered as an 'artefact'. It was written for my host as a thankyou gift and I was devestated at it's loss with my baggage. Fortunately, my brain still had it in cache memory and I hacked it out for posterity.

I don't know yet whether or not to have it written properly by a calligrapher and sending it to the Chelsea for framing.

be warned! i am not the planet's greatest poet.

leaving the chelsea (for now)
for gareth, with love.

gareth visited me at the chelsea
where andy went to visit edie
took me to see where reinking was choreographed by fosse
to see the place where stars still shine
and where the energy of optimism
flows like Bachhus's wine

manhattan is a sondheim song
melodic
seductive
but not without her melancholy
i have known her now
and peered out on her from the chelsea.

Jan 4, 2004.
Hotel Chelsea

MANHATTAN JOTTINGS

2004-01-06T19:35:00.000+11:00

Flying between Sydney and New York is a bizarre experience. Flying time is approximately 20hours. Crossing the dateline means that the calendar time one arrives is a great way to get confused. On the voyage in the plane kept flying in and out of sun. I have no idea how that is possible.

Most flights from Oz will mean a change at LAX- that furthers confusion. A time difference between the coasts means that a whole day can be lost. I can't remember in which direction.

Rapid transit amazes me- it is symbolic of our hyperactive world. At this moment I'm struck that one of the last things I heard on US television was that Britney had married. By the time I turn on a TV at this end of the world the marriage has been annulled.

On New Years even I woke in NYC and flicked the TV to CNN to get the local time. I very literally turned on at precisely 8am local time to see a live cross to the Sydney New Years Eve fireworks. Very strange to think it was 'over' at home while I had a whole day in front of me to anticipate my celebrations.

THE RETURN OF THE THINISH WHITE DUKE

2004-01-06T18:47:00.000+11:00

I'm back from New York!

No words for how perfectly everything went. Each show was a delight, the Chelsea Hotel everything I dared hope. Didn't get further uptown than 47th at any time but thoroughly enjoyed taking in central and lower Manhattan 'like a local'. Manhattan was total overload- slept 3 or 4 hours per night at most. Too much to see and do. 'Simple' things like a high quality Rocky Horror audience participation cast being on my block just kept me running!

In a story telling sense the highlight is probably being granted ultra-VIP passes to watch the Times Sq ball drop. First thing to do in Manhattan for me was find my own way downtown to the organising committee and collect our passes! Gareth, my gracious host, kept calling it 'immersion therapy'. The passes were the top level media/VIPs- dunno how he scammed them. If you picture the ball dropping at midnight, I was a block down, about 5 metres from where the button is pushed. Amazingly hyper-real, surrounded by heavily armed military and more people that I can possibly have ever seen in one place at one time. My security file can't be too bad- where I was I could quite easily have attacked, say, Mayor Bloomberg. Of course, the solid row of men with machine guns between us and the crowd might have gotten cross.

So yes a massively over-whelming experience. The security was beyond description- blackhawks hovering the city all day adding a warzone touch. Fully armed military on literally every corner. Very Tel Aviv... . And when it was over we simply walked home taking advantage of access priviliges.

The only problem I had was being stupid and losing/ having my hand luggage stolen at JFK. Meant I had to delay flights, travel feeling like hell without my medications, try to contact home with no list of numbers... House key gone meaning I was locked out until I could find my catsitters when I finally arrived home effectively a day later than scheduled...

Unfortunately, my journal and camera were lost but I will still write the trip up and publish it here as I get it written down. I suspect I'll sleep a few days before that.

I am never getting on an American Airlines flight again- they are beyond awful. They are so mean spirited that they wouldn't allow me to watch the movie because my last USD had gone into a 'phone and I didn't have $2- for earphones!!!! The difference in service is so way behind Qantas that I felt cheated. I paid for Qantas exactly to have them there for a nightmare like losing / having one's hand luggage stolen at JFK. American just kept telling me it was stupid to put it down. I totally agree with them but they were most ungracious. They wouldn't even look up a phone number for me...

The flight attendant didn't know that she was attending a Qantas flight [by number] and gave me completely wrong instructions on what to do at LAX. She'd have had me making a mad dash between buildings to achieve a twenty min change of aircraft. Fortunately a native New Yorker, currently exiled to LA, confirmed my suspicion that that was bad advice. A little visit from the Holy Mother disguised as Darlene, she was a very lovely woman who tuned into my confusion and literally got off the plane dragging me and my [incorrectly issued] boarding pass to get some info out of American. They're so bad they didn't even acknowledge they were herding qantas passengers off-board in the landing announcement. Useful advice in the landing announcement?- 'faggedit' as I quickly learned to say in Manhattan.

Darlene, who bore an uncanny resembelance to Joan Jett, threw everyone aside so that we were about 5th off the plane and dealt with American in their own language. [New Yorker does indignant and mildly threatening in LA. A wonder to behold.] Turned out I only had to walk down six gates to the already boarding aircraft. She even offered me USD$10- but by the time I was at LAX I didn't need it. The flight change was so rapid I couldn't make more calls even if I'd been able to dredge numbers out of my memory bank.

"If my friend misses his flight I can stay here all night until you get it right!" is a quote I won't forget quickly.

Definitely there are angels out there. Maybe they do mundane things through people sometimes? Without the appearance of Darlene I might well have been in even more of a mess getting back. Certainly American weren't going to help and made it very clear it didn't matter to them whether I got home or not. Next time I'm in the US I'm using JetBlue for the LA-NY leg. They seem to have their act more together.

My recommendation if you ever do a long-haul with Qantas, they're good. Just be careful if they switch you over to another airline for some of the journey. You might end up on American.

For the theatre people reading this RUN for Taboo tickets. It is a mess but it is a gorgeous, heartfelt and incredibly moving mess. I don't think it'll be there much longer. AveQ, Wicked and Hairspray also enchanted. AveQ is my big recommendation out of what I saw.

More as normal services are resumed.

THEY SAY THE NEON LIGHTS ARE BRIGHT:

2003-12-19T22:22:00.000+11:00

I haven't been putting much here- especially given the interesting stuff happening in the world. My excuse, from which I will not be moved, is that I'm New York bound in a few days. Excited doesn't start to cover it.

So, for those of you who haven't yet suffered this story.

I have five nights at the Chelsea [see link @ sidebar] during which a very dear friend has organised that I should see

31/12 TABOO [House Seats!]

1/1 FORBIDDEN BROADWAY, at 8pm.

2/1 AVENUE Q, at 8pm

3/1 WICKED, at 2pm

3/1 HAIRSPRAY, at 8pm

PETA SHITS ME TO TEARS

2003-12-14T01:04:00.000+11:00

Can we talk? What is it about PETA that inspires so many fruitcakes to join their ideological grandstanding? Do they really have nothing better to do? I don't understand the point of their tactics but then I'm not a PETA fruitcake.

If you think that you know what makes these losers tick please share.

I'm genuinely baffled at what the ad is supposed to mean. My understanding of history suggests that slaughtering a goat would have been an ordinary chore for Mary+.

-------------

Spirit World: Virgin Mary a vegetarian?

Peggy Fletcher Stack

A Providence, R.I., billboard featuring the Virgin Mary holding a dead chicken was removed last week after local Catholics called it offensive. Bob Murray, owner of Murray Outdoor Communications, said his two-man advertising firm could not handle the volume of complaints and the vandalism, trespassing and media interest the sign generated.

"We're big proponents of the First Amendment, but we can't be sponsoring debate forums," Murray said.

The ad by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals featured the Virgin Mary holding a dead chicken with the words "Go Vegetarian. It's an Immaculate Conception."

Roman Catholic Bishop Robert Mulvee called the sign "disturbing" and said, "This use of one of the most sacred images of the Christian faith trivializes not only the mother of Jesus but also the very cause PETA strives to advance."

MISERABLE FAILURE

2003-12-12T21:08:00.000+11:00

Oh dear, I have been a MISERABLE FAILURE in the Google Bombing. [see entry: Mon Dec 08, 11:09:05 PM ]

This MISERABLE FAILURE on my part must be rectified by an extravagant overuse of MISERABLE FAILURE in the next few days. It will be an interesting challenge to see how many contexts I can fit MISERABLE FAILURE into. It's a bit pointless really because MISERABLE FAILURE already has the intended effect at Google. There may, however, be forces working to counter-balance google. We must make sure that thay are a MISERABLE FAILURE.

I apologise for my MISERABLE FAILURE in Google Bombing.

I CAN SEE THE STARS FROM THE GUTTER

2003-12-12T21:01:00.000+11:00

I've decided that if I am going to marry money the lucky man should be Kevin Williamson.

It wasn't his fault that Teaching Mrs Tingle was a miserable failure. I blame Marilyn Manson & Canada for that.

CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY.

2003-12-12T08:51:00.000+11:00

Australia's great shame. A few years ago I concluded that nothing is going to get better until Australia becomes the pariah nation South Africa was. One thing's certain- interfere with the international rugby and suddeny 'ordinary' Australians will have a personal interest in the genocide happening in our own backyard.

-------------------------------------------
'Practical reconciliation': a dismal failure
By Lowitja O'Donoghue
December 11, 2003

On Howard's watch, the health and wellbeing of Aborigines is, if anything, getting worse.

When thinking about achieving grassroots human rights in Australia in 2003, you encounter a few problems. One of these problems is that although we have a lot of rhetoric about individuals being equal, this is not a concept that we embrace in practice.

In fact, First World countries have developed some very complicated and subtle ways of demonstrating a belief in rights, while at the same time continually ignoring or denying them.

The way we do this in the Western world is to claim that there is nothing to stop any individual achieving whatever they want to. And that the various systems that we have in place are fair.

This myth is perpetuated in a range of ways. Particularly by emphasising the achievements (or failures) of individual people. We can observe this in the ways celebrities are packaged in the media - in news and current affairs stories and even in the political arena, where personality and image count for everything.

In the recent Labor leadership contest, for instance, there was virtually no public debate about policy - but, instead, endless talk about charisma, style and image.

As a society, we particularly endorse stories of the battler who made good, or the underdog who won out. Because such stories reinforce the idea that anyone can make it - if only they are resourceful enough.

Therefore, anyone who is not doing well must either be a problem or have a problem.

Being regarded as a problem (rather than a person) is part of a dehumanising process. It not only dehumanises the people who have become marginalised and oppressed, but it also dehumanises those who have learnt to think in these ways.

There are a number of groups in our country who do not experience the human dignity and respect that the Declaration of Human Rights is built on. These include:

Indigenous people (many of whom face Third World problems within an affluent First World country).

People living in poverty (where the gap between the poor and the wealthy grows continually - with poverty throughout the world having an impact on women especially).

Refugees and asylum seekers (many of whom do not receive the human rights Australia has formally agreed to providing).

People who live with a chronic illness or disability.

One thing these groups all have in common, of course, is a lack of power. And this has an impact on daily life at every level. Their voices tend not to be heard. Their preferences, wishes and aspirations are less likely to eventuate. They are more likely to feel at the mercy of systems than to experience systems as being there to support them.

The major political parties do not see their issues as vote winners. And when they do receive attention it is often inappropriate or patronising.

Another thing that they have in common is that they regularly experience indifference, prejudice and hostility.

Let me focus now on the particular experience of indigenous people. It is with a very heavy heart that I say that the Government's reconciliation policy has failed. In this respect we lag sadly behind countries such as New Zealand, Canada and the United States.

Reconciliation and native title have fallen off the Government's agenda. Instead we have what John Howard calls "practical reconciliation" - the provision of basic resources for health, housing, education and employment.

It is a welfare model, a Band-Aid model, not one seated in a fundamental recognition of the rights and entitlements of Australia's first peoples. And what's more it has failed. If anything, the health and wellbeing of Australia's indigenous people is getting worse.

We still have a situation where indigenous Australians have Third World health status, where our children are dying as babies at the same rate as in the poorest countries in the world, and where indigenous life expectancy is 20 years lower than for the non-indigenous population.

We still have a situation where most Aboriginal people live below the poverty line. Where 60 per cent of Australian youth in care or custody or other forms of detention are Aboriginal. Where 20 per cent of adult male prisoners and a staggering 80 per cent of female prisoners are Aboriginal.

This in a society where we make up only 2 per cent of the population!

Family violence and child abuse are endemic in indigenous communities. This is a huge problem. It needs to be tackled as a matter of priority.

Earlier this year, the Federal Government announced with great fanfare the formation of a working group of indigenous leaders to advise the Government on this matter.

I was a member of this group. At the time I was optimistic. When will I ever learn!

Our report provided a framework for governments, in partnership with communities, to combat the tragic consequences of violence and abuse in indigenous communities.

It went to the Council of Australian Governments on August 29. But, as you might remember, this was the conference in which state and territory leaders walked out, in protest, over health funding. They did not even consider, let alone endorse, our report. And there has been no progress since.

I have this awful feeling that this will become yet another example of indigenous concerns being placed in the too-hard basket. Or overlooked because they are not vote winners.

One of my greatest fears is that 20 years from now, nothing will have changed, despite enormous energy and goodwill from the people's movement for reconciliation.

Lowitja O'Donoghue is a former chairwoman of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission. This is an edited extract from the third annual Human Rights Oration, delivered at the Melbourne Town Hall yesterday.

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/12/10/1070732279557.html

ON ACTORS AS POLITICIANS

2003-12-10T01:30:00.000+11:00

From the marvelous Bushwatch a site dedicated to that miserable failure, George W Bush.

I think I'd trust Susan Sarandon as US President.

Hollywood Liberals

Stimulated by the Tim Robbins/Baseball Hall of Fame fiasco, I have been pondering the matter of Hollywood and politics. Why is it so many actors and musicians seem to sign on for progressive causes?

Just a few names that have bubbled to the surface of late: Robbins, Barbra Streisand, Sean Penn, Alex Baldwin, the Dixie Chicks, Pearl Jam.

It's to the point where you almost assume that an artist will be anti-war or anti-tax-cut or pro-environment. Notable exceptions are hard to come up with.

Is it calculation, that the mass of Americans are so liberal that we won't love popular artists unless they are to the left of Ralph Nader?

That hardly seems true, even in liberal Minnesota. To the contrary, these people surely risk eye-rolling when they sign onto the usual litany of liberal causes. It's not good for one's career when Rush Limbaugh starts to make fun of you.

So what's the deal?

I have decided that it is in the nature of performing artists to be empathic. That in order for an actor to be any good, he or she has to be able to feel what their own characters and other people in a scene are feeling.

Next step: to be empathic is almost identical to being a modern day liberal. It is, as everyone lampooned Bill Clinton the template for Hollywood liberals, to feel others' pain. Liberals by definition are sensitive to the feelings of (mainly) the downtrodden and dispossessed.

I'm not saying empathy is an absolute virtue. Conservatives are right, sometimes, to wish there was less empathizing going on in politics – they see it as pandering, or worse, plantation management. At best, it's an inefficient and expensive way to ponder public policy.

Think of the phrases conservatives use to insult liberals. More than anything, they connote the talents of a stage actor -- emotional responsiveness. "Bleeding heart. "Knee jerk."

The noteworthy thing to me is what a burden it places on known conservative actors to be good actors without cultivating this aspect of political empathy.

Think about it: Bruce Willis. Arnold Schwartzneggar. Clint Eastwood. Charlton Heston. Ronald Reagan. John Wayne. Sonny Bono?

It's not that they are awful actors. In fact, many of our best “hero” actors are here, actors talented at seeming to perform great deeds.

But they seem, as a group, awfully limited stacked up against the liberal likes of Hoffman, Streep, Dylan, Springsteen, Robbins and Sarandon.

-- Michael Finley, 04.22.03

SIOUXSIE REGINA

2003-12-09T21:56:00.000+11:00

The one, the only...
St Siouxsie of Bromley...

--------

Gothic revival
Andrew Perry

December 8, 2003

I am in London's Pall Mall, waiting for one Susan Ballion, better known as Siouxsie Sioux. The ice maiden of punk rock, who led her band, Siouxsie and the Banshees, for close to 20 years, outlasting all her peers from the class of 1976. In the process, Sioux invented goth, a youth movement inspired by her idiosyncratic use of black clothes, black hair-dye and white make-up. In the 1980s, goths were found everywhere, and in fact these ghostly specimens never really went away.

Raised in Bromley, Kent, Sioux attended many of the Sex Pistols' early gigs and quickly entered the band's outrageously dressed inner circle. Taking on board their DIY spirit, she soon fronted her own band. But where other groups burnt out all too quickly, Sioux's came to sculpt their own distinctive, deeply spooky sound. From their debut with 1978's Hong Kong Garden through to their eventual break-up in 1995, they made 29 entries into the British singles chart.

Sioux and her husband, former Banshees drummer Budgie, now live in seclusion in south-west France. They continue to release music on their own label as the Creatures, make the odd public foray (Sioux is a guest on the new album by dance duo Basement Jaxx), but rarely bother with the treadmill of the music industry.

I have been pursuing an interview with Sioux for some months. In May, just when I thought I would get it, word came back that she'd rather stay home to watch her soccer team, Wolverhampton Wanderers, in the First Division play-off final.

For this appointment, worryingly, Budgie appears alone in the hotel foyer at the appointed time. After half an hour's polite chat, their publicist sets off to call Sioux's room. "Oh, I wouldn't do that," Budgie warns. "She'll be down when she's ready." It seems that the notion that nobody, not even her spouse, should consider incurring the wrath of Sioux is as true today as it was when she first took to the stage in 1976, clad in a bra, a Nazi arm band and thigh-length leather boots.

Eventually, the lift doors open and the clack of high heels, like ice-picks on marble, announces her arrival. Her inky black hair is swept back, rather than spiked up as of old, and although today's outfit is perhaps more befitting a woman in her mid-40s, she is sporting a tight pair of black satin trousers covered in zips.

Unlike most artists of the punk era, Sioux's history had remained untold - until the recent publication of Siouxsie & The Banshees: The Authorised Biography. There, all the main players speak with rare candour and bitchiness. "And that's only the half of it!" roars Sioux. Despite her reputation, she is rather good fun. "At the beginning, you can see how we bonded. But really, it's a story of crap managers."

"With our first three managers," says bassist Steve Severin in the book, "the score was: heroin two, cocaine one." The real Banshees story, though, concerns the torridly complex relationship between Sioux, Budgie and Severin.

Sioux started the band with Severin. Early on, the two became an item, but under pressure from everyone around them, they were forced to split up for the good of the band. Thereafter, their relationship was a purely creative one, and very strained. It became a great deal more complicated when Sioux secretly started seeing the band's newly enlisted drummer, Budgie. Pretty much the first Severin knew of their affair was when he was shown pictures intended for the album cover of Sioux and Budgie's new side project, the Creatures, which they set up in 1981. It depicted the duo naked in the shower, apparently having sex.

Instead of resolving these tensions, they tended to let their aggression out on their live audiences, who had turned Sioux's look into the goth uniform. She hated it. Having first trodden the stage amid punk's mayhem, she began to cut a rather snooty figure.

"Doing a gig during the early days was an assault," she says, "and there was a thrill in that. So when it turned into this audience that was ours, all these mirror images looking back at me, it was quite freaky. I'd try and figure out, 'How am I nasty to someone who's nice?' It accentuated my feeling of alienation from the audience."

Somehow, amid this turbulence, the Banshees cut astonishing tunes such as Christine and Happy House, forging Sioux's outre tastes - tribal chanting and percussion, Hitchcockian suspense, S&M menace, the Velvet Underground - into ever more outlandish pop music. Esteemed producer Bob Ezrin once told them that they had to decide whether they were an art project or a rock band. It was perhaps their unwillingness to do so that made the Banshees so special.

Eventually, of course, the band did collapse, and very messily, but Sioux and Budgie already had their safe haven set up in France.

These days, they make Creatures records in their time off from everyday living. Last year they laid their Banshees past to rest with a relatively amicable reunion tour. The day after the final date in Tokyo, Budgie enjoyed a brief recording session with Leonard Eto, former creative director of the Kodo drummers. In just two hours, they recorded the improvised rhythms which form the backbone of the new Creatures' album, Hai! It's a work of strange power, exotic atmospheres and fierce independence.

Certainly, fierce remains an appropriate description of Sioux. "After all this time," she says, "I still feel like, 'F--- off to the industry!' Age hasn't tamed me. 'Oooh, you've got to be nice to them.' Well, I'm not interested. They can all hang themselves, for all I care."

Hai! is out now.

The Daily Telegraph

This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/07/1070732064335.html

MISERABLE FAILURE

2003-12-08T23:09:00.000+11:00

Here's a fun new project to be involved with 'google bombing'.

Extracting from another site for expediency:

A search for the phrase "miserable failure" on the search engine Google brings up the biography of the US President, George Bush, on the White House website. It is one of the more prominent examples of search-engine manipulation.

The phrase does not appear in the biography. But computer users rigged the results from the popular search engine by posting the phrase on web pages that linked straight to the biography - a technique called Google bombing.

"I thought it was absolutely one of the funniest ideas I've ever heard," said Don Waller, owner of Don Waller Interactive, a web design company in New York, who joined the prank in late October. "I just decided to jump in with it."

It appears first in Google's list of search results for the phrase. Users who type in "miserable failure" and click on the "I'm feeling lucky" button are brought right to the first result, the Bush biography.

Search engines work much like an index, allowing people to look up words and directing them to the page in which the words appear. The search engines scour web pages to create the index.

In this case, computer users wrote links labelled "miserable failure". When users click on the link it brings them to the official Bush biography.

When Google software creates its index, it notices the association between the phrase "miserable failure" and the Bush biography. So a search for the phrase brings up the biography.

A White House spokesman had no comment. Representatives of Google did not return phone calls.

Google bombings are created by people who run websites and weblogs, or blogs, which allow people to post information about particular topics. One person posts an idea for a bombing online, then it spreads like, you might say, webfire.

The latest Google bombing appears to have spread within a matter of weeks.

It apparently does not take much for Google to make the association. At least 826 pages link to the Bush biography but just 32 of those pages include the phrase "miserable failure," according to a Google search.

In previous pranks, tricksters have rigged Google to bring up spoof pages. For instance, after France refused to join the coalition forces fighting Iraq, a Google search for "French military victories" brought up a spoof page that said no documents were found and asked, "Did you mean 'French military defeats?' "

---

The aim is to get as many links to http://www.whitehouse.gov/president/gwbbio.html
with the words "Miserable Failure"

If you decide to join in let me know. Will be fun to watch how far this spreads

BLACK

2003-12-01T19:22:00.000+11:00

Saline Drip is technically 'silent' today. As a part of the Link and Think No Blog Day we mark World AIDS Day with information about some of the worst afflicted.

Plague on the poor: How Aids divides the world
By Charles Arthur
01 December 2003

If HIV were just a bug that people were fighting against, it would be hard enough. But it is difficult not to think of the human immunodeficiency virus as an intelligent and calculating enemy: "This is one of the smartest viruses that people have ever seen," says Lisa Price, the policy manager for the Terence Higgins Trust, the best-known British Aids charity. "It changes all the time."

In the time it took to read that paragraph, three more people became infected with HIV. The virus's spread is not slowing; both deaths and new infections reached record levels last year, at 3 million and 5 million respectively, more than 20 years after it was first identified among US homosexuals in 1981, and neither a cure nor a vaccine is in sight.

Instead - because HIV exploits the tiniest weakness in the body's defences and mutates to confound attempts to kill it - every time the world's scientists and politicians think they understand how to tackle the virus, they discover that it is more complicated still.

Some people thought that HIV only affected homosexuals; they were wrong. Some scientists suggested that HIV did not cause Aids. They were wrong too, though some people have stuck with that line - most notably South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, who insists he has never known anyone who has died of Aids. (In a sense he is right - it is the opportunistic infections that HIV enables which kill you. Most people with full-blown Aids die of pneumonia.)

The disease has has set First and Third World governments at odds over the anti-retroviral drugs needed to treat it and has even split the Catholic Church over the Vatican's insistence that condoms spread, rather than restrict the spread of, HIV.

While the World Health Organisation unveils a scheme today for the annual World Aids Day that it calls "3 in 5" - aiming to provide the latest anti-retroviral drugs to 3 million people by the end of 2005 - the UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, has spoken of his frustration at trying to get the healthy to help the sick.

The statistics are numbing. More than 42 million people are infected with HIV worldwide, of whom 26.6 million live in sub-Saharan Africa. The largest number of infections is in South Africa, where about five million, or one in 10 citizens, is HIV-positive. And a combination of unprotected sex and drug abuse is fuelling an explosion of the epidemic around the world. And since you started reading this article, 20 people have become infected with HIV.

Yet in the West, being HIV-positive is no longer the death sentence that it was in 1983, when doctors had little chance of preventing the infection turning into full-blown Aids, at which point a patient would typically live for less than a year.

Now, modern drugs mean HIV has become a disease that one can live with. The drugs bring unpleasant side-effects, such as nausea, occasional hallucinations and, in some cases, a strange redistribution of fat around the body. But you can live with them, for years - perhaps indefinitely.

In Africa, those treatments have been too rarely available. The WHO estimates that 4.2 million people need anti-retrovirals in sub-Saharan Africa; but only 50,000 get supplies.

Mr Annan thinks many political leaders do not care enough to fight the disease, which has killed 28 million people since it was first reported.

"I am not winning the war because I don't think the leaders of the world are engaged enough," he said. "I feel angry, I feel distressed, I feel helpless. What is lacking is political will."

Only one thing - the use of condoms - dramatically reduces the spread of HIV. (Needle swapping programs for intravenous drug users also work, but on a smaller scale.) And only one thing - anti-retroviral drugs (often called "triple-therapy cocktails") - makes it possible to live with HIV.

Given those facts, you might expect the world's leaders to focus on them. You'd be wrong. And since you started reading this article, 30 people have become infected with HIV.

Catholics for a Free Choice, a pressure group, said yesterday it would begin an advertising campaign against the policies of the church - which has millions of followers in Aid-hit countries - saying "Good Catholics Use Condoms" as "a direct challenge to the cardinals and bishops who recently claimed that condoms were helping to spread HIV/Aids".

The Vatican supported that bizarre claim in October, saying that condoms had tiny holes which allowed the virus to pass through - so that to use them would encourage its spread. The WHO angrily called the advice "incorrect" and "dangerous"; Catholics for a Free Choice called the Vatican's policy "a disaster".

The lack of availability of treatments for those who are infected could be called a disaster too - though it has not resulted from any dogma. Instead, it grows from a fundamental dispute between the giant pharmaceuticals companies, the only organisations able to rapidly and effectively research new therapies, and the governments of the countries which need them. Western governments have tried to please both sides, and generally failed.

The drug companies want to price the drugs to fund the expensive research needed to develop the next generation - and perhaps find a chink in HIV's armour that might lead to a vaccine, or a cure.

But African countries cannot afford those prices, and have sought ways around the companies' patents to make generic versions of the drugs - exactly the same chemicals, but without the brand name. That led to threats of trade wars.

Former US president Bill Clinton set up a deal in October for four drug-makers in South Africa and India to sell generic versions of anti-retroviral treatments for a quarter of the price of the patented version.

Dr Bernard Pécoul of the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières said: "One pill, twice a day at this reduced price is exactly what is needed to rapidly expand the numbers of people receiving anti-retroviral treatment in developing countries. With that announcement, the WHO's '3 by 5' objective becomes much more feasible."

Feasible, yes. But will it happen - and by the time it does, will even more people need the treatment?

Meanwhile, the search for better treatments goes on. "We've been saying that a vaccine is five to 10 years away for 15 years," said Ms Price. "But it is looking more realistic that we will [have one] in the next five years." And since you began reading this article, more than 40 people have been infected with HIV - and more than 20 have died from Aids.

BOTSWANA: MEDICAL STAFF POACHED BY THE WEST

BY AFRICAN standards Botswana is a success story. Rich in diamonds and with potential for tourism, it is relatively prosperous. Transparency International ranks it among the least corrupt countries in the world.

Yet nowhere is the devastation wreaked by Aids more evident than in Botswana. When Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, warned last week of the "genocide of a generation" he must surely have had this small southern African nation in mind. More than 35 per cent of a population of 1.6 million are HIV-positive. That makes Botswana the country with the highest infection rate in the world. In the sexually active age group, (15 to 49), the infection rate is close to 40 per cent.

By 2010, half of all children in the country will be Aids orphans, and the average life expectancy will have fallen from 47 to 27. Aids is killing the people Botswana needs to mine its diamonds and teach in its schools. The 6,000-strong Botswana police force loses 10 people a month to the virus and the army also has high rates of infection

Unlike many African leaders, Botswana's President Festus Mogae has taken the lead in mobilising his people to fight Aids and has spearheaded Africa's first antiretroviral drugs programme. But Botswana's nurses, doctors, pharmacists and other health workers qualified to run such a programme are leaving. Britain, America and other European countries have poached them. Botswana recently lost 130 nurses to Britain and the country's 6,000-strong nursing workforce is not large enough to deal with the country's health needs. Only 9,000 out of a possible 110,000 patients have been enrolled on the antiretroviral programme.

Mompati Merafhe, the Foreign Minister, has raised the issue of poaching with the British Government. To the private agencies that recruit the staff, he said: "How heartless can you be? Why do you recruit medical personnel from countries which are so afflicted by Aids?" At Princess Marina Hospital in the capital, Gaborone, 3,000 patients are enrolled on a programme but there are only 30 nurses trained to run it.

Mr Mogae has pursued other avenues. He has told his ministers to include Aids awareness in every speech. "Even when opening a building, the President has instructed us to talk about Aids" Mr Merafhe said. The President had an Aids test to try to remove the stigma. He admits that the taboo about Aids hampers efforts to combat it. "People are not willing to talk about the HIV/Aids pandemic" he said.

In the time it took to read that paragraph, three more people became infected with HIV.

RETRIEVED SCRIBBLINGS

2003-11-30T07:33:00.000+11:00

Another one where I was actively cheated. I'm not quite vindictive enough to provide names and links but the astute reader will find enough detail to trace the Australian distibutor if they wish to 'meet' another of the people who assume writers exist to be exploited.

This piece involved a not insubstantial amount of research and cross-referencing to identify the detail included. I did enjoy writing the essay- it's about a favourite topic. Regardless, a deal was made that I would get a copy of the final product CD and could choose a couple of things from the backcatalogue. Am I surprised nothing ever showed up?

FLOGGING DEAD HORSES: Sex Pistols Live CD liner notes.

Just how hard can you flog a dead horse? If this recording is any indication, the Sex Pistols legacy has a lot to yield yet.

Rock and Roll has never produced a band that has generated as much analysis, mythologising and brow-furrowing as the Sex Pistols have. Weighty tomes connecting the Sex Pistols and the punk movement to high theories of cultural revolution compete with trash paperbacks about Sid Vicious. The horse has been thoroughly thrashed but it keeps coming back for more.

Captured like a rare venomous spider in a jar, this recording contains an insight into why the Sex Pistols had the impact that they did. They played rock and roll and they played it with an inarticulate primal anger that has never been matched. All you need to do is put the CD in your stereo, forget the myths, and let the music reveal the truth.

Imagine the scene at the 76 Club on Friday, September 1976. The preceding week had seen the British tabloid press engage in its first Sex Pistols fuelled frenzy. Only days earlier, McLaren’s ‘Punk Rock Festival’ at Club100 had ended in violence. A glass thrown into the audience, allegedly by Sid Vicious, had shattered and blinded a young fan.

Despite his retrospective protestations that it was all a part of his ‘swindle’, McLaren was in a state of panic. The self-proclaimed prophet of chaos was terrified that the ‘theatrical violence’ that he had encouraged was about to cause the early end of ‘his movement’. Suddenly the angst of an Empire in decline had been harnessed and the scapegoat given a name- ‘Punk Rock’.

You are probably young, unemployed and burdened by a generalised anger at the world around you. You may have seen the Sex Pistols written up in the NME and heard the increasing ‘buzz’ about this revolutionary new band. Certainly, you know that they are adored by the cutting-edge in London and that a carefully crafted sense of menace surrounds the band.

Almost certainly the first thing to come to your attention will be the presence of the notorious ’Bromley Contingent’. These guerilla poseurs, cultivated by McLaren and dressed by Vivienne Westwood were the most loyal of the early Sex Pistols fans. Siouxsie Sioux had blonde hair and was wearing swastikas that night. If the marvellous Jordan, always willing to do whatever was needed to create an outrage, wasn't wearing something that exposed her breasts ‘Little Debbie’ the Dominatrix almost certainly was. Mingling you would have met a young Adam Ant, Helen the punkrock dwarf, history shows that Billy Idol was in the audience that night. Sid Vicious, clearly audible on this recording taunting Rotten may well have sneered at you.

The intimacy of this performance is one of the things that distinguishes it from previous Sex Pistols live recordings. We can hear that there are only a few hundred people in the room and that a direct relationship exists between the band and the audience. In many ways track14 "PA Trouble" is the most revealing ‘track’ here. "McClaren was always getting us shit gear, setting us up to fail" is John Lydon’s telling of it. The audience’s joy, Paul Cook’s naïve reassurance that ‘it’s alright’ and Rotten’s obvious annoyance all warn of a future that isn’t very far away at all.

We are priviliged to hear a recording of the Sex Pistols while they were still a functional band. McLaren’s assertion that the band couldn’t play is absolutely disproven. This is one of the last gigs that the Sex Pistols would play before they became so engulfed in chaos that it would become all but impossible to play. Compare this to the shambolic recording ‘Live in Trondheim July 1977’ [with Vicious now on bass] and the impact of the madness surrounding the band is all too clear.

The musical highlights to be found are sometimes surprising, always revealing. We hear one of the first public performances of ‘Anarchy in the UK’, well before it became an anthem. ‘Steppin’ Stone’ appears in this set. Originally intended as a joke about disposable pop, one can already here Rotten taunting the wannabes in the crowd with his words.

Of course we know what happened but this recording preserves the Sex Pistols at their best, the legendary band that so few people saw but so many adore. This is a must have addition to any serious rock collector’s shelves, certainly not just more product. Listen to it and bounce around your living room- seldom is music so powerful, so raw, and despite (perhaps even due to) the sneering veneer of nihilism, so passionate.

ESPECIALLY DAFT MOMENT IN DESIGN.

2003-11-29T18:31:00.000+11:00

So, who was the genius that located S on a numeric keyboard where it is the hardest letter to access? S is the most used consonant in English- wouldn't really need a genius to join the dots

A PARABLE or WHY I TEND TO TRUST WOMEN ON MOST THINGS

2003-11-27T18:51:00.000+11:00

There were 11 people hanging onto a rope that came down from a helicopter. Ten were men and one a woman. The rope was starting to fray, so they all agreed that one person should let go because if they didn't the rope would break and everyone would die. No one could decide who should go.

So, finally the woman gave a really touching speech, saying how she would give up her life to save theirs because women were used to giving up things for their husbands and children, and that after all, men were the superior sex and must be saved.

When she finished speaking, all the men clapped.

[author unknown]

MORE TOXIC MEDIA

2003-11-27T18:48:00.000+11:00

SELF-INTERESTED REPORTING: The relatively crappy local arrived today. It's a dodgy paper but not without influence.

This week featured a guest commentary on whether public housing is a good or a bad thing. The article concluded that public housing is BAD- satan's work- and that the free-market could provide housing for low income people if they just had the right tax incentives...

The complete collapse of credibility comes when one observes that well over 50% of the print-space is devoted to real-estate advertising. I wonder if their 'expert' is someone we should consider unbiased...?

RETRIEVED SCRIBBLE

2003-11-26T23:54:00.000+11:00

So much stuff that I have written this year has, for a variety of reasons, gone to waste. I've deicded to rescue some things and post them here. Mostly it's work just gathering dust. Some of it is tinged with a certain bitterness at particular people's willingness to exploit me and a self-focussed anger that I often fall prey to such 'people'.

This one was requested as a cover feature for a gay newspaper who then chose not to run it because the tour was not, in fact, happening. [Journalists are so sloppy with facts!] Left me with a very eggy face.

So Lay-bys and gender-benbers, Miss Sherry Vine. An incomplete ending but, I think, entertaining enough to warrant printing.

-----------------
Lock up your Boyfriends- Sherry Vine is bringing Magic & Mayhem to Brisbane.

Sherry Vine has the blonde bombshell looks of a Hollywood starlet, the voice of a Broadway diva and the acid wit of a drag performer who has earned her stripes in the tough New York and European scenes. Robert Snot spoke with Sherry on the eve of her third Australian tour.

Sherry Vine has become increasingly well known around the world as a delightfully left-of-centre chanteuse. Ms Vine is a drag-performer who sings in her own voice. She has appeared in films, television and theatre around the world. Sherry won her fame in New York but these days she is a global concern with fans queuing for regular shows in the United States, Europe and Australia.

On previous tours of Australia Sherry has built a loyal fan base and thrilled audiences with her amazing capacity to sing hugely diverse genres from Broadway to rock via Brecht & Weil. Not many singers can sing in five languages and manage the number of wig-changes Ms Vine undertakes in a standard evening. Sherry Vine is much more than your average drag-queen.

When I finally calculate the time differences for Berlin and reach Sherry at her home she is exhausted from rehearsing but agrees to our chat with a smile in her voice. Never one to miss an opportunity I start with a brutal question- are all these tours simply an excuse to meet Australian men?

“Well, being a professional member of the international prostitution jet set market, I come to Australia for work” comes the business like reply. Then the façade breaks and Sherry laughs, “but I always manage to make some time for pleasure!”

Despite the humour, Sherry’s answer reveals one of the secrets to her success. She is a hardworking talent who is willing to travel to her audiences. That she can infuse new meaning into a Broadway number that some may be more inclined to take up the back paddock and shoot is a delicious bonus.

Ms Vine has always been an ambassador for culture and taste. When I ask her what we should expect from the new show the reply is very certain.

“Well, people can expect the trashy Sherry but also the newer European Sherry. She’s a bit more cultured now that she’s seen the greatest saunas Europe has to offer. She’s spent time relaxing in the most beautiful parks on the continent, although it was difficult to see at night. And she has refined her taste from sampling many delicacies of the former Eastern bloc!

While Sherry is enthusing about the show I enquire after her new companion in performance, Cashetta.

“Cashetta is a dear sister of mine from NYC and we’ve worked and travelled together a lot also. She is ‘The Queen of Illusion’. No, she looks like a man, but what I mean is, she’s a magician! She’s a real, trained, certified magician and she sings live and is hilarious!! So our new show, MAGIC AND MAYHEM, will be very different than anything Joey and I did... it’s actually entertaining!

‘Joey’, as Sherry’s Australian fans know, is the renowned channeller of Billie Holliday, Joey Arias. Arias and Vine presented two shows together in Australia and developed highly regarded shows together for many years. For Joey Arias fate has since taken a very strange turn.

“Joey is starring in the new Cirque du Soliel show in Las Vegas for the next two years. They finally needed a glam clown and she got the part.” Sherry laughs warmly and the affection is clear. “Just kidding, of course I miss her terribly and I am very excited for her.

Together with Arias and a performer named Raven, Ms Vine forged a new and more ambitious approach to drag. Most strikingly they sang in their own voices- lipsynching was banished. It was at the now legendary NYC nightclub Squeezebox that this movement would reach all new heights.

The Squeezebox aesthetic was a challenge to the ecstasy and house music dominated times. The club featured rock and roll, with a live house band to back the performers. Sherry’s performance of ‘Sherry Bomb’ [Joan Jett’s Cherry Bomb made over] was later to be reprised on a compilation album that grew out of the club. Squeezebox quickly became a hip flashpoint attracting guests and performers like Debbie Harry, John Waters, Nina Hagen, Pansy Division and the Red Hot Chili Peppers to mix with the most outrageous of Manhattans drag queens and queer positive punk rockers.

Encouraged to recall her favourite Squeezebox memory Sherry is quick to answer . “Misstress Formika was throwing a birthday party for me and she threw the cake in my face. I was covered in icing from wig to pump!”.

Audiences expecting cake throwing may be disappointed by Magic & Mayhem but any fan of good singing, trashy drag-queens and the completely unexpected are likely to be enchanted by Ms Sherry Vine.

HAPPY DANCE

2003-11-26T23:44:00.000+11:00

I'm going to New York to see Taboo.

CONFESSIONS OF A ZIONIST

2003-11-24T08:56:00.000+11:00

I am beyond disbelief at what I just read. I'm just going to paste it here and let you make your own mind up what to make of this outburst.

"Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it."
Ariel Sharon, October 3, 2001, to Shimon Peres, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio.

ROCK SPIDER?

2003-11-23T21:12:00.000+11:00

I don't really know what to think about the Michael Jackson sex abuse thingo. Both scenarios are quite viable. It may be that he is a creepy rockspider who likes putting his finger inside little boys. It is equally possible that his completely insane 'lifestyle' has left him vulnerable to litigious fortune hunters.

I've just spent a while trapped like a roo in headlights as a 'special' about Wacko played out on my TV. It was the single most calculated, transparent and hollow piece of celebrity spin-control that I can recall having seen.

The first curious tactic was that the show was presented as if it was a Michael Jackson expose. The network promo was sufficiently misleading as to claim that they would show the tapes Wacko didn't want us to see.

What is really was was another plea from the rapidly degenerating Jackson that the whole world just love him. A supposedly neutral narrative voice announcing that 'at last the truth can be revealed' ended up quite absurd as we listened to Jackson plead his case.

The truly alarming thing is that the home-videos that Jackson wanted us to see, presumably to restore his standing, were utterly terrifying portraits of a very unhealthy man. The man is insane in the most true sense, his entire existence is a delusion that he has built around himself. The degree and extent of his ego and megalomania suggested a bit of psychosis. He has an extremely high opinion of his own talent. He even does the precious artist routine by insisting that his video clips are 'short films'.

Watching him 'at play' with all the children he gathers was almost to repulsive to believe. He is either a damn good actor [did you see 'the Wiz'?] or he does regress into some kind of infantile state when he's 'playing'. It's creepy and it can't be good for the kids whether or not he is poking them.

I'm left wondering why he has persisted in his dubious engagements with pre-adolescent boys. I'm beginning to think that it is because in his world-view he is invincible. He made no effort to hide his solicitous behaviour with boy children. Surely any sensible person would cut back the swimming naked with young boys after one round of rock spider accusations?

My entire upper-intestine tried to make an emergency escape via my mouth when we were confronted with Wacko trying to be casually hetero. He made a very lame attempt to sound like Playboy Bunny girls are 'fun'. The air was thick with a smarmy, sordid self-righteousness. He came off looking like a person with a lot to hide.

His detachment from reality was completely laid out when he visited 'the south'. Michael was just charmed at the black people living in hovels and struggling not to starve. His inability to connect the dots and see racial oppression could only be called remarkable. He spoke about 'the black people' like they were a different species. He actually said that the family he visited unannounced had rhythm like all black people do...

Wacko's self-selected footage made it very clear that he can be quite an annoying prat. His 'pranks' when he goes into child regression state combine a mean-spiritedness with a total ignorance of other's feelings or dignity.

I'm starting to think that he does fiddle with little boys and either manages to shield himself with denial or, more likely, feels absolutely entitled to do so because he is the King of Pop and single most talented musician ever to have breathed.

It's really too creepy to fully engage. It is a story as grossly as out of proportion as the cult of celebrity itself. I'll not deny that I find it fascinating but plead that I am usually aware when I am being presented with spin, propaganda and Wacko Jacko.

I don't know where to end this one, It was just too too freaky.

I think he probably is a rock spider...

TOXIC MEDIA UPDATE #2

2003-11-23T18:16:00.000+11:00

IRRESPONSIBLE REPORTING: Channel seven evening news did their bit tonight to make sure that alcoholism remains a respectable life choice.

The Australian rugby team were reported in the introduction to be 'drowning their sorrows' after losing a ball-game last night. Implicit message- if things don't go your way get drunk.

Later in the report the Australian team were depicted drinking beer to 'cure' their hangovers.

I didn't notice any reporting of how much alcohol fuelled violence happened last night.

An interesting statistic would be how much money the manufacturers of alcohol poured into cup revenue.

MASS CULTURE ARSE-RAPES ART

2003-11-22T22:16:00.000+11:00

So I'm watching the Australian final of the Miss World thingo enjoying it for all the reasons beauty pageants are fun. Tacky people in tacky gowns saying cliched things, it's almost as good as the golden era of Hollywood grande dames.

Irony quickly turned into a steaming turd when the 'orchestra' struck up a muzak version of Hole's Miss World. I don't think whoever made the choice looked into the song deeply enough. It isn't exactly a song celebrating the wonder of beauty pageants.

[The lyrics are somewhere in this not-a-blog]

When we got to the bit where Courtney should sing "I'm Miss World, Somebody Kill me" I started on a macabre fantasy about how much fun it would be to open a machine gun on the lot of 'em. Purely for the poetic justice, you see.

I love watching these shows struggle to not look like archaic sexism. Of course the more they deny it the more obvious it becomes. What exactly is the connection between a woman's 'poise' when walking in a bikini & stilettos and her potential as a future world leader? [Yes really- I didn't see it but one segment was threatening to examine the women's potential as a future world leaders]

If they were just honest and said it was about exploiting tits I don't think I'd find it nearly so compelling. Instead it's about 'poise', 'charm', 'leadership skills'. That every participant looks like a porno starlet is a co-incidence. Just a case of no 370lb syphlitic, dermatologicaly challenged midgetswith 'poise', 'charm' and 'leadership skills' being available on the day of shooting I'm sure....

Really though, if people want to participate in beauty pageants I fully endorse their freedom to do so. It's just silly trying to disguise it as something more than it is- a tits & teeth competition.

by Jon-Benet

I SEE DEAD PEOPLE!

TOXIC MEDIA UPDATE

2003-11-19T23:05:00.000+11:00

Time for a new not-a-blog experiment. Utterly frustrated with the degree and volume of media nonsense that we are fed, I have decided to collect some choice cuts of hyper-stupidity.

BAD REPORTING: Unfortunately the national broadcaster has to take the hit on this one. Two nights of reporting on the new government healthcare policy has been alarmingly short of facts. Eventually I had to go to online news to find the policy details that weren't reported. All we got on TV was sound-bites of politicians disagreeing.

BIMBO REPORTING: I picked up the lesser of the Sydney 'gay community' newspapers today. My actions did not go unpunished. The editorial opened "I've never been very interested in politics". Presumably the photo above that says "but I'm young and pretty" excuses such imbecility. In one sentence the 'editor' confirmed that his paper has nothing to do with the political struggle and everything to do with selling advertising space to the businesses who exploit 'the gay community'. Nice one, bimbo boy.

BRAINDEAD REPORTING: Commercial news offered me the information that 'a soccer match between two teams ended in violence'. Just imagine the havoc if three teams had been engaged in the soccer match... Surely if these morons can't self-edit for such obvious redundancy the network can employ somebody who can edit?

COMING SOON. A LOOK AT CORRUPTION AND CONFLICTS OF INTEREST IN THE AUSTRALIAN g&l PRESS.

SONG OF THE DAY

2003-11-19T18:17:00.000+11:00

From Taboo. For over twenty years now George has written the songs that cut to the bits of me that I try to deny.

This one goes out on my cozmic universal radio to the skater who got away- you know who you are and I know you'll never read this you luddite prick. I loved you more than I have ever loved before... or ever will again.

Talk Amongst Yourselves

JOSIE
Staring my life in the face
Haunted by what could have been
What should have been
What might have been
Was not
You're just a living disgrace
Drag on another cigarette
As you try to forget
You're tired of saving face

I live among these ruins
I've wasted so much breath
As dreams fade into nothing
There's no one there
There's nothing left
Talk amongst yourselves
But I know words won't make it better
You think you know me well
I know my faults down to the letter

Wiping these tears from my face
Wave goodbye to memories
You holding me, you loving me
You've changed
Take me away from this place
Far from all my bitterness
From promises broken everyday

I live among these ruins
I've wasted so much breath
As dreams fade into nothing
There's no one there
There's nothing left

Talk amongst yourselves
But I know words won't make it better
You think you know me well
I know my faults down to the letter

So talk amongst yourselves
But I know words won't make it better
You think you know me well
I know my faults down to the letter
I know my faults down to the letter

From Boy George's Taboo.

LAME DUCK

2003-11-19T17:25:00.000+11:00

The Sydney flashmobbing group seems to be dying rapidly. The usual organisational dynamics, the power driven take control and alienate everyone else. Personally I decided that I would no longer participate when the 'leader' spat that SydMob was a democracy and that dissent will not be tolerated. We all but raised the swastika and saluted.

Whether or not SydMob define themselves as political my participation is propelled by my anarchist & situationist politic. That does not sit well with being a servant to a tyrant.I don't need to impose those perspectives on others. I am yet to be convinced that any kind of organising of this sort can be, by dictionary terms, non-political.

from Websters online

political

adj 1: involving or characteristic of politics or parties or politicians; "calling a meeting is a political act in itself"- Daniel Goleman; "political pressure"; "a political machine"; "political office"; "political policy" [ant: nonpolitical] 2: of or relating to your views about social relationships involving authority or power; "political opinions" 3: of or relating to the profession of governing; "political career"

I don't know how other people feel but the list-traffic went from heavy to nearly zero after the 'this is not a democracy' post.

I become so disillusioned with 'community organisations'. I can't count the number of times that I have watched organisations implode like this.

Today came a very strange message that there will be no more flashmobs due to server problems. I don't quite follow the reasoning that leads us from a server issue to no more flashmobs. My guess is that somebody has had a dummy-spit and wants out. Note the implied ownership of a global phenomenon in the 'no more' statement. The arrogance of power can seldom hide itself, even when it tries.

I remain surprised how successful flashmobbing was- we had our moment. Time to declare it sucked into the black hole of pop disposabilty and terribly last week.

AMUSINGLY TRUE

2003-11-19T17:01:00.000+11:00

Bernard Zuel, deadly earnest dinosaur rock critic writing about Human League [currently being wheeled around Sydney]

"But in 1982, after founders Martyn Ware and Ian Marsh had left, Human League Mk II (Oakley, Jo Callis and Ian Burden joined by backing singers Susanne 'Slagatha' Sulley and Joanne 'Sticky-Knickers' Catherall) became so big with their third album, Dare, that Oakey's lopsided hairdo suddenly became de rigueur for young men of a certain disposition."

I had a Phil Oakey haircut in 1982 and I am not ashamed. Long live the mega-fringe! [and the Human League slags]

NEXT MONTH: DURAN DURAN - PRAY FOR ME, I'M GOING... (they're supporting Robbie Williams. I'd like to support Robbie- be his athletic supporter for a week sounds OK. We are on the invitation list- I don't pay to see Duran Duran.)

ACRES AND ACRES OF MEANINGLESS FILLER. JOURNALISM IN THE DESSERT

2003-11-11T16:25:00.000+11:00

One of the things I was taught in the single unit of journalism I struggled through as an undergraduate is that one should never do work when reprinting from wire services and press releases is an option.

So today I started subscribing to Google News Alerts [heaven!] and of course I had to request a daily update on Courtney Love. Have a look at what came in the first batch before I comment further...

_____________________________________________
FORMER Hole singer Courtney Love says she has no drug problems ...
Utusan Malaysia Online, Malaysia
NEW YORK Nov 9 - Courtney Love has admitted to using heroin in the past, but says she doesn't have a problem now, despite being charged recently with drug ...

COURTNEY Love says she's not an addict
USA Today
NEW YORK (AP) - Courtney Love has admitted to using heroin in the past, but says she doesn't have a problem now, despite being charged recently with drug ...

COURTNEY Love Says She's Not an Addict
Miami Herald, FL
NEW YORK - Courtney Love has admitted to using heroin in the past, but says she doesn't have a problem now, despite being charged recently with drug possession ...

COURTNEY Love on drug use
CNN
NEW YORK (AP) -- Courtney Love has admitted to using heroin in the past, but says she doesn't have a problem now, despite being charged recently with drug ...

COURTNEY Love Says She's Not an Addict
Launch Yahoo
Courtney Love has admitted to using heroin in the past, but says she doesn't have a problem now, despite being charged recently with drug possession.

COURTNEY Love denies drugs problem
Ananova, UK
Courtney Love claims she no longer has a drugs problem, weeks after being arrested on drugs charges. The 39-year-old actress and ...

I don ' t have a drugs problem claims Courtney Love
Ireland Online, Ireland
Actress-singer Courtney Love has, arrested recently on drugs charges, claimed today she no longer has a drugs problem. "I want ...

PEOPLE: Courtney Love, Matthew Broderick, David Letterman
International Herald Tribune, France
Courtney Love has admitted to using heroin in the past, but she says she doesn't have a problem now, despite being charged last month with drug possession. ...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And isn't it just wonderful to see how diverse the global press is! Nobody here has dared check this for it's fact content or to question the story we are being given. It simply is. How does an individual stand a chance against this kind of onslaught? How can journalists even claim to be 'professionals' when this is what they offer? Why isn't there a single dissenting opinion?

It is notable how few of these articles have followed the convention of citing [AP] at the opening of the article so that the reader is immediately aware s/he is reading stuff straight off the wire. Maybe [AP] gets credit at the sites of the articles- I'm not wasting time checking because we all see the point anyway. Journalists are [mostly] lazy scum who delight in tearing people to pieces.

The bigger question is what we aren't being told. Every column inch devoted to regurgitating mass-produced slander of Courtney Love is one less devoted to recording the real news.

If a tree falls in the forrest and nobody puts out a press release, has it really fallen?

A DAY THAT WILL LIVE IN INFAMY

2003-11-11T06:22:00.000+11:00

28 years ago today Australia experienced the displacement by coup of a democratically elected government. The greatest leader this nation has known, Gough [EG] Whitlam was felled by a conservative conspiracy that still remains murky. Recently opened documents from the time confirm a long held suspicion of CIA involvement. We may never know the extent of their involvement. Much has already been lost to Australians tendency toward a laconic amnesia but for a few days the country stood on the edge of civil war.

Today, in honour of Gough, SalineDrip maintains the rage. Strangely, all the good links to sites about Whitlam and the Dismissal are 404ing today. I suspect a silent nod from the lefties in cyberspace by going dark. It will be interesting to see.

Well may we say God Save the Queen, because nothing will save the Governor General
EG Whitlam 1975.

CHOICES. $20 FOR A CD OR $20 TO CHANGE SOMEBODY'S LIFE?

2003-11-10T19:44:00.000+11:00

I'm reprinting this message from the Sisters of Mercy newsletter because it speaks about exactly the kind of financial charity that I most endorse. Small amounts of money can buy people out of misery, give them a future and return their dignity. For a very small amount you can make the world a better place in a practical, non-patronising sort of way.

-------------------------

An organization that promotes small loans for self-employment projects among the world’s poorest people has announced that it is on track to meet its nine-year goal of helping 100 million of the world’s poorest families by 2005.

The organization, Results Education Fund, reported that as of the end of 2002, more than 2,500 institutions offering small scale-scale financial assistance, known as micro credit, has reached 41.6 million poor families worldwide. They were able to finance a vast array of businesses, including a Pakistani baker of papadum bread, a bicycle rickshaw agency in Bangladesh and a tortilla maker in El Salvador.

Some of these small efforts get pushed aside by the big emergencies but the fund has managed to reach some of the very poor. Focusing on empowering women, it works to help people in the bottom half of those below the poverty line in developing countries, and those below the poverty line in industrialized countries.

Micro credit programmes make loans of as little as $20 to help poor people to turn income –generating activities into small businesses.

Messages to Deirdre Mullan rsm
{mercyun@aol.com}

FLASHMOB #7 09.11.03

2003-11-08T23:19:00.000+11:00

If you've just landed here prompted by a cryptic SMS message, or lured in via a mailing list, welcome! This is not a blog. More of an emotional sewage outlet in cyberspace.

So, some of you are wondering, 'what is a flashmob', 'why is he hassling me about this on a Saturday night' and 'but thats the same day as the Newtown festival'.

To answer those questions in order
1- click here and scroll down to entry 'Sydney rows a boat' for explanations and more links to explanations. Be aware that flashmobbing is essentially meaningless.
2- because I'm bored and decided to do another flashmob promo.
3- tough titties. last year sucked and I can easy be back in Newtown by 2.30pm anyway.

For those of you who just want the info:

SYDMOB #7

On the morning of Sunday 9th November, you should have already synchronized your watch to the time of the telstra clock available by calling 1194

*By 12:30pm you should be in the inner city. Make your way down towards Darling Harbour. Go to the corner of Market & Sussex St.

http://www.whereis.com/search/email_map_redirect.jhtml?id=295114

Look opposite the Shelbourne Hotel to find the Mob Rep in the vicinity of the forecourt of IBM/Fairfax building. (Look for the brolga water feature)

The Mob Rep can be identifed by the magazine "Fortean Times" When found, say this phrase "I'm going overseas" and you will be then handed instructions.

*The Mob Rep will be only present between 12:45pm and 1:15pm*

**NOTE: It is vital that EVERYONE intending to take part in this event approaches the Mob Rep to recieve their OWN SET of instructions

Move away, read it, then follow them.

Guidlines:

- When approaching the Mob Rep to collect the script, please don't intiate a qeue. People standing in a line can attract unwanted attention from any possible paranoid security personnel in the vicinity, and could ruin a successful event.

- If you are attending a mob with either a partner or a large group of friends, organize to meet at a designated spot after the act has taken place. Preferably this spot should be far enough away so that people who have just witnessed the event don't put 2 and 2 together.

- When the act is over, disperse from the area at the allocated time outlined in the instructions handed to you by the organizer. Choose a direction and leave *alone*. This cannot be stressed enough.

- Try and not converse with anyone when you are leaving the area, fellow mobbers and especially spectators. If someone really wants to ask what happened, shrug and deny any knowledge. What just took place didn't actually take place at all.

- If you're attending the mob with digital equipment and wish to take a shot of the disperse, try and allocate yourself away a bit from the area. Or have a friend organized to take the wanted shots for you so you don't miss out onthe fun.

- There has been reports at some mobs that participants have suddenly gone into a round of applause at the end of the act just before the disperse happens. Even if the instructions don't outline this action during the act, theres nothing actually wrong with doing it. Feel free to share your appreciation with fellow mobbers. But try and disperse as planned as well.

- When the disperse happens, leave the area in a calm and sensible manner. When you have a group of people which could reach over 100 it's never a good idea to intiate a mass stampede, the threat of a real injury happening is quite real.

- If there is a presence of authority (police, security etc) and they give out explicit instructions to leave the area, do so. Even if its before the designated disperse time. Having people arrested for taking place in a flashmob is not the kind of attention we are seeking.

- Leave nothing behind but the lasting effect on the minds of your fellow mobbers and the witnessing general public.

SCROTUM STAPLING

2003-11-08T21:58:00.000+11:00

Click here for a fascinating interview with Steve-O [Jackass] at BME. The footage of Steve stapling his scrotum to his leg is um...

I think I'll just keep my feelings about it to myself.

TASTE IN MEN- MORE THOUGHTS INSPIRED BY HAIRSPRAY

2003-11-08T13:44:00.000+11:00

random thought:

John Waters and I have a very similar taste in men. Not only do we both tend to develop 'interests' in particular actors, it seems we share a weakness for an archetype- the naughty but redeemable punk boy.

Waters first reveals it in Polyester with the delicious Stiv Bators as the Baltimore foot-stomper. In Hairspray the entire male component of the Corny Collins Show cast have clearly been chosen on looks. Waters big discovery for this one, Michael St Gerard, is a hornbag JD of exceptional appeal. It says a lot that his career seems to have stalled at playing the young pretty version of Elvis.

Johnny Depp being spanked doubled the value of Cry Baby.

Serial Mom was a bit lacking in spunky boys but that deficit was well and truly compensated for by the appearance of a young Edward Furlong in the title role of, Pecker. Yum. The pattern continued with Steven Dorff, then relatively unknown, in Cecil B Demented.

And coming up the biggest treat of all. My own personal bitch, Johnny Knoxville, is to star in Water's next feature- a movie about nymphomania. The thought of what might happen if Waters encourages Johnny to push some boundaries is almost to good to risk thinking.

OBSERVATIONS ON DEATH. SPECIAL HAIRSPRAY EDITION.

2003-11-08T12:20:00.000+11:00

The commentary I promised on living with grief hasn’t taken as much form as I expected. It’s still hard to talk about and even harder to understand. I’ve abandoned counsellors because I can’t really say anything and I can always pre-empt their response anyway. I am trained in bereavement counselling from the same text-book that they [probably] are.

As ever it is a lot easier to experience some of these things through my favourite art. The catharsis is good. Art is the closest to immortality any of us will achieve and I revere its creators.

I have just finished playing the John Waters / Ricki Lake commentary to the region1 edition of Hairspray. [The film is unavailable in any format in this philistine country]. The commentary track contains some interesting asides but is largely disappointing. Waters & Lake are not in the same place and the switching between the two is jarring. Waters doesn’t have a lot to say that fans won’t know from his books. He seems unusually restrained throughout the commentary track.

The reason for this restraint becomes very clear at the end of the film when Waters starts to ‘remember’ Divine. He quickly becomes quite spontaneous and painfully honest. He still misses Divine terribly and the way he spoke suggest he still hasn’t totally accepted that she went to filth heaven a long time ago. Waters description of their last meeting is devastating. They take dinner to celebrate the success of Hairspray, Divine’s reconciliation with her mother, Divine’s new career on TV and part in good spirits. The next day Divine is dead.

Don’t take the people around you for granted. Tomorrow they might not be here.

GENOCIDE?

2003-11-07T01:57:00.000+11:00

Did you know that Israeli forces killed an estimated 13,000 Palestinians since 1948?

They forcibly evicted 737,166 Palestinians from the homes and land.

503 Palestinian villages were entirely depopulated and destroyed?

ON THE NON-CRISIS IN ANGLICANISM

2003-11-07T00:07:00.000+11:00

[note: US readers should substitute ‘Episcopalian’ where appropriate]

How many Anglicans does it take to change a lightbulb?
Ten. One to change it and nine to complain how much they miss the old bulb.

Several people recently have asked me what my position is on the recent ‘controversy’ in the Anglican church. The easiest answer would be ‘I don’t feel especially obliged to take a position’. That isn’t completely true. Inevitably it has had an impact because I am the subject of the discussion.

The most concise answer that I can offer is that as I see it, from inside the church, the whole issue was misunderstood by the press and the situation exacerbated by ‘activists’ from outside the church. I constantly wonder why G&L activists need to insert themselves so vociferously into what is a matter for the church. This week the main Sydney G&L newspaper screams ‘Gay Bishop!’. The question that occurs to me is that unless one is an Anglican, who cares?

The activists can blurt a triumph in their yellow press, the facts are different. Little has changed. There has not been a ‘split’ in the church in the sense implied by the press. A division of opinions has seen some very definite lines drawn in the sand. It is now up to Anglicans to sort this out amongst ourselves. The activists from outside only inflame the situation and force the hardliners to adopt firmer stances. Meanwhile they torture those of us inside the church who are otherwise at peace with ourselves, our church and our God..

I don’t want to be an ‘issue’ when I go to Mass. In my parish I am as accepted as any of the other diverse people to be found. I don't take my sexuality to receive the sacraments, I take my soul. It is the only community I know where unconditional acceptance can be assumed. Certainly, I am a part of an especially liberal parish. Anglicanism gives us the freedom to be the parish we want and need to be. If I wanted to I could make my home in a fire and breamstone congregation and wear drab suits.

I don’t recall seeing any useful reporting on this story at all. The theological issues that must be grappled with have been passed over with blanket statements about ‘equality’. That isn’t how the church works. The reality is that the church has been evolving and theology is slowly catching up. We are all equal in God's eyes. The notion of the equal humanity of all people is far from a new concept in our tradition.

It is too easy to look as all this through a caffeine shattered modern filter. Journalists need headlines and filler. Much ado about nothing is a very real risk in hyper-reality.

The Anglican church is an ancient creature- she changes slowly. She also changes constantly and seldom painlessly. We have survived being subsumed by the Roman church, Henry VIII, the stripping of the altars, European protestant chaos, Oliver Cromwell, various changes in the prayer book, Wallis Simpson & Diana Spencer, disco, the Ordination of women... The Anglican church is a dynamic non-authoritarian church. We have always had vigorous discussions [usually accompanied by predictions of the pending doom of the church] and we will continue to do so.

In my estimation G&L activists with no affiliation to the church have complicated my place in the church significantly. We have been reported on by people with no understanding of what is being discussed inside the church, no understanding of our tradition and no respect for an institution that safeguards itself against a loss of meaning by thoughtful evolution rather than radical reform.

I am glad to be a part of a church where I can have a diametrically opposed viewpoint to the Archbishop of Sydney and be allowed to disagree respectfully. To me that seems healthy, a formula for a church that will not only survive into the future but grow as more people hear the message of welcome in Anglicanism underneath the buzz-saw drone of anti-Christian propaganda and semi-informed journalism.

What I ask is that the interlopers pull back for a while and accept that change cannot be imposed through church structures in the same way that legislation might effect a change in matters temporal. The G&L press particularly would be well advised to consider their motivation in beating this up. Their actions have hurt people who were going about their business peacefully. They have creayed a platform that perfectly serves the interests of church conservatives. I hope that we have heard the last of the bleating from the parasitic filth of the press for a while.

I guess you’re waiting for me to comment on whether I think a ‘Gay Bishop’ is OK? I’m not going to answer that yet. That one, like so many other things, is between me and God.

IMPORTANT COMMUNITY SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

2003-11-03T21:53:00.000+11:00

Jill is going overseas.

PAPAL BULL

2003-11-03T18:49:00.000+11:00

very sharp satire...

------
VATICAN CITY—As Pope John Paul II enters his 26th year as pontiff, the world is stopping to reflect on the legendary funnyman's career as one of the most influential performers in modern history. Standing staunchly against contraception and women's equality right through the turn of the 21st century, the pope and his quirky, deadpan comic persona still entertain audiences around the world.

Revered by multiple generations for his weird and wonderful wit, the 83-year-old pontiff is perhaps the best-known stand-up alive today. Throughout an amazing two and a half decades as head of the Catholic Church, the pope has produced, in both his live appearances and his published works, a treasure trove of humor second to none.

"I can still remember seeing him do his classic 'Galileo' bit in the early '90s," said fellow comedian George Carlin, referring to the pope's 1992 declaration that the church erred in condemning Galileo. "Here was this man, appearing on televisions around the world, making a proclamation that the sun does not move around the earth. I laughed until tears rolled down my cheeks."

"No one could touch the pope," Carlin added. "Hell, no one even tried. He was in a class of his own. One of a kind."

Born Karol Joseph Wojtyla in Wadowice, a town 35 miles southwest of Krakow, the pope did not have an easy childhood. In what may have contributed to his desire to inspire laughter, he faced many early hardships. His mother died just a month before his 9th birthday, and only three years later, his brother died of scarlet fever. The pope began his religious career shortly thereafter, studying in an underground seminary in Krakow. He established himself in the Krakow scene and was awarded an archbishopric in 1963. He made cardinal in 1967.

Among the works to give the pope his first taste of fame was his 1960 treatise Love And Responsibility, in which he defined a "modern Catholic sexual ethic." It was here that the pope developed his oft-repeated chestnut that the only acceptable act of sex is one intended for the creation of a child.

"The pope would always lean on his material about sex," director Woody Allen said. "He had this crazy, special way of looking at the world. I definitely count him among my influences."

After years of working the smaller cathedrals, the pope's hard work paid off. On Oct. 16, 1978, he was chosen to head Rome's most venerated comedic institution, the Vatican.

"No one else is still doing what the Vatican does," comedian Don Rickles said. "They may not be as big as they once were, but they still surprise—like that bit a few weeks ago, where they said condoms don't prevent AIDS. Was that improvised?"

After 25 years at the top of his field, the pope still draws a crowd. On Oct. 19, he presided over the beatification of Mother Teresa. More than a quarter of a million people flooded St. Peter's Square to witness the stunt, in which the pope declared that the hard-working, benevolent nun had performed miracles and possessed supernatural powers.

The pope has created more saints and beatified more people than all the previous popes combined, and no other pope has toured as extensively as he has. The quintessential showman loves to take his act on the road. He's entertained audiences in 117 countries and met with hundreds of world leaders, including dictators Augusto Pinochet and Fidel Castro.

"John Paul is the hardest-working pope in history," actor Jonathan Winters said. "He's an inspiration. And not just for other comedians like myself, but for everyone, from theologians who will never be ordained because they're women, on down to the little children in the crowded ghettos of Third World cities who heed his message about the evils of contraception. Let's not even go into the gays in Boise."

Since his first trip back to Poland in 1978, the pope has performed in front of millions of loyal fans all over the world.

"People would wait in line for hours to see him," comedian Joey Bishop said. "And he never failed to deliver. He'd be out there working the crowd—shaking hands, kissing babies. Wherever he went, they loved him."

The pope has also been lauded for his ability to think on his feet. Throughout his many years in the business, the pope has often been called upon to deliver a comeback when questioned about acts committed by the Catholic Church.

"John Paul II has riffed on everything from the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition to the treatment of Jews and blacks," actor Bob Newhart said."He's always had a unique ability to come at things in an unexpected way. I saw him last year on TV, talking about those molestation scandals. His main message was that Catholics shouldn't lose faith in the clergy. Hilarious! Now, I would've gone straight to some kind of apology to the victims, but I guess that's why he's the pope."

The master of the lightning-speed one-liner produced a string of memorable side-splitters earlier this year. When meeting with the Dutch ambassador to the Vatican, he referenced the country's laws governing same-sex unions. Condemning the laws, the pope said that sexual relationships are for "men and women whose love will yield children," and characterized gays as deviants who act contrary to "natural law."

Despite suffering from debilitating Parkinson's disease, the pope shows no signs of toning down his act. With his trademark wit, the pontiff recently announced that, in spite of his failing health, he will remain pope "as long as God wants."

"There will never be another Pope John Paul II," said comedian Jerry Stiller. "He's truly one of a kind, straight out of a time and place that no longer exist."

WORDS THAT START WITH R

2003-11-03T09:31:00.000+11:00

repulsion
revolt
repel
rebel
rancour
rancid
rabid
rewrite
retire
resurrect
resume
resign
rip
rape
rob

THE GREATEST ROCK SONG OF THE 1990s

2003-11-02T19:22:00.000+11:00

Hole: Miss World

I am the girl you know, can’t look you in the eye
I am the girl you know, so sick I cannot try
And I am the one you want, can’t look you in the eye
I am the girl, you know I lie, I lie and lie
I’m miss world, somebody kill me
Kill me pills
No one cares, my friends
My friend
I’m miss world, watch me break and watch me burn
No one is listening, my friend
Now I’ve made my bed, I’ll lie in it
I’ve made my bed, I’ll die in it
I’ve made my bed, I’ll lie in it
I’ve made my bed, I’ll die in it

Cute girls watch when I eat ether
Suck me under
Maybe forever, my friend
Now I’ve made my bed, I’ll lie in it
I’ve made my bed, I’ll die in it
I’ve made my bed, I’ll cry in it
I’ve made my bed, I’ll lie in it
I am the girl you know, can’t look you in the eye

IT'S PRINCESS LEIA, THE YODEL OF LIFE

2003-11-01T13:47:00.000+11:00

CLICK HERE to visit a site that is most certainly 'different'.

PeeWee was framed!

MONSTAROUS MUTATION!

2003-10-31T04:16:00.000+11:00

WARNING: GONZO CONTENT. NOT TO BE TAKEN INTERNALLY

Wow- I just had my first real night out since before my dental surgery. The last time I dressed up and went out was the second weekend of May. Finally, with teeth in my mouth again and just enough $ in my pocket I went out and had a rock & roll fix. I feel good. Bitch for bass- that's me.

This evening we were at Candy's Apartment, a new venue that is a shiny veneer on the old Darkcoma [Kardomah] Cafe. The theme is Warholian and it is carried through the room well. I need to do some reading to check but I am reasonably sure that most of the key design motifs are drawn from the apartment that Candy Darling lived in. Add a touch of CBGBs / Max's Kansas City and you have some image of where we were.

I was quite anxious about being 'on the scene' again. I've spent so long being withdrawn that my social-phobia was running way above normal. Concerns about the possibility of an undignified denture related incident weren't helpful.

I finally got to wear my new stovepipes, they feel wonderful- a perfect replica of the authentic 80s TwoTones. Topped with a black sort of loose knit jumper, meshish shredded thing. I spent a good hour today working it into a real 80s 'line' by stretching the sleeves, removing the collar and adding a couple of holes. Worn hanging off one shoulder like I used to do with my school-jumper in honour of Madonna. It's not really 80s revivalism- I never quite left.

I masked my nervousness in the standard night-out makeup. Blacked out eyes, pale illuminating powder and blood red lipgloss. Some darker powder and a bit of contouring saw the return of cheekbones that I haven't seen for years. I feel much more confident in how I look with new teeth.

So, that's all a long way to say that I was a bit apprehensive about return to society so thank the Holy Mother that Ms Buster Byrnes, roadie extraordinaire and righteous babe, was there to greet me. Good ol' buster looked after me all night. Wonderful warm reunions all around. I got a big groupsex hug from Gana and Buster.

The Monstars were all floating around and it was great to see everyone again- especially Muk who failed to realise that it was me fondling his buttock on either of two occasions. [Excellent quality buttocks for those of you perverted enough to be wondering].

Not everyone recognised me immediately, new teeth, longer hair in a new formation... I fooled Clem & Sara & Cherry Ramone and lots of other people who I can't recall to name. Eventually I had to have Linzie & Holly escort me into the lady's room in pursuit of Mme S. Even in full light Sara saw me and didn't catch on immediately. When she did it was big teary hugs and 'I missed you' and a long chat on the red velvet lounge in the lady's room.

Amongst the many delights for the evening was seeing Modular Lounge for the first time. I was very impressed, especially by the neo Joan Jett guitarist. The whole band are exceptionally talented and they have that very rare quality of seeming to be a natural fit as a band. The lead singer is a powerful woman with a voice that does the chick-rock thing perfectly.

Modular Lounge need more work but I hope that they get a break. They'd quickly make Skulker irrelevant with enough exposure. *retracts claws* The nod to Transvision Vamp won me over totally. I spoke to most of the members of Modular Lounge- they were all pleasant and each of them seems to have a good attitude. They may yet prove to be the legitimate heirs to the throne of Nitocris.

By the time the Monstars took the stage I was a very over-excited little punter. The hundreds of mirror balls started to seem like a metaphor for the way my brain was 'working'- bits of it were fragmenting everywhere.

It has been so long since I have heard Gana sing and I knew the Monstars had been moving closer to raw rock- something I was very keen to hear. Morgana was a bit burdened by a cold but otherwise in full-flight, magic healing woman of the furies mode. I love her guitar playing style. I kind of marvel at how much the woman is prepared to take on. The whole band was looking fine and sounded so sharp it was nearly lethal.

Stripped right back to being a trad rock band the Monstars have mutated again and this incarnation promises a blistering summer. Morgana is notable for taking on a variety of genres and performance styles but it is the joyous rockbitch Morgana I like watching most. I stood and watched from side-stage for a while. The absolute highlight was hearing the new rocked out version of the Kissing Song through the foldback. Yum. The addition of Tara's celestial vocals to an ensemble made beautiful noise. I like it when Muk does the Jimi Hendrix down on your knees thing...

Unfortunately my gums started to bleed during the Monstars set. I can't imagine why? Whadeva, I wasn't really comfortable to kick on and party with the gang. I don't like it when my blood is 'loose'. So, I'm sitting here still completely hyper, writing rambling blog entries and regretting that I spent so much time grinding my 'teeth' together.

I've killed my fear and taken another big step out of my withdrawn state.

Bring on summer!

PETITION IN SUPPORT OF ASHRAWI- CLICK CLICK CLICK!!!!!

2003-10-30T17:13:00.000+11:00

Click on this text to sign a petition supporting Hanan Ashrawi

MORE ON THE ASHRAWHI VISIT

2003-10-30T06:06:00.000+11:00

Handing a club to anti-Semites
Philip Adams

28oct03

As today's column will provoke accusations of anti-Semitism, let me begin with a few words in my defence. A classic philo-Semite, I've long been described as a Jew lover by the anti-Semites in organisations such as Frederick Tobin's Adelaide Institute. I've been dragged before the Press Council by the abominable League of Rights and am proud to say I'm regularly attacked in the hate pages of neo-Nazi organisations.

I'm on the receiving end of stacks of hate mail, up to and including death threats. My home was attacked by an anti-Semitic group that spray-painted racist obscenities all over it, then tried to sledgehammer their way in.

My children grew up in a home with a mezuzah, which consecrates it, on the doorpost. They were taught to respect the extraordinary contribution of Jews to science, philosophy, philanthropy, ethics, civil rights and the arts. My first daughter, named Rebecca, renounced her father's atheism and converted to Judaism. And I've lost count of the occasions when I've launched books by Jewish authors, opened exhibitions by Jewish artists or spoken at Jewish fundraisers or at Holocaust exhibitions or museums.

Yet, with growing frequency, I get letters branding me an anti-Semite. Worse still, I've lost close friends in the Jewish community. Why? Because in recent years I've found it impossible not to criticise Israel's policies towards the Palestinians.

It is not anti-Semitic to disagree with Israel's behaviour in the Lebanon or the disputed territories. It is not anti-Semitic to regard Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as equally culpable with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the present mess. And it is not anti-Semitic to protest long and loud against the attempts to denigrate Hanan Ashrawi and those who would honour her.

The behaviour of the so-called Jewish lobby over the Ashrawi issue is not only appalling but extraordinarily stupid. Once again, in its efforts to suppress and censor, the lobby challenges the efforts of its worst enemies to become its own worst enemy.

Take the case of the diabolical David Irving. Australian Jewry succeeded in banning him from entering Australia – the classic Pyrrhic victory. It did not hurt Irving's cause. Rather, it made him a martyr to his deranged supporters while providing the oxygen of publicity for his books, videos and website.

Far better to have let him into the country and to confront him. The demolition job done on Irving in the London libel trial shows his vulnerability to scholarly attack. Whereas shutting him out in an attempt to shut him up gives the ill-informed and uninformed the impression that his opponents have something to hide.

If the campaign to keep Irving out of Australia was counterproductive, the attack on Ashrawi – and those of us who admire her – is worse.

I'm one of many who regard themselves as simultaneously pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian, in the sense that we want a negotiated settlement, some sort of two-state solution. Of course we want the suicide bombings to end. But we also want the building of that monstrous wall to cease. And we want to recognise the immense efforts of those, on both sides of the fence – of the wall, of the political abyss – who've spent their lives trying to negotiate a workable and equitable solution.

I've known Ashrawi for many years. The last time we spoke she'd just celebrated her daughter's marriage, the festivities clouded by the explosions of Israeli missiles. Her response was characteristically measured and modulated. She has, after all, spent a lifetime in the firing line, working as a top negotiator between her people and the Israelis, within the maelstrom of Palestinian politics. I've had dealings with hundreds of the most prominent people in public life, not only in Australia but across the world. Their ranks have included quite a few who have won the Nobel Peace Prize. But I've met few I admire as much as Ashrawi.

Now there are attempts to deny her the Australian Peace Prize. First the University of Sydney was cowed into slamming the door of the Great Hall in her face. Then it was Sydney Town Hall, with Lord Mayor Lucy Turnbull's behaviour, calling into question not only her courage but her judgment.

Which brings us to Sydney councillor Kathryn Greiner's attack on the Sydney Peace Foundation, which she'd chaired for four years. Her attempts to have the award to Ashrawi overturned were uncharacteristically craven.

Yesterday, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer bought into the issue, tut-tutting Ashrawi's award. Odd, given that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade paid for Ashrawi to attend, and address, the Festival of Ideas in Adelaide.

Everyone, it seems, is running scared. At least NSW Premier Bob Carr has refused to back off. Equally admirable, the behaviour of Stuart Rees, director of the SPF.

As a consequence of their bitter experiences over the centuries, Jews have stood at the forefront of human rights and civil rights issues across the world. To be so wrong-headed on this occasion is, therefore, doubly disappointing.

The campaign smacks of an attack on free speech in this country and, yes, on free assembly. And it plays right into the hands of the true anti-Semites.

FRANKY GOES TO SINGAPORE:

2003-10-30T05:53:00.000+11:00

Banned cult movie finally hits Singapore screens

It has taken 28 years but Singapore authorities have finally succumbed to the charms of alien transvestite Frank-n-Furter and approved the screening of one of the world's most famous cult films, The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

The film will get a one-time screening on Saturday at the end of a three-day film festival to celebrate Halloween, ticketing agency TicketCharge said on its website.

"There is also the exclusive premiere of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, 28 years after it was banned in Singapore," it said. The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a musical sci-fi satire centred on sexually ambiguous Frank-n-Furter, was a cinema flop on its release in 1975 but quickly became a cult with audiences loving the camp humour and addictive soundtrack.

Other horror flicks to be screened during at the festival include the acclaimed Japanese production The Ring.

Singapore authorities are tentatively trying to shed some of the social restrictions that have given the city-state an international reputation for quirky conservativism.

Bans on bar-top dancing, bungee jumping and the sale of women's magazine Cosmopolitan were lifted this year.

But Playboy is still outlawed and while chewing gum will soon be on sale here after a long-time ban, it can only be sold strictly on medical prescription.

-AFP

RETURN BABY FRANCES NOW!

2003-10-29T17:01:00.000+11:00

I am quite irrationally upset that Frances Bean has been taken from Courtney. Beyond even really commenting on it except to express every hope that Courtney can survive this too... If only Courtney could be left alone to get on with being a actor and musician she'd do a lot better. The poor bitch is subject to a completely unfair persecution by media. Balanced reporting on Courtney is rare. Too much mud launched by the scum of the press has stuck. She has been painted as the heroin addict bad mother from hell despite having given birth to a heroin free overweight healthy baby. She is accused of orchestrating the death of her cherished husband while all the evidence says she probably slowed Kurt's inevitable meeting with the shot-gun. This article is so poorly fact checked that is her listed as singer in a long defunct band.

She has survived everything despite this. My deepest prayer is that if she is jailed she is allowed to keep the talisman made from Kurt's ashes. They must not be seperated.

My guess is that losing Frances Bean puts the possibility of Courtney's suicide into the red zone. It would not surprise me if she chooses to leave this torture within the next few days.

FRANCES BEAN COBAIN WILL HAVE HER REVENGE ON SEATTLE!
COURTNEY LOVE IS REVENGE!
----------------------------------------------------

Love charged with drug possession

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) --Prosecutors Tuesday charged singer-actress Courtney Love with two felony counts of drug possession.

Love -- leader the alternative rock band Hole and wife of late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain -- was arraigned in Beverly Hills Superior Court after voluntarily surrendering to authorities. She stands accused of possessing painkillers -- Hydrocodone and Oxycodone -- without a prescription.

The charges stem from a wild night earlier in October, during which Love was taken into custody after she allegedly tried to break into a friend's home.

Only hours after being released, paramedics were called to her Beverly Hills home where they found Love had overdosed, allegedly on the painkillers cited in the charges.

As a result, Love lost custody of her 11-year-old daughter, Frances -- her child with Cobain.

A judge will determine whether Love is eligible for a drug diversion program, which might spare her jail time

IT'S OFFICIAL

2003-10-29T11:30:00.000+11:00

Jill is going overseas.

It is time for 'overseas' to be very, very afraid.

IT'S LIZA WITH A LEFT HOOK!

2003-10-28T17:18:00.000+11:00

Call me a big fag but I do love Liza- she lives so large. Her entire life is justified by having played the lead in Cabaret, the rest is just cream. Liza is a Sondheim song about New York neurosis brought to life. If any of what is being written at the moment is true we may yet see Liza fight for a title- I'm sure she could be more entertaining than ordinary boxers who only eat ears and stuff...

Minnelli's fist of fury
By David Harrison in London
October 28, 2003

Liza Minnelli's ex-husband is not the only one who claims to know the fury of her fists - her bodyguard has come forward to allege she hit him harder than many men he had fought.

Imad Handi, a karate expert who is reported to be a former world champion, admitted he stood little chance against the drink-fuelled actress when she hit him at London's Connaught Hotel.

The bodyguard said Minnelli, who shot to fame in the 1972 film version of Cabaret, had delivered a blow harder than many he had received from his karate opponents when he tried to stop her punching her husband.

"She hit me with a backhanded fist and I must confess it hit me so hard I took a step backwards," he said. "I have had people, men, kick the shit out of me and they didn't hit me that hard. Out of 10, she was a six."

Mr Handi, who is based in London, said the attack occurred on the night of June 10 after Minnelli, 58, had allegedly launched a violent assault on her then husband David Gest, 50. Mr Gest is now suing her for $US10 million ($14.2 million) and claims to have suffered brain damage.

The bodyguard alleged Minnelli punched Mr Gest in the head and face for about 10 minutes. "That does something pretty bad. I know, because I've been in the ring."

As the actress accused Mr Gest of "using me to be a star when I am the star", the bodyguard tried to calm her down. "I held her hand gently, and I said, 'Liza, don't do this'."

The tactic failed. The actress "swung with a tight-fist backhander into my solar plexus and hit me very hard", Mr Handi said. "She was out of control."

Mr Handi said the blow was "absolutely drunk-induced". However, the next day she was a different woman. "She was so sweet and forgot about the whole thing," he said.

The couple separated a month after the incident and 16 months after their wedding, at which Michael Jackson was best man.

Mr Gest, an events and concerts promoter, filed his lawsuit last week, claiming Minnelli had beaten him so badly that he suffered brain damage and was forced to take 12 prescription drugs.

Minnelli has said that Mr Gest's claims are "hurtful and without merit".

The Telegraph, London

EXTREMELY BAD MOVIE ALERT

2003-10-26T22:44:00.000+11:00

Last night, suffering a massive post-flashmob & cleaning day exhaustion, I collapsed on my lounge and watched one of the 'bonus' DVDs that came with my machine- DEUCE BIGALOW MALE GIGOLO.

I thought that just maybe the film would be diverting- it couldn't be worse than the TV, thinked I. I did get a few laughs because my cruel sense of humour enjoys laughing at black humour about disability. That doesn't excuse this whopping great turd of a movie. Infantile efforts to be offensive in the name of 'humour' are passe and not done especially well here.

The narcoleptic woman who falls asleep midway through launching a ball down a bowling alley was cool- it reminded me of going bowling in my wilder days. We were more than a little intoxicated and I somehow sent myself half-way down an alley attached to a ball.

The most fun is to be had with the tourettes syndrome sufferer. I find tourettes syndrome endlessly funny but it is a joke that has been done before.

The film never reaches beyond the realms of the outstandingly bland. Any possibility for genuine comedy is dumped in favour of obvious 'gags'. The lead player was so repulsive I have only bothered to check his name in case I ever see it again- Rob Schneider.

The people who made this atrocity have not understood John Waters first rule of bad-taste. To have bad-taste well one must have good taste first.

Avoid at all costs.

Yet to be opened 'bonus' copies of Pearl Harbor & Enemy of the State. At least Pearl Harbor has Ben Affleck in uniforms... Expect some more vicious sniping about bad movies.

SCHOOLBOY PRIAPISM

2003-10-26T08:04:00.000+11:00

Oh, to be a fly on the wall....

Stiff discipline after UK schoolboys' Viagra prank

Six British schoolboys have been rushed to hospital after taking the erection-enhancing drug Viagra at lunchtime for a dare, the school said on Thursday.

Forest School in Winnersh, southern England said paramedics were called after a fellow student told teachers about the 13-year-olds' prank.

"It is believed that a pupil brought the tablets in from home into the all-boys school and shared them with five friends," the local education authority said in a statement.

The Sun newspaper quoted a source at the school as saying: "By the time the afternoon lessons began, there was no hiding what they had done."

Paramedics took the six squirming boys to the nearby Royal Berkshire Hospital, where they were monitored until the effects wore off.

"The school has a strict no drugs policy and a pupil will be temporarily excluded for actions which placed other pupils at risk," the education authority added.

TIGER PROVEN 100% CORRECT IN ATTACKING CIRCUS FAG

2003-10-25T21:24:00.000+10:00

Vomitty yuk. I watched the Siegfried and Roy 'special' and I must say, I was shocked by what I saw. The whole show was so bad kitsch & SiegRoy is the single most slimey thing I have ever seen take to a stage. They had some good illusions and they also had some very very obvious ones.

Perhaps the strangest part was watching the Vegas crowd take in the 'spectacle' as if they had stumbled upon Nirvana itself. How could two pratts with mullets who perform the same show every night, apparently on auto-pilot, possibly warrant a standing-ovation? Maybe I missed something.

The big issue, of course, is the tigers. Unfortunately we didn't get to see footage of the tiger having a fag-snack, surely there's video somewhere in cyberspace? What we did see was two magnificent tigers being forced to climb in and out of silly boxes, gawked at, hassled by fags with mullets and otherwise provoked. It's no great surprise that one of the tigers would eventually decide to have a fag snack. Cats may not be deprived of their dignity. It defies natural justice.

My biggest fear is that the tiger will get botox poisoning from snacking on fag-face.

CAN YOU HEAR THE TRUTH?

2003-10-25T21:12:00.000+10:00

Watching the Lehrer Newshour recently I was struck by something very interesting indeed. The interviewee was an American Presidential candidate pushing a strongly anti-war message. The revelation to be had was that the footage was from Al Jazeera!

It is so very simply true that we can only use what we're told to make our decisions. If Presidential candidates who vociferously criticise Dubya can only get air-space on Al Jazeera they're no real threat to the fictional president.

Chomsky's explanation of a self-censoring media seems more precise every day.

GLOBAL FLASH MOB DAY- SYDNEY ROWS A BOAT!

2003-10-25T18:37:00.000+10:00

This entry was going to be a narrative account of the most recent Sydney flashmob. I've been a bit surprised how many people have responded by asking what a 'flashmob' is. So, in the interest of promoting acts of co-ordinated joyousness while subverting dominant rules about 'normal' public behaviour SalineDrip presents your easy guide to the flashmob revolution.

What the hell is all this 'flashmob' bizzo about?

Visit the SydMob site for definitions, explanations and accounts of mobbings so far. Please be kind to the webmaster who is still publishing the coverage of today's mobbing at the time of writing.

---------------------

To become a flashmobber you need first to track down your local chapter. If you don't have one start one- it isn't nearly as hard as it might seem.

[Flashmob groups exist in these cities at the very minimum: San Francisco, Berlin, Toronto, Montreal, Minneapolis, Tempe Arizona, Berlin, London, Vancouver, Amsterdam, Boston, Chicago, Dublin, Mexico City, Austin, Houston, New Orleans, St. Louis, Stockholm, Las Vegas, Cape Town, Moscow, Seattle, Sydney, Orlando, Hong Kong, Seoul, Rome, Singapore, Santa Cruz, Nice, Hamburg, Rio De Jeneiro, Barcelona, Taipei, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Odessa Ukraine, St. Petersburg Russia, Philadelphia, Billings, Edmonton, Santa Rosa, Athens, Belfast, Prauge, Orsk, Columbus, Beijing, Vienna, Toledo, Milwaukee, New Delhi, Kuala Lumpur, Budapest, Alexandria, Mumbai, Palm Beach, Bombay, Indianapolis, Des Moines, Oslo, Helsinki, Portland, Kansas City, Manila, Denver, Washington D.C., Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and New York city]

In Sydney we will usually know the date of an intended mobbing a couple of weeks ahead but everything else is kept secret by organisers.

On the Friday an email with the first set of instructions comes out:

The most recent:

GLOBAL FLASHMOB
On the morning of Saturday 25th October, you should have already synchronized your watch to the time of the telstra clock available by calling 1194

*By 1:20pm you should be in the inner city. Go to Circular Quay, to the location where the ferries arrive. A Mob Rep will be between Wharf 5-6, wearing an eyepatch. Once found, say this phrase "All aboard" - you will then receive your instructions.

*The Mob Rep will be only present between 1:30pm and 2:00pm*

**NOTE: It is vital that EVERYONE intending to take part in this event approaches the Mob Rep to recieve their OWN SET of instructions

Move away, read it, then follow them.

(Mobbers are cordially invited to attend the Cat and Fiddle Hotel @ 456 Darling Street Balmain for afternoon drinks/post-event celebrations)

Guidlines:

- If you are attending a mob with either a partner or a large group of friends, organize to meet at a designated spot after the act has taken place. Preferably this spot should be far enough away so that people who have just witnessed the event don't put 2 and 2 together.

- When the act is over, disperse from the area at the allocated time outlined in the instructions handed to you by the organizer. Choose a direction and leave *alone*.This cannot be stressed enough.

- Try and not converse with anyone when you are leaving the area, fellow mobbers andespecially spectators. If someone really wants to ask what happened, shrug and deny any knowledge. What just took place didn't actually take place at all.

- If you're attending the mob with digital equipment and wish to take a shot of the disperse, try and allocate yourself away a bit from the area. Or have a friend organized to take the wanted shots for you so you don't miss out on the fun.

- There has been reports at some mobs that participants have suddenly gone into a round of applause at the end of the act just before the disperse happens. Even if the instructions don't outline this action during the act, theres nothing actually wrong with doing it. Feel free to share your appreciation with fellow mobbers. But try and disperse as planned as well.

- When the disperse happens, leave the area in a calm and sensible manner. When youhave a group of people which could reach over 100 it's never a good idea to intiate amass stampede, the threat of a real injury happening is quite real.

- If there is a presence of authority (police, security etc) and they give out explicit instructions to leave the area, do so. Even if its before the designated disperse time. Having people arrested for taking place in a flashmob is not the kindof attention we are seeking.

- Leave nothing behind but the lasting effect on the minds of your fellow mobbers and the witnessing general public.

Cheers,

Instructions received on the day were: [edited]

Global Flash Mob

Mob length: ??? (converge at 2.15pm, disperse when signalled)
Mob Site: “Monumental Stairs” leading to the “Monolith Forecourt” of the Opera House [Southern end]

By 2.12pm you should be casually mingling around the general vicinity in front of the eastern side of the Opera House.

2.15pm Mob reps, wearing eye-patches, will sit down on bottom of monumental stairs. Pick a rep, sit on the steps behind them leading up to the opera house.

When the mob reps begin singing ‘row row row your boat’, join in, making rowing motions. Sing the song loudly and cheerfully six times.

After the song has been sung six times, everyone should stand, point in any direction that you like, count to three silently and shout ‘Land Ahoy! Land Ahoy!’ then make your way to the top of the stairs.

Dance a merry jig with the nearest mobber. When the mob reps remove their eye patches and shout ‘Polly want a cracker?”, turn to the West wave hello, count to three silently and then everyone yell ‘Hello Korea!’

Disperse.
-----------

Pictures from IFM. Skim through for the main event pictures.

-------------
Media coverage is sporadic- their attention isn't always sought but it's hard to avoid with email going out to well over 1000 people. The great thing is that the press don't really have anything to report. The small article below is all I've seen on this one. Apparently we did get shown on CNN. If the interviewer had spoken to me I'd have denied anything happened but
1- I make a point of not talking to journalists. A couple of years working in politics proper taught me to say 'no comment' or 'you do not have my consent to be recording me'. They love that
2- Nothing did happen. It's all a question of perceptions.

The journo probably just got the info from our mailing list and invented the quote.

Anyway- here's what we got:

More than 500 people were drawn to the Opera House to sing a silly song yesterday in a bizarre gathering organised on the Internet.

Organisers said the event was the first ever global "flashmob" -- where strangers who meet over the Web arrange a display of "random silliness". Yesterday it was a recital of Row Your Boat followed by a jig, with groups in cities around the world taking part.

Afterwards the crowd of all ages dispersed, leaving onlookers to wonder what is was all about.

Student Ross Laurence, 20, attended with his sister and father. "It celebrates our right as humans to do something quite stupid," he said.

Yay stupidity...

UPDATE
Click on this mystery text for a more in-depth look at the Sydney Opera House getting flashed!

BUTTHOLES ON TELEVISION!

2003-10-25T08:43:00.000+10:00

I'm gonna gather up my kitties and watch this show. I plan to laugh at the tiger-snack fag until blood runs out my ears.

Siegfried & Roy: The Magic, The Mystery
Time: 6.30
Channel: 10
Duration: 60 Minutes

ZIONISTS INCREASE PRESSURE ON ASHRAWI- POWER OF JEWISH LOBBY IN SYDNEY REVEALED

2003-10-25T05:26:00.000+10:00

Here's Lucy, caving in, taking flight
By Alan Ramsey
October 25, 2003

Dr Hanan Mikhail Ashrawi is a woman, a professor of English, an international human rights activist, and a politician. A year ago she was chosen, unanimously, to receive the 2003 Sydney Peace Prize. The Premier, Bob Carr, will present Ashrawi with her award at State Parliament in 12 days. The first four recipients of the annual prize were honoured at functions in the Great Hall of Sydney University. They included South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1999), East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao (2000) and Australia's Sir William Deane (2001). However, for Ashrawi, the Great Hall is out of bounds.

This is not because Ashrawi is either a woman, an academic or a political activist. It is because she is a Palestinian. That is enough to ensure a virulent campaign of distortion and ridicule by Jewish critics to brutalise her image and try to have Carr renege on Ashrawi's presentation and the award taken from her. So far Carr has refused to buckle. Not so Sydney University.

Earlier this year the university's chancellor, Justice Kim Santow of the NSW Supreme Court, made it known to Professor Stuart Rees, director of the Sydney Peace Foundation, and to Kathryn Greiner, the foundation's chairwoman at the time, that the Great Hall would be closed to Ashrawi. Rees and an academic colleague, Ken McNabb, took the matter to Sydney's vice-chancellor, Gavin Brown. In what was called a "difficult and shameful" meeting, Brown confirmed the decision. The campaign now is about maximum political pressure for other corporate and civic sponsors to abandon Ashrawi and intimidate Carr.

Lucy Turnbull, Sydney's Lord Mayor since Frank Sartor joined Carr's ministry after the NSW elections in March, is the latest to fold her tent and take flight. Sartor, as lord mayor, had earlier arranged for the City of Sydney to be a $30,000 annual sponsor, for five years, of the Peace Foundation lecture, which is always given, in a separate function, by the peace prize winner the night before the award ceremony on the first Thursday in November.

On Tuesday this week, in a brief "Dear Professor Rees" letter dated October 20, Turnbull told Rees the Sydney City Council "will be unable to participate in this year's Peace Prize events". That is, the council was blackballing both the lecture and the award ceremony. Turnbull's reasons for doing so were a travesty: the usual ignorant mishmash of allegations forever trotted out by the usual suspects against any Palestinian with international credibility and standing in the peace process.

Lucy Turnbull should read the letter from a Jewish academic at Oxford University published in the Herald yesterday. Then she should go hide her head in shame. The letter responded to Tony Stephens's story in the Herald two days earlier about Turnbull's craven cave-in to the anti-Ashrawi campaign. It said: "Opposition to awarding the Sydney Peace Prize to Dr Hanan Ashrawi has so far been based on historical ignorance, ideological blindness, wilful malevolence or provincial political opportunism." (Are you listening, Malcolm?)

The letter continued: "Dr Ashrawi has been a rare and precious voice of reason in the peace process and her commitment to a just solution has been exemplary. She has consistently encouraged Palestinians to reject violence, despite continuing Israeli territorial expansion and systemic political oppression." (signed) Ben Saul, Tutor in International Law, Magdalen College, University of Oxford, England.

And what does Rees think of Lucy's white feather? He said yesterday: "When I negotiated the sponsorship contract with the City of Sydney, I did so with Frank Sartor, not Lucy Turnbull. She's an interesting person. I've had face-to-face communications with all the major corporate sponsors who support us over this issue. I even flew down to Melbourne to talk to Rio Tinto. But Lucy Turnbull and co are like the Medicis of the Town Hall. She never talks to me. All I got was this summary note a couple of days ago in which, for her own purposes, she completely misinterprets Ashrawi's public statements and says she won't publicly support us this year.

"In other words, she won't be seen in the same company as Ashrawi. She doesn't even want to be seen in the lecture theatre. Apparently it's more than her husband's political life is worth."

Ah, yes, of course - Malcolm Turnbull's much publicised stalking of the Liberals' Peter King in his pursuit of the eastern suburbs' federal seat of Wentworth*. Lucy Turnbull has gone to ground since her "Dear John" letter to Rees this week. But a senior business figure phoned Rees on Tuesday to tell him of a conversation he'd overheard at a function the previous night. It apparently included Lucy being told something like: "That wretched King is going around saying you support the Palestinians because you're a party to this peace prize."

[*The seat of Wentworth has the highest concentration of Jewish voters of any Australian electorate- R]

Rees commented: "So Hanan Ashrawi gets her name sullied and ridiculed because the Turnbulls want to be more important that they already are."And Kathryn Greiner? Greiner was chairwoman of the Sydney Peace Foundation for four years until her resignation this year over an issue of solidarity involving her husband, Nick, against the Senate of Sydney University and unconnected with the peace prize bitchiness. She was one of the jury of six who selected Ashrawi unanimously in September last year as this year's recipient (the other five: Rees; social researcher Hugh Mackay; Dr Jane Fulton from University management; Stella Cornelius, Sydney's 83-year-old grand dame of conflict mediation; James McLachlan, a director of Kerry Packer's PBL).

Greiner remains a non-voting member in support of Rees. But two weeks ago, on October 9, she phoned Rees to talk frankly about her concerns with an accelerating campaign against Ashrawi. A file note of their conversation reads: KG: "I have to speak logically. It is either Hanan Ashrawi or the Peace Foundation. That's our choice, Stuart. My distinct impression is that if you persist in having her here, they'll destroy you. Rob Thomas of City Group is in trouble for supporting us. I think he must have had a phone call from New York. And you know Danny Gilbert [partner in the law firm, Gilbert and Tobin] has already been warned off."

SR: "You must be joking. We've been over this a hundred times. We consulted widely. We agreed the jury's decision, made over a year ago, was not only unanimous but that we would support it, together."

KG: "But listen, I'm trying to present the logic of this. They'll destroy what you've worked for. They are determined to show we made a bad choice. I think it's Frank Lowy's money. You don't understand just how much opposition there is. We cannot go ahead. If only there was progress in the Middle East, this would not be such a bad time."

SR: "I won't be subject to bullying and intimidation. We are being threatened by members of a powerful group who think they have an entitlement to tell others what to do. This opposition is orchestrated. The arguments are all the same - that Hanan Ashrawi has not condemned violence sufficiently, that she was highly critical of Israel in her address to the UN's Johannesburg Conference on racism, and wilder accusations that do not bear repetition."

KG: "But you're not listening to the logic. The Commonwealth Bank - I was at a reception last night - is highly critical. We could not approach them for financial help for the Schools Peace Prize. We'll get no support from them. The business world will close ranks. They're saying we are being one-sided, that we've only supported Palestine."

SR: "Kathryn, we need to avoid the trap of even using the language of 'one side'. That's not the issue. We are being bullied and intimidated and you are asking that we give way to it. The letter writers and the phone callers who this group encourage have spent weeks bullying a 25-year-old colleague of mine who handles the foundation's administration. You are asking me to collude with bullying."

KG: "I'll tell you how serious this is. Bob Carr won't come to the dinner. He'll flick the responsibility to [his deputy, Andrew] Refshauge at the last minute. And you won't get the Town Hall. It is more than Lucy's life is worth. They will desert us as well."

SR: "I've never given way to bullying. Public life is too much characterised by cowardice. If we give way I'd be so ashamed I couldn't face myself. The image of the Peace Foundation would be shameful. Our reputation would count for nothing."

KG: "My friend, I am telling you what the reality is. The foundation will be destroyed. I'd hate to see its work come to nothing over this. Our critics are saying it's an awful choice."

SR: "These critics are 'they' and 'them', invisible but powerful people. They stay powerful because they are invisible. They bully and intimidate in the same breath they behave as unblemished pillars of the community. Do you mean to say that in cautious, often gutless Australia we are not going to follow through on this? No. I remain completely committed to our decision."

Watch this space.

This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/24/1066974313719.html

HELLO! THIS IS GOD TALKING!

2003-10-24T21:14:00.000+10:00

I take the world of portents and omens quite seriously but even the casual dabbler would have to wonder if God has turned film critic? If I was working on this film I'd resign and go for a refreshing exorcism first thing in the morning.

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Lightning strikes Gibson's Christ

ROME, Italy --Actor Jim Caviezel, who plays the son of God in Mel Gibson's controversial film "The Passion of Christ" has been struck by lightning during shooting.

Caviezel was uninjured, but a producer described how he saw lightning come out of the actor's ear.

An assistant director on the film, Jan Michelini, was also hit -- for the second time in a few months.

The first time, a lightning fork struck his umbrella during filming on top of a hill near Matera in Italy, causing light burns to the tips of his fingers, VLife, a supplement to Variety publications said in its October issue.

A few months later the second strike happened, a few hours from Rome.

The film, which is spoken in Latin and Aramaic, has come in for criticism from religious leaders. It portrays the last hours of Christ, but some Jewish and Roman Catholic groups are concerned the film will fuel anti-Semitism.

THE CHICKEN SANDWICH AFFAIR.

2003-10-24T13:23:00.000+10:00

After a morning feeling relatively comfortable with my teeth in I decided it was time to move on to the next step- solid food. I am managing drinking and keeping the prostheses in place. Talking still isn’t great but I can practice on local shopkeeps.

And so we came to face the experiment that will remain known as the chicken sandwich affair. A very simple sandwich of white bread and pressed chicken was duly prepared. The stage was set for a challenging and very undignified incident that stretched over about one hour and probably consumed more calories than I ingested!

The first difficulty I found is that it is hard to know exactly whether the target snack is in one’s mouth and where it is positioned relative to teeth. The lack of sensation makes it very difficult to know how hard to bite and when a bite is successful.

Once I managed to capture a corner of the sandwich in my mouth I was faced with a new dilemma. It is so very long since I had anything like a full set of teeth that I have forgotten how to chew! The little neural default process for ‘chew’ that remains after so many months totally toothless is contingent on the few limited teeth I had before the extraction surgery.

Try to imagine chewing as an intellectual exercise. I was reduced to having to think about what should happen next and trying to achieve it. I think I missed the thing about using molars to grind- my inclination was a rodent like nibble. The bonus of having a very large plate covering the upper palate and plastic over the entire tooth & gum area is that it is impossible to feel what is piling up. The normal swallow reflex wasn’t working for me. It was more a matter of marshalling the bits of sticky sandwich with my tongue to swallow consciously.

The biggest blow to my dignity was the lower denture coming loose and getting all yukky sandwich pulp stuck under it. I had to pause mid-snack and clean it. I think I know why it came lose, I haven’t put enough glue at the very rear. The dentist warned me about that one.

With a bit of cheating and a definite lack of charm I managed a sandwich much earlier than the ‘adapting to dentures’ process would predict. If I were in public it would have been humiliating in the extreme.

As it is my Miss Kitty has developed a quite odd fascination for the dentures. She was asleep in the bathroom when I got up this morning, very unusual. Her purpose was revealed when I opened the ‘denture bath’ and was all but knocked aside in her eagerness to see inside. She then watched the whole process of putting them in with a distressed look on her face and finally walked away squawking in protest. She can’t help looking at my ‘teeth’ if I’m in the room. If I sit somewhere that she can climb onto me she will come seeking to investigate. She is polite about it but really wants to smell in my mouth [not allowed, she was indulged once] and tries gently to open my mouth with her little paws.

Can anyone explain what that’s about?

EDDIE IZZARD in THE SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE

2003-10-24T08:36:00.000+10:00

I watched 'Shadow of the Vampire' recently. It was OK- a little drawn out and way too self-conscious. Probably the greatest weakness here was the disastrous screenplay that lacks style and structure. The plot unfolds in a clumsy manner while most of the dialogue sounds unintentionally hammy. The anachronistic language usage was making me crazy. I enjoyed all the 20s glamour anyway. Udo Keir will always get me to watch something.

I don't intend to write an extensive review of the film- the DVD rental place made me give it back. What I did want to note, after being so merciless with Eddie Izzard's performance in 'Cat's Meow' [reviewed Oct 1- click here and scroll down], is that his performance in SoV is much better. He looks and acts the 1920s Hollywood fop perfectly. Visually he reminded me very much of the male romantic lead [Friedrich?] in Metropolis.

ZIONIST LOBBY HARASSMENT OF ASHRAWI CONTINUES

2003-10-24T07:33:00.000+10:00

Hanan Ashrawi and the Price of Dissent

by Antony Loewenstein; October 23, 2003

ZNet | Asia

It's not easy advocating Palestinian rights. Edward Said frequently commented upon the constant abuse he had received throughout his life. Upon his death, the Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) in Australia (related to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in America) renounced Said as 'anti-American and anti-Semitic'. Supporting Palestinian self-determination, critiquing Israeli Government policy and questioning Zionist history was seemingly enough to incur the wrath of Jewish groups around the world.

Hanan Ashrawi is currently finding herself in similar straits in Australia. The Sydney Peace Foundation, associated with the University of Sydney, recently decided to award Dr Ashrawi its annual peace prize. Previous winners have included the East Timorese leader Xanana Gusmao in 2000 and Archbishop Desmond Tutu in 1999. What originally appeared to be an uncontroversial choice has developed into a full-blown battle between the Peace Foundation, elements of the Jewish lobby, the New South Wales premier, Bob Carr and the Jewish press. The issue in my opinion, however, is not simply the prize, but a more fundamental debate around Palestinian identity in Australia. I believe it is nothing less than an attempt by the Jewish community to delegitimize the Palestinian cause. This kind of behaviour is becoming a regrettably common Zionist ploy in the Western world for increasingly transparent reasons.

Since the announcement of the prize to Ashrawi, Jewish groups have begun a campaign to firstly discredit the high-profile winner, and then to convince Premier Carr that attending the ceremony on November 6 would be, in the words of Gerald Steinberg, an associate professor of political studies at Bar Ilan University, "honouring war, murder and hatred, while debasing the concept of peace and reconciliation". Incidentally, Professor Steinberg launched a petition to stop Ashrawi receiving the prestigious award and received nearly 4000 signatures. The Australian Jewish News (AJN), the sole Jewish community newspaper in Australia, wrote in its editorial on October 17, that "an Australian premier [Bob Carr] is about to present a peace prize to an apologist for terrorism…The problem is not that Premier Carr is meeting Dr Ashrawi; on the contrary, the more engagement there is, the greater the chance of achieving a solution. The problem is that by presenting her with the prize, he is endorsing her track record."

Her track record, according to the AJN, is thwarting the Oslo peace deals in the 1990s, not condemning Hamas as a terrorist organization and suggesting Jews living in the West Bank are legitimate targets for Palestinian aggression. All these comments are a misappropriation of the truth. Dr Ashrawi was clearly aware of virulent anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab feeling in the Australian Jewish community, as her comments to the Sydney Morning Herald on October 23 suggested: "I knew there would be mobilised voices trying to malign Palestinians, particularly ones like me who have been outspoken for peace."

So who are the groups so determined to smear Dr Ashrawi? The Australian Jewish News has been the conduit through which numerous Jewish groups and individuals have been able to libel her. The paper, not known for its coverage outside the official Israeli/Palestinian paradigm, has chosen to repeat the lies against Ashrawi and in doing so, has become even more of an impediment to dialogues of understanding between the two sides. Writing in The Sydney Morning Herald on October 23, Peter Wertheim, former president of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, suggested:

"Ashrawi certainly presents well in the media. She is articulate and intelligent. But she is also dogmatic and ideologically driven. Her carefully cultivated media image as a moderate cannot disguise her consistent history as a rejectionist and a maximalist.

Awarding a peace prize to someone with Ashrawi's track record is a de facto endorsement of her hardline views. It has everything to do with politics, and nothing to do with peace. That is why the Jewish community - not some lobby group - is opposed to any attempt to gloss over her uncompromising pronouncements and legitimise her views.
Hysterical references to "the power of the Jewish lobby" are merely crude attempts to deflect attention away from the cold hard facts of Ashrawi's public record."

Wertheim was gracious enough to argue that "there are, of course, legitimate criticisms that can be made about the peace process and the "road map", from both the Israeli and Palestinian perspectives," but then goes on to list the catalogue of deceptions supposedly perpetuated by one of the leading lights in the Palestinian movement.

Jeremy Jones, President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, argued that the awarders of the prize were "blinded by celebrity" and the decision reflected badly on the judges (primarily University of Sydney members, while its advisory body consists of Kerry O'Brien, Pat O'Shane AM and Hugh Mackay, amongst others). This is despite the fact that two previous winners, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mary Robinson, have endorsed the decision.

Indeed in August this year, after learning of Jones' complaints regarding the Peace Prize to Ashrawi, NSW Labor member Leo McLeay said the following in the New South Wales parliament:

"Mr Jones's comments on this issue are in line with his regular attacks on members of Parliament and others who give any support for the people of Palestine…It amazes me how intolerant Mr Jones and the pro-Israeli lobby can be. If you are not an enthusiastic supporter of the Sharon version of the Berlin Wall [in the West Bank occupied territory] you are considered anti-Jewish. When will the Jeremy Joneses of this world understand that criticism of the Israeli Government and its actions is not anti-Semitism?"

Other Jewish groups have also joined in placing pressure on Bob Carr to withdraw his support for Ashrawi. On October 22, the Sydney Lord Mayor, Lucy Turnbull, declared that the City of Sydney would not be supporting the prize to Ashrawi. Turnbull claimed to suddenly find her an unsuitable choice because she was allegedly opposed to a two-state solution.

The director of the Peace Prize, Stuart Rees, has said that Ashrawi was awarded the distinction due to her "lifelong advocacy of women's rights [being] just one item of impressive evidence of her work for peace with justice."

The debate brings up a number of uncomfortable realities regarding the influence and mentality of the Jewish lobby in Australia, though their modus operandi is far from limited to this country. I would argue that the central, yet unspoken, complaint of the Jewish community is awarding a prize to a woman who so well articulates the Palestinian cause. In the current battle for international legitimacy, there is no question that Israel is losing friends at an ever-increasing rate. For this reason alone, the legitimacy given to Ashrawi lessen the arguments of Zionist and Israeli supporters. She is being given credence after a lifetime of speaking out against Israeli aggression. Speaking on ABC newsradio in 2002 she best summed up the reasons why so many in the Jewish lobby can never understand the Palestinian cause: "Israel seems to think that it can initiate collective punitive measures, it can assassinate people, it can continue to imprison a whole nation and kill civilians at will and with impunity, and doesn't expect that there are people on the other side who will adopt the same tactics. This is self-defeating either way."

What infuriates the Zionist lobby is that Ashrawi has seen a succession of Israeli leaders unwilling to make peace and she's be unafraid of saying so. While the likes of Barak, Shamir and Netanyahu has come and gone, and each of them with a proud history of talking peace while expanding settlements and clamping down on the Occupied Territories, Ashrawi has outlived them all.

One of the leading lights of the Israeli peace movement, Uri Avnery, founder of Gush Shalom, (www.gush-shalom.org/english/) has spent a lifetime fighting against the militaristic Israeli mindset and supporting a two-state solution. He recently reminded readers of Ehud Barak's infamous words a few years ago regarding the Palestinians and the proposed peace deals: "There is no one to talk with!" This mentality lives on in the campaign against Hanan Ashrawi. The Jewish lobby doesn't want people like her in the public sphere talking about Palestinian aspirations, hopes, fears, angers or dreams. It's much easier to portray the Palestinians as violent, anarchic and hateful towards Jews, as the Zionist lobby frequently claims. Indeed, members of the Sharon Government or Jewish groups throughout the world echo the words of Barak almost daily.

Rawan Abdul-Nabi, writing on the Australian based Palestinian Human Rights Campaign website, said in a powerful editorial recently that the treatment dished out to Ashrawi in Australia fitted a pattern throughout the world.

"The Sydney campaign against Dr Ashrawi is part of an ongoing history of attacks against prominent Palestinian spokespeople. Most notably, last year Dr Ashrawi was targeted as a keynote speaker in the US at the Colorado College Symposium titled, 'September 11 - One Year Later: Responding to Global Challenges'. For weeks prior, a national debate was waged in the media and amongst community groups in an attempt to destroy Ashrawi's credibility and diminish her ongoing commitment to justice and peace. The Governor of Colorado, Bill Owens and the State's two Senators succumbed to the pressure and were publicly opposed to Ashrawi's visit. During her address in Colorado, Ashrawi spoke most eloquently and compellingly, passionately and honestly from a Palestinian and humanist viewpoint, despite the intrusive vocal opposition.

Amidst heckles and jeers Ashrawi testified to some of the brutal daily realities of living under an illegal military occupation. She spoke of her willingness to devote her life to peace and justice with Israelis and Jews:

"I've lived under military occupation most of my adult life. I have been repeatedly beaten up, shot at, interrogated, [and] even imprisoned. I have seen some of my best friends killed. My next-door neighbour's kid shot in the back. I've seen my daughter's childhood totally destroyed, living in fear, being tear-gassed, and living under curfew. I've seen houses demolished, crops destroyed, our infrastructure destroyed. And recently I've lived for weeks under curfew, a prisoner in my own home, without water, without electricity and often without a phone. I've lived under constant shelling -- I've seen the windows and doors of my home (my ancestral home) being blown away. But I'm not saying this to tell you that I'm a victim -- no --I'm saying this to tell you that despite all these things, despite my living under captivity and seeing the worst horrors of violence, being on the receiving end of the last remaining colonial situation in the world, an occupation, I have never succumbed to hate. I have never allowed hate to take over, and I have never accepted any kind of revenge as a motivation."

Ashrawi herself is no stranger to these sorts of defamatory campaigns. She has endured campaigns of hate based on slander and lies for most of her life, from those who are intent on silencing the Palestinian narrative. Besides, she has lived a significant part of her life under the jackboot of Israeli occupation; do Australian Jewish leaders think that their attempts to intimidate and silence will succeed in the face of truth and integrity? As Dr Hanan Ashrawi herself said at Colorado College, in the midst of being booed, jeered and faced with "I disagree" placards every time she made a point, (ironically, even when she denounced violence against Israeli civilians):

"Not only won't I be distracted -- I wasn't distracted by bullets, I will not be distracted by signs. I just appeal to you to listen. It's important, you might have something to learn. While I'm talking to you here, I have invitations from students, from Israeli universities asking me to address them, and I've addressed many Israeli universities, and they want to listen, because by creating a common discourse, a common language, you overcome not just those stereotypes but precisely those forces that want to perpetuate the conflict. You're sitting here wanting to keep us in conflict."

In November 2000, renowned Middle East reporter for the UK's Independent newspaper, Robert Fisk, interviewed Ashrawi at her home in Ramallah. In a far ranging piece, Ashwari rallied against journalistic bias towards Palestinian casualties, the fraud of the so-called peace process and the continued suffering of her people under constant occupation:
"The new "intifada" will continue - "in different shapes, different forms" - she believes. "We are not fond of mass suicide, but we want the right to resist occupation and injustice. Then the moment we say 'resist', the Israelis pull out the word 'terrorist' - so a child with a stone becomes the 'legitimate' target for Israeli sniper fire and a high-velocity bullet."

The Jewish lobby would claim Ashrawi is justifying suicide bombing, when she is doing nothing of the sort. She is talking about the right of resistance to an illegal and brutal occupation. The same right eventually extended to other peoples throughout the world, not least of which the ANC and its brothers and sisters in South Africa during the apartheid years.

The heart of Ashrawi's arguments are best summed up in this comment to Fisk:
"Now we are all being fed well-worn phrases: 'peace process', 'back on track', 'ceasefire', 'time-out', 'put an end to violence', 'Arafat to restrain/control his people', 'do we have the right peace partner?' This is a racist way of looking at the Palestinians and it obscures the fact that we've suffered an Israeli occupation all along. When newspapers ask if Palestinians deliberately sacrifice their children, it's an incredibly racist thing to do. They are dehumanising the Palestinians. The press and the Israelis have rid us of the most elemental human feelings in a very cynical, racist discourse that blames the victims."

The Jewish lobby in Australia are fully aware they are contributing to the dehumanisation through their campaign against Ashrawi. If Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak or Ariel Sharon (laughably referred to by George W.Bush as "a man of peace") were awarded the peace prize, the Jewish lobby would celebrate the fairness of the distinction. The very fact that a Palestinian is winning, galls Jewish leaders and leaves their bigotry, racism and intolerance clear for all to see. When will we realise that many of these people don't want peace with the Palestinians and prefer spending their time labelling critics of Israeli policy as anti-Semitic? It's a reality many are finally waking up to.

At a time when the Howard Government and the Crean Opposition makes shameless overtures to the Jewish lobby, the aggressive campaign against Ashrawi should come as no surprise. As Sydney Morning Herald columnist Alan Ramsey wrote on 6 September, when commenting on a speech given by Labor leader Simon Crean to the Jewish community:

Crean: "Beyond the human tragedy, further damage has been done. The Jerusalem bombing could destroy the peace process. For the sake of the people of Israel, and indeed the Palestinian people, I hope it doesn't …"

Ah yes, `"the Palestinian people". At last, a mention. This extract is approximately a single page of an 11-page speech. Labor's attitude to the Palestinians is similarly modest in the other 10 pages. As a depiction of Labor policy, it represents one of the more sniveling grovels in recent memory.

As this cartoon (http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/id137.htm ) featured on Norman Finkelstein's website displays (author of The Holocaust Industry and Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict), the last quarter century has seen the Zionist lobby surreally shift from victim to oppressor, yet still cannily maintain the victim tag, in face of overwhelming Israeli military and political strength. There is no reason to believe that the current battle over Dr Ashrawi is not yet another attempt at legitimising Jewish supremacy in the Israeli/Palestinian debate.

Antony Loewenstein is a journalist based in Sydney, Australia.

IMPERIAL VISIT COVERAGE

2003-10-23T16:40:00.000+10:00

Oh so much fun to be had in the press with Dubya on our soil for a few hours. Another nail in the coffin of Australian Democracy. We have been locked out of our own Parliament, had our right to protest nullified and been subject to absurd security measures.

Enjoy the brouhaha!
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Senators ordered out as Bush praises war effort

October 23, 2003 - 2:13PM

Senators Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle were ordered out for protesting as US President George W. Bush today addressed a joint sitting of Australia's parliament, praising the nation's war effort and reminding everyone that he had called prime minister John Howard "a man of steel" because "that's Texan for fair dinkum".

But, despite attempts by some Coalition MPs to push them out of the chamber, the two senators remained, with Senator Brown saying he shook Mr Bush's hand on the way out. "It was a double handshake with thumb around," said Senator Brown later.

Mr Bush lauded Prime Minister John Howard as a man of exceptional courage.

In an address to federal parliament, Mr Bush said Mr Howard exemplified the qualities of one of the world's greatest democracies.

``Prime Minister John Howard is a leader of exceptional courage, who exemplifies the finest qualities of one of the world's greatest democracies,'' he said.

Mr Bush paid tribute to Australia and Australians for their contribution to the war against terror, and to previous wars.

``Australians are fair-minded and tolerant and easy-going,'' he said.

``Yet in times of trouble and danger, Australians are the first to step forward, to accept hard duties and to fight bravely until the fighting is done.

``In a hundred years' experience, American soldiers have come to know the courage and good fellowship of the diggers at their side.

``We were together in the battle at Hamel, together in the Coral Sea, together in New Guinea, on the Korean Peninsula, in Vietnam.

``And in the war on terror, once again, we are at each other's side.''

Mr Bush said Americans had seen first hand the work of terrorists in the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

Australians had seen the impact of terror in the Bali attack on October 12 last year.

Mr Bush said terrorists would not respond to negotiations.

``The nature of the terrorist threat defines the strategy we are using to fight it,'' he said.

``These committed killers will not be stopped by negotiations.

``They will not respond to reason. The terrorists cannot be appeased - they must be found, they must be fought and they must be defeated.''

Mr Bush said Australia, the US and other allies had driven terrorists from Afghanistan.

He said terrorists hoped to gain chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

The war against Iraq was aimed at stopping weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of terrorists.

``So we are confronting outlaw regimes that aid terrorists, that pursue weapons of mass destruction, and defy the demands of the world,'' he said.

``America, Australia and other nations acted in Iraq to remove a grave and gathering danger, instead of wishing and waiting while tragedy drew closer.''

Mr Bush said he could not imagine anyone believed the world was better if Saddam Hussein retained power in Iraq.

``Surely not anyone who cares about human rights and democracy and stability in the Middle East,'' he said.

``Today, Saddam's regime is gone, and no-one should mourn his passing.''

Senators Brown and Nettle ordered to be removed for protesting.

At this point in his speech, Mr Bush was interrupted by Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown, who was then ordered from the chamber by the Speaker. And when Senator Kerry Nettle was also ordered out for protesting, Mr Bush lifted his voice and said: "I love free speech."

Senator Brown refused to leave the chamber when asked to do so by an official and later shook Mr Bush's hand while Senator Nettle attempted to push some papers into Mr Bush's hands, which he refused to take. Leader of the House Tony Abbott moved for the Greens senators to be suspended.

Continuing his speech, Mr Bush said Australia and the US and its allies had sought to use the United Nations to enforce its motions against Iraq.

``If the resolutions of the world are to be more than ink on paper, they must be enforced,'' he said.

``If the institutions of the world are to be more than debating societies, they eventually must act.''

Mr Bush paid special tribute to Australian SAS member Andrew Russell who was killed in Afghanistan, saying he had paid the ultimate sacrifice in the war against terror.

The president said although there had been decisive victories, there was still much to be done.

``We cannot let up in our offensive against terror, even a bit,'' he said.

``And we must continue to build stability and peace in the Middle East and Asia as the alternatives to hatred and fear.

``We seek the rise of freedom and self-government in Afghanistan and Iraq for the benefit of their people, as an example to their neighbours, and for the security of the world.''

House welcomes Bush

Earlier, Speaker of the House Neil Andrew welcomed Mr Bush and his wife Laura to the chamber.

``Mr President, I welcome you to the House of Representatives chamber,'' he said.

``Your address today to members and senators is indeed a significant occasion in the history of our federal parliament.''

Howard praises Bush's courage
Mr Howard praised Mr Bush's courage in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The prime minister said he first met Mr Bush on September 10, 2001, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the ANZUS alliance.

But the terror attacks on the US the next day changed the world.

``And we saw arising out of those events the character and the strength and the leadership of the man we welcome today,'' Mr Howard said. He said Mr Bush rallied his own people and the people of the world in the fight against terrorism.

Mr Howard said Australia was divided over the question of joining the war on Iraq.

But he said the government believed the war on Iraq was right.

``Let me simply state on behalf of the government, that we believe the right decision was taken, we believe Australia was right to join the United States, and I know that all Australians believe that the people of Iraq are better off without that loathsome dictator Saddam Hussein.'

Mr Howard said Australia and the US shared a strong future.

``The significance of America to Australia will grow as the years go by, it will not diminish,'' he said.

``And that is one of the driving forces behind our commitment to a free trade agreement.''

Mr Howard said the US, in partnership with China and Japan, would play a key role in promoting stability in the region - a move that would be increasingly important to Australia.

``For those and many other reasons, both as a friend, as an individual and very importantly as a standard bearer for the values that we hold in common, I have great pleasure, Mr Speaker and Mr Senate President, on behalf of the government in welcoming George Bush, the 43rd President of the United States of America.''

Labor's opposition to war enriching for relationship, says Crean
Opposition Leader Simon Crean told the president said his party's opposition to the Iraq war could enrich Australia's partnership with the United States .

He said the partnership between the two nations was bi-partisan beyond political parties and administrations.

``The Australian perspective is bound to differ from time to time from the perspective of the United States and of course on occasions, friends do disagree as we did on this side with the war on Iraq,'' Mr Crean said.

``But such is the strength of our shared values, our interests, our principles that those differences can enrich rather than diminish, they can strengthen rather then weaken the partnership.

``Our commitment to the alliance remains unshakeable as does our commitment to the war on terror.

``But friends must be honest with each other.

``Honesty is, after all, the foundation stone of that great Australian value mateship,'' Mr Crean said.

Bush pledges fair treatment for Australians held at Guantanamo Bay
Mr Bush today promised that the two Australians in US military custody at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba would be dealt with fairly.

Mr Bush said he raised the issued with Prime Minister John Howard during 20 minutes of talks at Parliament House in Canberra today.

"There is an ongoing process to deal with these two people," Mr Bush told reporters.

"We will deal with them in a way that conforms with our standards."

Two Australians, David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib, have been in US custody without charge for nearly two years after being detained as part of the war on terror.

Difficulties in free trade talks, says Bush
Mr Bush said he talked to Mr Howard about the proposed free trade deal with Australia, and said both countries were committed to trying to finalise the agreement by the end of December.

However, he said there were still some difficult areas for negotiation, including agriculture and intellectual property rights.

Sheriff comment explained
Mr Bush explained his comments from last week, when he described Australia as a sheriff in the region.

He said the comments had to be put in context and he was responding to a question that suggested Australia should be a deputy sheriff.

Mr Howard told reporters he saw Australia's role to be more like the Pacific phrase Helpem Fren, which means helping friends.

Mr Bush said he preferred his description of Mr Howard as a man of steel.

"A man of steel - I'll repeat the compliment," Mr Bush said.

Protesters chant as Bush arrives at Parliament
Amid unprecedented security as protesters were kept at bay in Canberra, United States President George W Bush arrived at Parliament today to hold private talks covering terrorism and trade with prime minister John Howard and opposition leader Simon Crean before addressing MPs.

Outside parliament, thousands of protesters rallied, chanting "Go Home Bush" and "Warmongers Out, Out, Out" as the president's motorcade arrived.

But cheers greeted Mr and Mrs Bush as they walked into the Marble Hall of parliament past a guard of honour, after stopping to chat to well-wishers on the way in.

The couples posed for photographs in front of the stairs in the Parliament House foyer. Mr Bush put his hand over his heart as a band played the US national anthem.

Mr and Mrs Howard sang the Australian national anthem, Advance Australia Fair, when it was played.

Mr and Mrs Bush held hands before the president gave a brief wave to the crowd.

They then walked through to parliament's Great Hall, then past the reflective pool where Mr Bush signed parliament's visitors' book.

Mr Bush was then introduced to House Speaker Neil Andrew and Senate President Paul Calvert.

Plan to march to the barbie
There was no attempt by demonstrators, who swarmed across the parliamentary lawns brandishing placards, to cross the barricades which were heavily guarded by police.

Organisers estimated numbers at 5,000. They said protesters were planning to march on The Lodge, the prime minister's official Canberra residence, where Mr Bush and his entourage will enjoy a barbecue lunch.

Greens senator Bob Brown told protesters it was appalling the Australian people were locked out of the parliament building.

"This is a parliament disconnected from the people in service to a visiting head of state who does not respect people of this country," Senator Brown said.

Labor MP Carmen Lawrence also addressed the crowd but said she was not anti-American.

"Mr Bush, our argument is with you and our government which has slavishly acquiesced in your brutal folly," she said.

Catholic Bishop Pat Power also attended the rallying calling for the governments to focus on poverty.

"Let us begin to talk about a war on poverty," he said.

Lawyer Stephen Kenny, who represented David Hicks in custody in Cuba, said the issue of prisoners of war was one Australia needed to consider.

"We are not second class citizens, we have the same rights as everyone else," he said, calling for access to his client in Cuba.

Labor MP Harry Quick said Mr Bush's visit was one of a "federal marshal" thanking his deputy in Australia.

"Today we are being asked to be respectful to the president to the United States." "This Texan cannot buy us."

Helicopters over Yarralumla
Earlier, helicopters and fighter aircraft patrolled the skies over the stately homestead while bomb squad officers and plain clothes police swarmed around the grounds on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin.

Media and a handful of onlookers were kept well clear of Government House by security officers while golfers on the adjacent links were moved off the closest greens.

After his meeting with Major-General Jeffery, Mr Bush will go to Parliament House for a meeting with Prime Minister John Howard before addressing parliament.

The president was at Yarralumla for just 19 minutes, arriving and leaving in a cavalcade of black limousines and other vehicles.

He headed to federal parliament to address the nation's MPs and senators.

Protesters mass in Canberra
Hundreds of protesters gathered this morning on the lawn outside Parliament House in Canberra for the arrival of US President George W Bush.

Demonstrators were watched by a large number of police as they held up placards on an area of lawn surrounded by barricades.

Messages targeting the president included "Bush is an evil guy", "Lying war heads" and "Australians for Peace".

The growing crowd, which included small children and the elderly, applauded as protesters carried an effigy of Mr Bush being followed closely by a dog with the head of Prime Minister John Howard. Another group of protesters held high a banner with Chinese characters which they said translated as: "We do not want to be George Bush's arse lickers."

Police said they were not expecting any trouble from demonstrators.

An Australian Federal Police (AFP) spokeswoman said security for Mr Bush's visit today included some 450 AFP officers from the ACT and other areas.

However they were expecting everything to go smoothly.

"There has been a lot of work between the AFP and organisers of the protests to discuss what rules and regulations are, who is going to do what and what the needs of the protesters are," she said.

"The police view has been to try to accommodate the needs of the protesters as much as possible so that they are happy and there is no breach of security and we can all work together."

Police helicopters flew overhead, overseeing the security of the parliamentary zone.

Unprecedented security for Mr Bush's flying visit to Australia has seen protesters pushed well back from the parliament buildings.

Mr Bush was due to arrive at Parliament House at about 10am (AEST) before addressing a joint sitting of parliament later in the morning.

Agencies

This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/23/1066631537404.html

MPs PROTEST BUSH VISIT

2003-10-23T16:00:00.000+10:00

Below is an open letter to President Bush presented for the occasion of his address to a joint-sitting of the Australian Commonwealth Parliament.

Mr Bush, here is why we opposed the Iraq war

October 23, 2003

Dear President Bush,

The friendship between our countries is longstanding and deeply felt. We have a great deal in common, particularly our commitment to democracy. We retain our commitment to the ANZUS alliance.

That's why we feel it's important for you to understand why so many Australians opposed the war on Iraq.

Australians have a history of support for international efforts to stop the spread of weapons including weapons of mass destruction and landmines. Weapons inspectors should have been given the time they asked for to peacefully disarm Iraq. No evidence of a massive weapons building program nor capability has emerged since the war. Australia, the US and Britain went to war because of a "clear and present danger" which just did not exist.

The ALP firmly believes that international conflict should, wherever possible, be dealt with peacefully and through international co-operation under the auspices of the United Nations. When all attempts for a peaceful resolution have been exhausted, United Nations sanction is vital if force is to be used.

What is to prevent other countries from following the example of our attack on Iraq, and arguing the right to preventative self-defence? Why shouldn't North and South Korea attack each other using the template we developed in Iraq? Or India and Pakistan?

The precedent we have set is a very dangerous one, and there is every indication that the world will become less safe, not more, because of our actions. Certainly the British Joint Intelligence Committee believes the risk of terrorism will increase due to the war with Iraq.

Our own government knew of this increased risk before the war and refused to tell the Australian people.

Many Australians have continuing concerns about what will happen in Iraq now. Civil unrest continues. The death toll for Iraqis and US, UK and allied troops mounts. The bombing of the United Nations headquarters shocked the world, and it seems that instead of eradicating terrorism in Iraq the country has become a terrorist magnet.

The United States must now redouble its efforts to enlist the help of the world community to bring peace and rebuild Iraq, and then withdraw as soon as practicable. Iraqis must regain control of their destinies and their resources as soon as possible.

While many of us didn't support the war on Iraq, all Australians welcome the end of Saddam Hussein's brutal regime.

Our hope for Iraq is that there will be a strong, stable, democratic government which represents all the people of Iraq, including the ethnic and religious minorities.

Our hope is that the people of Iraq will have control over the rich resources of their country and be able to use those resources for their collective benefit. Our hope for the world is that this mistake will lead us to renew our commitment to the United Nations and its processes for promoting and maintaining global peace.

Signed by:

Dick Adams, Anthony Albanese, Anna Burke, Ann Corcoran, Laurie Ferguson, Jennie George, Steve Gibbons, Sharon Grierson, Alan Griffin, Jill Hall, Kelly Hoare, Julia Irwin, Harry Jenkins, Duncan Kerr, Mark Latham, Carmen Lawrence, Kirsten Livermore, Jann McFarlane, Leo McLeay, Bob McMullan, Daryl Melham, Michelle O'Byrne, Brendan O'Connor, Gavin O'Connor, Tanya Plibersek, Harry Quick, Lindsay Tanner, Maria Vamvakinou. Senators Nick Bolkus, George Campbell, Peter Cook, Trish Crossin, Kay Denman, John Faulkner, Linda Kirk, Kate Lundy, Jan McLucas, Gavin Marshall, Claire Moore, Ruth Webber, Penny Wong.

FUN WITH FALSIES!

2003-10-23T14:47:00.000+10:00

Something remarkable happened today. I got my teeth! As it turns out the predictions of when I would be toothed were sort of true. I was told Oct/Nov- they only implied the 2002 bit! The long suffering followers of my life saga will know how many bullant nests I had to climb to get this tasteful prosthesis.

I was warned that there is a settling in period to get used to the teeth but I may have underestimated what that meant. I thought I was going out for meat for dinner TONIGHT! I have become a fiend for Greek style Lamb. The Nosferatu on the Yeeros bar...

I've been presented a kind of 'physio' program of getting used to longer periods with each piece [ie- top & bottom] in place in turn. Strongly advised not to wear in public etc for at least a week for fear I lose [and break!] my teeth!

Hope, my three legged kitty, spotted the new teeth from across the room and came immediately to investigate. After a very thorough sniff in my mouth she concluded I was wounded and made gentle gestures to help remove the thing in my mouth.

Next up I got really bold and decided I could manage a drink from my tea.

Sure, Rob- try that.

I choked on tea, spraying it out my mouth and nose at poor Miss Kitty. The bottom denture plummeted to the floor in a mass of tea & saliva.

Glamour!

ZIONISTS ATTEMPT TO CENSOR PEACE PRIZE

2003-10-23T03:46:00.000+10:00

Hanan Ashrawi, the remarkably intelligent and pragmatic diplomat who has served the Palestinian people so well has been chosen for some irrelevant little local pissant Peace Award. The chance to honour Ms Ashrawi is one that I hope that we don't waste. She is one of the great figures of contemporary statemanship.

Unfortunately for Hanan she has become a target for all kinds of foolish manipulation. The Lord Mayor has chosen to withdraw the city councils suport. Could it be at all to do with her husband's on-going struggle to be chosen for the most Jewish electorate in Australia? I call it the 'Utzon Effect' [after the famously mistreated designer of the Sydney Opera House]. At the slightest whiff of international genius Australians get all tetchy.

'The Jewish Lobby' has openly threatened all concerned not to recognise Ashrawi. They can't simply register their objections and allow the ceremony to go ahead. Instead every public figure up to and including Ms Ashrawi has been threatened and vilified. I really wouldn't mind these people having an opinion if they weren't so willing to use under-handed tactics to alter sound political decisions. I will never sympathise with them, nor will I hear their self-righteous bleating, until the Palestinian people have a safe and suitable homeland. The madness of the Zionist argument, that God gave them exclusive title to Israel is potentially amusing. [I do wonder why God didn't draw up more precise borders though?]. When it becomes tragic is when I see Zionists on television saying that the Palestinians should simply 'go away'- disperse across the globe. Clearly they learned a lot from study of Mein Kampf.

Only this backwards, inward looking nation would dare be so disrespectful as to drag Ms Ashrawi into local squabbling.

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Ashrawi hits back: boycott ridiculous
By Ed O'Loughlin in Gaza, Sean Nicholls and Anne Davies
October 23, 2003

The Palestinian woman at the centre of the political storm over the Sydney Peace Prize, Hanan Ashrawi, has described as "ridiculous" claims that she opposed the Oslo peace process and the recent Middle East "road map" effort.

Sydney's Lord Mayor, Lucy Turnbull - who announced the city council would boycott the award - yesterday repeated her belief that Dr Ashrawi was an unsuitable recipient because she had "not shown a sufficient commitment to the peace process".

The basis for this claim was a 1996 meeting of the Palestinian National Council when Dr Ashrawi voted "against removing the clauses in the Palestinian charter that called for the destruction of Israel", Cr Turnbull said.

Dr Ashrawi had also "dismissed at a very early stage the performance-based road map for a negotiated settlement to the Middle East conflict," Cr Turnbull said.

But Dr Ashrawi told the Herald: "Obviously she's been misled deliberately or she's taken information based on incomplete or dishonest sources. I knew there would be mobilised voices trying to malign Palestinians, particularly ones like me who have been outspoken for peace."

Dr Ashrawi said that far from rejecting peace, she had served as a negotiator in the run-up to the Madrid and Oslo agreements, which led to the Palestinians accepting the two-state solution and Israel's right to exist.

She said she still supported the road map as published, although she deplored efforts to alter it and the failure to implement it.

Dr Ashrawi said she was looking forward to her visit to Australia next month.

It also emerged yesterday that the City of Sydney publicly supported the right of the Sydney Peace Foundation committee to award its peace prize to Dr Ashrawi just weeks before Cr Turnbull declared the council would boycott the event because of the choice.

Yesterday the Deputy Opposition Leader, Barry O'Farrell, called on the Premier, Bob Carr, to reconsider presenting the prize to Dr Ashrawi, claiming some Labor backbenchers had expressed qualms to him.

Mr Carr, however, said he was not considering withdrawing.

George Newhouse, a member of the Jewish Labor Forum, said he was "in two minds" about Cr Turnbull's actions, but agreed with her that Dr Ashrawi was not a worthy recipient.

"The message is going to be delivered by the Premier that the Palestinians will never achieve anything by terror and violence," he said. "If that message gets through then there's some value in him speaking to Ashrawi."

The deputy lord mayor, Dixie Coulton, yesterday claimed Cr Turnbull was "overstepping her role as Lord Mayor".

Cr Coulton, who is a political opponent of Cr Turnbull, said: "She did not ... [have] the right to involve the city in this debate."

City councillors were not informed of the Lord Mayor's decision until two days after Cr Turnbull sent a letter to the director of the Sydney Peace Foundation, Stuart Rees.

Professor Rees said he had been told Cr Turnbull's husband, Malcolm, was concerned the row was being used to derail his campaign to win Liberal preselection for the federal seat of Wentworth, which has a large Jewish vote.

Mr O'Farrell, however, said it was "despicable of Dr Reece to reduce the Lord Mayor's motives down to what was happening in the seat of Wentworth".

LIVING WITH TERMINAL DISEASE. I LOVE PAMMY!

2003-10-22T22:09:00.000+10:00

Three cheers for Pam. No denial that she is on the terminal train. No bitterness that repulsive junkie Tommy Lee infected her. No real concern for the future.

Maybe if an icon like Pam can be terminal it will make people start to understand. Pam's death will be a lot more significant than mine. Being terminal doesn't mean that you should treat me like I'm dead already. What it means, to me at least, is that every wasted opportunity to live, laugh, dance and celebrate is a monumental loss. That's why I get extremely angry when people waste my time.

Like, say, my brother, who has unilaterally committed me to three more years grinding poverty out of his own selfish incompetence. There were two routes to resolution of the estate, quick & expensive or slow and slightly less expensive. My brother, without consultation, chose the latter. It is now too late in legal process to reverse.

Given that I continue to choose to medicate against HIV that means that I can expect to spend about 50% of my last few years [3-5 on current stats, might extend as far as 10]struggling to eat. I'm not taking the medication because it makes life unbearable with side-effects. I don't have enough of a life to suffer the pills in order to extend it. I am well organised for a dignified exit when that time comes.

Time's running out for me: Pam

Baywatch actress Pamela Anderson says hepatitis C, which she was diagnosed with in 2001, will probably kill her in a decade.

"I think I've got a good 10 years left in me, which is sad, too. Maybe 15, if I'm lucky," Anderson told Us Weekly magazine in a first-person story.

"It's scary, but lately I've been feeling great. For some reason, my liver keeps getting healthier."

Hepatitis C causes inflammation of the liver, which can lead to cirrhosis, liver cancer and liver failure.

About 3.9 million Americans have the disease. Anti-viral drugs are a standard treatment, and therapy is successful about half the time.

But Anderson isn't taking interferon, the injectable drug hepatitis patients often use.

Her homeopathic doctor, Wendy Hewland, told the magazine she "made a single remedy specifically for Pam" that Anderson is using as an alternative form of medicine.

The 36-year-old actress also says she's no longer planning to marry singer Kid Rock, to whom she got engaged in April 2002.

"We're not engaged anymore. Our relationship is not really something you put a label on," she says.

IT'S LIZA WITH A LEFT-HOOK.....

2003-10-22T17:41:00.000+10:00

Good ol' Liza, she's doing her mum proud. I wonder if there is any connection between this bizarre publicity pantomime and THE BOY FROM OZ opening on Broadway?

---------
David Gest sued Liza Minnelli yesterday, claiming that while they lived together she went into numerous alcohol-induced rages and beat him so badly that he "suffers from virtually constant, unrelenting pain" in his head.

According to Mr. Gest's lawsuit, Ms. Minnelli gained physical strength from drinking vodka, and would routinely turn that strength against him with her fists. Mr. Gest's complaint, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, details several instances in which he says he was beaten. The couple has been separated since July, and Mr. Gest's lawyer, Raoul L. Felder, expects that formal divorce papers will be filed within a week or so.

In a union that from the start had all the makings of a publicity extravaganza, filing a lawsuit claiming assault before filing for divorce could have been Mr. Gest's way of airing his grievances before the court — or the public — in advance of any procedure to end the marriage. Mr. Felder would not discuss the specifics of the lawsuit.

Ms. Minnelli had not yet filed a response in court last evening, and a call to her lawyer, Allan Arrow, was not immediately returned, nor were calls to one of her aides, the agency that represented the couple when they were married, and Ms. Minnelli's booking agency.

In the papers submitted in court, Mr. Gest described himself as "a world-renown event and concert producer-promoter," and Ms. Minnelli as someone whose "career had been eclipsed, she was an alcoholic, overweight, unable to be effectively merchandised, could not get insurance to perform concert dates on stage, or in any other artistic media."

Describing one of their typical fights, Mr. Gest said in the complaint that while he and Ms. Minnelli were visiting London in June, she left their hotel saying she was going "to fetch take-out food." But instead, he said, she started drinking vodka while she was out and returned to the hotel intoxicated. He claims she threw a lamp at him and tried to beat up their security guard, screaming and running from room to room.

In the suit, which asks for $10 million, Mr. Gest said that he "limited his actions to trying to avoid the blows by crossing his arms over his face and shouting repeatedly, `Liza, stop it, stop it!' "

While Mr. Felder would not comment on Mr. Gest's case, he said he would welcome the opportunity to talk about domestic violence against men. "I think it takes a certain kind of strength to reveal it," he said.

Ms. Minnelli and Mr. Gest were married with much ado in March 2002 before 1,100 guests at Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan. At the reception, Carol Channing, a guest, compared the whole thing "to when they opened the World's Fair."

TEETH

2003-10-22T16:11:00.000+10:00

Assuming that nothing else goes wrong, I'll have my new 'teeth' tomorrow. The effect of depression is that I don't really care either way, I was long ago worn down beyond reason on that one. The thing is this, I don't really know what I'll do with teeth now that I have them? Eating is an obvious answer and I'll give that a go when I have money to exchange for food. I've become sufficiently resigned to being a hermit mutant that I can't imagine going to the effort to adjust. Does it really matter how you look when a week can easily pass without human contact? My social life has died in the arse due to a combination of 8months without teeth and misery generating poverty.

I suppose that I could get about biting random strangers to break the teeth in?

How many more days can I wake up knowing that I have to face something emotionally / physically painful before I poison myself? Perhaps I should run a sweeps.

THIS IS JUST WEIRD!

2003-10-22T15:54:00.000+10:00

Well, I just tried the obvious URL for the official Chicago site. Click HERE to find out what happened.

WHY I'M GETTING FAT

2003-10-22T15:35:00.000+10:00

God bless Oprah, she cares more about my weight than I do. I'm quite content to hide in bed where nobody can see the belly I've grown over winter. I've gone from looking OK to looking like a garden gnome. Of course, Oprah has the explanation at hand.

The 'average sex act', according to Prof Oprah, burns 170calories. Without being too inelegant it is probably fair to conclude that a hell of a lot of calories that may otherwise have been burned during this year of enforced celibacy are now stretching my favourite t-shirts out of shape.

I've become sufficiently repulsed by the way that I look to be actively avoiding mirrors.

WHERE I'LL BE FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS. OR WEEKS. OR FOREVER.

2003-10-22T08:09:00.000+10:00

Diazepam
Brand name: Diazepam
Brand name: Valium

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Drug monograph

Pharmacology
Anxiolytic - Sedative - Muscle Relaxant

Diazepam is a benzodiazepine with CNS depressant properties and a somewhat flatter dose-response slope than the sedative-hypnotic drugs. In laboratory animals, it produces, in varying doses, taming, disinhibitory, sedative, anticonvulsant, muscle relaxant, ataxic and hypnotic effects.

Diazepam is relatively devoid of autonomic effects and does not significantly reduce locomotor activity at low doses, or depress amphetamine-induced excitation. In high doses, it activates the drug metabolizing enzymes in the liver. Diazepam also possesses dependence liability and may produce withdrawal symptoms, but has a wide margin of safety against poisoning.

Metabolism studies in animals and man have indicated that oral diazepam is rapidly absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. Peak blood levels are reached within 1-2 hours after administration. The acute half-life is 6-8 hours with a slower decline thereafter, possibly due to tissue storage.

In humans, comparable blood levels of diazepam were obtained in maternal and cord blood indicating placental transfer of the drug. Diazepam may appear in human breast milk.

With the parenteral form, peak blood levels are reached within 15 minutes after i.v. administration and are of the same magnitude as after oral administration. The respective half-life is approximately 2-3 hours.

The distribution and fate of tritium-labeled diazepam in man has indicated that the drug has a rapid and extensive uptake by tissues. Although the radioactivity in the blood appears to represent mainly the intact drug, diazepam was shown to be excreted exclusively in the form of its metabolites. The two major metabolites are oxazepam glucuronide and N-desmethylated diazepam.

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Indications
The short-term symptomatic management of mild to moderate degrees of anxiety in conditions dominated by tension, excitation, agitation, fear or aggressiveness, such as may occur in psychoneurosis, anxiety reactions due to stress conditions and anxiety states with somatic expression.

In acute alcoholic withdrawal, diazepam may be useful in the symptomatic relief of acute agitation, tremor and impending acute delirium tremens.

As an adjunct for the relief of skeletal muscle spasm due to reflex spasm to local pathology, such as inflammation of the muscle and joints or secondary to trauma; spasticity caused by upper motor neuron disorders, such as cerebral palsy and paraplegia; athetosis and the rare stiff man syndrome.

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Contraindications
Myasthenia gravis, known hypersensitivity to benzodiazepines. Not recommended for children under 6 months of age.

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Warnings
Pregnancy:
Several studies have suggested an increased risk of congenital malformations associated with the use of diazepam, chlordiazepoxide and meprobamate during the first trimester of pregnancy. Therefore, the administration of diazepam is rarely justified in women of childbearing potential. If the drug is prescribed for a woman of childbearing potential, she should be warned to contact her physician regarding discontinuation of the drug if she intends to become or suspects that she is pregnant.

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Precautions
Geriatrics:
Elderly and debilitated patients or those with organic brain disorders have been found to be prone to CNS depression following even low doses. For these patients it is recommended that the dosage be limited to the smallest effective amount to preclude development of ataxia, oversedation or other possible adverse effects.

Use in emotional disorders:
Diazepam is not recommended in the treatment of psychotic or severely depressed patients. Precautions are indicated for severely depressed patients or those who show evidence of impending depression, particularly the recognition that suicidal tendencies may be present and protective measures may be necessary. Since excitement and other paradoxical reactions may result from the use of the drug in psychotic patients, it should not be used in ambulatory patients suspected of having psychotic tendencies.

Use in epileptic patients:
Since diazepam may exacerbate grand mal seizures in some patients, caution is required when it is used in epileptic patients. An adjustment may be necessary in their anticonvulsive medication. Abrupt withdrawal of diazepam in these patients should also be avoided.

Potentiation of drug effects:
Patients should be advised to abstain from alcohol and other CNS depressant drugs during treatment with diazepam. Phenothiazines, barbiturates, MAO inhibitors and other psychoactive drugs may potentiate the action of the drug and should not usually be given concurrently.

Drug dependence:
Abrupt cessation of large doses of diazepam after prolonged periods may precipitate acute withdrawal symptoms and, in these cases, the drug should be discontinued gradually. Caution should be exercised when it is considered necessary to administer diazepam to addiction prone individuals.

Occupational Hazards:
Patients receiving diazepam should be advised to proceed cautiously whenever mental alertness and physical coordination are required.

The usual precautions in treating patients with impaired renal and hepatic functions should be observed. If diazepam is administered for protracted periods, periodic blood counts and liver function tests would be highly advisable.

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Adverse Effects
The most common adverse effects reported are drowsiness and ataxia. Other reactions noted less frequently are fatigue, dizziness, nausea, blurred vision, diplopia, vertigo, headache, slurred speech, tremors, hypoactivity, dysarthria, euphoria, impairment of memory, confusion, depression, incontinence or urinary retention, constipation, skin rash, generalized exfoliative dermatitis, hypotension, changes in libido.

The more serious adverse reactions occasionally reported are leukopenia, jaundice, hypersensitivity and paradoxical reactions.

Paradoxical reactions such as hyperexcited states, anxiety, excitement, hallucinations, increased muscle spasticity, insomnia, rage, as well as sleep disturbances and stimulation, have been reported; should these occur, the drug should be discontinued.

Minor changes in EEG patterns have been observed in patients on diazepam therapy. These changes consist of low to moderate voltage fast activity, 20 to 30 cycles/second and are of no known significance.

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Overdose

Symptoms:
Drowsiness, oversedation and ataxia. When the effects of drug overdosage begin to wear off, the patient exhibits some jitteriness and overstimulation. The cardinal manifestations of overdosage are drowsiness and confusion, reduced reflexes and coma. There are minimum effects on respiration, pulse and blood pressure unless the overdosage is extreme.

Treatment:
Gastric lavage may be beneficial if performed soon after oral ingestion of diazepam. If necessary, a CNS stimulant such as caffeine or methylphenidate may be administered with caution. Supportive measures should be instituted as indicated, such as, maintenance of an adequate airway, levarterenol for hypotension. Dialysis appears to be of little value.

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Dosage
Must be individualized according to diagnosis, severity of symptoms and degree of response. While the usual daily dosages given below will meet the needs of most patients, there will be some who may require higher doses. In the first few days of administration a cumulative effect of the drug may occur, and therefore the dosage should be increased only after stabilization is evident.

Adults:
Symptomatic relief of anxiety and tension in psychoneurosis and anxiety reactions: 2 to 10 mg, 2 to 4 times daily depending upon severity of symptoms.

Symptomatic relief in acute alcohol withdrawal: 10 mg, 3 or 4 times during the first 24 hours, reducing to 5 mg, 3 or 4 times daily as needed.

Adjunctively for relief of skeletal muscle spasms: 2 to 10 mg, 3 to 4 times daily.

Elderly and debilitated patients, or in the presence of debilitating disease:
2 mg, 1 or 2 times daily initially; increase gradually as needed and tolerated.

Children (Because of varied responses, initiate therapy with lowest dose and increase as required. Not for use in children under 6 months):
1 to 2.5 mg, 3 or 4 times daily initially; increase gradually as needed and tolerated.

Do not prescribe or administer diazepam for periods in excess of 6 weeks, unless a definite need for utilizing this medication has been established by a followup medical examination.

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AND NOW A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR.

2003-10-21T18:26:00.000+10:00

Somehow I don't think that the Thin White Duke will be rushing to my rescue but I can fantasise.

Rock N' Roll Suicide
by David Bowie

Time takes a cigarette, puts it in your mouth
You pull on your finger, then another finger, then your cigarette
The wall-to-wall is calling, it lingers, then you forget
Ohhh, you're a rock 'n' roll suicide

You're too old to lose it, too young to choose it
And the clocks waits so patiently on your song
You walk past a cafe but you don't eat when you've lived too long
Oh, no, no, no, you're a rock 'n' roll suicide

Chev brakes are snarling as you stumble across the road
But the day breaks instead so you hurry home
Don't let the sun blast your shadow
Don't let the milk float ride your mind
They're so natural - religiously unkind

Oh no love! you're not alone [YES I BLOODY AM!- R]
You're watching yourself but you're too unfair
You got your head all tangled up but if I could only make you care
Oh no love! you're not alone
No matter what or who you've been
No matter when or where you've seen
All the knives seem to lacerate your brain
I've had my share, I'll help you with the pain
You're not alone

Just turn on with me and you're not alone
Let's turn on with me and you're not alone
Let's turn on and be not alone
Gimme your hands cause you're wonderful
Gimme your hands cause you're wonderful
Oh gimme your hands

ANDY WARHOL IS DEAD

2003-10-21T13:45:00.000+10:00

And still so few people get it...

MARK II

2003-10-21T13:30:00.000+10:00

new look- don't know if i like it. the old colours had to go. icky....

A RESPONSE TO GERMAINE.

2003-10-21T13:25:00.000+10:00

The following commentary on the Germaine Greer piece [Saturday, October 11, 2003 GERMAINE GREER- KEEPER OF THE FLAME] was received from my treasured correspondent Ruth Fink-Winter. There's a lot to think about here.

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I think Greer misses the fundamental point that male beauty can be accepted because the idea that there might be a homosexual attraction (viewers are assumed to be male; it's that male gaze thing again) is so thoroughly repressed. I know I found myself fascinated by the perfect marble buttocks in green marble on statuary when I visited Rome with my family (I was eight).

Little girls can be ethereally beautiful too...but they, as females, are already viewed as sexualized. Look at the 12 and 13-year old models used to sell things in ads as you almost have to go that young to find women with perfect skin.

Blonde = young
Big eyes = young
Blue eyes = young (for white children, anyway)
Unlined dewy skin = young
Hairless body (except head) = young

Ta da. You've just described the beauty ideal for women. Not that this is probably news to you.

"this concealment is part and parcel of the visual culture that demands the under-emphasis of male genitalia in all classical representations of the nude. Sex is off stage, which is the root meaning of "obscene"."

I disagree. The Greeks and Romans would have found a man with a big penis ungainly and unattractive. Just because the ideal was well-proportioned (small by current standards), that doesn't mean it was being played down. A man with a big penis would be as unfashionable as a '20s flapper with the overflowing D-cups women are expected to sport now.

I do find the discussion of feminizing male models since females could not model interesting. Modern art's preoccupation with the female nude can be discomfitting--I recall a sculpture garden I visited in Korea where nearly every single statue was a naked female. As a female, I started to feel sort of weird. My ability to gaze was being totally ignored. (This might have something to do with the repressed, male-dominated Korean society.)

"The female nude is physically constrained. She is never to be seen playing, lolling on steps or sitting astride a wall or on horseback, or fighting and slaying the Python or the Minotaur or the Chimaera, or sleeping arms and legs akimbo, or lying dead on the seashore or on the battlefield. Thousands of male nudes are to be seen in all these situations and most of them are beardless."

Women were painted all the time lolling around, as Odalisques or harem women in Biblical scenes. It's true they were rarely shown as active (riding horses, killing dragons, etc.) but is this surprising given women's lack of power at the time? The only women who have any power in art of the period are usually personifications of virtues (Justice, etc.) or occasionally Greek goddesses (who are usually used in a similar manner to the
personifications).

"In 1978, Margaret Walters argued that women were still estranged from their own visual pleasure: "But even today, a woman is expected to take a narcissistic pleasure in fulfilling male fantasies rather than in exploring and acting out her own. There is still a rigid distinction between the sex that looks and the sex that is looked at. '"

Interesting. Still true. There is no real male equivalent to lingerie--we have to make do with skimpy bikini underwear (OK, it is skimpy, but it's not very creative) and maybe a slingshot, which can be sort of sexy if cut right, but it's just not on the same level. A woman could wear one over a bodysuit to work out--it's not coded strictly for sex.

"Women have now claimed the right to look and to derive pleasure from
looking, but the people who capitulate are not men but boys. "

This is because men *still* have more power than we do. Boys are beautiful, yes, but there's a power thing going on here as well. I've been in a few situations now where I was at the top of this power differential, and it's a whole different ballgame from the usual "oh my, does he like me?" sort of worriedness involved in the usual attraction to a male. Instead of waiting anxiously by a phone, I can pay for his dinner, and tell him "Walk with me," knowing that he will...

CURRENT SHITLIST

2003-10-21T09:50:00.000+10:00

*Zionists
*Zionists who send hate mail
*Zionists who send lengthy denouncements by email then ignore responses
*Aggressive Israeli military expansionism
*Lawyers
*Non NTSC compatible TVs
*Whoever owns the rights to 'Starstruck' on DVD and won't release it
*Whoever owns the rights to 'Liquid Sky' on DVD and won't release it in a restored format
*Whoever owns the rights to 'Whatever Happened to Baby Jane' on DVD and won't release it
*My own incompetence
*'Activists' who interfere in Church politics while having no personal interest in or understanding of the church. They hurt everyone involved and slow processes of change for their own gratification
*Washing dishes
*Margo Kingston
*Every single Australian journalist who hasn't spoken out about the neo-fascism settling on this nation. History will judge you complicit. Even you Saint Margo!
*The World Trade Organisation
*the Executor of my father's estate
*isolation from real world

NUN OF THE ABOVE? ANOTHER POV ON MOTHER TERESA

2003-10-21T08:16:00.000+10:00

Mommie Dearest
The pope beatifies Mother Teresa, a fanatic, a fundamentalist, and a fraud.
By Christopher Hitchens

I think it was Macaulay who said that the Roman Catholic Church deserved great credit for, and owed its longevity to, its ability to handle and contain fanaticism. This rather oblique compliment belongs to a more serious age. What is so striking about the "beatification" of the woman who styled herself "Mother" Teresa is the abject surrender, on the part of the church, to the forces of showbiz, superstition, and populism.

It's the sheer tawdriness that strikes the eye first of all. It used to be that a person could not even be nominated for "beatification," the first step to "sainthood," until five years after his or her death. This was to guard against local or popular enthusiasm in the promotion of dubious characters. The pope nominated MT a year after her death in 1997. It also used to be that an apparatus of inquiry was set in train, including the scrutiny of an advocatus diaboli or "devil's advocate," to test any extraordinary claims. The pope has abolished this office and has created more instant saints than all his predecessors combined as far back as the 16th century.

As for the "miracle" that had to be attested, what can one say? Surely any respectable Catholic cringes with shame at the obviousness of the fakery. A Bengali woman named Monica Besra claims that a beam of light emerged from a picture of MT, which she happened to have in her home, and relieved her of a cancerous tumor. Her physician, Dr. Ranjan Mustafi, says that she didn't have a cancerous tumor in the first place and that the tubercular cyst she did have was cured by a course of prescription medicine. Was he interviewed by the Vatican's investigators? No. (As it happens, I myself was interviewed by them but only in the most perfunctory way. The procedure still does demand a show of consultation with doubters, and a show of consultation was what, in this case, it got.)

According to an uncontradicted report in the Italian paper L'Eco di Bergamo, the Vatican's secretary of state sent a letter to senior cardinals in June, asking on behalf of the pope whether they favored making MT a saint right away. The pope's clear intention has been to speed the process up in order to perform the ceremony in his own lifetime. The response was in the negative, according to Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, the Canadian priest who has acted as postulator or advocate for the "canonization." But the damage, to such integrity as the process possesses, has already been done.

During the deliberations over the Second Vatican Council, under the stewardship of Pope John XXIII, MT was to the fore in opposing all suggestions of reform. What was needed, she maintained, was more work and more faith, not doctrinal revision. Her position was ultra-reactionary and fundamentalist even in orthodox Catholic terms. Believers are indeed enjoined to abhor and eschew abortion and contraception, but they are not required to affirm that abortion and contraception are the greatest threat to world peace, as MT fantastically asserted to a dumbfounded audience when receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. Believers are likewise enjoined to abhor and eschew divorce, but they are not required to insist that a ban on divorce and remarriage be a part of the state constitution, as MT demanded in a referendum in Ireland (which her side narrowly lost) in 1996. Later in that same year, she told Ladies Home Journal that she was pleased by the divorce of her friend Princess Diana, because the marriage had so obviously been an unhappy one …

This returns us to the medieval corruption of the church, which sold indulgences to the rich while preaching hellfire and continence to the poor. MT was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction. And she was a friend to the worst of the rich, taking misappropriated money from the atrocious Duvalier family in Haiti (whose rule she praised in return) and from Charles Keating of the Lincoln Savings and Loan. Where did that money, and all the other donations, go? The primitive hospice in Calcutta was as run down when she died as it always had been—she preferred California clinics when she got sick herself—and her order always refused to publish any audit. But we have her own claim that she opened 500 convents in more than a hundred countries, all bearing the name of her own order. Excuse me, but this is modesty and humility?

The rich world has a poor conscience, and many people liked to alleviate their own unease by sending money to a woman who seemed like an activist for "the poorest of the poor." People do not like to admit that they have been gulled or conned, so a vested interest in the myth was permitted to arise, and a lazy media never bothered to ask any follow-up questions. Many volunteers who went to Calcutta came back abruptly disillusioned by the stern ideology and poverty-loving practice of the "Missionaries of Charity," but they had no audience for their story. George Orwell's admonition in his essay on Gandhi—that saints should always be presumed guilty until proved innocent—was drowned in a Niagara of soft-hearted, soft-headed, and uninquiring propaganda.

One of the curses of India, as of other poor countries, is the quack medicine man, who fleeces the sufferer by promises of miraculous healing. Sunday was a great day for these parasites, who saw their crummy methods endorsed by his holiness and given a more or less free ride in the international press. Forgotten were the elementary rules of logic, that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and that what can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence. More than that, we witnessed the elevation and consecration of extreme dogmatism, blinkered faith, and the cult of a mediocre human personality. Many more people are poor and sick because of the life of MT: Even more will be poor and sick if her example is followed. She was a fanatic, a fundamentalist, and a fraud, and a church that officially protects those who violate the innocent has given us another clear sign of where it truly stands on moral and ethical questions.

DOUBLE D COMING UP!

2003-10-20T09:38:00.000+10:00

Another spooky prediction from the psychic side:

John Howard's egomaniacal desire to match and excede Menzies will make it all but impossible for him to resist pressing the double dissolution button soon. The timing will be tricky but I'm guessing we'll be at the polls around Nov11 when the next orgy of militaristic nationalism is due. [Howard's opening a war memorial in England or something. He'd be better off saying 'hey- we don't want to pay the debt we stll have to Britain for WW2!']

November 22 seems a likely date until we have more information.

RUSTY HINGES

2003-10-19T21:49:00.000+10:00

I have just come over all psychic and have a prediction to make:

Olivia Newton-John will 'come out' in the next few years. She may choose to let her daughter [Chloe?] get a little older first but nothing else seems to be stopping her. As things stand the closet door is sufficiently ajar that anyone who cares to look can see.

TRAITOR TO THE REVOLUTION

2003-10-19T10:42:00.000+10:00

I loathe mobile phones. I dislike being able to be interrupted at any time and the burden of never quite feeling free of the phone. Regardless, mainly because all of my 'extended family' use them I had to relent and get one. This was during the time of sick mothers and dying fathers where I needed to be available 24/7.

So skipping all that in search of a point, we come to phone covers. I had my pick of junk slide-on covers at the markets and ultimately couldn't resist the commie red Che Guevara cover. I thought the commentary too sly to pass-up at $4-.

I'm not a huge fan of Che, part of the appeal of having him on my phone is that he is a character in Evita. When I find a Velma Kelly cover, Che's out of here. I sort of felt smugly clever at my 'ironic', self-mocking find and for a few days I thought it was a bit funky.

The biggest problem is that the iconic picture of Che is now so commonly repeated that it has become meaningless. His face has been splashed around off-the-rack fashion for a couple of years now. I often wonder if the anorexic 15yos wearing Che Guevara midriff tops even know who he is?

And that leads me to wonder if I'm contributing turning a revolution into another logo. Why doesn't Naomi Klein accept personal crisis counseling calls?

It leaves me wondering if I'm on the receiving end of a little protest from a chinese prison...

POPE STILL NOT DEAD!

2003-10-18T09:21:00.000+10:00

I enjoyed this piece from Crikey! Poor old Pope, they're wheeling him about in a chair and pretending that dribbling & muttering is a reasonable substitute for a conscious pope. I'm glad that I have the Romans to larf at- I don't have to address the crisis in Anglicanism.

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Crunching the College of Cardinals

Blessed Boilermaker Bill
Moves in a Mysterious Way

Boilermaker Bill lingers in St Marys on his way to Macquarie Street for Part II of his series on the Holy Father

Today, October 16, marks the twenty fifth anniversary of the election of Pope John Paul II, making him the third longest serving Pontiff in history. For Vatican watchers in recent years reaching even this feat seems miraculous. His ailing physical health has focussed attention on the potential candidates and likely successor.

The Pope's longevity and desire to leave his own mark on the future of the Church well after he's gone means that all but four of the Cardinals eligible to elect his successor have been appointed by him. Think about that. From the conclave that elected him Pope in 1978, only four of his peers today remain eligible to vote for his successor. Every other Cardinal in the conclave owes his position to this Pope. Yet with his passing, their thoughts turn not so much to venerating the memory of their patron but who best to lead them, and who best to allow them to run their part of the world - whether it's the Archdiocese or the Roman Curia.

Vatican watchers claim that there's a swing from one governing tendency to the next - that a straight laced diplomat like Pius XII will be followed by a man of the people like John XXIII who in turn was followed by the bureaucrat extraordinaire Paul VI. But they only see these trends in hindsight. Back in October 1978 they weren't predicting the eventual geopolitical influence of John Paul II. Even the conclave that elected probably gave more credence to his interest in poetry and mysticism and his devotion to Mary that has influenced his Pontificate. There would have been some who saw the potency of electing a non Italian, and one from behind the Iron Curtain at that, but none would have seen the undisputed impact this Pope has had on the world, particularly in Europe and Latin America.

So his successor? He will be very different - but not from deliberate decision, but because like any assembly of the powerful, those assembled wish to exercise that power for different ends. None of the candidates will be carbon copies of this Pope, even though he selected them - most of them were being educated and groomed in the marbled halls of power long before John Paul II ascended the Papal throne. And the Pope has created a conclave different in composition and temperament than the one he participated in 1978, and the challenges the Church faces are vastly different a quarter of a century on.

The Pope has administered the Church temporal with a strong grip - often seen in stark contrast to the Hamlet like indecision of Paul VI. But paradoxically or consequently, depending on your point of view, the Church seems to have never had a looser grip over many of its adherents. With so few attending church regularly in the Western Churches, the conservatives and the liberals have enough room to sit as far as possible from one another as they contest the ownership of the Church. As I noted in my last piece, the spats between the conservatives and the liberals seems to come down to a contest between the priest in the pulpit and the people in the pews - the contest between the authority of teaching and the primacy of conscience. This pontificate seems only to have highlighted and magnified these differences, which grew out of the Second Vatican Council.

The Cardinals in this conclave will want a "primus inter pares" - a first among equals. They've mostly been appointed by this Pope, and will want to work more collegiately with one another than he has with them. The opportunity arises for the Roman leash to be loosened, and many will want greater say in the running of the Church universal, and greater authority in administering the Church local.

I won't be so presumptuous as to nominate a who for the next Pope: an old Roman adage has it that he who walks into the conclave a Pope, walks out a Cardinal. But I will mount a case for where the next Pope will come from and why.

Today there are three branches in the Catholic Church - the old world, the new world and the third world. The Old World of Europe has lost the dominance of numbers in the conclave that it had in 1978 - where the election of a Pole was a radical departure. They will hold sway but not control over the election of the next Pontiff.

The new world of North America and Oceania lacks the critical influence in the Church to be a significant player - hampered by not sharing the languages of the European churches, and almost bit players in the public square of their domains - and racked by crisis over child abuse, which many in the European Church attribute to confused cultural messages and attitudes; no plausible candidate for Pope will come from here.

It is in the third world that the next Pontiff shall be found - here is the future of the Church. And the old wise Europeans, and the Machiavellian hands in the Roman Curia, know this. Numbers have grown exponentially in Africa and Latin and South America, and there is obedience to the authority of teaching only dreamed of in the old and new worlds. But these churches are not immune from attack from countervailing forces - the power of Islam in Africa, and the rise of the Pentecostal Evangelical churches in South America are being watched with caution and not a little trepidation.

A Pope who can confidently deal with these challenges while leaving his brethren to run things in their bailiwick will be the desired outcome for many Cardinals. Of the two sources, I expect the conclave to lean towards South America. For some of the Europeans, they were priests at a time in the 1960s when they were encouraging parishioners to donate alms for the "little black babies" (as one parishioner described it to me). They will not be ready for one of them to rule the Church. Far better to have a Spanish or Portuguese speaker from the Americas - almost one of them, if not quite.

And the Catholic Church can almost reach an accommodation with Islamic theocracies - watch their dealings at the Beijing Women's Conference in the 1990s, where their shared social agenda proved a mutual interest. And the Pope's opposition to the war in Iraq. No - it's the external threat of the Pentecostals in South America - so soon after vanquishing the internal threat of liberation theology - that keeps the conservatives awake at night. After all that effort, to have the Pentecostals create a powerful Religious Right in South America analogous to its cousins in the North? That's not the game plan for the Church. Expect then the next Pope to make this the new contest of the Catholic Church.

Boilermaker Bill will return to Macquarie Street now, and can be contacted at boilermaker_bill@hotmail.com

GIFT IDEA

2003-10-18T09:19:00.000+10:00

http://www.springmanrecords.com/springman/aspx/cat_info.aspx?CatItemID=84 For anyone feeling charitable...