Sunday 27 July 2008

RIP Hell

Today I bear news of fellow blogger and journalist extraordinaire Lindsay's retirement fom the world of blogging.

For just over two years, young Lindsay has been a tour de force in the blogging arena, entertaining us with stories of her times, travels and tribulations.

The blog itself has been shut down with no fanfare or farewell message, so I thought it best to pay my respects individually.

So here's to you young Lindsay and thanks for the memories.

Thursday 24 July 2008

Is it just me?

Music, to me, is my main passion in life.
Sure, writing is great, and I do love my sporting teams, but for me, there's nothing better than that shiver down the spine you get right when the lead singer hits THAT note at a live gig.
Or even the shiver you get when the moment you've been waiting for, that moment when the background music fades out and the band walks onstage to the overflowing anticipation of audience members.
In fact, I get the shivers a lot when it comes to music.

I don't know what it is about me in particular, but I'm yet to find someone who gets quite as excited as I do when a) one of my favourite bands put out a new album, or b) one of my favourite bands announce a Perth show.

I'm like a kid at Christmas. I've now been to eight Big Days Out on the trot (I will never miss one as long as they're running) and I have trouble sleeping the night before.
Seriously.
I sleep in fits and starts and, usually, at 4.30am, I'm wide awake at the prospect of seeing a plethora of bands that I've never seen before.

I'm the guy who, mid conversation in a restaurant or cafe, will stop and say "Oh my god I love this song," while the person I'm talking to makes some comment about not realising the music was even on.

I say all this because one of my favourite new bands, The Fratellis, are coming to Perth next week. I'm so excited. I've been listening to The Fratellis songs for a good month or two in anticipation, trying to decide which ones they'll include in the set and where.
No doubt I'll tell you all about it next week. But for now, I'm just going to try and focus on the work at hand and push the idea of seeing them aside.
Otherwise there would be no work done at all.

Tuesday 22 July 2008

Deja vu

Next week, I'm going back to my roots. Kinda.
Well, in truth, I'm going back to Rockingham for a fortnight.

For some reason unknown the powers that be have decided that it would be better for me to travel down to my former office and act as editor while my former boss is away than to leave it in the more than capable hands of the senior journalist who (apart from working there for six years) has been acting editor on numerous occasions.

Despite my tone, I'm not actually dreading - I'm kind of looking forward to it.

A couple of the people I worked with will have resigned or will be on leave when I'm down there, but on the whole, it is a fun office in which to work.

The news is always interesting, and the editorial team down there have actually had a bit of stability for the first time in a while.
And my old boss will be on leave, which means I won't have to deal with her.
And it's only for two weeks.

Have I convinced you yet?

Saturday 19 July 2008

Quote of the weekend

(From the horrifying bogans sitting behind us at the rugby, after an Australian player scored a try):

"Show me where he shits and I'll roll in it!!"

Friday 18 July 2008

You know the one

What's the word for that sinking feeling you get when you look at the story list on deadline day and realise you've only got half the amount required to fill the paper?

Thursday 17 July 2008

How not to win over an editor to your cause when sending him or her a press release

Fill the envelope with star shaped confetti that spills out all over his or her desk when they open it.

Tuesday 15 July 2008

I'm still in awe

Last night I was lucky enough to be invited to the premiere of Dark Knight, the new Batman movie.
After handing in our mobile phones and going through a metal detector to ensure we had no recording devices on us, we sat down and buckled up for the ride.
And what a ride it was.
Seriously, this is the best Batman movie ever made.
I'm not going to give too much away, because it doesn't come out for a couple more days, but suffice to say Gotham is a dark, dark place, the Joker (Heath Ledger) is one of the scariest bad guys I've seen on film in a while and he unleashes hell on Gotham in a self-declared war with Batman.
And Batman is oh-so-cool.
I'll shut up about it now, but take my word for it - the film lives up to the hype.
In fact, I'm seeing it again on Friday :)

Friday 11 July 2008

10 Guidelines for Making a Superhero Movie - something the makers of Daredevil really should have looked at.

1. Don't hire Ben Affleck as the lead.

2. Don't make him blind - he just looks a little bit disabled with cloudy, crossed eyes.

3. Don't hire Jennifer Garner as the female lead.

4. Don't throw in a weird, almost matrix-like fight scene as a 'romantic' interaction between the two main characters.

5. Don't hire Ben Affleck as the lead.

6. Don't put a piss poor background story about the superhero's dad - who was a loser, but a good guy at heart - getting killed by an underworld kingpin.

7. Don't insert a sickening Hollywood sex scene between Affleck and Garner. No, really, please don't.

8. Don't insert a Catholic priest with an Irish accent. It's just too convenient.

9. Don't use Evanescence on the soundtrack.

10. Don't hire Ben Affleck as the lead.

Wednesday 9 July 2008

Idiots

There is one thing that really, really irks me. The mob mentality.
There is nothing worse, and certainly nothing more frightful, than a group of rednecks who gather together and protest about something that they a) know nothing about, or b) are simply wrong about.
I refer to the recent kerfuffle in Queensland about a convicted paedophile for whom the State Government i desparately trying to find accommodation where he won't be picketed, threatened or lynched.
Now, don't get me wrong, I am by no means condoning what he was convicted of in any way, shape, or form, but the thousand-strong mobs that hav been picketing the front of his house and calling for him to be removed from the community are shooting themselves in the feet.

You see, the guy recently had another charge against him dropped because the presiding judge stated that he would have no chance of a fair trial. As difficult as that may be for the victim or their family/friends to accept, that is the way the justice system works.
However, since moving to the latest property, there have been strong, emotional calls by outraged rednecks to get him out of their community.

The thing they don't understand is, by doing what they're doing, they are jeopardising the chance of him getting a fair trial even more, and he will end up having any charge he is brought up on dismissed on the same basis.

Police officers and Government Ministers have tried to appease these crowds that have begun to gather daily out the front of his house, but they just don't get it.
Sure, I understand they might be concerned for their kids, but the guy is under 24-hour police watch until further notice. That's 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, there is a police officer by his side.
How can anyone possibly do anything with that sort of attention on them?

The whole episode scares me, and it reeks of the Deep South in the US circa 1960s. Ku Klux Klan, anyone?

Saturday 5 July 2008

Breaking up is never easy

I caught up with my sister last night.
She's 23, and her four and a half year relationship with her live-in boyfriend has just come to an end.
It's a sad time for her and being so young and having been through such a long term relationship can be either a blessing or a curse.

I like to think of it as more of the former. She's got her whole life ahead of her. She knows, deep down, that she'll be okay, but not having been there before it's hard to see past the immediate short-term future.
But my words to her won't necessarily make it any easier.
It hurts me to see her in pain. I'd love to reach across to her, give her a big hug and absolve her from any hurt or pain but that's something I can't do.
I've been there before. I know the pain subsides, I know the hurt fades and I most certainly know that that old cliche, "there's plenty more fish in the sea" is as true as any other.

When I was in high school, I used to channel my break-up angst into writing song lyrics. It was a great way to put your feelings down on paper and you get the added bonus of getting your creative juices flowing. Recently, I found a book of lyrics that I had written during such a time.
Man, were they dark. It unsettled me a little knowing there was a time and I was in a place in which I felt that angsty.

At the end of the day, there's not a lot I can do for my sister other than be there for her. I can take her calls, catch up with her when she wants to and give her a shoulder to cry on - but she needs to find out for herself that there is life beyond the person you loved, the person you thought you knew, the person who was, for all intents and purposes, your best friend for a number of years.
And for me, that's the hardest thing about break ups.

Wednesday 2 July 2008

SOOO excited


The first reviews of the new Batman movie are out - and bugger me if the film just may live up to all the hype.
Follow this link to read the reviews from the Sun and Rolling Stone.
I've been a fan of Batman since I received my first Batman costume at the tender age of 5, followed by a cool-as-hell Batman skateboard I got a the age of 6.
To this day I still have the skateboard - I think I actually used it once but the design on it is too cool to throw away.

Then came the Batman movies - Tim Burton's ones - the first and second, with Michael Keaton, were always my favourite. After that, they got crap pretty fast. The ridiculously over-the-top Batman Forever and Batman and Robin destroyed the name of Batman in my books.
(I mean really, Val Kilmer??? What were they thinking??)

But Christopher Nolan has resurrected the franchise. He brought Gotham City back to the dark, festering breeding ground for criminals it once was, and with Heath Ledger playing what, by all accounts, is a bone-chilling villain in the Joker, I can hardly contain myself.