Somewhere over the...

So I was torturing this leprechaun the other day to get him to reveal the location of his pot of gold and he kept on yammering about it being under a crane. I thought he was talking about the bird! I'm so gonna be rich...

Anyhow, it is officially cold in Sydney and while I disapprove of this kind of seasonal behaviour, it is reasonable to drink hot chocolate at cafe's without looking like a five year old - YAY!

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Belief is a funny thing

Dude, I can't believe you if you don't learn how to spell believe...

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On Leadership

Leadership without leaders. I think I get what they're saying: through collective organising at a grassroots level, we, the people, can create our own destiny... OR maybe they mean literally, the word leadership - leaders = hip.

This actually got me thinking about Barack Obama. Prior to his election, it was widely reported that the only time an African American was President in Hollywood, a meteor was about to hit the planet. Now, this is generally true and it had to be Morgan Freeman (not discounting Dennis Haysbert as the President in 24). As such, I am actually quite curious as to how Hollywood will adapt to this new paradigm.

The main reason for this curiosity was the fundamental shift in the portrayal of the President when Bill Clinton got into office. Reasonably young, energetic, smart and (as we subsequently found out) sexually active, the films produced after his election had a radical shift from the patriarchs of the past. Suddenly, the President was funny, a smooth lady's man, an inspiration, or a kick arse action hero. Prior to that they were generally graying old men with the exception of the weasley president in Escape From New York.

As such, will we see a radical shift in the way the President is portrayed onscreen? I sincerely hope so. I mean, if David Chapelle has already played Bush then my vote is for Red Man as President with the Wu Tang Clan as his cabinet. Yeah, that would be awesome...

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ANZAC Day 09

By virtue of being in the city, I stumbled upon today's ANZAC Day parade. I was quite taken by this marching band who were dressed in black with long flowing purple capes. I didn't know Hogwarts had a battalion in the Australian Army.

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Fallen Angels

At my old house, I lived around the corner from a brothel called Fallen Angels. This, however, is not the point of this post. In my current location, this lady keeps a watchful eye over the streets of Marrickville...



Sadly, being the vigilant eye of a suburb has resulted in her structural integrity being compromised so she needed to be taken down for a fix up (before she fell down). Seeing her strapped to the back of a truck made me think of someone being carted away in a straight jacket - kinda of sad. I hope she comes back soon.

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Don't tell the children...

...Easter is over.

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Cockatoo Island 22/4

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Film reviews with Jon: Twilight

I came late to this cultural phenomenon because this film had a reputation of being the worst vampire film ever made. Even having zero expectation, I was delighted and surprised to find that this reputation was unjust. It is, in fact, the second worst vampire film ever made. I can speak with authority because I am probably one of four people in the world who actually saw the Eddie Murphy movie Vampire in Brooklyn.

I don't care how badly that cute kid acts in Twilight, it simply can't compare to Eddie Murphy adopting a Transylvanian accent and being, ahem, scary. For a real taste of horror, check out the following trailer:


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Stupid is as stupid does...

Recently I found myself in a fast food place with a friend hungering for sugar. All I can say is that ordering a panna cotta in Red Rooster was not one of my greatest ideas - I don't know what I was expecting. After a while, even the dessert itself agreed that this was not a happy situation...

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Songs of the Great Depression Volume 1

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Let's take some time out for a second...

I work. I work to pay rent. I work to buy food, alcohol and shiny things. It doesn't get much deeper than that. That said, I enjoy my work and workplace - an architecture and design faculty in a university. We started the academic year a few weeks ago and this graffiti caught my eye:


Obviously in honour of the new year, some student drew this house. I love it. I want to build it and live in it with its smoking chimney. Remember: one day the person who drew this will probably design your house so don't laugh.


Anyhow, this morning, I got to work and this little character was guarding the front gate...




These little fellas were all over the building...


This guy was my favourite - running down the fire stairs with burning hair (some staff take fire safety very seriously so I wasn't surprised to see this one ripped down within half an hour of me taking this photo - it made me a bit sad that they did this).


This one was dangling over a stairwell defacing a poster for a conference called Rehab (if you can't see it, it says "REHAB is 4 quitters)."




As with all such things of this nature, I imagine they won't last long but they put a smile on my face this morning...




...so goodbye little guys, see you in the next life.

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