Longing for the day ...

The band was cookin'

Managed to catch the last bit of Australian Idol last night - quite by accident. The singing was predictably ordinary but the band was cooking.

Of course, this just served to remind me what can be achieved with a bit of long-term devotion, development and sustained effort. Quite the antithesis of what Australian Idol represents, but true nonetheless.

Oh, the irony.

Does Bali attract idiots?

I don't often agree with our Prime Minister but he was spot on when he described people who are associated with drugs in Indonesia as "stupid". How much of an indication do people need that Indonesia does not tolerate drugs in any way?? How much of an indication do people need to figure out that some people over there will happily set innocents up to take a drug bust - quite possibly to divert attention (possibly corruptly) away from their own nefarious activities??

The short message - don't go anywhere near the joint (if you'll pardon the pun!)

Bali is a beautiful place with plenty of reasons to visit. I had some friends on their honeymoon in Bali when the bomb went off - but they were nowhere near Kuta Beach. They were enjoying the Balinese culture in the north rather than the Western culture that they could have experienced at home. I'm sure there are plenty of similar places in other parts of Indonesia.

Howard's right - if you get caught up in any of that scene you are asking for trouble - especially since it's apparent that the major players will happily set innocents up. Keep out of it!!

Well, there you go ...

It's hard to be down on the Wallabies after Saturday night. They tried their hearts out and had the better of most of the game. The attack looked patchy - quite inept in places - and lacked any kind of penetration but under the circumstances that's probably understandable.

George Gregan played better than he has for a long time (although he fell apart when it counted at the end) and may have saved his career. Tough call, that one. Glad I don't have to make it.

But the injury worries have exposed another issue that has plagued Australian rugby for years - depth. When the All Blacks lost Dan Carter, they brought on Luke McAllister and there's not much difference. Lose Luke and they've still got Carlos Spencer and Andrew Merhtens, not to mention a few other promising youngsters, to fall back on. Some of the British Lions and NPC games show that New Zealand has plenty of talent below Super 12 level.

But when the Wallabies lose Stephn Larkham, there's a big gap back to the next two, and with them gone, the cupboard is bare. What's worse, apart from the top three, none of the prospects has test experience. In the front row, things are even worse. True, the Wallabies seem awash with loose forwards and quality outside backs, but that's rarely where games are won and lost. What happened to Australia's depth?

This is exactly the problem that made the Brumbies an early success, with disgruntled QLD and NSW players forming a formidable, if untried, lineup that soon proved it's ability. It's also a problem that will get better once the Western Force have a few seasons under their belt and the National Club Competition was specifically mooted to bring club-level players closer to international experience.

Some weeks ago there was a comment made that perhaps we need to re-introduce scrummaging techniques at an earlier age and stop bagging props as stupid to improve Australia's front-row stocks. Certainly, that's an area teh Wallabies have been down on for a few years.

I have no doubt that Australia has the talent to make up the difference but we don't seem to be using it effectively, not developing it adequately.

Ignoring Australian Idol

A couple of people asked me the other day at a gig whether I'm watching Australian Idol this time. I gotta confess that I'm not. (interesting to see the IdolBlog this time around - and that a Google of "Australian Idol" did not turn up the official site in the first two pages. There's a lesson there for their site designer: piss the images off and use more carefully written text!).

There are many reasons for this but, basically, I'm over it and have more important things to spend me time on. Last time I studied Idol a lot and concluded that it means nothing creatively or musically, it's just another way to get teenage eyeballs onto the screens to attract viewers. I am disappointed with the effect the concept has had on the music industry - encouraging dream chasing and neglecting long-term development.

Moreover, I'm aghast at the behaviour of Kyle Sandilands. What a wanker! I've only caught snippets of his efforts but they don't seem to add anything constructive to the process at all. At least Dicko had some credibility and what he said was usually spot on. Kyle just shreds defenceless talent for the sake of cheap ratings.

Of course, this seems to continue the ego-trip he was on when he told Frenzal Rhomb they would not be played on Triple-M again (to which they pointed out that they weren't anyway). Whether it's a deserved reputation or not (and it's a bit hard to figure that one out because Sandilands threatens anyone who sledges him and former colleagues are reluctant to speak out).

So, on the face of it, it's hard to not conclude that Kyle Sandilands is basically and egotisitcal tosser and I don't want to watch him shred defenceless people. One day we'll see some quality musical content on prime-time Australian TV again. Until then, bring on the footy!

Return to form

Last night featured a spectacular return to personal form in the touch footy. We won 10-3. I hadn't played since the Grand Final due to a combination of late-night games and illness, so it was good to have a trot. Got a few and set up a few in that game - but conceded one, as well. :-(

Interesting to read the speculation about George Gregan's place in the Wallabies after some ordinary form. His game as been waaay off recently. When the Wallabies replaced him with Chris Whittaker, the forwards started to get over the advantage line last Saturday night. But he played this badly just before the 2003 World Cup and look what happened there ...

I'm sure Jake White's right - Gregan's a champion and he'll come back. He probably just needs to re-focus on his role as a halfback instead of being swamped by the other things the captain has to do.

Heart's With You (Irish version)

This is a rewrite of the song of the same name posted earlier. When Bun' Ber E recorded Unplugged, I wanted to include an original just to see how it would go. Thought occurred to me that this sentiment would go down well with the Irish sense of humour so I re-wrote the verses to fit Irish places and experiences. Based on the sales evidence, I was not entirely sucessful.

If you'd like to hear this tune, you can listen to the streaming version here. This is the Unplugged recording of it - it's very basic. At some stage I'd like to redo it with a bigger and more genuine Celtic arrangement. Stay tuned for that.

Update: If you feel generous you can now buy the version of this song released on Bun' Ber E's debut CD "Unplugged" from iTunes, or MP3tunes.com, or Payplay.FM. If you have a different favourite online store, search for it there and if it's not there, let me know so I can put it there.

Heart's with you (Irish version).

Chorus:
I left my knees in Kerry's mountains
I left my hands beneath Wicklow
I lost my mind in a bar somewhere
But my heart's with you wherever you may go.

Well the far-famed Kerry mountains tower above you.
They raise their pointy peaks toward the sky.
But there nothin' much up there
'Cept my lassie's fine brown hair.
Climbing up them mountains damn near made me cry.

Chorus

Now beneath Wickow the mines are long abandoned
But unless you look you don't know what might be there.
We went diggin' for some gold
But the mine was pretty old
I wore out three picks and seven heads of hair.

Chorus

In a bar somewhere I first laid eyes upon you
Your manner and your service were so kind
Well me belly had a hole
And you satisfied my soul
Then you took me out the back and blew my mind.

Chorus x 2

********************************

Please note This song is APRA registered: Work ID GW33369807; ISWC T-060669719-1. You can copy, reproduce and distribute any part of these lyrics for any non-commercial purpose as long as you acknowledge its source. I'm interested in your feedback, comments, suggestions. If you make something good out of it, let me know and I'll consider adding it to this site.

If you perform it or broadcast it for any purpose, please let APRA know.





License this music for commercial use through Pump Audio









This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License

A rare pleasure

I got a rare and unexpected buzz on Saturday morning! As we were complaining about how cold and miserable it was at the Sunnybank RSL's 60th anniversary of VP day celebrations, a fan requested that we play "Heart's with you". We'd already played it that morning, but played it again, just for Jenny.

It's a strange pleasure, that. I had a good yarn to Jenny and discoverd that she loved it best on the whole Unplugged album. She said she knew most of the other tunes and liked them but that "Heart's With You" had caught her attention. I was different, she said, and she liked the jokes.

Warm and fuzzies for me ...

A sporting dog's life

What a pig of a weekend! The cricketers are in all sorts or trouble, the Wallabies got hammered, the Lions got flogged and the Broncos got hammered as well.

Even worse, the Wallabies and Broncos, about whom I care the most, didn't even look like winning. They played awful football and got beat by sides that well and truly deserved to win.

True, the Wallabies got off to a good start, but then went back to their bad old habits. They seem to get a plan in their head and stick doggedly to it even when it's obviously causing problems. This weekend it was going two passes wide of the ruck and turning the ball back inside (or occasionally out). The All Blacks figured this one out early and then just smashed the runners behind the advantage line.

Only when the Wallabies got Chris Whittaker on (and therefore better service from half) and got some close runners going forward near the ruck did they have any momentum at all. By then, though, it was more than halfway through the second half. They were too tired and unable to take advantage - mistakes and ball dropped under pressure (and the All Blacks put a LOT of pressure on).

The Broncos seem to be missing any kind of presence and organisation around the ruck. Their runners were disorganised and one-out, and the defence leaked like a sieve. For all the Saints' ability out wide (Cooper and Gasnier are class acts), they created holes through the Broncos' middle.

You can always tell when the Broncos are going well because their second-phase runners are everywhere. Yesterday they were almost not there. Too predictable, too easy to defend - only one try scored tells the story. Need Barry Berrigan back badly. The wheels have fallen off in the past few weeks.

To fair to both sides, though, their defence was excellent. It was only this that saved them from humiliation. As Wayne Bennet said, plenty of good things in it but, as Eddie Jones said, a lot of improvement needed.

Lost the footy, though

Not been a good sporting life lately. The Aussies lost the cricket (but what a fightback!), the Wallabies lost two in South Africa (when are they gonna figure out that kicking the ball away to the Springboks at altitude is a BAD idea?), the Broncos lost to Manly (my most hated NRL team - but the Broncos didn't even look like winning in the second half), and my own team lost the touch footy grand final on Monday (largely by playing like the Broncos did).

I've also had two bouts of 'flu, a gastic upset and an allergic reaction to the new washing powder we bought for our new washing machine. Still, life can only get better. I'm sure we'll beat the Poms and All Blacks, and the Broncos will get it together when it counts.

Interesting idea, that ...

Just read about the Backbench World Problems Index. Not sure the mathematics will work out precisely but it's a great start to analysing a problem that has plagued Australian media for quite a while. Even if the numbrs are debatable and, as Justin points out, need refinement, I'm sure we can larn from it and develop/refine the metrics.

Australians are not quite as myopic as the yanks, but one of the first things you learn in journalism school is about "news values" - that readers want to learn about things near and dear to them. Given that most of the Australian population is immigrants of some form or other, we ought to be very intersted in world events - but you hardly ever read about them in Australian newspapers.

Perhaps the BWPI assessors could do a comparison with the SBS World News, which has always struck me a significantly different and more informative ...

Ain't it strange??

On the gig front, you go through long periods of nothing happening and then all of a sudden, several pop out at once.

Two weddings in the space of two weeks, after almost a year of nothing for Lizard Drinkin'.

Amazing!

Getting on with it.

OK, the drum parts are coming along reasonably. Got a couple of bass parts down, too. Plenty of work to be done.

Today I'm off to ACRO to get the next stage of the re-recording of State V State done. We've decided to do a master recording of the whole thing and also break it into 15 seconds, 30 second, and 60 second versions for TV purposes. Then we'll have to record each one to fit it's space ...

The recording will probably happen in the Uni break in September, just so we don't scare the locals ... uni folks like the quiet life.