Momentary Commentary

I would like someone to explain to me this rather curious trend of ex-Liberal pollies suddenly developing moral backbones when they end their political reigns of terror. Jeff Kennett receeded out of the political limelight a number of years ago and eached an epiphany to become spokesperson for Beyond Blue. No doubt he was drumming up business for them all along when he was premier. Malcolm Fraser, who admittedly is not a new face to humanitarianism, still has the distinction of having been a Liberal (a PM no less) and that's bad enough in my books. However, his opinion piece in today's age made me raise my fist in the air and say "Yeah!". It highlighted well (at least in my mind) many of the moral shortcomings of the present government of which many of us already know, but don't hear about often enough in the mainstream media. But beyond this fist raising and blood boiling and the like it started to occur to me whether a similar thing might happen with little johnny when and if he ever gives australia a break and effs off to oblivion. Hard to imagine him ever having any shred of credibility in the sharing & caring stakes but then again I wouldn't put it past him to try...

Well done boys!

Couldn't let the socceroos 3-1 dream result against Japan go without mention...how good was it to see the socceroos: (1) not just play a game in the world cup; (2) not just score a goal or two (or three if you like); (3) but actually win the bloody match!? Who would've thunk it?? This is a red-letter day moment, the sort where you ask the question of where were you when it happened. The fact that most would reply that they were glued to the teev at an ungodly hour, mindful of the fact that they had an early start ahead of them doesn't diminish in the least the significance of this momentous achievement. All up I'm stoked.
Postscript: The remarkable dream run of the Socceroos at the World Cup saw our boys defy all expectations and miraculously advance to the second round. As fabulous as and as unexpected, surely then no one could have predicted a more heartbreaking end to the second round game against Italy where our guys dominated for most of the match. Very Shakespearean (sp?) i thought. Deciding to award a penalty shot in the dying last seconds of a game? Against Lucas Neill !? Are you sure? That was probably the most cruel and most calculated way for a ref to have intervened in a game's outcome. Sour grapes? Maybe. But to those cynics who said that if Australia wanted to win they should have capitalised better on Italy's early red card. Well Portugal had a similar scenario on the weekend after a particularly thuggish display by lager lout rooney resulted in his early ejection too. When portugal had to endure extra time and penalties to get their win no one begrudged them that did they?

Nevertheless, it was an exciting, heady time to be an Australian there for a while and i'm glad that the guys had made as far as they did. As for now i say bring it on Portugal! I hope you guys get a chance to knock the socks off Germany or France or *mwhaha!* Italy!

History might never repeat

Wow! What a treat we were afforded to seeing the reformed Split Enz play a packed out Rod Laver Arena over the Queen’s birthday long weekend. Ever since it was announced that the Enz were going to reform and play a few shows around Australia (and naturally New Zealand), this has been one of this year’s most highly anticipated concerts (sorry U2). It is easy to cynically deride this kind of reunion tour as one of those feathering the nest-egg numbers that often happens with musical acts of a previous era (John Farnham, The Eagles and *sigh* Kiss to name but a few). Maybe it played a role or maybe it didn’t, but when a band sounds this great and looks like they are having such a good time ultimately who really cares? My only lament is the fact that I came so late to the party even though the songs of the Enz were such a part of my generation. Worse still, my ears still burn with the shame of having ridiculed people at high school for preferring Split Enz and Crowded House to my glam metal mulleted hunks. Imagine that? Listening to the daggy Crowded House when you could be ogling at pictures of Bon Jovi, Motley Crue and Europe (?!!). Oh well, it seems that musical taste is one of those things that evolves with age – how else do you explain the success of Crazy Frog. Big thanks to our dear friend and massive Enz fan Yossarian for organizing the tix for their Melbourne show – make sure you check out the great write up of the show!