Let’s Sin Again…like we did last Summer

A BBC magazine declares Australia the most sinful nation on Earth, followed by the US.

Presuming that there is no old colonial bias at work here, it’s rather interesting to note in which sins both Australia and the US excelled in: Australia ranked first for envy (determined by the amount of thefts that occurred), the US ranked first for gluttony (determined by money spent on fast food).

Also of note:

Lust (determined by amount of pornography consumed) was topped by South Korea, and greed (determined by the percentage of the population earning less than 50% of the median income) was topped by Mexico.

I have yet to see BBC Focus on sale in newsagents here, but you can get a digital preview here. The way the figures came about is rather…interesting. 

An A for Effort

Apparently LGBT Australians have 85 new law reforms, which include carer’s leave in the advent of you or your partner becoming sick, the addition of same sex partners to be listed on their respective Medicare cards, and the incorporation of same sex couples into the new de facto partner visa.

These are all good and publicised on the website wearitwithpride.com.au,which is the major component in a multimedia campaign to inform the public about the reforms.

I’m quite cool with getting the information out, in fact it definitely needs to be publicised.

The only thing leaving me a bit strange? Part of the PR campaign involves a pop song. (Admittedly a good one by a decent artist: Natalie Bassingthwaite)

My generation (1979 births are Generation X here in Australia) is one of the last ones to have grown up with heavy anti-Soviet propaganda. Now, it may just be my own age talking but, a pop song to celebrate legal reforms seems a bit…

 

Not to mention…

 

Yet ultimately, it’s not the hardcore propaganda that I grew up with (on both sides of the US/Soviet Bloc divide or Sane US/Insane US divide of the GWB years), it’s just a cute, smart way of reaching as many Australians as possible.

Wednesday Jukebox Gets Ready for Eurovision Season

Technically, it’s already started, but with time differences and a different schedule down here, Eurovision season at this corner of the internet is going to begin in February. Nonetheless, stumbling across this campy 1970s chestnut by Japanese quartet Four Leaves* is a reminder that the Trans-Europe sing-a-long is only a few months away.

* RIP Takashi Aoyama

Apple Nickels & Dimes Australia

I cannot say that I am much of an Apple fan. Perhaps it is because everyone seems to think that I: a) already own a Mac and/or iPhone and b) should, because I am a “creative.”

Well, I don’t. I’m pretty much a hardcore PC person. I left Apple around the IIe (2E) period and whatever they have morphed into is nothing I recognise.

I feel it’s necessary to establish my bias because everything Apple does or comes up with seems to arouse such passion that it’s becoming one of those “let’s not talk about it” subjects like race and religion.

Despite my distaste for Apple, I do have an iPod (hell, I’ve gone through several) and the requisite iTunes account. I also have a Zune and a Zune Marketplace subscription that I felt balanced things out between the two titans.

Well, that balance seems to only work in the US, apparently. The Sydney Morning Herald today features an article about the price discrepancy that Australian iTunes customers pay compared to those in the US, a mark up averaging 40% higher, and that is taking the GST into account.

Personally (and here’s that bias again), I always preferred Microsoft’s monthly subscription format as opposed to the per song format of iTunes, but sadly, that’s a bit buggered down here as Zune has yet to debut down under.

The one beacon of hope that might keep Apple in check is Telstra’s Bigpond Digital Music Shop, but as the article mentions, the selection does not match those of Apple’s.

So what’s the alternative?

Well, I’d suggest that old neglected stalwart, the brick & mortar music store.

Never hurts to interact in person once in a blue moon.

The Australia Day Jukebox

First, one of the most successful Australian songs ever to hit the charts (although it flopped massively in the US, then again the US likes to zag when the world zigs musically, ask Robbie Williams).

But for true Australiana, nothing says more than a montage of Australian television themes:

 

Happy Australia Day.

Monday Jukebox Wonders What To Say

A special Australia Day Jukebox coming tomorrow, but to kick the week off, the popular in Australia (but not Australian) Boz Scaggs.

New Look Sunrise is Old Look Today

Not the one with Karl Stefanovic, but the US one…which happens to air 90 minutes before Sunrise.

Much hype was made about the new Sunrise that was launched today, and I don’t quite know what to make of it.

Good Changes

• The main desk doesn’t look so crowded.
• Poor Fifi Box won’t be terrorised by well…nearly everything, since she’s now the entertainment editor.

Bad Changes

• Take the sodding ties off the men. You can be relaxed and serious. The male anchors all look like undertakers.
• Grant Denyer is back? Has Canberra passed a new law requiring all commercial breakfast shows to employ weathermen with Napoleonic measurements?
• Despite all the hullabaloo about hiring the same set designer that did the Martha Stewart Show, The Daily Show, and the CBS Early Show, all they got with the new set was the old set from The Today Show (US).
• The new logo is also pretty much a knock off of the Today Show (US).
• The word “family” is slipping in a little bit too frequently in reference to the main four (five, if you count Grant Bonaparte) anchors. The second I hear ”Australia’s first family,” I will scream.

Now, new Sunrise has had only one day out on the trot, so perhaps it will find its own Australian flow, but honestly, I think they’d do better to resurrect The Big Breakfast/Arvo and set up shop over at Eveleigh.

Or at least get those damn ties off, it’s not mourning television.

Go McCain women

I guess Cindy McCain was much more Lynne Cheney than Laura Bush. She’s pro-gay marriage, even if her husband isn’t, going so far as to pose with a “NOH8” message. Her daughter Meghan also is pro-gay marriage.

Meanwhile, here in New South Wales, gay couples are not considered fit to adopt children, and the only recognition available is the City of Sydney’s Relationships Declaration Program.

Actually, when you look at the rights available, that puts New South Wales on par with Arizona in terms of rights available, and the ACT on par with…well, civilisation.

The Late Night Debacle for Beginners

I have doubts over the authenticity of this clip, but it does manage to explain the whole saga with cute computer animation. (Courtesy of ABC online’s The Shallow End)

 

The playwright in me would go with characters from King Lear, but I reckon assorted comic book character knock-offs work better in Taiwan.

Meanwhile, I wonder what 7Two is going to put on in Leno’s place at noon. (Hint: Blue Heelers.)

William Goes To Redfern

Prince William visits Sydney’s traditional Aboriginal suburb, the site of riots and the home of yours truly.

The ABC has a lovely report with all the details, as I did my best to avoid the chaos (which included a multitude of news helicopters hovering right over my home).

You Can Never Be Selfless These Days

Altruism is dead in the media, ever since the Vietnam war, which is why I have to laugh when reporters and talking heads try to make it out that they are acting purely out of “human compassion.”

First, eyebrows were raised when both the Seven and Nine Networks were shown to “save” a baby trapped in the rubble.

Now, CNN’s star doctor is off performing neurosurgery on a young girl injured in the earthquake, managing to squeeze the surgery in between his reporting duties.

Listen, while it is excellent that help was given, I find that there is something extremely unsavoury about reporters making themselves the story. Gupta might get a pass as he is still a doctor and bound by duties of his profession, but would any of these people be willing to do the same outside of the spotlight?

Perhaps, but the sheer luggage that they carry as media figures will always cast a shadow over their “humanity.”

Passive-Aggressive Movie Stars & Network Synchophants

Julia Roberts & Tom Hanks take shots at NBC during the Golden Globes pre-show. Billy Bush does his bit to defend the peacock, which like his famed (and shamed) cousin has seen way better days.

Win One, Lose Several

Air New Zealand managed to get named Airline of the Year while also offending women and apparently making very bad fashion choices.

Friday Jukebox Goes Back to 2009

…Or the late 1970-80s if you want to be technical about it.

These are two clips that really caught my eye in 2009, but forgot to give them their jukebox due.

First is scenes of Tokyo-at-night to the song Yes-Yes-Yes by the ”folk” band Off Course.

Remember Momoe Yamaguchi, the JPop Queen who went all Greta Garbo around 1980? Here she performing I CAME FROM Yokosuka, a rather personal song (given her bio) and a relatively funky one at that (Momoe meets Sly Stone?), although her outfit and the orchestrations lessen the funk.

And finally here's one that is just a total classic, Sade's Nothing Can Come Between Us. (Their new single Soldier of Love is killer...no pun intended.)

SADE - Nothing Can Come Between Us
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It’s All Rather Quiet Down Here

This is a rather interesting time of year down here. Interesting in the fact that the nation (at least in terms of television) has effectively gone on hiatus.

The hiatus makes sense as for the Australian networks this is equivalent to August in the US (although I meteorologically it’s July), in that the ratings season starts next month and it’s time to just slowly tease the audience into watching the new slate of shows.

Unfortunately, unlike the US, the Australian networks aren’t too big on getting experimental over Summer, so the only highlight has been the latest season/series of Outrageous Fortune on Ten and Seven’s slipping in the Kiwi answer to Border Security (which is actually performing quite well).

News-wise, the B teams are doing everything to make every single story AS BIG AS POSSIBLE, emphasising some of the most tenuous Australian (or in a pinch Kiwi) links as a way of justifying the hype.

Meanwhile, if you talk to the average Australian on the street it’s “Cricket. Tennis. Cricket. Tennis. Cricket. Tennis,” with Australia playing Pakistan on Nine, and a slew of high-profile tennis matches on Seven.

I wouldn’t be surprised if anyone at Ten has a series of “Crickness” promos ready to air at some point.

Please, please, please bring on February.

Howard Beale in the making?

The addition of George Negus to The 7PM Project has given the show a sense of gravitas, although one must wonder if he might become the show's Howard Beale-lite as illustrated by his passionate, but nonetheless reasoned argument in reorganising Australian government.

The Peacock Can’t Keep Its House in Order

For starters, I think calling this saga JayConan Gate (which this article chooses to use) is daft, but that aside, I cannot help but grin with glee as to how NBC’s poor management at the network programming is coming back to bite them in the arse.

Has GE finally flogged them off?

Worth Noting, Groaning, and Grinning

Several articles caught my eye in today’s Sydney Morning Herald:

• NBC finally realises that nobody likes Jay Leno all that much except for accountants and Leno himself. Poor Conan, that’s all I have to say. (Mind you, I don’t know why it is absolutely imperative for the Tonight Show to broadcast from the West Coast.)
• Selfridges (it’s British for “overpriced and precious department store”) says we can now officially call 1990s clothing vintage. I say “bollocks” to that, especially since you can’t justify flannel in coastal urban Australia unless you want a heath scare.
• Two Australian executives from the Qantas group barred from leaving Vietnam because of losses incurred by Jetstar Pacific. There’s a Machiavellian side to me that finds this hilarious, especially since practically everyone at Enron got away scot-free.
• Sydney…it’s a dirty city. Not as in raunchy or risqué, nope, just the classic full-of-rubbish kind, according to Miranda Devine. Her descriptions make it out to sound like Sydney is the Antipodean Detroit (it’s not that bad…yet), but she does take Mayor Moore to task for not doing much to make the city clean.
• And over at the Daily Telegraph, take a tour through the vapid world of Sydney’s A-listers…and please feel free to donate to Socialist International afterwards if you feel dirty like I did after reading it.

First Day Slip Ups

Today marks the first day that Australia effectively goes back to work. Apparently someone at the AAP has been having a rough time adjusting back to the daily grind. This headline being an example: Drivers blamed for road toll.

US cable bloodbath

Courtesy of my mother and the New York Times/AP, I found out that there’s quite the battle royale going on between the US cable companies and the cable network groups over fees. I reckon there are two outcomes:

1. The government sets up a Cable czar/office, as the article suggests.
2. A la carte pricing comes into play, which likely will bring upon the end of many cable networks.

Oddly enough, the winners here wind up being the free-to-air channels, especially if unlimited internet ceases to be offered.

Post-Dramatic Stress?

Here’s an odd story to kick off 2010. Today’s edition of the Sydney Morning Herald has an article on the side effects of method acting.

Yes, kids method acting can mess you up: The article cites actor-character identification as playing a role (no pun intended) in Heath Ledger’s death, Robert Downey Jr.’s drug addiction, and Daniel Day-Lewis freaking out while playing Hamlet.

Somehow, I suspect the actors in The Hangover are not troubled by this issue…well, Mike Tyson maybe.