"OK, That's Enough" - Gruesomely Hypnotic Interview Disaster - Federal Election 2013

One of the best political candidate interviews you'll see this election. Very revealing, and entertaining, for all sorts of reasons.

1)  It's uncut, raw, footage of a political candidate unable to answer the most basic questions without sounding like a fucking robot.

2) Watch the young woman trying to maintain a poker face as the interview completely falls apart on the Six Point Plan, at 3:15

3) The old bloke who rocks up at 4:10

4) The journalist, pissed at being interrupted as he tries to get anything useful from the candidate, after five long minutes, at 5:44

5) The Big Finish, candidate left repeating "we support families" mantra when asked slightly difficult question about his a key financial policy, at 6:10.

Let's see more raw footage like this from the election campaign. It exposes the gulf between a candidate being able to mouth soundbites from a cheat sheet just the right length for the evening news, and the real abilities, intelligence and competency of the candidate.

Media Madness Of Federal Election 2013 Begins

Rupert Murdoch's Daily Telegraph demands readers do what they say, and officially, foolishly, declare their hand. On Day One:

The afternoon edition, as seen kicking around Twitter:

Original Sapphires Call For 'Racist' DVD Boycott

The original members of the singing group The Sapphires has called for a boycott of the US release of the Australian-produced movie on DVD.

The point of contention is pretty obvious. First, some of the Australian artwork, then the US 'blue' version.

Australian release: 

And the US release above.

From here:

'What has upset us is that the DVD cover appears to miss that point [of the film] entirely,'' she said. ''It's disrespectful to the very talented young Aboriginal actors in the film, and it's disrespectful to us as a group.

''But in particular, it's disrespectful to women of colour everywhere who have stood up against this sort of thing all their lives.'' she said.

 UPDATE: Even talk of a boycott was enough. From Billboard:

The American distributor of the Australian film "The Sapphires" is apologizing for the DVD cover, which some have called sexist and racist, and says it is considering new cover art for future shipments.

Anchor Bay Entertainment said in a statement Monday that it "regrets any unintentional upset" caused by the DVD, which will be on U.S. store shelves Tuesday.

The rest of the story is here

There has been some interesting, and positive, fallout from this casual backlining of the true stars of the movie. And The Sapphires DVD release has scored some major attention now in the US media, excerpts of the movie are being shown on the news, and the positive result will give the movie's release a massive boost. It's a great story, a decent movie, full of great young Australian stars and now more people than ever know about it.

1973: Rolling Stones Confronted By Australian Media Over Rumored Drug Smuggling

Mick Jagger responds:

"If you want to follow up in TV journalism what rubbish they dish out in the press, you're pretty low."

That's standard operating procedure with most TV news these days.

Also, Mick Jagger: "Australia wants to be a part of South-East Asia, which is very admirable, I thought, after years of isolation. But the only way I can see that happening is if more South East Asian come home, because it's very difficult to be part of South East Asia when you don't understand that mentality."

Rock Photos - The Angels With Dave Gleeson

A selection of photos of The Angels recording at Alberts Studio, and in rehearsals, during 2012.

All photos By Darryl Mason

(from left) The Angels' bassist Chris Bailey, and guitarists Rick and John Brewster

The Angels' Dave Gleeson and Rick Brewster

The Angels' Dave Gleeson

Rick Brewster gets...

....a great idea

Signing stuff

The Angels' bassist Chris Bailey

Rock Photos - Suze DeMarchi From The Baby Animals

Suze DeMarchi from The Baby Animals is one of the more interesting Australian musicians to photograh, lots of emotion and energy onstage and an absolutely wicked sense of humour offstage.

Photos from 2012 of The Baby Animals onstage and backstage at their shows for The Annandale Hotel, Sydney, and A Day On The Green.

All photos by Darryl Mason.

A train station on the Richmond (NSW) line at sunset:

 

Frenzal Rhomb's Jay Walley Survives Brain Worm

In his words:

Valentines Day Brain Surgery. Sounds like a Ramones song. They gave me general anesthetic and cut a 10cm rectangle at the back left of my skull, took out the offending alien and put the skull piece back. It was over in about three hours.
Two hours later I was in intensive care when the head of the neuro team came in and said
“Good news, looks like it was some kind of infection ”
Holy shit, the relief I felt was overwhelming, not just for me but for my family as well. I felt like I could breathe for the first time in three weeks.
No cancer! Or as Gordy put it “Happy Valentines Day you tumourless fuck.”
So what the hell was it? How did I get an infection in my brain?
I was tested for all sorts of things over a couple of days until finally they got some results back from the lab. Here’s an approximation of the conversation.
“Have you been to Central America in the last few years?” Asked the good doctor from the infectious diseases department.
“Sure”
“We think it could be a parasite”
” Again!? Is this somehow related to Pico the botfly larva I picked up in the same region?”
“No, this is specifically neurocysticercosis, basically the egg from a pig tapeworm”
“A what tapeworm?”
” A pig ”
“A pig?!? I’m fucking vegetarian! How did I get the egg from a fucking pig worm in my brain?!?”

Read the rest here