daddy-fu’s Neighborhood

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24043030-601,00.html

Folks,

I'm once more astounded by the logic that, "We should have our own Australian people and not locals from there so that they don't discriminate," he (Kevin Andrews) said. "This would help solve problems."

This proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the previous government was so out of touch with reality that they had no other option but to be dumped.

As though Australians don't practice bias and discrimination??? WTF???

The immigration portfolio has to work closely to the foreign affairs portfolio, and if the ex-minister had reservations about rorting at the various overseas posts, then surely it must have been a systemic failure between his own bloody department and that of that other idiot, Alexander Downer. Thank fuck they're both gone! To blame local staff is just pathetic and frankly, racist.

Ninja

I'm slightly wired. I'm on the pseudoephedrine. I think its easier to buy an ecstasy tablet here than it is to buy a cold tablet. You have to hand over your license to get a packet of codrals. I guess if something happens to this pack and I go and try to buy another pack tomorrow I'll have the swat team smashing down my front door looking for a cooker. So I started the day with a pseudo and a coffee. So I feel slightly wired, yet still unwell. And dehydrated. I wonder when they say on the pack to avoid alcohol do they really mean it. I'm supposed to be going out tonight.

What happened to Friday Night Musing? Dexter happened. The latest-in-Oz/ancient-in-America television entertainment, that's what happened.

I stumbled across a review of Dexter about a month back, then downloaded the audio book which the show is based on for a listen. I was intrigued by the plot, so went looking for bit torrent files and discovered the show is now in its third season in the States, with full torrents of seasons 1 and 2 available. I whacked them into UTorrent and a week or so later, we were sitting down nightly to watch one or two episodes of Dexter.

If you've not seen the first two episodes of season one on Network Ten, Sundays over the past fortnight, then you've missed a treat. The show is an engaging one about a Miami Police forensic scientist, Dexter Morgan, who due to a childhood trauma, carries a deep-seated sociopathic psychosis within his make-up. He feels empty, emotionless and seeks just to feel alive. Growing up, he found the closest he could come to feeling alive was by killing. It thrilled him. His foster father, Harry, recognised that his son had troubling undercurrents in his psyche, and so helped the young Dexter to manage and channel his urges. To pretend to be just like everyone else, while latently satisfying them but only in terms of the code of honour Harry instilled into Dexter. Dexter is a serial killer, but he only kills those who have done bad things and escaped the law. He's an artist, a collector and overall, a seemingly harmless and extremely likeable character. He gets into scrapes and despite the often morbid and macabre elements in the show, you find yourself always on Dexter's side, often chuckling as each episode develops.

We finished season one during the week and are now into season two. As I say, it's a very engaging, often funny and thoughtfully constructed show. The actors and characters are very believable with numerous sub-plots always running in the background. I highly recommend Dexter to anyone with a bent for something different.

Pat Benatar - Love Is a Battlefield Pat Benatar Tour Dates 07/18/08 Chicago, IL House Of Blues 07/19/08 Goshen, IN Elkhart County 4-H Fair 07/21/08 Council Bluffs, IA Harrah's Casino - Stir Concert Cove 07/26/08 Oakville, CA Robert Mondavi Winery 07/27/08 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore 08/01/08 C Mesa, CA Pacific Amphitheatre 08/02/08 Primm, NV Star of the Desert Arena 08/03/08 San Diego, CA Humphrey's Concerts 08/05/08 Saratoga, CA The Mountain Winery 08/09/08 Aspen, CO Belly Up Aspen 08/10/08 Colorado Springs, CO Pikes Peak 08/11/08 Beaver Creek, CO Vilar Center 08/14/08 Silverton, OR Oregon Garden 08/15/08 Tacoma, WA Emerald Queen 08/16/08 Richmond, BC River Rock Casino 08/17/08 Coquitlam, BC Red Robinson 08/19/08 Medicine Hat, AB  Esplanade 08/20/08 Regina, SK Casino Regina Show 08/22/08 ON Thunder Bay Comm Auditorium 08/23/08 MN Grand Casino Hinckley 08/24/08 Sault Ste Marie,MI Kewadin Casino 08/26/08 Verona, NY Turning Stone Casino 08/27/08 Jim Thorpe, PA Penn's Peak 08/29/08 Lincoln, RI Twin River Casino 08/31/08 Bridgeport, CT Klein Memorial Aud 09/05/08 CA Chukchansi Gold Casino 09/06/08 Rancho Cucamonga, CA Lewis Family Playhouse Album Discography [1979] In the Heat of the Night [1980] Crimes of Passion [1981] Precious Time [1982] Get Nervous [1983] Live from Earth [1984] Tropico [1985] Seven the Hard Way [1988] Wide Awake in Dreamland [1991] True Love [1993] Gravity's Rainbow [1997] Innamorata [2003] Go

I'm probably not qualify to write this article, as I thought I only knew a few popular songs ("Love is a Battlefield" and "Heartbreaker") from Pat Benatar, a pop singer who dominated the American charts in the 80s, but after giving Pat Benatar: Ultimate Collection 2-CD album a listen, I can tell you that I was familiar with a lot of her works!

Her songs, especially the early pop rock hits, reminds me a lot of Patty Smyth in Scandal, both having strong female vocals backed by a tight band, rocking out to music themes such as the heat of the night, children of the street, belonging to something, and promises of love.

There are many good songs on this collection, but I will only be mentioning a few stand-out tracks. "Heartbreaker", her major-hit debut single, originally released in 1979 from her album, In the Heat of the Night.

"Hit Me With Your Best Shot", I've always thought it was an Olivia Newton-John song. Imagine my surprise when I found out that this was a big hit for Benatar!

I was also surprise to hear "I Need a Lover", a John Cougar Mellencamp song!  Her take on it emphasized more on her aggressive girl vocals.

"Love is a Battlefield", gives new meaning to synchronized dancing by runaways. I think the cheesy music video to this song, more or less, made the song really popular in the 80s. A little bit of trivia, this original release was on a live album called Live From Earth (1983). Out of this live album are two studio tracks, the battlefield song and "Lipstick Lies".

While the first disc covers most of her singles from her first five studio albums (1979-1983), the second disc covers the rest of her career, but only from her former record label, Chrysalis Records (1984-1993). What's interesting to note is her shift from rocker to a more mellow pop and even jazz, on such classic songs like "We Belong" (this sounds like a Journey song), and the jazzy "True Love" (lots of piano and brass instruments on this one).

It is kind of nice to see Benatar dipping into different genres outside of pop (she even does blues on "Payin' the Cost to Be the Boss"), I suppose it's a sign that she was growing up in those later years. We're talking about thirty year's worth of music, although looking at her discography, there are huge gaps after 1993 that suggests she's in semi-retirement of recording original music? Her last album, Go, came out in 2003, but perhaps with this latest tour and Ultimate Collection that was just released might spark some interest to get her back to the studio?

Ultimate Collection is really meant for casual and new fans, but I think it will also appeal to hardcore fans, as it does a wonderful job compiling Benatar's hits with some misses. The forty songs on two CDs (and official digital tracks), with half of it were top 40 hits. For new fans, this is a great way of getting all these songs for a reasonably low price.

To coincide with the album release (June 24^th from Capitol/EMI Records and can be found at all major record stores), Benatar went on tour since May. She's currently just finished up Knoxville, Tennessee, and probably heading to your town. If possible you should see her do live rendition of all her hits.

Links: www.benatar.com benatarfanclub.com myspace.com/officialpatbenatar

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=600040

Folks,

How dumb is this guy? On the upside, he's very lucky to have escaped the noose by mere grams of the stuff.

I don't think he's going to be taking Singapore for granted ever again if they're talking about caning him as well.

It continues to astound me how so many people get snared in Singapore's legal system due to drug possession. Their authorities can't be any clearer - you take that chance and you will pay dearly.

Methinks Mr Lloyd will be rethinking his options right this very moment. Personally, I'm deeply disappointed that he's done this. Having covered this part of the world as a journalist for as long as he has, you'd think that he's the first to NOT even think about testing the system.

Ninja

I've been thinking about the meaning of life. And I really don't know what all the fuss is about. Philosophers go on and on, but never get there. Neither do the religious people. Oh, they'll tell you that they do, but like the philosophers, they'll go on and on, and eventually they all tell you that it's God. But what do they mean by God? It is, after all, just a word. So we all go off and put our own meanings to that word. And we're all happy. The philosophers have their God, the religious guys have theirs, and you and I have ours.

But it isn't a very satisfactory answer, is it. We're all talking about different Gods. So, I've decided to invent a new God. I've modestly decided to name it "Snowy". Snowy, the God, doesn't pretend to have any answers. The Snowy God just looks around it, and says that the answers are there for those who seek them. And there isn't any best fit answer. Whatever answer makes sense to you is the right answer.

So, that's settled. Now, you may be interested in the Snowy answer. The Snowy God is the reason why we get out of bed in the morning. It's the reason why we go to work; why we spend so much our lives despairing of, and exhalting in, relationships; and in our more reflective moments, why we wonder why.

And I'm happy to tell you that the Snowy God has it all figured out. And Snowy God reluctantly hands the baton on to a new God. It's called  "Survival". And if we reflect on our lives we find that so much of it is spent genuflecting before its altar. We endure endless crap in our jobs in its name; we endure much heartbreak at the altar of relationships; and those of us who have children tremble at the adversity that we know they will have to overcome in their obeisance to God, Survival.

And that's just the way it is. The religious guys like to think that they have the measure of God, Survival. They say that, so long as you do what they say, then they have God Survival beat. Their God overcomes Survival God when you die. Because you don't actually die if you live this life the way they tell you to. But you just have to have faith that what they say is true, because they can't actually point to anyone who has come back from the dead, except one guy 2,000 years ago, who seems to be conveniently absent now. Yeah, right...

So, I think we can dismiss those guys, because they make one fundamental error. They assume that this wondrous, mind boggling, universe was created for the benefit of human beings, on a small, insignificant planet called Earth. Such an arrogance. I'll take the Snowy God, thanks. It makes so much more sense, don't you think?

   

Teenage girls. Aren't they sweet. I mean just look at those sweet little faces.

I just don't think we're taking full advantage of the natural resources teenage girls have to offer us. If we did, we'd never have to dig for coal again. If we could just find a way to harness all that attitude teenage girls produce, we could use it to produce enough energy to light the world. And there'd be a never ending supply of it.

Actually something funny - My eldest daughter - Kimba - has been so disgusting and bitchy lately that I wrote her this long email detailing exactly what I thought of her. Then I get up this morning and thought to myself she wasn't too pissed off about it and then I check my emails and there the bloody thing is - come back to me, unable to be sent it tells me for some bloody reason. Typical.

 

 

Little girls - I'm telling you, they're over rated.