Sooooooooooooooooo excited that I have to write too many ‘o’s.

I just bought tickets to the following things:

1. Root Manuva 23rd Sept @ The Palace (pity about the venue, good for a bit of rock, not so much for some Hip-Hop
2. DJ Vadim – 2nd Sept @ The Prince (possibly my Favorite Ninja Tune DJs and we’ll be bringing his lovely wife Yarah Bravo who is possibly the sexiest woman alive)
3. Mix Master Mix – 19th Aug @ The Forum (possible the best DJ in the world at possibly the best venue in the world

Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go and chance my pants.

I would have bought Fantomas tickets but they don’t go on sale until 4th Aug. I’m unhappy about this as I want reassurances that I’ve got a ticket here.

Pure Gold!

As regular readers of this fine publication will know my motorbike was stolen about 6 weeks ago. Initially I got rather excited at the prospect of upgrading to the big 1 ltr bike and cursing around town on my rear wheel (yes the idea still excites me and yes I can be a bit of a rev head when I’m not fighting for the environment).

With an absence of a motorbike I got my pushy serviced and started cycling around the place. Now days I’m quite the cycling enthusiast. I’ve been regularly riding to my parents house (a decent ride) and rode out to Williamstown (also a decent ride) on the weekend with a couple of mates. In fact last night, despite a bit of rain, I went for a 40 min ride just for the sake of fitness. I’m also a little excited that others are doing the same.

So as a fan of all things two wheeled it’s interesting to note the cultural differences between the two. For some reason I expect there to be cultural similarities but really there isn’t any.

Perhaps the biggest common feature is that both groups are arrogant and probably rightly so. The roadcraft of most motorcyclists is significantly better than most car users. Motorcyclists have a much deeper understanding of the road as they need it to stay alive. They are also generally quite comfortable with the idea that they are a bad ass. I think cyclists are similar in terms of their roadcraft but are lower on the road food chain leaving these skills irrelevant.

It’s much harder to pin point the source of arrogance of the cyclist as they are a much less homogenous group. There’s the hippy, is powered by the fact that riding that bike is helping every car that goes past them (this is also the source of resentment). There’s the serious cyclist who is powered by their own sense of self satisfaction that they are really really fit and have neat looking leg muscles and a $10,000 bike. And then there are those who just use a bike because it’s their only means of transport what with the price of petrol these days – these people generally have no pride and really aren’t in a hurry to get anywhere anyway.

Now the most apparent difference between the two is the level of solidarity. If you pull up at the lights on a motorbike, next to another motorbike you get ‘the nod’. Sometimes you have a bit of a chat. Sometime you drag each other off at every set of lights as you go along and pull up laughing about it at the next set of red lights ready to do it again. I remember pulling up to a bloke in his full colours (which can be quite intimidating, if memory serves me correctly he was a Gipsy Joker) and just having a ball together as we flew at high speed through the traffic. I must add my little 600cc Honda sport bike killed his huge 1500cc Harley! This just doesn’t happen on a push bike. Off the road there is sometimes a sense of solidarity but on the road there really is none. Riding home from my parents the other day I nearly fell off my bike when I pulled up at the lights next to a cyclist and he actually said hi.

So I miss my solidarity and being a bad ass. I’ll get my fix down at Philip Island in October.

Until then I’ll keep peddling until I cack and just go out an buy a motorbike.

Isn’t it awefully nice to live in a world where everything’s exactly how it seems?
We live in a world where all you have to do is sit around and dream,
About the things that make you happy, about the things that make you smile
Sit back, relax, apathy’s back in style.

- Les Claypool

There are a few issue that I have taken up on this blog and I do like to keep my public informed.

Police Commissioner Christine Nixon has told us that one in 50 people drug tested have tested positive.

n the six-month period, 7207 tests have been conducted and police have confirmed 145 positive results.

Tests have been carried out at all times of day and night, and in locations across Melbourne, but have particularly focused on the freight industry and on weekend “rave parties.”

Police say rates of drug driving are highest between 4am and 9:30 am on Sunday mornings.

Of the positive results, 103 tested positive solely for methamphetamines such as speed and ecstasy, while six registered a positive for THC (marijuana) only.

The remainder of the positive results were for multiple drug use.

Police sources said the lower result for THC did not mean marijuana use was less common than amphetamine use. “It is harder to test for,” one source said.

This is interesting. A few immediate responses would be, no shit the kids are taking drugs at rave parties, and no shit that truck drivers are taking a reasonable amount. It’s hard to get an indication from this article but I’d imagine that truck drivers are showing up as disproportionately high on a per-capita basis but not on the basis of these tests.

However what surprises me more is the (relatively) low level of positive tests for Marijuana. I had a feeling that they would be the vast majority (based on a survey of my derelict friends).

This would suggest to me that either the tests aren’t accurate for THC testing or that it only detects usage a relatively short time after usage.

It’s also interesting to note that “the testing equipment being used was not the force’s preferred technology.”

Over at Free As Trees there is an interesting discussion about Kara’s relationship with her Grandparents and how the political chasm between her and them is growing. She concludes that for a variety of reasons – largely personal experience – you will just never see eye to eye with some people (don’t mean to overly simplify things here – I realise I haven’t done you justice Kara).

It got me thinking about my relationship with my Grandparents. I’ve always been particularly close to them. They used to take me up to Torquay every weekend until my brother an sister were born at which point we started alternating. There getting on now – both 86 – but they are also both still pretty sharp. The thought of them going kills me.

But I digress. As I’ve grown up I’ve become increasingly political. My Grandparents have always voted Liberal and are mostly very socially conservative. They used to just dismiss my opinions as an echo chamber of my parents (big call coming from the man who used to stand over my mother’s shoulder to make sure she voted Liberal).

What I find now is that if you discuss issues that are in the news then there is a knee jerk reaction and we are at polar opposites. But if you delve a little deeper your not. These people were brought up in an era of big government and Kyensian economics. My grandfather loaths privately owned utilities and thinks education should be free. My point is that you have to get a little deeper because the current political discourse is so shallow and so divisive.

Moreover, if you actually break an issue down and related it to personal experience then it is possible to reach people that should be at such polar opposites. It’s not always easy and not always possible. I suspect that because I have such a rich relationship with my grandparents (hell my blind Grandma insisted on me taking her for a ride on my motorbike) that this is possible. Unfortunately they both still vote liberal, but come to think of it my grandfather did consider voting against Kennet in the election Kennet lost.

Hip Hop Music draws our attention to the Gay Hip-Hop Festival.

Personally I love the idea and it shows that Hip-Hop is infinitely deeper than most people give it credit for.

…and while I’m on Music, over at Immanuel Rant there is a survey of your musical tastes which would have to rank as one of the most inaccurate of these sorts of things I’ve ever come across (at least in terms of my musical tastes). I come up like this:

Let me assure you that I basically don’t listen to 90′s Alternative (mostly), that I’d put 90s Hip Hop over ‘Gangsta Rap’, that Punk would have to be one of, if not the highest ranking one, Old School Hip Hop should be a lot higher and if you class Drum and Bass as Dance then that should be up there too.

It seems that they have taken a relatively narrow selection of banks to base this on.

This blog began at the same time as my Masters Thesis and they have certainly bounced off each other in many ways.

This morning my Thesis was bound and submitted.

I’m drawn between feelings of anxiety about how well I will go, relief about having it done and not hanging over me any more and even a little empty with out it.

It’s funny how these things become a part of your identity. I hate the idea of not being a student anymore – don’t know why but, but with the exception of about an 18 month break, I’ve been a student for about the last 20 years, or 4/5 of my life.

I’ve a feeling I’ll go on to do a PhD but we’ll have to see about that. An APA or some other scholarship would certainly make the decision easier, hence my anxiety although with my course work I am averaging a first class honors.

A few people have asked if they could read it. I have PDFed it for these people but largely forget who they are. If you would like a read then now’s the time to speak up. Just leave a comment or shoot me an email if you’d like a copy.

I put the paper down this morning next to yesterday’s paper. The contrast in the headlines couldn’t be greater. Yesterday’s said “Olympic glory for London,” todays, something like “London Terrorist attach: people dead, injured”.

Thanks to my housemate, I’ve got free Foxtel at the moment. I went home early yesterday feeling ill and dozed on the couch all afternoon flicking, as you seem to be able to do for eternity, between the Simpsons, Futurama, South Park and the Family Guy. Eventually there was a break in the stream of these shows and, as usual, despite having 100 odd channels there was nothing on. So I flicked it over to the ABC to find London had been attacked. The same thing happened with the S11 attacks. Had foxtel then too so hardly ever watched free to air. But on that once off that I flicked to free to air it was a similar case. Don’t know why that seems funny, maybe I have some sixth sense for world events.

Don’t know why, but it seems closer to home being in London. I don’t think I know anyone there at the moment but I keep racking my brain trying to think who would be there. I knew that Ali was in Scotland so that was a relief but I also know a lot of friends who have family there. I don’t think I know anyone in the states.

I think the only thing I can contribute at the moment is my own personal reaction. At the moment this reaction seems to consist of: Fuck them. How fucking dare they.

For a split second I can almost understand the emotive vigilantly response. Then I think about how it must feel to live in Iraq of Afghanistan and this being a daily event.

I saw this yesterday comparing the Right to militant fundamentalists. Didn’t think much of it then. Still don’t really, except that it exemplifies my anger at those on the right who will say that the left is sympathetic to these people. Again: Fuck them. There is no way to can excuse this sort of thing.

Events like this don’t change my opinion on anything. However it worries me that it pushes the ‘global justice’ cause back. Initially the BBC was speculating that G8 protesters could be behind the attacks. I never doubted that this was not the case but it did get me thinking ‘what if’.

I’m terrified of what events like this then become a justification for and my resentment grows further. War, restricting liberties, racism. Fuck them. Assuming it is a Militant Islamic group (can’t be 100% sure at this stage) surely they can see how this harms their cause.

I went to bed at 11 last night and has a quick look at some blogs just before I did. Larvatus Prodeo had a ‘Breaking news open thread’, Dog Fight at Banks Town had something similar and Darpism had me a little chocked up.

Needless to say our thoughts are with the victims and their friends and family.

At the moment I’m sitting at my computer with a head that feels like it is about to explode with sickness. However, in stark contrast to these feelings of illness (the bad ill), I’m enthused by a little initiative that is floating around the female blogsphere: “What women want”. You can check them all out here:
clem: www.lightningstruckitself.blogspot.com
darcy: www.theseminakedtruth.blogspot.com
elmo: www.floatingsignifier.com
fluffy: www.fluffyasacat.blogspot.com
fucksters: www.fucksters.blogspot.com
jelly: www.jellyfishonline.blogspot.com
jess: www.ausculture.com/blog/
ms cynic: www.whingers.blogspot.com
ms fits: www.reasonsyouwillhateme.blogspot.com
mystiiix: www.textual-harassment.blogspot.com
sugar: www.themissingingredient.blogspot.com
ukelele: www.isthisthingstillswitchedon.blogspot.com

I’m willing to confess that I have secret crushes on many of these fine women and I’ve a feeling I will develop a few new ones as my scope of female bloggers has expanded.

The thing I like most about these people and this initiative is it strikes me as one big fuck you to the whole “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” pop-psychology shit that floats around. Fuck that! These women prove that whole idea is a complete fallacy by explaining exactly what it is they want. Moreover, they do so in a way that is so proudly and positively female (and dare I suggest feminist?). It really does my heart good.

So big up ya’ll. I’ll be watching a few more blogs a little more closely now.