'Redneck Wonderland' Midnight Oil

It seems more provocative and likely to draw more comment in the current day, but when the Oils released this album it was fairly and squarely inspired by a country where Pauline Hanson was in the frame as 'a voice' for too many Australians, who felt under threat from immigrant culture and let's face it, faiths AND people 'taking their jobs,' their homes and whatever else they saw as laid at the feet of new Australian citizen's 'jumping some imaginary queue!' I won't have covered it all, because I can't begin to relate to her picture of our country! Especially not her fierce anger towards indigenous Australians and a determination not to accept 'the bleeding obvious,' stoking division. This said, the album has other inspirations, just sublime timing!

Moving away from this, the economics of immigration contradict the criticisms! When immigrant families can work, undertake education, buy food at supermarkets, cars, clothes etc They pay income tax, buy petrol and as an economic unit, create demand for goods and services, money for Government expenditure and help make the country live and work! VISA overstay far outweighs 'boats!'

The housing shortage is global, not just local, and it reflects supply side elements too! When conservative leaning politicians single out immigration levels as the problem, they invite focus on one aspect only! They risk inflaming social conflict and sadly, there's votes in it! Governments leaving social housing to Developers, cost of materials, lack of trades and urban sprawl are forgotten in the heat of the debate and while media eventually catch up, often the damage is done!

The album was released towards the end of 1998 - 2 years before the Sydney Olympics and just after Ms Hanson gained some notoriety as the proprietor of a fish n chip shop, with a platform to speak for ordinary Aussies, just like her... It's about more than what I've said, it's about a time in our history, sparked by some aspects and still including environmental concerns, whether we need to get off our couches, about urgency! I just love this album as a new sound from the Oils, linked to earlier material, different instrumentations and timeless themes!

Jimmy Kimmel LIVE!

Here's my t-shirt of this week, hopefully arriving in the post next Monday! Kimmel delivered the perfect monologue for genuine 'free speech' on his return from being taken off air 'indefintely' - thanks to inappropriate intervention from the supposed Chair off the FCC, at the behest of Donald Trump or #TACO, whose narcissism is what makes him 'thin skinned' when it comes to critics and worse still comics! Hollywood will never like you Donald!

"This show is not important. What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this," 

He is right, it's a bigger story than anything he said, and he never said what he was accused of, his critique was about the likes of Trump 'cashing in' opportunistically on the tragedy which occurred. Evidence of that is there in Kimmel's tweet mindful of Kirk's family at the time of the shooting murder! 

As they say 'jesters always play to the peasants!'

Holding the corrupt or inept to account and speaking truth to power does often come from the mislabelled 'left.' Descriptions like left and right, once described your values. They've been co-opted to 'label' people, because if you can label people, you can oppress, dismiss, sack or disregard them! Like the denigration of being 'woke' or awake to injustice or inequality! I'll never apologise for empathy!

So, maybe the 'revolution IS just a t-shirt away!

A long time ago...

I bought my Tatooine Cantina Star Wars T-shirt a few year back as a snug fitting, but brilliant design! 

I have for a long time sought a follow up, with many fun and detailed ones out there...

I decided to 'keep it simple'... This t-shirt takes me right back to the beginning...

The Chelsea Theatre Cinema - run by Uncle Colin and Aunty Margaret Hanks - Melbourne St, East Maitland! The Imperial Class Star Destroyer and these words, inviting us into story, spectacle and fable...George Lucas of course, loves starting a story in the middle... 

Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope, opening week, May 1977!

 

Time for Another Round of T-shirt of the Week

 It's been a while, so for some reason I feel it's time to do another round of t-shirts! This is a 2024 purchase celebrating Larry David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm." A comedian's comedian, Jerry Seinfeld asked Larry to help him create the sitcom Seinfeld and this series, with cheap graphics and theme music, sees Larry playing a character indistinguishable from himself, sharing some of his real life story with amplified events and characters around him, taking his paranoia to new levels.

"Latte Larry's" is a Coffee Shop he opened, leasing the space next door to "Mocha Joe's" after an argument with its owner! Of course the whole episode ended in disaster!

AJ Hacketts Bungy Jumping Cairns

   In the late 1980s - early 1990s I decided the one adventure activity I really wanted to try was "bungy jumping." Aware it was launching at Birkenhead Point in NSW I looked forward to the chance until I tore a posterior cruciate ligament just as the opportunity arose and then a model was doing a promo jump as a duo and the cable was incorrectly attached so she hit her head (just) on the bottom of the river. I believe "bunny jumping is still banned in NSW.

   A little while later we enjoyed a QANTAS mystery flight to Cairns and the opportunity arose to take a trip and try the 70m drop over a small pond and it was aaaamazing! They hiked as they set up the gear, ribbed me about my rugby player size and told ne to jump on 1 counting back from 5... I knew if they got to 1 and I was frozen I wouldn't jump ever... I am pretty sure I went between 3 and 2 and the sensation is the most frightened I've ever been. A couple of seconds of total free fall, causing my guttural yell and slowly the bungy takes up like a rubber band and the bounce is nearly as high as the jump. Some get their hair wet in the pond but I suspect the rope was wound back a bit for me! It was exhilarating and a nightmare all at once!

 

"Powderworker"

   It's been a while since I posted but there have been a few purchases and gifts worth sharing!! The campaigns to 'get the Oils back together' are what led me to find the long legendary Midnight Oil punters group known as "Powderworker" as represented by a long running Yahoo E-group taking it's name/ID from the first track of the Oils self titled 'Blue Meanie' album!!
   Then came the related Facebook presence fuelled by some fans with close contacts with the band and the same passion for the Oils!!The 'Powderworkers' Facebook group has the usual FB mix of earnest fandom, new and treasured friends, fellow punters from The Great Circle, shared videos and audio and some time filling distractions... but it's all connected to simply being blown away by the message and the music of the Oils!! Even better the purpose made t-shirts were available in age-ing fan sizes!! Hence the "Powderworkers" t-shirt complete with anti Australia Card, anti US intelligence, anti- establishment bar code...

U2 that band who polarise people

   It's been a crazy busy few months so I'm back with plenty of t-shirts yet to feature!! U2 are a favourite but their music and swagger tend to polarise people [no!!!] They frustrate the heck out of me for the hype and nonsense but their music has had a shaping influence on my outlook and values!!

   This is a U2 t-shirt you have when only a fan would know... symbols circa Popmart and 'got any blacker?' black. I do hope the latest I&E Tour makes it here next year or 2017 as the video screen, messages and themes are spectacular from what I've seen and heard!! I really like the acoustic reworking of their latest record and I find an hour of U2 listening a complete escape, a spiritual experience and an introverts paradise!!

Wanderers 2015 Training T-Shirt

This photo is a challenge... that training t-shirt doesn't fit me, I look like a bag of marshmallows in it and I need to change that... in the next 10-12 weeks it's one measure of my goal to get back to regular exercise for which I have let myself be too busy and this time of year I get that 'on the edge of a virus' feeling and so choose not to fully exhaust myself unless it should come true!! I need to catch up on sleep, get to the pool and I have just joined a multiple gym membership scheme to access treadmills at Uni and a local 24hr gym... holy crap!! If I get back to the pool 3 times in a week I will allow myself to get my needed new goggles and get a photochromatic pair... if not, then that purchase will wait!!

'ADIDAS'

   A simple recognisable sporting brand, with quite a story between two brothers in dispute, that also led to the creation of PUMA!! This split a village and local families as to those who worked for each factory... all because of shoes!!
   In this case another great example of how a company gets to put it's logo on your t-shirt and you pay them for the privilege of advertising their brand... and for some people, the feeling your associating and enhancing your own... well, not in this case, it's redbubble t-shirt in a variety of colours and it helps me remember that's one I wear when exercising, rather than wrecking a whole array of other new t-shirts too fast!! The black and brown versions have been ordered to arrive soon as well!!

"blogito ergo sum"

   Out of t-shirts? No way, just very busy... so here's my latest purchase. I reckon it'll be good for wearing as a multimedia workshop leader... there is one with the latin [not in my size]!! Ever since it's inspiration "I think, therefore I am?" the western world has been on a downward path to the primacy of the individual, selfishness, consumerism and finally perhaps global climate destruction... Oh well, better get back to saving the planet, one blog post at a time!!