Radar

Hunter S. Thompson, the "King of Gonzo", is dead. Personally, I've never really understood the attraction of "Gonzo" journalism - there's really only so much you can write about the guy, and who on Earth would want to read the same story over and over? I'd be more enthused - though only marginally - by a style of journalism that encompassed the careers of not just one but all of the Muppets, providing a balanced overview of the lives and times of Kermit, Sam The Eagle, Pepe The King Prawn…the whole damn crowd. Ideally, this “new journalism” would not be excluded to Jim Henson’s puppets, either, but rather marionettes of all stripe, whether they be Gerry Anderson’s Thunderbirds, our own Mr Squiggle or even those critters from the magnificent “puppet show” sequence in The Sound of Music. Now we’re talking real journalism.

What I do feel seriously about are the relentless claims that I, and others like me, were some kinds of nincompoops for thinking John Farnham was waving us goodbye back in 2002 - an accusation echoed by John himself on February 9 when he told The Daily Telegraph: "I actually never said I was gonna retire, I think it's just wishful thinking from everybody else." I'd like to just quietly draw attention to few words spoken by John at a press conference announcing The Last Time on August 18, 2002, as reported in The Age:
"I kinda want to do it right and get out of the way before I'm told I should."
And this, from a press release for the Last Time tour, courtesy of crikey.com:
"I have loved my affair with the audience and need to leave with that feeling still strong between us".
And this, from Today Tonight on Monday August 19, courtesy of a John Farnham fansite:
John has said, "I won't tour again, this will be the last time." John Farnham admitted it's a sad day. "I want to try and finish at the right time. I don't want to be playing to the cleaners and three crickets. I want to, if I can, finish with full houses". And John's final words to his adoring fans, "Thank you. What else do you say. Thank you".
I dunno...sure sounds like goodbye to me.

Bored, tired and feeling a little daffy, I took a stroll last night over to the John Farnham Fan Club discussion board, to see what sort of a mess we'd made last Thursday. What follows is a sampling from the posts that I found there. Less said about them the better, only bear in mind that, being they're John Farnham fans, it's reasonable to assume these people aren't 12 years old. It's also worth remembering what it was that made them so cranky - read the two offending columns, carefully, taking note of tone and temper, as well as the plausibility of the actual scenes described, and ask yourself: "Was the author in an altogether serious frame of mind at the time of writing?" If the answer is "yes", all I can really say is that I guess we're not meant for each other. Though I'm rather partial to poster HeartsOnFire's courageous choice of sparring partner, and jojo's eerily close description of me. more

It’s called a “write-around”, and it happens when a magazine has photos of a star, but no interview, and no chance of getting on either. The idea is to take quotes from various other sources – a little from here and a little from there, to avoid legal copyright hassles - and fashion them all into one seamless document, complete with questions that were never asked, giving the impression of an “exclusive” interview that never occurred. It’s basically a scam on the readers, and it always leaves us writers feeling a little grimy, not to mention disappointed, particularly when the interview subject is someone like Kylie Minogue. So it was due to a cocktail of frustration, disillusionment, late-night psychosis and barrels of alcohol that I filed the following write-around when requested by a national magazine a few years back. I don’t believe it was ever published (not surprising, I guess), so in some ways what you are about to read is a Jack Marx Live “exclusive”. I should warn readers that what follows becomes, in parts, a little lurid and sexually explicit - such talk can happen when two adults "meet" - and as such anyone who is easily offended by such stuff should proceed no further. more

With the Big Laugh and Cracker comedy festivals just around the corner, it's likely we'll see a few of these old chestnuts popping up in the press. Get your hankies out...
Comedy is a serious business.
- Quote attributed to W.C. Fields
Comedy: It's no laughing matter
- Headline for article by Bernie Kieth on BBC.co.uk, Thursday 16th January, 2003
Comedy is a serious business
- Headline for article by Annarosa Berman, The New Zealand Herald, August 11, 2004
Successful comedy is no laughing matter
- Headline for article by Mukesh Khosla, India Tribune, March 26, 2000 more

Not long ago, some fellow appeared on the news threatening a civil suit against John Farnham. What he was angry about was the fact he'd paid good money to see John's "The Last Time" tour, believing it to be John's "last time", and therefore his "last chance" to see him. The man was practically run out of town - A Current Affair, hosted by that other star on the Southern Cross, Ray Martin, actually chased him down the street like a crook. Well, he was a crook, but not for the reasons they believed. Fact is, he stole the idea from me. Back in September 2002, I urged readers of a massively unread magazine called Scope to help me launch a civil suit against Farnham should he return after "The Last Time". The response was overwhelming for its silence and lack of mail, which was a pity, because, just as I had predicted, John was back on stage a year later, and it was in a state of extreme grief that I put pen to paper once again in the December 2003 issue of Scope, which by that stage had even less readers that it did before. It seems the right time to re-publish these two essays, as today the "retired" old scrote is making noises about re-launching his nut not just at some outhouse RSL club, or on stage with some other relic from the 60s, but on the nation's most hallowed ground, ANZAC Cove, on the nation’s most significant day of the year, Anzac Day. I hate to say I told you so… more

From MSNBC:
WASHINGTON - A pair of NASA scientists told a group of space officials at a private meeting here that they have found strong evidence that life may exist today on Mars, hidden away in caves and sustained by pockets of water.

This week's My World column in the Sydney Morning Herald reveals the cult of the one-man storm that is Russell Crowe, the mysteries of becoming a "gay icon", the stories we were scooped on by the gossip mags, an earful of utterances from unsuspecting commuters and the newly-discovered spiritual philosophies of "journalology" and "colonelology".

Sorry about the delay this week - it's been a heavy couple of days in the House of Marx, and sometimes I'm just not in the mood to reflect upon the audio/visual hooliganism of the music video set. But things took a turn last night and I finally viewed the tape of Sunday's morning's carry-on, the outstanding moments recorded here in reviews of REM's Leaving New York, Nitty's Nasty Girl, Nelly and Tim McGraw's Over And Over, Deep Dish's Flashdance and Gwen Stefani's Rich Girl. more

With the various football seasons coming up fast, and our cities soon to be filled with players in various stages of anguish and elation, it’s time to remind ourselves of an often forgotten truth: that sports people are good at playing sport and not necessarily anything else. We pay money to see them kick, whack or crush balls, and we don’t pay them anything at all to be nice to their mothers, or behave like gentlemen, or to keep their paws off their neighbours’ wives. Fraser Gehrig could be a serial killer with an Ecstasy implant for all I care – so long as he kicks a few goals and takes a few marks I’ve got my money’s worth, and should he urinate on a woman after the siren blows that’s a matter for the courts and it’s none of my business. more