i guess he's not called willy for nothing

Well, I was just sent a link that has no doubt been around the world a million times before I saw it, but I have to put it up on my blog because it's simply amazing!
It's a song about queer cowboys sung by no less than Willie Nelson!
And there's only one word to describe the film clip: gay.
If you have the bandwidth and you're actually interested, watch the whole clip. The guitar slapping and bucking bronco scenes are the highlights but it's all good.
I hate line dancing.

On the flipside I've just downloaded the last album by Coil.
It's called The Ape of Naples.
More darkness and queerness from the masters of ambient moodiness. Brilliant!

RIP Jhonn Balance
1962 - 2004

mind the hajib

So I was walking down the street the other day with my flatmate, Aamer, and his workmate, a woman.
If you haven't noticed, Aamer is not an anglo-celtic name.
Yes indeed, I was walking down the road with my flatmate who is a Muslim and a workmate of his who is also a Muslim ... let's call her ... Amanda (yes, not all Muslims in Australia have Middle Eastern names as not all Muslims come from the Middle East or have a heritage that lies there).
She wears a hajib like the one depicted on the side here. Except her eyes don't look as freaky as this model's do.
Anyway, I was walking through Melbourne's CBD with the hajib (or hijab) wearing Amanda and my flatmate and then an eighteen or so year old man seemingly muttered something directed at Amanda.
Now Amanda didn't hear what he said but the fact that there is doubt as to whether or not what he did say was directed at her suggests that she has plenty of experience with this unfortunately not so random kind of abuse from so-called average everyday people.
But it gets worse.
Later that day, just as she left work, Amanda was accosted by another man who called her a bitch.
This wasn't a man she knew. This wasn't anyone at all in particular. This was just some racist fuckface who decided for whoever knows what reasons that it would be appropriate for him to walk up to a woman he has never seen before and will never see again and abuse her simply because she is clearly a Muslim and wears a hajib. And this kind of behaviour regularly happens to her.
What the fuck is going on?!
So, in what way is Australia not a racist country?
When 5,000 anglo-celtic Australians deem it appropriate to claim the beach at Cronula for white people against middle easterns;
When politicians say in parliament that allowing RU 486 - the abortion pill - to be prescribed in Australia will somehow make us more like a Muslim country;
When the Goverment maintains a mandatory detention policy for refugees;
When our indiginous populations are politically, socially, economically, spiritually and fucking totally disenfranchised if not violated;
When our Prime Minister says that he would never condemn an 'Australian' for wearing an Australian flag with pride (despite the fact that this so-called pride was in the name of hate of non-whites);
When an Australian woman cannot walk down the street wearing costume that clearly identifies her as a Muslim without routinely being verbally abused.
How can we call Australia a tolerant country? Much less alone one that celebrates its diversity.
Crappy Stolenwealth Games opening ceremonies do not qualify as celbrating diversity!
That's just tokenism.
Goddamn I love a sunburnt country...
Ranty rant rants.
On a lighter note, I am now going to go play Mario World III.
Because even ranting ranters need to chill.
Wahoo!

Bad Craziness...

...Almost...
If you click on this you'll be taken to an online maze game.
It's quite shocking.
And by quite, I mean really.

Cultural Whinge

Cor blimey!
Have you heard that crappy Coldplay tune, Talk?
Much to my horror, when I first heard it I quickly realised that they'd ripped off Kraftwerk's Computer Love off their 1981 album Computer World, which naturally is a far superior tune.
It has the following lyrics:

Another lonely night, lonely night/
Stare at the TV screen, TV screen/
I don't know what to do, what to do/
I need a rendezvous, rendezvous/
Computer Love (x 4)

I call this number, I call this number/
For a data date, data date/
I don't know what to do, I don't know what to do/
I need a rendezvous, rendezvous/
Computer Love (x 4)

Immortal.
What makes Coldplay think they can just shamelessly rip off the tune - even officially?
I mean, the world's blandest band and they're standing on the shoulders of giants, except for the fact that Coldplay are chronically myopic, tone deaf and sound like shit.
Unlike Kraftwerk. Who who will be remembered long after Coldplay are forgotten.

Witness the Shitness

After watching Capote the other week (which, of course, is a superb film), I had a drink with the people with whom I went to see the film at Percy's, on the corner of Lygon and Elgin Streets, Carlton. Just up from Cinema Nova. Long sentences with poor syntax...
Yes, yes...
So, we were about to leave the pub and go our separate ways when this sixty-something year old man in a suit started shouting at the bartender, telling her, "Go home you bitch, this is Australia!" and "You whore, I know when I've had enough to drink!" and the like (she's from Germany).
One of the friends I was with goaded him and the drunk man's drunk friend, who seemed to be enjoying himself, came up to us and said, "He's a lawyer! Just tell him to shut up and he will. He respects that."
So my friend said, "Oh, you're a lawyer, are you? You must be a very sad and lonely man."
To which he replied, "You slut! I've defended more mother's who've killed their children than..." and then he trailed off into a drunken mash of slurred phonemes, swaying in a breeze only he could feel, all aggressive and in her face.
So, throughout the course of this little altercation, the drunk and abusive man claimed to be Michael Rafter, the defence lawyer for Greg Domaszewicz, the man who was eventually found guilty of killing one year old Jaidyn Leskie, if memory serves me correct.
I think his soul is bleeding...
Nasty bastard.
But to liven up this blog entry, here's a picture that was linked to Neil Gaiman's blog.
It's about Russian cats who can perform circus tricks.
There are some people who think it's inhumane.
But what's so wrong about cats dancing on their hind legs, I ask you?