Big Deals

Michael Jackson died and I don't care. Haven't cared since Off the Wall which was an amazing album. After that it was all down hill and boring to me. King of Pop? No, deposed (or out moded) years ago and there's been umteen since him. See Ya Michael.


On a more relevant note to the 21st century I'm enjoying a Douglas Adams revival at the moment. The wondrous man wrote the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency books and quite a bit of other astute, witty and grammatically correct stuff. With Douglas there was a truck load of brilliance lost at a young age, must be 15 years ago now - maybe more. As that peculiar Molly Meldrum would say "do yourselves a favour" and look up his writings. Check out such amazing men as Slartibartfast and Marvin the Paranoid Android (pictured here from the TV series).






I really have no idea if anyone is reading this stuff, no one sends m a message. But do I care? Nup, well maybe a little bit.

Bloody Stonewall Again

I wanted to look sharp and feel good about “doing the right thing” this week. I don’t want anyone to hit me for copyright infringement. I got in touch with the New York Times by email and asked if I could link to a specific article and use a 1969 photo. I wondered if I would be told I’d have to use Harvard referencing in my article. I couldn’t get that right in 18 months at university and I live in fear of its total impracticality now. That’s why I use square brackets or footnotes.


Not withstanding that however, I really haven’t got a bloody clue what the outcome is.

I got reply from Pam telling me to see the FAQ and I’m sure Pam writes to a lot of people’s enquiries! So anyway, of I go the FAQ and I understood it told me I could link, no problem, and that I could use the photo if I registered as a member with them which is free. So I registered. I’m not a lawyer but I can follow basic English. But to be sure I wrote to them again because I wanted to tell you that it isn’t all that hard or expensive to get permission. But unfortunately, it is!!! I set out what I understood they wanted me to do and that I had registered. I got the same reply to see the FAQ.

So frankly folks I’m rubber-ducked if I know if I’ve done the right thing here. If not, and if they see what I’ve used they can just ask me to remove it. While they’re at it perhaps the NY Times might make there FAQ a little simpler. And let that be a lesson to others in the copyright business. Keep it simple; use short, clear and simple sentences.

In a few days its Stonewall time. Yep, they old bastard is nagging about that again. But there is a good short article in the New York Times, well worth a read. Here’s the link to it and here’s a lovely little black and white photo from 1969 of the unassuming little bar. Select the Lens Blog link in the article for more pics

Here’s a link to an article in the Sydney Star Observer which might help Gen X and Gen Y kiddies with a contemporary perspective. It doesn’t use the words Like or Awesome or the phrase Yeah/No but it’s valuable stuff

Should the SSO or NYTimes have a problem please let me know and I will amend the log as soon as I can. There will be no need to thank me for the free publicity.

Why is all this so important? Well I can only offer you my opinion but no mater what you think n the GLT community they’ve done more for us than anyone. Cognoscenti may be aware of various European countries that were always way ahead but our Govt, and indeed the British, weren’t. They took there queues and largely still do (in so many things) from the Yanks. 40 years ago these brave trannies, poofs and dykes stood up, got bashed by the cops and stood up again for their own rights and for generations to come - US, NOW. Mardi Gras prime timers did it all again in Sydney some years later but the movement was already off and running.

That’s why it’s so important to me. And perhaps why it should be something you think about to.

Words, Help and more Trains

I have a bit of a problem with illogical misuse and unnecessary stupid word evolution in the English language. I understand the French took a hardline approach some years ago over the same thing in their language. Good for them I say. There is always room for growth and development; to think otherwise would be stupid, but mashing the language is just unacceptable.

· For example, listen for the use of the phrase “Yeah No”. There has been an appalling rise in the use of this oxymoron over the last couple of years and worse still, people pretend to understand it and continue to allow its use to go unchallenged. It’s occurring in the media now – even on the ABC – and goes unchallenged. It’s shameful tacit promotion.
· I read the word “productionized” recently. What does that mean? Is it past tense for production? Not in where I read it, prefaced as it was with “to be…”. Fortunately it was in my work place on a document about to be published. I made it clear this was ridiculous, the paper was reviewed and the meaningless junk word removed.
· It’s too late for “functionality”. This sad and unnecessary suffix added to the word “function” only adds letters and extends the language, it does nothing for the meaning.

Australians generally are now saying bathroom when they mean toilet. Toilet is not slang, nor is it an expletive. This is learned behaviour from overseas. Here’s another, passed on is getting used instead of dead. Dead is not offensive or even incorrect. We started saying pregnant in the 70’s. That’s ordinary real language; will we go back to saying “with child”?

It’s all bloody ridiculous – get over it young Aussies. Speak properly, use our slang if you want but not rubbish words or meaningless backward looking crap!

Gay and Lesbian Switchboard in Victoria and [now] Tasmania is one of 5 such services around the country. For years “Switch” like its sister organisations does and amazingly wonderful job on a shoe string budget. You can easily find them if you need to talk to someone – confidentially. Just talking can make a difference, it might start someone on the road to repair, or it can just give them a break from whatever’s the matter. That can’t be bad.

If you see your local Gay and Lesbian Counselling Service spruiking for a little money – give them some. It’s tax deductible too, here in Aus anyway.

And it wouldn’t be me without a picture. Here’s one from Normanton in the North Western Gulf Country of Queensland. It’s the amazing Gulflander ; little RM 60 not RM 93, its big brother that does the Croydon run once a week. I rode both in 2008. What a gorgeous train, friendly people, wonderful and astonishingly outback country; it’s just plain different.

What’s in an Angle?

This time I thought we could look at a few interesting photos.

Once upon a time there was an Aussie prime minister and his treasurer who lasted over 10 years in those positions. The prime minister has his back to the camera in this little parliamentary snap shot. There was, from time to time, some conjecture about who was in control.

While I’m not rugby fan this man caught my eye. There are plenty of pictures of him on the interweb in various stages of undress and while nice, very nice in fact, I found his smile to good to overlook here and just provide a tease about the rest of him. I suspect that with a name like Ben Cohen he may not always comfortably tour the Middle East, but that’s their loss.

So why these pics?

Well let’s look at the men in suits running a country.
· Firstly there’s always an angle on the way anything can be viewed. This is a camera angle creating a range of possibilities.
· Then there’s the way a viewers mind can perceive an angle. For some, including me, there is a very obvious aspect – fellatio. But there’s also sub text on power and control that could be read into it.
· Finally for me, taking all the above into account, it’s just plain funny.

There is a goodly metaphor in all this. All three points can apply to anything in life and can be applied by anyone.
1. How we see some thing, albeit from a single angle or multiple points, can be from influenced by how we were brought up and what has happened to us over our life.
2. How we interpret things is the same, it’s about views and angles.
3. What’s funny, sad, provocative or pleasing is all too often overlooked too. Sometimes we do things or respond emotionally “just because”.

Then there’s Ben Cohen. Aesthetics is all this is about for me. And you could say that my point three above is a reflection of just this.

NB. I can’t locate the photo authors or owners so if copyright is a problem please let me know and I will remove them.

Trains and the Radio - a familiar theme in time to come.

This little creature is a Walker class railmotor. It's home in 2009 is in Healesville near Melbourne with the wonderful folks at the Yarra Valley railway. (I hope they are proud of me using this image.) It's blue and yellow livery served Victorian Railways for many decades. To me it's a divine little creature. Thankfully it survived Black Saturday last February AND (bonus) it has a working cousin in Daylesford in central Victoria. Both tracks suffered damage which will take time and money to repair.

There'll be more railmotors and train stuff here in the next few weeks. How wonderful!

In the meantime I note that our local community radio station, Joy Melbourne, the only full time gay and lesbian community broadcaster in the word, is about to have its annual radiothon. If you listen to Joy here in Melbourne or anywhere around the world on the "Interweb" you can support them. I'm not a volunteer but I am a member so I'm happy to promote them. Have a look at ww.joy.org.au

June 28-30 sees 40 years since since the Stonewall Inn riots in New York NY. It is considered by many to be a pivotal moment and significant to the modern queer liberation movement. Much of the "western" world has moved forward since then but there is still a lot to do. Always make sure you are OUT and proud. Where others can't (or won't) you can. If in doubt look around the web, book shops and libraries, to see what you can find out. Here in Aus there are people who still have a lot to offer in education, not the least our pioneering author Dennis Altman.