Railing against society's

I would like to paraphrase two parts of a book I read called Factor 4, by Weizsaecker & the Lovins Bros.

Correct economic theories are often misused...
- Expressing economic output as the sum of market value of goods, services, bads and nuisances sold for money, excluding everything that has no price (eg caring for loved twos) or is priceless...By most measures human happiness has been falling since the early 1970s while GDP has been growing... [helped by] remedial costs of dealing with depletion, pollution, deferred maintenance or renewal, and social disorder]

- Assuming that depletion and pollution cost nothing...What better way to pay tribute to our children's boundless technological ingenuity that making sure they'll need it?

- Treating consumption of capital as income. Income should be the maximum amount you can consume without being worse off than when you started.

- Assuming infinite substitutability of artificial capital for natural capital.

In another section they talk about some of the problems facing the world. Three in particular resonated with me:
- widespread emotional misery (historically, evolutionarily speaking, is this normal?)
- the urban megalopolis trend, especially in developing countries
- the governability problem both at the national scale and at the global level

~~~

It's looking like the Golden State Warriors are going to make the playoffs for the first time in 13 years. It's times like these when having a sports portfolio really pays handsome dividends. They're not in yet - tomorrow they've got to beat Portland in Portland or hope the Clippers lose to Nyahlins. But I think they're specials. They'll probably play the team with the best record in the league, Dallas, which stars Dirk "Diggler" Nowitzki. Thing is, they've actually beaten Dallas the last three times they played, so you never know...

~~~

My brain kinda hurts. I had a really weird dream the other day. You know how dreams are generally weird? And then once every so often, a dream comes along that puts all others to shame, and leaves two questioning two's sanity? Makes you throw your hands up and concede defeat to the gods of craziness? I am a nutbar.

~~~

You know the free form urban running, jumping and climbing movement, perhaps started by some young buff French guys? There was a documentary called Yamakasi about it on SBS last night. Very impressive. Everyone should be doing this. On your way to work. In the office. At home. We'd all be more limber, have better abs, know more about our body's limits and feel a greater connection with the physical world we live in. Who will join me? You are aware that you desire this.

Jon Theodore and Thomas Pridgen

The Mars Volta played at the Hordern Pavillion two weeks ago and it was quite a show. It didn't blow me away like the first time I saw them, but maybe that was to be expected. I've only just started listening to a shoeleg and I'm already picking up things I didn't notice. I think I'll be savouring this for some time.

Jon Theodore played drums on all three of their albums - deloused in the comatorium, frances the mute and amputechture - and the first time I saw them, which was at the Enmore theatre. He is an amazing drummer, technically proficient but absolutely mesmerising at times. He's fast and powerful. I read once that his mother was Haitian or something like that, and that that had informed his drumming style. Ever since, I feel I can detect something tribal in some parts that he plays, but that's probably just me being a douche.

I could tell you ten different theodore drum parts that have sunken into my soul, and from all three albums. Usually when I remember bits from songs, it's the vocal melody (shins, split enz) or a great guitar riff (led zeppelin) and I do remember these bits from TMV songs too. But the drumming is just on another plane. I've told people that the singer, Cedric Bixler-Xavala, uses his voice like an instrument, and i suppose the drumming is like that too, in that it's not just the back drop or the beat, but a voice in its own right too. He just does friggin cool things with the drums.

So I was aghast when I found out he'd left the band, and wasn't going to be playing at the Hordern. I didn't expect too much, but suspected that a band as creative, driven and musically impressive as the mars volta would come up with someone to do their songs justice. I still wondered whether the new drummer would sound the same. Surely not! But then classical music to me seems built upon the premise that it don't make a lick a diffrince who's playin, so long as they're playin it right. Is drumming the same? Was theodore a one of a kind genius, whose unique combination of power and zeppelin-meets-haiti style could not be duplicated? Or could any old session muso step in and do the same?

It turned out to be a moot point, because the replacement, Thomas Pridgen, had no need to play just the same as theodore. Pridgen turned out to be a freak too. He has a different style, perhaps not hitting the drums as hard, but technically amazing, constantly peppering his drumming with accents that leave you trying to back-calculate just what the dickens he'd done, but he'd already started a new one so you have to keep rewinding and playing again. which you can't do at a live concert.

There's a whole big debate on a mars volta forum, the comatorium, about who's better - Theodore or Pridgen. It misses the point really, which is that they're both mind-grindingly good. How the hell did TMV organise two such awesome drummers? And how lucky are the fans to lose someone as good as Theodore and gain someone like Pridgen? I hope Pridgen plays on their next studio album, and if so I can't wait to hear it.

Hearing cedric sing on the hordern shoeleg, he really was in fine form. i think the more i listen to this band, the more i appreciate them. and i been listening for months now, and hardly anything else. course, they do get a wee bit intense and hectic at times. but there's always the shins to fall back on.

I've tried to find people game enough to cover a mars volta song, but without success. someone's done The Widow, but it pretty much sucks ass. there's a dude on youtube who does just the drumming, and he's actually quite good. there's a chick who sings the beginning to meccamputechture and the fact that she's even close is really impressive. but she just doesn't mean it like cedric does.

where are the great bands of today? who is ambitious enough to take a volta song on??

i hereby nominate beck. he's stretched his vocal chords out since midnite vultures, so he could actually handle some of their songs, at least in his own beck way. he's also cool enough to do something interesting with one of them. it can't be just a carbon copy, although i think i can safely say that'd be pretty much impossible anyway. i'm not sure how to pass this message onto him or his people, but i like to think he'd be open to it.

caveat emptor
to all that enter here.....

Words

And when the sun goes down into the sky
together we shall sit and we shall sup
and we shall eat and drink the heady wine.
Let us share the overflowing cup.

We'll ramble on the coast, each side by side.
We'll feel the sting of bracing, salty air.
We'll feel the moon pull at the ocean tide
and wonder that we are together there.

One day these things shall have to come to pass.
And then the end will come, as so it must.
No longer shall we smell the summer grass.
No longer shall we know each other's trust.

So let us walk and feel the cooling breeze
before they're just forgotten memories.

~~~
Those rather sombre words are from a crash test dummies song. Haunting yet upbeat. It hurts my soul, but I feel it's rather fluffy and lacks substance.

I'm watching Clerks 2. It's very crass

I was watching Family Guy this evening and I saw this rather disturbing scene.

Has anyone seen the Centrelink ad that's running at the moment? It's such a good thing that we fine young women $6,000 for not informing the state of their living arrangements.

I have been thinking of writing a treatment. The only problem is I don't know exactly what a treatment is.

Remind me to write about Jon Theodore's drumming.

Ideas from my mind to my fingertips to your eyes to your mind

At work today, I got to do a really interesting site visit. I've realised one of the great things about my new job is that I get to go out and about often. Apart from seeing how the stuff works, it's rooly nice just being in the outdoors.

In other news, I just had my second feature for Cosmos published online. It's about some climate change mitigation technologies. I've tried to strike a balance between detail and perspective, between humour and earnestness, between legibility and nonsense, between objectiveness and critical appraisal.

I think this article has a lot of interesting information, but it could have flowed a little better.
I certainly think that writing features is fun, and I'm curious myself as to what some topics of the future might be. I deign to openly speculate on things I may write about here:

hofstadter / ai / analogy
science of sport appreciation
futurologists
Futurama

Pain is what I feel each day
when you take my pride away
Somethin somethin is not right
and it feels so black and white

Way back when in '68
brothers didn't have it great
They fought back the civil rights


Black is black not blue or purple
Being black is like a curcle
Round and round we all go
Where we end up I don't know

btw the article is here

Return of the Mack

Remember that song? It was great, because it created the illusion of history. Who's Mack, where'd he go and why's he back?

I was watching MediaWatch on the ABC tonight and they mentioned how a story on rental price hikes was greatly exaggerated by the media. The source of the story was partly a real estate lobby group. I just can't get over how many lobby groups there are. They have money, time and a media presence. It makes me sick.

I think JR Saul made the point well. When corporations are the dominant structure - in the broad sense, so including non-profit organisations too - you just have a bunch of groups arguing for their own self-interest. Some of them may be enlightened, most aren't and it's a crappy way to run a society. Wake up, this country needs a f**kin' shake up!

If you agree with me, register your support at www.elliotgoblet.com.au

Chimpanzee Stone Age

Hmm. Nutcracker performed by monkeys. I'd pay to see that.

Me first feature article!

It's on viruses. Read it, i dare ya.

Embarrassment, thy name be Klair Sowlitch

What woebegone utterances coughed out the mouth with the grace of a splutterer devoid of the ability to hit more than 14% of her notes. I've seen her before, and she wasn't this bad then. I love you now more than ever before. Before too long, that is. That's why I'm trying to tell you this.

I care that you hear about it. If you're gonna have half a chance in the wasteland you've inherited, you'd better listen to me now boyman. Pig man, Jerry! PIG MAAAANNN!!!!

It's kinda hard to write they way to make the right persona pay
That is why attention getters
Baseball dreamers clubbed bedwetters
Fall about as though in stream
With the great divine blue beam that's glowing softly in the light produced on such a black black night as this.
It lights the way.

***

Perry was going about the city, as he liked to call it, when the sun flashed out from clouds. Out shone the brutally warming sun. Shadows disappeared, light abounded and warmth was to be had when the rays caught his cheek. As he paused to feel the gently scorching sun he noticed something. A man he knew, a homeless man walked past with his down hat, flat back and cane.

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The weather was fine and the homeless man, known to Perry as Smeeghwell Tops but to others as Papa Subu'tx, calmly reminded Perry of the ransack he had planned for tonight. Perry confided that he actually had a few other things to do, but if he saw him out and about he'd wish him well and give him some wine.

You see, Perry adhered to the belief that the juice of life that is to be quenched with gusto could only be obtained in the Woodside Fruit Orchard, meaning that it's good to give people wine when you're out and about.

This was just another night in Chicado, the city at the hub of the post-apocalyptic rebirth, with 12 people.

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All my life, I have carried the aching and bruising need to

1) have brain surgery

2) burn

3) burn for you

4) confide my darkst inner fears to strangers, often embracing dogs that catch my eye. The eye may be caught under the following circumstances: use a good bait: member of opposite sex, complex pattern, dyin butterflies. When casting reel, try not to flex abs, as this can cause whiplash to passers by. Once caught, the eye fights mightily to retain her place in the sea of her socket, but with persistence, she will eventually tire and snag herself on a sea cucumber. 5) reduce waste

6) reduce my waste

black mamba my ass

First feature article awaits

I'm working on my first feature article for Cosmos, it's about viruses and how great they are. Joy!

Australian Flag banned at Big Day Out

People fortunate enough to listen to 2GB and watch daytime TV, and eventually anyone exposed to the mainstream media, have recently learned that the Australian flag has been banned at the Big Day Out!

Last year there was a bit of violence and unsavoury behaviour committed by some flag-bearers. This was in the aftermath of the Cronulla riots.

This has been a wonderful opportunity for politicians to point out how patriotic they are - more than everyone else.

I don't know about you, but I find the thought of 60,000 Australian flags in a confined, alcohol and drug-laden space a little scary.

Still, are they right to ban it?

As it turns out there is no ban. But there is a discouragement of flags being brandished inconsiderately leading to increased tension. And keep those giant flags at home! Here's what Big Day Out peeps say.

What do you think?

My alter ego

Spam that made my laugh

Vanced Woodards: bibb tubular accompaniment mw

careful consideration reveals that the truly great nonsense must have a bit of sense in it too. For some reason, this one almost makes sense to me. I found myself nodding in agreement, then nodding off to sleep.

Artful Science is back

Did you know that some people with hippocampal amnesia find it hard to imagine things? Shock!

If you'd like to find out more, check out the full story at Cosmos.

I would like to volunteer my tutoring services to indigenous students

Any ideas on where to look?

interview doctoring

Here's a pretty damn funny doctoring of Britney & JT from Weird Al, whose timing is a little off.

It is very reminiscent of some of Tony Martin's work on TripleM.

In case you're wondering, the pic's from Rocky Balboa, the latest and perhaps final instalment in the Rocky series. It was a good move to drop the VI, as that allows us to temporarily forget V.

Jim Carrey reportedly begged Sylvester Stallone to cast him as Broke Pete, Rocky's has-been next door neighbour who inspires him to return to his previous heights of pugilistic prowess. "He told me he was gagging for it," Sly said. "When a man like Jim Carrey begs you, you listen to him, believe you me."

Either that, or it's from The Number 23, coming soon to a thee8r near you. In it, Jim Carrey plays saxophonist Otto Pfister. The star performance is really Carrey's convicing depiction of a man suffering from worms. Critics are openly, freely and broadly tipping him to be nominated for a Tony this year.

Ever since getting tattooed while on a bender in Philadelphia, Carrey has found it hard to find suitable roles in which to display his 'guns'. In #23, they receive approximately 23 minutes of camera time.

The film's backdrop is the Sydney suburb of Petersham circa the early '80s. Carrey's Australian accent was so good, he was often mistaken for Richie Benaud when making phone calls.

Welcome in my new year

It is with Graham Leisure that I welcome you to the new, adjusted blog.

Wow!

Here's the questions, and my own answers, to a new year's survey my friends and i filled out over on yonder evening.

Highlight of the year: Yellow, at several billion light years
Best Song:Next stop Takadanobaba
Best Album: Crash Test Dummies, Songs Of The Unforgiven
Best Musical Experience: Listening to 2day fm
Best book:Oryx & Crake, Margaret Attwood
Best/most drunken moment. Drinking a beer
Lowlight: kind of murky, at the bottom of the ocean
Short-term goals: be at 3.14159... with the multiverse
Long-term goals: Buy the newspaper and burn it

I wonder what your response would be to these questions, unknown reader?

kilometrestone

it's not quite a milestone - about 5/8 of the way there. But my first article has been published in Cosmos magazine proper, issue 12 dec 2006/ jan 2007. it's the article about mutant white mice who can tan and will never ever suffer cancer. My heart goes out to these brave mice.

A male friend of mine - a deep friend - found out about cloaca the other day. When did you find out about cloaca? You recognised its significance immediately, did you not?

I am currently preparing a counterpoint to the opinion piece written by Martina Newell-McGloughlin. It will appear in the pages of

History of the Roman Empire, Vol. 3
Nimrod - Octavius Flubius

the shitz

i've got 'em. they're with me. We travel in threes. Jorgondy, Blasman, and me.

403 lumps of mini demountable furphies. just as long as i can keep them close to my chest, the cards can fall as they may. i do not care. it's surreal, this feeling. like momentarily lifting my head above the compound walls and catching a speck of the outside world. some people believe that everything happens for a reason. what they don't realise is that nothing actually happens. ever. there is - and that, my enemigos, is it.