I used to think, as a child, that Norman Gunston was real. Not even his parody song Kiss Army in 1980 at the height of Kissmania disabused me of this illusion. It was only much later that I discovered that Norman Gunston was a fictional character, just like some others nurtured by the ABC, such …
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Fun Fact
Coulrophobia – Kiss Tour Delayed Yet Again!
I received an email this afternoon advising me that the Kiss End Of The Road Tour has now been delayed from next month to August (it was originally due to occur last November). The reason for this latest postponement is Premier McGowan’s announcement that he is keeping the WA borders closed indefinitely. Thank you Premier …
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The Dotage of Rudy Giuliani
About 18 months ago, I admitted that watching The Australian edition of The Masked Singer was one of my more juvenile pleasures, and that I had speculated on whether embarrassed (rather than disgraced) former politician Sam Destyari had been the person inside the Wizard costume. The Masked Singer is one of those shows which is …
Radio Daze – The Toxicity of Shock Jocks
Back when AM radio was still in existence, back in the 1980s, I used to regularly listen to 3XY, the predecessor to FOX FM, particularly whilst doing my home work in high school or writing my uni essays. There was a vibe amongst the DJs which was good humoured and good natured. When they got …
The Great Shakespearean Hoax
We are all familiar with the childhood tale of the Emperor’s New Clothes, where the Emperor so wants to believe that he is wearing a fine new material, and his subjects are too scared to speak truth to power, that it takes a child to point out that he is naked. Hoaxes are much like …
I love my Shakespeare, but this is over the top
Just finished reading a book about Rockefeller associate and eventual Standard Oil Chairman Henry Clay Folger. Whilst a lot of other industrial tycoons were putting their money into building giant palaces in New York City, or otherwise showing off their wealth in other ostentatious ways (Veblen’s phrase ‘conspicuous consumption’ was inspired by that era), Folger …
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Some More Awkward Topics That Tennis Australia and Communist China Might Not Want To See Discussed
The current controversy at The Australian Open over the suppression of freedom of speech in the form of the ‘Where is Peng Shuai?’ t-shirts has got me and other people thinking. Peng Shuai is only one of many possible topics which would offend the authorities in the PRC, and which they would like to keep …
Where is Peng Shuai?
Tennis Australia’s latest overreach has been to ban people at The Australian Open from wearing T-Shirts asking ‘Where is Peng Shuai?’ The resulting publicity and unanimous criticism about the heavy handed action by tournament security – including claiming that they have the legal authority to permanently confiscate banners with this burning question – has backfired …
Has Perth Become Barcelona (minus the Culture of course!)?
Let me start by saying that some of my best friends are Sandgropers. There is Michael who lives in Williamstown, and Jeff who lives in Niddrie, and Bill who lives in Hong Kong. What do they all have in common? They were mostly born and raised in Western Australia, but decided to make their lives …
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Lost For Words! 