I’m putting together a cd of the greatest ever Australian songs. First, Spiderbait, ‘Old Man Sam’. God this rocks.
I’m having trouble picking a definitive song for some bands. Hunters and Collectors‘ has to be ‘You don’t make me feel like a woman any more’, Hoodoo Guru‘s ‘What’s my scene’, but if I have to put a Cold Chisel song on (and let’s face it, I do), what should it be? Khe Sahn? Cheap Wine? And how do I pick just one Whitlams song?
TISM would have to be either ‘Greg, the stop sign’ or ‘Old Man River’.
Do the Hard-Ons make it to the list? What about the Cruel Sea? Is Kylie still Australian enough? Have the Avalanches and the Vines been around long enough? What about all the new Australian bands I’ve missed since I left? I love Tumbleweed and the Fauves (dogs *are* the best people) but are they known well enough?

Best odd spot ever: “An English vicar reduced young children to tears and stunned their parents after he said Santa Claus and his reindeer would burn to a crisp while delivering presents at super sonic speed.”

Age: “Australian museums are among the most progressive in the world when it comes to returning human remains and cultural objects to their original homes.
Unlike the key international museums that have declared their opposition to the wholesale repatriation of cultural artefacts, the National Museum of Australia and Museum Victoria have repatriation policies in place and actively seek to return human remains and secret and sacred objects to indigenous people.”

Age: “Australia has been accused of being an enemy of Islam in speeches to mosques in Asia, increasing the risk of terrorist attacks, according to a leading defence expert.”

BBC: talking George W Bush doll

Age: “Men continued to lead women in the pay stakes and the gap was widening, an official survey of employee earnings showed today.”

It’s so cold! Overnight minimum is 0C (32F), tomorrow the maximum is just 1C (33F). What am I doing here?

Your clit is bigger than science will tell you.
This is going to stuff up my search terms, but this summary of a report about Australian researchers’ discovery that medical and general textbooks failed to depict the clitoris as it actually is was really interesting.
According to another article, ”
After dissecting the bodies of 10 women and using 3D photography, O’Connell discovered that much of the female sexual anatomy, not just its fine tuning, was wrong in textbooks.”
I’ve actually seen a ‘your body’ guide published in 1975 with a diagram of the female genital area that didn’t include the clitoris. Heaven help any poor girl who compared her body to the diagram and found an extra bit!
While I’m at it, the New Scientist on the G-spot.

Age: “Lobby group Fair Wear has pledged to name and shame retailers that have refused to sign an ethical code of conduct protecting clothing workers from exploitation.”

Age: “Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has publicly rejected the push from Defence Minister Robert Hill and Prime Minister John Howard to amend the United Nations charter to allow pre-emptive strikes against terrorists.”