Oh it was a gay old time in the town, what with the old Customs House lit up like post-modern lantern:
And then in the usual way, the Opera House was bathed in post-hippie lighting as a reminder that the spirit of the 1960s still lurks in the land.
But perhaps the funniest visual oddity, the most supreme visual folly came in a nearby bus shelter:
Say what? An intelligent, poised, tablet-using woman, a bright young thing on the rise, hip and now, on the go, interested in the Daily Terror?
Should even young blondes be defamed in this way?
Like she's strangely compelled by this sort of wall to wall digital front coverage of boofheads smashing each other up in the boofhead approved way?
Well there's demographics and then there's delusions and it seems at the Daily Terror they're in the grip of some kind of unholy desperation.
But there was one comedy upside, thanks to Mumbrella and Dr Mumbo here:
As a wag below the fold noted, that's what happens when artists don't like a particular columnist, but oh the sweetness of the payback ...
Meanwhile, as you can see in the Terror's barnstorming, smashing coverage, the fists of fury spoke.
How soon before gentle readers cop a poke in the eye from the Devine, or a stern solemn editorial from the Terror, both deploring casual random violence in the streets and fisticuffs run wild?
How soon a call to ban said violence and street hooligans? While the casual smashing of cane toads on the field is deemed a civic duty for cockroaches?
Oh it's a violent society, full of violence worshippers, completely unaware of the contradictions within them, so why not celebrate the visual violence done to the Devine?
Meanwhile, while visiting Mumbrella, it was jolly to see David Gyngell reveal that he has absolutely no understanding or awareness of his network's audience, as you can read here:
“I probably got too driven on sport, you know what your watching, you want the information, without the thought that there are a lot of kids watching they’re absorbing this and this is not good information for them so we’ve pulled back from that now and I think that’s the right balance,” he said.
Yes there's an entirely new definition of information abroad in the land.
Odds for mug punters are now "information" and good old Tom Waterhouse is an astonishing mine of valuable "information".
What follows is the usual sanctimonious humbug of a suit out for a fast buck:
“I think we over-egged it and I think we’ve pulled back from it. And personally and emotionally, being the father of a new child, I don’t want my child to saying all the odds either, but at the same time, it’s the way you do it."
Say what? Better get back on that "information" mantra pretty damn quick:
"People are allowed to receive information. It’s legal if it’s done properly."
Yes, we're all allowed to receive information. From now on, be pleased and dance in the streets, all that incessant, mind-numbing, head-banging noise you hear all the time isn't a blizzard of white noise and insinuating, sinister propaganda at all, it's just pure, distilled, essence of "information".
So let's have the amazingly articulate Gyngell wrap the Waterhouse affair up in a tidy rhetorical bundle:
"I think we pushed it too far, I respect that. But I think equally we all go jumping on the bandwagon of something that has been around for a while, if you don’t like it its still horrific to you as far as the people are concerned.”
Oh yes, that's as clear as a swig of moonshine.
Meanwhile, the comedians at the Labor party keep mining the same old material, and doesn't the Murdoch media just love it.
There was Kevin Rudd bobbing up one more time - as if promoting a game of Whack-A-Mole - to call for discipline and telling MPs to pull their heads in and urging unity. Why he's as funny as the Black Knight ...
And there was Joel Fitzgibbon showing all the style and class of an adolescent sulky schoolboy mocking the lines he'd been given by reading from the "manual" for the day.
Having ensured he hadn't pulled in his head, and made clear that unity was the last thing on his mind, Fitzgibbon was chased by a Nine TV cameraman who fell and landed in a large pot (Media goes boots and all in chase of MP Joel Fitzgibbon).
Fitzgibbon belongs to the NSW Right, the same clowns who delivered perpetual rule in NSW to big Bazza and a second airport in Canberra, connected by a VFG (very fast goose), and in one interview "Smacka" Fitzy used the word "disaffected" some five times (Labor faction chief Joel Fitzgibbon becomes face of party disaffection with Julia Gillard).
The clowns in the Labor party had a couple of choices: act responsibly and sensibly, or do their level best to imitate the last days of the Whitlam government. They could show class, or they could act like the class clowns.
Well Fitzgibbon is doing a wonderful impression, though whether of Jim Cairns or Rex Connor or Tirath Khemlani, it's hard to say ...
Meanwhile, over at the lizard Oz, a few of the reptiles are already starting to have a panic attack.
Poor old Niki Savva cranks it up to something approaching a heart attack in For Abbott, winning's the easy bit (behind the paywall so you can avoid sharing said heart attack).
Tony Abbott actually running the country? Oh dear sweet long absent lord ...
Savva proposes that Barnaby Joyce might be beaten by Tony Windsor, that Kevin Andrews will become a bicycling Speaker (well where else can you put a bear of little brain out of reach of the honey), broods about the boats, implicit in the brooding that Abbott won't stop the boats but will certainly managed to alienate Indonesia, and then spends an inordinate amount of time fearfully contemplating the way that Abbott goes about managing business:
What he also needs to think about is a restructuring of his office and the way he operates. There is no point having regular hook-ups of leadership groups, shadow cabinet meetings, joint party meetings and early morning conference calls to deal with issues, if they are going to be treated like mushroom farms.
If nothing else, his colleagues hope the political funding scandal has taught him to seek wider counsel and follow proper process. Good luck with that. There have been two other major by-passes - paid parental leave and support for the referendum to support local government - so it's not as if proof of lessons learned is immediately apparent.
Of course Savva doesn't know how to count.
There's also the matter of broadband - how long ago was it that it was going to be destroyed? - and the matter of "direct action" on climate change.
Abbott's absurd plans for both of them can be added to sundry other matters where Abbott has devised bizarre, on the run, improvised "real" policy responses, and people inside the party have just shrugged their shoulders and rolled their eyes, because the nattering negativity has put them within reach of power and all the perks of office.
According to Savva, it's because Abbott is currently acting as if he's channeling the Whitlam government himself, with only him and a female Lance Barnard pulling the levers:
One complaint about Abbott is that his inner circle too often comprises only two people - him and his chief of staff, Peta Credlin, a one-woman version of the Praetorian Guard, who is married to the party's federal director, Brian Loughnane, which adds another layer of complication and potential conflict.
Abbott described Credlin recently as "outstanding". Considering where they all began, it is hard to argue with that. Nevertheless, no matter how outstanding, one individual cannot assume all the policy, political and media responsibilities in a prime minister's office, where every issue eventually lands.
It is critical to consult while trusting experts to do their jobs in accordance with established procedures because what gets you there won't necessarily keep you there.
Now Savva's column is a piece of hand-wringing but for the pond it's pure delight, foreshadowing as it does what is to come.
The pond is already poised to win big in the way of bottles of wine on the Federal election result (so much more civilised than soiling one's paws with Tom) and the pond is poised to win in an even bigger way if or when Abbott assumes power ...
The pond will of course go into totally negative nattering mode - the pond has learned to hate thanks to the reptiles at the lizard Oz, and any move the Abbott government makes, the pond will be agin it.
Unity? Go suck on a bottle of tomato sauce Paul Kelly.
The nattering negativity of hate has been fed to the pond like a mix of mother's milk and kool aid.
That's what passes as responsible journalism these days.
But even better, the pond is scoring good odds - not quite as good as a Grange to a De Bortoli, but not bad either - as to whether Abbott will survive in power beyond the two year mark.
The pond is betting he won't, and that he'll be taken out by his colleagues, who once they're in power can have the pleasure of power, and lop off his perverse policies head, and the fall will be spectacular, and once again we will witness a Ruddster-style demise of a PM ... and every botched policy moment will bring the pond that little bit closer to a nice little cellar ...
Oh it's going to be a grand old time, and Savva's hand-wringing is just the start of it ...
Yep, it's going to be a fine old bash, fisticfuffs of fury, with gambling galore and with heaps of "information", and not once will the pond think of the children, in best Gyngell approved style ...
(Below: more David Pope here).
It is so nice to have that young and attractive Nikki Sava on our screens telling how fine it is to believe phony Tony and he will deliver the goods to all.
ReplyDeleteAnd that font of knowledge Kelly being editor at large for the chooks in murdochracy just to put all their scribbles into order and lay the blame as Gillard,s fault.
Something I am curious about is why Prissy Crine spent 2 hrs with Mr Ashby alone in an office that was not his office. If the press and likes of Mr Kelly are so good at journalism he would surely pursue that rat up the drain too see what shenanigans was got up to in that 2 hrs.
The same with that other controller of news Mr Spears you would think might have some questions to ask Prissy Crine.
Thank you DP. Your words and David Pope's brilliant cartoon fit like a hand in a glove, although you made me laugh way more. And that last par has me most excited.
ReplyDeleteAll power to the DP's of this earth! Also,have the last 3 years of this political cycle been like a bad case of deja-vu,or is it just me?