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that 1 guy australian tour dates (2007/2008)

Ahwooo!

  • December 27, 2007 - Woodford Folk Festival - Woodford, QLD
  • December 28, 2007 - Woodford Folk Festival - Woodford, QLD
  • December 29, 2007 - Woodford Folk Festival - Woodford, QLD
  • December 30, 2007 - Peats Ridge Music Festival - Peats Ridge, NSW
  • December 31, 2007 - Pyramid Rock Festival - Phillip Island, VIC
  • January 2, 2008 - Soco Cargo Stage - St. Kilda, VIC
  • January 5, 2008 - Joe's Waterhole Hotel - Eumundi, QLD
  • January 6, 2008 - The Step Inn - Fortitude Valley, QLD
  • January 31, 2008 - Republic Bar - Hobart, TAS (co-bill with True Live)
  • February 1, 2008 - The Corner Hotel - Richmond, VIC (co-bill with True Live)
  • February 2, 2008 - The METRO Theatre - Sydney, NSW (co-bill with True Live)
  • February 3, 2008 - Waves - Wollongong, NSW (co-bill with True Live)
  • February 6, 2008 - Hoey Moey - Coffs Harbour, NSW (co-bill with True Live)
  • February 7, 2008 - ANI Hall - Bangalow, NSW (co-bill with True Live)
  • February 8, 2008 - Coolangatta Hotel - Coolangatta, QLD (co-bill with True Live)
  • February 9, 2008 - The Zoo - Fortitude Valley, QLD (co-bill with True Live)
  • February 14-16, 2008 - Perth International Music Festival - Perth, WA

[Updates - That 1 Guy Tour Dates]

around the traps

an embuggerance

Upsetting news...

11th December 2007

AN EMBUGGERANCE

Folks,

I would have liked to keep this one quiet for a little while, but because of upcoming conventions and of course the need to keep my publishers informed, it seems to me unfair to withhold the news. I have been diagnosed with a very rare form of early onset Alzheimer's, which lay behind this year's phantom "stroke".

We are taking it fairly philosophically down here and possibly with a mild optimism. For now work is continuing on the completion of Nation and the basic notes are already being laid down for Unseen Academicals. All other things being equal, I expect to meet most current and, as far as possible, future commitments but will discuss things with the various organisers. Frankly, I would prefer it if people kept things cheerful, because I think there's time for at least a few more books yet :o)

[Terry Pratchett]

PS I would just like to draw attention to everyone reading the above that this should be interpreted as 'I am not dead'. I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as will everybody else. For me, this maybe further off than you think - it's too soon to tell. I know it's a very human thing to say "Is there anything I can do", but in this case I would only entertain offers from very high-end experts in brain chemistry.

Discworld News / PJSM Prints

Fuck.

...although you've got to love the next day's update, in true Pterry style:

Can I remind everybody that I still aten’t dead, even today.

coff-ay

I guess the score was low since I don't roast my own beans and I generally have just one coffee per day; it just has to be a good one.

Actually I just realised I fudged the question about grinding my own beans since we actually get them ground at the roastery* then keep the coffee in a vacuum container (as in, we suck the air out of it). We used to grind on demand but our grinder wasn't good enough for use with the espresso machine...

Guess what we're buying next? :) A good grinder.

[* In Sydney we go to Tobys Estate; in Brisbane it was Aroma's (direct from the roastery at West End), Merlo or Cosmopolitan Cafe (we'd sometimes grab it on the way home after gigs/clubs and let me tell you... you get some interesting looks walking through the Brunswick Street Mall at 3am holding a kilo of coffee).]

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don't feel sorry for howard

It's interesting to see how people are tending to feel sorry for John Howard. He did after all suffer a crushing defeat and an ignominious end to a long career.

The thing is, he brought it all upon himself and he's repeatedly shown himself to be a total bastard. He's not some kind of underdog nor is he a top bloke who copped a bad rap.

Howard was ousted because the majority of the population finally decided he was bad for our country's health. Howard made us a target for terrorism, by constantly and unquestioningly supporting Dubya's war on people who live on top of America's oil. His government turned tertiary education into a meat trade, a scrabble for the more lucrative international students whose fees prop up cash-starved universities. Despite heavy taxes, anyone who can afford to pay again for private health and education alternatives has been basically forced to do so.

Meanwhile Howard (and his government) encouraged racism, religious intolerance and anti-gay sentiments... all for the sole purpose of keeping his overpaid arse in power. John Howard didn't serve Australia, he served himself and his own right-wing agenda. He profoundly ignored anyone who was not white, straight, old and rich.

So, don't feel sorry for John Howard. He could have retired gracefully six months ago, but was too arrogant to admit he was going to lose. He could have served Australia instead of ruling the country as a narrow-minded dictator. He could have listened to the nation's desire not to support George Bush's war; our desire to ratify the Kyoto protocol; or even just our desire to be open to multiculturalism (something his reign has set back by several decades).

I'll finish up with a quote, via drjon...

Australian Values: Let the Bloodbath Begin:

We know of no credible evidence to suggest that Howard was other than a borderline sociopath who operated obsessively to further his own agenda without consideration for the harm which that might cause to others - which it certainly did.

In fact he caused great harm to Australia.

He released the dogs of racism to political ends. He released the dogs of capital punishment (and whenever we see pictures of Janette smiling lovingly and sweetly, we remember that she is a death penalty radical and probably Howard’s inspiration in this). He synthetically generated fear and then preyed on that fear in order to curtail people’s freedoms.

...

So let us not have to listen to any more praise for the man. He was profoundly anti-democratic and we are lucky that the Australian people understood that and removed him before he irretrievably destroyed everything of value in Australian civil society.

So will Kevin Rudd be any better? Hard to know, but the country has taken a punt that he can't be worse than Howard. Besides that, we know that one day we'll be sick of the KRuddster and his party too.

Here's hoping by then the Greens have developed into a more coherent force; that the Democrats are revived or succeeded by another balancing party; and that the ultra-right parties die a natural death.

No party and no Prime Minister should be allowed to get so comfortable and out of touch as John Howard. One person's own agenda should not be allowed to rule so far apart from the will of the nation.

In the meantime, all I can really do is echo the sentiment I've seen expressed many times: congratulations Kevin... now just don't fuck it up.