The Fix / Revisited

How I became political

nobody@vox.com(Jimbob) — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 23:09:38 +0930

I'm not sure how it happened. When I was in grade 2 at school, age 7, there was a state election going on. Labor was in power, but was struggling. The Liberal opposition leader came to the school for a policy statement and photo op, and our teacher encouraged us all to write a letter to him. Mine basically said;

Thank you for coming to our school and good luck, but I hope the other guy wins!

I don't know why. It may be some kind of rebel attitude that attached me to the perceived underdog (in first grade, I told the teacher I Quit when she wanted the class to sing some silly song. I sat it out). My parents were both conservative. My mum, now deceased, wasn't very political, but she always listened to conservative talk back radio, rallying against the gays and immigrants. My dad was a bit of a swing voter, going for Labor or Liberal depending on who would do the most for him, but being a country boy also, he was generally conservative.

In late primary school I broke with a friend because of his racist attitude towards aboriginies.

In early high school, we were looking at the end of the Keating era in Australian politics - a Labor prime minister who declared Australia was in "the recession we had to have". There was, understandably, a massive negative reaction towards him in the media and among the general public, but I challenged my Keating-bashing friends (following the positions of their parents) to tell me what, exactly, he had done wrong.

In late primary school we had the great political battle of my education. There was a group of guys, dubbed the "Balcony Boys", owing to where they spent their lunch hours. Most of them were pretty okay - bloke's blokes, but honest and true. But one of them, a polish guy called Marick, was a Nazi. Well his dad was a Nazi, a member of National Action, an Australian Ku Klux Klan style organization. Allegedly, he had a collection of Nazi weapons and memorabilia, and went on protest marches though immigrant-heavy suburbs, calling for them all to be sent home.

In the parking lot, after school, 1996:

Marrick: Commie!
Jimbob: Fascist!
Marrick: You don't know what that means! Don't use word when you don't know what they mean!

From that point on, I was proudly the school communist; even wore a fake Red Army cap to casuals day. I even joined the Socialist Alliance, after meeting them in Rundle Mall before an anti-racism protest march. I told them about the racism inherent in my highschool, they promised to put someone on the case, and I paid my $5 membership. They called my house later that week, an got my mother, who later grilled me for joining "The Communists!". But she was right - they were a bunch of totalitarian, top-down, Stalinist wankers. Never heard from them again.

In university I decided upon anarchy, choosing deliberately not to vote in student elections, given that the choice was between the same ideologically pure art-student Stalinists who's parents would buy them a convertable the minute they graduated, and Young Liberal engineering students. The student newspaper at Adelaide, On Dit, was charmingly progressive, and charmingly beige. I saw that nothing real was going on on campus, so I decided to keep out of it, lest I encourage the bastards.

And that's where the story ends. I vote Green, unless it matters, in which case I hold my nose and vote Labor. Carpe dium.

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The Cafe Crowd

nobody@vox.com(Jimbob) — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 11:54:22 +0930

It's amazing what a bit of community and networking can do. For years, I've been trying to run various websites, community blogs, forums, mailing lists, on various topics (often local music) and never managed to attract more than a dozen members.

My wife took advantage of a schizm in a wedding forum she has been on for years to start her own (The Cafe Crowd - has a bit of a focus on photography and Australian women) and it's been maintaining 6,000 page views a day, and now I find myself installing floral banners and managing a photo competition script for these girls. I guess thats... successful...

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Croc in Pool

nobody@vox.com(Jimbob) — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 07:21:59 +0930

At my local swimming pool this morning: Early morning swimmers at the Nightcliff Pool in Darwin's northern suburbs have been given a shock today - a crocodile has been found in the pool. Here's a panorama of the pool I took a few months back.

Nightcliff Pool

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Albums at Amie Street

nobody@vox.com(Jimbob) — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 20:54:55 +0930

I think I've found a new favourite place to put my music online for download. Amie Street. It works on an auction-like system, where songs you post as an artist start out free, then increase in price as more people listen to them, buy them, or "recommend" them. It sounds interesting; my only concern is whether there's the potential for the price to decrease as well. For instance, if you get a bit of exposure, have a gig, get on the radio, there might be a sudden influx of people buying your songs. This will push the price up, but it might leave the price up high after the fuss has died down, pricing your music out of the reach of casual listeners.

Whatever, all my songs are free at the moment. Check them out here:

0xFFFF

Drumnia

The Empire Will Fall

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Slumbertone

nobody@vox.com(Jimbob) — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 21:59:11 +0930

A new project I'm trying to build up - Slumbertone - ambient music for relaxation and sleeping. I'm selling CD-length compositions in non-DRM MP3 format - complex, smooth, interacting melodies and soundscapes, to put your mind at rest.

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Sunset at Nightcliff

nobody@vox.com(Jimbob) — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 13:15:04 +0930

Palm and Sunset

Nightcliff Swimming Pool, in Darwin, has to be the most beautiful swimming pool in Australia. Perched on the edge of a cliff, looking west over the Arafura sea, it's a great place to cool off in the evening. I took this photo from inside the fence (as you can see), looking out towards the sunset.

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Moon Lore from West Virginia...

nobody@vox.com(Jimbob) — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 19:51:32 +0930

Moon Lore from West Virginia

W. E. Mockler

Folklore, Vol. 50, No. 3. (Sep., 1939), pp. 310-314.

Moon Folklore

The following moon superstitions are from America, colle cted in the semi-mountainous region of northern West Virginia, amoung people of English, Welsh and Scottish descent. I have divided these beliefs into six groups: weather signs, plant lore, wax and wane effects, good and bad luck signs, the "man in the moon" and miscellaneous superstitions.

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Cat Seizure

nobody@vox.com(Jimbob) — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 10:14:36 +0930

That's one fucked up cat.

CAT SEIZURE

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Doof Doof

nobody@vox.com(Jimbob) — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 23:02:20 +0930

Atriplex - realnicetrance

Well looky here, Jimbob's been making some real boring trance.

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QOTD: Favourite Cover Song.

nobody@vox.com(Jimbob) — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 23:07:24 +0930

Favourite cover song? This one's an easy one. The Pogue's version of And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, originally by Eric Bogle. Here's a video of some early Pogues, where they play the song.

The Pogues: Live Concert 1985

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