Perth, Popular Culture, Society

Mouth Mundine Steps Up In Class

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I once held Anthony Mundine in unrelenting contempt. His likening himself to one of my heroes, Muhammad Ali, both as a great boxing champion and national black leader, inspired scorn and ridicule. Whatever his prowess as a rugby league player, he was unproven as a boxer and clearly way out of Ali’s league as a wit…well, let’s be mercilessly honest – what wit? The guy gave no indication of being anything but a bighead with more bone than brain betwixt left and right temple.

Then came the fight against Danny Green. I joined the thousands in Perth that night queued up outside pubs to watch the gladiators on the big screens. Parochial as Perth is, the crowds were baying as one for Mundine’s blood. The hope and expectation was that Green would shut The Mouth up and sit his arrogant arse on the canvas well inside the distance. Continue reading Mouth Mundine Steps Up In Class →

Blogging & Internet

New Buyers’ Guide to Navigating the LCD Monitor Jungle

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I bought my first LCD monitor some years ago, when the technology was in its infancy. Officeworks were advertising a special on 15 inch LG LCD monitors for the breakthrough price of $375, and replacing my old ADI CRT seemed like a good move – until I started using the LG. I found text hard to read and the general image quality disappointing. Within a couple of days I decided I hated it. I ended up taking the intruder back and getting a refund. Went to an auction and bought two second-hand Dell Trinitron 17 inch CRTs instead…for a mere $100 each!

This was the beginning of a blissful relationship, unfortunately truncated a few weeks ago, when one of my treasured twins died.

It didn’t take much investigation to realise that things had moved on in the world of LCD monitors since my unhappy encounter with the LG. CRT monitors are now all but obsolete, and LCD monitor prices have plummeted, especially in the last year or so. It made no sense to swim against the overwhelming LCD tide, so on the trail of the perfect LCD monitor choice I went. Continue reading New Buyers’ Guide to Navigating the LCD Monitor Jungle →

Movie Reviews, Music, Perth, Political, Popular Culture, Society

Please Sir, Can We Have Some More?

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Once upon a time I nurtured a furtive dream of playing in a rock and roll band. It was way back in a time when rock music was still the dominant youth art form. I immersed myself in a world of records, rock barns (all the popular pubs were rock barns at that time), guitars, Beat literature, tatty photocopies of Jerry Rubin’s anti-establishment rant, A Yippie Manifesto…

I spent all my money – and I was earning better than average bucks at that time, having fast-tracked to a Clerk Class 4 position in the public service office in which I resentfully spent the working week – on records, hifi components, beer to accompany weekend and mid-week attendances at pub gigs, a constant supply of marijuana I do confess, and virtually every big-name rock concert that made it to Perth.

My first – at Beatty Park in 1971 – was incredible value: Chain, Free, Manfred Mann and Deep Purple on the same bill. I was so excited by the finale of the show I passed out in the exit queue and ran head first into a stone pillar, splitting my forehead open to the bone – the scar a souvenir that remains to this day (note: no drugs involved; I was only 15 at the time). Continue reading Please Sir, Can We Have Some More? →

movie reviews + occasional other musings