cacophony

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Christmas: festival or farce

Posted by cacophony in : Entertainment , 7 comments

Call me a Scrooge but I’m -over- Christmas. The whole deal: carols, decorations, gifts, turkey. It’s a sham. To me, a child of the 1980s, Christmas is a seaon built around extended shopping hours. And I hate it.

Yes, I hear you tut-tut ing, telling me it is the season for goodwill but that faith you have in humanity will be destroyed if you spend one December night in a busy shopping centre car park.

I’m no Christian and I never really cared about the original meaning of Christmas but I do aspire to its ideals: charity, family, peace. None of those things are found at your local Westfield yet that’s where people seem to be looking for them.

Even the new MYER television ad has a model looking hot in a new dress and sheepishly telling the camera: “It’s for my mum”, which it clearly isn’t. Christmas is now about shopping and I suspect the vast majority of people are shopping for themselves not their loved ones.

It’s a horrible way to end the year and the Boxing Day stocktake sales are a shocking way to begin a new one.

 

The macho men of Movember

Posted by cacophony in : Making News , 2 comments

Like all great ideas, Movember was born at the pub. A couple of years ago, two Melbourne blokes decided the humble moustache needed a revival. Soon, they paired their great idea with the Prostate Cancer Foundation and Movember was created.

The concept is simple: blokes start clean-shaven on November 1 and by the end of the month, have collected sponsorship money from amused family and friends. They take their earnings to gala parties where they dress up to show off their mos (The Porn Star, The Boonie, The Dali) and swap stories about unimpressed girlfriends.

And there are mos everywhere in Melbourne at the moment, especially in the trendsetter inner suburbs. It’s had an excellent pick up and it has street cred. And all these blokes are thinking about prostate cancer. Go fellas!

www.movember.com

Lay-by baby

Posted by cacophony in : My life , add a comment

The contraceptive Pill was fundamental to the women’s liberation movement as a symbol that we were taking control of their fertility but three decades on, it might be limiting our options. A few of my female friends are starting to hear that famous clock ticking inside them, a daily reminder that they are running out of time to have a baby. But they’re finding it difficult to make their partners agree that they should commit to having kids.

And why would you, really? As a man in a modern relationship, why would you agree to having kids if you weren’t as keen on it as your partner.

Modern women, we give it up too easy. Harsh, maybe, but hear me out:

Many of us already live with our partners, which makes marriage redundant. The blokes get all the benefits of married life without the pre-nups and the ring tan. Many of us do a bigger chunk of the housework than our male partners (mostly, I expect, simply because we’re better at it) but we’re still expected to look hot.

As the second generation of Women’s Lib, we are expected to be all-rounders: career women, sexual creatures, homemakers, baby machines. Some women succeed in being a success at all these things but they get frustrated when they can’t find a man who is good at everything like they are. (That’s possibly because there’s no expectation for a modern man to be good at everything, or possibly because men realise that people simply don’t work that way.)
Which brings me to the Pill. Once upon a time, sex equalled pregnancy so institutions like marriage were set up to protect people from getting pregnant in a non-supportive environment. Now that we have the Pill, it’s easy for a bloke to get everything he would otherwise have to marry a girl for, without the commitment. So why would you?

That’s my piece. Bring on the flaming.

Live music, dead tired

Posted by cacophony in : Entertainment , 1 comment so far

Gaelic breath

Posted by cacophony in : Local services , 3 comments

Glass house shattered

Posted by cacophony in : Entertainment , 4 comments

Last week, comedian Dave Hughes had every reason to be angry. After five years, the ABC axed his comedy show The Glass House amid allegations of bias. Hughes plays the surly bloke to host Wil Anderson’s party boy persona and Corinne Grant’s sarcastic retort.

On Wednesday night, I watched intently for the show’s stars to hit back at their masters, which had turned them loose just as they were hitting their straps. But there was no anger, just a piece-to-camera at the end by Wil, saying it was the last show ever. Pout.

They’re not cranky, probably because they’re confident The Glass House will be picked up by a commercial network, but I certainly am. Is anyone else out there ready to march in the streets?

 

A lost Operatunity

Posted by cacophony in : Entertainment , 3 comments

It must take a lot of sequins to make the costumes and I don’t imagine castratos come cheap; but why is going to the opera so bloody expensive?

I’d really like to see Opera Australia’s new production of Turandot, especially because the excellent Graeme Murphy is involved, but I simply can’t afford it. The price of a C-reserve adult ticket to the opera - $80 - is about what I’d expect to pay for a full-day rock festival.

Doyens of ”high arts” are always complaining they’re going to die out if young people don’t support them. This is probably true but the cost is a major obstacle for those of us that do want to go.

Opera is heavily subsidised by Governments - as it should be - so why is it still so expensive?