Going the wrong way

A picture says a thousand words, but I will a few more - 84 to 62 cents in less than a month - this financial crisis is getting serious.
And sadly I might be back sooner than expected !!

New York, New York -selected images

Land of the free ?

Loss of confidence

Here is a curly one, how come the moment I hear somebody say you can't do that (eg forge a visa) I think, lets give that a whirl - I wonder if I can talk my way through this one. Yet when I am wandering around alone I loose the confidence to try and convince the guys running the meat van taxi that yes my surfboard will fit. Why does surfing four foot alone seem so difficult, yet I blindly pull in to a six foot no way out sand spitting grinding barrel with a grin on my face ?

Spontaneous language

How bizarre is this, apparently during the civil war in Nicaragua, deaf children spontaneously invented a sign language so that they could communicate with each other. It was the first Nicaraguan sign language and was later adopted as the official one. Just can't stop those kids talking. Seems Chomsky was right all along.

US of A: Impressions

Walking through Central Station, two elder women and a man - one woman to the other "He is a socialist, we don't want a socialist, I'm not voting for him"

"He is a Marxist, he wants to take money, and redistribute wealth - he wants to tell you what to do with your money. Obama, Reid, Pelosi - the gang of three - they are all Marxists"
(A commentator on "Liberal" CNN, in need of what could be called a little "political re-education" this guy actually hosts a program on CNN. One can only wonder what the real wackos on talkback radio are saying... Luke ?)

Funnily enough the conservative/Republicans seems to despise the "liberal media" more that the Democrats/liberals themselves. Take Sarah Palin's convention speech where she spends a few bit of time wacking the liberal media/elites in Washington. However the tactic (as adopted by J Howard) of applying massive pressure on the media, means that people self correct or get on guests who may have a few screws loose but are Republican. All in the name of fair and balanced !! I think in Australia , though we have seen it a little in the history wars we are relatively free of the rabid conservatism in the US where conservatives are willing to forcefully argue every point, and demand that they recieve equal attention. Thus books like "48 Lies Liberals Taught You in School" get on the main tables at bookshops.


Central Park has to take the cake for parks in big cities. I spent nearly two weeks in NY and got lost about 5 times in Central Park, it is bloody huge. There are ponds, hills, forests, walking, running and riding tracks, a zoo, a musuem and pretty much anything else you can imagine. And apparently the land is estimated to be worth 530 billion smakcers.

Off to Africa.....completely unprepared

(I am writing this as I watch the last US Presidential debate, so if I start to mumble, look vague and finish my sentences by mumbling to myself, blame McCain !! I must admit it is actually quite interesting at the moment - they have gone each other face to face over the terrorist rally attendees and pal-ing around accusations.. Bring it on !!!)
So during my last day in New York, Aussie dollar collapses to the mid 60's, financial markets in turmoil - again, and I even read an article in The Age about (real) markets in Mozambique and how the cost of food is going through the roof. And I am off to Africa, feeling completely unprepared, wondering where I am going and exactly what for.
Oh and the debate... first, it is so weird here how there is so much analysis of everything, every approach, every phrase, even what the other guy was doing when the other guy was doing. Enough already as they say hear - you can pretty much find someone to say anything - for example there are some talking head stooges who actually say that Sarah Palin was a good choice. As for the candidates - McCain seems completely mad - as they say here - like an old guy trying to get the young whipsnappers off his front lawn. Meanwhile Obama knows he has it in the bag, and is being a bit uppity. At the end of the day though, don't really make much difference - despite 70 million Americans watching the thing. My prediction for the night - we will be hearing alot more about Joe the Plumber

iPods - A curse ? A question to the universe

Ahhh, just when things are going swimmingly, I have clogged the iPod up with 3000 songs of pure listening pleasure, bloody iTunes comes along and decides to wipe clean my music collection. Bugger !!
Somehow I managed to get a third of it back, but iTunes has just randomly scrubbed tracks and whole artists, apparently without fear or favour.
So, one asks the universe, is iTunes simply a pox on music loving people everywhere, sent by Lucifer to denegrate our music collections ?
Think I might go back to being a PC

New York, New York

I am jumping ahead of myself a little here - there is a big entry about
the flights (and movies I saw for those interested) but I feel like in a
place that is so immediate as New York, I really need to get some things
down now, so the tide of time doesn't wash them away.

So I arrive in Harlem on a bus from the airport, and within 10 minutes I
have already stumbled across two crazies - one who managed to royally
piss off the Latino sitting next to me on the park bench by swearing at
the sky about how "it's immigrants, all immigrants that done it, coming
here in their alien ships.... etc etc" and then another who was on the
whole 'the end is nigh, Jesus loves you' trip. But other than that
things have been pretty cool - in fact I have been a little disappointed
so far that I haven't copped any of the well known, New York in your
face attitude - in fact a few people have even returned my smile !!!

One thing that does immediately strike me is the way people hang out in
the streets. Lots of young black guys (Yeah I know, we have all seen it
on the TV and Spike Lee movies, but this is an almost completely black
neighbourhood) hanging on street corners in groups of three or four, or
sitting on public benches on the footpath - playing cards, chatting or
smoking a joint, standing around in front of the ubiquitous milk bars
that sell fast food - (picture a roadhouse, without any petrol), or
fanging around on their BMXs. Maybe it is just my paranoia, but I keep
getting a feeling that they look at me funny because I am a white boy in
their territory, and I have to honestly admit that most of the time I
can't quite make out what they are saying so I try to avoid engaging in
case I completely say the wrong thing and set somebody off. Anyway, it
got me thinking about how maybe there is an inner bigot inside all of
us, and stoked by the repetitious negative portrayal of black men in the
US media, it is easier (and lazy) to just fall in to the idea that they
are dangerous and risky. Note to self keep that in check.
However, when I think about it a little, I notice that I don't actually
feel unsafe. People here are crammed in to these tiny little apartments,
where you can't make any noise lest you disturb your neighbours -above,
below and around you - and the only place to escape to, where there is
open space and no charge, is the street. In a way it is strangely
democratic, the street is open to everyone, so people use it - the
footpath isn't just a place for walking to get from one place to another
- it is a place to socialise, to do business, to catch up with people,
be seen and just hang out. Rather than making the place frightening it
actually makes it come alive - almost like a third world city - and in
complete contrast to that eerie emptiness of suburbia.
On with the exploration.

B I T (Back In Town)

Somehow I went from nervously waiting out the last couple of days preoccupied about the return to Australia, to three weeks later on a plane to Los Angeles in the blink of an eye. How ? I have no idea but what a three weeks it was, and at the risk of sounding a little Lettermanesque I am going to do a top 10 list for my trip - So, in no particular order -

1. The look on my mother's face when she saw Marcelle and I appear completely unannounced at her 70th party. (Mind you I am still trying to work out what exactly her first words of "No, no, no you are not here" actually mean)
2. Clambering down the Grinders' cliff at break neck speed in the rain with brothers and others, to surf in freezing cold water, and still feeling as though I could keep doing this forever.
3. Watching the most unlikely of my brothers as new parents, nice work fellas and good luck - all that nappy foldin sure looks like fun !!!
   
4. Discovering that in my absence my nieces and nephews are rapidly growing up - from the 1.5 year old chatter box who was a wee baby when I last saw her, to the two teenage nephews who have literally grown feet since I saw them last. Its turns out to be quite pleasant to have a decent conversation with someone who calls you uncle - just don't mention the basketball incidents.
5. Sitting in a Lebanese bakery, eating Turkish bread, watching people of various stripes - Asian, Indian, African, Middle Eastern and Anglo - at ease, interacting with each other - thank God Howard and the fifties have left Australia forever. Gotta love multiculturalism - even if only for the bread !!!
   
6. Feeling Grand Final Fever grip Melbourne, and watching my footy team play once this year, in a grand final no less, and seeing them defy the odds and common sense to cream the Geelong Cats. Only to be topped off by heading down the local oval after the game with the boys to slot a few on the run from 30 out and rekindle every boys' dream.
   
7. Sitting on a beach in Sydney, eating fish and chips with the temperature in the mid twenties, the water just the right temperature to remind you that you are swimming, bodysurfable waves lapping the shore, watching Sydneysiders on parade up and down the beach.
   
8. Spending so many good nights out (and one crap one) with Damo, who despite my protestations proved once again that Melbourne is quite a cool place to live, and almost tempt me to give up my nomadic ways. As my friend says "What is a Damo ?", truly the un-knowable.
   
9. Sitting around the table in Anglesea without space for one more, after having cooked for everyone, and enjoying listening to the myriad of conversations going on about various things, and realising that whilst I might sound like a certain wacko Christian senator, family is kind of cool.
   
10. In the tiny window of three weeks managing to meet someone about whom the question will plague me for the entire time I am in Africa - touché Brendan, touché.
    

Need I say more.