East West 101 Episode 2

I very much looked forward to seeing this last night, and (bloody commercial breaks aside) I was not disappointed. I saw Episode 1 last week and was mightily impressed.

At least for now, thanks to AbuSufyaan on YouTube, I can share that with you all:

Last night’s episode was set in the mean streets of Redfern. They can be like that, but also…

 

How anti-correctness-correctness killed off John Howard… 2

In his own electorate of Bennelong at least. The previous entry referred to yesterday’s story in The Sydney Morning Herald which explained the strategy that led to Howard losing not only the election but his own seat, only the second Prime Minister in Australian history to achieve that double. Rather like Bradman getting a duck in his last test match, which also happened, except I would never say that Howard to quality Prime Ministership was as Bradman to Cricket… Far from it.

Today’s Herald has a follow-up: Chinese whispers that built to a roar:

 

Friday Australian poem #19: Vance Palmer (1885-1959)

The Farmer Remembers the Somme

Will they never fade or pass!
The mud, and the misty figures endlessly coming
In file through the foul morass,
And the grey flood-water ripping the reeds and grass,
And the steel wings drumming.

The hills are bright in the sun:
There’s nothing changed or marred in the well-known places;
When work for the day is done
There’s talk, and quiet laughter, and gleams of fun
On the old folks’ faces.

I have returned to these:
The farm, and the kindly Bush, and the young calves lowing;
But all that my mind sees
Is a quaking bog in a mist – stark, snapped trees,
And the dark Somme flowing.