25th NSW Schools Spectacular

And spectacular is the word! I celebrated the 23rd in 2006: Celebrating life, love, youth, tolerance, talent and the NSW Department of Education.

Think of all the outcomes that has achieved, entirely the work of our STATE education system, so maligned, so despised…

Congratulations to all involved, especially The Arts Unit, NSW Department of Education & Training, and this is just one of the magnificent things they do…

And the other good news: NOTHING HAPPENED AT CRONULLA THIS WEEKEND! Good on you, Shire people and the Lebanese community both. That is the best answer you could have given to racists and extremists and destroyers of harmony in our multicultural city.

It was the anniversary of last year’s violence, and some were hoping for more of the same. As a Shire boy born and bred I was heartbroken about last year, but now I am damned proud! See on my old blog Some of my lessons from Cronulla (Tuesday, December 13, 2005).

This year’s is on right now – and sorry, my ABC picture is rather poor – but you’ll get the idea…

 

The Rabbit must know some involved… 🙂

It is kind of cute that at this moment they are belting out YMCA!

Advertisements

 

He sneers, he smears, he ponces, he attitudinises…

…and he gives conservatism its ugly face and a bad name. I refer of course to Piers Akerman. In his piece today he manages to make me, for one, sympathise with Malcolm Turnbull. Perhaps because I am one of the beneficiaries of Kevin Rudd’s “sugar hit” I rather resent the following, which must be some kind of record for smears and insinuations per line:

Don’t look for a change at the top of the Coalition now though. The Newspoll was taken last weekend when pensioners, carers and other welfare recipients were looking forward to receiving their “sugar hits” in the form of unearned dollars from the Rudd government in the name of economic stimulation.

A fistful of money can be extremely stimulating, as bootleggers supplying illegal grog to Aboriginals at up to $170 a slab in Western Australia have found, whether such spending leads to the protection of jobs in the long-term is yet to be seen.

That is simply vile.

Of course Piers knows so much about economics, doesn’t he? And yes, no-one knows for sure what the effect will be. What I do know is that for me the payment is a Godsend… Of course my dollars are “unearned” – unlike the payouts and “sugar hits” CEOs in finance and elsewhere have been conditioning us to accept in recent years; after all they really “earned” their sweeteners, didn’t they? They really produced something tangible which we can all recognise in exchange for their rewards…

Honest conservatism I don’t object to at all.

Akerman’s smarmy superciliousness simply makes my blood boil. I am just relieved that he is not actually responsible for anything real, just for being a performing seal week after week. I suppose he does that well, if you like animal acts…

Ignore the bastard. I am so glad I am not Piers Akerman.

 

Bonus pic: Surry Hills Christmas

Surry Hills prepares to party

 

What’s what for the week ending 13 December

Floating Life

Posts in the past week

Sunday: 2008 in review 1: hot posts over the year on Floating Life; Sirdan’s back

Monday: 2008 in review 2: hot posts on Ninglun’s Specials; 2008 in review 3: categories in the new photoblog; 2008 in review 4: things people come looking for; We knew him just as “Dark Cloud”

Tuesday: 2008 in review 5: Of course I am not obsessive…; Camden on the Gold Coast?; Plant report, and other bits…

Wednesday: Competition, cross-cultural roadblocks and petty corruption; 2008 in review 6: hot posts on English/ESL

Thursday: Pesky spam comment development…; Chicago!; Teh Marcket as a 21st century ghoulie or phantasm…; Fantastic, but another reason to feel old!; Festive look

Friday: Cholera? What cholera?; My last Top Read of 2008: Damian Thompson, “Counterknowledge” (Atlantic Books 2008); Something good that began under the Howard government…

Saturday: Such is time… Stream of consciousness, almost…; Photoblog: More Best of 2008 completed; 2008 in review 7: what did I post about in January 2008?; 2008 in review 8: what did I post about in February 2008?; 2008 in review 9: what did I post about in March 2008?

Top posts: those that scored the most individual hits in the past seven days

1. Australian poem: 2008 series #9 — 199
2. Beijing agrees to Tibet talks 110
3. Australian poem 2008 series #10: Peter S 52
4. Dispatches from another America 37
5. How good is your English? Test and Answe 36

Ninglun’s Specials

Posts in the past week

Friday: Top poems 3: Robert Southwell “The Burning Babe”

Top posts

1. Family stories 3 — About the Whitfields 42
2. Sequel: Art Monthly Australia July 2008 36
3. 10. But is it art? Responses to the Bill 32
4. Top poems 2: John Donne (1572-1631): Sat 16
5. 05 — Old Blog Entries: 99-04 15

Neil’s modest photo blog

Posts in the past week: Sunday: 16 photos; Monday: 14 photos; Tuesday: 21 photos; Wednesday: 21 photos; Thursday: 6 photos; Friday: 7 photos; Saturday: 10 photos. The big scores were mainly because of the “More best of” series.

Here are the most recent 24 covering Saturday, Friday, Thursday, and one from Wednesday:

Top posts in the past seven days:

1. Summer light 61: that hot day again 1 35
2. Summer light 43: window 19
3. Summer light 55: 9 December 9 17
4. Summer light 37: why we love Surry Hills 17
5. More best of 2008: 20 – hot day in Belmore Park 16
6. Summer light 48: 9 December 2a – White Horse Hotel 14
7. More best of 2008: 38 – sleepers 13
8. Summer light 72: 12 December 1 – What summer light? 13
9. Summer light 73: 12 December 2 – flower 10
10. More best of 2008: 31 10

Total views to date: 2,000.