Not Even Close...

An article on what the 'average' Australian wage is...

I'm nowhere near it... At my age & with the plans we have, that's kind of depressing

And There You Have It...

The Great Pumpkin has laid out his election strategy... Don't give the Post Office essential funding, because of mail-voting "Fraud". For "Fraud" read - votes for Democrat candidates

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, this is what he'll pursue once the November polls go against him - all the way to the Supreme Court which, let's not forget, is full of judges he appointed

Joe Biden will die of old age before he ever gets to sit in the Oval Office...

Keep Your NMEs Close

It could be argued that the New Musical Express has well & truly had its heyday. Pick your decade - 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s... & these days it's not really essential reading, nor that informative

I started reading it in the early 80s, when you could get issues from January, in April, at a couple of good newsagents, or if you wanted to pay a whole lot more, you could get ones that were about a fortnight old from various import record stores. I suppose it was a kind of godsend when they went online & I could finally be up-to-date, but it seemed that most of the good writers I'd enjoyed were gone by then. Where are you, Steven 'Swells' Wells??!

But every now & then, they remember that rebellious spirit they're known for... & today was one of those times, reporting on the trend in the USA for large gatherings of people, with no social distancing & scant regard for masks. Sure, you could get a factual report from Rolling Stone about what happened, but only the NME could report the same thing, only with much more venom...

Why Do People Keep Risking Their Lives To See Shit Bands?

Some highlights...

The ‘Herd Immunity’ festival that took place in Wisconsin in July was quickly renamed ‘July Mini Fest’ after some bands refused to play (not daft haired metallers Static X, though – they were there like a shot in the arm of Covid. Well, do they do – no shit – have a song called ‘Wisconsin Death Trip’). And just last week the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota went ahead, attracting 250,000 people over 10 days and featuring performances from a number of bands including Smash Mouth, whose lead singer Steve Harwell shouted “We’re all here together tonight! Fuck that COVID shit!” to his adoring, non-socially distanced fans.

Imagine, for a moment, being questioned in the hospital about what contact you’ve had with people – were you on a slightly busy bus on your way to your second job that couldn’t be avoided? Perhaps you’re a teacher and caught it from one of your students? No, you were shouting the words to Smash Mouth’s one hit that was in Shrek, while sweating against someone you’ve never met before.

If you haven’t heard The Chainsmokers, picture lift music that’s become sentient. That’s what these people were risking their lives for. A band who are named after a practice that causes cancer, and who look like The Village People trying to look a bit edgy for a night out in Preston Spoons

So I still have a soft spot for the NME - they even mentioned one of my 90s bands once, without tearing us to shreds. Not many bands from those days can say the same...