The Waiting Man

West vs East... Australia, that is... The Miners vs the Suits etc.

The Premier of Western Australia, Mark McGowan, has never had much love for the eastern states - New South Wales in particular & his parochial pride style of politics obviously resonates with the citizens of W.A. who returned him to government in last year's state election, with a whopping 89.8% majority in the Lower House

With the advent of the Plague over the last 18 months & despite the Prime Minister's talk of a united approach between the State & Federal governments, the détente between east & west was short lived & it was soon back to sniping, border closures & isolationist rhetoric that wasn't far from suggesting secession from the rest of the country

Now, with the release of his annual Budget & declaring a $2 billion surplus, he's at it again, declaring that New South Wales had 'failed' in these Plague times, to manage either its economy, or the outbreak(s), suggesting that NSW should have adopted his hardline border closure & lockdown approach... & that NSW is responsible for infecting the rest of the country, as well as New Zealand (The 'Best Prime Minister in the World' is yet to comment on this accusation...). And it's a bit rich, Mark, suggesting that what works for a State that only has 2.68 million people, will work for somewhere with 8.2 million people... that the policies of a State that gets all its money from mining, would be just as effective in places where there's nothing much in the ground except coal & gas & even those aren't as popular as they once were... If your idea of progress is more & bigger holes in the ground, then we won't even have to worry about you seceding - we'll wake up one day to find the Western half of the country has collapsed in on itself & sunk into the Indian Ocean

In short (too late!!) - Pull your head in, you moronic miner!!

I hope this doesn't become a new thing... letting unknown reviewers 'review ' things - in this case, new albums released this week...

Could someone please take this person's thesaurus away & lock it up somewhere?

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Raise the Roof (Warner Records) ★★★★★

Fourteen years ago, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss enthralled us with the Raising Sand album. Once again they’ve engaged the seasoned blues-and-roots maestro T Bone Burnett to guide proceedings, being in his element melding bluegrass, Americana and rootsy rock. Krauss and Plant sound so assured that there isn’t a single misstep as they interpret material from across the American blues, rock and folk spectrum, including songs by Merle Haggard, Lucinda Williams and The Everly Brothers. Burnett has wisely brought their voices to the fore: Krauss’s sophisticated, melodic soprano grounded by Plant’s world-weary, warm, gravelly tones, and their harmonies, as layered and gorgeous as the steel pedal guitar, earthy bass and delicate strings are, are at the music’s heart.

Quattro (World Drifts In) sets the mood: Plant’s singing is gently insistent, while Krauss’ is romantic, classically beautiful and dynamic, as they sing an immigrant’s song of escaping the world, feeling alienated, “Where fields are burning/ From the day you’re born”. Seamlessly they change the atmosphere only subtly to milk the yearning, bittersweet emotion from The Price of Love. The languid heartbeat of a drum creates space for noodling, moody guitar that echoes into desert-haze. Krauss takes the lead, sounding both dreamy and harrowingly hurt as she laments “the debt you pay with tears and pain/The price of love”. It’s easy to imagine a lone saloon where Krauss and Plant go to mend their broken pieces over sweet wine and bitter gin. His utter resignation and heartbroken Southern soul on You Led Me To The Wrong is a tearjerker, and a rare track in which he doesn’t play second fiddle to Krauss.

Although the album’s stories are gothic, brooding or riddled with loneliness and alienation, it is to Krauss and Plant’s great credit that there is always a sense of celebration and redemption. On Trouble With My Lover the twangy, deep bass and restless guitar melody are joined by a surging string section, and although Krauss croons “What good is love if you can’t have it when you want it?“, there’s a playful lightness to her tone, even surrender, as she harmonises with the sultry, smooth Plant on the chorus.

Raising Sand won six Grammys, including album of the year. If there is justice in the world, Raise The Roof will earn the same appreciation.

I've been waiting for this album to come out since I first heard about it earlier this year. I loved the first record they did together & have, of course, been a longtime fan of both individually - obviously slightly longer for Robert Plant (Somewhat controversially, I think his solo works are waaaaay better than Led Zeppelin's 2-Dimensionality)!!

But if I were more lukewarm about it, or not familiar with their previous work, I'd find this wordy, syrupy review a bit of a turn-off. My advice to this reviewer, if they get another shot:- read more Clinton Walker & much less Georgette Heyer

Seriously, you know-nothing, orange buffoon... Stop it!!

During expansive remarks on Fox News host Sean Hannity's program, the president continued to break with public health officials' more dire messaging regarding the international crisis and forcefully contradicted the WHO, which earlier in the week pegged the global mortality rate for the coronavirus at 3.4 percent.

"Well I think the 3.4 percent is really a false number. Now, and this is just my hunch, and — but based on a lot of conversations with a lot of people that do this. Because a lot of people will have this and it's very mild. They'll get better very rapidly. They don't even see a doctor. They don't even call a doctor," Trump said.

"You never hear about those people. So you can't put them down in the category of the overall population in terms of this corona flu and — or virus. So you just can't do that," he continued. "So if, you know, we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better, just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work — some of them go to work but they get better."

This from the man who thought a 'flu vaccine would cure Covid19... Sounds like an expert to me!!

Not the one you think, but the one where nobody pays attention to you any more & you'll do, or say, anything to get people to notice you exist

Also known as Relevance Deprivation Syndrome. A quite common affliction amongst former Australian Prime Ministers, though some cases are manifestly worse than others...

Nothing about fires, just a plug for a book I finished reading last night...

'Boy Swallows Universe' by Trent Dalton... I'm more than happy to jump on the bandwagon full of people who have reached for their thesaurus coming up with ways to praise how bloody good this book is

Set in suburban Brisbane in the 1980s, it's a crime thriller, a coming-of-age tale, a bit of a love story & a twisted childhood memoir - all with a touch of the surreal, walking the fine line between fantasy & mental illness. But... it's also funny!

Don't let its parochial setting & occasional cultural references put you off, if you're not au fait with Australia, I think its tropes are universal enough for most of you out there...

Highly Recommended - 5 stars!!

... on the current fire emergency down here. I left a comment on somebody's Journal that was so long, apparently it got marked as spam, so may not get posted. In that case - here it is, in response to a post & many comments about the loss of our wildlife & the dismal state of our politicians - mostly the Federal ones, I must add... the State leaders have been doing a pretty good job with what they have

Greetings from a burning continent... davesmusictank reposted your entry, which brought me here - thanks Dave!

And yes - it's as bad as they say... Across 3 states, we've lost more livestock & wildlife than you can physically count. The worst affected is Kangaroo Island, off South Australia, where, due to its geographic isolation, unique species evolved & were always endangered, due to low numbers, but the fire which has wiped out 1/3 of the island's habitat, may have wiped out a few species as well. Until the fire is out, we can't even guess...

Koalas are the hardest hit, nationally. Again, their numbers have never been huge, so to lose what is conservatively estimated as half the national population, is a blow that will take generations to repair. The poor little guys aren't exactly built for speed at the best of times, so fires that have raced through at more than 60km/h meant they were doomed

I can't/won't defend our inept Federal Government full of coal-enriched climate change deniers, but the problem is certainly political as well as environmental. The Greens voted down a carbon emissions tax almost 10 years ago, that would have changed the way Australia managed its pollution & they did it for no good reason other than spite, because of in-fighting within the party & a beef with the then Labor Government. They also put pressure on State Governments every time a back-burning, or hazard reduction burn was scheduled, saying it was bad for the environment, which is one reason there's been so much material to burn in these fires. The fact there's been a Liberal Government in power since 2013, full of those aforementioned deniers, has only made both the political & natural landscapes even worse - their blinkered focus on the economy has alienated many other parties & has divided the country down a strict left vs right battle line, with the supposed 'left' being in favour of refugee rights, climate change action & better social policy & the 'right' being supporters of an ever-more intolerant & intransigent status quo that excludes migrants & thinks coal is the only power source on the planet. I'd like to say it's a generational thing & it's just the older people spouting that kind of bile, but there's a bunch of younger people listening... & believing them

The other reason nowhere near enough hazard clearance burning has been done, is the nation-wide drought we've had for years now. Plants & soil have become drier & therefore infinitely more combustible, so it's quite dangerous to even do small reduction burns, because of the risk it could become something much worse. This is actually how at least one of the fires recently started, when a back-burning operation was hit with a strong wind change & rapidly got out of control

If you want to blame anything, blame the Indian Ocean Dipole, a weather system that is causing flooding in Eastern Africa & drought in Australia - all the water is going to the wrong places! You can also blame the El Nino/La Nina weather systems in the South Pacific. These have both been causing problems for Australia for decades, but, it must be said, global warming has exacerbated their effects & there's no indication it's going to get any better...

Welcome to the new 'normal'. The world has changed & will keep changing. WE need to keep up!!

Again, I'd like to think I've now ranted enough, but I somehow doubt it. This crisis isn't over...

... As in sound media... not the biased media, the fake-news media, nor anything to do with the 4th Estate at all, actually

With Long-Suffering Partner off to the first of 4 night shifts & with the house to myself (& Bella!), I decided to conduct a little experiment with one of my favourite albums - Wishbone Ash 'New England'... Having lent my old vinyl LP of the album to my guitar student a while back & retrieving it a short time ago, it's been sitting here in the (Waiting)Man Cave, leaning against the shelves I keep my records on, but not yet filed away. So, every time I look around & see it, the opening guitar riff of 'Mother Of Pearl' plays in my head & tonight, I decided to deal with this persistent, yet pleasant, ear-worm by seeing if it, & the rest of the album, sounded better on vinyl, or CD (it's also on my iPod as a wav. file, but let's not complicate matters...). So, the turntable fired up & the needle drops on side 1 track 1

A few crackles... then this... sounding just the way I remember hearing it for the first time, in a singer's bedsit flat back in the mid 80s. He pretty much said "You're gonna love this...", then dropped the needle on side 1. He was right!!! It still sounds good on my record player too, though given the 4 speakers are from the 70s & 80s, placed about 4-8 metres apart in every corner of the room & all rather large, virtually anything sounds pretty good when you stand in the middle of the loungeroom & play air-guitar. I was even starting to come around to the viewpoint that some things just sound better on vinyl, when the needle got stuck in the groove right at the start of the guitar solo in 'Lorelei'... the age-old curse of the record player... especially when combined with a well-loved album (especially one you've lent to a teenager?!?! Probably not fair, as he treats records with a reverence I certainly never felt, nor exhibited). Anyway, after recording the unintentional loop onto my phone for possible use as a rhythm track in some future recording... someday, I lifted the needle, shut down the turntable & got out my CD copy...

And, sorry to all the 'purists' out there, but there's just no comparison. There are also no crackles, pops (or snaps) & no getting stuck in the groove - in a bad way, I mean... It probably helps that, again, my speakers qualify as 'vintage', even if the BluRay/CD player, 5.1 amplifier & active subwoofer are most definitely not, so there's a nice mix of digital clarity & analogue warmth going on. It probably also helps that my CD of 'New England' is pretty much a straight-to-CD copy of the original album - no remix, no remaster, so it retains the analogue mindset of the final mix & there has been no digital meddling to 'improve' the sound

The CD has just finished while I've been writing this... I may go & play the album again on my iPod, through the sound system, just to be thorough...

Interesting article on today's newsfeed, taken from Newsweek magazine in May...

Flat Earthers & The Rise Of Science Denial

Interesting, because it actually addresses why these people believe these things & that science, or scientists themselves, must bear part of the blame. In a nutshell, people like to have things presented to them as finite certainties - whereas science is by its own nature, continuously evolving, changing & updating as we learn & discover new things. Especially where the Solar System, galaxy & Universe are concerned. Also, because no self-respecting scientist would come out & state plainly & categorically that vaccines don't cause autism, it leaves the field wide open for people to think that they do & there are any number of 'experts' on Youtube or the blogsphere who will plainly & categorically say that, using a crowbar to pry open the sensible caution of scientists & flood it with cherry-picked research, circumstantial & highly anecdotal 'evidence', hearsay &, inevitably, conspiracy theories about government control & cover-ups... And lizard people running the world, I presume

But they still love Donald Trump...?!?!?!?!?

Harking back to an earlier post of mine about the disadvantaged & ill-educated being angry at the modern world because they either don't understand it, or can't be a part of it, the Sciences & scientists are seen as an elite - not to be looked up to, or aspired to, but to be distrusted. And it's, at least, partly because scientists don't communicate effectively with people who aren't scientists - who, while they look to it for answers, are either not satisfied with the answer, or don't understand it. Either way, it means they don't trust it, because it didn't tell them what they wanted to hear. Scientists know their work is ongoing & therefore there are no finite, certain answers. What we think is right today, could be wrong tomorrow... & there's obviously evidence of 'certain' scientists getting it horribly wrong in hindsight (Thalidomide, anyone??). So... once bitten, twice shy...

Perversely, many people will take the word of a self-described expert as gospel... The Earth is flat!! Vaccines give your babies autism!! The moon landings were fake!! Astronauts & pilots are on the government payroll!! 9/11 was an inside job!! Just watch this video on YouTube!!!!!!!

The modern snake oil salesman doesn't have a carpet bag... just a blog & a YouTube channel...

The morning after the night before - when all the votes... well, most of the votes were counted. And what we have is a Prime Minister returned for a 3 year term, whom nobody thought would win. I'm not even sure he did

Certainly not the Labor Party, who campaigned with a raft of policies, a united team, but a bit of a lame duck leader who struggles to communicate clearly across the social spectrum & has the electric personality of a used-up 9 volt battery. Compare this to the Liberal Party, who campaigned on little to no policy announcements, a fractured & disunited team who can't agree on anything, but a leader who put all the focus on himself & went at it like the Energiser Bunny, leading to speculation & cartoons about what he'd done with the rest of the team during the campaign...

One he couldn't control is Tony Abbott, who, let's face it, couldn't be controlled with a cattle prod. Facing a real struggle in his own Seat against a credible Independent opponent, he was vocal about all the things he believes, which were all the things that contributed to his electorate looking for an alternative - climate change denial, same-sex marriage opposition, his role in ousting Malcolm Turnbull & support for right-wing thug Peter Dutton to replace him, his support for convicted paedophile Cardinal George Pell... & when that didn't work, did what he does best - ran a negative campaign, claiming his opponent is a Labor Party stooge, despite all the evidence disproving it... Justifiably, he was the first MP last night to give a concession speech, having been emphatically dumped by the people of Warringah - myself included

But that's not really how the rest of the night played out. Where the Liberal Party were expected to struggle, they won. Where the Labor Party were expected to win, they didn't. While this morning, it's still unclear if the Liberal Party has won enough seats to govern in its own right, it's certain that the Labor Party can't - having fallen irretrievably behind during counting last night

There were some other bits of good news... Right wing racist nutjob Fraser Anning was booted out, Clive Palmer, a billionaire mining magnate who spent 80 million on election advertising for his own 'Party', but won't pay out his workers from a nickel refinery that closed down, did not win a single seat in either the Lower or Upper Houses... & the Legalise Marijuana Party are still out there trying to get a Senate seat, as they have been for as long as I remember.

Recent changes to the Liberal Party's rules, mean they can't knife another Prime Minister, so it looks like we'll have Mr Morrison for the next 3 years. The only problem with that, is we also get all those other Liberal Party guys he gagged & locked in a room during the campaign, in the hope we'd forget about them...

Best quote of the entire campaign came last night during counting. Liberal Party Senator Arthur Sinodinos was asked about his party's chances in some marginal seats & whether they had lost them. He replied, warning against "... premature extrapolation"

Arthur for PM!!!!

A mid-week weekend... because our regular weekend guy is away inflicting himself on his family in Queensland, so I worked last Saturday & will be working this one. The Boss was silly enough to ask what days off in lieu I'd like &, quick as a flash, I said Wednesday 16th & Thursday 17th please... knowing that Friday 18th is Good Friday... Hello mid-week LONG weekend!!

Not that it won't be filled up with stuff, as usual. Today is domestic duties day, tomorrow I'm in town getting my 'Responsible Service of Alcohol' qualification updated - the liquor laws changed a few years ago & I never got 'round to updating... Then on Friday, L-SP & I have an Indian/Sri Lankan wedding to attend, starting at the very unfriendly time of 9.30am waay out in western Sydney. If you look carefully on the roads in Parramatta around that time, you'll see an extremely self-conscious white guy dressed in traditional Indian garb doing his best to not be seen... Especially to not be seen to be insensitively appropriating another culture. Then again, they did ask us to wear it... That will certainly be my excuse. No photos please!

Last night, at the local Bowling Club we've become entangled with, there was a meeting of the activist group 'Get Up', a left-leaning organisation who started on the 'net, but have grown to become much more personally interactive. Especially as the political landscape in Australia becomes more complacent about pressing issues & is starting to, if not actually become more right-wing, then certainly more tolerant of, & less inclined to counter, the rise of regressive, right-wing voices, both extreme & ignorant, in the political forum. It was unsurprising to hear that the lady who organises the Club's functions didn't realise who Get Up were, when she allowed them to book the room, nor that she rang the local Liberal State MP to apologise for politicising the Club - even though Get Up are more of a national concern & the meeting concerned Federal politics, not State issues... What WAS surprising was the amount of Gen X & Baby-Boomer white people who turned up to the meeting & were vocally supportive of the Get Up agenda - which on this occasion is to encourage people to not vote for the sitting Federal Liberal Party member - former Prime Minister & current national embarrassment Tony Abbott... a man who did his best to destabilise the government of his Liberal Party successor & also writes Brexit advice pieces to (I'm reluctant to say 'for'... because, honestly, who'd ask him?!?!) the British newspapers. He's a climate change denier, anti-renewable energy, anti-immigration... especially anti-refugees, borderline Islamophobic, possibly xenophobic, definitely anti-gay rights &, in general, has been in politics for so long, he's fallen out of touch with the social changes in not just his electorate, but the country as a whole... & is now only in Canberra to serve himself

I thought it was only me who held these views about him, but it seems, especially in the wake of the Same-Sex Marriage referendum 2 years ago, where he campaigned vocally against it, but his constituents were 76% in favour (one of the highest figures nationally, I'm proud to say...), that even the most rusted-on of aging Liberal supporters are getting sick of him... & possibly of the Party he belongs to. I mean, really... 6 Prime Ministers in a decade??!! Neither of the 2 preferred Parties have clean hands in that trashing of our national image, but when you have as your Federal member a man who proudly worked to undermine his own government, simply to settle a grudge, you have to wonder... & a lot of people finally are

I proudly wore my 'Time's Up Tony' t-shirt to the meeting, ready to debate politics with anyone who looked askance, but was surprised by not only the nods of approval, but the amount of people also wearing the shirt... It would be nice to think that Australian politics is being dragged reluctantly into the 21st century, but it must be said that the Labor Party are not the ideal replacement - they have factional issues of their own. Unfortunately we're saddled with the Westminster 2-party-preferred system, which means we can only have a Liberal or Labor government - albeit one which will hopefully have to rely on enough Green or independent MPs with a more progressive outlook to hold power & pass any legislation. Certainly the number of cross-bench unaffiliated MPs has been growing steadily over the last decade & has absolutely galloped along since the last Prime Ministerial bloodletting, so if we can't change the minds of the preferred parties, let's at least put a lot more checks, balances & roadblocks into the path of their prehistoric progress... or should that be regress...

... Broadens the mind & weakens the wallet

Here's a list of places that some travel writers find either underwhelming, over-crowded, or just plain over-rated

Can't say I agree with all of them, but I haven't been to all of them either... Perhaps Pink Halen can provide an eyewitness corroboration or contradiction - he's far better travelled than me... or anyone else I know!!

3 that I disagreed with:

Mt. Rushmore: They say... “The problem is that it is set very high in the hills, so far away from the viewing platform at the national park dedicated to it that you need to bring binoculars to really see much of anything.”

I say...



While not as big as expected... & Cary Grant & Eva Marie Saint weren't hanging over the edge of it, it's still quite impressive. Go there at night, when they have a ceremony involving returned servicemen underneath the lit-up Presidents, before the lights are switched off for the day...

Empire State Building They say... “With its steep entrance fee, massive crowds and intensive security check, it’s hard to find much to love here. And when you actually get to the top, you can’t even see iconic sights like Central Park!”

I say...



Sure, you can't see Central Park, but that's what Top Of The Rock is for... & you can see a whole lot more of New York that, if you have the time, is worth exploring. We were there for a week & barely scratched the surface...

Sydney Opera House They say... a “dirty looking brown building that somehow always appears to photograph white”.

I say... how dare you!!



Sure, it's not always lit up for the ViVid Festival, but it's a bit of a stretch to say it's a dirty brown building... unless you're pressing your nose up against it... In which case - don't DO that!!

Back from a roadtrip down the south coast of New South Wales... checking out the area where we'd like to retire some day, with a few acres & a menagerie of animals & people

All signs are positive &, actually, there are a few places down there where I could possibly find work in my industry, meaning that we could head down there sooner, rather than some day later

And enjoy the views:



On another subject, it's been interesting seeing the way the #metoo movement has spawned the #notallmen counter-movement... where all the 'nice guys' try to convince womankind that we're not all sexist rapists

The (not so?!) funny thing about it is how indignant these notall men get, when women don't immediately shower them with praise & fall over themselves to go out with such a paragon of enlightened virtue. In the case of one notall man I peripherally know, it was almost amusing to see how quickly he went from extolling his aforementioned virtues, to roundly condemning women for not seeing how wonderful he is &, as above, not wanting to be in a loving relationship with him right now, dammit!!... thus, of course, proving nearlyall women's point... And really, after all, why should you be praised for simply meeting the required standard? If life was your job, would you really expect a performance bonus just for ticking the box marked 'manages all tasks adequately'? It takes a bit more than that to catch the Boss's eye

So goodbye also to Debbie Reynolds, after suffering a stroke during a planning meeting for her daughter's funeral...

On a related note, from the Huffington Post - some food for thought

And you're too old at 33, apparently

Or, at least according to this article, that's the age at which you stop listening to new music - & presumably start yelling at those darned kids to turn that infernal racket down!!

It's been 15 years since I was 33. Now, let's see if I can name some 'new' music I've listened to, & indeed bought proper CDs of with real money, in those intervening years...

Mumford & Sons, Kate Miller-Heidke, Megan Washington, Calexico, Decoder Ring, True Live, Richard Thompson (I know, but I was late to the party!!), Jake Shimabukuro, Brad Paisley, EmmyLou Harris (late to that party too!!), BifTek, John Mayer, Karma County, Lorde, Nitin Sawhney, How To Destroy Angels, Barry Adamson, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Black Sabbath (very nearly too late to that party!!!), Melody Gardot, Crimson Jazz Trio, Trey Gunn, Glenn Gould (definitely too late for him...), Jess Chalker, Emilie Simon, Kimbra & Franz Liszt & YoYo Ma for the Classically-minded

And yes, there are probably more, but I don't really feel like scouring the music collection for further proof - I figure the point is disproved enough... at least in my case

Take that, you pigeon-holing bastards!!!

Our tech-savvy friend came over again tonight... just for dinner & Game of Thrones this time ~ wouldn't want him to think we only appreciate him for his cyber-talents

And in fact we don't. He's a wonderful guy & great fun to be around... if only he'd learn that while it's all very well to be able to go from 0 ~ 100 there are a lot of interesting numbers between those two that it's nice to slow down & savour. Be Here... Now

In the desperate search for other news ~ I think I'm falling out of love with a favourite author after about a dozen books. Her formula was once charming, then comfortably familiar, but lately boring. I think this latest one will be my last & a 2nd-Hand book store or stall will be my collection's next stop

Everybody has one good book in them ~ as the saying goes. Over twelve is pushing it. Or scraping it... whichever way you prefer your barrel metaphor