Other online comments have included Andrew Bolt’s suggestion: that any hotel ejecting a reader of Flanagan’s novel is a sane and cultured place. To back up his controversial (outright rude) claim, the columnist dipped into the book’s preface which contends (in a literary way) that Jesus was “the first suicide bomber”.

okay, i admit i had some issues with that beginning too (wasn’t sure whether to take it seriously), and it took a while for Richard’s style to grab me. But i persevered with the novel, and found it a very worthwhile read. Challenging and insightful, it echoed many powerful themes for me. A good story.

i’m not sure that Andrew read the whole book. i think the preface may have been too morally outrageous for him. Or too politically correct. (“it’s so PC to attack JC.“) Or something.

His readers take the bile much further: “Pillow over the face is a good solution for people who take the first page of this book seriously. After that, a shotgun is acceptable.” (from ‘MareeS’ – does she mean me or bolt?)

Give credit to mr bolt, he did add, “Incidentally, I’m told by someone who has talked to him that Chalk is a nice, shy guy, so ease up on the personal criticism, please.“

But then he let the pillow / shotgun comment through. Ouch.

What am i doing reading bolt’s readers anyway? Publicans and punters in Cairns have nothing on these folk. Am i completely mad, a Glutton for Punishment? Stop it, right now!

(imagez: thanks so much for jesus says .. by RobertFrancis, and text hope u can handle it! by foTommEn, both creative commons licensed images at flickr)

Big it up for the remarkable Paul Keating (on abc world today), who never fails to produce a juicy metaphor. To him, the Ruddslide wasn’t something to be happy about .. rather a source of immense relief! He compared the election result to being hosed down after working in a toxic environment. Yes that describes exactly how i felt too. Thank you Paul.

(audio from abc, also available at their site)

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Other people enjoyed the wit of Keating:

• Not a Hedgehog also appreciated PJK’s commentary. Thanks for the direct link.
• Guido at Rank and Vile links to a celebratory Crikey article by Mungo McCallum, who quotes the final line of Dante’s Inferno: “E quindi uscimmo a reverder le stelle“: “.. and thence we emerged to see the stars again”.

(image: by Johnny Huh)

Hello Paul, this is the Jamie Lidell guy i was talking about .. wild electro soul ..

performing multiply live

Video clip for you got me up

okay i’m at work, so i shouldn’t be looking at YouTube. Except i was looking for work reasons. i wanted some music related to time: all i could find was a Snow Patrol song from that horrible tv show “prison break”. Which i used in class. The kids thought it was lame (they were right), but they picked up it was about ‘doing time’ (which i’d missed).

.. and i don’t work in a cubicle. But this lady does. Well she pretends she does. There’s one episode where she gets people to send in photos of people crammed into their work cubicle. There’s another where she puts on a super hero outfit, and decodes some management speak. i think she’s funny. Here’s my favourite, Cube Lady’s take on office romance:

Anyway you can follow her crazy adventures at the cubefarm.
Hey who was that magician that Nathan loves?
The one who convinces people on the street to hand over their valuables?

i am very envious.
Here is a pic of Tim, Fiona, Sasha and Paul on the train in New York City. i’m following their adventures over on samandtim.blogspot. Their blog is like a fun game, where the reader has to make up what’s going on, from the pictures and the headings.

ok, here goes:
SamandTim and PaulandFiona are on a train, with Sasha, and the train is in New York. They are all travelling from the bronx zoo back to the hotel where they’ll have dinner. And Sasha is drinking from his favourite red cup. Just after Sam took the photo, Paul sighed and said, “Are you ever going to stop taking photos?” Which nearly made Fiona snap at him. But she took a deep breath instead.

Tim is grinning because he loves seeing Sam do funny things on the subway; she’s being zany while she handles the camera. Sam made a joke after taking the shot, and everyone laughed. Then Sasha looked up and smiled, saying, “Was i in the photo?”

PS Funky Shirt, Paul!

Latest Updates at samandtim.blogspot

very exciting news this morning at 7am, Nathan Godkin drove Tim and Sam out to Tullamarine Airport, for the first leg of their trip to New York City !!! i can’t believe they’re going with only a handbag worth of luggage between them. Most of the space in tim’s backpack is taken up by paul’s new blundstones ..

Here’s wishing the best of travel times for these two amazing people. i’ve heard a rumour they’re going to visit Paul and Fiona in the land of Halifax. Hey Four Fingers Gang, i’ll be following your adventures .. much love michael the thumb

Thank you Sasha and Paul for your great DJ story!! and Sam for sharing your funky videos.

the musical highlight for me would have to be the night of farewell for housemate Louise and gray. It was their party really, and they did some amazing setup, including candles down the alleyway, and a genuine earth-mapped pinyata, with roaming dinosaurs hanging off the hills hoist.

Lu made her room into a band room, with drum kit, amplifiers and all sorts of electronic connections to complement the Farfisa organ. She was so thrilled when people brought their instruments to play (but not so thrilled when Ben played so hard that he bled on her guitar).

Now there’s blood on my guitar you @**& .. and it’s all your fault ..

My favourite moment was in the back yard, under the summer tent, Renato on piano accordion, Kiri on the fiddle and Tarquin playing clarinet. Sublimey!

Rhiannon said at one point, “We were expecting the usual michael quiet evening, and we arrive to a Genuine Northcote Party.” People kept played until five am; but by then i was asleep, having watched the very final episode of Buffy downstairs with Sam and Booshi.

(They watched the whole seven series in around ten weeks! Now that’s an achievement.)

Now, post departure, the house on the hill at James street is still its usual mess of cables flying from room to room. Louise has moved out and headed over to San Francisco; she and gray started their adventure by seducing their way into the qantas lounge, ha ha ..

much love to youse all, michael

Hey guess what my sister the international traveller has put together a video about child labourers in Cambodia. How good is that!

(i mean, it’s not good that there are factories employing children to do shit work, no .. it’s good that Katie gets to do something creative and useful while she’s at work! and i mean the video is really good. Yay Katie Chalk!!

i’ve been singing the smiths’ epochal-iptic tune, ‘there is a light that never goes out‘, a lot lately, but yesterday the local significance hit me.

“and in the darkened underpass, i thought oh god my chance has come at last, but then a strange fear gripped me and i just couldn’t ask”

so i hope if there was someone in the Burnley Tunnel with a burning desire to express their love, that they got it out in time.

Harsh.

photo stolen from tha age

Sad to say, gotta face facts, the little fella has gone to meet his Big Cat Mama in the Sky. It’s been nearly two months now, and i still get the sads sometimes. Ju-Yuen the amazing artist made a beautiful card to remember Max, so he’s sitting on the bookshelf in spirit now (pic top right).

Maybe i’ve been in denial. “No, he’s just gone on a holiday. Yes i know he’s never been to Venus Bay before, but this time he just went.”

i think the clinching moment was when Annie came to visit and said, “Ugh, what is happening to his nose? That is seriously unhealthy. Get me a bucket i’ll drown him myself.” The cancer was really bad. Or did she say a spade?

Lovely Shannon came to accompany Maxie on his last trip to the vet. He was a bit shocked when the drug hit him, “Ow!” said the look on his face, as he gave a big hiss, and slumped over.

There was all this “What do we do next?” difficulty, as Sol said i could have his ashes back, or take his body with me. Then he went, “Just go home, come back later to pay,” cos the distress was taking hold.

Huge thanks to all the people and animals who gave Maxie so much love in his life of adventure and serious relaxation. Huge thanks to Max for all the comfurt and attitude.