Over the past few days we’ve been speculating about who’ll be Australia’s next Governor-General. Some high-profile folks reckon it should be a woman. So which of these nominees would you choose, and why? Vote at the website, and add your comments.

In alphabetical order of surname…

• Marie Bashir, well-respected Governor of NSW and tireless worker for Aboriginal mental health.
• Liz Ellis, former captain of the Australian netball team and solicitor.
• Edna Everage, housewife superstar, actress and ambassador for Australian culture.
• Julie Hammer, an electronics engineer and intelligence officer who blazed the trail for women in the air force.
• Ja’mie King, dedicated fund-raiser and self-promoter. (Personally I think Ja’mie will eventually replace Dame Edna as our leading international celebrity.)
• Dannii Minogue, because… oh, someone will think of a reason.
• Kylie Minogue, pop princess and actress of renown.
• Lowitja O’Donoghue, first chairwoman of the disbanded Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.
• … or someone else?

Previous results: Kevin Rudd becoming PM was the clear winner on first preferences at 52%, with The Chaser crashing APEC security a strong 2nd at 36%. The antic of footballer Ben Cousins was twice as important as Australia’s signing of the Kyoto protocol.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

5 Random Semi-Related Posts

• Waiting for Kirribilli House (0 comments)
• Rebranding America with Obama (5 comments)
• PodCamp Perth 2007: Social Media and the Federal Election (4 comments)
• So, who’s for Chairman Rudd’s Australia 2020 Summit? (30 comments)
• Latham calls Swan “insipid”: a good tactic? (0 comments)

25 years ago today!

Daggy photo, eh? Am I scared or was I trying for cool and moody, somehow? Scared, I reckon. I was too nerdy to even know how to look moody, let alone actually achieve a significant level of floppy-haired angst. Now Stephen… now he pulls that off so well. But then he lives in Melbourne, it’s “of the place”.

Sydney doesn’t have the sandstone Victorian for a fully grey, Londonesque, Londonangstridden pout, 30% eye shadow and 70% the precisely-edited slow-motion curl of a designer black trench coat. Not with any genuine sense of ennui, anyway.

In the words of Ultravox:

A cool empty silence
The warmth of your hand and a cold grey sky
It fades to the distance…

Ah yes!

This means nothing to me
This means nothing to me
Oh, Vienna

Melbourne did the “faded grand city” thing a century ago. The richest city on the planet except London, thanks to a handy gold rush. But Imperial Glory fades when the cash runs out. After the high, the comedown must’ve been harsh.

But they’ve recovered.

Melbourne is self-confident, assured of its place in history. They hosted the Commonwealth Games knowing they’d hosted them before and they’ll host them again. They are not troubled by noisome fools.

Eddie Maguire is as the piss-stains of a mouse to this Grand Old Dame. He, too, shall pass. Dame Edna will be remembered, Bert will be remembered, Eddie shall not.

But Sydney!

Ah, Sydney is an amateur peroxide hooker at the end of a long, long night. The booze and pills have long since run out. The ashtrays are overflowing and soggy, the sun’s coming up and the dawn light reveals unpleasant things on the linoleum. Only some of which are clothed, and none of which know the names of any of the others, or how they got there.

But Sydney, she’s still dancin’.

Fuck I love Sydney!

I used to dance, you know, back when I wrote about dance music and played it on the radio. A decade and more ago, a decade and more after the photo. But I never had dress sense.

Some poorly-repressed memory reminds me that shirt was pale yellow. Calling it “repressed lemon” won’t save it.

“I never had dress sense,” that’s a laugh! Of course I didn’t. In 1981 I was busily getting distinctions in Computing Science III, you can’t get nerdier.

But, nerdy or not, I became Stilgherrian. And committed myself to two and half decades of explaining “No, I don’t have a surname” and “Yes, that is unusual” and “Good heavens, two plus two does equal four, I’ve never thought of it that way before.”

Two and a half decades of people not being able to spell.

5 Random Semi-Related Posts

• The Beast is Dead (2 comments)
• A train ride to London (0 comments)
• Great Techno, and Check My Patch (0 comments)
• Winter Solstice Meditation (3 comments)
• Weekly Poll: Which woman for Governor-General? (10 comments)