The autumn series of The 9pm Edict continues with another visit from author, columnist, and reprobate John Birmingham to chat about strategic things, the election, and breakfast martinis.
Continue reading “The 9pm Breakfast Martini and Coprophagic Strategy Chat with John Birmingham”The 9pm Bronouncement of “The 9pm Late Winter Series 2021” and related matters
Did you know that you can now buy gendered “wine cocktails”? Such fragile masculinity! Anyway, you need to know about my new crowdfunding campaign, and the bonus episode of The 8pm Quiz tomorrow night.
Continue reading “The 9pm Bronouncement of “The 9pm Late Winter Series 2021” and related matters”Weekly Wrap 137: Excess heat, excess dodgy cocktails
The week of Monday 14 to Sunday 20 January 2013 wasn’t quite as productive as I’d hoped, due to a combination of too much drinking and too much heat.
But there was plenty of time for reflection, and I managed to ramo up my blogging as planned, so I’m happy.
On Monday I wrote about the death of Aaron Swartz, and it proved difficult. Not because I was affected by his death — truth be known, I wasn’t a fan — but because I knew that the fans would be upset if I was seen to be too critical too soon. Plus I had to write something new, when eleventy bazillion words had already been written. After filing the story, I was exhausted.
I then made mistake of heading off for a drink or a dozen, and ended up at the The Haymarket Hotel on the promise of a cocktail bar, except “Martinis” isn’t open on Monday nights. So I had the pleasure of choosing cocktails from their dodgy girly cocktail list, and having them made by a waiter who was new to the bar and doesn’t normally make cocktails anyway. He did OK.
When the manager arrived back from dinner, I complained that the cocktails were too girly. “Mate,” he said, “this is George Street. That’s the point.” Oh yeah. Fair enough. It’s a mating signal, or something.
At the other end of the week, Friday was a write-off because it was Sydney’s hottest day on record. Maximum temperatures of 46C across the city. I escaped to Cronulla with the intention of having fish and chips, but I was distracted by a baby xenomorph and local customs, strange rituals and their cosmopolitan cultural experiences.
Anyway, to business…
Podcasts
None. I did say that I was going to write something about that, but yeah. Productivity. Tomorrow.
Articles
- Aaron Swartz: a martyr for info-freedom fighters?, Crikey, 14 January 2013.
- From academics to Anonymous, Swartz sets off huge reaction, Crikey, 15 January 2013.
- Gillard’s trolling plan will please the media, but it’s nothing new, Crikey, 17 January 2013.
Media Appearances
None.
Corporate Largesse
Still none. I’d thought that Australia would have returned from its summer break this week, but no. It seems far quieter than the same time last year, and several taxi drivers agree.
The Week Ahead
Buggered if I know. Well, on Monday I’ll help Bunjaree Cottages set up their email marketing, and on Tuesday I’m being a guest on someone else’s podcast. But nothing else has been planned out, either for the working week or the Australia Day long weekend. I should probably do something about that.
[Photo: The rain begins… in Cronulla. Well, there were a few drops, just before I took the train back to the city.]
Links for 04 August 2008 through 05 August 2008
Here are the web links I’ve found for 04 August 2008 through 05 August 2008, posted automatically using a coat hanger, three melons and a small well-brushed poodle.
- Scoble, Brainstorm & Braided Journalism | Global Neighbourhoods: Shel Israel adds an extremely sensible contribution to the eternal journalists vs bloggers whingefest. If you know any journalists, tie them to a chair and force them to watch this twice before they’re allowed any more beer.
- Blade Runner sweded | YouTube: Forget the Director’s Cut, this 4-minute version of Blade Runner is superb. I love the release of the white dove.
- Sweded Films (and Movies): Films: An A-Z listing of Sweded films.
- Be Kind Rewind | Wikipedia: Just in case you don’t know what the term “Sweded” means, here’s the explanation from the Wikipedia entry for the movie Be Kind Rewind.
- Tron, a video from freres-hueon | Dailymotion: A Sweded version of the lightcycles scene from the movie TRON. Using live stop-frame animation to recreate a CGI movie? Priceless!
- Digital futures report: the internet in Australia | CCI: Findings from the first survey by the Australian component of the World Internet Project. This survey is a major piece of research undertaken by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Innovation at Swinburne University’s Institute for Social Research.
- Large Hadron Collider nearly ready | The Big Picture: Beautiful photography of The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a 27km long particle accelerator straddling the border of Switzerland and France, nearly set to begin its first particle beam tests.
- Atomic Weapons Tests: TRINITY through BUSTER-JANGLE | Internet Archive: A 1952 film providing an overview for security-cleared members of US Congress committees and military. Declassified 1997, but some technical details still redacted. 22 minutes.
- Kosovo Parody Song | YouTube: A Seattle radio DJ created a parody song to criticise US involvement in Kosovo. Norwegian peacekeepers then shot a video clip parodying the original. Fun.
- Tabloid remarks | 12seconds.tv: Sitting sideways in the video, I rant about the Daily Telegraph for 12 seconds.
- Foveaux: We haven’t tried this fine restaurant in Surry Hills, Sydney, but the cocktail bar downstairs is excellent. The website still shows the summer menu drinks list, fools.
Antlers! Cocktails!
I take back everything negative I’ve ever said about the Hotel Cremorne. I went exploring upstairs and found a cocktail bar called “Antlers”. Antlers and cocktails? Heaven!
Another week according to Twitter
On Wednesday my Twitter stream was dominated by the Politics & Technology Forum, and I’ll write more about that later. The other highlights this week:
- MYOB continue to flood me with far too much promotional material, even when specifically requested not to. Losers.
- People continue to install new software on the very day of its release, discover that it’s still buggy or insecure, and then complain. Do you never learn?
- The Aurora Hotel in Surry Hills and the C Bar on the corner of Pitt and Campbell Streets in the Sydney CBD have free Wifi.
- The comedians on stage at The Sly Fox Hotel on a Monday night are 300% more bitter & disturbed than I am.
- There is no evidence that 17 Massachusetts schoolgirls became pregnant because of a “pregnancy pact”
- There is not, but should be, continuous 3G or HSDPA phone coverage on the highway between Sydney and Canberra. In some places there isn’t even GSM!
- “The 7 categorises of satedness: Food. Sexual pleasure. Alcohol. Music. Visual appeal. Amphetamines. Blue cheese. Agreed?”
- The Concourse Bar at Wynyard Station has Coopers Ale for $4.70 a schooner and a choice of six cocktails for $7 each.
- “Backpacking” has descended from “travel world for enrichment” to “global party by indulgent drunken arseholes”. Hence, “gas them”.
- Automatic weapons really do solve so many everyday problems.
[Credit: Cartoon Twitter-bird courtesy of Hugh MacLeod. Like all of Hugh’s cartoons published online, it’s free to use.]