A few thoughts

Bad things on my mind at the moment:

Watering restrictions in Victoria

It's not really fair that budding (me) and experienced (my mum and other elderly) gardeners across this silly State of ours should be forced to watch our gardens die a slow death while stupid idiots are free to have 20 minute showers and wash a set of sheets per night (I've seen it done!).

Until there are metered restrictions, indoor wastefulness will go unchecked while the elderly, whose gardens (often quite literally) keep them sane, and amateur vegetable growers - whose 'food miles' are obviously going to be a whole lot fewer than people who buy Florida oranges at Coles - get dobbed in by wanker neighbours for watering - HAND WATERING! - outside of the hours of 6am to 8am twice a week.

Twice a week is not enough for my tomatoes, damn it! And if I choose to give them life rather than let water gush down the drain while I shave my legs*, and my water bill tells the story that I still use less than someone who uses a towel a day, why must my plants die?

*I didn't say I don't shave my legs. There are water-wise ways of doing that you know. Anyway, if you don't like hairy legs you're at the wrong blog.

Pentecostal churches and how they suck

I've just been meditating on how distorted the Christian faith has become in some quarters. Having followed Audrey's fight with the fundies, I have been contemplating these people quite a lot. Now, I often give organised religion a hard time, but I want to make a big distinction between old school social justice Christianity (think Wesley and Wilberforce - the latter playing a big role in the abolition of slavery) and selfish, talking-in-tongues gibberish, Guy Sebastian, happy clappy, Jesus-wears-a-pinstripe-suit Pentecostal churches.

The former is represented by the Centre for An Ethical Society, a Catholic based think tank which is concerned about rectifying broad social issues like poverty and injustice, and the latter by the Australian Christian Lobby, which takes the 'what's in it for me God?' line, and expounds what is in my opinion the most dangerous, mutated version of Christ's words, whether you perceive him to be God or philosopher or written-into-history-by-some-bored-scribes-in-around-30AD myth.

Prior to the election both camps rated the Australian political parties according to how closely their policies reflected their own beliefs and standards. The Centre for An Ethical Society ranked the Greens anti-war, pro-refugee platform very highly indeed. The Australian Christian Lobby did not. It looked at what was in it for that most conservative of societal microcosms, the 'working family', in the way of tax breaks and roads being built (to their Delfin heartlands, no doubt).* Hmmm... I wonder why selfish religion is so popular with the generation Howard helped to create?

And we all know that the thick end of this particular wedge is the horrifying Westboro "church" which administers that charming website about God hating fags. These people make me claw at my own skin with disgust that I share the same carbon life form as them. Allegedly. But I digress - I don't want to give these scumbags any more oxygen. Our stupid media has already given them enough.

Anyway, the difference in the positions of these two Christian organisations, the Centre for An Ethical Society and the Australian Christian Lobby, gave me, an atheist and a bit of a Christian-basher in my day, a timely reminder that not all Christians are equal, and not all of them deserve to be mocked and shunned. We should encourage and bond with left-wing Christians. Too often I have become part of the problem with my fiercely anti-religious stance (which of course, I will forever maintain in relation to the separation of Church and State).

You'll have to forgive me - I saw the fabulous Billy Bragg last night, and I'm still buzzing from his long rant about the dangers of being cynical in this world. This is my step towards shaking off my bearskin-like cloak of cynicism.

There were two reminders of the death of gentle, fuddy duddy Christianity and the surge of me-first, American pentacostalism and they were as follows:

1. My mother's tiny little Anglican church closed down on the weekend. All the old ladies were weeping, as were the Sudanese refugees for whom it doubled as a community centre. Now that church has a koori woman as its vicar, and I know from what Mum tells me that she preaches 'love thy neighbour' religion and is a strong, warm and articulate leader of her congregation. But there simply weren't enough people going. The oldies have been dropping like flies for the last three decades and the young folk were probably all down at the Hillsong with its multimillion-dollar marketing strategies and stranglehold on the pop industry.

2. I heard a little piece on Radio National just the other day about a bun-fight over the decline of choral music in the Anglican church. To me this decline reeks of another attempt to re-brand Christianity; to make it palatable to attention-deficient adult-escents and their brats. Get this into your heads, marketeers: rock songs about Jesus will never, EVER be cool. One of my few good memories about being dragged to boring church when I was a tyke was getting up to sing a hymn. It was beautiful and dignified on its own terms - it provided a sense of occasion, of reverence, of mystery. It was one of the cards the church had up its sleeve. If you need a point of reference, try the scene on the beach in Atonement where the war-weary soldiers' voices rise in unison to a traditional hymn amidst the rattle of heavy armoury and cries of pain. The lyrics are irrelevant - it's a moving scene. My cousin, who recently stayed with us for three weeks and is as godless as me, introduced me to the Allegri Miserere. It's an absolutely stunning piece of religious music from the renaissance, as awesome when stripped of its religious connotations as when it is echoing through the cloisters. Jesus idol rock? It's horrible either way.

*I really do blame so much on the rise of the self-help book (The Secret being the most famous). Most obvious to me are 1. the death of the novel and 2. the popularity of American style right-wing religion.

Missing out on interviewing heroes Billy and Nick

I came within a bee's dick of interviewing one of my childhood pop heroes, Nick Rhodes (do I even have to say of Duran Duran? I hope not), and one of my teenage politi-pop idols, Billy Bragg. In the end I didn't, and I suppose there's not much more to say about that. Reviewing Bill's gig will have to suffice. I might reproduce it here.

The Andrew Symonds story

There is an extended post on this in the pipeline. I think the Indian cricket team and BCCI will regret taking such a hypocritical stance on the issue of racial abuse - not to mention a cavalier attitude to the course of justice - very soon. This is a delicate topic and requires thorough, balanced analysis which I'm not going to have time to provide now. Suffice it to say that, while I am no champion of the cause of the Australian cricket team, I think that Ponting, Hayden and Clark, by sticking up for the racially-vilified* Symonds, have shown an understanding of the much-abused term 'mateship' far beyond that of the clods who ran around wrapped in Aussie flags on 26 Jan.

*We'll look at the evidence for this in my extended post.

Good things on my mind at the moment:

Thanks to some good editors and the tip off of a good mate, some of my more detailed rantings (other than those about gigs and plumbing) might soon see the light of day. This explains, in part, my absence.

The appearance of milder weather. 25 degrees I can handle.

Vikram Seth’s An Equal Music. I have set out to read the pile of neglected novels on the shelf this year. Sometimes resolutions do work – I’ve read three novels since 1 January 2008. It might not be much compared to some devourers of literature, but in my time-starved universe it’s three more than this time last year (not to come over too road-tollish on you).

A February 13th apology from the Ruddster.

Billy Bragg last night. SWOON. The man never gets tired or old. More on him soon.

I STILL HAVE NO ACCESS TO ANY KIND OF BLOGGER FORMATTING ON THIS COMPUTER. Apologies.

I am getting around to coming back.