All Things Australia-ish

[Alisaura]

Magnets make everything better.

And chocolate.

... Chocolate magnets!!

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Listen to the kids! WE CAN MAKE MELBOURNE SO MUCH BETTER IF WE BE BARBIES AND PRINCESSES.

Seriously, I love children's optimism.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Is it wrong that I laughed at the boy on the right's name?

 

[Saracene]

More magnets Where did -that- come from?

 

[Vlad n U 2]

His name, quite obviously.

 

[cobl04]

I had a chuckle at it, but I was offended by the premise that Melbourne isn't already perfect.

Is it wrong that I laughed at the boy on the right's name?

Racist!


~

Jason Byrne was absolutely fucking hilarious tonight, as usual, but on the way home we listened to what it is the greatest radio show in history - Love Song Dedications with Richard Mercer on 101.1. One woman rang up dedicating some garbage song to her boyfriend, who she met in a McDonalds Drive Thru. you cant make this stuff up.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Racist!

Who woulda thunk?

 

[Alisaura]

More magnets Where did -that- come from?

From the sheer awesomeness of magnets, clearly. *L*

Magnet kid for Mayor!!

 

[cobl04]

Facebook - American Teens drink out of red cupsAussies teens drinking out of goonbags

this doesn't even make sense

 

[Vlad n U 2]

What the fuck is goon and why do people use that word?

Bloody hell, Australians have shit names for everything.

 

[cobl04]

Cask wine.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Ah, I see.

 

[The Sad Punk]

... Are you saying you've never played Goon-of-Fortune, Vlad?!

 

[Vlad n U 2]

...

 

[cobl04]

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Friggin' Cobbler.

 

[Axver]

x2

(friggin' cobbler)

 

[bono_man2002]

Oh my god those last few posts are gold jerry, GOLD!

 

[blueeyedgirl]

Champagne comedy!!!!!!

 

[cobl04]

That of course is from the Italian, "PISS-TA-KE"

 

[cobl04]

1. I know how we all dislike things about Australia Day, specifically how it turns some bogans into out-and-out homo/xeno/etcphobes, but how do we feel about ANZAC Day? I love it (and not just for the footy). War is such an incomprehensible thought to me, but ANZAC Day is pretty special. Particularly when it's followed by another holiday cos it fell on Easter Monday.

2. Do you know that "Friday" shit hit #40 in Australia?

 

[The Sad Punk]

I have no problem with Anzac day and think it's good that there's been more effort in remembrance in more recent years. It's natural to celebrate and honour those who have fought for the country, even for one with as short a history as ours. What I don't like is how it's been manipulated and misunderstood - for example, Billy Brownless saying he learned more about the Anzacs from watching the Dons/Pies games than from any lesson in school. You can't compare a football game to the nightmarish life/death situations the soldiers were, and are, in. Maybe I just didn't get what he was saying, but it still struck me as a pretty retarded comment.

For that matter, I also feel that Australians tend to fawn over Gallipoli and Kokoda way too much and completely ignore other horrible losses of life/miraculous victories that the Anzacs were a part of. We also don't give enough credit to Aboriginal soldiers who fought for this country when they still weren't allowed to vote in it. But you could probably guess these opinions from me.

 

[Axver]

I'm pretty conflicted about ANZAC Day, and I could write an essay on the topic if I felt so inclined (but being a historian, you'd fucking well hope I could). On the one hand, I find it a moving and significant day. As somebody who finds conscription - or any sort of enforced national service - to be morally repugnant in the extreme, the fact so many soldiers were conscripts rather than volunteers* has always got to me. And obviously the participation of Kiwi and Aussie troops in World War I and II are formative and crucial parts of our history. The way these conflicts impacted our young societies was immense and ushered in many changes. I don't just mean the casualty rate either, though as far as that point goes, our countries were two of the hardest hit in terms of percentage of population.

(*New Zealand sent conscripts to both World Wars but not Vietnam [although we did have compulsory military service during Vietnam]; Australia sent conscripts to World War II and Vietnam.)

On the other hand, I find the glorification of the military and warfare from some quarters to be reprehensible, irresponsible, and stupid. Warfare is a sad and depressing chapter in our history, not something to be celebrated, and I will never understand anybody who thinks the armed forces are honourable nor anybody who thinks volunteer military service is somehow respectable and commendable. I am also troubled by the resurgence of military history - indeed, "resurgence" is the wrong word; it's now a dominance. A few decades ago, you may be surprised to realise, the history section of bookshops was not dominated by military history. Now, it seems to be the one marketable, successful, and prominent form of popular history, pushing all other forms to the side. I'm not sure I want to live in a New Zealand that knows more about Gallipoli than about Julius Vogel; I'm not sure I want to live in an Australia that knows more about Kokoda than the 1967 Referendum. But that's the way it is now.

The tl;dr version of the second paragraph is "fuck off RSL".

 

[The Sad Punk]

Well, you said that better than I could ever have hoped to. I blame the Tigers I had been drinking beforehand, which I will now use as an excuse for every other post I ever make.

The recent dominance of military history really shits me too. I suppose I also have a bit of a personal agenda against it too since all three of the pre-WW1 military history books in any given store are tucked away from view so most folk know exactly where to buy their thirty million 14-size font books on Kokoda and Tobruk. I often wonder to what extent other young countries celebrate their military exploits.

 

[cobl04]

Well said the two of yas.

It kind of irks me when sports coaches and the like say shit like "ohh the boys really showed the spirit of the ANZACs out there today" or they use war as a simile for a game of football.

Someone asked me the other day if WWIII broke out would I go and fight and I said FUCK NO and they were a bit taken aback. I don't think theres very many things worth dying for.

 

[Axver]

Well, you said that better than I could ever have hoped to. I blame the Tigers I had been drinking beforehand, which I will now use as an excuse for every other post I ever make.

The recent dominance of military history really shits me too. I suppose I also have a bit of a personal agenda against it too since all three of the pre-WW1 military history books in any given store are tucked away from view so most folk know exactly where to buy their thirty million 14-size font books on Kokoda and Tobruk. I often wonder to what extent other young countries celebrate their military exploits.

Heh, thanks Bonnie. I'm not sure how easy it would be to find young countries to compare, especially outside British settler societies, since most young countries will instead have national myths of rebellion against a colonial occupier or empire/federation by a long-established local population (be it anti-colonial movements across Africa, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the fragmentation of Yugoslavia, and so on). I suppose the two closest comparisons for us are indeed the US and Canada; I can't speak for Canada at all, but the US certainly celebrates its military exploits - Gallipoli in Australian historiography cannot even compare to the US Civil War in American historiography, and then there's the Revolutionary War in the mix too.

Well said the two of yas.

It kind of irks me when sports coaches and the like say shit like "ohh the boys really showed the spirit of the ANZACs out there today" or they use war as a simile for a game of football.

Someone asked me the other day if WWIII broke out would I go and fight and I said FUCK NO and they were a bit taken aback. I don't think theres very many things worth dying for.

Oh god yeah that annoys the daylights out of me.

I have always said that I could never ever support a country that uses conscription. Whatever moral high ground a country may have is, in my eyes, completely eroded by that. The only militarised conflict to which I potentially could in good conscience lend my support is intervention to halt genocide that is conducted with a wholly volunteer force (i.e. I would not have supported Australia or New Zealand in WWII, even in light of the Holocaust, due to conscription, though I unquestionably would have lent my assistance to non-governmental organisations that worked against the genocide).

But then I am a pacifist.

 

[cobl04]

How the hell does Adam Hills not know what a beer bong is? It's common Australian fucking knowledge!

 

[Vlad n U 2]

How the hell does Adam Hills not know what a beer bong is? It's common bogan fucking knowledge!

.

(I just love labelling things I don't like as bogan. )

 

[cobl04]

So they just showed the bloke who won the Stawell Gift being interviewed afterwards (and he did his hammy in the last metre) and he was asked "what's on for tonight". He started saying he was going to ice up, but then said "nah I'll just get pissed". Legend.

 

[Axver]

2. Do you know that "Friday" shit hit #40 in Australia?

But at least it sounds like Mousey did even better.