Anthony Malloy

We’ve run out of mustard.

So, you say, pop on down to Coles or Woolies and grab yourself another jar.

Hah! We say. That may be okay for mere mortal mustard users but not for us, no way. We love our mustard so when we run out its time to pack the car, jump on the Hume (see the route we will be taking) and take a drive. Two and half hours later we’ll be at Milawa Mustards. They make their mustards fresh from the crops you see growing in the fields around the store. The flavours, from the mildest of milds to Three Seed Chili are mouth wateringly divine. We stock up with enough supplies for another six months and head on home. Five hours driving for six jars of mustard, and it is worth every second.

So, any orders? We’ll be popping in to Brown Brothers for a bottle (or two) and maybe some cheese from The Milawa Cheese Factory too.

I remember when Triple J made its first step to becoming a national broadcaster and began broadcasting in to Melbourne. It must’ve been 1988 or 89 and I was hooked on the selection they rotated for a week as a test broadcast, it ran the gamut from Transvision Vamp to New Order. The music was great, no real playlists and presenters who knew what they were talking about. They cared about music, wanted to bring everyone in to their world. It was a joy to listen to.

Then came the weekend of bloodletting when most of the on-air staff were sacked. This was the beginning of the end for Triple J as they slowly devolved in to a ratings driven, play list centric safe left of centre station. Issues and image became more important than the music. I slowly drifted off, part in fact due to my musical tastes changing (or more to the point not changing) and partly ’cause I guess I was just growing up.

I thought I’d become a talk radio listener for good until recently when I found a station that harks back to Triple J’s glory days. BBC – 6 Music is the station I’ve waited a decade to find. Of course, being on the other side of the world I can only listen to it over the net but for the hours that I can I love my music again. They even had Low Life as the album of the day yesterday.

So if work is paying for your bandwidth tune in. It’s everything a great radio station should be.

As I get older I realise that many things I gave up as a kid are suddenly looking cool again in my eyes. Dr Who, for one and LEGO for another. There are some great LEGO creations at the MOCpages site. They look like they’re built with the time and effort that only a patient and indulgent wife will allow.

It’s got me thinking though that Phee should start playing with her LEGOs more. Maybe in my office so I can, um, supervise.

I had this great idea for a blog entry, composed it in my head as I walked to the car. It was witty, interesting and well edited (for once). I then promptly forgot about it as I argued with the idiots on the radio on the way home.

You’ll just have to trust me – you missed out on a beauty.

I’m tired and grumpy, again. This time it’s not because someone has nicked one of my pictures (“Thank god” cry the assembled throng). This time its dog owners (no, different ones). There’s an ever-so-cool couple out in the park with two huge dalmatians. Both, of the dogs that is, off the leash, but hey – it’s too much trouble to go one block further to the only off the leash area in the neighborhood so lets just let ’em run here unchecked. And while were at it let’s not bother picking up their droppings because, hey, why should we? Let’s also look terribly offended when someone suggests maybe they should bring a plastic bag with ’em.

I reckon they probably drove here above the speed limit, smoke in the doorways of buildings whenever they get the chance and leave their mobiles on in the cinema too. Why bother following rules, or common courtesy; it’s all about me, isn’t it?

I think I might go have a cup of tea and a good lie down now.

Bryan Sheehan
Shaun Ryan
Derek Woodcock

You are all marked men. Never show your face near Punt Rd again. I have $14.65 in my wallet and this is now a price on your head(s). Just remember that umpires are meant to be neutral, not play for one of the teams.

In other words, the Tiges lost.

The ICE also lost. The Doggies lost too. A trifecta of misery. I’m going to bed to dream dark dreams.

One year today with Movable Type, my blogging system of choice.

So you’ve probably read this rant a million times before but it’s finally happened to me so I’m gonna rehash it.

Copy protection is stupid. It is wrong and in my case poorly implemented. I was given a copy of Disco 3 for my birthday and I finally picked it up last night. EMI, in their stupidity have copy protected it. The only way to play the CD on my computer is to have the CD in my drive and use their proprietary player.

Big deal, I hear them cry. Be lucky we let you play it all.

EMI need to learn the following things.

When I buy a CD I expect to be able to do with it as I want. If I want to play it in my Media Player I should be able to. If this means copying the music I have paid to listen to I should be able to do this as well. I can make an audio cassette or mini-disc of it, why have you decided I can’t listen to it from the convenience of my PC?

This is the year 2003. People have IPODs, MP3 players and computers. Believe it or not people like to listen to music on these things. CD’s are now a distribution medium, not necessarily the listening medium.

Technology exists that allows me to make copies on to hard drives but not burn these copies on to other CD’s. Use this, if you must.

I firmly believe that if you made these tracks available for purchase online your big fear of piracy and free illegal distribution would almost disappear overnight. Don’t believe me? Look at Apple’s success with iTunes. People want to purchase music this way. I know I want to. You won’t lose money, you’ll gain money. It really is very simple.

EMI – I will not purchase any more Cd’s from you until you remove this stupid system. As it is Audiograbber apparently allows you to rip the tracks so all you’ve done is slow me down a little, make me angry with your company and lose future sales. Well done.

Curse my mono-lingual abilities. Anyone out there reading this blog happen to speak Dutch? I’d just like to know what the person who stole my photo of Phee and the tiger is saying. (http://forum.fok.nl/showtopic.php/333999/8/25 – down the bottom of the page).

I did run it through a translator but it came out as being something about a bonnet.

I dreamt last night. I could’ve dreamt I had wings and could fly around the world, that I remembered to wear clothes to school, that I won fifty trillion gazillion dollars (that’s a lot), that I discovered a cure for cancer, that I single handedly won the Grand Final for the Tiges with a stunning 55m kick after the siren…

But no.

Instead I dreamt that Rae and I went to a party, that no one showed up, that we stood around for two hours doing nothing and then went home.

I’m an excitement machine.