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This is advanced warning that the next few weeks on this here blog are going to be hijacked more or less by the fact that I am in this show . As I’ve mentioned previously, involvement in this sort of production slowly becomes all-consuming until there is nothing else, it fills the horizon like a tidal wave threatening to sweep everything else away. If you’ve never been involved in theatre, or performance in general (or even if you have), you might find this incredibly self-indulgent and boring as bat-shit an interesting series of posts. There’s a line from Stephen Sondheim’s Company that describes one of the characters as “wildly conceited with no self-esteem”. Anyone who spends any time around actors knows that this comment sums them up beautifully and I place myself firmly among them. Performance ego is forever balanced on a knife’s edge. A single compliment and the world is your oyster – the greatest actor the world has ever seen; a hint of disapproval and everything falls apar...

My blogging of late has been interrupted as I have become utterly obsessed with a show that I'm in. On the weekend, we (the cast) went down the coast for some concentrated rehearsal time. It was grouse. Last year, the same thing happened, only then I was directing, not actually in it. At the time, Peter wrote about it and his post sums up exactly how I feel now. Being in a play, a good one, anyway, with a good cast, is like falling in love. In the early rehearsals, you're all getting to know each other. Did he really laugh at that? Does she always wear those clothes? Could there really be another person that into Stevie Wonder? All you know at that stage is that these people love the same thing you do - the rest is a mystery. But all it takes is one significant shared experience, say, a rehearsal weekend at a beach house, and that curious attraction turns into full-blown, first-day-of-spring, dancing-hand-in-hand-through-a-field-of-daisies romance. So while I remain distr...

I THOUGHT THIS HAD DISAPPEARED FROM THE INTERWEBS 4EVA BUT IT HASN'T!!!!!! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!11!!1!! Go here immediately .

I am frequently astonished by the crap that neo-con commentators come out with, particularly in the US. But this story is just despicable. US actor Michael J Fox has been accused of faking his symptoms of parkinson's disease in a political advertisement in support of stem cell research. ... Conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh claimed Fox was "either off his medication or acting" This is one of those occassions when I have to stop myself physically throwing my computer out the nearest window. There is SO MUCH wrong with that statement. That the abusive fucktard (yes I acknowledge the irony) later recanted and apologised, makes it all the more revolting. Can you sue people for that sort of thing? Surely it's defamation. GAH!! I'm so annoyed I'll just have to post this picture to make me feel better (courtesy of Jelly ).

A man who took part in the Cronulla riots last year was today sentenced to serve a year in jail for his actions. Marcus Kapitza sounds like a lovely bloke who was in the wrong place at the wrong time...or something like that. Today in court he said that he was a bit upset about the whole thing: "It has portrayed me as a racist, which I am not". Hmm. Not 100% sure it was the court case that has portrayed you as a racist there big fella. Don’t get me wrong, but MAYBE it was the singlet you made especially for the big event. "Mohammed was a camel raping faggot" What a quality piece of work you and all your fuckwit redneck Cronulla mates are. I'm so glad we have you all to protect us from the those uncouth Muslims.

I've been running for the last few months. Not away from anything necessarily - just around. You know, for the fitness and the like. I go through periods of running. It's a funny thing. I used to get incredibly bored just running around a park or somesuch, but once you've stuck at it, even for a couple of weeks, going for a run can be quite therapeutic. When it's a nice day outside, all I really want to do is go out and run around in it. It's like being eleven all over again. It makes me feel a bit like this. Weird. Because of all this running, I've actually started developing some sort of muscle-type substance on my legs - I suspect it may in fact be muscle, but my sources are yet to be verified. I have also recently started playing soccer during my lunchtimes. Jolly larks etc. However, today I went out and with my first swipe at a passing ball, did something decidely unpleasant to the muscles on my right leg (the ones on the front on the top half). Be...

I'm over Friday's Random Interweb Videos. And you should be too. So I'm going to abandon it, lest it become stale and listless. Deal. Sooooo, how's about that weather huh? Pretty frickin' freezing Mr Bigglesworth! Oh yeah, and it rained this afternoon. Sucked in you pathetic lefty, green-shirt wearing environment worshippers!! It's RAINING!!!! Ther's NO SUCH THING AS GLOBAL WARMING!!!1! You are so gullabal. IF GLOBAL WARMING EXISTS *ahem* Normal programming will commence...eventually. PS - Internerd Explorer users. I KNOW the new template is having some issues with the whole scrolling thing. Won't somebody DO SOMETHING etc. I'll get there eventually.

Believe it or not, things have actually started to get busy at work... I KNOW!! As I have neither the time nor inspiration at present, I thought I'd share some of Dr Mike 's wisdom. Mike is a clever clogs and frequently gives me updates of what is going on in his head re things political. And thus I present what may well become a regular feature: Political Stuff from Mike's Head. Last night, SBS screened the US PBS Frontline documentary entitled " The Dark Side ", examining the role of key players in the US administration, Vice-President Cheney in particular, as well as the role of intelligence agencies in recent conflict in the Middle East. It mentioned something which I'm surprised not to have seen crop up in the anti-torture debate. You know the general argument that torture is bad idea because it can often result in false information, and that if you've got some guy strapped to electrified wires he'll just tell you what you want to hear? How’s...

That is all.

A collection of church, community and school groups has been planning some sort of memorial in Canberra to mark the fifth anniversary of the sinking of the SIEVX and the deaths of 353 asylum seekers in 2001, but have been thwarted by the National Capital Authority - the federal government agency responsible for the proposed site. National Capital Authority spokeswoman Anna Jackson told theage.com.au that the group's application was for a permanent national memorial, and the authority could not approve such an application because 10 years had not passed since the event. This morning on Macquarie radio, in relation to the possibility of "a form of permamnent national recognition" John Howard said: "I certainly know that the people want it and we've had some very good suggestions and I hope we can come up with a sensible proposal." What's that? He wasn't talking about the SIEVX? The Federal Government is considering suggestions on how best to permanen...

YES, PART THE TENTH!! Are Friday's occurring a lot more frequently of late? To be honest, I'm getting a little low on random interweb videos and I'm not convinced the whole Friday video thing is not getting old (too many negatives?), but let's just see how we go. A couple of FRIV's ago we had talking dogs. Today...talking cats! This is a short cartoon using text from spam email for the script. Spooky. And lastly, a classic. AliG at the FB aye! Have a pleasant weekend y'all.

What do you think? I've changed the template because the previous one just looked God-awful on Internet Explorer, despite it's gorgeousness on Safari. Also because I'm aware that a majority of my readers are using IE (for the love of God, WHY!!?? etc). Thus the new look. I'm yet to work out how to make the links in each post more visible - hopefully I get it together shortly. Not sure about the comments at the top, but let's just see how it goes... Anyhoo - enjoy.

Wow. As some eagle-eyed Crikey subscribers have pointed out to me this afternoon, I got "Blogwatched" in today's edition . How extremely flattering and completely unexpected. Greetings Crikey readers! I guess now that I'm like cool and stuff, I should start, you know, being seen places and having column inches dedicated to me in the national dailys. I shall go and do my hair...

As an openly admitted extension of the "culture wars" presently being waged by JHo and his band of Doodz, Julie Bishop has today come out swinging against the Victorian high school curriculum unit entitled " Text messaging ". According to The Age online , "In the unit ... students are asked to discuss issues associated with the growing practice of text messaging, develop a glossary of SMS (Short Messaging Service) abbreviations and translate and write SMS texts." It's a cheap and easy headline for Bishop: "Schools abandon English for text messaging!!!" and almost painfully predictable. But typically, I suspect there has been little, if any examination of what the subject purports to teach, or even an attempt to find out more about it. After her ridiculously shrill denunciation of school boards setting curriculum "straight from Chairman Mao" (which has since been retracted ), there is perhaps no great surprise about this. Quoth...

Friday Friday Friday. What would we do without you? And Friday of course means Random Interweb Videos. YAAAAYYYYYY!!!!!! Today also sees Me and Snooze turning a collective six years old. Woah. Happy day, Snooze. And so...weird little break dancing Indian midget!! And Star Wars condensed (for all you geeks from the previous post). PS - if you're looking for an amusing post, can I suggest Sophie's short decsription of the visit of their small next door neighbour .

Ok, so there's lots of stuff I just don't get on the interwebs. I've admitted before that I simply don't understand what the 'youngsters' are up to a lot of the time. But anyone who has spent any time wandering aimlessly through Myspace will almost certainly have come across these things. Like I said, I don't really get it, but they're kind of wrong and amusing... And just cos it's funny: Fin.

Feeling uninspired? Why, it's time for some blog filler. I've been grinding this blog out for a little over three months now, so what better time to have a wander through the search archives and see just what those filthy people on the interwebs have come here for. And so I present, the innaugural Itemisation Google Search Awards Most Popular Single Search Term : "WTF is Emo" (I shit you not) With some nice variations Polite: "WTF is Emo?" Angry: "WTF IS EMO" Challenged: "WTF is Emo mean?" / "wtf is an emo" / "emo loopy" Who knew so many people can't work it our either . Most Persistent Search Term : "Crime and punishment in the Victorian Era" And they go on: "did crime and punishment occur in the victorian period" "crime criminals punishment victorian england 1800s" "victorian crime deportation" "victorian era, crime and punishment" "victorian era in the pri...

Who doesn't love a good subby getting away with murder. A few choice headlines as spotted in some of the nation's leading newspapers over the last few months: "Free pedophile action" "Woman raped by pool" "Carr's promise to rape victims rings hollow" I mean seriously, what are these people thinking? From Helen , Snooze and Virginia respectively. I want suggestions for a better post title. Come on people, I know you're out there...