I’m off down the coast for the rest of the week, however I’ve been posting so sporadically recently that I doubt anyone will notice, but there – you’ve been told. And now for something completely different.

Before the Wiggles launched their 4-man assault on the Australian (and now worldwide) children’s entertainment industry, there were a host of entertainers such as Don Spencer and Franciscus Henry who entertained us pups with their incredible songwriting and gripping lyrics. Honestly their talents were wasted on children, but then that’s another story. During this peaceful and simple time – without as much shit on television and with no internet – the undisputed king of Australian children’s performers was Peter Combe.

Now I owned Peter Combe CD’s. I went to a live concert in 1993, and my most prized piece of Combe-obilia is an old almost worn-out VHS cassette of a live set of his in Adelaide. So you can imagine my utter glee when, having heard that Combey was returning to Melbourne in October after a successful tour of pubs and clubs around the country, playing to young-at-heart tragics like me, I managed to find my video from all those years ago. Now all I have to do is wander down to the Northcote Social Club and buy a few tickets to his show. It’ll undoubtedly be the best gig I’ll go to this year. Anyone else interested?

Oh and check out ‘Juicy Juicy Green Grass’, one of Pete’s more famous songs from the VHS I have been watching for the last hour. Such a performer!

Pete

Although one of my friends called uni balls ‘nerdy’ a couple of weeks ago (while we were in a science lab mind you) they are undoubtedly one of the social highlights of the university year. Arts, Commerce, Law and Science are traditionally the largest, with the Science ball bringing the biggest crowd together each year, coupled with the highest level of insanity. I fondly remember the Monash ball in my first year – themed Bond 007, and my rather timid table of Monash jaffy’s not quite sure of what to make of the whole shindig. It was then and there that I realised about half of the people at sciball make an effort to dressup, correlating fairly strongly to the half that have the most fun. In 2006 I was dragged along to the Melbourne science ball as a Franciscan monk (actually aiming for a peasant burninated by Trogdor) and had so much fun in costume that I swore to always dress up, regardless of the theme.

Unfortunately for me, this year I was roped into both university’s balls, which just happened to be held on consecutive nights last week. Let me present to you PETE’S AWESOME COSTUMES FROM THIS YEAR’S TWO SCIENCE BALLS!!!

Melbourne Ball – Out of This World (Whole table went as Nintendo characters: Pete = DK):

Monash Ball – Fire & Ice (Matchbox):

Brilliant fun, especially the 9am Thursday biochem lecture still in DK costume…

Pete

One of the things I find most frustrating about having a relatively decent, unhindered imagination coupled with no artistic talent whatsoever is that quite often things that I choose to put effort into – be them ball costumes, projects or even bloody blog entries – that are drab or dull on paper are somehow jazzed up in my mind and made out to be an awful lot cooler than they really deserve to be. Then of course the aforementioned lack of skill cuts in, and the result is that the reality of any situation requiring a creative input from me rarely does justice to what I envisaged it could or should have been. So often my grand plans come crashing down to reality, and I end up feeling nothing more than mediocre.

What I’m trying to say is that a runaway imagination, while quite a lot of fun, can lead to constant disappointment when reality comes and drags you out of your head. Tonight I discovered this disappointment need not be isolated to just my own work: just try and picture what this headline, which appeared in my BBC World News firefox tab, is talking about:

Ninja leader due in Congo capital

Pretty friggin awesome, huh? Ninjas entering the fray in the DRC to try and form some sort of Ninja super society, maybe to finally assault those pesky pirates? Or maybe one of the warring factions in the east of the country incurred the wrath of a ninja master by slaying his niece? Regardless of the details, this story is guaranteed to be INCREDIBLE!

Or maybe not. Read the article, and prepare to be quite disappointed. Bloody fake ninjas.

Pete

I know its now officially old news, as the announcement was made on Thursday, but…..

DAFT PUNK ARE COMING TO AUSTRALIA!!!!

BIG BIG BIG news. Damn good supports too. Needless to say, I will NOT be in attendance during my biochem lecture at 9am on Thursday next week…

Pete

So. Tomorrow the 2007 AFL season wraps up. For a season that started so well, I certainly didn’t expect to be sitting here at the start of September, with my beloved Blues on four wins and trying desperately to laugh off suggestions of late-season tanking. Although we arguably have quite a lot to gain by losing (anticipated top draft pick Matthew Kreuzer is fairly drool worthy for any footy club, especially one like Carlton – in desperate need of a good, tall ruckman) I have to admit I have been attending matches wishing dearly for our boys to actually win. You may call it selfish, but I think I would much rather scrounge a little bit of dignity and pride than bomb out with less than 5 wins for the second year running. We’re now going on 12 losses on the trot, which is quite a bitter pill to swallow, and Ratten really does deserve something to show for his 5 relatively gallant matches in the coaches box.

I suppose what has to be remembered is the stakes that are being played for tomorrow when Carlton take on Melbourne. If the Dees win, they finish 14th in the league, which will mean 3rd pick in each round of draft picks (behind Richmond and Carlton), except for the first round, where they will take pick #4 due to Carlton’s priority pick. However if Carlton wins, we will be promoted to 14th, lose our priority pick at spot 1, and have only pick 3 to console ourselves with.

So, to simplify somewhat, it looks likely that Matthew Kreuzer’s fate will be decided tomorrow: will he become a Tiger or a Blue? I really do hope that we’ll be able to welcome him to Carlton next year, but then again I don’t think I can live through another intentionally sub-par performance purely for positioning in the draft. This is the reason why I will not be in attendance tomorrow afternoon (I also happen to have – rather coincidentally – a big assessment piece due on Monday), but I will be listening on the radio.

One positive to come out of the match is that the game is a win-win for the Blues. Or lose-lose, depending on how you look at it.

Pete