Alright so perhaps that wasn’t the best choice of title, considering the seriousness of the issue, but a) That title is one hell of a hook; and b) I think the conservative half of the population that cram this anti-abortion crap down our necks 24/7 are serious enough for the both of us. Whoops, guess I just aired my views on the whole situation a bit early….

Anyway for those of you not residing in Australia, or even more specifically Victoria, the upper house sat down yesterday to start discussion of the new abortion legislature that passed through the lower house last month. Victoria has some of the more draconian, outdated abortion legislation in the country, with abortion only being legal in the case of serious risk to maternal life, health, or mental health. However, abortions are quite readily accessible and there hasn’t been a criminal trial over an abortion for over 20 years.

The Premier of the state, John Brumby (who sadly does not look as much like Action Man as his predecessor, Steve Bracks) decided earlier in the year that enough was enough, and led a charge to introduce new legislation to clarify the state’s stance on the issue, and modernise the rights, duties and obligations of women, medical practitioners and counsellors.

You’d think that would be easy enough, eh? You’d be wrong. The vocal outcry from what on paper is a minority is alarming. The sheer number of articles damning the government, women seeking abortions and people extolling the virtues of a clarified legal status is startling, and a quick peek into any newspaper’s letters pages uncovers an abundance of poorly versed, opinionated twits (who I have read are mainly aging men – why do they care?).

The reason I brought this up today (even though I have been contemplating an abortion post for a while now) is that while I was at the relatively conservative-nutbag free zone of university this morning I came across something I did not expect. The massive cylindrical, bollardy type things that people put posters up on around campus were filled with anti-abortionist crapola. White background, big, bold, black letters denouncing evildoers and espousing the fact that abortion is murder. Now I’m all for free speech, but I’m also for respecting the beliefs of others, and I am especially for not shoving your poorly thought-out religious based trollop into the eyeballs of innocent passers-by, so I was particularly chuffed when, later that morning the posters had been thoroughly defaced, and by early afternoon had been completely painted over with red paint, which I thought was quite fitting. There is such a thing as tempting fate, and I think anti-abortion propaganda on a university campus is about as close to tempting fate as swimming in shark infested waters with the bloody remains of 30 cows, or trying to enter the United States with a turban and a long black beard.

Pete

Tomorrow signals the first day back at uni from our mid-semester break, ingeniously placed not in the middle of the semester as the name would suggest, but 3 weeks from the end of the semester. They would have done better to name it the pre-swotvac swotvac, or even just the three-quartereth semester break. Anyway I digress. The fact that we are rapidly running out of semester of course means that exams are looming, but then so is summer, so ignoring the immense amount of work I have infront of me, I’ve spent the weekend outside in the sunshine, with occasional ventures out into the world at large.

On of these treks was yesterday, and entailed a quick trip down to JB to buy the debut album of ‘Empire of The Sun’, the amalgamation of Nick Littlemore from PNAU and Luke Steele from The Sleepy Jackson. What I was hoping for was the best bits of two of the best Aussie acts in the last few years, packaged nicely in the form of three-to-four minute ditties, with the unmistakably dancey melodies of Littlemore and the interesting and far nicer voice of Steele. Both these qualities work superbly in their respective bands – PNAU have been a favourite of mine for a long time, and The Sleepy Jackson’s 2006 sophomore release has been an oft’ played album around the house. On top of this the coverart is some impressive painted collage, reminiscent of old movie posters, especially those of the early Star Wars films.

However, even with a glam cover and an incredible first single (below) that’s been doing the rounds on radio for the last month or so, nothing else has jumped out on the first listen. All the components are there, but the individual magic of both PNAU and Sleepy Jackson seems to have been lost in translation. That said, albums have often taken a few plays for me to start to enjoy. I hope that’s the case here.

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Pete