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BryantObsessed

Listed below are comments made by BryantObsessed between Monday, 31st August 2009 and Friday, 20th November 2009.

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An apology, an architect and an 'audience with Parky' 01:59am on 20 Nov 2009 Good blog Nick.

Fantasy dinner party? Top idea, here is mine.

Theodore Zeldin
Stephen Fry
Norman Mailer
Paul Keating
Bill Hicks
Bertrand Russell
Robert Redford
Morrissey (who will cancel last minute so i hastily call Alan Bennett or David Mamet to join).

I too was very moved by the apology. Politicians rarely engage the audience in front of them, more often concentrating on the 6pm news sound bite audience. Rudd was talking to the men and women who had suffered and that was the key to its success as a good speech. Nice one KRudd.

PS: Nick, did i detect a wavering of your oxbridge education by calling Jan Urtzon a "lovely bloke"? Seems you're going native mate.
An apology, an architect and an 'audience with Parky' 10:08pm on 19 Nov 2009 RE:
2. At 10:46am on 19 Nov 2009, katenicholson wrote:
Apologies? Wonderful timing. Amnesty International again slated Australia only this week.

Dear Kate,

AI spoke to Turnball's recent parliamentary assertion that refugee numbers were rising due to Rud''s policies. AI refuted these claims.

Regards,
Daniel.
A good Australian read 2:54pm on 19 Oct 2009 I loved this book for the reasons Nick outlined - as a w.o.g.(how come i can't get this word past the profanity filter but the blogger can - rascist i say!), it is rare to see us in print.

I liked the dialogue but got lost with some of the caricatures.

i really enjoyed the chapter based on the father. he was very real to me.

Too melbourne? I didn't think so. Penshurst, matraville and Revesby all seemed like home to this book as much as St Kilda.

A very curious book. very flawed but in some ways a little triumph. we need more books like this.
Is Australia unusually racist? 2:34pm on 19 Oct 2009 Dear Expat Pommie.

I refer to this post.

"74. At 01:55am on 17 Oct 2009, expatpommie wrote:

The thing is BryantObsessed, whilst you and your friends might have found mocking your friend amusing, the truth is he will face discrimination his whole life here in the job market. http://www.theage.com.au/national/australian-bosses-are-racist-when-its-time-to-hire-20090617-chvu.html
Those people that grow up making those jokes at school grow up to be bosses who don't hire people because they are not "Anglos". Which surely is when it's not funny any more. "

But i'm not an Anglo. I am a Western Oriental Gentleman (the profanity filter stopped me writing the real word). China was from Thailand (thats part of the gag). my others mates were lebbo's or eye tie's, or from anywhere else except the skippies/convicts who claimed some sense of belonging...until an abo walks into the room, then everyone is a stranger in a strange land.

You see racism in Australia is not about a majority or a dominant group attacking a minority - its about everyone taking the mickey out of everyone else.

and in an odd way it sort of works well. and in another way it doesn't work at all.

Painting Australia as extremely racist is just simplistic and childish. it says more of the speaker than the speaking. the truth is out there...just not well expressed or understood.
Why Australia prefers political prose to political poetry 10:17pm on 16 Oct 2009 Good article Nicholas.

That break to the USA did you a world of good!

Aussie PM's always feel 'behind' the citizenry, rather than out in front.

I'm a fan of TV's The West Wing but always felt that Australia would only ever get a comedy, not a high brow drama, from its pollies.
Is Australia needy for acclaim? 10:11pm on 16 Oct 2009 yes. Australia is in need of acclaim. absolutely.

A chip of the shoulder is usually a block of wood fallen from the head. So says my dad.
Is Australia unusually racist? 10:10pm on 16 Oct 2009 it's not simple.

I don't believe Australia is rascist, but i'm at a loss to describe what it is.

My best mate at school was called China. he still is. he was mocked mercilessly but also accepted. The mocking was awful but funny. China thought so too. Is that racist?

every block of refugees or immigrants has to undergo a period of being 'brought into line' with humour and teasing. Remember all the vietnamese jokes? tough love but we didn't mind their retuarants, bakerys, their role of school councils or them as neighbours. Yep, they smelled different, but over a beer all was forgotten. Is that racist?

Delving into the past beyond the 70's seems pointless to me. Australia is so different. trying to reconcile a very open and welcoming country built from the very of 'others' when there really isn't a "us" just a whole lot of "thems".

Waleed ALy was superb on Q&A going head to head against Christopher Hitchens. But i'm still lacking that great essay that can reconcile the australian experience of bringing "thems" into the world of "us" in its brutal but ultimately accepting way.
Code dead? 11:41am on 08 Oct 2009 Poster #32.

Fishing is the highest participation sport. then netball. then soccer. then interwebbing.

I'll find the sauce for these stats to give you confidence.
Code dead? 11:40am on 08 Oct 2009 Brilliant post from Ginger Warrior (Post # 24).

quote:

Why are you Aussies complaining? Would you prefer to live in the UK?

Because if you saw our sporting culture for just five seconds, you'd sooner hop on a plane and fly straight back to Brisbane, I'll assure you of that much.

The ONLY sport that receives regular mainstream attention here is football (soccer) - unless Andy Murray's playing at Wimbledon, or Jonny Wilkinson sneezes. Be thankful you live in a country where three sports can vie for mainstream attention and still exist quite prosperously.

end quote.

Ginger Ninja (a far better name i am sure you'll agree), that's the game, set and match of this forum. I agree.
Australian cultural creep, not cringe 10:49am on 31 Aug 2009 As an Australian I feel the cringe. I know the cringe. I live the cringe.

I;ve noticed the actors getting big roles in hollywood, but always felt it was their hardwork that I couldn't have any rub off.

The movie Australia was dire and I cringed more than watching back to back episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

But recently i feel a little pride. A nudge towards a new future where something that originated "O/S" isn't necessarily better.

Old habits die hard and whilst I enjoyed the Aussie movies you listed above I still reach more comfortably for Stephen Poliakoff, Michael Hanneke, and Wong Kar Wai.

But maybe a day will come when an Aussie film will make my top ten without it being a piss take of my own culture, rather a celebration of it.

Like Gallipoli, we tend to celebrate human guts in the face of catastrophe. Maybe our film makers are changing too.

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