Gleesht

I was very pleased to read that David Grohl can't stand Glee.

I tried, really tried, to like this show, by watching an episode directed by Joss Whedon and starring Neil Patrick Harris, no less - surely a Recipe For Gold.
But, unfortunately, everything else included in said Recipe resulted in a Cold Dish of LAME!

If you're not convinced, rather than listen to my spurious cooking metaphors, perhaps you should listen to the Wingman:

Dave Grohl - You Rock.
Jeff Winger - You Rock.
Glee - You Fail to Rock.

rilestar puts it out there

That title couldn't be misconstrued, could it?
Anyhoo, the rilestar has been putting it out there, "it" being his rant. A couple of examples:
In response to the article "Rivers ad campaign 'a deadly deal for women'", regarding a photo used in its latest "Deadly Deals" catalogue featuring "a leggy corpse in fishnets and high heels sprawled under a couch" (and in particular in response to some of the other comments):

"A lot of people (let's not jump to conclusions and call them mysogynists) don't seem to get it, so here's the thing: The issue is not necessarily whether there is a woman or man crushed by that couch. If it were just a picture of any old couch-crushed-corpse, male or female, the ad would just be in poor taste, not necessarily sexist. However, by eroticising the corpse, they are stepping into sexism territory. There is no need to have the corpse wearing sexy fishnet stockings except to eroticise the corpse. Yes: I'm sticking with that phrase, as it's equivalently unpleasant.
What they've ended up doing is having an ad where people get to look at the bottom half of a sexy lady, and they don't need to worry about the top half, or her personality, or anything else about her, because she's dead. Is that how women should be perceived? To use our favourite phrase, should people prefer it when they eroticise the corpse?
Putting a man's legs sticking out, or a woman wearing a long dress or slacks, or a baby's legs, does not have that issue. It's just dumb.
People who don't get this just like to eroticise corpses."

And having a little more "fun", the topic "Tips on tipping: it's a minefield for Aussie travellers" provoked this comment from "JohnT":

"The origin of 'tip' is an acronym: 'to insure promptitude' and you dropped some tin in a box before you were served to get better service. Aussies may be poor tippers but that is because, unlike the appalling workplace laws in the US we actually have insisted that people get paid a fair wage for their work. In the US waiters are paid appallingly or work just for the tips (but do you notice a price differential without a wage overhead? no Sirree Bob). I refuse to feel guilty because in Australia we have decent labour laws and therefore this hospitality scam of having the customer pay extra for the service has never really taken root.
I do tip when in the USA however - at a rate of 15% if the service was great - but 10% if only going through the motions.
I do not tip in Australia as I am fully aware of the fact that these people are paid a fair wage. Also the service from Gen Y is generally either so indifferent as to border on the rude or so familiar (it is Sir and Madam, not "guys") that a tip is not warranted - other than "get a decent haircut, learn some manners and don't say 'like' incessantly when describing the Blackboard Specials. Also, the word Specials does NOT have an apostrophe."

rilestar's response (borrowing liberally from Bill Hicks):

"Hey JohnT. You sound like a lot of fun. I want to hang with you and play Twister.
I'm a Gen-X-er to the max, by the by. Please correct my grammar and punctuation."

That said, his comments regarding tipping in Australia did have some merit.

I also had a more serious comment:

"I only recently found out that it's pretty much expected that you tip a dollar a drink in bars in the US (at least in New York) - this was something like the fourth time we'd been to the States. That said, somewhat sheepishly we started tipping like the Americans do (the bar staff will always ensure you get some dollar bills in your change - once I received $10 change as a $5 note and 5 x $1 notes), and we received great service - long chats with the bar staff, recommendations for things to do or places to go, invites to other places with them, and free drinks! Winning! #tigerblood"

It's now well and truly out there.

MON THE BIFFIN' BIFF!!!

Congrats to my kids' favourite band, the mighty Biffy Clyro, for their win for Best Live Band at the Shockwaves NME 2011 Awards, beating out Muse, whom they supported on their Aussie tour last year (despite the fact the Biff RAWK and Muse BUYTE).
Which reminds me - I recently found this clip of them playing live in front of a select audience from a great Youtube channel - SolidSnake00. Starts with the legendary song 9/15ths.
Get into it:



Just found out their pick for "Godlike Genius" is Bill Hicks, too.
Legends.
PS Where are my manners? This is their youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/biffyclyro.
PPS Might I suggest another live one, say "Living is a Problem because everything dies"? Enjoy:

Allow me to discrimonstrate

I wrote a little while ago that the Brumby Government had started to stink up the place quite a bit, and so it was not much of a surprise that they got booted out.
I also wrote that I didn't exactly have high hopes for Baillieu.
Well, he's only been in power for a few months, but things are already looking very dicey with this Victorian Government.
Exhibit B (this was Exhibit A): Rachel Ball, director of policy and campaigns at the Human Rights Law Resource Centre, recently wrote in "Baillieu promised a fairer Victoria, but it looks like the opposite" that the State Government has stated it will scrap measures in Victoria's Equal Opportunity Act that are designed to actively promote equality, including stripping powers from the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, and also "expand the ''permanent exceptions'' that give religious groups and entities - including those that provide public services using public money - a free licence to discriminate against de facto couples, gays, lesbians and single mums, among others."
Why do they even need to go there? Aren't there more pressing concerns than allowing men in dresses to discriminate against single mothers on the basis of "a book of stories inscribed by an itinerant Middle Eastern shepherd many millennia ago" (with thanks to The Onion for that quote*).
I think the philosophy of this commenter ("Embe") had a simple eloquence: "I say, take away all tax payer funding from these organisations and then they can discriminate to their intolerant hearts content. If they take our secular money they should follow our secular inclusive rules."
Hear, hear, Mr Embe.
And boo, hiss, Mr Baillieu. My kickboot is getting itchy. I think it wants to connect with your behind region...
* Perhaps I'm being facetious, since the Bible "deals with all kinds of germane topics, from what meats one should not eat due to mankind's lack of refrigeration technology to the pre-Iron Age accounts of territorial disputes affecting a certain area of the Fertile Crescent."

I'd rather be watching TV

The rilestar does heart the teevs, and these are a few of his more public rantings lately.
First, in relation to The Age article "All just a little bit tasteless", which states the bleeding and punning obvious by saying: "Despite both being based around food, The Biggest Loser lacks taste and My Kitchen Rules has no flavour", rilestar said:

"I have never watched a single one of these games shows (calling them "Reality TV" I think is giving them more credibility than they deserve), including Big Brother, Survivor, et al, apart from a few episodes of The Amazing Race, which was actually very entertaining. But otherwise I generally stick to quality scripted dramas and comedies...and dramedies...stuff like Entourage, 30 Rock, Deadwood and Community.
I have no great desire to watch boring people being boring. Leave that to other boring people.
Plus I'm not fat."

Speaking of fat people, another contributor, Tara, said "To anyone overweight who is reading this, may you nourish yourself with love and the food that benefits your body." By which I assume she means "Hey fat people: eat a carrot." Harsh! (her words, not mine)
Another article, "Goodbye Daily Show, we hardly knew you", reports that ABC2 no longer has the rights to broadcast Rant faves The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. The rilestar had been wondering what had happened to them, as they were good back-ups in case the old iQ failed to record either or both for whatever reason, and so also contributed to the discussion (swimming against the tide of "Foxtel sucks, I download everything"):

"It seems I'm one of the few (or the only person?) who signed up to Foxtel just to watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report (about 5 or 6 years ago). Love 'em both - also flew to Washington last year for the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, so paying for Foxtel is not that big a leap. There's lots of good stuff on Foxtel though, like Louie and the latest episodes of Entourage (just a little late), so I'm happy with it (though was wavering a bit last year when TDS and TCR were on ABC2 and the other networks seemed to be getting their acts together on their alternative channels - not wavering any more). Now my bugbear is Channel Go! not showing Community any more - tempted to jump on Channel BitTorrent for the first time ever, just to get my fix of the funniest show not currently on TV..."

And speaking of Community, rilestar also waded into the debate regarding "Where did all the intelligent TV go?", in particular, the many comments along the lines of "All US shows are crap":

"To the US-haters, a lot of my current favourite TV shows are American: Community, 30 Rock, The Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Louie, Entourage, Modern Family, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, and that's just the comedies. Great dramas include Deadwood, Lost, The Sopranos, Mad Men and Breaking Bad (just to name a few). Not to mention Seinfeld!
Anyone who thinks all American TV is like Two and a Half Men really needs to get out more. By which, I mean, they should stay in more.
But to respond to the point being made by Mike (who also mentioned many of the above shows), I agree that the Australian commercial networks really do seem to think that Australians can't handle quality TV (though maybe their market researchers only interview ignorant people like the US-haters).
Personally, I rely on Foxtel's iQ taping all my faves and watching them at my leisure, supported by iView, etc. I like my TV.
But here's a message for GO!: Start broadcasting Community again! Funniest show not currently on TV."

Yeah. The rilestar's not afraid to re-use the same line, time and time (and time) again*.

PS Continuing the bad news, The White Stripes also announced they were breaking up. The writer in this article talked about the first time he saw them in 2001, and the rilestar responded with an anti-rant:

"I was also blown away by their cover of Jolene the first time I saw them - on the second stage at the Corner Hotel supporting Six Ft Hick (probably 9 or 10 years ago, as well). Much as I like the Hicks, I couldn't believe that this band was supporting them. And obviously the rest of the world (at least, the part that rocks out) went on to love them, too. Vale, White Stripes. Long live the Dead Weather."

Were you at that gig, too**? Let me know!

* A Strangelove song, I think...
* Saying this makes this seem like a professional blog. I realise that the chances of someone both being at that gig AND reading this are infinitesimally small. Actually, just the chances of someone reading this are infinitesimally small...

All Liars are Liars

I hate to say "I hate to say I told you so", but: 'Madden attended meeting over Hotel Windsor sham'
I told you I hate to say I hate to say I told you so.

Better than The Phantom Menace

I don't know if it's because I watched this at least 10 times in a row with my kids on the weekend, or if I'm just playing too much of The Force Unleashed, but this is frickin' golden:

Apparently it's now been played during an event known as the "SuperBowl"*, but I credit @DamonLindelof with giving us the heads-up last week. Thanks, DL**!
* Of course, I know what the SuperBowl is, even if I don't understand it. Is "Third and Down" a thing?
** Based purely on initials, Damon Lindelof is clearly the Bizarro Larry David.