Australia - Classic or Dud?

Seriously though, I loved Australia, the people over there were great (I was only in Perth and WA) the wine was some of the best I've ever tasted and the scenery was awesome. Classic.

Aussie sportsmen though - dud dud dud, arrogant gets.

All is forgiven though, because the Aussies are responsible for The Best Olympics Ever in Sydney last year - I spend the whole time grinning broadly and watching an awful lot of telly. And then they did a brilliant job with the Paralympics too instead of passing it off as a sideshow.

Destroy: Our fixation with hypermasculinity, esp. with our sporting stars. The unceasing babble of Z grade sports stars forever troubling television chat-shows, exuding little charisma and evading anything but platitudes. Our increasingly warped politics: locking up asylum seekers for years, and then complaining of their lack of appreciation when they riot, because we are of course providing them with 'free beds at taxpayer's expense' (beds situated in empty dorms, in the middle of the desert, surrounded by barbed wire). The 'stuck in 1991' JJJ (gov't youth station) alterno-mindset, subjecting the public to almost a decade of grunge, followed by nu-metal. The media Packer/ Murdoch duopoly, and any of the Sydney based media in general. Most of Sydney, in fact (and I live there). Our excreable TV (you should see what's not exported). Humidity in summer.

Classic: Melbourne. The fact that we can produce some decent bands (most of which never are venerated o.s., as they deserve). Australian bush. Multiculturalism seems to have worked better here than in the UK, or US. People *are* generally friendlier than in Europe. 19 degree days in Winter. The beach.

Apart from that all the Australians I know are nice, except my ex- uncle he was a git. It looks like an okay place to visit, wouldn't want to live there, too hot, too many spiders.

and having read collapse recently, which mentions australia as the most ecologically threatened continent--how do y'all aussies feel about your history and future?

i am not surprised that australia is characterised as seriously ecologically threatened, the water shortage is dire, landclearing has created a salinity crisis which no one seems able to comprehensively address, and our biodiversity is diminishing at a frightening rate. yet we continue to consume consume consume, and product stewardship is not exactly a buzzword.

on the upside, we experience an extremely high standard of living, incredibly low unemployment, lots of wealth and this is an absolutely beautiful place to live, i don't think i could live anywhere else. i continue to be astounded at how stunning the landscape is, how vast and diverse. i just got back from a couple of weeks in the north of western australia - the wildflowers in spring, following the first wet winter in some years, were just unreal.

she's not ours! you're thinking of cathy freeman.

'anti-immigration' is a complicated issue here - we have a population that is going to go into decline fairly soon (i understand the next 20-50 years) so the government has been forced (against its will) to re-invigorate its immigration policy. however they have tried to focus on 'skilled migration' preferences and fast=tracking to attract people into our very tight labour market, particularly to support the boom in resources. not an entirely bad idea, only it does reflect the exodus of knowledge from the nation. this has happened concurrently with some very dodgy policy decisions with respect to refugees, which were stimulated as a 'deterrent' to a spike in 'unauthorised' entrants to the country in 2000/2001 - the infamous 'boat people'.

anyway, it's certainly intriguing to hear more about yerselves (i'm sure i should read the mongrel/sheepfuxor threads, but that seems like a bit too much). are you aware that you are still perceived (in america) as living in a vague kind of eden?

xxpost

i think a lot of americans have been a bit misled by the likes of crocodile dundee and its ilk. i imagine living in a big city in australia isn't vastly different from living in a big city in the US. the actual landscape of regional australia can be a bit eden-like! however the social services and cultural issues of regional australia don't share too much with eden i don't reckon.

gem i didnt see those reports, i was just going on the churchgoing figures from the last census, theyre about 1.5 million per week from memory. whats hillsong?

http://www2.hillsong.com/pages/default.asp?pid=3

For those of you who are reading charles's post upthread and wondering, 'Melbourne, where's that?', it's a small suburb on the outskirts of Sydney.

I've also spent time up in Launceston, doing the music camp.

How are wallabies and kangaroos different? It's possible that it was a wallaby, but I don't really know what they look like, other than sort of kangaroo-like. Here is the same wallaroo in two other pictures:
http://static.flickr.com/27/50356889_5797b00c3a_m.jpg
Wallaroo after he was done checking out the camera

http://static.flickr.com/25/50356888_64a271c420_m.jpg
and Boy took this one of me feeding it

Lyra you're right, there's probably not much difference but wallabies are smaller. Pedant alert. Wallaroo is a good term, at least you know you're 1/2 right.

This picture was taken mere seconds before that kangaroo jumped up and punched me in the balls.

We used to go and hang out at a nice conference centre place in the bush just out of canberra that my grandad worked at/was involved with. There would often be HUGE male red roos down on the bottom playing field. We were told in no uncertain terms to go nowhere near them. Some males would be taller than you esp if they reared up.

Laurel did you see "Sideways"? That clarified why some Australian wines are so good & well-reputed. Pinot noir is very hard to grow and likes cool climates; we have quite a lot of that in Winter in the southern regions. Plus it's probably something in soil. I like a particular brand of sparkling wine that comes in a blue bottle. FOrget what it's called, & they've also stopped making it in the blue bottle :(

Destroy: Drop Bears.

Koala tacos

the gift that keeps on giving!

Was it before or after the monstah Pseudo Echo one on ILM?

see, where I come from they were always "drop tears", as in, "drop down and tear the shit out of you"! like, an angry koala or something.

I got angry enough after the last election to demand an answer from my libreral-voting parents. Mum just said "well they were both as bad as each other" (and dammit if she wasnt right) "rock and a hard place. So I decided not to change". Argh.

-- Trayce

this guy actually went so far as to get dual citizenship (american/australian) yet continues to go on and on about how wonderful australia is and how authentically australian he is.

TIL that CROCODILE DUNDEE is 6 minutes longer in the original Australian version than the “international” cut that Paramount distributed in 1986. Repeat: there is a longer Australian cut of CROCODILE DUNDEE

— Jesse Hawken (@jessehawken) May 3, 2020

strewth

The original Australian version runs about 6 minutes longer than the international version. It includes more character building in the first half. There is also more swearing which was dubbed out of the international version. The international version puts quotation marks around the Crocodile in the title.

sneer quotes disparaging this lesser version

I once watched this dubbed into French. Paul Hogan speaking fluent francais was perhaps a step too far in the suspension of disbelief. I recall being amused by how they translated "sheila" but I can't remember what it was now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oskE6cpEz7I

australia had a prime minister called harold holt who died in office in the 60s, presumed drowned after he went for a swim in the ocean and never came back in, his body was never found. they named a swimming centre after him

If only the present PM would go for a swim and never come back, I'd be happy to name a whole coastline after him.

and a pool

what about a cake, rename the fly cemetery

lmao

a plaque at Engadine

Oh yeah & they massacred amost of their natives, they're still working on that too.
I like AC/DC a lot tho'.
― duane, Friday, 3 August 2001 bookmarkflaglink

Here is another way of putting it.

Sorry but Azaelia is actually too funny having said this crowded house and temper trap erasure. Everything else? No lies told pic.twitter.com/7FhjbRuADY

— Nemanja Vidic Stan Account (@judeinlondon) May 8, 2023

The original Australian version runs about 6 minutes longer than the international version.

"That's not a running time of Crocodile Dundee.... THIS is a running time of Crocodile Dundee."

I'd really beg to differ re "culturally stale musically" given we do have a pretty robust first nations music scene especially these days.

I mean FFS the obvious ones: Archie Roach, Yothu Yindi, Jimmy Little, Christine Anu.

Theres Warumpi Band, Baker Boy, King Stingray (they rule), Tiddas, Briggsy, Kev Carmody... that was without me even thinking hard.

She's right about the rest.
Isnt Azelia banks a right wing crazypants though?

not to mention Gurrumul and the Kid Laroi