crazybrave

I am just not sure. Our camping trip was certainly made more bearable by the presence of several tins of Aldi creamed rice, but (fortunately back at home) the end of an Aldi cotton bud came off in my ear and I had to go to the doctor to get it out but IT WASN’T THERE ANYMORE!

I think on balance I say a qualified yes to Aldi. The qualification being don’t buy their cotton buds.

Disclosure: I also have an Aldi fish poacher. Although Duck’s Beloved has an Aldi unicycle which I believe trumps all.

My sister in law and her co-author Meredith Burgmann are launching their book “1000 terrible things Australian men have said about women” at Paperchain in Manuka tonight - just in time for Christmas! Paperchain’s in Franklin Street, and it kicks off around 6. I’ll be the one in the “Maxine 13″ t-shirt.

In 1993 a small group of women gathered to celebrate the retirement of the original Ernie, a notoriously sexist trade union official who claimed that the only reason women wanted to become shearers was for the sex. The event grew to become the Annual Ernie Awards, the world’s premier event shaming men for outrageous sexism.

Fifteen years of Australian male chauvinist piggery is faithfully chronicled here with name, rank and serial number - from John Laws to John Howard, from David Oldfield to David Hookes, from Pat Cash to Paddy McGuinness and Australia’s former favourite son-in-law, Tom Cruise. Chefs, archbishops, judges, footballers, shock jocks and politicians are all in our sights.

I never turned away from Cathy. No matter how fat she was… -Nick Bideau, Cathy Freeman’s ex-coach and ex-partner

I bet she’s now sorry she burnt her bra all those years ago (on Germaine Greer at 63) -Ray Hadley, broadcaster

What do you think you’re looking at, sugar tits? -Mel Gibson, actor

With a nod to the good guys such as Don Bradman and Russell Crowe (really!), The Ernies Book is unashamedly wicked. If it weren’t so funny, you’d have to cry.

More cutting edge citizen journalism at Sill’s Bend.

So, yeah, it seems that the dog’s incontinence pills are working.

So I went to see Bobby Flynn on Friday night at The Venue. At least on a blog you can capitalise the name of the joint and avoid those long winded and pointless Three Stooges-esque conversations about where you’re going.

You can probably tell from that enthusiastic opening it wasn’t wonderful. It wasn’t bad; but it wasn’t wonderful. Except for “superfreak” which was truly wonderful, what I heard of it having retired outside for a fag.

The support band described themselves as “two acoustic guitars and fresh air”, but when I described them as “soft cock rock” in my little notebook and handed it to my friend J-Mo, she agreed heartily, as did O. I thought things couldn’t dip much below the first song, which from memory was called “Enigmatic Emblem”, until the words “Angst Ridden Angel” came in breathy earnest.

Dudes, some free advice - it’s not funny or cool to castigate the audience for having a chat at a pub style venue.* Also, you will look sad if you tell people you have sold 4 CDs, which is enough to get to Bathurst, and then wander around the audience between acts hustling your disc directly. He didn’t ask me, but should have, as by then I was prepared to give him $20 just to fuck off.

At 10:45 the main act started up as a three piece but it wasn’t until the full six piece, including visualist jaymis, came on stage that things hotted up. Bobby’s guitarist, the awsumly named Zachary Armytage was superb, but the rhythm section was overall a little cheesy and rigid.

Bobby’s stage patter was a bit twee in parts - he introduced two songs which had “popped out” of him since Australian Idol - but it is the end of a four month tour. Nevertheless there were real highlights, and the band could sustain a very tightly energetic, very funky groove.

YMMV, but I am out of form for late starts, and I think I would have felt much more charitably had I not been so enormously tired by the time the band came on. Also the $11 pizzas at The Venue are McCains’ ones.

* “Pub style venue” is a Canberra term. Elsewhere they have actual pubs.

At about 1:45 this afternoon on the freeway just outside Bowral and heading south into Canberra, a hairy-arsed man thought it would be a good idea to rub his arse on his car window in our direction.