MIXing it up with VEGA

I finally switched over to Tony, Bec and Mikey on Sydney breakfast radio, VEGA 95.3 FM, this week, and I'm so glad. I really like what VEGA does with its music and all three hosts are a real hoot. (Two days of Sonia & Todd back at MIX 106.5 FM were really forgettable and underwhelming, and I've been with the old 2UW since the Malcolm T Elliott & Peter Shanahan days.)

I followed Tony and Bec on the very funny "Big Brother: Big Mouth" last year. And Mikey I've enjoyed on TV for years! Some really good laughs. And Jason Baumann, Penrith local boy and former MIX breakfast announcer, turned up as the traffic reporter!

I tried switching to VEGA a few years ago, when Nathan Hardy started there, but the signal out to Penrith was very weak. My housemate could get it in the car, but the reception here in the house was awful. Seems much improved!

Well done guys! You have a new listener!

Big Brother - all washed up?

It should have gone out with a bang, but it was more like a whimper. While I must confess to being a "Big Brother" junkie these last eight years, I found it increasing difficult to stay hooked for this 2008 season. 53-year old grandmother, Terri, was an obvious favourite and ultimate winner tonight, and I was really looking forward to the promised "best of..." scenes of eight years worth of shows. But the old clips of former hostess, Gretel Kileen, and former winners - Ben, Peter, Regina, Trevor, the Logan twins (Greg & David), Jamie and Aleisha - not to mention the infamy of bum-dancing Sara-Marie, merely reinforced how much lustre was lost from the show this year.

Yeah, I know, how much lustre did it ever have?

The prize money was back down to $250,000, no one received cars this year, no overnight program with wacky Mike Goldman filling in airtime while housemates snored, half-hearted and biased hosting efforts by Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O (Gretel never admitted on camera to having favourites!) - and it seemed like much of the regular budget at Network TEN went into flying over fasion guru, Carson Kressley, and then "Baywatch" personality, Pamela Anderson, to oil up the Aussie beefcake (and Travis) for her bizarre calendar shoot - for use in a reality TV show of her own later in the year.

I'm sure it'll be the cliche of the week, but: "It's time to go... Big Brother."

Thongs to thing for Spring

Yesterday, a week before September, the men of Sydney doffed their Winter socks and runners, and dug out their trusty thongs (flip flops for my US readers), from the dark recesses of wardrobes all over the city, to enjoy more fully the gorgeous Sunday sunshine that we received.

I went down to Penrith Showground to check out the annual display of students' art and craft in the Penrith District Show - my class really cleaned up on prize ribbons last year - and although my school did quite well, I didn't have the same emotional response since - now I'm in the library - I'm not teaching any art and craft. Sigh.

In any case, as I was saying, yesterday there was an hilarious increase in the number of Aussie men displaying tanned legs and lily-white ankles above their thonged feet. You'd think they'd spend a few days getting a more even tan around the backyard before venturing out, but no... yesterday was the first appropriate day for thong wearing, and wear thongs they did! Tan lines? Who cares about tan lines!

I would guess that, in a few more weeks, the fashion conscious guys will realize that last summer's thong varieties are so passe, and there'll be a sudden switch of styles. Gone are the days when Aussie double-pluggers were manufactured here (by the Dunlop tyre people, of course), and worn for years until the foot outline wore through to the pavement underneath, and the thongs literally fell apart. (Unless the lugs broke on the straps first.) Nowadays, Aussie men are allowed to be metrosexual enough to own several pairs of thongs at once (eg. Bodie in "Big Brother" this year entered the house boasting seven pairs, each pair colour-coded to his designer outfits!). Keeping up with the new season's designs is almost compulsory.

Bye bye, BB

Australia's "Big Brother" television series has just wound up for 2007, with a 21-year old, bottle-blonde, country girl, Aleisha, triu(m)phant* - but only just - over 24-year old, bottle-blond, gay guy, Zach.


Zach, Aleisha and host Gretel Killeen.

The decision was very close, 51% vs 49%. In fact the four last housemates (all blonds) were all deserving possible winners (if you're into trash TV). With BB's past record of making the ocker everyman the winner, I don't think many people would have guessed that a country girl and a country gay would be the last two standing (or indeed sitting, on the couch.)

Yay! Now I can actually start getting some early nights. I've become very accustomed to playing on the Internet this past few months, and listening to "Big Brother Up Late" in the background, until waaaaay to early in the mornings.

The last few days of BB 07 had lots of not-so-unpredictable surprises. The public and media may slam the show as trash TV as much as they like, but BB Australia was off to a good start way back with its very first season (2001), and the show has managed to produce some proactive social commentary on a range of issues ever since. Most of the nation watched, amazed, as young, macho, country-raised, blinkered ocker, Blair (eventually of Neighbours' fame), cried openly when gay Johnny was evicted. He then spent the next few day wearing Johnny's T-shirt.

Well done Zach and Aleisha!

* Re: triu(m)phant - poor ol' housemate Joel will never live down that forgotten "m" in a Spelling Bee.

Eight legs, no prizes

Last week, on "Big Brother", the housemates had a task whereby they had to enter a "spider chamber" and collect a specified number of huntsman spiders.

Today, in the middle of a library lesson with a class of six- and seven-year olds, a large, huntsman wandered into the library, closely followed by a very cheeky bird. just what you need to through classroom management skills into disarray.

Taking my lead from the housemates, I calmly walked over, shooed the bird out the door, and placed a plastic container over the spider so the lesson could continue.

After the students had returned to their classroom, I was able to remove the spider to the garden. Okay, Big Brother, do I get a few nights in the Rewards Room now?

Lost Wednesday

I opened the posting window at about 10pm last night, and pottered around trying to get inspiration for a witty post but - suddenly, at about 11.30pm, my Internet connection went down.

Still uninspired, but getting more desperate, I made several attempts to reboot, but once that connection is down, it's down. The midnight deadline came and went, so did "Big Brother Uplate" and thus, I went to bed.

Sigh...

Big Squeaky

A funny night tonight, while watching "Big Brother: Friday Night Games" on TV.

It was a "Nightmare" theme night, with all the housemates dressed in pyjamas, and the first game had the participants in pairs: both blindfolded, and one running through obstacles with a pillow that issued loud snoring sounds, and the other wearing a boogie man mask and squeaky shoes.

Jack, my Jack Russell terrier, was sitting quite contentedly beside me... until the voiceover on the television mentioned "squeaky shoes". Now, I often tease Jack ("Where's Squeaky, Jack?") when playing a game with his own beloved squeak toys - most only last a few days/weeks because Jack makes a point of attempting to remove the squeaker, which then gives him enough of a tooth-hold to start devouring the rest of the toy in small chunks - and here was Jack actually reacting to the word "squeaky" on the TV.

Anyway, once the "boogie men" started running in their Very Squeaky Shoes, Jack went ballistic - barking loudly and relentlessly at the TV, at me, at the heater, at cushions on the lounge, at Chookie the cockatiel... at anything that might just be hiding a squeak toy - and then looking at me imploringly as to how I'd suddenly located - and then hidden! - a squeaky toy without even moving from my spot on the lounge.

Thanks for the headache, Big Brother!

I like to watch

Yeah! Call me a voyeur, but I'm once again hooked on the Australian "Big Brother" (so-called) reality TV series. I like to think I watch it every year because of the social experiment thing, but it's probably because there's nothing more compelling that hearing gossip you're not supposed to hear - kinda like when I try to read my book on the train and everyone else is on their mobile phones. Try as I might, I can't get much reading done those days.

Whatever happened to the promise, for this year's TV series, that the participants would be from "all walks of life..."? I expected there to me a few older people this year, after the last two years' overdose of pretty young things whose idea of stimulating conversation is to quote endless chunks of dialogue from big budget movies of the 90s.

But again, almost everyone in this year's batch seems to be blond (or streaked), aged under 30, and (supposedly) "only in it for the experience, not the money". Network Ten was touting the "all walks of life..." aspect way back since last November. My mum (visiting from Perth) and my aunt, both in their 70s, almost got to audition for this year's series. See my blog entry from last November.

I was really hoping the premiere episode would show footage of the audition-hopeful crowds at Fox Studios, 'cos my Mum and aunt were bound to have been caught on video as they chatted to the big security guys charged with corraling all the potential pretty young things into their auditions.

As for the "social experiment thing", I'm waiting for the media to start doing a beat-up on how manipulative and cruel BB is, what with the Andrew/Hayley/Billy threesome, Friday Night Games, and the poor white-clad, gruel-eating foursome, slowing going wacko with the lights on, 24/7, in The White Room. And the media will make the most of it, 'cos there's no "Adults Only" version of the show scheduled this year.

Big Blue Brother is watching

Today, when I should have been doing some housework, I finally got around to adding a Site Meter to this blog.

I hadn't really felt a pressing need to do so - I used to have counters on both my "Number 96" and Geocities' "Star Trek" home pages but, as the suppliers abandoned them over time, I never replaced them. But I was still a bit (well, a lot) curious as to who was visiting this blog site (and I'd begun realising that most visitors never left actual messages or sent emails, but that didn't mean that they hadn't visited, enjoyed, or returned for more another day). I was also wondering how often people were regular readers, and/or how they found me in the first place. Other bloggers keep asking me if I know my stats, and it was kinda embarrassing (and a bit Luddite) to just shrug.

Well, it's paid off already. There's a cool world map facility and it shows from where on the globe people are reading you. Now, at this point, I knew the only reader was me, having only just uploaded the site meter seconds earlier - and there I was, a little yellow dot on Sydney, Australia - but then a little red dot lit up in the USA! Following back using the clickable tools, I discovered that there was a hot link from IDW Publishing's site, who'd found my brief review of their new "Next Generation" comic. So within only a minute of placing the site meter, I already knew that people could/would be finding "Have Phaser" that way.

So the housework can just keep piling up now, 'cos this is fun! Happy Australia Day!

"This is Big Sister..."

So my aunt decided to take my mother, who's visiting us from Perth, to the semi-regular craft show held at the Entertainment Precinct, adjacent to Fox Studios Australia, at Moore Park. My aunt got into making her own gift cards in a big way after her retirement, and when she went to the show in November 2005, the organisers had given her a flier with all the craft show dates for 2006.

When they arrived, the area that usually hosts the craft show was cordoned off, and the place was filled with young, beautiful people. After wandering aimlessly for a little while, Aunty Pat and Mum approached a security guard.

"We're looking for the craft show..." they tried to say.

"Come on in!" he exclaimed. "We need more people like you. Grey power! Sign up over here. There's a bit of a wait, but you're just what we're looking for. You'll really add some spice to the show."

Yes, my mother and her sister had stumbled upon auditions for "Big Brother 2007". (Obviously Network Ten had paid a high enough fee to oust the craft show from its regular spot.)

I can picture it now: "Attention housemates. This is Big Brother. This week, your task is to make greeting cards with the Barron sisters. Those of you who fail to glue your tinsel adequately shall enter the Punishment Room."

The Bluetooth, the whole Bluetooth and nothing but the Bluetooth

Ah, the wonders of modern tech. My mobile phone comes with Bluetooth, a supposedly wonderful wireless connection that enables my phone to share data without the cost of a phone call, and to communicate with others people's phones and even my computer. If only it was easy to do.

Actually, my phone has been able to pick up several friends' phones with Bluetooth - just not my friend's mobile of the same make and model as mine, which was bought on the same day, in the same shop! Anyway, I've since downloaded a batch of very nice high resolution photographs (that were way too large to send by email), but last week, after several head-scratching attempts to read the manual and learn how to make the phone talk to my iMac, I was able to Bluetooth my Big Brother 2006 House collection of pics to another friend's PC... and have them emailed across town to my computer! Phew!

See them, at last, here!

ConQuest in review

As Australian fan-run, "Star Trek" and science fiction media conventions go, ConQuests in Brisbane are certainly predictable, reliable, informative, friendly annual events. The recent ConQuest Silver Jubilee convention filled in all the blanks and coloured by all the numbers. I did have a predictably reliable, informative and friendly time.

Even though the last few weeks of the school term were a blur, I managed to book some air flights online and began to anticipate a relaxed holiday away from Sydney, departing mere hours after farewelling my students for their spring vacation.

I travelled to the first ConQuest 25 years ago, when I was a wide-eyed, naive "Star Trek" newbie - actress Grace Lee Whitney (Yeoman/Transporter Chief Janice Rand) was the last minute special guest of honour, much to my surprise - as I was, erm... "volunteered" to represent New South Wales fans, and the ASTREX "Star Trek" club, at the inaugural meeting of a national committee to establish a consistent set of rules/suggestions for running annual NatCons and organised fan Awards. Grace was a very exciting guest - well, I thought so but she was "too American" for some rather critical fans' tastes. And, according to an interview Ms Whitney did for Starlog magazine years later, meeting Australian fans actually helped her over her disappointment about not being in "Star Trek II", and put her on the road to recovery from many of the turmoils that had dogged her career.

During the next week, a friend and I were able to meet Grace for coffee at Sydney's airport when she flew in from Brisbane on her way home, and escort her to the international terminal. She made me promise to visit her in Los Angeles, and it was a thrill to do so in January 1984, just days after she'd filmed her secret "Star Trek III" cameo.

I raced back for the 1983 ConQuest, anticipating another last-minute guest, but the surprise was... no guest! It was at that con that I became aware of one of ConQuest's most unique and rather quaint attitudes to conventioneering: timetables were made to be broken, at least in Queensland. I've never understood the logic of spending months planning and promoting a full (and often multi-strand) order of events, only to leave each event to ran way overtime, and then have a seated audience waiting interminably for the next speaker to arrive. Only a few ConQuests over the decades have escaped this modus operandi.

My next ConQuest wasn't until 1989, having regretted letting 1988 go by and hearing how great it, George Takei (Mr Sulu) and Expo were! In 1991, I ended up on a panel about "Star Trek" fandom with no less than James Doohan (Scotty), John deLancie (Q), Richard Arnold ("Star Trek" Archivist) and New Zealand's Lana Pennington-Brown (who'd eventually become the namesake of DS9's Pennington School). At 1992's robot-themed convention, I stripped an audience member to his underpants and painted him metallic gold from head to toe!

At 1994's ConQuest, which had Jonathan Del Arco (Hugh the Borg) as guest, and a time-travelling theme, I was Master of Ceremonies. We started with the Closing Ceremony and time ran in reverse all weekend, finished up with the Opening Ceremony. Did I mention that I love running gags at conventions? Ironically, this convention (and Robocon) ran pretty well to time!

After that the next few conventions become a fuzzy haze of distant memories, but with ASTREX imploding back in Sydney, as an Official Australian Star Trek Club was licensed by Paramount, the annual pilgrimage to Brisbane was becoming a most welcome respite, and my only face-to-face contact with other "Star Trek" fans.

Anyway, this year's ConQuest put Gary Lockwood ("2001: A Space Odyssey" and the second "Star Trek" pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before") and Keir Dullea ("2001"; "2010") in the international guest spotlight, along with now-regular ConQuest visitors Richard Arnold (former "Star Trek" Archivist) and the wacky Katy Manning (Jo from "Doctor Who").

I guess I enjoyed the "2001" talks, although there was very little "2001" discussed in those sessions because Katy Manning, playing interviewer, keep taking the actors back to their roots. I was only on a day membership this year, so her promises to get back to "2001" the next day were lost on me. I much prefer Katy as a guest, rather than as a guest interviewer. No matter, there was a great room party on the Friday night, the Saturday night had the aforementioned banquet with "Starship Exeter", I was reunited with many old friends - and I snagged an excellent rarity from Richard Arnold (former ST Archivist at Paramount, and "ST Communicator" columnist) in his "Star Trek" auction: a German disco version of the theme from "Star Trek Generations", complete with Patrick Stewart frequently stating "Make it so!".

Interestingly, Richard got to see his first fan film that night! I understand he'd not seen any of the current crop up till now - although he knew about them, of course, and is friends with several people who've been making "New Voyages" episodes. (He spoke about them during his auction.) According to people at his table during the screening, Richard was pleasantly surprised and interested in "Exeter"; especially cool for me since it has no canonical characters in it (except a pre-ST VI Chang) and, had "The Savage Empire" been a licensed "Star Trek" novel or comic proposal, it would never have passed muster under Richard's old vetting rules when he worked at Paramount.

Going to Brisbane for the convention also gave me a great excuse to "do the rounds" of some favourite haunts: books and collectibles shops like Pulp Fiction, Daily Planet, Ace Comics, Egg Records, Comics Etc and the huge Toyworld in the CBD. Alas, Pippin's Old Toys had abandoned their shopfront in Clayfield.

Not to mention the Big Brother house at Dreamworld! But that's a post for another day.

As I said, ConQuests are certainly predictable, reliable, informative, friendly annual events. You get much closer to the celebrity guests of honour at these fan-run conventions than the larger commercial ventures and, if you can adjust to the laissez faire timetabling, you'll have a great experience.

"That is all."

I'm back!

Due to a nagging lower back and leg pain in the weeks before I started my recent holiday, I made myself promise to have a sabbatical from all computers while I was away in Brisbane. Even though the friend I was staying with had Internet access ("I..... neeeeed..... to Blogggggggg...."), I think I showed great restraint!

Will start putting up my news tomorrow, but here's a clue as to what I've been up to:



Captain's Log: Supplemental. After several attempts to master Bluetooth - and make it talk to my iMac and several other friends' mobiles - I've finally managed to coerce a friend to Bluetooth my phone's pics of the Big Brother 2006 House onto his PC, and then email them across to my computer. So here they are:



Above: Big Brother bathroom ("clothes on" version); the yard; the Friday Night Live arena.



Above: Big Brother lounge room with Eviction Couch; kitchen close-up; the communal bedroom.



Above: Another section of communal bedroom; more wacky games costumes in the arena; the kitchen again.