Tonight I’m going to see Pulp
…along with all the GenXers Common People.
Festival Hall tonight, and part of Marita’s birthday present. In the all-ages (alcohol-free) section, because that’s where the best seats were! Apparently that’s just how Festival Hall works; I wouldn’t expect a large number of youngsters attending for this old person music.
Looking forward to it immensely. If the buzz (well, okay, the bloke in the CD shop and the lady in the ticket office) is right, it should be a great show.
- The official video has better sound and interesting visuals, but the word “screw” is censored
- The William Shatner version (arranged by Ben Folds) is not as bad as you might first think
Update Saturday morning: After an incredibly long wait for dinner at a nearby pub, which meant we missed the entire support act, it was a great, great show from Pulp. Jarvis was in fine form, as was the crowd.
We surprised Marita by having Tony show up and sit next to us.
If you have the chance to see Pulp in concert, then do so. Highly recommended.
Update Age review of the concert. The Vine review.
Tags: Festival Hall, Pulp
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We spotted ourselves on Google Street View
In January 2010 we spotted a Google Streetview car passing the post office in Bentleigh.
Google Streetview finally updated its pictures, and it includes imagery from that day. Alas, it wasn’t shooting when the car passed us, but it did once it entered the nearby side street — that’s why you can see it turning. So while we’re in view, it’s only from a distance. Still, myself and the boys are recognisable — gotta like that!
Servicing a car that barely gets used
Somewhat to my surprise, I’ve now had my car for almost three years.
This means the dealer warranty that came with it is just about to run out, which in turn means I don’t have to keep driving it across town to Alan Mance to keep it current. Good.
I’ve only made use of that warranty once or twice, and of course it didn’t wipe out the cost of a service/repair, merely reduced it. (At one stage there was a problem with the engine stuttering, and another time one of the electric windows failed.)
I’m actually wondering how little servicing I can get away with. Consider this: I barely drive during the week. It’s not uncommon for the car to sit in the driveway from Sunday morning to Saturday afternoon.
Apart from long drives such as this past weekend (up to Marita’s parents and back; a total of about 320 km) and suburban jaunts, I reckon I’d normally do less than 50 km per week. So (and I haven’t checked this) I might drive about 3000 kilometres in a year — a long way from the Australian average of 14,600.
So I’m thinking for the basic twice-a-year checkup (including oil change) I’ll probably just start taking it to the local Ultratune, which is closeby (in Mckinnon) and in fact is closer to a railway station than the nearest Holden dealers at Elsternwick, Oakleigh or Glenhuntly.
Occasionally they might need to order a part and wait a day or two, but given how little I drive during the week, it’s unlikely to matter.
(By the way, Ultratune is one of several companies that sell roadside assistance, for $65/year — cheaper than RACV’s basic rate of $86 plus $46 establishment, and you don’t see Ultratune out lobbying for more freeways, do you…)
Tags: Astra, driving
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Downfall of the Pharaoh
Eventually even the Pharaoh will suffer his downfall. Banners for the Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibition at the Melbourne Museum are coming down.
“Lovely crinkly edges” – Our thoughts are with you, Norway
Our thoughts are with you, Norway.
…
PS. Perhaps if nothing else, this will serve as (yet another) warning about the dangers of extremism — no matter whose — and the importance of democracy, and letting people have their say and input into the political process by peaceful means.
As the Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg remarked: We meet terror and violence with more democracy and will continue to fight against intolerance.
And I might just add bravo to Joe Hockey, who recently when faced with this question from an anti-Carbon tax protestor: What is the Coalition going to do to try to stop the people of Australia taking up arms against this government?, replied: I’d say to you we should never do that.
You want to change things? Then lobby, write, protest, picket, expose, petition, rally, publicise, make your voice heard.
Violence? No. Never acceptable in a free democracy.
Tags: Norway, Oslo
6 comments
How to get ABC iView on your Samsung television
I’d heard ages ago that there was a Samsung ABC iView app in the works. It’s now out, but some kind of screw-up means it’s visible to newer (2011) Samsung television owners, but not owners of last year’s models.
Thanks to wiser people than me on the ABC iView forums, here’s how you do it, by changing the TV’s country and thus getting it to re-install the default apps:
(Note: take care here; this is at your own risk. As noted in the comments, MitH had problems with this after misreading the instructions. If things go wrong, you may need to contact Samsung support.)
1. Start @Internet TV
2. Press Fast-Forward, 2, 8, 9, Rewind. Leave about half-a-second between each button press and it should go to a menu that allows you to choose the country.
3. Choose something other than Australia. Go through the terms and conditions and wait for it to install the default apps for that country.
4. Do steps 2 and 3 again but this time choose Australia.
You should find the ABC iView app has appeared.
Yes, it’d be nice if it just appeared automagically on its own. Perhaps Samsung just aren’t publicising it yet, getting ready for some big launch.
I’ve played around with it, and it looks excellent. The navigation is never going to be as easy as via a computer, and unfortunately it’s not on iiNet’s free zone, but it’s much nicer to be able to watch programmes on the couch than sitting by the computer.
There’s only one puzzling thing: why do the Internet@TV apps (any of them) occasionally refuse to start, citing “Network interference”?
It’s not wireless interference, as I’ve got a LAN cable plugged into the back of my TV. It doesn’t seem to kick-in when there’s particularly high usage of our internet connection.
Just one of those mysteries; something I’ll investigate further as I get time.
The surrealist tram
(Probably my favourite lightbulb joke when they were all the rage was:
Q. How many surrealists does it take to change a light bulb?
A. Two. One to hold the giraffe and the other to fill the bathtub with brightly coloured machine tools.)
Plumbing mishap
I thought I’d be clever and change all the washers in the bath, and show the kids how it’s done at the same time. The shower ones were okay, but when we tried to take off the bath hot, it broke away.
Result: nothing to grip onto. I assume the whole bit will have to be replaced, but how do I get it out, given the only thing I can grip onto just broke off? There is a hexagonal section, but it’s beyond the level of the tiles, and inaccessible, at least with any spanner I own.
Ideas welcome!
5:20pm: Have got the hexagonal bit that can grip onto it, but it’s not budging. Have called for reinforcements.
Also got a replacement part, which may or may not match the other one precisely, though functionally I expect it to work — as the lady in Bunnings said, “they’re pretty much universal.”
6:50pm: Reinforcements (my highly talented brother-in-law Adrian) arrived, and with the aid of a longer lever than is supplied with the hexagonal sockets, managed to get the thingo out. We’ve replaced it with the new one, which as expected doesn’t quite match the old one; the thread where the cover thingy is meant to go doesn’t match… but it’ll do the job.
Adrian also noted that it’s better when changing a washer to use the hexagonal socket at the base of the shaft thingy rather than a conventional spanner at the top; less risk of breakage.
If you don’t have a highly talented brother-in-law called Adrian to help you with plumbing and other household mishaps, I highly recommend getting one. A highly-talented step-father called Peter would also be able to do the job… but mine is in America at the moment.
Also thanks to Dean from the Twittersphere, for the tip on getting the hexagonal sockets. (Three cheers for the #LazyWeb!)
PS. Adrian also told me something I’ve believed for ages: don’t tighten a tap too much. Tighten it just enough to stop the water. Beyond that is bad for the washer; it’ll just wear it out quicker.
Tags: home, plumbing
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