How is it that the suit and tie is almost global? With the exception of military leaders and some of those guys in the South Pacific who wear skirts, just about every male politician from every country in the world wears one, for instance, and they all look almost identical.

As it happens, I need a new suit or two. Some of my work wear is past its use by date — not necessarily worn out, but I’ve somewhat gone off the whole idea of the mix and match trousers and jackets that I’ve had for the past decade and a half.

Well, I guess I’m particularly thinking of that jacket that looks like it belongs to a crusty old professor (thankfully sans elbow patches).

Judging from the reviews, Salute looks like a good film. I was pondering if it might be educational to my kids, when I noticed the rating.

PG. For “Civil rights themes”. Hmm. Can’t say I’ve spotted that particular classification before.

It almost sounds like more of a recommendation than a warning.

(The trailer is here.)

iTunes has changed the way I buy music, at least to a certain extent. I’m still buying the odd CD, but if I know I want just one particular song, I’m buying just that. For $1.69, you can’t go wrong, can you?

(Though given in the US the price is US$0.99, and the exchange rate is almost at parity, it’s fair to say we’re being gouged. Economist Joshua Gans has calculated an iTunes index, similar to The Economist’s BigMac index… or the PTUA’s train ticket index!)

On the up side it’s certainly cheaper than buying whole albums, and I’m no longer in the situation where I end up with a whole CD otherwise full of songs I don’t really like. On the down side, it’s reduced the chances of discovering that I really like lots of a particular artist’s other songs. (Example: Ocean Colour Scene, which I found after wanting July, used on a TV show.)

Not that I’m buying heaps of individual tracks. Maybe one every few weeks, when I feel a particular urge to own a track, though that chocolate for tunes scheme saw me get five in a week.

Here are some individual tracks I’ve bought recentlyish.

American Pie, Don McLean — this is almost as old as I am. I grabbed it on Friday, after reading Kathy’s terrific blog post about using it as a jumping board for teaching her daughters about 60s culture, music, politics, and even a bit of spiritualism. It’s that kind of song, and having been brought up on the music and ideas of the period has me appreciating the many references immensely.

Is there an equivalent song covering more recent events? (No, Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start The Fire doesn’t quite do it.)

The song also takes me back to a long taxi ride through Sydney, from Frenchs Forest to the airport, where this song on the radio seemed to run the entire length of the trip — though it probably didn’t really.

Grey in LA, Loudon Wainwright III — heard this on the radio months ago. A great satirical song about Los Angeles, with some commentary on current issues that I’m somewhat sympathetic to:

And I suppose
Laurie David sure knows
All those cars we drive heat up our earth

And sea temperatures rise
And those constant blue skies
And brush fires can sure curb your mirth

She’s a Rainbow, Rolling Stones — I’d love to tell you some great and deep and meaningful reason why I nabbed this song, but in truth I think I got hooked on it again after hearing it on the Sony Bravia TV advert.

Take Five (The Russians Are Coming), Val Bennett — a great reggae track, perhaps better known as the theme tune from the TV series The Secret Life of Machines. After finding it for free (legal) download, I watched this series with the kids recently, and we’ve all ended up with this song on our iPods. Apart from on iTunes, it’s also available on one of the Trojan Records box sets — I plan to track some of them down at some stage, as there is some terrific reggae on them.

Room at the Top, Tom Petty — I remembered this one from way back when it was released. Truth be told I’m not really sure what it’s about, but it sounds positive. I just like the music.

I Don’t Like Mondays, Boomtown Rats — another oldie; what sparked finding this was hearing it at the primary school concert last year! They used it during the traditional (and generally very funny) teacher’s performance at the end.

(As an aside, why are all the lyrics web sites so overrun with ads? Talk about taking it to extremes.)

What songs have you sought out to hear again?

Dropped through Myer last Sunday (last day of their stocktake sale) to see if they had any nice work shirts or ties on special. I hate clothes shopping, but discounts numb the pain.

Saw a shirt I thought looked all right. Special price: $29.95. Pelaco, okay brand.

Take to counter. Extra super discount: rings up for $12.50.

This time, I win.

That cult show, the one I’ve liked for 30+ years. I think it’s really gone mainstream.

Nice touch the ads being on phone booths, too. Not quite as well done as the Get Smart ones though.

We all did stupid things when we were young.

I’m ashamed to admit that one of the sillier things I did in my teenage years was to dispose of my Tintin books.

After a while I realised my mistake, and started collecting them again, book by book. (I decided I preferred the full-size versions, not the 3-in-1 small editions.)

It’s taken me a few years, but last week I finally got the last one to complete the collection*: Flight 714.

Actually since I first owned it, they’ve amended the name to Flight 714 To Sydney, to better match the original French title, though I suspect I’ll always know it as just Flight 714.

When I bought it at Dymocks (their end of financial year 20% off sale) I had to ask for it at the Special Orders counter. I asked the lady why this was the case, and she said that Tintin books, apparently more than anything else in the store, let alone the graphic novel section, get stolen a lot.

Who knew? Apparently there’s a trade in stolen Tintin books. They’re probably smuggled inside statues with broken ears.

Re-reading it brought back some happy memories. Though I got the biggest laugh out of a bit I’d forgotten about, with the Proboscis monkey. And I like the mystery of their rescue.

*My collection does not include The Lake Of Sharks. I originally owned it, but it was not actually written by Herge, and the story is pretty naff. And actually, I don’t have Alph-Art, his uncompleted final work, either, and I don’t really want Land of Soviets. I do have a lovely edition of the original version of Congo that my sister gave me, and a number of very good books about Tintin.

Another top class bit of parking. Okay, so it doesn’t appear to actually say “No parking”, but it’s not hard to imagine what the intent was.

I haven’t seen the Get Smart movie yet, but I’m quite amused by these telephone box adverts for it.

In Rippon Street, they’re apparently very proud of that beautification award that they almost won, twenty years ago.

The week before we moved, the BBC started a new drama, starring William Hartnell. An old man, whose name appeared to be Grandfather or the Doctor, had a police phone box of the kind we saw in the street all the time in those days. It turned out to be a magical and unimaginably wonderful time machine. My brother and I watched this drama in complete amazement. The first ever episode of Doctor Who. I had never been so excited in all my life. A whole week to wait to watch the next instalment. Never have seven days crawled so slowly by, for all that they involved a complicated house move from Buckinghamshire to Norfolk. A week later, in that new house, my brother and I turned on the good old television set in its new sitting room, ready to watch Episode 2. The TV had been damaged in transit and was never to work again. We missed that episode and nothing that has transpired in my life since has ever, or could ever, make up for that terrible, terrible disappointment. There is an empty space inside me that can never be filled. It is amazing neither of us were turned into psychopathic serial killers from that moment.

– Stephen Fry

I hope by now he’s seen that second episode.

For those who are waiting for ABC1 to get its act together and show (new) series 4, they’ve said this year the show will air on Sunday nights. Voyage of the Damned will be on Sunday 29th June at 7:30pm, followed by season 4 starting the following week.

PS. I have a strict comment policy of no spoilers for AU broadcast viewers.