• NT Intervention: Let’s Try That In Sydney – Fascinating thought experiment by a New Matilda contributor. Turns out the author lives in my apartment complex! (I saw the “Alcohol prohibited” sign on his balcony…)
• ethipedia – Truly Sustainable Business Practices – This is something I was thinking Choice Magazine could do for the Australian market, but never quite got around to expressing it. A site that "crowd-sources" data to test ethical business claims to help highlight greenwashers.
• Obama to Limit Executive Pay to $500,000 a Year Under New Rules – "President Barack Obama will announce tomorrow that he’s imposing a cap of $500,000 on the compensation of top executives at companies that receive federal rescue funds, an administration official said." About. Bloody. Time….
• Israel’s use of white phosphorus confirmed – "Amnesty International delegates visiting the Gaza Strip found indisputable evidence of widespread use of white phosphorus in densely populated residential areas in Gaza City and in the north. … Such extensive use of this weapon in Gaza's densely populated residential neighbourhoods is inherently indiscriminate. Its repeated use in this manner, despite evidence of its indiscriminate effects and its toll on civilians, is a war crime,"
• Rudd hampers police child-protection efforts – "$2.8 million, which the Howard government allocated to expand the Australian Federal Police’s Online Child Sexual Exploitation Team (OCSET), was instead used by Rudd to help create Conroy’s $44.5 million Rabbit-Proof Firewall. … Without that money, OCSET simply doesn’t have the staff to investigate all of the suspected pedophiles it already knows about."

These links come from my Delicious feed.

Part of the Jager Uprising series. 5 bands across 2 stages with great Sydney acts The Grand Lethals, City Calm Down, Beggars of White Noise, The Kandy Apples.

Bands start at 8:00pm and we’re on at 9:30pm sharp.

In a previous post I outlined the costs of recording an independent EP, and hinted that with Fuzu’s second EP we were trying to significantly reduce our costs.

Some friends who read the post found it useful, and I’ve also participated in some further discussions on a related post over at new music strategies.

As we’ve just completed mixing and mastering (i.e. we’re close to finished the project) I thought it might be worthwhile looking at the costs so far…

Read the rest of this entry »

My friends Sonny and Biddy who are We Buy Your Kids have an exhibition along with Greedy Hen on at China Heights at the moment. Details below:

Details are:

China Heights – Opening Fri 6 Feb
Upstairs 257 Crown Street, Darlinghurst

Every year I approach the “Australia Day” holiday with a sense of agitation. I want to celebrate my country, but to hold the holiday as a marking of the British invasion of this country has long been of concern to me. (As an aside, in the lead up to this year’s event, Ang and I were considering ways that we could show solidarity with the first Australians on the day – sadly we weren’t that successful – suggestions welcome…).

With that in mind, I think Mick Dodson’s suggestion that the date be changed is a worthy one. If Australia Day is truly about celebrating inclusiveness and everything we love about this country, and we have any respect for our indigenous brothers and sisters, we should emphatically not be “celebrating” on this day.

Imagine if your ancestors were nearly wiped out by a colonial power, only to have the “national day of celebration” occur on the first day of that offensive? How would you feel?

The fact that Rudd isn’t even willing to have the conversation, likely due to the political ramifications of accepting to do so (it would be political suicide), is a sign of how deeply ingrained the racism, especially towards this nation’s original owners, is in this country. Why shouldn’t this be on the national agenda? It makes that word “Sorry” sound hollow…

This is an opportunity to step beyond the empty rhetoric and actually acknowledge what really happened when this country was “settled”. Sadly, it may take far too long before we see that step taken…

Anyways – News Limited is running a poll on whether or not the date should be changed – feel free to add your voice. At the moment it seems the crowd is oblivious to the problems with calling 26 January “Australia Day”.

• Gaza: Beyond Humanitarian Speeches, a Population Caught in a Deadly Trap – "As of this date, these minimal conditions, as provided for by the Geneva Conventions, are not being met."

These links come from my Delicious feed.

• The Doc Searls Weblog : Markets are miracles – Doc Searls shares a story about a conversation – scroll down to the "Markets are Miracles" section. The markets that Doc describes are the sorts of markets I'd like to participate in. The idea inspires me. The one thing that I'd add to Doc's description is "conversation with nature". But that's a whole other story…

These links come from my Delicious feed.

Israel has reportedly lost 8 people in the current conflict, 3 of those civilians. Palestinian casualties amount to over 668 , make that 774, with civilian deaths at around 50% according to the UN.

The recent attacks on a school in Gaza raised the death toll by as many as 42 people, including 13 children.

I have yet to find any details of deaths related to the Hamas rocket attacks that supposedly justify Israel’s massive military offensive (though I’d be interested to learn more if anyone has links).

I was watching the 7:30 Report last night on the ABC and a UN representative responded to the school massacre. He passionately yet eloquently spoke against Israel’s attacks, calling for an immediate cessation to hostilities (on both sides) and called for international humanitarian law to be upheld (i.e. for Israel to cease attacks on civilian-populated areas and Hamas to not use human shields – which it should be added there is scant evidence of outside of IOF statements as far as I can tell). During the interview he used the words “disproportionate use of force”.

Given these statistics, I’d have to say I agree with his conclusion…

Just a quick note to say that I’ll be joining a host of great musos this Thursday and Friday night at the Hopetoun Hotel, Surry Hills, to perform songs from Big Star for the nonzero records/FBi radio fundraiser show.

If you’re on Facebook, you can get more details on the event page.

On the Thursday night Fuzu (my band) is also playing a 40 minute set kicking off around 9:15pm. But if you can’t make that, we’re also playing a headline show the following Wednesday at the Hopetoun (Facebookers: details here).

• Why give music away for free? – Interesting discussion on the "give music away and make money elsewhere" meme. I've left a few comments in the thread – but worth a read if you're interested in the topic.
• Tesco Develops Tool to Eco-Screen In-Store Materials – From the article: 'Retailers often think about the environmental impact of their buildings, but not the items inside the store, such as signage, shelving, service desks, and trolleys, said Tesco environmental design manager Richard Denton. “[We] didn’t want to stop at the door,” he said.' Good to see another big corporate looking into the impacts of their core business, not just their own operations.
• Australian Government response to ALRC Review of sedition laws in Australia – December 2008 – The Government will be removing "sedition" from the Criminal Code. These laws could be used to prosecute legitimate dissent in Australia, so their removal is a big step forward for civil liberties.
• Low emissions coal technology: news, views & facts – Propaganda from the coal industry about how much they're doing about CO2. So hollow it would be funny if people weren't likely to buy into the BS. There is no such thing as "clean coal" – even if sequestration works, it only delays the inevitable…
• 350.org – 90-Second Animation For Global Day of Action – Cool animation/video/visualisation in support of a global day of action on global warming.

These links come from my Delicious feed.