1. Started watching an episode of Review With Miles Barlow.
WTF????
It's so racist that a part of me is thinking (hoping?) that he was being sarcastic...or ironic. Like that guy who suggested Irish people should eat their children. Or when Dame Edna dissed the idea of learning Spanish.
29. Doubted he was being ironic when I saw the next Tweet.
Again, I don't really fully understand the joke, but it's anti-Muslim, and anti-people who aren't mean to Muslims.
30. Thought about how we're all a little racist.
Then some people are a lot racist.
I think Bill Leak is probably in the latter group.
31. Started to watch another 2007 Tropfest film.
This one is called "A-Z".
32. Saw that the movie is animated.
It's maybe a South Park type animation? I think instead of drawings, though, it uses cut out pieces of photographs.
33. Googled, and learned from Lord Wiki that South Park uses a style of animation called cutout.
34. Reminded by Lord Wiki that Charlie and Lola uses cutout animation.
35. Learned from Lord Wiki that South Park actually uses computers to achieve the look, but the first episode was the real deal.
36. Finished watching the movie.
I thought it was very bizarre.
It's like a dark-adult version of a short they'd play on Nick J. or the Disney Channel.
No! I know. It's like a Sesame Street segment—a dark version that involves koalas killed in a smoothie machine.
The whole thing is about a guy who's instructed to eat all his favorite animals (from A-Z) in the hopes that he'll turn vegetarian.
It's like vegetarian propaganda in the form of a demented alphabet book.
37. Couldn't find "A-Z" listed on IMDb. Nor can I find anything about the creator, Zenon Zohler.
38. Did find something about the narrator of the film. His name is Murray Hartin, and he has a website.
39. Learned that "A-Z" is a story written by Hartin.
40. Looked up the person who did the music for the film. It's a guy named Pat Drummond.
41. Learned from Lord Wiki that Drummond and Hartin were both part of something called "Naked Poets".
So "A-Z" wasn't their first adventure together.
42. Saw that there's a Naked Poets website.
2. Amused by the first segment. Myles Barlow (Phil Lloyd) is working on rating the act of killing Kyle Sandilands.
In order to get himself ready for the act, he enlists Anthony Hayes to pretend to be Sandilands, and has Dan Wylie play Jackie. O.
3. Looked at a photo of Kyle Sandilands.
Myles Barlow said he wanted Hayes for the job, because he looks so much like Sandilands.
It's true!
It's true!
4. Looked at Google Images to compare again. Here's Sandilands, and here's Hayes.
5. Liked John Jarratt's cameo on the episode.
6. Amused by part of racism segment—the idea that it's socially acceptable to say prejudice things about some groups but not others.
The example on the show is some guys are watching sports and make a disparaging remark about poms. This is seen as okay. Then Myles Barlow uses the term "darkie", and he gets glares.
7. Figured it's probably more okay to criticize nationality than skin color.
8. Thought that it's also usually more socially okay to criticize groups who've often been the aggressors in history more so than it's okay to criticize groups who've often been the victims.
9. Learned from the segment that it's hard to be racist in a multicultural town or city. It's hard to get away from all the races you're racist against.
Though that's only the case with extreme racists who have a strong practice of discrimination.
People with more subtle racism can get by. They don't avoid businesses owned by the races they dislike. They get what they want, or need, from the people they hate; then badmouth them later.
10. Finished the episode.
It's probably one of my favorite episodes, of the show, that I've seen so far.
11. Started to watch another episode.
This one has Americans; though I'm not sure if they're real Americans or Americans played by Australian actors.
12. Looked on IMDb.
One of the actors, John Weigand, is American. I can't tell about the others.They don't have much biography information on IMDb.
Nick Flint, another actor playing an American has been on All Saints and Home and Away. That leads me to think he's likely Australian. But he could also be an American living in Australia.
OR he could just be one of my Australian actors who does well at imitating the American accent.
13. Saw that Nick Flint has a showreel on YouTube. He's described as an Australian actor who's relocated to New York.
14. Started to watch the showreel, and realized that, in a mild way, Flint reminds me of David Tennant.
15. Learned from the showreel that, on Home and Away, Nick Flint's character was engaged to Sally Fletcher (Kate Ritchie).
16. Liked the segment about hatred on the episode of Review with Myles Barlow.
Myles does various things to get people in his community to hate him—admits to being a sex offender, gives people parking tickets, talks loudly on the phone at a movie theater, works as a telemarketer, etc.
The thing that stood out to me is that the people who acted out against Myles were as awful as him. Their reaction to his negative traits and behavior were pretty much equal to Myles' bad behavior.
It reminds me a bit of what I read about Clementine Ford earlier this week.
I think sometimes people respond to villainous (or simply annoying) behavior in a strong and decent way. Then other people use bad (or annoying) behavior as an excuse to act like assholes.
It's like the child whose bullying behavior is captured and uploaded to YouTube. Then he gets hate mail and death threats from a bunch of zealous adults.
Yeah. Sometimes fire needs to be fought with fire. Though it might help to see if simple water might help. Or at least make sure the fire that's fighting the fire isn't bigger than the original fire.
17. Remembered what I read in one of my old posts today. I had overreacted to a tween's rude behavior—scolding him even after he had apologized. I had a lot of regret after the incident. As I should have!
I guess that's the key. React, but don't overreact.
How would our world change if we knew for sure there was life after death, and it was easy for our dearly-departed to talk to us via the Internet?
The Dead are Online a novel by Dina Roberts
18. Looked at our lovely Christmas tree.
It's the first I've ever had in my entire life.
I think a Jew having a Christmas tree is kind of like an Australian trick or treating on Halloween.
There are mixed feelings. On one hand, there's that attitude, it's fun and lovely. I love the idea of it. What's the problem with our family participating? But then there's also some guilt for giving into the dominant culture.
Yeah. I do think Jews to Christians are like Australians to Americans. The mixed feelings of Australians towards Americans reminds me very much of my feelings of being Jewish in a Christian-dominated culture.
19. Figured my own personal feelings have matched the feelings of Australia, as a whole, towards the United States.
I've seen Australians who want to move to America, love American culture, and want to embrace all things USA. That's been me at times in terms of Christmas. I wanted to be a part of it.
I've seen Australians who are very antagonistic towards American cultural imperialism.They work hard to keep Americanisms out of their lives and out of their children's lives. They correct their children if they say pharmacy instead of chemist. It's fairy floss NOT cotton candy. They go to the theatre not the theater.
There have been times that I've been that way about Christmas—wanting to throw daggers at those ignorant fools who wished me a Merry Christmas.
I remember my annoyance with my high school chorus teacher because Chanukah songs were underrepresented in the holiday program.
I remember my annoyance with my high school chorus teacher because Chanukah songs were underrepresented in the holiday program.
20. Decided now my feelings about it have been pretty much reduced to aesthetics, cost, and workload
.
.
I love how the Christmas tree looks, but I don't love the price tag (insert Jewish joke here), and....
Well, the work wasn't so bad. Jack and I put the tree together while listening to music. He did most of the work, which was nice. And it took only about an hour. I'm a bit stressed, though, about taking it apart. And where do we store it? We have various rodents visiting our attic, so I don't want it there.
I guess we could put it back in the garage?
Anyway.....
One thing I thought of was that since we're not official members of the Christmas-Club, we don't have to follow the tradition rules. I was thinking it could be more of a winter tree than Christmas tree; and maybe we'll keep it up until March. We'll take some of the lights and ornaments off.
Maybe we can decorate the tree for Valentine's Day. Although that would probably result in more money being spent.
21. Wanted to mention that we put our little koala pinchers on the tree. That's what we have for ornaments for now—that and our Disney World MagicBands. Well, and there are a few other things we found around the house.
22. Thought about how we live in a multicultural world; and people should celebrate what they want to celebrate; eat what they want to eat; watch what they want to watch, etc.
There are so many wonderful things out there. We shouldn't feel confined to our own culture.
23. Hoped that, on balance, there are some Christians out there spinning a dreidel.
And for every Australian who chooses to trick or treat, hopefully there's an American eating Tim Tams, listening to Jimmy Barnes, or addictively watching Home and Away.
24. Learned about the Bill Leak controversy on Twitter.
Apparently he's a cartoonist, and he made a racist comic about Indians.
I don't get the cartoon.
I can see why it might be offensive; though I don't understand what the joke is about.
25. Learned from Lord Wiki that Bill Leak is a portrait painter along with being a cartoonist.
He's tried to win the Archibald Prize, but that hasn't happened to him yet.
26. Learned that this isn't the first time Leak has attracted controversy.
He got in trouble for equating Kevin Rudd to TinTin.
Why is that offensive?
I don't get it.
27. Learned that Bill Leak had a serious head injury in 2008...from a fall.
28. Offended by Bill Leak.
I went to his Twitter page; and saw his Tweet that goes along with the cartoon. He says,
India and other developing nations are too stupid to handle renewable energy and should stick to coal.WTF????
It's so racist that a part of me is thinking (hoping?) that he was being sarcastic...or ironic. Like that guy who suggested Irish people should eat their children. Or when Dame Edna dissed the idea of learning Spanish.
29. Doubted he was being ironic when I saw the next Tweet.
Again, I don't really fully understand the joke, but it's anti-Muslim, and anti-people who aren't mean to Muslims.
30. Thought about how we're all a little racist.
Then some people are a lot racist.
I think Bill Leak is probably in the latter group.
31. Started to watch another 2007 Tropfest film.
This one is called "A-Z".
32. Saw that the movie is animated.
It's maybe a South Park type animation? I think instead of drawings, though, it uses cut out pieces of photographs.
33. Googled, and learned from Lord Wiki that South Park uses a style of animation called cutout.
34. Reminded by Lord Wiki that Charlie and Lola uses cutout animation.
35. Learned from Lord Wiki that South Park actually uses computers to achieve the look, but the first episode was the real deal.
36. Finished watching the movie.
I thought it was very bizarre.
It's like a dark-adult version of a short they'd play on Nick J. or the Disney Channel.
No! I know. It's like a Sesame Street segment—a dark version that involves koalas killed in a smoothie machine.
The whole thing is about a guy who's instructed to eat all his favorite animals (from A-Z) in the hopes that he'll turn vegetarian.
It's like vegetarian propaganda in the form of a demented alphabet book.
37. Couldn't find "A-Z" listed on IMDb. Nor can I find anything about the creator, Zenon Zohler.
38. Did find something about the narrator of the film. His name is Murray Hartin, and he has a website.
39. Learned that "A-Z" is a story written by Hartin.
40. Looked up the person who did the music for the film. It's a guy named Pat Drummond.
41. Learned from Lord Wiki that Drummond and Hartin were both part of something called "Naked Poets".
So "A-Z" wasn't their first adventure together.
42. Saw that there's a Naked Poets website.