Anthony LaPaglia

Anthony LaPaglia is an actor. He's on an American show called Without a Trace. Although maybe it's not on anymore. Is it? I'm not sure.

LaPaglia has been on a bunch of other stuff, but I can't think of anything off the top of my head.

Last night I watched the end of The Reader, and thought I saw his name in the credits...as a producer. But I may have confused his name with another name.

Lord Wiki says that baby Anthony was born in Adelaide, on 31 January 1959. His mom was a secretary, and his dad was an auto mechanic, and car dealer. Mommy LaPaglia had Dutch heritage, and Daddy LaPaglia had immigrated from Italy. So, that's where we get that last name.

LaPaglia has two brothers. One is also an actor, Jonathan LaPaglia. He was on an American TV show about time travel called Seven Days. I don't think I've heard of it.

The other brother followed in their father's footsteps, and is a car salesman.

It looks like all three brothers live in Santa Monica, California. I wonder if they're close....I mean emotionally, not geographically.

For his schooling, LaPaglia went to Rostrevor College. It's a Catholic school, so LaPaglia might be Catholic.

LaPaglia did some acting in his late teens in Adelaide. Then he rushed off to America. That's pretty brave.

I'm going to read his career stuff on IMDb. First I'm going to finish up with the other stuff on Lord Wiki.

Besides acting, LaPaglia likes football....I think the Australian version. I guess although he lives in America, he frequently visits Australia. Lord Wiki says, in the 1980's, LaPaglia was a goalkeeper for the National Soccer League. He played for Adelaide. I'm guessing he returned to Australia for the whole season. Maybe?

LaPaglia has been married twice. He has a daughter with his second wife.

Here's something interesting. When he came to America, he decided to speak with an American accent. He thought it would help him get work. I really don't know if that works or not. Anyway, he ended up losing his Australian accent. Although some people think they can sometimes hear slight remnants of it. LaPaglia has been able to put on an Australian accent for Australian movies. So at least he can fake it. I guess it's not lost completely. I wonder though what accent he uses off camera in Australia. Does he still speak American? I think some people are accent chameleons. They'll pick up whatever accent is around them.

I've switched over to IMDb now. LaPaglia is not the producer of The Reader. The name I saw yesterday was Anthony Minghella. How did I confuse that? Sometimes I wonder about myself.

I may have also misinterpreted Lord Wiki. From what he said, I thought LaPaglia moved to the U.S in his late teens/early adulthood. But his first screen appearance was in 1985. LaPaglia was around twenty-six then. I guess he could have moved there earlier, and it just took him a long time to find acting work. That does happen, I'm sure.

This first appearance was in the TV show Amazing Stories. LaPaglia had a bit part as a Mechanic #2 in the episode entitled "The Mission". I don't remember it, which is weird because Kiefer Sutherland was one of the stars. I had a crush on him. I'm sure I saw it though. It probably just slipped from my memory.

In the next couple of years, LaPaglia did one time guest appearances on various TV shows. I'm not going to list them all. I'm going to skip ahead to Cold Steel. This thriller, starring Sharon Stone, came out in 1987. LaPaglia played a character named Spooky. I don't think his part was very big.

In 1988, LaPaglia got the title role in a TV movie called Frank Nitti: The Enforcer. Janet-55 reviews the movie on IMDb. She says, The film is beautifully made and acted by all throughout. As has been already mentioned it is illuminating to see a member of the mafia being depicted as a truly caring husband and father, thus making the scene concerning the death of his wife intensely poignant - LaPaglia is always streets ahead of most other actors in putting over the deeper emotional aspects of a character and here in this role he excels. 

Lord Wiki says that Frank Nitti was one of Al Capone's top henchmen.

I'm not sure if I agree with Janet-55. Is it that unusual for Hollywood to present sympathetic portrayals of gangsters?

In the same year, LaPaglia played for the other side of the law. He played a sergeant in another TV movie called Police Story: Gladiator School. His co-stars in this included Ed O'Neil and Benjamin Bratt.

In 1989, LaPaglia was in Slaves of New York. That sounds somewhat familar to me. It was directed by James Ivory, that guy who made Howard's End and A Room with a View. I totally assumed that guy would be British, but he was born in California.

LaPaglia is very low in the credits, so I'm guessing his part wasn't too substantial.

Lord Wiki says the movie is about the fashion and art world in NYC. It got some pretty bad reviews, and didn't do so well at the box-office. However, on a brighter, it's picked up a cult-following among the gay community for this scene.

In 1990, LaPaglia was in Betsy's Wedding. I'm pretty sure I saw that one. This time, LaPaglia is high up in the credits. He even has a memorable quote. I could be whatever you need. I could do anything for the woman I love. I believe in saying what you feel. You are the blood in my veins, I would walk through fire for you. I will always be available, I belong to you. I wonder if she loved him back. It's one of those monologues that would be great to hear from someone you love, and horrible to hear from someone you don't.

Lord Wiki says this is the movie that launched LaPaglia's film career.

Also in 1990, LaPaglia did a TV movie, Criminal Justice, with Forest Whitaker, Rosie Perez, and Jennifer Grey, When I think of Whitaker, I think of The Crying Game, and the scorpion/frog story.

In 1991, LaPaglia was in He Said, She Said. That's the one with Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth Perkins. I might have seen it. It's a romantic-comedy type thing.

Here's the trailer. It looks pretty awful to me. I didn't see LaPaglia.

LaPaglia did some other stuff in 1991, He was in the Michael Keaton movie, One Good Cop. It's a drama. I don't know if I've seen it. I think I'm thinking of another Michael Keaton movie. Maybe he was a drug addict? What was that? Ah! Clean and Sober. In One Good Cop, LaPaglia plays Keaton's partner. He's killed, and Keaton tries to adopt his orphaned kids. I guess his role is kind of small....well, since he dies. But maybe he has some flashbacks.

LaPaglia did 29th Street with Danny Aiello. I think Aiello plays LaPaglia's father. It's about winning the lottery. It's based on the true story of the first person to win the New York state lottery. Lord Wiki says the New York state lottery began in 1967. Although I'm not sure if the first win happened that year.

LaPaglia was in a TV movie called Keeper of the City. It's another mafia thing. I guess this is what happens when you're an Italian actor.

Here's the trailer. The acting and writing looks kind of bad, but the storyline sounds fairly interesting. LaPaglia plays a psychotic killer who goes after mafia bosses. His father had been a mafia boss, and I guess he hadn't liked that.

In 1992, LaPaglia was in a horror-comedy TV movie called Black Magic. It involves a witch. LaPaglia plays the dead cousin of the protagonist. He appears in dreams.

Then we have Whispers in the Dark. Annabella Sciorra plays a psychiatrist in it. I used to not like her...for no reason. I guess sometimes we're attracted to people, and then sometimes we're UNattracted to people. But then I saw What Dreams May Come, and I liked her in that. I love that movie.

Oh! And Jamey Sheridan is in Whispers in the Dark. His name sounded familar, but I couldn't remember who he is. He's played the big bad guy in The Stand.

I don't really have much to say about Whispers in the Dark itself. It looks fairly dumb to me.

Next we have a John Landis vampire movie. Innocent Blood. Landis did American Werewolf in London. Maybe this could be seen as a sort of companion movie. I've never heard of it, so I'm guessing it wasn't that successful. I mean if I haven't heard of a recent movie, that means nothing. I'm out of it when it comes to movies these days. But I was really into movies back into the 1990's.

LaPaglia has a memorable quote in Innocent Blood. He says, He wasn't so innocent. He's a lawyer. I think this is in reference to the fact that the vampire is one that tries to kill only bad guys.
Lord Wiki says LaPaglia plays a cop, and the vampires love interest.

Here's the trailer. It looks fairly okay to me.

In 1993, LaPaglia was in that Mike Myers movie, So I Married an Axe Murderer. I remember hearing of that film, but I don't think I ever saw it.

LaPaglia plays Myer's best friend.

Here's the trailer. Myers also plays the father of his (Myer's) character, and he sounds just like Shrek.

In 1993, LaPaglia did an Australian movie! This was The Custodian with Hugo Weaving. LaPaglia plays a cop. It seems this guy is usually playing either cops or mafia people. Why doesn't someone try something different, and cast him as a librarian.

The cop in this movie isn't dealing with vampires. He's dealing with corruption.

The dentist in Finding Nemo is in the movie.

LaPaglia was nominated for an AFI award. He lost to Harvey Keitel in The Piano. So, New Zealand movies can win AFI awards? Well, I guess foreign films can win Oscars. Right?


Yep. Lord Wiki just reminded me that Slumdog Millionaire won, and that was British. Plus, there's probably been others.

Here's a trailer for The Custodian. That one's not English. What language is that? It sounds Spanish to me, but I'm not sure. Maybe Italian?

Here's the trailer in English. I can't really tell what it's about, but it looks somewhat thrilling.

In 1994, LaPaglia did a TV movie called Past Tense. If I'm understanding Lord Wiki correctly, LaPaglia plays a cop in this movie too. Oh, and he also just gave me major spoilers about the movie. I can't say I'm impressed with how the mystery turns out.

Also in 1994, LaPaglia was in The Client. That's the John Grisham thing with Susan Sarandon. Lord Wiki says this is a LaPaglia-mafia movie rather than a LaPaglia-policeman movie.

Here's the trailer. LaPaglia can be seen briefly at 1:23. The child in that movie later died of a heroin overdose. I don't know if I knew that or not.

Also in 1994, LaPaglia did another Australian film. This one was with Rebecca Gibney, and Jessica Napier's daddy. Lucky Break. I actually remember writing about this movie before. It's the one with the woman who's disabled, and tries to hide it.

Here's the trailer. It's American....maybe fan made? Although that voice sound so familar to me. You know what. I think one of Jack's old kiddie videos had that voice. I think it was a video about colors and shapes. Maybe there was a whole set of videos, actually.

I'm reading about the plot of the movie on IMDb, and it sounds a bit like my novel Thirty Cats. Actually, I'm having deja vu. Maybe I mentioned all this the last time I talked about the movie. Anyway, both stories deal with having a disability/disorder. When do you tell a romantic interest the truth about yourself?

Next, we have an American movie with Tom Cruise's ex-wife....not the Australian one. This is Killer. Let me guess. LaPaglia plays a cop.

No, actually in this one, he's an assassin.

What was he in Mixed Nuts?

Oh, you know. I never found out what he was in Lucky Break. Maybe he was a librarian.

In Mixed Nuts, LaPaglia was named Felix. It sounds like a cop or Mafia guy.

Lord Wiki says the movie is about people who work at a suicide hotline place. Felix is the slacker boyfriend of one of the hotline workers. He just got out of prison.

Here's the trailer. It looks okay. It has an impressive cast: Steve Martin, Adam Sandler, Juliet Lewis, Liev Schrieber.....

In 1995, LaPaglia was in Empire Records. It's about an independent music store. Here's the trailer. It doesn't look too exciting to me.

LaPaglia had four screen projects in 1996. The first was Chameleon. It's a government agent vs. druglord thing. I don't have much to say about it.

Next we have a TV biopic called Never Give Up: The Jimmy V Story. It's about a coach/sports writer who dies of cancer. In 1993, Valvano did this well-known speech. He says everyday we should do three things...laugh, think, and be moved to tears. I like that. And I think I do each of those things everyday.

LaPaglia worked with Steve Buscemi in Trees Lounge. Buscemi wrote, directed, and starred in it. It's about a guy living a miserable life. Here's the trailer. Tom Cruise's ex-wife is in this one too.

This is kind of funny. LaPaglia reunites with the actress in Lucky Break, for Brilliant Lies. In the former they had a romance going on. In this movie, it looks like they're enemies. The movie is about a woman suing her formal employer for sexual harassment. LaPaglia plays the employer. I wonder if he's guilty, or not. Although I can't say I care that much.

Oh! The director was Richard Franklin. I wrote about him before. So, I've probably written about this movie before. How quickly I forget.

In 1997, LaPaglia was in a miniseries called Murder One: Diary of a Serial Killer.

Lord Wiki says it turned into a TV series. LaPaglia played the Assistant District Attorney.

Okay. I see the TV show on IMDb now. It was on for two seasons, and LaPaglia was in the second one.

Also in 1997, LaPaglia did a movie with Aidan Quinn and Courtney Cox. Commandment.

You know, I might have seen this. It seems vaguely familar. It's a religious kind of thing.

Here's the trailer. It looks kind of cute. I might like it, or I may have liked it when I saw it...if I saw it.

The Garden of Redemption is another religious thing. The TV movie is about a priest during Nazi Europe. Is LaPaglia the priest?

Yes, I guess he is. The priest is the main character, and LaPaglia is the main star. Put two and two together, and.....

In 1998, LaPaglia narrated a documentary called Mob Law: A Film Portrait of Oscar Goodman. Lord Wiki says Goodman is an attorney, and the mayor of Las Vegas. The mob thing comes from the fact that as a lawyer, Goodman represented big crime bosses.

I'm really not into mafia stories. Nor am I really into drug and cop stories. So many Anthony LaPaglia movies don't appeal to me.

So, I probably wouldn't like Phoenix either. This one features Ray Liotta as a cop with a gambling addiction. LaPaglia plays one of his cop friends.

Here's the trailer. It's totally NOT my thing.

In 1999, LaPaglia was in the TV movie Lansky. It was another organized crime thing. I'm so sick of organized crime. LaPaglia played Lucky Luciano. I think I've actually heard of him before. IMDb shows that he's been portrayed in many movies. Christian Slater played him in Mobsters. Costas Mandylor was in that too. He's Australian.

Also in 1999, LaPaglia was in the Spike Lee film Summer of Sam. I kind of remember that...maybe. This is about that killer in 1977 New York city. Well actually, Lord Wiki says it went on from July 1976 to August 1977. So there were really two Sam summers.

LaPaglia plays a detective.

Here's the trailer. This movie doesn't look too awful to me. It's not just about a serial killer, but about how the events effect the community.

LaPaglia did a Woody Allen film. This was Sweet and Lowdown. I like Woody Allen movies, but I haven't seen one in a LONG time. Samantha Morton was in this one. She's the one who used to do Ruby's voice in Max and Ruby.

Here's the trailer for Sweet and Lowdown. It's about a guitar player.

This is funny. The IMDb trivia page says Morton received an Academy Award nomination, and she never spoke in the movie. I guess she's really good at gestures and facial expressions.

Black and Blue was a TV movie about domestic abuse. It's based on a novel by Anna Quindlen. LaPaglia plays the abusive husband. It sounds sad. He kidnaps the son. I hate stories of missing children....well, unless they're found, and are okay.

In 2000, LaPaglia played Fidel Castro in the comedy Company Man. It's about a teacher who lies to his girlfriend's family, tells them he works for the CIA.

Ah! Now we have something that's interesting to me. Looking for Alibrandi. It's an Australian thing. I read the book. I think LaPaglia plays the long lost father.

The movie won an AFI award for best film.

The trivia page says the book is the most often stolen book from school libraries. These thieves should just come to me. My dad accidentally bought me multiple copies when he was my Secret Santa for Chanukah 2008.
Here's some scenes from the movie. I'm not sure if LaPaglia will be shown.

I remember that grandma. I liked that storyline.

Oh, there's LaPaglia. He comes in at :52.

I just learned that the girl who plays Josie, is the girl from The Girl Who Swallowed Bees. I THOUGHT she looked familar.

Also in 2000, LaPaglia was in the Gillian Anderson movie, The House of Mirth. Here's the trailer. LaPaglia can be seen at :32. There's something about it. I don't know. Maybe I'm in a bad mood. But instead of seeing characters, I'm seeing actors pretending be characters from a famous novel. Does that make sense?

Now I'm onto Autumn in New York. This is the movie where Winona Ryder plays a dying woman. Didn't it get really awful reviews, or am I thinking of something else? I'm not sure who LaPaglia plays in the movie, but it's not the man who falls in love with a dying woman. That role went to Richard Gere.

Here's the trailer.

In 2001, LaPaglia was in Jack the Dog. Guess who's Jack the dog? Richard from Lost!!! I totally love Richard. LaPaglia plays Richard's lawyer. He can defend Richard from all the questions about his Dick Clark abilities. Although now we know what's going on there. At least one question has been answered.

LaPaglia plays a detective again in Lantana. This is an Australian movie.

Lord Wiki says the name of the film comes from a weed that grows in Sydney.

Here's the trailer. You know, I think I've seen part of this. I found it while flipping through channels.

The movie won several AFI awards, including best film. And LaPaglia won for best actor.

LaPaglia did a science fiction TV movie called On the Edge. It's made up of three stories. LaPaglia was in The Other Side. It was written by Mary Stuart Masterson, who played LaPaglia's abused wife in Black and Blue.

Then we have another Australian movie. The Bank. Lord Wiki says it's about banking and corruption. Fun.

In 2002, LaPaglia was in The Salton Sea. It's another drug thing. Here's the trailer.
It's not my type of thing. That might become my new catch phrase.

Dead Heat is another cop thing. Kiefer Sutherland's the star. It came out in 2002. Was that before 24? Nope. I'm seeing that it was not. So this movie may have done well. 24 was all popular around 2002, I'm sure. If you recall, Sutherland and LaPaglia were together seventeen years before on that Amazing Stories episode.

Here's the trailer. I love Kiefer Sutherland's voice. He was the inspiration for my novel The Dream Games. Also in 2002, LaPaglia was in I'm with Lucy. It's a romantic-comedy staring Monica Potter. Who is she again? The name sounds familar. Well, the only thing I've seen from her filmography really is Patch Adams. Oh wait. I think I also saw Head Over Heals.

Here's the trailer. LaPaglia is not a cop, serial killer, or mafia boss. He's an ex-baseball player. That's cool. The movie doesn't look too great though.

Now we have The Guys. It's a September 11 thing. A fireman loses his men in the World Trade Center. Now THIS sounds good to me. LaPaglia is the fireman. When he loses his men, he asks an editor to help him write the eulogies. The movie is about their relationship.

It's based on a play. They really got this play together quickly, didn't they?

In 2003, there was a sequel to Jack the Dog. LaPaglia got to work with Richard from Lost again.

Also in 2003, we have Happy Hour. It might have been an okay film. LaPaglia won three acting awards for it. I think it might be about alcoholism.

Here's the trailer.

Then we have the comedy Spinning Boris. It's about Russian politics. Liev Schrieber and Jeff Goldblum are also in it.

The trivia page says it's based on a true story. It's about Americans being hired to run Boris Yeltsin's reelection campaign. Here are some scenes from the movie. I like Jeff Goldblum.

In 2004, LaPaglia was in Winter Solstice. LaPaglia plays a widower.

Here's the trailer. It looks pretty good. In a way, it's like a companion film to Men Don't Leave. I just realized something. HappyOrganist totally reminds me of Joan Cusack's character in that.

Between 2000-2004, LaPaglia did some episodes of Frasier. Tim and I used to watch that. LaPaglia played Simon Moon. Who was that?

Oh! He was one of Daphne's brothers. I might sort of remember.

Here's a scene. In 2002, LaPaglia won an Emmy for best guest appearance.

In 2006, LaPaglia was in The Architect. It's about a guy who designed a building. Then later, it's occupants want it torn down. I guess they don't like how the building ended up.

Here's the trailer. Who is that blond girl at 1:26?

I wonder what went wrong with the buildings. I'm sure public housing is never ideal. But how could it be made better?

LaPaglia was in a British film called Played. He plays a detective....again.

Also in 2006....LaPaglia, like most Australian actors, was in Happy Feet. Well, actually I think most Australians are either in Happy Feet or Finding Nemo....if not that, then Australia.

LaPaglia is Boss Skua. I'm looking at Google Images. It looks like he's NOT a penguin. He's some kind of other bird.

In 2008, LaPaglia did another animated movie called 9.99 It's based on a story written by an Israeli writer.

Here's the trailer. I think it looks kind of cool. I like the animation.

It look really beautiful.

Oh, this is too funny. Now I can see why I like the animation. The woman who does it is the same one who does the animation for Wonder Pets! That show is so adorable.

Without a Trace began in 2002. I didn't realize it was that old. I watched an episode or two because I had a bit of a crush on Eric Close. I loved Now and Again.

I liked Without a Trace much less....mostly because I don't like stories of missing children. They make me too depressed and scared.

In 2004, LaPaglia won a Golden Globe for the show.

I guess it's not on anymore. It looks like it ended in 2009.

LaPaglia was in Balibo. It's about the five journalists who went missing in East Timor. I've written about this before...for some reason. I can't remember why. I just remember watching a news video with the mother or wife of one of the missing.

Here's the trailer.

It looks good.

In 2011, LaPaglia is going to be in an Irish story called Easter Sixteen. It's about the Irish uprising that happened in 1916. Gary Oldman and Guy Pearce are going to be in it...and also Chris O'Donnoll. Wow. I haven't seen that guy in a long time.

LaPaglia had this other movie that was completed in 2009, but it looks like it hasn't been released yet. It's called Overnight. I wonder what happened.

Now I'm going to read the IMDb trivia page for LaPaglia.

Oh! His wife is that woman who starred with him in Lucky Break and Brilliant Lies! They were also in Jack the Dog together, and she guest-starred once on Without a Trace.

They got married in 1998, which is after Lucky Break and Brilliant Lies. I wonder when they met and fell in love.

LaPaglia says he dropped the Australian accent because Mel Gibson did that. Now he regrets it. Well, maybe he can get it back.

I think Julian McMahon also dropped his accent. Or maybe not.

Oh! LaPaglia was the original choice for Tony Soprano. He turned the role down. Wow.

LaPaglia did an Andrew Denton interview in 2005.

LaPaglia says it wasn't easy being Italian in Australian. He felt like he was treated like a second-class citizen. I wonder if that's still the case. Are Italians treated better now that there are other ethnic groups to pick on?

LaPaglia gives a heartfelt monologue about why he loves football: 
It's democratic. That's what I love about it. It doesn't matter how smart you are, how dumb you are, how much money you have, how poor you are, where you come from - it's about you and this round ball. Once that round ball goes out into the middle of a beautiful green field, everybody is on the same level.

Yeah, but it does matter if you're athletic or not, and I'm not! So there. It's like a bunch of models getting together and saying, It's so democratic. It doesn't matter if you can read or sing...whether you're poor or smart....or can kick a ball.

Every hobby and skill is going to have people that are excluded.

Denton gives some information about LaPaglia's acting beginnings. He did some community theater. He tried to get into NIDA, but was rejected. Then he moved to NYC with $400 to his pocket. That is so brave. I love that. And I think it's beautiful that he kept going after NIDA rejected him.

LaPaglia wasn't one of those actors who struggles for a year or so, and then gets their big break. He struggled for close to a decade.

I think his story is really inspiring.

LaPaglia talks about how his Australian accent brought him grief. Back then, Americans stereotyped Australians even more than they do now. They were all into Mel Gibson and Crocodile Dundee. When LaPaglia would go on auditions, the casting people would go on and on about throwing shrimp on the barbie.

One day, he decided to skip the I'm-Australian bit, and instead he said I'm from Brooklyn. And that's how the accent went away.

Oh, Denton is funny. He says, Wouldn't it have been great if at the end of that audition they said, "We love you but we're looking for an Australian."

LaPaglia says there actually were some Australian roles, and he was passed up since he was "from Brooklyn".

Denton says LaPaglia was the first Australian to win a Tony Award. Cool.

I'm kind of speeding through all this. I want to go to bed soon. There's stuff about kinky sex. I must be tired to not want to read through that.

The play that LaPaglia won a Tony for was A View From the Bridge. It looks like he's currently in a play. Lend Me a Tenor.

I'm going to quit soon. But first I have to watch Craig Ferguson! The video is a bit blurry, but that's okay. I can just listen.

LaPaglia is sounding more American than Australian.

Now they're talking about Australia becoming a Republic. LaPaglia seems a bit disappointed that it didn't happen.

Ferguson is so damn cute. I've never had a thing for Scotland, but now I might.

The only other Scottish celebrity I know of is Sean Connery, and I've never liked him much.

They're talking about sports now though. I'm kind of bored.

I want to learn how to do a Scottish accent.

I should be like LaPaglia and change accents.

I totally can't do Scottish though, or Irish.

Lord Wiki is now telling me that I DO know of other Scottish actors...

Ewan McGregor. I like him.

And Gerald Butler! I like him too.

Anyway, I personally think LaPaglia sounds better when he's doing an Australian or Scottish accent. I don't like his American accent as much. I think different accents work better on different people. Like that guy in Eli Stone.....I think he sounds MUCH better as an American. I don't like his British accent. And there's someone else..... Who is it? It's someone I saw recently. Oh! I know. Robert Pattinson. His British accent is nice, but I think his American accent is much more adorable.

And no, it's not that I have anything against British accents. I love them. I love the Harry Potter folks, Jeremy Irons, and others.

What else.....

Here we go.

TV.Com says LaPaglia and his wife met on the set of Lucky Break. So my curiosity is satisfied there.

I better start getting ready for bed.

Read my novel: The Dead are Online 

Lindsay McDougall (thanks Nurse Myra)

Well, we're back from Chicago. We had a nice time. I saw my first cousins. Our kids played together. It was cute to see.

I have no idea who Lindsay McDougall is.

I guess I shall go and find out.

It's a radio person. Male? Female? I'm not sure. I think of Lindsay as a girl's name. But in Australia, there's Norman Lindsay. That's a LAST name, though.....

Lord Wiki doesn't have a full entry on Mr. (or Mrs.) McDougall. He just has an entry on the duo itself. They call themselves Jay and the Doctor. The other part of the duo is named Jason Whalley. So I guess he'd be the Jay. McDougall must be the doctor.

The two of them were (or still are?) part of a punk band called Frenzel Rhomb. They started doing their thing in 1993 in Sydney.

McDougal plays the guitar. I still don't know if this person is a boy or girl. I am feeling it's a boy, but I could be wrong.

Lord Wiki says McDougall also organized the creation of a compilation album called Rock Against Howard. That's regarding John Howard. It was inspired by America's Rock Against Bush albums.

I found songs on YouTube from the American album, but not the Australian one.

I'm not a fan of Bush or Howard. But I'm not sure I applaud making anti-albums like that. It seems so...negative and hateful. I'm not saying Bush and Howard don't deserve hatred. It just seems to me that it would be better to make a positive album.

For example, instead of making an album against Bush, how about making an album that's FOR someone who is not like Bush.

I think sometimes we put so much energy into being AGAINST something. We don't direct enough energy towards being FOR things.

You know, it's kind of also like one of the rules from Charmed. The witches are supposed to protect the innocent; NOT punish the guilty. So, I think we should spend our time and energy helping the victims of Bush and Howard rather than spending our energy on hating Bush and Howard.

Well, there IS some good news here though. The proceeds to McDougall's project went to refugee charities. So he did use some of that energy to help victims of Howard.

Still, if it was up to me, I'd probably label the album Rock for Asylum Seekers. I'm sure there could still be some anti-Howard lyrics in there.

I guess in a way, it's a matter of semantics.

I'm probably just rambling here so I can avoid reading about McDougal's music career. This stuff really does bore me. I hate reading and writing about which album came out when.

I'll do a little bit of it anyway.

Their first album album (not just EP thing) was called Coughing up a Storm. I like that name. In America, the same album was called Once a Jolly Swagman Always a Jolly Swagman. That's very cute. I like the whole "Waltzing Matilda" reference. I wonder why they used that for Americans rather than the coughing thing.

They did an album in 2003 called Sans Souci. That's what my mom named their lake house. It hasn't quite caught on, though. I think she was hoping we'd all say things like Let's go to San Souci this weekend! We don't do that. We all call it simply the lake house.

Ah! There's another album with an Aussie cultural reference. For the Terms of Their Unnatural Lives. That's a cute play on the novel title For the Term of His Natural Life.

The album title makes me think of True Blood. I'm totally loving that show. I watched part of it last night. My other new favorite (Drop Dead Diva) was also on, so I was flipping back and forth between the two. Then Drop Dead Diva ended, so I could put my full concentration on the last half of True Blood. There was some very suspenseful scenes involving Anna Paquin and a horrible church. Just when I got to the good part, Jack came downstairs and I had to turn it off. I'll need to try to catch it again this week.

I probably should just TAPE the shows and watch them religiously. But I'm getting bad at all that. I got so behind on Medium. Our DVR ended up erasing them before I watched them. Now I have the last Eli Stone episodes taped. I need to watch those.

See? I'm rambling again. It's avoidance.....

Anyway, I'll be a good girl and get back on track.

Maybe I'll listen to some of their music on YouTube.

Here's a song called "Mum Changed the Locks".

Well, THAT video is one of the most disturbing things I have ever watched on YouTube. Lovely. Uh...well, the dog is cute, I suppose.

Here's a song called "Russel Crowe's Band".

Well, the animation is cute. I like the Monopoly Money bit.

I probably don't like the song much...neither the lyrics nor the music.

I'm reading now about how these punk band people started hosting a radio show.

In 2004, they temporarily replaced some of the Chasers who did a morning show. The Chasers were busy doing election type stuff.

The funny thing is...prior to this, the band's music was actually banned from the station. Why? Frenzal Rhomb had criticized the station for always playing the same forty songs.

I think all radio stations do that. You turn on the station for the first time and think I LOVE this. They play awesome songs. I haven't heard this song in SO long. Then a few weeks later, you get sick of that awesome song and realize they play it way too much.

We listen to Sirius music at the lake house. My parents put on this instrumental station when we eat lunch. It seems almost every lunch we've had there, the past few weeks, features the theme song from The Mission.

The Jay of Jay and the Doctor left the radio show in 2007. McDougal still works for the station. He now co-hosts with people named Robbie Buck and Marieke Hardy.

Lord Wiki lists features of the Jay and the Doctor program. Some of it seems somewhat funny. I guess I'd have to listen and see.

I'm done with Lord Wiki now, and he pointed me towards the ABC website for the show.

The show provided wake-up calls. You leave your name and number in their guestbook. And then I guess you hope for a phone call from Jay and the Doctor.

I like this: They ask people to send them tourist photos from around Australia. The catch is they want you to look totally depressed in the photos. That's pretty funny.

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The site has some excerpts from the show. I guess I'll listen to some. This one features Borat. According to him, the Jews are not just responsible for every war. We're responsible for the end of the dinosaurs. If that's the case....I apologize for that. I mean I really don't feel that guilty about the Jesus thing. I'd definitely feel guilt for the dinosaurs.

Borat makes reference to Home and Away which once featured his alter-ego's fiance. He mentions a character named Colleen. Was that Fisher's character?

Okay. No. Fisher played Shannon, not Colleen.

Well, that was pretty long. I don't think I'm going to listen to a second one...at least not right now.

This article has a photo of McDougall.

Oh. This makes me like McDougall. The article says he's angry because he was used in a video that preaches anti-downloading. When he lent himself to the video, he thought it was simply about surviving as an Australian musician. It turns out it was a video directed at high school students--teaching them how evil it is to download music illegally.

McDougall says, I have never come out against internet piracy and illegal downloading and I wouldn't do that - I would never put my name to something that is against downloading and is against piracy and stuff, it's something that I believe is a personal thing from artist to artist.

He also says, I'm from a punk rock band, it's all about getting your music out any way you can - you don't make money from the record, the record companies make the money from the record. If they can't make money these days because they haven't come onside with the way the world is going, it's their own problem.

My feeling is the Internet has changed everything. There's so much you can get for free. People are DOING so much without any payment. People are writing. People are making videos. People are making websites.....

I think the illegal downloading thing is pretty silly. I can go to the library and get books for free. Why can't I go to a website and get music for free? I can also get music free from the library. We can check out CDs there.

This website has the video that angered McDougall. I'll watch it.

So far, it seems to be a woe-is-me kind of video. It's not easy being a rock star. It's not all parties, big houses, and hotel-room-crashing.

Yeah. I thought being an asylum seeker in a detention camp might be tough. But being a rock star?  That's where the REAL hardship occurs.

The video talks about the Internet....the good and the bad. One of the Veronicas twins talks about how it allows your music to get an international audience. But then if people listen to your music for free, how do you make money? Are rock stars becoming poor?

Just for the record, I DON'T download illegal music anymore. I used to...via Napster and some other site. Now I take the legal route. I download from I-Tunes. But I usually just listen to stuff for free on YouTube. Is that illegal? I don't know. Maybe it's illegal for some of these videos to be posted on YouTube. I can't see how I can go to jail for watching....

These rock stars make it sound like they're on the verge of poverty.

One guy says if we don't support the artists, they won't exist anymore. Hey! That's kind of like Tinker Bell.

Maybe when we listen to music for free, we should clap our hands. Maybe that will help the artist continue to exist.

Seriously, though. I can imagine it might be quite damaging if rock star people stop making any money. They'll have to find day jobs, and will have less time to do music stuff. But I don't think that will happen. They can make money via concerts. They can sell t-shirts. And there will always be people out there who are willing to buy the CD. There are people out there who like to have a tangible object in their hand. They like to OWN things.

I like I-Tunes. I think paying a dollar for a song is pretty reasonable. I much prefer that to buying a CD. I used to hate liking ONE song and having to buy a whole CD just so I can listen to it.

McDougall is on Twitter. He seems fairly active. He's done about thirteen post in the last twenty-four hours. For the most part, he seems to respond to other people. He's interactive about the whole thing.

Here's an article about McDougall on an animal liberation website. Is he vegetarian?

Ah! He's a vegan. And he makes me feel a bit guilty. He says, I always knew the problems with dairy, but used the 'at least I'm doing something' defence to justify my cheese and egg lovin' diet. Then, about a year and a half ago, I realised that it wasn't any defence at all, in fact acknowledging the problems but not doing anything about it was almost as bad, if not worse, so I cut out all dairy products, too.

I agree with him. I hate that I agree. But I do.

I'm such a horrible hypocrite for eating dairy and eggs. I'm NOT going to become vegan. But I do want to be better; eat less dairy and eggs. I did make a good choice the other day for breakfast. We ordered room service for breakfast. I wanted the French toast, but I figured that probably had a lot of eggs. Instead I got rye toast. I'm not sure if that has eggs, but I'm pretty sure it has less eggs then French toast. Maybe? The recipes I'm seeing for rye bread do include eggs. I guess it would depend then on what kind of bread you used for your French toast. If you used bread without eggs, you'd just have the egg batter. But if you used a bread like Challah (which has eggs) and then added an egg batter, that's a hefty contribution to chicken cruelty.

I'm thinking I DON'T want to become anal enough to check the ingredients of everything I eat; avoiding all dairy and egg. But I'd like to avoid things that are heavy in dairy and eggs...especially if it's made by companies that don't try to use organic free range type stuff. So it's probably bad that I ate cheese pizza the other night. And it's probably bad that I recently bought a can of processed cheese.

I REALLY need to put more thoughts and ethics into my eating.

McDougall says some honest upfront type things here. No, seriously, it does feel good to be in a group of people doing the right thing, when the majority of people aren't, it 's probably how people brainwashed by a cult think. But I realise that's just a superficial feeling of superiority, and I would feel a lot better if everyone in the world was vegan, and I was no different to them at all.

I sometimes feel all superior to those around me eating their huge sausages and steaks. But then I remember dairy cows are often treated like shit too. And here I am eating nachos with tons of cheese....

My feeling is we don't need to strive to be on the top of the ethical chain. Instead, I'd rather us ALL be a little more ethical. I think meat-lovers should eat a little less meat, and try to get it from ethical sources. Vegetarians should eat a little less eggs and dairy. Vegans...well, I guess they're ethical enough, at least food-wise. Although it would be hypocritical of them to eat any chocolate or coffee that is not fair trade. I think it would be wrong to care about the mistreatment of animals but support the mistreatment of humans. Hey, humans are animals too. Right?

McDougall is a very strict vegan. He avoids ALL the animal stuff. He's an ingredient reader.

McDougall says, But there were times in my life when I realised things were a little off kilter. Like when friends would say how they could never hurt their pet, or how much they loved their horse, and I'd think, 'but you still eat meat, isn't that the same.

I think about things like that. People get sad when they see a lonely-looking puppy in the pet store. Then those same people will go to the food court and get a hamburger.

How do they do that?

They might be like me...forgetting ethics when they order lunch.

They might believe that farms animals live a Charlotte's Web life.

I don't know.

McDougall is asked about which countries are most vegetarian tolerant. He comes down hard on America. I was about to debate him on that. America has a lot of vegetarian restaurants...just like Australia does. But I think there is a difference. In America, you can get good eating in the big cities. The thing we noticed about Australia is that even the smaller cities have vegetarian stuff. Well, we've been to only a few small cities. I'm really making a leap here. I'll just say that in my limited experience, I've noticed Australia's small cities are more vegetarian friendly than America's.

McDougall is VERY strict in the vegan thing. He's like a PETA person. No animal products in the house. No circus. No zoo.

I'm not sure how I feel about that.

I feel when you're so militant, and advertise the fact, you kind of scare people away. Although some people think I'm scary and militant. I guess scary/militant is in the eyes of the beholder.

No, but when I first became vegetarian I bought a PETA type book. It pushed me to being vegan. I felt it was something I HAD to do. I drove my family nuts. I think Tim wanted to strangle me. I probably kind of wanted to strangle myself. It was hard to find food. I'd find something and think it was okay. I'd buy it, eat it and then learn it had some wrong ingredient.

I gave the whole thing up after about a month. I did stick to being a vegetarian. That's never been too hard for me. I've never loved meat all that much. But the whole vegan thing backfired. I mean maybe that's why I'm so unethical when it comes to dairy and eggs. Maybe things would have been better if these books didn't make me feel like a nasty human being if I ate one lousy little Lucky Charms marshmallow. Maybe I would have stuck to a more ethical diet if I read a book that pushed the idea of REDUCING rather than fully eliminating.

I have trouble with these extreme organizations. They make it very hard to get to the truth. They make it very hard to be ethical. In their eyes, the only RIGHT thing to do is eat NO animal product whatsoever. I don't think that's helpful. Because let's face it. The whole world is not going to become vegan anytime soon. What would be more helpful is if they distinguished between practices that are horribly cruel and practices that treat the animals fairly okay.

Let's take zoos. Is it helpful to say, all zoos are horrible. Stop going to them! Or is it better to say Some zoos are good. Some zoos are bad. Avoid zoos where you see these things going on.....
There's that saying. Choose your battles....

So no. I'm not impressed with organizations like Animal Liberation and PETA. I'm sure they do SOME good. But I think sometimes they do more harm than good. It's the same way that the preacher yelling on the street, that we're all sinners, totally turns me off from Christianity; and how Richard Dawkins and Robert T. Caroll make me want to hate science sometimes.

It's hard to find that balance. I don't think we should shut up. I think we should be able to share our beliefs. There is a chance that someone will listen and make a change because of us, and what we've said. I think we just have to guard against going too far and alienating people. Well, we're always going to alienate SOMEONE. I think I might offend some people by simply BEING a vegetarian. But if you can promote your message without offending too many people than you're probably doing an okay job.

And if you can live a highly righteous vegan life without acting snarky and oh-so-superior to others....then you're doing a REALLY awesome job. I'd surely fail at it. I already failed at becoming vegan. If I ever succeeded, I MIGHT become a little snarky about it. I most definitely would have a superiority complex. That might be okay, though, because I have such low self-esteem in other areas. It would all probably balance itself out.

Well, enough of that. I'm going to watch Jack play his video game. Then I'm going to watch more McDougall videos on YouTube.

Here's something called "Ben Lee vs. The Doctor". I think it's a Triple J thing. They're doing some kind of busking contest. I watched about half and then I got bored.

Here's McDougall doing a vegan video. It's about the food pyramid. It features McDougall chewing on a bike tire. Yum. The video is actually more comical than didactic. It's cute.

Here's another Triple J thing. It's called "Priceless Pleasures, Looking" I like that. It promotes people watching and looking at nature. The whole idea is that we can entertain ourselves without spending money. That's a valuable message. And it's cute and funny. I laughed out loud at least once.

Here's McDougall trying to set the world record for hot dog eating.  That's vegan hot dogs. He doesn't get too far.

Here's a Jay and The Doctor thing. I guess that was a promo for their show. It's interesting. It involves bees. Bees make almost anything interesting. At least I think so.

Now I'm going to listen to some more Frenzal Rhomb stuff.

Here's "Forever Malcom Young".

It's cute. Tim might appreciate the red balloon scene.

Who is Malcolm Young? Is he a random fictional type character, or someone famous I should know about?

Well, Lord Wiki says he's a guitarist with AC/DC. So he is real. I'm guessing that's probably who Frenzal Rhomb was talking about in the song.

I'm looking at the lyrics. Angus is mentioned and he's part of AC/DC too. So I guess that confirms that the song is about AC/DC Malcolm Young.

Here's a video called My City of Sydney. I'm going to watch it, and then I'm going to end this post and go to something else.

Okay...interesting. It kind of moved too fast for my brain to follow.

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Julian Burnside

I think Julian Burnside is a lawyer.

I'm guessing I got his name off the list of Australia's Living Treasures.

Well, let me go talk to Lord Wik, i so I can see if I'm right or not.

Okay. I'm right. He's into law. He's a barrister and human rights advocate....a lot like yesterday's Frank Brennan.

Like Brennan, Burnside is strongly against mandatory detention of asylum seekers.

Burnside was born on 9 June 1949. That would make him a Gemini. I know this because his birthday is two days after my niece's.

Birthday website time!

Burnside is an 11 in numerology.

This website says this about the 11: you have the potential to be a source of inspiration and illumination for people. You possess an inordinate amount of energy and intuition. There is so much going on in your psyche that you are often misunderstood early in life, making you shy and withdrawn. You have far more potential than you know.

That sounds like an interesting person. It's not all sunshine and lollipops, though. The website also says You may often be frustrated, largely because you have extremely high expectations of yourself. But these expectations can be unrealistic, and can prevent you from accomplishing anything. You can be very impractical, envisioning a skyscraper when all that was necessary was a two-story house.

I'm trying to think if I know of anyone like that.....

Little Julian was born in Melbourne. His daddy was a Urologist.

Burnside went to Melbourne Grammar School. A lot of famous people went to this school, including: Barrie Humphries, Malcolm Fraser, John Brumby, and Alfred Deakin.

He went to Monash University. I think that's where Peter Carey went for a short time.

Burnside studied law and economics. He wanted to be a manager consultant. Tim did this for awhile. I think. What it is is basically is going into a company temporarily and helping them improve things.

While at school, Burnside competed in mock court. His performance was very impressive. In a New Zealand contest, he was named best speaker. Burnside had a conversation with the Chief Justice of New Zealand, and was inspired to become a barrister.

Burnside finished his degrees in 1973. By 1976, he was admitted as a barrister by the Supreme Court of Victoria.

He was admitted to the Queen's counsel in 1989. I have no idea what that means, but I kind of have deja vu here. I feel I've looked it up before. Oh well, I'll do it again.

Lord Wiki says these days, Queen's Counsel is more often called Senior Counsel.

I don't really understand it. Basically, though, it's an honor. Isn't that enough information? Or am I being lazy today?

Burnside works mostly with commercial law. That's pretty much law that deals with businesses.

He has worked with many wealthy clients.

You know who this guy reminds me of?

Eli Stone!

For those of you who never were blessed with watching the show; Eli Stone was about a superficial ambitious lawyer who worked for a greedy law firm. He starts having these spiritual visions and transforms into a lawyer who wants to save the world.

I'm not sure if Burnside had hallucinations that were messages from god. But it does seem like he made some type of transformation.

At first he was a commercial lawyer, representing the rich and powerful. Then in the late 1990's he started doing more humanitarian stuff. He began to take on more pro bono cases.

It seems it might have started with the big waterfront dispute of 1998. Instead of taking the side of the corporation, he fought for the side of the union. Ah, interesting..... I wonder why he did that.

Burnside worked against the Australian Government in the Tampa Case. He and his wife set up a program called Spare Rooms. It provides free legal representation and free accommodations for refugees. That's awesome. I wonder which refugees get to use it, though. I mean since they're stuck in detention. Are some refugees not in detention? Does Burnside pull them out somehow?

Burnside is awesome. He's like a superhero.

You know who else he reminds me of. Batman! He does all this rich people stuff. And Lord Wiki says he still does commercial law. Then, at the same time, he does this heroic stuff.

Burnside also works to help Indigenous Australians. He worked on a case for a victim of the stolen generation, and they won. They sued the South Australian Government and won 500,000 dollars.

In 2004 Burnside became a living treasure. Yeah, I think that's how he ended up on my list. And I am GREATLY honored to have him there.

He wrote a children's book. It's called Matilda and the Dragon. That's a very cute title.

All right. I'm done with Lord Wiki.

I am NOT done with Julian Burnside.

Where should we go next?

He has his own website. That might be a nice place to go.

He has a quote from James Thurber on his site. It says, All men should strive to learn before they die, what they are running from, and to, and why.

Although it's stated in a sexist way, it's a good question. I'll have to think about that one. What am I running from? What am I running towards?

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 

Burnside's website is a little confusing to me. It's a bit overwhelming.

Here's a speech he did regarding Australia needing a bill of rights.

All right. This is going to be a bit challenging. For some reason, all the pages on his website have the same address. So....I can't really link you up to the exact thing I'm looking at. I guess you're on your own if you want to see it. I'm not sure if the website is at fault or if my computer is messing up somehow.

In the 2020 summit in Canberra (I think the one which Clate Blanchett went to right after giving birth) the idea of the bill of rights was brought up. Many people opposed it.

Burnside thinks people oppose the bill of rights because they imagine a US type Bill of Rights things. What? You guys don't all want the right to bear arms?

 Some of our laws are good, though. I think? I like the freedom of speech one.

Burnside says, Modern Bills of Right do not concern themselves with the right to bear arms or the quartering of soldiers. They are concerned instead with the sort of rights recognized by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: equality before the law, the right to life, protection from torture and cruel inhuman or degrading treatment, freedom from forced work, freedom of movement, privacy and reputation, freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief; freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and freedom of association, protection of families and children, humane treatment when deprived of liberty, and so on.

I could stand behind something like that.

Burnside really seems negative towards our Bill of Rights. Are they that bad? I do think they need an update--a major one.

Burnside says something very interesting here: Within the scope of its legislative competence, Parliament's power is unlimited. The classic example of this is that, if Parliament has power to make laws with respect to children, it could validly pass a law which required all blue-eyed babies to be killed at birth. The law, although terrible, would be valid. One response to this is that a democratic system allows that government to be thrown out at the next election. This is not much comfort for the blue-eyed babies born in the meantime. And even this democratic correction may not be enough: if blue-eyed people are an unpopular minority, the majority may prefer to return the government to power. The Nuremberg laws of Germany in the 1930s were horrifying, but were constitutionally valid laws which attracted the support of many Germans.

That's a scary thought. I never thought of it that way. I think that's why Burnside wants this bill of rights thing. He believes the bill of rights would protect Australians in case Parliament goes a bit nuts.

The blue eyed baby thing might seem pretty silly. But Parliament can and has created laws that are very unfair. One of them is the fact that innocent asylum seekers can be held in detention for the rest of their life.

Now if detention was held at a luxury resort, it might not be so bad. But the way Burnside describes Woomera, a hostel might be seen as luxury in comparison. Reports from 2001 say there were three working toilets for 1500 people. Holy shit!

Oh, I love what Burnsides says here. He first explains that one of the arguments against the bill of rights is it will protect unpopular minorities. He responds: At one level, the complaint is accurate. In Australia today, the people whose human rights are at risk are not members of the comfortable majority, but members of minority groups who are typically powerless and often unpopular and almost always politically irrelevant. Whilst, in terms, a Bill of Rights protects the rights of all, its primary use is to protect the rights of the weak because the strong are already safe.

If that's not enough....Burnside then gets even more awesome!

The criticism is all the more surprising when you consider that many of those who advance it proclaim themselves to be devout Christians. I had thought, although I haven’t checked recently, that much of Christ’s teaching was concerned with the protection of the weak, the unpopular, the despised and the oppressed. It seems a curious thing then that practising Christians should object to a law which achieves that result.

Now I see why Burnside won all those mock court things. This guy is amazing. If I believed in such things, I'd believe he himself is the second coming of Christ. And he would be a god that I could totally stand behind.

I've been a bit sad that Eli Stone was canceled. But who needs a fictional character when we've got the real thing here?

Burnside talks about the argument that a bill of rights doesn't work. He agrees this can happen...especially when you have an evil president who finds ways to work around the laws. I won't mention any names....

Okay, never mind. I will.

He talks about Bush and Guantanamo Bay--the fact that putting it in Cuba helped Bush avoid some of the laws. But Burnside argues, No Constitution, no Bill of Rights, no statute, no other document, can protect rights unless the rule of law is strong. If the political opposition is weak or absent, if the media are cowed or complacent, if the courts are not fearlessly independent, the promises contained on bits of paper will achieve nothing. That is not our problem in Australia.

If that's not a problem in Australia, why do we have that problem in America? What has gone wrong with us?

I guess it's sort of what Al Gore talked about in his book The Assault on Reason. But I forgot most of what the book said.

I hope Obama can stop the evil. I have to admit, though, that I was a bit disturbed with him wanting to hide the torture photos. For a brief moment, I became a bit paranoid. I started thinking what if all this time he was on Bush's team. I thought maybe he faked being a democrat so all the disillusioned people would vote for him.

I understand his fear that the photos will create more hatred towards America. But you just can't work that way. It's like a child saying to his parent. Don't come upstairs. I don't want you to come upstairs. If you see what I did, you'll be mad at me! Okay well yeah, but the parent isn't going to turn around and say Okay. I won't see it. I don't want to be mad. Everything's okay.

All right. I'm not going to stay on his website any longer. The web address thing bothers me. Even links to other websites have the same address. I can't work that way.

Yeah. I'm anal.

This Forbes website includes a photo of Burnside. It says he houses refugees in his own Melbourne Mansion. He also buys paintings from unknown artists so they can make money.

I love this guy.

Why can't all rich people be like him?

The sad thing is, though, I'm cynical. A part of me thinking....okay, he's this great guy who does great things for strangers. But maybe he beats his wife. Maybe he ignores his children. I don't know.

I'm not sure if Burnside has children though. I haven't seen it mentioned yet.

Here's a website for the Spare Room thing. The link system here is as annoying as the other website. But it does give valuable information on how people can help the asylum seekers. They can open up their homes to them; if they have the room. If not that, they can write letters to people in detention centers, or visit the detention centers.

There's a PDF file that you can download which responds to myths about asylum seekers.

Some of these myths are:

1. Boat people are queue jumpers.

Nope. Not true.

2. Asylum Seekers are illegal.

Nope. Not true.

3. Australia already takes too many refugees.

I won't say that's not true because it's a bit subjective. It all depends on what someone's definition of too many is.

The PDF thing has some comparisons, though.  Britain has one for every 530 people. Australia has one for every 1583 people.

I wonder what the United States has. Well, I'm too lazy to do a lot of searching, but this website has various immigrant information for America.

4. We're being swamped by hoards of boat people.

No, not really. But again, it's a matter of perspective.

5. They're not real refugees anyway.

Wrong. Well, 84% wrong. I guess that means sixteen percent are not real refugees.

I'm looking at Google News now. Burnside is involved with some drug thing; something called Vioxx. Have any of you heard of this case?

I'm trying to figure out if Burnside is on the good side or bad side. I SHOULD say my side or the other side. I don't know much about any of this, but I'm already pretty sure I have a side.

It seems to be about drug companies pushing doctors to push drugs to patients.

I hate that.

I really do.

This article says, The Federal Court was told the company aimed to identify 100 patients of each targeted general practitioner who were not taking Vioxx and could be recommended to take up the drug for their condition.

It seems there were risks to the drugs, but they were downplayed.

Recently in my eating disorder research adventures, I found information about chemical issues in the brains of people with eating disorders. The website I consulted was good though and stressed that there are many other factors that contribute to the problem. They didn't take on that dreadful message of oh just pop a few pills and you'll be happily eating like a normal person. Is it SO much more complicated than that.

Anyway, people with eating disorders seem to have issues with Serotonin. I usually stay far away from even suggestions of psychiatric drugs, but I decided to have an open mind. I looked up some of the drugs given to people who have ED. I looked at the list of side effects and some of them are worse than having the damn eating disorder! Sometimes these drugs might be needed. But I really think they should be a last resort.

Again though, the website (which has become sort of my bible lately) stresses other types of treatment....more emotional therapy. I haven't gotten ANY treatment. I'm not sure if that's okay or not. I didn't even really consider getting treatment, because I PHYSICALLY got over the problem on my own. A lot of the websites I read push the idea that you must have treatment to recover. But I did find a study that looked at people who recovered without professional intervention. The thing they did have in common is they all had someone standing behind them....helping them. I never had that. Most members of my family didn't believe I had a problem. I tried talking to them about it.  They ignored it and denied it.

I've realized recently it's not over. The eating problems ended, but all the emotional problems remained. In John Marsden's book, So Much To Tell You the main character mentions Anorexia of Speech. I realize now what I did last year. I replaced excessive limiting of my food intake with excessive limiting of what I said to people. It was another way to feel in control. It was another way to feel protected and guarded.

But NOW I'm dealing with stuff by blabbing on and on about it in my blog.

I HAVE thought of professional therapy, but I doubt I'll do that. It's a lot of money. And no, that's not a good excuse. If I knew it would work, I'd definitely do it. But I know it doesn't have a 100% success rate. I know of people with eating disorders who have been through extensive therapy. They're still screwed up; probably more so than me.

I think in the end I have to work it out on my own. Writing about it helps. Doing the research helps.  And I have some friends that let me talk about my problems. I think that's better than any therapist I can find. The thing is....I couldn't deal with a one-sided relationship where I talk about my problems and someone just listens. I like a back and forth kind of thing. I like a relationship where we both share our problems, and we both listen to each other.

Should I shut up now?

Yeah.

Back to Burnside.

I THINK he's on the good side—fighting the people who are suing the bad drug people.

See, though. This is why I never fully trust the medical community. I mentioned this to my dad recently and he made some remark about me putting my trust in alternative medicine. That's so not true, though. I don't fully trust EITHER of them. I listen to what both of them say with a grain of salt.

I'm SO rambling here.

Maybe I SHOULD take a drug....one that stops excessive writing.

I worry that I'm annoying you guys. But see that's one of the problems I have to overcome....worrying about what other people think. This is my blog. I can talk about whatever I damn well please. If I wanted to talk about scary purple dinosaurs that would be my right.

Let's look at Twitter. Is anyone mentioned my new hero? Yes. Apparently he's going to be talking at some editors conference in South Australia. Cool! It looks enlightening. Natasha Stott Despoja is going to be there too.

Anyway, I'm going to go play a game with Jack before I'm labeled a neglectful parent.

I'm back. The sentence above was supposed to be the conclusion. I wrote it hours ago. But I was talking with my sister about Burnside. She asked me why he had made that Eli Stone transformation, and I realized I never found out. I feel I've missed something important here.

I'm not sure if I can find the answer, but I shall at least try.

Here's an interview on ABC. Maybe it will reveal something.

What I told my sister is that I think it had something to do with the waterfront dispute. This might confirm that. When asked about it Burnside says, It sort of shook me to the foundations.

Did something in that case change his viewpoint?

The interviewer says, Julian Burnside began as a blue blood corporate barrister, revelling in the intellectual cut and thrust of the courts. Yet almost by accident he developed a moral purpose, pouring his talents into human rights cases and the arts.

It seems Lord Wiki might have lied about Burnside's daddy being a Urologist. He was a neurological surgeon. Although maybe he did both?

He DOES have a daughter. That's who he wrote the children's book for.

Burnside's first marriage broke up, mostly because of his work schedule.

Okay. Here we go! I found it.

Burnside says, The MUA case was a turning point for me because until then, I had been basically apolitical. But I was shocked to discover through the case because it was very plain that the Government and Patrick's had been up to their eyes in a conspiracy to break the law. I never imagined that governments would do things like that. So, it shook me to the foundations.

I don't know if this is a coincidence or one inspired the other, but the interviewer asks a question that is very similar to the Thurber quote on Burnside's website.

The interviewer says In life, we move towards some things and away from other things over time. What do you feel you're drawn more towards and what are you moving away from?

Burnside says, Um... Well, I do like red wine. And I love making sculpture out of found objects and I love writing, I love reading, I love my job. I'm not attracted to hypocrisy and cant, dishonesty, laziness, politicians and that stuff. So, I'm going away from them as far as I can.

I still need to think about that question....

What do I want to move towards? What do I want to move away from?

Let's see.....

Okay. Here it is.

I want to move towards people who make me feel accepted; the type of people who don't make me feel I need to hide parts of myself. I want to move towards people who care about others. I want to move away from....well, I guess I want to move away from the people who are not like the ones I want to move towards. Does that make sense?

Day 3...in which our hotel room smells bad

We left our Hawaiian hotel early in the morning. Our Jetstar flight left at 8:15. Since we were flying International, I guess we probably left the hotel at five.

I remember we stopped at Starbucks in the airport. I don't remember if I got anything. I'm sure Jack did.

We went to American Airlines' Admiral Club which shares space with the Qantas Club. The woman working there apologetically told us that Jetstar customers didn't have club privileges. 

Tim explained that we were coming in as American Airline customers. Even though we weren't flying with American on that particular trip, we were still allowed to still use the club. The problem was then that the American Airlines aspect of the club wasn't yet open. Only Qantas was. But the woman welcomed us in anyway. She warned us however that next time we might not be able to get in. 

We thanked her. We appreciated her kindness. But I felt awkward...like we didn't belong there. 

The same thing happened to us last year. We had been told by someone that we could get into the JAL club. Then when we got there, we were told we really weren't allowed, but we could come in anyway. I don't know. Situations like that make me feel weird.

On Jetstar, you have to buy the extras separately. You can either buy things when/if you decide you want them, or you can purchase stuff ahead of time. Tim did the latter. 

We got meals, pillows, earplugs, drinks, and a portable video machine. 

The video machine was horrific. That thing is so heavy! There's not much room in the economic seats, especially when the person in front of you leans way back. It's really hard to reach down and get stuff out of our bags. I put a lot of stuff in the seat pockets. 

I guess if I kept them empty, I MIGHT have been able to squish the video player in there when not needed. 

The hardest thing is trying to deal with a meal on your tray while watching a movie. It's pretty much impossible; so then you have to find a place to put the video player while you eat. 

We lucked out, because Tim had a whole row of seats to himself. He would store our video players when we weren't using them. 

I actually didn't use mine too much. I watched an episode of Enough Rope. It featured a young Indigenous Woman. That made me pretty emotional.

Later, I watched W...the movie about George W. Bush. I found it fairly interesting...gave me a new perspective on things. It made me see George W. as being less evil and more just incompetent. After watching the movie, I had less anger towards him and more anger and shock at my country for actually allowing such a person into office.



I continued reading Have Courage Hazel Green. I think maybe, by this time, the book started growing on me. I started to like it.

I went to the toilet. Although at that time I was still probably calling it "the bathroom". Embarrassing moment: I couldn't figure out how to flush the thing! I looked everywhere. It turns out that the little picture I saw that explained how to flush WAS the actual flush.

I even asked a person standing in line for the toilets. She was Australian, so I figured she MUST know how to flush every toilet in Australia. She had no idea what to do either. Although I don't think she actually looked in the toilet/bathroom. After she did her business, she probably wondered how I could be so stupid. But it did make me realize how ethnocentric I can be. I expect Australians to automatically understand all Australian toilets. Do I know how to work every single American toilet out there?

What else happened on the flight?

Jack spilled his apple juice. I got a little wet. It wasn't too bad, though. At least he didn't throw up on me. That's probably my worst airplane fear. Most people fear crashing. I fear spending the flight in vomit-stained clothing.

I listened to my I-Pod for awhile. I don't do this much. It usually ends up making me very emotional. Sure enough. I heard a song and it made me cry. It was this song from Eli Stone called "Your Belief".

It's hard for me to imagine this now, but at the time I had a lot of mixed feelings about returning to Australia. I guess I was scared it was a mistake. I've been obsessed with things before. That's not new. But I've never spent thousands of dollars and dragged my family (including a child) half-way across the world to satisfy the obsession. I guess I sat there on the plane thinking why the hell am I doing this to us?

I don't know.

I guess the lyrics of the song spoke to me.

Take away all the things that you know are true. Suddenly what seems to be is all in you. Listen to your soul. Don't stop until you know. Remember what got you here. Take away your fear.

All right. And honestly, I think I also cried because Eli Stone has been canceled, and I'm a bit sad about that.

The plane landed. We went through immigration and customs. I don't really remember much.

We then waited for our luggage. That took a LONG time. I think our suitcases came off fast, but Jack's booster seat was one of the last things to appear.

We took a cab to the hotel. I don't really remember any of that.

I do remember the hotel. We stayed at the Travelodge Hotel on Wentworth Avenue. 

I wasn't too impressed. The room smelled like smoke. Tim agreed with me about that. We called downstairs to tell them about the situation. I kind of expected them to move us. They didn't. Instead, a guy came upstairs and started spraying our room with air freshener. I wondered if those chemicals were worse than the actual cigarette smoke. I asked the guy if he smelled the smoke. He said no. There was this attitude of No, there's no smoke. You're probably a crazy oversensitive woman, but I'll humor you and spray if it makes you feel better.

Oh! I forgot to mention this, but I see it in my notes! I still had that damn rash between my legs. It was quite disgusting.

A room that smelled bad and a disgusting rash. Yeah, not the most glorious beginning to a holiday.

After we unpacked a bit (but not much since we were leaving in two days) we headed off towards Chinatown. I'm not sure why we headed there. Maybe we had a taste for Chinese food? 

Anyway, we looked like total tourists. You would think all the prior Australian research I did would enlighten me enough to pass as a local. 

Yeah. No such luck. I carried around a Time Out Sydney travel book. 

The three of us would take turns looking at the map. Then on top of that, Tim had a TomTom (portable GPS system). He bought it to help us when we were driving, but we decided it might also be useful when walking.



I don't think we made it to Chinatown. I think we ended up in a Japanese street. We went to a Japanese arcade where Jack played his beloved claw game. He didn't win.

We looked for a place to eat. Tim was attracted to this sushi place where the food comes around on a conveyor belt. I was attracted to a ramen noodle place. Their menu had a vegetable ramen soup that looked so good to me. I hadn't had ramen noodles in so long, and I had been craving them.

Tim was nice and let me go to the restaurant that I wanted. Sadly, though, when I ordered the vegetable ramen soup, the waitress warned me it wasn't vegetarian. 

I had to order something else. I don't remember what that was, but I do remember that I liked it a lot. 

Tim liked his food too and didn't give me guilt trips about us not going to the conveyor belt restaurant.

We went back to the room and proudly realized we had not ended up going to bed too early. I think it was about nine o'clock when we started falling asleep. We weren't victims of jet-lag, going to bed at six or seven and screwing up our whole schedule. First day and we were already already doing great!

Could there be a chance I counted our blessings too soon?

Read my novel: The Dead are Online