Archive - 2005

As seen in the most recent edition of Katherine Times:

The Borja family wish to thank the emergency services of Pine Creek for assisting our son on the Stuart Highway on Friday December 16. Special thanks to the other drivers on the highway that stopped to lend their support. Their good spirits have helped to ensure our Christmas will be happy.

Wonder what that was about?

Tags: Classifieds, Newspaper, Katherine Times, Thanks.

It's well past two hours into Christmas already. Santa has come and gone. I should hurry to bed so I can get up and unwrap some presents.

Merry Christmas!

With JPB and I separated by a few thousand kilometres, there's not very much "gay" happening at the moment. I'm on the phone to Sydney pretty much every night and I did catch up with FagInTheBush but that's about it. Talking. Oh, and telling JPB that I love him and I miss him and JPB being worried about me when I told him about the blowout.

I set up my parent's audiovisual centre a couple of days ago and used Kylie's Showgirl dvd to test it out. Okay so this is not necessarily a "gay" thing but you can't deny that Red Blooded Woman is dripping wet with homo, none of the male dancers seem at all concerned about Kylie and instead would rather flex their muscles at each other. mmm... muscles... Oh, and there's that Pet Shop Boys collaboration with Kylie about some guy who's In Denial.

And on the news I saw Elton John and partner (sorry, dude, for not knowing your name) get "together". Not officially "married", to be sure, but at least recognised and with legal rights to... something... well anyway it was a bit of a shock to hear Tony Blair comment on it, saying that he proud that Britain is taking this step forward, allowing gay civil partnerships to occur. Good on you. Had you not sent troops to Iraq you'd be my favourite pollie.

Tags: Gay, News, Northern Territory, Civil Union, Gay Marriage, Elton John.

Update: Watching more news. Dad grunted disapprovingly and I chirped that it was a good thing. Elton John and partner are currently the face of gay marriage (even though they aren't really married). Lots of talk about the estimated combined annual income of all the poofs in Great Britain and I'm thinking "what's that got to do with love?" Maybe it's because Mr and Mr Elton John aren't really married, which is about love (apparently), they're just "unified civilly", which is more about tax. Oh well, baby steps...

So the last couple of posts have been a touch morbid. So to make up for it, I've got some lovely pictures!

On the right is the main intersection of the town where I grew up. Nothing much has changed, except the traffic lights got put up after I left. Can you feel the heat and humidity? It was about 36C that afternoon and the clouds were threatening to burst; they didn't, though, it was just hot and muggy.
The dog's name is Badyou (pronounced "Badge-oo") he kinda looks cute in a scruffy kind of way. My parents also have goats, and they sure do like to pose!

And finally, here's a picture my Dad took. Seems like it's not just the people that like a good beer...

I just killed something and I'm a bit distressed! I'm still shaking.

It's quite late at night and everyone else has gone to bed. Earlier on the dogs had been barking at something in the shed. It was a rat. Dad got woken up by the dogs and sent me out with a torch and a spear to kill it. Extremely reluctant, I headed off into the garden, spotted the rat, speared... and missed. Though I scared it off which seemed to silence the dogs for a while.

But about an hour later the dogs stared barking again and sure enough the rat had reappeared, it's cute little eyes and it's furry little body... well anyway i took aim again, speared... BULLS EYE!

Unfortunately this wasn't quite enough to pierce the rat's body because the spear was blunt. Instead it was jammed up against the shed wall, letting out this cute little squeal as I tried to ram the prongs through. To no avail. The dogs were going wild by this stage and I was getting quite distressed, I had to prop the spear up against a gas cylinder to keep the rat from getting away so I could walk around to rev myself up. I took up the spear again, looked away and gave one almight shove and... nothing! The rat was wailing to high heaven by this stage and, seeing the bloody hungry dogs jumping around madly, I took the rat by its tail and dangled it in front of the biggest dog, which then ravenously snatched the little critter into it's mouth and finished the job.

... I think I need a lie down...

Tags: Rat, Kill, Spear, Dogs.

The police officer asked me how fast I was going: “I think I was going 110”. “You realise this is a 100 zone?” Crap. Way to go admitting to a cop that I was speeding. In fact, for the entire journey up until the car ended up on its roof on the side of the road I was pretty much averaging 110 anyway, I was in too numb at the time to fabricate a lie. Still, skid marks notwithstanding, there’s no way he could prove I was speeding and, besides, much of the highway from Darwin to Katherine has no speed restrictions so luckily I wasn’t going faster.

Because if I was going faster maybe I would have lost control of the car earlier… maybe…

After the cop had stepped out the length of the skid marks on the road he came back and told me that, in his experience and what information he gathered, it looked like I was ‘gunning it’ more than 110. Earlier on he had referred to me as a ‘boy’ (thanks to my *youthful* complexion) and immediately I got an idea of the kind of person he judged me to be: a reckless young speeding male, he had mentally placed me in THAT demographic. I know that demographic well, I had been in enough cars with lunatic, testosterone fuelled young Katherine male drivers taking all sorts of risks; not a lot, but definitely enough.

A few kilometers down the road, a few moments back in time, I WAS going faster. But not that much faster, it wasn’t like I was ‘gunning it’ at all: I was overtaking and I had hit 120 when the car started to shake. Sensing something wrong I decided to ramp it down to 110 and, knowing that I was only an hour out of town, hoped (foolishly perhaps) that I would make it home to sort it out. At the time of the blow out, I had it in my head that 110 was going to be my maximum speed all the way home. But arguing with the cop wasn’t going to get me anywhere.

There was no acceptable reason why the tyre blew out as they were new and only just replaced a few months ago. But the brand of the tyre was Bridgestone; once the cop and the guys with the tow truck saw this they immediately began to recount stories of other tyre blowouts in the area involving Bridgestone tyres. Apparently Bridgestone tyres are unreliable but knowing this gives me no comfort, they simply shouldn’t have failed.

That being said, as far as tyre blowouts are concerned, this was thankfully a pretty lacklustre event. There was no oncoming traffic. It was a rear tyre, not a front one that blew out. I didn’t panic and slam on the brakes (and I’m really surprised that I didn’t do that!) instead I just kept on telling myself to keep the car on the road as long as possible, which I did, I managed to just miss the large sign on the opposite side of the road. I was wearing a seat belt. I had a satellite phone. The car that I overtook was not that far behind (in my mind, this was the saving grace for the case for me only doing 110 because their car was having problems, too, and they too decided to stick to a reduced speed). The car I was driving was a tank and did not lose any of its structure.

The game of “What If?” is truly a waste of energy. And yet it’s so easy to slip into that mode: Whilst typing the previous paragraph I initially typed by mistake: “I managed to hit the large sign”. Had this actually occurred the outcome would have been much different, and for the worse. Twenty-four hours later and the alternative scenarios (mainly the detrimental ones) still makes their way into my brain. I have to try to focus on what actually happened. Knowing that it could have been a lot worse doesn’t help at all.

I have to remember that it was just a freak accident. I did the best that I could and the car’s sturdiness did the rest. I have to remind myself that I walked away from it without even one scratch.

BTW I unfortunately don’t remember the names of the two people in the car that saw the whole thing, that helped me out and waited with me until the police arrived, but I just want to thank them for being so kind. I’d also like to thank the police officer, the guys with the tow truck, and the firemen for helping out as well, and my Dad for picking me up (he told the people blocking off the road to “fuck off, my son is in there!”) and driving me to Katherine. Thanks to the many people that slowed down to ask if I needed any help (even the random guy that took the opportunity to dump his worn-out shoes on the side of the road). Sorry to all those drivers that had to wait until my car was loaded on the truck.

Tags: Car Accident, Tyre Blowout, Northern Territory, Stuart Highway, Photos.

I finally made it to Katherine last night (big ordeal, tell ya about it later...) It's always like going back in time, nothing much changes. Oh sure we might have different dogs but at least their names don't change. And while the furniture is as uncomfortable as ever, at least there's always a new television or hi-fi component in the living room (this time a huge widescreen CRT which runs rings around LCDs and especially Plasma).

I was digging through all my old stuff and came across a book that I kept a weekly top 10 favourite songs through 1990 (in 1991 it expanded to a top 20). I even had a point system whereby I could collate the year's top songs and even assigned gold and (multi) platinum status to long endurance tracks. Fifteen years ago the chart looked like this (don't laugh!):

15 December 1990
(9) 10. DNA ft Suzanne Vega - Tom's Diner
(6) 9. Dee-Lite - Groove is in the Heart
(8) 8. Kylie Minogue - Step Back in Time
(10) 7. Technotronic - Wave
(RE) 6. Jean Michel Jarre - Equinox
(4) 5. Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby
(5) 4. Jean Michel Jarre - Industrial Revolution
(3) 3. Snap - Cult Of Snap
(1) 2. Technotronic - Megamix
(2) 1. Betty Boo - Doin' The Do

Let me explain: Jean Michel Jarre was only in the charts because some boy that I had a crush on started listening to it so, voila the Jarre-meister makes a mid-chart entry. Bad move. Apart from that, everyone thought that my taste in music sucked but I thought I was too cool.

Anyway, the year-end chart went a bit like this
G 10. MC Hammer - U Can't Touch This
G 9. Young MC - Bust A Move
G 8. Kylie Minogue - Better The Devil You Know
G 7. Starlight - Numero Uno
1P 6. Technotronic - Megamix
1P 5. Rococo - Megamix
2P 4. Madonna - Vogue
2P 3. Technotronic - Pump Up The Jam
2P 2. Technotronic - Get Up
4P 1. 49'ers - Touch Me

Sure, I had a thing for crappy girly Euro-housey stuff but, hey there's classic Kylie and Madonna in there! The rest of that chart went past 100 and also included alot of Paula Abdul, Grandmaster Chicken and DJ Duck's Check Out The Chicken and two different versions of Lambada.

Oi! Stop laughing! Things have gotten better: stay tuned for the Top 50 of 2005...

Tags: Music, Pop, House, Charts, Retro.

I told Pandora that I liked Kylie Minogue and after supposing the reasons why I would listen to that kind of music (it features "pop rock qualities, electronica influences, a subtle use of vocal harmony, mild rhythmic syncopation and extensive vamping"... well, yeah, I guess so...) she gives me a track called Sugar Daddy by Laika: kinda nice in a airy-fairy kind of way. Then she gives me Britney's I'm a Slave 4 U. Umm... no... not quite... After a crap electro-pop cover by The Pussycat Dolls and some Euro-crap courtesy of Cynthia (who?) I'm thinking I need to give Pandora a bit more information.

"I also like M.I.A.

"Is M.I.A. an artist or a song title?

"An artist

So now Pandora thinks I like certain songs because they feature "danceable beats, a highly synthetic sonority, prevalent use of groove and many other similarities identified in the music genome project". Whatever. The second track sucked. She's got alot to learn about Jhuny...

Tags: Music, Pop, Music Genome Project, Pandora.

Update: A bit of Goldfrapp and a bit of Depeche Mode and, by golly gosh I think she's starting to get the hang of it!

Update: Radio Romance by Tiffany? Pandora has a sense of humour!

Update: Now this is getting scary. And this is after telling Pandora that I also like Goldfrapp and Bjork. She's now playing Kim Wilde's You Came. I hate to admit it but I really did like this song (as well as the Tiffany song) when it first came out. What's the connection?

Thank the Lord for web check-in. And I thought that check-in kiosks were great. Upon arrival at T2 I took a moment to laugh at all the losers waiting in line as I gracefully dumped my bag at the counter, safe in the knowledge that I had window seats all the way. No line. It would have been quicker had I not had to fish my boarding pass (that I printed at JPB's house) out of my bag.

Even without internet access at home I don't know why anyone would bother with lines when there's check-in kiosks that aren't being fully appreciated. Losers.

Anyway, after cuddling up to JPB at gate 31 I was off on my outback tour.

tags: Flying, Goodbye, Northern Territory, Darwin.

I'm not a particularly big fan of Madonna's music. I can't get passionate about the music she puts out there. I think her persona is far more fascinating for me and for a lot of people.

- Alison Goldfrapp

You make a few well-timed comments about Madonna and suddenly there's alot more interest about you than usual. In Goldfrapp's case, Madonna takes a few pointers from you ("Like It Or Not", a track off the latest album that I'm starting to like more...), you make a few comments and suddenly everyone's asking questions. Or, in my case, you devote some blog space talking about Madonna's new single and album and suddenly your hits counter is going ballistic or, more realistically, it splutters around the 50 per day mark and then goes all quiet again. Kylie doesn't have that kind of effect, even after talking about the televised snippets of her Showgirl concert. And now that the initial excitement about Madonna's new album has died down a bit I don't know if this desperate ditch for hits will attract that kind of attention again.

It's been on my mind for a while now: What do I have to do to get hits? As a gay blog there aren't nearly enough pictures of naked men and stories of exciting sexcapades to entice the pink readers but I just simply don't want to do that. In terms of pop culture I guess my taste lies in the no-man's-land between the overly maintstream and the downright geeky. And contemporary dance has never had a large audience, on stage or in blog space. Sure, I started this thing (almost twelve months ago now!) for my own interest but now that there is a bit of an audience out there, why not try to get MORE of an audience? Without losing the "essence of Jhuny"...

A few concise and well-timed references to things that would conceivably generate alot of hits?

I've got a couple of weeks in the middle of nowhere to have a think about it some more. In anycase, this site is due for a re-design anyway...

Tags: Goldfrapp, Madonna, Kylie Minogue, hits, pop, blog.