Month: November 2010

It’s time to talk about moving forward.

liligans What Pisses me off

Whenever I hear the words, “Moving Forward” I want to throw up. Flashbacks of our Prime Minister droning on about moving forward will have that effect on me for many years to come. I can’t help it. She has totally ruined that phrase for me. It was the same with ex Prime Minister Rudd who used the word “robust” so often that I have had to cross it out of my lexicon. And then there’s “argy-bargy” which was done to death by the former Premier of Queensland and is being regurgitated by the current Premier, Anna Bligh.

Who can forget “incentivisation” or “incentivation”? Now that was trendy, wasn’t it and so corporate. The former Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, adopted the latter as his motto. Fortunately, it has gone with the wind.

The latest annoyance comes from the overuse of “paradigm”. We are served paradigms with breakfast, lunch and dinner. The politicians have grabbed hold of this term and will not let go of it. We have new improved paradigms, hormone-free paradigms, gluten-free paradigms, environmentally friendly paradigms. For crying out loud, give it a rest!

These politicians act like pit bull terriers. They latch on to a word until it becomes the mot du jour. Over and over and over again it will be repeated on TV and in the newspapers. It is mind numbing. I find that I don’t even listen to what they are saying because I’m too busy counting the number of times they have repeated that infernal word.

And so I come to the coup de grâce… the phrase, “the elephant in the room.” Apparently, there is an elephant in the room. We don’t talk about it. We should because it’s there. What is? Well, the elephant is. It’s there but we are ignoring it. So when are we going to notice it or acknowledge it, whatever it is? I don’t know. Nor do I care. Let’s just go on to the next tedious phrase, shall we? Can we? Yes, we can… Oops…

The hills are alive with the sound of Julia Gillard

liligans Politics, So you think you're cultured?

Poor Prime Minister Gillard. First, Hillary Clinton refers to Gillard’s nemesis, Kevin Rudd, as being the current Prime Minister of Australia. And now during the G20 meeting in Korea, we find an official display figurine of Prime Minister Gillard sporting the Aussie national costume. Except that it isn’t.

It’s definitely a dirndl which is worn in some parts of Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

The costume consists of a bodice, blouse and full skirt and is very fetching indeed, but I can’t quite imagine the Prime Minister of Australia discarding her comfortable pantsuits for the colourful peasant garb.

I have to admit that there is a niggling desire in my mischievous mind to see her front up to an official G20 function in a dirndl. I guarantee that if she did that nobody would confuse Austria and Australia in the future. Go ahead and do it, Julia… please…

Film Critics should study the History of Cinema

liligans Films, So you think you're cultured?

It amazes me how film and TV critics reveal their lack of knowledge of the medium. They come out in praise of ancient filming techniques as if these were innovations.

Take “The Social Network” as an example of this.

I had to laugh when a film critic by the name of Adam Kamien actually described the use of actor, Armie Hammer, in a dual role of identical twins, the Winklevoss brothers, as “a stroke of genius.” This is hardly new nor is it a stroke of genius. Does anyone remember “The Patty Duke Show” (1963-1966)? It’s a very old and common device in movie production.

Personally, I picked that it was a dual role as soon as I saw the Winklevosses on the screen and no, I had not looked up the cast before going to the movie theatre.