My still-slighty-intoxicated flatmate informed me that after work (at a nightclub where a meagre hourly wage is supplemented by a not-so-meagre apportioning of liquor) he got online and booked a flight to Thailand for the coming week. He was going to go with his Irish friend Johnny who had exclaimed, in true Irish form, that the trip ‘was going to get f*%king retarded’. Reece was somewhat chuffed at obtaining return flights for only 700, only to later realise (at which point I’m still unsure) that he had indeed been navigating a British website and that the quoted 700 was in Pounds sterling.

It later emerged that he’d checked the price multiple times, oblivious to the fact it was preceded by a £ sign. He’d also passed on the right to purchase the ‘right to refund’ should something go astray. Fortunately, the exchange rate is somewhat favourable so that, even if his frantic post-booking ‘please scrap that and refund me’ email should fall on deaf ears, he’ll ‘only’ be out of pocket by around $1500.

The moral of the story, I guess, is: If you’re get booked for drunken driving, you’re a fool. If you get driven for a drunken booking, you’re on your way to becoming ‘f$£king retarded’…

But he has sat there on top for a number of years now and I’m continually amazed by his words and thoughts and their interplay with some of the most majestic guitar picking my ears have beheld. Later compositions, ‘riddled’ with synthetic drum beats, electronic organ and Kenny G-esque saxophone have taken a while to grow on me, but grown on me they have – simply the evolution of music through the hazardous waters of the 1980s and early 90s.

By all accounts, John Martyn lived, played and drank hard and it was this hard living life that no doubt shortened his illustrious life and career. His last few years were troubled by illness, one such bout necessitating a double amputation at the knees. His understated (in my eyes) talent is illustrated by this relatively brief wikipedia entry.

Martyn passed away on the 29th of January this year, right about the time Storm and I had passed the worst of the Nullarbor, and I only found out this morning whilst doing a trawl for some notation of ‘May you Never’. I’d dreamed a few weeks ago that I’d seen him in concert and that he was shortly to die. I remember feeling immensely sad as I awoke from that dream, regretting that I’d never had the pleasure to see him play in the flesh (particularly during his 1970s heyday). It is a sadness that I feel acutely today; ‘A little strange’ given that our assocation lives purely within the musician/listener interface. Still you can’t help how you feel and I am truly saddened…

So, for those who haven’t had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with John Martyn’s music, I present to you my all time (thus far) playlist of his tracks. If you’re rich or iTunes inclined, you could do worse than download some of these tracks… The difficulty will be in shortening it by some measure… Many of these songs have a number of versions – studio and live – and I have selected those which I think are best.

1) Couldn’t Love you More – One World (1977) CD2, Track 2 (There are a number of versions but the one from the ‘One World’ Album is my favourite and possibly the most beautiful song ever…)
2) May You Never – Solid Air (1972-3) Track 7

Ok, they’re probably my two all-time favs. The next are chronologically listed (1 per album) to give an idea of change in times and style

* Sandy Grey – London Conversation (1967) Track 2
* Sing a song of Summer – The Tumbler (1968) Track 1
* Woodstock (Track 5) and Traffic Light Lady (Track 8 ) – Stormbringer (1969-70)
* Head and Heart – Bless the Weather (1971) Track 6 – A number of other excellent songs on this album.
* Over the Hill (Track 2) and Go Down Easy (Track 5) – Solid Air (1972-3)
* Ain’t no Saint – Inside Out (1973) Track 3
* My Baby Girl – Sunday’s Child (1974-5) Track 4
* One Day without You – Sweet Certain Surprise (1977-81) Track 12
* Hurt in You Heart – Grace and Danger (1980) Track 6
* Never let me go – Live in Bristol (1983) Track 9
* Don’t want to Know – Philenthropy (1983) Track 2 – covered by Beth Orton on her first album
* Spencer the Rover – BBC in Concert 1986 (rel 1992) Track 2 (Folk song cover)
* Fisherman’s Dream – Live at the Shaw Theatre 1990 (rel 1995) CD1 Track 9
* Bless the Weather – No Little Boy (1993) Track 12
* A Little Strange – And (1996) Track 5

* The Cure – Accoustic – I’m not sure which album but you can get it on the DL by right clicking the link

I’d be more than happy to make a compilation for anyone who’s interested…

RIP John and I hope you enjoy some of his amazing music…

I shall get around to the former in the course of the next week as we wrap up our stay in Brisbane but I’d like to turn to the intrigue thus presented…

In an age where many more people are blogging, becoming virtual residents and catching the Intertubes to various destinations of work and play, there is an increasing likelihood of your average Joe and Joeline running websites without a comprehensive understanding of their underpinnings and vulnerabilities. Internet hosts facilitate this through easy 1-click installs (occasionally more) of popular software to enable expression of thoughts (WordPress etc), artistic inclinations (photo galleries) and/or commercial enterprises (Joomla, Zencart etc).

Whilst a number of free websites cater for budding bloggers, photographers, entrepreneurs – and indeed have built vast communities and empires (think Flickr, Blogspot) through the provision of these services – there is something nice about the ownership that comes with one’s own website, be it a terrible one page contraption with flickering borders and gaudy colour schemes. There is also no question of End User Agreements or relinquishment of rights to images and/or text.

So I should not have been surprised that I am one of these Joes that took web security for granted and had my website hacked on what appears to be multiple occasions. It looks as though the Joomla software I’d installed on a whim (and whose suggested security measures I’d ignored) was hacked and, in one instance, had been supplemented with a fraudulent Paypal service that solicited details from unsuspecting Joes and Joelines to fund personal drug habits, armament of 3rd world warlords or worse.

Whilst removing the hacked files and reactivating my now empty binbilla.net domain, I also discovered this hack – replete with what I can only assume is an Allahphilic rap song, which appears to be separate from the Paypal fraud. Interesting eh…

In retroflection I’m just glad that there was nothing of import on binbilla.net and that it was not jameses.org that was jeopardised. For although I would likely get back most of whatever was removed/deleted/destroyed from this site, the thought of losing the words, sentiments, stories and memories that I’ve imparted on these digital pages over the last few years is not a pleasant one. That being said, I should really go and upgrade my version of wordpress, no?

————

As a last little tidbit of funny in this somewhat dry post, I’d like to leave you with Senior Sergeant Greg Davies of the Victorian Police Association’s sage words on tasers.

“A lot of the reports in relation to tasers have been wildly exaggerated and I think if we set the statistics aside and just deal in facts, we will find that there are, according to some sources, no recorded deaths directly attributed to tasers anywhere in the world.”

The man’s a born politician!

A couple of weeks later and it struck me that someone would have captured it on a phone camera. So here it is in all of its laughable glory.

A few examples could easily populate this page just from my short tenure, but I thought I’d leave it to the expressions and exasperations of a more entrenched soul…

Regarding the Employment Services System (Aurion ESS) in an email to my unit.

“So they design an opaque system that invariably requires victims, er, users to call up in order to access and now they remove the call-up facility. Future ‘improvements’ will no doubt include extension of the Wednesday lockdown to every other day, barring perhaps a half-hour window every second Monday between 0700 and 0730 and every third Friday from 1730 to 1800. Password protocol will similarly be ‘improved’ requiring no fewer than thirteen letters and four numbers and will expire after one hour. You will then be unable to use any of the letters or numbers in a password for a period of not less than seven years. Security will similarly be improved by limiting the secret questions to ‘What is the Linnaean name of your favorite venomous Australian creature? And ‘Who is my least favorite Sumerian monarch?’

Somebody mention user-friendliness? Those few able to access the system will be offered a choice of colour schemes, including Public Sector Grey and Billy McMahon Beige in addition to the current Smoggy Sky Blue.

Sheesh.”

It’s not quite the Cirque du Soleil , but you gotta love the Public Circus…

Sitting; shifting; in an out and in again.
Attention wavering as the hum-drum of paid-up people drifts me by.
The sky’s not seen here, but a thousand lamps attempt to replicate,
as the meek seek to become great in the eyes of peers, playing the seers of industry.
Talking, keynoting, bignoting one’s self, one’s company, one’s image.
For the sake of more more business, money and, alas, happy hour drinks.
In and out I go again to the brink of inattention.
Abstention from the right to think should take me through to evenining drinks…

I guess the problem is standing out from the crowd. With a larger potential audience comes greater competition and a walk down the virtual shopping aisles of Youtube would have you quickly surmise that there are shedloads of very talented people with access to (at least) a video camera and a head of smarts. But, there is always room for those who have the motivation and originality to be a ‘first’, and those who spend some time surfing the net know that certain blogs, discussion websites and, increasingly, mainstream media (through their blogs/offbeat columns/video sections) lap it up. A notable mention on a superblog such as Boingboing has the potential to slam web servers as the many thousands of devoted BB readers click on through (e.g.).

This post is leading somewhere, and that somewhere is the clever choice of an hitherto unsigned Manchester band to record a film clip for their latest offering in front of mutliple CC-TV cameras and then request the footage back through Data Protection legislation for mashing together. Although it is passed off as a way to produce a cheap film clip (“we didn’t have money for a film crew”) it is much more likely an attempt at something sufficiently original and creative to get the web buzzing. And it did just that… The Telegraph and BB picked it up and I’m sure countless other second- and third- tier blogs (such as this) will do the same. And so the opportunity to become the next OK GO has presented itself… Whether the Manchester band is canny enough to capitalise on its initial fame is hard to see; however, it has definitely given itself a fighting chance with its initial offering…

And when all’s said and done, it is a nicely made film clip (I did notice their use of a free moving camera – complete with CC-TV like lines and resolution) and the song is nice and catchy. So in praise of their efforts in embracing the ‘new’ advertising medi-um/a here’s the link

(And p.s. – cheers to those who’ve taken up the offer of email subscription; don’t worry mum… I’m on my lunch break!)

You see, a curious mind and a tool for knowledge combine to make for dangerous times…

What was this site you ask? It’s called -On The House- and is a new kid on the block in the online real estate game. Now this little gem allows you to obtain the prices paid for a piece of property as far back as the 1970s for QLD (and occasionally further). What’s more, the information can be accessed for an individual property, or expanded to include all properties in a street or suburb! There’s even a radius function to let you look at property prices within a 1km radius of your requested location!

Now the information it provides is not in itself entirely amazing – it is readily available upon payment of a fee – but the ease with which information is readily searched and displayed is nothing short of awesome (and scary). Within a few minutes, you can ascertain what your parents, boss, friends, landlord, arch nemesis, paid for their house or apartment. You can observe trends within a suburb, street or even for the one block of land over the past 2 decades or so. You can see what those properties you had contemplated buying had ‘really’ gone for. Scared yet?

And so an hour or two was spent after work on that fateful day sating my curiousity for information about all things property and priced.

First it was my own house and houses on my street -> the big one with the tennis court recently sold for $2.7 million. 4 more properties on my street are > $1 million.
Next it was what friends and bosses had paid for theirs -> in most cases I actually knew but was using their information to verify the verity of the website’s data.
Next next was the search of all the houses I had rented in the past 8 years -> some appeared, whilst others appear to have been singularly possessed (and not by ghosts) for a number of years.
Next next next was a search of all those places I’d been interested in ‘buying’ (dreamily) to see what they finally went for -> some went for less than I’d hypothesised my bid to be
Penultimately was a suburb search to see where the really expensive houses are – > One house in Highgate Hill recently sold for $4.5 million (more than a lifetime’s earnings at Subway)
Lastly, I realised there was actually an academic utility in this glorious information in observing price pressures placed on towns like Moranbah – a town surrounded by mines and where real estate demand is phenomenal – to help centres like mine quantify the social impacts of (cumulative) mining operations in the region.

Let me sign off by saying the initial glee and euphoria of discovering such a treasure trove of information has worn off; still, how nuts is the internet!?!