Euthanasia

If you were severely injured after falling from a building or being hit by a bus, and left paralysed, crapping yourself in a state of constant and overwhelming misery, you would want to die.

Unfortunately, you would not die.

You would be kept alive by the marvels of modern medicine.

Many people who have suffered a stroke or have become paraplegic wish to die. However, there are exceptions.

Seventy six year old Polish immigrant Magda*, suffered a series of strokes in the mid nineties that left her completely disabled and dependent on her children. She repeatedly expressed a wish to die.

"I am old. I have had my life. Let me go. "

However, one year ago her first great grandchild was born. She was reinvigorated with a will to live.

"I am so glad," she said , "That I did not die and have lived to see my great grandchildren."

But what about others who do not have any joy in their lives? Should they not be allowed to take control of their own fate?

According to devout Catholics, no.

"It is God's choice. You are not in charge of what you do with your body. Only God has that power. You have no right to end your own life." This is the opinion of Maria*, a devout parishioner.

Maria, however, has not and does not know anyone who has been left immobile, shitting their pants, humiliated and without hope.

A disabled New Zealand woman has commited suicided by refusing not to eat for 16 days. Australian euthanasia campaigner, Philip Nitschke, said today that Margaret Page's death was a tragedy.

"It is disgusting that the only option Margaret had left was to deny herself fluids and food and engage in a macabre process of slow torture and death," he was quoted saying by the New Zealand Press Association.

Nitschke is completely correct. If someone's quality of life has disintegrated so profoundly, they have every right to end it in the least traumatic way possible.

Anti-abortion activists, 40 Days for Life, stationed themselves in Surry Hills, Sydney this week. They chose a prime position, opposite a women’s clinic on Randle Street. 40 Days for Life is actually an American campaign, which “tracks Biblical history, where God used 40-day periods to transform individuals, communities ... and the entire world.”

They claim that so far, 433 babies have been saved by their 39-day vigil.

In Australia, there is a Medicare item number than can be accessed for the termination of pregnancies. After an abortion, women can claim half the fee back on Medicare.

No such thing exists in the United States where Barack Obama came under fire from fellow Democrats this week, following the presidential signature on the $US940 billion ($1 trillion) healthcare bill. Anti abortion Democrats claimed that ambiguous language of the healthcare bill could lead to taxpayer money being spent on abortions, opposing the Hyde Amendment of 1976, which banned government funding of terminations.

Obama, in an effort to win the Democrats’ support, agreed to sign an executive order confirming the provision of the Hyde Amendment. This is despite his promise in 2007 to overturn the bill.

Abortions are illegal in both Ireland and Poland, predominately Catholic nations. Many women travel to England to have a termination payed for by the National Health Service.

Polish pro-abortion groups have actually distributed posters and fliers urging women to travel to England. One poster shows a woman in her underwear with the words “my choice” scrawled across her stomach. Mimicking the style of a Mastercard commercial, the poster reads, “Plane ticket to England at special offer – 300 zloty. Accommodation – 240 zloty. Abortion in a public clinic – 0 zloty.”

England has a reciprocal agreement with Poland for the provision of free medical care under European Union regulations. However, the campaign has been criticised for promoting “abortion tourism”.

One way to avoid the ever controversial and sensitive issue of abortion is to use a condom. The French make this very clear in this television advertisement.

I Only Want One Night

"I Feel Better" by Hot Chip.

Before seeing this, I never expected a song like "I Feel Better" to have such a hilarious video.

My favourite bit is where the bald dude in the white dress thing comes gliding into the concert. Check his creepy expression and the complete disgust of all the chicks.

Encyclopedia Dramatica

BEFORE you start screaming "racist whore", this picture is from the website I am posting about, Encyclopedia Dramatica. I am using it to demonstrate the content of the website (apparently this our national symbol) and by no means agree with racist statements such as these myself.

Now that I've written a disclaimer...

The Australian Federal Government is pushing forward with a plan to force Internet Service Providers [ISPs] to censor the Internet for all Australians. One of the websites that the Australian government wants to block is encyclopedia dramatica. In true Australian style, everyone is up in arms about the content of this website and its portrayal of Australia.

Australians take great pride in their cultural diversity through such large gatherings as "The Sydney Race Riots" and legislation such as "The White Australia Policy", which luminously highlight the country's warm fuzzy feelings for coloured people. It was not long ago that famed racism ambassador Pauline Hanson, a.k.a. Hitler.au, was a serious political contender, until she was sent to prison for political incorrectness. She subsequently returned to reach the finals on Dancing With the Stars, even though she couldn't dance for shit, proving that she was in fact more popular than VB and meat pies.

For statements such as these, the Australian government wants to sue ED for human rights violations.

Has it ever occurred to these outraged citizens that the people writing this stuff are probably Australian?

Oh, also, its a JOKE.

They say pretty shitty stuff about every country. Lebanon is described as the "Aspie whore child of Syria". I'm not even sure what that means, but it isn't nice. They go on to say that Arabs can not comprehend basic math and that they're constantly "raping the hell out of each other".

The page about Armenia shows a picture of corpses from the Armenian genocide. The page about Jews displays a Jaws movie poster with a Jewish person portrayed as a shark.

Despite how disgusting most of the content is, I don't want it blocked. I believe this Internet filter would be an assault on democratic values. It seems that by uttering the phrase "child pornography" any politician can get any law passed here. It has become the scapegoat for everything in Australian society, whipping up intense moral panic.

What else will be blocked if this law is passed? The Australian Sex Party website has been listed, as well as websites advocating euthanasia.

During the state election in South Australia is was ordered that all bloggers use their real names when posting. This could soon be a reality nationwide, judging by the government's determination to restrict citizen's access to public content.

To learn more about this shitty idea, visit:
http://nocleanfeed.com/learn.html

A Monologue About Fred

Every time I walk past that place on Foxeaux Street I think of him. He used to hate going to those counselling sessions.

“They tell you it’s alright, that you can still have a long life with HIV. Easy for them. They’re not the ones with shit for blood.”

I remember when we first met Fred. He came over after we moved into the apartment block, arms outstretched like brittle twigs, bearing a bottle of wine.

Damon and I invited him inside and he started rattling off these bizarre anecdotes. We liked him immediately.

He told us about his most treasured possession, a plastic hand.

It had been attached to his mother, before she died. He now kept it in his living room, encased in glass.

Damon told me later that he thought it was creepy, keeping someone’s artificial appendage on display. But I thought it was sweet. Fred explained that it had been a part of her for as long as he could remember, her most distinctive feature. The only part of her that would not rot. So why not keep it?

Straight after he told us about the plastic hand he dropped the bomb.

“I’m HIV positive.”

I looked at Damon, who was staring at the ceiling.

It’s like when someone tells you they have cancer, or that they have had an abortion. You have no idea what to say so you make this stupid, sappy face and just kind of… exhale.

“I’ve also got vaginal warts,” Fred added.

That broke the awkward silence.

“How can you have vaginal warts?” Damon asked, “You’re a man!”

Despite his eccentricities, Fred was a loveable person. His home was like his own little ecosystem, chock a block with old televisions, gramophones, records, National Geographics, a collection of golliwogs…

His wasted body would wander through the maze of items to the kitchen, where he would make tea. Setting it on the table, he would always beam. He was always happy to be doing something for you.

And when he smiled… Jesus, those teeth. They were beautifully white and straight. God knows how. He chain smoked and consumed more than twenty cups of tea a day.
He told me that. He told me everything. Including the fact that when he kissed other blokes, he liked to rub teeth.

Although it was really difficult for him to have partners if he told them he was HIV positive. The terrible thing was that sometimes he didn’t tell them. He would meet men and let them know afterwards.

For his safety, I worried because I reckoned that some people would kill him if they knew.

But it was not his intent to infect people. He was not a bad guy. It was just that he had encounters where one was the giver and one was the taker and it just…didn’t work.

They both gave in and did what they wanted to do. And then there was blood.

But to let them know that he was HIV positive via text message?

He did that to one ex boyfriend. The guy followed Fred home one night and kicked the shit out of him. Fred would not tell me whether he had infected this man or not. All I knew was that Fred had been left for dead.

He was rushed to St Vincent’s when a neighbour found him on the footpath. He had broken his collarbone, left arm and three ribs.

They discharged him fourteen days later. He came home and slit his wrist in the bathtub.

After Fred died, I started going to the group counselling sessions on Foveaux Street.

Damon thought that it was a sick curiosity on my part. But I did it because I wanted to know what Fred had felt. How could someone possibly live with HIV? I always imagined that if I were somehow infected with it, I would automatically throw myself in front of a train, or hang myself. How did these people go about their lives, knowing that there was not really a life to live? Most of them would be dead in less than fifteen years.

It was at the meetings that I heard a man tell of how he intentionally infected his wife with HIV. He had known he was infected for months and he did not tell her because he didn’t want the sex to stop.

It was then that I stopped feeling sorry for Fred. Once you can medicate HIV, it’s no longer a murder sentence. So in some part a of a man’s psyche… they just don’t care. I mean, why should you care when you’re going to die anyway? You become selfish and bitter.

I like to think that women would be better at dishing out punishment. But there are so many women who are unstable and vindictive.

But then, too many men give lenience to too many men.

I wish that Fred had not killed himself. But then again, how many others would be HIV positive now if he had not decided to do it?

Mr Right

I used to work nights at Hot Cock dot com, but then I got fired when my mom logged on, I'm on the run, my dad's a bum, I asked my girl if she loved me and she just said 'ummm'.

With lyrics like these you can see why I love Mickey Avalon. And I’m not the only one. Thousands of girls will be flocking to see the Ave tonight at The Forum in Sydney, swooning at the sight of his sweating, emaciated, tattooed body.

God knows why.

He looks like a junkie who has spent the last ten years hocking his ass for crack. That’s probably because he has.

So why is this self-confessed dope fiend famous? He isn’t the first to rap about drug abuse and prostitution.

It’s the Mickey Avalon story. The grandchild of two holocaust survivors and the off spring of two drug addicted parents, Avalon (born Yeshe Perl) was a hustler kamikaze bumping lines off hooker’s abs by his early twenties.

But he has more going for him than that. I think.

His lyrics paint the dark and seedy underbelly of Los Angeles with a rawness that would make the most hardened gangster blush.

Avalon compares himself more to Bob Dylan than Jay Z, describing his tunes as modern day folk music. Those who have listened to his tracks may dispute this, but if you define folk music as music for the people, describing what is true and relevant in your life, you might agree.

Also, Mickey Avalon is more polite than you might think.

He has “Thank You” tattooed on his lower stomach to show gratitude to all the pretty girls who agreed to fuck him.

Sounds like just the kind of boy you want to take home to your parents. Almost… Mr Right.

Ready, Able

Continuing on with my obsession for bears, here is the video clip for 'Ready, Able'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Puph1hejMQE

Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest is good to put on really, really loud when you're having a bath so you can hear it under water. It's that kind of music.

'Ready, Able' is slow but not as melancholy as some other tracks on the album, like 'Foreground'.

The video shows what Gumby would look like on acid. All the creatures are made from plasticine or clay or something and are awesomely Daliesque.

The surrealism compliments the song, which is beautiful in itself.

Cocaine Flame In My Bloodstream

Check out Ray LaMontagne's song 'Jolene'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VBVqE-UtHw

He once worked at a shoe factory (allegedly). Then quit and started singing. I am really relieved that he did so. His voice is like no other.

Do not confuse 'Jolene' with Dolly Parton's song of the same name. Although that one is sort of alright as well.

"If You Want Reality, Take The Bus." - Dave LaChapelle

Dave LaChapelle's surrealist photography challenges the audience to contemplate consumerist culture and the way in which it has insidiously permeated our reality. The pursuit of money, fame and sex appeal has replaced the quest for happiness and well being in Western culture, and we accept this without realising it.

LaChapelle critiques social conventions by using blemishless, gaunt humans weighed down with make up and glorified with artificial light.

He highlights how celebrity culture has subverted religion and places some of the world's most well know stars in loaded poses. My favourite is this one of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love.

Talking With T-Bone

Don’t be fooled by the claim that many bear species have become endangered. You only need to drop down to your local record store to find a couple lurking in the aisles. I’ve seen a Grizzly Bear and a Panda Bear at JB Hi Fi, both in the same day.

And then there is Boy and Bear, an indie folk group from Sydney with dazzling harmonies that won them the Triple J Homebake competition in October 2009.

Boy and Bear don’t have a lot of fur. But they do have a distinctive textured and melodic sound.

I met with drummer Tim Hart on Crown Street, Surrey Hills, to talk music, Mexicans and main influences.

Crown Street is definitely the natural habitat of indie musos. Skinny hipsters stroll the footpath or sit in cafés, sipping organic poached pear juice and dragging on cigarettes. But Tim Hart doesn’t smoke. He does however, “drink way too much coffee”.

I ask Tim about why the band decided on the name Boy and Bear. He explains that they went through a lot of different choices.

“We hadn’t heard the Grizzly Bear album but Boy and Bear was the one name that we didn’t go, ‘oh, its shit’.”

He will not disclose other potential titles for the act. “I don’t want to say what they were. It’s kind of embarrassing. There was one that turned out to be a reference to cocaine, which we didn’t realise at the time.”

Tim agrees that there are a lot of bands named after animals going around at the moment.

“The last time we were driving from Brisbane to Melbourne we tried to go through all the animal names. Everything from The Black Crows to Tame Impala. Maybe it’s just something in the psyche or subconscious of music culture at the moment. The listeners are probably wanting more of an organic thing these days, I think it’s a reaction to pop music.”

Tim doesn’t seem to be a fan of pop music. He dislikes the clinical sound of commercial radio like Nova and 2Day FM. But he is reluctant to hack into these stations just because they are “mainstream”.

“I won’t really say too much about that. What I will say is that we feel privileged to be a Triple J band, we love what they do with grassroots music. We hope our relationship with them is a long term one. As far as Nova is concerned, I don’t listen to them but I think they’re realising what Triple J does and they’re moving towards that in playing Mumford and Sons and the Philly Jays (Philadelphia Grand Jury). It’s definitely changing. But Boy and Bear on Nova… I don’t really like the sound of that. I love FBI. In my car it goes FBI, then North Shore FM, the Sunday night slot with Tom Parker, and then Triple J.”

Boy and Bear have been described as a cross between Fleet Foxes and Australian band, The Shins. However, as Tim points out, any new indie band is going to be compared to others in genre.

“I’d be lying if I said Fleet Foxes and The Shins weren’t influences of ours. I love the Fleet Foxes record and I love all The Shins records. But our influences probably go a little deeper, back to 1970s folk. The harmonies were something that a few of us were brought up on and they seem to be pretty fashionable right now. We love doing the harmonies and it works well having three singers in the band. The comparisons are good if they helps people figure out what direction we’re heading in. We just finished recording our EP and I think you’ll be surprised at the direction it’s taking.”

He strongly suggests that I take a listen to The Acorns, an “amazing” Canadian band. “They do jungle drums and harmonies. For me, it’s the first time I’ve played drums in a band so I have to draw influence from somewhere.”

Listening to Boy and Bear, you would be hard pressed to find any influences from Pearl Jam, but Tim informs me that his first album was Ten.

“Maybe I didn’t buy it, maybe I stole it out of my brothers room. Then there was Alice and Chains. And always Simon and Garfunkel, a style of music that my Dad got me into. I listened to Nirvana, but not as much as everyone else did. It seemed like there was a bit of a Pearl Jam versus Nirvana thing. After that Ben Harper and a bit of Jack Johnson. Then I got a little poppy and got into John Mayer.”

He isn’t embarrassed to like John Mayer, even though he doesn’t exactly fit the “indie cool” image.

“I think he’s wonderful. I’ve seen him live a lot of times and I think he’s a great performer. But my biggest influences were definitely folk. Its cliché to say Dylan, but he was a big part of it, as well as Sufjan Stevens.”

The band’s MySpace page lists three other members; Dave Hosking, Killian Gavin and Jake Tarasenko. However, Tim’s brother, John Hart, also plays keyboard with the band.

Before Boy and Bear was formed, each member was producing a different kind of sound.

“Dave was pretty pop. Killian was quite indie, so was John.”

None of the members feature in the video clip for “Mexican Mavis”. It was made by Steven Lattuca and Paul Andrew Rhodes and is composed of home video footage of two brothers. They are seen chasing pigeons, holding puppies, dancing like crazy and generally having childish fun. However, the Super 8 film gives the clip a nostalgic tone and the skillful editing creates an inexplicable sense of melancholy. At one point, the screen is split into four frames of one child dancing exuberantly. The contrast of his energy with the sad lyrics of the song creates a sense of loss.

There is definitely a story behind the video, but Tim is not giving much away.

“Well, I don’t know if its true or not. Something went down, I don’t actually know what happened. I don’t want to get in trouble for saying this. But possibly, allegedly, one of the brothers ended up killing the other one. Jake would be the one to ask about that story, he’d be happy to fill you in. The idea was the have the video kind of light but at the same time have some ambiguity to it. Its actually quite a morbid song. You almost miss that when you hear it until you focus on the lyrics. The video and the song are kind of juxtaposed.”

Although it’s a beautiful song, the title “Mexican Mavis” is fairly random.

“The riff at the start sounds quite Mexican,” Tim explains, “We liked the way it sounded. Mavis is a songbird… at the time we were looking at band names too, there was an Australian band called the Mavis’.”

When I saw Boy and Bear at the Monavale Hotel last Friday night, there was a very enthusiastic punter cheering on the band.

“Yeah that guy,” Tim recalls, “He was off his chops. He was at the Melbourne show at the Corner Hotel. But he’s a lovely guy and he loves music, and when you talk to him he’s really knowledgeable about music. When you get him one on one, he can hold a really decent conversation. He’ll say, ‘dude I love the harmonies, and the lyrics…’. I really like the guy. I mean, travelling around the country, and getting off your dial. I like those kind of people. They make it fun, they make it interesting. Its nice to see the same faces in Melbourne and Sydney.”

Even though Boy and Bear have fans following them around the country, Tim claims that they haven’t had many bizarre or crazy moments typical of the “rock n’ roll” experience.

“We’re not so rock n’ roll. I think the most bizarre thing that’s happened so far, which is not going to impress you terribly, is that when we turned up at Homebake, we thought we’d play to two people because we were in the morning, but when we walked out the whole place was packed. We didn’t expect it. It was one of our best shows.”

The Australian music scene is small when placed in an international context. This is why it’s important to support local acts so that they can develop and eventually spread their talents overseas.

“There are a lot of good bands going around at the moment. You go down to Melbourne and they’re fighting for the licensing laws to be relaxed so it’s easier to hold gigs. It’s not punters who are going to gigs and getting pissed and fighting, its all the club bouncers. But there are great venues all over Sydney, like Oxford Arts and Spectrum.

“Its so important to support Australian music. We’re so stoked that we get to go on tour with these great acts, like Angus and Julia Stone. There will be one more tour with someone else, but I can’t really say who it is.”

He won’t share who that artist will be, so I ask him which song he would cover on Triple J’s Like A Version if he had the chance.

“If I had my choice I would do a song called Heart and Bones by Paul Simon… OR I would do a Peter Gabriel song. I like singing Jolene by Ray La Montagne in the shower. If you ever hear me at a gig doing a sound check, I’ll always be singing that song.”

How would the other band member’s describe Tim in one word?

“T-Bone. That’s what they call me.”

“T-Bone? That could make a good header for the article.”

So the choice is there. Either catch one of the band members singing in the shower or get along to a gig. Judging by what I’ve seen (and heard), these bears are going extinct anytime soon.