Well, that’s over. The Commonwealth Games closing ceremonies were last weekend, and it’s taken me about a week to get over the acute embarrassment they caused. If the opening ceremonies were a bit over the top, the closing ceremonies were a wankfest of epic proportions. Ungracious bad taste abounded. The weirdest part though was the John So fan club. Every time the Lord Mayor of Melbourne’s name was announced, there was a huge cheer. No one else got that. Very strange.

My favourite part of the Games was all the free stuff. The Luminarium, for one, was fantastic. It was a huge inflatable environment with rooms and hallways and music and light, and they were handing out acid at the door (no, I made that up). Here’s an actual photograph, no fancy Photoshop tricks here, this is how it looked:

On Saturday night, we went out to see Not Drowning Waving and Shooglenifty as part of the arts festival. I’m a big fan of both bands, and having them on the same bill (we didn’t even have to move the picnic rug) made up for missing Womadelaide this year. NDW was great as always – I’m looking forward to seeing My Friend the Chocolate Cake (a kind of off-shoot of NDW) at the Prince in a couple of weeks. Shooglenifty was so good and I danced so much that on Monday I was hobbling around the office. Their show was so full of energy!

Between the two bands, “Strange Fruit” did a, um, thing. About a dozen people got up on bendy rubber poles several meters tall and danced and clowned around. Really pretty and relaxing, especially following on from NDW.

It’s been a while since I did one of those personality test things. There’s this one called Personal DNA, which seems to be kind of a modified Myers-Briggs test. The interface is really nice, with sliders and 2-dimensional x/y chooser things. My results?

Not sure about the “free-wheeling” bit, but they’re pretty much spot on with the inventor thing. And, as usual, some of the nomenclature bothers me, as does the black-and-white nature of these kinds of questions (I suppose that would be a “free-wheeling” trait). For example, because the questions about “following current trends” got negative answers from me, it came out as me not caring about style. I care deeply about style, which is why “following current trends” isn’t something I’m terribly interested in. If there was a question saying “do you appreciate elegant utility”, that would sum it up quite nicely for me, I think.

Well, here we go. Lizzie II showed up and smiled a bit, Prince Phillip looked vacant, and there are a lot more tourists here now.

(All pictures from The Australian)

It’s John Howard as a marsupial. I’m not the only one that thought so.

It’s a freekin’ flying tram! They did this so that the people who are in the opening ceremony don’t have to get stuck in the public transport hassle with the rest of us.

The opening ceremony also featured FIERY ROLLERBLADING GHOSTBUSTERS OF DOOOOOOOOM!!! All of their hard work didn’t manage to get Delta Goodrem to stop singing.

Go, Tuvalu!

I’m not going to Womadelaide, which is unfortunate. I really like Adelaide. There’s a whole time-and-money thing stopping me from going this year though. Luckily, many of the performers I was looking forward to seeing there this year are coming to Melbn for the arts festival surrounding some kind of big athletic event that’s screwing up the trams for two weeks. I suppose this is a preview of what’s going to happen to Vancouver in 2010.

Here, in no particular order, are the cultural events that I’ll be attending. If they’re interesting to you too, gentle reader, please join me! If there are good things you know about, leave a comment. I reckon since my taxes are going to this, I’ll try to get as much out of it as possible.

Shooglenifty

I saw these guys at Womad Seattle many years ago. They’re fantastic.

Date 25 March
Time 10:15pm
Location Alexandra Gardens, Soundshell

Not Drowning, Waving

This group reunited for Womadelaide last year. When I saw them, I proclaimed them my new favourite band. I hope they convince Telek to join them again.

Date 25 March
Time 7:00pm
Location Alexandra Gardens, Soundshell

Dhol Foundation

Johnny Kalsi from the Afro-Celt Sound System fronts this group of funk/bhangra/techo/whatever brilliant bunch of fantastic dhol (massive drum) players. Zowie!

Date 18 March
Time 10:15pm
Location Alexandra Gardens, Garden Stage
Date 19 March
Time 7:30pm as part of World Percussion Spectacular
Location Sidney Myer Music Bowl
Date 21 March
Time 10:15pm
Location Alexandra Gardens, Soundshell

All-Star World Percussion Spectacular

I might just see the Johnny and the Dhols at this event rather than at one of their own, I dunno. I like percussion, and having them all in one place seems like a fun time.

Date 19 March
Time 7:30pm
Location Sidney Myer Music Bowl

Luminarium

I’m thinking “big bouncy castle”. Look at the picture in the link! So. Damn. Cool.

Date 16 – 26 March
Time 11:00am – 7:00pm
Location South Beach Reserve, St Kilda

Culinary Pro Am of the Commonwealth

Like Iron Chef but for Commonwealth countries.

Heats 5.00pm – 6.30pm
Monday 20 March Australia vs Cyprus
Tuesday 21 March England vs Malaysia
Wednesday 22 March Jamaica vs Fiji
Thursday 23 March New Zealand vs Scotland
First Semi Final Friday 24 March 4:00pm – 5:00pm
Second Semi Final Friday 24 March 5:30pm – 6:30pm
Grand Final Saturday 25 March 5:00pm – 6:30pm
Location Melbourne Museum Plaza, Melbourne Museum, Nicholson Street, Carlton.

And hey, there’s always the ping-pong. Go Canada!

Based on the universally accepted barometer of hipness (“Do you use an iPod”), the Pope is more clued in than UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. While the Pope has a nano, old Tony has no idea how to use one. Good thing all Tony needs to do is run a country, not provide spiritual guidance to millions of Catholics.

I just impulse-bought a unicycle. I can’t wait to get it! I’m feeling really silly right about now.

So BBC Newsnight said something about file sharing and theft. A bunch of howling geeks write in demanding the heads of the people who wrote the line. BBC’s self-described “resident übergeek” was wheeled in to set the record straight. He also took the opportunity to examine the relationship of old media to the Internet. He sums it up quite eloquently and with surprising frankness:

... we’re totally scared of new media, because new media is railways and we’re canals, and you all just know how that’s going to end.
So we seek to equate the internet with all bad things to scare you off it. At some corporate freudian level, there’s some truth to that accusation.

And I love how BBC Television refers to itself as “old media”. How about those dinosaurs radio and newspapers?