the monkey puzzle: giving the boy a complex

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January 21, 2003

giving the boy a complex

It's been a quiet new year for CD purchasing - I'm really trying to be good for a while (which usually means that I settle for putting on that Mountain Goats CD one more time), though I allowed myself two purchases today : First was The Dearhunters' Red Wine and Blue because I'm sorta getting into this whole Tim Oxley thing. It's very nice so far (as in, the first few tracks). Second was all-girl country act Git's Rising Sun Sessions, because I liked their bit on the last year's local Gene Clark tribute album, too. I missed their "give so Git may go" fundraiser on Sunday arvo to help them tour Texas, but hopefully it won't be long before they're gigging around town again.

I also picked up a copy of Careless Talk Costs Lives for something to do. There's a big interview with Nick Cave where he mentions that

everyone in Australia is led to believe that the rest of the world is a much better place ... it is ingrained in the national psyche that we are inferior.

and I thought it was just me ?

17:45 music

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Comments (1)

acb:

This is something I've noticed since going travelling last year:

Australia is a better place to have a comfortable life, raise your kids, etc.; the cost of living is lower, working hours are shorter (though this is changing), and there's lots of sunshine, affordable fresh fruit, less violent crime and so on. The Australian national character is also a laconic, easy-going one; as Our Illustrious Leader described it, "relaxed and comfortable". The downside of this is a propensity to comfortable mediocrity; trying to be too different marks you out as a "tall poppy", someone who's full of shit and needs to be taken down a few notches. It's usually not so much conscious as part of the unspoken assumptions all around that most people don't notice. In some ways, it's like a big country town.

That's why so many illustrious Australian artists/cultural figures bugger off to London/New York/Berlin/wherever.

Posted by acb | January 21, 2003 8:19 PM

Posted on January 21, 2003 20:19

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