Category: history

ricky does 80s

As you are probably aware, the music of the 80s touches me in a special way. I am also a fan of “The Office”

To hear that Ricky Gervais (Mr The Office) was in a little known New-wave band, Seona Dancing, well, that just made my Saturday!

The music is a classic. Evidently they charted 117 and 70 in 1982/1984 and were big in the Philippines.

With lyrics like:

You’re losing out, now /
You scowl and shout /
Irrational accusations as I turn my head /
Your threats and trials /
My craven smiles /
Revolts you in your torturous insecurities

One wonders why they didn’t become as big as U2 or INXS!

Change the Regal Regime

Prince Charles, Australia’s next King is coming to lord over part of his future realm this week. Meanwhile former Australian, Princess Mary and her new husband Price Frederik of Denmark are in Sydney (Princess Mary on Sydney Harbour). Royalty seems to be a major event for Australia, but the Danish royal couple are scooping the newspaper column centimetres and grabs on TV.

Why don’t we trade in the old, rusted Battenburg-Windsor hegemony for the young Danes? Being an Anglo-saxon country, many of our ancestors came from Danish soil in the 5th and 6th centuries. Surely we get a vote in this? Oh, that’s right – our feudal overlords are not chosen in a democratic way. Shame.

Remembrance Day: Thursday, 11 November 2004

November 11th. Remembrance Day

“Six out of ten industry professionals now use the Adobe product as their main layout program, according a Graphic Arts Service Association of Australia (GASAA) survey” InDesign cracks more than half the layout traffic in Australia in Print21 Online.

The data is from a GASAA survey: Adobe InDesign Usage Survey. Follows from from an August 2004 release: 96% of Australian service providers accept PDF files. Come to Australia to visit your layout, design and prepress future. It feels good to be a small part of this radical industry shift.

Nick in Seoul

Nick and Sherman, Korean War Memorial in Seoul. December 2003

Hello from cold Korea. Well, only about 0 degrees C. Not too cold yet. This picture is from the Korean War Memorial. The tank, for those interested, is an early Korean War era Sherman outside the memorial in Seoul.

Getting around Seoul is easy: just use the subway. Don’t feel embarrased using a subway map, trying to determine where you are. Even the locals get lost. I had two kind people ask me if I needed help. Very friendly people. Also very polite: whilst there is a small communications gap, you can get your message across. Pronunciations of some words still escape me! Visited TechnoMall: its a 10 story building full of stores selling electronic stuff. Didn’t spend too much.

A big thanks to Lonely Planet for a great Seoul guide.