Was Naomi Robson giving David Icke’s Illuminati a nod when she wore the infamous “lizard shirt” after Steve Irwin’s death? We can only speculate, but I think the answer is clearly Yes.

In any case, it couldn’t save her career, and now Robson’s shapeshifting, transdimension lizard superiors are giving her the flick after she made her allegiances so public. Bye bye, Naomi.

I’m only 10 months late in finding this out, but I just discovered that Robert Fripp recorded the default Windows Vista theme! This is, quite possibly, even cooler than Brian Eno recording the Windows 95 theme!!!

(Fripp and Eno, besides being founding members of King Crimson and Roxy Music respectively, were pioneers in the ambient genre in the 70’s. Fripp has also produced albums for Peter Gabriel and Daryl Hall and performed on albums by David Bowie, Blondie, Talking Heads and many others; Eno has produced albums by David Bowie, Talking Heads, Devo, U2, etc.)

You swallowed the blue as the wind passed through
Turned my head slowly, the dream followed south
White lace and echoes from cobwebs on the shore
I didn’t see you disappear
Didn’t know that you weren’t there

And now, old and alone
Brittle bones and dried-up tears
Death still comes as a shock

I happened upon a fantasy blog stock market game today, so I simply had to do a vanity search. The result was this page.

It’s kind of an odd feeling, knowing that your blog is listed in a game somewhere.

Last night, at around midnight, I was lying in bed, wide awake, and I was mentally planning the topic of my next blog entry. (My life is just that exciting.)

Of course, at midnight when you’re trying to go to sleep, life seems so much simpler, and this case was no exception. I remember, in my teens and early 20’s, lying awake and creating ingenious plans that would solve all of life’s problems—either that or solving some calculus problem in order to complete the maths assignment that was due the next day.

I’m not sure whether it’s the night’s sleep that changes your opinion the next morning or whether it’s the lack of sleep, since those hours spent scheming end up stripping you of a solid night’s sleep, anyway. Indeed, not only did I get several hours less sleep last night than I might have otherwise, but then I dreamt about what I planned to write on!

So this morning I awoke, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and promptly decided not to write the planned blog entry. What you are now reading will have to do instead.

This week I had a realisation: I’m not as much of a snob or elitist as I’d like to think.

I grew up in Sydney’s western suburbs, and while I’ll occasionally bag “westies” as being proudly ignorant and quite rough, I’m also under no illusions about the more affluent areas. The only difference between the upper and lower classes is that rich arseholes have more money to blow. One need only compare the drugs taken by students in wealthy private schools and those in the public system.

What is, perhaps, most insidious, is the fact that the rich arseholes often think they’re above everyone else—at least poor arseholes still possess some humility.

I’m deadly serious about this: parents often seem to think that sending their children to expensive private schools will ensure that they mix with “a better class of people”, but that’s just rubbish. If the upper-class were better people, white-collar crime wouldn’t be the problem it is.

I’m educated and intelligent, and I now live in a nice area that is outside of Sydney’s suburbs, but I don’t actually think for a second that the people here are necessarily “better” than where I grew up. If Sydney’s west could produce my mother’s and father’s families—both highly gifted in the areas of science and art respectively—then character and ability truly has nothing to do with class.

I watched X-Men 3 on DVD a couple of days ago, and while it wasn’t irredeemable junk (as I had feared), it mostly wavers between being bad and mediocre, with the occasional bright-spot to remind you of what could have been.

Bryan Singer’s absence in the director’s chair seems to haunt this film throughout its running time. Brett Ratner has created a film that superficially looks like the previous two, but there’s no depth under the surface. Meanwhile, the epic battle feels decidedly small scale, and the dialogue is often hammy as characters muddle through plotlines straight out of teen soaps. Furthermore, events often seem random, without the emotional weight needed to anchor them to the larger story.

The Phoenix story is about the only thing that works in this movie, but it’s relegated to the sidelines instead. Were this the core of the film—and why shouldn’t it have been?—we may actually have ended up with a fitting third act to the trilogy.

I’m just really, really disappointed with this movie. If X-Men was worth a 7/10 and X2 an 8/10, then X-Men 3 deserves a 4/10 at best. What a waste…

The latest Chick tract, The Unwelcome Guest, is truly a work of art. Not only does it feature a guest appearance by George Lucas as a member of the Masonic Lodge, but also has a giant frill-necked lizard as a worshiper of Baphomet!

That’s right, demons are now taking the form of Australian fauna.

This was Sting’s first solo single after his final album with The Police, even though the band hadn’t officially broken up…

The Music Snob has had enough!

I’m sick of forcing myself to listen to shit every week. Folks, I hate to break it to you, but the taste of the average music-buyer just plain sucks. In-between the odd bright spots of Muse and Scissor Sisters is utter crap like Justin Timberlake, whose recent output has to be the worst non-music my ears have ever been subjected to. I mean, I’ve heard death metal with more musicality than Timberlake’s godawful offerings. (Actually, that really insults the good death metal I’ve heard to even place it in the same universe as “My Love” or “SexyBack”.

If this putrid bile is what the average person thinks of as being “good music”, we are all well and truly fucked.

From the press release:

[Warner Home Video] will be the home entertainment distributor for this made-for-DVD release which will include two new Babylon 5 stories collectively entitled “Voices of the Dark” in one film plus exclusive behind the scenes content. The stories will be written and directed by executive producer and original “Babylon 5″ creator J. Michael Straczynski. Executive producer Doug Netter also returns in that role. Actors from the original series that have signed on to participate in the project include Bruce Boxleitner (”President John Sheridan”), Tracy Scoggins (”Captain Elizabeth Lochley”) and Peter Woodward (”Galen”).

With this and new Futurama on the way, it’s a great time to be alive, and we can thank the popularity of DVD for all of this.

DVD: the mandala of home entertainment!

The new trailer for The Simpsons Movie has hit the Web, and I must admit that, while there was one moment that gave me a good laugh, it felt pretty flat overall. Really, it looks like every other new episode: occasionally funny but ultimately hollow. Homer, like Bender in Futurama, works best when he isn’t the main focus.

See the trailer here.