What'll it be, guvnor?
The issue of becoming a republic won't vanish from the agenda unless the full choice option the Opposition is proposing gets up and the people still vote to retain their constitutional monarchy (and even then...). When push comes to shove, I don't think that will happen. It's just that a republican debate hosted by a staunch monarchist was doomed to failure.

There is also word that the present form of government might last only as long as the reign of Queen Elizabeth II (I in Scotland) as 'we' don't take to Prince Charles, especially not after Camilla. I don't think he's as bad as all that. Of course he's going to have something of the upper class twit about him but that's understandable. At least he has interesting ideas and is passionate about his pursuits.

The thing about all this - and I'm pro-republic by disposition - is that 'untying the apron strings' will have ramifications here too. The political parties will go on doing their deals but it's at the vice-regal level that the nation could feel the most impact.

This may seem a strange thing to say since the state governors barely register on the national conscience. I'd been wanting to put Ted Egan in the picture for a while and thought I should just scout through the other governors' profiles before I went and nominated him as my fave.

Now I'm a Western Australian native and I didn't know who the Governor of Western Australia was. Lieutenant-General Sanderson is the most conservative appointment but he isn't any old military man, he was born in Geraldton and rose to become head of the Australian army.

Having sports stars make the transition into more reserved public life is not without precedent. A rugby player has been Lord Mayor before. So perhaps the Governor of South Australia and the Governor of Victoria are not surprising choices. The ceremonial role is appropriate for someone who has achieved unambiguously. Being first across the line is unrelated to your political, religious or personal inclinations so is uncontroversial (in a way that the clergy no longer are)yet profoundly dynamic.

Then there is the community-building and nation-building move to appoint someone who exemplifies high achievement outside the WASP environment. The Lebanese community in Australia isn't that old - and is suffering bad P.R. thanks to some criminal jerks in the western suburbs - so the Governor of New South Wales represents a proactive choice.

And if you want to be truly diplomatic, why not select a career diplomat. Step up, Richard Butler, Governor of Tasmania

As for Ted, he's an unorthodox choice even for the Top End. The NT tilted at statehood a couple of years back but the people voted against it so Egan is Administrator of the Northern Territory rather than Governor.

The Governor-General is another WA military man. After his disastrous predecessor, it must have seemed to the Prime Minister, who is the worst judge of character, to play it safe by selecting not only a military coot but one who has previously been State Governor with relatively little controversy.

II

Postscript: well Tasmanian readers of my blog will be thrilled - a different state got forgotten this time. Somehow I managed to completely forget about the second biggest state and, incidentally, the state I moved to when we were having our first baby.

And I hadn't heard of this Governor of Queensland either.

So that's three women, one academic, one lawyer, two runners, two generals and one singer-songwriter/larrickin. Governors at their best are colourful and reflective of our aspirations as a nation. They have the luxury of representing high office without needing to be tainted by wedge politics.

Whammo
Dedicated to bringing you fun

I'll tell you what I did (yes I went to the Ironfest at Lithgow but that's another story), I flagged the intention to write more - or point and shoot more - comic book stuff (for those interested in that sort of thing), when I was pointing to something that I had saved in draft format but which would then post before the entry that announced it. Confused? The illusion of a flux in the timestream might be a good segue to that very comic discussion. And if it's a time based protagonist you want then one can't go past Hourman. Or can't they?

To me, calling yourself Hourman when that's how long your vitamin supplement that gives you your powers lasts, is akin to starting out your caped crimefighting career as Sensitive Groin Region Man.

No superhero whose raison d'etre is based on power limitation is all that popular. Ultraboy is not a name you hear often.
Whereas wielding a magic ring or being able to leap tall buildings is a superpower that can help identify the character and make them interesting, The Hourman and his ilk usually possess vast power but in a limited fashion and that only extends the 'variation on Superman' perception.

Whether Tyler is the first drug-taking superhero depends on the properties you ascribe to Miraclo; does its boosting qualities make it like ginseng or is the effect more like a speed user whose wits are momentarily sharpened? The temptation to use some outside agent as the source of the protagonist's prowess is irresistible and not even the squeaky clean British weeklies were free of herbally-enhanced characters. And it was a couple of decades before the famous Denny O'Neil/Neal Adams social relevance would make Green Arrow's sidekick Speedy a heroin addict. A couple more decades before a character's book would be advertised on a double-page spread as "This is Sludge" and "This is Sludge on drugs"

Roll out the barrel
("Golden Browne" 'When Bruce Springsteen calls you a rock god, you must be doing something right, reports BERNARD ZUEL.' From SMH Metro Apr 8-15,2004)

...[Jackson]Browne declares he doesn't have much time for what passes for music radio in America, but his visit to Australia last year turned him onto our music networks.
"I had a great time listening to Triple J. It was the best, the most exciting time with all kinds of really insightful moments. You'd have to tune into three or four stations simultaneously here to get the same stuff."
The odd thing about Browne's listening habits is not just that you wouldn't expect to hear his songs on the Js, but it's hard to imagine his core audience of comfortable middle-aged women and men tuning in any time.
This may be unfairly stereotyping his audience, but what are they going to do, refuse to do up the last button on their cardigan?
Yet we've all seen how so many people from their 30s on drift away from the passions of their youth: music, politics, testing themselves intellectually, physically, emotionally. Comfort and familiarity become more important than some quest for sensation.
Browne must see that in his audience. Can or should this drift be stopped? Can he do anything about it?
There's a line from Never Stop, a song on his most recent, surprisingly funky, album that says: "But you had some dreams when you were a girl/Some ideas about the world/And you see how some things will never be the same/And how some things never change."
Is that wisdom or resignation?
"There comes a time when people are comforted by the music that accompanied their coming into their own," says Browne.
Unless you consciously try to expand that or you're aware that you have to work harder now you have to know you will have to use unusual means to uncover the beauties, like Patty Griffin, who is one of the finest songwriters.
"It's amazing to find someone that fully formed at this point in my life who's the embodiment of a lot of my ideals.
"That lyric you mentioned is about a very personal interaction and so the question [of stopping the drift] is a very personal one in my life. This is the same question as Bob Dylan's, who said he who's not busy being born is busy dying.
"That was the credo of my generation."

My corner of the bah
An article by Richard Neville, doyen of Oz, had him talking about driving along, you turn the radio on and your family are subjected to "Fuck Da Police", you drive over a hill and there's a Pizza Hut sign telling you to "Get Stuffed". He appeared to be lamenting the loss of civility in society, which is most ironic for the key player in the obscenity trials in the sixties and author of anti-conformist tracts like Playpower. Perhaps he felt that there was no longer the same avenues for rebellion when everyone was being potty-mouthed.

Well now we've truly hit the gutter. Our number one song on the charts is called, wait for it, "Fuck It (I Don't Want You Back)"

Drinks all round
I have a friend who can't access my blog for some reason so I was all set to send her the link to the Aussie Blogs site but the damn thing isn't showing my blog even though I registered there just last week (and it was showing in all the right places then)

There's quite a diverse range on display there and it's interesting to what degree bloggers have made sure to define what their blog is all about. This goes some way to proving that weblogs aren't all about sharing indulgent personal information with people who wouldn't know you from a bar of soap.

Distillery
That wasn't very fair picking on Sierre Leone like that. What happened to showing the innocuous side of countries?

But some right wing commentators have us all pegged as one-eyed haters of the US and that's not the case.

II

I hope everyone's having a jolly Easter. I braved the roads today after we missed two trains (long story)and was pleased to miss the high volume of traffic going both ways. Good thing as we were slow to get started. But it's great to have such a long spell and it's one more of those festivals where Christians have supplanted pagan traditions so, if you're a neopagan, you can happily celebrate in your own way.

Moonshine
I'm working on more comics-related stuff but here's something to fill in time. I found it when I was searching for something else altogether.

II

The World's Most Dangerous Places is a real test to liberal sensibilities. I kept feeling that, yes the principle is correct to treat all new immigrants equally, BUT don't drop me off in any of these countries without plenty of notice.

One nation that really has me scratching my head is Sierre Leone. I thought African nations had the double disadvantage of colonial exploitation and desert conditions yet here's a country that is in RAINFOREST and still has a life expectacy in the forties. Is that pathetic or what? And, yes, they're former British slaves as Liberia is founded by former American slaves (and is still a mess) but this was in the early nineteenth century. How long does it take to get your collective shit together?

Hooch
You see it a lot in the Golden Age, characters not fully developed and serving as little more than rough prototypes to be improved on by later writers.

The objective was an exciting lowbrow read and should be read in that light. There was a certain inevitably that, as superheroes enforced the law and socked criminals in the jaw (but the only poet, as far as I know, was barely an anti-hero. I speak of The Demon)that there would be examples of characters who did this in their daily lives as well.

The cop who feels restricted by his badge of office is a common theme and began with The Guardian. He was also interesting in that, rare for a superhero, he was the support character to a street corner gang of youth.
I only know of one boxer and, thanks to the miracle of retconning, Ted Grant/Wildcat is now said to have taught a young Bruce Wayne his boxing skills.

Reporters are plentiful as they are conveniently at the scene of the crime, and millionaire philanthropists and/or industrialists ensure a steady supply of gadgetry and crimefighting capital. Scientists and sorcerors are endlessly inventive in executing their duty.
And all of them provide, in some measure, a counterpoint to their costumed identity; a respite from official duty that is still useful in the key aim of fighting crime.

Sediment
If you want an easy way to catch up on some comics history then here 'tis

It can be interesting to look up some of the original creators like Gardner Fox and Bill Finger. Or characters like Blackhawk and Plastic Man.

Beer goggles
On one of my semi-frequent trips back to Perth I was raucously amused to see the name on the shop awning in the Hay Street Mall: Cobblers to You
This was a real palliative to the soberminded advice in a book on entrepeneurialship I read, which suggested you choose something boring and nondescript so (a) you're taken seriously; and (b)you have flexibility in where you take the enterprise.

So inspired was I that I embarked on an email campaign of terror; assailing my friends and colleagues with bad puns and whimsical asides on businesses with ironic/iconic names. I made up whole towns populated with appropriate sounding shopfronts. And, like an idiot, I didn't keep any of these. I'll try and reconstruct some of the series and present in unabridged form. It could take a while. In the meantime, these were ones following the same patina as 'Cobblers To You':

You Give Me The Sheets laundry pick-up-and-delivery service
Get Staffed recruitment agency

(it gets better from here)

II

I did try to squeeze Jo Vallentine and the Nuclear Disarmament Party into my big politics posting but something had to give and, despite the existing stockpile and North Korean posturing, nuclear meltdown has all but disappeared off the radar.