Short black
Tired and must go to bed. Thought it worthy of mention that this is a fantastic organisation, this here Tripod. They have great web building tips - among the best I've seen. And a generous space for building a webpage.
End of unpaid advert.

Is this the best couple of years ever for Marvelites? For a while there we thought that they were never going to make a decent film and what with all these characters who would work so well on the big screen. Well now the technology and the audience is there. I'm waiting for Daredevil to come out on DVD but I've thoroughly enjoyed the X-films and Spider-Man. And I want to be there for the opening of the Hulk; one of my very favourite characters.

Mug of char

This wasn't supposed to happen. I've edited this entry for nearly five years and it's never been wiped out before. It was the original naive musings on how much of a webpage I'd have crafted by now. So maybe it's for the best.

The thing that was "interesting" about this entry is the revolving hyperlink, sometimes known as a rotating hyperlink. I'll keep that going. You probably know it of by heart, the one about choosing your favourites.

Great greedy gulp
Hugh Jackman hosting the Tony Awards was just the latest in a long line of triumphs for famed Australians. It wasn't always that way. Into the seventies Australian cinema was still fond of dragging in a grizzled Hollywood veteran to star when Jack Thompson was busy on another picture. Michael Pate was finding work in Hollywood - as an 'Indian Chief'.

The only way to get any standing was to achieve success. And this our directors and actors have continued to do throughout. We now have a few Oscars under our belt and moguls demanding our players for starring roles and attendant perks. Heady times.

The good thing (in my eyes) is that this is well deserved. It is always possible to become popular through pedestrian or downright cynical means. The pop charts have consistently reflected this since as long as I can remember. But, while this country has its fair share of creative misfires and cheap and forgettable drek, Australian filmmaking, for the main, has just enough of the 'hard yards' to traverse to keep it fresh and honest.

Satisfied slurp
Yes! I'll be a regular contributor here. Like the colour scheme and the format is user friendly.

What was this zine calledDrink It Black to be?
(1)an interrogative journal asking the difficult questions;
(2)a forum for comparative religion with the questions posed methodically but filtered through a sensibility that favours paganism when getting spiritual, suspicious of religion at all other times;
(3)a magazine that spotlighted ordinary people using the hype applied to stars and asking the kind of soulsearching questions that don't presume that lack of profile equals lack of insight. Or that an 'unsexy' vocation implies a life less interesting.

Thankfully I've been spared from asking priests the difficult questions. The pockets of, in turn, apathy and antipathy I encountered from my intended audience made the effort seem unrewarding. The ordinary people are telling their stories on Andrew Denton's latest show Enough Rope and I happily defer to Denton on all such occasions.

Besides blogs allow you to comment on things as they come up. It's much easier and the information isn't stale by the time the thing's stapled and double bound.

This is all introductory and I intend to take this into interesting territory in the next few installments.

First sip
I figured since I had just started my first amateur webpage I should start a blog as well. And what better way than with the loose theme of the zine idea I have had kicking around for a decade.

I settled on Drink It Black after reading a Defenders comic in which the Hulk has made coffee and when Nighthawk remarks that he usually takes milk, Greenskin growls "Drink it black!"

I might grab remnants of the original theme but, since this is a blog - a very different animal, the only real part of the choice of title lies in the undertaking to be honest in exploring any topic I light on with some degree of thoroughness and detachment. I think I've been outside systems long enough to make a reasonable fist of it. And I'm a culture vulture/info freako of the first order so at least I won't be boring you with obscure events shared with paper strangers.

I'll drop lots of poetic devices in cos that brightens up the presentation (a blogger has to have some consideration for his audience)

Well I'll send this off and see how it looks.