Hat tip for notice of the day to commentor TattooSydney, and Advance Australia Fair!
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Which, even at its most bombastic, is still 79% less ridiculous than America’s ear-bleeding, throat-burning anthem. Although I’m not sure I fully understand why this is the first link to come up when I YouTubed “Australia Day”:
Reader Interactions
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Tattoosydney
Yay! The day is (of course) almost over here. We have successfully celebrated, as most Australians do, by getting drunk and otherwise ignoring it. It’s traditional.
stuckinred
G’day Diggers.
slightly_peeved
Spent the day as I always do – listened to the results of the largest music poll in the world:
The JJJ hottest 100
JJJ is part of our publicly-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the ABC; kind of a nationwide college radio station.
Couldn’t subject myself to the whole video, but it appears to have touched on the concept of ‘invasion day’. The 26th of January was the day the First Fleet landed in Botany Bay. As you’d expect, many Aboriginal people don’t see that as a thing to celebrate. It’s often discussed around the time, but I don’t think it’ll change anything, considering how little reverence Australians have for the holiday anyway. ANZAC day, being a day honoring our armed forces, is treated more reverently.
Buck
2 words: Murdoch / Gibson
’nuff said.
slightly_peeved
Mel Gibson was born in Peeskil, New York, and lives in the US as far as I know. So you can’t blame us for him, or that tone-deaf New Zealander Crowe either.
Buck
@slightly_peeved: Oh how quickly we forget Thunderdome.
No, really, I thought he was Australian. My apologies.
stuckinred
1 RAR!
slightly_peeved
@Buck:
I try and think of myself as not-an-asshole first, Australian second. I’m proud of how many Australians are members of the first category, but I won’t tar you with all the asshole Americans if you won’t tar me with the asshole Australians. Murdoch certainly is an Australian asshole, though since he now has US Citizenship he’s really more an asshole of the world at this stage.
stuckinred
@slightly_peeved: They treated me just fine in Kings Cross in 1969!
Buck
@slightly_peeved: I was only kidding. I love Australia. I love Australians!
But you are more than welcome to tar our asshole Americans. Lord knows there’s plenty of’em!
slightly_peeved
@Buck:
/takes off Thinkgeek shirt, dons crocodile dundee costume
No worries mate :)
/puts back on Thinkgeek shirt, logs into WoW
Buck
@stuckinred: I’d love to travel to Australia. Never been.
Sydney looks like such a beautiful city.
stuckinred
@Buck: Froze my ass off in August since we had nothing but short sleeved kahki’s. The moon landing was happening and the Aussies had a big radar station, subject of the film “The Dish”, so they were really into it. I remember the wonderful women, milk and how impossible it was to score da kine!
stuckinred
@Thymezone: Apparently you didn’t READ the thread before you ran off at the mouth huh?
“slightly_peeved – January 26, 2011 | 6:11 am · Link
Mel Gibson was born in Peeskil, New York, and lives in the US as far as I know.”
Buck
@stuckinred: Sounds like you had one hell of a blast. But I’ll admit, I have no idea what “score da kine” is. Some kind of game?
stuckinred
@Buck: herb, it’s code
Related to ‘Da Kine’, currently used in Hawaii for ‘it’ but referred as excellent in certain applications (similiar to No Ka Oi, Hawaiian for The very best”), since Hawaiian grown buds are usually very effective.
Buck
@stuckinred: Got’cha!
;-)
Some
Milk?
Southern Beale
Good morning. I missed the dueling GOP responses last night. Tried to give Paul Ryan a chance but he got all Bible banging right off the bat and I just said sheesh I’ll watch something else.
How crazy was Michelle Bachmann?
Linda Featheringill
Good morning folks.
Happy Australia Day.
By the way, how is the flooding? Recovering?
DaveInOz
Great to see Australia’s Day celebrated on BJ. Had a great day watching tennis, cricket and a rerun of the Steelers game. Plus a glass or two of Shiraz, of course.
Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!
cleek
i’ll take Mel Gibson over Fred Phelps and Bill Donohue any day.
Tom M
The Fatal Shore
Excellent history of Australia, the nation down under for convicts and criminals as an alternative to Connaught; just as harsh and farther away.
Tattoosydney
@Thymezone:
and Dame Edna, don’t forget…
stuckinred
@Some: Yea. in Vietnam we could only get “re-combined” powdered milk and it sucked.
burnspbesq
@DaveInOz:
Your lot still play cricket? I would have thought you’d give it up in shame after the Ashes. That was painful to watch.
Lysana
I liked that video on Australia Day. In parallel to it, why don’t more Americans know a bit of an original American language? (ETA: Including myself. Shameful in retrospect.)
Tattoosydney
Oh, and just for the record, you won’t find many Australians who have anything positive to say about our flaccid, uninspiring national anthem. Ugh.
Tattoosydney
@Buck:
I really liked the Griff Rhys-Jones documentary on Sydney. Some of the content is not all that, but some of the cinematography of Sydney is just amazing.
JPL
Not a spoiler..but..
During the Australian Open they interrupted the tennis match for ten minutes because of fire works. According to the report that I read not all of the players were happy.
@Southern Beale: I missed the responses also. There is a post about Ryan down below about his using Lincoln’s words out of context. Who would have thought!!!
THE
Thanks for the kind wishes, BJers in general and Anne Laurie in particular.
@Linda Featheringill:
Recovering in Queensland but the flooding is now in Northern Victoria.
Basically la Nina has tipped a bucket on major parts of the East. Queensland is OK if there’s no major new tropical storms. Huge property damage though.
Aussie government types are talking about a national levy or tax to pay for recovery.
Tattoosydney
@slightly_peeved:
I was particularly pleased to see “Clap Your Hands” get a guernsey at 13, and Hot Chip’s delightfully silly “I feel better” (and its profoundly odd filmclip) at 85.
Villago Delenda Est
Australia got the murderers, thieves, and prostitutes.
America got the religious nuts.
Australia wins!
Tattoosydney
@Tattoosydney:
Fall at your feet.
wobblybits
Happy Australia day!!!! I happen to like the American anthem.
Michael
@THE:
Aaaaaaaaah – ZOMG – Cloward and Piven got Down Under. Sushulism! Commieness!
Australia should just do things the way we do here in ‘Murka – phat government contracts for well-connected white Christian wingnuts to get piles of cash for doing very little, and the resultant followon price gouging by entrepeneurialing white Christian wingnut businessmen of integrity for essentials like construction timber, clean water and staple foods will prove yet again that government can solve nothing.
QED, and a triumph for Conservatism all the way around.
vtr
And their football is great to watch – refs in white lab coats and fedoras!
THE
There’s only two national anthems that I really like as music.
Hatikva (Israel)
and The Russian Anthem
THE
@Michael:
It’s a labor government Michael.
Comrade Julia Rulez.
piratedan
@slightly_peeved: there’s a cogent thought, Rupert Murdoch, The World’s Asshole, sorry but I think he’s worthy of the caps meself. I’ve always thought that the movie Fierce Creatures dis the best job or portraying/chapturing his subtle nuances.
PurpleGirl
I played a couple of the Russian/USSR anthems. I should google and see if anyone has posted the scene from The Hunt for Red October where the Russian submariners sing the anthem.
Since it was the topic of the post: Happy Australia Day, tattoosydney.
Origuy
I thought the Australian National Anthem was Eric Bogle’s Aussie BBQ Song.
Edit: I’m not sure this is Bogle’s song, but I couldn’t find it on YouTube and I don’t have time to check.
ThresherK
“The Star Spangled Banner” is set to a drinking song, which I’d hope Aussies would appreciate. And, compared to “Advance Australia Fair”, “Waltzing Matilda” is something of a downer.
THE
Great Southern Land by Icehouse.
Sadly, not the anthem
Paul in KY
Best wishes for a great Australia Day!
Maude
Australia is an amazing country.
It’s come a long way from the First Fleet landing at Botonny Bay. The people built it up and made it a solid country.
Not shabby at all.
scottinnj
@Tattoosydney:
So why isn’t “Waltzin Mathilda” or “I still call Australia home” not the national anthem?
THE
@scottinnj:
Our government has an official explanatory webpage.
Short version: There was a national poll and Advance Australia Fair won.
bargal20
Rupert Murdoch became an American citizen decades ago. He moved his company headquarters to the USA and renounced his loyalties to Australia. Why do so many Americans refuse to accept Murdoch as one of theirs?
Annamal
Ahem as a token kiwi, happy Australia/invasion day.
We’ve kindly decided to gift you with Russel Crowe and keep Pavlova and we’ve (nearly) forgotten about the whole underarm bowling thing.
On a more serious note, I hope the flooding damage is repaired quickly
JWL
@Tom M: I’ve run across The Fatal Shore many times over the years. Having received a gift certificate for Xmas (and having just googled a couple of reviews) I’ve decided to read it. As it chronicles Australia’s history up to the mid-nineteenth century, can you (or anyone else) recommend another good history that picks up where it leaves off? I tend to dive into the deep end of these types of reading projects.
JWL
“Why do so many Americans refuse to accept Murdoch as one of theirs?”.
For the same reason Austrians like to think of Hitler as being German.
The Wombat
That is how I remember Australia and Australia Day. It’s a shame to see the contrast.