Funky Chicken Friday

Its the Calzone, not the dance...

Welcome to the next riveting Heapsaflash installment...

It's been a hazy week in Brisbane and i'm not just talking about the transitory weather. I know Queensland has a reputation, living in the States for over 10 years if i had a penny for every person i met who knew what the great Barrier reef was but couldn't tell you much else about the country in general...well you know the saying. It's not really ignorance, because there are of course trillions of places which i have no conception of, it just always used to irk me that people i'd meet in Massachusetts would know more about the great barrier reef than i did (or even possibly have been there whilst i myself, had not.) Yet these people didn't know that Steve Irwin and Paul Hogan, whilst respectable in their own ways, are just as funny and over the top to most Australians. Or that No, hardly no-one drinks Fosters in Australia. I only mention them here to illustrate a point - and one i have only just come to fully appreciate - Queensland's beaches are honestly everything they are cracked up to be, unlike pretty much every other stereotype about Australia i've ever heard. Take the David Lowe Highway from outside Mudjimba up to Noosa and you'll see what i mean.

The other reason i bring up these grave stereotypes that all people everywhere have to deal with in some form or another is to make some further comments on Aussie music. I've heard from foreign individuals that they think it's harder for a band to make it if they're Australian because they don't have the clout say a English band does, which i find hard to stomach. I say this for two reasons, firstly in places like the U.K. and the U.S.A. bands have big shoes to fill and there's just a ridiculous amount of competition. Secondly, many Australian bands have and are making it in a big way overseas: for example my weeks pick Cut Copy



Or what about Skip-Hop, controversial i know and unlikely to sway any die hard Hip-Hop fans, but still valid, especially if given it's proper Australian context, and not seen as as simple emulation of the American ideal. Check out 'The King is Dead' by the Herd, Written about John Howard's final retirement. Incidentally this also happen's to be Ev's pick for the week:



And i know we've posted it before but as per the request of our resident junior correspondent here's Skipping Girl Vinegar with 'One Chance'




I'm not nearly done with my indignation on this topic but i am extremely tired...so stay tuned for the next post where i will hopefully expound these views further with additional solid evidence and more unecessarily personal anecdotes...

Peace out from Brisbane.