Punk Rock Shop

As my eldest daughter approaches puberty, I’m thinking...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:22:00 +1000

As my eldest daughter approaches puberty, I’m thinking more and more about sex education. Why? Because today’s kids first encounter porn around age nine, and today’s porn is hardcore - radically different to when we were kids. Much of it is violent, with choking, spitting, no pubic hair on anyone, pneumatic tits, and all sorts of other stuff… which is fine, but not right for a kid’s first look at sex.

So I’ve been buying old books to leave around the house for when they’re a bit older - 1972 edition of Joy of Sex, Our Bodies Ourselves, My Secret Garden, etc - and I’ve been following Cindy Gallop’s brilliant “Make love not porn” movement. (Highly recommend you watch her TED talk.)

But this bit of advice from Dan Savage about how to talk to a young teen about porn is a gem. So I’m sharing it with other parents. As usual, his advice is stellar.

Frankly, I might just play this for my kids when they’re about 12 or 13.

Chuck Palahniuk

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 20:44:22 +1000

Chuck Palahniuk

Rock and rollers don’t get arrested anymore. There’s...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 10:16:00 +1000

Rock and rollers don’t get arrested anymore. There’s no edge or danger. It’s part of why the genre sucks so hard these days, and why all the teens have gone to the rappers.

If you don’t know about Amina or the topless jihads world wide...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 20:58:49 +1000

If you don’t know about Amina or the topless jihads world wide today I suggest you get googling, Amina Tyler is a 19 year old woman who posted bare breasted photos with the slogan “My Body is My Own and Not the Source of Anyone’s Honor” on her chest. She was arrested and sentenced to “100 lashes” and being “stoned to death”. She went missing and in response FEMEN activists are staging bare cheated protests. This image displays a man kicking an activist protesting outside a mosque.

Fuck I love shit like this. Go girls!

I’ve been somewhat harsh on Thom Yorke over the last few...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 08:27:19 +1000

I’ve been somewhat harsh on Thom Yorke over the last few years. I’m someone who likes frontmen like Bon Scott, David Lee Roth, Rob Halford and Freddy Mercury - larger than life characters who come to put on a “show”, and don’t just stand there moaning into the microphone. And once you’ve made a few million dollars? Cheer the fuck up! Sing a song about girls, booze or fast cars you morose bastard. But moving on…

I’m a fan of Alec Baldwin’s radio show “Here’s The Thing”. Turns out he’s an amazing interviewer, and recently he sat down with Yorke. Frankly, Yorke should do more long-form interviews like this, as he comes across as a lovely, lovely bloke; not a “woe is me” millionaire.

At one point in the conversation, they turned to music becoming “content”. Our fucked up industry wants to make a lot of things “content”, sucking the soul and purpose out of them. Turns out I agree with Yorke on this one 1000%.

Brilliant. Love the subversiveness. Never forget seeing a young...

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:39:00 +1000

Brilliant. Love the subversiveness. Never forget seeing a young Muslim woman in London with punk-style safety pins pinned all through her hijab, walking into an Ann Summers (a high-street sex shop), and thinking “There’s hope”.

The wonderful Duncan Trussell who is recovering from testicular...

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 12:30:00 +1100

The wonderful Duncan Trussell who is recovering from testicular cancer, and whose mother is dying of cancer (in other words, the dude has been forced to face mortality and the point of life a LOT lately) describes why people who wallow in despair and darkness are essentially self-indulgent…

This captures perfectly why, as I get older, and possibly since my sister’s death, I can no longer listen to Radiohead, Nirvana and whiney-white-boy-with-guitar music. It’s so self-indulgent. All the money and power and privilege in the world (to quote Eddie Izzard) and all they can do is moan. Give me a black southern baptist “Hallelujah” any day…

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Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:26:55 +1100

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Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:47:01 +1100

I will hug the shit out of them…

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 19:55:55 +1100

I will hug the shit out of them…

Two of my favourite writers and podcasters of the last few...

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 18:43:47 +1100

Two of my favourite writers and podcasters of the last few years, together on one podcast, making more sense in 6 mins than most make in a lifetime. Ryan’s analysis of capitalism nails it…

Christianity has its roots in an orgiastic cult? What?...

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:05:58 +1100

Christianity has its roots in an orgiastic cult? What? Never…

"If you think you are so enlightened go and spend a week with your parents."

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 19:29:28 +1100

“If you think you are so enlightened go and spend a week with your parents.”

- Ram Dass

“…riot is the language of the unheard.”

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 09:16:58 +1100

“…riot is the language of the unheard.”

In this audio clip, Joe Rogan and (the amazing) Doug Stanhope...

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:31:00 +1100

In this audio clip, Joe Rogan and (the amazing) Doug Stanhope are talking about their experiences as comedians working with network executives.
It strikes me as analogous to the relationship between advertising creatives and clients, in that most clients have absolutely no idea how to work with ideas people. None. Zilch. Nada.

(Sadly, too few advertising suits and planners are any good at working with creative people, either… but that’s a topic for a different post.)

The point, however, is not to beat up on clients. Rather, the point is that it’s 1000% incumbent on suits, planners and the client to get the brief right, and then get the fuck out of the way.

And if the creatives can’t nail the brief, they suck. Fire them. Some creatives suck, and they hide behind “The brief is no good” for their lack of creative fire-power.

But as Joe says, you can’t fix suck, but you can’t make unfunny funny, either.

Listen and think my people… listen and think.

"Satyajit Das: “Modern economies have long ceased to make anything. The major activity is..."

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 23:29:11 +1100

“Satyajit Das: “Modern economies have long ceased to make anything. The major activity is money: investing it, borrowing it, trading it, making it, and spending it. Money generates derivative industries like property speculation, luxury car dealerships, personal trainers, and company-paid-for lifestyle coaches, butlers, and valets—all essentials of a modern life of conspicuous consumption in the modern service economy.””

A profile of my beautiful sister

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 19:32:00 +1100

A profile of my beautiful sister:

My beautiful sister - Anna Donald - died on the 1st of February, 2009. Not long before she died, a journo wrote about her life and her battle with cancer. Finally I’ve gotten a digital copy… and now it’s up on the interwebs.

Just click on the title above, or click here.

We love to make things binary and oppositional: East vs West,...

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 13:05:00 +1100

We love to make things binary and oppositional: East vs West, Black vs White, Right vs Wrong, Democracy vs Evil-Doers, etc.

It reduces complexity in a world that is well beyond our control. But of course, life is rarely this simple.

One concept derived from artificially pulling things apart in order to reduce complexity is the way we split the mind from the body, like they’re two different things. But it’s a mistake to do so. Your mind is part of your body. End of story.

(About to get all wanky, but indulge me.)
Like Foucault collapsed power and knowledge back together (as power produces “knowledge”), we all need to collapse mind and body back together (as your body produces “mind”).

And this is why I go on so much about moving and using your body, because it impacts your “mind”. In fact, exercise is probably the quickest way to impact your mental state, test yourself, and much more.

My man-crush Daniele Bolelli speaks about the ludicrous nature of the mind-body split in the audio link above. The rest of the rambling, stoned conversation between him and Joe Rogan can be found here: http://blog.joerogan.net/archives/5613

Now get out there and do some pull-ups. It’ll do wonders for your “mind”.

Steven Levitt is an economics professor at the University of...

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 10:59:28 +1100

Steven Levitt is an economics professor at the University of Chicago, and one half of the (wonderful) Freakonomics team.

This clip from an interview about his experience as a college graduate working for a management consulting firm is interesting for a few reasons. Firstly, he touches on how data on its own isn’t much good at solving business problems. Then he talks about how the “solution” is usually known within the organisation, but not by those at the top. So to find workable solutions, you need to work with (and pick the brains of) those in the middle and the bottom of organisations… and marry what you learn from them with insights derived from data analysis.

Said differently: You can’t derive workable solutions from Big Data alone.

The rest of the podcast is here (and well worth listening to): http://www.freakonomics.com/2012/11/26/i-consult-therefore-i-am-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/

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Mon, 26 Nov 2012 20:27:38 +1100