You know, it struck me while having dinner tonight just what the date is. I was eating dinner and watching the end of the ABC news, and there by God was footage of the St Patrick's Day parade in Sydney today. I was puzzled for a moment, thinking "that time already?"... then I remembered. Tomorrow is the 17th, sure enough, which means the day after will be the 17th in the US... and that was when I remembered just what the 17th of March signifies at the moment. It was a somewhat sobering thought, not least in the way it reminded me of how time has a tendency to slip away from you without you really noticing until before you realise it it's time to declare war on Iraq.

In other political news, we have an election here in NSW next weekend. I'm predicting another Labor victory, if only because John Brogden is an even less inspiring prospect as state Premier than Bob Carr is. There is exactly one interesting thing about this election: namely that the ABC is the only station providing proper coverage, according to the TV guide. They'll be doing continuous reporting from 6.30 to 10.30. By contrast, SBS and Ch.10 have no election coverage listed in the guide, Ch.7 has one half-hour update at 11.30pm, and Ch.9 are starting at 6.30 and going on to 8.30, with a further wrap-up at 10.30 after the film, but the first block of coverage will apparently be interrupted for ten minutes or so by the men's 400m freestyle swimming final featuring Ian Thorpe vs. Grant Hackett from the Australian Championship in Melbourne. Good to see their priorities are straight, and that the other networks seem to find this election about as inspiring as I do...

posted by James Russell | 9:28 PM

An obituary for Stan Brakhage. They finally seem to have noticed outside of Metafilter that he's dead.

posted by James Russell | 2:27 PM

Scholars accuse Hollywood of "mixed messages" about the death penalty.

posted by James Russell | 2:22 PM