The Gap Between The Pauses

Actors Donnelly Rhodes and Ian Tracey discussing cloning or perhaps just remembering the good times. So La Weekend has arrived and here I lie in a loose foetal position with no plans and no coherent thoughts. Let, me share them with you, Zeitgesiters. White Christmas As you know, Mr Trivia’s Tract is 100% behind Prince Edward Island (PEI), the Canadian Province famed for its natural beauty and for being the home of the fictional Ann of Green Gables. And although some seem to think I am a covert Canadophile, I have never been there, my knowledge is limited to seeing the occasional episode of DaVINCI’s INQUEST, and that has Donnelly Rhodes in it, so case closed, people. One of the RSS feeds over to the RHS of this page brings us headlines from PEI. I scan it regularly and was alarmed to see this SNOWMOBILE PERMIT SALES DOWN. Turns out that “A lack of snow this year and last is leading to financial troubles for the P.E.I. Snowmobile Association.” Two words. Global Freakin’ ...

One of the many looks Mr Voight could assay - if certain things happen. Zeitgeisters, You know how everyone’s with the international calls through the computer and the VOIP ? Sure you do. Cheap calls through your PC. Voice Over Internet Protocol fits in there somehow. Is it me or wouldn’t it be a fantastic opportunity for actor Jon Voight to hook up with some SKYPE -esque company and for a large sum of money, refer to himself as Jon VOIP for the duration of 2007? You know who I mean, the excellent Jon Voight of MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969), THE CHAMP (1975) RUNAWAY TRAIN (1985) and ZOOLANDER (2001)? Okay, it IS just me…thought so. Elevate the Insignificant, Mr Trivia

Volkswagen Tiguan - Tiger plus Iguana. Zeitgeisters, it’s well known that car-names are getting zanier. After more than half a century of mass-produced vehicles with snappy ‘handles’, automobile manufacturers have been left scraping for attractive and engaging names. In Australia, Ford is the most sober of the players with the Focus as the only slightly poetic and evocative entry in the Fird range. Misubishi has the Triton and the Grandis . At first these two seem to work on Jerry Seinfeld’s theory that car companies make-up words that sound like real ones – a la the Integra . However Triton is a moon of Neptune (yeah, me either) and Grandis is Latin for big, so, some of these made-up words turn out to be gaps in my education. Holden, or GM to you outside of Oz, has a great roster of pointless names. Although Caprice is a sudden impulse and Viva means live; Tigra , Ventra , Vectra and Adventra all come off as half-baked. Adventra ? Come on, Holden! I guess it’s not...

The charismatic Trump proving that money and power have nothing whatever to do with his popularity. (Kidding!) Hi Zeitgeisters, XMS TXTNG It’s Christmas here in our part of the Southern Hemisphere. For the first time, rather than Christmas cards, I have received a number of Yuletide SMSs on the telephone. I’d rather have a Merry Acknowledgement than not have one – and a tree doesn’t have to die when you text message – but it’ll take some adjusting to. SHUT-IN For various reasons that I don’t want to go into here, I’ve spent a lot of time glued to the small screen in the last three days. I’ve seen a whole bunch of old movies on disc in that time – everything from TWO TICKETS TO BROADWAY (1951) to LOCAL HERO (1983). Mainly, I was avoiding Christmas television, however in between DVD changes I did catch this gem during a Carols-By-Candlelight- type of show from Channel 10's Sandra Sully, “You know, famous writer Aldous Huxley once said : After silence, the closest thing...

Heh, that headline came a little too easily. ('Cos its crud.) Check on-line, I’ll bet we’re all using it for this particular story - which is why they call it the zeitgeist, Zeitgeisters! For those of us not interested in actual news there’s been a little controversy lately over current Miss USA, Tara Conner. Apparently the 21 year-old has been accused of partying a little too hard. She’s been accused of a lot of stuff actually, but will only admit to the heavy drinking which occurred while she was under the age of 21. Anyhoo, there has been lots of loose talk about Miss USA losing her crown, but co-owner of the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageant, Donald “The Donald” Trump has announced that this will not happen. Instead, Conner will be entering re-hab. The wire stories say she’s been competing in pageants since she was 4. There is probably no link between this and the heavy drinking.

Hi Zeitgeisters, As you know, there are some who have speculated that this blog is the work of American actor Barry Bostwick. I revealed this to be false some time ago. I am not guilty of being Barry Bostwick, however, in the style of the trashiest Murdoch-style tabloids let us imagine for a moment that I am not Mr Trivia. If I were Barry Bostwick, how would I spend today? I wake in my fabulous mansion on the shores of lake Como. Sure I’m 60, but I still have a commanding presence like Ronn Moss or Ron Jeremy or someone called Ron. Except that I am Barry. I resolve to check the Internet to see if I am the most famous and charismatic of the Barrys on the www. I am on the computer and I click TV.com . Pah! Television, what a waste of time. Except for my career-defining role as Mayor Winston in SPIN CITY and the time I spent in pervy Euro-Trash sci-fi series THE LEXX , most of the time spent on the small screen is merely an exercise in paying the bills. I sit in my study and si...

Image courtesy of NASA Is It Just Me, Zeitgeisters, Or are you a little disappointed by the latest news from the International Space Station? I was sussing out the ABC Science News in the right hand column of this here blog when I read “Astronauts Begin To Extend Space Station”. It wasn’t what I had hoped. Two Discovery astronauts have stepped out into space for the first of three spacewalks to install a new metal structure to the International Space Station (ISS). A NASA spokesman says Robert Curbeam and Sweden's first astronaut, Christer Fuglesang, are expected to spend about six hours in space. The two will bolt the two-tonne truss segment, called P5 spacer, to the ISS, bringing its total length to 120 metres. A truss segment? I was thinking a billards room, a jacuzzi, possibly a dedicated area for the hard-core gamers to dehydrate whilst playing World of Warcraft. And why is it a two-tonne truss segment? Christer Fuglesang is a Swede, surely he could have nego...

Hey Zeitgeisters, Carla replied to the last post “What Noise Annoys A Curmudgeon” thusly: You speak the truth, Mr Trivia. But I'd wager neither you or anyone else stood up and walked on over to those slobs and told them what was what.You're a member of a passive-aggressive cult to the Individual. Carla has met me and props to her on her analysis, but she is missing one part of my case history. About seven years ago, I started to find that whenever people talked near me in the cinema during a movie I would be moved to shoosh them. And if they were teenage guys I could be quite aggro about it; figuring that a disproportionate amount of vehemence would discourage any further attempts at talking. One day I was sitting in the cinema with my then-partner and three guys behind us were adding comments to all the dialogue and stopping me from enjoying the film, so I turned around and said, “I paid to see this, so you keep your mouths shut.” If you know me, this is out of cha...

Hail Zeigeisters, Had dinner with a friend (The Artist Formerly Known As Itchy Shoes) in North Perth today. We had schnapper and freedom fires at the upscale (geddit) chippery, PHISH, on the corner of Kadina Street and Charles Street in North Perth. Since Western Australia is back in Daylight Savings Time for the first time in years, everyone seems to be lingering and doing the alfresco dining thing all over the Perth; we always do in summer, but with sunset effectively around 8.30 at present, there’s a lot more pre-Christmas sloth and hedonism to be crammed into those precious 60 minutes at the end of the day. So Itchy and I were waiting for our food and could not help but notice that some bogan in a silver Toyota who thought that being parked ten feet away and blaring out ACDC’s BACK IN BLACK from his stereo was acceptable behaviour. Did these people never get asked to keep it down as they were growing up? Why do some folks feel it’s okay to live in a flat and play their mu...

Hi Zeitgeisters, www.plastics.com is a site for all of us, because unfortunately, we’re not born knowing about plastics. In Leominster, Massachusetts, USA, and within “easy driving distance from anywhere in central Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire” is the National Plastics Center. We’ll let them explain the next bit. “The National Plastics Center is a non-profit institution dedicated to preserving the past, addressing the present and promoting the future of plastics through public education and awareness. The educational staff has supported this mission throughout the years by conducting hands-on science programming for schools, organizations and the plastics community.” The future of plastics has looked increasingly bleak since… hmm, I’ll have to get back to you on that one, but if you have a child in elementary, middle or high school in Massachusetts then think about calling the National Plastics Center and they’ll send around the Plastivan TM for a very reasonable...

Hi Zeitgeisters, Just watched the end of BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985) on telly. A film franchise much-loved by many, but here at The Tract all the films of Robert Zemeckis with the possible exception of CONTACT (1997) rate half a star out of 5. Why? Well, to explain will require me to boot up the Curmudgeon circuit, and I don’t have the energy. We will do the Why-Zemeckis-Films-Are-Crap Tirade in a future blog. For now let me leave you with the last moments of BACK TO THE FUTURE when the ‘Doc’ returns from the future with an urgent message for Marty and Jennifer. Doc : Marty you gotta come back with me. Marty : Where? Doc : Back to the future. Marty : Wait a minute, what are you doing, Doc? Doc : I need fuel. Go ahead, quick, get in the car. Marty : No no no, Doc, I just got here, okay, Jennifer's here, we're gonna take the new truck for a spin. Doc : Well, bring her along. This concerns her too. Marty : Wait a minute, Doc. What are you talking about? Wha...

Hey Kids! (Of All Ages!) Run out of fun stuff to do on the Internet this weekend? Why not check out these boffo sites? For The People www.communism.com - has extensive stuff on communism for all those who wanted to know about the subject but were too bourgeois to ask. It gives a scientific definition of communism and contrasts it with what the site calls a “bullshit definition” i.e.: “Rule of society by a single party which maintains a monopoly of political power and suppresses all opposition. Control of the economy via centralized bureaucratic planning.” There’s plenty that will annoy and stimulate you in this text-y yet colourful site. There’s an FAQ and a poll, which asks among other questions: "Is communism a monstrous system of slavery or the inevitable peaceful and abundant future of humankind?" For all those missing the feel of a poli-sci debate at an undergraduate level. For The Folk www.folkdancing .com - from its plain black text on white backgro...