Three Andrews here.

Andrew Bolt looks more and more like those preachers in Hyde Park. Frantically denying climate change with the pathos of someone’s whose income depends on it. Those guys may be greenhouse denialists, but they’ve lost relevance to the argument. And their boosters have lost power.

Andrew Bartlett’s piece in Crikey this week mentions an ANU report, and points out another Andrew - Andrew Norton - who has refashioned the term “the real greenhouse denialists” to characterise people who accept climate change, but won’t change their own lifestyles to cut emissions.

It’s something planner Michael Dudley picks up at Urban Planetizen.

I promote smart growth - alternative transportation choices, reduced greenhouse gases, increased housing densities. It’s my business to help Canadians understand and adapt to a future that is different from the past. I am a 21st-century city planner.

Along with fellow futurists, I advocate less vehicle travel, more cycling and transit use, smaller cars and sensible energy consumption. The terms ‘eco-density,’ ‘high-occupancy vehicles’ and ‘environmental footprint’ are common currency. By day I’m committed to radical societal change.

But my lifestyle is suspect because I really like to drive. Mostly by myself. Pedal to the metal. Wide-open spaces. No boundaries. Zoom, zoom, zoom.

I understand the disconnect between the extravagant past and our frugal future. My lifestyle is unsustainable and I need to change my patterns. But I subtly resist the shift. Perhaps it’s the curse of the baby boomers. For our generation, driving has been a lifelong love affair, one that isn’t easily surrendered.

Is this - as Bartlett puts it - the “biggest barrier to addressing the climate change threat”? Or is it just a step in the process. Denial… resigned acceptance… action?

There’s so much great stuff happening in Sydney. But when it comes time for all the various annual awards, there’s no space for ephemeral performance or wonderful blogs or all the other magical things that make this city great.

So a bunch of us at FBI and Time Out mag put together this new award to celebrate Sydney’s music, art and culture - the SMACs.

It closes soon. So go and vote.

In the public service, there’s a belief that being too successful sets you up for retrenchment/redundancy. It’s called sticking your neck out.

Amazingly, people still do it.

The latest case is ABC’s Radio National. RN always had great programs, but they were niche, succinct packages for very specific audiences: Religion Report, Sports Factor, Media Report and others. Excellent investigative journalism, fascinating subjects and importantly a reasonably impartial critical approach. But speaking personally, I just couldn’t work my life around the times these shows ran, and that was broadly true for the programs’ listenership. They were on a trend to increasing irrelevance.

RN radically reversed this slide with program podcasts, which now make up a significant wedge of the ABC’s 2 million podcast downloads per month. It’s been trumpeted across Australia, and internationally, as a model for public broadcasting, but last night I got word that a raft of RN’s best shows, including the above mentioned, as well as Short Story, Street Stories, In Conversation, the Ark, Perspective, had been axed.

And, get this, they’re getting rid of these shows to make room for more “consumer focussed” and “multidisciplinary” programs.

The ABC Board’s responsible. If you’re not happy, write/phone.

c/o ABC Secretariat
GPO Box 9994
Sydney NSW 2001

(02) 8333 5312
board@your.abc.net.au

All Tomorrow’s Parties finally in Australia.

Curated by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. Featuring the Primitive Calculators, Fuck Buttons, the Necks, Laughing Clowns and the Saints, Robert Forster, the Silver Apples, Harmonia, James Blood Ulmer, M. Gira (Swans). Playing Brisbane, Sydney’s Cockatoo Island, and what looks like the pick - Mt Buller, Victoria.

If only I could go.

Ever woken up and felt the whole world shift on its axis? Same pieces, different configuration?

I mean objectively I know that my baby’s birth isn’t news. But quite seriously I woke up the next morning listening to Fran Kelly on Radio National, thinking WHY ISN’T SHE TALKING ABOUT MY BABY!

One of the most annoying things about blogging is how you tend to fade rather than finish. For a case in point, look at the previous post. In any case, it wasn’t a full stop. Just a comma, with a whole new break-out box.

One thing I’m excited about is this amazing girl, my daughter, who is not even a week old.

If it wasn’t for that, one of my favourite things this time of year is Newcastle for the TINA festival. It’s not happening for me this year, but it’s getting live blogged by (among others, most probably) Sound Summit director Eliza Sarlos.

Fake Twitter Morris Iemma gave me a moment in the sun.

Someone this afternoon briefly started using the Twitter micro-blogging service to impersonate newly ousted NSW State Premier Morris Iemma; and the results were hilarious.

If the real Iemma was this funny and charismatic in public he might have got away with all the other stuff.

Last day of the FBI supporter drive, we gave away a bunch of Izrock Kill Pixie/Marcus Oakley packs. Thanks to everyone who signed up. We also had CuriousWorks director/founder Shakthi Sivanathan, just back from a road trip to Roeburn in the Pilbara, WA.

Playlist

Melancholy Serenade - King Curtis
Nothing To Lose - Dimitri From Paris
I Won’t Be Found - The Tallest Man On Earth
3 Friends To The Stars - Purdy
1:52 - Fabulous Diamonds
Heavy Gum - Vincent Over The Sink
A Bright Tomorrow - Astronomy Class
Express Yourself - Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band
Summertime - Wiley
Speaking Zaans - TST
Fuzzbox (feat Jon Spencer) - Bomb The Bass
Last Ships - Firekites
The Lunatics (Have Taken Over The Asylum) - Ollo
You, Dog - Deerhoof
Notorious - Turbulence
One Second - Qua
Kalise - El Guincho
Tire Swing (Live at FBI) - Kimya Dawson
Engine No. 999 - Westernsynthetics
He’s So Wigged Out - The Shimmys
Every Time We Say Goodbye - The Darling Downs
Upside Down - The Tropics of Cancer
Don’t Wait for the Needle to Drop - Dosh

It’s supporter drive time at FBI at the moment, and last weekend we gave away a $250 Co-op Bookshop Voucher to one of our listeners. It’s still happening next weekend, and we’ve got some beautiful art publications to give away. If you’re a listener you should be a supporter.

Simon Rann from Philippe Genty’s Lands End didn’t show, neither did the guys from Sydney Uni’s Verge Arts Festival. Fortunately we had plenty of great stuff happening. Jordana Maisie caught up with Greg Shapely, director of the Sound of Failure sound art festival and Jesse Cox went to ECR at Performance Space to see Chris Hanrahan and Marley Dawson’s recreation of a dirt bike track.

By the way, Jordana’s not just an art critic. She’s got a show on at Black & Blue Gallery on Cleveland St at the moment. I’ll just say it involves a video camera, a big silver cylinder and a video projection, and it’s pretty and fun. Worth checking out.

Playlist

Flex (DJ Q remix) - Dizzee Rascal
Heart It Races (DJ/Rupture refit) - Architecture In Helsinki
Nothing Ventured - Telafonica
Tell Me It Ain’t So - Micah P. Hinson
The If If (Remixed by Faux Pas) - Ollo
June - July - Panoptique Electrical
The Photographer - Panoptique Electrical
Lullaby For The Apocalypse - Charge Group
Kick The Drugs - The Wallbangers
Make It So - Daedalus
Pandanus - Robert Forster
Prescription - Scott Matthew
Tonight - Lykke Li
Bounce Bounce Bounce - The ELF
The Good Life - Justin Townes Earle
Voices Are Your Best Friend - Glissandro 70
Scrawny’s Beat - Hint
Wearing My Rolex - Wiley
Common Errors Traps
What Do I Get? (Peel Sessions version) - The Buzzcocks
Today We Lost a Great One - Sam Shinazzi
Little Acorns - Leila
Love Train - Hall & Oates

SMH op-ed writer and now novelist Lisa Pryor came in, ahead of her Pinstriped Prison book launch. Later on, Perth researcher Gary Cass visited to talk about his dress made from fermented red wine. Seth Green talked up his Robot Chicken does Star Wars DVD too.

Here’s what we played…

My Eyes My Heart (Seelenluft remix) - Electric Blanket
Shalade (Salad remix) - Shalark
Charlie Brown (CSK remix) - Ghostface Killah
Hit the Heartbrakes - Black Kids
Take Time Take Me - Amy Cushway
Big Jumps - Emiliana Torrini
Hey Hotties! - Supermayer
Caitlin’s ’60s Pop Song - Adrian Whitehead
Radio Edit - Car Stereo Wars
Canadia (live at Hotel2Tango - Montreal - July 2007) - Because of Ghosts
Sugar Lights - Amaya Laucirica
Shake The Dope Out - The Warlocks
How Much I’ve Lied - Jason Walker
Visions of You (Weatherall’s Pick N Mix 1) - Jah Wobble’s Invaders of the Heart
The Desperate Kingdom of Love - Giant Sand
No Rides Left - Horrorshow
Spinning Lights - Lover
Whirring - Arms
Tight Rope - Kid Cornered
Beard of Bees - The Rectifiers
On My Own - The Cocknbullkid
The Crowned - APSE