First gig....

We had our first (unpaid!) gig since Weekend Warriors, and the first with Jed.
O.K., it was Ziggy's 50th birthday party.
He is the baby of the line-up.
It has been nine months coming, but Ziggy has been busy becoming a Bass player after a lifetime on guitar, Jed has had to learn what electric guitar and a band is all about.
Tim hadn't drummed since he was 21 years old, and I suspect he wasn't anywhere near as accomplished as he is now. In the last couple of months Tim has really impressed me with his improvement, and the way he works in with either the Bass or with my guitar playing.

In the context of where we were coming from, it has taken a while to knock together about forty songs, but what makes this band so very enjoyable is that everyone is willing to have a go and share the load, every one of us sings either individually or together, and Jed has a few songs where he plays lead guitar and I comp for him.
The team spirit in this band is exceptional, we don't fight, get on well together, and encourage and support each other.

At the gig, we were a bit patchy, in my description to the others I said we ranged from very good, to terrible , to good, to excellent! I suggested we needed to work on our consistency.
The wry reply was that we could be consistently terrible on all the songs.
With tongue in cheek, I said, yes, we could manage that with a little less effort!
It was good to have that one under our belt, it was a milestone for Jed to play publicly for the very first time in his life, but by the last bracket he was really enjoying himself and was moving and grooving. We were tight and on!
This coming Saturday we have been lucky enough to score four hours in a leading studio with Jed's son engineering as part of an assignment for his audio engineering course.
Another first for the boys and the band, we hope to get a good result and are keen as mustard to be there!

Findlay Engineering, Snowy Hydro, Bilderberg

Findlay Engineering, the arseholes, couldn't wait for the ink to dry on the paper when the new Industrial Relations legislation was passed. They sacked two unionists who "smirked" at the boss at a meeting! They were pressured by an embarrassed Government into reinstating the men.

Now the company is in the hands of liquidators...... AGAIN!
Couldn't happen to anyone more deserving. Although, as usual, the workers will lose their jobs and the owners will pay a fraction of their debts. I hope they are forced to pay their employees entitlements first!

John Howard has supposedly done a backflip over the proposed sale of Snowy Hydro. My tip is the sale will be back on the agenda by year's end, possibly after the State elections in Victoria and NSW. Big business has pressured the World Bank who willingly force struggling third world nations to sell their public assetts, including water into private hands.

Some nations are so far successfully resisting, (see my previous post on Water as a Right and Bolivia) and fending big business off. But they also had a very motivated constituency and a government more in tune with their peoples' welfare.

Howard has given in too easily and too quickly on this one. Which is why I believe he and his masters are taking a breather before looking at a modified option and propaganda exercise before the fair dinkum push to sell the Snowy.
After all, water is an increasingly scarce and valuable commodity. It will never be allowed to stay in public hands.

Many of John Howard's masters attend the highly secretive (do a google! - and even their spouses can't accompany them to the meetings) Bilderberg conference each year. Here the ultra rich and ultra powerful meet to discuss their world view and how best to steer the world in their preferred direction.
This year the agenda is tipped to include Iran. The main headache is a split between the American and European Bilderbergers on the Iran beat-up. This has delayed the attack and caused no end of frustration to the U.S. faction. And also a response to how Chavez in Venezuela has scuttled their Free Trade Agreement for the Americas.

This year's meeting is tipped to be near Ottawa in Canada from the 8th June to 11th June 2006.