Mumma mia… here we go again

Delta Goodrem’s tweet promoting blackface.

COMEDY is a personal thing, and I like mine political, particularly when white people come in for a pasting. Why? Because my career pretty much revolves around explaining to white Australians that we are not the master race. So I like the validation.

All that said, sadly, I never got to see Fear of a Brown Planet, the smash-hit comedy show by Nazeem Hussain and Aamer Rahman which, by all accounts, goes a considerable way to evening up the score.

All quiet on the Western Front

OF ALL the world’s trouble spots, it turns out the tiny NSW town of Bourke is the worst of them. No kidding. At least that’s the claim of the Sydney Morning Herald, which – after putting two and two together, and coming up with 86 – reported that Bourke was the most dangerous place on earth. We’re still not kidding. CHRIS GRAHAM* and CHRIS MUNRO* report from a town that is under siege not from terrorists with guns, but journalists with vivid imaginations.

All roads lead to Byron, and blackfellas

The Aboriginal flag flying high at the Byron Bay Bluesfest.

MUSIC, at least for me, is an intensely personal thing. I was fortunate to be raised by parents who have a great love of music, so they made sure that my three brothers and I got a good musical education.

We all had to learn multiple instruments, we all had to join choirs, we all had to play in brass and concert bands. Most of the time, when I was forced to sit down and practice (piano, or drums, or briefly trumpet) I would have obviously rather been out riding my bike. But looking back, I’m grateful for the experience because even though I never went on to pursue music as a career, it fostered in me a strong love and appreciation that continues to grow to this day.

That’s one of the amazing things about music – it gets better with age. And that explains how, finally, I found myself at the Bluesfest in Byron Bay over the Easter break.