Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Vale Peter Wherrett

I have to admit, I was competely unaware that motoring identity Peter Wherrett favoured cross-dressing.

The beautifully-written obituary in the SMH had this eye-ctaching opening par:

PETER WHERRETT, one of Australia's foremost motoring journalists, lived his last few years as a woman in a small community of friends at Lake Macquarie. "This was my last great achievement," he said…

The world certainly is, as the fabulous Carole King put it, "...a wondrous woven magic in bits of blue and gold/a tapestry to feel and see, impossible to hold."

great headline writer at The Australian

This has got to be one of the best headlines of 2009...

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Good/Bad/Ugly

Not so much famous for Clint Eastwood's performance, as for the extraordinary soundtrack by Ennio Morricone, is the spaghetti Western thriller The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

One hundred and seventy-nine minutes of it (recent extended version). Man, it went on, and on...dragged a bit here and there, but fascinating nonetheless.

I found Lee Van Cleef as Angel Eyes an utterly compelling character.

Quentin Tarantino has apparently described it as "the best-directed film of all time" - that is interesting coming from him.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Retiring Richie Benaud...

Kerry O'Keefe is an amusing bugger. I went to a breakfast at the Casino a while back where he was the guest speaker, and apart from mercilessly flogging whatever book he had out, he was pretty good. Odd head, up close.

He recently wrote a column about Richie Benaud with some revealing insights into the doyen of cricket commentary (and a couple of shots back from Benaud, as well ...).

I'm not sure the Richie was ever the same after brilliant Billy Birmingham's series of 12th Man impersonations...

O'Keefe writes:

"Over the years there have been some memorable Benaud quotes. One particular favourite during a break in innings was: "Frankly, I would have thought that using the light roller on that pitch would have the same effect as a koala doing a pas de deux.''
Or the commentary with Michael Slater, which went something like this:
Slater: "The bowler thought he was through him, but the batsman has got an inside edge on it and it has just snuck past leg stump.'' Benaud: "Michael, there are a few words ending in `uck' in the English language, but I am pretty sure the bowler wasn't thinking of one starting with `sn'.''