Responsible service of alcohol

One of the outcomes from training for an RSA certification this week was craving alcohol

I haven't felt the need to drink for ages, so my mind turned to the collection of bottles in my dwindling cellar.

This Morris Durif was a gift from my father-out-law and, when I saw the year, I knew it needed to be drunk.

While durif usually benefits from cellaring, the year 1998 was sweet and fruity and that meant many of the wines didn't have the same tannin structure you want for keeping them longer term. 

The wine reminded me of a wonderful jam that I bought at a church sale, which was cherry with vanilla.

This durif had some oak flavour prompting the latter, while the softness of the body was like juice.

There's a lot I could write about the RSA course, which was a full day and weirdly structured with important details like defining intoxication left until the fifth module. 

It also neglected giving detailed consideration to the antisocial impacts of this legal drug, such as the disproportionate number of men who suffer violence from strangers.

However, it was eye-opening for me to learn about the strategies for minimising drink-spiking that impact on women.  

Photography didn't kill painting

It's that "medium is the message" thing again, where different tools become an aesthetic

Just like audio tape was rediscovered by a generation of sound engineers, or the 1994 vampire film Nadja used a Fisher-Price PXL-2000 Pixelvision toy camera.

The constraints offered by a process will appeal to specific projects, which is why I reckon we'll see a longer version of Nolan's The Odyssey after it's had a run in Imax -- where the size of their reels limited the film to under three hours. 

Coming to my Census

The Australian Census is being collected this week and it prompts me to share something my mother told me earlier this year

We had been remembering an old family friend named Hector Kinloch, who had a role in the 1967 Referendum through his work at the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

There is a widespread idea in the contemporary Australian population that notable referendum was historic for addressing racism toward the First Nations populations, and it's idea I heard more than once during the recent referendum for the Voice in 2023.

The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies website notes that "many people think that the [1967] Referendum gave Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples the right to vote, this wasn’t the case."

On 27 May 1967, Australians voted to change the Constitution so that like all other Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples would be counted as part of the population and the Commonwealth would be able to make laws for them. A resounding 90.77 per cent said ‘Yes’ and every single state had a majority result for the ‘Yes’ vote.  It was one of the most successful national campaigns in Australia’s history.

The Wikipedia entry gives a little more detail in identifying that "Voters were asked whether to give the Commonwealth Parliament the power to make special laws for Indigenous Australians, and whether Indigenous Australians should be included in official population counts for constitutional purposes."

 

My mother told me how she heard directly from Hector how he'd asked at an ABS meeting whether the next Census would count Aboriginals and it was this decision that had prompted a referendum to include them in the Australian Constitution. 

 

This seems like one of those moments where a small decision takes on a much bigger result.

 

However, I can see that it isn't how the event is generally known. 

 

Look how a significant institution like the National Museum of Australia frames the 1967 Referendum as an outcome responding to pressure from protests:

In May 1967, after 10 years of campaigning, a referendum on the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Australian Constitution was held. The vote focused public attention on the fact that First Nations people were treated as second-class citizens. Nearly 91 per cent of Australians voted to amend the Constitution. This change meant that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people would be counted as part of the population and acknowledged as equal citizens, and that the Commonwealth would be able to make laws on their behalf. 

Seeing the way facts are shaped into a narrative is one of the interesting aspects of history, but I expect there's probably a number of factors and even more characters claiming an influence. 

 

It'd be interesting to compare the questions in a Census, because I remember that in previous years there was data collected about how people use their free time. 

 

The Australia Council, I think, used that information to show more people were involved in cultural activities (as simple as reading a book) than in sporting ones (presumably going to watch a match). 

 

Something else to ponder is how the referendum of 2023 for a First Nations "voice" in Federal Parliament and the same-sex marriage plebiscite were both a result of decisions made by Prime Minister John Howard.

Under his government the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission was dissolved, which had occupied a role like that of the "voice," and the Marriage Act was amended to explicitly define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. 

 

As for Hector, I often remember him at the Friends Meeting House in Canberra as well as being elected in the first ACT Assembly elections. 

 

He was:

...a founding member (and briefly deputy leader) of the Residents Rally for Canberra, a coalition contesting the first election to the Australian Capital Territory’s Legislative Assembly in May 1989. Gaining a seat, he served in the Liberal Party-led coalition government as executive deputy to the minister for education and the arts. Budget-driven school closures prompted his resignation from this position in 1990; the government’s decision in April 1991 to proceed with a casino led to his withdrawal from the coalition.

While I can't find anything online to support Kinloch's role in the 1967 Referendum, I have no reason to doubt my mother's recollection of how he explained events and find myself more interested in learning about Hector's life.

Nothing to whine about

It's been ages between bottles

I opened a bottle of wine the other day that was older than my kids and it reminded me of a lifetime ago when things were less complex. 

That $12 bottle tasted priceless. 

New Avalanches

Looking forward to hearing a new album from The Avalanches

There are so many happy and meaningful memories that I have associated with their music.

Here are some photos from when I first saw them play. 

How Alain de Botton can change your life

My partner is often frustrated when I mention a book that I’ve read

This will happen when she’s explaining her thoughts and I’ll chip in with an author or thinker that wrote something similar.

She’ll protest that she arrived at the conclusion with her own reasoning and of course, me being university-educated, can’t see the issue with providing a reference as a kind of handle.

So I’m reluctant to share this excellent video with her.

 

I’ve followed Alain de Botton for nearly half my life and still recall buying his book about Proust when it was recommended by Barry Jones.

In particular I've been impressed by Alain’s ideas about the role of art and wish more people would realise the important place it can occupy in developing their happiness.

This video about relationships contains a number of lessons that my partner has arrived at through her own thought processes, but since I want to keep her to myself I’ll share Alain’s insights.

In particular he notes how attachment styles vary and this was something my partner observed long ago, that we have similar experiences in our childhoods.

It also describes how being honest with emotions is fundamental to unpacking our personalities and developing new strategies to recognise shortcomings as well as potential.

Too often we pursue relationships with a view they’re meant to be easy, when the really important thing is that they can accommodate and support our growth. 

While the whole video works to build an argument, you can skip to the last few minutes and he does a recap of the key takeaway points but if you ask my partner she'll probably say that it's obvious. 

Was feeling nervous might delete later

This image shows an actual nervous system that can be viewed at the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine in Kirksville

It is one of only four in the world and the exhibit was estimated to be worth $1 million about a decade ago.

Two medical students spent 1,500 hours dissecting an entire human nervous system in 1925.

They began at the brain's base and worked their way down, managing to keep the system in one piece.

The identity of the person whose nervous system is on display is unknown, but Museum Director Jason Haxton has said that the body likely came from a poor house or a prison. 

Writers create networks

I had fun at a writing event today

When I came home I told my son how surprising it was to be the only male in the room.

"Good on you," he deadpanned. "Showing up for your culture." 

One of the writing exercises was based on the famous six-word story written by Ernest Hemingway: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

I enjoyed writing a series of short stories, with these being my favourites:

• The bookstore sold only loose pages.
• His voice broke records and cassettes.
• Their cat brought home stray velociraptors. 

Political theory

Full Marx if you read all of this!