end of the age

Ten years ago: It has just been announced that as of 2013 The Age will become a tabloid, and obviously the whole newspaper is running down into nothing. It is so weird when things that have existed for a century before me, and then through my own half-century, come crashing down. Not that I can think of too many other examples of this. Still. It's crap! Well, I'll be interested if I'm still around in 2022 to see if the term  'newspaper' still means anything at all.
I bitched about The Age constantly, of course, but that doesn't mean I didn't want it to still be around. I'm a subscriber, have been for ages. Though I have to say, Mia reads it daily and I don't.

birthday cut my foot

Every morning I go out to greet the beagles it is a tradition and there is no reason not to do it on my 45th birthday. They generally respond with reasonable gusto and I don't think it was extra gusto on behalf of Master's 45th (315 in dog years) that had me thinking that, somehow, Millie had scratched the heel of my foot (as opposed to the heel of my ear). It bled a bit and I thought little of it but it got more and more painful throughout the day until by mid-afternoon I could put no pressure on it. Last night revealed it was actually quite a deep hole, nothing surely to do with Millie who is a very powerful creature but not in the habit of stabbing people in their feet and why start now.
So I spent my birthday hobbling and feeling weary and woozy, I am not sure why those last two came upon me as well, but they did, and in fact I wasn't even able to stay up and watch QI. Imagine. Is this what the rest of my life is going to be like.

the age continues to sum up the spirit of... the age

I am not like this big Age bagger or anything, after all, I'm a subscriber and read it every day (despite what I am sometimes told). However, the article on Abi Tucker in today's is... well, fine, apart from the risible:

But she really made her name in the hit youth drama The Secret Life of Us. The series instantly struck a chord with the target audience of twentysomething generation Xers.

Suddenly, everyone was hauling old couches to the roofs of their apartment buildings, sharing spliffs and discussing their latest one-night stand.

I admit: I was no longer a twentysomething by the time TSLOU came out, but I do find it hard to imagine it as the creator of the widespread use of (shared) marijuana or discussion of individual sexploits. Of course, we did drag a couch up onto the roof, it rolled and fell into the back garden killing 11 flatmates.

what will they do next?

Scene: an editorial office in The Age. A young minion is being hauled over the coals by a slightly older editor.

Editor: I have to say that when I saw this article I was very, very disappointed. Very disappointed indeed.
Young minion: I...
Editor: We all want to break new ground, and we all want to be ‘out there’. We all think we can take arts journalism a little bit further. But I’ve been round the block.
YM: I...
Editor: Now, I asked you for an article based around Leonard Cohen’s support bands. It’s a hot topic. Leonard Cohen is, basically - I'd never heard of him - but he's more or less Canada's answer to Nick Cave. So it’s probably the single most important question of 2009, at least until (sotto voce; the Editor turns and genuflects to a large framed poster of Nick Cave) he comes again... or... (he turns to a large poster of Tim Rogers) he farts, opens an envelope or blinks. (Here the editor goes off into a reverie, sitting back in his chair and chuckling with amazement that he should live through these times). What will they do next? What on earth will they do next? More films for Nick? More forays into theatre for Tim? Another... another album? From either of them, this year? (A small drop of saliva drops from his lip at the tasty prospect).
YM: I...
Editor: (snaps back to the present). So, the Cohen supports. Yes, yes, Paul Kelly. I mean, we should have talked to Kelly, that was a good move, he’s kind of... well, he’s in that Tim Rogers vein of being a man playing a guitar, in fact, you should have said that; the readers might get a little confused being told about some man playing a guitar, except his name is not Tim Rogers or Angus Young. And I was of course gratified – very correct – to see you mention You Am I in the first column. But how many of our readers do you think were alienated by your complete lack of any mention of Nick Cave until... (his voice becomes both scandalised and uncomprehending) the final column?
YM: I...
Editor: This is a music story. Nick Cave and Tim Rogers are music. How many albums were released last year? I mean, really, how many?
YM: Two?
Editor: Two!? Two! Two! You idiot. You scum sucking, foetid, emanation...
YM: Dig Lazarus Dig and Dilettantes... oh, Tex Perkins’ Ladyboys?
Editor: (Closes his eyes and points straight ahead from his desk to the large shrine to Brian Johnson across the room). Black Ice, you fool. Black Ice, the single most... the most perfect... the... Why am I wasting my time with you? Why?
YM: I...
Editor: You march in here, jumped up and absurd, demanding I run a so-called pop music story about ‘Leonard Cohen’, with only the barest mention of Nick Cave... I suppose you’re one of those outlandish beatniks who think one day the EG might feature a cover story that is not about Tim Rogers or Nick Cave?! I suppose you think there is some crazy little utopia somewhere, some kind of ‘alternative scene’ or whatever you call it, where some so-called ‘musician’ is not Nick Cave, or Tim Rogers, or Angus Young... I suppose you’d like to see some kind of fascistic regime where a quality newspaper such as The Age, Australia’s greatest broadsheet, ignores its single most important duty – by which I mean, of course, in-depth reportage of the activities, attitudes, widespread importance and of course extraordinarily high quality output of Tim Rogers and Nick Cave.
YM: And AC/DC.
Editor: What will they do next? What will they do next!? Yes... yes! I see it! It’s next week’s EG cover story!
YM: ‘Tim Rogers and Nick Cave... what will they do next’?
Editor: Now you’re learning. Brilliant idea! A new year, a new set of challenges... A couple of hot new talents, Nick Cave and Tim Rogers. Nick ‘n’ Tim, Tim ‘n’ Nick. What will they do next! What does Leonard Cohen think they'll do next? What do AC/DC think they'll do next!? What does Tex Perkins think they'll do next? What does... what does Tim Rogers think they'll do next!


http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainment/music/lending-aural-support/2009/01/23/1232471568406.html

Crossposted at Sarsaparilla