Oh golly. Those last two posts were a bit intense, weren’t they? Time for a more uplifting, inspirational and – frankly- honest expose on what’s really going on in my head. Oh, and I suppose Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and any other major cultural festivals I may have failed to acknowledge in the two and a half weeks since I last posted anything. By way of explanation of what goes on in this brain, here’s a list of Christmas presents.

Read more: That's More Like It

It’s been a rough few days for Australians. On Monday the 15th of December, Man Haron Monis entered the Lindt café in Martin Place in Sydney, and took everyone inside hostage at gun point. After displaying a flag which read – in Arabic script – “There is no God but Allah and Mohammad is the messenger of Allah,” the gunman held the prisoners captive for the next seventeen hours until a critical event shortly after two o’clock the following morning, in which three lives were lost including that of Monis himself.

Read more: Lycanthrophobic Backlash

So now there’s a new Jurassic Park movie coming. Or more accurately “Jurassic World”. As if we needed any more evidence that Hollywood has run out of ideas. I have to admit to feeling more than a little bit too-old-for-this-shit when classic remakes are being made of films that came out when I was in primary school.

Read more: Thinking It Through

There’s a lot of injustice, oppression and inequality in the world. There are always going to be haves and have-nots, but it seems these days the lines and qualities by which the two categories are delineated are getting more flagrant and more idiotic. The fact that, even in a first-world society like Australia, many women feel an inherent threat in the mere presence of a man saddens me. That there are ethnic groups in this country and in places like Ferguson MO in the United States that still feel the effects of racial prejudice and the sense of injustice that accompanies it is outrageous. That there are people on the planet dying of starvation while we have enough to eat and throw out the leftovers is a mark of shame that will scar our generation in the history books of future centuries, assuming we last that long as a species without destroying our planet or ourselves.

Read more: This Blog Doesn't Matter

Every now and again I get asked to help out with music at an early traditional service at one of the local churches here in Darwin. They called me in this morning, which surprised me little bit since it’s the first day of Advent, which is normally the sort of service that all the pianists and organists want in on. It seemed odd to me that none of their local musicians were making themselves available.

Read more: Veni Emmanuel

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