Radio Birdman and 65daysofstatic, Gaming Updates, Victorian Election

[tcpip]

It was a very rocknerd week. On Monday night took up an offer from The Dwarf to see and review Australian punk legends, Radio Birdman who were downright awesome. Also purchased their excellent CD-DVD collection which was reviewed on Rocknerd. Later in the week took the opportunity to review the last album by 65daysofstatic, Wild Light (who, incidentially, are touring next year). Alas the Rolling Stones cancelled their gig at Hanging Rock, which would have been quite a show.

It's been a few months since the RPG Review store was updated, courtesy of some bulk purchases. But have done so now with a small mountain of Twilight 2000 material which, at the very least, is one of the more remarkable collection of information for of 1980s military technology. Last Sunday was a remarkable session of Werewolf Yugoslav Wars which resulted in the death of a PC, due to another's botched healing attempt, and the capture of a major enemy in dramatic fashion. The players still have to work out how they're smuggling out a "Paleo-Eurasian" wolf from Sarajevo under UNESCO auspices. Thursday night was a session of Call of Cthulhu Masks of Nyarlathotep, with the player investigators ending up making all the rights choices and succeeding in all their checks at critical moments. As a result of their success they completely missed out on one of the most epic scenes in any published roleplaying adventure, which had to be described.

The Victorian state election approaches with most opinion polls at this point suggesting a clear win for the Labor Party. Whilst I am certain that Daniel Andrews will make a great premier, I have concerns that the Tories may yet snatch an undeserved victory. For my own part in the blue-ribbon seat of Kew, I am carrying out the thankless tasks of distributing thousands of DL election advocacy cards. A few days ago I also started the fundraising campaign for the Victorian Secular Lobby; as a small group we're only making a modest contribution to the election, but carefully targetted to be effective. If you support the separation of religious beliefs from civic governance, please consider donating to the campaign.

Comments

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Daniel Andrews is about as electable as an old rag

I used to work for him, prior to his more elevated status. I know he's smart and competent. But he suffers badly from being a self-conscious tall man, and is constantly stooping.

Remember Bracks also played a straight bat, which was like teflon against the brashness of Kennett. I am not sure how such a candidate would work against someone as square as Napthine.

It would be good if he took up a more inspirational approach.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

Brian Tee was on the radio the other day and he was terrible as well. The ads they're running are *almost* positive, which is a good thing, but when they talk they're very negative. They should actually be going the other way; people respond to negative ads, but when pollies speak they have to be positive and inspirational. There's no point introducing yourself to the public (which is what state oppositions are really doing during a campaign, no one knows/cares about them before that) by telling us all the bad things we already know about the guys we actually know about (which is what the media has been doing for the last four years).

Run a few negative ads reminding us about Baillieu, the East-West Link, rising unemployment, the battles with the public service, and health and education cuts. But when they speak it should be all about what they're going to do for us. People *hate* when they ask a politician a question and the response is "well, the other guy, nyer nyer nyer"; it makes them sound like little kids whinging to teacher, not adults ready to lead.

The Libs are stuffed, because they don't really have any positive messages. They ran on a platform of "not Bracks" last time which meant everything they've done in government has been a surprise (Abbott's having the same problem). They're trying to run on the same campaign now and people are thinking "well, yeah, the desal plant and myki were pretty shit, but you're doing the exact same things whilst cutting all the services we liked".

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Brian Tee was on the radio the other day and he was terrible as well.

Heh. He's another example of the "straight left". Competent, conscientious, yet not example someone who gets the blood moving. Mind you, I find Adam Bandt also is a bit that way as well.

They should actually be going the other way; people respond to negative ads, but when pollies speak they have to be positive and inspirational.

Yes, that's a good point. The mixture of positive and negative has to be well-positioned, and I think you're right on a broad principle of 'negative ads, positive speeches'.

The Libs are stuffed, because they don't really have any positive messages.

Well, they've been spending state government coffers on a variety of things that they're going to do.. But I suspect and hope that most people will say, 'too little, too late, too corrupt'.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

He came across as completely political and a little bit disdainful of the plebs, like most politicians. I'd like someone to say something like "I don't know, I'd have to look into that" or "that would require further investigation after the election" rather than just going to some soundbite. I understand why politicians speak in soundbites, but I think they're doing a disservice when they're talking an audience that's already considerable (this was on John Faine). Soundbite answers in an interview just make you look like a robot.