Australia, we don’t know you, but we love you, say our American friends

@aidan,

Found it! CW Stoneking - this guy is fascinating- also fascinating to me how the brain works - I remembered the song was about a jungle so my brain inserted snakes!:

Quote:

Biography Stoneking was born to American parents in Katherine, Australia in March 1974 and raised by his father in the Aboriginal community of Papunya (his father is the writer and teacher Billy Marshall Stoneking), until the age of 9 (1983) when they moved to the inner west suburb of Balmain in Sydney.
He began playing the guitar at the age of 11 and performed in bands from age 13, from age 18 (1991) Stoneking. performed mostly pre-war acoustic blues styles working mainly as a guitar player. In 1995 he moved from Sydney to rural Victoria (Naroghid) and then in 1997 to Melbourne and began performing as a solo blues guitarist/singer in the 1920s-30s style.

In 1998 he formed a band, The Blue Tits, which consisted of double bass, clarinet and mandolin with Stoneking on guitar and vocals. The band lasted one and a half years and disbanded after the death of the mandolin player. One recording was made of the Blue Tits at Melbourne's 3CR radio station but it was never commercially released. Stoneking continued to perform as a solo artist. In 2005 he recorded an album of original blues compositions titled King Hokum.
The album was received with great critical acclaim in the Australian media after its release in 2006 and in Europe after its 2007 release on the Swiss Voodoo Rhythm Records label. Currently Stoneking tours extensively with his backing band, the Primitive Horn Orchestra.
In 2006, radio presenter Tim Ritchie picked Stoneking's King Hokum as his album of the year on Radio National's Breakfast program.[3] Radio National also presented his February 2007 Australia-wide tour. King Hokum was nominated for the Best Blues/Roots Album in the 2007 ARIA Awards and won the Best Independent Blues Release award in the 2007 AIR Awards (Australian Independent Record Industry Awards).
In 2008 Stoneking released Jungle Blues, his second album of original compositions. Jungle Blues was nominated for Best Blues/Roots Album, Best Independent Release, Best Male Artist and Best Album Cover Art at the 2009 ARIA Awards. At the fourth annual AIR Awards held on 22 November 2009, Stoneking was nominated for Best Independent Album, Best Independent Blues/ Roots Album, and Independent Artist of the Year, with Jungle Blues winning the award for Best Independent Blues/ Roots Album.[4][5] Jungle Blues was also shortlisted in the 2008 Australian Music Prize.
He appeared on 'Later... with Jools Holland' on 5 October 2010, playing "Jungle Lullaby".

This is when I saw him - Ocotober 5, 2010 on Jools Holland - before I saw him on the tv, I thought he was some older American black man from Louie Armstrong's era.
I love his sound.
URL: http://able2know.org/reply/post-4796510

2 Replies

@Finn dAbuzz,

Americans, in general, love Australia and Australians.

Then it's pretty mutual.

Thank Crocodile Dundee, The Man From Snowy Mountain, or Mad Max, but they do.

Hmmm. That's sad - they are all myths. - I like poms because of James Bond and 'people from the USA' because of Noam Chomsky BAHAHAHAHA

Or thank the Irish connection: " A Wild Colonial Boy"

Mebbe..., but reading that article the 'people from the USA' who love us wouldn't know about the Irish connection particularly

America was a British colony that threw off the Homeland's embrace, and, much later on, so was Australia.

Well we didn't so much throw it off as much as they cut the apron strings (still not all of them - the Queen is still our head of state, or at least she chooses our head of state) - no shot was fired in anger, no revolution. You guys worked harder for your independence than we ever did.

Just to clarify, we 'threw it off' much later because we weren't even a colony in 1776 - it was another 12 years before the first fleet settled in Port Jackson. One could argue (ridiculously) that we were quicker (subtract year of Jamestown colonisation (1607 from year of Declaration of independence 1776 [170] and compare to year of Federation/self rule 1901 minus first fleet 1788 [113] and you'll see we were over 50 years quicker (I stress again, it's a ridiculous comparison)).

We're brothers dude!

Indeed we are - regardless of what countries we originate from

I've been to Australia numerous times and enjoyed every visit. I have a number of Australian friends with whom I remain connected.

My impression as a visitor was that Australians, generally, like America and
Americans.

I'd agree that impression is correct. But we don't like you because you're american, we like you because you're not gammon.

A2K is, in the main, a liberal dominated forum, and certainly every one of our Aussie members is a liberal: You, dlowan, msolga, etc.

If I've missed a conservation Aussie, make yourself known and I will apologize.

There are a couple of right wing aussies (Tenderfoot springs to mind) but mostly the A2K aussies are left leaning. Have you been drinking? A 'Conversation' Aussie? Just jokes, I do that word substitution thing all the time.

Thing is I know there are Australian conservatives, and so do you.

Why do think I would not know that or that I would deny it? Itching for a fight? The depressing thing for you is that our conservatives are officially called 'liberal' which makes us lefties virtual Che Guevaras.

We have right wing shock jocks too - but I somehow don't see even you having much time for Alan Jones, Andrew Bolt, Piers Akerman and co.

In any case you probably have a better understanding of whether or not the American love for Australia is unrequited.

I think you misread my original post - my belief was that Oz's love for the USA was unrequited, not the other way round.

Based on my experience it is not, but you may want to argue otherwise. You can be ideological or honest in this regard.

How like you Finn, to present my own thoughts to me as yours and then call me a liar before I've responded.

Hell, liberals have infested the entire world and so there must be a rabbit's load of them in Oz.

<sigh> what a wonderfully simple world of black and white you live in. Give it a label. Dismiss it. We don't call them liberals here, we call them 'people who believe in a fair go'.

0 Replies

@aidan,

So glad you remembered - it was driving me nuts. I was beginning to think you meant Dan Sultan (Sultan=king).

0 Replies

For those of you who have never heard the term "Oz" as a reference to Australia, nor can bring yourselves to use the term, nor "Aussie" ( pron. "ozzie"), a bit of a catch-up for you.:

Quote:

BARACK Obama rounded off his trip to Australia with a short speech to US and Australian troops at the RAAF base in Darwin.

President Obama: Thank you! Hello, everybody!

Audience: Hello!

President Obama: How are you doing? I know that you all have a great Australian cheer. I want to hear it. So let me say - first - Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!

Audience: Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!

Barack Obama's address to troops in Darwin:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/obama-in-australia/barack-obamas-address-to-troops-in-darwin/story-fnb0o39u-1226198364769

Which is the Australian chant when supporting the Oz team at international cricket matches.

If your president gets it, so can you.

And for those of you who have never heard the term "Oz" as an acronym for Australia, you haven't been paying attention for quite a long time.

OZ - Australia:
http://www.all-acronyms.com/OZ/Australia/1137988

Way back in 1969 there was the famous/notorious OZ MAGAZINE in the UK.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/91/Oz-33-cover.jpg/220px-Oz-33-cover.jpg

And just recently, one of many references:

BBC takes Oz drama 'The Slap":
http://www.variety.com/article/VR111804179

0 Replies

@edgarblythe,

That was The Sundowners. This is pretty predictable **** in this thread. The United States is almost self-sufficient, and, in fact, could be except for a few "strategic" metals. I've point this out before. If we want to go skiing (on snow, rather than water), we have some of the best skiing in the world in the Rockies--even "wilderness skiing" in Utah. If we want to lie on a tropical beach, we can go to Florida. If we want to visit the desert, we can go to any one of a half dozen states. Want to ski in the traditional manner? Plenty of places to do that, too--Maine if you want to ski on an actual mountain. Alaska, of course, although they haven't developed a big tourist industry--no need with the North Slope oil money.

Very little of what we import cannot be grown or manufactured here. Bananas and coffee we can get from our hemispherical neighbors. However, the point is, there is little reason for Americans to look outside their borders. Much of this type of silly diatribe (and you see them all the time) comes from the fact that other nations pay more attention to the United States than Americans do to them. That's understandable if one simply gives it some thought. Even the Canadians have this silly obsession. Sure, you can find ignorant Americans, and you don't have to look very hard. You also don't have to look very hard to find ignorant Canadians. If Canadians spend more time thinking about the United States than Americans spend thinking about Canada, it's not only understandable, it's hardly something to get worked up over.

Same thing goes for Oz.

1 Reply

@dlowan,

dlowan wrote:

I wonder how many people from any country have any real idea of what another country is like unless they travel a lot.

Word

Quote:

Off the point a bit, but amusing, is the number of USians I have met in transit who have warned me never to go to New York City, because those people aren't Americans, and they'll kill you for your wallet.

Many other cities are far more dangerous, and i think Detroit is the "murder" capital. Most tourists to New York end up on Times Square--where four out of five people you meet are not natives of the city.

I'm a native of New York. Hardly ever go thee. It's been about 30 years since the last time i was there.

0 Replies

The "USians" thing is pretty silly. I've never seen anyone use it but the Australians. I've never known the other people of the Americas to get worked up over it, although they sometimes mention it. Why Australians get so worked up over it is a mystery to me. Canadians routinely refer to us as Americans, you hear it every day on CBC radio. Come to Canada, and they still call you an American. I've never heard anyone in Canada refer to Americans as "Yanks." Now there's an annoying term. People in the United States and Canada refer to the U.S. as "the States." When i was overseas, we all said "State side" to refer to home in general, rather than the particular place we hailed from.

This thread is highly entertaining.

0 Replies

Seppos is pretty much accepted and widely known in the land of OZ.

On the pro surfing tour and in all the surfing mags it is widely used.

1 Reply

@engineer,

engineer wrote:

It might be like "Yankee", a term of derision that was embraced by its intended victims and worn proudly.

I must say, you're peddling an extraordinary amout of bullshit in this thread. I'll pass over in silence your hysterical reaction to "USian," which is just a bit of Australian silliness which is best ignored.

Yankee is thought to come from several different variations on the given name Jan and another name combined with that--Jan Kees, for example, means John Cheese, and was alleged to be a term of contempt for the Dutch used by the English. Some claim it was a term of contempt for the English used for the Dutch. However you look at it, though, neither the residents of New York nor of Connecticut think of themselves as Yankees, although the term certainly origniated in that region. I'm a native of New York, and am not offended by Yankee--nor do i employ it to describe myself.

I am bemused, Engineer--you're usually such a sensible person. What happened here?

2 Replies

The wonderful thing about American antelopes is that they are actually goats. They evolved to outrun cheetahs on the great plains of North America (those cheetahs went extinct). They are interesting for another reason. The horns of the pronghorn antelope are unique. As is the case with many horned animals, they grow from a horn bone in the skull. However, like many cervid species, they shed their horns (as deer shed antlers) and grow new ones every year. Pronghorn antelope may not really be antelope, but they sure are interesting.

0 Replies

Great thread, Hinge . . . highly entertaining . . .

0 Replies

@Setanta,

Quote:

Much of this type of silly diatribe (and you see them all the time) comes from the fact that other nations pay more attention to the United States than Americans do to them.

Perhaps some countries have little choice but to pay considerably more attention to the US than the US pays to our concerns?
Is it so completely unreasonable for the citizens of allied countries to object (even if their sycophantic governments approve) to US initiatives which they believe are not in the best interests of their countries?
Take the case of the recently announced ongoing US military base in Darwin .... what exactly does Australia have to gain from becoming a mouse in the middle of a struggle between two elephants who are both determined to have their own way in the region? Say nothing of creating enmity with important near neighbours like Indonesia?
Why shouldn't the two elephants sort out their differences between themselves & not create problems for small fry countries like mine?
Our future is with both countries. Why would we want to make an enemy of either one of them, when we don't have a problem with either?
What you describe as "silly diatribes" is simply the expression of genuine concerns from people who live in countries who are influenced by US decisions. And that's what democracy is all about, surely?

1 Reply

@msolga,

EDIT: Wait, let me respond as that deserves--silly, silly, silly. Have a nice day now, y'hear?

1 Reply

@Setanta,

That is my genuine opinion, the same as I presume yours was.
It's OK if I have an opinion different to yours, right?
I am by no means alone in holding that opinion.

And I read your original post before you deleted it.

2 Replies

@msolga,

Dear Mr President, we beg to differ over the future of Asia:
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/dear-mr-president-we-beg-to-differ-over-the-future-of-asia-20111115-1nh36.html#poll

http://able2know.org/topic/153465-97#post-4796349

0 Replies

@msolga,

Good, then you'll know i pointed out that you were employing a straw man fallacy--just like this bullshit. Nothing i've written suggests that you are not entitled to hold an opinion of your own. But you just want to **** all over the thread by doing the patented Olga outrage thing, right?

This was an entertaining thread, before you got on your soap box. You owe Hinge an apology.

1 Reply

@Setanta,

Please go ahead reveal the straw man argument to us all.
I will be very interested to hear it.

I didn't introduce the notion of "silly diatribes" on this thread. You did.
Apparently it's "entertaining" when you say such things & not entertaining when someone responds to your comments.
Oh well ....

And I'm absolutely certain hinge would not expect any apology from me.
What on earth for? Smile

1 Reply

@Builder,

Quote:

Seppos is pretty much accepted and widely known in the land of OZ.

I've explained how that nickname is derived in the past on A2K. I think it's disrespectful. But disrespectful is a national tradition.

3 Replies

@msolga,

So, you don't know what a straw man fallacy is? That's when you accuse me for something i didn't say. You were the one who introduced a wild-eyed, totally irrelevant political rant into the thread, when all i was talking about was silly diatribes. Anyone who rants about what is wrong with the people of another nation is indulging a silly diatribe. It is certainly not entertaining to see you getting up on your soap box when everyone else was engaged in a discussion.

You owe Hinge an apology for shitting all over his thead, and turning the tone into an adversarial one, rather than just a conversation.

1 Reply

@hingehead,

I missed that. Can you explain Seppo to me? I promise not to get pissed off (haven't done so yet).

0 Replies

Australia, we don’t know you, but we love you, say our American friends

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know