Bob Ellis has been for forty years reviewing films and for forty-one years writing plays, films, novels and essays on the performing arts. In this, his seventieth year, he finds himself drawn to continue these midnight habits, and set down some of his conclusions on these art forms. A further section of this blog, As I Please, named after Orwell’s column in the 1940s, will explore some larger questions of life, and reprint some articles refused publication elsewhere.
Bob, just a question.
Do you have an email address where one can contact you outside this forum?
Ta.
Bob, where in God’s name are you???
Do you look at the pages of your own blog?
Hell’s Bell’s man!
Here Bob!
Well done!
You’ve finally found it!
Now, about my question…….
bob, spend one less hour writing…..use that time to navigate your way around your OWN site.
Jeeeeeeeez man!
I can’t seem to get a comment through any particular reason?
allthumbs, try relaoding the page and instead of copy/paste the password, type it.
Works for me.
allthumbs, sometimes the little L looks like an I and visa versa.zero like an O
Dear Bob,
If ever you were in Brisbane on the last Monday of the month this side of Xmas you could do a talk for the Qld Skeptics about anything.
Free beer and chips.
Wasn’t Bob Katter black enough or politically correct enough for the Andrew Bolt slow hand-clappers of Sydney?
Bob,
Somethings are worthwhile. This blog is one of them. Ban the trolls and sock puppets, they are an infestation. Same with those types who want to use this forum as a personal chat room. They are not worthy either.
There are many things that need to be said, and said with style, about politics, about theatre, about movies about anything and everything.
Do not hesitate to rid yourself of these pests. Piss them off. They have no respect.
Do not give in to them.
There is a strange and deafening silence regarding the little-known fact behind climate change.
As a child I rejoiced in the wonderful kids hymn “all things bright and beautiful”, unfortunately we have not been informed of the little-known fact about titanium dioxide polluting the planet and killing Phytoplankton by the billions.
This tiny element in the food chain provides the food for fish and then by extension the rest of humanity. So what?
But here’s the rub!
Mother Nature in its wisdom has assigned the reprocessing of carbon dioxide by these tiny little creatures. They would have coped with all the carbon dioxide admitted on the planet as part of their raison d’etre.
Unfortunately we have been lead to believe that we are the cause of climate change, by our rapacious consumption of fossil fuels. This is not entirely true, for incomplete information leads to some erroneous conclusions.
All the while, some salient pieces of information escape our attention.
However should we worry for the poor Phytoplankton, when we have not paid attention to the fact that we are busily poisoning our children and ourselves by the addition of titanium dioxide to our food.
The American Cancer Society has recently indicated that titanium dioxide is one of five most carcinogenic substances on this planet.
Little wonder when one closely examines this and its enormous similarity to asbestos.
Dear Bob,
If you read this, I’ve something to add to the sentiments above re: the blog (not the global warming guy who seems to have wandered in from the next set). I’m a Lismore High graduate, too, so you should listen.
It seems you’ve really taken a shine to blogging as a means of publishing some of your prodigious and engaging miscellany. As I observed around a year ago or more(after viewing the old page), you are probably the best natural independent blogger in the English-speaking world. And by that I mean simply in terms of revenue-potential.
You need a website administrator who understands internet-advertising, Google-optimisation and many of the nuances which I’m sure allow much less popular bloggers to stream much more revenue. I’m not saying you have to get rid of your current sponsors, but you could be selling books (not just your own) through Amazon, getting revenue from subscriptions to publications you endorse, traffic-sharing with other quality bloggers, etc. A proper internet guy (not this guy) can make a lot of this automatic, and shouldn’t have to bother you with any of it.
There aren’t many bloggers out there with ‘productive insomnia’ who can write fifteen lines and have thirty comments follow up so quickly that the next people stop reading them all and just go down your earlier posts. Few writers can eloquently express ideas as concisely as Bob Ellis, and (ironically perhaps?) that’s really the best thing a blogger can be.
So, that’s it I guess. Love the blog, obviously.
Any questions feel free to email, here to help.
PS. I forgot to mention, just for example, in info above it talks about films, essays and plays, but the actual blog has recently been largely about party-politics. Which is great, but … blogs should also be able to be viewed by topic.
Perhaps a background showing the writer at his desk with book-shelves around him, titles visible, smoking cigar in the ashtray, a liquor cabinet, and a view of the beach through the window.
I doubt that he does read it Michael, but i think you are on the wrong track anyway. I do web design with 14 years experience and I can see his blog is well represented in google. Google-optimisation is a bit of a scam these days. False claims are made about it all the time. For Bob to be more popular I think he would have to change his approach, and I don’t think that is what this blog is about, or that it is going to happen. However, this is a wordpress blog and there will be plug-ins available for better google presence which will be easy to install, if they are not already.
As a web designer I think the site just needs a spruce up, some visual appeal. A background picture of the northern beaches for example. I don’t think Bob is a bland greeny-grey person, its just that he doesn’t care what the site looks like, doesn’t even “see” it. And he won’t want others interfering in it either.
This page could have some pictures of the man, some details of his glittering career, etc. Some over-blown claims to genius and so on. Testimonials from famous literati, a list of the people he went to Uni with, a batting average maybe.
There could be categories, and there should be an ‘As I Please’ section.
And yet, as you say, it is mostly about party-politics
There seems to be some difficulty posting poems today
Bob,
Cannot get my comment for the April primates poem to load – the message says its a duplicate but it isn;t visible?
Bob, it’s not Nuigini; its Niugini. Try Googling Niugini Nius.