Callum off "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?"

Note him.
Bet you he's the next Matt Corby! He's got the hair, a better personality, and he's even got the flanny!


PopGoesCanberra's famous mega chart rubbish wrap-up

1 BEAUTIFUL GIRLS Sean Kingston Bogan Rubbish
2 IN THIS LIFE Delta Goodrem Absolute wonderfulness
3 THE WAY I ARE Timbaland Feat. Keri Hilson This is actually quite good
4 STRONGER Kanye West Boring rubbish
5 HOOK ME UP The Veronicas Disappointingness
6 BIG GIRLS DON'T CRY Fergie Cringeworthy baby missing blanket rubbish
7 HEY THERE DELILAH Plain White T's No idea, probably rubbish
8 SHUT UP AND DRIVE Rihanna Really quite good
9 CAN'T TOUCH IT Ricki-Lee Really quite amazing
10 HOW FAR WE'VE COME Matchbox Twenty Probably rubbish
11 THNKS FR TH MMRS Fall Out Boy Sounds good on a footy advert
12 THE PRETENDER Foo Fighters Rubbish
13 LOVE TODAY Mika Scissor Sisters wannabe rubbish
14 DANCE FLOOR ANTHEM Good Charlotte Rubbish
15 WHEN YOU'RE GONE Avril Lavigne Rubbish
16 AYO TECHNOLOGY 50 Cent Feat. Justin Timberlake Rubbish
17 THE TAKE OVER, THE BREAKS OVER Fall Out Boy Rubbish
18 LOUD Shannon Noll Disappointingness
19 DESTINATION CALABRIA Alex Gaudino Feat. Crystal Waters This came out four years ago, it was good but did nothing, they add some annoying horns, and Australia loves it
20 I GOT IT FROM MY MAMA Will.I.Am Rubbish
21 TEENAGERS My Chemical Romance Rubbish
22 WAKE UP CALL Maroon 5 Rubbish
23 1973 James Blunt Total rubbish
24 OVE ME LIKE THE WORLD IS ENDING Ben Lee Tibetan rubbish
25 UMBRELLA Rihanna Feat. Jay-Z Still brilliant
26 KISS YOUR MAMA! Vanessa Amorosi Again, more disappointingness
27 BLEED IT OUT Linkin Park Rubbish
28 DEAR MR. PRESIDENT P!nk Sentimental rubbish
29 JUST A SONG ABOUT PING PONG Operator Please Assuming it's rubbish
30 WALL TO WALL Chris Brown Rubbish
31 CLOTHES OFF!!! Gym Class Heroes Possibly rubbish
32 SOUND OF FREEDOM Bob Sinclar & Cutee-B Feat. Dollarman & Gary Pine Probably rubbish
33 OPINIONS WON'T KEEP YOU WARM AT NIGHT Kisschasy No doubt rubbish
34 LOVESTONED Justin Timberlake Dido's song was better
35 WHAT TIME IS IT? High School Musical Cast Christian Fundamentalist rubbish
36 NO LONGER THERE The Cat Empire Trendy left-wing Adelaide rubbish from Melbourne
37 GIRLFRIEND Avril Lavigne Annoying rubbish

38 UFO Sneaky Sound System Brilliance
39 F.R.E.S.H. Scribe Kiwi Rubbish
40 DON'T MATTER Akon Rubbish
41 ONE MINUTE Kelly Clarkson Probably rubbish
42 SONG FOR MUTYA Groove Armada Alright.
43 INCONSOLABLE Backstreet Boys Alright.
44 BUY U A DRANK (SHAWTY SNAPPIN') T-Pain Feat. Yung Joc Definitely rubbish
45 GIVE IT TO ME Timbaland Feat. Nelly Furtado & Justin Timberlake Rubbish
46 BETTER THAN The John Butler Trio Truly awful rubbish at its worst
47 GLAMOROUS Fergie Feat. Ludacris Rubbish
48 GRACE KELLY Mika God-awful rubbish.
49 CANDYMAN Christina Aguilera Annoying rubbish.
50 NEVER AGAIN Kelly Clarkson She was good on Australian Idol this week wasn't she!



Great stuff: Fireman Sam


Possibly the best kids show currently screening on ABC TV? Not that I see many. And it's not in the calibre of Astroboy, Belle and Sebastian, Superted, etc...but it's darn entertaining and has a great theme tune.

And do you realise, it has a character called Bella Lasagne? It's true! She's Italian! Isn't that wonderful.

Great stuff: The Flying Doctors

This is being repeated at the moment on WIN TV. What a great show. There was an awesome episode once when they were in the plane and encountered UFO activity! So exciting.

You know what is missing from modern Australian dramas? Heart. What was the last Aussie drama to have heart?

The Public Sector Informant - the most boring newspaper ever?

'nuff said.

Summer is coming - Mamma Mia, give me a sangria!

Here at PopGoesCanberra we are huge Gunther fans, and were quite late to discover this video of his that came out in June or so...it's AMAZING! This may well be our summer 07/08 theme!

Ola Ola...ra ta da ta da!

What's Not (hot)

Many things are not hot at the moment in Canberra.

First things first.

BMWs. What were once nice cars have been taken over by total and utter bogany types with hideous mullety hair who want to show off a lot and be very silly, really. And they usually have silly customised numberplates too, and drive too fast.

The staff at Fitness First Deakin - they have all changed - why so? The old ones were nice. These ones are all young and quite unhelpful. PGC prefers young and quite helpful.

Young men at Coles Manuka buying condoms excitedly at 6pm on a Saturday night. We don't want to know that you are having sex tonight, lest you set off our envious sexometers!

The Sideshow on the ABC. It's not very good really.

Air Crash Investigations being on at the same time as Summer Heights High.

Traffic lights along this section of Ballumbi St, Civic:


View Larger Map

They are terrible! They are not sychronised at all and once can be quite possibly caught by five in a row turning red one after the other!

Lack of street sensuality by Canberran folk.

Gatherings of young men in hoodies, smoking, outside McDonalds Manuka.

What's Hot

  • BWO. Look! Their new album is out shortly!!!!!
  • Neighbours. It's quite good, with its fancy new look and quality actors like Jane Hall, Steve Bastoni and co.
  • Hoodies. Nice ones. Not ugly ones.
  • APEC Australia 2007. Something interesting on the news for once!
  • The ski season. It was cold! But now it's hot, so the snow is melting :(
  • The weather - warming up, a little
  • Robyn - gracing Australia with her pop presence. Look at her hair!

What's Hot

Yellow. Yellow is hot. Evidence?

The new Sugababes video "About You Now":



Verona's amazing "La Musica" from this year's Melodifestivalen:

What if Canberra were actually Poland?

It would be something like this maybe! Or not...

Coles Manuka: Worst supermarket in Canberra?

The answer is surely yes.

For the person who has just moved to the inner south of Canberra, Coles Manuka at first delights the senses. It is central, accessible, and stocked with a wide range of grocery items. It even has a little Asian and special foods section. Wowee.

But it starts to tire very quickly.

Most noticeable at first is the bizarre smell when you walk in. It's a complex blend of checkout staff greasy hair, doughey bread, half-cleaned floors and almost-off fish. Even Monsieur Grenouille from Perfume: The Scent of a Murderer would be disgusted.

Next, the prices. There are some decent specials, but the fruit and vegies are nowhere near the taste and good value that you'll find at Fyshwick markets. The breakfast cereal PopGoesCanberra prefers, Carmans, is approximately $0.25 dearer than at Woolworths. Nice eggs are ridiculously expensive.

Finally, the checkout operators. While there is the occasional stunning one who really should be in an Eastern European gay porn film, the vast majority have absolutely no charisma, dry, flaky lips and a weak "how are you" and "mind if I put the meat in the same bag?" They also have no idea how to work fast (obviously never been to Aldi) and tend to pack your bag in a way that makes it topple over as you are picking it up so your eggs all break, or just as you are getting out of your car at home the bag collapses because it is so weak and your yoghurt goes EVERYWHERE.

It's great that it employs local young people, but like, WHATEVER, how about sending them on some kind of course and developing their service skills? For fuck's sake...

I won't mention the decidely middle of the road soundtrack, that fails to inspire, apart from the occasional slice of Bardot or Shania Twain. BWO would NOT go astray.

As It Is In Heaven

You've all got to see it! Look! This is the trailer! It's Swedish and perfect and wonderful! It's on at Dendy now!



Can you see why PopGoesCanberra loves the Gold Coast?

I mean, it's a bit different to Canberra, isn't it?

Epic new BWO video

PopGoesCanberra has returned from Brisbane (report coming soon, features photos from PopGoesCanberra's amazing Robyn - including a Nicole Ritchie lookalike up-close and personal on the Gold Coast) to find the amazing new BWO video has landed. Look at it!!!!



Just in case you are blind and can only listen to the song, which you will hear is amazing, the video features Martin looking amazing, Marina looking amazing, Alexander looking as silly as usual, plus loads of animal-like creatures, including a cute little mousey one! Oh, and lots of lovely lasery light beams!

Meanwhile PopGoesCanberra is impressed with this new Canberran blog which transplants all the good stuff in PopGoesCanberra and puts it on an enviable trip to the Eurovision Song Contest.

Natalie Barr from Seven Sunrise gropes budget airline guest

After the Long Tan delayed ANZAC dawn service/Keven Rudd fiasco, another scandal has struck Channel Seven's Sunrise program.

A video that reveals newsreader Natalie Barr's previous life as a budget British airline flight attendant has come to light on YouTube. Watch at the 2 minute countdown mark as she goes too far with a security check on a young gentleman patron!

Napisan Tragedy

Disaster struck at PopGoesCanberra headquarters today when a wonderful stripey jumper from Retrostar in Melbourne was dunked in Napisan without being colourfast tested. Stripes are now gone and pinkypurpleness is spread throughout the jumper. Absolut tragedy.

Good news? Ausculture Jess has got a JOB spouting the nonsense that she sprouts, here.

BWO are launching Chariots of Fire in the UK and did an amazing performance at Popjustice Live 2.0 in London of their brilliant cover of Alcazar's Saved My Pride. Cheer yourself up by watching here. Note Martin's nice singlet, hair and arms, Alexander's facial hair and don't note Marina because you can hardly see her in the dark.

Crap Food on Qantas flights: an update

You know how we were saying that it's good how on the Dash-8 services you sometimes get nice crackers with nice cheese and nice wine? Well apparently that's only after 4pm. Before 4pm, you just get crap paninis, as per usual. I made it quite clear to the male trolley dolly (sorry, been watching too much Mile High) that I was not happy with this situation:

- Do we get nice crackers on this flight?
- No, that's only on flights after 4pm.
- Oh.

10 minutes later while he is serving tea and coffee:

- Do we get nice wine on this flight?
- No, that's only on flights after 4pm.
- Oh.

Lovely Canberra Autumn Evening - a haiku by PopGoesCanberra

Acorns fall around
Dido drifts across the night:
While Flag meets black cat

Well, do you like it?

Would you just look at Tina Arena!

I mean just look. Look at her! She's getting around France like she bloody owns the place!

Crap food on Qantas flights

It's really just getting ridiculous how bad the food is on short sector Qantas flights. Namely Sydney-Hobart, Melbourne-Canberra. Just awful. It's all epitomised by the "Chicken panini". It is a hideous fat bread concoction "filled" with "chicken" in a "dijonnaise" sauce thing. Little cubes of "chicken" in this icky sauce, a few limp pieces of carrot or other vegetable type ingredient, and there's your meal! If you're lucky, you get a cube of Cadbury chocolate. Does Qantas seriously think these "meals" are a selling point for them? Is this what they call "full service"? Long live the days when you would take Ansett and be presented with a steaming hot, foil-covered meal that you peeled back to be met with a woosh of vapour smelling of little boiled potatoes, some kind of meat, and a tasty sauce.

So anyway, back to the paninis, they are crap. I don't have a problem with sandiwches per se. But when the bread is too thick and dry and tasteless, and the contents are smoodgy and icky and limp they are no fun at all.

And another thing. These horrible paninis, or as my one the other day was called "French Connection" (France should sue), have ridiculous lists of ingredients. This was a ham, brie and lettuce one. The ham wasn't bad. The brie was a bit tasteless, but hey, at least it's brie. Lettuce consisted of three stalks of limp baby spinach. So the ingredients should be bread, ham, brie and lettuce. Check out the actual list of ingredients:
  • Sandwich pain de mie (white flour (wheat flour, thiamin), water, butter, milk, sugar, yeast, salt, soy flour, emulsifier 472e, amylase, stabilizer 412, flour treatment agent 300, sesame seeds)
  • honey ham (soy protein, food acid 325, honey, maltodextrin, vegetable gum 407, mineral salts 451,452, antioxidant 316, flavour enhancer 637, sodium nitrate 250
  • brie
  • lettuce
What the hell was wrong with the flour in the first place such that it needed a flour treatment agent? And why was it unstable? And why did it need soy flour in it? And sugar? And thiamin? I take a multivitamin, I don't need an airline to further dose me up.

Why is there soy protein in ham, and maltodextrin, and frigging sodium nitrate? That's a well known allergen. Then you've got some kind of relative of MSG to enhance the flavour...how about using a decent tasting ham in the first place.

And then they go and call this French!

Oh, and another thing, on a bloody Dash 8 they manage to serve way better food (well, snacks) than on the mainline Qantas jet services. Launceston-Melbourne service, we got crackers with a very tasty sundried tomato dip, King Island Camembert, drinkable red wine, and an after dinner chocolate mint!

Bogans in a park

There are some bogans in a park across the road from my house. They've set up on a park bench with a box full of beer and are yelling such things as "fuck you then" and they are throwing sticks at each other.

Why aren't they at their homes watching Australia's Got Talent?

Would you like something to suck on?

The UK has said "let's regress 10 years and send this bunch in to Eurovision 2007!" Admittedly they've got uniforms (they're a bit "Deeper Shade of Blue" though aren't they), and it' much better live than in the studio. To use a Fop term, "as a general proposition Schooch are to be supported"

Måns Zelmerlöw Fever

Canberra, or more precisely, PopGoesCanberra headquarters, is in Måns Zelmerlöw fever. In case you don't know (where have you been?), Måns came 5th in Swedish Idol and won Swedish Dancing with the Stars and has just come third in the final of Melodifestivalen 2007 with the AMAZING song Cara Mia. I have no idea what Cara Mia means, but it has appropriate lyrics like:

"Oh Cara Cara Mia/Cara Cara Mia/Love is all we need/I swear I'm never gonna leave you/Cara Cara Mia you're the one for me/when someone loves like I do/dreams can come true/so tell me tell me now/oh cara cara mia/how can you leave me now"

It's all just amazing and to top it off, Måns is incredibly good looking (in a fairly ordinary but a bit posh kind of way). You can see the official music video and the performance from Melodifestivalen below.

The song/music video features an old fashioned phone (fuzzy sounding bit!) gregorian chants, storming chorus, huge key change, a bit at the end that seems totally out of the place from the rest of the video, nice salsa-like dancing, fuzzy over the top clubby dancing, and a big pull the chick close to your chest so her boobs look hot bit!



And the Melodifestivalen performance has big Nanne Gronvall style fans and Nanne Gronvall style dancers!



NOTE that the crowd goes wild at the exact right spot, the big clappy bit! AND they have big balloons! And there is lots of smoke! And he dances in a very stilted but horny way! I could go on forever....

And to top it off, Måns likes planes, because he says in an interview that before Idol, "I thought i was going to be a pilot"!!!!

Dream (but realistic) Australia Day Live Concert

Live from the lawns of Australia's Parliament House!

Hosted by Andrew G and Gretel Killeen!

With Sandra Sully and new Neighbours star Sam Clark on roaming mics!


Warm up act: Sonya (Shirley Clamp's best friend) & buff dancers


Warmer act: Candee Jay
(including special "duet" of If I Were You with Young Divas)


Hot act: Martin Stenmarck
(Canberra has forgiven him for what he did to Nanne)


Stupendous act: t.A.T.u.

Setlist
  1. All About Us (with special guests The Veronicas)
  2. Loves Me Not
  3. Stars
  4. Ya Soshla S Ama
  5. Outer Space (as Comet McNaught flies over Red Hill)
  6. Not Gonna Get Us (with special guest the goth from Australian Princess)
Enjoy.

Things I love #1

Swedish people:

Such energy!

Always nice hair and clothes (though not sure about the tie)!

Things I hate #1

  • The sound of car brakes in underground car parks
  • Walking up dodgy grungey staircases in underground car parks
  • When old blokes position themselves and their bench less than a foot away from the little dumbell stand at the gym so that you have to squeeze past them all the time

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Just went and saw this. It's awesome. Smelly. Beautiful. Ben Whishaw is a beautiful actor. Beautiful. This is him smelling a chick he then kills. It's all just wonderful (except the killing).

Cheesy Italian Crime Show on SBS this summer

It's called Don Matteo and I've seen the first three episodes and it's just WONDERFUL. The lead character is a Catholic priest who is blonde and rides a bike and wears a funny hat and fancies himself as a bit of a policeman WITHOUT FORGETTING HIS PRIESTLY DUTIES and he's played by a guy called TERENCE HILL which doesn't sound very Italian BUT SPEAKS GOOD ITALIAN (though what would I know) and there is a "Capitano" who is the police captain and there is a "bumbling" Seargent who wishes he could get promoted but he can't because he's "bumbling" and there is a good looking young cop who doesn't get much of a look-in and there is a female MAYOR who is the Capitano's possible love interest, if this weren't a PG rated show (Mild violence) and she is quite "bumbling" too because she isn't very good at driving cars, and it's all set in a BEAUTIFUL little Italian village where lots of crime happens oh and the policemen always go and ask Don Matteo for help and he has this woman living with him who I don't think it's wife because he's a priest but she's very "nervy" and bakes a lot!

Whew!

It's like Blue Heelers, but ENTERTAINING and NOT AUSTRALIAN and NOT DODGY and GLAMOUROUS in a GOOD WAY.

It's all a great lead-in to an Adults-Only episode of Inspector Rex. The other day it was about this horrible sexual predator who had it in for Rex and wanted to kill him, but in the end, Rex got him! :)



Meanwhile, listen to this! (Real player streaming audio) It's a song I've just noticed in the Swedish charts called "Forget me forget me not". It's quite good. (But nothing to do with Don Matteo)

Lazy ARIA Top 50 round-up

1 NIGHT OF MY LIFE Damien Leith
It works I suppose. But it's not very EXCITING is it.

2 DON'T GIVE UP Shannon Noll & Natalie Bassingthwaighte
Well it's nice that it's about reducing suicide and STUFF but I think Natalie puts on a bit of a silly voice. Or is that just how she sounds when she sings slow songs?

3 SMACK THAT Akon Feat. Eminem
I'm assuming this is awful.

4 WIND IT UP Gwen Stefani
Well the goat bit is good but the rest is a bit unlistenable.

5 IRREPLACEABLE Beyonc
The "to the left" rubbish drives me NUTS!

6 I WISH I WAS A PUNK ROCKER (WITH FLOWERS IN MY HAIR) Sandi Thom
Who is still buying this?

7 MY LOVE Justin Timberlake Feat. T.I.
Toes in the sand. It's great.

8 I DON'T FEEL LIKE DANCIN' Scissor Sisters
Amusingly popular. I never liked it much to begin with, and still don't.

9 FERGALICIOUS Fergie
What rubbish.

10 SAY IT RIGHT Nelly Furtado
Lovely, just lovely. So pretty.

11 ELEVATOR LOVE Guy Sebastian
You know what I think about this.

12 LIGHT SURROUNDING YOU Evermore
Pretty, very pretty. Not as pretty as Nelly though.

13 TOO LITTLE TOO LATE JoJo
What generic rubbish. Just AWFUL.

14 HAPPENIN' ALL OVER AGAIN Young Divas
Good on you, you "middling foursome" (Sun Herald quote)

15 I DON'T NEED A MAN The Pussycat Dolls
Well it's not that bad is it? It's not Steps though.

16 U + UR HAND P!nk
It's about masturbation. That is a good thing, surely.

17 HURT Christina Aguilera
She's disappointing these days.

18 ROCK THIS PARTY (EVERYBODY DANCE NOW) Bob Sinclar
What a load of codswollop.

19 FUNKY TONIGHT John Butler Trio
Oh Gosh, I forgot these guys when I did my "scourge on pop music" post.

20 WELCOME TO THE BLACK PARADE My Chemical Romance
Assuming it's awful.

21 WE RIDE Rihanna
Assuming it's awful.

22 PAC'S LIFE 2Pac Feat. T.I. And Ashanti
Ashanti! Is she still around? Definitely awful.

23 JOKER & THE THIEF Wolfmother
Definitely awful.

24 CALL ME WHEN YOU'RE SOBER Evanescence
Disappointingly awful. Their first album's singles were so good and ideal for belting while cruising up Bermuda Street and this is just....unlistenable.

25 SEXYBACK Justin Timberlake
It is.

26 PUT YOUR HANDS UP FOR DETROIT Fedde Le Grand
Pretty sure it's awful.

27 Eskimo Joe
Not that bad actually.

28 COME TO ME P. Diddy Feat. Nicole Scherzinger
Awful.

29 WHAT IF I'M RIGHT Sandi Thom
Unsure.

30 MANEATER Nelly Furtado
Quite perfect really.

31 TIGHTROPE Stephanie McIntosh
Nice synths. And bosom.

32 LAST CHRISTMAS (WITH FROG) Crazy Frog
Reserving judgment. But I do not dislike the Crazy Frog phenomenon. The power could be chanelled in other directions though.

33 LEAVE ME ALONE The Veronicas
Pretty harmonies.

34 LONELY Shannon Noll
Wonderful for doing the shopping to.

35 LOVELIGHT Robbie Williams
I just don't get it. Nothing special for me.

36 THE KILL (BURY ME) 30 Seconds To Mars
Oooh aren't we popular now. I can see the appeal, I don't like it though.

37 ME & U Cassie
Who is Cassie?

38 LIVE FOR LOVE Anthony Callea
Go to SWEDEN, not ITALY, Anthony!

39 SNOW ((HEY OH)) Red Hot Chili Peppers
Definitely awful.

40 PICTURES Sneaky Sound System
Quite good really. I like their sound.

41 LONDON BRIDGE Fergie
Yeah whatever.

42 WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG The Killers
Unlistenable.

43 TALLER, STRONGER, BETTER Guy Sebastian
Unlistenable.

44 YOU GIVE ME SOMETHING James Morrison
Mediocre.

45 IF EVERYONE CARED Nickelback
They make me want to slit my wrists (not really).

46 LOVE LIKE WINTER AFI
Australian Film Industry? WTF?

47 BUTTONS The Pussycat Dolls feat. Snoop Dogg
I preferred the Bleep one.

48 BUT IT'S BETTER IF YOU DO Panic! At The Disco
Reserving judgment.

49 UNFAITHFUL Rihanna
God, who is buying this. It's just AWFUL. Strangled cat.

50 THE SAINTS ARE COMING U2 & Green Day
Awful.

Not as bad as when we did this a few months ago really!