Mercury Shrinking
No, it's not a new movie sequel starring Bruce Willis, it's a piece of speculation about the inner most planet. According to scientists, the rapidly cooling metallic core of the planet might be making the whole planet 'shrink'.

"It's a pretty cool thing," said Mark Robinson, a Northwestern University researcher, of Mercury's slow contraction. "When I first heard it, I thought it
was weird."

But the theory is based on images from NASA's Mariner 10 mission in the 1970s that show randomly strewn scarps across half of Mercury, where the surface appears to have buckled from within. Scientists hope that a new spacecraft -- MESSENGER -- will shed new light on both Mercury's surface as well as its metallic core.

Robinson, a science team member with the MESSENGER mission, said the spacecraft will give researchers a chance to look for signs of surface buckling on Mercury's hidden hemisphere, as well as collect surface composition data on material that may have once spewed out of the planet's interior.

So it's a bit of a fluff piece for science, but unless they discover alien civilizations on Mars, it's going to be hard for space stories to push the Olympics off the front page for the next few nights.

- Art Neuro

Favoured and Stacked
Here is The New York times' take on Japan's Olympic Baseball Team. they feel the team is stacked to win. Well, so far, theyre' good, but it's not like they start with a 4-run leg up, and the proof of any pudding is in the eating.

The player with perhaps the most appeal to major league teams is catcher Kenji Jojima. He was batting .343 with 33 homers for the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks, and he homered in the fourth inning on Tuesday. Norihiro Nakamura, the third baseman who nearly signed with the Mets two years ago, followed with another homer.

"They're very patient at the plate," McNamara said. "They would all work under the 'Moneyball' theory - they work the count, they don't swing at bad pitches. They all have different ways of doing things, but they're fundamentally sound."

The Padres' general manager, Kevin Towers, said in a telephone interview that he wanted McNamara to concentrate on the teams from Asia. The Padres found a bargain last winter in the Japanese reliever Akinori Otsuka.

"I think the Asian players are impacting our game a heck of a lot more than the Cuban players," Towers said. The Japanese players at the Olympics are generally well known, because teams regularly scout the Japanese major leagues. The Yankees did not feel the need to send a scout here.

"We see all those teams in other tournaments," said Mark Newman, the Yankees' senior vice president for baseball operations. "Actually, some of the other tournaments are better than the Olympics."

But there is a cachet to the Olympics that no other tournament can match. It is why Japan stacked its national team, and why two scouts will watch it closely.

I have Otsuka on my fantasy team; he's been awesome. And Hideki Matsui turned out to be the better signing in 2002-2003 for the Yankees than Cuban fireballer Jose Contreras. 'Mr. Zero' Shingo Takatsu is doing wonders for the ChiSox; and there's Ichiro. Okay Kazuo Matsui hasn't exactly set things alight, but it is his first year and converting results across the Pacific hasn't exactly been easy for any of the hitters.

Well, at least somebody from the MLB is watching, and quite evidently reading 'Moneyball'! :)

- Art Neuro

Norihiro Nakamura Rounds the Bases
It's kind of crazy to think that professional athletes can participate in the Olympics, but there you go. It's fact and it's history now. It's a bloody wonder why Japan took this long to send a full-squad of their professional league players when Cuba's been doing so since 1992, sending our favourite magic Cuban Orlando Hernandez to pitch in Barcelona; and wasn't he magnificent then? I can understand why the Major League teams in America won't but those teams do have their heads in their own Universe. The thing is, International Baseball is such different fun, with such diverse styles of play and each game result counting for so much. It's like the play-offs. Clutch play is everything.
- Art Neuro

Daisuke Matsuzaka pitches versus Cuba
I saw Matsuzaka pitch in Sydney. He's an awesome dominant power pitcher. Well, I guess I saw Jose 'el Titan Bronze' Contreras as well, but what the heck. In fact I saw Ben Sheets too...
- Art Neuro

Olympic Baseball - Day 3
Canada trounced the Netherlands 7-0. This was a bigger difference than was anticipated. The Netherlands are better than this, however, it does point to a good Canadian team. Canada rapped out 11 hits to Netherlands' 3. The Canadians also relayed their pitching well, going through 5 innings with starter Shawn Hill, then giving an innings each to Myette, Kusiewicz, Ogiltree, and Mears. In total, the picketing staff combined for 4 strike outs and 2 walks. The Netherlands in contrast had their starter Patrick Beljards knocked out after 3 innings, but ended up compiling 7 strike outs and 2 walks, allowing 7 runs on 11 hits.

Taiwan downed Greece 7-1.
Another game that is in line with predictions, the Greeks struggled to hit anything with only 3 hits, but did draw 5 walks and struck out only 4 times. Unfortunately, 3 of those walks were drawn by lead off man Nicolas Theodorou, with nobody behind him making much impact. Former Yankee utility man Clay Bellinger went 0-for-4 in the clean-up spot, in an awesome display of futility. The Greeks allegedly have 5 former major leaguers, but it seems they're not cutting the mustard.
Taiwan meted out 9 hits for their 7 runs, which is certainly a change of batting prowess from the previous days. Or perhaps the Greek defense plain stank and had no range. It is not as if the Greeks have a TTO Defense proof pitching staff, with their 4 strike outs and 3 walks.

Australia beat Italy 6-0. At last, the Australian bats did the talking - it's their strong suite coming into this tournament, and it's taken 3 days to turn up, and it didn't until the Seventh inning. Guys, I know you're laid-back and all, but that's leaving it late. The good news is that they delivered this result to Europe's number one team, Italy (I know, it's hard to believe Italy is the Euro baseball power, isn't it?). Chris Oxspring pitched 8 innings of 1-hit shut out ball, striking out 5 and issuing only 1 walk. He was relieved by Ryan Rowland-Smith who pitched the Ninth inning. The Aussies rapped out 12 hits; Thomas Brice went 3-for-5, David Nilsson went 2-for-4 with a walk, leading the way. They likely won't beat Japan, so they are in a hole.

Japan finally beat Cuba in an Olympic Tournament; the win was 6-3. That's right. The day finally came when Japan fielded its best against Cuba, and won. Daisuke Matsuzaka, who was Japan's Olympic Ace in Sydney 2000 and obviously still is the heart and soul of their pitching staff, struck out 7 and issued only 1 walk. He often talked about 'revenge' after the Japanese team went home without a medal in 2000; worse still, Matsuzaka had pitched absolute gems against Korea twice and the USA, with no wins to show for it, losing 2-1, 1-0, 2-0. While he scattered 7 hits to the Cubans, Matsuzaka shut them out for 8 innings, getting caught in the ninth. He was relieved by Hirotoshi Ishii who struck out the last 2 batters for a save. Norihiro Nakamura, also a veteran of Sydney 2000, went 3-for-4 and homered, thus exacting his 'revenge' on the Cuban squad that had held him down in Sydney.

I got an autograph on a ball from Nakamura in Sydney at the Japan-Cuba game. He looked at me and decided I wasn't Japanese, so he signed my major league ball, 'Nori #5' in English. "The f*cking pratt," I thought at the time, but as later events turned out, he did want to play in the majors and almost signed with the New York Mets. I guess he was practising his English. Kudos to the man. :)
He currently leads in slugging as of this writing, at, 1.300. Wow. The man is on a mission. What? No' OBP' on that page? It's the Olympics, so go figure. :)

- Art Neuro

How High The Moon
The Cassini craft has discovered 2 new moons orbiting Saturn. This brings the tally of the Saturnine moons to 33.

The images were taken by Cassini on June 1 from 10 million miles out, as it approached the ringed planet. The spacecraft entered orbit around Saturn on June 30.

The two newly spotted, faint moons are about 2 miles and 2 1/2 miles across, and 120,000 miles and 131,000 miles respectively from Saturn's center. That's considerably smaller than the moons with 12 mile diameters previously discovered in Saturn's orbit.

They are located between the orbits of moons Mimas and Enceladus, a surprise to scientists who thought such tiny satellites would have been shattered long ago in collisions with comets.

They expect to see even more new moons. So keep an eye out for Saturnine Mooon watch. Place your bets now as to how many they end up with. No names have been announced for the newbies.

- Art Neuro

Atsushi Fujimoto of Japan Blasts a 2-run Homer
In Game 2 at Athens 2004, bottom of the Eighth, Atsushi Fujimoto hit a 2-run homer to secure a lead for Japan. It's good when an Atsushi hits a homerun anywhere, let alone at the Olympics. :)
- Art Neuro

Olympic Baseball - Day 2
More Baseball was played overnight in Athens, and this is what Hermes, the messenger God says about what happened:

Taiwan edged Australia 3-0. For the second day in a row, the Australians couldn't get into the swing, so to speak. Apart from David Nilsson who went 2-for-4, the Aussies lacked consistent hitting. It may also be the case the Taiwan's defense is very tight. Looking at the pitching line of Yankee farm hand Wang Chien-Ming, he only has 1 strike out across 7 innings, with only 3 hits scattered. There's not much Defense-Independent pitching going there with only 1 of the 'Three True Outcomes'- K's, BB's and HRs.
So the Aussie boys made contact putting the ball into play, but it was hardly enough for a slick defensive machine like Taiwan. That's 2 losses on the trot for Australia and that's already setting them behind the pack substantially.

Canada cruised past Italy in a 9-3 show of strength. Canada scored 9 runs off only 6 hits, showing Italy's pitching must have struggled with the strike zone. The combined pitching lines of 6 walks and 2 earned runs and 4 errors by Italy show that both pitching and defense were not up to holding back Canada. Clean up hitter and catcher Pierre-Luc a.k.a 'Pete' LaForest led the way hitting a 3-run bomb in the 7-run second as well as going for 2-for-3 overall with 4 RBI. Pierre-Luc is of course one of the top Prospects in the Tampa Bay system. The Yankees ought to trade for this kid. Maybe the Australians should. :)

Japan fought off the Netherlands 8-3. True to past Olympic form, the Netherlands put up a great fight. They led early against Japan, knocking out starting pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma. Iwakuma for his part struggled with his control, walking 3 as well as striking out 3. Hitoki Iwase pitched an inning of relief, after that Hiroki Kuroda pitched long relief for 5 strong innings striking out 7 walking 3, and shutting down the Dutch offense. With a combined 9 strike outs and only 3 walks, the relief pitching dominated outcomes. At the end of the day, Japan piled on 11 hits for their 8 runs, but until the 8th inning 2-run homer by Atsushi Fujimoto, it was no sure thing.

Cuba squeaked by Greece, 5-4. While you wouldn't call this an 'upset', for Greece to come within one run of Cuba in a 5-4 game is very surprising. Although truth be told, 3 out of the 4 runs were scored against a shaky Cuban bullpen in the ninth. They had no business threatening Cuba for the rest of the game. In fact, for most of the game, Cuba's Norge Luis Vera and Danny Bettancourt dominated with 10 strike outs across 8.1 innings. Cuba's bats were also decisive, thumping out 10 hits with 3 homeruns against a ragged Greek staff that only got 1 strike out and issued one walk.

So from 2 days we can tell this: The Cubans make contact and hit for the fences, but their bullpen maybe dodgy. Japan pitches for the three true outcomes like no other team including the Cubans. Taiwan's defense is tight, Italy's isn't; and Australia have lost 2 closely fought games because they trusted luck and couldn't hit for power. The Dutch are good and may even surprise Cuba again as they did in Sydney 2000. Don't be fooled by the 2 blowouts on the first day. This competition is a little tighter than people gave it credit; and International Baseball is such a wonderfully different thing to domestic League-Season play. :)

- Art Neuro

From The Vaults - Gordon Haskell: It is and It Isn't
I've been asked to review this album. There are reasons why one might be asked to review this album by an old friend. Let me explain the background first. Some time in the early 1980s when I was at High School, I got into 'progressive rock' Prog Rock as it is more commonly known. They're the guys who would write pieces (not songs) that would last, say, 23minutes, which was a whole side of an LP. One such band was King Crimson whose 1970 offering was Lizard. Lizard featured on its second side, a one-side musical medley called 'Lizard' featuring the vocal work of Jon Anderson from Yes, another Prog Rock band. The rest of the album featured the vocals of one Gordon Haskell, who was chased out of the band after the one album. It Is And It Isn't was Haskell's solo album that came out shortly after his departure in 1971.

Now, when I was buying Prog Rock albums, the vast majority had been axed from the catalogue carried by the Australian labels who were busy selling us such wonderful things as Midnight Oil and Dire Straits. So in order to buy this stuff, one had to either order them in from overseas or buy them second-hand. Now if you were ordering a Japanese pressing of an LP for $17, one wanted to be sure it was a classic, like say Relayer by Yes. However, if one were not so sure of its classic status, then one would buy the album secondhand from the pre-loved bin at 310 Pitt Street run by a nice gentleman by the name of Greg.

So on the strength of having been on Lizard, my Prog-Rock loving friend and I each bought a copy of It Is and It Isn't, sometime in the murky parts of 1983. The album got played a couple of times and quickly got forgotten fort all these years. Since then, the album has become a bit of an in-joke reference about the maniac degree to which we would hunt down Prog Rock related material; it also kind of marked the outpost beyond which there was no point going.
Now, the idea was to go back and listen to it after all these years to ascertain exactly why this mighty work was consigned to its obscure status as 'Outer Limit Signpost' in our respective record collections.

So here was the challenge: Find the bastard in my record collection, listen to it and write a review so that we remember just what lay at the outpost of Prog Rock.

What Do I Remember About it?
I recall a generally naff album with an amorphous song-writing style that doesn't go anywhere. It's also listless and un-challenging. The cover art featuring garden gnomes is positively batty, but also of its time. Indeed, the title is naff; the playing was naff; the subject matter was naff. That sort of album. Basically, I couldn't remember anything *significant* about it - like, it rocks, or it cooks, or track 2 is a killer, or anything resembling that kind of impression. On impression stakes, 'Karn Evil 9', this wasn't; but then again, how many of them really were that impressive?

Who's on it?
Looking through the credits, the only name I recognise apart from Gordon is John Wetton.
John Wetton, Prog Rock bass player exemplar handles the bass work in good style. It's good enough for a close listen. As usual he's adept, interesting and serviceable. You have moments that hark back to some Prog Rock feels, but generally the whole album is a good deal more laid back than any Prog Rock album. It comes across as more of a thoughtful, Blues Rock/Folk Rock kind of work with small bursts of Prog stylings.
David Kaffinetti of Rare Bird handled keyboards. He went on to become David Kaff who played Viv Savage, the Keyboard player for Spinal Tap... So to speak.
If you thought that was obscure, a Bill Atkinson was on drums - I can't find ANYTHING on him.
An Alan Barry provided the Lead guitar; another person who I can't find any info on.

Arif Mardin mix engineered it and produced it. More interestingly, we see the name of Ahmet Ertegun, head of Atlantic Records on the sleeve. People called Graphreaks did the cover design; they also handled Led Zeppelin IV so it's not as if they were some bunch of crazies. Just for kicks I looked them up in Google, but they don't seem to be operating any more.

Side 1.
Track 1 'No Meaning' is a bland Blues Rock offering. Competently played but it won't blow off anybody's socks... But maybe that's the point of this album.
Track 2 isn't exactly a killer, but it does have a time-change in it; it must be Prog Rock.
Track 3 and 4 are a bit more down. I never liked these ballady things they used to do.
Track 5 has a bit of ensemble playing with nice backing vocals. It reminds one a little bit of Deja Vu by CSN&Y.
Track 6 'When I Lose'... Not much to say being 18 seconds long.

Side 2.
Track 1. 'No Need' A little more of the CSN&Y feel in there. Not too bad.
Track 2. 'Worms' The most Prog track of them all. Almost works up some intensity, but never gets enough heat to boil over.
Track 3 'Spider'. Starts with a shuffle beat. Always something that's a bit hard in Rock music. Then builds to a luke warm crescendo, but by then you're used to the energy level of the album.
Track 4 'Leatning to Feel'. Another Folk music-like offering.
Track 5 'Benny' And yet another low energy Folk Rock kind of thing, but this time it abruptly goes into a horn arrangement at the end.
Track 6. 'When I Laugh'. It's 25 seconds long. What can I say? Nice coda?

What's Good About it?
Surprisingly, the songs are good. They are not polished, but then that would be the point of an album that is filled with ambivalence. As we can tell from the album title and song titles, Haskell's album is a catalogue of ambivalent scenes, emotions, observations and a whimsical non-participation in the Rock-posturing common in 1971. He's opting out, here. Haskell sings, but also plays acoustic guitar; he's a much better player than I remember him to be. There are plenty of nicely rendered acoustic passages; some sound a bit like Pete Townshend's acoustic guitar work on Rough Mix. Even the voice reminds me of Townshend's 'Street in the City'. However that's only in parts.

The overall vibe is mellow, relaxed and mature. That's right. This is a very mature kind of sonic experience; something I had not really given thought to as a teenager hanging out for a bit of excitement. You don't expect testosterone charged youths to stop and consider the ambivalent feelings in life. Hell no. Yet, it's an album that asks you to relax and take it in gently. Not, grab you by the throat and throw you around the room like, say, Red by King Crimson. And that is perhaps why Gordon was asked to leave; he wasn't really intense like the other guys in 'Crimso'.

What's Wrong With It?
Haskell's vocals aren't very strong; he doesn't give his melody the best they could get. The mix is bad; it's a murky, un-inspired mix. The arrangement is often unimaginative or inappropriate. The best bits are sometimes just Gordon singing simply with his guitar strumming. Unfortunately the producer felt things had to be shoved in it to make it more 'exciting'; and yet it never gets exciting. Alan Barry's lead breaks are pedestrian. If there's anything to single out as a dislike on this album, it's the unimaginative blues-rock guitar figurations of this one Alan Barry. It's like third rate Eric Clapton on valium. Clearly the album deserved a more inventive approach, but it is Barry's playing that drags it back to the ordinary. It could've been good; he ruined it!

What got me as a teen was how there wasn't any intensity. The whole album is just so laid back. As an adult I can appreciate that it's meant to be an entirely different offering to Prog Rock, but the answer wasn't to denude Prog Rock of all intensity. It is as naff as I remember it; but oddly enough I don't mind the naff-ness of it. If I want intensity, I can go put on Larks' Tongues In Aspic. This is a deliberately different venture and I should give it the credit it deserves.
It might be a really good album to chill out to at the end of a long night's conversation about way-out things. Or on a Sunday afternoon, something to listen to instead of watching the ABC Arts shows give you the politically correct review of films.

I don't know. 20 years has knocked edges off of me a little so I can appreciate the mellowness of this album, and that's got to be good. I think it might not be 20 years before I put this record on again. I thought I'd be a lot more harsh and cruel towards this record, but I must say I was smiling through most of it, imagining what the session might have been like. It gets 3 stars out of 5. - It's got Viv Savage on it!

- Art Neuro

Koji Uehara in Action in Athens 2004
Koji Uehara pitched Japan to a 12-0, 7 inning called win against Italy in Game 1 at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Uehara is the Ace of the Yomiuri Giants.
- Art Neuro

Feeding the Pinstriped Tyrant
The New York Times has this brilliant little digest of a book from former beat writer Buster Olney. While Buster Olney does have some bizzarre notions about 'Productive Outs', this article is fascinating. Don't miss it!!!

- Art Neuro

Tunguska
It's really slow on the Space exploration front lately, as you may have guessed from the enormous number of film and sport related posts that have been going up. This is because news has simply dried up until the next exciting installment of the Ansari X prize or the next Shuttle launch/explosion. In the mean time, we have this utter crap to comment upon:

The Russian research team is called the Tunguska Space Phenomenon foundation and is led by Yuri Labvin. He said in late July that an expedition to the scene would seek evidence that aliens were involved.

"We intend to uncover evidences that will prove the fact that it was not a meteorite that rammed the Earth, but a UFO," Labvin was quoted by the Russian newspaper Pravda on July 29.

"I'm afraid this is a rather stupid hoax," said Benny Peiser, a researcher at Liverpool John Moores University in the UK. "The Russian team stupidly stated long before they went to Siberia that the main intention of their expedition was to find the remnants of an 'alien spaceship!' And bingo! A week later, that's what they claim to have found."

Peiser studies catastrophic events and related scientific processes and media reports. He runs an electronic newsletter, CCNet, which is among the most comprehensive running catalogues on the subject.

"It's a rather sad comment on the current state of the anything-goes attitudes among some 'science' correspondents that such blatant rubbish is being reported -- without the slightest hint of skepticism," Peiser told SPACE.com.

Truly sad. First it was the Mexicans who saw ET in the night skies; now it's bored Russian scientists. *Ugh*.

- Art Neuro

Olympic Baseball Has Begun
That's right. The sports nut folks of the world are going nuts for people running, jumping, leaping, gymnastisizing, swimming, diving, riding, lifting, throwing, this guy here is saying "Olympic baseball is here!!!"

So far the results are a mixed bag.
Cuba edged Australia 4-1, but looking at the box score, you can see that Cuba were hitting Craig Anderson, while Australia were largely hapless against Cuban Lefty Adiel Palma. Notable in the loss for me was Rodney Van Buizen who got a hit and scored; one of 2 hits against Palma by the entire Australian lineup.

Canada dropped Taiwan 7-0 in what was a whitewash. A closer look at the box score reveals that Taiwanese Ace Chang Chih-Chia hurled a credible 6 innings of 3 run ball, 2 of which were unearned; he struck out 9 and walked 3 in an awesome display of pitching. Then his bullpen wasted another 4 runs to make up the 7 that left the Chinese for dead. The bats really didn't do any talking for the Taiwanese.

Canada's Mike Johnson pitched a solid 7 innings striking out 3 and walking 1, scattering 4 hits. Canada's squad consists of US Minor leaguers and is considered pretty strong. Obviously their defense is solid.

This is the kind of game I love in the Olympics: Netherlands versus Greece. The hard-hitting Dutch clobbered the sock-less Greeks 11-0. Both teams are a complete mystery, except the league in Greece is only 5 years old whereas the Netherlands have been playing the Olympic baseball scene since 1992 when baseball became official; so this result isn't that surprising. Looking at the box score, the only thing that can be gleaned from this result is that the Greeks were totally outclassed by Davey Johnson's boys on Orange. If you may recall, Davey Johnson was the last manager to lead the blue-and-orange NY Mets to a World Series win over the ill-fated Bosox back in 1986. Orange, obviously suits him well.

Japan thrashed Italy 12-0 getting a called game in the 7th. This year, Japan has stocked up on Top-Tier professionals to bring home the Gold Medal. Unlike in Sydney 2000 where the team consisted of a mixed Professional and amateur group, this time Japan has come in all-pro; stacked to the nines with their NPB hitters and arms that could go play the majors tomorrow; and this early result says it all. They're there for the gold medal. Koji Uehara pitched 6 shut-out innings striking out 4, scattering 4 hits. Uehara says he kept his Forkball out of it, so that it wouldn't get scouted. So essentialy he pitched without his best pitch.
Norihiro Nakamura homered, keeping up the form he had at the Sydney Olympics... maybe not. :)

And that's it for the first round of preliminaries. Ain't the internet amazing!?

- Art Neuro

'El Duque' Rides Again, This Time In Texas
Our favourite Cuban has won again, compiling a season record that stands at 5-0, with a 2.08 ERA. He racked up 7 strike outs issuing 3 walks, scattering 4 hits in 7 innings.

Hernandez had a satisfied smile on his face after the game as he recounted his journey from an unemployed pitcher to one of the Yankees' most dependable starters. "I'm not surprised because I work hard. It's a surprise for people who
haven't seen me in a while,'' Hernandez said, pointing at a few reporters.

"I planned on coming back. I'm happy to be here again. My teammates have accepted me with open arms.''

So the magic Cuban did his thing again. He's the only pitcher holding up my sad injury-plagued rotation in my fantasy league team. All hail El Duque!

- Art Neuro

How The Australian Film Industry Got 'Stuffed' - Part 2
So we covered how successive Federal Government policy has been indecisive and downright contradictory, while having unrealistic expectations, I think it should be noted that the industry was also guided by the hands of its participants who have let it down.

While every time one of our directors or directors of Photography went to Hollywood for fame and glory, what they did was deprive the Australian Industry of a marketing position. Yes, that's right. For every Peter Weir or Gillian Armstrong who *made it* to Hollywood, it was also the case that there was one fewer director to invest in, back in Australia. It should also be noted that Australians, who speak English together with Canadians are the ideal fodder for Hollywood. It is much harder for a director from a non-English-speaking country to go to America. And yet it was this ease with which our creative talents went to America that drew the attention of Hollywood to us.

Was this good? It was a mixed blessing. If American money heads down to Australia and funds its pictures to be shot here, then there is a level of technical crew who stand to profit from this; and more power to them; and so they should because that money certainly wasn't going to be generated inside Australia. So films such as Star Wars episodes 2 and 3, Matrix 1 through to 3, which were all shot in Australia employed many crew personnel. However it should be noted that none of these films featured Australian creative control. No writers, no directors, and just one Australian producer. In essence, the boom of production thanks to the American industry was very deceptive in that it really didn't have anything to do with our industry in any cultural sense. Even a work such as Moulin Rouge, which was hailed as an Australian film, was in fact American product using American money for the American market. Let's face it, Nicole Kidman isn't exactly strutting her 'strine' in that film with Ewan McGregor's North Country brogue. Its international success disiguised the current malaise which has seemingly exploded, but was in fact in the making even then.
Hence my 'I told you so' tone here.

The rest of the industry was hoodwinked. The money the Americans spent here was for their own product. Our crew worked, and worked well, to make their product, which is better than not working, but it's not as good as making our product. It's not about jobs, it's also about the product. So what happened to our industry in the meantime? Our industry was still reliant on the FFC and AFC formulae, which in turn enforced a weird bureacrtic form of censorship over what gets made and more significantly, what doesn't get made; which ultimately would send our creatives to the wall. However this struggle for expression was veiled behind the apparaent blossoming of our film industry, thanks to american money.

Let me be blunt. There were 54 students who graduated with me from the Australian Film Television Radio School in 1993. Of whom I believe less than 5 have actually directed a Feature Film. Some have produced or written, others have languished in the hell of waiting to hear about hoiw our submissions are assessed by the FFC or the AFC. Each year there have been 100 or so film-makers graduating from courses all over New South Wales. Where the hell are their films? Where is their industry? It don't exist because for some warped reason, the money ear-marked for film productions simply vanished into the air through these bureaucracies - These people are driving expensive foreign cars, and all we want to do is practice our goddam crafts. I swear, we're fucking angry out here. Furious! I kid you not, and suddenly this year, Steven Smith says we're 'stuffed'. Well, Steve, let me just enlighten you that we've been stuffed for a good many years. Our 'stuffed' status didn't exactly come down in the last showers, mate.
Let's ask our selves some questions.

• Why is Australian Product so unattractive to the market?
• Why is Australian Product perceived to be so weak in the market place by international distributors?
• How is it that 280million dollars a year can be spent on our screen product and our industry is still in some kind of limbo?

The simple truth is, we've never made enough films for the market. Who made this decision? It has to be said that the producers, the creatives, the arts bureaucrats, the government, collectively made the decision that in order to distinguish ourselves from American Product, we will make films that do not appeal to the average Australian. All the while, the Australian paying public is watching movies in droves, spending a vast sum of money for American product. Can this even be close to being a Rational basis for an *industry*?

And yet we felt it was important to make movies about indigenous concerns or quirky suburban romantic comedies or films that look so unattractive, you wouldn't watch it even if they paid you to watch it. My friend produced one of those, and it even opened at a famous Film Festival in the United States. It flopped; partly because he actually produced a worthy film that not one of his friends wanted to see; and he wonders where his career is headed. Go figure!
Now, he's been going to the SPAA conference for years and if anybody, he should have seen the writing on the wall, but he lived in denial through all of it because well, he was producing *something* even if your average Australian punter just didn't want to know about that film.

Another way to put all this is as follows:
Hong Kong has a thriving Cinema where it exports its product in spite of the language barrier. How does that work? The hallmark of Hong Kong's totally private (i.e. minimally supported by the government) film industry comes down to its dogged pursuit of genre pictures and quantity of productions. The Hong Kong producer would look at how many genre pictures they can produce for a certain amount of money while the Australian producer is pondering how to get government funding for this important story. In other words, Hong Kong cinema plays the numbers. After you produce 100 Kung Fu films one of them is bound to be both good as well as successful. This way, the risk is spread and increases the productivity of the industry as a whole.

A small model of this was carried out in the last place where I worked, Classroom Video, where come hell or high water, the company would produce 40-45 short videos a year. Some were good, many were not so good. Some were successful, some were less so. However, over all numbers of sales figures told us that the entire slate gave rise to a sustainable business; not one video or one project. So this model is in fact feasible even at the bottom end of the market, and that was under the condition where they were not necessarily competing for the entertainment dollar. Think about that for a moment. A sustainable audio-visual production house not aimed at the entertainment dollar.

Yet we have seen a good 15 years where Australian producers dare not challenge making genre pictures on the grounds that they are no more successful than the worthy pictures they make. Sorry to burst your bubble guys, but if you made 100 genre pictures and 10 *worthy pictures* at 10 times the budget and therefore *quality*, the chances are the 100 genre pictures will make a buck and allow you to make another 100 genre pics at a profit. That's called business. The 10 *worthy* pictures is called a stab in the dark. However, that's Australian producers on the whole; and every time the so-called industry is in crisis, they get together at SPAA and complain about the state of the industry ("it's Stuffed!"), then line up at the door of the government for more hand outs. No wonder our industry gets no respect from the Australian market place.

- Art Neuro