Shaggy Dog Comments...

Just in case you missed it, our page 7 story last week on the ancient roundabout stopping work at the Lismore pool development was our little April Fools Day joke. Shaggy hears that not everyone got it, especially a few people closely associated with the project who got rather worried until the joke was pointed out.

His new role as a Lismore councillor won't be that unfamiliar to former Workers Club manager Barry Crimmins. Some 30 years ago, he was an alderman around the time the Terania and Gundurimba shire councils were merged with Lismore. Times have changed since then... he clearly recalls the outrage and flack the council copped when the Australian band Skyhooks played a rather raunchy show at Lismore City Hall. While lead singer Shirley Strachan died tragically a year ago, he matured since those days, hosting a popular home renovation show.

With much sadness we note the passing of a couple of people we admired. Lismore slumbermeister Gary Bryant was a dapper chap who helped thousands of people get a good night's sleep thanks to a bed from Gary Bryant's Mattress Discounts. He passed away last month following a short battle with cancer. Our thoughts go out to his family.

And Alistair Cook, the 95-year-old English broadcaster we mentioned last month, died just a few weeks after hanging up the microphone on his weekly broadcast "Letter from America". Cook holds the record for the world's longest running radio program. He delivered his weekly observations every week for 58 years.

While Christians mark the death and resurrection of Jesus this weekend, Monday was Passover time for Jews, remembering their flight from Egypt to the Promised Land. May you all have a safe and peaceful holiday break and please take care if you're on the road.

It's bleedingly obvious that a politician's promise is worth less than One Tel shares if you remember that just a few months ago, NSW transport minister Michael Costa pledged a 12-month reprieve for local CountryLink rail services, mouthing all the usual BS about how he'd listened to the people yadda, yadda, yadda... Since that time, the NSW Government under Yartz minister (oh, and premier) Bob Carr pledged $300 million to tinker with the Opera House floor and hundreds of millions more for other arts projects in Sydney. Then suddenly, he's squealing that the state has run out of money and the sky is falling. So guess what got canned on Tuesday in the NSW treasurer's 'mini-budget'. You guessed it, the North Coast rail line, to "save" $5 million. Thanks for nothing Costa.

If you think Australian smokers in Australia are having a tough time, you'd better not move to Ireland. Last week Ireland became the first country to outlaw smoking in all workplaces, including pubs.

Fines for puffing in the wrong spot can be as high as $5000. While the pollies backed the law, it seems at least one didn't think it applied to him. Opposition justice spokesman John Deasy ended up being sacked from his portfolio after lighting up in the parliamentary member's bar just days after the law was introduced. When staff refused to open an emergency exit so he could smoke outside, he lit up twice and puffed away on two ciggies, ignoring their requests for him to butt out. The area where he wanted to light up has since been made a designated smoking area.

Music downloads have become increasingly popular on the Internet and Apple's website is selling the track "Silence" by American art-punk guitar legends Sonic Youth. The song lives up to its title - it's 63 seconds of silence. We're not sure who's downloading it - although it's probably the favourite track of many parents - but it reminds Shaggy that Sonic Youth could be in trouble for 'sampling' another artist's work. In 1952, the late US avant-garde composer John Cage wrote 4'33" - a work in three movements. A pianist debuted it in New York by opening the lid of the piano, carefully turning the pages on the score and timing it all on a stopwatch before closing the piano lid. 273 seconds of silence. A number of the audience walked out. The BBC Symphony Orchestra also played it last month in London and broadcast it on TV and radio - they had to over-ride the emergency system that cuts in if there's silence on air. (You can listen online at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/3401901.stm). The audience, as well as coughing between 'movements', applauded politely. You might think it's funny, but more recently, classical rock group The Planets recorded a song called "A One Minute Silence". Composer Mike Batt (creator of The Wombles), who gave Cage a co-credit, had his tongue-firmly-in cheek when he declared "Mine is a much better silent piece. I have been able to say in one minute what Cage could only say in four minutes and 33 seconds." But Cage's estate sued for breach of copyright. In 2002, Bart staged a performance of his piece to try and prove it was different from the original recording of the Cage piece, which features rain on the roof, the howling wind and other ambient noises, including angry whispers and the sound of departing footsteps. Cage's publisher countered by hiring a clarinet player to perform 4'33". Last year, the battle was settled when Bart paid an undisclosed six-figure sum to John Cage's Charity Trust, which just goes to show that silence is indeed golden.

Shaggy's going a-rovin' for the next few months. We're off to the Big Smoke for work and will return in late June. We've promised the World's Most Wonderful acting editor, Terra Sword, the odd column while we're away. Take care til then.

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