The US professional touring production of Les Miserables is finally coming to an end in ST Louis in July after 18 years and and 151 cities. Playbill has the story here.

Despite my computer problems, I did manage to file Podcast 5 this weekend. In just 3 minutes 40 seconds, I give you a wrap of what's happening on the Brisbane stage.

I've spent the best part of the past two days formatting the hard drive of my laptop computer and then reinstalling all my software. I did this reluctantly - because I knew something of the pain I was letting myself in for - but it became imperative when too many things stopped working. After the experience, my main observations are: who designs computer software, what planet are they from and what language is used "help" files and error messages? I look forward to the day when computers truly are user friendly - when the term "user" refers to a person of average intelligence, not someone with a degree in geek speak.

"That's been going on a really, really long time. I think back in the 1970s they used to pay people with hookers and cocaine, and now they're just doing it with straight-up money." Taylor Hawkins from the Foo Fighters is talking about payola, where record companies pay radio stations or individuals within them to play certain songs in a bid to manipulate the charts and, in turn, record sales. As this BBC story points out, payola has been around since the 1920s and New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer is continuing to fight against it.

In light of my comments about Brisbane's woeful bus "service", plus disruptions on the railway network this week and the ongoing water crisis, a friend sent me this extract from Mark Turner and David Hulme's book Governance, Administration & Development: Making the State Work (Palgrave, 1997):



It all makes sense now; we're in a developing country.

"I'm a hack, it's the Melbourne Cup of the art world, everyone should go in it." So says Patrick Whiteley, who has submitted a portrait of Wiggles member Jeff Fatt to the Archilbald Prize. I wish him luck.

... so said Spencer Howson, tounge firmly in cheek I'm sure, on Brisbane's 612ABC this morning, when we spoke about the proliferation of the term "the new black"; the illness that led to the postponement of U2's Australian tour; and the brilliant productions of Cloudland and Operator. We also spoke about the fact that arts and cultural events are more popular than sport with Australians, but get much less airtime. Spencer suggested a 10-minute arts bulletin on the TV news each night with me in the chair. I'm not so sure about the last bit - but as the editor of a popular newspaper arts and entertainment liftout, I think television could and should allocate more space to arts and culture. If any news editor wants to yarn about it, I can happily provide some statistics that suggest there's a vast untapped audience who would appreciate a less "blokey" bulletin. Demographically, they're just the viewers the network bosses often say they are looking for.

Bloody hell. What a mess. Britain, probably the only country outside of Australasia guaranteed to "get" the new Australian tourism advertising campaign, has pulled it from its TV screens. I look forward to a fully transparent investigation into who gave these ill-conceived ads the green light and how much they have cost taxpayers. But, of course, I'm an optimist.
Update (March 10): Australian tourism officials are now appparently laughing this off, saying the ban will be good for business. Good, too, for making all Aussies seem crass.

Supergroup U2 has postponed its Australian tour due to a family illness directly affecting one of the members, believed to be guitarist The Edge. Details here.

Did you know that more Australians go to the theatre than to see AFL games? In fact, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, cultural events engage far more Australians than live sport events. Before you say, "Oh, yes, but people watch sport on TV", consider this: apart from news and sport, practically everything on television is an arts event. A sitcom or soapie is just a play written for the small screen. If, as I've just demonstrated, the arts are so central to our lives and more important to more of us than sport, why do we get so much sport on the TV news and so little culture?

Bigger than the Commonwealth Games? Probably not; but the VIII World Shakespeare Congress, to be held in Brisbane in July, will still be huge. Experts from around the world, including author David Malouf, dance critic Lee Christofis and choreographer Lar Lubovitch, writer-director Dr Jawad Al Asadi and director Gale Edwards are on the bill. There's even a sporting angle, with former Australian hockey captain Dr Ric Charlesworth speaking about his book Shakespeare the Coach. Early registration is available now at the Shakespeare 2006 website.

Now, let me get this straight: Boy George has been sent to rehab after being found guilty of falsely reporting a burglary. It seems the former pop star called the cops to his own apartment to investigate a robbery that never happened. When the police got there, they found 13 bags of cocaine. I don't know much about the drug culture, but it doesn't seem to make sense to invite the law in when you've got so much to hide.

Just a few more thoughts on last night's post about "Australia's worst fears": It seems to me (and many others, I'm sure) that sport is often reported with an urgency that suggests it's the most important thing in the world - which, in an age of terrorism, sectarian violence, AIDS, possible global warming, threatened nuclear proliferation and bird flu, it obviously is not. Words like "heroism", "courage" and "bravery" are thrown around with abandon in sport reporting. Now, my passion is theatre - and it, I believe, often has more to offer in terms of helping people relate to the "real" world than watching a couple of boofy blokes try to get a ball from one end of a field to another. But I wouldn't call an actor who got through a Hamlet soliloquy faultlessly on the first attempt a hero. Let's get a bit of perspective, please.

Less than a year after the death of her husband Christopher, Dana Reeve has succumbed to lung cancer - despite being a nonsmoker. Details from CNN here and at my Celebrity Deaths Archive.

"Australia's worst fears have been confirmed ..." So said a sombre-faced ABC newsreader tonight in the midst of the "serious" part of the 7pm News. I don't know what your worst fears are, but mine have nothing to do with what followed: the announcement that Ian Thorpe will not swim at the Commonwealth Games. I'm not questioning the placement of the Thorpe story before a report on factional politics in the Australian Labor Party (nothing new there, really), or its importance to sport fans, just the gravity of its treatment.

[This is a long one; you'll have to click on "read more" to read it all.]

Is it just a conspiracy against me, or does Brisbane's bus service suck for everyone? I used to be a regular commuter, and barely a week would go by without something stupid happening: a bus coming way too early, or really late; a bus breaking down (twice in one trip!); a bus going the wrong way (disturbingly regularly); or, in thankfully just one incident, a distracted driver who read the newspaper at one set of traffic lights, rolled the bus backwards at another set, and sailed past my stop even though I'd pressed the button at the earliest possible opportunity. Since moving house, I've rarely had to catch a bus. Late yesterday, however, I didn't have a car, so I got to the bus stop about seven minutes early for a bus that never came.

This site won't be the first with the results of the Oscars, but I'm pretty sure you'll find them here and here (not to mention the official site here) as they start to roll in. Meanwhile, you can enjoy reading about the winners of those other august gongs, The Razzies.

I've had this fantastic idea for a new reality TV show. I know I've been a fierce critic of the genre in the past but, let's face it, it's not going away - and, goodness knows, television could do with a super, sexy new idea right now. I tried to find the address of some uber-producer to send this concept to, but I discovered nobody of any substance accepts unsolicited proposals. How stupid is that? (OK, it's smart from a legal perspective, but stupid from a creative one.) I decided the best idea was to post my idea here on my blog, so everybody knows it's mine and the networks and production companies will just have to fall over themselves trying to be the first to sign me up. (Of course, it is possible that someone will steal my idea. If that's the case, I'll have to see my lawyer, I suppose.) My proposed program is called Rivals - and, in case, you're wondering, it is not all at based on the Richard Brinsley Sheridan Restoration comedy of the same name. The basic premise is to put together as a team two people who would normally be competitors in real life and pit them against similar teams in a series of questions (with a twist) and tasks. I see it initially as a “celebrity” game produced as event television over a limited period of time, hosted by a popular personality. It could, of course, also be presented in a daytime format with “real” people as contestants. In the celebrity format, teams could include well-known rivals from the worlds of showbiz, media, sport, music, fashion, business and politics. That's all I'm prepared to say at the moment, but I've worked out much more of the detail of what could be the hottest, happening program on TV since Big Brother and Dancing with the Stars. If you're a heavyweight executive from a television network or production company, or simply someone who wants to give me plenty of money to develop this idea, I await your response. Email me here.

I've returned from a matinee of the Queensland Ballet's Cloudland incredibly impressed. Choreographer Francois Klaus has created a masterpiece that is sublime in its execution and will resonate deeply on an emotional level with Brisbane audiences who remember the ill-fated Cloudland Ballroom. Rachael Walsh is surely one of the finest and most captivating Australian dancers of her generation and the Queensland Ballet is fortunate to have her in the lead role of Christina, while Adam Blanch provides hilarious contrast in the role of a nerdy sailor. The live band, under the direction of Sean O'Boyle and with the sublime vocals of Leona Collier, stunningly surveys a range of music from three generations. There's only a few performances to go; get a ticket any way you can. (Start here.)

My latest podcast (No. 4) is now online. You can listen to it here.