Petrol may be a little cheaper at the moment but, on average, it's at least eight times the price it was when I first started driving. Unfortunately, I am not earning eight times what I earnt in my first job.

As all good students of German and Germany know, Oktoberfest occurs mainly in September. The famed beerfest has just kicked off in Munich with mayor Christian Ude saying something that translates to: "Let's have a celebration but let's make sure it's a peaceful one." Of course, there'd be no show without her, so Paris Hilton is due to join the party on September 25. The official website, here, has wacky German games (including one where you have to milk cows before they hit you with a stick) and wallpaper featuring beautiful frauleins.

Will success spoil Banksy? News that the British "guerilla artist" has been embraced by Hollywood may not be good for his cred. As much as his origins in graffiti (which, let's face it, is vandalism plain and simple) worry me, I have enjoyed some of his more recent ploys - like smuggling a "cave painting" of a shopping trolley into the British Museum. There's also some interesting stuff on his website.

Gee, who'd have seen this coming? Research shows that many iPod owners are ripping songs from CDs (maybe their own, maybe somebody else's) and/or downloading them from illegal file-sharing sites rather than buying them through the iTunes online store.

Ipswich councillor and professional stirrer Paul Tully has questioned the conventional wisdom that Channel 9's Bruce Gyngell was the first Australian face on television. Tully says Janet Gaynor's face was telecast from Brisbane to Ipswich as early as 1934 in one of a series of experiments by amateur radio enthusiasts.

Have you ever noticed how people in customer-service jobs now seemed programmed to give often-inane answers to inquiries? At a cinema today, a woman who noticed the box-office was unattended asked a young employee where she cold buy her ticket. "Tickets are now on sale at the candy bar for your convenience," he replied automatically. Exactly how having to queue up after giggling teenagers who can't decide what kind of drink and what size popcorn they want is more convenient, I don't know. What he really should have said is: "Tickets are now on sale at the candy bar so the proprietor can save money on staff."
PS: And it should be the lolly bar.

This whole issue of "Australian values" is getting quite absurd. I know Australians who have very different stances on matters of politics, race, gender and sexuality, religion, whatever - and that doesn't make any one of them necessarily better or worse than the others. Being "Australian" is often simply an accident of birth. Diversity is what makes life interesting, but it seems both sides of politics now see that as a bad thing.
PS: For at least one person's opinion of what isn't Australian, try typing this into your browser: unaustralian.com

On Thursday, I wrote here: I hope the queue for tickets to next week's Steve Irwin memorial doesn't get heated.
Today, The Courier-Mail reports: Grief-stricken fans of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin shed fresh tears after tickets to his memorial service ran out in 15 minutes yesterday, sparking a scuffle and accusations of dirty tricks.
I sure there were some genuinely "grief-stricken" people there, but there would also have been a number of people who just wanted to be a part of something big. Being sad at the loss of somebody you admired but never knew is one thing, but some people are going way overboard with their public outpourings of emotion.
PS: In the Courier-Mail story, somebody is accused of being "unAustralian".

A correspondent writes:

I discovered today that choko is actually from Mexico where it is known as chayote or chayote squash.
Imagine how well choko would sell if it were presented in trendy western suburbs greengrocers as chayote.

On 612 ABC today, Spencer Howson and I spoke about the war between Today Tonight and A Current Affair, Bernard Fanning's ARIA nominations and coughers and tall people in the theatre.

It's hard to know exactly what's going on between Today Tonight and A Current Affair - especially if, like me, you prefer SBS's World News Australia over both of them. As I see it, though, it boils down to this:
Naomi Robson has entered Papua on a tourist visa when she's really there to film a story and "rescue" a boy from being eaten by cannibals. The story about the boy originally screend on Channel 9, which is saying that it wanted to rescue the boy but was advised attempting to do so would only make things worse. (I'm not sure what's worse than being eaten alive, but that's what the Nine people are saying.)
What it comes down to is that both TT and ACA are driven by ratings and neither of them by a desire to really make a difference or to serve their viewers with an actual news story.

With just 3000 tickets to be distributed in lots of up to four at three venues this morning, I hope the queue for tickets to next week's Steve Irwin memorial doesn't get heated. Also, I hope we can all move on after the service. For Irwin's family and the other people at Australia Zoo, I guess that's going to be a bit more difficult than the people who didn't know him personally. (And I must say I've found some of the reactions of some of those strangers who've been interviewed on television a little disturbing, bordering on creepy.)

I know the show isn't doing especially well in the ratings, but you've got to love this line from the animated host on tonight's David Tench Tonight interview with Shannon Noll: "Guy Sebastian is a very religious young man, and yet you've sold more albums. Why does God love you more?"

I've had a closer look at the Brisbane radio ratings and noticed something interesting about B105. The former No.1 station, which has been in rebuilding mode this year, is defying the common trend and building audience share through the day. Normally a big commerical station strives to have a huge audience at breakfast time and then tries to hold on during the day. B105 does lose a little of its audience share in the middle of the day, but builds to quite a respectable share in the drive shift (a networked show starring Andy Lee and Hamish Blake). Its (also networked) Hot 30 show at night has one-and-a-half times the breakfast audience share (although, given that fewer people are tuned-in at night, actual listener numbers are probably lower).

Brisbane's Bernard Fanning is expected to pick up a few more ARIA Awards when they are announced at Australian music's night of nights on October 29. He already has won the best video and best cover art categories. And, despite predictions that he will continue purely as a solo act, Fanning is also making a new album with his band Powderfinger. There's more on the ARIAs here.

I've just received some feedback from Margaret, who says she was "totally blown away" with Jacki Weaver's performance in The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead for the Queensland Theatre Company. But, she adds:

"Perhaps we could have a sound proof room for the chorus of coughers during the winter months - what a distraction, not to mention a health risk!"

She also says tall people should be made to sit up the back.

An interesting sidebar to the radio ratings: commercial talk stations are tops, by far, in Sydney and Melbourne but not in Brisbane. Do we not do it as well up here, or are Queensland listeners different to other Australians?

Nova 106.9FM is again top of the Brisbane radio ratings tree, ccording to Survey 6 figures released by Nielsen Media Research this morning. Nova was ahead of Triple M, 97.3FM and 4BC. Nova’s breakfast team of Meshel Laurie, Kip Wightman pictured), Ashley Bradnam and David "Luttsy" Lutteral also took out No.1 place, ahead of Triple M’s The Cage with Ian Skippen, 4BC and 4KQ. Former market leader B105 appears to be on the comeback trail, registering small gains in overall market share and with its new breakfast team of Gabby Millgate, Mike Van Acker and Stav Davidson. 612 ABC had a poor survey, with a small drop in audience overall but a slight gain in the 9am-midday shift.In the important-to-advertisers stats tracking grocery buyers, Triple M overtook 97.3FM, which was ahead of Nova, 4KQ and 4BH.

"Guerilla artist" Banksy is at it again. Not long after tampering with Paris Hilton CDs, he's smuggled a statue of a hooded Guantanamo Bay detainee into Disneyland. Details here. Check out his website for some of Banksy's other work.

You could cut the airwaves with a knife ... the Australian metropolitan cities radio ratings are released today. In Brisbane, chances are that Nova 106.9 will continue its tussle with Triple M for overall leadership, 97.3FM will probably win the hearts and wallets of grocery buyers, and 4BC and 612 ABC will battle it out for the talk audience and older demographics. Eyes will be on B105, the former market leader that is trying to reinvent itself with a new breakfast show supported by extensive television and bus-stop advertising and big promotions. More as it comes to hand.