Countdown to a Letdown

Election 2007

I wasn’t really intending to do this here, but it seems like the easiest place. We’ve finally begun putting clips from the community television iteration of The Bazura Project* back online after a temporary ABC-mandated removal, and have been linking directly to the YouTube clips on our Twitter and Facebook feeds.

With a federal election only 24 depressing hours away, this seemed like a good time to remind you that in 2007 we stepped away from movies** to make a one-hour election special that aired the night before the event. Shannon Marinko and I were joined by TV presenter Emma Race and comedian Adam Knox for what many critics described as “on television”.

The entire special is divided into many clips, and it seemed like the best thing to do would be to collate them in one easy-to-click-on place. Until we finally get around to rebuilding the Bazura website, this place here will have to do. So, cast your minds back to the time of an incumbent John Howard and a slightly-fresher-faced Kevin Rudd, and, with a clear understanding of the limitations of community TV budgets as well as 2007 era video formats, please enjoy Election 2007: Countdown to a Letdown.

How true that unavoidably prescient subtitle now seems.

The Bazura Project, n. a TV show about movies that ran for 36 episodes on Australian community television from 2006 to 2008, then for a season on ABC2 in 2011 as The Bazura Project’s Guide To Sinema. More information can be found here. Less information can be found here. Fewer information can be found here. Some information can be found here.

** Having said that, there are at least five movie references in this special. A leopard can’t change the fact that it was directed by Luchino Visconti in 1963.

Australia Welcomes Prime Minister Not Tony Abbott

Not Tony Abbott, pictured alongside Not Julie Bishop

Not Tony Abbott, pictured alongside Not Julie Bishop

Kevin Rudd returned to power last night on a platform of Not Being Tony Abbott.

Rudd was born Not Tony Abbott in 1957. He learned to speak fluent Mandarin Unlike Tony Abbott, and in 1981 married Not Tony Abbott’s Wife. Rising through the ranks of the Labor party, he went through a brief phase of Not Being John Howard in 2007, and Sort-Of Being Julia Gillard in 2012, before settling into his role as Not Tony Abbott in 2013.

With an election only months away, Rudd has already outlined many exciting policies, including Not Doing That Thing That Tony Abbott Would Do, Completely Avoiding All Those Other Abbotty Things, and You Know That Thing That We All Know Abbott Will Do If He Gets Elected? Yeah, We’re Totally Not Doing That.

The Australian Electoral Commission has confirmed that Labor will be entered onto ballots under the new name Not Tony Abbott’s Party.