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The Rainbow Reporters new show, Freshly Doug, broadcasts live every Thursday 9-noon AEST in Melbourne Australia on 94.9 FM, streaming via the web at joy.org.au.

Happy Holidays

December 13th 2009 05:50
happy gay holidays

Right about now everyone starts shutting down till the middle of January. Time to head off somewhere for a break. But where?

How about the Carribbean – hop on a cruise ship, sail to Jamaica, smoke lots of ganja and have hot sex with handsome young toughs while they sing along to their favourite tunes, all about slashing your throat, shooting you in the arse and throwing you on a bonfire. Relax, it’s their culture. Respect to that.


Don’t fancy it? How about South Africa? It’s dirt cheap - my white friends there have offered a house swap. Their place has a great view of Table Mountain and the most discreet electrified perimeter fence with searchlights. The Rottweilers are really quite friendly once you get the hang of them. Or so they tell me.

Even for the ‘ladies’ I’m told it’s quite safe if you’re careful. There’s only around ten ‘corrective’ rapes of lesbians a week in the major cities at the moment, and as for the country, you wouldn’t want to be driving out there anyway, would you? You’d only get carjacked.

Those are both great vacation options for sunbakers. On the other hand, if you don’t like exposing lots of flesh , why not go somewhere where it’s normal to cover up from head to toe? A tan is so last century, after all. And remember, a buff bod and a deep tan now means you’ll resemble a crocodile-skin gym bag by the time you’re forty-five. Just look at any Queenslander.


In which case it might be better to go Islamic. You could pop over to Tehran for some of the dozen or so public hangings they’ve got lined up, coincidentally just in time for the Christian holiday season – a bunch of teenage men they caught having sex with one another. You don’t get sights like that in Maroochydore. Or for something a bit stronger, I believe they still do a nice line in public beheadings in Saudi Arabia. Don’t forget to ask for a souvenir.

But if you want a real adventure holiday, I reckon the place to beat this coming year will be Uganda. A gay vacation there will give you a bigger adrenaline rush than any boring old bungy-jump.

Once the new laws they’re debating right now are passed, any Ugandan who finds out you’re gay will get three years unless they dob you in to the police within 24 hours. If the authorities catch you having sex with someone of the same sex, you’ll be in a Ugandan jail for seven years. Unless of course you’re HIV , and then you’ll hang. So you’ll need to be super-fit and fast on your feet as you dodge cops, informers and border guards! And what fun it’ll all be for everyone who lives there!

Yes, as Louis Armstrong sings, “It’s a Wonderful World” – get out there and enjoy it while you can.

Meantime, have a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year.
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Leave the Kids at Home

May 24th 2009 03:00
Tantrum


I have a complaint. It used to be more fun being a gay man than a straight one. For example, you didn’t have to bother with condoms. And you never got saddled with a wife and kids. Now condoms are mandatory and the way things are going, we’ll soon be forced to do our bit along with our straight brethren and ‘have one for the country’.

I don’t understand this mania for parenthood. If you’re gay – breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy life. Let’s face it, after years of unstinting unselfish effort and thousands of dollars, the kids will probably hate you anyway. And why clutter up the planet with yet more superfluous humans? There’s not exactly a shortage.

Do it if you must, but please stay away from me when I go on holiday. I live in a suburb which resembles a seabird colony, full of breeding pairs (to whom I am unfailingly charming) and their noisy brats, so I don’t want more of the same when I take off on vacation.

You want a great concept for horror movie? Forget Snakes on a Plane - try Kids on a Budget Airline.

Toddlers thunder up and down the aisles, pestering anyone they wish. You can’t do as you might on the ground and ‘accidentally’ trip them, before making a quick getaway - you don’t have a parachute.

Ignoring them doesn’t work either. Like cats, who always head for the one person in the room who loathes them, they will always track you down.

Convinced of their charm, they grab your armrest with their sticky little paws and look winsomely into your eyes.

Calling the cabin staff and informing them that an item of live cargo seems to have escaped the hold and should be returned there forthwith doesn’t work either. Believe me – I’ve tried. The cabin crew have locked themselves in the cockpit rather than face these little horrors any longer.

You say, “Go back to Mummy,” and the little moppet says, “Why?”

“Because if you don’t I’m going to gag you and stuff you in an overhead locker for the rest of the flight,” is not an acceptable answer. Especially when you reflect that in ten years time you might be stuck in a nursing home bed waiting for this little darling to wipe your arse.

You’d think that budget airlines, desperate for dollars, would take the economically rational course and drug everyone under 13 into oblivion before shelving them in the cargo hold. The adults could travel in relative peace and comfort, and the children wouldn’t get bored or whine about their ears hurting.

It’d be a great selling point. Drop your kids off at check-in and pick them up again from the baggage carousel. Plus the airline wouldn’t have to provide kids with seats, meals, or colouring books. Quick, someone call Richard Branson.

In the meantime, would all parents, gay and straight, please learn to manage their children so that they behave appropriately around those of us who have left the feral ape stage, been through the training, and graduated as fully-fledged human beings. Or else stay home. Thank you very much.
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Rainbow Report Smorgasbord

April 16th 2009 01:58
Danish flag pastry
Danish fruit flag pastry

Copenhagne OutGames
Tonight we have a smorgasbord of items, or maybe I should say “koldt bord”, because with registration closing in a couple of weeks, it’s time to sign up for the World OutGames in Copenhagen in July. Can we take these gay sportsfests seriously, as sporting events, or are they just sex parties in sweatpants? Malcolm Campbell of the Queer Sports Alliance Melbourne has the details.

Comedy Festival

Lot’s of good things come from Tasmania, e.g., Copenhagen’s most famous Australian resident, Princess Mary, salmon, beer, wood pulp and comedian Hannah Gadsby, whose show Kiss Me Quick I’m Full Of Jubes – whatever that means – is currently wowing them at the Comedy Festival.

If you’ve ever wondered what it was like to grow up in Tassie, a little bit lesbian and accident-prone, with a mother who is slightly homophobic, apparently this is the show for you, as Hannah will explain.

Bashing in Ballina
You may think it’s great to be gay in Australia and we’ve won it all with the passage of the Rudd governments equality legislation. But outside the major centres it’s a different story as we found out last week, when a young man in Ballina – on the far north coast of NSW - was attacked by a group of 20 youths and thrown through a plate glass window - because he’s gay.

Ben Cooper from NSW Community Action Against Homophobia explains why there is still much to be done to stop this kind of thing happening.

States Struggle with Registers
Corey Irlam has the latest update on the political front, with the Rudd government struggling to keep its election promise of a nationwide system of relationship registers. State Attorneys-General are under pressure to introduce relationship registers so why are WA and NSW holding out?

Girdling the World
And finally Kaye Sera will take time out from her busy schedule – what with walking tours and public debates our resident diva is much in demand at the moment – to go a little deeper than just rummaging around beneath the bonnet. This week she’s taking a look under the girdle.

In the studio tonight to keep my ego in check, ask the curly questions and generally liven up the proceedings are Cathy Anderson and Ron Thiele.

That’s the Rainbow Report tonight Thursday April 16 7-8pm AEST on Joy 94.9FN, streaming live at www.joy.org.au (where you will also find the podcasts).
Join in with us 61 3 9699 2949, txt 0427 JOY 949, email onair@joy.org.au and have your say.
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Diary of a President

March 6th 2009 23:45
ChillOut Festival


Thursday:
ChillOut starts tomorrow and we finally get some action from Tourism Victoria, Premier John Brumby and Tourism Minister Tim Holding. After days of pushing for a declaration that it’s perfectly safe to come to Daylesford, the CFA area commander finally says yes, and even encourages people to come. That breaks the dam. Word starts to go out from the government – it’s time to go back to the bush – and we get buried in a laundry list of a press release covering everything from Opera in the Vines to the Bullarto Vintage Tractor Pull


[ Click here to read more ]
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Dolly Diamond
My name is Dolly Diamond, and I'm here to recruit you for ChillOut this weekend!

ChillOut is ready to Par-tay!!


[ Click here to read more ]
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Come to Daylesford Mar 6-9

March 1st 2009 21:04
ChillOut
ChillOut turns Daylesford into the rural gay capital every year

UPDATE _ UPDATE

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ChillOut Slowest Lunch - Friday 6 Mar 12.30 – 16.30

Sault Restaurant
Sault Restaurant, Sailors Falls, Ballan Road

The ChillOut Festival - the largest gay and lesbian festival in rural Australia, with over 25,000 visitors last year, is almost here. And it kicks off with a gourmet lunch and charity auction


[ Click here to read more ]
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Festival Time!

January 10th 2009 03:53
Merry-go-round

Here we go again. Wheel out the clichés. Mardi Gras, Midsumma, Pride, ChillOut, the annual round of festivals and celebrations is back. And once again there’ll be complaints – too much of this, not enough of that, too expensive, too politically correct/incorrect – in such a diverse community someone is bound to be unhappy.

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A Merry ChillOut Xmas

December 21st 2008 01:40
ChillOut Xmas Card
MERRY CHRISTMAS


It may be the holidays but here at Daylesford ChillOut Festival 2009 we're already busy getting ready for Labor Day Long Weekend, March 6-9


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Back to the Future in country Australia

September 7th 2008 23:35
.
Disco Stampede
Disco Stampede

I'm really excited: it's that time of year again and we're starting the runup to the annual ChillOut Festival in March.

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Journalists prise China open

August 15th 2008 00:47
Free Tibet Protest London
Free Tibet Protest in London


The Chinese government is discovering what it means to be open to press scrutiny, and are not enjoying the process much, it would seem


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Clifton Beach
Clifton Beach


Apologies if posts become slightly erratic over the next couple of weeks, but I'm going to be hard at work lying on the beach, drinking Tequila Sunrises, Long Island Iced Teas and Mai Tais, nibbling on fresh-caught reef fish and tropical fruits, snorkelling the Barrier Reef and other arduous pursuits


[ Click here to read more ]
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World Youth Day Train Wreck

July 7th 2008 23:03
Train wreck
Image: blackwhitestockphotography

New revelations about a church cover-up of sexual abuse threaten to derail the Catholic church's taxpayer-funded A$86m priest recruitment exercise.

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Pope Alice
http://www.popealice.com

Pope Benedict and Pope Alice will go head-to head during the World Youth Day all-night vigil in Sydney.

[ Click here to read more ]
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