Men at Work have just lost a case brought by Larrikin Music, a song publisher who bought the copyright of Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree from the Australian Girl Guides in 1990 and in July 2009 claimed that the flute riff in Down Under plagiarised it. Colin Hay and Ron Strykert are now facing a payout of up to sixty percent of their writers’ earnings from the song, depending on the judge's final ruling.
If a court has deemed that Men at Work ripped off the Kookaburra song, then by that precedent surely Noel Gallagher should be executed for crimes against The Beatles?
I'm no Men At Work fan but look upon them fondly as they make me think of my friend Peita. We once had an assignment in journalism class to write an obituary for a person who wasn't actually dead yet and she chose Colin Hay. She wasn't a fan either and I wish I could remember why she chose him... deadline panic? Ever since when I heard Down Under on the radio I'd think isn't it a shame about Colin Hay for a few seconds, before remembering he wasn't actually dead. But if he WAS he would be spinning in his grave right now over this Kookaburra shit.
"Do you think the lawyers will go after all your other music legends now?" asked Dr G, renowned Australian cultural commentator, "Will Midnight Oil get sued for plagarising Wombat Walking Round The Old Billabong? Or Galah Flying Round The Old Wagga Wagga Train Track?"
Hello! There might be some random posts here throughout the year, such as the last Christmas cake one, as I've hooked the blog up with my 43Things account. It's basically a nerdy list of things you want to do and once you've done 'em you get to tick 'em off and write a wee post about it. Anyone else out there on 43Things? What are you up to?
How I did it: After years of banging on about making a Christmas cake I finally made one for Xmas 2009. I'm not much of a brandy or mixed peel fan so I went for a recipe that had neither - this Walnut and whisky Christmas cake from Delicious magazine.
It was fun to put together and whiffing the big bowl of fruit and booze. I couldn't find the dried pear so used dried apple. The only mistake was mine - I misread my oven thermometer and set the oven temp in Fahrenheit instead of Celcius. Didn't notice for about 90 minutes when I wondered why the house did not reek of Christmas and spice.
But I whacked up the oven, left it for another hour or so and it turned out well. Maybe it was more moist than it should have been but I didn't know any better..
I didn't bake until early December so it only got three weekly feeds before the big day. Instead of feeding it with just whisky I used the whisky/hot tea/sugar combo from this Hot toddy fruitcake recipe on BBC Good Food.
The icing was amazing. The golden icing sugar is the businesss - caramelly and rich. Will definitely use it for other cakes. I subbed water for the whisky as I think I'd overfed the cake already. You definitely need to blast it with a hand mixer to get the proper spreading consistency.
Verdict: very tasty... love the walnuts. I'm not really a fruit cake lover but this one is less of smack in the chops - not too spicy, not too fruity.
Lessons & tips: Read your oven thermometer properly :)
No internet at home so sneakily spewing this out at work! I got this from my pal Trish.
1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before? Competed in a kickboxing tournament (v. unsuccessfully), went on the telly, became a UK citizen, grew tomatoes and salad leaves, bought a house.
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next this year? I resolved to 1) exercise 20 mins a day 2) write down what I eat 3) internet curfew of 10.30pm. About 37% success. My resolution for 2010 is to do more stuff that I enjoy. That is all. 3. Did anyone close to you give birth? My foxy work colleague, Lorraine.
4. Did anyone close to you die? My great uncle Gordon passed away. He was a lovely man.
5. What countries did you visit? Australia and USA
6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009? A clearer mind! 7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? Thursday 22 January. Last day in New York. Killer cookie from Levain Bakery.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Growing tomatoes!
9. What was your biggest failure? Ignoring my health.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? The big D.
11. What was the best thing you bought? iStuff 808 Bass Sound Isolating Earphones - only £16.99 to totally drown out snotty noses and rubbish banter on public transport! I heartily endorse!
12. Where did most of your money go? Airfares to Australia and deposit for Crooked House.
13. What did you get really, really, really excited about? The sausage and onion pie from SimpleSimon Pies.
14. What song will always remind you of 2009? Hocus Pocus. Gareth dragged me along to a Focus gig - Dutch prog yodelling ahoy.
15. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? I was sadder, but i'm doing something about it, so much happier now! b) thinner or fatter? Fatter, but again doing something about it. c) richer or poorer? Poorer financially due to mortgage shackles. But feeling very lucky and appreciative to have a good life and know so many groovy people. 16. What do you wish you’d done more of? Look after my mental health. Fun outings with Dr G. Travel. I've not been anywhere Euro since 2007! (shitey work trip doesn't count :)
17. What do you wish you’d done less of? Worrying about what other people think.
18. How will you spend Christmas? Rhi and the in-laws are coming to Crooked House! There will be feasting and port.
19. Did you fall in love in 2009? Yes, with my cherry tomatoes! And more in love with Dr G. We have both had a real stinker of a 2009 in many respects but we kept each other trucking along.
22. What was your favorite film of this year? Didn't see too many good films, but some oldies I saw for the first time and loved were Blade Runner and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I went to the BBC Good Food show in Glasgow then I scrubbed the walls of our putrid house. I turned 32.
24. What kept you sane? Kickboxing and the addictive genius of SJ and the Egg's brilliant FYCL podcast. 25. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Peter Capaldi. Loved him shouty sweary on The Thick Of It and loved him rambling on as he drew little sketches on that documentary about Scottish art.
26. Who did you miss? Everyone in Australia, especially Peita, Jane and Jen Dog.
27. Who was the best new person you met? Alison, a sage and hilarious arsekicker :)
Happy Holidays to all you groovy groovers out there!
Recently Sister Rhi and I went to a Cupcake Decorating workshop at The Make Lounge in London. The teacher came armed with two boxes of cupcakes and what must have been at least six litres of buttercream in a gigantic plastic tub.
I'd not beheld a sight so beautiful since the mega Nutella of 2006. So rich and fluffy and apparently bottomless. As the teacher slowly ripped off the lid, Rhi and I growled in unison, Awwww yeahhhh lookit thaaaat.
It took us awhile to remember it was supposed to be a fun day. It's that Perfection Or Death mentality so often found in the offspring of school teachers. Who knew it was so freaking stressful to make a piping bag?
"All you have to do" is take a triangle of baking paper. Then "simply" hold one point of the triangle, wrap it around your left hand, then make it meet the opposite point, then gently pull your hand out and wriggle it back and forth until it makes a very pointy point. Got it? Right. EASY.
Mine was utterly rubbish. Rhiannon's looked perfect first go. I was overcome with resentment and would have stabbed my eyeballs with my bag except the point wasn't pointy enough to do so. Then Rhiannon's bag sproinged open and she got cranky. Then came ten minutes of rustling and rolling and swearing until we finally realised everyone else was having just as much trouble and the teacher had to demonstrate the whole process again, except slower.
"I guess we should relax," said Rhi.
"Yes," I said, "They can't expel us from Cupcake School, surely."
We loaded the bags with buttercream and I resisted the temptation to squirt the whole lot straight into my mouth because we had to practice piping. If you are thinking of quitting your day job to make cupcakes, just hold it right there. This shit is not easy. I've always prided myself on neat handwriting but when your pen is made from paper and the ink is 90% butter it's very hard to make it smooth. My letters looked like little farts of mashed potato.
Next we were allocated seven cupcakes each (six to keep, one to screw up and scoff). Then out came the wacky food colourings and our own! individual! tub! of! icing! I managed not to lick it straight off the palette knife. Oh baby.
Then we loaded up fresh piping bags and got ready to cover the cupcakes. Again, this is not as easy as it looks. It is really hard to make a neat circuit of the cake. You get one side looking decent then your hand cramps up so you miss the edge of the other half. But that's okay - you can just photograph them for their good side!
Here's my wee fellas all iced and waiting to be adorned.
(forgive blue cast in that pic)
Next we learned some jazzing-up techniques, such as colouring bits of marzipan, making shapes with little plunger thingies, and how to shower your mistakes with edible glitter.
Here are the stars of my Winter 09 collection: the Girly Christmas Tree and the Valentine's Special.
(You're supposed to dust the icing sugar off your marzipan shapes but I couldn't bloody do it without crushing them.)
The aftermath of our marzipan shapes...
Here's Rhiannon's delicate creations...
And my amateur sugar bombs nestled in their box. The 7th was a shambles and went straight into my gob.
So glad I took this photo as an hour later me and my cupcakes got wedged between a wall and an overloaded Christmas shopper outside the Tube station. Splat!
