Songs from my formative years. Explains a lot.

I completely blame thank my parents for not supervising me better as a child, and for letting me listen to music that my friends' parents had banned. 

The Divinyls were an Australian band big in the eighties and nineties whose lyrics taught me, before I'd even kissed a boy, that there was a fine line between pleasure and pain. At least I wasn’t surprised by anything that’s come up since. Pun totally intended. 

This is Pleasure and Pain: 

My favourite line: "No please don't ask me how I've been getting off." 

I still love I’m Jealous. Here is lead singer Chrissie Amphlett being the woman you wouldn’t want to cross back when Alannis Morrissette was still wearing pigtails. 

(For some reason this video cuts out half the first line. It starts: You've got a new girlfriend...) 

Favourite line: “I’m liable to do anything, I might kick her face in.” 

And this is the song that I listened to with wide eyes, and turned off if I thought anyone might catch me listening. I Touch Myself: 

Favourite line: "I don't want anybody else, and when I think about you I touch myself." 

What songs shaped the teenage you? And do you still love them? 

Is it too early for Christmas shopping?

I seriously want these shirts: 

You can buy them all over at  Cafe Press. 


I think I'll buy the asparagus one and wear it to my day job. Talk about a conversation starter! 

Born This Way

I was lucky enough to see Lady Gaga last week in Brisbane, and wow, what an awesome show! Not a concert so much as a spectacle...but you know what impressed me most? The genuine humility she shows when she talks about her own success, and the genuine love she has for her fans.

When Lady Gaga talks about bullying, she talks about forgiveness, and I think that makes her a better person than I am. I’m like the guy in the crowd who, when Gaga told the story about being dumped in the trash can, yelled out loud enough for the whole place to hear: “Fuck ‘em!”

Because it makes me angry that we’re still talking about stuff like this. It makes me angry that in every corner of the world there is always some kid – the gay kid, the weird kid, the fat kid, the uncool kid, the different kid – who goes through hell every day just for the crime of living in their own skin.

Bullying starts and ends with us.

You see it, you call it.

You set an example. 

You tell your kids it’s okay to be different.

You tell them it’s okay to be anything.

Which is why Born This Way resonates with so many people.

I'm beautiful in my way

'cause God makes no mistakes

I'm on the right track, baby

I was born this way