It is not every week that I invade the Catholic church headquarters and get to hear soulful stories boldly told by Johno Johnson, national (and catholic) treasure and ubiquitous raffle fundraiser extraordinaire.
Johno Johnson has been chairman of the board of The Catholic Weekly since March 2003, is President Emeritus of the NSW Legislative Council, having served as its president from November 7, 1978 to July 3, 1991 and in 1990 invited Jozef Imrich to sit next to Alexander Dubcek during a liquid luncheon at the Presidential dining suit. He was an MLC for 26 years. He sits on a number of boards of community and other entities (including NSW Lotteries). Johno is a parishioner of Our Lady of Annunciation, Pagewood, and a member of the Australian board of Aid to the Church in Need. He is State treasurer of the NSW Branch of the Australian Labor Party. He and his wife Pauline (aka Christine) have two sons and two daughters, plus 10 grandchildren.
There is never a raffle without Johno - Burning the Midnight Oil's frontman ... ALP right-wing power broker, Johno Johnson, left, sharing stories with the party faithful at the Randwick Labor Club...
O' Film Agent, with open arms you accepted my book
When Book Agent asked, "Will you please take a look?"
And though others were scared of characters that die,
You stared down my suicide fiction without batting an eye.
While our conversation often comes round to the nature of Jews,
You'll also discuss Christians with me if I should so choose.
You'll pause from your combination of yoga and "Sex In The City,"
To discuss with me for a few why co-habitation might be shitty.
Next time I come to talk with you in your Santa Monica office
I'll try to act more awake.
Ode (But Without The Structure) To Film Agent
The brain's secret language: The dirty little secret of our individualized consumer age is that it hasn’t made us quite as happy as it promised it would - The feeling is we are reaching a tipping point or threshold beyond which sea ice will not recover Changing Who You Imagine You Are
Be willing to work hard . . . and not just at writing Book-To-Screen-Management
Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Priceless publicity: Bring on the Hype
The "Dummies" series as a stroke of genius
If you had a penny for every "For Dummies" book printed since the series debuted in 1991, you'd be sitting on $1.5 million. More than 900 titles are in print — the number may pass 1,000 this year — and the books have been translated into more than 30 languages.
• The Unexpected "Dummies": a stroke of genius Irony is the postmodern form of conspicuous self-consciousness and suits our era’s puerility – its fey aestheticism and political cynicism — to a tee The Price of Irony [The Germans call it schadenfreude - gaining pleasure from someone else's pain - and according to neuroscientists men enjoy it much more than women Hell hath no fury like a man scorned, revenge tests reveal; So if you've been spending sleepless nights wishing for some new Seigel material to cuddle up to Reading Rainbow; I'm Pro-Choice and I F*** I Want "The Comeback" To Come Back; What to do if you're a church youth group leader and need some money? Make an erotic calendar, of course. Eve gets naked in Church ]
• · The business of selling books to Hollywood—as with le Carré's Cold War yarns—is straightforward in appearance only You're not buying a book to put on your coffee table. You're buying the movie rights to a book to create an exciting movie," Writing Off Into the Sunset; As advertising struggles, PR steps into the breach. NEWS is what someone wants to suppress. Everything else is advertising Hell to the no
• · · Film industry down under ; The adage that sex sells may have been proved this week with reports that the adult-only domain name sex.com has changed hands for the record sum of $US14 million Sex.com fetches $19m
• · · · For longer-lasting fillings, find a young Welsh dentist Long in the tooth ; Robert Frank on weighing the true costs and benefits in a matter of life and death A cost-benefit test never dictates unplugging a fully conscious ; Books on the Mafia in American culture Goodfellas and good guys
• · · · · I can ask a man out and pay for the pleasure. I'll tell you what I want in bed, and if you can't do it, I'll get myself off thanks. I won't bitch about other women, I'll support and encourage The F word ; Why British men are rapists ; A low-tech response to no-shows: more surprise quizzes. From n+1, the problem with dating is that it never ends. Dating ; We Who Are Your Closest Friends (Phillip Lopate) Dating Oneself ; Pope Benedict XVI's first encyclical warns believers not to confuse love with lust or degrade it To mere sex
• · · · · · Borders(R) Announces 2005 Original Voices(R) Award Winners FINDING GEORGE ORWELL IN BURMA; The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood How Thinkers Influence Us ; [E]very single living human body… counts as the body of a person and as a being having all the rights of a person... ; Folks, I gotta tell you, this is a book that needs to be read by all of us who think that we have a chance to slow down later. I can't remember being moved by a book like I am being moved by this book Eugene O'Kelly - Chasing Daylight