I’ve been away on a work thing since Tuesday with no internet access. I’ve got to admit that getting away from the tubes now and again is cleansing for the soul. Then again, being on the beach was pretty bloody cleansing as well.

But isn’t it bizarre that you walk away from your laptop and website for only a few days and heaps of shit happens that is really blogable? Bridgit and John have done a great job covering the best of the week’s events but here are two things I noticed when I returned home this afternoon.

1) Lachlan Connor, Independent reviewed by Helen Razer
I spent the mid 90s listening to Helen Razer on Triple J breakfast and think she’s just grouse. Now she thinks Lachlan Connor is at least slightly better than total shit. Here she is writing in Crikey:

As we know, J-Ho and Kevin-in-The-Back-Seat-Of-My-Cadillac have thrilled cineastes the world over with their sterling YouTube contributions. And if this wasn’t enough to convince you that top-down media had been displaced rather in the fashion of a buttery upside-down cake, just have a look at what the electorate is doing.

[…]

The offering by Lachlan Connor, Victorian independent candidate for Senate, is rather like John Howard’s scalp. Which is to say, rather dry in patches. This is certainly the Wayne’s World isomer for Election ‘07.

Awesome! I’ll get a warm fuzzy for the rest of my life whenever I think of those quotes, although as GrodsReaders have been debating, nobody seems quite sure about what Razer means by “isomer”. Now that I know that Helen Razer is watching I might have to have a crack at writing some actual — gasp — scripts, rather than making it up as we go along.

2) Samuel Gordon-Stewart, no longer independent
In disappointing news, Canberra’s own Samuel Gordon-Stewart has withdrawn from his tilt at the seat of Fraser.

the mail reason for my withdrawal from candidature is a lack of support. Despite the handful of people who have put their hand up to sign my nomination form this week, I am still well short of the required fifty signatures. At the beginning of the week, when I made this decision, I was short of twenty signatures, and had about a week to get just over 30 more.

It wasn’t impossible, but at that stage, with a couple other minor issues getting in the way (issues that I could have overcome but were just incredibly inconvenient and poorly timed), and the fact that I have non-refundable bookings for a week-long holiday in Sydney next week that I booked nearly two months ago, I decided that the best option for me, and for Fraser, was for me to withdraw from the race.

Another thing which really hit home on Sunday whilst I was standing outside Government House waiting for the Prime Minister to arrive and meet the Governor-General, was that as much as I was telling myself that I was there as a candidate to witness an historic event, I couldn’t shake the fact that I was there as a journalist (and before any of the usual suspects get started, no, not just for this website). I enjoy journalism, I enjoy being a caller on talkback radio, and oddly, I like the little bit of anonymity that affords me. These things just don’t mix with politics.

Should we start printing up some Samuel10 t-shirts?

While in Canberra last weekend GrodsCorp interviewed prominent blogger and independent candidate for Fraser, Samuel Gordon-Stewart.

The Editor asks the questions while Billybob and Hairball create a wind wall for the mic

In a wide-ranging conversation we discussed climate change, federalism, private versus public services, campaigning, preference deals and more. Click here to view the video if it doesn’t appear below.