Dave Rat - Roadies in the Midst

I knew the day would come where the outside world would supersede my bloggery adventure and if anywhere is most likely to do it, Australia is the place. Australia is also a place that is being invaded by the poisonous lick able cane toad. Yuck! But I guess if you lick it you get wasted. I hear these damn toads are causing mayhem to the environment in many places here. I looked around for them in my travels but this is the only one I could find, so I licked it of course but I did not feel a thing.

So these toads were introduced in 1935 to Australia in order to control the cane beetle. The thinking being that toad will eat beetle, problem solved, beetle gone. Hey, that reminds me of a song. Something about an old lady who swallowed a fly. If memory serves, she swallows a fly but we are not quite sure why. So then she comes up with this grand idea of swallowing a spider that wiggles inside her to catch the fly. not being the most forward thinking woman she then swallows a bird to deal with the spider. Meanwhile, the whole time there is a major concern that she may die from the fly as things get worse and worse. Well, clearly the brainiac that came up with toad idea had not heard the song and even though "poisonous toad" was not directly discussed in the song's lyrics, one would think that logic would prevail. Especially considering the fact that the woman ends up swallowing a cow as things get clearly out of hand.

That all said, it will come as little surprise, I am sure, to find out that what occurred was toad ate everything but beetle and now there is beetle and toad problem. Since the toads are full of poison, not only do the toads eat everything but nearly everything that eats them dies. Hmmm, well the natural predators to the Cane Toad are the Broad-snouted Caiman and the Banded Cat-eyed Snake, I have an idea! How about we bring thousands of Caimen (read big biting lizard crocodile thing) and Snakes to solve the problem.

OK, enough is enough and soon I will be back on track,

Dave Rat

 

Here is something that is not overly common in other parts of the world.

This is the top of a waste bin next to a toilet in a public bathroom. I have seen several of similar ones here in my travels. It is an interesting concept to attempt to politely appeal to the compassionate drug user by requesting they dispose of their used needles elsewhere. Not unlike the "turn off your cell phones while flying" we can once again see the "honor system" awkwardly applied in a situation with a high probability that it will be disregarded by many.

Ok, on a more musical note, Chad is doing some kind of drum clinic thing, never did figure out exactly what it is but I do know that what started as Chad drumming in Federation Square

evolved into a more complex and really cool thing of a differing dimension. Chad plays drums and was joined by John on guitar, Flea on electro-trumpet and Josh on Moog. Cool stuff, throw and go on a small local PA

And speaking of Flea's electro-trumpet, here is the mini rig

So after a 30 minute jam and then we all dash over to the big gig for the other rock show.

 Off to Brisbane,

Dave RAt