One current trend that really annoys the hell out of me is the copycatting of other current – or past – trends. Not as much as plagiarism annoys me mind you, but still enough for me to get the grumpy old man label from my other half whenever I see something along these lines.

I regret seeing the latest version of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy compared to the original for example; why do people think they can do better? Is it artistic or creative to do a remake? I don't believe so, I think it is money driven. That goes against my grain.

But my current biggest gripe lately revolves around the person(s) who decided the latest US mania of abbreviating names should be transferred to Australia.

I would run a mile to miss a Tom Cruise movie and similarly, refuse to read any articles, story or whatever that now refers to “TomKat”. Then came J-Lo – or was she first – who cares? Now we have K-Fed for Kevin Federline, Fed-Ex for Roger Federer and God forbid, K-Rudd for our Prime Minister.

I freely admit that I am dead against American trends leaking into our society and this is one of them. Australia has a rich literary history, and simply ‘borrowing’’ stuff for the American vernacular is irritating to me at least. I saw a letter to the editor in the local paper last week that summed it up. He said, “we have beautiful young ladies in Australia, why do they all lately look like Paris Hilton though”.

I would hate to see the Aussie identity lost – literary, language, attitude, filmmaking and so on. I understand that the biggest market is the US one for ‘creative’ pursuits, but history has shown that ones that evolved around Aussie culture are the ones that have *really* succeeded – think Mad Max, Croc Dundee, Gallipoli, Rabbit Proof Fence and so on.

My point? Make a conscious effort to keep the Aussie identity going in all things and I reckon you will be rewarded far better than the ‘pretence’ of another culture – US or UK specifically (although the latter seems to have more of a favourable impact on Australians generally).