The Sun-Herald

The Tribal Mind: We know what you did this summer

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by David Dale
IMAGINE Daffy Duck is reading this aloud: A singing Scottish spinster has been the sound of summer so far, while the sights of summer have been big blue biowarriors, a dynamic doctor-detective duo and a voluptuous but vituperative vicar. Plus the customary cricket and candlelit carols, of course.

So starts our annual alliterative analysis of how Australians are spending the silly season. Here are three charts that will enable you to compare your own entertainment consumption in the past fortnight with that of the masses, and thereby determine if you are a normal, typical, average, everyday Aussie-in-the-street or a bold individualist.

The music we're playing
The summer's top selling albums:
1 I Dreamed A Dream, by the surprise survivor of Britain's Got Talent, Susan Boyle (560,000 copies distributed in five weeks);
2 Crazy Love, by Michael Buble (210,000 in five weeks);
3 Introducing by Australian Idol winner Stan Walker (70,000 in three weeks);
4 The Fame Monster by Lady Gaga (70,000 in three weeks);
5 Golden Rule by Powderfinger (70,000 in six weeks).
(Figures from Australian Record Industry Association. To see how these compare with the all-time records go to The music Australia loved).

The top selling single was Stan Walker's Black Box (35,000 in five weeks), which uses the metaphor of a plane crash for the breakdown of a relationship, and includes the line: "Everything we had scattered everywhere, searching through the wreckage of a love affair". Idol may have been a flop for Channel Ten this year, but it can still sell songs.

You could be forgiven for concluding from the content of those hits that purchasers of CDs in December tend to be over the age of 40.

The flicks we're queueing for
Cinema box office takings since December 16:
1 Avatar $39 million (to learn what Avatar has in common with the oldest story ever told, go to Gilgamesh;
2 Sherlock Holmes $8.5m;
3 Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Squeakuel $8m;
4 Old Dogs (slapstick with Robin Williams and John Travolta) $3m;
5 Did You Hear about the Morgans (slapstick romance with Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker) $2.5m;
6 Bright Star (virginal romance with Abbie Cornish) $860,000;
7 The Lovely Bones (Peter Jackson's tale of murder and ghosts) $761,000;
8 Nowhere Boy (John Lennon's early life) $303,000.
(Figures from Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia. To compare these with the all time records, go to The films Australia loved)

Normally you could divide those totals by the average ticket price of $12 to estimate how many Australians saw each film, but that's not possible with Avatar, because cinemas showing it in 3D are adding $5 to the ticket price for the rental of the special glasses. At these prices, I reckon you should be able to keep the specs, but the cinemas employ threshold guardians to demand their return.

This raises hygiene issues. Are we about to see the spread of an Avatar-driven epidemic of conjunctivitis? Or if they are cleaning the specs, how will the chemicals affect the eyes of the next users? Not that this column would wish to put you off seeing Avatar in 3-D.

The telly we watched
Top rating programs since December 20:
1 Carols by Candlelight (9) 1.8 million viewers in the mainland capitals;
2 Midnight fireworks New Year's Eve (9) 1.5m;
3 Nine news Sunday (9) 1.3 m;
4 The Vicar Of Dibley Christmas Special (7) 1.3m;
5 Seven News Sunday (7) 1.2m;
6 The Vicar Of Dibley Happy Birthday Special (7) 1.2m;
7 Border Patrol -Sunday (7) 1.2m;
8 The Mentalist repeat (9) 11m;
9 First Test - Australia V Pakistan (9) 1.0m;
10 Spicks And Specks: A Very Specky Christmas (ABC1) 1.0m.
(Figures from OzTAM. To compare these with the all time records, go to The TV shows Australia loved.)

The silly season is traditionally a time when the networks test new shows they suspect won't work in prime time, and sometimes they are embraced by viewers in holiday mode. That hasn't happened with any of the lame sitcoms unloaded this year by Seven, Nine and Ten. No wonder we've all been out risking blindness.

Go to Comments to discuss your summer favourites.

David Dale is the author of The Little Book of Australia -- A snapshot of who we are (Allen and Unwin). For daily updates on Australian attitudes, bookmark blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.