Out of the Minds of Andrews

Photo of the Day - 29

2011-04-26T09:00:00.000+10:00

The Acheron Way

Road between Warburton and Marysville

July 2010

Photo of the Day - 28

2011-04-19T09:00:00.000+10:00

Corner of Lonsdale and Swanston Streets Melbourne

Saturday 2nd October 2010.

The morning of the AFL Grand Final Replay.

Almost empty streets.

Photo of the Day - 27

2011-04-12T09:00:00.000+10:00

Camera: SONY

This wall used to a fountain - a wall with water running down it. Photo taken in Melbourne 2009 before the Copenhagen Climate Conference

Photo of the Day - 26

2011-04-05T10:05:00.000+10:00

Melbourne Laneway

Photo by Erin

Camera: Nikon D3000

2011-04-01T16:13:00.001+11:00

The quote on the daily calender today is: "The most wasted of all days is that on which one has not laughed" - Nicolas Chamfort. And being April 1, there were a number of laughs. I hid six alarm clocks around reception and set them so that the first would go off at 10.00, the next at 10.01 and so on. Louise heard the first go off, found it and called me to ask if it was me. "What was me?" I asked, and in the background I could hear the next one starting to go off, Louise laughed and hung-up to find the next one. I also made Dianne's mouse move in crazy motions. Ewan, Steve, I and a few other staff members received letters that were filled with stars and mine had a large, fake, purple spider. I think it was Louise. Vanessa convinced Ronnie and Barbara that she was quitting. At 11:50 I received an urgent email from Steve asking that I see him immediately, so I ran upstairs, but he was not to be found, I did a few laps of the building and then returned to my desk which had been decorated by Vanessa, Barbara and Dianne. I think they have managed to get me back from my efforts over the last two years.

Humour

2011-03-31T17:09:00.001+11:00

Sometimes I have a horrible sense of humour. In today’s Herald Sun there is a Q&A with Tom Felton who played Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies. On being asked “what's the biggest perk of being a Harry Potter star?” he replied with: "This is gonna sound really cheesy, but one of the greatest things we've been gifted with is we can go to children's hospitals and places like that and really make their day without having to do anything. Especially Daniel - I've seen kids literally wet their pants in front of Daniel! I think it's a priority that we abuse that and make the most of it." I’m imagining Harry Potter stars walking down the streets, causing accidents, and selling clean trousers. For the whole article go to: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/ipad/qa-harry-potter-baddie-tom-felton/story-fn6bn9st-1226031017470

Photo of the Day - 25

2011-03-29T09:00:00.000+11:00

Benalla Gardens - A Rose

Camera: SONY

Photo of the Day - 24

2011-03-23T09:00:00.000+11:00

The Big Friendly Giant - Set Painting - November 2009

Camera: SONY

Shakespeare Reading Challenge - Hamlet

2011-03-17T10:00:00.000+11:00

Nicki Greenberg has turned Hamlet into a beautifully illustrated graphic novel. And it still contains the whole text, as far as I can tell.

Before reading it I was wondering if the pictures would make the play easier to read, however I don’t think it did. It was a bit easier to remember who each character was, but often you didn’t have character names for pages after a character had appeared. I also think that a new reader to Shakespeare would be attracted to the book, but I fear that they would put it down after a couple of pages, as the pictures don’t drastically diminish the difficulty reading this mentally demanding play.

It has taken me many readings to get through Hamlet, and I finally finished it for the first time in Spring 2009. Many unsuccessful attempts made me think Hamlet pointless and dismissive of the hype around the play. When I finally finished it I found Hamlet interesting but I still would not recommend it to other people as I found it physically painful to read. Reading Hamlet again, I have been able to enjoy it more, and understand it better, but I still wouldn’t recommend people to read the dithering Dane.

The pages I enjoyed most were of Ophelia’s decent into madness and death. It’s a bit in the play that seems to dash past, but in pictures, having the flowers grow out of the page, breaking the story squares adds gravity to a serious part which zooms past.

Anxiety

2011-03-16T13:13:00.001+11:00

There is a nice scene in one of Wodehouse's books which I am reminded of, but I can't find a reference to it on the web. Bertie Wooster is getting ready for a date and he is feeling rather anxious and flustered and he has a conversation with his butler, Jeeves.

BERTIE: Is there any spinach stuck between my teeth?

JEEVES: Have you eaten spinach today?

BERTIE: No, I just thought it appears like crop circles.

I hear Jeeves’s voice as the maître de in the original TV series of Hitchhiker. Finding the proper quote would be a good excuse to read all of Wodehouse’s books, but not today – I have important things to do.

Photo of the Day - 23

2011-03-14T09:00:00.000+11:00

Great Ocean Road - December 2009

Camera: Sony

Shakespeare Reading Challenge

2011-03-11T10:00:00.000+11:00

There are many different Shakespeare Challenges online. They involve reading from one to 38 plays in a month, or in a year. Competitions that are text focused, competitions that include acting, watching performances, or watching movies based on Shakespeare’s plays.

The Shakespeare Reading Challenge has a very tempting completion HERE. And what is nice, is that it has four levels:

1. Puck: Read 4 plays over the year, 1 of which may be replaced by a performance
2. Desdemona: Read 6 plays, 2 of which may be replaced by a performance
3. Henry V: Read 12 plays, 3 of which may be replaced by a performance

To participate, or not to participate, that is the question…

Count me in. I think.

I’ll have to clarify if “replaced by a performance” means acting or watching or either. Six plays over a year sounds sensible - I’ll strive for Desdemona and perhaps read:

Hamlet
Henry V
A Midsummer Nights Dream
The Merry Wives of Windsor
King Lear
The Winter’s Tale

Photo of the Day - 22

2011-03-08T09:00:00.001+11:00

December 27 2009

Camera: SONY

Family Quotes

2011-03-05T10:00:00.000+11:00

My grandmother on organising a new mobile phone:

“I didn’t ask for global warming as I’ve already got it.”

George on Australia’s performance in the Ashes:

“It’s a national emergency.”

Mum talking about her new camera:

"My camera is not to take any photos of coffee ever."

Photo of the Day - 21

2011-03-02T09:00:00.000+11:00

A Sign - I thought this had shades of ACC's 2001

Camera: SONY

A Midsummer Night's Dream

2011-02-27T10:20:00.000+11:00

I have not stuck to my diary of posting dates to publish all the best photos from my Tasmania trip as I've been busy rehearsing for:

STAG presents A Midsummer Night’s Dream By William Shakespeare Directed by Ian Tweeddale at the Strathmore Community Centre, corner of Loeman and Napier Streets, Strathmore (Melway Reference: 16 H 10)

Thursday 3 March to Saturday 5 March @ 8pm
Sunday 6 March @ 2pm
Wednesday 9 March to Saturday 12 March @ 8pm
$20 adult $15 concession $2 discount off full price tickets for groups of 10 or more
BOOKINGS 9382 6284 www.stagtheatre.org/reservations

HELENA: I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius, The more you beat me, I will fawn on you.

HERMIA: How low am I, thou painted maypole? Speak; How low am I? I am not yet so low But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.

EGEUS: Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung, With feigning voice verses of feigning love.

LYSANDER: You have her father’s love, Demetrius; let me have Hermia’s: do you marry him.

FLUTE: Nay, faith, let me not play a woman: I have a beard coming.

QUINCE: You can play no part but Pyramus; for Pyramus is a sweet-faced man; a proper man, as one shall see in a summer's day; a most lovely gentleman-like man: therefore you must needs play Pyramus.

PHILOSTRATE. A play there is, my lord, some ten words long, Which is as brief as I have known a play; But by ten words, my lord, it is too long, Which makes it tedious; for in all the play There is not one word apt, one player fitted.

LION. You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do fear The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor, May now, perchance, both quake and tremble here,

STARVELING: He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is transported.

PUCK. If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumb'red here While these visions did appear.

MOON. All that I have to say is to tell you that the lanthorn is the moon; I, the Man i' th' Moon; this thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog.

OBERON. Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania

TITANIA. Not for thy fairy kingdom

SNOUT: Doth the moon shine that night we play our play?

BOTTOM: I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream: it shall be called Bottom's Dream, because it hath no bottom;

HIPPOLYTA: never did I hear Such gallant chiding: for, besides the groves, The skies, the fountains, every region near Seem'd all one mutual cry: I never heard So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.

THESEUS: Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword, And won thy love, doing thee injuries; But I will wed thee in another key, With pomp, with triumph and with revelling.

Photo of the Day - 20

2011-02-18T09:00:00.000+11:00

Benalla - 2007

Camera: SONY

Cockle Creek and Recherche Bay

2011-02-15T10:00:00.000+11:00

Southern Tasmania is beautiful. Recherche Bay, Cockle Creek… One of the many places that I would love to visit again…

Recherche bay is the site of the first scientific experiments on Australian soil. The French explorer Antoine Raymond Joseph de Bruni d’Entrecasteaux (what a groovy name) landed in 1792 and made a garden and observatory and mapped and named parts of Southern Tasmania, which has resulted in Tasmania having some beautiful French names mixed up with Indigenous and English names. Bruni d’Entrecasteaux’s ships included the Recherche and the Esperance.

One of the goals of Bruni d’Entrecasteaux’s voyage was to try and find the explorer Jean-Francois de Galaup, comte de La Perouse who was last seen in Botany Bay in 1788 heading off towards New Caledonia.

Recherche Bay

"It would be vain of me to attempt to describe my feelings when I beheld this lovely harbour lying at the world's end, separated as it were from the rest of the universe.”
- Antoine Raymond Joseph de Bruni d’Entrecasteaux

Beach at Cockle Creek

Cockle Creek is the southern most point that is assessable in Australia. The beach is beautiful, and when I was there the sky and water were beautiful shades of blue.

Cockle Creek is also host to a sad period in Australia’s history being a centre for whaling in the 1830s. A bronze statue of a Southern Right Whale Cub mourns for all the whales killed in the area. The whalers used to kill the cubs and when the adults heard their cries would run in to see what the matter was and then be killed as well.

Whale statue at Cockle Creek - sculptured by Steven Walker

“The next stop is Antarctica. And it’s not that far away. Standing here, you are closer to Antarctica than you are to Cairns.”
- Australian Government – Department of Resources Energy and Tourism

The southernmost point that you can buy food is Ida Bay. Where naturally I had a Devonshire Tea.

Photo of the Day - 19

2011-02-12T09:00:00.000+11:00

White Poppies in East Tasmania - December 2010

Camera: Nikon D3000

Graffiti at Launceston

2011-02-09T09:00:00.000+11:00

Tim Minchin's Storm

2011-02-06T09:00:00.000+11:00

This blog has had a lot of photos as I post my Tasmania adventures. As I haven't written the next chapter yet, here are some WORDS on something completely different.

I received a CD from my friend Julian and on the CD was a particular track that I enjoyed – ‘Storm’ by Tim Minchin. Tim Minchin is an Australian singer/comedian, and a number of his songs promote science over religion. I think there is room for both viewpoints, and Storm is enjoyable and has some interesting points. Storm argues science over naturopathy, alternative medicine, and hippy culture, and is also derogatory about astrology. But it is the rhythms and the poetry of the yrics which makes Storm appeal to me.

Storm is a ‘nine minute beat poem’ where the beat, the tone and the words combine to create the setting.

Inner North London, top floor flat,
All white walls, white carpet, white cat,

Tim Minchin uses both words that rhyme and words that sound and feel like they should rhyme, but actually don’t, which allows the listener to ease himself into the story. The words give the listener a figurative comfy chair and a glass of red-wine as if:

to dinner we've come.

Imaginative combinations of words create fresh images within the listener’s head.

And when she says "I'm Sagittarian"
I confess a pigeonhole starts to form...
And is immediately filled with pigeon
When she says her name is Storm.

And every day references continue to create mood and understanding and sympathy towards the character as we think, yes, I’ve been in that (or similar) situation before.

And across the room
My wife widens her eyes,
Silently begs me, "Be Nice" –
A matrimonial warning
Not worth ignoring,

And try as hard as I like,
A small crack appears
In my diplomacy dike.

Using words in different combinations keeps the listener spell bound wondering what linguistical feats will follow, whilst enjoying the humour in the language and situation.

Storm to her credit, despite my derision
Keeps firing off clichés with startling precision,
Like a sniper using bollocks for ammunition.

And of cause I’m a sucker for Shakespeare.

There are more things in heaven and earth
Than exist in your philosophy.

Lend me your ear:
'To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw perfume on the violet... is just fucking silly.'
Or something like that.

From Hamlet and King John, but not only these passages felt like Billy the Bard, so I searched and searched and the only hidden Billy the Bard reference I could find was:

And if perchance I have offended,
Think but this and all is mended:

From A Midsummer’s Night Dream. But the sweetest parts of the poem is original Tim Minchin:

Twice as long to live this life of mine.
Twice as long to love this wife of mine.
Twice as many years of friends and wine...

I want to laugh

2011-02-03T09:00:00.000+11:00

I'm reading a book about anti-gravity. It's impossible to put down.

Have you heard about that online origami store? It folded.

I did a theatrical performance about puns. Really it was just a play on words.

Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

Photo of the Day - 18

2011-02-01T09:00:00.001+11:00

Launceston Church - December 2010

Camera: Nikon D3000

Signs, Traffic and Things

2011-01-29T10:10:00.000+11:00

Driving around Tasmania was a bit confusing; there were more signs telling you when a speed limit ended then telling you what the actual speed limit was. I spent most of my time driving around without knowing what the speed limit was.

Some people told me that the End zones meant to go back to the penultimate speed limit, some suggested to do either 100 or 110kh/hr. And in the south there was a sign that suggested 90km/hr.

And there were difficult winding roads, and I am a good driver and know what I’m talking about, where I was doing 90 and people would overtake me doing over 110. I guess it doesn’t really matter as long as you survive and don’t get a ticket – but I would have appreciated clearer signs.

I was driving through Barrington for no particular reason… ok, I was looking for a coffee… I was flying past and saw a very weird sign, it was one of those yellow diamond signs that tell you to look out for particular animals crossing the road. But this wasn’t warning me about kangaroos or echidnas. Flying past it looked like a dragon. ‘Hmmm… That’s odd,’ I thought ‘I’m pretty sure that there are no dragons in Tasmania.’

There was only one thing to do. I dropped a U-ey, parked the car and hopped out of the car for a closer inspection.

Which made me wonder how often do platypi cross roads? And why do platypi cross roads? Are they in the wrong joke or something?

To answer these questions I travelled to Platypus House at Beauty Point and they were quite surprised to hear of the road sign. But they couldn’t help with any existential road crossing monotreme questions. And I left thinking it was probably just a local who wanted a good laugh.

There are a number of interesting place names in Tasmania. Like Nook as pictured above, but I like this sign that has two interesting places.

I can image how the conversation went:

A: Does this place look familiar to you?
B: What do you mean?
A: It looks a bit like Kent.
B: Kent? Are you sure? Perhaps West Kent?
A: Yes, West Kent.
B: Well... West Kent-ish.

You can imagine my disappointment when I discovered that Kentish was named after a person. Perhaps his nose looked like one of the mountains in Kent…

And the other name is so awesome that I think that nothing else can be said.

Cradle Mountain

2011-01-27T10:00:00.000+11:00

I’m not that happy with my Cradle Mountain photos – I think I over exposed all of them. They should be less brown and more green, and the water more blue. I’ve tried to play around with colours but with no success as yet. 300 photos ruined. Oh well, I’ll just have to go again.

I like the warning on the Tasmanian Parks & Wildlife Service website: “Visitors should bear in mind, however, that the wild weather of the Tasmanian highlands often shrouds the mountain in cloud”. I drove from Launceston and when I set out the entire sky was covered with cloud. and as I approached the national park, the sky slowly cleared.

This photo was taken from the top of a nice rock (which I’ve forgotten it’s name) and is a very nice place to sit and soak in the atmosphere.
Nikon D3000 – Zoom: 200mm

There is a Tourist Information Centre a couple of k’s before Cradle Mountain, where you can buy your pass to get into the national park, touristy stuff and a map, and a bus ticket. The shuttle bus takes people from the information centre to Lake Dove, and runs every fifteen minutes or so. It is much cheaper than buying a ticket for your car, and there is not much parking at the lake.

There seems to be two types of people who go to Cradle Mountain. Tourists who just want to cross things off their list and don’t want to walk or talk, and serious walkers who are pleasant to talk to.

There is not much to say about Cradle Mountain. It is a beautiful place. And I would like to visit again.

There are a number of walks that can be done. I walked clockwise around Lake Dove, then up the steep section past Lake Wilks to Little Horn and then back via Marions Lookout. This walk took me about four hours, but includes a good half an hour for lunch and a lot of time taking photos.

Kitchen Hut – I like the three doors.

Sheffield

2011-01-25T10:00:00.000+11:00

Sheffield is the town of murals. Over thirty murals tell the history of the town and the surrounding area, and it makes it feel that you are walking in a gallery when you stroll down the main street.

Sheffield also has a shop called 'The World of Marbles' it has a studio where you can watch people make marbles - sadly closed on the day I was there - and thousands of interesting marbles.

Some made by people arround the world and some made by Tasmanians.

But bring some money - I brought one for $35 and it was one of the cheapest.

However in the back room there is thousands of cheaper marbles - ones which you could play with.

Sheffield also runs a mural competion every year, entrants are displayed behind the Information Centre. These two entrants to the 2010 competition were my favorite murals, including the murals around town.

'Turangawaewae' by Mark Spijkerbosch

'The Chess Board of Life' by Fereleth Lee

The previous winner also gets to be displayed for another year...

2009 Winner - Mark Spijkerbosch 'Fire and Life'

Photo of the Day

2011-01-23T10:00:00.000+11:00

Shop in Launceston - December 2010

Camera: Nikon D3000

Senses Garden

2011-01-20T16:00:00.000+11:00

Launceston has a beautiful city park. One of the wonderful aspects of the park is its Senses Garden.

It has the noise of fountains, the smells of beautiful flowers and mint and lavender.

And the textures of the plants were sublime – the hedge was unbelievably soft.

I thought it was a wonderful idea to build a garden for the senses and that every city should have places that cater for the blind or disabled and other parts of society.

The Boat There and Back Again

2011-01-18T09:00:00.001+11:00

On the ‘Spirit of Tasmania I’ I was in an ocean recliner, a really comfortable seat in a room with probably 400 other seats. They faced the stern with large windows allowing us to look out.

Things no one tells you: waiting to drive on board takes a very long time. Bring a book. If you have passengers I would recommend that they go on board without you and taking everything to the cabin for you. You and the car will be waiting for what seems like forever. Oh, and getting there first doesn’t mean your car will go on first – they sort the cars by size – which due to balance makes sense.

When I arrived on board I ran to my seat, put my stuff down, applied sunscreen, got my camera and ran to the outside stern area to get a good seat. And when the ship started I enjoyed watching Melbourne disappear into the distance, and then we were treated to a magnificent sunset.

I took so many photos of the sunset - I can not decide which ones are the best.

Warning: In summer if you watch the sunset the kitchens might be closed by the time you get to the restaurant.

The food in the Leatherwood Restaurant was beautiful, small but nice. I did have to have all three courses to feel full. The other restaurant was a buffet and everything looked very oily and there was not much for vegetarians.

Chocolate Pudding

Level seven of the ship has two restaurants, a couple of bars and plenty of chairs to sit down and enjoy the ride.

I had trouble getting to sleep – someone nearby was reading and their light kept me awake. Going to Tassie I only get two hours sleep. I was sort of happy that I woke up really early. I found a comfortable position at the bow of the ship and watched the sky slowly turn blue and the mountains around Devonport appear with the entire deck to myself.

Going back to Melbourne on the ship I was quite exhausted so I sat in my recliner and watched Devonport disappear as I did Killer Sudokus. The recliner room was half empty and they seemed to have empty chairs between everyone which made it a lot more comfortable. I was glad that I booked my tickets very early as I was able to get a front row seat in both directions.

I was able to sleep for four hours going back, and woke up as we gained mobile phone services through Port Phillip Heads. It was beautiful to watch the lights of Sorrento, Blairgowrie, Mt Martha glide past, and record their interesting signals of the channel markers.

Weather

2011-01-16T10:00:00.000+11:00

You know it's humid when your glasses fog up after getting out of the car.

Andrew - 13/01/2011 - 23:45

Photo of the Day

2011-01-14T10:00:00.000+11:00

Great Oyster Bay - December 2010

Camera: Nikon D3000

Birds and Animals

2011-01-08T10:00:00.000+11:00

One holiday a few years back, there was a Monday night. Every restaurant was closed apart from the RSL which wouldn't open for another hour, so I sat on a pier and took photos of a pelican for an hour. Ever since then, my family, especially George, have given me greif about taking photos of pelicans. To get back at George I thought I would take photos of all the birds I saw in Tassie - there's a few animals here as well.

Seahorses - 'The World of the Seahorse' at Beauty Point

Seagull taken whilst on the Spirit of Tasmania 1 in Port Phillip Bay

Plover - LaTrobe

Pied Oyster Eater - Wineglass Bay

I know this isn't a real bird, but I liked the photo for some odd reason.

Peacock - Launceston

Macaque - Launceston

Lizard - Dove Lake & Cradle Mountain

Ducks - Richmond Bridge.

A little girl was chasing these ducks.

Ducks - Tasmanian Arboretum

Little Red Thing - Port Arthur

More Birds - Tasmanian Arboretum

Cormorant - Dove Lake

Chickens - Middle of nowhere

Blue Wren - Launceston

This friendly fellow kept on jumping on the rock, jumping off the rock, jumping on the rock, jumping ...

Black Swans - Tasmanian Arboretum

I did not enjoy the Tasmanian Arboretum which is near Sheffeild/Devonport, but it was worth going to see black swans

Wallaby - Wineglass Bay Carpark

A seagull - I saw about five in my trip perched upon statues. Have I told you my joke about the two statues and the wizard?

Currawong - Dubbil Barril

That is all of the birds that I managed to take photos of, I also saw some other Australian wildlife, but that will have to wait for another post.

Oh... I did see one pelican:

Hobart

Photo of the Day

2011-01-05T10:00:00.000+11:00

Props for Katerina - November 2009

Camera: SONY

2010 Reading

2010-12-31T10:55:00.000+11:00

Here are listed the 77 books that I read in 2010 arranged roughly by author. However if I counted volumes separately it would mean that I read 90 books. Then some of these 90 books I read more than once this year… Then some of them I might have read in December 2009 and put on this list in error…

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe - Douglas Adams
Life, the Universe and Everything - Douglas Adams
So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish - Douglas Adams
Mostly Harmless - Douglas Adams
Zoo Story - Edward Albee
The Chronicles of Prydain - Lloyd Alexander
Man Walks into a Bar – Stephen Arnott & Mike Haskins
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Last Days - Manuel Casha
The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha (part 1 – 482 pages) – Cervantes
White Tiger - Kylie Chan
Red Phoenix – Kylie Chan
Blue Dragon – Kylie Chan
Earth to Hell – Kylie Chan
Hell to Heaven - Kylie Chan
The Mousetrap and Selected Plays - Agatha Christie
And Another Thing – Eoin Colfer

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

The Name Of The Rose - Umberto Eco
Dead Famous – Ben Elton
Past Mortem - Ben Elton

Shades of Gray - Jasper Fforde
The Last Dragonslayer – Jasper Fforde
Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Stephen Fry’s Incomplete and Utter History of Classical Music

Coraline - Neil Gaiman
Fragile Things – Neil Gaiman
Smoke and Mirrors – Neil Gaiman
The Sandman Volumes 1-11 - Neil Gaiman
The Sandman: Volume 6 – Fables & Reflections - Neil Gaiman
Sandman: The Dream Hunters - Neil Gaiman
Death: The High Cost of Living - Neil Gaiman
Death: The Time of Your Life - Neil Gaiman
The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains - Neil Gaiman
Stories All New Tales – edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio
Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
Patience – W. Gilbert
The Mikado – W. Gilbert
Chinese Folktales - edited by Howard Giskin
An Abundance of Katherines - John Green
The Great Gatsby – A Graphic Adaptation - Nicki Greenberg
Asterix and the Big Fight - Goscinny and Uderzo
Asterix and the Great Crossing - Goscinny and Uderzo
Asterix and The Vikings - Goscinny and Uderzo

Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
Classical Mythology Images & Insights - Stephen Harris
High Fidelity - Nick Hornby

The Trial - Franz Kafka
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey

Weekend - Matthew Lambert
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula LeGuin

Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger
Delta of Venus - Anais Nin

Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell

I Shall Wear Midnight – Terry Pratchett
Soul Music – Terry Pratchett
Thief of Time – Terry Pratchett

Best Australian Political Cartoons 2010 – edited by Russ Radcliffe
Twitterature - Alexander Aciman & Emmett Rensin

Holes - Louis Sachar
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – William Shakespeare
Twelfth Night – William Shakespeare
Plays - Tom Stoppard

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court - Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain

Cricket Jokes - Max Walker and Brian Doyle
Complete Short Fiction - Oscar Wilde
The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays - Oscar Wilde
The Picture Of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Rudyard Kipling Mowgli’s Brothers – edited by Christopher Wormell

Arabian Nights – edited by Jack Zipes
Mythology

Mount Wellington

2010-12-30T10:00:00.000+11:00

My grandfather would often tell this story: It was a dark and stormy night, a band of robbers sat round the fire place and the leader said, “Rupert, tell us a story”, so Rupert began. “It was a was a dark and stormy night, a band of robbers sat round the fire place and the leader said, “Rupert, tell us a story”, so Rupert began, “It was a dark and stormy night …

Mount Wellington rises 1270 meters above Hobart, its towering presence creating a wonderful natural back drop to all the action in the city.

It was a beautiful day, I had been to the south of Tassie, had had dinner and the sun was still shining with all its strength and I thought, “I know, I’ll drive up that mountain there.”

I should have checked what the internet said about Mount Wellington first. Discover Tasmania says: “Test out the windiest spot in Hobart” and “The interpretation centre at the top protects you from the blustering winds.”

Well, it was a little bit windy when I was driving up. I saw a look out hopped out of the car and enjoyed the view. And then continued up.

And the wind picked up. I started thinking that this might not be a quite such a good idea, but about two k’s from the top I pulled over in a car park and the wind died down, so I took some photos and once again continued up.

And the wind picked up again, I started wondering if my car could be blown over on it’s side. There is only so much The Beast can handle. I parked at the top of the mountain, and when I opened my door the wind blew it open with a bang. I jumped, thankfully it didn’t blow off, I hopped out of the car and slammed the door shut. And the wind became stronger.

Standing up became a struggle, and I thought “Andrew, you silly bugger, lets go home.” And the wind blew past my face, blowing off my glasses in a huge gust.

I saw them land on a bush a good five meters away, glint in the sun, and disappear. I ran to the bush and dived upon it, searching the branches and the roots for my glasses or a glint of sun, anything. But I couldn’t see a thing. A rash from the bush and insect bites painfully spreading over my arms, windburn lashing across my face. I searched desperately, how could I get off the mountain if I couldn’t see? And somehow I heard a couple of people running to their car.

I dashed to them and entreated a young lady to help me find my glasses, but unfortunately she couldn’t understand me, and neither could the other three Swedish tourists in the car. Thankfully an Australian was showing them around, and I begged him for help, and they all came and helped me search.

But it was fruitless, the bloke asked if I was from Hobart – subtlety hinting that he could give me a lift, “No, Melbourne” and realisation dawned on him my deeper trouble. How would I get the car back to Melbourne… And the search was renewed.

Fifteen minutes later they found them. A pair of glasses, the clip-on-sunnies had fallen off somewhere, but this meant that I could see. I grasped them in my hand, thanked my rescuers again and again and they were off. I wish I had something to give them. I got in my car, prised my fingers off my glasses and put them on my nose. Relief.

Note to self: put an old pair of glasses in the car.

Photo of the Day

2010-12-28T10:00:00.000+11:00

Photo of a sign outside a shop in Beechworth.

Camera: SONY

Tasmanian Coffee 3

2010-12-26T10:00:00.000+11:00

For part one click here
For part two click here

Consumed at Queenstown Railway Station whilst waiting for the West Coat Wilderness Railway to depart.

At Tarraleah. Running out of petrol I found a cafe, they didn't have petrol but they did have toast and coffee, and could point me in the right direction. Tarraleah seemed to be a tourist town, a place for people to stay the night and get wed. A lot of blue houses.

At the cafe at the Tahune Air Walk. Easily the worst coffee of the trip - tasted like cough syrup. I will never buy coffee at tourist attractions. I will never buy coffee at tourist attractions. I will never...

A very nice cafe in Sheffeild. Skwiz Cafe and Gallery. They collect Tea Pots and have Folk Music on Fridays. They had a lovely note written on a newsletter, which silly me did not write down, it started like this "we believe in mix-matched chairs and tea pots"

Ross

Richmond

Queenstown

Wineglass Bay

2010-12-24T10:00:00.000+11:00

The drive to Wineglass Bay is through the Freycinet National Park, you pay money to drive to the car park, where even out of season there are hundreds of cars and then it is a two or so kilometre walk to Wineglass Bay. Not the easiest walk in the world, but short, and looking out from the high sections to Great Oyster Bay and Wineglass Bay is beautiful. And walking back is easier.

When I reached the beach, I threw off my shoes and walked across the sand to the opposite end of the beach, letting the waves run across my feet. Most of the people stayed near the walking track, so once you had walked half way around the bay it was peaceful and quiet. And the water was the most amazing shade of blue-green, fading to dark blue as the water became deep.

The water was cold, but the funny thing is it seemed warmer as I walked the k and a half to the end of the beach, and then seemed to get colder again as I walked back. Children happily swam in the waves. It would be lovely to kayak in the water. There is a kayak place in Coles Bay… Perhaps next time…

Wineglass Bay - taken straight with Nikon D3000

Tasmanian Coffee 2

2010-12-22T17:35:00.000+11:00

For part one go here

In Port Phillip Bay from the Lavender Cafe on the Spirit of Tasmania 1. Woken up at 5:30 for a 6:30 exit, the tables are littered with hundreds of coffee cups.

Had a coffee and pudding at my motel's restaurant in Lindisfarne. People look at weirdly when you just order dessert and coffee. Don't tell them that I had a pizza at Sorell.

A hot chocolate from a chocolate shop in Launceston, once again I had to stir it up, but this one was beautiful.

Best coffee of the trip from This Cafe in Launceston.

Coffee in LaTrobe - I had given up trying to find The House of Anvers.

Another coffee in LaTrobe after another unsuccessful search. I had a good vegetable pie to eat with my coffee. There seems to be a lot of pie shops in the north-west of Tassie.

House of Anvers's Chocolates. I had trouble finding Anvers. It is in LaTrobe, but on the highway, not in the main street. This is a small hot chocolate and it filled up my cup twice. I had fun taste testing free chocolates. I'm told that Anvers's chocolates are dairy free and egg free.

A Devonshire Tea from Ida Bay. This was the furthest south that I could buy food and when I saw that they had a Devonshire Tea, I knew what I had to order. There was heaps of jam and cream - you had to have a degree in engineering to work out how to put it all on the scones. Beautiful!

Tasmanian Coffee

2010-12-20T15:00:00.006+11:00

In Tassie I had 23 cups of coffee, hot chocolate and tea. Which sounds pretty bad when you write it like that, but in reality it works out to be two cups a day.

Huonville - in the south. This was dessert after a beautiful vegetarian pizza that had artichokes, asparagus and other vegies.

I didn't spend a lot of time in Hobart. But just enough time to drink a coffee.

Hot Chocolate in Grindelwald from a 'swiss' chocolate shop. It was interesting having to mix it up yourself, but unfortunately didn't taste as good as I was hoping.

Coffee at Dubbil Barril - in the first class carridge of the West Coast Wilderness Railway. They treat you very very well in first class, I could have drank coffee for the entire trip if I wanted to, but I restrained myself and only had one with lunch.

In Devonport. I disembarked from the Sprit of Tasmania 1 at 6:30ish, parked at the Tourist Information Centre and went straight to the only coffee shop that was open - a place called Banjo's. I later realised that Banjo's is a bakery chain that has stores in other Tassie towns.

Coffee at Bellerive. I had driven for hours tring to find an Indian restaurant, or any restaurant that had good veggie fare when I found this lovely French place which is a restaurant by night and a patisserie by day. The menu had duck and snail dishes. I had a wonderful minestrone soup followed by a coffee whist reading Theif of Time by Terry Pratchett. This coffee was by far one of the best on my trip.

The polite French waiter was also a Terry Pratchett connoisseur and hailled from Footscray in Melbourne.

A free coffee at Beauty Point whilst I waited for a documentary on the platypus to start at the World of the Platypus.

Coffee in Bass Straight - at the Leatherwood Restaurant on the Spirit of Tasmania 1, drank while on the way home, watching the sun set.

Wouldn't It Be Nice

2010-12-07T10:00:00.000+11:00

Mitch was doing an informal survey wondering how many people knew what came after "wouldn't it be nice" in the Beach Boy’s song of the same name. Thanks to a very effective advertising campaign by an Australian company many people will now sing “Wouldn’t it be nice if the world was chocolate”. It would be interesting to do the survey on a large scale.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we were older
Then we wouldn’t have to wait so long
And wouldn’t it be nice to live together
In the kind of world where we belong

“Wouln’t It be Nice” by The Beach Boys - Songwriters: Brian Wilson , Tony Asher and Mike Love

Two Good Books

2010-12-01T16:37:00.001+11:00

I have just borrowed two books from two wonderful people (Well that is not quite true, I borrowed them ages ago, but have only rust read them and I will return them this week). Both books were lesser known books from famous authors, and I enjoyed them more than other works by the same authors. Both books were about being human and about power, but I don’t want to write much in case I give away too much of the stories, go and read them.

‘The Left Hand of Darkness’ by Ursula LeGuin

I put on my winter coat and went out for a walk, in a disagreeable mood, in a disagreeable world.

A profound love between two people involves, after all, the power and chance of doing profound harm.

There are peoples who have no higher mathematics at all, nothing beyond the simplest applied arithmetic. Every one of them is capable of understanding the calculus, but ot one of them does or ever has.

I’ll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter of the imagination.

‘A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court’ by Mark Twain

You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus

You see, he was going for the Holy Grail. The boys all took a flier at the Holy Grail now and then. It was a several years' cruise. They always put in the long absence snooping around, in the most conscientious way, though none of them had any idea where the Holy Grail really was, and I don't think any of them actually expected to find it, or would have known what to do with it if he had run across it.

Photo of the Day

2010-11-29T10:10:00.001+11:00

Screw found at Cape Schanck on a walk way. Photo by me.

22/12/20010 - A pointed out that it is in fact a bolt to go on a nut.

Camera: SONY

Dove Chocolate

2010-11-27T10:00:00.000+11:00

Dove has a range of chocolates, where every chocolate was wrapped in an individual piece of foil with a quote…

Change is inevitable, except from vending machines.

Don’t you look good naked. I’m talking about the chocolate.

Beauty is in the eye of the choc-holder.

Lead me not into temptation. I can find my own way there.

Photo of the Day

2010-11-25T10:00:00.000+11:00

Cat and Mouse by me.

Photo of the Day

2010-11-22T10:10:00.000+11:00

Lookout at Mount Buffalo, Victoria.

At the carpark. Photo by me.

Some Plays Are Just Odd

2010-11-20T10:00:00.000+11:00

Another old draft...

Some plays are just odd, and odd things tend to happen... We had a couple of interesting performances...

B tried to light a letter, which did not work, so he threw the letter and the lighter onto a pile of props on stage. After a while the paper lit and smoke started rising. B2 told one of the Frenchies who managed to find the paper and put it out.

Z seemed to arrived drugged, and W and I spent every minute that we could spare watching him making sure that he was okay. Especially when he was carrying the Circular Saw and standing on a platform, swaying to some wind that only he could feel.

A glass getting smashed on stage, where actors had to crawl all over and die. L told me about the glass and so I spent a huge portion of the play trying to sweep up all of the glass.

Instead of hors d'oeuvers I set up little cup-cakes with a candle in one for B's birthday. Seeing all the actors smiling, wanting to eat cake.

Pretending to eat eucalyptus leaves and maybe getting a bit carried away and then later in the evening feeling ever so sleeping and wondering if I was as stoned as a koala.

A door being pulled off it's hinges and having to hold the door shut for the rest of the performance, and when the curtain calls came on, holding it shut with one leg as I bowed and then exited.

Photo of the Day

2010-11-18T10:10:00.000+11:00

Door in a Potato Bar in Hawthorn. Photo in Black and White by me.

The sign reminded me of the Swallows and Amazons books that I used to read when I was little.

Suggestions for a lost voice

2010-11-17T10:00:00.000+11:00

Whilst undertaking ‘The Real Inspector Hound’ I managed to carelessly lose my voice. It was amazing how many people came up with suggestions to help…

Ginger and lemongrass tea

Pineapple juice

Honey and milk

Honey and hot water

Honey, hot water and lemon juice

Diflam throat spray

Coke-a-cola

Green Tea

Panadeine (codeine)

Yoghurt

Aniseed

Lemon and Ginger

Photo of the Day

2010-11-15T10:10:00.000+11:00

Statue in the grounds at the Cape Otway Lighthouse.

Photo by me.

Old Quick Thoughts

2010-11-14T10:00:00.000+11:00

These thoughts of mine have been in the draft folder for a long time...

I have had a pair of long green woollen traditional Scottish socks in my car for four days. I think I look ok in a kilt.

I am happy that I have used “had had” and “that that” before in the one post.

I am trying to workout whether to increase debt and fitness or decrease debt and fitness.

I won $12.50 in Tattslotto.

I think the smaller prizes in Tattslotto are larger when there are less participants to share a part in it. Plus it is a waste of money.

I am tired

Work has put up posters saying “Coughs and Sneezes Spread Diseases” I think that they think being well is just as important as war time secrets – Loose Lips Sink Ships. – And if that is the case why cant I have more sick leave?

When you plan some blogs and then put in random blogs, your planned ones don’t make as much sense as they should.

My work colleagues don’t spy on me – they don’t notice odd things in my car that have been in there over a week like baby seats and book shelves.

I’ve had Derek Bourgeois’s song ‘Serenade’ stuck in my head. It was written to be played at his wedding when his wife walked down the aisle. The music starts in 11/8 (3+3+2+3) and then goes into 13/8 (3+3+2+2+3 I think)

I have worked out how to schedule blog posts.

Photo of the Day

2010-11-11T11:00:00.000+11:00

Books on stage for the performance of 'The Real Inspector Hound'

I like how the spine of 'The Mousetrap' is reflected on the other book, over the dead body. Photo by me.

I'm sure that I'm not clumsy

2010-11-10T11:46:00.001+11:00

Monday was a beautiful spring day, I had arrived at the theatre a couple of hours early, and I thought that I would take the opportunity to have a good rest. I strolled down to the local shops and brought some fruit and orange juice from the IGA and some bread from the bakery, strolled back to the theatre and sat on the grass, with a lovely tall gum tree throwing his shadow over me to protect me from the strong, warm, spring sun.

After reading for quite some time I thought it would be nice to stroll down to the main street for a coffee, so I unfolded my legs and sprang up. But something was not quite right. I looked down, and my feet were struggling to keep me balanced, they turned sidewards and I came crashing down to the ground and a huge ‘crack’ echoed down the street.

I poked both feet and could not feel a thing, they were fast a sleep, and as I started reflecting on the crack I thought that they were both broken.

A few minutes later, took up by slowing finishing off the last of the orange juice, it was clear that I had sprained/twisted/turned by right ankle which was nicely swelling up, but thankfully the left one was fine. The moral of this story is to check if your feet have fallen asleep before standing up.

Two days later filled with comments like ‘That’s a very Andrew way to get injured’ and ‘Some people hurt them selves playing professional sport, some people hurt themselves running a marathon, Andrew hurts himself by standing up’ I have come to the conclusion that some people think that I am clumsy. I’m not, am I? I wouldn’t get hurt more than anyone else…

Interesting Quotes

2010-11-10T10:00:00.000+11:00

Here are some quotes that I like, that I have had lying around for a long time...

“Language is part of a person’s character.” – Francis Bacon

Good guy to evil secretary:
“How’s the secretary biz these days? Scheduled any first-rate appointments lately?”
In Mary Doria Russell’s “The Sparrow”

“Trisha knew who Banquo’s ghost was. She had studied English literature at A-level, and had actually done three months’ teacher training before deciding that she was going to spend her life dealing with juvenile delinquents she would rather do it with full powers of arrest.”
Page 352 Ben Elton’s ‘Dead Famous’

The safest way to double your money is to fold it over once and put it in your pocket. - Kin Hubbard

Photo of the Day

2010-11-08T10:10:00.000+11:00

The Road into Bright.

Photo by me.

Photo of the Day

2010-11-05T11:00:00.000+11:00

Drinking fountain in Beechworth.

Photo by me. Has this fountain transported anyone to other worlds?

Photo of the Day

2010-11-04T17:27:00.001+11:00

Sign on store on Plenty Road, Preston.

Photo by me.

Ode to a Piano Man

2010-11-04T17:20:00.003+11:00

I've got a backlog of posts that have never been published. This is from March 2009.

Hello my name is Andrew and I have a problem. I used to like Weird Al and would listen to him whenever any of my flat mates would put on a CD. However I have not listened to his music for years when I found “Running With Scissors” hiding in my room last December, I became obsessed. I can now sing The Saga Begins, My Baby’s In Love With Eddie Vedder, Truck Drivin’ Song and Albuquerque almost perfectly.

Well I thought I would buy another of his CD’s and I now have two more favourite songs. One is Ode to a Superhero. It is sung to the tune of Billy Joel’s Piano Man

Piano Man:

Sing us a song, you’re the piano man
Sing us a song tonight
Well, were all in the mood for a melody
And you’ve got us feelin’ alright

Ode to a Superhero

Poor Peter Parker was pitiful
Couldn't have been any shier
Mary Jane still wouldn't notice him
Even if his hair was on fire

Sling us a web you're the Spiderman
Sling us a web tonight
'Cause we're all in the mood for a hero now
And there's evil-doers to fight

I love how Weird Al Yankovic tells the stories of movies to music. But what is more enjoyable is his songs that are full of clever insights and word play such as

A Complicated Song to the tune of Avril Lavigne’s Complicated.

Pizza all day
And every day
This cheese 'round the clock
Is gettin' me blocked
And I sure don't care
For irregularity

Tell me
Why'd you have to go and make me so constipated?
'Cause right now I'd do anything to just get my bowels evacuated,
in the bathroom
I sit and I wait and I strain and I sweat and I clench and I feel the pain
Oh, should I take laxatives or have my colon irrigated?
No no no

Work can be funny

2010-11-03T14:18:00.002+11:00

This has been today's email chain:

>>> Head Honcho >>>
could you sned out please, hh

>>> Andrew >>>
done. Sneded.

>>> Head Honcho >>>
thanks for sneding

It has been raining

2010-10-31T11:59:00.003+11:00

View over Melbourne from Mount Dandenong

It is hard to catch rain drops and bubbles.

Mortality at the BMW Edge

2010-10-25T16:30:00.001+11:00

Dr David Suzuki is a biologist and an environmental activist, he has an energy in him, that captivates the audience when he talks and holds us interested, no matter how uncomfortable the chairs. He has such a calming aura/feeling/presence. And is also good at using humour as a tool to get messages across.

He talked about how we are all connected to the world around us, the air we breathe, every breath we take, and the water we drink, and how the water and the air interacts with our body and disperses around the world due to entropy and the water cycle. And as a consequence polluting the world means polluting ourselves.

On a side note, the 'elements' fire, earth air and water have an understandable mysterious connection to the human being. I remember hearing about a study that even today many adults when asked what makes up an atom's electrons and protons will reply; fire, earth air and water.

Two questions were interesting in a weird way and so I though that I would try to answer them myself. Question 1, to paraphrase; is Dr Suzuki preaching to the converted? I am not an environmentalist activist, so in my personal case, no. No. It is so easy to forget, we need, well I need, some one to remind us to think about how we can help the world.

The second question was: how should we live our life. And at one stage I was also hoping that Dr Suzuki would tell me how to live my life, but he didn't, and I guess any choice I make is a choice in my head and in my heart, and would be more powerful than doing something that someone orders or suggests for me to do, would an audience go away and do things just because someone told us to?

I think the big thing is syntheses/application. What can I do? Think of water, waste and energy consumption. Having coffee outside with work, listening to my colleagues talk about buying air-conditioners, thinking why, I've never had one, is it needed. Installing solar panels, fruit and vegipatches, public transport, there are things to do. Cutting down on paper in my office - done, but can do more.

"Every breath you take, Every move you make, Every bond you break, Every step you take, I'll be watching you." - The Police.

Photo of the day

2010-10-22T16:12:00.004+11:00

Memorial at Jindabyne. Photo by me.

The text says: This memorial is dedicated to the Irish men and women who worked on the construction of the Snowy Mountains Scheme.

Am I alone and unobserved

2010-10-18T14:39:00.002+11:00

I saw Patience by Gilbert and Sullivan performed by an amateur company on Saturday. The stench of urea starts the performance with 'Twenty love-sick maidens wee'.
SFX: Phone rings. "What's that ... only one 'e' you say ... you sure ... if you insist ... well I guess it does make more sense... thank you."
That is, I mean, 'Twenty love-sick maidens we'.

There were good things in the performance and there were bad things in the performance. I particularly liked the colonel, the major and the duke.
SFX: Phone rings. "No I'm not being biased ... I know that I've met the colonel ... yes I have done shows with the major ... look they did a good job, ok?"
Ladies Angela, Saphir, Ella and Jane were also good.

But I don't understand having chorus members who don't sing. Give me feeling. Give me sound. And why aren't some of those lines sang fortissimo? I am sure the score calls for it. It is also very noticeable when on the first exit the last choir-member exits holding the tune beautifully, letting the final words and emotions cascade into the audience, when the next time the same choir-member is the fifth last to exit and the last four are not singing at all, so all you get is a muffled line of song off stage which does not convey the emotion or the story.

Costumes were nice. It is amazing how much good costumes can help, or perhaps it is amazing how distracting bad costumes can be. Saw a performance of something with horrible uniforms, it was really really distracting, especially when they were singing about pride in the uniform. And while I'm whingeing: Why do audiences in G&S shows, clap after each song? I can understand if it was a brilliant solo - but is it really needed after every song? And why are G&S lighting plots always white wash?
SFX: Phone rings. "No I don't want to buy any white king"

I feel that G&S needs military precision.
SFX: Phone rings again. "What's that ... yes I know that the saying is surgical precision ... military works better with my argument ... the male choruses are always policemen, in the navy, or dragoons ... look, can you please stop interrupting."
G&S needs military precision. Military precision with feeling. Tell the story. Let the audience hear the words, otherwise its just mush.

I like Patience, it might be one of my favorite G&S collaborations, and there were good moments in it, but unfortunately some horrid ones as well. Or perhaps I've just been spoilt, grown up with grandparents who would play an immaculate version on video when ever they could. Want to see the Mikado now.

The meaning doesn’t matter if it’s only idle chatter of a transcendental kind.
And ev’ry one will say,
As you walk your mystic way,
“If this young man expresses himself in terms too deep for me,
Why, what a very singularly deep young man this deep young man must be!”

Keating the Musical

2010-10-15T14:12:00.003+11:00

This is not a political post. You can like Keating the Musical no matter what side of the fence you sit on, but I get a bit idealistic at the best of times…

Thanks to JR, I’ve just been exposed to ‘Keating the Musical’ which is a great story and picture of the Australian federal political scene in the ‘90s. There was great comedy with Kernot and Evan’s duet, great satire with Howard’s songs, but the part that touched me the most was Paul Keating singing ‘The Light on the Hill.’

They're counting up the votes across Australia
This time it seems the verdict is severe
Swan, McEwen, Fadden, Dickson,
Bass and Paterson and Kingston
But it's Oxley with the message, loud and clear

The Light on the Hill – From Keating the Musical

I remember watching the ’96 election, seeing 29 seats change hands from the red to blue, and hearing those words be put into Keating’s mouth, makes it so very poignant.

Also knowing where the eight electorates mentioned are and knowing the history of McEwen and Oxley, I think probably makes the song more moving for me than possibly others.

There are 150 seats in the lower house, I could name a fair few, and tell you where others are if you tell me the names, but I think that most Australians just do not know what their electorate is, yet alone the others around it.

But still I dream

That the stars will be aligning

As our fates are intertwining

Until every heart is shining with goodwill

Shining like the light on the hill,

Shining like the light on the hill.

I’ll dream of the day that 150 members can work together and not fight like spoilt children. I’ll dream of a day, when the political map of Australia is full of many colours, especially greens, reds, yellows, blues and greys. Until every heart is shining with goodwill.

You can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow too.

I've been to the theatre

2010-10-12T16:07:00.001+11:00

The Melbourne Fringe Festival, is a time of acting, seeing, dancing, singing. A happy time, but a bittersweet time as well, as you can never see every performance that you want to.

Testimony

The testimony of the minotaur, feels like a court case, with Matt Crosby as the minotaur pleading his case to us, the audience, as the jury. It is a story that waxes and wanes with sanity, passion, thought, feeling, hunger and pain. Matt was excellent, the ultimate story teller, swaying between these poles beautifully. Keeping us gripped the entire time. I loved the performance, would have liked to see it again, and want to see the next edition of Matt’s 101 stories.

Under Milk Wood

I had to see Under Milk Wood, as I fell in love with it when I acted in it a couple of years ago. Under Milk Wood is a play for voices, over sixty characters come alive through Dylan Thomas’s picturesque, exquisite words.

Hush, the babies are sleeping, the farmers, the fishers, the tradesmen and pensioners, cobbler, schoolteacher, postman and publican, the undertaker and the fancy woman, drunkard, dressmaker, preacher, policeman, the webfoot cocklewomen and the tidy wives.

It is a beautifully challenging piece with a cast of 17. But with a cast of one I would have thought impossible. But that is what Zoe Lodge has mastered at the Melbourne Fringe Festival. In a tiny room in the North Melbourne Town Hall we were transferred to Llareggub. It was amazing how all the characters were given their voice, easily distinguishable from each other, with conversations between multiple characters delivered superbly. It was hilarious, clever, thought provoking – I would love to see anything acted by Zoe.

And the suddenly wind-shaken wood springs awake for the second dark time this one Spring day.
- Dylan Thomas 'Under Milk Wood'

Photo of the Day

2010-10-07T15:41:00.002+11:00

Iron statute of bird on cow, at the Daylesford Convent - Artist unknown.

If any one knows the sculptor please let me know.

Photo taken by me.

I Would Like a Fish

2010-09-29T10:26:00.001+10:00

If I had a fish, I would call it Nero. And people would say, "Don't you mean Nemo, after the Pixar movie?" and I would reply, "No, Nero. The Roman Emperor."

Or two fish. A red fish and a blue fish.

I'm serious! I'm not trying to be funny. I would like some fish. A nice red fish like fire and another as blue as something that is very blue.

An old tumbled down castle and a laurel wreath on the floor of the tank.

A plaque that says, "So Long and Thanks for all the Fish". Some one must make plaques with that phrase... If not I think I have just started a new business... Or could I sell the idea to ThinkGeek...

Fish is one of the words in the English Language that if you write it down too many times it looks as if it is spelt incorrectly.

English Language

2010-09-24T15:06:00.001+10:00

"English doesn't borrow from other languages. English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over, and goes through their pockets for loose grammar."

Having stumbled on the above quote, and appreciating it's sentiments, I spent a couple of minutes trying to track down the original author. I found a couples of possibilities but no one who was a clear candidate. But in Wikipeadia, the fount of all knowledge, I did find a simular statement which is could have been derived from:

“The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.”
- James Nicoll (1990)

I've always pictured the English language like a pirate... Stealing words from other languages... Making obsolete words walk the plank... We have such a wealth of words from all manner of locations, Ancient German, Ancient French, Latin, Hindi... And I like how we use ancient foreign words in the manner that they were used hundreds of years ago, whilst the original language no longer uses that word, and the English words used at the same time have suffered from meaning changes...

In my search I also found:

If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.
- Doug Larson

Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don't see any.
- Orson Scott Card

Photo of the day

2010-09-22T11:28:00.003+10:00

Stair at Mount Buffalo in Victoria Australia.

Photo by Andrew Scarborough.

December 2008

Painting the stage

2010-09-15T11:51:00.005+10:00

A director approaches you and says, "Oi, Andrew, can you draw a mural for my play? I want a city scape, with perspective. One that someone might see if they lived in Brunswick or Fitzroy, looking over the house opposite, over a park and then the city."

And you reply, "No worries, I'll do my best." And then realise that you haven't actually drawn anything since year ten in high school and that was about ten years ago.

You start by working out a horizon, one that the audience can see and start outlining buildings and you paint in a few buildings to see what it looks like.

Lesson 1: When you paint, do all of the painting at the one time. That way you can remember how you mixed up those colours.

Realising that the city looks a bit odd with no suburbs before it, you draw in a few more smaller buildings, however as some of the painting has been done, you don't have much room.

Lesson 2: Do all of the pencil working out first.

Looking at the mural, the park looks dreadfully sparse, so you fill it up, realising that it goes on for far too long. And that it looks like the house is in Craigieburn, looking for miles over farm land to the city.

Lesson 3: Really think hard about perspective and actual distances first.

Then the director says, "How about you make it so that the city windows light up at night."
And we experiment with glow in the dark paint, which doesn't want to be worked so finely, and end up testing white envelope labels, cut down to size with fluoro blue lights.

But does it work?

Yes it does, and the director starts requesting other things, I started thinking of doing it all over again.

Lesson 4: You are the artist and can say no.

And by the end it looked okay. If I did it again I would do it differently. Really really plan everything. Pencil line everything. And paint at the end.

Photo of the day

2010-09-08T11:41:00.002+10:00

The walking track to Cape Schanck. Photo taken by Andrew Scarborough

A busy birthday weekend

2010-09-07T13:19:00.003+10:00

I have had a nice birthday and have been spoilt dreadfully by all of my friends. I had dinner on Saturday with Stace and Aiden and Elspeth who gave me a beautiful book, and I had fun being beaten at chess. I will need to practice my chess skills.

Then on Sunday I had morning tea at 'Snow Pony' on Whitehorse road in Balwyn. Their coffee was beautiful. The owners also own 'Porgy and Mr Jones' in Camberwell which has won awards due to their coffee and breakfasts.

We had to wait for about 45 minutes to get a table, which I didn't mind doing, but boy my brother couldn't stand it, and I don't think my Dad or stepmum was too impressed. But the coffee was worth it.

Then off to rehearsals in the city.

Then afternoon tea at the Tin Pot with Erin. And Aniko and Julian were able to drop by too. So I had beautiful friends, beautiful conversation and good tea in a proper tea cup.

And Sunday dinner with family. I got a lovely card from my nephew "To Anjroo' and read to him a lovely story called 'Mowgli Brothers' which Erin kindly gave to me.

At work on Monday I went to reception and Diana jumped out of the recycling bin wearing a multicoloured wig and blowing a horn.

Art in Melbourne

2010-09-02T15:24:00.001+10:00

10:00 Showing of 'Toy Story 3'

I had seen Toy Story 3 before but I wanted to catch it again to double check a few things. Toy Story 3 is a beautiful movie, which would easily be in my top ten movies of all time. In Toy Story 3 a mix-up occurs where the toys decide to go to Sunnyside Daycare Centre believing that Andy no longer wants them. Woody bids them adieu, stating that he belongs to Andy, and starts to head home but finds out that Sunnyside is a despotic camp and heads back to try to rescue his friends. Wonderful animation, excellent heros and villains and a great story line, that is all that is needed.

But the way Pixar pulls the story off is astronomical. Real seat gripping action, terrific humour, and a final scene that is so beautiful, and so emotional, that makes me weep just thinking about it, and boy, I was bawling during the movie. And then a beautiful closing sequence during the credits to leave everyone on a high.

I'm not quite sure why the movie had such an emotional impact on me; but perhaps it brings back the heart-wrenching scenes of giving away my own toys; or going back to a time when everything was simple.

I think interrealm from www.imdb.com has a good point saying "that we all have very real and deep connections to our childhoods and to the things and people that allowed us as kids to be free, and innocent, and pure, and most importantly, to dream."

To have 'You've got a friend in me' sang in Spanish as the credits role as Buzz and Jessie dance made a beautiful end. The song alone brings smiles but the pictures bring laughter.

13:00 'The Real Inspector Hound' by Tom Stoppard

Reading and Rereading, trying to learn lines, over Belgium waffles and coffee. Relating them to Toy Story. "If we examine this more closely, and I think close examination is the least tribute that this play deserves ... the author has given us - yes, I will go so far - he has given us the human condition".

16:00 Tim Burton Exhibition at ACMI

This exhibition was amazing. Hundreds of Tim's drawings from childhood to adulthood, drawings for fun, by doodling, for books, for movies. Some pictures seemed to me a cross between Babbette Cole's illustrations in her 'Trouble With' books and Terry Denton's cartoons. Wonderful drawings, some of them would instantly make me smile when I saw them, they conveyed such happiness. Sadly I wasn't allowed to take any photos, and the ones that made me smile are not in the Exhibition Book. Most of the exhibition wasn't in the Exhibition Book, and I would probably advise people not to buy it. But the Exhibition was great. I loved seeing models for monsters and for movies that I had seen. Movies like Betelgeuse, Ed Wood and Edward Scissor hands which I hadn't seen for decades. The exhibition was almost like a trip down memory lane.

19:00 Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

The Melbourne University students put on JC, and did a lovely performance. It was easy to understand and enjoyable to watch - what more does any one want. A nice simple set, having a female Cassius worked nicely, I found it interesting that the director had claimed that it had been modernised, but I didn't think so - I thought that it was a good classical performance.

"To infinity and beyond!" - Buzz Lightyear

May you live in interesting times.

2010-08-30T17:14:00.002+10:00

May you live in interesting times.

In my 28 years of life I have voted in three different Federal Electorates; Chisholm, McEwen and Scullin. In the senate I have voted above the line and below the line at times. I have voted for the Liberals, the Labor Party, the Greens and Independents. And each election I have watched the count and gone to bed knowing who is governing my country.

And now…

We have a hung Federal Parliament. We have four independents Tony Windsor, Rob Oakeshott, Bob Katter and Andrew Wilkie. A Green in Melbourne and WA National Tony Crook. No one knows who will form government but it is interesting that all the Former National/Country party people are saying that Braodband is an important area, along with Health and Education.

Listening to Tony, Rob and Bob on election night, on The Press Club, and through the media over the past week I am very impressed with all of their performances. And I find myself partly dismayed with the performance of certain sections of the media.

I do not agree with all of their views, but I admire the way that they have carried out their proceedings over the past days.

I do not agree with all of Bob Katter’s views, but I take offence at the media painting Mr Katter as an alien, or an American cowboy with no insight or understanding of Australia. Having friends in the country, working on farms whilst trying to survive I know that there are different issues facing country Australia than the issues here in Melbourne and I admire Bob Katter for being able to speak for country Australia and being able to highlight these issues despite persecution. Especially as the National Party, the Labor Party and the Liberal party have been ignoring country Australia for decades.

Reading Emma Rodgers article at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/08/30/2996808.htm the National Party is meeting in Canberra to consider what they will demand in a Coalition government. Why didn’t they do this before? Why don’t they do this every three years?

On a similar topic I like Rob Oakeshott’s idea of a Unity Government, one where members of parliament, all 150, all work together for the betterment of Australia. I would wholly support my member of parliament, the honourable member for Chisholm supporting such a government. Can I please also be the first to nominate Rob Oakeshott for Prime Minister so that we can move forwards with real action.

"If it's up to me, then the gong goes to whoever's going to give us the right to survive and I couldn't care less whether they're the Labor Party, the Liberal Party or the callithumpian mongoloid party." - Bob Katter

A week ago a Google search shows about 500 results for Callithumpian Mongoloid Party, a search now shows about 1280 results.

Winter Reading

2010-08-10T17:11:00.001+10:00

Books and Stories:

Chinese Folktales by Howard Giskin

Hell to Heaven by Kylie Chan

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains by Neil Gaiman

Delta of Venus by Anais Nin

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Twitterature by Alexander Aciman & Emmett Rensin

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Mythology

Plays:

The Mousetrap and Selected Plays by Agatha Christie
(And Then There Were None, Appointment With Death, The Hollow, The Mousetrap)

Weekend by Matthew Lambert

The Last Days by Manuel Casha

Zoo Story by Edward Albee

Plays by Tom Stoppard
(The Real Inspector Hound, After Magritte, Dirty Linen, New-Found-Land, Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth)

Re-read:

Four books by Kylie Chan
The Sandman by Neil Gaiman
The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays by Oscar Wilde

And one hundred more

2010-07-29T13:26:00.005+10:00

Coffee in Sorrento. This was a nice comfortable looking place, a wood fire, nice sandwiches, sadly the coffee was not the best...

... so I walked down the street and had this Hot Chocolate...

... whilst sitting outside looking down the main street.

Then in Preston at the Greek cake shop.

At the Otway Fly

Max's at Melbourne Central - nice, but I think I enjoy the chocolate more than the taste of the coffee. Licking all the chocolate off the cup. As you can see, near the handle there is a lip, if you are not careful, this lip fills up with liquid and as you drink, the liquid goes all over your hand. I have worked out how to drink without this happening, but I think I should test my method a few more times.

In Marysville. Nice coffee, apart from a little bit of burnt milk - which is crime that should be punishable by death. In the background is George's long black.

Bought in Lonsdale Street, near Russell in a nice cake shop. Photo taken on car roof in the car park under the Arts Centre.

In Dad's favorite cafe in Knox City on the ground floor near the fruit shop.

At the same place on a differnt day, on a different coloured table.

One Hundred Coffees

2010-07-27T14:06:00.009+10:00

This is my one hundredth post and what better thing is there to blog about than coffee? It was been a while since my last coffee update so this is what I have been drinking... For some reason I can only upload ten pictures, so here we go...

Cappuccino at Howlong - in NSW near Albury-Wodonga. The coffee cup in the background belongs to Lletna's mum.

In Doncaster Shopping Town. A very very good coffee. I can not remember the name of the shop. Something like "Coffee Hit" near Coles on the ground floor.

At the Melbourne Concert Hall in EQ.

In Carlton at the expensive place underneath the cinema.

Another one from "Caffeine" in Swanston Street - this one with a white lid.

Actors drinking beer with a coffee - Photo by Erin Voth.

That coffee was bought from a place just round the corner from Brunswick Arts called Serena Coffee on Hope Street. Beautiful coffee. I don't know if this is one that I drank or someone else.

Brunetti in Carlton

This was supposed to be a Chocolate Thinkshake but for some reason it is a Strawberry Milkshake.

Benalla

A pizza place in Apollo Bay. One of the two coffees I drunk in two days travel from Melbourne to Cape Otway to Colac to Home.

Short and sweet

2010-07-23T15:30:00.001+10:00

It is sometimes the simplest comments that make people smile:

"My wife likes to say that she is not weird, it is the "normal" people out there that are in fact the weird ones" - Steve

Three Posts Around Acting

2010-07-08T16:28:00.001+10:00

I have a bad habit of drafting posts and then never putting them up. This is a long one, which started as three posts but have similar themes, through written rather badly. They focus on Snatches, two nights of short plays and Candle Ends, a four night festival of word performance held at Brunswick Arts. Though I have split it up into further parts.

Part 1.1: Initial Thoughts.

D and I were watching Glee and at the end D said ‘How weird’. But I thought that that episode wasn’t all that weird. There was a story which had themes and ideas which provoke thought. The characters had to sing a song that described them, yet they sang songs about others, their fathers, their partners, which led me to think that we define ourselves by our relationships. I am A’s son. B’s Partner. C’s dad. This means that when you are in a relationship you can feel more culturally acceptable, when you are not in a relationship you can feel on the outer fringes of society.

Part 1.2: Snatches.

The 11th year of Snatches has just finished and I enjoyed it. I entered thinking I would just do one thing but then fell into a few. On Wednesday I performed in ‘I am a Mac’, ‘Celebrity Lover’, ‘Form and Substance’ and ‘Bonding’. On Friday I performed in ‘Seven Jewish Children’, and re-performed ‘I am a Mac’ and ‘Bonding’.

But I had more fun than some other nights and I think it is partly because I felt that I acted better. ‘Bonding’ on the Friday was so much fun, and to hear the laughter was beautiful. Afterwards I had a great time talking to everyone over a few drinks. I shall miss C and M when they go overseas. I will have to try and visit them.

I liked the performances of ‘Poem’ and ‘Did You Ever Stay Curled in a Ball’ on Wednesday and ‘Tell Them I Said Something’ and ‘Bucket’ on Friday.

I didn’t realise until I arrived at the theatre on Friday that Jack and I were going to do ‘Bonding’ again, and I started stressing. I hadn’t read the script for a couple of days, so I had to read the script a few times backstage whilst busily biting my nails off. The play before us was ‘Tell Them I Said Something’ (TTISS), and I had no idea how long it would go for and as I stood watching going through my lines and actions in my head I became immensely engrossed in the play. I was laughing and totally forgot my worries and that I was going on staged. I loved TTISS.

Part 2.1: Rehearsing for ‘Salome’ - Death

Every picture has a thousand words. Pictures and words, words and pictures. Pictures invoke words and words invoke pictures. Rehearsing ‘Salome’ I am being haunted by a picture. My lines are:

Jokanaan: Get thee behind me! I hear in the palace the beatings of the wings of the angel of death.

Herod: There is an icy wind, and I hear … wherefore do I hear in the air this beating of wings? Ah! One might fancy a bird, a huge black bird that hovers over the terrace. Why can I not see it, this bird? The beat of its wings is terrible. The breath of the wind of its wings is terrible. It is a chill wind.

Herod: I tell you there is a wind that blows … And I hear in the air something that is like the beating of wings, like the beating of vast wings. Do you not hear it?

And these passages make me think of the scenes in the comic Sandman the episode called “The Sound of Her Wings”, Death and her brother feeding pigeons.

I like Neil Gaiman’s death, she is happy and through the stories I think that she is portrayed as more than death, but the circle of life, or the wheel of reincarnation. Of cause Terry Pratchett has a great death as well. I have to get these images out of my head or I will start smiling when I say ‘the sound of the wings of the Angle of death’.

NOTE: ‘Poisoning Pigeons in the Park’ is a song by Tom Lehrer

Part 3.1: After Candle Ends Driving North

Sitting at Wallan Wallan thinking… Sometimes I just want to drive on for ever, through Wodonga, Yass, Sydney, Brisbane, for ever travelling. A journey of healing, thinking, singing corny songs, only stopping to read, sleep and drink.

I’ve seen a bit of theatre lately, or through Candle Ends and it makes you think. Or you chose to think.

Part 3.2: First Date – A Physical Theatre performance by Penny.

Penny’s (from ‘Born in a Taxi’) performance, her facial expressions and her physical struggle to pull words out of her mouth, made me think that ‘yes that is exactly how uncomfortable and difficult interpersonal interactions’ can be. And this month has been difficult for me. At the moment I would love to hide. And in a way that might be what I am doing here.

Part 3.3: Edward Albee’s ‘Zoo Story’

Colin was wonderful as Jerry in Albee’s ‘Zoo Story’, which also spoke about interactions. It was a wonderful performance, both funny and thought provoking. Colin was wonderfully believable as a man down on his luck and had us as the audience in the palm of his hand. Though I have seen it five times I am finding it difficult to recall my thoughts and can only recall the interesting line “I’ll try to kill him with kindness, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll just kill him”.

But I do remember thinking that we show love and interact with others using a whole range of emotions, love, hate and indifference. “But if such a loss, can be called a gain” and that it is partially through our interactions we define our selves. “With a cockroach, with a carpet, with god … and perhaps one day with a human.”

I have really enjoyed my time with M,M,A,T,E,C,et al, but I have not interacted that much. I have not been ready, but I think of them as great friendly people.

Part 3.4: Thoughts

“You cant say ‘A dog I know’ without sounding suss” – from ‘Zoo Story’ by Edward Albee

“To espresso or to Latte, that is the Question, whether ‘tis tastier on the palette to choose white mocha over plain, or take a cup to go, or a mug to stay, or extra cream, or have nothing, and by opposing the endless choice end one’s heartache, to froth, to sprinkle, perchance to drink.” – from ‘Something Rotten’ by Jasper Fforde

Lady Jumping Flea who sings bittersweetly, Ali G, whose audience participation was hilarious and so very clever. Poems from M and M,

I think I may be tired.

“Perchance to dream” – from ‘Hamlet’ by Shakespeare

“I’ve been to the zoo.” – from ‘Zoo Story’ by Edward Albee

Must get a copy of A’s lizard-chicken story

Talking with Peter and Erin, I love Erin’s I believe poem: “I believe in too much coffee and books, both to be shard with friends, unexpected guests.”

I’ve run out of three pens writing this.

I’m beginning doubt my acting ability. I’ve always known that I’m not brilliant. But lately I’ve been stuffing up too much in a variety of ways. I thought that Bonding was great and thought that I might have rediscovered something. But I thought that something went wrong with Salome and LLareggub, which is a shame as they are two of the most beautiful bits of poetry I have acted in. To perform, do I need to find a story that fits me, or do I need to change to fit a story? I wonder where I can take acting workshops.

My coffee is almost finished. I have to think about hitting the road again. It’s interesting driving under these conditions. The sky is misty with light spitting rain. Everything is ever so dark. If there is a car ahead you use their tail lights to read the road and if not you stick to the side, your headlights following the curves of the road. Mo moon and stars to light the way, cars either overtake or sit behind you, using you as their guide.

Positive Thinking

2010-06-17T10:08:00.000+10:00

It has been a bit depressing at work lately, so I am going to think of happy things that I have done in the past months… (in no particular order).

- Playing Trivial Pursuit with Aidan and Stace in Bundoora

- Rehearsing plays with E at the Tin Pot

- Watching ‘The Princess Bride’ with mum and my brother

- Scrabble with Gran

- Reading Twitterature whilst eating strawberries with dipping chocolate and a coffee.

- Dinner with Erin and friends with beautiful conversation and food.

- Snatches 2010 and the After Party

- Cooked breakfast with Mum, George and Cog.

- Having a picnic by Lake Burley Griffin with Stace & Elly & Chantell

Ways that I will help others and myself:

- I have entered the 10km run in the Melbourne Marathon and will raise money for the Cerebral Palsy Education Centre.

- I will try to get a team to enter the Oxfam Trailwalker for next April. And start walking as I imagine that it will take a while until I am ready for it. If I cant get a team I will become a support person.

Mothers Day Bistromathematics

2010-05-17T15:25:00.001+10:00

One thing that a lot of comedians and actors do well is to take a normal everyday occurrence and point out how totally ridiculous it is.

Douglas Adams in “Life the Universe and Everything” creates a spaceship that runs by the advanced mathematics that occurs in restaurants, including arguing over the bill.

“The third and most mysterious piece of non-absoluteness of all lies in the relationship between the number of items on the bill, the cost of each item, the number of people at the table, and what they are prepared to pay for.” (Page 342)

“… They had had the bill, had argued convincingly about who had had the cannelloni and how many bottles of wine they had had, and … had thereby successfully manoeuvred the ship … into orbit round a strange planet.” (Page 379)

Whilst having a Mothers Day Diner at a lovely Indian restaurant I was laughing at the absurdity of the bill, and realising how beautifully Douglas Adams had got it right.

This ‘light bulb’ moment struck me so late in life, because usually when eating out the bill is picked up entirely by one person, and we take turns to do so – except for in the case of parents and some friends who will remain nameless (I’m looking at you Aidan) who seem to pay more often then they should.

Samosas
Pakoras
Onion Bahji
Aloo Goobi
Dahl Mahkani
Mushroom Mutter
Pumpkin Masala
Matter Paneer
2 Garlic Naan
2 Plain Naan
2 Large Rice
3 Coffees
2 Mango Lassi
3 Lemonades

Seven People.
Food cost: $121.00

$100 from Lynne, argued down to $50, left early and $15 will be returned. Money to pay for Lynne and Gran

$40 from George to pay for George and Anne, argued down to $20.

$50 from Andrew to pay for Anne and Andrew (I had three drinks.)

$20 from Karyn to pay for Karyn and Gran

David did not pay anything or say anything.

Total: $125

(Page numbers are from my “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – A trilogy in four parts” book, so if you subtract 308 from the above page numbers you should get roughly the page number for “Life, the Universe and Everything”)

Beckett's Clowns

2010-05-14T15:57:00.003+10:00

Beckett’s Clowns, Hats and the Uncertainty of Existence.

On Thursday I saw “Waiting for Godot” at the Comedy Theatre in Melbourne. Sir Ian David Copperfield Gandalf McKellen played Estragon and Roger Rees played Vladimir. (Lovely theatre, but uncomfortable seats).

Gandalf was wonderful, so believable, his vagrant costume superb, and his portrayal convincing and humorous, the perfect lovable vagabond. It was a pleasure to watch him hobble across the stage, interact with the other actors, never for a moment slipping out of character. It is almost impossible to imagine another actor's interpretation. And Roger Rees, as the straight man Vladimir, was beautiful.

“That's the way I am. Either I forget immediately or I never forget.” – Estragon

Beckett’s humour and language was superb throughout Estragon and Vladimir’s lines. Unfortunately I can not remember some of the most wonderful lines. It was interesting that in the program the Director wrote that he has no idea what the play is about, however the audience does. And we did. It was certainly enjoyable and the laughs rolled around the theatre. What is art, but what the audience takes away, be it philosophical thought or bum jokes.

(Stooping) “True.” (He buttons his fly) “Never neglect the little things of life.” – Vladimir

I think it is partly about waiting, and about occupying time, and partly about perception and dreams. If we perceive that something has happened how can we be sure that it actually happened as memory is defective. Estragon portrays this through his very poor memory. Then when Vladimir is trying to ascertain whether or not yesterday happened, he could not rely on Estragon, and Vladimir’s uncertainty about the realness of yesterday worries him.

“Was I sleeping, while the others suffered? Am I sleeping now? Tomorrow, when I wake, or think I do, what shall I say of today? That with Estragon my friend, at this place, until the fall of night, I waited for Godot? That Pozzo passed, with his carrier, and that he spoke to us? Probably. But in all that what truth will there be? He'll know nothing. He'll tell me about the blows he received and I'll give him a carrot.” - Vladimir

The actions of the Ruler of the Universe in Douglas Adam’s “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe” also portray the uncertainty of existence beautifully.

“… tried wrapping the paper round the pencil, he tried rubbing the stubby end of the pencil against the paper and then he tried rubbing the sharp end of the pencil against the paper. It made a mark, and he was delighted with the discovery, as he was every day.” – Douglas Adams.

Or perhaps the play is about philosophy, poverty, slavery, humanity, friendship, time, illness, mortality, humour, clowns…

I saw a reference to Vladimir and Estragon as being Beckett’s two clowns. I would disagree and argue that Pozzo and Lucky are the clowns. I am sure that people are not supposed to like all characters, and I don’t really like Pozzo and Lucky. They are ridiculous in their actions and words. They are more caricatures and exaggerations then people. And not people that you want to meet. Pozzo’s self centric attitude and disregard for others is sickening and I found his first scene uncomfortable. Whilst V & E are humorous, they still maintain a realness about them.

Throughout there is beautiful choreography of hats, hats being taken off and put back on, stage wise like vaudeville performers. Which adds a level of comedy. Perhaps to remind us that we are watching a play, perhaps to show that there is beauty in everyone. I do not know.

"We are all born mad. Some remain so." - Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

The Inner Workings

2010-05-12T14:16:00.001+10:00

People are interesting things. The way they work internally, and the way that they get a long with other people.

I suffer from a slight condition where my body does not create all the necessary chemicals to survive. So I need to get some particular medication every three months. If I do not have it on time, I feel depressed, demotivated, weak, and insecure. At these times the slightest comment from some one else can make me feel horrible.

I am running a bit late and well work is rather horrible at the moment. Work is stressful. The boss has just left for five weeks of holiday - giving us three days warning, and I hear has been complaining about us in meetings, two colleagues are at each others’ throats, and another colleague seems to be avoiding me, when in the past I would have thought that we were friends. I need to sit and have lunch with them to cheer myself up, but they disappear.

Every one seems to like the fact that I work here, like my jokes, use my knowledge when they need help, like how I say good morning to them. They all say that work would be “up s creek” without me. However no one wants to sit down with me once or twice a week and have a cup of coffee.

Which is frankly making me feel a bit ill and very upset.

I’ve applied for another job, and I sort of don’t want it, but when I’m in this mood, I just don’t know. I think that they wont miss me.

American Gods

2010-05-05T10:23:00.002+10:00

‘One Book, One Twitter’ begins today or tomorrow depending on where in the world you are. A world wide book club who will be reading “American Gods” by Neil Gaiman. To participate go to @1T1T2010

I won’t be participating. I have read the book. It is a good book, and one day I will reread it, but not at the moment. I think that since I have now read more of Neil’s works I will enjoy it more a second time. I’m still trying to finish “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. It’s a good book, but my head has been in the wrong space.

I tend to have reading peaks and troughs through out the year and I think I’m in a trough.

Does the post title refer to the book, Neil Gaiman, Huckleberry Finn or to Mark Twain?

Copywrong or Copyright

2010-05-03T13:10:00.001+10:00

Copywrong or Copyright

Brother David and I do not see many movies. Cousin Cod is studying Media this year and is going to the cinema to watch a movie every week as home work. David has been challenged to match Cod and is aiming to watch 52 movies at the cinema this year and I’ve been lucky to have been invited along to a couple.

I have seen some terrific movies and some horrible movies. Three of the movies I have issues with include “Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief”, “Clash of the Titans” and “Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland”.

Erin at erinvoth.blogspot.com notes that “Percy” and “Clash” are both poorly written, poorly directed, have poor special effects and portray women as either monsters or things. All excellent points but my main issue today is that in addition they destroy (or use) other’s literary works.

Likewise, thanks to Tim Burton (a director whom I admire), a whole generation now know the words and language of Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky (originally featured in “Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There”) but sadly not in the original context. And I feel that this is a great loss.

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
- Lewis Carroll 1872

I know that the Greek Myths and Plays were written before the idea of copyright and that Alice has long been out of copyright, but being at uni for years hearing people talk about plagiarism I think that playing with other’s works is wrong. Especially wrong when you adapt it in such a horrible manner such as “Percy” and “Clash” in a way it destroys the original. And you are destroying Classic works.

To correct mistakes the demigod Io has nothing to do with the story of Perseus, Pegasus is said to have sprung from the severed head of Medusa so therefore can not be met before the slaying of Medusa, and there is nothing to say that Medusa is evil and lives in the underworld but at one stage was beautiful and wouldn’t harm anyone (apart from Athena) if people would just not decide to lop off her head or steal her apples.

But this use of other’s works is not just a 2010 phenomenon, but has been going on for a while. For example pride of place in my bookshelf lives books written by Jasper Fforde and Neil Gaiman, and on other shelves you can find Corneilia Funke and Gregory Maguire, all who use other’s creations, some which are still in copyright and some who are not. (Am I a hypocrite?)

Fforde’s works contain ‘credits’ where he, in a humorous manner, acknowledges those whose work he has used; Shakespeare, Austin. Likewise Funke acknowledges her sources. However on the other hand Neil Gaiman and ‘Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief’ both use mythology or characters from mythology who have never been under copyright and a lot of them are long forgotten such as Zeus, Loki and Bast.

But one of my issues is that the use of these characters has changed the audience’s view towards the original works. And I think that this is a line that should not be crossed. One of the most pronounced change is Maguire’s “Wicked” (and the following musical) where he tells the tale of Baum’s “Wizard of Oz” through the eyes of the Wicked Witch of the West.

Feedback on Maguire’s “Wicked” included: “Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again” and Maguire states in his dedication “Please don’t sue me.” So surely someone must realise that if something is not rotten in the state of Denmark, it is certainly rotten in the bookworld (no pun intended). I have observed people leaving the musical “Wicked” believing that it was what Frank Baum wanted, that the wicked witch of the West is good and the wizard is evil. In the social conscious of the Earth hear-and-now ‘Wicked’ is now canon. Admittedly this could also be partly due to the stupidness of people. But I feel that this is wrong.

I enjoyed Maguire’s “Wicked” there are some wonderful questions posed along the lines of evil, propaganda and free speech. And I love Fforde and Gaiman’s works, but I just feel that the line must be drawn somewhere.

On Tangents:

I’ve been wracking my brains trying to remember where I’ve heard some one say “but the line must be drawn somewhere” and after a lot more searching than I would have thought possible it is from this literary line, written by Gilbert in 1878 (though there could be others): “I attach but little value to rank or wealth, but the line must be drawn somewhere. A man in that station may be brave and worthy, but at every step he would commit solecisms that society would never pardon.”

I have not used the word “intercontextuality” or worked out how to spell it in today's post.

I prefer the Greek god names over the Roman.

Medusa has often been used to portray the raging aspect of the human psyche. I would love to be able to draw a picture of all aspects of the human psyche crowded around a person. The classical conscious with an angel and a devil, a troll and wolf symbolising the deep aspect of flight or fight, personification of fear, love, anger…

The Fall and Rise of my Reading

2010-04-19T12:52:00.002+10:00

At work Caroline says it is wrong to re-read books, but I feel that re-reading is like visiting an old friend. But if you don’t re-read, what is the point of owning any books. We could talk about useless possessions, cost, etc. But I wonder how long I could last without going into a bookshop and buying anything, only going to Libraries and borrowing books off friends and family. There is something, nice, sweet and selfish about having a ‘fresh’ book. Then again I would have over nine boxes of books and growing.

Anyway I have recently read:

“Complete Short Fiction” by Oscar Wilde
Of which my favourites were; The Happy Prince; The Devoted Friend; The Fisherman and His Soul and Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime. Both mum and I loved The Happy Prince, though we didn’t realise that it was written by Wilde. Mum thought that it was collected by Hans Christian Andersen. Andersen did write ‘The Steadfast Tin Soldier’ and ‘The Little Match Girl’ who are both reflected in The Happy Prince. As kids, my sister and I had a collection of children’s stories, which all came with cassette tapes, which had the ‘The Happy Prince’ and kid’s versions of Andersen and Grimm and the Thousand Nights.

“The Sandman Volumes 7-11” by Neil Gaiman
Also read “Sandman: The Dream Hunters”, “Death: The High Cost of Living”, and “Death: The Time of Your Life”, all by Neil Gaiman. Yes this has become a very expensive addiction – but a very enjoyable one, and I will re-read them again and again.

“Tess of the D’Urbervilles” by Thomas Hardy
This is a good book, but just not one of my favourites. It skips time in a manner which confuses the reader as to how much time has passed and it skips parts of interesting discussions. The bad guy is a huge pain in the neck – I dislike him so strongly that it might have interferred with my enjoyment of the text. I can understand how some people would think that it is a wonderful book, and there are many nice passages, just not one of my best.

“Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens
This is a good book, has an interesting start, but the best part is the last third, so if you find it a hard slog and give up you wont get to the good bits. I liked David Copperfield better as it was more pleasurable.

“Bridget Jones’s Diary” by Helen Fielding
It’s an okay book, has a number of good moments and laugh out loud moments, but nothing special. Not my type of book, though I can see how others would enjoy it. I will need to ask people whether this story would be in the small pile of books that are better as films. Any way one more book down from the list.

“White Tiger” by Kylie Chan
Recommended by David. Also read “Red Phoenix”, “Blue Dragon” and “Earth to Hell” all by Kylie Chan. A very good read. A sort of Dungeons and Dragons book, but set in a real time Hong Kong with interesting Chinese mythological characters. The only annoying thing is that the first series (White/Red/Blue) ends at a horrible place with a thousand plot lines unresolved. However “Earth to Hell” closes up a lot of these story lines and finishes in a much better position. I am looking forwards to the next two books. I just hope they tie up the story lines.

And here are some old friends that I have recently re-read. I think I have almost stopped quoting Adams (Apart from airports and 42).

“Shades of Gray” by Jasper Fforde
“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams
“The Restaurant at the End of the Universe” by Douglas Adams
“Life, the Universe and Everything” by Douglas Adams
“So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish” by Douglas Adams
“Mostly Harmless” by Douglas Adams by Douglas Adams

I have now read 37 books from the list of 100. I'm contemplating stopping after the 42nd. For the entire list go to http://outofthemindsofandrews.blogspot.com/2009/09/what-is-intelligence.html

Can I Please Have a Drink

2010-04-09T13:04:00.001+10:00

All I want to do is curl up with a good cup of coffee and read. I’ve worked extremely productively for the entire morning – much better then I have worked earlier in the week. And on my lunch hour I ordered a large coffee and sat down to read. But the coffee was horrible. I did something that I’ve never done before and that was to leave it there. I have to eat there as they make decent vegetarian food and they are extremely nice, especially to me. I went to the other café on campus and got a small coffee, but that was horrible too. Why can’t people make decent coffee? If I had my car on me I would go down to the street to find something.

Also to me an Australian cappuccino is better when it is a third coffee, a third milk and a third froth. If the froth is very thin, it has not been made correctly.

Listen to me whinging and wasting money when there are bigger issues around …

Summer to Autumn Reading

2010-04-07T12:33:00.001+10:00

“The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays” by Oscar Wilde
Recommended by Erin. Lady Windermere’s Fan; Salome; A Woman of No Importance; An Ideal Husband; The Importance of Being Earnest
The plays are lovely, filled with brilliant repartee. I want to see them! No! I want to act in them!

“The Name Of The Rose” by Umberto Eco
Recommended by George. The Name of The Rose is a good whodunit, filled with discussions on Catholicism. Sometimes the theological debates were a bit over my head, but I still enjoyed it. I would like to know how much is based on history and Catholic theology and how much is made up. I like how the main character predicts the contents of a book, by reading other books. Doing a bit of reading tells me that it borrows from the tale of Scheherazade and the Thousand and One Nights, however it has made me want to read Don Quixote. I think my brain must work in very weird ways.

“The Picture Of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde
Enjoyable but I enjoyed the plays. George thinks that I prefer the plays because I am a simpleton who does not like brainy debates and ideas.

“Shades of Grey” by Jasper Fforde
I enjoyed Shades of Grey and its post-apocalyptic setting made me want to read 1984. Shades is a great book however I wouldn’t recommend it until the sequels arrive. I want to see what happens next. There is an ill-explained contradiction there.

“Nineteen Eighty-Four” by George Orwell
Recommended by everyone, from conspiracy theorists to government personal.

April The First

2010-04-01T15:06:00.002+11:00

Think Geek

2010-02-02T14:11:00.001+11:00

I love "Think Geek". Not only can I buy t-shirts and toys but I get emails with new items and hilarious introductions that make me laugh whilst I’m sitting at my desk. I try to explain them to my colleagues but sadly they just don’t understand.

Here is an excerpt:

Oh frabjous day!
In a missive that made designerds and code monkeys everywhere swoon with Valentiney love, our sweetheart Google announced they would stop supporting IE6. Or as our codeslingers call it, IE666. Google pulled out their vorpal blades and with a snicker-snack, they left IE6 dead. Hearing the news was just like being in high school and getting a pass out of P.E. We are chortling with joy. Callooh! Callay!

It is referrencing that wonderful piece of poetry by Lewis Carrol, “The Jabberwocky” which is from “Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There”

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

The full poem can be found in many places including:
http://www.jabberwocky.com/carroll/jabber/jabberwocky.html

Summer Reading

2010-01-29T11:57:00.000+11:00

I’ve been busy reading books that have been recommended by friends and family, and having a second childhood re-reading books that I read as a kid. Is it worth buying books that you would only read once? Most of these books I read in December. I might have read more in December than the entire year combined.

(in no particular order)

“Holes” by Louis Sachar
Recommended by Julie. It is a very good book about a boy who has been sent to a ‘camp’ because he was found guilty of a crime that he did not commit. I couldn’t put it down.

“Coraline” by Neil Gaiman
Recommended by Aidan. The book was okay, but I preferred the movie – There are not many books that I would say that about.

“An Abundance of Katherines” by John Green
Recommended by Caitlin, well technically she recommended anything by John Green. An Abundance is a very enjoyable book, very simple to read and intelligent in it’s own way.

“Cricket Jokes” by Max Walker and Brian Doyle
Recommended by Dad. It has jokes, it is a joke book, what more can be said?

“David Copperfield” by Charles Dickens
Recommended by Mum. It is a wonderful book! Like most classics there are parts that are a drag, but then there are huge sections that fill you up with wonderful feelings of happiness that you fly through. Would be in my top ten book list, if I had a list.

“The Great Gatsby – A Graphic Adaptation” by Nicki Greenberg
I haven’t been able to find “The Great Gatsby” by F Scott Fitzgerald which is on the BBC’s list of 100 books that people haven’t read, so when I found this book in the library I borrowed it, and I enjoyed it a lot. It is the first graphic novel that I read, so started with a bit of intrepidation but the language, which I imagine is mostly straight out of Fitzgerald’s work is amazing. I enjoyed it a lot! Now to find the original work.

“The Sandman: Volume 1 – Preludes & Nocturnes” by Neil Gaiman
Aniko recommended The Sandman, and having read my first ever graphic novel I picked it up and enjoyed it. I found most editions/chapters interesting, with only one that I found a bit freaky. Reading the introduction and afterword it sounded like that Neil felt he did not start writing in his own voice until the later parts, therefore I will have to find Volume 2.

“The Sandman: Volumes 2-6” by Neil Gaiman
Enjoyable. I like how new books/novels/stories build on mythologies of the past earthly civilizations. My favourite is “Volume 6 – Fables & Reflections”. The stories seem longer, there are more stories and they are well constructed. However the only problem is that I think that I’m hooked. This could become a very expensive addiction – however everything looks cheaper on Amazon, just please remind me to convert to Australian dollars.

“The Trial” by Franz Kafka
Interesting but is a very very long read for such a short book. Small parts are terrific but there are paragraphs that go for over seven pages that just seem to drag and drag and drag. There are a few places where the story seems to take a huge jump – but as I discovered when I finished it, The Trial was unfinished at the time of Kafka’s death. And what I find interesting is that Kafka requested that all his notes be burned after his death unread, but his friend published them believing that Kafka only told him to burn them knowing that he wouldn’t do so.

“Her Fearful Symmetry” by Audrey Niffenegger
I usually don’t like stories that have ghosts in them, but I did enjoy this book.

“Past Mortem” by Ben Elton
The main character is a policeman trying to solve a few very weird murders, who gets involved in his past through a online school reunion site. Reading this I was trying to decide whether to go to my tenth year high school reunion. However as I was acting I missed out. There was a lot of people that I would like to see, but I was not close friends to a lot who said that they would be there. An enjoyable book, but my favourite Ben Elton book is still Inconceivable.

“The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood
On the BBC’s list of 100 books that people haven’t read. I enjoyed it. Nice ideas and a bit disturbing near the end, and a very weird end.

“The Chronicles of Prydain” by Lloyd Alexander
I never read these as children, but they would always be advertised in the back of my Chronicles of Narnia books and they had such interesting titles and I always wanted to read them. I finally read Stace’s copies a couple of years ago but recently found a free second hand copy, The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, The Castle of Llyr, Taran Wanderer and The High King. They are a good book, recommended for children and plot wise much better than Narnia. As an adult I love the references to Welsh Mythology.

Stephen Harris (2008) “Classical Mythology Images & Insights 5th edition” McGraw-Hill
I like Greek Mythology, and while at S&A’s this book was lying around and I read bits and pieces. As it has both myths/plays and analysis it is more cerebal and enjoyable than just reading straight mythology.

Asterix and the: “Great Crossing” and “The Vikings” and the “Big Fight” by R Goscinny and A. Uderzo
This second childhood of mine is because the play Titus Andronicus reminded me of a scene in one of the Asterix comics where people are always in baths. However I just can not find it. Though they are still an okay read.

Quotes

2009-12-01T15:02:00.002+11:00

I am often a bit slow to change my desk calendar which means that when I do, I have a number of interesting quotes to read...

"Science may never come up with a better office communication system than the tea break." - Earl Wilson

"However rare true love is, true friendship is rarer." - La Rochefoucauld

Titus Set and Prop

2009-11-30T16:45:00.005+11:00

I like sets and props. However sometimes they are not given any recognition.

Set by Sophie

What could I hide?

Not Quite Coffee

2009-11-26T16:15:00.003+11:00

Its not Terry's, its mine! Possibly the best chocolate in the world.

The unobtainable coffee. The line just did not go down.

A groovy t-shirt - Caffeine

Birthday Cake

Groovy cup cakes in a shop window.

Spring Reading

2009-11-25T14:18:00.001+11:00

(in no particular order)

Books:

“And Another Thing” by Eoin Colfer
On behalf of Douglas Adams’s Trust, Eoin Colfer set out to write the next book in Douglas Adam’s Increasingly Inaccurately Named Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy, and as such we now have Part Six of Three. I enjoyed the book, however there was not the same amount of Science and Maths which existed in Adam’s books which I found disappointing. Instead Eoin Colfer uses religion. 6/10

“Unseen Academicals” by Terry Pratchett (twice)
I enjoyed Unseen Academicals; however I know that a lot of people didn’t. I quite like football, well, Australian Rules Football, and that probably helps. But, I thought the story was more about people then football. There were a few plot leaps, but enjoyable. “The thing about football – the important thing about football – is that it is not just about football” 6/10

“Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” by Patrick Suskind
I loved how Suskind was able to describe common everyday things in language that was gripping and made the book so lovely to read. At the end of every chapter you I wanted to keep on reading, I had to start making my breaks in the middle of chapters. My only negative would be why wasn’t there more people with that same unique scent. 9/10

“Stiff Upper Lips and Baggy Green Caps: A Sledger’s History of the Ashes” by Simon Briggs
This book was rather disappointing. With a sub-title such as “A Sledger’s History” I was hoping for a lot more sledges. “Which of you bastards, called this bastard a bastard?” 3/10

“The Complete Polysyllabic Spree” by Nick Hornby
I bought this book thinking that it had been written by Mark Haddon. Well not Mark Haddon as clearly Nick was written on the cover, but the person who wrote “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time” which turns out was by Mark Haddon and not Nick Hornby. The Complete Polysyllabic Spree is a collection of articles that Nick Hornby wrote for a paper which listed the books that he bought and the books that he read each month. It would be very interesting to keep a list of books read, however I think (sorry, I know) that some people will make fun of my choice of reading. A large positive about this book, is that it inspires you to read more. Now where did I put that Dickens… "If you are reading a book that is killing you, put it down and read something else, just as you would reach for the remote if you weren't enjoying a TV program." 9/10

“Fever Pitch” by Nick Hornby
This was just not my cup of tea. There are some lovely sentences and the descriptions of society are interesting, but you can’t like every book out there.

“The Sparrow” by Mary Doria Russell
It’s a good book, but I found the ending very very fast. I liked the constant changing from the past to the present, though it did take me a while to get used to it. I’m always a bit slow when two characters have similar names. 7/10

“Man Walks into a Bar” by Stephen Arnott and Mike Haskins (parts)
Quite punny. How can you grade a joke book? Actually how can you grade any books, it is so dependant on how you are feeling at any particular time. And the purpose for what you are reading. The 7/10 for Man Walks into a Bar is very different to the 7/10 for The Sparrow. Also when grading out of 10 for books, no book gets a 10.

Plays:

“The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” by William Shakespeare
It took me too long to read, partially because I lost the book. But it was okay. The question is: Will I go and see it as a play? Probably.

“Katerina” by Paula Armstrong
It’s a good play that will make you laugh

“Titus Andronicus” by William Shakespeare (read a million times)
Well maybe I didn’t read it quite that many times, but it would be close to one hundred times.

Katerina

2009-11-23T13:47:00.001+11:00

I always find it amazing how quotes from plays can stay in your head for days.

“Actually, it’s men that make women crazy”
Kat

“You whipped off your shirt in a heated frenzy – being the trollop you are”
Steff

“I’ve still got the Monaro”
Tony

“Had to rest my coldie on my hottie, if you know what I mean”
Mr Bob

“You’re a lovely girl you know. Always ever-so-helpful”
Mrs Wokowski

“Hi there, my gorgeous but somewhat frumpy cousin”
Sam

“I have behaved very badly. I can see that now”
Everstein

For bookings/information go to:
http://www.stagtheatre.org/index.php

The Trouble With Drinking Water

2009-11-09T11:31:00.000+11:00

An Interesting Building

2009-11-05T14:30:00.005+11:00

When you drive down St Georges Road in Fitzroy you can see a church spire towering over the surrounding buildings. The spire is made from a metallic substance that reflects the sky. On sunny days it is a clear blue and on cloudy days the reflective grey of the spire can seem to disappear against the clouds.

I arrived in Fitzroy one sunny Sunday morning and thought I would take a photo or two of the spire. And this gave me the opportunity to have a good look at the rest of building’s exterior.

Trying to find information about the church was next to impossible. Even the trust-worthy internet was no help. The Hungarian Reformed Church was probably built in the 1880s and started it’s life as St Luke’s Church of England. It is made from bluestone by architects Crouch & Wilson. It has an organ built by William Anderson which is listed with the National Trust.

Crouch & Wilson were also the architects for; the Prahran Town Hall, Victorian College for the Deaf, Hawksburn Primary School, Royal Institute for the Blind and the East Melbourne Synagogue.

I want to know what the church was before it was reformed... Or what the church is now that it is reformed...

Quotes

2009-11-04T09:55:00.003+11:00

As I'm moving office, I have to clean my whiteboard. These quotes have been there for a long time and are going to get removed:

"There is more wisdom in humour than there is humour in wisdom" - P Shaw

"Mathematical puns are the first sine of madness" - anon

"Hanging is too good for a man who puns. He should be drawn and quoted" - Fred Allen

"Puns are like mathematics, people claim to hate them and then use them without realising it"

"Humour is something that thrives between man's aspirations and his limitations. There is more logic in humour than in anything else. Because, you see, humour is truth." - Victor Borge

Coffee Update

2009-11-02T13:14:00.005+11:00

In Strathmore before rehersals for Katerina

In Strathmore again - the barrista remembered that I like taking photos of coffees and made this one for me.

From "Caffeine" in Swanston Street. I had a few during rehearsals for Titus, but did not get a photo. This one was bought for consumption before helping out with a sound recording session for a friend's assignment. Be careful - they like putting sugar in drinks even when you dont want any...

Erin's favourite coffee place is The Tin Pot Cafe on St George's Road in Fitzroy. The coffee was good! And the company better!

Dad's house - I always feel weird drinking tea and coffee from football cups... I wonder if he has a stein...

Hot Chocolate at a cake shop in Chadstone

From the place that I refer to as "The Italian Place at Melbourne Central". This was their new cup. Visited once or twice during Titus Andronicus...

This was their old take-away cup. The floor is the Union Arts Office.

New take away cups at work.

Gran's house - photos are never in focus at Gran's house...