Fad No# 19: Tagging!

So, it seems there's a cyber-game of tag going around, the aim of the game being to prise hopefully interesting information out of fellow taggees. The game I've been tagged into is a bit of a Getting-to-know-you-and-your-reading-habits.
So... I'm cutting and pasting from Pen's blog to answer the tag myself.

A book that changed my life:
Nerdy as it sounds, quite possibly it's Roget's Thesaurus. I suspect this book may have contributed firmly to my love of language and the subsequent Bachelor of Linguistics I did, said degree being rolled up in a cupboard somewhere and costing me a mega-thousand dollar debt to the government! Yay for Roget! (In primary school I went through a phase of writing lists of all the words I could think of. I used to do it wherever and whenever, including whilst walking home in the afternoon, trying not to trip over cracks in the pavement as I joyously scribbled "uncle, elbow, nudge" and whatever else popped into my head. I also ate crayons.)
Another book which impacted on me is Home In The Sky by Jeannie Baker. I think this book was pretty influential on my interest in the tactile arts, as were all of her beautiful books.


A Book I've Read More Than Once:
This is a question that risks a long answer. I am, like Penni, a comfort reader, and have old favourites according to the mood that needs feeding. For a belly laugh, I'll go to my threadbare copy of the Red Dwarf Omnibus. For a therapeutic cry, it's Bridge to Terabithia. For something wholesome I'll read Cold Comfort Farm.


A book I'd like with me if stuck on a desert island:
A really good dictionary. Maybe the complete Oxford. Except I think that's 24 volumes, and I don't know if you can count that as a book. Maybe Red Dwarf again. Geez, two appearances already. Must be a good book! Also, Children of the Dust by Louise Lawrence. Always gives me hope for beyond the apocalypse.


A book that made me laugh:
Inconceivable by Ben Elton recently cracked me up for the second time. Also This Is Your Life, by John O'Farrell.

A book that made me cry:
When The Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs. So poignant, so simple and so rich. I almost tear up just thinking about the illustration where the old man is bleeding onto his grimy white shirt and doesn't even realise it.


A book I wish had been written:
Well, I don't so much wish it had been written, as hope it may be made one day... a book of Stella images, with lovely glossy photos and a sense of achievement!

A book I wish had never been written:
Easy peasey! Wild Animus by Richard Shapiro. I know it is a bit mean-spirited to nominate a book for this question, but it was a freebie they were giving out as a promotional thing on Bookcrossing one time, and I got it and read, well, most of it, but it was so truly horrible that I couldn't bear to waste any more of my life force on it so gave it away in the bookcrossing tradition.

A book I've been meaning to read:
Well, many years ago I bought The Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester, after a passionate recommendation by my favourite linguistics lecturer, but it is yet to be read, and has now migrated from my shelf to the bookcrossing pile to only be reclaimed by Dan and relocated onto his shelf. So maybe I'll try again. I feel as a linguist I ought to love it. Is it not enough to want to love it?!

A book I'm currently reading:
Just started Dayworld by Philip Jose Farmer. Uber-futuristic sci-fi. Too early to say what I think of it, but I'm intrigued by the premise of a world where people live in stasis six days out of seven to reduce their impact on an over-taxed world and its resources.

Fad No#18: The Cliff Young

Spring has sprung, in all it's gusty, blue-eyed fierceness and you can almost feel the dry nose of summer nudging along behind it, and with the clear days and perfumed mornings I have found myself taking up the art of the Cliff Young ... in my crude attempt at Cockney rhyming slang, the Cliff is the humble run. I can now be found not so much pounding the streets as shuffling them, in an effort to compliment and justify the peach-cobblers, bread-and-butter-pudding and general fat of contentment that domestic life has settled over me like a soft, heavy blanket. And I'm discovering all kinds of joys beyond a tight little ass (which hasn't in truth been quite discovered yet, but I'm sure there must be at least one or two buried in there somewhere!) - like the quiet meditation of getting one foot in front of the other before I fall flat on my face (the miracle of pedal mobility! Don't think about it too much or it ceases to become instinctive and instead becomes robotic!) and the aesthetic raptures of my new and as it turns out, rather pretty neighbourhood. I am inspired to take my camera along on some on these excursions to capture some of the moments that please me, that they may please you too!

We like our streets short around these here parts!

The Making of Magic

I was invited to participate in an exhibition as part of this year's Fringe Festival - the brief was a plywood cuban cigar box and the theme of "carnival".
Of course, I found this a pretty exciting premise, and ideas flew aplenty... then the narrowing down began as I started to work out the actual logistics and the likelihood of my persevering with certain avenues (see About Me... tendencies to leave things unfinished!).
Well, in the end it came together, after a few morphs. Here's a visual diary of the progress and end result of what became "Marlowe's Bush-Bashing Theatre and Trav'lling Playhouse".

The first idea: a carnival truck carrying some kind of theatre or stage, remiscent of ABC's great show Carnivale. Alas, the truck body looked a bit tricky for me to pull together plausibly in two weeks.



Next, the scaled-down concept: a mobile-theatre, but on a hand-held barrow or cart...


This idea seemed to hold true, so I pushed on with the making. Jumbo ice-cream sticks from the craft shop make great small-scale planks. Yes, the love of miniatures has come to the fore again.


So far, so good. Everything is going according to plan. No need for tanties!


And now for the star of the show... Marlowe! Pull yourself together dude! (Hyuk hyuk hyuk!)







And here he is, in all his theatrical and slightly sinister glory.
Hopefully he will make the grade and go into the show, Picturesque, to be seen at the North Melbourne Town Hall from October 1-14. If not, there is pride of place waiting for him at home, just left of the Tiki lamp and below the Transformers breakfast tray!

Fad No# 17: Pruning

Long story: While D was having a lovely time weeding and pruning out the back yesterday, I tried to apply for my Grad Dip through VTAC online..mutter mutter...wasted an hour painstakingly filling out boxes and waiting for each agonising page to load...curse, swear...site wigged out and crashed before I finished...extreme swearing with c-words shouted repeatedly at the computer, tried to start again with loads more swearing and patience-well run completely dry...c-hunting c-hunt...site froze up early on...C-HUNT! C-HUNT!...stomping out the back to display my righteous fury to Dan and kick a wall or two, grabbed the pruning shears from him...C-HUNTING VTAC!!!..
Short story: the lavender bush out the front suffered a severe and ruthless pruning. However no animals were hurt in the making of this post.

Fad No#16: Rock Musicals!!!

We were hip with the kidz last weekend... and man am I glad I finally got off my arse and did something to experience the wonders that Melbourne frequently has to offer!

Hedwig and the Angry Inch... D only introduced me to this a coupla months ago on DVD, knowing I'm a big Rocky Horror fan, and I was blown away by the film (based on a stage production in the first place)! Superlatives flew from my mouth left, right and centre! It really is a fantastic story with great, funny, rockin' songs, and real depth of character and theme. And the Australian stage version was an equal match! The lead player, some Sydney musician called iOTA, who I'd never heard of (but like I say, I'm generally not really hip with the kidz), brought Hedwig completely and utterly to life - he was absolutely stunning, fantastic voice, and could act to boot! The rest of the cast consisted of his sidekick and partner, Yitzak (an actress called Blazey Best, who is in (male)drag for most of the show, but at the end you get to see what a total HOTTIE she is too!), and the band. It was really great, and I can't recommend it highly enough, though it finishes this weekend, so you'd wanna be quick.
Of course, as we were leaving the theatre, with memories of the show ringing in our ears, I had my usual fantasies of being in a rock musical myself... bowing at the end and sharing conspiratorial winks and looks with my castmates and crew-members, knowing we're a part of a family... can't I just enjoy it for what it was? Do I have to always want to be a part of everyone else's fun?!
Needless to say, I am on the hunt for the soundtrack, so I can "rock ouuuuuut" in my car (god, how sad) singing along and pretending I'm a tortured East German girly-boy!

A Sad Day.

I just found out that Steve Irwin died this morning. This has made me extremely sad. It feels like such a cliche to extend my full sympathies to his family and friends, but I'm doing it anyway, because who didn't love him, in their heart of hearts. What's not to love about someone that genuine?
:-(

The kids at home... (domestic bliss)

Ooooh! Lovers! (Sabre and Amos pretend they're not really boyfriend and girlfriend.) "What?! Nothing! I'm not looking at him!"


Happy Snaps! (Snappy the foster-turtle revving up with the spring warmth ... Aaron, are you ever coming home?)


Blue-collar worker, in the pink.
(Amos wandering among the blossoms - like he isn't enough of a nonce!)

Recycling: the way of the futon.

And on the seventh evening, She look't upon the stale old futon destined for hard rubbish, and yea, declared it would make lovely yoga bolsters!
Yes, they're a bit wonkers, as is my sewing style (year 7 Home Ec classes - never got off my sewing machine L-plates because of my lead-foot), but they do the job, and I feel very pleased about saving a perfectly good futon's worth of cotton stuffing AND jazzing up my new yoga room at the same time!
Now, I just need to get off my wobbly arse and do some freakin' yoga already!