Today is one of those beautiful early winter days that Sydney turns on every now and again.
Cool in the shade, but warm in the sunshine.
The house over the back fence is the morning venue for the Secret Cats Business Meeting most days. Each morning in winter, cats creep from every where to warm their bones.
The silliest looking cat you ever saw is one of committee members. He sneaks down over our garage roof keeping a sharp eye out for our four-legged security guard Max. He slinks along the back fence (Kitty-Cat Highway) down the middle wall to the house over the fence. He pauses before leaping lightly up on to our neighbor-over-the-back's roof. He has a brief wash, and settles in, squinting in to the sun.
He is silly looking because while very much your average black+white, his markings are uneven. Instead of being black-headed and white faced, he has a white head and a black splodge over his mouth. It looks for all the world as if he is wearing black lipstick.
Sometimes the muscly black tom and the small ginger tom join him. Often he sleeps there on his own.
Max, our security guard with his black badge of honor over his heart is unimpressed with this sunbaking festival, heading off after breakfast to beat the crap out of them. So now we are on Christmas card terms with the vet.
He's good at patrol but not much of a bouncer.
Max, being partly cat, and part-short-man-in-fur-coat has a bit of a thing for birds. The noisy miners of our neighborhood flock, of course figured this out pretty much the first time they spied him. Ears forward, tail thrashing and whiskers twitching. At first they only came close enough to squawk at him from their tree. I'd be in the bathroom getting ready, and I'd hear screeching and chattering from the Noisy Miners, they'd be swooping him and then there'd be Max belting it for home.
They got more and more confident until Max lashed out and caught one their babies.
Fortunately I was hanging out washing at the time and managed to free it from The Great Jaws of Death. It was on for young and old then. Max vs. The Cecil Ave Flock. Point one was awarded to Max when he was quick enough to get hold of Mama Miner.
Foolish Max. Foolish, foolish Max. The thing with the Miners is they NEVER forget. It's Anzac Day every day of the year for them. Except without the parade. More Pearl Harbor really.
Lately we've seen them less and less. Possibly due to the over-development of the area more than just getting bored with their game of Get Max.
Since January we've added two more cats to our home. Joshie and Bianca. Country cats from Rockleigh.
Bianca has adapted very well to the life of Suburban Princess and Joshie seems to be still trying to figure it all out.
Bianca is a pretty cat with a tortoiseshell coat and white belly and paws. She is lightly built and very affectionate. She has a thing for biting my feet for food. She also has a thing for The Lobsters lunch. Hauling it out of his bag before he has left the room and tearing in to his cheese sandwiches. She is also quite keen on open cupboards. Often crawling in for a nap and being shut in by mistake.
Joshie, a fast-growing and boisterous black+white, has a real thing for dirty socks. He will swing on laundry-hampers to tip them over, fishing out a choice smelly sock, he'll bring it downstairs and dump it at your feet to get your attention. He adores having his head rubbed, leaning in heavily keeping the head-scratcher on task.
While the rule is lights out and cats out, Joshie will sneak in to our bedroom and plop himself next to the Lobster as soon as it's quiet enough to make his move. His weight, between us, is like a bag of potatoes that does not move when I do. I wake up trapped in the covers and unable to move because of his dead weight, and I have to get up and frog-march him to the door, leaving him to scrabble underneath the closed door with his claws in protest.
Our morning routine goes like this:
Alarm on at 6:45.
Go downstairs with all three cats ahead of me.
Smack Bianca on the bum for ripping up the carpet.
Make Coffee.
Max waits at the sliding door and Bianca heads for her dish.
Joshie dashes from door to food completely confused as to what he's meant to doing first. Cats out.
Max slips under my hand before I give him a pat and Joshie heads to my potted fig tree, attempting to make it in to his second toilet.
Smack him on the bum and plonk him in the dis-used vege patch.
The garden and cats and get watered as they scatter to their various spots in the garden.
Then it's back up stairs to shower and dress for work. Once I've showered I let Max in to the bathroom for a chat while I finish getting dressed.
Mostly he just looks at me with disgust, other times he sits in the doorway with his back to me, flicking his tail with irritation.
Joshie follows soon after, although lately it's more me fishing him out of cupboards than actually spending any time chatting.
Then it's a race for me to beat Joshie to the front door. It's a real hassle trying catch a cat who is determined to come to work with me on the bus.
24 July 2006
What Perfume Not To Wear
and least of all not on the train to work before midday.
For years Clinique have done their durndest to give away all of endless supply of their perfume Aromatic Elixir. And no surprises as to why.
This fragrance reeks to high heaven, it's potent scent brings to mind small enclosed spaces that have not seen sunlight or fresh air for centuries. Perfect for claustrophobics like me.
They can't sell it because those in the know know it is truly vile, so they have to give it away in those gift with purchases thingies - that I am unfortunately addicted to. I go without my precious clinique supplies until GWP-time - twice a year in both DJ's AND Myer stores - and usually I can spread these necessary purchases to once every three months.
I have tried in vain to on-offer it to those I know I won't be seeing that many times in a year (which means I don't have to smell it that much on them either), but even my most fashion un-savvy friends won't take it from me. They hand it back politely with a smile and say they're right for fragrance at the minute. Or they wisely accept my backward gift, plonk it in a drawer - and thank heaven - will never wear it.
I wonder from time to time about the makers of such a stinker - how it got from test to product for starters. Someone somewhere in the supply chain must have had at least half a clue that the scent ponged to high heaven and would never sell. Perhaps it was created by the virus-makers of the pre-internet age - an employee who, once they'd seen the writing on the wall - rushed through a new perfume sample and it 'mistakenly' was mass-produced, and is now foisted on hapless consumers as it simply won't sell.
Along time ago, a very sweet and helpful Clinique sales girl extolled the aromatherapy attributes of Aromatics to me and I was almost persuaded to buy it - and then somewhere, inside my head, logic kicked in, and I asked to have a sniff first. Ye gods.
Nearly falling over backwards I managed to mumble that I'd have to think about it and stumbled like a drunken sailor out of the store.
These days, deep in the recesses of my vanity lurk no less than a dozen of these purse-sized 'gifts'. What really really irks me is I can't get similar sized editions of my favourite perfumes. Stuff that I would actually wear. I can't do a thing with this stinky scent, if I can't stomach it's er, fragrance, it's hardly going to be used to scent my lingerie drawer is it? Nor would I dream of adding a few drops to my bathwater to aid relaxation, nor dab a few drops on my pillow, nor the lightbulb of the lamp on my nightstand.
If I turfed it I'd worry that the nice man who comes to collect my garbage would fall over in mid-collection should these glass bottles smash in transit.
I heard a rumor years ago, that certain top notch restaraunts had banned it's customers from wearing such overbearing and agressive fragrances like the very popular first release of Poison (Christian Dior), Opium (YSL) and thank goodness, Kouros. Their belief was (and probably correct) that such intense fragrances disturbed other patrons and altered their dining experience - possibly even tainting the food.
A friend who is a waiter-by-chosen-profession confirmed that certain restaraunts in California still banned it's patrons from wearing fragrance at all. How very californian.
A long-ago colleague of mine used to get migraines from just a whiff of fragrance - regardless of what it was. She'd be in the elevator going up to her floor to start work in the morning, and generally by the time she reached her floor, she would have collapsed writhing in agony to the floor of the lift.
A very extreme reaction. How do you live like that?
My grandmother wore Opium, any time I catch a whiff of this on someone else, I think of her. Kouros is one fragrance I'll forever attribute to the early nineties and dancing round my handbag in a crowded nightclub to the grease megamix. Um, on second thoughts, that's not such a distant memory. But don't tell anyone I said that.
I used to adore Paris, but have since gone completely off it - I remember being reminded immediately of toothpaste though, the first time I smelt it. Which is quite the story in itself.
I used to walk about 2.5km's to school, and of course, 2.5km's back again - this was in the days that is was safe to walk to school - a different world to now (or is it?) and me and my best friend found a bathroom bag, smack bang in the middle of a field that had nothing in it but cows. In the bag was a relatively new bottle of Paris.
I didn't like it so I let my best friend have it.
Years later it would become my all-time favourite scent. I think I wore it for about four years and did not know then that there is such a thing as a daytime and evening scent.
Then I migrated to Happy - another Clinique scent, but as I've noticed lately - it's a little on the sickly side for me.
Then major fragrance mistake - Amirige. YSL again. Then back on track with Trussardi True Light Her. Better again with Contradiction from Calvin Klein - a cab driver once commented while driving me to a fancy restaurant that I smelt like David Jones the dept store. Interesting.
I fell head over heels in love with Truth, another CK fragrance and still love it to this day.
A very funny story I have about a fragrance I bought a couple of years back - I wore it everyday to work, and when it came time to leave for another job, my dear colleagues rallied round and chipped in for a suitable gift.
A colleague that I was very close to was given the task of choosing the gift. He chose for me the fragrance that I had worn every single day - and he said when he handed it to me - I spent ages in the fragrance dept of David Jones and this was the one fragrance I found that I thought would suit you... Which made me smile.. (It's the one I've been wearing everyday for the last year!).
Since then I've settled with Stella for day - obsession for night and Trussardi's Blue Denim when
I really want to piss myself off.
Fragrance Tips:
Spray it on dark coloured clothing.
Never spray it directly on your skin or near jewellery - I learnt a harsh lesson with perfume eating in to my beautiful silver watch.
When you've just stepped out of a shower - spray your perfume up towards the ceilling and walk through the mist - this will ensure you are subtly fragranced, not doused in it.
Put your favourite empty scent bottles in your lingerie drawer, and in your laundry hamper.
Pick a signature scent that you truly love, and wear it for day.
Choose something that makes you go 'WOW' for night - this is your power scent for fancy dinners, parties and wanting to make a lasting impression.
Pop stars do not maketh fragrance. Fashion Designers do (Stella, Alessandro Del Aqua, Caroline Hereras, Dior, YSL, Hilfiger, Kenzo...). Well, that is, fashion designers select the ingredients that best reflect the personality of their clothing range.
Pop stars (ie Britney and Curious) select ingrediants that best reflect their tabloid personality.
And I can tell you that doesn't always smell good.
If you like it - it suits you. Beg for those little sample sprays when buying a new fragrance - they are much easy to lug around than the whole hulking bottle...
Scent does not reflect your personality - it reflects your taste.
Place scent bottles INSIDE ziplock bags when travelling in an aircraft - nothing says I hate this scent faster than having it spill through your clothes.
For years Clinique have done their durndest to give away all of endless supply of their perfume Aromatic Elixir. And no surprises as to why.
This fragrance reeks to high heaven, it's potent scent brings to mind small enclosed spaces that have not seen sunlight or fresh air for centuries. Perfect for claustrophobics like me.
They can't sell it because those in the know know it is truly vile, so they have to give it away in those gift with purchases thingies - that I am unfortunately addicted to. I go without my precious clinique supplies until GWP-time - twice a year in both DJ's AND Myer stores - and usually I can spread these necessary purchases to once every three months.
I have tried in vain to on-offer it to those I know I won't be seeing that many times in a year (which means I don't have to smell it that much on them either), but even my most fashion un-savvy friends won't take it from me. They hand it back politely with a smile and say they're right for fragrance at the minute. Or they wisely accept my backward gift, plonk it in a drawer - and thank heaven - will never wear it.
I wonder from time to time about the makers of such a stinker - how it got from test to product for starters. Someone somewhere in the supply chain must have had at least half a clue that the scent ponged to high heaven and would never sell. Perhaps it was created by the virus-makers of the pre-internet age - an employee who, once they'd seen the writing on the wall - rushed through a new perfume sample and it 'mistakenly' was mass-produced, and is now foisted on hapless consumers as it simply won't sell.
Along time ago, a very sweet and helpful Clinique sales girl extolled the aromatherapy attributes of Aromatics to me and I was almost persuaded to buy it - and then somewhere, inside my head, logic kicked in, and I asked to have a sniff first. Ye gods.
Nearly falling over backwards I managed to mumble that I'd have to think about it and stumbled like a drunken sailor out of the store.
These days, deep in the recesses of my vanity lurk no less than a dozen of these purse-sized 'gifts'. What really really irks me is I can't get similar sized editions of my favourite perfumes. Stuff that I would actually wear. I can't do a thing with this stinky scent, if I can't stomach it's er, fragrance, it's hardly going to be used to scent my lingerie drawer is it? Nor would I dream of adding a few drops to my bathwater to aid relaxation, nor dab a few drops on my pillow, nor the lightbulb of the lamp on my nightstand.
If I turfed it I'd worry that the nice man who comes to collect my garbage would fall over in mid-collection should these glass bottles smash in transit.
I heard a rumor years ago, that certain top notch restaraunts had banned it's customers from wearing such overbearing and agressive fragrances like the very popular first release of Poison (Christian Dior), Opium (YSL) and thank goodness, Kouros. Their belief was (and probably correct) that such intense fragrances disturbed other patrons and altered their dining experience - possibly even tainting the food.
A friend who is a waiter-by-chosen-profession confirmed that certain restaraunts in California still banned it's patrons from wearing fragrance at all. How very californian.
A long-ago colleague of mine used to get migraines from just a whiff of fragrance - regardless of what it was. She'd be in the elevator going up to her floor to start work in the morning, and generally by the time she reached her floor, she would have collapsed writhing in agony to the floor of the lift.
A very extreme reaction. How do you live like that?
My grandmother wore Opium, any time I catch a whiff of this on someone else, I think of her. Kouros is one fragrance I'll forever attribute to the early nineties and dancing round my handbag in a crowded nightclub to the grease megamix. Um, on second thoughts, that's not such a distant memory. But don't tell anyone I said that.
I used to adore Paris, but have since gone completely off it - I remember being reminded immediately of toothpaste though, the first time I smelt it. Which is quite the story in itself.
I used to walk about 2.5km's to school, and of course, 2.5km's back again - this was in the days that is was safe to walk to school - a different world to now (or is it?) and me and my best friend found a bathroom bag, smack bang in the middle of a field that had nothing in it but cows. In the bag was a relatively new bottle of Paris.
I didn't like it so I let my best friend have it.
Years later it would become my all-time favourite scent. I think I wore it for about four years and did not know then that there is such a thing as a daytime and evening scent.
Then I migrated to Happy - another Clinique scent, but as I've noticed lately - it's a little on the sickly side for me.
Then major fragrance mistake - Amirige. YSL again. Then back on track with Trussardi True Light Her. Better again with Contradiction from Calvin Klein - a cab driver once commented while driving me to a fancy restaurant that I smelt like David Jones the dept store. Interesting.
I fell head over heels in love with Truth, another CK fragrance and still love it to this day.
A very funny story I have about a fragrance I bought a couple of years back - I wore it everyday to work, and when it came time to leave for another job, my dear colleagues rallied round and chipped in for a suitable gift.
A colleague that I was very close to was given the task of choosing the gift. He chose for me the fragrance that I had worn every single day - and he said when he handed it to me - I spent ages in the fragrance dept of David Jones and this was the one fragrance I found that I thought would suit you... Which made me smile.. (It's the one I've been wearing everyday for the last year!).
Since then I've settled with Stella for day - obsession for night and Trussardi's Blue Denim when
I really want to piss myself off.
Fragrance Tips:
Spray it on dark coloured clothing.
Never spray it directly on your skin or near jewellery - I learnt a harsh lesson with perfume eating in to my beautiful silver watch.
When you've just stepped out of a shower - spray your perfume up towards the ceilling and walk through the mist - this will ensure you are subtly fragranced, not doused in it.
Put your favourite empty scent bottles in your lingerie drawer, and in your laundry hamper.
Pick a signature scent that you truly love, and wear it for day.
Choose something that makes you go 'WOW' for night - this is your power scent for fancy dinners, parties and wanting to make a lasting impression.
Pop stars do not maketh fragrance. Fashion Designers do (Stella, Alessandro Del Aqua, Caroline Hereras, Dior, YSL, Hilfiger, Kenzo...). Well, that is, fashion designers select the ingredients that best reflect the personality of their clothing range.
Pop stars (ie Britney and Curious) select ingrediants that best reflect their tabloid personality.
And I can tell you that doesn't always smell good.
If you like it - it suits you. Beg for those little sample sprays when buying a new fragrance - they are much easy to lug around than the whole hulking bottle...
Scent does not reflect your personality - it reflects your taste.
Place scent bottles INSIDE ziplock bags when travelling in an aircraft - nothing says I hate this scent faster than having it spill through your clothes.
My Wish List
Books I will buy myself when I've been a good girl... In no particular order.
Traffic: Why we Drive The Way We Do (And what it says about us) - Tom Vanderbilt (non-fiction)
Dear Mr Rudd: Ideas for a better Australia (edited by Robert Manne)
Scattered: Story of Crystal Meth in Australia - from users to medics - Malcolm Knox
(non-fiction)
The Sky Isn't Visible From Here - Felicia C Sullivan: A Memoir of a woman who grew up with her mother hopelessly addicted to cocaine. She did all she could to avoid the same plight, wound up sadly in the same situation and pulled herself through it.
It's Called A Break Up Because It's Broken (non-fiction) Fairly berluddy self explanatory methinks!
The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama
It's All Good - Andrew Daddo
Biography that began as a letter to the wife of a mate of his who died in a motorbike accident. Daddo wanted his wife to have a better understanding of the photograph taken - other than just the image apparent.
Ramblin Man - The Story of Woody Guthrie - Ed Cray
Biography about one of thre greatest lyricists of our times, and his contribution to politics, culture and activism.
War Reporting For Cowards - Chris Sayers
Autobiographical account of Mr Sayers experiences of being embedded in Iraq at the beginning of The Campaign of Shock And Awe. He thought winning a post as a journalist on a big paper was the beginning of a glamorous life. One that included jet-setting, five-star hotel rooms and invites to star-studded parties. He could not have been more wrong.
The Truth About The Drug Companies - Marcia Angell - MD.
Non-fiction. Self-explanatory.
Diary of a Manhattan Callgirl - Tracy Quan
Non-fiction. Self-explanatory.
Whatever You Think - Think The Opposite - Paul Arden
Self-help. Arden gives much food for thought in helping us to understand where our bad habits have arisen from, how to challenge our own thinking and encourages us to better understand how negative thinking really does hold us back.
A Mans Got To Have a Hobby - William McInnes
Biography. McInnes sensitive, comical and endearing account of his relationship and memoirs of his much-loved father.
Pig City - John Birmingham
Non-fiction. The great JB returns with what I understood from the blurb to be a book about Manchester, UK.
Many Lifetimes - Audrey Evans
Autobiography. Outcast at an early age by her own aboriginal community, and socially rejected by whitefolk, it would be of little surprise that Ms Evans life took the only path available to her. Alchoholism, drug-addictions, homelessness and hopelessness. Overcoming these issues against all odds she began study at Sydney University, as it's oldest mature-age student and what happened next is astounding.
Head over Heels - Sam and Jenny Bailey.
Auto-Biography. This tale first aired on Australian Story. He was a quadriplegic farmer and she was an ABC radio journalist from the City. They met and over many months, fell in love. Sam proposed to Jenny over the airwaves and the audience response to his public profession of love for Jenny jammed the airwaves and nearly every fax machine at ABC. This is their story.
Angels of Death
Non-fiction. The story of Hells Angels in Australia.
The Big Book of Me: Be Your Own Life-Coach
Self-help. Self-explanatory. Bought it for a friend - made absolutely no difference! Not sure if it's the books fault though.
One Way Ticket - Cindy Wockner/Madonna King
Non-fiction. The real story behind the Bali Nine. The cover-ups, corruption and the media frenzy. The main premise of their argument seems to be that any one of the 'Nine' could be your child.
Read it. Well written but very sad. A plight that could and should have been avoided as the AFP had information about the planned drug trafficking, before the nine left the country.
Filthy Rat - Simon Illingworth
Biography. Expose. Illingworth spent many years undercover, exposing some of the most dangerous criminals of Australian criminal history. It nearly destroyed him - he made the almost impossible choice to walk away, and lived to tell the tale.
Date Expectations - Paul Reizin
Non-fiction. Humor. Romance. Reizin after being set up with just one more horrendous blind date, decided to take matters in to his own hands, and advertised in his local newspapers lonely-hearts column. This is his story.
Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts
Biography. One more tale of triumph against all odds, but with a better than happy ending. Roberts, a heroin-addict at the age of 17, with several jail stays already under his belt, Roberts makes the choice to turn his life around. His quest for inner peace takes him to India where he is compelled to repay his debt to society by setting up a health clinic. Clinic is still operating today and to date has saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
Still reading this! And one day, Miss N, I will return it to you.
The Year of Yes - Maria Headley
Non-fiction. Humor. Romance. Headley being fed up with being single and oft accused of being picky, decides that she will accept every offer of a date for twelve months, that comes her way. She goes out with taxi drivers, a homeless man, a few women, a couple of stalkers and a multi-millionaire that still lives with his mother. Quite looking forward to this one.
Reddit. Brilliant. Funny.
Traffic: Why we Drive The Way We Do (And what it says about us) - Tom Vanderbilt (non-fiction)
Dear Mr Rudd: Ideas for a better Australia (edited by Robert Manne)
Scattered: Story of Crystal Meth in Australia - from users to medics - Malcolm Knox
(non-fiction)
The Sky Isn't Visible From Here - Felicia C Sullivan: A Memoir of a woman who grew up with her mother hopelessly addicted to cocaine. She did all she could to avoid the same plight, wound up sadly in the same situation and pulled herself through it.
It's Called A Break Up Because It's Broken (non-fiction) Fairly berluddy self explanatory methinks!
The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama
It's All Good - Andrew Daddo
Biography that began as a letter to the wife of a mate of his who died in a motorbike accident. Daddo wanted his wife to have a better understanding of the photograph taken - other than just the image apparent.
Ramblin Man - The Story of Woody Guthrie - Ed Cray
Biography about one of thre greatest lyricists of our times, and his contribution to politics, culture and activism.
War Reporting For Cowards - Chris Sayers
Autobiographical account of Mr Sayers experiences of being embedded in Iraq at the beginning of The Campaign of Shock And Awe. He thought winning a post as a journalist on a big paper was the beginning of a glamorous life. One that included jet-setting, five-star hotel rooms and invites to star-studded parties. He could not have been more wrong.
The Truth About The Drug Companies - Marcia Angell - MD.
Non-fiction. Self-explanatory.
Diary of a Manhattan Callgirl - Tracy Quan
Non-fiction. Self-explanatory.
Whatever You Think - Think The Opposite - Paul Arden
Self-help. Arden gives much food for thought in helping us to understand where our bad habits have arisen from, how to challenge our own thinking and encourages us to better understand how negative thinking really does hold us back.
A Mans Got To Have a Hobby - William McInnes
Biography. McInnes sensitive, comical and endearing account of his relationship and memoirs of his much-loved father.
Pig City - John Birmingham
Non-fiction. The great JB returns with what I understood from the blurb to be a book about Manchester, UK.
Many Lifetimes - Audrey Evans
Autobiography. Outcast at an early age by her own aboriginal community, and socially rejected by whitefolk, it would be of little surprise that Ms Evans life took the only path available to her. Alchoholism, drug-addictions, homelessness and hopelessness. Overcoming these issues against all odds she began study at Sydney University, as it's oldest mature-age student and what happened next is astounding.
Head over Heels - Sam and Jenny Bailey.
Auto-Biography. This tale first aired on Australian Story. He was a quadriplegic farmer and she was an ABC radio journalist from the City. They met and over many months, fell in love. Sam proposed to Jenny over the airwaves and the audience response to his public profession of love for Jenny jammed the airwaves and nearly every fax machine at ABC. This is their story.
Angels of Death
Non-fiction. The story of Hells Angels in Australia.
The Big Book of Me: Be Your Own Life-Coach
Self-help. Self-explanatory. Bought it for a friend - made absolutely no difference! Not sure if it's the books fault though.
One Way Ticket - Cindy Wockner/Madonna King
Non-fiction. The real story behind the Bali Nine. The cover-ups, corruption and the media frenzy. The main premise of their argument seems to be that any one of the 'Nine' could be your child.
Read it. Well written but very sad. A plight that could and should have been avoided as the AFP had information about the planned drug trafficking, before the nine left the country.
Filthy Rat - Simon Illingworth
Biography. Expose. Illingworth spent many years undercover, exposing some of the most dangerous criminals of Australian criminal history. It nearly destroyed him - he made the almost impossible choice to walk away, and lived to tell the tale.
Date Expectations - Paul Reizin
Non-fiction. Humor. Romance. Reizin after being set up with just one more horrendous blind date, decided to take matters in to his own hands, and advertised in his local newspapers lonely-hearts column. This is his story.
Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts
Biography. One more tale of triumph against all odds, but with a better than happy ending. Roberts, a heroin-addict at the age of 17, with several jail stays already under his belt, Roberts makes the choice to turn his life around. His quest for inner peace takes him to India where he is compelled to repay his debt to society by setting up a health clinic. Clinic is still operating today and to date has saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
Still reading this! And one day, Miss N, I will return it to you.
The Year of Yes - Maria Headley
Non-fiction. Humor. Romance. Headley being fed up with being single and oft accused of being picky, decides that she will accept every offer of a date for twelve months, that comes her way. She goes out with taxi drivers, a homeless man, a few women, a couple of stalkers and a multi-millionaire that still lives with his mother. Quite looking forward to this one.
Reddit. Brilliant. Funny.
World Press Photo 06
As recently exhibited at the State Library of NSW.
I went to this same exhibition last year, and the photo that I still find myself thinking about is one taken inside either a North or South Korean (big difference I know) factory.
The size of the Factory is impressive, the eye is drawn in to the middle horizontal of the frame, where two lines of identically dressed 'employees' stand at attention, as they sing the company song before starting work for the day.
They are all wearing navy blue uniforms with the company name emblazoned in red over their left breast. They stand in two very straight lines - possible as where they are to stand - shortest to tallest - is marked out with two red parallell lines.
In between massive machinery guards are posted, dressed in sombre grey.
It took me a few seconds to realise that the guards are armed.
This years image was taken during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina's path of destruction in New Orleans.
A man is standing in the foreground of the shot, he is thigh-deep in water with his back to the camera. He holds a big white bucket in his right hand, it is floating in the water beside him.
He is no doubt transfixed by what is happening in front of him.
A traditional sprawling New Orleans home, complete with white circular columns supporting a small balcony on one of the upper levels has it's first storey well and truly underwater. At the same time that the first storey is completely submerged, the upper level is ablaze.
The frame that the image is captured is tilted. It is possible to see that the surrounding buildings (offices and shops mainly) are also ablaze. The frame tilting lends even more weight to the bizarre scene at the focal point of the shot.
The issues surrounding the inhumane treatment of Hurricane Katrina's victims were as many as they were tragic.
Apathy. Corruption. Greed. Heartlessness. Power-mongering. Postulating. Human error. Stupidity. Arse covering. Ego.
This from the country that has imprinted on it's NYC subway tokens the words 'In God We Trust'.
Climate change bought the event. A refusal to acknowledge the impact of climate change on our environment (more than just eco-systems) and that global warming and the Greenhouse Effect are directly relative to climate change.
It was up to the people who knew it was coming to respond appropriately, and with the ultimate goal to preserve lives.
America was first to put a man on the moon, yet co-ordinating a humane disaster recovery plan for the most severe storm in history rendered a city lawless and plunged it into rioting and chaos for many weeks following.
I don't think it was a reasoned choice for those that did to remain behind. Those who did so were not able to afford to leave, they couldn't afford the fuel to get out, others were too ill to, some were unwilling to entrust their few possessions to the most savage hurricane ever predicted.
How was it so that inmates were evacuated to the lower floor of a hotels' parking lot and left for dead as floodwaters rose when the jailkeepers decided it was better to save themselves?
Where was help when hospitals were being looted and doctors and nurses threatened at gunpoint for narcotics, food and medical supplies?
Why were marine corps relegated to duties such as looking after government officials animals in safety shelters after they refused orders remain grounded, and flew out in helicopters on rescue missions?
And the most-asked question of the day - where WERE the buses?
Night after night I watched the news. I shed tears of true grief for those down on their knees begging for help.
The story of the Australian Backpackers in the wrong place at the wrong time (bailed up in the mutiny at the superdome - threatened with their lives if they tried to leave) sent a chill through my heart.
This story has every element of the worst of human behaviour, and every ingredient required to make it so and yet still the small gems of stories of bravery, heroism, compassion, of purity and charity of spirit refuse to be sunk in the filthy waters still lapping at higher ground in New Orleans.
It was these stories that gave me hope. I wish that hope alone were to be enough.
I went to this same exhibition last year, and the photo that I still find myself thinking about is one taken inside either a North or South Korean (big difference I know) factory.
The size of the Factory is impressive, the eye is drawn in to the middle horizontal of the frame, where two lines of identically dressed 'employees' stand at attention, as they sing the company song before starting work for the day.
They are all wearing navy blue uniforms with the company name emblazoned in red over their left breast. They stand in two very straight lines - possible as where they are to stand - shortest to tallest - is marked out with two red parallell lines.
In between massive machinery guards are posted, dressed in sombre grey.
It took me a few seconds to realise that the guards are armed.
This years image was taken during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina's path of destruction in New Orleans.
A man is standing in the foreground of the shot, he is thigh-deep in water with his back to the camera. He holds a big white bucket in his right hand, it is floating in the water beside him.
He is no doubt transfixed by what is happening in front of him.
A traditional sprawling New Orleans home, complete with white circular columns supporting a small balcony on one of the upper levels has it's first storey well and truly underwater. At the same time that the first storey is completely submerged, the upper level is ablaze.
The frame that the image is captured is tilted. It is possible to see that the surrounding buildings (offices and shops mainly) are also ablaze. The frame tilting lends even more weight to the bizarre scene at the focal point of the shot.
The issues surrounding the inhumane treatment of Hurricane Katrina's victims were as many as they were tragic.
Apathy. Corruption. Greed. Heartlessness. Power-mongering. Postulating. Human error. Stupidity. Arse covering. Ego.
This from the country that has imprinted on it's NYC subway tokens the words 'In God We Trust'.
Climate change bought the event. A refusal to acknowledge the impact of climate change on our environment (more than just eco-systems) and that global warming and the Greenhouse Effect are directly relative to climate change.
It was up to the people who knew it was coming to respond appropriately, and with the ultimate goal to preserve lives.
America was first to put a man on the moon, yet co-ordinating a humane disaster recovery plan for the most severe storm in history rendered a city lawless and plunged it into rioting and chaos for many weeks following.
I don't think it was a reasoned choice for those that did to remain behind. Those who did so were not able to afford to leave, they couldn't afford the fuel to get out, others were too ill to, some were unwilling to entrust their few possessions to the most savage hurricane ever predicted.
How was it so that inmates were evacuated to the lower floor of a hotels' parking lot and left for dead as floodwaters rose when the jailkeepers decided it was better to save themselves?
Where was help when hospitals were being looted and doctors and nurses threatened at gunpoint for narcotics, food and medical supplies?
Why were marine corps relegated to duties such as looking after government officials animals in safety shelters after they refused orders remain grounded, and flew out in helicopters on rescue missions?
And the most-asked question of the day - where WERE the buses?
Night after night I watched the news. I shed tears of true grief for those down on their knees begging for help.
The story of the Australian Backpackers in the wrong place at the wrong time (bailed up in the mutiny at the superdome - threatened with their lives if they tried to leave) sent a chill through my heart.
This story has every element of the worst of human behaviour, and every ingredient required to make it so and yet still the small gems of stories of bravery, heroism, compassion, of purity and charity of spirit refuse to be sunk in the filthy waters still lapping at higher ground in New Orleans.
It was these stories that gave me hope. I wish that hope alone were to be enough.
Verbatim
'The kids would sit on panels for free if we asked them to'.
Amanda Freeman, former director of research and trends for the teen data gathering company - Youth Intelligence. YI pays kids between $10 and $250 for their information.
'We have a thousand teens on file and then we, like, have to replenish them each year. We joke that we 'do them' after get information from them.'
It's clear enough why kids are willing to be pint-size pitchmen.
Kids do peer-to-peer for the same reason they volunteer as consultant and shoppers: They mistake brand names for identity'.
From - Branded, Quart, Alissa (Arrow, 2003)
'Ryan, a director on the Seven Network board since last year is now responsible for Sevens' magazine division, Pacific Publications, whose 14 titles include New Idea and That's Life. Like any aspiring media mogul worth his salt, Ryan has boyish good looks, a luxury home and high-profile girlfriend'.
Wendy Frew, In SMH 30/07/2003 - 'A Son Rises But It's Hardly A New Idea'.
'One of the things I learned through writing the column (Sex and The City) is that so much of what society tells us - about women and men, what our roles are, and what they're supposed to be - just isn't true.
We still tell women: Relationships are really important - you have to find a man. But there are certain things a relationship cannot give. It can't give you self esteem and won't necessarily bring you happiness'.
Candace Bushnells' Aha! Moment, Oprah Magazine July 2003. (Hearst Communications Inc, Hearst Corporation).
'And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything'.
Act II, Scene I, As You Like It, Shakespeare. (As seen in The Spirit of Wild Places: Ansell Adams - Eric Peter Nash, Todtri Productions Ltd).
'There is not a thread of beauty anywhere except the glory of the stars and I am not strong enough for them tonight - they are too distant, too immutable, too pitiless'.
Extracted from 'Miles Frankly'. An article of diary entries of Miles Franklin - Author of My Brilliant Career - 1906 - As seen in SMH Good Weekend - 28/02/2004.
'Being in love is like a window on your heart
Everybody sees you're blowin' apart'.
Graceland, Graceland, Paul Simon (Wea/Rhino - 198-?)
'We went to Alcatraz on our one stormy day, and we wandered round the tiny island, with headphones on listening to the misery of peoples lives like gossip'.
From Boyfriend In A Dress, Louise Kearn, Harper Collins 2003
'But passion needs no recruiting agent. It dominates the headlines making fools of the great and the good, breaking hearts, damaging lives'.
Godless Morality, Richard Holloway. (Little Brown 2003).
'You feel fat with content'.
The Bride Stripped Bare, Anonymous.
'Movies are a door to knowledge: Knowledge of society and its' prejudices, knowledge of history, knowledge of art. The story of movies opens the door by teaching students to think critically about film and providing them with a deeper understand of this uniquely exciting art form'.
Martin Scorcese on an educatoin project created by The Film Foundation and sponsored by IBM (I know!) to expose young people to classic cinema and the social and cultural significance of film as a storytelling vehicle. As seen in Vanity Fair, 02/2004.
'A vagueness whispers about him like fairyfloss'.
Barbara Biggs describes Lionel in In Moral Danger, her autobiography. (Slylink. April 2003.
'The difference between the right word, and the almost-right word is... the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning'.
Mark Twain, quoted in Kingdom of Fear, Hunter S Thompson (Penguin, Allen Lane, 2003).
'It took us about 5 hours to climb the 30 steep miles up to Thomasville. I was driving my trusty red shark, a rebuilt 1973 454 cherry-red Caprice with power windows and a top speed of 135 - although not on a winding hill two-lane blacktop that rises 6000 in 30 miles. That is serious climbing, from summer heat and peach trees to a chilly bleak timberline and then to the snowcapped peaks of the Continental Divide, where the wild beasts roam and humans live in pain. This is the road that leads up to the dreaded Hagerman Pass'.
and
'I am not a criminal, by trade, but over the years I have developed a distinctly criminal nervous system. Some people might call it paranoia, but I have lived long enough to know that there is no such thing as paranoia. Not in the 21st century. No. Paranoia is just another word for ignorance'.
and
'I am a confused musician who got sidetracked in to this goddamn word business for so long that I never got back to music - except maybe when I find myself oddly alone in a quiet room with only a type writer to strum and a yearn to write a song. Who knows why? Maybe I just feel like singing so I type'.
Thompson, Hunter S. Kingdom of Fear (Allen Lane Penguin 2003).
'I answer with as much filligree and insouciance as I can muster, trying to slightly cock my head like snow white listening to the animals'.
Nicole Firans. The Nanny Diaries. (Penguin Martins Press 2002).
'When you ask a question but don't get the answer you want, ask again with fewer words and hold your ground'.
Jennifer Lauck. Still Waters: A Memoir (Little Brown 2002).
'Infinity: Justin came home from school with the announcement that he had just learned what odd and even numbers were. Okay, I said. So tell me. What's infinity, even or odd? I certainly didn't have an answer in mind: I posed it only as a fun, unanswerable kind of question. He thought about it for a moment and then concluded: Mom, infinity is an eight on its side. So it's an even number'.
Amy Krouse Rosenthal. An Encyclopedia of An Ordinary Life.
'It (the State Theatre) is very much like the inside of a princes mind.'
Andrew Denton retelling an Alexis Sayle comment during the opening presentation of the premiere of God On MY Side during The 53rd Sydney Film Festival, June 2006.
'However, the chinese were now being tested on the other side of the world by this more physical force from the United States while being surrounded by a partisan crowd consisting of spectators cloaked in the Stars and Stripes , and by confetti-tossing teenagers with their faces painted red, white and blue, and by an energy-sapping sun and the 105-degree heat under a stadium sky jet-streamed with jingoism.'
Gay Talese in A Writers' Life - Knopf/Random House 2006.
'I'm living my life, one bottle of fine wine at a time'.
My dear and good friend Shaun - James Squire Brewhouse - 16/09/06 - catching up while his equally dear and good wife went to The Boy From Oz.
'Well it's too late/tonight/to drag the past/out in to the light'.
One. U2. (All That You Can't Leave Behind. 2000).
'Its a long day living in reseda/Theres a freeway runnin through the yard/And Im a bad boy cause I dont even miss her/Im a bad boy for breakin her heart'.
Free Fallin'. Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever - 1989
'I was a big fan of the Avalanches so I did some work placement at Modular. A couple of years later I got some paid temp work, and I think I bugged the shit out of the then label manager, and she hooked me up. I think they hired me because I had a wacky haircut'.
Glen Goetz - Designer Vibes (Creative - October 2006).
'It's an extremely tight little group of people. Like a dysfunctional family.'
Jon Gwyther - (in reference to advertising production) Plaza Film (Creative - October 2006).
'In Iceland we were literally in the middle of nowhere, living solely on cheese sandwiches. It took five days for the fog to clear, and when the sun finally came out, for the first three hours I had to wipe the rain off the lens after every shot. You do that 250 times and your shoulder starts to cramp up.'
Rey Carlson (Revolver Films) discussing 12 months travelling the globe shooting a time-lapsed campaign for Greenpeace that almost cost him his sanity.
Mother Earth - (words by Barbara Messer) (Creative October 2006).
'Those sorts of comments are made by people who don't wash their sheets'.
The Letter M. (During a lovely tea and excellent conversation that covered topics such as Alannah Hill, Appalling Shop Girl Behaviour, Laws of Physics, Relationship Formula's there aren't any and Alien Kidnappery).
'I didn't know there was gonna be a trans-whatever on stage'.
Chingy - You've Got She-Male. (George Palathingal - Metro SMH 17/11/06).
'It was a very gentle, wistful song, he says. I was spellbound by it. I said : "John, how do you want to treat it?" And he looked at me and said, "That's your job isn't it?".
(James Button - Sound Idea to Reinvent The Beatles - Sir George Marin discsussing producing the Beatles - SMH 11-12 Nov 06).
and
"In two months I shall be 81 - it's time to give up, don't you think? When you're into your 80's things start dropping off as you walk long the street... So this record is rather significant for me".
(Sir George Martin - words by James Button, SMH 11-12 Nov 06).
'With her wide face and compelling gaze, she attracted many suitors. But her father had a little trouble with this, referring to one fellow as a "simpleton with pimples in his voice"'.
(Obituary - Ernestine Carey - Co-Writer of Cheaper By The Dozen - 1908-2006 - Dulcie Leimbach, New York Times - SMH 11-12 Nove 06).
"There was premature adulation".
(The Letter M - 18/11/06 - post-Pearl Jam).
'Did I tell you how big the bank notes are here? They look like magicians big money. You would enjoy them. I don't know why in poor countries bank notes are always so big'.
and
'I love airplanes. I think, when you are at a high pitch of emotion, it is the only way of travelling which first with your own heart'.
and
'Yesterday evening, never-the-less, my heart melted a little as i was sitting at a terrace on the Boulevarde Saint-Germain; the leafy trees, the evening light were very beautiful and I thought I should be so happy to show you the streets of Paris. I felt Paris waiting for you and I began love it again with and for you'.
and
'I had some pleasant time (sic) in Paris. Yesterday Satre took me to the studio to the the projection of a feature whose script and dialogue which he has written and is shooting just now'.
(SdB is referring to Les Jeaux Sont Faits e= The Chips Are Down).
and
'I wandered the early morning streets of Paris with Satre, and could think of only you my dear man'.
(Simone de Beauvoir in My Beloved Chicago Man - Collected Letters to Nelson Algren - 1947-1964).
'I'm as hard as a diamond in an icestorm, mate.'
Overheard at Palace Most Fabulous - 03/10/06.
'Plus, your hair looks rooly nice'.
Different conversation overheard - same place, same day.
'Gonna go out and root myself stupid'
and
'Now, that's about as useful as a cock-flavoured lollipop'.
(Overheard - Ryde Hotel).
'I really do love sports and really do love management and if someone asked me to run a football team I'd be happy to do it'.(Condeleezza Rice - You're Wrong On Iraq - Peter Hartcher (Pol.Ed) SMH 18-19 Nov).
"It's a really tough and shitty road to be obsessive about anything. It's a huge deal. Then again, if you talk to anyone at the leading edge of modern psychiatry or just philosophy, anyone who really understands human behaviour, they say, well, it's perfectly normal for people to have fixated obsessive relations with something for a period of time".
And
'Accountability is good. But I think the most important ingrediant is humility, which is just an honest assessment of what is really happening'.
(Robert Downey Jnr in 'After The Fall - A Clean Break' Spectrum 18-19 Nov - Stephanie Bunbury).
'It's just another twist and turn in the complexity of the world of media and marketing. It's something different and we'll see how it pans out.'
(Scott Grant - Director of Marketing - Lexus)
And
'Satisfying the appetite is the challenge for all of us.'
(Peter Wiltshire - Sales Director - Channel 9 in: - in Cross Media Deals Expected To Double to $600m Per Annum - Paul McIntyre - SMH 23/11/06).
'From Sony's perspective it has been great in getting people from the magazines or TV to then finally go to the webiste where they can read other people are saying'.
(Matt Costello - Communications Director - 5th Finger in: PBL Draws Everyone Into the 007 Mission. Julian Lee. SMH 23/11/06.
'We are actively becoming communications specialists and talking to clients about business versus being TV sales people. Most importantly, it's not just about having a great creative idea.'
(James Warburton - Sales Director - 7 Network in Paul McIntyre - The Pitch - SMH 23/11/06).
'Gen-Y* is (sic) a motivated bunch. We know what we want and how to go and get. I think Gen-Y is also a lot about individual choice and being able to change our minds as we want to whereas other generations seem to be more stuck in their ways of thinking and stay that way. I would suggest that Gen-Y is a lot more open-minded than Gen-X'.
(Peter Harrison (22) Advertising Account Manager, $42k Peugot Convertible Owner in: Y's Guys - Katherine Fleming - The Bulletin 28/11/06). *= Gen-Y spans 1980-1994.
'As far as the media and the powerbrokers go in this business, it's not very inclusive. If you're in, you're in. If you're out, you're fucking out'.
And
'You have to remember that you're not Superman. You can't think that because you're successful you can take twice as much of this, or drink four times as much of that and everythings' going to be all right'.
(John Paul Young in: Forever Young - Jospeh Cantanzaro - The Bulletin. 28/11/06).
'You guys.... I'm gonna have to put vaseline on my head just to get out the door'.
(Overheard - bloke - PMF. 24/11/06).
'Could be trouble, these things usually are - two blokes and all'.
(Overheard - female - PMF. 24/11/06).
'I would rather roll over and die than quit cigarettes'.
(James (20). PMF. 24/11/06).
‘This isn’t San Francisco. This is Baltimore.’(Former Democrat Leadership Aide in: Did Nancy Pelosi Get The Message. Karen Tumulty and Perry Bacon Jr. Time – 27/11/06).
‘I’m a slut from way back. Don’t flatter yourself’.
(Well-dressed brat @PMF explaining to two blokes why she went out for dinner with a guy who liked her, let him pay for the meal and left without saying goodbye. 27/11/06).
‘Hmm. That’s a scone-dive’.
(Me after knocking one of my flatmates freshly baked scones on to the floor. 25/11/06).
Eight gears is a whole different ball game’.
(Overheard. PMF. 06/12/06).
‘She’s a cross between Audrey Hepburn in her 60’s and a naval sailor.'
(The Letter M. 07/12/06. VC).
‘We would like to thank everyone who has helped us out in life’.
(Fishbone. Best of CD Insert – Columbia/Sony 2003).
'Everyones' a load of crap. They are trying to be somebody else and they aint being themselves. Libertines? Arctic Monkeys? Bloc Party? Load of crap, load of crap, posers, rubbish'.
(Keith Richards drops the anchor on the state of current music. As seen in Stay In Touch - SMH 04.05.07).
'They gave my sisters and me names they would have liked for themselves, and trusted us to make of them whatever we wanted.'
(Shaugnessy Bishop-Stall refers to his parents in 'Down To This' the book he wrote hilst living as a homeless person for a year). (University of Queensland Press - 2004).
'If I lay here/If I just lay here/Would you lie with me and just forget the world'.
(Snow Patrols' Chasing Cars)
'Kenny, get out of the fucken freezer'
Katrina (played by Emily Barclay) in Suburban Mayhem (Directed by Paul Goldman, AFFC 2006).
'Love is a stranger in an open car/to tempt you in/and drive you far away'.
(Eurythmics: Sweet Dreams/1983).
Brief elevator discussion: (said to me, not BY me) 'I just don't get cricket, wouldn't it just be easier to give all the boys on the field their own bat and ball?'
'You can never trust a man to fill a cupcake case to three-quarters full, they always have to overfill them'.
(Lou. Centennial Park, 01/05/09).
'I'm like the bahama triangle for men' (Casey)
'How many times do I have to tell you? It's the BERMUDA triangle' (Loretta)
'It's my fucking triangle, I can call it whatever I want' (Casey)
Case and Loretta discussing romantic turbulence in What Did You Enact? (3rd Season Episode 3) Outrageous Fortune.
'You're not going to get any votes if you don't put your helmet on'
One Batman to another during the lead up to judging at a work fundraising dress up day'.
Amanda Freeman, former director of research and trends for the teen data gathering company - Youth Intelligence. YI pays kids between $10 and $250 for their information.
'We have a thousand teens on file and then we, like, have to replenish them each year. We joke that we 'do them' after get information from them.'
It's clear enough why kids are willing to be pint-size pitchmen.
Kids do peer-to-peer for the same reason they volunteer as consultant and shoppers: They mistake brand names for identity'.
From - Branded, Quart, Alissa (Arrow, 2003)
'Ryan, a director on the Seven Network board since last year is now responsible for Sevens' magazine division, Pacific Publications, whose 14 titles include New Idea and That's Life. Like any aspiring media mogul worth his salt, Ryan has boyish good looks, a luxury home and high-profile girlfriend'.
Wendy Frew, In SMH 30/07/2003 - 'A Son Rises But It's Hardly A New Idea'.
'One of the things I learned through writing the column (Sex and The City) is that so much of what society tells us - about women and men, what our roles are, and what they're supposed to be - just isn't true.
We still tell women: Relationships are really important - you have to find a man. But there are certain things a relationship cannot give. It can't give you self esteem and won't necessarily bring you happiness'.
Candace Bushnells' Aha! Moment, Oprah Magazine July 2003. (Hearst Communications Inc, Hearst Corporation).
'And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything'.
Act II, Scene I, As You Like It, Shakespeare. (As seen in The Spirit of Wild Places: Ansell Adams - Eric Peter Nash, Todtri Productions Ltd).
'There is not a thread of beauty anywhere except the glory of the stars and I am not strong enough for them tonight - they are too distant, too immutable, too pitiless'.
Extracted from 'Miles Frankly'. An article of diary entries of Miles Franklin - Author of My Brilliant Career - 1906 - As seen in SMH Good Weekend - 28/02/2004.
'Being in love is like a window on your heart
Everybody sees you're blowin' apart'.
Graceland, Graceland, Paul Simon (Wea/Rhino - 198-?)
'We went to Alcatraz on our one stormy day, and we wandered round the tiny island, with headphones on listening to the misery of peoples lives like gossip'.
From Boyfriend In A Dress, Louise Kearn, Harper Collins 2003
'But passion needs no recruiting agent. It dominates the headlines making fools of the great and the good, breaking hearts, damaging lives'.
Godless Morality, Richard Holloway. (Little Brown 2003).
'You feel fat with content'.
The Bride Stripped Bare, Anonymous.
'Movies are a door to knowledge: Knowledge of society and its' prejudices, knowledge of history, knowledge of art. The story of movies opens the door by teaching students to think critically about film and providing them with a deeper understand of this uniquely exciting art form'.
Martin Scorcese on an educatoin project created by The Film Foundation and sponsored by IBM (I know!) to expose young people to classic cinema and the social and cultural significance of film as a storytelling vehicle. As seen in Vanity Fair, 02/2004.
'A vagueness whispers about him like fairyfloss'.
Barbara Biggs describes Lionel in In Moral Danger, her autobiography. (Slylink. April 2003.
'The difference between the right word, and the almost-right word is... the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning'.
Mark Twain, quoted in Kingdom of Fear, Hunter S Thompson (Penguin, Allen Lane, 2003).
'It took us about 5 hours to climb the 30 steep miles up to Thomasville. I was driving my trusty red shark, a rebuilt 1973 454 cherry-red Caprice with power windows and a top speed of 135 - although not on a winding hill two-lane blacktop that rises 6000 in 30 miles. That is serious climbing, from summer heat and peach trees to a chilly bleak timberline and then to the snowcapped peaks of the Continental Divide, where the wild beasts roam and humans live in pain. This is the road that leads up to the dreaded Hagerman Pass'.
and
'I am not a criminal, by trade, but over the years I have developed a distinctly criminal nervous system. Some people might call it paranoia, but I have lived long enough to know that there is no such thing as paranoia. Not in the 21st century. No. Paranoia is just another word for ignorance'.
and
'I am a confused musician who got sidetracked in to this goddamn word business for so long that I never got back to music - except maybe when I find myself oddly alone in a quiet room with only a type writer to strum and a yearn to write a song. Who knows why? Maybe I just feel like singing so I type'.
Thompson, Hunter S. Kingdom of Fear (Allen Lane Penguin 2003).
'I answer with as much filligree and insouciance as I can muster, trying to slightly cock my head like snow white listening to the animals'.
Nicole Firans. The Nanny Diaries. (Penguin Martins Press 2002).
'When you ask a question but don't get the answer you want, ask again with fewer words and hold your ground'.
Jennifer Lauck. Still Waters: A Memoir (Little Brown 2002).
'Infinity: Justin came home from school with the announcement that he had just learned what odd and even numbers were. Okay, I said. So tell me. What's infinity, even or odd? I certainly didn't have an answer in mind: I posed it only as a fun, unanswerable kind of question. He thought about it for a moment and then concluded: Mom, infinity is an eight on its side. So it's an even number'.
Amy Krouse Rosenthal. An Encyclopedia of An Ordinary Life.
'It (the State Theatre) is very much like the inside of a princes mind.'
Andrew Denton retelling an Alexis Sayle comment during the opening presentation of the premiere of God On MY Side during The 53rd Sydney Film Festival, June 2006.
'However, the chinese were now being tested on the other side of the world by this more physical force from the United States while being surrounded by a partisan crowd consisting of spectators cloaked in the Stars and Stripes , and by confetti-tossing teenagers with their faces painted red, white and blue, and by an energy-sapping sun and the 105-degree heat under a stadium sky jet-streamed with jingoism.'
Gay Talese in A Writers' Life - Knopf/Random House 2006.
'I'm living my life, one bottle of fine wine at a time'.
My dear and good friend Shaun - James Squire Brewhouse - 16/09/06 - catching up while his equally dear and good wife went to The Boy From Oz.
'Well it's too late/tonight/to drag the past/out in to the light'.
One. U2. (All That You Can't Leave Behind. 2000).
'Its a long day living in reseda/Theres a freeway runnin through the yard/And Im a bad boy cause I dont even miss her/Im a bad boy for breakin her heart'.
Free Fallin'. Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever - 1989
'I was a big fan of the Avalanches so I did some work placement at Modular. A couple of years later I got some paid temp work, and I think I bugged the shit out of the then label manager, and she hooked me up. I think they hired me because I had a wacky haircut'.
Glen Goetz - Designer Vibes (Creative - October 2006).
'It's an extremely tight little group of people. Like a dysfunctional family.'
Jon Gwyther - (in reference to advertising production) Plaza Film (Creative - October 2006).
'In Iceland we were literally in the middle of nowhere, living solely on cheese sandwiches. It took five days for the fog to clear, and when the sun finally came out, for the first three hours I had to wipe the rain off the lens after every shot. You do that 250 times and your shoulder starts to cramp up.'
Rey Carlson (Revolver Films) discussing 12 months travelling the globe shooting a time-lapsed campaign for Greenpeace that almost cost him his sanity.
Mother Earth - (words by Barbara Messer) (Creative October 2006).
'Those sorts of comments are made by people who don't wash their sheets'.
The Letter M. (During a lovely tea and excellent conversation that covered topics such as Alannah Hill, Appalling Shop Girl Behaviour, Laws of Physics, Relationship Formula's there aren't any and Alien Kidnappery).
'I didn't know there was gonna be a trans-whatever on stage'.
Chingy - You've Got She-Male. (George Palathingal - Metro SMH 17/11/06).
'It was a very gentle, wistful song, he says. I was spellbound by it. I said : "John, how do you want to treat it?" And he looked at me and said, "That's your job isn't it?".
(James Button - Sound Idea to Reinvent The Beatles - Sir George Marin discsussing producing the Beatles - SMH 11-12 Nov 06).
and
"In two months I shall be 81 - it's time to give up, don't you think? When you're into your 80's things start dropping off as you walk long the street... So this record is rather significant for me".
(Sir George Martin - words by James Button, SMH 11-12 Nov 06).
'With her wide face and compelling gaze, she attracted many suitors. But her father had a little trouble with this, referring to one fellow as a "simpleton with pimples in his voice"'.
(Obituary - Ernestine Carey - Co-Writer of Cheaper By The Dozen - 1908-2006 - Dulcie Leimbach, New York Times - SMH 11-12 Nove 06).
"There was premature adulation".
(The Letter M - 18/11/06 - post-Pearl Jam).
'Did I tell you how big the bank notes are here? They look like magicians big money. You would enjoy them. I don't know why in poor countries bank notes are always so big'.
and
'I love airplanes. I think, when you are at a high pitch of emotion, it is the only way of travelling which first with your own heart'.
and
'Yesterday evening, never-the-less, my heart melted a little as i was sitting at a terrace on the Boulevarde Saint-Germain; the leafy trees, the evening light were very beautiful and I thought I should be so happy to show you the streets of Paris. I felt Paris waiting for you and I began love it again with and for you'.
and
'I had some pleasant time (sic) in Paris. Yesterday Satre took me to the studio to the the projection of a feature whose script and dialogue which he has written and is shooting just now'.
(SdB is referring to Les Jeaux Sont Faits e= The Chips Are Down).
and
'I wandered the early morning streets of Paris with Satre, and could think of only you my dear man'.
(Simone de Beauvoir in My Beloved Chicago Man - Collected Letters to Nelson Algren - 1947-1964).
'I'm as hard as a diamond in an icestorm, mate.'
Overheard at Palace Most Fabulous - 03/10/06.
'Plus, your hair looks rooly nice'.
Different conversation overheard - same place, same day.
'Gonna go out and root myself stupid'
and
'Now, that's about as useful as a cock-flavoured lollipop'.
(Overheard - Ryde Hotel).
'I really do love sports and really do love management and if someone asked me to run a football team I'd be happy to do it'.(Condeleezza Rice - You're Wrong On Iraq - Peter Hartcher (Pol.Ed) SMH 18-19 Nov).
"It's a really tough and shitty road to be obsessive about anything. It's a huge deal. Then again, if you talk to anyone at the leading edge of modern psychiatry or just philosophy, anyone who really understands human behaviour, they say, well, it's perfectly normal for people to have fixated obsessive relations with something for a period of time".
And
'Accountability is good. But I think the most important ingrediant is humility, which is just an honest assessment of what is really happening'.
(Robert Downey Jnr in 'After The Fall - A Clean Break' Spectrum 18-19 Nov - Stephanie Bunbury).
'It's just another twist and turn in the complexity of the world of media and marketing. It's something different and we'll see how it pans out.'
(Scott Grant - Director of Marketing - Lexus)
And
'Satisfying the appetite is the challenge for all of us.'
(Peter Wiltshire - Sales Director - Channel 9 in: - in Cross Media Deals Expected To Double to $600m Per Annum - Paul McIntyre - SMH 23/11/06).
'From Sony's perspective it has been great in getting people from the magazines or TV to then finally go to the webiste where they can read other people are saying'.
(Matt Costello - Communications Director - 5th Finger in: PBL Draws Everyone Into the 007 Mission. Julian Lee. SMH 23/11/06.
'We are actively becoming communications specialists and talking to clients about business versus being TV sales people. Most importantly, it's not just about having a great creative idea.'
(James Warburton - Sales Director - 7 Network in Paul McIntyre - The Pitch - SMH 23/11/06).
'Gen-Y* is (sic) a motivated bunch. We know what we want and how to go and get. I think Gen-Y is also a lot about individual choice and being able to change our minds as we want to whereas other generations seem to be more stuck in their ways of thinking and stay that way. I would suggest that Gen-Y is a lot more open-minded than Gen-X'.
(Peter Harrison (22) Advertising Account Manager, $42k Peugot Convertible Owner in: Y's Guys - Katherine Fleming - The Bulletin 28/11/06). *= Gen-Y spans 1980-1994.
'As far as the media and the powerbrokers go in this business, it's not very inclusive. If you're in, you're in. If you're out, you're fucking out'.
And
'You have to remember that you're not Superman. You can't think that because you're successful you can take twice as much of this, or drink four times as much of that and everythings' going to be all right'.
(John Paul Young in: Forever Young - Jospeh Cantanzaro - The Bulletin. 28/11/06).
'You guys.... I'm gonna have to put vaseline on my head just to get out the door'.
(Overheard - bloke - PMF. 24/11/06).
'Could be trouble, these things usually are - two blokes and all'.
(Overheard - female - PMF. 24/11/06).
'I would rather roll over and die than quit cigarettes'.
(James (20). PMF. 24/11/06).
‘This isn’t San Francisco. This is Baltimore.’(Former Democrat Leadership Aide in: Did Nancy Pelosi Get The Message. Karen Tumulty and Perry Bacon Jr. Time – 27/11/06).
‘I’m a slut from way back. Don’t flatter yourself’.
(Well-dressed brat @PMF explaining to two blokes why she went out for dinner with a guy who liked her, let him pay for the meal and left without saying goodbye. 27/11/06).
‘Hmm. That’s a scone-dive’.
(Me after knocking one of my flatmates freshly baked scones on to the floor. 25/11/06).
Eight gears is a whole different ball game’.
(Overheard. PMF. 06/12/06).
‘She’s a cross between Audrey Hepburn in her 60’s and a naval sailor.'
(The Letter M. 07/12/06. VC).
‘We would like to thank everyone who has helped us out in life’.
(Fishbone. Best of CD Insert – Columbia/Sony 2003).
'Everyones' a load of crap. They are trying to be somebody else and they aint being themselves. Libertines? Arctic Monkeys? Bloc Party? Load of crap, load of crap, posers, rubbish'.
(Keith Richards drops the anchor on the state of current music. As seen in Stay In Touch - SMH 04.05.07).
'They gave my sisters and me names they would have liked for themselves, and trusted us to make of them whatever we wanted.'
(Shaugnessy Bishop-Stall refers to his parents in 'Down To This' the book he wrote hilst living as a homeless person for a year). (University of Queensland Press - 2004).
'If I lay here/If I just lay here/Would you lie with me and just forget the world'.
(Snow Patrols' Chasing Cars)
'Kenny, get out of the fucken freezer'
Katrina (played by Emily Barclay) in Suburban Mayhem (Directed by Paul Goldman, AFFC 2006).
'Love is a stranger in an open car/to tempt you in/and drive you far away'.
(Eurythmics: Sweet Dreams/1983).
Brief elevator discussion: (said to me, not BY me) 'I just don't get cricket, wouldn't it just be easier to give all the boys on the field their own bat and ball?'
'You can never trust a man to fill a cupcake case to three-quarters full, they always have to overfill them'.
(Lou. Centennial Park, 01/05/09).
'I'm like the bahama triangle for men' (Casey)
'How many times do I have to tell you? It's the BERMUDA triangle' (Loretta)
'It's my fucking triangle, I can call it whatever I want' (Casey)
Case and Loretta discussing romantic turbulence in What Did You Enact? (3rd Season Episode 3) Outrageous Fortune.
'You're not going to get any votes if you don't put your helmet on'
One Batman to another during the lead up to judging at a work fundraising dress up day'.
Lessons Learnt The Hard Way
.. In no particular order..
1. If, on a rainy day, you find yourself walking alone alongside a swift-moving swollen river you spy a rope-swing. Don't swing on it.
2. If you are invited to a romantic dinner at someones' house, and he does the polite thing and asks you a few days beforehand if there is anything you don't eat, make sure you tell him that you don't eat seafood.
3. It is not a very good idea to move in with someone you have been seeing for less than eight weeks.
4. If your flatmate is going away for the weekend and you leave your flat after she does, be sure to check that you have your wallet and your keys with you beforehand.
5. Going shopping with a brand new credit card will not repair a bruised ego, no matter how many new clothes you buy.
6. When you go out for dinner with a large group of people (for arguments sake, 20) it is not a good idea to put the total bill on your credit card. And, if you do, and they all give you their share in cash, don't leave the cash in the taxi.
7. If you aren't getting on with a manager, don't drink two bottles of wine and call her.
8. Just because you are slightly inebriated at a work function, this is not an excuse to throw yourself at a workmate because you figure everyone else is also and won't remember. Chances are they won't forget. Ever.
9. It is better to start a new relationship when you have finished the old one.
10. If you only met someone an hour ago, it is better to get their mobile phone number instead of giving them yours.
11. Gambling doesn't make you rich.
12. If you lend money to someone who has a gambling habit, it is fairly safe to assume they won't pay you back.
13. If it sounds too good to be true it probably is.
14. Desperation is not a good enough reason to take the first flat offered to you. (See Number 3 above).
15. It is a good idea not to store your professional business contacts in your personal mobile phone. Because if you go to a music festival, and manage to lose your mobile, someone will find it and send text messages to your entire address book, telling everyone you're coming out of the closet at last.
16. It is unwise to get in to a small red sportscar that can go very very fast with a slightly mad unlicensed irishman driving.
17. Never take the shop assistants word for it.
18. If the shoes don't fit in the store, buying them and taking them home will not make the slightest bit of difference.
19. If you love a particular CD, don't lend it to anyone. Ever.
20. If you think your significant other is lying to you, chances are, they probably are.
21. Don't drink and text.
22. When the 20 year old beauty therapist starts giving you a lecture on the apalling state of your 30-something year old skin, during a much looked forward to visit to a day spa, get up and get dressed and leave without paying.
23. If you are bitching about your boss in an email, don't send your boss the email.
24. Check your zipper is in the up-position before you leave your house. Especially if you are intending to walk some distance, at peak hour, on the same side of the road as the traffic direction in a busy suburb.
25. If you drink strong coffee, drinking it in the afternoon will ensure you have a sleepless night.
Observations On The North Shore Line
He looked like Morrissey, think Suedehead, only weedier.
He only stood out to me because he'd pushed in front of me to get on the train and raced to take the only available seat.
It takes a certain kind of man to do that. Certainly not my certain kind of man.
I imagined him out at dinner with friends, calculator in one hand, bill in the other, arguing over five cents still owed.
Postscript 'The sort of child who collected stamps and killed ants with magnifying glasses' (Courtesy - The Letter M - 09/11/06).
I noticed her mainly for her hat. Blue and green, in the shape of a bucket with a brim that did not balance at all against the size/shape of the hat itself. It was not the generall un-ironedness of her dress, the fact that blues and greens in the print did not even nearly match her hat, or the large bluebird-with-loveheart tattoo on her left shoulder - it was the white wraparound sunnies she was wearing that belied her lack of style.
The sort of girl who might flick her cigarette out her car window as she shouts at the kids in the back seat to be quiet.
He got on at Wollstonecraft and sat across from me. Lightly built - definitely asian heritage in his bone-structure, but not in his height. His hair was soft, thick and wavy and dark. He wore drainpipe back jeans and loose white shirt. The shirt had brown geometric designs embroidered on it. He was righthanded as he wore a beautiful silver watch with a cobalt-blue face on his left hand and several glow-in-the-dark friensdship bands. He was beautiful in a Yoko Ono-Julian Lennon sort of a way. The thing that really got me wondering was the Australian Stockmans Hat resting on his knee..
Marvelling at my own ability to make it to the train this morning, as exhausted as I was without a wink of sleep all night, I got lucky enough to be seated across from a young woman who was having an excellent chuckle at some sort of mobile video unit. She had gourgeous cheekbones, and an adorable cheeky smile. She made my morning this morning. With her nice red backpack, and her maybe-couldabeen fake LV tan handbag and her white flip-flops. She cheered me up, so I caught her eye and smiled at her when I got off the train. Cool.
Leaving my exit station a whole other story. You know those moments you have when you think the world has gone mad? Right. Picture this. On one side of the station exit we have - five - burly blokes wielding pneumatic drills. Busily hacking up concrete. On the other side we have an elderly gentleman busking with an oboe.
I would like to know if he made any money, how long it took him and how much. I couldn't hear him. Am damned sure no one else could either. Hmmm.
Last week I got a migraine in the morning, and had a new pair of shoes by the end of the day. Want to know more? Last Thursday morning after waking in the wee small hours with that dark pulsing pain that usually signals the onset of a migraine, I'd been able to get to the medication I take for them - which tends to knock me right out for about six hours at a time, so I'd run late for work. Fine with my boss (nice man) and to speed my journey - I'd decided to take a cab.
Good thinking as there was barely any traffic.
Long day at work and I reckon a good one - given that I was probably not functioning at my full cerebral capacity and come 7:30pm on the downhill side of tired. So I wander down to the station, wait the three minutes for my train (brilliant really given the time I was travelling) hop off at my station, take the escalator up - marvelling quietly to myself at how some people just don't seem to get pedestrian traffic flows in confined spaces - like RAILWAY STATIONS.
Tangent: How is it possible that people need to run down the stairs, on the exact same side as the people getting off the train climb up them? Why can't people keep to the left (same as traffic flows on the road)?
Why is it necessary to spend everybody sprawling and ducking and trying to get out of your way - when they're also faced with the additional task of climbing up stairs?
Back on track (haha) So I get to my station glide up the escalator thinking about what I've got to do when I get in my front door - and uh-oh. Because I'd taken a cab to work, I hadn't bought a return train ticket. And had forgotten to buy one at the station when I was leaving work. There were guards (you know the ones, everyone calls them Seagulls) at my home station.
And if I'd gone up to them they would have had to issue me with a fine, as I was travelling on public transport without a ticket.
Because I'd simply forgotten to buy one - not because I was trying to get a ride for free.
Because I'd been extremely busy that day - I was a little sleepy, not thinking straight, and I'd had a migraine (and medication) earlier in the day - and still went to work because they really needed me that day.
So I figured if I put my head down, and just switched platforms as casual as you like the guards wouldn't even notice me - so I could get another train back to where I'd just come from, buy the ticket - and all would be sweet.
Worked perfectly. Until I got to the station I'd just come from.
I then decided to take the bus home instead - drops me five metres from my front door - so pretty handy really.
But then I wandered past a shoe store.
Hmmm. So that's how the story ends. I started the day with a migraine and came home with new shoes. And that's exactly how one of those days should end.
(I did get a bus just fine - if you were wondering!).
He only stood out to me because he'd pushed in front of me to get on the train and raced to take the only available seat.
It takes a certain kind of man to do that. Certainly not my certain kind of man.
I imagined him out at dinner with friends, calculator in one hand, bill in the other, arguing over five cents still owed.
Postscript 'The sort of child who collected stamps and killed ants with magnifying glasses' (Courtesy - The Letter M - 09/11/06).
I noticed her mainly for her hat. Blue and green, in the shape of a bucket with a brim that did not balance at all against the size/shape of the hat itself. It was not the generall un-ironedness of her dress, the fact that blues and greens in the print did not even nearly match her hat, or the large bluebird-with-loveheart tattoo on her left shoulder - it was the white wraparound sunnies she was wearing that belied her lack of style.
The sort of girl who might flick her cigarette out her car window as she shouts at the kids in the back seat to be quiet.
He got on at Wollstonecraft and sat across from me. Lightly built - definitely asian heritage in his bone-structure, but not in his height. His hair was soft, thick and wavy and dark. He wore drainpipe back jeans and loose white shirt. The shirt had brown geometric designs embroidered on it. He was righthanded as he wore a beautiful silver watch with a cobalt-blue face on his left hand and several glow-in-the-dark friensdship bands. He was beautiful in a Yoko Ono-Julian Lennon sort of a way. The thing that really got me wondering was the Australian Stockmans Hat resting on his knee..
Marvelling at my own ability to make it to the train this morning, as exhausted as I was without a wink of sleep all night, I got lucky enough to be seated across from a young woman who was having an excellent chuckle at some sort of mobile video unit. She had gourgeous cheekbones, and an adorable cheeky smile. She made my morning this morning. With her nice red backpack, and her maybe-couldabeen fake LV tan handbag and her white flip-flops. She cheered me up, so I caught her eye and smiled at her when I got off the train. Cool.
Leaving my exit station a whole other story. You know those moments you have when you think the world has gone mad? Right. Picture this. On one side of the station exit we have - five - burly blokes wielding pneumatic drills. Busily hacking up concrete. On the other side we have an elderly gentleman busking with an oboe.
I would like to know if he made any money, how long it took him and how much. I couldn't hear him. Am damned sure no one else could either. Hmmm.
Last week I got a migraine in the morning, and had a new pair of shoes by the end of the day. Want to know more? Last Thursday morning after waking in the wee small hours with that dark pulsing pain that usually signals the onset of a migraine, I'd been able to get to the medication I take for them - which tends to knock me right out for about six hours at a time, so I'd run late for work. Fine with my boss (nice man) and to speed my journey - I'd decided to take a cab.
Good thinking as there was barely any traffic.
Long day at work and I reckon a good one - given that I was probably not functioning at my full cerebral capacity and come 7:30pm on the downhill side of tired. So I wander down to the station, wait the three minutes for my train (brilliant really given the time I was travelling) hop off at my station, take the escalator up - marvelling quietly to myself at how some people just don't seem to get pedestrian traffic flows in confined spaces - like RAILWAY STATIONS.
Tangent: How is it possible that people need to run down the stairs, on the exact same side as the people getting off the train climb up them? Why can't people keep to the left (same as traffic flows on the road)?
Why is it necessary to spend everybody sprawling and ducking and trying to get out of your way - when they're also faced with the additional task of climbing up stairs?
Back on track (haha) So I get to my station glide up the escalator thinking about what I've got to do when I get in my front door - and uh-oh. Because I'd taken a cab to work, I hadn't bought a return train ticket. And had forgotten to buy one at the station when I was leaving work. There were guards (you know the ones, everyone calls them Seagulls) at my home station.
And if I'd gone up to them they would have had to issue me with a fine, as I was travelling on public transport without a ticket.
Because I'd simply forgotten to buy one - not because I was trying to get a ride for free.
Because I'd been extremely busy that day - I was a little sleepy, not thinking straight, and I'd had a migraine (and medication) earlier in the day - and still went to work because they really needed me that day.
So I figured if I put my head down, and just switched platforms as casual as you like the guards wouldn't even notice me - so I could get another train back to where I'd just come from, buy the ticket - and all would be sweet.
Worked perfectly. Until I got to the station I'd just come from.
I then decided to take the bus home instead - drops me five metres from my front door - so pretty handy really.
But then I wandered past a shoe store.
Hmmm. So that's how the story ends. I started the day with a migraine and came home with new shoes. And that's exactly how one of those days should end.
(I did get a bus just fine - if you were wondering!).
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