Festivale

Oh, I keep reading about all sorts of fabbo festivals that are planned for up in this part of the world – all of which I’ll miss on my short stay, but thought somewhere out there in blog land might be interested in if trip planning. There is a festival for everything out there!

Arts Cairns Festival 27 August – 20 September 2008 www.cairns.com.au

Bilby Festival 7-14 September 2008 Charleville www.savethebilby.com

Body Art Festival 20-21 September 2008 Eumundi www.austrralianbodyart.com.au

Kite Festival 11-12 October 2008 Coolum www.coolumkitefestival.com

Heart of Gold International Film Festival 25-29 March Gympie www.heartofgold.com.au

पैटर्न recognition

Well that's interesting - my title is coming through in Hindi. And goodness knows what it says. It's meant to say 'P A T T E R N' as in pattern, recognition.

Anyway, tho' this post is stealing the title of a book I like, it really has nothing to do with that book, I just wanted to say how much I like patterns. Here are some images from a beach trip yesterday and wandering around, a tree from Sydney on the weekend, and some kelp from a lovely day walking around Long Reef a few weeks back. Nature does patterns so well. There's something about these repeated shapes that I find so relaxing and beautiful.

Suitcase planning

OK here are some tips for those who find themselves in hotel rooms for work trips:

Pack a travel toiletries bag in advance! Yes – do this. Get a second toothbrush, toothpaste, everything else you use as standards body care / cosmetics-wise and keep them in your suitcase. A fave lippy, a necklace. This is a totally foolproof way of trimming your packing time, and making sure you never forget this stuff. Oh so handy. Sample sachets of hand cream and other lotions and potions are very handy and don’t leak – yah.
Tea and coffee – at least herbal teabags (spearmint and chamomile is a good night and day tea, or chai, or rosehip, something cheery, and maybe even plunger coffee and a little plunger.)
Bath stuff – nice vegetable based soap with essential oils, a little bottle of bubblebath.
Music – nothing like a little dance around the room to loud music to get the cobwebs out. This is especially good if you’re staying for more than 2 days, and mostly working.
Healthy snacks – nuts, simple biscuits are small and easy to take. On the first day go fruit shopping and make a fruit (or fruit and veggie) bowl for your room (if there isn’t one). Ever so handy as a snack on the go, or if you miss a meal. I always find fruit is one of those things that I eat if it’s there and forget to eat if it’s not.
At least one fun book – trashy novels have their place, and work travel is possibly one of those. Short stories, graphic novels, fairy tales, mystery novels, inspiring texts, poetry.

This trip – I remembered the first, but not the second or third. The fourth and fifth but not the sixth. Ahh – you teach best the lessons you both need to learn.

Away, again

Can you see how going way begins to feel like work and staying home feels like fun?
Away again, for work. Not complaining about being here – agreed to come, and is in all likelihoods one of the most beautiful places I’ve been in ages – ever? How can one small city have so many wonderful things tucked away in its outskirts?
But here I am. Slightly upset tummy, acidic, from plane food. That unsettled feeling when your soul hasn’t quite landed even though your body got here hours ago. That empty waiting of a hotel room. Watching television on bed drinking tea. Why is it that doing anything alone in a hotel room seems so sad, so desperate, so lonely?
I feel out of sorts. A mix of things that all make me slightly anxious – a weekend of intimacy and proximity, a plane trip, random self recrimination for not having got my life shit together better. Anxiety about the work stuff. I feel teary and it’s not even before my period.

I did a radio interview today and was worried I had come across like a nodding, laughing puppet – please like me, please let my answer be OK.

But it is so lovely here - maybe I will relax into it.

I live in Noddyland

Yes it's official - I really do.
I can walk to work. In the other direction I can walk to the studio.
I can walk around the corner to shops and cinema and coffee shops (and we're not talking pack a backpack and tell the ranger when you plan to arrive kind of walk either). I can walk and say hi to shop owners I know, and see Billy the wine shop man walking his bub or chatting with his missus on the street. I can wave and smile to 'thanks sweetie' the bread seller or the cheery laundromat couple who will pat your hand and sell you chillies from their garden. I can be mildly leered at by the same familiar and brightly coloured street paving blokes. People walk dogs. Babies coo in libraries. Older ladies shine in cardies and spiffy do's. There is a flower seller with wares on the footpath. There are freshly baked french pastries from the family business. There are my favourite bookshops. My house is high ceilinged and gets direct sunlight. My room is warm and snug. My housemates and I cook meals for each other and tonight were giggling and dreaming up fun learning activities to do together as a household - like reading a classic play, or maybe a great classic novel. Maybe reading it outloud or acting it out. I buy chirpy potplants and sing. Have I fallen asleep and am dreaming this whole life from some snug and cosy children's book from my past? Am I in a tiny little piece of manufactured western afluence and strife free living? Is this Community? Or is this just what being on holidays feels like?

"I must not write in my blog to avoid doing more important things"

Repeat 50 times.

Yeah but. I just had to. You know, I had this thing I wanted to tell you. It just couldn't wait. And I really really wanted to tell you.

Well, alright then. But make it quick, and then get back to your work.

Um. Erhem. Ckkrrgh.

Oh spit it out! Now you're just wasting more time.

Well. It went like this.
My housemate said "A shark has taken a dog." All horrified and a bit sad, like, and she was looking at the newspaper.
So I said...

!

I said "I didn't know sharks had pets."

...

Yes, and she looked at me a bit like that. So I said it again, but with more comic pizazz. And then when she still looked at me like that I figured that she didn't approve of me making light of the poor dog's untimely death, so I said "oh, I guess he ate it..." and tried to look a bit repentant and sad. But she still didn't get it, and I realised she hadn't got it all along, and suddenly I just thought that was really quite funny actually, and I had to tell someone. And so that's why...

OK. Well you have now. That's enough, go back to your desk and finish your work please. And next time maybe keep your jokes till lunchtime.

erg!

Does anyone else agree to do things (like talking in front of people and supposedly having expertise to offer) and then think 'aaargh - fuck what was I thinking?? I don't want to do that?' I am feeling like that today. Presentations coming out of my ears over the next few weeks and that jingly feeling that you have when it's all taking form in your head - lots of lovely key points, case studies and references, but not yet a cohesive, polished thing. Not made. Not finished. And you not yet completely convinced that it will work. Or that you might not just slink away and go to the beach instead. And that nervous energy builds up in your body and you want to kind of do a silly jingly bouncy dance, and if you were a kid you probably would. I think I might:
- quickly finish my first draft
- go for a brisk walk
- sing loudly to upbeat music
- give myself a pep talk
- have a cup of tea

Website(s) of the week

I haven't done this for a while, so I figure I can catch up by listing a few sites that have caught my eye.

This is a nice music site. I love the covers as well as the music.

Food swap anyone? Urban orchard is an interesting concept.

Lovely New Yorkian artists books here.

Love that sun

Took these back in more summery days, on a late afternoon wander through the city.

baby steps

Sometimes I read things and think 'aaah for fuckssake people we're not in the middle ages - stop putting crap in waterways and thinking it will just disappear without having any impact!!' and then I think, actually, maybe we are in a sort of dark ages, only this time round it's the very bright ages - dazzling with electric light, dazzling with whiter than white pearly whites and laundered whites and dazzling with a smug and airy notion of our own very hi-tech wonderfulness. Think some retirement ad with beaning silvertops stolling hand in hand along a beach, wearing flowy white linen beach pants, and looking toned and terrific and financially secure. Honestly, that's where I think our collective consciousness is, drifting off in some soft focus television advertisement while here, back in the dazzling ages, the back end of the dream is the cramped sweatshops where the impoverished women stitch those flowy linen slacks, the gasping last breaths of the tuna fishery that fuels their daily measured intake of omega 3 (because they read it in a magazine somewhere), the lurking power of the sea about to flex and reach out with a hungry bite at their beach house, and the water with all sorts of hideous chemicals that don't quite get pulled out of even the sophisticated water treatment systems that we have here, but certainly don't get removed in all of our neighbouring countries that don't have water treatment systems at all, and this heady brew drifts, through fish and weed beds and into our shared oceans. Pity the fish who have to live in the wash of the bleach that makes our lives so shiny bright and stain free.

So - program below. Nice, good idea, practical, proactive, replicable, nicely targeted - great idea. And also, at the same time, why the fuck should we continue to let industry self regulate on matters that have public health and environmental impacts ('voluntary until 2011'), and why take mincing little baby steps when we know this stuff needs doing now? For goodness sake Silent Spring was written in the 1960's - we can respond to fashions about dress length and coat collars and colours as they arise each season but not significantly change our systems of production even in 40 years? AND if we can't do it, and do it quickly, how on earth do we expect everyone else (in this case the many dentists around the world I imagine are collectively pumping out more than 200kg of mercury annually) to do something quickly? We can build teensy little nanorobots, we can rip things out of the ground and turn them into glittery sky scrapers and shiny racing cars and pretty earrings, we can build ever so tricky little gadgets and gizmos and have them talk to each other magically through wires and airwaves but we can't collectively get a system in place where we don't deliberately and consciously and systematically put our own crap in the ocean. Honestly people, get it together.

- - -

"The Victorian Government has launched a new $1 million program to work with the state's dental and water industries to help prevent mercury from entering Victoria’s sewerage systems.

The voluntary program will provide rebates to dentists to install amalgam separators to stop mercury entering the sewerage system from their surgeries.

Under the program, a rebate of $1000 or 20% of purchase and installation costs (whichever is greater) will be offered to private sector dentists who install amalgam separators. The rebate will be on a sliding scale, reducing over a three-year period.

At the conclusion of the voluntary program in June 2011, the State Government will assess the uptake rates for the voluntary program before making a decision on whether it is necessary to introduce mandatory regulations.

Funding for the program is being provided by South East Water, City West Water, the Victorian Environment Protection Authority and the Victorian Water Industry Association Inc. The Victorian Branch of the Australian Dental Association will develop and implement the program.

It is estimated that in 2007 about 200 kilograms of mercury was discharged into Victoria’s sewers from the dental industry."
Source: random enviro email list newsletter

writey write - writing workshops

For anyone interested in putting pen to page, and getting a few new tips and tricks, try these cool courses being offered by the NSW Writers' Centre:


MEMOIR AND PLACE with Barbara Brooks
2 x Saturdays 1 and 15 November from 10am-4pm

WRITING ABOUT FOOD with John Newton
3 x Saturdays 22, 29 November and 6 December from 10am-3pm

MASTERCLASS: FICTION WRITING WORKSHOP with Jean Bedford
Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 October from 10am-4pm

TEACHING CREATIVE WRITING with Camilla Nelson
Sunday 5 October from 10am-4pm

EXPERIMENTING WITH NARRATIVE AND PHOTOGRAPHS with Zoe Sadokierski
Sunday 24 August from 10am-4pm

BOOK PUBLISHING – THE BUSINESS, THE PROCESSES, THE PITFALLS with Brett
Osmond
Sunday 10 August from 10am-4pm

If you would like to enrol please contact the NSW Writers' Centre:
PO Box 1056
Rozelle NSW 2039
*Phone:* 02 9555 9757
*Fax:* 02 9818 1327
*Email:* info@nswwriterscentre.org.au

all squeaky and zingy and relieved

Just had a presentation to give. Thought I'd tell you about it, because you know, the minutiae of life is interesting even when - especially when ? - it's typed. Had to give a presentation as part of the wrapping up of the small business for artists course I've been doing these last few months. We've had a bit of a break for the last month, which, in the freezing winter nights and fluoro lit venue I wasn't too sad about, but I really have enjoyed the people and getting to know them. Funny how even people you were intimidated by or wary of become friends with enough time and gestures of good will. And talks over cups of tea. And with some silliness and mutual terror at having to conjure a business plan, and a few boozy nights out thrown in the mix.
Anyway, gave my presentation. Which was OK, all up, but nerve wracking in the preparation because although a very small audience, and to people who I had already watched perform their highly powered and elfishly pointed presentations (in this way somewhat like being naked in front of people - somehow easier if you've seen them naked too), it felt very revealing. After all, I had to put pictures of my work on there (and here I am tempted to say 'of my "work"', to discredit the notion that my images are anywhere like actual artwork - see the degree of difficulty that this talk must have presented?). I felt aware of all the people there having more formal training than me, and of their clear and unabashed identification as painters or animators, while I scrabble around with half dreamt up notions of maybe doing things on fabric, or drawing, or printmaking, or maybe making t-shirts, or illustrating or something, in a zillion different ever changing styles, but always with a question mark at the end. And should I stand too close to someone who actually does one of these things, and seems more adept at it than me I have another title ready to pull out of my pocket, some more humble and obscure aspiration that doesn't seem questionable. If I aim really really low, it seems, there is very little chance of a bruise if I topple. Poor humpty dumpty me.
But, all that aside, it was fine. Some ideas and feedback, and a nice feeling of wrap up and camaraderie. And nice prospects of sharing ideas and skills and contacts, and emailing things, and invitations to other people's events. Nice.

Holiday (sung Madonna style)

Ooh yeah - another week off. Can't you just feel the washing drying crispy wrinkly soft on the line under the absolving gaze of the whole sky's blue eye? Can't you feel the self indulgent delight in reading a whole hard cover mystery novel with a grumpy Italian protagonist, in one sitting, following the sun around the house and drinking tea? Can you feel the pieces of knitted wool between my fingers as I lie, belly down, on the floor, sewing them together with wide confident stitches from a round ended slippery needle? Can you smell the strangely fragrant glue as I embark on wild cutting and pasting jaunts to make collagey postcards? Can you see the dark watercolour wash clouds blooming overhead from our vantage point where the sky looks huge and mysterious and we try to read it's intent to rain and plan to scuttle under cover accordingly? Can you see the tall dense bush that lines this path like badly treated sable brushes gone dry and monsterous in their indignation, as we walk in half light over rocks towards a peak with a view?

"Grunge is dead - why did nobody tell me?"

Shameless cross promotion

Ooh it must be all this cold weather happening here in the Southern hemisphere, or maybe it's just a wellspring of creative juices flowing from, I dunno, Venus, or something, but there seems to be a lot of crafty activity over on Making Groovy Things. Post away people, and if anyone is not part of the crew and wants to share their hand-made creative musings, just let me know and I can add you.