Smoky skies again

Big shout out to the Martini-Mahers in Halifax, Nova Discotia. Hope you're all making the best of a chilly winter, and holding on tight to loved ones and nearby cousins. Bundles of love from this side of the world, to youse all.

It is still smoky in melbourne, but we only get the smoke, while the country folk get all the fire.

Intrepid blogger, Sam Downing writes about the yellow haze. "Victoria is burning like a mofo." (What's a mofo?)











(Sam also writes about the recent mic=40 gig .. btw, Sam gets the prize for most cheers on arrival, best cookies, and leaving a huge Rock Festival to come to my birthday.

Backward in High Heels

Well i just found out that the astonishingly quirky and brilliant Lynne and Miki have finally put their work on the web. If you missed this show at the Friends of the Earth Ball (2005), or at ACMI Eyes Lies and Illusions, here's your chance to view c/- google video. Cos everything Fred Astaire did, Ginger Rogers had to do backwards, and in high heels !! (play the vid:)



We were lucky, when we went in to ACMI in Fed Square, on the 3rd December. When Tim arrived, Lynne was already over it, and had decided to stop. But he said, "oh go on, do it again," so fortunately i got there just in time for the very last showing. So much fun. There are rumours of a Country and Western style sequel.

Sid Secret goes Viral

Here in Melbourne, smoke covers the city again. The sun peers through the haze like a big red sore eye. It's hard to breathe. New Zealander firefighters are shown injured on the television.

Australia trounces England in the Ashes Test Cricket. Another bloody summer. The streets were full of road rage yesterday.

All sorts of people put things online. Take a look at this crazy guy - he calls himself Sid Secret. i think he's the next LonelyGirl15.

music for the fistive season

There's plenty of interesting music around for the festival of christ. Suburban Sprawl have collected special recordings from their stable of musicians. Eg Jingle Hell from Ryan Allen. Looks like this has been going on for years. (Grab the Zipped albums, under the album covers.)

Plus the "8-bit christmas" which i'm guessing is some kind of electro-jingle.

As well as a thing called Santastic, from dj BC. (Can only get this via Torrent, so you'll need some downloading skills.)

(All this came via Brooklyn Vegan music, someone in NYC who posts links to downloadable music, eg remixes of Thom Yorke, or 50 Shots, response to a local shooting.)

Are they worth listening to? Well i'm enjoying the Thom Yorke remix right now, as i get back to the research ..

love plus hugs michael

country on fire, but we soak up the violins on a bloody hot night

Reasons to be cheerful about living in Canada:

• no springtime hayFever in September-December!
• no shroud of smoke covering the entire city where you live so the buildings are only faintly visible (ie. your entire country is not on fire).
• no days spent inside cowering from 42 degree heat.

Seriously, i am sitting looking across the city of Melbourne, and i cannot see the city skyscrapers. A faint outline is all that remains. Can only imagine how crap life is for people living in the bush. Fires joining up all over the shop, and no water to fight them with. Ouch. Your heart goes out, dunnit!!

extraordinary loveliness
i have had the most wonderful birthday celebration, the final in a big series. Jude and Jody-Lee surpassed themselves in cooking, hospitality and astounding generosity. I have no idea how i shall ever return such huge favours. People who missed out on these Footscray Gourmandes' sumptuous sausage rolls, goat's cheese tartlets, cucumber and feta wraps, as well as Annie's lemon slices - are the unluckiest people in the world, i'm very sorry.

Among the very few things to go horribly wrong were: no Martini-Mahers, and no sister KT. Oh and Lola couldn't make it either, despite being coincidentally in the Dandenongs that night. Many apologies, and a few unexpected absences, thanks to the 37 degree heat.

Healthy, happy, but Grumpiness Approaches
Yes the evil buckwheat monster has left my body, and i am healthy again, fresh as a light thunderstorm in sunny springtime melbourne. Phew.

Now it's back to study time, so my Grumpy-meter will be rising. (No, no, michael, embrace the joy of learning!)

(Here's an old halloween entry)
i have been spending far too much time online as usual, and found this astonishingly silly 'tv' serial: "The only thing dry about this Halloween was the Canada Dry."

urrrgh

Well hello there.

are you ok. I have tried to call a few times but have not yet manged to get through. My phone cards are not getting very clear reception - and sometimes says that I cannot get through to your number!

Some random shots - well sort of random.

1. photo from flikr. there are some great photos on there. this is downtown on a busy Satdy night. everyone is crowding around the american sailor who just got stabbed around the corner... tru story [well except for the part the relates to photo].

2. halifax in the pre cold. the cold of autumn that is. It is warmer today than in this photo ...that is because its raining... 70mm worth. actually I am sitting in my house sailing across the atlantic at present. perhaps i should take a photo.


have done some teaching but none this week. everything feels a little like it has slowed down again. there is apparently someone who has recently moved from melbourne - they just moved next door to the Mac repair guy. They are here to help with the Halifax commonwealth games bid. The Mac repair guy spoke of a few of their frustrations... lo and behold they sound the same as ours!!

must remember it is hard to move overseas and start again.

Where is Birkenhead Lake?

Hey Paul have you ever heard of Birkenhead Lake? It looks completely stunning. Found this image on flickr, and want to know right now. I could look it up i suppose, but you're the Canadian baby. I wonder if it's close to Halifaxi. Maybe it's in the Rockies. Oh i found it, in British Columbia. Funny name for a province, imagine if we lived in British Victoria. (But i guess we were never at war with the US.)

Oh, there's a whole pool of images on flickr dedicated to cheesy Canadian Beauty. Ciao for Niao, michael

Candidly Canadia

C'est trois frois.....

Goodness golly and gosh. Its already freezing me balls in the buckets of ice. and the wind it just howls through you like your flesh and bone have no substance. Is it particularly cold for the locale... no. Unfortunately I am just whingeing about low plus temperatures like 5 or 7 degrees Celcius!!!!!

The soles of the leaves are leaving in droves and are off to florida. They of course leave their mortal remains to clump and rot in the damp cool earth. We had Fiona's friend Fanny stay ffor the weekend which was really nice. We had a night on the town with food and drinks and running between shelters in the blistering rain. Good god! who really invented this climate called...winter [of course it is still officially just Autumn].

Our stuff finally came on friday.... it was soo weird to see it all. The last time was at Ryan street... and you guys were all round for dinner and drinks. Getting our stuff I think made me a bit more aware that we have really moved. But it was also great to see it again - it also means that I can get more info to NSCAD and so on....

Anyways apart from the weather and our stuff coming things do seem a little more manageable...mostly.

Canadia oh Canadia

Okay i just found these beautiful shots of Canadia and really i'm seeing if blogger will show it on the screen. Talk about cheesey, and the second shot is all squeezed, but there are some nice pics too. The squirrel is funny. Oh no, this isn't grumpy either. We can delete it, really.

ox mic

Cool Yuppies in a Canadian Mansion

Found this post from a couple of extremely cool and friendless bloggers also in Halifax / Melbourne;

Link: Cool With No Friends: we're yuppies now

i love the pictures of Paul and Fiona's new house, and hey Sasha looks so happy :)

By the way i am grumpy now. This time, not because Paul is a slack blogger, no it's great to have new stories about Apple Picking Adventures, from not quite freezing Halifax. Thanks Paul you are a champion blogger.

i am grumpy because i'm working too hard, and still packing my lungs with suffocating poisons.

Worked two days up in Marysville (which was incredibly beautiful), on a conference, taking photos and recording audio from the sessions. The trouble was i underquoted by about half what i should charge them. You know, thinking, "Oh, they're community sector etc." Came back incredibly friggin exhausted. Next time i'll know.

But the dancing was good. Friday's session opened with an invitation to delegates, asking if they wished to veto any of the Thursday evening photos. Of course they did. Even i wanted to veto the photos where i'm dancing with a tiara on. But no, in the public interest i left these images in the mix.

Friday night wandered down to Open Studio where Eloise was hosting a farewell for Jodey, celebrated Fringe Director (Source/Sauce received multiple awards). Just one bloody cigarette, plus major fatigue, and i woke up today feeling like hell on wheels. No, actually, hell without any wheels. Ugh, drug addiction sucks.

Grumpy and Out,
xo michael

Apple Picking on the Other side o' d Werld

Soo bloddy cheery. You feasting on the goodie of culture and we on a family excursion to the Annapolis Valley, NS, to go apple picking. Us with Sasha, his cousins Elie, Phoebe and Callum and Fiona's Sister Sarah and her hubby Phil - all packed into two cars and head North by North west in a glorious Autumn day for 'sum good' apples. [nova scotian expression - sum good]

Where is the grump in this. A beautiful day was had by all. All up about 100 lbs (50kilos??) of apples collected for distribution around the family.... but still I guess lots of pies, crumbles, slices, chutneys and sauces to be made for the winter ahead. The leaves are still grumley holding on for dear life to the trees and are al glorious Reds, Oranges and vivid yellows.

Fall is really a treat - kinda cold but nice, soft air and really beautiful soft colours... I can understand why Canadians rave about it. The other night was a real 'pea sooper' [English? expression] but an apt oneeverything felt like silk outisde. oooohhhh!.

The cold is not all that Canada is... to my relief at this stage. Although outside it is 5 degrees.\
Hope the feast continues in spring for youse,,

Northcote music feast: High Vibes

What a windy hell of a day. So cold we forgot it was springtime, so windy the outdoor sun-shelter blew off its groundings and hurled itself across the yard to shatter some pottery, just before Jude and Jody arrived for the pancake brunch. "What's that?" everyone else asked about the frame with no canvas, ".. your meditation dome?"

There's nothing like mango pancakes to kick off the windiest music festival this side of the Yarra, and we had a gorgeous spread. The best moment was when Tim flipped his pancake and it went behind the stove. No, wait the best moment was watching Tim use giant chopsticks to recover his pancake from behind the stove - no chance, it's gone!

Wind and rain and hail surprisingly made for a really good festival, because you had to be inside to survive, and inside was where the best music would be found. (oh, that's why i saw no music last year, i was drinking in the sun all day)

Describe Eliza were fun and funky at the Peacock. Toy Band (jazz plus lots of toys, balloons, streamers, on and around stage) and Tzigas (Russian Gypsy music - plenty of this around Northcote at the moment) at 303 were terrific.

The Town Bikes and Die Roten Punkte impressed the crowds no end at the new Ballroom venue (usually only Italian receptions, but they opened it up for the day), and finally Martin Martini at Open Studio (Eloise's bar) - wild gypsy funk with a gravelly and skeletal voice. i liked these guys so much i bought the CD on the spot.

The Open Studio crowd kept going of course, when Tegan came out from behind the bar with her clarinet to draw the musos together for one or two final sets. Dance dance dance. Baby.
Yeah.

erudite grumpy

erudite grumpy

Well, Well its the end of season blues..

how soon will the spring blossoms come with their delightful pollen and distract you away from this glum mood with their playful sneezes. Too Bad that the Bulldogs and the Saints suck - almost as much but actually nowhere as near my fallen from grace team that shall remain nameless.

Everything here seems a hurdle even good things emerge later as a hurdle in disguise. The latest thing is that the ATO has LOST my tax return!! Good luck hey!

Leaves are changing colour and there is a snap to the air, but there are still sunny days. We are moving into our house in two weeks and with some luck our stuff will be here by december so moving in this time will be easy as there will actually be nothing to move or unpack, or even sleep on!!

Anyway back to the weather....

Paul

okay that's it no more football

well i'm devastated, i had to crawl under the covers for the whole of Saturday following St Kilda's painful display of losing the first elimination final. They had to work pretty hard at messing up all their opportunities to take control. Crikey malikey, i'm pissed now. i mean pissed in the american sense, ie pissed off. No i'm not drunk on a Sunday arvo.

powered by ODEO

My mother's about to come around and visit. i know she's just out of hospital, and i should visit her instead, but how can i drive over to her place now my car has a canary splattered all over the windshield? They only give you a month to get it fixed before you're not allowed to drive any more. How am i supposed to get it fixed if i can't drive it? Bloody hell!

This YouTube video is one i enjoyed - Life in adult community education office.

with heavy-hearted tears for the fallen saints, crap final game you guys,
regards michael

friday night football

it's friday night, so michael joins Tim and Sam on the Edward St. couches for some friday night football. The western bulldogs look like they might lose to essendon, who are fighting to avoid the wooden spoon. Tim is annoyed because the Dogs are not playing well enough.

The highlight of the evening is this crazy dvd called 'The Critic', about Jay Sherman, NY Film Critic. Jay, a cartoon character, is bald fat and unpopular. His boss hates him because he cans all the holyhollywood films, and his highest rating is a 7. i loved the show. Jay is dark, depressed and funny. Must have been made last century because the twin towers loom over the NY cartoon skyline.

The bad news is Tim and Sam house being sold from under them again. Bloody property owners.

conversations across the world

So Paul and Fiona left the wintry shores of Melbourne and headed to a small fishing village on the Atlantic, to become fishermen. It had been their dream for a long time, and they looked forward to the opportunity to hit the high seas during major storms.

no, wait Halifax isn't a fish, it's a university town. (i'm thinking Halibut with Gravlax)

Sorry .. so the Martini-Maher bunch departed the cloudy village of Melbourne, and headed off to enjoy a huge new experience lecturing peasants in the way of the first world.

i'm not getting this right, you'd better tell your own story.

Melbourne is getting a bit springy, and the darebin music feast has leapt into being with its first night in the new old town hall. Eloise's very new bar across the road picked up the late night scragglers with a wild evening of gypsy music, clarinet and tuba.

sorry to make youse all jealous, says michael