cemetery stroll

Hello Dear Reader. i Spent boxing day with the very delightful Lynne, whose baby is three months old now.

We walked around the Melbourne cemetery, which must be something in the order of 6000 zillion buckaroos worth of real estate - it's around forty acres of prime envious developer territory. Imagine being a developer walking through that property, i'd be contemplating sending my ancestors into space to get my grubby hands on that

... yes we spoke of the film 'The Loved One', from the classic Waugh novel. Where of course a funeral director builds a rocket to send loved ones into space. Omg. Lmfao!

We wandered through a different area i've never seen before, where the graves all date 1850-70, and the ground is dusty and bare. Names like Adelaide Ada reach out from crumbling tombstones; unlike the Italian areas that reach out with their recently polished marble from the edge of the newly laid roads.

Saw the Elvis memorial for the first time. i had no idea. i mean i've seen the JFK memorial waterfall outside the old parliament in the Treasury Gardens; but Elvis has a crypt in Melbourne? Yes He Does.

Then we watched "Trekkies", which is one of the strangest movies i've ever seen. i just want to put on my uniform, and start collecting little .. um .. things.

Came home to Californication; the wickedest and most seductive US comedy drama i've seen in a while. it's lovely to see Duchovny take on another role and relish it. The blocked writer somehow a metaphor for the blocked actor phase he's finally cracked. i know there's only twelve episodes so i'm trying to take it slowly, draw out the pleasure.

So many people far away. When are Paul and Fiona coming home? They must be about to give birth right about now. Well, Fiona mostly. Go Fi, we're thinking of you.

At least KT was home for summer solstice. What a delight!
(no i don't believe in christmas. we call it michaelmas :)

Lots of love, michael

Farewell Thelma Ratcliffe

awful tragedy, Tim's mum Thelma has kicked her bucket and shaken off This Mortal Coil.

Went to the shindig wake at Eamon's Red Scooter, where they played Thelma's last requests over the sound system. She wanted everyone to get up and dance, first to We Are Family, and then "oh what's that song, it's from Rocky Horror .. yes the Time Warp".

So sure enough, as Tim said, "You are evil if you don't dance" everybody got up to shake their booties. What a great dance, such a good bunch of people the Ratcliffes.

Delightful send off for an amazing woman. Thank you Thelma for all your loveliness and straight-talking.

genetically modified cat

Louise's cat Zena is a total darling, but he just isn't interested in catching any kind of rodent. Not for dinner, not for fun. Not at all.

"They tried to make me catch a rodent, i said no no no !"
(To the tune of Amy Winehouse 'Rehab'.)

Now i think i know why .. someone has been messing with his genes. in this video from Reuters, they say the mouse has been altered to remove the smell of fear from his hereditary knowledge bank.

But what have they done to the cat? Are they saying that cats only chase mice because the mice are afraid? That the cat is culturally inclined, rather than genetically, to chase the rodent? This opens up a whole can of cat food!

Anyway, this cat looks a whole lot like Zena. i think he's been living a double life.

beware of crocodiles

Delightful friends, i gotta say that .. That infamously strange hotel experience was not the sum of my travel time in Cairns, nor did it epitomise the overall joy and usefulness.

As well as working for the community engagement project, hosting an online conference session and presenting a work project at the adult learning australia conference
.. i went SnoRkelling on the Reef!

Yay for SnoRkelling! On my birthday i went to Green island and dived headlong into the reef. Covered up in a huge lycra body suit to protect against the stingers and lice, i gazed in bliss at the totally gorgeous, wondrous underwater panoramas. Mmm, delicious and delightful. Yum. i could have snorkelled all night, um .. day.

Cairns is a beautiful place, especially when you get out of town. Rainforest, reef, tropical rivers .. my time was a bit too work-focussed, so i was mostly indoors and in the city.

i've never seen a city beach more abandoned .. perhaps because of the "Beware of Crocodiles" signs. One person walking on the beach in ten days. Thousands strolling along the promenade.

Amazing history panels. Turns out there used to be a fabulous beach with stunning sand dunes, but dredging in the 1930's destroyed all that. Need for shipping channels etc. (Are you paying attention, Victorian govt? no, i guess not.)

i also caught up with the very amazing Avril Duck who is a theatre director up in Gordonvale. Avril used to live and study in Melbourne; she's preparing for a play in 2008 focussing on the experiences of local parents. The other week they had a reading on the radio. Sounds good .. perhaps i can post a copy here.

And look, i carried a book around with me the whole week (yes, that book), and i was often wearing my iRiver mp3 player, with wires hanging off me everywhere. In very many places people glanced at me with no suspicion whatsoever, just the friendly happy-go-lucky Cairns vacant gaze. Lovely place .. i'd go there again.

thanks for reading,
xo michael

by the way, this video made me laugh:



(images: thanks to richard ling and melilab at flickr)

That Cairns Pub Story

When i went dancing in that hotel in Cairns, i really didn't think too much about the consequences. But i did think about how people might perceive me - a fortyish male caucasian on my own. So i tried to be discreet, non-threatening .. not stare at anyone.

Full story over at DiscoBook, another place ..

byron sun brings much joy

How delightful is the sun! When you haven't had a holiday in over a year, there is truly nothing like a work-sponsored trip to Byron Bay. Yes i am the luckiest person alive, no doubt about that. Here's the whole story:

• got bitten by a tick the very first night, and it still hurts three weeks later (on my ear)
• went to a super boring cultural evening, where the local singers all had US accents
• narrowly avoided a brown snake crawling across my sarong
• drove my hire car for 200km along unsealed roads (trying not to read the 'thou shalt not' sticker prominent on the windscreen), then later took all the wheels off to sweep out the tell-tale orange dust
  
• went to the most outrageously stupid 'rainbow gathering'
• watched really bad cable tv

on the plus side

• saw whales and dolphins frolicking all over the shop, pretty much parading down the main street
  
• sat in on new enrolments at the Byron Community Centre
  
• had a whole cabin to myself for days on end
  
• 
• walked fifteen kilometres along Belongil Beach to Brunswick Heads, and back in a day
• bought organic carrots in the Mullumbimby grocery
• swam in blissfully cold mountain springs in the Washpool National Park. mmmmm that was good.
  

so i came back, brown all over, with knotted hair, and in a very tranquil state, but in need of a strong cultural fix. Lou suggested a gig down at Glitch bar on the Sunday night, just as i got off the plane. Enclosed in a small dingy dark bar in north fitzroy surrounded by strange young people wearing black and making weird musical noises .. i felt so at home.

football causes pain

So i had a go at playing indoor soccer. The boss got a team together, and joined us into a competition at the council. We were so bad, we lost again and again, eg 13 goals to 3.

The other teams played rough, although it was supposed to be friendly, and they had skills - which we did not. Rohan could do a fair simulation of Maradona, Maria kicked a major goal, and Nick the coach was a real player, but i could barely stay upright. Massive hand bruises thanks to falling on hard gym surface. Ouch.

Trying to drive later on, had to get Louise to operate the gear stick. Too friking painful. That's it, i'm over sport for ever.

xo michael

(image, The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick by Gertrud K. at flickr, thanks)

knockout Finurgen

i've had another buckwheat experience ..

Saturday night was so great, Madame Zu Zu was in fine form, and the Open Studio crowd so much more into her than at Bar Open the week before. Dancing everywhere. Lovely vibes, happy people.

but then i tried one of the new crepes.

i was so looking forward to it. and i tested for buckwheat reaction before diving in; but i really should have asked. i must be healthy at the moment because it took three mouthfuls to set me off. so i went home, and fortunately had a couple of Finurgen tablets left over from the time i had to go to hospital after my birthday pizza night last year ..

The tablets stop all the symptoms and allow me to sleep. Good.
but, oh boy, a couple of Finurgen tablets would knock out a horse!

The next morning i couldn't move, i could barely talk. Tim and Sam came around, wanting to take me out to breakfast, and all i could say was "Bbbckwhhht lllst nght, ca'nnt mmmv"

.. and i'm still feeling groggy monday morning;

xox, michael

(image: hi dad by tashland at flickr)

jamie lidell is good

Hello Paul, this is the Jamie Lidell guy i was talking about .. wild electro soul ..

performing multiply live


Video clip for you got me up

working in a cubicle

okay i'm at work, so i shouldn't be looking at YouTube. Except i was looking for work reasons. i wanted some music related to time: all i could find was a Snow Patrol song from that horrible tv show "prison break". Which i used in class. The kids thought it was lame (they were right), but they picked up it was about 'doing time' (which i'd missed).

.. and i don't work in a cubicle. But this lady does. Well she pretends she does. There's one episode where she gets people to send in photos of people crammed into their work cubicle. There's another where she puts on a super hero outfit, and decodes some management speak. i think she's funny. Here's my favourite, Cube Lady's take on office romance:



Anyway you can follow her crazy adventures at the cubefarm.
Hey who was that magician that Nathan loves?
The one who convinces people on the street to hand over their valuables?

hello lovely friends in new york city

i am very envious.
Here is a pic of Tim, Fiona, Sasha and Paul on the train in New York City. i'm following their adventures over on samandtim.blogspot. Their blog is like a fun game, where the reader has to make up what's going on, from the pictures and the headings.

ok, here goes:
SamandTim and PaulandFiona are on a train, with Sasha, and the train is in New York. They are all travelling from the bronx zoo back to the hotel where they'll have dinner. And Sasha is drinking from his favourite red cup. Just after Sam took the photo, Paul sighed and said, "Are you ever going to stop taking photos?" Which nearly made Fiona snap at him. But she took a deep breath instead.

Tim is grinning because he loves seeing Sam do funny things on the subway; she's being zany while she handles the camera. Sam made a joke after taking the shot, and everyone laughed. Then Sasha looked up and smiled, saying, "Was i in the photo?"

PS Funky Shirt, Paul!

thesis completion !!

hey guess what, handing in thesis right now!!

yes i feel very amazing, totally thrilled and completely happy. Oh the relief. Now i can go out dancing every night for a week.

it was a chilly wednesday morning when i finally had the whole thing printed off and bound. Had to print several pages double sided with colour vs b/w. Hours at the office after work. Drove to Footscray, returned half a million library books, and handed over the two-inch thick volume. "Well that must be a relief," said the head of department. Yeah. i'll be feeling that relief for months!

PS sigh, one day paul will post another story to our collaborative blog! i am sure of it. No, actually i'm not sure. i think he must have lost the ability to communicate. Maybe he poured red wine all over his computer. or maybe they don't have internet in canada. i wonder if he even reads the blog? He never comments. Now that he's a North American he doesn't want to hear about Melbourne any more. i bet he never even told his friends about this blog.

He just went, "Start a blog michael, we can do this together" but he forgot to say, "i'll post once every three months". And i forgot to say, "blogging is a weekly thing, you use it to keep in touch with friends". Maybe he didn't say "start a blog" maybe he said "it's foggy here" ..

tim and sam jump on a plane

Latest Updates at samandtim.blogspot

very exciting news this morning at 7am, Nathan Godkin drove Tim and Sam out to Tullamarine Airport, for the first leg of their trip to New York City !!! i can't believe they're going with only a handbag worth of luggage between them. Most of the space in tim's backpack is taken up by paul's new blundstones ..

Here's wishing the best of travel times for these two amazing people. i've heard a rumour they're going to visit Paul and Fiona in the land of Halifax. Hey Four Fingers Gang, i'll be following your adventures .. much love michael the thumb

music on the hill

Thank you Sasha and Paul for your great DJ story!! and Sam for sharing your funky videos.

the musical highlight for me would have to be the night of farewell for housemate Louise and gray. It was their party really, and they did some amazing setup, including candles down the alleyway, and a genuine earth-mapped pinyata, with roaming dinosaurs hanging off the hills hoist.

Lu made her room into a band room, with drum kit, amplifiers and all sorts of electronic connections to complement the Farfisa organ. She was so thrilled when people brought their instruments to play (but not so thrilled when Ben played so hard that he bled on her guitar).

Now there's blood on my guitar you @**&\ .. and it's all your fault ..

My favourite moment was in the back yard, under the summer tent, Renato on piano accordion, Kiri on the fiddle and Tarquin playing clarinet. Sublimey!

Rhiannon said at one point, "We were expecting the usual michael quiet evening, and we arrive to a Genuine Northcote Party." People kept played until five am; but by then i was asleep, having watched the very final episode of Buffy downstairs with Sam and Booshi.

(They watched the whole seven series in around ten weeks! Now that's an achievement.)

Now, post departure, the house on the hill at James street is still its usual mess of cables flying from room to room. Louise has moved out and headed over to San Francisco; she and gray started their adventure by seducing their way into the qantas lounge, ha ha ..

much love to youse all, michael

Hi Ya and Hey Ya

Sasha put on an album last week of remixes to Nasrat Ali Khan - StarRise. As much as anything that Sasha does it was the right type of music for moment.... he makes better music choices than I do... next step the great American novel. Perhaps i should let him loose on my paintings... hmmm i had always expected him to outshine me but not by the age of three.

my sister the video director

Hey guess what my sister the international traveller has put together a video about child labourers in Cambodia. How good is that!

(i mean, it's not good that there are factories employing children to do shit work, no .. it's good that Katie gets to do something creative and useful while she's at work! and i mean the video is really good. Yay Katie Chalk!!

airport disco adventure

Sam and Tim went to Tasmania. i went to the airport. That was fun too, especially when we rocked up the first time, and there was serious disco playing in the car as the kids got out. Tim says, "You can't go til the song's finished." But i was mean, and i drove off, dancing in the driver seat.

It was a great mix, on 3RRR, song after song of goodness. We heard a full on version of oh, what was it, with Siouxsie on backing vocals .. remind me Tim.

mm, take a look at Uncle Paul's view, on the Ratty Blog. i wanna go to Tassie already.

hipy papy bthuthdth thuthda Paulie

it's pauli's birthday todaaay he's a wonderful artist and educator who lives in Halifaxi with his lovely belle Fiona and their amazing Sasha, hope you have a wonderful day magnificent paul lots of love plus hugs michael

(picture of fountain near Salamanca, Hobart)

silly videos

Sam and Booshi downstairs don't have TV, they just watch DVD and youTube. Especially The Moon from the Mighty Boosh. At the New Year Party, Boosh had a youTube room going downstairs. It was fun. They watched Evolution of Dance.



i really enjoyed David Attenborough narrating slug sex, it is astonishing.



Who is David Blaine? Is this street film a spoooof, or is he the real magician? Forget channel nine, i will watch the whole series



(eyes roll), much love from micahel

if a ten ton truck ..

i've been singing the smiths' epochal-iptic tune, 'there is a light that never goes out', a lot lately, but yesterday the local significance hit me.

"and in the darkened underpass, i thought oh god my chance has come at last, but then a strange fear gripped me and i just couldn't ask"

so i hope if there was someone in the Burnley Tunnel with a burning desire to express their love, that they got it out in time.

Harsh.

photo stolen from tha age