Archive for August, 2007
August 30, 2007 at 6:32 am · tag/s : reading, writing
i found this advice for writers on a blog called Making Light which is kind of huge and interesting and has the rather nice byline Language, fraud, folly, truth, knitting, and growing luminous by eating light.
“The author makes a tacit deal with the reader. You hand them a backpack. You ask them to place certain things in it—to remember, to keep in mind as they make their way up the hill. If you hand them a yellow Volkswagen and they have to haul this to the top of the mountain—to the end of the story—and they find that this Volkswagen has nothing whatsoever to do with your story, you’re going to have a very irritated reader on your hands.” —Frank Conroy
August 27, 2007 at 7:07 am · tag/s : australia, blog, football, loss
as i am currently writing elsewhere football allows me to take pleasure in loss, but all good things must come to an end or so they say, and so next week brings the last games of the footy season, that is for those of us who support losers that don’t figure in the finals. the final eight (or final five as it used to be before football was hijacked by greedy capitalists) is a uniquely australian tradition, as far as i know anyway. in the rest of the football world whoever finishes at the top of the ladder wins the championship and thus the champions may be decided weeks before the end of the season. this year that would have been the cats who have been several games clear at the top of the ladder for some time. but of course the australians have to complicate things and the top eight teams (top five it used to be before the greedy capit… oh i said that already) compete against each other for the flag over four weeks, whilst the rest of the clubs go on holidays feeling sheepish. actually it is a brilliant innovation which adds a lot of excitement to the final weeks of the season. (the last time my team made the eight was about ten years ago and i marked the event by pointing a camera at myself as i watched each game on tv and drank myself into a stupor. i am thinking about releasing those tapes as a limited edition dvd box set if anyone is interested. handmade box!)
but next week whilst everyone’s eyes will be on the st kilda - richmond game because it will decide which team finishes in the coveted eighth position (adelaide, currently in eighth, has a difficult away game against the pies, and if adelaide loses and st kilda wins, the saints will go into the finals) the game will also decide the battle for the wooden spoon. the tigers’ glorious victory against the bombers on the weekend turned this battle into a minor drama involving the worst three teams in the competition (by a long shot) each having lost 17 games : melbourne, carlton and richmond, which currently occupies the bottom position, two points behind the other two. melbourne and carlton play each other, so if richmond wins, whoever loses the game between the other two contenders will win the spoon.
now why would anyone be keen to win the wooden spoon you may well ask? well gentle reader the reason is this : since the game is only played in australia, and then only in certain obscure parts of the continent often referred to by names of south american countries, stocks of new players are severely limited. the holder of the wooden spoon earns the right to recruit the best young player currently playing in the non-professional league, and this year everyone knows who that is. well everyone except me, but i have heard about him : he is big and tall and strong and fast, they say. with an exceptional pair of hands they say. he can play up forward or at the back or in the ruck, they say. and he can kick goals too. we need a player like that. urgently. so can everyone play badly to ensure we lose on saturday please? it shouldn’t be too hard. you have shown you can do it many times this season. go on lads drop that mark! kick that clanger!
stop press : wallace : “no tanking”
August 19, 2007 at 8:54 am · tag/s : blog
it was in 1974 when it was decided that a message would be beamed into space which was meant to communicate to any alien civilizations out there that we exist. there is something (wonderfully …hopelessly!) seventies about this. it is born of an optimism (naiveté?) about life and living which makes me a bit nostalgic. i mean this is before the oil crisis, let alone two gulf wars and 9/11. here now, in 2007 the age of paranoia, even sending messages into space is seen as somwhat problematic. what if the alien civilization doesn’t like the message, uncontroversial as it is, or is hungry and wants to eat us and/or our uranium? best to keep quiet, some argue. let’s just make a mess of our own little corner of the galaxy without attracting attention.
on the other hand, although the message will (eventually) be detectable from anywhere in the galaxy, it will take a while (approximately 20,000 years) to reach its intended destination globular star cluster M13 so we don’t have to worry too much about it for now.
the discussion page on the topic at wikipedia is good for a few laughs.
August 7, 2007 at 10:22 pm · tag/s : australia, eat-shit-john-howard
for some reason the kevin07 website stimulates my funny bone … maybe it is just the slickness of the campaign, so unusual for boring old aussie elections … they generally still think “it’s time.” is pretty cutting edge. and this is more like well think magnum … big kev … big mac, but who cares? go kevin! eat shit john howard!!
August 4, 2007 at 11:44 am · tag/s : australia, travel
last thoughts on ashfield : you’ve got ashfield, belfield, enfield, and strathfield - so what happened to canterfield?
future ashfield artists in residence looking for peace and quiet please note : when it’s not raining pratten park is a hive of activities morning noon and night : tennis, soccer training and matches and during the holidays hordes of enthusiastic budding tennis players descend on the courts to receive coaching - when there are no matches and there is no training, the grass has to be mown and other maintenance and repair work has to be carried out - and yay ashfield council has decided the winter months would be ideal for the demolishing of the old stand on the oval and their central services department like to get an early start - ah but wait you say, at three o clock in the morning it is surely quiet … no not necessarily, because this is the time when groups of young drinkers use the oval for drinking parties
on the other hand you’ll see some great (very quiet!) tai chi demonstrations if you get up early and if you are in need of coffee decolata in summer hill is less than twenty minutes walk away and you can pick up a french pudding or a pear and ricotta tart at the patisserie whilst you are there and … read more
anyway i am home : i love my little house and the quiet streets and the flocks of screeching white cockatoos in the frosty morning and the taste of the water and the wireless slow as hell adsl which is better than dial up any day
