Meanderings

*dusts off old blog*

*coughs*

*is covered in dust*

Okay, I'm resurrecting this blog so that I can post some photos from the very awesome Supernatural convention that I went to this past weekend. Don't know if I'll tell any stories, but I do have some photos from the Q&A sessions, where Susan and I had ridiculously brilliant seating - centre aisle, first two seats on the right. Guh. Awesome.

Note - for some reason I really enjoy taking photos on an angle, all artsy and stuff. The pretty remains the same, you just have to tilt your head...Also, I chose to take photos without a flash, so they're a little grainy.

Photos from both days, randomly sorted - starting with ridiculously lovely, totally made the weekend for me because of his being so nice (He liked my piercings! He took some time to talk to me about being a vegan chef! He seems to be really genuinely sweet!), Misha "Castiel" Collins.

Misha's foot positions during the Q&A made me giggle

Also, his hands are beautiful and delicate and artistic and did I mention that Misha was totally my favourite guest at the convention?

Misha joined Jensen and Jared on stage and was given the lowest chair in the world...

I took way more photos of Jared and Jensen than I did of Misha - I kept forgetting to take photos of Misha because he was so awesome - so this next section may take a while.

Jared discovered and really liked Fantales. This made for funny moments when they got stuck in his teeth - I missed most of those, but his eating-Fantales faces were cool.

Eyelashes!! *iz ded*

Lucky, lucky, lucky pen cap....

Hee!!

Jensen is ridiculously good looking in person. Ridiculously, mind numbingly, can't talk, holy motherfuck, completely unapproachable good looking. He also took a while to warm up during his Q&A. But damn, does he photograph well...Even in a grandpa vest.

I didn't get many shots of the Jensen and Jared show, I was too busy laughing like a loon. Got a couple of pictures that I liked...

Eyeroll FTW!!



In conclusion, a great weekend, full of some cool memories (I made some vegan sweets for the exclusive afternoon tea, and Misha and Jared both ate some and were nice enough to be complimentary to me about them [thank you Yatesy and Leishkin for pointing me out to them!!] - totally worth the work I put into catering!!) I really hope that there'll be another Supernatural convention in the future, definitely including Misha. Jensen and Jared were the reason for my going, but Misha was brilliant and totally the sort of person I would love to share a beer and a long slightly pretentious conversation with one day. Great weekend.

Here endeth the picspam.

The weirdest thing about being in a relationship with someone with whom you appear to share a brain is no longer being in a relationship with someone with whom you appear to share a brain. They write a beautiful and funny piece about music and relationships, and it says more about what's been going on than anything you've written and then deleted in the last month.

So here's to 2006 - more highs and lows than any year should decently hold. More wonder and more love. More joy and more pain. Full of change and thunder and signifying...that whole big life thing.

It's been something special.

I've started a new blog (yes, another one...) for all of my (and your) vegan cooking needs. Given that I cook every night (pretty much) and bake fairly regularly, and am just kinda obsessed with food, and am doing this whole weird low GI thing, I'm sure ZB's Vegan Recipes will get updated pretty often!!

More later. Must go and take photos of food...

It's been an odd and busy couple of months...

I've moved in with my boyfriend (*gulp*)...it's scary and daunting and wonderful and different and the same and...yeah. New experience for me, so it's very...new...

I saw Dr David Suzuki give a speech - terrifying, confronting, depressing, but ultimately hopeful. The man is not only inspiring and incredibly funny, but very very charming and sexy (though I've always thought that, so...)

I turned 31, which was fun and only a little frazzled and stressful. I got some great presents:

A ticket to Underland from my half sister - it was the first time I've ever seen a dance piece live, and it was really good. Nick Cave's music was adapted really well for a dance piece - and the use of the Ship Song alleviated my ongoing loathing of that song, at least for the length of the piece.

Blossoming Lotus cookbook from the 'boss...despite the initial shock of being presented with some Live Food recipes (I find the Live Food movement a little confronting, despite it being so closely linked with veganism. I don't know why I find it confronting, I just, you know, do...) I found the cookbook bloody brilliant. I'm looking forward to playing with it - I've already made the mayonnaise recipe, which was disturbingly perfect first time...

The first graphic novel of the Lucifer series from TheAmerican - really good, and now I have to get the rest of them (*curses*)!!

The second season of Coupling - probably my favourite of the four seasons...though they are all brilliant in their own ways.

A gorgeous jewellery box from Mighty Ogbo - lovely complement to my necklace box, which was getting awfully full!!

I also went a little crazy at Amazon recently - thanks to Mighty Ogbo, and the graces of Channel Four, who finally brought the series out on dvd, I got a copy of Nightingales. Yayayayayayayayay!! I cannot recommend this series enough - take a chance and check it out. You won't regret the experience.

I also got a whole lot of Whedonverse related stuff - Fray, Tales of the Slayers, Tales of the Vampires, Astonishing X Men Volume 2 - Dangerous, Serenity - The Official Visual Companion, Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Origin, and the Firefly Visual Companion Volume 1.

And, of course, Season Two of Veronica Mars. Season Three starts in a week or so, on the new US network, CW. I am in no way very excited about this...ach, who am I kidding, eh?

On a non consumerismyay! note, I recently got diagnosed as being insulin resistant, which is kind of daunting, but also knowing it is a bit of a relief. If I can reverse this situation over the next few years, I'll avoid developing Type 2 diabetes in my later years.

I have been a bit frustrated over the last few years during my efforts to improve my health by losing weight - I haven't really lost more than 5 kilos in weight at any time - and it turns out that this is part of the insulin resistance. My body is just constantly producing insulin fat cells and sugars into my blood, and without diagnosis and assistance, and no matter how healthy my diet and how much exercise I was doing, I was never going to lose much weight. It's kind of nice to know it wasn't just me being crap and lazy that meant that my weight never really changed.

I'm on a new eating regime of no snacking, three meals a day, with at least a five hour break between meals. This is really psychologically difficult for me, as I've been used to getting hypoglycemic between meals, and essentially being a grazer, rather than a "main meals" kind of gal.

I'm also moving to a low GI diet, which isn't actually a huge change from my current diet. Being vegan, I consume a lot of vegetables, and have been moving away from processed foods and trying to consume more complex carbohydrates anyway. So I have some adjustments to make - like more protein and less sugar - but it shouldn't be too hard. Though the whole avoiding potatoes thing is just a little bit depressing, really...

And finally, I'm on medication, called metformin. I'm fairly sure this stuff ain't vegan, but then neither is the pill. It's all about ethical lines in the sand, people...Which is why I shouldn't judge the Live Food folks, isn't it? *sigh* I'll get there eventually, I'm sure.

Anyhoo, this medication is usually prescribed to diabetics, but it assists in reducing the insulin levels in the body (which I need, given that my insulin is 70, and normal is between 20 and 40). One of the side effects of taking this medication, in combination with diet changes and such, will be weight loss, which is...scary. But good for my health. But scary.

This whole thing is really quite daunting, and confronting. I've never really been seriously sick, so this is a bit of a shock. It's also really positive, as now I know why I've been exhausted and feeling crap and blah all of the time, especially over the last 18 to 24 months. Thankfully, I should only need to be on the new regime for 2 or 3 years, and hopefully by that point my metabolism will have reset itself (there's nothing quite like CTRL ALT DELETE-ing your body, eh?) So it's not a lifetime illness, for which I am incredibly grateful.

I have been planning on starting a recipe blog, as I'm crazy cooking lady at the moment, and I think that it's going to become more important to me as I go through this process to do that. I do, however, still have to buy a digital camera, so I guess it'll still be a while away. Keep an eye out, though, 'kay? In the meantime, check out Vegan Lunchbox - it's a blast! It's not being updated that often at the moment, but the archives are great.

And finally...I'm disturbingly obsessed with the movie version of Chicago. As in, bought the soundtrack and have been listening to it constantly. HELP! (But not really, cos I'm having way too much fun listening to it!)

Back soon, and with many more tales of wackiness and spine chilling custard...

...what?

Okay, I'm breakin' my loooooooooooong silence to say this:

There are many movies in the world. There's a lot of imagination. There are, for some reason, an inordinate number of remakes. There are, rarely, movies that do not suffer from being remade - movies that need to be remade - movies that everyone else had forgotten about and got a resurgence in popularity because of the remake.

But, seriously, I'm hard pressed to think of any remake that meets the above criteria - most remakes suck arse.

And, I have to say, I am ridiculously upset that some fucking moron in Hollywoodland decided to remake one of the best movies of my teen years.

How can you remake Hairspray? How? I realise that it's been running as a successful musical on stage for a few years now, and hey! so was The Producers (which, surprisingly, was a remake that I didn't loathe - I quite enjoyed it)! Let's make a movie out of it, wotcha think?

You know - the Producers was a movie made almost 40 years ago - having a remake becomes almost understandable. But a movie that was made less than 20 years ago - that shit doesn't need a remake. It's barely cold in it's grave, people!!

Plus, I know that the woman that they get to play Tracy Turnblad will be the Hollywood version of Plus Size, not at all the big, proud, gorgeous woman that Ricki Lake was back when she worked with John Waters. And that sucks. And also, misses one of the main points of the movie...

.....

Though John Revolting as Edna Turnblad does kind of pique the interest.

Well, ZuckerBaby's world, anyway.

I've been in a new job for a couple of months, and that's going well. Lots of learning, and doing, and more learning, so I'm asleep most of the time that I'm not at work. Which is always fun.

I'm really enjoying the new job, and hope it lasts past the 3 to 6 month contract that I'm currently on.

I've been to a couple of comedy gigs in the last month or so. Dylan Moran was wrinkled and grumpy and venomous and surreal and utterly hilarious. And sexy. Did I mention sexy?

TheBoy and I were discussing music and songs that we like and such the other day, and it got me to thinking about those songs, or lyrics, that reverberate throughout your life - always having meaning (even if that meaning shifts as you grow and change), or constantly evoking a stage in your life that has (generally thankfully) passed.

I'm passionate about music, and tend to get stuck in late '70s/early '80s punk/ska/new wave era. Anger and aggression and fun and the beginnings of goth music and it's all good. Well, mostly.

Bizarrely, however, that era isn't necessarily where I get my "memory trigger" songs from. I listen to that era for true enjoyment, to dance or sing along. Those songs that trigger a reverberation in me...they tend to be not so much for the dancing and singing along.

Because I'm a maudlin beyotch.

So, in some sort of bizarre order, but probably not really, here are some of the songs that really affect me, and the reasons(ish) why...

Novacaine for the Soul by The Eels

This is off the album Beautiful Freak, but I have never listened to any other Eels songs. I heard this on Triple J back in 1996, and it was on that year's Hottest 100, and I became seriously obsessed with the song. It's one of those incredibly angsty songs that goes so well with your early twenties, when you're trying to figure out the world, and doing incredibly stupid things as part of that learning process. Lyrics like "You'd better give me something To fill the hole Before I splutter out" reflect that sense of not being engaged in your life...Well, they do to me, anyway. Listening to this song is guarenteed to take me straight back to that time, the emotional landscape that I had, and generally I get into a bit of a funk when I listen to it. Which, of course, is kind of the point.

Pepper by Butthole Surfers

This is off the album Electric Larryland, but as above, I haven't really listened to that much else by the Butthole Surfers. I, again, heard this on Triple J back in 1996, and it was, again, on that year's Hottest 100, and, you guessed it, I became obsessed with the song. Must have been my age, or the time, or something. Anyone sensing a pattern here?

Anyhoo, the most reverberant thing for me about this song is the chorus:

"I don't mind the sun sometimes
The images it shows
I can taste you on my lips
And smell you in my clothes
Cinnamon and sugary
And softly spoken lies
You never know just how you look
Through other people's eyes"

And of the chorus, the most important part for me are those last two lines. That realisation that you eventually come to that you can never understand other people, and they'll probably never truly understand you, because nobody can get into someone else's head.

I really explored that a lot, and it is kind of the basis of my favourite episode of the The X Files: "Jose Chung's From Outer Space". Everyone sees, describes, remembers, the same situations from completely different perspectives - because what else can you do? It comes from your perception, your needs, your context - how could your description of any moment be anything like anybody's experience of that moment?

What other songs, hmmm? (Coming back to finish a piece almost two weeks after you started it is a little confusing...)

Anna by The Beatles

This is off the album Please Please Me (yes, I prefer the earlier pure pop Beatles. I will give in my Music Appreciation badge, and hang my head in shame.) I love this song, initially because it was on a mix tape that one of my mother's boyfriends gave her, and I always used to listen to the tape as a kid. It was only many years later that I realised a) Anna is an unusual song to put on a tape for your girlfriend (who shares the name) given the lyrics:

"All of my life,
I've been searchin' for a girl
To love me like I love you.
But every girl I've ever had,
Breaks my heart and leaves me sad.
What am I, what am I supposed to do?"

and the story behind it that Anna wants to leave the guy because she's in love with someone else, and b) that the whole mix tape was a poem to the relationship between my mother and her boyfriend - with songs like Anna, Suffragette City by David Bowie, and Eighteen by Alice Cooper. All of those years I'd been listening to it, and never realised that I was listening in to this private conversation within their relationship.

Weird. And maybe the wrong interpretation, but one that I stick with!

Man Overboard by Do-Re-Mi

Off the album Domestic Harmony, this song...this song used to (and sometimes still does) say to me everything I needed to know about heterosexual relationships. The song caused a bit of a stir upon release because it contained the line: "You talk about penis envy, Your friends applaud". The anger and passion with which Deborah Conway spits out the lyrics just opens me up every time I hear this song. And such wonderfully bleak and angry lyrics they are:

"I've tried to play it open handed
I've tried to make a fist of this
Even when the questions are candid
My arrows miss
I've heard about your fragile ego
Your shield, your sword
What am I expected to do?
Shout man overboard?"

Okay, I admit it. I am incredibly cynical about relationships. It's a thing. Even when in one (*waves at her beloved*), I'm hard pressed to be a true romantic (whatever that may be). So here goes with trying to explain the next song choice.

Rest In Peace by Joss Whedon, from "Once More, With Feeling".
Performed by James Marsters

Not the whole song, mind. The most romantic lyrics I have ever heard, and that make me all gooey and sigh deep inside, are from the slow break in this song (the section which, I believe, actually began its life as part of another song):

"I know I should go
But I follow you like a man possessed
There's a traitor here beneath my breast
And it hurts me more than you've ever guessed
If my heart could beat
It would break my chest"

And in bold is the line that makes me all choked up - because Spike's a vampire, and he has no heartbeat.

I'm taking a moment...And I'm done.

To borrow from Neil Gaiman - I don't ask you what romantic songs make you all gooey, do I?

So, on that note, I think I will away to dig out my singles collection and figure out some more songs that I can list the next time I can't think of anything useful to say.

Happy listening!!