Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Product placement
I recently got my iPod Shuffle out of layby, and have been having a grand time with it. I used to love making mix tapes, so it's wonderful fun making the playlists and having hours and hours of music and other bits that turn up randomly when you're listening. The iPod itself is teeny tiny and light as a feather (though I will not be dropping it from a great height, with a feather, to test that assertion) and, like most Apple products, awfully pretty to look at.
I have just been playing with it - I know that there are great ways to get the best out of your Shuffle, using iTunes and playlists, but I'm happy with the random nature of the way I'm using it at the moment. This is, of course, a flimsy excuse for my laziness in not getting better acquainted with iTunes.
I think my favourite part of the whole experience is that I unexpectedly find myself listening to The March of the Sinister Ducks, which makes a whole day (if not week or, damn it, life!) better.
I have just been playing with it - I know that there are great ways to get the best out of your Shuffle, using iTunes and playlists, but I'm happy with the random nature of the way I'm using it at the moment. This is, of course, a flimsy excuse for my laziness in not getting better acquainted with iTunes.
I think my favourite part of the whole experience is that I unexpectedly find myself listening to The March of the Sinister Ducks, which makes a whole day (if not week or, damn it, life!) better.
Congratulations!
MetalGirl and TheLordofDarkness welcomed a daughter into the world on June 23. I just wanted to extend my hearty congratulations, and I look forward to meeting her soon!
A month? Oops.
Hey there folks! Yes, I have returned! Breathe a sigh of relief (or, you know, patient frustration or just plain boredom). I have been afflicted with the horror of flu for the last few weeks, and as part of my healing process have been reading Firefly fan fiction and collected Television Without Pity Buffy the Vampire Slayer recaps, and not doing much else with my brain. Thus the general lack of posts. Just trying to get back on the blogging horse, so bear with me...
Just a small note - Spike/Xander slash fiction is grand. And makes rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer even more fun!
Just a small note - Spike/Xander slash fiction is grand. And makes rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer even more fun!
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Random news items.
First, the ridiculousness of it all - they'll both be Paris Latsis!! I know I shouldn't care, but, well, I don't but I do. If you get what I mean.
Finally. I wasn't even alive at the time, but this is still exciting to learn. I'm concerned that the family are quoted as mentioning "profit" as a motive for releasing this long sought after information. Sigh.
Because he does such good work in Florida. Fuck you, the entire fucking Bush family.
Whether or not you think she's innocent, let's not go around trying to kill people, okay? That way madness, pain, war and general stupidity lies.
Okay, ending on a fluffy (well, kinda) one, because I'm getting too darned worked up here, and there's nothing to punch (which is why I stopped watching/reading the news for a while there).
This whole thing just screams desperation and freakiness. I'm just loving every second of TinyTom's public mental disintergration. It almost makes me want to watch Oprah so I could see the (apparently) terrifying and hysterical recent interview.
Finally. I wasn't even alive at the time, but this is still exciting to learn. I'm concerned that the family are quoted as mentioning "profit" as a motive for releasing this long sought after information. Sigh.
Because he does such good work in Florida. Fuck you, the entire fucking Bush family.
Whether or not you think she's innocent, let's not go around trying to kill people, okay? That way madness, pain, war and general stupidity lies.
Okay, ending on a fluffy (well, kinda) one, because I'm getting too darned worked up here, and there's nothing to punch (which is why I stopped watching/reading the news for a while there).
This whole thing just screams desperation and freakiness. I'm just loving every second of TinyTom's public mental disintergration. It almost makes me want to watch Oprah so I could see the (apparently) terrifying and hysterical recent interview.
Really badly timed play review.
It was about a month ago that I went to the theeaighter to see an actual play for the first time in about a decade (Thanks to TheKateness). When I was at uni, I was doing a Theatre and Film major as part of my degree, and took myself off to the theeaighter on a fairly regular basis. I hadn't realised how much I missed doing that until I went to see Black Medea at the Belvoir St Theatre.
I went during the last week of the current run, so I can't urge you to see it now - but I can urge you to see it the next time it's being performed. The play was a series of physical, emotional, and psychological hammer blows.
Black Medea is a reworking of the play by Euripides. A young indigenous woman chooses her man over her land, only to find herself trapped in a loveless and brutal marriage, with her son the beating heart of the man she married. So what does she do to escape? Takes away her husband's heart.
The set was amazing - the front rows of the audience almost sitting on the stage, which was covered in a black sand. Curved walls of corrugated iron on and over two thirds of the stage, which, when lit differently, were either the walls of a mine, the open night sky over the desert, or the oppressive urban shell in which Medea finds herself. The centre of the stage held a simple table with three chairs, where most of the action took place.
Margaret Harvey, in the title role, was strong and passionate and trapped and hurt and terrifying in her revenge. It was an incredible feat that she could make Medea, so terrifying, so hateful, so seemingly selfish, a character for whom you have sympathy. She wears the classic red dress of the femme fatale, walks the land barefoot and proud.
Justine Saunders, as the chorus, was spellbinding. Dressed in a neat but battered two piece and coat, barefoot, slowly removing her hat pins and hat, she embraced us into the world of the play, telling us we aren't going to like the ride, but pulling us insistently in after her.
Aaron Pedersen's character of Jason goes through the most obvious arc of change, and this change was beautifully expressed through wardrobe. When the play begins, he is dressed in a full suit, briefcase at his side. As he disintergrates, as the alcoholism and abuse escalate, this facade slips. His desperation to be tied to something other than his job, to be part of the land, in a way he's never known, are expressed through his losing his suit, and finally becoming barefoot. But too late.
I could talk about the use of lighting and sound, but I've reached the end of my half remembered skills from my cut short uni degree. If and when the play is staged again, I'm sure to be seeing it, and I hope to have piqued your interest to see it also!
I went during the last week of the current run, so I can't urge you to see it now - but I can urge you to see it the next time it's being performed. The play was a series of physical, emotional, and psychological hammer blows.
Black Medea is a reworking of the play by Euripides. A young indigenous woman chooses her man over her land, only to find herself trapped in a loveless and brutal marriage, with her son the beating heart of the man she married. So what does she do to escape? Takes away her husband's heart.
The set was amazing - the front rows of the audience almost sitting on the stage, which was covered in a black sand. Curved walls of corrugated iron on and over two thirds of the stage, which, when lit differently, were either the walls of a mine, the open night sky over the desert, or the oppressive urban shell in which Medea finds herself. The centre of the stage held a simple table with three chairs, where most of the action took place.
Margaret Harvey, in the title role, was strong and passionate and trapped and hurt and terrifying in her revenge. It was an incredible feat that she could make Medea, so terrifying, so hateful, so seemingly selfish, a character for whom you have sympathy. She wears the classic red dress of the femme fatale, walks the land barefoot and proud.
Justine Saunders, as the chorus, was spellbinding. Dressed in a neat but battered two piece and coat, barefoot, slowly removing her hat pins and hat, she embraced us into the world of the play, telling us we aren't going to like the ride, but pulling us insistently in after her.
Aaron Pedersen's character of Jason goes through the most obvious arc of change, and this change was beautifully expressed through wardrobe. When the play begins, he is dressed in a full suit, briefcase at his side. As he disintergrates, as the alcoholism and abuse escalate, this facade slips. His desperation to be tied to something other than his job, to be part of the land, in a way he's never known, are expressed through his losing his suit, and finally becoming barefoot. But too late.
I could talk about the use of lighting and sound, but I've reached the end of my half remembered skills from my cut short uni degree. If and when the play is staged again, I'm sure to be seeing it, and I hope to have piqued your interest to see it also!
Can you bring your ferret?
There are many reasons why I adore Neil Gaiman - his writing, his apparent affability, his support of other writers and artists, his floppy hair and occasional goatee - and he is definitely one of many reasons why I'm terribly excited that I'm going to Continuum 3 in just over a month (eep!!). This recent post on his blog - do's and don't's for his book signings - just became reason 3652 why I adore him.
This is probably my favourite piece of advice - mostly because I'm the person standing in line, desperately attempting to come up with something wonderful to say.
7) Don't worry. You won't say anything stupid. It'll be fine. My heart tends to go out to people who've stood in line for hours trying to think of the single brilliant witty erudite thing that they can say when they get to the front of the line, and when it finally happens they put their books in front of me and go blank, or make a complete mess of whatever they were trying to say. If you have anything you want to ask or say, just ask, or say it, and if you get a blank look from me it's probably because I'm slightly brain dead after signing several thousand things that day.
This is probably my favourite piece of advice - mostly because I'm the person standing in line, desperately attempting to come up with something wonderful to say.
7) Don't worry. You won't say anything stupid. It'll be fine. My heart tends to go out to people who've stood in line for hours trying to think of the single brilliant witty erudite thing that they can say when they get to the front of the line, and when it finally happens they put their books in front of me and go blank, or make a complete mess of whatever they were trying to say. If you have anything you want to ask or say, just ask, or say it, and if you get a blank look from me it's probably because I'm slightly brain dead after signing several thousand things that day.
June?
Since when did it become June? Why was I not informed?
Bloody hell. That whole "time passes faster the older you get" rumour is getting some support right about now.
*grumbles and fumbles around for the support of her zimmerframe*
Bloody hell. That whole "time passes faster the older you get" rumour is getting some support right about now.
*grumbles and fumbles around for the support of her zimmerframe*
