laura's launch

I am torn between a strong desire to commemorate Laura's extraordinary achievement as author and publisher of Making the Shrine which was launched during the week, and a strong reticence to look like I'm basking in someone else's glory. I don't bask! Let's just say that the book is being exceptionally well received (I won't say that was predictable; sometimes people just don't know what's good, much less good for them); it's a modern classic, I've heard, and well, I knew that. 

The launch itself went beautifully, and I think many attendees enjoyed the event possibly in a comparable fashion to which they will enjoy the book. Laura has been through the wringer but she would have deserved the success even if she hadn't been, because the book is incredible. I have probably already gone into boring detail about how it's wrong, wrong wrong to be proud of what someone else did, so let's just make the point that it's an amazing achievement and also that you can buy your own copy here and why on earth wouldn't you!? 

laura's epic

My girlfriend Laura is a genius who only does good things. This book is magical and you can own it for not much money. I don't even need to tell you how good it is - you can just look at the pictures and it's obvious. Buy one or more. 

southern lights

 

I know it's a fact, and I'm like everyone else in this regard, all you really want to know is what Laura is up to, but she hasn't blogged for over a year. This evening we went to Campbells Cove to see the southern lights which dazzled everyone in Melbourne last night and which were reputed to be making a big splash again tonight. Well, Campbells Cove is a weird little backwater place between Werribee South and Point Cook and everyone in Melbourne decided it would be the place to see the lights tonight. It was the place, but there weren't any lights (unless they're happening now, which I guess is possible). As you can see above there were cars everywhere having a lot of trouble passing each other and there were heaps of people as well hanging around in the dark (Perry wants to mention there were at least two dogs just walking around like they had a right to be dogs, and I would like to mention that there were two other dogs he didn't see, luckily). 

Anyway, long story short, there were no lights, but there were a huge amount of 4WDs and a lot of people just hanging around, also some fog. It was interesting. 

lost an old friend

The thing I had been dreading for months has finally come to pass, yesterday, when I had one of my front lower molars (OK I don't know the names of teeth, only that they each have a name or at least a number) removed in a one-hour exercise that didn't really hurt but which was stressful because I guess I had been prepped to imagine there was a possibility of things going wrong. Indeed I am not entirely sure yet that things haven't gone wrong because the tooth in question was somewhat infected and there might not be enough bone, or good enough bone, to put the implant in. I don't know. I am still to be honest not entirely sure I need an implant but I guess I have to bear in mind that if I don't have it my face might get weird(er) looking and while I wouldn't have to endure that, others would. 

Anyway at this point, I miss the tooth. I'd had it, I guess, 46 years or so and we had a good working relationship all that time. I had noticed it develop a fracture earlier this year (actually, I thought something was stuck in it but no, it was a crack) and it was unsalvageable, apparently. I guess it wasn't a thing with feelings, just a tooth in my mouth. Its absence is sorely felt though, and I'm not trying to be funny. 

Yesterday was a bit of a write-off then* but today I have spent quite a bit of time at the PROV scanning reports on Fishermans Bend so you can imagine I'm fairly chipper. This afternoovening I am going to write a thousand - you heard me, a thousand - words on a chapter intended to serve as a model for a joint-authored book. It's going to be about 8000 words ultimately (the chapter is), and it will be quite interesting but not panic-inducing or OTT. 

Image from Australian Woman's Weekly 2 July 1980 p. 109

*thank you to Laura for taking the day off to care for me. 

happy fiftieth anniversary boronia mall

 

Laura and I spent a while there on 27 May and noticed it was soon to have a significant birthday. 

It was much less rundown and drab than we had been led to believe, though it's true some shops were empty. Nevertheless - it's a really amazing place and needs more care and appreciation. May it live on.

Oh, and I (who titled a post on this blog with a reference to a 'right-off' about fifteen years ago and only noticed last week) always like to poke fun at others' typos/poor English/ whatever you want to call it: 

This isn't even an example of that, it's just, I don't know, funny emphasis I suppose. 

It was a Buchan, Laird and Buchan design (they've been featuring a lot in my research lately, though conversely I wouldn't know any of them if they stood up in my cornflakes). The building apparently once had a large sculpture in the foyer which I don't think it does anymore. No mention in the advertising material of who made the tiles or how. I will contact Sunny Bear and see what he has to say and/or whether he has any more of those free giveaways. Btw I didn't know, or had forgotten, Rosemary Morgan had died, shame, she seemed nice. 

11 September 1973 p. 17 passim

trip to europe a month ago

Finnish television is completely terrible in almost every way imaginable. Well, I suppose I don’t mind Simpsonit (I’m surprised to realise how much of the first few seasons are completely lodged in my brain) but ffs, I said to Laura this morning I was going to watch an episode of Simpsonit and just turned on Star TV (channel 12) and there was… an episode of Simpsonit (well, actually about five minutes of the same three ads they show on that station, but essentially yes, that was the next thing that came on). It’s actually quite depressing. Most of the locally made shows as far as I can tell are idiotic game shows, etc it’s pathetic. That said, if they do have local drama or something I wouldn’t know where to find it or even necessarily recognise it, so I should probably shut up.

This afternoon I walked into central Kuopio to see what I could see. Most things were closed, I went to this ‘flea market’ which had a lot of crummy things and possibly some great things but I was not in the mood. Amazing how Moomin stuff gets such a guernsey here – I was surprised to find a Moominpappa mug which I have two of (why?!) was on sale for (I nearly wrote ‘was worth’) 26 euro.

evil of banality

 

Laura and I went record shopping on Saturday and got a lot of great stuff. Still sifting through it (well I am, I won't speak for her). 

This is a suitably banal observation but I'll make it anyway, while I drink coffee and eat chocolate in a short break from writing comments on a frustrating masters thesis draft: Crazy Horse were (are?) a great band, don't worry, they are great players with a really appealing rough, edgy skill that makes you always feel like they are just about to fail. When they are not playing Neil Young songs and writing/playing their own songs, they are every bit as great in the playing, and the music is rich and varied and dynamic and intense. But the lyrics fucking suck the proverbial big turd in the mud. They're not weird, they're not lazy exactly, they're just intensely generic. 

I often wonder whether people who write terrible lyrics like this think the lyrics aren't important, or arguably worse, they think their lyrics are fucking awesome and touch on a core truth by their very essentiality. 

I just imagine Crazy Horse, about whom I basically know nothing, in the studio sweating over these bullshit lyrics, looking at each other with sincere eyes (and then the rest of the time talking about balling chicks they hate, I bet). They have already by this stage spent an inordinate amount of time with NY and recorded one of the all-time great albums in Everyone Knows This is Nowhere, so for fuck's sake, why don't they get that you have to put a little bit of thought into what you're saying?! 

I could quote bits, but they're not worth it. 

I will say that other bands-with-amazing-singer-songwriters-at-the-helm-who-made-whatever-the-opposite-of-a-solo-album-is-that-is-a-band-album-without-the-main-person haven't had this problem necessarily - I really love the Sensational Alex Harvey Band album without Alex, for instance and groups like Buzzcocks and Depeche Mode have done masterfully following the departure of their 'main man'. So what the hell Crazy Horse. Lift your fuckin' game. 

Backpedal: I had a few more listens (so, apart from anything else, it can't have been that objectionable) and really there's only one song that totally winds me up. It's called 'Kind of Woman' and it should be shot. The rest is manageable. 

sickness

Dannii Minogue once told me that the Young Talent Team were such professionals they always got colds at the end of the ratings season. Teaching ended last week; I got a cold this week. At least it isn't the flu though my core self should appreciate that just because teaching is over that doesn't mean that I get to stop working. Anyway, I am on a go-slow and I get to reflect on how lucky I am in general terms with the little things like cats who crave my company and a nice view (above) and a wonderful girlfriend who will bring me excellent soup. I can't really complain. This house is a complete mess, which is obviously my fault, I am on a list for a cleaner from the ASRC to perhaps manage the overall problem in the long term, I mean I'm not just going to keep letting detritus pile up until they finally consolidate their listings and offer me someone lol. The only thing I did this week that felt anything like progress was finish a full reading of a really good PhD thesis that the candidate wanted to submit asap and as far as I know, has, and I partially reorganised my spare bathroom (yes, I have two bathrooms, it's a bit of a mystery) into what looks if you half squint like a music room though I am not entirely sure how that could work practically speaking. At least it's not just a pile of boxes. Then I can turn the spare room into an office and 'library' and everything will start to fall into place in this excellent flat which I love, but which needs work still, to make it mine properly. OK today is 'marking masters theses day' a kind of gruelling but ultimately rewarding twice-yearly enterprise which hopefully won't make me sicker. 

christmas

Christmas comes but once a week for me. Every Friday I am so rooted I can do what I want and no-one can say anything about it because I have carved out my little Friday Christmas space and the world has no comeback. And I am always fine by Saturday.

However, actually I did get a lot done today and in fact returned to an old journal article that was rejected the first time around and yet probably only needs a bit of work to be submittable (I thought the word was submissible? but autocorrect changes it to submersible so I guess not). So the journal article will not be bad, whereas it was previously, because it was connected to a project I was working on before, and the connection was tenuous, but now freed from that connection, it no longer has to be bad. I'm into it.

However, research on that started me watching this tv show from the early 70s called Silent Number (I keep thinking Silent Witness, but I know that's a different show, and by the way even though I think the 'silent witness' of that show is a dead person, and I am not really sure what the title Silent Number means, except it makes me think that maybe 45 years ago the idea of having a silent number e.g. an unlisted/secret telephone number was awfully exciting - ? Either way it makes me think of the 'silent policeman' which ridiculously is what these things are sometimes known as:

So anyway Silent Number is a bit of a hoot, and fairly fast-paced and well-written, at least going by the 1.5 episodes I have watched (there are three on YouTube). Grigor Taylor is the best of two worlds - he is a police! doctor! (Couldn't he have also have been a chef, or a lawyer, or a saxophonist?) and he has a great relationship with his fabulous wife. 

Both episode 32 and 33 involve visits to universities, which I always find interesting. This one, #32, has just a plain old visit to 'the university'. I assume it's UNSW. Love the parking sitch. 

Don't be fooled, by the fact that this is a phone box, into thinking that this has anything to do with silent numbers. Great titles though. The 1.5 episodes I've watched have completely different opening credits/music. The music's excellent but the fact that it's uncredited leads me to suspect that it's just licensed studio music from De Wolfe or something. I'd love to be wrong. 

Someone I admire once said something funny about people getting sentimental about Channel 7, I can't remember who it was, but anyway, I got a semi-twinge of something, I don't know if it was sentimentality, when I saw this, yeah, the 9 logo and the words 'living colour'. I actually recall as a child thinking that fat tubular 9 looked a bit like a grimacing turtle head or something. I also recall thinking that less than a minute ago. 

Don't call it a crush thanks but I do happen to have a bit of an admiration for the excellent and deservedly beloved actor John Hargreaves. This is him playing a dumb idiot called Tom or Tim or Jack or something. Very cool. Not much nuance. The show is so low-budget by the way that they can't even break things, so we see Tomtim jimmying a door - cut away - cut back to the door open. Maybe that's his name, 'Jimmy'.

Here are the closing credits just in case you didn't believe me that it was John Hargreaves. 

 

Not sure I love Grigor Taylor's hair in this show but I do love his way of sitting on a desk with no pants on. (c) Laura Carroll 2020

All of the above pix were from #32 I just wanted to add this still from #33 because it's so rad how they just whipped up some typeset shizzle somewhere and stuck it randomly into a real newspaper to propel their story. I love that. the little bit of paper still sticking up under the S in 'surgeons', probably so they could remove the picture and caption with ease and return the newspaper to the shop and get their 2c back. Great times.

If I watch the rest I'll tell you what happens OK.

Best christmas ever. Except my feet have been cold all day then they got pins and needles. 

Update:

I woke up at 2am from a gruesome dream in which people explained how they had died in car accidents. The one I remember is a man who was parked eating multiple hamburgers when his car was rammed from behind somehow and it ploughed through a wall. He said something like 'of course, I was already dead by then...' Anyway I watched more of the second Silent Number which is about a NZ heart surgeon or doctor or something who is in Sydney for a few days and has his drink spiked by a woman in a bar as part of an organised 'rolling' operation. The production team really did put the newspaper above to good use:

I appreciate the good punctuation from the crooks (Don't, We'll). Also the surgeon, Fred, reveals the meaning behind the title of the show, where he proposes he stays with Stephen (Grigor Taylor's character) because he'll be uncontactable: 'you have a silent number, don't you?... I'll be very difficult to trace.'

The heart surgeon, Fred Cowper, is being blackmailed primarily because he had some letters in his wallet from an Australian air hostess he had an affair with, but the team also have pictures of him naked in bed with a woman, taken while he was drugged. Spoiler after the woman in question is shot he and Stephen operate on her and remove the bullet, and double spoiler one of the weirdest scenes I have seen on television in some time: the bullet held aloft between forceps, cross cut with Cowper's wife landing at the airport. There is precisely no question at any point that Cowper be called to account for his philandering ways, only that it is imperative his wife not find out and his behaviour not revealed to the Australian public (as this would undo all his good work). To be clear, I don't exactly have a moral issue here, mainly because no-one in the show exists, but I find it interesting. 

For people with a silent number though, I have to say they get a lot of phone calls. 

also, pinch me again

This is seriously about the greatest present I have ever received - my very own Sherman doll, which I can't believe exists. I love it so much. Thank you so much Laura x. 

i told her it was just a story

Laura and I had one of our drawing sessions last night. She can actually draw, whereas I just internally (occasionally externally) whinge about this bizarre disaster I have got myself into. I remember in the past going on extended drawing jags where I ended up producing things I actually felt good about, while recognising that they were not really conventionally excellent. In this instance I am just grinding through it. I had a long sequence - three or four pages - that was to take place over a telephone conversation and then I realised: I don't know how to draw people holding telephones. Also, one of the characters, Grace, doesn't really seem to have ears, which made the placement of the phone difficult. On top of that, three times I ruled up a page of frames and drew Grace in the first frame holding a phone and it - the phone - was disproportionately large. It was a relief to realise I could actually rewrite the whole sequence to remove the phones altogether. There was no reason for them to be talking on the phone, they could just as easily be talking in real life. 

In other news, I have no other news, so that's interesting.  

flexible tuesday

It is the evening of a day I boasted to some colleagues was a 'flexible Tuesday' in case there was anything they needed me to do on a particular project that's been hanging around like a really nice constant smell for some years now and which might actually be submitted for funding sometime before the end of everyone's life. Well, I did manage to make this the fourth day in a row when I exceeded 10 000 steps - it's harder than you'd think and time consuming. This time I walked to the chef supplies shop in Elizabeth st, the (QVM) market, and an asian supermarket, each time I went in I put a mask on, Laura was nice enough to make me some great masks and they work really well but yes, how do you stop them misting up your glasses?! Either hold your breath or don't wear your glasses all the time - obvs. Still, it's a drag. That walk accounted for 6000 steps, a little more. Then in the evening my brother Michael came by and we traversed the 'Royal' Park a little bit and I got up to 12000, it is really wearing me out but I assume that's a hump you get over. 

Now, I'm about to go driving to Richmond to drop off some tapes to Al. I'll tell you about the tapes later OK, I have to do this now. 

Playlist for today: Godley and Creme Freeze Frame; Pere Ubu Song of the Bailing Man; Snowy Band Audio Commentary; Summer Flake Whatever the Second Album's Called - I think it might be Hello Friends? Also, finally started listening to the most recent Philip Pullman novel as audio book.