Fuck shit crap. I got tagged for the 20 Confessional Things About Yourself by cleopatra. *shakes fist*
Well, as it happens I have a True/False quiz going about my life in this friends thread that about 3 people have responded to, and since that covers 10 possible things I've done or had happen to me, I'll only put 10 on here. Between them, they sum to 20, ok?
So.
1. My first experience of school was in Bogota, Colombia.
2. I also had a year of schooling in a boys' school in south London when I was a teenager.
3. My high school and secondary college where I (mostly) grew up are no longer in operation.
4. Vision in my right eye sucks. My left eye has been doing all the hard labour since I was a kid.
5. If we count periods of six months or longer, I have lived in six cities. Three in Australia, three overseas.
6. While at university, my friend Martin came out as gay at a party that I wasn't at. (I'd been invited but somehow got the date wrong.) Nobody bothered telling me so that for months I still thought he was straight (I had no fucking gaydar at all) while everyone else knew better.
7. With any luck, I will get to Japan next year, as well as back to Italy (but this time Venice, not Trieste). Italy might be tense though. I'm displeased with a project collaborator, because she's an idiot and I have to do way too much damage control. But she's wrong and I'm right and too fucking bad.
8. I live 10 minutes walk from Sydney Harbour; 15 minutes walk from the Botanic Gardens; 20 minutes walk from the Sydney Opera House. Kings Cross, Sydney's infamous red-light district, is just up the road. Yes, the suburb really is called Woolloomooloo. As in the mythical University of Woolloomooloo, where all the Bruces are members of the Philosophy Department (cf. Monty Python).
9. We can't have a dog or cat here though. That's what sucks most about where I live. I love having animals about. I hate not having them. My girlfriend says she's nervous about us getting a cat (if we could) because I would give it way too much affection and she'd get jealous.
10. I have never had an SG appreciation thread. I despise you motherfuckers. And don't even think about starting one. I don't need your pity.
Well, as it happens I have a True/False quiz going about my life in this friends thread that about 3 people have responded to, and since that covers 10 possible things I've done or had happen to me, I'll only put 10 on here. Between them, they sum to 20, ok?
So.
1. My first experience of school was in Bogota, Colombia.
2. I also had a year of schooling in a boys' school in south London when I was a teenager.
3. My high school and secondary college where I (mostly) grew up are no longer in operation.
4. Vision in my right eye sucks. My left eye has been doing all the hard labour since I was a kid.
5. If we count periods of six months or longer, I have lived in six cities. Three in Australia, three overseas.
6. While at university, my friend Martin came out as gay at a party that I wasn't at. (I'd been invited but somehow got the date wrong.) Nobody bothered telling me so that for months I still thought he was straight (I had no fucking gaydar at all) while everyone else knew better.
7. With any luck, I will get to Japan next year, as well as back to Italy (but this time Venice, not Trieste). Italy might be tense though. I'm displeased with a project collaborator, because she's an idiot and I have to do way too much damage control. But she's wrong and I'm right and too fucking bad.
8. I live 10 minutes walk from Sydney Harbour; 15 minutes walk from the Botanic Gardens; 20 minutes walk from the Sydney Opera House. Kings Cross, Sydney's infamous red-light district, is just up the road. Yes, the suburb really is called Woolloomooloo. As in the mythical University of Woolloomooloo, where all the Bruces are members of the Philosophy Department (cf. Monty Python).
9. We can't have a dog or cat here though. That's what sucks most about where I live. I love having animals about. I hate not having them. My girlfriend says she's nervous about us getting a cat (if we could) because I would give it way too much affection and she'd get jealous.
10. I have never had an SG appreciation thread. I despise you motherfuckers. And don't even think about starting one. I don't need your pity.
"Honey, did you pay any money on my credit card?"
"Yes."
Uh-huh. I was off the site for a week because the payment, uh, didn't go through, or, uh, something ...
Anyway, I'm back. I'm pretty sure it's Steven you can thank/blame for that. Man, do I owe someone beers next time he's in Sydney, eh?
So, what've you all been up to since I last checked?
"Yes."
Uh-huh. I was off the site for a week because the payment, uh, didn't go through, or, uh, something ...
Anyway, I'm back. I'm pretty sure it's Steven you can thank/blame for that. Man, do I owe someone beers next time he's in Sydney, eh?
So, what've you all been up to since I last checked?
Life is manic lately. Stuff I've been putting off is now needing to be done. On top of that, in the last couple of weeks it looked like I might be getting more administrative responsibility at work, which to be honest was slightly flattering but mostly it would involve more burden and more work.
Anyway, it's not going to come to pass, at least not right now, which is a relief more than anything else.
Meantime, among other things I'm trying to make happen, there's the mooted Member Music Project. If you don't know about this, the idea is to get all the musicianly folks at SG to submit some music for everyone's fun and enjoyment. I know there's a lot of talented musical people at this site so hopefully over the next six months everybody through their various regional groups can make a bunch of music and submit it and we can all get to hear each other's endeavours.
Are you a musician? Get active making music (if you're not already doing so) and if you're really keen you should volunteer to be your regional group representative and apply to the Member Music Project group as your regional rep.
Do you run a regional group? Cajole someone you think is keen and capable to represent your group. Get them to let me knwo who they are, and to apply to the Member Music Project group.
Still reading? Poor old TFOG (TheFuckOffGirl) wasn't so popular around here after making me update so as to move my Katrina and the Waves reference off my journal page. She made a great apropos-of-nothing comment while we were waiting at traffic lights which I wanted to post in here, but she won't let me.
Instead I thought I might share her insights in the Impasse/Interim duality. She once told me that there are two kinds of situations -- Impasses and Interims.
(Reminds me the old joke that there are two kinds of people in the world; those who divide people into two types of people, and those who don't.)
So, OK, "impasses" represent when something seems insoluble. It's unresolved, in the too-hard-basket, no way to figure it out. Then there are "interimds" meaning interim solutions. Something seems resolved, dealt with, sorted out. But these things are never permanent. The world moves on. It's all interim.
I've been thinking about that latety. If it strikes a chord in you, and you remember it months or years from now, remember my girlfriend.
(And TFOG, if you're reading this, I love you, you little ferret.)
Anyway, it's not going to come to pass, at least not right now, which is a relief more than anything else.
Meantime, among other things I'm trying to make happen, there's the mooted Member Music Project. If you don't know about this, the idea is to get all the musicianly folks at SG to submit some music for everyone's fun and enjoyment. I know there's a lot of talented musical people at this site so hopefully over the next six months everybody through their various regional groups can make a bunch of music and submit it and we can all get to hear each other's endeavours.
Are you a musician? Get active making music (if you're not already doing so) and if you're really keen you should volunteer to be your regional group representative and apply to the Member Music Project group as your regional rep.
Do you run a regional group? Cajole someone you think is keen and capable to represent your group. Get them to let me knwo who they are, and to apply to the Member Music Project group.
Still reading? Poor old TFOG (TheFuckOffGirl) wasn't so popular around here after making me update so as to move my Katrina and the Waves reference off my journal page. She made a great apropos-of-nothing comment while we were waiting at traffic lights which I wanted to post in here, but she won't let me.
Instead I thought I might share her insights in the Impasse/Interim duality. She once told me that there are two kinds of situations -- Impasses and Interims.
(Reminds me the old joke that there are two kinds of people in the world; those who divide people into two types of people, and those who don't.)
So, OK, "impasses" represent when something seems insoluble. It's unresolved, in the too-hard-basket, no way to figure it out. Then there are "interimds" meaning interim solutions. Something seems resolved, dealt with, sorted out. But these things are never permanent. The world moves on. It's all interim.
I've been thinking about that latety. If it strikes a chord in you, and you remember it months or years from now, remember my girlfriend.
(And TFOG, if you're reading this, I love you, you little ferret.)
TheFuckOffGirl declared my previous update in bad taste and made me update. (It wasn't an Onion headline, it was a headline I figured was Onion-like.)
So, here, another update.
So, here, another update.
Headline from The Onion I kind of expected to see by now:
Katrina and the Waves Decide Against Planned Reunion Tour.
Meantime, I have some important stuff to update about, but for now, that's all I wrote.
PS: I miss Dusty.
Katrina and the Waves Decide Against Planned Reunion Tour.
Meantime, I have some important stuff to update about, but for now, that's all I wrote.
PS: I miss Dusty.
OK, so I just applied for a new group on the site. The group is intended to be for the "Member Music Project" that I want to get going amongst the wider community of musicians and music-makers on the site.
UPDATEGroup now up and running!
http://suicidegirls.com/groups/The+Member+Music+Project/
(Applications will be accepted on an "invite only" basis, with representatives from regional groups and otherwise appointed organisers from around the globe.)
Here's how the idea would work.
1. Musicians (whether in bands or working alone or willing to collaborate with other members) would start making and recording music for their fellow SG members to eventually hear.
2. The project would be run in practice through the site's regional groups. Each participating group would have one member designated to take responsibility for coordinating their group efforts. That member will join the new group I've set up, to help sort out logistics, and get advice if needed from organisers and other regional coordinators.
3. With a deadline of (say) 6 months, the objective would be for each participating group to compile a CD's worth of material and submit it to the organisers. Depending on the logistics, we would find a way to circulate CDs to groups, or set up a site for mp3 downloads, and/or whatever other ideas that may get suggested for distrbution of the results.
------------------------------------------
There's a lot of details to sort out, but a few obvious questions answered up front.
Q: Can I submit my existing band's work to this project?
A. Sure.
Q. Does the music need to be made entirely by current SG members.
A. Nope. Minimum one single member of the site on any contributed track.
Q. Does consistency of style or genre matter?
A. Nope. Heavy/indie.folksy/emo-ey/trancey/dancey are all fine.
Q. What if I'm not in a regional group?
A. Join one. If that's a problem, talk to me another time. If you're not in one because you're a certified psycho stalker, we might not want to hear your music.
Q. What if I'm in five regional groups?
A. Work via your "main" group. I'm in four groups, but I'll be working through SG Australasia. You can collaborate with other people from other groups on "their" music, but pick one group for whatever you consider "your" music to be. (That is, you can collaborate with who you want where you want how you want. But on any such collaboration, one of you decide who's taking responsibility for it and funnel it through your group.)
Q. What if no-one else in my regional group is going to participate?
A. Are you a member of more than one? If so, work through one of your other groups. Preferably one that doesn't mind an "outsider" working under their umbrella.
*************************************************
Board thread.
UPDATEGroup now up and running!
http://suicidegirls.com/groups/The+Member+Music+Project/
(Applications will be accepted on an "invite only" basis, with representatives from regional groups and otherwise appointed organisers from around the globe.)
Here's how the idea would work.
1. Musicians (whether in bands or working alone or willing to collaborate with other members) would start making and recording music for their fellow SG members to eventually hear.
2. The project would be run in practice through the site's regional groups. Each participating group would have one member designated to take responsibility for coordinating their group efforts. That member will join the new group I've set up, to help sort out logistics, and get advice if needed from organisers and other regional coordinators.
3. With a deadline of (say) 6 months, the objective would be for each participating group to compile a CD's worth of material and submit it to the organisers. Depending on the logistics, we would find a way to circulate CDs to groups, or set up a site for mp3 downloads, and/or whatever other ideas that may get suggested for distrbution of the results.
------------------------------------------
There's a lot of details to sort out, but a few obvious questions answered up front.
Q: Can I submit my existing band's work to this project?
A. Sure.
Q. Does the music need to be made entirely by current SG members.
A. Nope. Minimum one single member of the site on any contributed track.
Q. Does consistency of style or genre matter?
A. Nope. Heavy/indie.folksy/emo-ey/trancey/dancey are all fine.
Q. What if I'm not in a regional group?
A. Join one. If that's a problem, talk to me another time. If you're not in one because you're a certified psycho stalker, we might not want to hear your music.
Q. What if I'm in five regional groups?
A. Work via your "main" group. I'm in four groups, but I'll be working through SG Australasia. You can collaborate with other people from other groups on "their" music, but pick one group for whatever you consider "your" music to be. (That is, you can collaborate with who you want where you want how you want. But on any such collaboration, one of you decide who's taking responsibility for it and funnel it through your group.)
Q. What if no-one else in my regional group is going to participate?
A. Are you a member of more than one? If so, work through one of your other groups. Preferably one that doesn't mind an "outsider" working under their umbrella.
*************************************************
Board thread.
New things to report?
1. Went and saw Teenage Fanclub at the Metro in Sydney's CBD. Great stuff.
2. Didn't get to see the Special Beat the following night for one or other reason. That was a bit of a disappointment as that would've been a bunch of fun if they'd managed to do justice to old Specials and Beat songs. Oh well.
3. TheFuckOffGirl climbed Sydney Harbour Bridge -- as in, all the way up the big arch and back down again -- and arrived home drunk after dining with her fellow bridge climbers. I don't want to tell you how nervous she was about the climb before she did it, but I will tell you how proud she was having successfully completed it.
4. Yesterday (Saturday) various SGAU Sydneysiders met up to make music. For a spontaneous mess around with lowroller, Steven, hellfaerie and Sknow, we did not a bad job of coming up with some ideas for songs to, well, to try and turn into actual songs I guess. More news to be posted here as we progress.
OK folks. I've been a not-so-good comment responder lately so I need to go back and figure out who I might owe comments to. If I've been slack where you're concerned, just let me know with an "Oi, Fucktardboy, get thee to my journal."
1. Went and saw Teenage Fanclub at the Metro in Sydney's CBD. Great stuff.
2. Didn't get to see the Special Beat the following night for one or other reason. That was a bit of a disappointment as that would've been a bunch of fun if they'd managed to do justice to old Specials and Beat songs. Oh well.
3. TheFuckOffGirl climbed Sydney Harbour Bridge -- as in, all the way up the big arch and back down again -- and arrived home drunk after dining with her fellow bridge climbers. I don't want to tell you how nervous she was about the climb before she did it, but I will tell you how proud she was having successfully completed it.
4. Yesterday (Saturday) various SGAU Sydneysiders met up to make music. For a spontaneous mess around with lowroller, Steven, hellfaerie and Sknow, we did not a bad job of coming up with some ideas for songs to, well, to try and turn into actual songs I guess. More news to be posted here as we progress.
OK folks. I've been a not-so-good comment responder lately so I need to go back and figure out who I might owe comments to. If I've been slack where you're concerned, just let me know with an "Oi, Fucktardboy, get thee to my journal."
TFOG and I had dinner with my folks this evening, as they were in town for a night.
When with my parents, TFOG always waits for the moment my mother will do/say something that pisses her off. Tonight it came with my mother "reminding me" that I (we) owed her money for another meal we'd had out a month or two back. We'd had a weekend in my folks' town and agreed to drive them back to Sydney and stop along the way for a country lunch they'd wanted to try for a while. I would drive and not drink any wine at the lunch.
On the day, TFOG had wanted us to pay for the meal but we were told not to. So I wasn't expecting to be told that we owed money for it. I'd forgotten the details, and anyway I'd been willing to pay for tonight's meal. But TFOG was incensed, although she didn't show it until later.
In-laws, eh?
When with my parents, TFOG always waits for the moment my mother will do/say something that pisses her off. Tonight it came with my mother "reminding me" that I (we) owed her money for another meal we'd had out a month or two back. We'd had a weekend in my folks' town and agreed to drive them back to Sydney and stop along the way for a country lunch they'd wanted to try for a while. I would drive and not drink any wine at the lunch.
On the day, TFOG had wanted us to pay for the meal but we were told not to. So I wasn't expecting to be told that we owed money for it. I'd forgotten the details, and anyway I'd been willing to pay for tonight's meal. But TFOG was incensed, although she didn't show it until later.
In-laws, eh?
My dear friend Rachael is now here at SG! She's at ddawll -- go say hi.
Meantime Anton and Linz and I have been muttering about making some music together and forming a band of sorts. Here's Anton and I talking about it on IM.
Anton: [CONFIDENTIAL BAND NAME DISCUSSION]. (That's Lindsey's kinda' funny suggestion for a bandname).
TFOK: yeah, hey, I don't mind that
Anton: It's not bad. It's from a book. I do like band names from books.
Anton: 'Hey, we're a band... But we're also literary too!'
TFOK: I was once in a band called The Wasp Factory
TFOK: the book was better than our music
Anton: Hahaha.
TFOK: actually in our ddefence we were half way ok
Anton: My suggestions are The Great Shark Hunt or The Proud Highway
or Secret Country or Backlash: The Undeclared War On Women.
Anton: I didn't just get them from the nearest books.
TFOK: "Backlash: The Undeclared War On Women" = Best Band Name
Evar
Anton: Hahaha.
Anton: People would LOVE that.
Anton: The punters would go crazy.
TFOK: we'd become known colloquially as Backlash TUWOW
Anton: If by punters I mean guys who turned up thinking it was some
sweet misogynist wife-bashing music, which I do.
Anton: Haha. Faludi could turn up and sing Back-Up Rhetoric.
TFOK: First album self titled. Second album = "Stiffed"
Anton: Hahaha.
TFOK: song titles based on chapter names from each
TFOK: I hope they're not just numbered, or our songs will be "Chapter 1",
"Chapter 2" etc
Anton: We could do a cover of TISM's The Love You Make Equals The
Love You Take, So Baby Let Me Bang Your Box.
Anton: Sounds like the workings of the worst band ever.
Anton: Which is a fine achievement.
TFOK: if you have to be something, why not be the worst ever at it
Anton: There are some fine song titles here.
Anton: Man Shortages And Barren Wombs.
Anton: There's a hit.
Anton: Dressing The Dolls.
TFOK: crap yes!!!
Anton: Different Voices Or Victorian Echoes?
TFOK: then I'm going to leave the band in a huff and go off and form "The Myth of Male Power"
Anton: Hahaha.
Anton: I'll have a solo career. My first single will be I'm Sensitive, Caring and Intelligent, So Why Do You Make Me Use Condoms?!
TFOK: There's whole masters theses waiting to be written about our collective ouvre
Anton: Lest we keep the secretly misogynist academic hordes waiting.
Anton: Spoken to TFOG about playing maraccas? I bet she's into ti.
TFOK: "Only if they call me Yoko" she says
Anton: Can she find it within herself to be rude and uncaring and break up the band?
TFOK: she's more than capable of that, which will lead to the whole splitsvile Myth of Male Power thingie
TFOK: but that lies in the future
Anton: Good to have these things planned out though
Meantime Anton and Linz and I have been muttering about making some music together and forming a band of sorts. Here's Anton and I talking about it on IM.
Anton: [CONFIDENTIAL BAND NAME DISCUSSION]. (That's Lindsey's kinda' funny suggestion for a bandname).
TFOK: yeah, hey, I don't mind that
Anton: It's not bad. It's from a book. I do like band names from books.
Anton: 'Hey, we're a band... But we're also literary too!'
TFOK: I was once in a band called The Wasp Factory
TFOK: the book was better than our music
Anton: Hahaha.
TFOK: actually in our ddefence we were half way ok
Anton: My suggestions are The Great Shark Hunt or The Proud Highway
or Secret Country or Backlash: The Undeclared War On Women.
Anton: I didn't just get them from the nearest books.
TFOK: "Backlash: The Undeclared War On Women" = Best Band Name
Evar
Anton: Hahaha.
Anton: People would LOVE that.
Anton: The punters would go crazy.
TFOK: we'd become known colloquially as Backlash TUWOW
Anton: If by punters I mean guys who turned up thinking it was some
sweet misogynist wife-bashing music, which I do.
Anton: Haha. Faludi could turn up and sing Back-Up Rhetoric.
TFOK: First album self titled. Second album = "Stiffed"
Anton: Hahaha.
TFOK: song titles based on chapter names from each
TFOK: I hope they're not just numbered, or our songs will be "Chapter 1",
"Chapter 2" etc
Anton: We could do a cover of TISM's The Love You Make Equals The
Love You Take, So Baby Let Me Bang Your Box.
Anton: Sounds like the workings of the worst band ever.
Anton: Which is a fine achievement.
TFOK: if you have to be something, why not be the worst ever at it
Anton: There are some fine song titles here.
Anton: Man Shortages And Barren Wombs.
Anton: There's a hit.
Anton: Dressing The Dolls.
TFOK: crap yes!!!
Anton: Different Voices Or Victorian Echoes?
TFOK: then I'm going to leave the band in a huff and go off and form "The Myth of Male Power"
Anton: Hahaha.
Anton: I'll have a solo career. My first single will be I'm Sensitive, Caring and Intelligent, So Why Do You Make Me Use Condoms?!
TFOK: There's whole masters theses waiting to be written about our collective ouvre
Anton: Lest we keep the secretly misogynist academic hordes waiting.
Anton: Spoken to TFOG about playing maraccas? I bet she's into ti.
TFOK: "Only if they call me Yoko" she says
Anton: Can she find it within herself to be rude and uncaring and break up the band?
TFOK: she's more than capable of that, which will lead to the whole splitsvile Myth of Male Power thingie
TFOK: but that lies in the future
Anton: Good to have these things planned out though
We live in melodramatic times.
Incidentally, is there anything more depressing than the Current Events section of a modern-day bookstore? There are so many rows of hastily-written, 200-250 page books with giant print, huge margins, and a cover featuring a smug bastard under a title like THEYRE ALL AGAINST YOU: How Hollywood, the French, and the CIA Have Conspired to Pollute Your Precious Bodily Fluids and What You Can Do To Stop Them.
Meanwhile, TheFuckOffGirl remains a cheap drunk. One-and-a-half strong G&Ts into an evening spent watching Harry Potter DVDs, she cried out from her chair "I CAN'T FEEL MY FACE! Heeee."
I knew you'd all want to know.
