Spiggeldy spog.
Just got in. Feel drained and overwhemingly sad. But once again it feels very nice to be home. And enormously weird that it feels like this is my home.
But it is. I have no home at home anymore. Canberra is an alien place with no home to go to which fills me with sadness.
Sad, sad; feel very sad. La la la. Sad, sad, sad.
Took lots of pictures. Spect I’ll post some tomorrow.
I wonder what this week will be like.
Something interesting is happening tomorrow evening.
Filed under Uncategorised
Dissatisfaction abroad in the Neuroranks: Jo rants, Lady J agrees (as does Simon Blackmoore), Li flakes out, and Reanimator drops the bomb.
R’s articulate points aside I wonder how much all of this really has to do with the ‘Cam itself, and how much of it is down to frustration at all the timewasting, bandwagon-hijacking idiots who seem to have gravitated towards it over the last little while.
Well, get out more. So sayeth the Reani-man, pragmatically enough, and sound advice it is too.
(Actually I’m not a virtual recluse; many of my online personas are the quite social butterflies..)
I had lunch today at Lentil As Anything, a funny little vegan cafe on Blessington Street with an appealingly unpretentious boho vibe and an innovative “pay whatever the fuck you feel like” pricing policy. Here is someone else blogging about it in a manner which captures the tone quite nicely.
I had a lentil burger with satay sauce (and a lasse), and paid $15
Last night I was going to go a talk by photographer Bill Henson (not to be confused with the late Jim Henson), who is good, at the Ian Potter Centre (the NGV‘s secondary premises at Federation Square, housing Australian art – which, shamefully, I only discovered existed last week whilst executing Neurocam Assignment 5555/01). They are currently hosting a major Henson retrospective.
Unfortunately I missed the talk because I got on the wrong tram. Stupid wrong tram.
This weekend I’m making another flying visit to Canberra; my folks are throwing a farewell party before upping stakes to Switzerland. My previous visit – see archive – was a bit of a downer and I’m not particularly looking forward to it, but I will at least get to hang with my beloved baby sister, who is travelling all the way from the far reaches of darkest Queensland for the occasion.
But it can be restrictive.
On 04/05/2005, at 5:02 PM, Charles Hastings (operations@neurocam.com) wrote:
Specific times and your personal transport status are also required.
Sorry Charlie..
Filed under Photos
Mail from Madeline Khan:
I hereby confirm that Ms. Bridget Fischer is currently traveling abroad and that the west coast of the United States of America is one of her many intended destinations. Furthermore, I can confirm that I am the author of the email recently reproduced upon Operative Midnight’s web journal.
Also, Melbournites: The Matrix is screening at the Astor in St Kilda tomorrow night. Never seen it in a cinema before. Bit exciting. I’m certainly not the only Cammer who’s a fan of this movie; anyone else thinking of going?
I’ll be wearing my identifier..
I had unanswered emails dating back to February 22nd.
I feel so virtuous right now I could just die.
Filed under Uncategorised
Been very slack on the bloggage front of late; touch of flu and not much worth reporting. Apologies.
Everything looks exceptionally hazy in Camland at present. The Neurowiki (Wikicam?) appears to be coming along nicely but if its objective is to serve as a source for accurate info, I kind of wonder if it isn’t a doomed project. As is the case more often than not, the line between fact and fiction’s so blurry right now that the distinction seems almost irrelevant.
Avery‘s supposedly arrived here in Melbourne. But with his previous post he seems to have warped into the Xulosphere. (Hi Avery, if you’re reading this and you really are in town. Feel free to invalidate my skepticism.)
Meanwhile I – and presumably others – have received a mail purportedly from Xul’s associate Urik, advising that Mr. Solar has gone into hiding and ceased all internet communications, although he remains “in excellent physical and mental health”. Which is reassuring.
I’ve lodged an enquiry regarding Midnight‘s claims about Fischer’s trip to LA. His latest entry, quoting a mail from Madeline Khan, suggests that there is genuinely something going down there, even if it is just more smoke and, y’know, mirrors.
Gertrude Zelle has told tobyesterhase aka Operative Cronin that Marc Moncrief’s legendary Age article, responsible for introducing many a Melbourne operative (including this one) to the ‘Cam, is “a potentially slanderous fiction, complied by him from half-truths, materials of questionable veracity and blatant lies.” Cronin intends to contact Moncrief about this accusation, which might prove interesting.
In other news, one of my local neuroblogging contemporaries, Aliask (Perception Assessment class of January 3rd – here’s his, here’s a mine.. ah, the good old days etc) has retired; apparently he couldn’t be arsed with Assignment 5555/01, and I don’t think he’s the only one.
But, good little operative that I am, I faithfully completed the bulk of mine on Friday; hopefully I’ll be able to finish it off on Tuesday.
Sullenest cat I have ever seen:
Street I saw it on:
Filed under Photos
Neuroboardie Dev has set up a Neurocam wiki. If enough people get on board this could grow into an excellent resource.
Filed under Neurocam
I often feel like I’ve been struck by lightning.
I want to watch Peter Greenaway‘s 1980 short Act of God again. It’s a documentary comprising a series of interviews with lightning strike victims. Lightning strike is recognisable as a phenomenon comparable to the mysterious Violent Unknown Event at the centre of Greenaway’s subsequent feature debut The Falls.
I originally saw both films about ten years ago, deep in the bowels of the National Library, where you could watch 16mm prints from the enormous film collection that they used to hold (which I believe now lives at Screensound) on quaint old Steenbeck viewing tables.
I was completely and totally obsessively in love with Greenaway’s work throughout my teenage years. It was the centre of my whole world. I want to get reaquainted with it.
I still possess dodgy VHS recordings (mostly taped off Eat Carpet over the years) of a number of his early shorts (H Is For House, Water Wrackets, Windows, Dear Phone and A Walk Through H), but not Act of God. And I’ve still never even seen Vertical Features Remake.
I really need to get these two DVDs.
I rescued these two books about PG from my parents sinking ship of a house:
Museums & Moving Images by David Pascoe and The Films of Peter Greenaway by Amy Lawrence
If I ever finish The Magus (I’m not going to give up on it now, but like others I’ve found it a tad bromidic) I’m going to read at least the Lawrence one again.*
And if I ever resolve my current deeply unsatisfactory employment situation, I’m going to celebrate by buying this DVD edition of A Zed & Two Noughts that I discovered at Chronicles on Fitzroy Street the other day, which features a director’s commentary track. My sixteen-year-old self would probably have keeled over dead with sheer excitement at such a prospect.
*Sidebar watchers will have noticed that I’m also currently reading Scepticism Inc by Bo Fowler – at work, since The Magus is a bit too bulky to fit comfortably in my pocket. It’s narrated by a sentient shopping trolley. It’s about a man who runs a metaphysical betting shop, which makes a killing because – metaphysical propositions being inherently unverifiable – it never ever has to pay out. These are just two of many great things about it.
It’s all about The Prisoner, apparently.
Not seen it myself but the premise sounds intruiging.
