Trysting Fields

Interview With The Corporate Zombies

HNY, MOTHERFUCKERS

It's on.

!!! \O/ !!!

Stuff I Did This Year

In a nutshell: systematically climbed the fuck out of hell. Again. (See previously: 2005; 2007; 2009.)

And it's good! Can't complain.

:)

"Friends - you know who you are; you know we're grateful." - Blur, 1993. (Seriously. If ever a year was about Who Your Real Friends Are, it was 2011.)

Similarly, those who have fucked me up and fucked me over this year most likely know who they are also, and possibly how I feel about this (hint: angry, bewildered and sad) - with the possible exception of the Rt Hon Lord Mayor of Melbourne Robert Doyle (note contact details), who I strongly suspect does not have any idea who I am.

(I also doubt he reads this blog. But since it just can't be said often enough I might as well take this opportunity to (re)state, for the record: Robert Doyle, you're a fucking cunt. You really are.)

The bulk of this year's SIDTY post I rendered in audio format at the coast a few nights ago. It goes into a bit more detail (although, to be honest, not all that much). Enjoy:

Vale 2011. Viva 2012.

Happy new year!

Tentmonster Rally

Saturday, 10th December.

Footage of (failed) police raid the same night here (207 MB).

F#$book Is In, Apparently

One of the main reasons my blog is so dead these days is that all the action it might once have seen is now occurring on my two Facebook accounts.

FB - rapacious motherfucker that it is - has eaten my blog.

I'm not particularly happy about this, but so it goes. Can't force shit.

Here is the news:

I am doing alright; better even. I've become a bit decadent over the semester break but that's okay. I need a new job, and I've all but decided to defer school for the rest of the year to focus on making some money and generally sloughing off the final vestiges of My Worst Depression Since 2005 (tm) - which is, pleasingly, drawing to a close fucking FINALLY.

Bring on spring.

I had another bustup with Lady J the week before last, which has made me a bit sad. But I'll get over it. And in thematically related news, I'm still estranged from my former associate the artist sometimes known as Schnozzie, which also continues to cause me grief.

Being severely alienated from people you love a lot and have epic history with really sucks.

What else? My sister moved house last weekend, which was a major operation and marked the end of an era. Her new place is massive - she now has her own studio, which I am very envious of - and her new housemates are lovely. Yay Toots's new house.

Finally: I'm having a birthday party on September 24th. It's going to go OFF. You should totally come.

Generally speaking we're on the up, at long last.

That is all for now!!!

Twitter Is In

True story.

End Of Week One

More pictures, but I can't be fucked choosing a particular one to post; they're on flickr.

Here's a status update I made about what I did after working a 7-hour shift on Saturday:

Here's some audio which reflects my mental state this afternoon:

It'll get easier.

I Decided To Go Back To School

On a see-how-it-goes basis. First day yesterday; went okay. (Previously.)

I have to keep a visual diary, course. Which has kind of been freaking me out. Although that's stupid, coz what is this blog right here except a multimedia visual diary, kinda?

I've just retroactively added text to this post from a few weeks ago, which I initially discarded in favour of just using the photo, since I tend to write overshary, self-obsessy crap on the blog when I'm down that just embarrasses me later and isn't helpful in the immediate, neither.

But we have to Document Shit. It's the only solution.

Blogging's good.

"I heart my blog. It's surprised and delighted me in all kinds of ways and continues to do so. It has a degree of inherent continuity and structures naturally emerge, but it's basically unhindered by any context restrictions except those inherent in the medium, which can incorporate text, images, audio, video, etc etc etc.

It helps me see life as stories, and as an ongoing story. And it provides a means of turning the things I experience and think about into multimedia artefacts that other people can consume and respond to, with a very fast turnaround time. It's simple, but it works.

More profoundly, it enables me to observe and actively direct themes & patterns in my own preoccupations, and it's taught me a lot about shaping one's own experience using symbols & narratives - about the intersection between creativity and life; between what you focus on and what ‘happens’ - about tapping into your own unconscious processes."

- portfolio statement, late 2007 (adapted from email to Em).

La bla blah. It's true though.

That said, I think I'll mostly just post pictures for a while. Or maybe not.

We'll see what happens.

Relax, Everything's Going To Be Fine

Li has started blogging again.

Spring = Sprung

Official fact. Doesn't quite feel like it yet, but it's unquestionably getting there.

So, Em came to visit from Sydney a few weeks ago. Hadn't seen her in almost exactly a year. It was excellent. Here's a picture of us her, and me in half-eaten pizza form at Bimbo:

Amongst other things, we talked blogs. She pointed out that my F$%book accounts have pretty much completely supplanted the more here-is-the-newsy kind of role my blog used to play back in the day, and told me she'd blog more if I did. Which seemed like a good deal, especially since I'm finally starting to feel kind of over F&#b!@k.

She also opined that TF should go back to being more writerly and less overwhelmingly audiocentric. Quoth TAFKALJ, concordantly: "TOO MUCH AUDIO".

I dunno. The blog has to do what it wants!!! *stamps foot petulantly on behalf of blog* It can't be forced, let alone by the audioantipathetic whims of sundry ex-girlfriends. Well, it probably can up to a point. But it shouldn't be. That said, I think Em made a strong case.

Blog bloggety blog.

We'll see what happens.

~ SPRING! ~

How was your winter? Mine was harsh. Although I've certainly had worse. And yeah - it's over now.

Which is good.

Proper CH Party

Friday 11th June.

The first oldschool stylez party we've had here since my birthday in September. Blame The DPP.

Went off.

Footage of my broken VCR/DVD player being ritually destroyed on the stroke of midnight: part 1 (42 meg); part 2, starring MYF (671 kb); part 3 (36 meg).

(My original plan was to throw it off the roof before destroying it. But unfortunately the ladder which would have facilitated this turned out to be at Toots's house. So it goes; that piece of shit still got completely annihilated. Result! etc)

Entertaining Budini

Tuesday 2nd March.

RIP Beard

Partly inspired by high-calibre acquaintances including Atkins, Danny Smith and Justin, and partly because G told me to (although she changed her mind once I actually did it), I have been growing a beard.

I've never done this before. I hadn't shaved since new year. I quite liked the idea of not cutting any of my hair all year. But I think it looks shit, so I just shaved it off.

I saved the hair. I will give or send some of it to anyone who comments on this post. (I have been getting zero comments lately. Lift your game, people.)

Dinner Party III

Friday 12th February.

Starring Henley & Adele; 2003 & Danny (sans promised cheese platter, but I just can't stay mad at the guy); Lady GrimGrim & Jacqui; the fantastic Mr Kav; the ex-operative formerly known as Li Han, Blog Boy From Space (who hopefully won't object to me linking him old-school like that - because although Exaggerating Rumours is now four years old and obviously he's grown as a person since then etc blah blah, it's still genius which deserves wider exposure) - and of course Toots, who opted to turn up after everyone except Kav had gone home, because that is the way she motherfucking rolls.

Fair to say, went OFF.

No obligatory formula picture of everyone in the back garden, because for whatever reason (quite possibly because it's the way they motherfucking roll), the guests all opted to stay inside this time - a trend that, with the encroachment of winter, we were going to have to adapt to sooner or later anyway. But there's these ones.

In contrast to last time, when I accidentally deleted the audio directly after recording it, we successfully captured over sixty minutes of vox, much of it gold. Unfortunately that means I'm having a really hard time choosing clips. Maybe I'll put some up retrospectively & link back to it in a later post. We'll see.

In other news: if you happen to be in the region of the Abbotsford Convent at any point over the next week, I strongly advocate checking out the Prismatic Audit currently being undertaken there by Torie Nimmervoll & intended DP III invitee and amazing genius Jason Maling (who couldn't come, because he was too busy getting ready for the Prismatic Audit. That's okay, we'll get him next time).

I did today; it was great. I came home exhausted and collapsed at 6:30pm into some of the weirdest and most awesome dreams I've had in months. Now it's 2:30am and I'm blearly eating a pizza at Bimbo. But that's beside the point.

Where was I? Oh yeah; I'm starting school on Monday, which will be well weird. But before that I'm off to a quasi-hippy festival in a field near Schnozzie's hometown.

There will most likely be bloggage about both of these things. Until then: stay in the groove. Or, y'know, don't. It's Entirely Up To You (tm)! See if I care, blog readers. SEE IF I GIVE A FUCK.

:)

(Previously; previouslyer.)

Thailand (Three)

Bangkok, 2nd February.

The DP I Audio Is Finally Up

Here.

All of V*cw*e's parts have been edited out - which is a shame IMHO, coz they're golden. But so it goes.

(She got kind of shitty at me about the whole thing, which was a bit upsetting. This is the first time anyone's ever gotten pissy at me over blog audio. There's an interesting post in all of this. But methinks it's a story for another time.)

In happier news: I found out on Tuesday that, against all expectations, I got into art school.

Wo0t!1! etc

Happy New Tenth!!! [*]

([*] Trope courtesy of D. Soybean.)

So, my 2010 has pretty much rocked so far. How's 'bout yours!!!?

I think my epic backlog-killing spree (mostly effected down the NSW coast, where I spent an actually not at all unpleasant festive perenium with Toots and the parentals) exhausted me a bit, blogwise. Maybe that will change; maybe not. We'll find out!!!

Yeah, my parents have been in the country, which doesn't happen very often. They went home yesterday, after five days here in teh Melbourne. Ergo, amongst other things, I've lately been eating out a lot and experiencing a generally higher material standard of living than that to which I'm accustomed. It's all been very nice!!!

I set a prospective date today for DP III, which is Friday, February 12th - although I haven't told the prospective invitees directly yet, coz I'm still figuring out exactly who they are!!!

The audio from both DP I and the SRC Xmas Post-Party is being held back pending the resolution of some content (in the former case) and clearance (in the latter) issues, but I'll post an update when it's finally up!!!

What else? Oh, yeah - I'm going to Thailand for ten days in two weeks!!!

To this end, I was vaccinated against Swine Flu (amongst other things) the other day and consequently, I think, came down with a very minor case of Swine Flu. But I recovered!!!

And I think that's pretty much all for now!!!

Here, randomly, is a picture of A, DA, G and myself at Prudence last night, playing the Trivial Pursuit Toots gave me for Christmas:

Stuff I Did This Year

This year was all about recovery. It started out in the absolute pits of hell, slowly got better, and - a few ickle problems here and there aside, but whatcha gonna do - ended all up in unmitigated gnarley.

Result.

As per last year I feel more like talking about people than doings or accomplishments. Specifically, and without wanting to get too gushy, all the people who've helped me in all their various ways to remember what the whole circus is about. Really forgot for a while there. Fucken' sucked.

So couldn't have done it without yiz.

Thanks. Seriously.

• Mum, Dad & Jess.
• Ben.
• Despite - and partly because of - some serious difficulties, Liv (and co).
• Henley.
• On an obscure tip: Martha, Dolly, Magnus, Tim, my secret admirer, and the other Barn*by Ev*ns on Facebook.
• Li.
• Nada A.
• Nada Z (nb not technically a person, but we'll let it slide).
• Em & co.
• Kav. Georgie. Twyllan. Kinkel. Vicwie. Sims. Brendan. Zanella. The Major. Freedman. 2003 & co. And all the countless other people at/from my thankfully now-former work who are fucking awesome. But most especially them.
• Relatedly: motorscooting Keith! Party and associates - most especially Bourkie, and Carol. We don't really know Trajstman yet - but you may rest assured we intend to.
• Cel.
• Freakley.
• Mr Ad*m F*rd (not the poet), and Mr D. Allan.
• Grimsey.
• Gab, obvs, and associates not previously mentioned, especially Pets & Dech (+ Scott, Ewan, Chirsp etc etc etc).
• And last, but the exact opposite of least: Ms M. F. "prog081" Evans and associates, esp. Kat, Hayley, Fran & co, Ange & Chloe.

The admittedly sometimes finite limitations of my resources notwithstanding, these people can - at any time, and to whatever extent they may deem necessary and/or desirable - stand the fuck under my umbrella.

I'd also like to extend a really colossal, biblical-epic-stylez "fuck you" to one or two other individuals whose selfish, infantile cuntishness and astonishing lack of Vision (tm), conversely, reeeallly hasn't helped. Anyone. But I won't. It won't help. We can only have faith that in time they will grow the hearts, brains, spines and souls they surprisingly appear to lack.

Having A Soul: It's Good.

:)

Happy new year.

Just, Wow

Whole calendar month without a new post. This has never happened before in the entire history of TF.

The reason it's occurred is that:

• I recorded some audio of Liv drunkenly abusing Henley at my birthday party, which I didn't want to listen to for fear it'd be excrutiatingly embarrassing.
• Subsequently-captured media started to pile up behind it.
• The whole thing became a procrastination bomb of horror proportions.

The stupidest part is I already know I can't actually use the aforementioned audio anyway, coz L has - not unreasonably - vetoed this.

Then I got distracted preparing for art school interviewage, which finished today. (Went well; we're happy.)

But now there's no excuse. We're gonna grind through it this week, before CH Dinner Party II on Friday night.

Please stay tuned.

Media Backlog

I blame Liv[*]. We're working on it. Life is good. That is all.

UPDATE: ION, read Ev's blog.

[*] I do not really blame Liv.

Random Pictures Of The Week Since I Got Back

t.A.T.u. Was Robbed

But a good night was had in the process.

ION: I caught up with my old arch-nemesis TAFKA Robert Henley last Friday. It was great. Love that guy's work. No, seriously.

I am still not dead. Better, even.

What else? I'm going to New York next month. I'm going to Thailand in November (probably). Then I'm going to Geneva in December. I might go to Norwich also. Toots has a friend there she wants to visit, and I want to read Adam Tenex's novel which he's apparently too lazy send to me.

Adventures FTW!

Can't complain.

Hello, Blog (redux)

It's wet today. It's nice. I was woken up by the garbage truck at 9am this morning and realised I'd forgotten to put the bins out. So I did. Then I went back to bed until midday.

I started back at work on Monday. This is A Good Thing. I've become waaay too reclusive over the break.

I think my 'new' housemate - he still seems new even though he's been here three months, partly coz he went away for a month quite soon after moving in, and partly coz time has been frozen on Planet T lately - has decided I'm a freak.

He actually said this, more or less, late one drunken night in January. "It's funny the things you discover about people once you get to know them a bit better. Like you: before I started living with you, I totally thought you were normal."

I LOL'd. I was, actually, much more normal before he moved in. Or at least playing normal much more convincingly.

So it goes. I hope he doesn't feel conned.

We still seem to be getting along fine, even though he's decided I'm not normal.

What else? I got a new camera a few days ago, finally. It's a DSLR; sexy but overwhelming. I'm kind of scared of it. I haven't actually charged the battery and set it up yet.

But I will.

Canberra Redux (Two)

Sunday.

Sunday.

Things To Be Thankful For (Four)

Both of these things have been mentioned before. But I'm going to mention them again. Why the hell not.

iPhones.

OMFG etc.

I have been waiting for this device since my teens. And now I have it. I'm posting from it now, natch.

It's not without its imperfections (shit camera; no Bluetooth; and, most heinously, the basic text editing function has no cut and paste, WTF; etc) but it seems churlish to complain about them.

I'm still adapting to it, but it's already changing my life significantly for the more flexible and generally better.

(Going to Canberra next weekend & really, seriously need to be emailable at any time - with full access to your archives, FTP and the web - throughout the entire period? Hey, leave your cumbersome, valuable computer at home! Wander wither you will! Life is good.)

It's almost everything it should be, and it makes me incredibly happy.

The arrival of Spring.

Feckin' YAY!!

*nods*

Birthday

It's certainly been a memorable one. I liked it much better than last year's.

Prize for the best party guest overall goes to Patrick. Prize for the most liable for nothing party guest is a three-way tie between Shane, The Sorcha, and, of course, Coburg.

Prize for the best party guest who wasn't there physically but came in essence goes to Wads. Prize for the most missed party absentee is a tie between Em and this chick. Prize for the best party guest who did attend physically, but who I unfortunately never actually got around to talking to is a three-way tie between Li, Kav, and The Major. Prize for the best (if maybe in hindsight somewhat regrettable) picture of a My Little Cthulhu Bunny goes to Magnus.

Prize for the most devastating headfuckery goes to my housemate & ex-fiancee. Prize for the most comically hypocritical abusive emails goes to Henley. Prize for the most awesome drunken deep & meaningful alleyway convo goes to Liv. I'm not sure what exactly to award the artist formerly known as Semi, but I suspect he deserves a prize of some kind - or that if he doesn't now, he may well before too long.

Prize for the most broken nose goes to Luke. Prize for the most blood cheerfully & unsolicitedly cleaned up as a result of a broken nose goes to Harrie. Prize for the driest one-liners (always) and best wildlife photography goes to Ramm. Prize for the best shisha lesson goes to Nichk. Prize for the heterosexual male with the most sophisticated understanding of little girls' pop music (and also the special award for getting locked in the enclosed garden off my bedroom by a psycho chick person I'm sure is lovely once you get to know her, and then being too wasted to think of calling someone to let him out) goes to Grimsey.

Prize for the best nail-painting (and best former housemate ever) goes to Cel. Prize for the best hungover breakfast-making and tidying up goes to Kat. Prize for the oldest and most enduring friend goes to Bentendo. Prize for the best anonymous benefactor goes to whoever sent me the copy of M2M's second album I found in my mailbox yesterday.

Prize for the best present (y'know, apart from causing me to be born in the first place and shit) goes to my parents.

Prize for the best sister in the entire fucking world goes to this bitch.

Prize for the best mistress (and inexpressible amounts of gratitude & love) goes to Schnozzie.

Thanks, everyone.

Battle Fatigue

It's been a good winter on Planet T.

It's sure as hell ripped off the head and shat down the neck of the previous one, which nearly killed me. (No, really.) We're Learning To Do Winter, apparently. Hooray for that.

But I'm ready for it to be over now.

TIA!

UPDATE (Friday): You are not listening to me, weather.

Post Pending

Seriously! It will be quite good.

Sitting Amongst The Wreckage

Watching Press Gang with Toots.

Teh life, it is good.

The housewarming afterparty was, as intended, a quiet affair. But it still went OFF. I blame this guy.

I have nothing else to declare except my ongoing, undying love for M2M. And that I have a new favourite word.

This is the first M2M video I ever saw, in 2002:

The final minute emerged randomly from under the end of something else I'd taped on purpose. I taped Video Hits all the way through for a month of Saturday mornings afterwards to catch it again. We had to do things like that in the dark days before YouTube and BitTorrent were invented.

Update - This footage is not particularly interesting content-wise, but I find Marit weirdly mesmerising in it:

I also like the bit where Marion asks Andrew G if he ate the worm.

My Housewarming = Tonight

It is going to go OFF.

Here is a picture that this chick posted on my wall, which I like very much:

As you can see, it depicts a longhaired cat sitting atop a moog or some such against a background of stars and bares the motto: "Astro Cat will play for you the Symphony of Space."

Like William Carlos Williams' red wheelbarrow, it is what it is.

No more, and no less.

Most Fucked Up Easter Ever (Y'know, In A Good Way)

So there I was, attending an uncivilised picnic in the park on Royal Parade, having a perfectly nice time & minding my own and a select handful of other peoples' business when who should call me completely out of nowhere on my - which is to say, someone else's - mobile telephony device but the J-meister.

(Previously.)

We hadn't spoken in the voice since November, when I drunkenly and unsolicitedly facilitated her and Henley's first ever verbal exchange. She's been in the country three weeks, apparently. Now she & the H-Dogg were in my hood. And they wanted to hang.

Headfuck!

The tone of her voice didn't make me feel like something she'd just scraped off her shoe, which was nice. So, throwing caution to the wind as I am wont to do on occasion, I went.

We met at Alia. We talked. We danced. A good time was had. It seems like we're all friends now. Which is totally what I wanted, although if you'd asked me twelve hours ago I'd have said this outcome seemed less likely than [insert comedy incredibly unlikely occurrence which in practice will never ever happen here]. They're totally coming to my housewarming and shit.

I don't know what else to say about all of this, but if ever something seemed blogworthy etc.

Hooray for drugs; hooray for Jebus.

Despite my cynicism regarding his religion(s), I am a fan of the man's work. That cunt was liable for nothing.

Liv & Gab Done Got Blogs

Go read them. I got nothin'. Except an interminably unclearable email backlog. (Plus ca change etc.)

And, I guess, the news that after two years of global trekkage, an older, worldly-wiser Toots aka babysis is coming home today! To my home (ie Melbourne)!

Can you say "I'm fucking excited"? Coz I surely can.

No Posts This Week

No camera = no pictures + very low commentage levels = just got nothin'. Sorry.

It's all about F***book right now, anyways. If you want me, friend me on FB. If you want to know my FB name, write me.

I am well, and having a lovely time.

More TK when the moment is propitious. Please stay tuna etc.

Rainbow Serpent (Part 2)

Okay.

It's a bit hard to to know where to start.

*thinks*

So my computer's sound recording facilities had been playing up, right. Had been for a while. It was no good. I wanted to make an album.

Thus on the morning of January 15th, I called a taxi and took the old gel into town to be serviced. They told me it would take four days. It wound up taking three weeks. But they did it.

In the meantime, I got totally hacked. First teigan@gmail.com, then [mylegalname]@gmail.com, my blog and my Facebook accounts all stopped accepting their passwords across the final week of January.

On Friday the 8th of February, I got my computer back. On Saturday, I threw a party. This is where we came in.

Upon getting reputered, I created some special email accounts and conducted a few experiments. Via these I established to a high degree of likelihood that my hacker was good old Henley. Somewhat predictably, I lost my shit at him.

On Tuesday 12th, I attempted to boot my newly restored digital handmaiden only to discover that - four days after returning home to me - she had totally, totally died.

I was 'puterless once more.

Then the following night - Valentine's Eve, no less - none other than Henley's girlfriend, a former close associate of mine, claimed responsibility for the hacking via SMS.

Leave the poor petal alone, she said. He's innocent.

I was skeptical at first, but when she told me that teigan@gmail was wide open for resetting (Quick! Jump up and find an open internet cafe at 2am etc), I realised she was probably telling at least some weird Lady-J-since-she-turned-feral version of the truth.

Why had the former love of my life done this to me? She'd written to me at another account, she said - one of the ones she hadn't violated and locked me out of - explaining everything.

Only problem was, I had (of course) been changing all my passwords like a demon - without having gotten around to making a backup or a hard copy of any of them. From my computer. Which had since - you will recall - dropped totally, totally dead.

In other words I was now not only 'puterless and locked out of my hacked accounts, but 'puterless and locked out of all my internet accounts.

Then in the early hours of Sunday 17th, Wouters dropped my last remaining link to civilisation phone in a full glass of bourbon & coke.

Oy.

Various people have eased my journey through this Durdenesque ordeal, and thanks are due.

Mishuki of Hagakure 419 fame was good enough to let me use hir Facebook profile. My colleague in social research, fellow FB tragic and soon-to-be-housemate Celestine has been extremely generous with her 3G handset, enabling me to update my status in something akin to the style to which I've become compulsively accustomed. Thad gave me a safe-haven email account on his server. And last Tuesday, having learned that my dead six-year-old eMac would cost $700 to reanimate, my long-suffering parents offered to buy me a MacBook. Which was very nice of them.

I picked it up this morning. I'm using it now. It's lovely.

(I'd take a picture but since the destruction of my phone I've got no working digital camera, except the one inside said MacBook. And its eye is not prehensile. But here's a picture of the box:

)

And now I have my accounts back.

Things are gradually returning to some semblance of what passes for 'normal' on Planet Teigan.

*flops exhaustedly*

Apart from all of that, I have mostly been going out a lot - having, y'know, not a whole lot else to do - and taking quite a lot of acid.

It's been.. awesome, actually. Can't complain.

Oh, and I got engaged on Saturday night. I think. But that's a whole other story.

Welcome back, blog.

Coming soon: the long, long-delayed multimediatastic Rainbow Serpent post.

I'm Back

It was pretty fucking good. (As in "That's a pretty fucking good milkshake.")

Thanks to Major G, the Rainbow Serpent undercover vibe police, and most especially a man named Thad.

More will be said once I have fully regained the power of speech, and also my computer. Which I still don't have. Still.

So don't even care right now!

Puterless!

Totally and utterly 'puterless. Still. I'm posting this from an internet cafe on Brunswick St.

It really does feel like I've entered a strange alternate (originally typed: "alternet") dimension.

It's quite good. It's a PAIN IN THE ASS. But it's certainly novel.

In other news: Happy first birthday, Nada.

Your birthday present is that you are now officially allowed outside to wander wither you will.

We look forward to seeing what you make of the world beyond the fortresslike confines of Chez Hagakure, and what it makes of you.

In Other News

Ms Fits has acknowledged my existence again. (Previously.)

There really is nothing left to live for.

(Except, y'know, art and shit.)

Happy New Year

Welcome to 2008!

We're lost, but unconcerned.

It's working out surprisingly well so far.

Requests are being taken, and may be directed to the usual address.

I Met Jesus On Christmas Eve

At an impromptu picnic on a hillside next to the Myer Music Bowl. Seriously.

He said his name was 'Gerling', but his true identity was unmistakeable.

Meredith (Part Two)

(Interlude: Fitsy.)

Meredith (Part One)

I went to the Meredith Festival on the weekend.

It was awse, and then some.

(From their Frequently Given Answers:

No, it is not possible to sneak in. Vicious dogs and armed mercenaries patrol the fences.

NB This is a total lie.)

(To be continued.)

Yeah, Y'know? It's Wednesday & I Needed Something To Post About etc

(It is All About The Blog[*].)

I was also feeling a bit stinky and jaded about people including but not limited to myself, and for both of these reasons it was all quite serendipitous and I-heart-the-universe that a much beloved friend chose yesterday to give me a semi-random present which - although a relatively small thing in itself - was both a :)-inducing gesture, and well-novel and blogworthy and shit.

It's a pocket edition of Twister in the form of a little plastic box, with the spinner on the front and the dots - which are about the size of fifty-cent coins - stashed in a sliding drawer underneath. It conveniently doubles as a keyring.

(Unfortunately I've now, almost immediately, gone and lost it. So I can't post a picture like I was planning to. I have to make do with words, which is unfortunate coz I'm kind of over them. But so it goes.)

It's not very practical. If you wanted to play, you'd also have to be carrying some kind of adhesive to fix the tiny dots in place on the ground, or wherever. It's hard to see the whole thing working out. But that doesn't matter.

Without wanting to go into benevolence overload and make everybody throw up: hooray for semi-random presents, and those rare people who bring us nothing but goodness generally. Yay for things that make us happy. Even if only passingly so in some cases.

Life is transitory. Yes it is.

In other news, my jury selection hearing today went well, in the sense that as chance would have it I was not selected to serve on an actual jury.

In a way I was disappointed; it might have been an interesting experience. But I can't really afford the time off work. Stupid needing money to live etc.

Now I am going to bed, because between one thing and another I'm so sleep deprived that I'm starting to hallucinate.

Good night.

[*] NB It's so not really All About The Blog[**].

[**] Although I do love my blog.

I'd Like To Thank The Academy

And also:

• Ms Emma S. White (so much)
• Ms Danielle "Macenaeas" Freakley (as well, but in a different way)
• Ms Jessica H. etc Kilby (as in "Jessica H. Kilby, what are you doing to me woman" etc)
• Mr Jaye de Koan nee ~ nee Eric Wouters (I don't know what it is that you do exactly - but you're really good at it, and you should definitely keep doing it. IMHO. PS Do not join the army.)
• The Artist Formerly Known As Robert Henley
• Nads
• Ms Megan Faith Motorscooting Evans

Honourable mentions:

• Semi / Robin
• Ads (see Jaye de Koan)
• Li (ditto)
• Ben (as well)
• Dozza
• Rick / American Guy
• Ev
• Jessica K. Reftel Evans
• Martha, somehow
• Dave, also
• Avery Cardoza (in some obscure way; we have at least three quite significant things in common, anyways)
• The Veronicas
• Els
• and, why not, Anna Pearson (we got messy together when she was just a little kiddy, apparently)

And last but not least, my mum. Thanks for having me, etc. I appreciate it.

And various other people.

You are all - in your assorted different ways - special to me, and I love yiz. For whatever it's worth.

That is all.

PS Interview went well.

It Is: Still All About The Status Updates

I just really love the status updates.

Racing Season, etc

Found in the toilets at St Jerome's on Saturday night:

I've got absolutely zero interest in horseracing, but I love this time of year.

In other news, the artist formerly known as Shemyaza and more recently known as Jonathan Carfax has a new blog-based venture "dedicated to providing an uniquely Australian perspective on absinthe, and to provid[ing] fellow absintheurs with the most up-to-date and reliable information on absinthe varieties and tasting notes, as well as providing a home for Australian Libertines and lovers of bohemian culture, decadence and art, both historic and contemporary."

It looks pretty cool.

He asked me if I'd like to be an occasional contributor. I replied:

Right now I'm extremely busy & preoccupied preparing for a VCA interview on the 21st and generally trying to metaprogram my way into the belief that I'm a Real Artist, whilst attempting as best I can to assimilate the monumental dual headfuck that:

(a) [censored]

(b) for all his sins, I really *like* the crazy, evil bastard.

And I should tell you that as a retiring semi-recluse I have at best only a nodding acquaintance with the Melbourne artistic intelligentsia and bar scene - although I wouldn't be averse to developing a closer one for a cause as worthy as your own.

So yeah - if you have any absinthe you want me to drink / burlesque performers you want me to date / etc from next month onwards, feel very free to giz a heads up (equine or otherwise) (preferably the latter, ay).

That is the news.

In Other News: Hell Freezes Over

(It's okay - I'm just using him for my own shallow self-gratification Art.)