Sorry is there a match in Melb?...This pretty much sums up boynton's interest in that bad code. (I'm the kid on the bike.) (smh)
Wrong code. Wrong season. It's the Spring Carnival. All eyes naturally turn to Flemington... exhibit a: classic Cup Day Photo Gallery.
(nb: if you like yours vintage jump from page 1 to 6 → )
Comments: thugby spring
Hey - it's lillipution & the gullivers.
Posted by wen at October 31, 2003 05:22 PM
Are they in it too?
Actually it suddenly seems like a metaphor for the divided worlds of the world cup - and all those 142-0 games.
(scores grudgingly noted for pub trivia purposes)
Posted by boynton at October 31, 2003 05:37 PM
Errrr ... irony alert! Vodafone appears to be sponsoring chaps what don't seem to have the requisite digits for the operation of their wonderful products.
(I'm sure they sell fine products but I don't do mobiles. I'm a happy little luddite with my 2 jam tins and my fully unprivatised piece of string.)
Posted by Sedgwick at October 31, 2003 11:18 PM
or - they may have the digits but they're
NOT PLAYIN'
They certainly do not seem to be wireless fellows either - perhaps those wires are some sort of Fiber optic cable connecting them to the network, or maybe even strings sans cans?
anyway - hope this proves once and for all that (Aussie Rules) footballers are much more pleasing to the eye than the players of that over-inflated code.
and I don't do mobiles either, btw. I'm the last of the uncontactables. Or maybe the first?
Posted by boynton at October 31, 2003 11:32 PM
Friday, October 31, 2003
texts
Text magazine, The journal of the Australian Association of Writing Programs.
(via sidelinks of Barrista) has some great fare including:
Collaborative Practice: Categorising forms of collaboration for practitioners
Donna Lee Brien and Tess Brady
Four Writers and their Settings Nigel Krauth
Setting is an acknowledged concern for creative writers. In knowing this, we usually think of the authorial creation of settings in fiction, drama and poetry. But also there is the setting for the writing - the actual place where the writer settles and sits
(also of interest again is the walking theory of thinking/writing at 3 mph)
Meanwhile the Age had an article of interest to literary essentialist martians and venusians:
Crossing the gender divide
Can authors authentically write from the point of view of the opposite sex? Jane Sullivan considers a timeless dilemma.
"Apart from Sherlock Holmes, no man created by a man ever notices how somebody is dressed; male characters by women always do." (British novelist Amanda Craig)
(update: a comment by wen got us googling and finding this earlier related Guardian article)
and there's some good stuff on writer's block at Poop Chute. (Sunday 26/10)
Comments: texts
Nick Hornby - no (If you have to think about it, it isn't quite working. enjoyed the book anyway.) Michael Cunningham - yes. But NH used first person - very risky. MC (and Flaubert) used third person. Makes a difference. Amanda Craig used first person - I didn't wonder about it, but then I'm not a bloke.
Posted by wen at October 31, 2003 04:50 PM
Yeah I thought the examples cited were a bit limited.
First person would be the killer I imagine.
Was Anna Sewell convincing as a horse?
btw - I've "embedded" a link into the post now, wen, which was prompted by your comment. Thanks.
Posted by boynton at October 31, 2003 05:09 PM
neigh!
(you asked for it)
Posted by wen at October 31, 2003 05:24 PM
touche.
neigh verily.
but then was it a gender or a genus thing?
(update: that is - would she have been more convincing as a mare?)
Posted by boynton at October 31, 2003 06:01 PM
(via sidelinks of Barrista) has some great fare including:
Collaborative Practice: Categorising forms of collaboration for practitioners
Donna Lee Brien and Tess Brady
Four Writers and their Settings Nigel Krauth
Setting is an acknowledged concern for creative writers. In knowing this, we usually think of the authorial creation of settings in fiction, drama and poetry. But also there is the setting for the writing - the actual place where the writer settles and sits
(also of interest again is the walking theory of thinking/writing at 3 mph)
Meanwhile the Age had an article of interest to literary essentialist martians and venusians:
Crossing the gender divide
Can authors authentically write from the point of view of the opposite sex? Jane Sullivan considers a timeless dilemma.
"Apart from Sherlock Holmes, no man created by a man ever notices how somebody is dressed; male characters by women always do." (British novelist Amanda Craig)
(update: a comment by wen got us googling and finding this earlier related Guardian article)
and there's some good stuff on writer's block at Poop Chute. (Sunday 26/10)
Comments: texts
Nick Hornby - no (If you have to think about it, it isn't quite working. enjoyed the book anyway.) Michael Cunningham - yes. But NH used first person - very risky. MC (and Flaubert) used third person. Makes a difference. Amanda Craig used first person - I didn't wonder about it, but then I'm not a bloke.
Posted by wen at October 31, 2003 04:50 PM
Yeah I thought the examples cited were a bit limited.
First person would be the killer I imagine.
Was Anna Sewell convincing as a horse?
btw - I've "embedded" a link into the post now, wen, which was prompted by your comment. Thanks.
Posted by boynton at October 31, 2003 05:09 PM
neigh!
(you asked for it)
Posted by wen at October 31, 2003 05:24 PM
touche.
neigh verily.
but then was it a gender or a genus thing?
(update: that is - would she have been more convincing as a mare?)
Posted by boynton at October 31, 2003 06:01 PM
Thursday, October 30, 2003
management
Guess the Celebrity Rant
The Anger Management Industry - Calming Courses on the Rise, But Do They Work? (via Follow me here)
The Smile Project
The installation takes the form of a family of five, human scale, animatronic sculptures embodied with the ability to "emote" with facial expressions, body language and sound (via Plep)
Step-by-Step guide to the Pratfall (via Fiendish is the word)
Comments: management
If only the sound on my PC worked. I think I've heard the Casem out-take before; if the others are up to its standard, they will be well worth listening to.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at October 31, 2003 08:59 PM
But did you hear Casem un-beeped, Gummo?
These are all riddled with beeps - which kind of works on an abstract level - the neutral beep exposes the junk bond value of the cuss.
But McEnroe manages to rant without much beep and is a splendid example of the form, especially given the The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club setting.
Worth getting your sound fixed for that superbrat alone.
Posted by boynton at October 31, 2003 09:26 PM
The Anger Management Industry - Calming Courses on the Rise, But Do They Work? (via Follow me here)
The Smile Project
The installation takes the form of a family of five, human scale, animatronic sculptures embodied with the ability to "emote" with facial expressions, body language and sound (via Plep)
Step-by-Step guide to the Pratfall (via Fiendish is the word)
Comments: management
If only the sound on my PC worked. I think I've heard the Casem out-take before; if the others are up to its standard, they will be well worth listening to.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at October 31, 2003 08:59 PM
But did you hear Casem un-beeped, Gummo?
These are all riddled with beeps - which kind of works on an abstract level - the neutral beep exposes the junk bond value of the cuss.
But McEnroe manages to rant without much beep and is a splendid example of the form, especially given the The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club setting.
Worth getting your sound fixed for that superbrat alone.
Posted by boynton at October 31, 2003 09:26 PM
more organ
boynton's been on a bit of a whimiscal organ hunt since a chance choice of words in the post about spam, committing that most obvious of puns. Turned up some great sites and listened to a range of mp3's and midis of hymns and beatles on crank organs and beer bottle organs (via J Walk)
We started with Curious Facts From The Organ's History from Encyclopedia Organica which alerted us to the
BATTLE OF THE ORGANS
Famed composer Henry Purcell, appointed organist to the Chapel Royal of Charles II in 1682, played one of the organs in the great "battle of organs". The battle, between builders Harris and Smith, was to decide which builder should build the organ for London's Temple Church. Smith won!
More on this battle with this early account here:
Dr Blow and Mr Purcell, who was then in his prime, showed and played Father Smith’s organ on appointed days to a numerous audience, and till the other was heard everybody believed that Father Smith’s would certainly carry it.
Mr Harris brought Mr Sully, Organist to Queen Catherine, a very eminent Master to touch his organ, which brought Mr Harris’ organ into that vogue
The curious facts page also refers to
HAYDN'S HIDDEN ORGAN
Composer Joseph Haydn wrote a set of pieces in 1772 to be played on a mechanical organ located in a clock.
Holmberg Musical clocks has historical info and samples of Haydn.
From this page of Crank Organ arrangements - where we sampled some Scott Joplin - we found our way to Todd Augsburger's Roller Organ Website This excellent site includes a gallery of of roller organs - their parts - and advertising pages, with wonderful images like this and this.
There was also an appealing advertorial entitled "Aunt Maria and the Autophone
"I said to ma that night when she got home: 'Maria; she's got as much music in her as the rest of the family, but she's obliged to take hers in a peculiar way. She can't take it straight, but jest give it to her hindside foremost or upside down, and she enjoys it as much as any"
Finally with Eleanor Rigby on a beer bottle organ lingering in the head cache, a local field guide - a gazetteer of Victorian organs
Comments: more organ
I was once invited to play the Potilla (pop. 17)Anglican Church organ. The bellows were full of holes (mice?) and my playing was restricted to 2 note chords. The emphysemic moan provided a constant G# drone throughout. Nobody noticed!
Posted by Nora at October 31, 2003 12:56 PM
Tres amusing.
Alas: a quick check of the Vic Gazeteer (or where the organs are) reveals none for Potilla, nor indeed nearby Mollonghip. Good to see though that Naringaningalook's organ was rescued by Darnum.
Posted by boynton at October 31, 2003 01:18 PM
We started with Curious Facts From The Organ's History from Encyclopedia Organica which alerted us to the
BATTLE OF THE ORGANS
Famed composer Henry Purcell, appointed organist to the Chapel Royal of Charles II in 1682, played one of the organs in the great "battle of organs". The battle, between builders Harris and Smith, was to decide which builder should build the organ for London's Temple Church. Smith won!
More on this battle with this early account here:
Dr Blow and Mr Purcell, who was then in his prime, showed and played Father Smith’s organ on appointed days to a numerous audience, and till the other was heard everybody believed that Father Smith’s would certainly carry it.
Mr Harris brought Mr Sully, Organist to Queen Catherine, a very eminent Master to touch his organ, which brought Mr Harris’ organ into that vogue
The curious facts page also refers to
HAYDN'S HIDDEN ORGAN
Composer Joseph Haydn wrote a set of pieces in 1772 to be played on a mechanical organ located in a clock.
Holmberg Musical clocks has historical info and samples of Haydn.
From this page of Crank Organ arrangements - where we sampled some Scott Joplin - we found our way to Todd Augsburger's Roller Organ Website This excellent site includes a gallery of of roller organs - their parts - and advertising pages, with wonderful images like this and this.
There was also an appealing advertorial entitled "Aunt Maria and the Autophone
"I said to ma that night when she got home: 'Maria; she's got as much music in her as the rest of the family, but she's obliged to take hers in a peculiar way. She can't take it straight, but jest give it to her hindside foremost or upside down, and she enjoys it as much as any"
Finally with Eleanor Rigby on a beer bottle organ lingering in the head cache, a local field guide - a gazetteer of Victorian organs
Comments: more organ
I was once invited to play the Potilla (pop. 17)Anglican Church organ. The bellows were full of holes (mice?) and my playing was restricted to 2 note chords. The emphysemic moan provided a constant G# drone throughout. Nobody noticed!
Posted by Nora at October 31, 2003 12:56 PM
Tres amusing.
Alas: a quick check of the Vic Gazeteer (or where the organs are) reveals none for Potilla, nor indeed nearby Mollonghip. Good to see though that Naringaningalook's organ was rescued by Darnum.
Posted by boynton at October 31, 2003 01:18 PM
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
jokes
Something about a documentary about losing religion during childbirth. Children called Faith, Hope and Brenda?
an example from Louis Theroux's Unfinished Jokes (via As Above)
Nora used to jokingly recount the children's names of one of her religious colleagues. They ran in a similar vein - until they struck a son. Something about Jarrod weren't it?...And meanwhile boynton remembers Nora bringing her stack of Mad magazines to school for diversion in Maths, so thought she'd like this collection of covers.
(via the Presurfer)
Comments: jokes
Boynton - have you seen my MAD magazines? I lost them in maths one year...
Posted by Nora at October 29, 2003 06:04 PM
I read that magazine religiously in my school days. Sadly it all went pear shaped after they tried to do an 'Australian' version.
Posted by Scott Wickstein at October 29, 2003 06:46 PM
So right! That's when I stopped reading them too.
Posted by Nora at October 29, 2003 07:46 PM
I read Cracked.
Posted by Tony.T at October 30, 2003 12:48 PM
an example from Louis Theroux's Unfinished Jokes (via As Above)
Nora used to jokingly recount the children's names of one of her religious colleagues. They ran in a similar vein - until they struck a son. Something about Jarrod weren't it?...And meanwhile boynton remembers Nora bringing her stack of Mad magazines to school for diversion in Maths, so thought she'd like this collection of covers.
(via the Presurfer)
Comments: jokes
Boynton - have you seen my MAD magazines? I lost them in maths one year...
Posted by Nora at October 29, 2003 06:04 PM
I read that magazine religiously in my school days. Sadly it all went pear shaped after they tried to do an 'Australian' version.
Posted by Scott Wickstein at October 29, 2003 06:46 PM
So right! That's when I stopped reading them too.
Posted by Nora at October 29, 2003 07:46 PM
I read Cracked.
Posted by Tony.T at October 30, 2003 12:48 PM
missing link
"A blog is a place to express your views in a public arena, and having some unknown people fill the space with advertising is the online equivalent of finding that someone has pinned a card advertising "private massage" to your coat when you were not looking" Bill Thompson. How Spammers are targetting blogs
The penny dropped when I read this article about comment spam. (via anil dash)
Inside those 150 OK's and Interestings should have been a link to some organ enhancement deal. But as I have not yet enabled HTML in comments the links are stripped and the lines remain like so much throwaway graffiti confetti.
Comments: missing link
For the best human organs in Geelong, pop into my store, Len the Greedy Butcher. Specials this week include monk's liver (imported), pig-grafted stomach and a full set of vegan entrails.
Posted by Jim at October 29, 2003 01:58 PM
As there's no link I assume this is just another gratuitous compliment, Len.
Though the monk's liver does sound moreish.
but when I said organ enhancement, naturally I meant pipes, flues and stops. Got any weekly specials going on mutation stops, tremolo or toe studs, Len?
In the meantime, I found this link from the archives:
http://franklarosa.com/vinyl/BigImg/organ.jpg
Posted by boynton at October 29, 2003 02:16 PM
I'll have a look in my (refrigerated) garage.
Posted by Jim at October 29, 2003 02:19 PM
Hang on... you just said you've disabled HTML in comments. How does that "organ freakout" link come to be there, then?
Posted by James Russell at October 29, 2003 04:08 PM
Separate thing in the comment config.
"Should visitors be able to include HTML in their comments? If not, all HTML entered will be stripped out?"
"Auto link URLS
If enabled, all web URLs will be transformed into links to that web URL. NOTE: if you have enabled Allow HTML in comments, this option is ignored"
Guess this paradox means that a link from a bot (a href)embedded (/a) inside "Nice blog" will be stripped, but should the spambot add a link separately to organ enhancement it will turn blue.
That's my understanding of it anyway...
Posted by boynton at October 29, 2003 04:23 PM
HI! Wanna buy some dogfood?
Posted by A.Pal at October 30, 2003 12:52 PM
not unless there's a healthy mix of flattery in the spam
Posted by old chum at October 30, 2003 01:19 PM
The penny dropped when I read this article about comment spam. (via anil dash)
Inside those 150 OK's and Interestings should have been a link to some organ enhancement deal. But as I have not yet enabled HTML in comments the links are stripped and the lines remain like so much throwaway graffiti confetti.
Comments: missing link
For the best human organs in Geelong, pop into my store, Len the Greedy Butcher. Specials this week include monk's liver (imported), pig-grafted stomach and a full set of vegan entrails.
Posted by Jim at October 29, 2003 01:58 PM
As there's no link I assume this is just another gratuitous compliment, Len.
Though the monk's liver does sound moreish.
but when I said organ enhancement, naturally I meant pipes, flues and stops. Got any weekly specials going on mutation stops, tremolo or toe studs, Len?
In the meantime, I found this link from the archives:
http://franklarosa.com/vinyl/BigImg/organ.jpg
Posted by boynton at October 29, 2003 02:16 PM
I'll have a look in my (refrigerated) garage.
Posted by Jim at October 29, 2003 02:19 PM
Hang on... you just said you've disabled HTML in comments. How does that "organ freakout" link come to be there, then?
Posted by James Russell at October 29, 2003 04:08 PM
Separate thing in the comment config.
"Should visitors be able to include HTML in their comments? If not, all HTML entered will be stripped out?"
"Auto link URLS
If enabled, all web URLs will be transformed into links to that web URL. NOTE: if you have enabled Allow HTML in comments, this option is ignored"
Guess this paradox means that a link from a bot (a href)embedded (/a) inside "Nice blog" will be stripped, but should the spambot add a link separately to organ enhancement it will turn blue.
That's my understanding of it anyway...
Posted by boynton at October 29, 2003 04:23 PM
HI! Wanna buy some dogfood?
Posted by A.Pal at October 30, 2003 12:52 PM
not unless there's a healthy mix of flattery in the spam
Posted by old chum at October 30, 2003 01:19 PM
dumbell
"Whiskey" The Turnspit dog (via Incoming Signals)
Turnspit dogs were in use until the middle of the 19th century as a tool to save cooks in large households the effort of turning meat on a spit by hand. The dog would be placed in a small wheel connected to the spit and as he ran the spit would be turned. ...'Whiskey' is the last surviving specimen of a turnspit dog, albeit stuffed
meanwhile, bronte has turned mad over new plastic toy. This is her humble quarry - here spelt dumbell. It's been a tiring 24 hours since the dumbell first entered the household - she must never take her eyes off it, not for one second, even when placed six foot above her head. Retiring by force all night long she pined for the dumbell, whining intermittently. She seems slightly calmer now having relieved dumbell of its squeak and is resting. She is stuffed.
Comments: dumbell
What a life! I wonder where Whisky found satisfaction in his job? Perhaps a good effort was a consistent three or four hours of steady rotation. No interruptions to the rythmn or flow. Also, good displays of leg and abdominal strength for the larger roasting carcasses.
I hope Whisky was rewarded every now and then with a morsel of meat, or perhaps a weekend off.
Posted by Jim at October 29, 2003 12:07 PM
Or even a nip?
Or maybe he was fired
for turning to the bottle?
Seeing the strong 'retrieving' instinct in labs, the 'herding' in the cattle dog and the hunting or staking out in the JRT - I wonder how the remnant turnspit instinct would show itself up in the domestic non-working strains?
Running on the spot?
(See Spot running on the spot)
Posted by boynton at October 29, 2003 12:47 PM
Turnspit dogs were in use until the middle of the 19th century as a tool to save cooks in large households the effort of turning meat on a spit by hand. The dog would be placed in a small wheel connected to the spit and as he ran the spit would be turned. ...'Whiskey' is the last surviving specimen of a turnspit dog, albeit stuffed
meanwhile, bronte has turned mad over new plastic toy. This is her humble quarry - here spelt dumbell. It's been a tiring 24 hours since the dumbell first entered the household - she must never take her eyes off it, not for one second, even when placed six foot above her head. Retiring by force all night long she pined for the dumbell, whining intermittently. She seems slightly calmer now having relieved dumbell of its squeak and is resting. She is stuffed.
Comments: dumbell
What a life! I wonder where Whisky found satisfaction in his job? Perhaps a good effort was a consistent three or four hours of steady rotation. No interruptions to the rythmn or flow. Also, good displays of leg and abdominal strength for the larger roasting carcasses.
I hope Whisky was rewarded every now and then with a morsel of meat, or perhaps a weekend off.
Posted by Jim at October 29, 2003 12:07 PM
Or even a nip?
Or maybe he was fired
for turning to the bottle?
Seeing the strong 'retrieving' instinct in labs, the 'herding' in the cattle dog and the hunting or staking out in the JRT - I wonder how the remnant turnspit instinct would show itself up in the domestic non-working strains?
Running on the spot?
(See Spot running on the spot)
Posted by boynton at October 29, 2003 12:47 PM
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
intemperance
Giant hairball removed from girl's stomach (via Quiddity)
A case for Father Mathew Remedy? Or maybe go easy on the Barry's trichopherous
(Varieties of Medical Ephemera via Solipsistic)
also featured in the excellent Quiddity crop is this link to disturbing literary deaths but in between the intemperate bar stools and barbituate parade, boynton was distracted by the sprinkling of hyperlinks to unrelated places.
One of these was Galloping Gourmet- that intemperate TV chef of the sixties
You can't beat Graham getting drunk as a skunk & setting things on fire! Growing up, we had a spatula with "The Galloping Gourmet" printed on it, & Moms was bummed when she destroyed it in a cooking mishap. Perhaps she followed Graham's example too closely!
See also the Graham Kerr page on the BBC The Way We Cooked
The two headlines on the front of the New York Times on 21st July 1969 were: 'Man Sets Foot On The moon' and 'Gourmet Sets Fire To Dishcloth'
A case for Father Mathew Remedy? Or maybe go easy on the Barry's trichopherous
(Varieties of Medical Ephemera via Solipsistic)
also featured in the excellent Quiddity crop is this link to disturbing literary deaths but in between the intemperate bar stools and barbituate parade, boynton was distracted by the sprinkling of hyperlinks to unrelated places.
One of these was Galloping Gourmet- that intemperate TV chef of the sixties
You can't beat Graham getting drunk as a skunk & setting things on fire! Growing up, we had a spatula with "The Galloping Gourmet" printed on it, & Moms was bummed when she destroyed it in a cooking mishap. Perhaps she followed Graham's example too closely!
See also the Graham Kerr page on the BBC The Way We Cooked
The two headlines on the front of the New York Times on 21st July 1969 were: 'Man Sets Foot On The moon' and 'Gourmet Sets Fire To Dishcloth'
retro-hetero
One indelible memory is the first seminar I attended at Big East Coast University. One of my classmates saw my wedding ring and asked if I was married. I said, yes, and she asked, "Happily?" Another student sneered, "Wow, married ... how retro-hetero-normative." Others snickered in approval.
Thomas Benton Leaving the Big City for Small-Town College Life via Jerz's Literacy Weblog
It has been a few years since I left, but I retain a grad school superego. It sneers at everything I am. But I am determined to sneer back. I am irony ironized. My new life is surrounded by so many quotation marks that they cancel each other out.
Comments: retro-hetero
Great article. Reminds me of that terrific letter written into the herald by a suburban guy railing against inner-city sneering: "Dare to be the same".
Posted by wen at October 28, 2003 02:06 PM
Sounds good. Always anti the sneer.
If Green Acres were to return to our screens it seems it would have to be "Green Acres".
(Or was that "Northern Exposure" et al?)
Posted by boynton at October 29, 2003 11:31 AM
Thomas Benton Leaving the Big City for Small-Town College Life via Jerz's Literacy Weblog
It has been a few years since I left, but I retain a grad school superego. It sneers at everything I am. But I am determined to sneer back. I am irony ironized. My new life is surrounded by so many quotation marks that they cancel each other out.
Comments: retro-hetero
Great article. Reminds me of that terrific letter written into the herald by a suburban guy railing against inner-city sneering: "Dare to be the same".
Posted by wen at October 28, 2003 02:06 PM
Sounds good. Always anti the sneer.
If Green Acres were to return to our screens it seems it would have to be "Green Acres".
(Or was that "Northern Exposure" et al?)
Posted by boynton at October 29, 2003 11:31 AM
Monday, October 27, 2003
fun for all
kaleidoscopic - boynton mentions this terrific blog function fun fing fellowship ( or sport), requiring her to post strange dialects, twist sentences, torment, upload content, scan menus, think laterally x linkage, for token (meaningless) ratings. Tempted? Content stumped? Create diverting free-association oddities obtuseness odes today. x.
(update: whoops - this is wrong. the 'waveform' should have been formed by the initial letter of the preceding word - not the last. in fact this wave is fack to bront...)
Comments: fun for all
It's a great game to play, without any pressure to post or accrue points, but because of Kevan's originality often provides just the right prompt or puzzle on which to hang some floating idea. It just needs more players in the pool.
(and you can always supplement the restrictions of the task by breaking out into monologue mode comment speil cheatery)
Posted by boynton at October 27, 2003 06:28 PM
Pithy yon notable enterprise enjoined directly, yep.
Posted by Tony.T at October 28, 2003 11:20 AM
Or something like that.
Posted by Tony.T at October 28, 2003 11:21 AM
o pithy - zat swell.
or something like zat ;)
Posted by boynton at October 28, 2003 11:36 AM
(update: whoops - this is wrong. the 'waveform' should have been formed by the initial letter of the preceding word - not the last. in fact this wave is fack to bront...)
Comments: fun for all
It's a great game to play, without any pressure to post or accrue points, but because of Kevan's originality often provides just the right prompt or puzzle on which to hang some floating idea. It just needs more players in the pool.
(and you can always supplement the restrictions of the task by breaking out into monologue mode comment speil cheatery)
Posted by boynton at October 27, 2003 06:28 PM
Pithy yon notable enterprise enjoined directly, yep.
Posted by Tony.T at October 28, 2003 11:20 AM
Or something like that.
Posted by Tony.T at October 28, 2003 11:21 AM
o pithy - zat swell.
or something like zat ;)
Posted by boynton at October 28, 2003 11:36 AM
miss bean
"I am fully conscious that in essaying to measure lances on this subject with the veteran librarians of this Association, I am in imminent danger of being worsted, yet my convictions are so strong that they force me to enter the lists..." . Miss M. A. Bean, Librarian Of Brookline (Mass.) Public Library.
The Evil Of Unlimited Freedom In The Use Of Juvenile Fiction
from 19th Century Girls' series - a page "devoted to bio-bibliographies and commentary about some 19th-century authors of series books for girls and younger children as well as samples of some of their fiction" (via bifurcated rivets)
I wonder what Miss Bean's take on Barbie The Opera would have been.
(composer Jennifer Walshe) researched the opera by talking to girls about how they really played with their Barbies, uncovering a dark vein of Barbie abuse that would horrify her creators at Mattel.
(via Follow Me here)
Meanwhile Miss B's life has come in with the fairly modest rating:
Miss b's life is rated PG-13.
What is your life rated?
(via palnatoke)
Comments: miss bean
I'm Not Recommended for Children Under 17. Which is a bit of a worry, given I'm expecting one...
Posted by Gianna at October 27, 2003 05:09 PM
On the contrary, G, I think anything less seems a bit morally dubious today. I'm rather embarassed to have scored so ... poorly?
Perhaps I lied.
Posted by boynton at October 27, 2003 05:17 PM
I was 13 too. I didn't lie.
Posted by wen at October 27, 2003 09:11 PM
NC-17. Is that like out R? Hope not, I'm a good boy.
Posted by Tony.T at October 27, 2003 11:04 PM
"our". Me fool.
Posted by Tony.T at October 27, 2003 11:05 PM
Yes, it is like our R apparently , but it sounds worse doesn't it - like a toxic compound used in soft drink or weedkiller.
and btw I thought you were NC-17 24/7 TT?
Posted by boynton at October 27, 2003 11:28 PM
I got an R rating as well. Best avoid the likes of me.
Posted by Scott Wickstein at October 28, 2003 02:11 AM
The Evil Of Unlimited Freedom In The Use Of Juvenile Fiction
from 19th Century Girls' series - a page "devoted to bio-bibliographies and commentary about some 19th-century authors of series books for girls and younger children as well as samples of some of their fiction" (via bifurcated rivets)
I wonder what Miss Bean's take on Barbie The Opera would have been.
(composer Jennifer Walshe) researched the opera by talking to girls about how they really played with their Barbies, uncovering a dark vein of Barbie abuse that would horrify her creators at Mattel.
(via Follow Me here)
Meanwhile Miss B's life has come in with the fairly modest rating:
Miss b's life is rated PG-13.
What is your life rated?
(via palnatoke)
Comments: miss bean
I'm Not Recommended for Children Under 17. Which is a bit of a worry, given I'm expecting one...
Posted by Gianna at October 27, 2003 05:09 PM
On the contrary, G, I think anything less seems a bit morally dubious today. I'm rather embarassed to have scored so ... poorly?
Perhaps I lied.
Posted by boynton at October 27, 2003 05:17 PM
I was 13 too. I didn't lie.
Posted by wen at October 27, 2003 09:11 PM
NC-17. Is that like out R? Hope not, I'm a good boy.
Posted by Tony.T at October 27, 2003 11:04 PM
"our". Me fool.
Posted by Tony.T at October 27, 2003 11:05 PM
Yes, it is like our R apparently , but it sounds worse doesn't it - like a toxic compound used in soft drink or weedkiller.
and btw I thought you were NC-17 24/7 TT?
Posted by boynton at October 27, 2003 11:28 PM
I got an R rating as well. Best avoid the likes of me.
Posted by Scott Wickstein at October 28, 2003 02:11 AM
heights
Persons must not climb upon the parapet
Person would not even dream about it.
Comments: heights
Some people need tellin'. Sadly, those less likely to be readin'.
Posted by Tony.T at October 27, 2003 01:05 PM
persons must not read upon the monument
Posted by boynton at October 27, 2003 01:12 PM
Person would not even dream about it.
Comments: heights
Some people need tellin'. Sadly, those less likely to be readin'.
Posted by Tony.T at October 27, 2003 01:05 PM
persons must not read upon the monument
Posted by boynton at October 27, 2003 01:12 PM
Friday, October 24, 2003
writing sites
WritersDigest 101 Best Web Sites for Writers (via Cup of Chicha)
boynton followed the screenwriting links to Wordplay where The Columns are good
and read the Name dropping with interest, and a degree of shame at all the lazy Susans and Johns she's rattled off over the years.
A name is like a tightly-wound DNA molecule, capable of conveying information about characterization, tone, story and theme. Naming your characters is a crucial creative task.
Names have sometimes seemed rather arbitrary - secondary to the journey although to date she's never been guilty of making actors work with plain x or y.
see also: Deep Thoughts A collection of personal thoughts to inspire.
but today the one deep thought that is haunting boynton is Never Wait
Here's how you're not acting like you know it.
You wait.
But you shouldn't wait.
Not for anything.
Ever.
Commit these two words to heart, now:
Never wait.
so we'd better jump off and seize the scary day as best we can.
Comments: writing sites
Ah, but good ol' Susan and John still have their own particular resonances - and then there's that awful situation where you give a character a temporary name (Tom, say or Julie)& then when you go to change them to something more significant, they just dont, wont, utterly refuse to work
Posted by wen at October 26, 2003 06:36 PM
and Boynton, write anyplace.
Posted by wen at October 26, 2003 06:47 PM
oh dear, there was meant to be a link there to Natalie Goldberg's "Write Anyplace". here it is anyway:
http://www.missouri.edu/~lcwww/ethos/goldberg.html
Posted by wen at October 26, 2003 06:49 PM
Hey - how come your comment box does that all by itself? Why doesn't ours?
Posted by wen at October 26, 2003 06:50 PM
There's a setting in the innards of MovableType that allows that- not sure, mustn't be turned on at Troppo.
I'm going to rebuild the Troppo wing soon so I will fix it up then.
Posted by Scott Wickstein at October 26, 2003 08:27 PM
Kinda worked as an intriguing non-link too, wen.
Cryptic directive.
However the link was good too, thanks.
"In the middle of the world, make one positive step. In the center of chaos, make one definitive act."
I must check out the MT innards one day myself to allow these comment box links to open in new window. Otherwise the auto hyperlink is just for show anyway - you still have to cut and paste.
Posted by boynton at October 27, 2003 10:16 AM
ah, i just adore Natalie Goldberg...
great links Miss B.
Posted by Gianna at October 27, 2003 05:12 PM
boynton followed the screenwriting links to Wordplay where The Columns are good
and read the Name dropping with interest, and a degree of shame at all the lazy Susans and Johns she's rattled off over the years.
A name is like a tightly-wound DNA molecule, capable of conveying information about characterization, tone, story and theme. Naming your characters is a crucial creative task.
Names have sometimes seemed rather arbitrary - secondary to the journey although to date she's never been guilty of making actors work with plain x or y.
see also: Deep Thoughts A collection of personal thoughts to inspire.
but today the one deep thought that is haunting boynton is Never Wait
Here's how you're not acting like you know it.
You wait.
But you shouldn't wait.
Not for anything.
Ever.
Commit these two words to heart, now:
Never wait.
so we'd better jump off and seize the scary day as best we can.
Comments: writing sites
Ah, but good ol' Susan and John still have their own particular resonances - and then there's that awful situation where you give a character a temporary name (Tom, say or Julie)& then when you go to change them to something more significant, they just dont, wont, utterly refuse to work
Posted by wen at October 26, 2003 06:36 PM
and Boynton, write anyplace.
Posted by wen at October 26, 2003 06:47 PM
oh dear, there was meant to be a link there to Natalie Goldberg's "Write Anyplace". here it is anyway:
http://www.missouri.edu/~lcwww/ethos/goldberg.html
Posted by wen at October 26, 2003 06:49 PM
Hey - how come your comment box does that all by itself? Why doesn't ours?
Posted by wen at October 26, 2003 06:50 PM
There's a setting in the innards of MovableType that allows that- not sure, mustn't be turned on at Troppo.
I'm going to rebuild the Troppo wing soon so I will fix it up then.
Posted by Scott Wickstein at October 26, 2003 08:27 PM
Kinda worked as an intriguing non-link too, wen.
Cryptic directive.
However the link was good too, thanks.
"In the middle of the world, make one positive step. In the center of chaos, make one definitive act."
I must check out the MT innards one day myself to allow these comment box links to open in new window. Otherwise the auto hyperlink is just for show anyway - you still have to cut and paste.
Posted by boynton at October 27, 2003 10:16 AM
ah, i just adore Natalie Goldberg...
great links Miss B.
Posted by Gianna at October 27, 2003 05:12 PM
oktoberfest
yes that special festive fungus had boynton on a local-variety-of- Oktoberfest quest, and I was quite surprised to see that it's on again this weekend at the Showgrounds. Heard nothing of the yodel or Schuhplattler out this way. About 10 years ago boynton suddenly rang up a radio station and won two tickets to the event. We chose to go at a slow hour. Sausages and steins were being consumed rather folornly in a dark hall in the lull, and boynton wasn't inclined to join the groups of serious junge steiners at their trestles settling in for the afternoon, but enjoyed sampling the Austrian dancing and the Swiss fare and always planned to return.
kaleidoscopic : Can you find Security? According to the map of the Venue you'll find it in the Holzhackerbaum stadium
Comments: oktoberfest
Sounds vaguely hintish. I went in 1999. Festive it was, in a grim way.
Posted by Tony.T at October 24, 2003 02:21 PM
hintish? neinish.
we'll hold off the steinish for another year,
although I may of course grow vaguely yodelish myself.
Posted by boynton at October 24, 2003 02:54 PM
kaleidoscopic : Can you find Security? According to the map of the Venue you'll find it in the Holzhackerbaum stadium
Comments: oktoberfest
Sounds vaguely hintish. I went in 1999. Festive it was, in a grim way.
Posted by Tony.T at October 24, 2003 02:21 PM
hintish? neinish.
we'll hold off the steinish for another year,
although I may of course grow vaguely yodelish myself.
Posted by boynton at October 24, 2003 02:54 PM
Thursday, October 23, 2003
nice blog
Yes we got hit with the dreaded comment spam. When she read of this elsewhere, boynton had imagined it would involve certain snake oil products and not your everyday complimentary one liners (that would always work for boynton). So this has involved deleting 150 oily smiley lines from the archives. boynton deeply regrets she didn't leave the nice blog comment from the flattery post both as historic record and x-treme irony sample, but at 1.30 am she was a bit too free and easy with the delete key.
In other news boynton is still cringing from typo fever that struck on the very day Nick Piombino kindly directed many poets and wordsmiths our way. Although she did do a quick check of chekhov, she did manage to let one check slip through. One bad checkhov is all it takes for cred to bounce.
And some readers may have noticed I've been slipping into the first person here and there since boynton celebrated her first anniversary. At the moment there's an uneasy mix of pronouns as we ease into rehabilitation. Stand by.
Comments: nice blog
"Check of Chekhov" Working beautifully, B. Check.
"I cannot tell a lie. I did not write The Cherry Orchard" Check.
Good post. Check.
Out.
Posted by Tony.T at October 23, 2003 02:16 PM
So comment spam is still getting through even though Scott installed that spam-killing patch? Maybe you should let him know if you haven't already. I can also give you the list of blocked spammer IPs I've collected, which I suspect has been useful in preventing spammers hitting my comments (thus far I've only had one).
Posted by James Russell at October 23, 2003 02:27 PM
T - cheers mate.
James: I emailed Mr W as soon as I got home and discovered the smiley horror. Alas - Scott had only just removed the patch due to its slowing-down side effect. Apparently he has been working on restoring a faster model? And thanks - I guess the list would be useful if there is no uber blocker?
nb I had thought that due to the sad lack of salacious lingo and content over here I'd be spared the spammers.
how effing wrong can you be ;)
Posted by boynton at October 23, 2003 02:42 PM
Effing Check!
Posted by Tony.T at October 23, 2003 03:41 PM
In other news boynton is still cringing from typo fever that struck on the very day Nick Piombino kindly directed many poets and wordsmiths our way. Although she did do a quick check of chekhov, she did manage to let one check slip through. One bad checkhov is all it takes for cred to bounce.
And some readers may have noticed I've been slipping into the first person here and there since boynton celebrated her first anniversary. At the moment there's an uneasy mix of pronouns as we ease into rehabilitation. Stand by.
Comments: nice blog
"Check of Chekhov" Working beautifully, B. Check.
"I cannot tell a lie. I did not write The Cherry Orchard" Check.
Good post. Check.
Out.
Posted by Tony.T at October 23, 2003 02:16 PM
So comment spam is still getting through even though Scott installed that spam-killing patch? Maybe you should let him know if you haven't already. I can also give you the list of blocked spammer IPs I've collected, which I suspect has been useful in preventing spammers hitting my comments (thus far I've only had one).
Posted by James Russell at October 23, 2003 02:27 PM
T - cheers mate.
James: I emailed Mr W as soon as I got home and discovered the smiley horror. Alas - Scott had only just removed the patch due to its slowing-down side effect. Apparently he has been working on restoring a faster model? And thanks - I guess the list would be useful if there is no uber blocker?
nb I had thought that due to the sad lack of salacious lingo and content over here I'd be spared the spammers.
how effing wrong can you be ;)
Posted by boynton at October 23, 2003 02:42 PM
Effing Check!
Posted by Tony.T at October 23, 2003 03:41 PM
Wednesday, October 22, 2003
polar dog trivia
Gilbert Kerr piping with emperor penguin
"Once the unusual taste of penguin meat had become familiar, it proved to be a great favourite: fried and stewed, or as a basis for soup and curry."
post-trivial and more importantly post-prandial we were talking about dogs and the Antarctic. As you do. Or at least as boynton does, always zoning in on the dumb canine lead. Who knows - the topic proper may well have been Scott v Amundsen, or the Scott of John Mills.
While boynton knew something of the doomed Scott of the Antarctic, she hadn't ever considered the Scotland and the Antarctic angle, and was quite amazed to find this wonderful image collection from the voyage of the Scotia including:
W G Murdoch playing bagpipes in Polar Environment
A sledging party with a balloon
Three explorers with huskies and a flag
Footnote
Interesting table from the Shackleton page about Ponies and Dogs (The ponies were not a great success)
Pressure on ice and snow
Pony's hoof... 16 lbs/square inch
Dog's paw... 3.5 lbs/square inch
Human foot... 2.25 lbs/square inch
Ski... 0.5 lbs/square inch
oh and also the hazards of eating dogs in a polar environment
Comments: polar dog trivia
nice blog.
sorry bout the spam :(
Posted by Scott Wickstein at October 23, 2003 04:15 AM
aarggh..I would almost auto delete such a comment if your name was "a, b, c, d or e"
Posted by boynton at October 23, 2003 11:21 AM
"Once the unusual taste of penguin meat had become familiar, it proved to be a great favourite: fried and stewed, or as a basis for soup and curry."
post-trivial and more importantly post-prandial we were talking about dogs and the Antarctic. As you do. Or at least as boynton does, always zoning in on the dumb canine lead. Who knows - the topic proper may well have been Scott v Amundsen, or the Scott of John Mills.
While boynton knew something of the doomed Scott of the Antarctic, she hadn't ever considered the Scotland and the Antarctic angle, and was quite amazed to find this wonderful image collection from the voyage of the Scotia including:
W G Murdoch playing bagpipes in Polar Environment
A sledging party with a balloon
Three explorers with huskies and a flag
Footnote
Interesting table from the Shackleton page about Ponies and Dogs (The ponies were not a great success)
Pressure on ice and snow
Pony's hoof... 16 lbs/square inch
Dog's paw... 3.5 lbs/square inch
Human foot... 2.25 lbs/square inch
Ski... 0.5 lbs/square inch
oh and also the hazards of eating dogs in a polar environment
Comments: polar dog trivia
nice blog.
sorry bout the spam :(
Posted by Scott Wickstein at October 23, 2003 04:15 AM
aarggh..I would almost auto delete such a comment if your name was "a, b, c, d or e"
Posted by boynton at October 23, 2003 11:21 AM
Tuesday, October 21, 2003
wondering
The Anton Chekhov home page
I always seem to get to Today in Literature a few days late. Well, it was First Seagull a flop story of the 18th that caught boynton's eye. This sent boynton on a bit of an old style surf - that blind quest for the serendipitous - the info route we follow when we don't know exactly what we want. This theme is discussed in this w-ful article on Robot Wisdom's Jorn Barger (via the Presurfer)
...it’s also true that sustained attention is not what Web logs are about anyway. At their most interesting they embody something that exceeds attention, and transforms it: They are constructed from and pay implicit tribute to a peculiarly contemporary sort of wonder.
A Web log really, then, is a Wunderkammer. That is to say, the genealogy of Web logs points not to the world of letters but to the early history of museums -- to the "cabinet of wonders," or Wunderkammer...
the passage from Wunderkammer to museum may have been a triumph for Western science, but it was a mixed bag for the Western soul. Wonder isn’t easily replaced once mastery disperses it...
Footnote I wonder if like boynton other bloggers have noticed that one's old surfing habits have been gradually modified by the purposefulness of a blog? Maybe that's another bullet point in boynton's potential list of 10 tips and things about blogging. Turn off the blog this button and go for a surf
Coincidentally, I had thought that Anton Chekhov might be up for a banana slug - a serendipitous search engine that I had first seen on JWalk
BananaSlug was designed to promote serendipitous surfing: finding the unexpected in the 3,083,324,652 web pages indexed by Google
The s word and the wonder theme again feature in their Further Reading.
We were supposed to travel the Web. Get lost in it. See what we could find. Be amazed. If we were lucky, we'd bring back something useful. The splendor of the Web was in serendipity Hurry-up searches bypass Web wonder
Anyway here are some writerly AC links courtesy of google and banana.
Anton Chekhov on writing
Steven Wood essay What Chekhov meant by life - includes lines from notebooks
201 stories
monologues
Letters
This last was a great return from banana - as it pointed us to the wonderful Adelaide Uni Electronic Text Collection - and the etc wandering round the links.
But the My name is Anton Chekhov and I am a Borzoi page at the top of the post was not found through banana slug but through google's own rather slippery variant, the image search. boynton has often followed the odd tangents there...
Comments: wondering
Turn of the blog button & go for a surf
It's the web version of stopping to smell the daisies, isn't it!
Stories of early failure are sooo inspiring, aren't they (Chekhov's, I mean...)
Posted by wen at October 22, 2003 08:35 AM
Yes the 'early failure' one is quite useful on occasion, as is the 'each to their own trajectory' story.
Posted by boynton at October 22, 2003 12:31 PM
I always seem to get to Today in Literature a few days late. Well, it was First Seagull a flop story of the 18th that caught boynton's eye. This sent boynton on a bit of an old style surf - that blind quest for the serendipitous - the info route we follow when we don't know exactly what we want. This theme is discussed in this w-ful article on Robot Wisdom's Jorn Barger (via the Presurfer)
...it’s also true that sustained attention is not what Web logs are about anyway. At their most interesting they embody something that exceeds attention, and transforms it: They are constructed from and pay implicit tribute to a peculiarly contemporary sort of wonder.
A Web log really, then, is a Wunderkammer. That is to say, the genealogy of Web logs points not to the world of letters but to the early history of museums -- to the "cabinet of wonders," or Wunderkammer...
the passage from Wunderkammer to museum may have been a triumph for Western science, but it was a mixed bag for the Western soul. Wonder isn’t easily replaced once mastery disperses it...
Footnote I wonder if like boynton other bloggers have noticed that one's old surfing habits have been gradually modified by the purposefulness of a blog? Maybe that's another bullet point in boynton's potential list of 10 tips and things about blogging. Turn off the blog this button and go for a surf
Coincidentally, I had thought that Anton Chekhov might be up for a banana slug - a serendipitous search engine that I had first seen on JWalk
BananaSlug was designed to promote serendipitous surfing: finding the unexpected in the 3,083,324,652 web pages indexed by Google
The s word and the wonder theme again feature in their Further Reading.
We were supposed to travel the Web. Get lost in it. See what we could find. Be amazed. If we were lucky, we'd bring back something useful. The splendor of the Web was in serendipity Hurry-up searches bypass Web wonder
Anyway here are some writerly AC links courtesy of google and banana.
Anton Chekhov on writing
Steven Wood essay What Chekhov meant by life - includes lines from notebooks
201 stories
monologues
Letters
This last was a great return from banana - as it pointed us to the wonderful Adelaide Uni Electronic Text Collection - and the etc wandering round the links.
But the My name is Anton Chekhov and I am a Borzoi page at the top of the post was not found through banana slug but through google's own rather slippery variant, the image search. boynton has often followed the odd tangents there...
Comments: wondering
Turn of the blog button & go for a surf
It's the web version of stopping to smell the daisies, isn't it!
Stories of early failure are sooo inspiring, aren't they (Chekhov's, I mean...)
Posted by wen at October 22, 2003 08:35 AM
Yes the 'early failure' one is quite useful on occasion, as is the 'each to their own trajectory' story.
Posted by boynton at October 22, 2003 12:31 PM
Monday, October 20, 2003
record turnaround
evidently the google content bot has a bleak view of marriage...
Comments: record turnaround
All good scouts plan ahead....
Posted by Scott Wickstein at October 21, 2003 12:21 AM
I just want to know if the divorce "kit" is couture or off-the-rack.
Posted by boynton at October 21, 2003 12:24 PM
You'd get what you pay for I guess.
Posted by Scott Wickstein at October 22, 2003 12:29 AM
inspiring
yes I have lately wavered about resuming RWL proper and ceasing or rolling back the blog. As we all probably know blog creep is a rather insidious but nonetheless enjoyable condition, and I still haven't quite hit that famed wall of ennui or if it's no longer fun walk away.
If one's inspiration and motivation is running a little dry, reading articles like Nick Piombino's confessions of a blog artist and also in sidereality, an Interview with NP by Lewis LaCook is great writerly (ie bloggerly) tonic. (via wood s lot)
see also Nick's post at Fait Accompli
boynton will bookmark these two next to Paul Ford's The web is my medium of choice, not a medium of last resort.
see also ideas about blogging and the gift economy at Jerz's Literacy webblog
More inspiration here: - The Dewey Decimal System at Solipsistic
Accordion Girl brad Zellar - Open All Night
Ephemera at Fragments from Floyd
and wen - writer Wendy James - has started blogging over at Troppo
Comments: inspiring
Hey, thanks for the link - missed it before. & all the serious 'blog articles' too. I knew I wasn't just procrastinating.
Posted by wen at October 22, 2003 08:36 AM
If one's inspiration and motivation is running a little dry, reading articles like Nick Piombino's confessions of a blog artist and also in sidereality, an Interview with NP by Lewis LaCook is great writerly (ie bloggerly) tonic. (via wood s lot)
see also Nick's post at Fait Accompli
boynton will bookmark these two next to Paul Ford's The web is my medium of choice, not a medium of last resort.
see also ideas about blogging and the gift economy at Jerz's Literacy webblog
More inspiration here: - The Dewey Decimal System at Solipsistic
Accordion Girl brad Zellar - Open All Night
Ephemera at Fragments from Floyd
and wen - writer Wendy James - has started blogging over at Troppo
Comments: inspiring
Hey, thanks for the link - missed it before. & all the serious 'blog articles' too. I knew I wasn't just procrastinating.
Posted by wen at October 22, 2003 08:36 AM
Sunday, October 19, 2003
saturday seurat
driving round alexandra avenue along the yarra yesterday in the late afternoon of a warm spring day with the soft light like seurat in the shadows and the keen green of the exotics, the balmy air of the drop dead beauty of this postcard vista caught our breath.
I suppose to so juxstapose may be deemed colonial but oh well.
Comments: saturday seurat
Has Seurat ever been to Melbourne? That's amazingly similar.
Posted by Tony.T at October 19, 2003 09:09 PM
Bonyton,
Good to see some imagery.
The trick now is to work the image into the poetics. Now that would be really groundbreaking in the weblog world.
On another note: why colonial?
It's a montage.
It's post-modern inter-texuality.
its photography v painting.
it's realism versus impressionism.
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at October 19, 2003 09:42 PM
Nicely done!
Posted by fredf at October 20, 2003 11:04 AM
T - yes but he forgot his camera.
Gary - I meant the consciousness may seem colonial (or is that post-colonial) in the urge to compare, the so-called "'superstitious valuation' of Europe" - that would seek seurat and the seine or the thames in our antipodean vistas.
Or as Barry Humphrey's wrote:
"Our gorgeous modern cities so famed throughout the earth,
The Paris end of Collins Street, the Melbourne end of Perth."
Technically I like those descriptions though. I was hoping that the po-mo factor may over-ride the po-co.
- and thanks, Fred.
Posted by boynton at October 20, 2003 11:06 AM
In Australia
where light is bright
one must use
a Dag-O-Type
Posted by Tony.T at October 20, 2003 02:06 PM
Mr. T. you are hereby sentenced to 10 years hard labour as Bracksie's P.A. for that. C'est da guerre. (Brumby minor made me say that and then ran away.)
Posted by Sedgwick at October 23, 2003 01:11 PM
Actually I think T and Brumby should compose odes together in camera.
Posted by boynton at October 23, 2003 01:39 PM
You've just earned yourself 15 years for that. (Don't take that as a negative comment. Focus on the positive.)
Didn't know T was bi-cameral.
Posted by Sedgwick at October 23, 2003 02:41 PM
well he's looking to buy a camera I believe...
& any more bad punning and we'll all be sequestered until the next sesquicentenary
Posted by boynton at October 23, 2003 03:11 PM
Kay Seurat-Seurat.
Posted by Sedgwick at October 23, 2003 04:23 PM
... anyway, Tony the Teacher started it all. As always I bleam the teechirs. Spell check.
Posted by Sedgwick at October 23, 2003 04:27 PM
It's anyone elses folt.
Posted by Tony.T at October 24, 2003 09:54 AM
Saturday, October 18, 2003
boyntonesque
boynton just walked herself in the third person with her dog who is beloved btw and a labrador ;) up to her favourite retail outlet - which we won't possibly refer to by its name, but by an old folkoric familial nickname: my shop...She saw several retro things that were quite desirable, and therefore clearly impossible to obtain, as that would challenge her everyday fatalism, even though they would only set her back a few gold coins.
because of boynton's burdensome third person conceit she almost got tangled in her pronouns as she walked back home sentimentally along the street, noticing again the way the sun catches the weeds in non-descript suburban gardens. Alas, had she called them triffids she could have linked to this non-amazonian site, to garner some cheap writerly cred.
She could now link to a series of stock images that may or may not approximate her mood, but she heavily suspects that this may not hold the greatest of interest for her readers. There is way too much blue already happening in this sentence. All that is left on this glorioussparklingday is to incite the blue heeler into some show of minor delinquence from which we may be able to extract a funny italicised angle
Alas
Comments: boyntonesque
By dang, boynton, not a Parka in sight?
Posted by Scott Wickstein at October 18, 2003 11:08 PM
Funny you should mention that, Scott...
when I found the "cottage" (see link:)
http://boynton.ubersportingpundit.com/archives/003295.html
of Rev. Melb P Boynton, you can imagine my surprise when I discovered The "P" was for "Parker".
Posted by boynton at October 19, 2003 11:39 AM
Yes, m'lady?
Posted by Tony.T at October 19, 2003 09:16 PM
hmmm I can see the likeness
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/184222106X.02.LZZZZZZZ.gif
Posted by lady p at October 20, 2003 11:25 AM
Car-naby Street it is then m'lady.
http://www.ananova.com/images/news/thunderbirds_auctionPA410x267.jpg
Posted by Tony.T at October 20, 2003 02:19 PM
fab
Posted by lady p at October 20, 2003 04:52 PM
because of boynton's burdensome third person conceit she almost got tangled in her pronouns as she walked back home sentimentally along the street, noticing again the way the sun catches the weeds in non-descript suburban gardens. Alas, had she called them triffids she could have linked to this non-amazonian site, to garner some cheap writerly cred.
She could now link to a series of stock images that may or may not approximate her mood, but she heavily suspects that this may not hold the greatest of interest for her readers. There is way too much blue already happening in this sentence. All that is left on this glorioussparklingday is to incite the blue heeler into some show of minor delinquence from which we may be able to extract a funny italicised angle
Alas
Comments: boyntonesque
By dang, boynton, not a Parka in sight?
Posted by Scott Wickstein at October 18, 2003 11:08 PM
Funny you should mention that, Scott...
when I found the "cottage" (see link:)
http://boynton.ubersportingpundit.com/archives/003295.html
of Rev. Melb P Boynton, you can imagine my surprise when I discovered The "P" was for "Parker".
Posted by boynton at October 19, 2003 11:39 AM
Yes, m'lady?
Posted by Tony.T at October 19, 2003 09:16 PM
hmmm I can see the likeness
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/184222106X.02.LZZZZZZZ.gif
Posted by lady p at October 20, 2003 11:25 AM
Car-naby Street it is then m'lady.
http://www.ananova.com/images/news/thunderbirds_auctionPA410x267.jpg
Posted by Tony.T at October 20, 2003 02:19 PM
fab
Posted by lady p at October 20, 2003 04:52 PM
Friday, October 17, 2003
eh squire
and wot would a birfday be if we didn't link to a spiffy generator then?
owsabout a bit of boynton in cockney? ... Or jive :A wry scribblerly blog ... by some melbourne scribbler ...Or even fellanton in redneck?
The Dialectizer via Twists and Turns
Comments: eh squire
nb: the "whoosh" post reads especially fine in cockney, eh what. IMHO natch.
Posted by boynton at October 18, 2003 11:46 AM
Cor Blimey. It was bloomin boring enuff the first time round.
Posted by Nora at October 18, 2003 12:10 PM
owsabout a bit of boynton in cockney? ... Or jive :A wry scribblerly blog ... by some melbourne scribbler ...Or even fellanton in redneck?
The Dialectizer via Twists and Turns
Comments: eh squire
nb: the "whoosh" post reads especially fine in cockney, eh what. IMHO natch.
Posted by boynton at October 18, 2003 11:46 AM
Cor Blimey. It was bloomin boring enuff the first time round.
Posted by Nora at October 18, 2003 12:10 PM
shades
"On average, an off-the-rack dress will cost around $1500. By contrast, the couture gown can be around $2500 to $4000, or even more for some gowns.
...the differences between the two are as night and day. Essentially, off-the-rack is ordinary; couture is extraordinary. Off-the-rack is standard; couture is superb. Off-the-rack is boring; couture is glamorous. The off-the-rack dress is a purchase; the couture gown is an experience" wedding central australia
Who would have thought that the difference between night and day was $1000 and rising. Relax, miss boynton isn't thinking nuptial, she simply stumbled upon these shades for the wedding party (from a link at J walk) and was thinking it would be curious to spend $toomuchmoney and $nosocialconscience on a $one-use dress and then accessorise it with novelty shades which might possibly be the pick of the $jumpedupshutterbug's glossy album that $getsboringtolookat after a while? Apologies for the boynton's own brand $bahhumbug glasses...
if you bought this you may also enjoy:
Love Advice for Extraterrestrials at Ftrain The top 10.25 things women (Genders 1-2.5) Dont know anout Men (Genders 3-5)
Lyrics to Baby got Back in Latin (via sonicpling via Fragments)
orgasmic simulation (via bifurcated rivets)
Anonymous Eighteenth Century German Love Song (via Plep)
Comments: shades
Well, whaddya know?
The article is written by someone who makes "couture" wedding dresses...
Posted by mcb at October 16, 2003 05:02 PM
How come those shades only come in packs of 6?
Posted by Nora at October 16, 2003 06:58 PM
mcb, not sure how current the couture-spiel is, if anything I thought those prices seemed low?
and Nora - 6 = 2 for the bridesmaids in your first wedding, 2 for the bridesmaids in your second, which leaves one pair of shadesfor the wacky old matron of honour in your third - is that the way it goes? ;)
Posted by boynton at October 16, 2003 07:23 PM
...the differences between the two are as night and day. Essentially, off-the-rack is ordinary; couture is extraordinary. Off-the-rack is standard; couture is superb. Off-the-rack is boring; couture is glamorous. The off-the-rack dress is a purchase; the couture gown is an experience" wedding central australia
Who would have thought that the difference between night and day was $1000 and rising. Relax, miss boynton isn't thinking nuptial, she simply stumbled upon these shades for the wedding party (from a link at J walk) and was thinking it would be curious to spend $toomuchmoney and $nosocialconscience on a $one-use dress and then accessorise it with novelty shades which might possibly be the pick of the $jumpedupshutterbug's glossy album that $getsboringtolookat after a while? Apologies for the boynton's own brand $bahhumbug glasses...
if you bought this you may also enjoy:
Love Advice for Extraterrestrials at Ftrain The top 10.25 things women (Genders 1-2.5) Dont know anout Men (Genders 3-5)
Lyrics to Baby got Back in Latin (via sonicpling via Fragments)
orgasmic simulation (via bifurcated rivets)
Anonymous Eighteenth Century German Love Song (via Plep)
Comments: shades
Well, whaddya know?
The article is written by someone who makes "couture" wedding dresses...
Posted by mcb at October 16, 2003 05:02 PM
How come those shades only come in packs of 6?
Posted by Nora at October 16, 2003 06:58 PM
mcb, not sure how current the couture-spiel is, if anything I thought those prices seemed low?
and Nora - 6 = 2 for the bridesmaids in your first wedding, 2 for the bridesmaids in your second, which leaves one pair of shadesfor the wacky old matron of honour in your third - is that the way it goes? ;)
Posted by boynton at October 16, 2003 07:23 PM
uno
well it's a year today since we stumbled into this sphere with the inauspicious words : welcome to boynton a blog....and what a journey it has been. boynton feels like she's been on the phone for a year... And she has. And what have we got to show for it, eh? RL has diminished. We have no friends. Dogs have been blogged senseless of copy. The only thing we've kind of learnt is less is more, today rules ok, break out of your cluster and although it's very dense there are enough lovely fishes out there to keep subscribing to the daily backward somersault into the blogosphere.
Comments: uno
Happy Birfday toooo you... Happy Birfdayy tooo YOUUU .. Happy Birfdayyy dear Boyntonnnnn.. Happy birfday toooo youuuuu!
Posted by Scott Wickstein at October 17, 2003 02:03 PM
Hip Hip Hooray!
Does this mean you're staying?
Posted by wen at October 17, 2003 02:08 PM
ah mercy boocoo, mr w.
et vous, wen... Not sure. I like the symmetry of stopping a year out. My year of the blog.
But chickened out of any such stat dec or even a little "hiatus" notification - they do have a way of biting one in the street - when one has a rethink. Still - one's other writing is suffering a tad, and we may see how we go.
Posted by boynton at October 17, 2003 02:14 PM
Oddly enough, for some reason I found myself thinking yesterday "It must be about a year that Boynton's been blogging now". So there you go.
It's been a pleasure travelling through the blogo-verse with you Boynton. Here's to many more anniversaries.
Posted by mcb at October 17, 2003 02:33 PM
Happy Birthday Boynton!
Here's a little surprise for
Boynton's birthday. Your URL is
now listed at the Suny/Buffalo
Electronic Poetry Center at:
http://epc.buffalo.edu/connects/blogs.html
Posted by Nick Piombino at October 17, 2003 02:41 PM
and merci x 365 mcb - my first "blog buddy".
and Nick - what a lovely surprise indeed- and a great honour. So many lovely fishes in that pool!
I was meaning to post your latest thoughts on blogging, that is inspiration to keep going, and wrestle with the writerly combo. I will anon.
But as written already today over at mcb's - it's SUCH a beautiful sparkling day here, we're about to jump off - actually that is, we're about to "literally" HOP off and skip.
Posted by boynton at October 17, 2003 02:50 PM
get off that effing phone, Boynton!
It's a beautiful day out there,
Posted by Nora at October 17, 2003 04:25 PM
What a glorious event! And a perfect op to give thanks for all the cheer, as a visit to b makes the day feel complete.
Posted by .es at October 18, 2003 01:37 AM
another beautiful day Nora - & still on the phone.
and thank you kindly, .es. :) (I'm winkless)
Posted by boynton at October 18, 2003 10:43 AM
happy bloggiversary miss B!
btw, i read your last commment as "i'm wrinkless" to which I was going to add, "yes, you don't look a day over, well, one year old!"
Posted by Gianna at October 20, 2003 01:17 PM
heehee et merci b mon amie G
oh and I am wrinkless as well of course ;)
Posted by boynton at October 20, 2003 01:31 PM
Wishing you a happy (although belated) blog birthday.
Posted by Gerard at October 21, 2003 01:07 AM
thanks Gerard.
Posted by boynton at October 21, 2003 01:17 PM
Comments: uno
Happy Birfday toooo you... Happy Birfdayy tooo YOUUU .. Happy Birfdayyy dear Boyntonnnnn.. Happy birfday toooo youuuuu!
Posted by Scott Wickstein at October 17, 2003 02:03 PM
Hip Hip Hooray!
Does this mean you're staying?
Posted by wen at October 17, 2003 02:08 PM
ah mercy boocoo, mr w.
et vous, wen... Not sure. I like the symmetry of stopping a year out. My year of the blog.
But chickened out of any such stat dec or even a little "hiatus" notification - they do have a way of biting one in the street - when one has a rethink. Still - one's other writing is suffering a tad, and we may see how we go.
Posted by boynton at October 17, 2003 02:14 PM
Oddly enough, for some reason I found myself thinking yesterday "It must be about a year that Boynton's been blogging now". So there you go.
It's been a pleasure travelling through the blogo-verse with you Boynton. Here's to many more anniversaries.
Posted by mcb at October 17, 2003 02:33 PM
Happy Birthday Boynton!
Here's a little surprise for
Boynton's birthday. Your URL is
now listed at the Suny/Buffalo
Electronic Poetry Center at:
http://epc.buffalo.edu/connects/blogs.html
Posted by Nick Piombino at October 17, 2003 02:41 PM
and merci x 365 mcb - my first "blog buddy".
and Nick - what a lovely surprise indeed- and a great honour. So many lovely fishes in that pool!
I was meaning to post your latest thoughts on blogging, that is inspiration to keep going, and wrestle with the writerly combo. I will anon.
But as written already today over at mcb's - it's SUCH a beautiful sparkling day here, we're about to jump off - actually that is, we're about to "literally" HOP off and skip.
Posted by boynton at October 17, 2003 02:50 PM
get off that effing phone, Boynton!
It's a beautiful day out there,
Posted by Nora at October 17, 2003 04:25 PM
What a glorious event! And a perfect op to give thanks for all the cheer, as a visit to b makes the day feel complete.
Posted by .es at October 18, 2003 01:37 AM
another beautiful day Nora - & still on the phone.
and thank you kindly, .es. :) (I'm winkless)
Posted by boynton at October 18, 2003 10:43 AM
happy bloggiversary miss B!
btw, i read your last commment as "i'm wrinkless" to which I was going to add, "yes, you don't look a day over, well, one year old!"
Posted by Gianna at October 20, 2003 01:17 PM
heehee et merci b mon amie G
oh and I am wrinkless as well of course ;)
Posted by boynton at October 20, 2003 01:31 PM
Wishing you a happy (although belated) blog birthday.
Posted by Gerard at October 21, 2003 01:07 AM
thanks Gerard.
Posted by boynton at October 21, 2003 01:17 PM
Thursday, October 16, 2003
shades
"On average, an off-the-rack dress will cost around $1500. By contrast, the couture gown can be around $2500 to $4000, or even more for some gowns.
...the differences between the two are as night and day. Essentially, off-the-rack is ordinary; couture is extraordinary. Off-the-rack is standard; couture is superb. Off-the-rack is boring; couture is glamorous. The off-the-rack dress is a purchase; the couture gown is an experience" wedding central australia
Who would have thought that the difference between night and day was $1000 and rising. Relax, miss boynton isn't thinking nuptial, she simply stumbled upon these shades for the wedding party (from a link at J walk) and was thinking it would be curious to spend $toomuchmoney and $nosocialconscience on a $one-use dress and then accessorise it with novelty shades which might possibly be the pick of the $jumpedupshutterbug's glossy album that $getsboringtolookat after a while? Apologies for the boynton's own brand $bahhumbug glasses...
if you bought this you may also enjoy:
Love Advice for Extraterrestrials at Ftrain The top 10.25 things women (Genders 1-2.5) Dont know anout Men (Genders 3-5)
Lyrics to Baby got Back in Latin (via sonicpling via Fragments)
orgasmic simulation (via bifurcated rivets)
Anonymous Eighteenth Century German Love Song (via Plep)
Comments: shades
Well, whaddya know?
The article is written by someone who makes "couture" wedding dresses...
Posted by mcb at October 16, 2003 05:02 PM
How come those shades only come in packs of 6?
Posted by Nora at October 16, 2003 06:58 PM
mcb, not sure how current the couture-spiel is, if anything I thought those prices seemed low?
and Nora - 6 = 2 for the bridesmaids in your first wedding, 2 for the bridesmaids in your second, which leaves one pair of shadesfor the wacky old matron of honour in your third - is that the way it goes? ;)
Posted by boynton at October 16, 2003 07:23 PM
...the differences between the two are as night and day. Essentially, off-the-rack is ordinary; couture is extraordinary. Off-the-rack is standard; couture is superb. Off-the-rack is boring; couture is glamorous. The off-the-rack dress is a purchase; the couture gown is an experience" wedding central australia
Who would have thought that the difference between night and day was $1000 and rising. Relax, miss boynton isn't thinking nuptial, she simply stumbled upon these shades for the wedding party (from a link at J walk) and was thinking it would be curious to spend $toomuchmoney and $nosocialconscience on a $one-use dress and then accessorise it with novelty shades which might possibly be the pick of the $jumpedupshutterbug's glossy album that $getsboringtolookat after a while? Apologies for the boynton's own brand $bahhumbug glasses...
if you bought this you may also enjoy:
Love Advice for Extraterrestrials at Ftrain The top 10.25 things women (Genders 1-2.5) Dont know anout Men (Genders 3-5)
Lyrics to Baby got Back in Latin (via sonicpling via Fragments)
orgasmic simulation (via bifurcated rivets)
Anonymous Eighteenth Century German Love Song (via Plep)
Comments: shades
Well, whaddya know?
The article is written by someone who makes "couture" wedding dresses...
Posted by mcb at October 16, 2003 05:02 PM
How come those shades only come in packs of 6?
Posted by Nora at October 16, 2003 06:58 PM
mcb, not sure how current the couture-spiel is, if anything I thought those prices seemed low?
and Nora - 6 = 2 for the bridesmaids in your first wedding, 2 for the bridesmaids in your second, which leaves one pair of shadesfor the wacky old matron of honour in your third - is that the way it goes? ;)
Posted by boynton at October 16, 2003 07:23 PM
Wednesday, October 15, 2003
not us
"I am secretly afraid of animals -- of all animals except dogs, and even of some dogs. I think it is because of the us-ness in their eyes, with the underlying not-usness which belies it. . . ." Edith Wharton
from the Dogs and Cats page at the Getty Collection via Plep
Right now boynton is listening to Flo’s not-usness as she barks at thunder, agitato. The nerve of it. Like some big wheelie bin trundling in the sky heralding an invisble intruder. Unamused, boynton said: Get out – if you’re going to be barking at thunder.
(suspect this loud electrical activity means we should switch off and hop to, attending to the day's necessities)
Comments: not us
Do the days necessities include going to Germany? I look, I puzzle.
Posted by Tony.T at October 16, 2003 01:54 PM
No I wasn't being literal Tony - although I have been known to cycle up to Heildelberg.
That image just seemed to reflect the way I was feelin' at the time. Carless, and rather small...
Sorry to cause puzzlement over my figurative use of the poetic licence.
(nb this comment has been updated to rid itself of embarrassing glitches)
Posted by boynton at October 16, 2003 02:11 PM
Boynton,
the fear bit is really quite important.
An example:
Fear is being whipped up against dogs in general in Adelaide. We have a populist law and order campaign because of dog attacks from escaped guard dogs.
Dogs are not wanted in the city. They have become scape goats for the break down of society and community and the evil/violent nasties that now stalk the streets.
Dogs are not 'of us' anymore. They are the monstrous other, the wild animal that eats babies, kills mothers, and attacks all and sundry. They have become the wolf at our door that roams the wasteland of the city looking to kill whatever crosses its path.
It sounds extreme I know, given the existence of guide dogs and the way dogs are companions for the lonely, elderly and sick etc
But this fear and loathing is what is being articulated, and stirred up by, the law and order Labor Party politicians and the tabloid media. The 'other' is Bikies, criminals, druggies, street kids and dogs as wolves. The law and order crowd are saying that it is a violent dangerous world out there, and that we humans are in fear of our lives. So we needs lots of zero tolerance.
Of course, none of this fear and loathing discourse makes any sense in relation to the reality of dog attacks. The dog attack on humans are here and there, and they are used as an occassion to whip the discourse in an ever increasing emotional pitch:----the way Andrew Bolt writes.
The whole atmospherics of the city has changed in relation to people and dogs living together due to this political campaign.
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at October 16, 2003 02:21 PM
I guess we are often fooled by that us-ness. My absolute faith that our shepherd Hugo isn't going to eat the babies is probably very silly. (Is he secretly waiting to swallow them up as soon as I turn my back - maybe a swift irritable nip?) It would be worse to be very afraid though. They're so quick to sense a human's you're-not-one-of-us-ness...
How is that baby balancing? - I'll bet it tumbled straight off (into the mouth of the patient hound) as soon as the picture was taken.
Posted by wen at October 16, 2003 02:22 PM
'jaws of the patient hound' would have been much betterer.
Posted by wen at October 16, 2003 02:25 PM
Gary - I think you are absoloutely right about this revival of the menacing wolf, and the way its shadow haunts the urban dream. Dogs are displaced in the sanitised clinical cities of administrators. A quick trip up to the country is a reality check: street wise skinny dogs doing their daily rounds, or resting harmlessly under a verandah post. (sounds like Lawson but it's all true!) Alas- every dog attack triggers the wolf vendetta, and heightens the unease. Meanwhile it remains true that the vast majority of dog attacks occur at home from a bad domestic pet - or as Hugh Wirth might add: a pet with bad owners.
(although having said that I am spooked by the sight of the Pit Bull that gets walked round here - but who am I to talk with a mad bluey by my side)
And wen: I have lost my absoloute faith in dogs - especially around children. Bitten by a family dog was ok, but witnessing the strange "turning' of my sister's dog into a sometimes savage beast was the turning point.
Of course I imagine Hugo is perfectly benign!
And yes - the pic is rather disturbing:
"the overall effect is both playful and ominous in the incongruity of sizes and roles presented by the various elements."
I didn't notice this ominous edge yesterday. I just saw the scale and the hound!
Posted by boynton at October 16, 2003 02:43 PM
I'm going to Heilde's L-Berg right now. Not cycling though. Probably won't see any scape-dogs either.
Posted by Tony.T at October 16, 2003 04:12 PM
Not many dogs off leash here (Armidale, pop c.22000), anymore either. I'm glad of it - not so much the dog attack worry, but the worry of car accidents. Nobody seems willing to contain the cars, so the poor dogs suffer ... but that's another story, isn't it. Also (truly banal) - I really hate stepping in dog shit.
photographic memory, Tony?
Posted by wen at October 16, 2003 05:44 PM
well yes wen, there is that by-product that the civic minded of us attend to...
interestingly I just came back from an off-lead park where I met this guy with a pigeon pair of dogs (bluey, black lab) who was lamenting the change in regulations that means builders et al. can no longer have their dogs off-leash (on guard) being the iconic aussie builder's mate.
Which means more home-alone dogs barking in boredom...
Overall though I'm pretty happy with the off-leash/on leash regulations. But I am mindful of the hysteria surrounding dog attacks.
And the world we seem to have lost along the way.
Posted by boynton at October 16, 2003 06:51 PM
I hate the apologies I feel forced to make when people visit - and the dog (naughty naughty boy) actually barks!
Posted by wen at October 16, 2003 08:24 PM
from the Dogs and Cats page at the Getty Collection via Plep
Right now boynton is listening to Flo’s not-usness as she barks at thunder, agitato. The nerve of it. Like some big wheelie bin trundling in the sky heralding an invisble intruder. Unamused, boynton said: Get out – if you’re going to be barking at thunder.
(suspect this loud electrical activity means we should switch off and hop to, attending to the day's necessities)
Comments: not us
Do the days necessities include going to Germany? I look, I puzzle.
Posted by Tony.T at October 16, 2003 01:54 PM
No I wasn't being literal Tony - although I have been known to cycle up to Heildelberg.
That image just seemed to reflect the way I was feelin' at the time. Carless, and rather small...
Sorry to cause puzzlement over my figurative use of the poetic licence.
(nb this comment has been updated to rid itself of embarrassing glitches)
Posted by boynton at October 16, 2003 02:11 PM
Boynton,
the fear bit is really quite important.
An example:
Fear is being whipped up against dogs in general in Adelaide. We have a populist law and order campaign because of dog attacks from escaped guard dogs.
Dogs are not wanted in the city. They have become scape goats for the break down of society and community and the evil/violent nasties that now stalk the streets.
Dogs are not 'of us' anymore. They are the monstrous other, the wild animal that eats babies, kills mothers, and attacks all and sundry. They have become the wolf at our door that roams the wasteland of the city looking to kill whatever crosses its path.
It sounds extreme I know, given the existence of guide dogs and the way dogs are companions for the lonely, elderly and sick etc
But this fear and loathing is what is being articulated, and stirred up by, the law and order Labor Party politicians and the tabloid media. The 'other' is Bikies, criminals, druggies, street kids and dogs as wolves. The law and order crowd are saying that it is a violent dangerous world out there, and that we humans are in fear of our lives. So we needs lots of zero tolerance.
Of course, none of this fear and loathing discourse makes any sense in relation to the reality of dog attacks. The dog attack on humans are here and there, and they are used as an occassion to whip the discourse in an ever increasing emotional pitch:----the way Andrew Bolt writes.
The whole atmospherics of the city has changed in relation to people and dogs living together due to this political campaign.
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at October 16, 2003 02:21 PM
I guess we are often fooled by that us-ness. My absolute faith that our shepherd Hugo isn't going to eat the babies is probably very silly. (Is he secretly waiting to swallow them up as soon as I turn my back - maybe a swift irritable nip?) It would be worse to be very afraid though. They're so quick to sense a human's you're-not-one-of-us-ness...
How is that baby balancing? - I'll bet it tumbled straight off (into the mouth of the patient hound) as soon as the picture was taken.
Posted by wen at October 16, 2003 02:22 PM
'jaws of the patient hound' would have been much betterer.
Posted by wen at October 16, 2003 02:25 PM
Gary - I think you are absoloutely right about this revival of the menacing wolf, and the way its shadow haunts the urban dream. Dogs are displaced in the sanitised clinical cities of administrators. A quick trip up to the country is a reality check: street wise skinny dogs doing their daily rounds, or resting harmlessly under a verandah post. (sounds like Lawson but it's all true!) Alas- every dog attack triggers the wolf vendetta, and heightens the unease. Meanwhile it remains true that the vast majority of dog attacks occur at home from a bad domestic pet - or as Hugh Wirth might add: a pet with bad owners.
(although having said that I am spooked by the sight of the Pit Bull that gets walked round here - but who am I to talk with a mad bluey by my side)
And wen: I have lost my absoloute faith in dogs - especially around children. Bitten by a family dog was ok, but witnessing the strange "turning' of my sister's dog into a sometimes savage beast was the turning point.
Of course I imagine Hugo is perfectly benign!
And yes - the pic is rather disturbing:
"the overall effect is both playful and ominous in the incongruity of sizes and roles presented by the various elements."
I didn't notice this ominous edge yesterday. I just saw the scale and the hound!
Posted by boynton at October 16, 2003 02:43 PM
I'm going to Heilde's L-Berg right now. Not cycling though. Probably won't see any scape-dogs either.
Posted by Tony.T at October 16, 2003 04:12 PM
Not many dogs off leash here (Armidale, pop c.22000), anymore either. I'm glad of it - not so much the dog attack worry, but the worry of car accidents. Nobody seems willing to contain the cars, so the poor dogs suffer ... but that's another story, isn't it. Also (truly banal) - I really hate stepping in dog shit.
photographic memory, Tony?
Posted by wen at October 16, 2003 05:44 PM
well yes wen, there is that by-product that the civic minded of us attend to...
interestingly I just came back from an off-lead park where I met this guy with a pigeon pair of dogs (bluey, black lab) who was lamenting the change in regulations that means builders et al. can no longer have their dogs off-leash (on guard) being the iconic aussie builder's mate.
Which means more home-alone dogs barking in boredom...
Overall though I'm pretty happy with the off-leash/on leash regulations. But I am mindful of the hysteria surrounding dog attacks.
And the world we seem to have lost along the way.
Posted by boynton at October 16, 2003 06:51 PM
I hate the apologies I feel forced to make when people visit - and the dog (naughty naughty boy) actually barks!
Posted by wen at October 16, 2003 08:24 PM
magic
The public should not be misled by these technical names
from molly kiely's old cookbook collection (via J walk)
from molly kiely's old cookbook collection (via J walk)
worm mail
Big pond's mail has been slow
"We can't be sure but we think the surge ... could be a residual impact from those worms and viruses."
Email article to a friend - but not if they're @bigpond... By the time friend receives the news it would already be wrapping up the fish and chips.
It would almost be like getting an on this day 1923 sort of alert - which is the pop up that floats around the british pathe site
which was another breaking story in the Age today about the 12 million historic photographs in the awesome Pathe archives
"We can't be sure but we think the surge ... could be a residual impact from those worms and viruses."
Email article to a friend - but not if they're @bigpond... By the time friend receives the news it would already be wrapping up the fish and chips.
It would almost be like getting an on this day 1923 sort of alert - which is the pop up that floats around the british pathe site
which was another breaking story in the Age today about the 12 million historic photographs in the awesome Pathe archives
marshlands
Water of life returns to the wetlands (The Age)
A dozen years after Saddam Hussein ordered the marshes of south-eastern Iraq drained, changing idyllic wetlands into a moonscape to eliminate a hiding place for Shiite Muslim political opponents, Iraqi engineers have turned on the tap again.
The "Eden Again" Project: Restoration Of The Mesopotamian Marshlands
photos of the marshlands
A dozen years after Saddam Hussein ordered the marshes of south-eastern Iraq drained, changing idyllic wetlands into a moonscape to eliminate a hiding place for Shiite Muslim political opponents, Iraqi engineers have turned on the tap again.
The "Eden Again" Project: Restoration Of The Mesopotamian Marshlands
photos of the marshlands
Tuesday, October 14, 2003
gratuitous
Nora informs me that the kids at her Primary School have adopted Don't do that! as a catch phrase. It is a feature we may have missed on the index page of the splendid Gratuitous Pleasures, but if you roll the mouse over the graphic of the boy and click you can hear the phrase that is now sweeping the eastern suburbs play ground.
Comments: gratuitous
But not with that particular whine, I hope.
Posted by wen at October 16, 2003 02:28 PM
On the contrary - the whine is the thing apparently!
Don't think they'd mimic the blush, somehow ;)
Posted by boynton at October 16, 2003 02:49 PM
Comments: gratuitous
But not with that particular whine, I hope.
Posted by wen at October 16, 2003 02:28 PM
On the contrary - the whine is the thing apparently!
Don't think they'd mimic the blush, somehow ;)
Posted by boynton at October 16, 2003 02:49 PM
joyce drive
Bargain record label Naxos has made a complete recording of Ulysses on 23 CDs, which will be issued next year in time for the 100th anniversary of the original "Bloomsday", June 16 1904.
An uninterrupted playthrough of the entire set will last just about as long as Leopold Bloom's day.
The reader is Irish actor Jim Norton, who played Bishop Len Brennan in the TV sitcom Father Ted.
(Guardian via Moby Lives)
boynton will have to head off for a 23 hour straight drive somewhere sometime before bloomsday 04, just to have the uninterrupted ulysses drive her completely round the lilting brogue...joyce drive bloody idiot.
Meanwhile the audio clip page from Naxos has been quite amusing to sample.
Comments: joyce drive
Better or worse than The Wiggles? Actually, anything that drowns out the complaints from the back seats is rather nice. Actually, even very loud radio static can be good.
Posted by wen at October 16, 2003 02:32 PM
Yes I have travelled with Toddlers and Wiggles.
That's defintely a future campaign for the TAC -
surely - Wiggles Drive Existential Crisis
I was joshing about joyce. I think I would love to listen to Ulysses in a car - and I'm semi serious about the 23 hour stint, but one will just have to choose the route judiciously.
And the designated driver of course ;)
Posted by boynton at October 16, 2003 02:54 PM
'Under Milkwood' would be fun for driving - and enough sillybugger humour for kids to enjoy it too.
Posted by wen at October 16, 2003 05:47 PM
An uninterrupted playthrough of the entire set will last just about as long as Leopold Bloom's day.
The reader is Irish actor Jim Norton, who played Bishop Len Brennan in the TV sitcom Father Ted.
(Guardian via Moby Lives)
boynton will have to head off for a 23 hour straight drive somewhere sometime before bloomsday 04, just to have the uninterrupted ulysses drive her completely round the lilting brogue...joyce drive bloody idiot.
Meanwhile the audio clip page from Naxos has been quite amusing to sample.
Comments: joyce drive
Better or worse than The Wiggles? Actually, anything that drowns out the complaints from the back seats is rather nice. Actually, even very loud radio static can be good.
Posted by wen at October 16, 2003 02:32 PM
Yes I have travelled with Toddlers and Wiggles.
That's defintely a future campaign for the TAC -
surely - Wiggles Drive Existential Crisis
I was joshing about joyce. I think I would love to listen to Ulysses in a car - and I'm semi serious about the 23 hour stint, but one will just have to choose the route judiciously.
And the designated driver of course ;)
Posted by boynton at October 16, 2003 02:54 PM
'Under Milkwood' would be fun for driving - and enough sillybugger humour for kids to enjoy it too.
Posted by wen at October 16, 2003 05:47 PM
Monday, October 13, 2003
woosh
been meaning to post about that missing and oft needed emoticon of the blogosphere, and the blogospherical commentary - the whoosh. boynton recalls that it was Gummo Trotsky who first proposed the need for the whoosh sign - meaning: something has gone over the head. In RL conversation there is of course a common gesture to indicate this phenonmenon, which also acknowledges our common fallibility.Our universal vulnerability to the whoosh. You're never so smart that the next moment won't whoosh you. Perhaps the whoosh is complementary to the wink. ;) which is much used round here even to the point of abuse. Still, if the wink is missed, a whoosh may well occur. boynton remembers the old ads from her collection of Ladies Home Journals that read You hear a bigger whoosh as hapless people open an explosive coffee jar (their smiles indicate more thrill than fear is anticipated at the spring-loaded surprise). The magazines are elsewhere and not yet scanned. But the other day via Twists and Turns we saw a detail from one of the ads at Tack-O-Rama. (see number six) And we won't steal the image. But we at least could trace the brand - and find another example here. Disliking the tacky smiley range of emoticons which may well include a whoosh variety, boynton wishes this retro whoosh was public domain enough to exploit wholesale.
pop
we watched the first Love is is In The Air - stories of Australian Pop Music and a couple of minutes in knew it was going to be rather dumb. Never trust the long-winded intro or quasi overture that concludes by saying Ladies and Gentlemen we present... (Yeah yeah, we kinda get that tacit bit of the televsion contract by now)
There's always something disturbing about history done dumb. Even the history of Pop - or maybe especially so. As this review in The Australian suggests, we've all got pop songs that resonate with great moments in our lives, and we don't like to see the soundtrack or slideshow of our lives shuffled randomly or trifled with, damned with faint praise, mismatched. Maybe it doesn't always need the micro treatment of a Ken Burns - maybe Pennies From Heaven and other films of Dennis Potter catch something deeper about Pop and culture and nostalgia than a documentary, but you know when you're getting short-changed. And you want at least a glimpse of the bigger picture. Way back when boynton remembers watching All You Need is Love - and this pretty much set the benchmark for this sub genre.
Comments: pop
I saw bits of Love is in the Air when cooking dinner. It was trash.
Something to do with rock coming into the country from England then Australia exporting pop once they stopped doing covers and learnt to write songs.
Brian Cadd was the hero. He was successful overseas because he made a left turn to the USA rather than the right turn to the UK.
Nothing about the development of Australian pop culture in opposition to the snobby British high culture.
There is a story in that.
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at October 15, 2003 09:23 PM
Yes I shouldn't have minced words,Gary. It was trash.
And maybe the dumbing-down is even more depressing when it's Pop.
There is certainly a story in the oppositional cultural wars, beyond the recycled slogans. And there are stories everywhere if they were serious about it. Get some historians onto it.
I gained more of a glimpse into the social mores from this brief story on a local history web site:
http://localhistory.kingston.vic.gov.au/htm/article/199.htm
Posted by boynton at October 16, 2003 12:25 AM
Boynton,
yes. that's really good local history. There must be heaps of similar stuff buried in the archives.
the textures of these stories need to be woven into the glamour pop shows to show how a pop culture developed; and why it was so meaningful for so many Australians.
It was much more than muscular working class lads yelling their songs to loud guitars in the suburban pub, whose floor was covered in vomit and cigarette butts. That's the standard myth from what I can make out.
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at October 16, 2003 01:52 PM
There's always something disturbing about history done dumb. Even the history of Pop - or maybe especially so. As this review in The Australian suggests, we've all got pop songs that resonate with great moments in our lives, and we don't like to see the soundtrack or slideshow of our lives shuffled randomly or trifled with, damned with faint praise, mismatched. Maybe it doesn't always need the micro treatment of a Ken Burns - maybe Pennies From Heaven and other films of Dennis Potter catch something deeper about Pop and culture and nostalgia than a documentary, but you know when you're getting short-changed. And you want at least a glimpse of the bigger picture. Way back when boynton remembers watching All You Need is Love - and this pretty much set the benchmark for this sub genre.
Comments: pop
I saw bits of Love is in the Air when cooking dinner. It was trash.
Something to do with rock coming into the country from England then Australia exporting pop once they stopped doing covers and learnt to write songs.
Brian Cadd was the hero. He was successful overseas because he made a left turn to the USA rather than the right turn to the UK.
Nothing about the development of Australian pop culture in opposition to the snobby British high culture.
There is a story in that.
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at October 15, 2003 09:23 PM
Yes I shouldn't have minced words,Gary. It was trash.
And maybe the dumbing-down is even more depressing when it's Pop.
There is certainly a story in the oppositional cultural wars, beyond the recycled slogans. And there are stories everywhere if they were serious about it. Get some historians onto it.
I gained more of a glimpse into the social mores from this brief story on a local history web site:
http://localhistory.kingston.vic.gov.au/htm/article/199.htm
Posted by boynton at October 16, 2003 12:25 AM
Boynton,
yes. that's really good local history. There must be heaps of similar stuff buried in the archives.
the textures of these stories need to be woven into the glamour pop shows to show how a pop culture developed; and why it was so meaningful for so many Australians.
It was much more than muscular working class lads yelling their songs to loud guitars in the suburban pub, whose floor was covered in vomit and cigarette butts. That's the standard myth from what I can make out.
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at October 16, 2003 01:52 PM
cottage
yes as foreshadowed in a comment below boynton found the cottage belonging to her accidental reverend relative. Because it was misspelt, it was happily hidden in the google pile, and was only found through sifting via Rev. Melb P.
Meanwhile the sophisticated alogorithm of the content bot that crawls around and comes up with google ads can get a little creepy. You have to check into blogspot to see what the crawling suggests. boynton is starting to think it's getting sidetracked by the sound of words and is a kind of wannabe poetry generator as well. AFL and existentialism was pretty diverting, but today it crawled round boynton and suggested maurade baynton. Such consonance. Almost an online literary companion generating consonance and assonance while you sleep.
Comments: cottage
In a dyslexic moment I read that as "marauding boynton".
Posted by Nora at October 13, 2003 05:59 PM
maybe the chinese-whispering spider will find a link along those lines.
Posted by boynton at October 14, 2003 01:43 PM
Meanwhile the sophisticated alogorithm of the content bot that crawls around and comes up with google ads can get a little creepy. You have to check into blogspot to see what the crawling suggests. boynton is starting to think it's getting sidetracked by the sound of words and is a kind of wannabe poetry generator as well. AFL and existentialism was pretty diverting, but today it crawled round boynton and suggested maurade baynton. Such consonance. Almost an online literary companion generating consonance and assonance while you sleep.
Comments: cottage
In a dyslexic moment I read that as "marauding boynton".
Posted by Nora at October 13, 2003 05:59 PM
maybe the chinese-whispering spider will find a link along those lines.
Posted by boynton at October 14, 2003 01:43 PM
fish
boynton went for a sundaydrive on saturday and has duly dashed off some lines about the experience which she will spare her readers, but this is the way it ended:
in the café the classifieds are the main reading matter
where a singing fish falls silent on an inland wall
"A singing fish is actually a very simple robot"
Comments: fish
Did you really see a singing fish? How wonderful!
Posted by Scott Wickstein at October 13, 2003 12:41 PM
Take me to the river.
Posted by Tony.T at October 13, 2003 02:01 PM
The river was just down the road actually.
I wonder what the garden gnomes (that clustered round the cafe) would sing if they were also simple robots?
Posted by boynton at October 13, 2003 02:19 PM
the gnomes could sing:
"As I went down to the river to pray
Studying about the good old way..."
Posted by Nora at October 13, 2003 06:09 PM
O brother gnome...
beats Welsh male choir Hi Ho I guess...
Posted by boynton at October 14, 2003 01:41 PM
Gnome is where the garden is.
Posted by Tony.T at October 14, 2003 06:53 PM
in the café the classifieds are the main reading matter
where a singing fish falls silent on an inland wall
"A singing fish is actually a very simple robot"
Comments: fish
Did you really see a singing fish? How wonderful!
Posted by Scott Wickstein at October 13, 2003 12:41 PM
Take me to the river.
Posted by Tony.T at October 13, 2003 02:01 PM
The river was just down the road actually.
I wonder what the garden gnomes (that clustered round the cafe) would sing if they were also simple robots?
Posted by boynton at October 13, 2003 02:19 PM
the gnomes could sing:
"As I went down to the river to pray
Studying about the good old way..."
Posted by Nora at October 13, 2003 06:09 PM
O brother gnome...
beats Welsh male choir Hi Ho I guess...
Posted by boynton at October 14, 2003 01:41 PM
Gnome is where the garden is.
Posted by Tony.T at October 14, 2003 06:53 PM
Friday, October 10, 2003
reverend
Chances are this man just has to be some relation?
found almost by chance at Photographs from the Chicago Daily news via penny dreadful
Comments: reverend
Melbourne.P.Boynton?!? Brilliant. Does he advocate the use of Ribena?
Posted by Tony.T at October 12, 2003 07:41 PM
No - I imagine Ribena would be far too potent for sacramental purposes, especially if it sparkles.
Posted by boynton at October 12, 2003 11:38 PM
Then what did he use to wash down the unleavened bread and little boys?
Posted by Tony.T at October 13, 2003 12:47 AM
hope like boynton, Rev Melb P is a vegetarian, and would decline cocktail franks served at social gatherings. At such events I imagine boyntons would piously imbibe the house lemonade.
Posted by boynton at October 13, 2003 01:07 AM
That is most eerie, indeed. Sort of frightening, actually. Perhaps I should make an attempt at finding his grave.
Posted by .es at October 13, 2003 01:53 PM
It's a fact that on a warm day like today, lemon aides pious and abstinent teeteetallers to keep their temperance. I might apply for some this afternoon.
Posted by Tony.T at October 13, 2003 02:08 PM
Yes it was a bit eerie.
& (thanks to your linkage) I found his cottage actually - more anon...
Posted by boynton at October 13, 2003 02:09 PM
and yes, Tony, I think it's certainly a fact that lemon aides the mind. Although I'm mindful of the bubbles myself.
Posted by boynton at October 13, 2003 02:16 PM
found almost by chance at Photographs from the Chicago Daily news via penny dreadful
Comments: reverend
Melbourne.P.Boynton?!? Brilliant. Does he advocate the use of Ribena?
Posted by Tony.T at October 12, 2003 07:41 PM
No - I imagine Ribena would be far too potent for sacramental purposes, especially if it sparkles.
Posted by boynton at October 12, 2003 11:38 PM
Then what did he use to wash down the unleavened bread and little boys?
Posted by Tony.T at October 13, 2003 12:47 AM
hope like boynton, Rev Melb P is a vegetarian, and would decline cocktail franks served at social gatherings. At such events I imagine boyntons would piously imbibe the house lemonade.
Posted by boynton at October 13, 2003 01:07 AM
That is most eerie, indeed. Sort of frightening, actually. Perhaps I should make an attempt at finding his grave.
Posted by .es at October 13, 2003 01:53 PM
It's a fact that on a warm day like today, lemon aides pious and abstinent teeteetallers to keep their temperance. I might apply for some this afternoon.
Posted by Tony.T at October 13, 2003 02:08 PM
Yes it was a bit eerie.
& (thanks to your linkage) I found his cottage actually - more anon...
Posted by boynton at October 13, 2003 02:09 PM
and yes, Tony, I think it's certainly a fact that lemon aides the mind. Although I'm mindful of the bubbles myself.
Posted by boynton at October 13, 2003 02:16 PM
Thursday, October 09, 2003
john
boynton woke to a Red Symons special - one of his wonderful audio collages - marking the birthday of John Lennon. Even though the opening chords had a distinct blackbird feel (or maybe because of it- that macca counterpoint again) the assemblage of last-interview lyrics and familiar riffs was very moving. boynton checked the 774 website but alas, it hasn't been posted - although she notices his George W Bush Beef vid is there. (scroll down to bottom of page). boynton will possibly exchange some money for a compilation of Red's offerings if this is the plan.
John Lennon Guitar Chord Archive
Picture Yourself -words and music by John Lennon
On a beatle tangent - it was slightly disturbing last night at Trivia when one table of youngpeople answered that Hey Jude was the Beatles song associated with those infamous murders of 1969. Hey Dude! Hey Jude is probably boynton's fave fab four song. And you'd think it would be a challenge to read too many messages into the lyrics if this googlebyte is representative:
Comments: john
They've got it wrong! It's
"Nah, Nah, Nah, Na-na-nah-nah, Na-na-nah-nah ..." etc.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at October 10, 2003 08:51 PM
Yeah yeah yeah I noticed that too. If you go to the link there's a whole wall of NQR nahs.
Just one would do.
btw:
"the "nah-nah-nah" vocal melody of this jam, with its emphasis on the F-natural at its apogee, creates a freely dissonant 9th against the E flat chord; it's a small effect, yet so pungent that I dare say it's one of the signature characteristics of this track..."
from Notes on Hey Jude:
http://www.recmusicbeatles.com/public/files/awp/hj.html
Posted by boynton at October 11, 2003 12:55 AM
John Lennon Guitar Chord Archive
Picture Yourself -words and music by John Lennon
On a beatle tangent - it was slightly disturbing last night at Trivia when one table of youngpeople answered that Hey Jude was the Beatles song associated with those infamous murders of 1969. Hey Dude! Hey Jude is probably boynton's fave fab four song. And you'd think it would be a challenge to read too many messages into the lyrics if this googlebyte is representative:
Comments: john
They've got it wrong! It's
"Nah, Nah, Nah, Na-na-nah-nah, Na-na-nah-nah ..." etc.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at October 10, 2003 08:51 PM
Yeah yeah yeah I noticed that too. If you go to the link there's a whole wall of NQR nahs.
Just one would do.
btw:
"the "nah-nah-nah" vocal melody of this jam, with its emphasis on the F-natural at its apogee, creates a freely dissonant 9th against the E flat chord; it's a small effect, yet so pungent that I dare say it's one of the signature characteristics of this track..."
from Notes on Hey Jude:
http://www.recmusicbeatles.com/public/files/awp/hj.html
Posted by boynton at October 11, 2003 12:55 AM
sunnies
Sunglasses, 1952
We test 38 brands -- and find 23 of them Not Acceptable.
(Vintage Consumer reports via Penny Dreadful)
We test 38 brands -- and find 23 of them Not Acceptable.
(Vintage Consumer reports via Penny Dreadful)
Wednesday, October 08, 2003
parrot
Man wants to question parrot in court
(to determine if it can whistle the "Andy Griffith" tune)
(via Follow me Here)
The monster which threatens me is karaoke. (via anil dash)
Comments: parrot
Is Ben Matlock the lawyer?
Posted by Tony.T at October 9, 2003 03:53 PM
Any old beak will do.
Posted by boynton at October 9, 2003 05:43 PM
(to determine if it can whistle the "Andy Griffith" tune)
(via Follow me Here)
The monster which threatens me is karaoke. (via anil dash)
Comments: parrot
Is Ben Matlock the lawyer?
Posted by Tony.T at October 9, 2003 03:53 PM
Any old beak will do.
Posted by boynton at October 9, 2003 05:43 PM
literary games
It may be that certain literary games, including works of interactive fiction, derive their power from the play between their literary aspects and their nature as games
Nick Montfort on Literary Games, with examples including his special bagatelle cooked up for this Issue Fields Of Dream -a variant of the consequences/surrealist parlour games. (via Jerz's Literacy Weblog)
meanwhile game meister Kevan has posted the results of a visual variation, the Chinese whisper photography experiment
Nick Montfort on Literary Games, with examples including his special bagatelle cooked up for this Issue Fields Of Dream -a variant of the consequences/surrealist parlour games. (via Jerz's Literacy Weblog)
meanwhile game meister Kevan has posted the results of a visual variation, the Chinese whisper photography experiment
peek
further to looking...
Who is Mrs Peek?
(Women in British WW2 advertising via things)
see also: I want to be a sports mistress
She wanted a new bicycle
Mary was tired of the grizzle-grumble-groans of her machine- the way its brakes failed to act, etc.
Comments: peek
Mrs Peek's a freak!
AND as for Joan "I want to be a sports mistress" - well - she only got the job by sending her mother in to the interview (see second last frame)to impersonate her or was it always Joan's mother and Joan was just a distraction? AND why was her Mum ("I'll just wait in the hall") at the interview anyway?
Posted by Nora at October 8, 2003 06:00 PM
Gosh, Boynton - if only I had enough coupons. Afraid I'll just have to resign.
Posted by wen at October 8, 2003 07:50 PM
yes I think that Mrs X had better watch her back, especially given Mr X's libidinous stomach... May not be long before "Mrs Peek is looking after your dinner" becomes a curse.
And Nora - that is quite a find re Joan's mysterious switch to mother mode in crucial job interview frame. .
"I want to be a sports mistress, but I made certain life decisions that impeded this choice, so I want my daughter to be a sports mistress."
Or if it was actually Joan's mother all along impersonating Joan it makes it rather fascinating ground...
Never trust that line: "I'll just be waiting in the hall"...Chameleon alert.
Posted by boynton at October 9, 2003 01:10 PM
Who is Mrs Peek?
(Women in British WW2 advertising via things)
see also: I want to be a sports mistress
She wanted a new bicycle
Mary was tired of the grizzle-grumble-groans of her machine- the way its brakes failed to act, etc.
Comments: peek
Mrs Peek's a freak!
AND as for Joan "I want to be a sports mistress" - well - she only got the job by sending her mother in to the interview (see second last frame)to impersonate her or was it always Joan's mother and Joan was just a distraction? AND why was her Mum ("I'll just wait in the hall") at the interview anyway?
Posted by Nora at October 8, 2003 06:00 PM
Gosh, Boynton - if only I had enough coupons. Afraid I'll just have to resign.
Posted by wen at October 8, 2003 07:50 PM
yes I think that Mrs X had better watch her back, especially given Mr X's libidinous stomach... May not be long before "Mrs Peek is looking after your dinner" becomes a curse.
And Nora - that is quite a find re Joan's mysterious switch to mother mode in crucial job interview frame. .
"I want to be a sports mistress, but I made certain life decisions that impeded this choice, so I want my daughter to be a sports mistress."
Or if it was actually Joan's mother all along impersonating Joan it makes it rather fascinating ground...
Never trust that line: "I'll just be waiting in the hall"...Chameleon alert.
Posted by boynton at October 9, 2003 01:10 PM
Tuesday, October 07, 2003
looking
meredith has posted some interesting thoughts on looking - the way we watch the internet.
Yesterday boynton's five year old nephew stared in wonderment at a screen pitched at kids with the usual suspects of slow loading cartoon animals bouncing to a wiggly sort of tune - and when all the flash elements finally settled, declared
Isn't that amazing - it's a screen, and it's a picture!
boynton is less inclined to embark on a blind journey on the internet nowadays - for instance - to amble politely through a gallery in a linear pathway that has been marked by a curator with only two choices: > and <. This may be a consequence of blogging and being in the loop of the relentless info chase. The info overload seems to need an overview, a DIY filter. To negotiate the array of choices you either go for the random or plum for the thumbnailed survey. Sped up speed reading - is the scanning, browsing attention span getting shorter or sharper?
See also the the Glancing project at Interconnected
Glancing: An application to allow ultra-simple, non-verbal communication amongst groups of friends online. ...It lets you "glance" at them in idle moments, and it gives all of you an indication of the activity of glancing going on. Notes on Glancing
Comments: looking
Four-thousand and seventy-six cheers for this post. One which fell on quite an appropriate time—a time marked for near-future remembrance and thought-fancy.
Once, while walking along a deserted street, I spotted a little red book—not that one—in a window which explained to journalists when they-should and should-not use the hyphen. The book appeared to have-been published around the turn of the more-interesting-to-me centuries—the Oughts, if you will—making it all the more-intriguing, indeed. I still thirst for a perusal, if only to brush-up a bit.
Besides, this all holds ←Back-Next→ in regard, sort of. Where did I leave my hat...
Posted by .es at October 8, 2003 06:26 AM
I think you left your hat ← on the other hand maybe I saw it → hiding under the hyphen.
(many thanks for showing me the → to the html coat.)
Posted by boynton at October 8, 2003 11:42 AM
Ooh the glancing project is very interesting.
Thanks boynton.
Posted by mcb at October 8, 2003 05:23 PM
I get more reading done when I glance and glimpse at the same time. Glampsing.
Posted by Tony.T at October 8, 2003 06:17 PM
Glampsing...
I love it.
Posted by mcb at October 9, 2003 09:02 AM
Glampsing sounds like a variety of Tea, T.
Glampsing-Souchong.
Posted by boynton at October 9, 2003 01:16 PM
Yesterday boynton's five year old nephew stared in wonderment at a screen pitched at kids with the usual suspects of slow loading cartoon animals bouncing to a wiggly sort of tune - and when all the flash elements finally settled, declared
Isn't that amazing - it's a screen, and it's a picture!
boynton is less inclined to embark on a blind journey on the internet nowadays - for instance - to amble politely through a gallery in a linear pathway that has been marked by a curator with only two choices: > and <. This may be a consequence of blogging and being in the loop of the relentless info chase. The info overload seems to need an overview, a DIY filter. To negotiate the array of choices you either go for the random or plum for the thumbnailed survey. Sped up speed reading - is the scanning, browsing attention span getting shorter or sharper?
See also the the Glancing project at Interconnected
Glancing: An application to allow ultra-simple, non-verbal communication amongst groups of friends online. ...It lets you "glance" at them in idle moments, and it gives all of you an indication of the activity of glancing going on. Notes on Glancing
Comments: looking
Four-thousand and seventy-six cheers for this post. One which fell on quite an appropriate time—a time marked for near-future remembrance and thought-fancy.
Once, while walking along a deserted street, I spotted a little red book—not that one—in a window which explained to journalists when they-should and should-not use the hyphen. The book appeared to have-been published around the turn of the more-interesting-to-me centuries—the Oughts, if you will—making it all the more-intriguing, indeed. I still thirst for a perusal, if only to brush-up a bit.
Besides, this all holds ←Back-Next→ in regard, sort of. Where did I leave my hat...
Posted by .es at October 8, 2003 06:26 AM
I think you left your hat ← on the other hand maybe I saw it → hiding under the hyphen.
(many thanks for showing me the → to the html coat.)
Posted by boynton at October 8, 2003 11:42 AM
Ooh the glancing project is very interesting.
Thanks boynton.
Posted by mcb at October 8, 2003 05:23 PM
I get more reading done when I glance and glimpse at the same time. Glampsing.
Posted by Tony.T at October 8, 2003 06:17 PM
Glampsing...
I love it.
Posted by mcb at October 9, 2003 09:02 AM
Glampsing sounds like a variety of Tea, T.
Glampsing-Souchong.
Posted by boynton at October 9, 2003 01:16 PM
splendid time
An assortment of shockwave play things at Gratuitous Pleasures
boynton enjoyed sampling the Amazing virtual theramin and the Sing-a-long with Brunhilde, and will shortly explore the Mambo and Split the Atom games.
(via ultimate insult)
boynton enjoyed sampling the Amazing virtual theramin and the Sing-a-long with Brunhilde, and will shortly explore the Mambo and Split the Atom games.
(via ultimate insult)
Monday, October 06, 2003
chap
From the trouser semaphore chaps - the semiotics of hair
When a fellow walks into a barber's shop and demands a particular follicular configuration, he brings with him the psychic baggage of his hopes, fears, loves, disappointments and current state of mind.
As a non-chap, boynton endorses the Chappist qualities espoused by the magazine:
Chappist qualities such as common courtesy, eccentricity and civility and were she in London she might participate in the upcoming Civilise The City protest:
Enter an establishment offering “Internet chat rooms” and try to engage someone in conversation
And she has to agree that a world where ‘a cup of tea’ is in reality an overpriced cardboard beaker of tea-flavoured hot water is dark indeed. It is becoming more difficult to secure a decent brew with real tea. Even in the Devonshire Tea belt of the Dandenongs where so many old churches and cottages trade on the lure of an old fashioned brew, it is not uncommon to find a tea bag draping out of a fine china teapot.
Comments: chap
alas, B, you would be disappointed to find only teabags at Casa Gianna. still, i often catch myself grumbling, "weapons of mass destruction all well and good, but do you think one of these bozos can invent a teabag whose tag doesn't always slither into the cup along with the bag? is that TOO MUCH to ask??"
Posted by Gianna at October 6, 2003 09:51 PM
Oh la di da - what a "snooty fox", Boynton.
But don't you drink Bushells blue label Tea BAGS
at home?
Posted by Nora at October 6, 2003 11:21 PM
I'm a recent (re)convert to 'real tea' . I've bought a little teapot with a built -in mesh infuser - it's just as easy as jiggling, dangling, squeezing & tossing - & much much yummier.
(& you can do all these fun blends: a bit of earl grey, a bit of bushells....oh dear, a tea-bore!)
Posted by wen at October 7, 2003 10:23 AM
Too true B. I recently had a Tea.B in my D.D.Tea. And one of those Bushell's' Tea.P.B's!
Posted by Tea at October 7, 2003 11:52 AM
Yes - real tea is better. Tea bags are evil. But they are virulent and even spring up at casa b, too, G, where they misbehave in the way you describe. But when I go out to an establishment offering Tea as its main drawcard, I don't want to be fobbed off with tea flavoured water in good china. Have you been to T2 Wen - now that's a place for the born again Tea bore. I love sampling the different flavours, and must try some new combos.
Posted by boynton at October 7, 2003 11:56 AM
Oh well T, at least with the PB's there are no strings slithering in the chemical brew.
Posted by boynton at October 7, 2003 12:13 PM
When a fellow walks into a barber's shop and demands a particular follicular configuration, he brings with him the psychic baggage of his hopes, fears, loves, disappointments and current state of mind.
As a non-chap, boynton endorses the Chappist qualities espoused by the magazine:
Chappist qualities such as common courtesy, eccentricity and civility and were she in London she might participate in the upcoming Civilise The City protest:
Enter an establishment offering “Internet chat rooms” and try to engage someone in conversation
And she has to agree that a world where ‘a cup of tea’ is in reality an overpriced cardboard beaker of tea-flavoured hot water is dark indeed. It is becoming more difficult to secure a decent brew with real tea. Even in the Devonshire Tea belt of the Dandenongs where so many old churches and cottages trade on the lure of an old fashioned brew, it is not uncommon to find a tea bag draping out of a fine china teapot.
Comments: chap
alas, B, you would be disappointed to find only teabags at Casa Gianna. still, i often catch myself grumbling, "weapons of mass destruction all well and good, but do you think one of these bozos can invent a teabag whose tag doesn't always slither into the cup along with the bag? is that TOO MUCH to ask??"
Posted by Gianna at October 6, 2003 09:51 PM
Oh la di da - what a "snooty fox", Boynton.
But don't you drink Bushells blue label Tea BAGS
at home?
Posted by Nora at October 6, 2003 11:21 PM
I'm a recent (re)convert to 'real tea' . I've bought a little teapot with a built -in mesh infuser - it's just as easy as jiggling, dangling, squeezing & tossing - & much much yummier.
(& you can do all these fun blends: a bit of earl grey, a bit of bushells....oh dear, a tea-bore!)
Posted by wen at October 7, 2003 10:23 AM
Too true B. I recently had a Tea.B in my D.D.Tea. And one of those Bushell's' Tea.P.B's!
Posted by Tea at October 7, 2003 11:52 AM
Yes - real tea is better. Tea bags are evil. But they are virulent and even spring up at casa b, too, G, where they misbehave in the way you describe. But when I go out to an establishment offering Tea as its main drawcard, I don't want to be fobbed off with tea flavoured water in good china. Have you been to T2 Wen - now that's a place for the born again Tea bore. I love sampling the different flavours, and must try some new combos.
Posted by boynton at October 7, 2003 11:56 AM
Oh well T, at least with the PB's there are no strings slithering in the chemical brew.
Posted by boynton at October 7, 2003 12:13 PM
homesick
Darren has posted a great collection of Melbourne resources.
This old view at the Panoramic views of Australia is the one that would induce homesickness if boynton was travelling. In fact it induces a homesickness for the era when she would cross Princes Bridge twice a day and never fail to feel a degree of exhilaration in the panorama, the sweep of the grand avenue, the city skyline, the electrically charged horizon.
Comments: homesick
i need a 'Visit Melbourne 1901' site. Or maybe a time -machine....
Posted by wen at October 7, 2003 06:22 AM
uh oh - you've thrown down the gauntlet there, Wen, there must be such a thing as a 1901 site out there?
And if there isn't, somone should invent one.
Posted by boynton at October 7, 2003 11:58 AM
This old view at the Panoramic views of Australia is the one that would induce homesickness if boynton was travelling. In fact it induces a homesickness for the era when she would cross Princes Bridge twice a day and never fail to feel a degree of exhilaration in the panorama, the sweep of the grand avenue, the city skyline, the electrically charged horizon.
Comments: homesick
i need a 'Visit Melbourne 1901' site. Or maybe a time -machine....
Posted by wen at October 7, 2003 06:22 AM
uh oh - you've thrown down the gauntlet there, Wen, there must be such a thing as a 1901 site out there?
And if there isn't, somone should invent one.
Posted by boynton at October 7, 2003 11:58 AM
pennies
two links from so many at the wonderful penny dreadful:
mimosa found photos.
A couple of examples from "As It was" (via pd)
Stahl art Industrial Photography
coal mine, 'Winterslag'
boynton used to drive around the haunted hills region of the Latrobe Valley and view the ghost power plants with their industrial skeletons among the dairy farms, hugging and sometimes even traversing the winding roads- a scenic drive like an industrial Great Ocean Road. Never having a camera herself, when a photographer friend did make it down there once it was too late, these overhanging landmarks were suddenly removed. (pd)
Comments: pennies
When I lived in the Latrobe Valley as a child we visited a town one Sunday that was about to be sacrificed to the open cut. I still remember how odd it felt- a perfectly normal looking town, with gardens and houses and roads but completely deserted. It was as if everyone had suddenly vanished.
I too wish I had some photos from this time.
Posted by mcb at October 6, 2003 05:25 PM
Was that Yallourn mcb?
A lot of people lament it. There's a new history of it but I haven't read it yet. It must have been pretty eerie to glimpse the deserted, doomed town.
Posted by boynton at October 7, 2003 12:03 PM
Hello,
just came across this discussion, as you linked to my website 'StahlArt' - thanks for that.
Regarding ghost towns: we still have a few of them here in the German lignite coal area between Cologne and Aachen and I always feel quite strange when I visit one of them. Small villages still disappear, because they are sacrificed to opencast mines.
Greetings Harald
Posted by Harald Finster at November 26, 2003 07:18 PM
Thanks Harald. Your photos are so wonderful.
The open cut mines here in Victoria - in the La Trobe Valley, still "cut" away, but rarely take out whole towns. There is one small township that has been condemned for years without disappearing, but there is a ghostly feel about it.
Posted by boynton at November 27, 2003 01:36 PM
mimosa found photos.
A couple of examples from "As It was" (via pd)
Stahl art Industrial Photography
coal mine, 'Winterslag'
boynton used to drive around the haunted hills region of the Latrobe Valley and view the ghost power plants with their industrial skeletons among the dairy farms, hugging and sometimes even traversing the winding roads- a scenic drive like an industrial Great Ocean Road. Never having a camera herself, when a photographer friend did make it down there once it was too late, these overhanging landmarks were suddenly removed. (pd)
Comments: pennies
When I lived in the Latrobe Valley as a child we visited a town one Sunday that was about to be sacrificed to the open cut. I still remember how odd it felt- a perfectly normal looking town, with gardens and houses and roads but completely deserted. It was as if everyone had suddenly vanished.
I too wish I had some photos from this time.
Posted by mcb at October 6, 2003 05:25 PM
Was that Yallourn mcb?
A lot of people lament it. There's a new history of it but I haven't read it yet. It must have been pretty eerie to glimpse the deserted, doomed town.
Posted by boynton at October 7, 2003 12:03 PM
Hello,
just came across this discussion, as you linked to my website 'StahlArt' - thanks for that.
Regarding ghost towns: we still have a few of them here in the German lignite coal area between Cologne and Aachen and I always feel quite strange when I visit one of them. Small villages still disappear, because they are sacrificed to opencast mines.
Greetings Harald
Posted by Harald Finster at November 26, 2003 07:18 PM
Thanks Harald. Your photos are so wonderful.
The open cut mines here in Victoria - in the La Trobe Valley, still "cut" away, but rarely take out whole towns. There is one small township that has been condemned for years without disappearing, but there is a ghostly feel about it.
Posted by boynton at November 27, 2003 01:36 PM
Saturday, October 04, 2003
drive ins
J Walk links to this article about the renaissance of the Drive In in the US.
It's a peculiar mix of retro and new wave, relying on Americans' strong nostalgia and their insatiable demand for the next big thing.
Coincidentally - (in drive-in parlance - almost a twinning moment) boynton had just been discussing this trend with a friend from a local perspective. As the fabulous 1966 Melways street directory testifies, those red triangles were once dotted thoughout the metropolitan region - but for a decade there has only been one remaining . boynton last went to the Coburg drive in to see The Silence of The Lambs - not quite an ideal viewing experience for such a film, but diverting enough. More recently - as my friend informed me - another has opened in Melbourne at Dandenong. Who would have thought that such a commonplace thing, one of those suburban blots on the landscape and rites-of-passage parking lots, teenage pit stops, those diurnal trash and treasure pounds with their nocturnal run of X rated shockers would induce such a wellspring of nostalgia? But suddenly going to the drive in seems appealing again - as long as they show good movies. (boynton's ideal of course would be an Astor style season of classics- or a golden years of hollywood program.)
This led boynton to an amazing site Drive Ins Downunder. Just like the Melways Edition One experience - boynton spent a good hour soaking up the feast of local history - which would seem also to be a chronicle of post-war suburbia and social history. That big outdoor screen seems to mark the demographic trends of baby boom, families, teenagers and eventual retreat into the home entertainment centres.
This is a wonderful, comprehensive site with that local folklore:
Essendon, Maribyrnong, Preston, Reservoir and Northland all took potential cars away from Broadmeadows
and images of universal appeal like the big (ghost) screen at Mildura
or the pictures in a paddock put out to pasture at Cobram
The drive-in market may be a fraction of its peak reached in the 1960’s and 1970’s, but a steady upward demand is the trend today. The drive-ins trade on a unique blend of nostalgia and retro-chic.
boynton pleads guilty to that blend . Hope the program reflects the trend.
(update another twinning sort of experience - (or just a week behind the news) boynton sees an ad in the Age for this new Drive In at the vic market. Inner city, good films, Toorak tractors to park in designated areas- smells like retro chic.)
It's a peculiar mix of retro and new wave, relying on Americans' strong nostalgia and their insatiable demand for the next big thing.
Coincidentally - (in drive-in parlance - almost a twinning moment) boynton had just been discussing this trend with a friend from a local perspective. As the fabulous 1966 Melways street directory testifies, those red triangles were once dotted thoughout the metropolitan region - but for a decade there has only been one remaining . boynton last went to the Coburg drive in to see The Silence of The Lambs - not quite an ideal viewing experience for such a film, but diverting enough. More recently - as my friend informed me - another has opened in Melbourne at Dandenong. Who would have thought that such a commonplace thing, one of those suburban blots on the landscape and rites-of-passage parking lots, teenage pit stops, those diurnal trash and treasure pounds with their nocturnal run of X rated shockers would induce such a wellspring of nostalgia? But suddenly going to the drive in seems appealing again - as long as they show good movies. (boynton's ideal of course would be an Astor style season of classics- or a golden years of hollywood program.)
This led boynton to an amazing site Drive Ins Downunder. Just like the Melways Edition One experience - boynton spent a good hour soaking up the feast of local history - which would seem also to be a chronicle of post-war suburbia and social history. That big outdoor screen seems to mark the demographic trends of baby boom, families, teenagers and eventual retreat into the home entertainment centres.
This is a wonderful, comprehensive site with that local folklore:
Essendon, Maribyrnong, Preston, Reservoir and Northland all took potential cars away from Broadmeadows
and images of universal appeal like the big (ghost) screen at Mildura
or the pictures in a paddock put out to pasture at Cobram
The drive-in market may be a fraction of its peak reached in the 1960’s and 1970’s, but a steady upward demand is the trend today. The drive-ins trade on a unique blend of nostalgia and retro-chic.
boynton pleads guilty to that blend . Hope the program reflects the trend.
(update another twinning sort of experience - (or just a week behind the news) boynton sees an ad in the Age for this new Drive In at the vic market. Inner city, good films, Toorak tractors to park in designated areas- smells like retro chic.)
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