RECENT COMMENTS

Sunday, October 31, 2004

creepy

Up this week is an album that regularly scared the pants off the Pastor when he was a small fry... The record fascinated and terrified me simultaneously. It became a personal test of my will to be able to sit through an entire playing of side one without running out of the room or turning it off
Sounds To Make you Shiver (via Exclamation Mark)

I tested the Dogs on the sensitive Jack Russell Terrier. Strangely she was unmoved but ran to the back of the monitor to investigate Witch Laugh.

I had just heard a track that I'm glad to have missed as a child. Think I'd still be recovering. Santa Claus Hides in Your Phonograph
This was from a browse through the Internet Archive Audio Archive 78 collection (via bifurcated rivets)

Also available here


Comments: creepy

You want spooky? Take a peek under the number 17 cloth, puntress.
Posted by Rob at November 1, 2004 03:03 AM

I know... I know.

Things is, (as I noted at Sedge's) I dreamed of the Cup... and only then saw that the horse I named in this dream had the birthday numbers...

What I love about the Cup is the belief that over 3200 every horse seems to have a place chance. Which is why it's a good day for puntresses who like to pick whimsically and not for the purists I guess.
Posted by boynton at November 1, 2004 11:01 AM

Having seriously sifted through the form and having worked out that nothing can win, I have nowhere else to go but deep into the bowels of the dark numerical arts.

Birthday: Strasbourg - Makybe Diva - plus the year Russia saluted in th'Gup.

Adds numbers = 1966.

The first Melbourne Cup I attended was in 1966. Won by the best stayer I've ever seen, Galilee. In it's wake that year were, amongst others, Light Fingers and Tobin Bronze.

So far so good.

Galilee was trained by the Gup's Ging, as is the day date of birth horse, #15 Strasbourg.

Born in Frankfurt, Goethe appropriately enough studied at the University of Strasbourg.

Strasbourg is in barrier 22. Goethe was 22 on his 22nd birthday (and here it starts to get spooky) ... as indeed I was myself!

2 and 2 makes 4.

So it's Mummify.

Trifecta: Mummify, Strasbourg and Makybe Diva.

Lock it in Eddie.

(Read and weep Schaap!)
Posted by Sedgwick at November 1, 2004 09:34 PM

Very Impressed, Sedge.

Dream + birthday day + month - disclosure before event/mozzing = She's Archie...

a WHISPER on the radio... = Hugs Dancer
(+ nice acronymn for late dog...)

Old mathematical system... (geelong Cup Winner for Place) = Pacific Dancer

recent observation + whimsical roughie = 8

Sedge's Tips = 23 Winning Belle...

Hmmm... Got to be FIELD again...
As always I'll decide in the queue of TAB.

btw - did you see the formula cracked by this student?
http://heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,11123099%255E2862,00.html

Looks like Media Puzzle? or Zazzman?
Posted by boynton at November 1, 2004 10:58 PM

err... that should be Spoonerism Not Acronym...
I was thinking dug's 'ancer...
Hugs Dancer would be a very complex acronym for a rather simple noble creature...

Oh and Galillee?
Am I dumb to ask how Might and Power might compare?
Posted by boynton at November 1, 2004 11:16 PM

"Mummify, Strasbourg and Makybe Diva"

Now that's a great name for a comedy act.

Up there titlewise with what have could have Aus' most dangerous TV production since Nor and Man Gunston - "The Calico Pusbutter and Nagasaki Felch Almost Half An Hour Of Copyrighted Material Show."

(Don't ask. Our producers didn't. They just got up and left without any sudden movements, carefully nodding and smiling all the while... and haven't returned any calls for the last six and half years.)
Posted by Nabakov at November 2, 2004 08:42 PM

"Am I dumb to ask how Might and Power might compare?"

Tough call. Might and Power was more versatile, but would still stick with Galilee as the superior stayer by a short half head. (Short half heart actually. Heart ruling the head by a short half head ... or heart.)

Nabs, for tripartite comedy acts yer can't beat Larry, Curly and Mo. Yer can poke 'em in the eyes, twist 'em by the nose and pull 'em by the ear, but you can't beat 'em.

Truth be told, the Stooges appeared every Saturday at the Ararat Town Hall Matinee and seems I was the only one of my 10 y.o. peers not laughing. (Mind you they all ended up as serial axe murderers by age 11. I could've been one too, but they wouldn't let me join in on account of me not having a sense of humour ... and not passing the pulling the wings off wedge-tailed eagles initiation test.)
Posted by Sedgwick at November 2, 2004 10:34 PM

Hmm - and to go more literal it could have been:

Hugs Dancer, Lashed and Mummify

or some combo involving Strasbourg and Upsetthym.
(A shame Plastered wasn't running)


I know Galilee is often cited as the best.
Might and Power seemed to have something 'other' -
a champion x factor... Maybe it was just the time and place?
Posted by boynton at November 3, 2004 11:16 AM

I see none of us had the price of torn ticket left for Oaks Day then ... Plastered'll clean up next year, b.
Posted by Rob at November 7, 2004 02:23 AM

I'll keep that in mind.
But only if P wears number 17...Or not. ;)

Yep - I managed to back the last, second last and 4th on Cup day. (Late inkling for Elvis)
What a Trifecta. But after She's Archie bowed a tendon - it didn't seem to matter all that much...
Posted by boynton at November 7, 2004 01:15 PM

Saturday, October 30, 2004

on call

Dr Finlay's Casebook Ringtone


err... I have no mobile, or plans etc., just thought it had a nice ring to it.

Friday, October 29, 2004

snail and spam

In the last week my connection has gone terribly slow.
Is it the effect of the US election? Either that or punters are jamming the net for Melbourne Cup tips? Or perhaps my hard drive is dying...
In any case it makes doing the rounds quite difficult, so I'm staggering the visits through the blogroll.

In other news, Scott has capped commenting on old posts to counter the spam. So if you receive Comments are not allowed on this entry blame bob@ or name@ from whom we received some 90 pieces of spam earlier today. That is - we would have received it but fortunately the fresh spam was beaten into submission error.



Comments: snail and spam

Are you all kinds of tech-savvy? One presumes so; but if not - adaware and spybot (address on request) are essential.
Beat that spam!
Posted by vernaculo at October 29, 2004 04:53 PM

No not especially very savvy

I do have adaware here: must update and use ;)

And on the advice of Nardo and others I have now got Firefox - if that helps.

Thanks for the offer.

I'm still hoping it is an ISP/server/internet thing. There is a marked difference in the speed in the morning and mid-afternoon to evening.
Posted by boynton at October 29, 2004 05:22 PM

Your deduction vis. ISP seems accurate. Here's spybot, it's working a different edge than adaware:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

assuming you haven't been there already
here's the extension room for Firefox:
http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/

You of all people should have "linky"
and "diggler".

http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/more-info/linky

http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/more-info/diggler

linky lets you highlight the links in a page, say thumbnails or a list of images, and open them all up in tabs 1-2-3...

diggler lets you work up through the site, like the up-a-directory button, only it gives you a list you can jump straight through instead of going up one at a time.

I like Firefox, I like Mozilla still too.
I'm also fond of what Americans call mincemeat. Which used to appear in stores about this time. Real mincemeat has suet in it. Suet is now taboo. My holiday season diminished some as a consequence. Though it may be a lack in California more than the country entire.
Did you ever read Murray Bail's Eucalyptus?
David Foster's Moonlite?
Two antipodean books I loved.
Posted by vernaculo at October 29, 2004 06:01 PM

thanks for the links, I'll have a look at them.
Still getting used to Tabbed browsing - so it may take me a while to get my head around the linky concept. I haven't quite made the switch.

I quite like IE...

You are more antipodean than me in respect to those books. Must read them. Film of the former in production?

So Suet is Taboo? Who knew.
Is it Health or Veganism?
Once upon a time (in the north) it seems Suet and Spam were quite common. and relished.
http://www.netguides.org.uk/guides/1950slifestyle.html
Here in the Antipodes, people became quite attached to their suet Christmas puddings...
But now most googled Suet leads to Bird feeding or Nuttelex acceptable substitutes...
Posted by boynton at October 29, 2004 10:17 PM

Nuttelex is outside my range of experience, which may be a good thing.
Suet rides the vortex of veganism/vanity/kosher/animal-sanctity, being pig fat essentially and entirely. So thus fat, so thus meat, so thus unclean pork, so thus kept-in-pens-only-to-be-dispatched-in-wholesale-cruel-fashion.
Americans are merging with alien ghosts from a distant corner of the spirit-world, looking at things with no history at all, just infantile good/bad. Yes/no. That most of our ancestors made it through the uncertain winter on ham and sausages is no more pertinent than the coastline of Gondwanaland.
It makes it easy to move them around, opinion-wise, if you can get hold of the input mechanism, which here as in most of the rest of the world now, is the TV.
Happily, the rise of US Latino culture from peonage to middle-class voting/consuming block means entertainment from the brighter parts of the Americas. 'Telenovelas' whose design perspective is not Anglo-centric, and whose rapid-fire Spanish does not curry or kowtow to the simplified tastes of gringo appetites. So that's cool. 'Carnitas' is a delicious Mexican form of the taboo-ificated swine.
But I do miss my mincemeat.
Posted by vernaculo at October 30, 2004 07:26 AM

Not to late to experiment with Nuttelex.
I quite like it.
I've always thought Suet was more your beef and mutton. The latter perhaps more so in our sheep ridden colonial heritage.

btw : An early sheep stealing case:

"On searching the house, there were found the carcase of a sheep hanging in the bed-room, EIGHT PIECES OF KIDNEY SUET IN A SHIRT, in a box, near the bed, a kangaroo-skin knapsack, and a fowling piece, which Butler owned; five rounds of ball cartridge on Butler's person, eight bullets, and a purse of kangaroo-skin, filled with gunpowder. At the bottom of the garden, near the water, there was a large fire, in which were several shank and jaw sheep-bones; witness then searched the barn; where, concealed in the midst of a wheat mow, he, after perhaps two hours, discovered about seven cwt. Of mutton, salted in three cask."
http://www.law.mq.edu.au/sctas/html/r_v_butler_and_evans__1824.htm


(& the internet/whatever is still very slow...)
Posted by boynton at October 30, 2004 10:57 AM

I stand, politely, discreetly, informatively, corrected.
http://www.hyperdictionary.com/search.aspx?define=suet
Years of misconception, banished in a moment.

"The salted meat had not been long in salt"
Posted by vernaculo at October 30, 2004 01:29 PM

Who are the great suet poets?

or the lard bards?
Posted by boynton at October 31, 2004 12:27 PM

"The word-coining genius, as if thought plunged into a sea of words and came up dripping."

A non fat-free reference (and an ominous aquatic one) from the quill of the wordsmithess of whom some are much afraid - or not.
Posted by Sedgwick at October 31, 2004 03:12 PM

"buy some Alphabetty Lardy today
and see those kids wolf it down"
http://www.zen8595.zen.co.uk/lard/tophome2.html

"Lashings of dripping..."
"Five never go to the Lighthouse"...
Posted by boynton at October 31, 2004 04:03 PM

a good coast

A record of the pioneer trip of the Thomson motor car : driven by H. Thomson (the inventor), accompanied by E.L. Holmes / [E.L. Holmes] (Melbourne : Thomson Motor Car Ltd., 1900)

The trip itself was full of incident and the account makes interesting reading. After leaving Kilmore on the approach to Melbourne, they climbed "Pretty Sally" Hill...
Over the top we cut off the motor, in the prospect of a good "coast," and away we went like the wind. The motion of travelling at fully 40 miles an hour was terribly exciting. One cannot imagine the tremendous excitement and pleasure of going at this terrific pace over the roads with the car seemingly alive under us. It was glorious, it was sublime; till, with a series of rapidly decreasing hisses, and increasing bumpings on the road, we realized that our back tyre had punctured, after carrying us over 470 miles of wretched country. (p. 15)


On arrival in Melbourne,

After a brief welcome we continued our drive to the city, stopping at the "Australian Cyclist" office to be photographed, and arriving at the GPO at 12.23, after having completed the first Australian motor car journey (Bathurst NSW, to Melbourne, 493 ¼ miles nett), our actual riding time being 56 hours 36 minutes. (p. 15)


From the Catalogue of Tourism in Australia An exhibition of material from the Monash University Library Collection (via Plep)

advertising history

automatic rim deadlock
for domestic use
braced mortice clawbolt
for industrial use

Evidence of Maximum Security
Maximum Security has been achieved at the Festival

10 lever Locks

One of the 16,551 items on display at Blue Angel History Through Advertising
(via I like)
Rather daunted I chose Caravans as you do, and then travelled through the 10 pages of 1951. May have to take the Fifties one year at a time.

If It's Caravans... It's Montrose

Say ‘Noilly Prat ‘… and your ‘French’ will be perfect

Thursday, October 28, 2004

mudge

Dudley Mudge Amateur Golf Champion

Mudge via ramage who rummaged through the Minneapolis Photo Collection.

Meanwhile G Grandermange Practice Swing and Victorian Bolger

broken umbrella

On the news the icon for storm is broken umbrella.
(although Channel 10 chose the rose damage at Flemington to headline the day)

A gallery of People with Broken Umbrellas

Woman with broken umbrella


Comments: broken umbrella

In the spirit of People With Chairs Up Their Noses, we bring you People With Broken Umb-er-allas.
Posted by Tony.T at October 28, 2004 02:34 PM

Is that the same as an Umber puncture?
Involving the spinal column.
Posted by boynton at October 28, 2004 02:48 PM

No, an umber cruncher, as in an accountant.
Posted by Tony.T at October 29, 2004 01:42 PM

or burnt umber, as in an accountant's browned off client.
Posted by boynton at October 29, 2004 01:49 PM

The client burned off in his umber Humber.
Posted by Tony.T at October 29, 2004 03:59 PM

Clearly he took umbrage.

But in his mad haste, he took the wrong umbrage.
He took the navy number belonging to Ms Brown, not his own black umbrage with 2 broken ribs.

It never rains but it pours.
Posted by boynton at October 29, 2004 05:15 PM

boynton...
Are you MAD?
Posted by Nora at October 29, 2004 05:30 PM

Possibly...but watchit

I'm nilly tempted to call you a "Noilly Prat"

(which may just become my dry martini/invective of choice)
Posted by boynton at October 29, 2004 05:46 PM

Boynton? Mad? No, just umb and umber.
Posted by Tony.T at October 29, 2004 10:10 PM

aye carumba...

brain in slumber mode
Posted by boynton at October 29, 2004 10:51 PM

and umb - I relly have a num y'know...
http://www.tgw.com/customer/category/product.jsp?SUBCATEGORY_ID=110
Posted by boynton at November 1, 2004 12:20 PM

Wednesday, October 27, 2004

weather

oh yes the weather.... Wild storms hit Melbourne

I don't know if this cartoon is related or not.

Cartoons at Learn English (via bifurcated rivets)


Comments: weather

OK, now I'm gonna buy a credit card sized digital camera you can whip out of yer jacket pocket.

I slept through Melbourne’s latest pocket storm but when I caught the 96 tram into work at about 10am, I saw wonderful sights.

A street paved suddenly with fresh wet green leaves, newsagent lottery signage festooning nearby building sites and most poignantly of all, a crushed umbrella, trapped like a fucked up fruit bat, in the overhead tram cable junction next to Jeff’s Shed.

And everyone was all very jaunty about it all.
Posted by Nabakov at October 27, 2004 10:26 PM

I love that image of the fruit bat.
Inspires me to transplant my own colony of broken black umbrellas to a tree. That's if they'll take to it.
(and I wonder how the fruit bats along the Boulevard fared in the fierce winds)
Posted by boynton at October 28, 2004 12:30 PM

partner songs

A link that I posted in the comments has provided some amusement as we warble our way merrily through a list of Partner Songs mainly from the American folk genre. Looking to expand the reportoire, I tried to think of some similar sounding songs to mesh but it's hard to track them down.

Jazz Web Page a list of songs that have similar chord progressions and tonal shifts

Songs with the common musical Pattern Desh "diatonic elaboration of static harmony"

Columbia Law School Musical Plagiarism Project - Song List
allows you to hear the superimposition of melodies
eg My Sweet Lord/He's so Fine

Disturbingly Similar Songs


In the meantime I should study my counterpoint

Monday, October 25, 2004

questionable

Scott has been working on ways to arrest the comment spam afflicting blogs of the Ubersportingpundit domain, and I notice I received a "Comment Submission error" for questionable content on my last. I thought the obvious culprit would have been organs, but it turned out to be a combo of Go and Ro... "Here we Go Round The Mulberry Bush" is questionable.
This may add an exciting new element into the sport of commenting. I like getting apparently random challenges of bad letters to reconcile.


Comments: questionable

go [Your comment could not be submitted due to questionable content -- g and o and r and o missing from here] your boat
gently down the stream
merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
life is but a go go

Enough of the random prose, time for random wordery ...

google, boon-doggle, hog-wash, glo-worm, dog-wash, Og Oggilby ...

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0032234/quotes
Posted by Tony.T at October 26, 2004 01:40 PM

Gosh!... Oh, pardon my language

http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/denniscj/glugs/ogs.html
Posted by boynton at October 26, 2004 10:02 PM

Golly, Doreen. I dops me lod.
Posted by Tony.T at October 27, 2004 09:54 AM

We can play the shakuhachi, or get pierced and take New York, or perform for kipper snacks in large quantities.

http://home.hpo.net/mishaal/goro.html
We are not slang in readily translatable Finnish, Korean, or Thai.
This man and his band
http://www.oldies.com/artist/view.cfm/id_2931.html followed their success in taurine evocation with this nice tune
http://www.mp3.com/tracks/4172258/dl_streams.html
The national domain of Romania being what it obviously would, the word "go" being almost as fundamental as the first person pronoun - you can see that separating the syllables would create an over-abundance of southern-eastern European travel and fun sites.
There are artists and scholars, and Mortal Kombat demi-urges, but so far the most endearing, as always, is the large marine mammal.
http://www.angelfire.com/nj4/japanorcas/
Posted by vernaculo at October 27, 2004 01:08 PM

Eee god!
Posted by Tony.T at October 27, 2004 02:32 PM

Yes indeed the orcine is more endearing than the Taurine, and I have duly travelled the back ro's of southern eastern europe sites and assorted ports:
http://www.norditalien.dk/billedarkiv/deltapo/PORTO%20DI%20GORO.jpg


but elsewhere it's raining cats
http://www.kachineko.com/c_neko_fashion/pic_page/fn-nid-bag-goro-1.jpg
and dogs
http://www.gallery-h-maya.com/goro4.html#02
even running cats -
http://www.mayasone.com/art/nekomimi/guest/run-goro.html

and then is it more apples or oranges?
http://perso.club-internet.fr/lescrets/pomme1/fpommes/goro/goro.html
Posted by boynton at October 27, 2004 03:36 PM

T - a googled image search for eee god suggested a "Hymns of Worship for the Harmonica"
although you may prefer this number?http://www.harmonicacountry.com/lessons/chromatic/takemeballgame.html
Posted by boynton at October 27, 2004 03:51 PM

Has it occurred to anyone that there may be a correlation between the new spam offensive aimed at blogs and blog service providers like MT Blacklist jackin' up their fees now that yer hooked on blogging?

Of course I’m not paranoid. But a good few of my ancestors did get blown up by the products of Vickers-Armstrong and Krupp, sometimes during the same war.
Posted by Nabakov at October 27, 2004 10:14 PM

the plot thickens

I wonder if bob@ knows where can I buy some conspiracy? ;)
Posted by boynton at October 28, 2004 12:23 PM

Sunday, October 24, 2004

canon

32 versions of Pachelbel's Canon in D (via J walk)

I listened to the guitar versions, to try to pick the alleged similarities with Streets of London. This was before finding this detailed analysis with midi files
The musical roots of the songs "Seek ye First" and "Streets of London" in Johann Pachelbel's "Canon in D

Streets of London is not among this list of Songs based on Pachelbel's Canon, although it is listed here at Coverinfo where you can in turn discover the covers of Streets of London.

Wikipedia's Pachelbel's canon in Popular Culture
And also List of popular songs based on classical music

Pachelbel's Cannon on Pipes? Anyone ever hear of it?


Comments: canon

There's also "The First Noel" (or is it Nowell?) which I've heard sung by a combined children & adult choir, with pipe organ.
Posted by wen at October 25, 2004 01:26 PM

ah yes, an arrangement I no well.

Actually, I hadn't heard of it, wen, but it sounds good. Googling brought me to this related page of "Partner Songs"
http://www.angelfire.com/nb2/musicedresources/PrtnrSon.html
From that list how could you go past.
"Here We Go around the Mulberry Bush" and "Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be"
If you threw in a pipe organ to that combo it would be perfect.


(nb got a "questionable content' block for this comment - it didn't like the 2 words after "here we..." in the quote so I made it "around")
Posted by boynton at October 25, 2004 04:06 PM

The Canon in D on bagpipes is by Colin Clansey and can be heard on a brilliant CD called "Wagner's Rinse Cycle" (an ABC Classic FM disc) which is full of musical jokes and silliness.
Posted by John R at October 25, 2004 10:35 PM

Going to row your boat
Posted by vernaculo at October 26, 2004 06:39 AM

Go run that mile
Posted by vernaculo at October 26, 2004 06:42 AM

G o round the roses
Posted by at October 26, 2004 06:43 AM

Go r o ewer bow at
Posted by vernaculo at October 26, 2004 06:44 AM

I know! It's Al Gore!
-
or no I guess not
Posted by vernaculo at October 26, 2004 06:45 AM

algo roman
Posted by vernaculo at October 26, 2004 06:46 AM

I fought fire one summer at a place just outside Igo round Redding in Northern California.
I did, but I'm only saying that because...say, you don't mind my doing all this do you?
Posted by vernaculo at October 26, 2004 06:49 AM

Thanks John
http://shop.abc.net.au/browse/product.asp?productid=309142
Does indeed look good - and I may have to try to acquire this CD. A lovely outcome from a whimsical link.

V-o

No, Go for it, G o Roam in the gloamin...
Go
rotogravure
roadshow
romp
rocket launch.
http://www.kids.net.au/d.php?beginwith=ro

(Had to Go ogle help. No time today to do much better)
Posted by boynton at October 26, 2004 10:10 AM

The unmentionable campaign.
http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=159738
More as it develops...
Posted by vernaculo at October 26, 2004 10:40 AM

"Like all great TORCH singers you have to have lived some life before you can put that into a song..."

keep us posted.
Posted by boynton at October 26, 2004 09:52 PM

Friday, October 22, 2004

life bits

overheard in the opportunity shop...

If I had a good leg, I'd walk down the street...

meanwhile I'm sure if some people had a MyRoom they wouldn't ever leave the house... (via the presurfer)

I guess in the future we'll all sit in Myrooms and quietly work on MyLifeBits

precedent

There's been a lot of recent attention here on the dangers of driving while under the influence of a telephone. Browsing some historic photos of the Bell system I found an early example of the perilous practice.
See (The first version of a mobile radio telephone being used in 1924.)

Despite the headset it does not appear to be hands-free.


Comments: precedent

That boat, and what's in the upper window? And the twiny spirally things at the base of the lamp poles?
Great find Boynton.
Posted by vernaculo at October 23, 2004 09:05 AM

yes the twiny things are interesting

I also like the eyes of the transformer (or whatever that unit is called). They look anxious in a twentieth century way.
Posted by boynton at October 23, 2004 10:46 AM

yeah, conjoined robot twins eyeing the photographer
Posted by vernaculo at October 25, 2004 07:19 AM

Thursday, October 21, 2004

70 year black hair

I suddenly found myself at this site in googled german...

For 45 years Mrs. Mouskouri sings her songs and is more successful than all different, to Greek singers.

Nana Mouskouri is finally already for a long time enough on the way

There it is not amazing that humans like it.




Comments: 70 year black hair

Other hit albums in Nana's vicinity include:
Stelter, Bernd "Dad Is ' Ne crack sausage Live" with the hit songs:'Good morning, small man' and 'extreme shopping'
Posted by nora at October 21, 2004 10:14 PM

Live sausages? Humans like it.
See also:
"The clown cannot any longer laughs"...
Posted by boynton at October 21, 2004 11:21 PM

shatner

Tell me why (I bid on Shatner's old toupee)
They had it on eBay


the link- and quote - via fishbucket. The line jumped out because it tied in nicely with another Shatner link:

William Shatner Has Been (via Idle Type)


Comments: shatner

Q. Why was Lieutenant Uhuru so brown ?

A. Because William Shatner.
Posted by Brett Pee at October 22, 2004 03:32 AM

Gotta love Shatner. Read today's EG album releases.
Posted by Tony.T at October 22, 2004 11:17 AM

ageless
Posted by boynton at October 22, 2004 04:22 PM

Shatner's first album release back in the 60's was so bad it was almost good, if yer get my drift. He mumbled his way through a whole LP of bullshit and nobody bought it- only now has interest in his previous work reawakened.He is becoming a cult (no spelling error there!) figure in the 'musical' world.
Posted by Brett Pee at October 23, 2004 12:31 AM

Yes I've heard Lucy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shatner%27s_version_of_%22Lucy_in_the_Sky_with_Diamonds%22

" George Clooney chose William Shatner's "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" as one of his Desert Island Discs as an incentive to leave the island. He said, "If you listen to [this song], you will hollow out your own leg and make a canoe out of it to get off this island." "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shatner#Musical_tangents


But like the sound of 'Has Been'.
Posted by boynton at October 23, 2004 10:37 AM

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

dog training

How to Train your Dog To Weave (via things)

How to teach your dog to paint


Comments: dog training

must... not.... start.... Australian branch of ... dogscouts.
Posted by David Tiley at October 22, 2004 02:44 AM

I generally prefer the work of dogs who explore concrete as a medium. That is - paw prints in the pavement.

I saw Pshychodrama was offered at one dog camp.
I have a backlog of ideas to workshop there.( no names, no pack drill)
Posted by boynton at October 22, 2004 04:03 PM

spring attire

A very melbourne shirt... (via sarcasmo)


Meanwhile this is how some recent visitors chez boynton were attired.


Comments: spring attire

Have already decided upon my nicely vicely regal outfit for the big spring day out at the W.S. Cox Plate.

Don't think you can go far wrong with a quietly understated number.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/wombat3041/New%20Blogger/cox_plate_clobber.jpg
Posted by Sedgwick at October 20, 2004 01:50 PM

Regal Roller, Elegant Fashion or Miss Potential?
Posted by boynton at October 20, 2004 01:57 PM

We use the vice-regal Roller as our weekend runabout, so omenously lock in 1 Mr. Dease.

Point to note before laying down your 50 cents (though the sky-rocketing oil prices now means the min. bet is $2. Shylocks!) each-way at the Lucky Shop.

R.R. is well named, it wins its races by rolling to the front and (in his last starts at Group 1 level ... the poor steed is now lumbered with the kiss of death cliche, "the most improved horse racing") stays there. However Miss Potential is characteristically a tear-away leader. The upsetting of R.R.'s apple-cart is on the cards.

(R.R.'s trainer was heard bitterly complaining that Miss P. did not have the class and shouldn't be in the race. The aforementioned pattern of Miss P.'s racing might be closer to the reason for his teeth-gnashing.)

Elegant Fashion ... simply outclassed.

Moi, on the other hand ...
Posted by Sedgwick at October 20, 2004 06:15 PM

Well I thought your regal outfit was potntially elegant, but thank you for the tips.

I love the name Miss Potential, it covers all bases. Is she more verb than noun, is she a chance or will she squander her potential?
I think I'll just have to put my $2 on her.
Posted by boynton at October 20, 2004 06:34 PM

At last, a bee Burqua! Either that or it's a little schlager play with the yellowjackets - to see who drinks from the Honeycomb of Honour.
Posted by Nabakov at October 21, 2004 02:24 AM

Yes we had the be-burquad bee people round to remove a swarm asap to their apiary.
Donne so swift there was no time to plath...

(btw: I once found a much better pic of the outfit, but was reluctant to re-offend with the hotlinking...see 'confidence wearing.')
http://boynton.ubersportingpundit.com/archives/002409.html
Posted by boynton at October 21, 2004 10:45 AM

I've invented the "new black". It's a colour called "October the Tenth".

When you look at it you fall in and disappear for three years.
Posted by David Tiley at October 22, 2004 02:41 AM

"That's very black, that is,...even the white bits are black"
Posted by boynton at October 22, 2004 03:51 PM

Even the orgeshtra is beautifully black.

Even the quinella ticket we collected put us in the black.
Posted by Sedgwick at October 24, 2004 07:10 AM

congrats.
I should have backed S with those Z bloodlines.
Instead I lost on Number 9, although he did fight on well. Again.
Posted by boynton at October 24, 2004 06:25 PM

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

cross golf

while fishing for golf ball fishing links I found my way to JunkYard Golf and from there to Urban Golf
A game played on a large outdoor course located in a non-residential section of a city, with a series of targets placed far apart, the object being to propel the tennis ball with the use of various clubs towards each target with as few strokes as possible


I wonder if there's any cross golf occurring in this golf-happy suburb?


Comments: cross golf

Most golfers are cross. Some are even cross-eyed, and one or two are cross-dressers.
Posted by Tony.T at October 19, 2004 02:59 PM

crosswords..."Beat in return game here (4)" ...

and as for dressing:
http://www.lynnenicoletti.com/largergolfers.html


+ I think cranky suburban golfers should switch to urban golf immediately.
Posted by boynton at October 19, 2004 03:28 PM

Yesterday evening I wanted to propel my tennis ball (preferably with blue heeler attached) at the dame who regularly turns our local reserve into her private driving range. Every day she arrives in the gear as illustrated above, with golf bag and hubby who has to hold the ball bucket and run and fetch the balls after she's pinged them in every direction. I can say she clearly NEEDS the practice. Her method of swinging shots at you until you move on always seems to work. Tanty Park!
Posted by Nora at October 19, 2004 04:53 PM

I half expect a certain blogger to 'tee' off re hubby and 'golf bag' there, Nora.
Something like: the golf bag has the hubby well trained...(although that may be below par)

Sounds as if the strangely attired hubby is in training for an agility trial, and you should probably throw the bluey onto the fairway as a hazard.

But seriously, I sympathise. I used to have to dodge such off-course golfers myself of course and would curse them. This is not in the spirit of "urban golf' at all, which would seem to be much more respectful. Just unbound.
Posted by boynton at October 19, 2004 05:19 PM

Tanty? Call Elaine Canty.
Posted by Tony.T at October 20, 2004 08:39 AM

Can't...

EC last seen in southgate bunker a fairway away and can't rule on scaborous play in the rough.
Posted by boynton at October 21, 2004 10:34 AM

Yes, I saw her too. She was eating a sandwedge.
Posted by Tee at October 21, 2004 11:10 AM

with par-sley (sage etc) on the way to scarborous fairway (to quote a creative team-mate)?
Posted by boynton at October 21, 2004 11:24 AM

We were below par-sley last night. Musically we were well out of thyme.
Posted by Tony.T at October 21, 2004 05:11 PM

I think I'll always triple bogey that kind of music.
Posted by boynton at October 21, 2004 05:48 PM

Indeed. Was almost tempted to sign my card incorrectly and four-feet the match. Dogs all. Frightful caterwauling. In thyme (just), but sounded like Rosemary's baby screaming for a bottle. Least we didn't cop country sage Casey Chambers, that would have been the final insult. Glad I didn't know any. Glad all over. Woof.
Posted by Tony.T at October 22, 2004 11:16 AM

tempted to four-feet?
Alas - there were eight-feet of us, and noone was tapping any toes...
(although Bach rocked somewhat)


Posted by boynton at October 22, 2004 04:15 PM

Bach? Ok. Woof.
Posted by Tony.T at October 22, 2004 06:35 PM

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992962

The dogs are discerning, but sadly JSB will have to work on his swing if he wants to make the trivia cut.
Posted by boynton at October 22, 2004 10:24 PM

golf ball fishing

Golf Ball Fishing in America via diversionz

Clad in waist-high waders, a 70-pound feedbag girdling his waist and his ball-retrieving invention, "Mr. Lucky," in hand, Aux Tinee wastes little time before plunging into one of the many amoeba-shape ponds that dot this Illinois course. "I can't tell you all the golf courses I hunt," Aux Tinee says in a conspiratorial whisper. "I don't tell nobody. There's a lot of freelancers."

Welcome to the secretive world of golf ball retrieval, an estimated $200 million industry that thrives beneath the crisp surface of mainstream golf.


I used to be a bit of a freelancer. Not diving, strictly retrieving on the ground. And not actively seeking, just pocketing the found. I was aided in this task by the Jack Russell Terrier (aka Miss Lucky) who had trained herself to work with maximum efficiency and discretion.


Related:
Six months jail for picking up golf balls
Vets cut open a German Shepherd dog to find she had scoffed no fewer than 28 golf balls

Monday, October 18, 2004

emphasis

Think I should do some overdue commemorative spring cleaning with the template. It's always a bad sign when things look so much better after being run through a generator. Like this emphasis one, which makes the tired old boynton blues and greys and verdanas almost cool in a concrete poetry kind of way. And at least "I' was a little way down the hierarchy of emphasis behind the definite article and October.

Emphasis via the Presurfer


Comments: emphasis

Yes, that 'Emphasis" is a boon to the visually impared.
Posted by Scott Wickstein at October 18, 2004 06:36 PM

Indeed.
And your comment looks very EMPHATIC in emphasis mode, Scott.
Posted by boynton at October 18, 2004 10:38 PM

Well, after a protracted bout of physical spring cleaning recently (Did you know dust bunnies turn feral after lying untouched under yer bed since the last Duran Duran revival?), I'm vibed up about the whole concept.

The overall look of yer site is cool by me. A wryly sparse frame for content that may seem a bit girly at first but always leads onto where women and then the humans they give birth come from, and then what they go on to do that lifts and seperates us from all the original basic primate hoo-ha.

However, if yer gonna do a website spring clean, can I suggest a subtley off-white background. Maybe something more in the tonal range of yellowing pages.

That would be more easier on the eye than trying to pick acquamarine 10 pt arial out of a glowing white screen.

But hey, it's yer patio darlin'. I'm jus' sayin'
Posted by Nabakov at October 19, 2004 03:00 AM

acquamarine, eh? who knew...
I only knew ever knew it as haloscan blue, from whence # it was pinched.

Good to get this feedback, Nabakov.
Is it girly to confess that I've always hankered after a Table on the patio? I had been thinking something with black edging (a la SP actually) would be nice, but may consider the yellows.
And as always when window shopping, I need to look at the Tags.
Posted by boynton at October 19, 2004 12:04 PM

miss b, I fiddled with your stylesheet - result here:
http://www.soulpacific.com/boynton/

feel free to use in full or in bits; there are background patterns galore on the net (google squidfingers) but always tempted to have a go at wallpaper if you've got a design/image as seed starter
Posted by nardo at October 19, 2004 09:44 PM

PS - there are lot of good colour tools too

try http://del.icio.us/tag/colour
or http://del.icio.us/tag/color
Posted by nardo at October 19, 2004 09:47 PM

PS2 - jus checked colours on an LCD screen, completely different... will update soon, to ensure burnt orange is just that (my girl has banished said hex from our home, this is purely vicarious)
Posted by nardo '74 at October 20, 2004 11:15 AM

Many many thanks, Nardo.
She certainly looks quite different in burnt orange, don't she, and the text looks tougher too
within a 'black edged table'. Hmm - maybe the wallpaper could involve those laminexy boomerangs of many a retro site...
Speaking of laminex, I'm still fondest of blue, so I might play around with the palette later on when I get a chance to tweak.
Thanks for the del-ici-ous links too, and that news about Firefox. That's an incentive to switch.

I have Dreamweaver here and this extension thing:
http://dreamweaver-mt.sourceforge.net/download.html
which I haven't downloaoded yet - so perhaps I could tweak away on IE?

Thanks again.
Posted by boynton at October 20, 2004 12:59 PM

yep, that dreamweaver extension would be handy, not seen it before ... but the firefox 'edit' is visceral plus the browser has TABS! worth a geek for sure
Posted by nardo at October 20, 2004 04:34 PM

Hmmm, "tougher", "burnt orange", "laminex" "retro boomerangs"(band name alert)".

I don't think any of that is really you, boyno.

My suggestion is think Fairfield Boat House - before the heritaged-coloured renovation.
Posted by Nabakov at October 21, 2004 02:40 AM

well I do have a penchant for laminex, but the Fairfield Boathouse is a perfect cautionary thought.
Is that the same as Maldon-ising, or worse?

(My laminex has always been cheap and grungy if that helps...)
Posted by boynton at October 21, 2004 10:57 AM

encore:
http://www.smartpixel.net/chromoweb/uks/indexgb.html

lovely explication about colour
Posted by nardo at October 22, 2004 09:50 AM

Yes - the explication is good indeed.
The Flash app is very good. Most useful I imagine.
And the Matisse may just have to get a link...
Posted by boynton at October 22, 2004 04:26 PM

flash festival

Flashforward Finalists in the Flash™ Film Festival 2004 New York

(via J walk)

3 cockatoos

Yesterday morning I glanced up to notice three yellow tailed black cockatoos in a tree in the back garden. I crouched under the clothesline and watched in wonder. Maybe they had flown in from Mt Disappoinment.
Later as I walked down the road a magpie was the sole fixture on the bombsite of a recently blitzed house and garden circa 1930. Getting his dazed bearings.


Sunday, October 17, 2004

commemorative

The Age has published a fascimile of its first edition of Tuesday 17th October 1854.

Might hop down to the Cremorne Gardens as advertised:
The admired Gymnastic Exercises on the Horizontal Bar by Professor Sampson...
Teas in Perfection. Water Cresses from the Lake. The Elephant will take the water from 6 o'clock. Numerous novelties of first rate description are in active preparation
.



In the meantime... we present our own anniversary edition:



Comments: commemorative

Boynty, did you dunk that jpeg in cold tea? For the authenticity like.
Posted by Tony.T at October 17, 2004 11:25 PM

No way, TT. Those are coffee stains.
Posted by Scott Wickstein at October 18, 2004 11:59 AM

I was a bit lazy and dunked the jpeg in the 'Cold tea' first available Paintshop filter.
Oddly I didn't try the Coffee 'filter'.
I did happen to notice on page 5 of the special edition:
"The Age is marked this morning by many imperfections which we trust will not characterize future numbers...
A large quantity of matter prepared for publication has been necessarily excluded"

(I might pinch that if I ever update my blog description)
Posted by boynton at October 18, 2004 12:31 PM

That sounds like a typically pompous way for The Age to say; "We have an editor".
Posted by Tony.T at October 18, 2004 02:15 PM

WANTED for the Age Jobbing department, a first rate band...
"WANTED a well educated and intelligent youth; apply to Mr. Harnett, Age editor"
Posted by boynton at October 18, 2004 04:37 PM

yay to Boynton for another year!

Thank you ....
Posted by David Tiley at October 19, 2004 02:15 PM

thank you, David.

and thanks all commenters of the community

one should commemorate the 'commentariat'
commensurately
Posted by boynton at October 19, 2004 04:19 PM

I thought the anniversary was "coming soon" -- but oops! - I missed it...

Happy belated Blog-birthday blog-sister!


Posted by wen at October 24, 2004 01:31 PM

Ta.
But you know - still not entirely sure if the 2 year milestone is good or bad.
Posted by boynton at October 24, 2004 06:31 PM

Thursday, October 14, 2004

sketching

Would love to go on a sketchcrawl with a few pencils one day. Or even a couple of HB's and a ballpoint.

Sketchcrawl (via bifurcated rivets)

Ballpoint Pen Art (via fishbucket)

smiles

Looking forward to Smile after reading these reviews:

Grapez ...It is an Aaron Copland work of pop music. Brian deconstructs the pop song and then rebuilds it. Van Dyke Parks, the lyricist, works wonders with his words. Themes appear and disappear and reappear like the seashore on a wavy day

Twists and Turns ...a melodic meditation on American history, childhood and the four elements, as meditated upon by a psychedelic barbershop quartet, using multi-layered, four-part harmonies and surreal lyrics

Junk For Code ...The more appropriate way of responding to the Smile album is in terms of the model provided by classical music: there is an unfinished musical score written in 1967 and this is one particular performance of that composition. It is more an interactive album than a simulation of the original; a soundscape full of interwoven musical collages.


Comments: smiles

You can listen to some of the tracks of Smile here. They give you some idea of the uniqueness of this music.

It is very quirky music.It is very very different to The Beatles' Revolver or St Pepper, with which it is often compared.

It is also much more idiosyncratic than Pet Sounds which it evolved.

I often think it is similar in concept(a musical collage) to the Grateful Dead's 1968 Anthem of the Sun, even though that primal dead album was acid rock rather than pop.
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at October 14, 2004 07:21 PM

Dam the links did not work.
They are

http://www.smilethealbum.com/index.php

for the smile tracks

and http://www.adriandenning.co.uk/dead.html

for a review of Anthem of the Sun
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at October 14, 2004 07:30 PM

Aaron Copland? Never heard of him ...

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/achtml/achome.html

Until then.
Posted by Tony.T at October 14, 2004 11:02 PM

Gary, thanks, great link.
I love what I've heard so far.
I've been listening to 'A Jazz portrait of Brian Wilson" more than the Beach Boys lately, so maybe that's a smooth intro to the collage of SMiLE.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000005H0L/102-0963253-0788967?v=glance.

More on smile here - and a link trail.
http://www.scrubbles.net/mt-archive/000506.html


Posted by boynton at October 15, 2004 04:06 PM

That's a good AC site, T - will have to explore more. I paused at this photograph:
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/displayPhoto.pl?path=/music/copland/phot&topImages=phot0096r.jpg&topLinks=phot0096v.jpg,phot0096u.tif&title=Aaron%20Copland%20with%20landlady%20and%20dog,%20Königstein,%20Germany,%201927%3cbr%3e&displayProfile=0&dir=ammem&itemLink=S?ammem/coplandbib:@field(NUMBER+@od1(copland+phot0096))
Posted by boynton at October 15, 2004 04:10 PM

Should that site get the official WWW Longest Link Award for Excellence in the Field of Length?
Posted by Tony.T at October 15, 2004 10:39 PM

http://yep
Posted by boynton at October 16, 2004 09:58 AM

Boynton.
Many thanks for the link re smile. The review on Pop Culture Gadabout by Bill Shearman is a good one.

http://oakhaus.blogspot.com/2004_10_01_oakhaus_archive.html#109698764146840463

You need to scroll down the page to read it as it is blogspot.
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at October 16, 2004 10:08 AM

Oooh! I'm gonna be hasslin' Gaslight Records, first thing tomorrow morning.

I am so looking foward to this, I've got wood.

From my own experience, "Pet Sounds", along with Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" and the Necks' "Sex", is a surefire soundtrack when moving from a deep amd meaningful in the living room to a braille discussion in the bedroom.

(Umm, not sure if you needed to know that.But it's too late now, I've already posted it.)


Posted by Nabakov at October 17, 2004 03:32 PM

Must be all that talk of grits and mainsails. How does The Sloop John B work in Braille?

http://www.pulsedata.com/t_input.asp
Posted by boynton at October 17, 2004 04:41 PM

"How does The Sloop John B work in Braille?"

God Only Knows. But Wouldn't It be Nice if I Know There's An Answer, Here Today. But hey That's Not Me 'cos I Wasn't Made For These Times.
Posted by Nabakov at October 17, 2004 05:43 PM

Alas, I wasn't made for these times either.

I was possibly made for 1854.

(wouldn't it be) Nice to do the Block...
To me it excels aught else beside

http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/10/14/1097607353139.html
Posted by boynton at October 18, 2004 12:01 PM

Another review of Smile from PopMatters that I just came across

http://www.popmatters.com/music/features/041012-brianwilson.shtml
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at October 18, 2004 12:59 PM

That's a great review, Gary.
The parallel universe of the speculative and bootlegged is fascinating, and if it manages to reconcile and even transcend it, then SMiLE is indeed "closure on a cosmic scale".
Can't wait to buy it.
Posted by boynton at October 18, 2004 04:31 PM

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

glove of flowers

at the moment boynton seems to be turning link blog, without even the slightest brief remark and here's another:

Glove of Flowers

Felieke van der Leest Jewellery and objects
(via grow a brain)

So Melb had it's 4th hottest October night, Mildura had it's hottest October day ever, (whatever ever may be) and today it's back to moderate grey drizzle. So the lovely glove above reminded me of our 4 seasons in one day Springtime and what to wear perennial.


Comments: glove of flowers

It was f***n hot, wasn't it? I couldn't sleep. Cooler today though, thankfully. I fear a long hot summer is coming to balance out the freezing cold winter we had.
Posted by Scott Wickstein at October 13, 2004 05:51 PM

Scott's in Adelaide, where long hot has a special meaning.

Place in January can be a dessicatorium.
Posted by David Tiley at October 13, 2004 10:57 PM

I hope you're wrong, Scott. Some don't like it hot. I'll rely on you to send warnings of days over the mid thirties.

Long Hot sounds like a meaningful coffee? ;)
Though I have been there during one heat wave in Adelaide. Hotter but a drier heat than Melb made it seem easier? (Of course, this may have had something to do with the presence of an air conditioner.)
Posted by boynton at October 14, 2004 11:39 AM

whisp...

Chinese whispers

(via snarkout)

how we compare

The US overlaid on us.
Size comparison maps of Australia (via Incoming signals)

Elsewhere - the surrealist map of the world, 1929

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

bliss'm m'ssilb

Stairway to Heaven Backwards - and eight other clips.
The Indistinguishable gibberish at the end of I'm So Tired is impressive in reverse, almost germanic, certainly less soporific.
(via sarcasmo)

And elsewhere: Bliss'm bliss'm, habuts-a-hoffen. Tidja tidja, pleh an attempt to transcribe the nonsense speak that slides seamlessly into Blackbird

figures

Mr Wonderful
Usually ships within 1 to 2 business days.
(via Twists and turns)

Mr Right When You Need Him Doll
New Lower Price!

Mr Out of this world

Crazy cat Lady has a wild look in her eye
(via quiddity)


Comments: figures

Jesus! That's cheap. Not even seven DOLL-ars ...

http://www.mcphee.com/amusements/current/10746.html
Posted by Pearly Gates Marketing at October 12, 2004 12:47 PM

For me? A double flat cinnamon soy low calcium half decaf long black white latte please ...

http://www.mcphee.com/amusements/current/10975.html
Posted by David Tee Hee at October 12, 2004 12:54 PM

Mr Pearly: It's more valuable in AUS-doll-ars at 9.48027. JC has more hair than the more expensive Mr Shakespeare, who might say, if you press his hand: "Lord, what fools these mortals be!"...or something.

And yes - Mr T is on notice.
(I like her sandals - on the first sandal wearing day of spring)
Posted by boynton at October 12, 2004 01:22 PM

That Barista looks like a junkie librarian.

Not like me at all - I have a snorkel.
Posted by David Tiley at October 13, 2004 10:55 PM

She looks like a soul-food type of barista to me.
Her glasses might be st kilda but her apron is smith street.

btw - does the proportion of junkie to librarian shift at all in the red-head mode?
Posted by boynton at October 14, 2004 11:19 AM

Innerestin' that all the blokes are brunettes and all the blokesses blondes.

For those that want their action figures a little more transcendental, try:
http://www.jesuschristsuperstore.net/

The Allah one is apparently packed and measured by volume not weight.
Posted by Nabakov at October 17, 2004 03:57 PM

Monday, October 11, 2004

hereafter

A Home Hereafter: Photographs by Helen Sweeting

In September of the year 2000 my Grandmother Rene died. She was 90 years old and had lived on the same road in Handsworth, Birmingham, all of her life, moving ten houses away from her parents upon her marriage to my Grandfather, Jack, 60 years ago.

Following her death I started photographing her home, a space that evokes many personal memories for my family and myself. I wanted initially, to capture her essence within these walls - her private space, creating one final portrait of her, a portrait-in-absentia. I photographed her home before the possessions, the remnants of her existence, were removed
.



Digital Handsworth A history of the ancient parish of Handsworth

(via Plep)

finnish

A Finnish proverb is:
"Strong willpower will take
a woman even through stone


The Meaning of Sisu

From a mefi thread on What concepts do not exist in the English language? (via bifurcated rivets)

Comments: finnish

That concepts meme is lovely. So much to think about - if I had the energy to pummel my poor drained bonce into active ratiocination.

It's alright - we will all bounce back soon enough.
Posted by David Tiley at October 13, 2004 10:29 PM

A very shih Gedankenexperiment for those employing too much talanoa to cover the Zchwishenraum.

But in my case maybe it's just Treppenwitz brought on by ostranenie within a nemawashi.

Lagniappe sourced from
"They Have a Word for It"
Howard Rheingold, St. Martins's Press 1988
Posted by Nabakov at October 17, 2004 04:15 PM

Hmmm - must secure a copy to translate comment.

Treppenwitz?
http://richter.colorado.edu/~sethmc/words.html

Actually it was the mefi discussion on "espirit de l'escalier" that has stuck in my mind out of all those tenses and nationalistic nuances.
Posted by boynton at October 17, 2004 04:37 PM

Well, you say "Treppenwitz", I say "Treppenwitz".

But yes, to a resolutely English ear, it does sound like some kinda hunting accident in a Silesian game marsh.
Posted by Nabakov at October 17, 2004 05:35 PM

Saturday, October 09, 2004

ninth

Australia voted today. I walked up to the local primary school and bought a raffle ticket. Don't think I'll win.


John Lennon's birthday. A good time to post this lovely piece by Jozef at A Media Dragon:
In Vienna young exile men wore cheap John Lennon’s specs and pretended leather jackets ... spent disproportionate amounts of their time looking for dreams to come true. When I first came to Australia the limited English words I possessed in my vocabulary generally came from the Beatles songs...

Tears, like water, provide the glue that turn the raw material of exile into useful concrete of collective survival. John Lennon was the strongest cement there ever was for many Czechs who felt part of this fragile universe during the Christmas of 1980



Comments: ninth

We thought one gamble a day was enough and we bypassed the raffle tickets.

Bought a carrot cake.

Discovered outsourcing has now infiltrated the sacred institution that is the election day stall.

We know a cake that rises to the "cream butter and sugar, add an egg and gently fold in thrice sifted self-raising flour" call, whose natural habitat is the veteran chipped earthenware bowl on a scrubbed wood kitchen table - thereafter delivered unto a wood-fired, 'Zebra' blacked, bible-black stove.

This was NOT such a cake!

Our investigations (involving the judicious application of caring-sharing lethal force) ascertained that they had been shipped in from a commercial bakery.

This is our real and devastating disappointment on this election night.

It may be that we never vote again!
Posted by Sedgwick at October 9, 2004 09:08 PM

We had a sausage sizzle at our booth. It was great.

This is harder than your real job," I said to the large man with the sauce bottle.

"Yes", he said.

Probably a brain surgeon. Not a rock star, I think I know the St Kilda ones.

The real hard was probably not splerfing tomato sauce all over the crazy woman from Family First who gave out HTV cards and shouted for two hours about how the government stole her children.
Posted by David Tiley at October 11, 2004 01:28 AM

Someone left the cake out in the rain. Again...

Very disturbing news, Sedge. I guess it's the touch of the latex-handed gloved fear and loathing, of food and litigation, that has sacked the home made, making museums of the once bountiful zebra-black habitats.

Now that you mention it, David, Sausage Sizzles and Politics is a dangerous mix, given the sharp objects involved. Wonder if things have ever turned nasty in the key marginals?
Posted by boynton at October 11, 2004 01:13 PM

Friday, October 08, 2004

zoom phone

web metaphors in these two links from diversionz:

The Zoom Quilt
a collaborative art project

The phone

cocktail muse

from trouser news to cocktail muse

It's time to praise (and occasionally curse) the muse of a million cocktail lounges, the genius who gave voice to the common man in the 20th century, Daisuke Inoue...

He helped invent karaoke, creating a tradition that, in 30 years, has become as universally known as pizza or disco...

And in a world of ever more customized entertainments--the home video or the home page--karaoke is a kind of fantasy chamber for the circumscribed


(via apothecary's drawer)

trouser news

Vibrating trousers treat angina

When the heart is resting the cuffs inflate and then deflate again just before each heart beat

(via kevan del.icio.us)

Thursday, October 07, 2004

cricket films

A reader chided me last night for the post on football in films.
It's over, he said. ( Meaning the finals have been and gone, and my team didn't win)
Topicality has never been my strength, but I have noticed the outbreak of October cricket in the parks, looking overly green this wet spring. Last weekend I saw a match being played in very bucolic conditions, more meadow than paddock, with the grass growing rate outstripping the run rate and the daisies encircling fine leg.
But I take the point and have found a more seasonal link
What films are based around cricket matches or have cricket scenes in them?


Comments: cricket films

Bodyline ...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086672/

Outside Edge ...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108891/

There's also a great little British film about an aging groundsman and his young black apprentice who treat the pitch as hallowed turf, but I can't bloody well remember what it's called.
Posted by Tony.T at October 7, 2004 02:53 PM

Did you check that link, T?
Might be among those more obscure listings.
(and if we're talking scenes -
Was there a cricket scene in "The Chant Of Jimmy Blacksmith"? )

Meant to post this link to an early film
99 feet of cricket.
http://www.bfi.org.uk/collections/catalogues/silent/details.php?filmid=80
Posted by boynton at October 7, 2004 03:03 PM

I'm told this one is a doozie but unfortunately ain't caught it myself...
http://www.missliberty.com/Filmlagaan.html
Posted by nardo at October 7, 2004 03:58 PM

and via IMDB bulletin board:

"The April 2004 edition of The Wisden Cricketer, probably the foremost cricket magazine in the world, had their list of the top 10 cricket moments in movies, and Lagaan come in at number 1. Having just seen the movie, I wholeheartedly agree."

my favourite sports film: 'When We Were Kings'

used to play Super 8 movies as visual backdrop to music affairs; moon walks in backwards slow motion and Ali boxing were regular pieces, incl. that Frazier left hook smash that floored Ali in 'the fight of the century'... one of the most arresting bits of footage I ever seen
Posted by nardo at October 7, 2004 04:32 PM

Yep - Lagaan looks good - at four hours though, it might need a tea break.
That Wisden list would seem to be the elusive thing I was looking for, although the above forum was pretty good.
Haven't seen many Sports Films myself - and (probably terrible to admit) don't think I've seen that famous left hook footage.
Posted by boynton at October 7, 2004 04:51 PM

"Did you check that link, T?"

Huh?
Posted by Tony.T at October 7, 2004 07:33 PM

There was a very unconvincing dream sequence bowling from American actor (?) Forest Whittaker in (of all things) the crying game.
Posted by Zoe at October 7, 2004 08:03 PM

T - In the link to the Brit film forum there's the following description:

"Just really enjoyed arthurs hallowed ground 1986,on film 4,jimmy jewel played a great part as a cantankerous,perfectionist,cricket groundsman,who really dosen't want anyone to even walk on his pitch let alone play on it,a nice gentle comedy,with the familier faces of david swift,jean boht,michael elphic,exec prod david putnahm,script edited by jack rosenthal."

Thought that might be the one you mentioned. Some good films there, (including a Carry On one.)

Zoe - I remember the sequence. I'll have to check its cred again.
A new question - did the cricket fool you in TCG? ;)
Posted by boynton at October 7, 2004 08:13 PM

Oh. Were we supposed to look through the forum? Once I saw it wasn't about football, or more specifically, Melbourne Football Club player trades, AND had a black background, I bailed/baled.

I'll just go and read it now ...

noooooo noo noooo nooo nooo ummmmm umm hmmmmhh ...

Yes, Arthurs Hallowed Ground was the fillum and most enjoyable it was too. I think I've seen most of those films, but strangely the only one I haven't is one of the ones I mentioned, Bodyline. Strange, no?

They played cricket in Master & Commander too. Have you seen it?
Posted by Tony.T at October 7, 2004 11:17 PM

I'm not a number one fan of the game, tending to agree with whoever it was who said that all cultures have their own definitions of eternity & the British call theirs cricket. But surely the all time howzatt classic is the one at the top of the link site list, The Final Test, starring Jack Warner & Robert Morley & scripted by Terence Rattigan. Apparently it was inspired by Don Bradman's early dismissal in his last Test Match.

Not a classic outside the genre but fair example of '40s British whimsy in which Warner, as in every film he ever made throughout a long career, carries himself like a man in his late 60s while Robert Morley camps it up something rotten.
Posted by Dick at October 8, 2004 11:02 AM

Don't forget the episode of All Creatures Great and Small where a younf Fred Trueman turned out for the local XI.
Posted by Tony.T at October 8, 2004 11:08 AM

T - I haven't seen Bodyline either.
Actually I did see M&C, and forgot about that striking match.
Have you seen Carry On - Follow that Camel?

Dick - I chased the GBS quote and found it in good company here
http://en.thinkexist.com/keyword/cricket/
with Pinter and Wilde also on the team.
Actually it's the langour of the game that I like, 'the organised loafing', 'baseball on valium'.
A DVD has made an appearance in this household, so I may try to see TFT - sounds good.

The episode was "Big Fish Little Fish" (apparently - I had to look it up)
Must have seen it, but can't recall it.
Did a young Geoff Boycott ever visit the vetinry?
Posted by boynton at October 8, 2004 12:04 PM

Didn't Herriot once treat a dicky bird?
Posted by nora at October 8, 2004 03:21 PM

one of my favorite films of all time, losey & pinter's the go-between, has a crucial sequence involving a cricket match, with a very sexy alan bates as batsman (if that's the word). if you haven't seen it, definitely do.
Posted by michaela at October 8, 2004 04:30 PM

Dicky Who?
Posted by Tricky Woo at October 8, 2004 05:37 PM

I read the book a long time ago, Michaela, but funnily enough have never seen the film. Have always meant to.
I fully agree with your assessment of the late great Alan Bates, so may try to obtain the DVD ASAP. For the cricket of course.
Posted by boynton at October 8, 2004 05:43 PM

Not Dicky, Doctor. Dr Who.
Posted by Tristan.F at October 9, 2004 01:08 PM

a very peculiar practice...

http://www.who2.com/cgi-bin/library/searchindex/query.pl?swishindex=%2Fusr%2Flocal%2Fswish-e%2Findex.swish&metaName=Keywords&detail=yes&maxresults=1000&maxdisplay=20&keywords=doctor+who

(who2 via presurfer)
Posted by boynton at October 11, 2004 12:50 PM

Two recent UK crick flicks

"Wondrous Oblivion" and "Not Cricket: The Basil d'Oliveira Conspiracy" (TV).

And "Shaun of The Dead" and "Spinal Tap" both show what you can do with a 3 pound Gray Nicholls off the pitch.

And for yer vast international audience unacquainted with the smack of leather on willow, Boynie, here's a quick and concise guide to cricket.

"You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side thats been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out. When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay all out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, then stumps are drawn.
Posted by Nabakov at October 17, 2004 06:05 PM

Crick Flicks - marvellous shot that

Must try to see Wonderous Oblivion.
(good name for a blog - as indeed are many of your Lagniappe of another thread. Although Treppenwitz sounds like he could have played for Australia A, or in the ruck for Carlton.)
Posted by boynton at October 18, 2004 12:22 PM

Tuesday, October 05, 2004

phone song

I tried out a couple of these telephone songs but my landline phone seems to be tone deaf. That's ok - Happy Birthday sounds quite good sung flat. Different tones for different zones?
(via the Ultimate Insult)

footy films

A nice description of the game in Film Journal's Footy Film's Brilliant Mark: What Australian Rules Football Films Illuminate About Sports films
(via Hot Buttered death)

However, this Yankee has been intrigued for some time by Footy, and a big reason is due to the Footy-specific "Mark." ... Besides this creative use of the crook of another player's neck, players will dive catch, leap over opponents, collide with opponents, jump with their legs out parallel to the ground to use their cleats to warn off approaching opposing players, or simply wait to catch the ball with no threats around them...
Yes, there is a similarity here with the mark and the American Tackle Football receiver catching a pass, but the leaping, laddering and leveraging of other players adds something unique to Footy.


The article discusses The Club and Australian Rules - The only two Footy films on DVD about which I am aware. There is another, A Salute To the Great McCarthy. Coincidentally I just viewed an Age photo showing the making of.

And The Big Men Fly is a much performed play that was adapted for ABC TV series in 1973 and I was recently telling a Yankee friend -who'd never heard of Aussie Rules - about a ballet which included a Football scene, The Display 1964.

Eventually Helpmann would claim that The Display, with his own choreography and scenario, music by Malcolm Williamson and designs by Sidney Nolan, was the first fully Australian ballet...It even featured an Aussie Rules football game and the dancers were coached for this part of the ballet by the football star Ron Barassi.Source


(Did I imagine it - or does Ron make a cameo appearance in The Club?)

See also Sport in the Australian Arts

Monday, October 04, 2004

weblob



I've been keeping a sideways eye on the shape of the archives as they build into a blob representing so many months' worth of blogging.

what's pelvis

Flightless Hummingbird's Fashion Tips. What's hip and what's pelvis in the post-hypnotic age.

via tip from wood s lot to
No More Words: A non-Glossary


Comments: what's pelvis

weird, and wonderful! you're sick boynton!
Posted by Link at October 4, 2004 06:21 PM

fully.
Posted by Link at October 4, 2004 06:22 PM

well I never claimed to be Hip, anyway, (and my pelvis would probably second that)

And I am looking forward to the next issue: Sensible Shoes.
Posted by boynton at October 4, 2004 06:33 PM

wood engravings

The first Yan Yean image below was from this National Library of Australia Collection:
Wood engravings published in Victoria, Australia, exhibited by the Commissioners of the International Exhibition, 1873 .


Remarkable remains of trees, near Bendigo. [after: Ludwig Becker; engraver: Frederick Grosse]

Wood carting - the gum tree (eucalyptus), 1862


Comments: wood engravings

That stuff is fascinating. I've been involved in research for a film about the 1939 fires which means lots of slow interviews with really fantastic oldies whose stories of their parents and grandparents take us right back to pioneering.

Old men saying "I made my living for my whole life with me axe." and families who are still in the woodchopping comps are called "chopping families.."

Where did you get your milk? my colleague asked.
From a cow, shrieked the two old ladies in unison.

The power of oral history.

The sooner this election is over, the better. We are obsessed with politics; I neglect the wider joys.
Posted by David Tiley at October 6, 2004 01:21 AM

I've got "chopping family" on one branch of the tree myself. (That is - ex axemen - the generations that followed stopped chopping, but I love that cf term)

Don't know if it was a coincidence that I posted this on the day the ALP released its old Growth Forest Policy - the Libs to follow - shortly?
Posted by boynton at October 6, 2004 11:45 AM

Sunday, October 03, 2004

dress age

She had not been able to wear her dress since.
Dress torn by dog

As part of The Age's 150th anniversary celebrations, The Age has compiled a snapshot of articles and photographs. The list is not meant to be definitive or exhaustive; we simply capture some of the things that made news.


Comments: dress age

Found this in one of those links of yours - imagine - bubonic plague in Melbourne!!
"PLAGUE HOSPITAL HASTENED
Dr. Gresswell now urges that the erection of the proposed plague hospital on Coode Island should be proceeded with at as early a date as possible."
Posted by nora at October 5, 2004 02:10 PM

http://www.150.theage.com.au/view_bestofarticle.asp?straction=update&inttype=1&intid=1706
That Coode reference was too good, Nora, and I had to follow up the story.
Fascinating reading - sure beats the days of reading The Age on wonky Microfilm and wrestling with the photocopier in The SLV till closing time- eh?
From the same article - some rats in the ranks?

"RATS AT SIXPENCE A HEAD
Cr. Backhouse said the report had not referred to rats. There were thousands of rats that might at any time endanger the health of the town. As only 20 had been purchased by the council he moved that the price should be raised to 6d. per head"
Posted by boynton at October 5, 2004 02:25 PM

yan yean

The Yan Yean Reservoir, 1862

View east of Yan Yean Reservoir



.. It'll give you some idea of the bush, Mr Raffles, and you'll see the sources of the water-supply of this city, sir. You'll see where every drop of it comes from, the pure Yan Yean  The Tale Part two

Raffles Le Premier Pas The full text of the original story... with annotations and photographs of the various locations as they appear today.

sak

Here it is -the ultimate swiss army knife
a tool for every occasion
(via bifurcated rivets)


the XLT displaying some of its dazzling 50-tooled plumage


After 14 years of service my Victorinox mini-Swiss Army Knife (SAK) has finally begun to show its age: the toothpick went missing, the enamel casing cracked, the insignia fell off... Customer Review

Does the Swiss army really use the Swiss army knife?


Comments: sak

It's the only weapon they're allowed.
Posted by Dick at October 4, 2004 08:42 AM

Magnifying glasses at twenty paces.
Ballpoints at dawn.
Posted by boynton at October 4, 2004 12:22 PM