RECENT COMMENTS

Wednesday, June 30, 2004

b deficiency

"My dog growls in his sleep – do you think he could have a vitamin B deficiency?" – dog owner, Puyallup, WA.

Calls to Iams Customer Service
(via Pop Culture Junk mail)

wardrobe

Go through your wardrobe

...it is hard
to say trousers...



Comments: wardrobe

So did he get the bottoms of his trousers rolled?
Posted by Nabakov at July 1, 2004 12:46 AM

He still dares to eat a peach I dare say.
Posted by boynton at July 1, 2004 11:33 AM

I do roll them. And peaches.
Posted by eeksypeeksy at July 1, 2004 07:08 PM

dr carrot

Doctor Carrot The Children's best friend  (via I Like)

Wonder if Dr C writes with a pencil like this

The Quack
Carrots depicted in The Fine Arts at the World Carrot Museum

Tuesday, June 29, 2004

spoons

Thanks to Barista for sending the link to You, Too, Can Play The Spoons. I clicked.

You should also practice playing while standing straight, sitting down, walking, riding horseback, etc, so that you can perform as the occasion dictates. (ch 3)

You can play the spoons over most of your body - and the body of anyone else that will stand still for you
You should have your spoons nearby at all times
(ch 8)

 
Spooning

Fancy Nancy Spoons Solo

Monday, June 28, 2004

chalk marks



The Hobo's Alphabet
Chalk marks left by Hobos on gateposts to inform others as to what to find within.

Visual Codes via things


Comments: chalk marks

Now that's neat. I dig muchly trivia of that sort.
Posted by Mike Jericho at June 29, 2004 12:07 AM

Where's the swaggies' sign that says:
"Bastards. Burn down the Barn."?
Posted by Nora at June 29, 2004 12:15 AM

Is that a cat? Is this written by hobos or dogs? I can sense Doug's paw-prints somehow...
Posted by Scott Wickstein at June 29, 2004 12:53 AM

Gypsies call the same messages 'patterans'. Hmm -cue for a blog...
Posted by Dick at June 29, 2004 08:41 AM

Muchly same

Unkind Nora. And don't get me started on barns I have known. ;)

I think the next sign looks like it could have been written by a boynton stray dog, Scott. "Kind Woman - tell pitiful tale". Not doug btw. And these days his chalk marks would be more to do with 'Food here - if you sleep' 'You may sleep on couch'. 'Food - you have to listen to a monologue about bastards and barns.'

A great word - and for a blog.
Posted by boynton at June 29, 2004 01:29 PM

There was a micro-techno-lite revival of this a couple of years, "warchalking", white chalk symbols on inner brick and concrete to indicate promixity and access level of the nearest active wi-fi base.

Now wi-fi is widespread, there's no need for it now, which is shame 'cos I like the secret alphabets of cities.
Posted by Nabakov at July 1, 2004 12:55 AM

super hero

I happened to glance out into the dark garden and just caught the outline of Flo's black ears above the window ledge. I've always thought that the black pointy head-set of a blue heeler was like a labrador wearing a super hero mask.
She's on possum watch. Her strike rate averages about one arboreal movement by a possum every half hour if she's lucky.


I found this image by Holly Roberts via a Google Image search for Blue Heeler.

Small Wolf with Forest Holly Roberts

Scary Figure Holly Roberts


Comments: super hero

That's nifty. I love the notion of the primitive within..
Posted by David Tiley at June 28, 2004 10:57 PM

A blue heeler certainly wears the primitive on the sleeve ;)
Posted by boynton at June 29, 2004 01:31 PM

Friday, June 25, 2004

you what

What is a blog?

What is via I like

time

This is the only clock I could trust  (via J walk)

Or maybe this one...

fake tree

European companies are finding ingenious ways to disguise ugly, but necessary, mobile phone antenna masts. Customers can pick everything from trees to crucifixes source
(via unity of multi)


Think I might take the chimney over the fake tree. However realistic a Mastus pseudopinus may look... (for a gallery see articles/plastic tree) there is something disturbing about such camouflaged base stations

...the need for good looking camouflaged base stations around the planet is rising.
We have a tree type solution for every country's need."
For instance, a new blue gum tower tree is specifically being designed for the Australian market
. source

When you see this slideshow (before the chainsaw) that was part of an Age series on the journey of an Australian shining gum, the new species of gum seems less good looking.


Comments: fake tree

I can't bear that stuff about trees. I just can't.
Posted by David Tiley at June 28, 2004 11:11 PM

I avoided reading the Age series for the same reason - too heart rending.
Posted by boynton at June 29, 2004 01:32 PM

Thursday, June 24, 2004

solstices

Reading about summer while our weather declines into winter reminds us of the corporeal geographical reality that seems to diminish in cyberspace.
Our respective solstices mark the antipodes.
The long and the short of it.

So while my thoughts are turning to fondue, I read about a barbeque.
Perhaps those two words will do as shorthand for the two worlds,
the seasonal gap across the hemispheres.

A Weber poem at Grapez
I needed to buy a Weber charcoal grill so what’s a man to do

I have not yet haikued a fondue.
I did read a description that calls it interactive dining at its best.
and this jingrish collection provides the classic text
When all family members are seated around table, dishes are all the more tasteful. If dishes are nice, the square ceiling becomes round..

Or was that a Bob Dylan lyric?


Comments: sosltices

Barbeque to fondue: I like! And it rhymes. The north and south hemispheres. The left and right brains. The yin and yang of cooking. And thanks for the mention.
Posted by Greg at June 25, 2004 01:49 AM

- even if I may have to watch my c's and q's...
(don't know which is the quorrect bbq spelling.)

And I think there is something in this - I was thinking Weber, (without your lyricism) last December. BBQ season.

http://boynton.ubersportingpundit.com/archives/004038.html
Posted by boynton at June 25, 2004 01:11 PM

leaping dogs

Dogfight at Bankstown has some nice images of k9 leisure activities.

Perhaps we should have marked Doug's recent 105 th (dog years) birthday by a scuba dive, jumping out of a plane or a balloon ride at dawn. An idle search for skydiving dogs led to Dogs That Fall Down and its table of Famous Falling dogs that escaped injury

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

science timeline

Marks in the evolution of western thinking about nature

Despite the title tag 'science timeline,' this is not meant to include all science, that is to say all knowledge, rather just the knowledge which people have accumulated--in the West--about the things over which they have, as yet, little control. This is the 'nature' to which I refer...

(via making light)

film lists

Movies by Philosophical Theme
(via J walk)

The 2004 Arts & Faith Top100 Spirtually Significant Films
(via Radosh)


Do you know your film dogs?


Comments: film lists

The Arts & Faith site had an interesting selection of films. Theres a few there that I would like to view again, and some that I havn't seen. Surprised to learn that the spirituality refered to was of the christian kind. Personaly I can't see spiritual significance in films like the matrix but then I'm not a christian.
Posted by Andy F at June 22, 2004 07:55 PM

It made more sense to me in chronological view, working backwards from Murnau towards the Matrix.
Alas - only 4 films from the '40's and 34 from the '90's.
Posted by boynton at June 24, 2004 12:12 PM

snow walk

Walking in the snow 1910:

Women preparing to go walking in the snow MM 000147

Two women resting on the verandah at Mt. Buffalo chalet. MM 000148


Images from the Museum Victoria Collection. Biggest Family Album Search for 'Snow'


Comments: snow walk

These photos are especially interesting and historically valuable as it seems that within a generation or possibly sooner, the Victoria mountains will cease to receive snow, due to global warming.
Posted by millipede at June 24, 2004 12:58 PM

True.
The 'no snow scenario' was certainly easier to believe before this latest cold snap, which like a 'green drought' can cloud the grim reality.
Posted by boynton at June 24, 2004 01:53 PM

Monday, June 21, 2004

st bernard

St Bernard Hospice

Legend has it that, because the St Bernard hospice, built in 1884, was only 3.5 metres high, the mailman occasionally fell down the chimney while searching through very heavy snowfall for the building. Unfortunately it was burned down by a summer bushfire in 1939 (source)

winter

Don't know if we're a day short of the shortest day, but some sort of winter solstice bonfire would have been a boon over the weekend. Winter solstice ping-pong is challenging, as is walking the canines. Bitter.


A skier and dog outside the Mount St Bernard Hospice
Date: 1927
Record Number: MM 004045



Four men with large snowballs
Record Number: MM 006024

A man and a woman holding large snowballs. It is snowing and they are standing in ankle-deep snow.
Date: CIRCA 1925
Record Number: MM 008539


Images from the Museum Victoria Collection. Biggest Family Album Search for 'Snow'


Comments: winter

Whether the shortest day is today or tomorrow, the difference is only a matter of a few short seconds.
Posted by Nora at June 21, 2004 05:52 PM

Of the short seconds, which is the shortest?
Posted by boynton at June 21, 2004 06:34 PM


As celestial mechanics would have it, the 21st was the shortest this year. Yesterday was only 573 minutes from sunrise to sunset, whereas today is significantly longer at 574 minutes. The longest of days in December is 886 minutes by comparison. The degree of variation above and below 720 minutes depends almost entirely upon your latitude: at 0 degrees (equator) all days are 12 hours, by the time you get to approx 67 degrees approx (Artic/Antartic circles) at least one day of 24 hours of sunlight, and one of 24 hours darkness.
Posted by phlip at June 22, 2004 12:00 PM

Thanks Philip.

So 'a few short seconds' were actually sixty.
A minute difference.

Now the pressure's on.
How best to use the extra time? ;)
Posted by boynton at June 22, 2004 02:12 PM


You can pull one more errant weed from the garden, I've found. Nora's likely to be right on it only being a few short seconds. It's just that most daylight calculators round to the nearest minute. I'll try to find you a really precise answer sometime soon...
Posted by phlip at June 23, 2004 09:41 AM

Friday, June 18, 2004

arguments

Robert H. Thouless: Thirty-eight dishonest tricks which are commonly used in argument, with the methods of overcoming them

(via Rebecca's Pocket)

To confess my own trickery tendencies:

6) Diversion to another question, to a side issue, or by irrelevant objection

I do like an occasional wander through the left field - off the beaten track. I always hope to find a clincher hiding in the marginalia.

17) Change in the meaning of a term during the course of an argument

Oh well - language is organic.


see also: How to win arguments


Comments: arguments

Guilty as charged on all counts...
Posted by dick jones at June 20, 2004 08:38 AM

Me too...
Was a dishonest tactic to cite only two of my tricks.

It can almost read as a scenario of an argument in 38 stages. The drama really kicking in with 'special pleading"

(39. Daggers.)
Posted by boynton at June 20, 2004 06:25 PM

early blogging

A b blogger

an A blogger

afternoon in the blogosphere...


Electrical Experimenter at Magazine Art
Magazine Cover Art form the 19th and 20th century

(via Exclamation Mark)


Comments: early blogging

that afternoon in the blogosphere is just sooo apt.
Posted by David Tiley at June 24, 2004 12:38 PM

ski jump

Ski jumping competition, 1953


more via Picture Australia Search for: Ski Jumping 1953

pompon

Best Giant Formal Cactus Dahlia: Mrs. Parsons 1 Mrs. Waller 2
Best Pompon Dahlia: Mrs. Parsons. Only Entry



This left Morwell the impossible task of making 129 runs in 17 minutes


Morwell Historical Society Advertiser Ads & Articles April 4th - 1946

Thursday, June 17, 2004

hume

Hume Image 867

I saw a detail of this amazing image at dirty beloved

who has posted a choice selection from the vast Photographs from the Hume Family Collection. Regard...What a find.

The detail was intriguing - the big picture was stunning...

Like the group of people practising archery, the group of people practising apres tennis refreshment is a fascinating composition.

retsof eltrym restored

A timely link to a site which mirrors your own url (and the links) has provided the means of restoring the recently seen back to front image of Myrtle Foster batting to its original L to R view.

Eltrym looks more convincing as Myrtle.

You also can read the inverted stnemmoc.

Thanks to Exclamation Mark for the find.

vacuum

I received a piece of spam with the intriguing subject line:
vacuum cleaner 3423 haunches

I always thought there was something potentially menacing about a vacuum cleaner...

Maybe not this menacing...

The Doorbell …’the phone… I hear everything! Do you? (source)

update Mine turned on me

Wednesday, June 16, 2004

helpful

And if we're talking makeshift cricket bats...

Not yr average Amazon Customer Reviews (with bonus Haiku)

(via making light)

d day

And bloomsday also marks the big birthday for Douglas.
What can I say. He's 15. That must be 100 in dog years.

On the weekend I read a review of a book that sounds like a must read.

Prince, the hero of Matt Haig's first novel, The Last Family in England, is a black Labrador devoted to protecting his Family from the dangers inherent in the modern world...

Prince has sworn allegiance to the Labrador Pact, which demands that Labradors devote their lives to the happiness, preservation and protection of not just their masters but of all Families everywhere...


The Labrador Pact can be viewed at the author's site....
It is our duty, as Labradors, to be prepared for change at any time. We must realise that it is our presence, and its suggestion that some things will always stay the same, which can help to return humans back to normality.

Let your senses guide you, and you will find that the future is under your nose
.



What can I say as he snores away softly... His presence has certainly returned me to normality many times in 15 years. And temporary insanity. All those bouts of boisterous clumsy joy that revive the spirit on darker, blackdog days.


Comments: d day

I've passed this on to an owner of a Black Lab. You've made someone very happy.
Posted by Greg at June 17, 2004 02:13 AM

Cheers.

Nothing like a Black Lab - except a Yellow one.

(I was once half-thinking of starting a ring - or a least a category on the sidebar- of Labrador bloggers - I kept running into them without looking)
Posted by boynton at June 17, 2004 04:27 PM

Happy birthday for last Wednesday, Douglas.
Skritchies.
Posted by Helen at June 22, 2004 01:14 PM

...and still snoring

cheers Helen.
Posted by boynton at June 22, 2004 02:25 PM

big bloomsday

Yes it's the big bloomsday, and once again I have failed to finish reading Ulysses in time for 16/6 since beginning it at University once upon a time years ago (feels like 100 )

In the tradition of Pepys, it is now online, and a page a day on the web might just be the way to go. (via wood s lot)
I tried to read Ulysses a couple times in the past few years, but I couldn't ever find the momentum I needed to get through. I read Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man hoping to build up some momentum I could carry over. It didn't work. I needed help. I realized one day that almost no one is better at plodding along mindlessly than a computer. Mindless plodding is nearly as good as momentum.about


Although my earlier idea of going for a 23 hour drive with the Naxos Joyce CDs is still attractive, just need a chauffeur with a CD player and time to kill to materialise. Checking into the Naxos site, I notice there are some sample mp3s - so a virtual bloomsday can be enjoyed by the carless, careless and legless.

There are many images to be enjoyed at Rejoyce, and also a chapter by chapter summary

And - another old link - there's always Ulysses for Dummies


Comments: big bloomsday

There's also the documentary on SBS tonight at 10pm...
Posted by James Russell at June 16, 2004 02:49 PM

Thanks, James.
Will have to tape it.
Posted by boynton at June 16, 2004 03:02 PM

Tuesday, June 15, 2004

relations

The Dysfunctional Family Letter Generator (via bifurcated rivets)

DIY Convict ancestor Claytons Convicts

good news

More than a million pages from 19th Century British newspapers are to be put online by the British Library... A searchable website with digital copies of the newspapers is expected to be ready in 18 months' time. BBC
(via J walk)

That gives me an end-of-dial-up deadline anyway. Must have broadband by 2006 in order to join the nineteenth century.

chool pics



The Swinburne Visual Archive (Historical photographs relating to Swinburne University of Technology) joined Picture Australia in February.
You need to go to this latter repository to search and find more information about the uncaptioned photos

For instance, to discover who this man is

Or that these strange objects are actually part of a three blade propellor mould made in cores

That this mysterious group is actually a
Bank of N.S.W./Ansett Airlines of Australia Travel Bursary presentation

I haven't yet cross-referenced the strange sequence with television

Or this

Many images seem to work uncaptioned.


Comments: chool pics

thanks for the post Boyton, tried finding some images of Mile End in Adelaide where I live now but the state library of SA has ugly copyright numbers on their digital images. Found a few images of the nearest town where I lived in victoria (underbool). This one is not much to look at but has some personal meaning for me as my nephew works as a mechanic for the otherwise family business that runs the garage that fronts the described historical buildings.
Posted by Andy F at June 15, 2004 10:16 PM

Sorry Boynton couldn't seem to get links to work in your comments. The link was to image and text about Glosters Garage Underbool
Posted by Andy F at June 15, 2004 10:45 PM

html is not enabled so embedded links vanish, but Glosters Garage Underbool sounded intriguing -
is this the page?
http://www.deh.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/search.pl?mode=place_detail;place_id=17065

And I searched for Underbool in Picture Australia. Not sure how long the 'results page' lasts - but I think this link should:

http://www.pictureaustralia.org/apps/pictureaustralia?action=PADisplay&mode=display&rs=resultset-10271&no=1
Posted by boynton at June 15, 2004 11:56 PM

I also like:
Father and Son, Scrubbing the Clothes, Underbool
http://www.statelibrary.vic.gov.au/pictoria/b/5/1/doc/b51315.shtml

Pines at Underbool
http://www.statelibrary.vic.gov.au/pictoria/b/1/5/doc/b15398.shtml
Posted by boynton at June 16, 2004 12:00 AM

Thanks Boynton thats the right link. I liked "Father and Son" and "Pines" images too. I've always admired the disorganised character that native pines have in comparison to the exotic ones.
Posted by Andy F at June 16, 2004 04:22 PM

Monday, June 14, 2004

myrtle batting

Myrtle Foster batting...


From Picture Australia's Cricket in Australia Trail

I'm trialling recent comments...I've been reluctant to install this reader-friendly code for several reasons - mainly because unsavoury spam, boynton and duck are so often the only names with runs on the board...


Comments: myrtle batting

Ah, does the old ticker good to see a stout lass with an equally stout piece of willow in her hand, punishing a loose ball.

I also like cricket too.
Posted by Nabakov at June 15, 2004 10:13 PM

Yes - I have since been alerted to the fact that the bat is rather unorthodox.

Also that the photo is 'Back to Front'
(as people used to yell out at slide-nights.)


Gnittab Retsof Eltrym
Posted by boynton at June 16, 2004 12:11 AM

Hmm, I bowled a googly and it went straight through to the keeper.

And I also posted a vers libre love poem to some of the shiny cloudy things that fly through our memories, at;
www.soulpacific.com
Posted by Nabakov at June 16, 2004 04:25 AM

When I saw this photo I was reminded of the very strong women's cricket 'culture' that exists in Wellington (NSW) -- a few members of the Aus. team have come from Wello, I think. And that wicket keeper with the wondrful curly lock of hair, Rita Trudgett, bears a very well-known Wellington cricketing family name! I did a quick search of Rita T at BD &Marriages, but could only find a Rita married in 1945, in Newtown, so no clues there.... I wonder......
Posted by wen at June 16, 2004 11:49 AM

Trudgett is certainly a great cricketing name.
Sounds like cricket played *in* Wellingtons. ;)

(Did you search for Ttegdurt?)

Actually Wen, having chose the image totally randomly from the cricket trail, it's wonderful to get this bit of background info, and would be interested to hear any more along the track.
Posted by boynton at June 16, 2004 01:30 PM

the wicketkeeper is indeed a comely lass, or should I say lady (keeping her legs together like that)...
Posted by nardo at June 16, 2004 03:12 PM

Yes...
Never having played cricket, I didn't notice the stance.
In fact I thought all keepers adopted that Ladylike position.

Now I read that "Both knees are fully bent to adopt a sitting down position.
Legs are astride"
http://www.yehhaicricket.com/refine/wkthkeeping/wicketkeeping.html

Who knew...

I was sure I could recall one Aus Keeper of recent times who kept in that fashion...
Maybe not Marsh.
http://www.capint.com.au/artofcricket/itemshtml/ms033.htm

btw Is the gentleman at the Left (or Right as the case may be) displaying the correct umbrella carrying stance? ;)
Posted by boynton at June 16, 2004 03:34 PM

he'd be better off with one of those old seat sticks - dunno what they're called! - which serve a dual purpose...

our old coach, a marist brother, would spifflicate us regularly... performances, sadly, did not improve... maybe his did

and I think cricket is popular among women in the pacific islands... an idle google brought little reward, but for these pics (down the page)...

http://www.galenfrysinger.com/samoa.htm
Posted by nardo at June 16, 2004 04:24 PM

Douglas "Bodyline" Jardine always maintained that should the bats ... person ever wield an oversized wooden soup-spoon, then it was best to apply orthodox Legside Theory. No doubt the rationale behind the reinforced cordon backward of square.

With that in mind, and an attacking legside field the order of attack, I just wonder how well equipped for a sharp chance is the escorted urchin.
Posted by Tony.T at June 16, 2004 06:44 PM

The Samoan look is quite stylish and sensible, especially compared to oz women's cricket.
Sarongs are right, skirts are wrong.

The urchin is protecting his escort according to the laws of sibling pecking order. Somwhere between cover and silly point, he might not take the sharp chance, but he'll stop the dull sting.

a cordon blehhh...
Posted by boynton at June 17, 2004 04:48 PM

rainy day music

Yes, the weather has turned nasty over the long weekend. Good day to rug up and play some generated music above the thunder and hail...
and the rumbling of the stomachs of unwalked canines

The Indian Shankar Drum Ganesh Machine (via J walk)

The Color Keyboard (viaTwists and Turns)


Comments: rainy day music

Nasty? You think that only the weather has turned nasty?! As alluded to over at Gov House, m'lady and I visited Ikea Richmond. We've moved beyond living life on the edge, the telly precariously balanced on the Lipton's tea chest.

(Currently we're revisiting 'Brideshead' ... "Tangiers was a stinking place" we've just been informed. What delights can pop up on Channel 31! Perfick for a winter's afternoon.)

We spied an item that fitted the bill. Satisfied with that we foolishly sauntered off the beaten track.

Oh dear, it was another hour before we were able to find our way back to said object of our desire. (True!) Whilst attempting to retrace the trail of breadcrumbs we did see Osama, found many weapons of mass destruction (deviously camouflaged as prams and strollers) and the lost sea of Atlantis.

Why should it end there? There was the down and out and lost in the subterranean car park. Was it the red park area? The green park area? The blue park area? The purple park area? For some period of time the car had obviously been borrowed or abducted by aliens. When it was returned to us we made our way to the "Ikea Pick Up Area". (Mmmmm? A double entendre momentarily crosses my mind, but Ikea is a do-it-yourself service isn't it?)

They don't have an 8 Items or Less pick up area, so another several hours were spent watching the darkness at noon fill the sky.

Item unpacked. Aha, I don't have to read the instructions! Nothing to "read". All done with pictures. Bad pictures. Very bad pictures! EVIL PICTURES, EVIL UNHELPFUL PICTURES!!!

(Good-woman Sedgwick was similarly unhelpful. "NO, we can't repair that bit with wood glue. Anyhow people won't be able to see the gaping wound if we sit them all on top of the fridge.")

The rest is history and a decree absolute.


Posted by Sedgwick at June 14, 2004 03:42 PM

Having beaten the track once through Ikea's primary coloured jungle, making a slight diversion to lights that disoriented, I'm not keen to revisit that claustrophobic site of loose cutlery and pieces of crate.
Not even on such a nasty day. Much better to arrange the rabbit ears and revisit Brideshead instead.
Must mark it in televsion diary for next week.
I did venture out with dogs - carefully waiting for a heavy shower. Not another soul was out.
All must have been loitering around the entendres of Ikea.
Posted by boynton at June 15, 2004 12:15 AM

Never visited Ikea but have done Tangier and the weather and furniture there was anything but "nasty" - although the "bar" I visited where Guy Burgess and Bill Burroughs used to mingle with some of the more nubile natives was something damn close to it.

Incidentally, bugger all dogs in Morocco but the cats were another story.

We walked into what appeared to be a mini-riot in the Grand Socco (the old Medina town square) which turned out to be about 30 blokes threatening to rough up a truck driver 'cos he nearly backed over a kitten. They were not quite the savage, careless of life Moors of lore you've been led to expect by certain elements of the media and blogosphere.

There ya go yer Excellency, yer not the only garrulous rambler around these parts.
Posted by Nabakov at June 15, 2004 10:07 PM

roberts shadows

A recent comment by wen (at this post ) included a link to Shadows of Tom Roberts, which is a slideshow by Peter Marquis-Kyle recording a bus tour of places where Roberts lived and painted in the Inverell district of New South Wales.

And led to The Ironic Column
Web Display Cabinets

Friday, June 11, 2004

friday fives

a Friday five of lovely reads...

Eeeksy-Peeksy Glimmer, glimmer

Invisible Shoebox Germany: Anti-Monuments
On some of these squares of silver paper traces out the edges of missing rooms and flutter when the wind starts to blow.


Bells and Whistles Seen and Heard
On the sidewalk on the upper East side, a woman pulls at her recalcitrant dog's leash


McSweeney's What I actually mean when I say I love you: thirty scenarios
(via grow a brain)


Barista Newton on Sunday Newton lists his sins.
Stealing cherry cobs from Eduard Storer
Denying that I did so


Oh - and - I never could count ...

Dick Jones' Patteran Pages No Horizons
It is this unalloyed delight, this utter absorption in everything that he does that seduces us each time. It’s so easy to provoke in him a sense of wonder, unmitigated by prior knowledge or experience


Comments: friday five

Eeesky-Peeksy. That doesn't look quite right.
Posted by Tony.T at June 11, 2004 07:33 PM

eek

never could spell neither...

Sorry Mr. E-P - fixed now.
Posted by boynton at June 11, 2004 08:58 PM

Thanks, B. Much appreciated.
Posted by dick jones at June 13, 2004 08:30 AM

work it out

- and then I turn on the radio today and hear We can Work it Out before Jon Faine talks to a local Beatle academic who talks about the dialogue of cooperation and competition...
Mason also claims Lennon and McCartney formed complex patterns of competition with other songwriters, particularly Bob Dylan. These dialogues or "magic circles", he believes, introduced radical ideas about sex, drugs and rebellion into popular culture


Meanwhile A professor of poetry at Oxford devotes 500 pages to a close analysis of Bob Dylan's greatest hits (via Follow Me Here)

Rick's book is referred to in this recent Age article which suggests that 'isolating lyrics from pop songs is a debatable enterprise':

As at least one reviewer of the book pointed out, treating lyrics as if they were stand-alone literary texts wilfully distorts the artist's intention by disregarding not only the music that the words accompany, but also the arrangement and actual performance.
Mason arguably encounters the same methodological problem as Ricks


meanwhile the conversation with Mason ended with Here Comes The Sun - and that round thing in sky was just too hard to resist.

Frederick McCubbin Winter Sunlight


Comments: work it out

http://www.artistsfootsteps.com/html/McCubbin_rainandsunshine.htm
Posted by vernaculo at June 12, 2004 03:58 AM

http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/collection/australian/painting/b/apa00054.html

(melb looking more like this today)

http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/collection/australian/painting/b/apa00237.html
Posted by boynton at June 12, 2004 11:02 AM

Those Becketts are just lovely -- as is the landscape & that green & grey -- something we never really see here in The New England (!), where winter can be grey, but never ever green like that. Everywhere's yellow, scorched, dead. And bloody cold.
Posted by Wendy at June 13, 2004 10:28 AM

http://www.marquis-kyle.com.au/tomroberts01.htm

the best I can do -- if you can imagine it with just a little less light ....
Posted by wen at June 13, 2004 10:48 AM

I had always thought New England greened up in Winter, so that's a revelation, wen. Dead yellow.
From foggy/misty the weather here deteriorated into foul and filthy - windy and cold - and I'd I think I'd have to go Expressionist on that...

That's a great site, btw.
Posted by boynton at June 14, 2004 11:34 AM

Wednesday, June 09, 2004

upside down

Took a brisk walk in the brisk evening the other night with a terrier
and as we walked up a neighbouring street of cal bungs and clinkers
I happened to glance in a garden to see a large giraffe staring back in the moonlight.
Strange sort of garden ornament. Bigger than a gnome.
And as we moved on a large fruit bat swooped possibly grazing its ear...

Haven't seen an Upside Down House yet on my travels... (via grow a brain)
but I'll keep looking

small

Find small men (via diversionz)

Giants and Girls (via life in the present)


Comments: small

Yes, there's nothing like a tall dark leading man.
http://www.filmsite.org/kingk.html

...unless of course it's a statuequese, au natural leading lady.
http://www.monstersatplay.com/review/dvd/q/queenkong.php

My chops are now slavering over what Peter Jackson may do with his remake of "King Kong."

I hope it'll be as good as "Meet The Feebles".

PS. I can't seem to ge the ole "a herf etc" html hyperlinks thang happening in yer comments parlour.
Posted by Nabakov at June 9, 2004 09:41 PM

Another shameful confession is that I haven't seen King Kong. Must look out for it at the Astor.
- Or even Queen Kong. (The link "Queen Kong's huge picnic table and chair" was just too beguiling to ignore.)

and yes - I disabled html in this parlour.
(No java hacking - but lashings of spam)
and you can at least open up the window to look at the outside link ;)
Posted by boynton at June 10, 2004 11:49 AM

Tuesday, June 08, 2004

hiatus pause

and every time a hiatus seems to be quite the thing to do, things like this cause pause...

This Public Adress The Photographers

Solipsistic Solitude defined

...and the knitting of it is very straightforward
Stitchcraft at Visual Magazines part of the Scrapbook via things

transit b

one year since the transit of boynton from blogspot to uber here.
keeping an eye on the black drop effect (which sounds as if it should be a blogging related condition like blogspot eyes, data overload, brain fag and the black hole of time and thinking space).

was thinking of marking the event with a hiatus
just to be able to say I've had one...
or waxing lyrical, but blogging - it waxes and wanes.
blogging - it comes and goes.


Comments: transit b

No, nay, not a hiatus. What pleasures would we turn to as a substitute.

There are none like you.
Posted by David Tiley at June 11, 2004 03:21 AM

merci.

and starting to realise a hiatus takes nerve.
maybe there should be a blogging 'quitline'...
Posted by boynton at June 11, 2004 01:05 PM

transit

Transit of Venus 1769

see also the nineteenth century:
R.J.Ellery state astronomer of the period oversaw the preparations for the 9th Dec event in 1874 ...
Pantomimes were performed in Melbourne a main character was a parody of Ellery { the locals thought the astronomers were making much ado about nothing}while in Hobart safe viewing practices with buckets of water in the streets for viewing the reflection of the event became the order of the day.

Press releases



Comments: transit


The lack of care for precision in reporting this transit must be frustrating for the scientists - it gets to me as a back-yard amateur. John Blackman on ABC this afternoon was making comment to a lady who was at the Melbourne Observatory, and with a tone of "seen it all", comments that there would probably be a crescent shape to the sun by now. Hello - John? This is only Venus transiting, not the moon, a little more care would help. He later admitted that he thought the 1975 total solar eclipse in Melbourne was "boring", apparently failing to realise it was one of the most spectacular sights ever seen in the skies over our fair city.
Posted by phlip at June 8, 2004 05:21 PM

I had Blackers on in the background.
Sounds like I didn't miss much...

Yes (err...I admit) I remember the eclipse.
It was indeed spectacular. (And slightly disturbing...)
Posted by boynton at June 8, 2004 05:32 PM

ear pedal

Don't allow damper noise or thumping to occur.
Pedal with your ear


James Boyk In Love with sound
In love with sound, the way it reaches out, the bell on grandfather's vegetable truck finding me whether I was up the backyard apple tree, indoors at the piano, or playing ball two houses down.
In love with sound's command of memory and feeling...

Monday, June 07, 2004

lili

In one of the D Day docos, a nurse recounted hearing the wounded soldiers from both sides singing Lili Marleen...

The Official Lili Marleen Page

You quickly get to know the midis of lili that grace the war themed web sites, a small pool of faux accordion flourishes and servicable tinny organ. I wanted something more like I heard it played on household piano of yore.
Pianissimo, slow and sentimental, with longing.

The most basic piano midi I found was here, but it is fairly brisk.
And while not piano, this site has quite a nice version.


Comments: lili

Hate to harsh yer mellow darlin' but moves are afoot to make a film about the eternal Marlene, with...Gweneth Paltrow as the lead.

Yes, that distant humming sound you hear is Josef Von Sternberg revolving at around 1800rpm in his grave.
Posted by Nabakov at June 8, 2004 12:04 AM

Dietrich has it down pat. When I hear her version it automatically transmutes aurally into my parents' 78 rpm copy, complete with beguiling needle hiss.
Posted by Dick Jones at June 8, 2004 07:46 AM

gwyneth marlene after plath?

"Ich, ich, ich, ich,
I could hardly speak..."

...and tell them I sighed ...

- and Dick, yes, the sound of hisstory

(although at this site, you can listen to a before and after effect with hisses removed...)
http://www.crystream.com.au/


Posted by boynton at June 8, 2004 04:20 PM

It would be like Kylie Minogue playing Vera Lynn.

I wish I hadn't thought that.
Posted by David Tiley at June 11, 2004 03:19 AM

Thanks for your comment. I'm the guy playing "Lili Marleen" on the accordion, recorded back about 10 years ago. I appreciate that somebody has actually listened to it.

RCA
Posted by Richard Aguilar at August 11, 2004 06:38 AM

I just listened to it again, Richard, and should upgrade that comment from 'quite nice' to 'very nice'. It's a beautiful recording and exactly what I had been looking for that day - subtle and slow with a temperate dash of sentiment.
Posted by boynton at August 11, 2004 01:00 PM

fortune

we were sitting around recently with fortune cookies and this was the message I received

when do we sail?


fortune cookie generator at the Sign Generator page
via the Presurfer



Comments: fortune

where did i hear this joke...? fortune cookie messages always end up becoming much more interesting if you add the words "in bed" to the end of the message...
Posted by ali at June 7, 2004 04:25 PM

ah yes...

"It is very possible that you will achieve greatness in your lifetime in bed."

"Don't give a man a fish, but teach him how to fish in bed."

"In dreams and in life nothing is impossible in bed."

http://home.earthlink.net/~electrikmonk/fcbody.html
Posted by boynton at June 7, 2004 06:08 PM

"Help! I'm being held prisoner in a fortune cookie factory!..in bed"

There's always a smartarse exception...in bed.
Posted by Nabakov at June 8, 2004 12:08 AM

in deed
Posted by boynton at June 8, 2004 04:22 PM

Friday, June 04, 2004

macca surprise

I did drugs

I feel fine (via twists and turns)

(I was ponderous or was I?)


Comments: macca surprise

I drink.

I feel fine.
Posted by Scott Wickstein at June 4, 2004 07:06 PM

ah yes it's rather ambiguous. I meant only macca of course...


so I've added a third line...

(don't drink sparkling wine).


Posted by boynton at June 4, 2004 07:59 PM

Oh, no. Where would Miss B. be without her bubbles?
Posted by Scott Wickstein at June 5, 2004 12:22 AM

"Baby, You Can Drive My Car"...once we take a blood sample.
Posted by Nabakov at June 5, 2004 07:32 PM

Thursday, June 03, 2004

john dahlsen

John Dahlsen An Interview
I believe art to be my spirituality. Over the past 20 years I have tried to maintain a pure commitment to contemporary art practice; I have never looked for a safe place to rest. What happens with my art generally runs parallel to my life, meaning that I learn from my art and apply some of these insights to my life and vice versa. When I sense that I am becoming too comfortable in what I am doing I will consciously move on to something new. For example, challenges in my personal life keep me on my toes and help me to extend myself more as an artist. This is how my work is in a constant state of evolution


John Dahlsen environmental artist and contemporary abstract painter
(via J walk)


Comments: john dahlsen

Looks like a bit of Ian Fairweather has drifted up in him.

Just thought I'd comment so this thread wouldn't too look zen.
Posted by Nabakov at June 3, 2004 08:15 PM

- yes and the odd bit of Gascoigne (rosalie) as well...


(you can attend to the general zen round here any time ;) )
Posted by boynton at June 3, 2004 08:28 PM

I bet you say that to all the commentators here.

Here's an artist/illustrator I rather like who seems to be quite zeitgeisty.

http://spacetrash.invisiware.com/
Posted by Nabakov at June 3, 2004 09:39 PM

yes - great. (And the links are quite z-y too.)

(and might I stress that I really like Dahlsen's work too. Rather beautiful)
Posted by boynton at June 3, 2004 10:21 PM

And here's an artist who could only really exist in the 21st century - thanks to the past.

http://www.alternity.co.uk/
Posted by Nabakov at June 3, 2004 11:10 PM

Love it.

http://www.alternity.co.uk/a-g20.html
Posted by boynton at June 3, 2004 11:26 PM

Yes, Micawber Autos

"Look at this, this way squire. 21 quid a week repayments, happiness. 20 quid a week repayments...unhappiness."
Posted by Nabakov at June 3, 2004 11:36 PM

don't like Micawbers's chances of selling the motor to the moustached man at window.
Not sure where he is placed in the family hierarchy but his carriage and general demeanour would seem to suggest he's not buying it, mate
Posted by boynton at June 4, 2004 12:24 PM

phone show

More on mobiles and ringtones in performance archived at Textually
textually.org covers the latest news on texting or short messaging (SMS) and multimedia messaging (MMS)
(via birurcated rivets)

SMS and the arts

Ringtone Concerts

barrie

J. M. Barrie and the Lost Boys is a model of the biographer’s art. Sympathetic but unflinching, it penetrates to the dark heart of this difficult matter with the care and precision of a surgeon
J. M. Barrie's lost boys. Peter Parker

Loved the TV series and the book. And this review of the revised edition (via Arts and Letters Daily) leads to Andrew Birkin's wonderful site - J.M Barrie - which had me reading and window gazing into the wee hours...

google spawn

Some people mistake it for the Internet...

(if G didn't exist would it be neccessary to invert it?)

Google Spawn: The Culture Surrounding Google
an excellent find by Barista

The two Randomizers recommended here are very appealing.
Random bounce me and Random Google Page

Wednesday, June 02, 2004

air texting

My first thought on reading about air texting - phones with LED floating messages - was a sense of despair.
Here comes the litter...
Not enough to hear the duck quack of dumb curses everywhere, now we'll have to see the effin oaths, see the monotonous spray.
Keep a lid on it kidz. Be Quiet! Be Blank!

But my next thought was of the theatrical possibilities of air text...
Hmm...suddenly subtext...

Meanwhile I've never had a mobile and they've already gone sufficiently retro for me to get interested.
We're finding ourselves feeling nostalgic about brick phones of the 80's or even early nokias from a decade ago...As they've become more futuristic, phones have also become smaller and smaller, heading towards a state of invisibility. Why Pokia (via unity of multi)

right royal chew

don't rest on your laurels, bronte...
Items squeak when compressed

Royal chew toys

(apologies but I've misplaced the via to postmodern pets)


Comments: right royal chew

this pun is unforgiveable - worthy of a sedge, if sedge is an ultra capitalist designer dagster.

Of course I love it.
Posted by David Tiley at June 4, 2004 12:17 AM

Actually , a 'sedge' sounds like an Honour bequeathed by the GG for services to punning.

(Maybe there's an oz-blog award worth considering alongside the bile: Sedge of the week.)
Posted by boynton at June 4, 2004 12:29 PM

Tuesday, June 01, 2004

typecast

Typecasting: The use (and Misuse) of Period Typography in movies

Anachronistic typography in movies is certainly not one of the world's pressing problems. At worst, it reflects badly on a film in a subtle way that suggests careless production values to the typographically aware, even when everything else is well-crafted

via As Above del.icio.us


Comments: typecast

I love it. Type geeks are so endearing. It gives me faith in humanity that people care so passionately about such small things.
Posted by David Tiley at June 2, 2004 01:38 AM

Me too.
"Noticing little slips like this in movies can happen to anyone with knowledge in any specialized field"

and sense I might be missing a specialized field to take to the movies.
Posted by boynton at June 2, 2004 12:56 PM

astronauts

astronautical art...

Max Grueter Extra vehicular activity

(via unity of multi)


sgt. peppers

woke up to Red saying it was 37 years ago today...
nice enough way to welcome in June, except now I have Lucy stuck in my head.

Wikpedia Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

and it was (almost) 40 years ago today...
Australian Beatles Festival
Half tempted to go west to Adelaide for the fest

lots of Beatles links up at grow a brain