growling room

Growlery growl'er-ee, n (English; cf. Dutch grollen, to grumble)
A retreat for times of ill humour. This term has largely become obsolete, which is strange, given that so many people seem to have a place to go when they are in a bad mood - a place to be alone and think. It's similar in meaning to the Latin-derived sanctum sanctorum, with the added connotation that the individual in question is going to the place to be alone while upset.

The Phrontistery's Favourite words via the presurfer


Not a bad idea. It should be revived to go with the respective growling syndromes of moody men, women and sheep*. Ideally new warehouse conversions could accomodate both a growlery and a howlery.

 

*Recently it was irritable sheep, wasn't it?

The term Irritable Male Syndrome was coined by sheep psychologist Gerald Lincoln, a researcher at the Medical Research Council in Edinburgh, who observed similarities between irritable men and the behaviour of rams who at the end of the mating will behave badly

pastimes

Searching for parlour games, I found these from Family Pastimes:
Untrivia

...the questions are practical, not trivial.
Over 10,000 copies sold in Sweden!

Break a Leg
We try to balance Artistic Concerns with the need to keep the Cash Box as full as possible

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Comments: pastimes

The untrivia link's dead for me, B. Looks intriguing.
Posted by Dick at April 30, 2005 04:51 PM

an un link.

Thanks, Dick. Should work now.

I thought it sounded like a rather confronting concept to some Trivia-heads I know. ;)
And then indeed you wonder - what would un trivia be?
Posted by boynton at April 30, 2005 05:16 PM

We try to balance Artistic Concerns with the need to keep the Cash Box as full as possible

As opposed to tickling Peter?
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at May 2, 2005 12:38 AM

Love his work ;)

the sound of a thousand and one grant applications, I thought...


Posted by boynton at May 2, 2005 12:57 PM

Reminds me a bit of Mad Lib and some boardgame I can't otherwise recall where you play cards if you had 'em to reverse another player's move, cause them to miss a turn or otherwise generally stuff around with them if the dice were getting them ahead on the board.

1000 Blank White Cards sounds fun. Like a cross between Consequences and In The Manner Of The Word.
Posted by Nabakov at May 2, 2005 07:16 PM

Yes I think 1000 blank white cards sounds great.

1000 blank white dice OTOH might run mad.
Posted by boynton at May 2, 2005 11:28 PM

parlour games

A few weeks ago at Trivia, my team-mate D and I started doodling and passing round the drawing like Consequences.
Hmm...could be a good parlour game we said as we inspected our biro collages, conjuring up the false memory of a parlour.

I hope one day I'll get to play 1000 blank white cards

(which I saw again at bifurcated rivets and then at Pop Culture Junk Mail)
who also suggests the variation: Eat Poop You Cat

Some memes, once they enter the game, are difficult or impossible to get rid of. Some examples are Nazis, devils, sex, Godzilla, people in crowns, clocks and Elvis.

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Comments: parlour games

Is there a parlour game where you have to design a parlour?
Posted by Tony.T at April 28, 2005 03:40 PM

Only if you a Victorian...
Blind Architect's Buff?

Actually - to parlay voo- voila:
http://www.shopexit9.com/e9_store/default.asp?pid=366&det=1&SplashDetCat=Play+with+Me

An animated version here:
http://ndm.si.edu/teaser/house_of_cards.htm
Posted by boynton at April 28, 2005 04:29 PM

"Eat poop you cat"

I think I need this one for nabakov, in emergencies.
Posted by cs at April 29, 2005 08:45 PM

Gravatars at dawn?

Indeed. The Acronym has a nice ring to it, cs.

Any feline references above were entirely coincidental btw.
As was any reference to Elvis... ;)

And I just realised we played this game a lot in childhood...
And also that I once blogged about a book being passed areound 4 artists...
http://boynton.ubersportingpundit.com/archives/008448.html
Posted by boynton at April 30, 2005 04:49 PM

autocritic

The New York Times could employ four reviewers of equal standing to cover openings in rotation. It has since been pointed out to me that the paper's website allows readers to post their own reviews. That is all well and good, but the day that quotes from those lay persons appear in newspaper ads or scream down at the public from posters is the day I believe that this gambit is a true correction of the Times's autocratic power.

A New York state of mind...Paul Taylor takes his London eye to the Big Apple
via Rebecca's Pocket

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Comments: autocritic

Sounds more like a democritsy.
Posted by Tony.T at April 28, 2005 07:04 PM

Would it suit if the reviews are taylor made? Guess we'd have to wear it...

(Actually that quote leapt out of because of recent debate around the traps. It's largely about Broadway, state of, more than the state of media.)
Posted by boynton at April 28, 2005 09:04 PM

dog qotd

Question from Bob, Professor Emeritus, State University System:
Which are smarter--labradors or college deans?

Adam Miklósi:
In my view that is a wrong type of question. In biology any type of "intelligence", "cleverness" or similar things do not exists in themselves but only with relation of the environment. So first you should define the environment in which you study them, and only then can I say (after testing) who is smarter (e.g. how would college deans hunt a bird?)

How Smart is Fido The Chronicle's on line discussion of Clever Canines
via Arts and Letters Daily

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Comments: dog qotd

nauwkeurige afhankelijke snelle van de de hoofdtelefoonerkenning van de erkenningsstem van de de stem nauwkeurige afhankelijke snelle erkenning van de de stem nauwkeurige afhankelijke snelle erkenning van de de stemcomputer van de de erkenningsstem van het de vrienddictee van de het dictee digitale machine van de het dicteestem van de het dicteedraak van de de overbrengerdictafoon medische van het de softwaredictee van de de dictafoonmachine phillips van de het bedrijfsdictafoon van het het dictee digitale registreertoestel van de de snaaroverbrenger van het het dicteebeheer van het het systeemdictee van de de testerkenning van de de technologiestem de baan medische overbrenger

nauwkeurige afhankelijke snelle van de de hoofdtelefoonerkenning van de erkenningsstem van de de stem nauwkeurige afhankelijke snelle erkenning van de de stem nauwkeurige afhankelijke snelle erkenning van de de stemcomputer van de de erkenningsstem van het de vrienddictee van de het dictee digitale machine van de het dicteestem van de het dicteedraak van de de overbrengerdictafoon medische van het de softwaredictee van de de dictafoonmachine phillips van de het bedrijfsdictafoon van het het dictee digitale registreertoestel van de de snaaroverbrenger van het het dicteebeheer van het het systeemdictee van de de testerkenning van de de technologiestem de baan medische overbrenger
Posted by peacay at October 20, 2005 12:32 AM

script jargon

Writing: Jargon Preservation
A glossary of TV script-writing terminology

via panopticist

saunter

Well of course, I could link to everything at Ramage at the moment, but shall restrict myself to this link about walking. (Among other links where you can wander around the theme)

Despite its ubiquity in the everyday walking is an activity obscured by its own practical functionality. It is employed literally and understood metaphorically as a slow, inefficient, and increasingly anachronistic means to a predetermined end. Rarely is walking considered as a distinct mode of acting, knowing, and making. As its necessity diminishes and its applications rarefy, the potential of walking as critical, creative, and subversive tool appears only to grow. Conceived of as a conversation between the body and the world, walking becomes a reciprocal and simultaneous act of both interpretation and manipulation; an embodied and active way of shaping and being shaped that operates on a scale and at a pace embedded in something seemingly more authentic and real.

I'm about to borrow a Labrador and have a saunter.
Footnote: It's so nice to have a labrador's soft benign frame beside me again after months of battling with a blue heeler and a tiny terrier who doesn't display the same pleasure in walking as a big loping labrador. This dog, on loan for a fortnight, still has the dumb puppy in him, but has that innate good humour where his tail wags steady as a pendulum, his mood set on happy around the clock.
In comparison, Flo seems as neurotic as a cat
Walking becomes functional when you have to wrestle with that.

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Comments: saunter

I was perplexed as to why you were ".. about to borrow a Labrador and have a sauna ".

I'm sorry - I'll read that again.
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at April 27, 2005 05:37 PM

I think a mooch is a level slower and more aimless than a saunter. But I can't be sure.
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at April 27, 2005 05:38 PM

You know, FX, when I wrote that sentence I saw its proximity to sauna or something 'saucy' anyway, vaguely, but was quite attatched to it nonetheless.

(Maybe it was just a subliminal memory of making Doug (the dog) stand in the steaming bathroom while I showered as a cheap cure for Kennel cough)

And I think I think I was rather lazy all round yesterday. Turned out to be more of a mooch than a saunter as this dog loves to sniff at EVERY marked spot along the way. And because he is borrowed I can't let him run freely while my mind wanders and mooches aimlessly. Rather disappointing.

But still a labrador all the same. Their loping joy is infectious.
Posted by boynton at April 27, 2005 05:49 PM

Er...I think I think anyway...
Posted by boynton at April 27, 2005 05:50 PM

"....while I showered as a cheap cure for Kennel cough.."

Hope your kennel cough is getting better.
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at April 27, 2005 08:40 PM

I could not swear to its efficacy, even after a night on the tiles...

The annoying thing was that he had been vaccinated but still caught it. (A blue heeler's cough is infectious.) So I was reduced to trying folk remedies "off of the internet" not wanting to cough up more money myself...
Posted by boynton at April 27, 2005 11:32 PM

stupid quotes

"For most people, death comes at the end of their lives."
- GLR broadcaster, UK

"Fiction writing is great, you can make up almost anything."
- Ivana Trump, on finishing her first novel

"Wonderful bargains for men with 16 and 17 necks."
- Sign in Men's clothing store

Stupid quotes via Daily Jive

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Comments: stupid quotes

The necks one begs an accompanying picture...
Posted by Dick at April 27, 2005 08:23 AM

Yes. I wish I had time to search for a mid-century Hydra Man, a European lithograph or an old Ad or something.
Best I could do was find this aerial shot.
http://barnard-maine.com/
Posted by boynton at April 27, 2005 12:12 PM

"Beware Falling Rocks" used to always crack me up, driving down the south coast.
Posted by cs at April 27, 2005 11:36 PM

I saw "Cyclists Rock" on a rock around the Boulevard here.
(I think this had been changed from 'Suck' - but that made no geological sense anyway)
And bicycles do occasionally teeter around blind corners.
Posted by boynton at April 27, 2005 11:46 PM

I lean less toward smissintrepreted Board of Works signage and more towards to the meaningless faux-folky aphorism side of things here.

A sick yak leaves light tracks.
Remember! a shirt has a tail but cannot bark.
Ask not why your well is uncarbonated.
Do not stoop to tie your shoeslaces in your neighbour's melon patch.
But if I dialed the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?
Everyone envies a tortoise in a hurry.
Posted by Nabakov at April 30, 2005 03:23 AM

Isn't there a song -
"If the phone don't ring, It's me"?

Might go nicely with number 5.

Don't know in which order, though.
Posted by boynton at April 30, 2005 04:57 PM

Great line Miss.

My fav quotes are from '68, but that's another topic.
Posted by cs at May 1, 2005 04:21 AM

Je suis marxiste tendance Groucho?

- or something from the comeback special?
Posted by boynton at May 2, 2005 12:54 PM

I think cs is nostalgic for those classic Situationist lines like:

Under the paving stones, the beach!
Chance must be systematically explored.
Boredom is always counterrevolutionary.
Everything disputable must be disputed.
It is forbidden to forbid.
Long live the ephemeral.
Free your ass and your mind will follow.
Posted by Nabakov at May 2, 2005 06:59 PM

They sound like more emergency lines for blog banter/flame skirmishes.

Or perhaps - match the situationist line with the blog...
(this one is forever ephemeral)
Posted by boynton at May 2, 2005 11:19 PM

roadmap art

Recently I saw three old Melways at the Op shop and walked away.
An hour later my sister rang from Maryborough saying she had just seen a 78 edition GC for two dollars, do I want it?
Ok.

Pity the Melways don't have graphics. Then collectors could have circa 66 pics of elongated petrol station attendants, motorists waving, driving, and bowser mascots to browse. From memory, I think you have to go to Broadbents or Morgan's for that.

However: Roadmap Art of the Road a flickr group via I like

The Road Ahead A Collector's Look at North American Road Maps


(and checking back into the Melways I see that as well as the entire number 1 online, now there are maps from editions through to 5.)

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Comments: roadmap art

Melways seems the exception to the rule of thou shalt not put a publication date in thy street directory. Gregorys, UBD, Fullers, all ours are dateless, making those cover graphics awfully useful for guessing

I have a 1975 melways, and still use it when I visit. Freeways begone - what's with that big one at the end of Exhibition St, eh? Not in '75!
Posted by Kent at April 24, 2005 09:19 PM

I blogged about it before, but I do find those early directories fascinating. Eg. Around here where the Freeway sliced the suburb, and who knows what it was like to live here before the 70's, but at least the Melway number 1 has recorded the look of it.
The map is like bare code.
Posted by boynton at April 25, 2005 04:29 PM

ah I found your old post, yes. I'm also in love with old maps. I found a few survey maps 2nd-hand, in tatters, that cover small parts of the Adelaide Plains - what is now suburbia are empty spaces with windmills, dams, and specks of buildings about the place. They're from 1942, 1937, marked 'Official, If Found Return To Military Headquarters'. but, I could go on about them all day. One day, I'll scan them.
Posted by Kent at April 25, 2005 04:48 PM

Please go on about them, all day, and send us the link.

btw - I was going to put this on a separate Post, but this Flickr things seems in the same sort of territory, albeit the personal. (Just waiting for Google maps to get to (A)us.)

Flickr group. memory Maps
http://www.flickr.com/groups/memorymaps/
(via Kevan)
http://del.icio.us/kevan/maps
Posted by boynton at April 25, 2005 05:00 PM

Found some scans

http://ummm.net/dockofthebay/2005/04/25/suburban-paddocks/
Posted by Kent at April 25, 2005 07:52 PM

sells peas

Directing Orson Welles selling Frozen peas

via Exclamation mark

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Comments: sells peas

He gets better with every dug up scrap.
Posted by flute at April 25, 2005 08:16 PM

"Scrap" being the operative word.
Posted by boynton at April 25, 2005 11:29 PM

the poor bastard. May i live to give as good as i get as grandly and effectively as that.
Posted by laura at April 26, 2005 09:38 AM

Citizen McCain.
Posted by Tony.T at April 26, 2005 11:19 AM

Indeed, Laura, the directors sound strangely pe-dantic - if you'll excuse the pun - just limbering up...hmmm

Touch of edgell?
Posted by boynton at April 26, 2005 12:17 PM

blog qotd

Topical blog authors are Dadaists selecting readymades who yet strive to be Bauhaus craftspeople and do occasionally succeed. That is, they strive to create original content and commentary but are also content to spread a found meme that they consider important or interesting

Scott Carter “The role of the author in topical blogs” via grand text auto

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Comments: blog qotd

'Even blog authors who insisted that their blog was for them alone still analyzed server logs or regularly tested their links for hits in major search engines.'

Ouch, outed!
Posted by Kent at April 23, 2005 04:24 AM

Yes, er... that was Blog QOT year?
or blogger's creed...

And there must be a disease Advertisers could invent here: Stat-itis, Server Log Fatigue? Technorati Cramp?
Posted by boynton at April 23, 2005 12:29 PM

Kent - I haven't done that. re Scott Carter's opinion: it has not been read by MY Twunt of the week (thanks cileo) Daniel Donahoo (se my place) who says we are all sad old losers with no life. (unlike himself in Castlemaine, emailing his pieces to various publications, to earn a living from the big city life he rejects.
Posted by Brownie at April 25, 2005 08:48 AM

I suspect one's sadness would be lessened by such heroic resistance, Brownie. Woe is me.

Blogging, even on a local scale, is too vast to generalise by some cursory flying visits. You only have to look at a few posts at "A Media Dragon" to see the range of meta (and better) discussion about blogs and blogging on offer from within and without.
Scott Carter's paper is but one example of serious analysis, if that's your bag. And that is really about the genre of Topical blogs, with the sub genre, Law blogs. I just swiped a nice quote, out of context, as is my wont, and the wont of the ww web, perhaps.

OTOH, bloggers are quite possibly highly delusional.
As is any voice daring to utter something in the dumb wilderness.

Actually , my innate and chronic sadness and non-influence received unexpected validation, (or is that invalidation?) not through google, as you do, but through meeting other bloggers in RL and discovering that they were all pretty much as you'd expect. Good company, on or offline.
I think most bloggers can manage to balance the e cup of coffee commentary and the real lattes with corporeal friends, in the city or poor old Castlemaine. (Which I know quite well as it happens)
Posted by boynton at April 25, 2005 04:23 PM

I made the remark because I know Castlemaine too, and have watched it devolve into Acland St with gum trees. as with Daylesford, soon the locals/historic occupants won't be able to afford to live there.
"highly delusional.As is any voice daring to utter something in the dumb wilderness." - the fact that it IS uttered and then RESPONDED to, means that it was not uttered into 'dumb wilderness'. Poor Mr Donahoo, possibly surrounded by people all the time, forgot for a moment that there are people who live alone, distanced from metropoli but not stupid, who get the zeitgeist by proxy through blogs. I hardly ever turn on my television set. and now I have to get to Mansfield Park thanks.(and I never thought I would ever actually use that z word back there)
Posted by Brownie at April 26, 2005 07:05 PM

I didn't want to say this at L.P. because most of the talk was 'oh but we DO have lives'. But-

Even if he (Donahoo) is right, and most bloggers are sad loner-folk, what's the problem? Turning off the internet and shutting down your blog doesn't give you friends, and doesn't take you to a cafe to discuss interesting things (as I've learnt). The few friends I have aren't interested in talking to me about things that bloggers and commenters are. And new flesh-friends aren't forthcoming for reasons totally unrelated to the blog.

I guess some people (Donahoo) don't like this new, increasingly powerful voice of all us sad folk, suddenly given volume. People communicate and (attempt to) influence in different ways - not by choice, but by necessity. Brownie because of distance; others because of shyness.
Posted by Kent at April 26, 2005 08:17 PM

Sorry if I unintentionally caused any offence there, Brownie, I was just 'talking to myself' (re "dumb"- anyway) along a stream of consciousness, laced with a bit of irony.
What I was trying to say so badly was that any utterance can seem bold, even perhaps delusional, until the medium/site is accepted as conventional.

Blogging is certainly a great medium for the isolated/shy/curious. Personally I think it's great for associative thinking. Thinking through linking.
As Mark B points out though, it's not an either/or situation. It's a pretty shaky off-line community that has to fear the virtual? As much as I like it, I don't think blogging presents much of a threat.

I agree with you about Castlemaine too.
(One side of the family goes back generations) Don't know if it's quite Acland St yet? Hope not.
Posted by boynton at April 26, 2005 10:05 PM

inventive

Bustringitis and Foot Fag are two of the diseases created by advertising listed here. (via kevan at as above)

Also the article How Advertising Can Wreck Your Health has a cheery pic of a 1970's Valium ad.

trivial times

Last night as I was waiting to leave for trivia the television said Why go out and play for flat beer when you can stay home and play a pub quiz here....
I was reading about Trivial Pursuit in decline at the time... via grow a brain

To win at Trivial Pursuit was to achieve something greater than mastering a board game. It was to achieve mastery of one's subculture: to have successfully determined which bits of information to retain (anything about Gunsmoke) and which to discard (anything about Rimbaud).

Then came the Internet: How could Trivial Pursuit survive in the age of Google? The Internet has rewritten the rules of the game. The old measure of the trivia master was how many facts he could cram into his head. The new measure is how nimbly he can manipulate a search engine to call up the answer

meanwhile: some flat beer pursuit practice... Online quizzes
(via life in the present)

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Comments: trivial times

Do you watch the television? I think it's pretty low fare and hardly ever watch. I'd rather read a good book. Or go for a walk. And as for trivia, well, that's just nonsense.
Posted by Tony.T at April 21, 2005 08:12 PM

I hardly ever watch the Television, much preferring the wireless. However, this promotional item was on Channel 2 just before the 7 O'clock news bulletin.
As for Trivia, well how many of the C catherine wives of Henry VIII could spell Jesaulenko for a point?
Posted by boynton at April 21, 2005 08:58 PM

Is that Jesaulenko with a K or a C?
Posted by Tony.T at April 21, 2005 09:11 PM

text to speech

Rhetorical Text to Speech engine interactive demo via things

I tested the phrase:Do I sound like a human being?
The Australian Female sounded relatively human
(even without the rising inflection or Australian questioning intonation (as it is called) by linguists around the world that study English) speaking American

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Comments: text to speech?

linguists 'who'? study english? I see that I must read my Vocabula review more thoroughly.
Posted by Brownie at April 26, 2005 10:53 AM

I used the cover of italics with that one. It did sound an odd mouthful.
Posted by boynton at April 26, 2005 12:20 PM

bicycles

Unusual pipe in original case at this collection of bicycle ephemera

via Ramage who has found some wonderful photos.

fashions

step by step how to dress like a late 1930's or early 1940's gentleman or lady (via quiddity)

The roll As you see I put the 'hair sausace' or 'rat' in the back of my neck, actually a bit better is to hold it lower, almost near the end of your hair...

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Comments: fashions

Thanks, Boynton, such a useful link. I have a group of students doing a self-written play set in the 1940s & these pics provide excellent reference points.
Posted by Dick at April 21, 2005 07:52 AM

That's good to know.
More at the excellent Quiddity, from whence it came.
Posted by boynton at April 21, 2005 10:35 AM

Nice to see my website is usefull to you!
Feel free to ask me anything about the 1930's and 1940's!
Posted by joeri at May 10, 2005 11:15 AM

conferences

flashforward conference blog
via Levitated via bifurcated rivets


turbulence
an open forum to discuss network-enabled performance for an international conference in 2006

vintage ads

I married a fluffy
and other choice items from an early 1970's Aust Women's Weekly at Vintage Ads journal.

(via the ultimate insult)

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Comments: vintage ads

Where, and via whom?
Posted by Scott Wickstein at April 18, 2005 05:10 PM

...What, and which?

I thought your cryptic question might relate to the Ad, Scott, but try as I might, I just can't read the first line of text. I enlarged it x 150 but not sharp enough to spot any clues in the rice...

(I did see that Ham and Pineapple are a sizzling combo, anway.)
Posted by boynton at April 18, 2005 05:57 PM

Your blog is rapidly becoming an invaluable pointer to source material. Magic stuff.
Posted by flute at April 18, 2005 09:16 PM

He reminded me of Jeff Kennett.

(I remember that Gummo had a good Fluffy joke)
Posted by cs at April 19, 2005 02:25 AM

but he's so....smooov

Maybe it's the chest that's fluffy. Men's chests usually were, in the 1970s
Posted by laura at April 19, 2005 10:50 AM

You want fluffy?

http://kev.needham.ca/gallery/misccrap/OneEasyPiece_001

You got fluffy, babe.

(Apparently Holden FX's got one in jesuitical black)
Posted by Nabakov at April 19, 2005 03:06 PM

Must get one in camel.
Posted by cs at April 19, 2005 05:10 PM

Must get one in camel? Why? Am thinking would look nicer on you than inserted in domesticated ruminant.
Posted by Nabakov at April 19, 2005 05:31 PM

Hmm...I was going to say "one hump or two?" myself...

("Because one is enough when it's you.")

But yep- the Big Zip in 50% Polyester is It.
Posted by boynton at April 19, 2005 05:42 PM

rude people
Posted by cs at April 20, 2005 12:45 AM

Scott - I just saw "boynton" on a laptop XP IE, and see what you mean. Or "don't see" what you mean.
For some reason the link
http://www.livejournal.com/community/vintage_ads/66985.html#cutid1
and the via
http://www.ultimateinsult.net/archives/2005/04/13/vintage-ads/trackback/
have gone missing.

Curious...
Posted by boynton at April 21, 2005 11:47 PM

writer

Some local writing on the freeway wall.

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Comments: writer

bad genres or bad writing?
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at April 17, 2005 04:58 PM

Not telling... ;)
(There is some extra yellow text on the next bit of fence that seems to clarify the question, but I like the element of found Koan)
Posted by boynton at April 17, 2005 08:20 PM

Yeah Miss, what's a non-genre? A cross-genre? A new genre?
Posted by cs at April 18, 2005 12:15 AM

No more bad genre grafitti,

That spray can stuff is so passe. It's all Banksy style stencils now, dontcha know?
Posted by Nabakov at April 18, 2005 12:32 AM

who knows, but it seems to be a Poly Semantic can of worms in certain circles, cs.

I could name the suburb as a retort here, Nabakov. ;)
(Possibly not the epicentre of hip.)
However I thought I was walking in an Open Field public environment when I happened to spot it the other morning.
Posted by boynton at April 18, 2005 09:47 AM

OTOH - I see what you mean. (I'm a bit slow in the morning)

Both N and M need work. And V would seem to be struggling here.
Posted by boynton at April 18, 2005 10:33 AM

I promise to do write good genre novels in future.
Posted by Genre Novel Writer at April 18, 2005 05:11 PM

Genre-X. Somewhere between bad-genre novel and bad genre-novel.
Posted by Tony.T at April 18, 2005 08:31 PM

GNW - how about a future historical novel?

T - boom boom...
(Wonder if John Le Carre is Gen re X ?)

Also - through that Turbulence site above saw this today, which might help the quality control. Or not...
http://www.appliedautonomy.com/gw.html
Posted by boynton at April 19, 2005 05:49 PM

pape

ceci n'est pas...

Miss W Tod's blog- Temple of Psychick Blah

(via Philobiblion)

marble sigh

Not Speech Nor Silence Nor the Marble Sigh of Art
Nor all that Lonely Grief Has Writ in Tears...

Some lines at the Springthorpe Memorial which is described beautifully at Sorrow at Sills Bend

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Comments: marble sigh

What a beautiful read.
He must had loved her dearly to put her in such a serene and romantic resting place.
lt is so romantic.
Posted by A Romantic at April 15, 2005 09:57 PM

I agree with Laura when she says it's all that and creepy too.
Something unsettling about such extravagance, even when you are struck by the beauty.
Posted by boynton at April 17, 2005 03:07 PM

How can an inscription that contains the phrase 'twelve years of earth's best love lie buried here' be creepy? If you researched him you would find that he was a remarkable man for his era...progressive....pro-women....etc. Oh that we should all be fortunate enough to feel such love or to be revered the way he revered her.
Posted by Fleur at October 16, 2005 06:19 PM

I was very moved by the place.
It really was beautiful that day, with grief still very much on my mind - and ways of remembrance and commemoration.
And I remember reading a little and thinking he did seem a remarkable man- so I hope no offence was taken. Would certainly like to read and know more about him.
The creepiness was as much to do with the general mood of a cemetery, so still and heavy with mortality as the High street traffic rolls past.
But I think it's the sheer scale that can seem unsettling too, to qoute Lucy:
"it gives a monumentally public form to an intensely private grief and mourning".
Posted by boynton at October 16, 2005 07:26 PM

sayings

Stop yer ivverin' an' ovverin' an' get on wi'it. (Stop messing about and get on with the job.)
Black Country Sayings via Plep

I also like Making a noise like a gleed under a door. (Someone singing badly.)
I may have sounded like such a gleed indeed singing my way through all those pianola midis.

Some ribald riddles from the Exeter Book
(one link of many at Apothecary's Drawer)

treated books

A Humument
The artist plays Pygmalion with W.H. Mallock's A Human Document (1892).

(via as above)

weathered books a flickr set (via ramage)

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Comments: treated books

We have the new edition of A Humument in the shop where I work, but I didn't know there was a website for it. I'll take a look.

Aren't those photos great?
Posted by dave at April 15, 2005 03:51 AM

I've got a copy of The Humament. It's gorgeous work.
Posted by Lonita at April 15, 2005 08:44 AM

oh god, i love a humument.
Posted by laura at April 15, 2005 11:41 AM

Yeah the photos are certainly good.

And I might just have to look around for the non-virtual "A Humument".
Posted by boynton at April 15, 2005 02:35 PM

Tequila Mockingbird is a site I love - and that is where I found this strange but appealing book sharing idea -

http://www.bookcrossing.com/

would it work in Australia . . . .naaaaah.
Posted by Brownie at April 21, 2005 09:06 PM

http://www.bookcrossing.com/hunt/4/72/32416/travel_-Australia-Victoria-Melbourne-CBD

Maybe it does?
I love that concept, and first saw it a few years ago when I happened to be googling a park in Melb.Apparently a book had just been released in this otherwise obscure place.
Posted by boynton at April 21, 2005 10:03 PM

soulmate

Dead Celebrity Soulmate Search

Ludwig van Beethoven responds...
"Fine, fine, if you want to meet me, so be it."

You might want to bring along something to read, as Beethoven is known to be temperamental, preoccupied and somewhat distant

(via the presurfer)

cliff plunge

I wasn't going to ignore this story involving labradors

A black labrador is enjoying a brief but heady dose of celebrity after proving that a dog can be another dog's best friend

Labradors have a reputation for loyalty and quick wits...

although this headline was better: Cliff Plunge Labrador Saved by Canine Friend

The story of Sheena and Lacey was reminscent of that other dogs over cliff story involving Mossi and Jack

(via a welsh view)

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Comments: cliff plunge

Don't they mean the "RUNNER Marion Jones"?
Posted by Tony.T at April 14, 2005 05:04 PM

The 100 ft drop might make it into the Extreme Olympics?

Meanwhile, I googled "Cliff Plunge" and 2nd up was a story about a Jack Russell.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_4230000/newsid_4233900/4233919.stm
British dogs seem to do this a lot.
Posted by boynton at April 14, 2005 06:09 PM

funniest

Brad Zellar lists his funniest novels of all time. On the strength of this, I've dusted off Pickwick and may reborrow Pale Fire which I had sitting here for 6 weeks recently as a bedside ornament.

In response to the appeal for funny novels by women, I was going to suggest The Holiday by Stevie Smith which I once found for a dollar, and found very funny.
But -iest? ... Who nose.

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Comments: funniest

I haven't heard of nine of those, and haven't read any. Do they come online? In blogs, maybe?
Posted by Tony.T at April 13, 2005 01:32 PM

e Pickwick
http://www.dickens-literature.com/The_Pickwick_Papers/index.html
Posted by boynton at April 13, 2005 02:14 PM

re the Zellar choice, definitely 'At Swim Two Birds'. But for me # 1 has got to be 'Lucky Jim' by Kingsley Amis.
Posted by Dick at April 13, 2005 07:26 PM

My funniest is definitely Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide... but he hardly gets a look in :-/
Posted by Kent at April 14, 2005 01:03 AM

Undeservedly contemporaneously obscure is "The Darling Buds of May" by H.E. Bates.
Posted by Ajax B at April 14, 2005 09:51 AM

H.E.Bates features in Withnail And I ...

Marwood's (Paul McGann) voice over upon encountering a hostile farmer --

"Not the attitude I'd been given to expect from the H.E.Bates novel I'd read. I thought they'd all be out the back drinking cider and discussing butter. Clearly a myth."
Posted by Tony.T at April 14, 2005 12:04 PM

I'm going to try to sample all on the list, and Lucky Jim.
It's interesting that Douglas Adams wasn't mentioned in the comments.
My funniest #1 is probably Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut. Though these things depend on the moment.
(I once read Pride and Prejudice and that particluar time laughed all the way through for some reason).
("The holiday" is a sort of impressionistic tale with a mix of whimsy and melancholy.)
I saw the TV show of Darling Buds of May and enjoyed it - I'll seek out the book.

I like discussing cider. I'm a myth.
Posted by boynton at April 14, 2005 12:43 PM

Well, you're Myth Boynton to me, alright.
Posted by I.Buttrose at April 14, 2005 04:45 PM

Too much cider and Myth B is certainly amiss.

btw: "Whose cruel idea was it for the word "lisp"
to have an "s" in it?"
(via Dick Jones.)
http://blogs.salon.com/0002065/2005/02/24.html
Posted by boynton at April 14, 2005 05:11 PM

Hey there’s heaps of wonderful, if not utterly transcendently funny novels in the English language. I scarcely know where to begin. But here’s a few that immediately come to mind

“Three Men In A Boat (To Say Nothing Of The Dog)” by Jerome K. Jerome.
“…and George, who would not be able to get away from the City till the afternoon (George goes to sleep at a bank from ten to four each day, except Saturdays, when they wake him up and put him outside at two), would meet us there.”

And here it is online, Tone T, at:
http://www.forgottenfutures.com/game/boat/boat.htm
I reckon you’d really like it.

“Scoop” by Evelyn Waugh (“…but up to a point, Lord Copper”)
It starts with “"Feather-footed through the plashy fen passes the questing vole..." -then insert scathing satire about Western journalists abroad - and then close with ""Outside the owls hunted maternal rodents and their furry brood."

“Tin Men” by Michel Frayn
“And this is a table, ma'am [Your Majesty]. What in essence it consists of is a horizontal rectilinear plane surface maintained by four vertical columnar supports, which we call legs. The tables in this laboratory, ma'am, are as advanced in design as one will find anywhere in the world.”

And so many more. “The Bear Comes Home” by Rafi Zabor, “Boone” by Brooks Hansen and “Let’s Put The Future Behind Us” by Jack Womack, to name just a smidgeon.

"L*lita", "Pale Fire" and Pnin" are also a bit of a laff riot if yer in the mood.

However I'd put my hand for a small but growing group of people who think "Confederency Of Dunces" is just sub-JP Donleavey, who was pretty overrated himself, and by himself. Also I reckon Flann O'Brien's novels were overblown too. His funniest work was as Myles A Gopeen.

Honou'ble mention here for Spike Milligan's "Puckoon". Wasn't much of a novel but by the Pope's bollocks, it was fuckin' drop dead funny in places...and with some surprisingly moving pathos as well.

Anyway, fuck this. I'm off now to do shadow puppet origami with a sturdily bound copy of "Tristam Shandy. Gent." It's what someone would have wanted.. if they'd thought of it. (And for a reasonable fee, they can!)
Posted by Nabakov at April 14, 2005 09:38 PM

Disappointed that you didn't include any Henry James...

Thanks, Nabakov. Will look into those.

I like the way Brad Zellar writes about the scarcely possible process of compiling such a list that seems to be a funny sort of staple in the b'sphere.
It always feels off the top of the head, or a rememberance of moods past. That 'best' thing is such a provisional beast.
But the assorted recommendations are interesting.
& "Open All Night" is a great blog btw.
Posted by boynton at April 14, 2005 10:38 PM

Hey B-Girl, stop blogging and read "Three Men In A Boat" right now. Then consider that Fairfield Boating House is only a thrown dog bone away.
Posted by Nabakov at April 14, 2005 11:18 PM

OK, N-man

I happen to have a non-digital copy at hand, so shall do. asap.
Posted by boynton at April 15, 2005 04:11 PM

nice choices Nabakov, +ve and -ve.
I'll specially second Scoop, also Decline and Fall.

Not really novels, but: Stephen Potter on Gamesmanship - The Thurber Carnival, especially 'The Night The Bed Fell', Woody Allen's 'Without Feathers', and JOhn Lennon In His Own Write.
ooh, I'm off to reread Potter now. Stuff the rest of the vacuuming
Posted by laura at April 15, 2005 06:03 PM

Very funny clever bad intelligent and funny novel title 'Confessions Of A Southern Girlhood' by Florence King, clearly autobiographical and about the difficulty of being a highly intelligent woman in the smothering Southern culture - think Fran Leibowitz, Dottie Parker. Now I have to go and read it again . . . .
Posted by Brownie at April 17, 2005 12:58 PM

Thanks for those suggestions.
btw In His Own write - is online - but perhaps shouldn't be...
http://www.geocities.com/baby-lemonade/ihow_toc.html
Posted by boynton at April 17, 2005 03:11 PM

"...about the difficulty of being a highly intelligent woman in the smothering Southern culture "

And then check out "In the Land of Dreamy Dreams" by Ellen Gilchrist. Angela Carter with a Head tennis racket clenched in one hand, seeing red (or deep deep moss green).

More great funny novels.

"MASH" by Richard Hooker. Yes, before the film and theTV show, there was the book. Lotsa crap print sequels thereafter but the original book was some of best bawdy yet barbed humour I've come across.

"Semi-Tough" by Dan Jenkins. The MASH of US pro sports. Very funny and very bawdy too. I think the film version is also a very underated satire of America in the late seventies. And watching it now, you can see how Owen Wilson lifted a lot of his screen persona from the 70s Burt Reynolds.

"Felidae" by Akif Pirincci. Ostensibly a novel about a cat as a private eye. But I always thought Chandler and Hammett were really funny guys and a Turkish writer in Germany reworking their stuff with whiskers and fur is even funnier.

"The Space Merchants" by Fredrick Pohl and Cyril Kornbulth. Though dismissed as SF, it's a scathing (and bloody well written too) Swiftian satire that seems to be coming true 50 years after it was written.

"Downriver" by Iain Sinclair. Well I wept with laughter while reading it. But then some folks are sick aren't they? Or perhaps not sick enough? Whatever. Buy it and read it.
Posted by Nabakov at April 17, 2005 10:49 PM

Dan Jenkins is a riot - Tin Cup (absolutely not the film adaptation).
Posted by Brownie at April 18, 2005 12:43 AM

I was only thinking of funny women (- Clare Booth Luce 'The Women'! of course!) BUT Dan Greenberg "What Do Women Really Want" c.1970 - was convulsively funny.
Posted by Brownie at April 18, 2005 12:47 AM

Thanks again. This is almost a list waiting for a syllabus.
I will check them out, literally.

"I used to read while I was waiting to take my tennis lessons. It used to drive my tennis teacher crazy. Instead of watching the other players or something, I’d be reading The Brothers Karamazov or something while I was waiting to take my tennis lesson, and he didn’t think I was serious about tennis, but I was"
Ellen Gilchrist.
http://www.southernscribe.com/zine/authors/Gilchrist_Ellen.htm
Posted by boynton at April 18, 2005 09:25 AM

Lorrie Moore pre- Birds of America; Eudora Welty; the wonderful Pam Houston -- there's an excerpt from her best story "How To Talk To a Hunter" (from COWBOYS ARE MY WEAKNESS), here:

http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?show=TRADE%20PAPER:NEW:0393326357:13.95&page=excerpt

If you want the rest, I have a copy handy, will post.
Posted by wen at April 20, 2005 07:55 PM

Looks like it's another walk down to the Library.
Posted by boynton at April 21, 2005 10:37 AM

call me

some oh-so-hott music leads at Feaverish, found via a comment at the always cool Ramage

piano rolls

BLACK
IN
ING
DRESS-
THRU
ALL
I'M

I'm all thru dressing in black

For instance


Some of the words running backwards at Word Rolls for a Player Piano Gallery at the mighty Piano Player Rebirth

I learned this reading skill early at the grandparental pianola, where we six kids would shuffle thru our favourite playlist. I must look out for those titles among the hundreds on offer at an Archive of preserved piano rolls in midi form

via bifurcated rivets

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Comments: piano rolls

I wish I had 20/20 foresight. I could have taken a picture of a 100% rolled gold, authentic pianola (with rolls) at a certain beachside abode last week. I'll have to keep it in mind.
Posted by Tony.T at April 11, 2005 08:09 PM

l remember standing around the pianola at my grandparent's house listening to my grandmother playing and us kids singing along.
Beautiful memories.......your story bought it all back to me.
Posted by memories. at April 11, 2005 08:18 PM

T: I see that Batch 2 features a tune you may have once sung in that abode? "It's a Grand Old Flag".
Couldn't see "Notre dame fight song" midi there...

I found one of our list there - the one my brother always chose. Amazing how it brings back memories.
Posted by boynton at April 11, 2005 09:12 PM

I remember getting so blotto one night that I played the piano with my head.

Apparently opinion remains divided to this day as to whether I was rendering a spirited jazz fusion interpretation of the 2nd variation of Bach's Goldberg Variations or just trying to play "Smoke On The Water" by ear...and missing.

I'm still reserving judgement on this issue m'self. In the meantime just call me the human pianola roll.
Posted by Nabakov at April 13, 2005 03:34 AM

What Tempo, Mr Nabakov?
Posted by boynton at April 13, 2005 01:13 PM

200 rolls GC For Sale email Brownie.
Posted by Brownie at April 18, 2005 08:44 PM

seven steps

From sci-fi beefcake to self-conscious punch line to legitimately lauded icon.
How William Shatner Went From Has-Been to Icon in Seven Self-Aware Steps

Via *.*

the day

Zeitgeist was Word of the Day on July 22, 1999.

Source: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

 

(Found when spellchecking.The old zed word and heirarchy are 2 of my frequent errors)

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Comments: the day

I like its brotherword, weltanschauung
Dictionary.com haven't featured that yet
Posted by Kent at April 9, 2005 04:06 PM

Heirarchy being government by the sons and daughters of the ruling class?
Posted by Ajax B at April 9, 2005 05:11 PM

Unlike schadenfreude.
http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2000/05/10.html


Spirit of the bad heir day.
Posted by boynton at April 10, 2005 01:48 PM

hoods

What the hoods of Boroondara say to each other, shooting the breeze on the concrete terraces at the back of Blockbuster:

If you want do up a car, you gotta get your hands on an old Mercedes...

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Comments: hoods

behind me on a coach from Ballarat to melbourne, 2 guys who had both been in various gaols were having a conversation that was unbelievable and I started taking it down on every bit of paper I had in my bag. here, for your delectation is one exchange I swear is from true life -
One: "he started nicking ferraris with a nailfile and now he's in newcastle doing 15".
Two: "that's a long time for stealing cars?"
One: "Oh he killed a coupla doctors".
Two: "only cars less than 10 years old get counted"
One: "That makes sense."

Elmore Leonard knows how to write this dialogue. If I could cage these guys and just transcribe all their conversation, it would make Reservoir Dogs sound like Rocky & Bullwinkle.
Posted by Brownie at April 17, 2005 01:29 PM

That's bril, Brownie.
Love that first sentence. A classic.

I once shared a carriage with two guys like that from Geelong to Melb. No lines that could match yours though.

(btw - I hope my own post was not too obscure for non-melburnians. Boroondara being a rather snooty suburb in parts, this particular snippet sounded a bit silver-spoon to cut it - but maybe I got it wrong.)
Posted by boynton at April 17, 2005 03:21 PM

some swfs

Europe and Italy by Bruno Bozzetto.
(via the Cartoonist)


Cigarillos by Benoit Guillaume
(via pcl linkdump)

Flash Polaroids by Brian Kim Stefans
(via Topher Tune's times)

garden paradiso

Create your own garden paradise (via fishbucket)

(or fill your backyard with giant gnomes, purple urns and crawling can openers)

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Comments: garden paradiso

Phew, that was almost as much hard work as real gardening. Thank goodness I live in a unit.
Posted by Scott Wickstein at April 6, 2005 06:15 PM

Yeah I agree Scott. But then there's cactus - the unit dweller's little green friend. Not to mention some GE crop experiments I'm currently conducting in my fridge.

"Furry Bread! For those moments when you want to stroke yer comfort food first."
Posted by Nabakov at April 6, 2005 08:55 PM

I got to enjoy it when I placed the cacti onto trees, in various sizes and angles.
I was quite contrary and only wanted organic things and not the kitsch trinkets.
Before I discovered the cacti, my garden was full of apples, a bit like a 90's chic garden full of monotone shrubs.

Can you make a feature of the Furry Bread though, Nabakov?
A Giant transparent version might be just the thing for the cosmopolitan grotto?
Posted by boynton at April 7, 2005 12:28 PM

A Cosmo Grotto? Sounds like a good name for a cafe.
Posted by Scott Wickstein at April 7, 2005 04:07 PM

- when the retro goes off...
Posted by boynton at April 7, 2005 09:42 PM

You could make lawnpatch-width-sized loaves and slice them and then grow the furry mold on them and then set the slices into slice-sized depressions you could excavate in the yard...

Apropos propinquity and little else - you must have seen this
http://www.amazingaustralia.com.au/faq.htm
a hundred times already but in case you haven't.
Posted by ajax b at April 8, 2005 06:12 AM

I hadn't
but like this:

Q: It is imperative that I find the names and addresses of places to contact for a stuffed porpoise. (Italy)
Posted by boynton at April 8, 2005 01:49 PM

australasian

I hesitated for 3 seconds before buying a facsimile edition of The Australasian Sketcher at the op-shop recently. I've since been reading the miscellany of acclimatisation, theatricals, shipping and spiritualism of Melbourne in 1873 in a folio edition that makes one adopt an almost authentic facsimile pose of peering at the columns of small text.

In the same genre, I see that there are pages from the Picturesque Atlas 1886 here to read in a 21st century e way, staring at a monitor.

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Comments: australasian

When I read 21st Century I thought you meant the future - all futuristical and everything. And then it hit me - here we are.
Posted by ajax b at April 6, 2005 04:50 PM

yes Ajax, though perhaps peering at a monitor is (so)20th century, fin de already.
Though according to 20th c futurist pundits, 21st ought to involve embodiment of some sort?
Wearable future?
Posted by boynton at April 7, 2005 12:17 PM

lines of poetry

Nick Piombino: “Going Toward Nothing”: “The Self-Stung Unfolding”

(Lines from The Best American Poetry of 2004, edited by Lyn Hejinian)
 

As soon as I began to read the book, it occurred
to me that a great deal of contemporary poetry continually
reflects on disillusionment and suffering, and not
a little of it, including much of my own recent work
focuses on the hardships of being a poet.

Then, as I paged through the book, I got an idea.
I thought of pulling out one sad, depressed, angry,
bitter or tragic line from each poem. At first I
did this in a provocative or critical way, but then
it became a way of reading the book with an eye
towards insight...

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Comments: lines of poetry

We can only sympathise with the torture of Poet Laureate (not our Fluffy but) Andrew Motion whose effort for the Royal Wedding I have just read at the Guardian online.
Andy refers to (Diana) 'winter wreckage' at the source of the stream that is Chucky's heart. I have posted the whole damn thing on Go Away.
Posted by Brownie at April 9, 2005 07:08 PM

You can hear him reading it here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4427239.stm#

he discusses the line in question.
Posted by boynton at April 10, 2005 02:00 PM

gravitas

I think gravatars are only slightly less annoying than animated emoticons for blog noise, but I could be wrong.
(Although fears that it creates a hierarchy in the comment threads are possibly groundless as the trend widens)

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Comments: gravitas


Is there now a term for the original emoticons made of punctuation? maybe Vintage Emoticons?

;)

Jarrett
Posted by Jarrett at April 4, 2005 02:06 PM

Unanimated? ;)


I should cover my gravitas here - who knows one day I may adopt this trend myself, and then I'd probably go for something "vintage".

Just find it a bit "noisy" that's all.
Posted by boynton at April 4, 2005 02:10 PM

Wouldn't you have a lovely old black Labrador as your signature, Boynton?
Posted by Norabone at April 5, 2005 12:06 PM

Alas, it would take a brave woman to adopt such a signature? ;)
As beautiful as a Black Labrador can be.
May be not so much of the "old" though...

No ofeence meant, btw, to people who like these things. It's just an aesthetic thing of preferring the look of white space, and text. Probably conservative.

And perhaps there's an inkling in blogging gravatar-creep that the power of words alone is soon to be supplanted?
Posted by boynton at April 5, 2005 12:53 PM

I can't see me ever putting those bloody pictures in comments at das flute. It would be like wearing fluoro socks to the Reform Club.
Posted by flute at April 5, 2005 09:46 PM

I thought das flute had those bloody pictures?

Acceptable attire if it's fluoro Socks Day.
Posted by boynton at April 5, 2005 09:59 PM

"...that the power of words alone is soon to be supplanted?"

http://metaatem.net/words/Or%20perhaps%20not
Posted by Nabakov at April 5, 2005 10:29 PM

http://metaatem.net/words/who%20said%20that?

http://metaatem.net/words/blind%20as%20a%20bat
Posted by boynton at April 5, 2005 10:44 PM

Whoops. I forgot the

http://metaatem.net/words/wink
Posted by boynton at April 5, 2005 10:58 PM

Wot's a "blind asabat"?

Sounds sorta like a great insult. "You blind assbat you!"
Posted by Nabakov at April 6, 2005 12:03 AM

ass abat right

Might start calling people that.
Posted by boynton at April 6, 2005 12:17 AM

No way miss, I wear a gravatar out and about but not at home.
Posted by flute at April 6, 2005 12:58 PM

If you got a labrador, it could chase all the cats away.

Gravatars will soon be seen as the blog equivalent of Loony Tunes ties.
Posted by Tony.T at April 6, 2005 01:16 PM

Actually my labrador liked cats.

(The Jack Russell is the worst offender there, even though she's smaller than most feline visitors.)

So have you registered yours yet?
Posted by boynton at April 6, 2005 01:28 PM

I hate to say it, but I think Ms Zoe crazybrave is largely responsible for popularising this gross affliction upon the aesthetics of the'sphere, Miss Boynton. And now that the dreaded Nabakov has joined the enemy, I fear the dignity of clean blog print is domed.
Posted by cs at April 7, 2005 12:51 AM

"I fear the dignity of clean blog print is domed."

Nah, it's not some semi-spherical architectural roofing solution. I think it's more like what Tony T said, a fad like Looney Tune Ties. Of course it could evolve in ways we just can't predict.

But for the moment I like this gravater thingy 'cos it helps me get in character when commenting - and provides another angle to riff off of other commentators.

*Huk, hurk, huk. Furball! huurrk*
Posted by Nabakov at April 7, 2005 01:51 AM

I think you're right about the origins, CS.
Zoe's was the first I saw.
I do like them on an individual basis - Zoe's yellow flower is lovely, Nabakov's black cat very kool...But when everyone gets a stamp, it just gets a bit cluttered imho- (imh and white-space-preferring o)
Hope it's a fad that fades, but I may stand corrected and may even join in the iconography one day.

That's Naba kov kov kov?
Posted by boynton at April 7, 2005 12:35 PM

wotalotof drivel, each person contributing a meaningless load of baseless claptrap, I suggest you all crawl away and boil your heads.
Posted by at April 8, 2005 06:29 PM

Oh, Oh, someone lifted the rock.
Posted by cs at April 8, 2005 06:32 PM

To Anon....if you think it is a lot of dribble and "meaningless claptrap". Why are you here?
Posted by Concerned Patron. at April 8, 2005 07:05 PM

What's the gravatar of a troll?

Can of spam?
Posted by boynton at April 8, 2005 07:08 PM

- sorry Concerned Patron, that wasn't directed at you, but you know who...
Posted by boynton at April 8, 2005 07:10 PM

how about shitars? everytime someone scrolls to your comment, your favourite ringtone plays. thus, you don't have to rely on boring old skool "words" to make an individual statement.
Posted by flute at April 8, 2005 08:48 PM

Alas - only a matter of time. Mission possible...

Coincidentally, I heard Red Symons this morning joking about the possibility of an ABC audio watermark.
Posted by boynton at April 8, 2005 11:43 PM

Inevitable comment deletion.
Posted by boynton at April 9, 2005 10:34 AM

Kleenex Ahoy Kleenex Ahoy
Posted by at April 9, 2005 10:57 AM

Thank-you Boynton......l was starting to get worried.
Posted by Concerned Patron. at April 9, 2005 10:57 AM

cs appears to have been unable to resist this gross affliction upon the aesthetics of the 'sphere

unless another Whitely nut with the same address is impersonating him at http://larvatusprodeo.redrag.net/2005/04/09/blair-vs-lowenstein/#comment-1717
Posted by at April 12, 2005 04:52 PM

How thoughtful of you to dob me in dear anonymous - and that would be 'Whiteley', btw.

(I plead the 'if you can't beat em' defence Miss Boynton, plus whatever Nabbers says)
Posted by cs at April 12, 2005 07:33 PM

well, like the black cat, the whiteley bird is cool

as far as gravatars go

though I will NEVER have a gravatar

unless I change my mind
Posted by boynton at April 12, 2005 09:05 PM

Shame you feel so strongly about not gravating Bonty. I'd found a nice artwork you could crop an gravator image from.

http://gaming.unlv.edu/gallery/a_friend_in_need.htm

*cocks sardonic eyebrow at cs, adjusts clothing and notes the nearest exit*
Posted by Nabakov at April 13, 2005 03:20 AM

I once blogged about those famous prints, but can't find the bloggered archives now. Grew up with them, so they have the necessary nostalgic value.

I duly cropped - but am reluctant to infringe © - to zoom in on the card in question.

That detail - The paw of Dog - reminiscent of The hand of God.
Posted by boynton at April 13, 2005 01:12 PM

I dobbed Chris in, and I didn't mean to do it anonymously, I just didn't have the cookie thingy on.

Honest.
Posted by Zoe at April 14, 2005 07:45 PM

A cookie might be a nice gravatar...
Hmmm ...that might take the biscuit. ;)

btw - I was wrong with the "yellow flower" description, Zoe. Closer inspection reveals a White flower near yellow Sorry about that.
Posted by boynton at April 14, 2005 08:00 PM

word news

I saw this yesterday when world news was dominated by the word pope
A full screen moment.
Today other key words like globe gather around.

via J walk

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Comments: word news

'peanuts' is up there with 'schiavo'... :-/
Posted by Kent at April 4, 2005 06:27 PM

I wonder if Peanuts would make it onto an .au board?

"kayaked acted dramas fellow clerics compared wayne loses light..."
If that ain't poetry - what is...
Posted by boynton at April 4, 2005 06:40 PM

This along with the sentence machine a few posts back - the poets do have competition.

'eastern european communism defender'. Interesting editorial spin ;)
Posted by Kent at April 5, 2005 01:14 AM

performance poets and even playwrights and even odd playwrights had better watch it too -

There's a nice mix right now with a suggested hush gathering...a scored vocal response, whisperings, silence.
Posted by boynton at April 5, 2005 12:46 PM

hca

I took the easy Quiz on the Hans Christian Andersen 2005 site and just scraped through.

Many things to explore here, including a portrait gallery
Hans Christian Andersen became the most thoroughly photographed person in the infancy of the history of photography.

and among the features, an interview with Robert Lepage on his planned solo performance based on the fairytale The Dryad

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Comments: hca

You would have aced it if it'd all been story questions though I bet.
I missed the 20 mattresses under the princess and over the pea, thinking 40, remembering a lot.
Posted by ajax b at April 4, 2005 02:00 PM

Aced?...
Yes - I did do much better on the stories.

And I forgot the number of the matresses too.
(Here I've been thinking all my life that 50 matresses was the minimum standard.)
Posted by boynton at April 4, 2005 02:07 PM

scraps

"There is a Professor Lewis in New Zealand who does the rope-tying trick a good deal better than Dr. Dunn, and does not require the assistance of spirits."

Facts and Scraps The Australasian Sketcher April 19, 1873

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Comments: scraps

Fill me full of spirits (a single malt'll do) and I'll do a rope trick that neither Prof Lewis or Doc Dunn can climb.
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at April 4, 2005 05:02 PM

Something to look forward to at the next assembly of the Melb Splenetic Bloggers, FX.

In the meantime, I hope you're talking pretzels...
http://www.inquiry.net/outdoor/spin_rope/trick_knots.htm
Posted by boynton at April 4, 2005 05:33 PM

Thanks to Laputan Logic, I now know about the role of Spirits in rope tricks - you will love this link
http://alpha.furman.edu/%7Ebryson/impimages.html
Posted by Brownie at April 8, 2005 08:16 PM

heh, very nice - it's a great link.

Wonder if FX would acknowledge his impish informants?
Posted by boynton at April 8, 2005 11:36 PM

covers

Klaus describes his inspiration for the ground-breaking Revolver album cover thus: "Since the Beatles went to the US the hair became a very important part of their identity. So the hair was important and so my suggestions to the boys had mostly got to do with hair. All album covers in those days were full colour, so I suggested black and white. The public wanted to see photos of the band. So I was striving for an illustration combined with lots of little photos. In general, I tried to be as far out as the fans out there could take. It was a fine line and apart from two outrageous photos which I had to replace with something more normal the band, the manager and the record company accepted all of my ideas and let me do the cover the way I wanted."retrosellers

It is true, as MG pointed out in his comment below, the Berberian cover is certainly a cover of Revolver

There must be be others that bear the stamp of Voormann? All I could find through a quick google was this 1960s Moon Walk Era Op-Art Mod Black & White Dress

Although there was an alternative cover.


Update...

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Comments: covers

There definitely must be others that bear the stamp of Voormann because he is heavily influenced by the wonderful Aubrey Beardsley who also influenced Martin Sharp and Peter Max and after them all the psychedelic artists. please put Aub's name into Images Google searchbox and be impressed. XXX hb
Posted by Brownie at April 10, 2005 03:43 PM

He also made it onto Peppers.

http://www.upv.es/~ecabrera/pepper/cover/cover.htm
(2nd row, 1st Left)
Posted by boynton at April 10, 2005 04:13 PM

oh yeah - but his killer hairstyle is not shown to it's best advantage. XXX
Posted by Brownie at April 11, 2005 11:31 AM