RECENT COMMENTS

Thursday, December 06, 2007

cheers



I nominated myself for this award. (From here via the presurfer)


But I am honoured to receive it on behalf of my readership,

this informal collection

of like minded soles.
 

Monday, December 03, 2007

stormy day

Did we just have the worst storm in a hundred years, or in four years, to the day?

(this latter fact was pointed out by a 774 listener, to whom I was listening via battery-powered radio)

It was certainly raining cats and dogs and cattle dogs were whining.

retro metro

Further to biopics...an abandoned post from early October.
It was going to be a big sarsy post on Melbourne, memory, history and nostalgia (# 233)






from Graham Kennedy's Melbourne Nelson 1967

I watched The King on TV recently, and it was pretty good.
But Biopics always seem ...
The mood of the times is greater than ...
Post-war Melbourne can seem like a Retro Chrysler


(I've cut all metaphors but the link. Here the post became bogged in outer suburban roads of greater childhood memory. eg:)

... but TV stars were BIG in the 50's and 60's. They lived above us, glamorous, and made fleeting forays with footballers into the suburbs to open shopping centres.
 

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

TV 20-10

Was inspired to do this after aftergrog was whingeing about 20-1, which I never watch, but I did hear Debbi Enker roast on 774 (such dumbed-down shows are cheap oz-content filler apparently). So this post of loose ends is likewise ez-oz blog-content filler.

20. Graham Kennedy biopic, The King. Well crafted, expert reproduction, but lacking a sense of authenticity evident, say, in any home movie of the period. The gaucheness therein. These suave doppelgängers are actually 21st century aliens stranded in a sovereign hill of decor.

19. Is that the dilemma of all biopics? The faithfully-enacted chronicle where everyone knows the ending? Do the best narrow the focus to a key incident or relationship? Famous Person and the case of the Close Shave?.

18.Love My Way series one: contains some of the best television drama I've seen. Series two was very good. Series 3 - overall, didn't do it for me. I lost sympathy with most of the characters whose drive seemed directionless and victim of soap stasis.

17. But I did see this in the new style - by the box-set load, which can skew both appreciation and tolerance.

16. Often though in later series of TV shows, the stories move away from the smaller everyday moments of revelation, and the world and characters arc up (in order to jump the shark I guess)

15. ditto Kath n Kim. Despite the exotic locations and product placement courtesy C7, the best scenes still often happen around the kitchen. Though I did love the very visual moment when the big rainwater tank rolled off the car.

14. Despite the corn, I enjoyed Rain Shadow. I liked the slower pace and the novel relationship of the two female colleagues. I enjoyed seeing the younger woman's quietly assertive negotiation of bullying boss. Time slot was a killer, no one wants to deal with drought-despair on a Sunday night, even though the story proved to be redemptive.

13. The Abbey was OK. A call to gardening for me as I feel guilty about my lack of horticultural attendance.

12. Summer Heights High deserved the hype- mainly for Jonah and friends.
Good blend of fiction and real-life, on location and in location.

11. My favourite show at the moment is Grand Designs, or castle-building for cashed-up couples.

11. The cricket is too early.

10. And too much.
 

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

prison alphabet

At first I thought- well, this is a strong contender for the dumbest use of a highlight pen in a school or university text award.



(Having once seen a history textbook in the library with 5 entire pages green-highlighted, nothing surprises me)
But further thought (and the annotation) suggests it's a script for a school presentation.
Still, I think I would have photocopied before striping my book.



(Update The poem is from Sometimes Gladness. Collected Poems of Bruce Dawe 1954-1997
5th Edition (Longman, 1997)
The teaching of poetry in schools is, after all, variously done, sometimes good, sometimes not so good. BD

Friday, November 23, 2007

rebecca

Last night I dreamt I watched Rebecca again.
Actually it was Sunday night, in the middle of a November heat wave, when the lounge was so hot the only thing to do was watch an old favourite.
(And what's not to like? Cinderella nervosa.)
A couple of days later, I savoured some of the chilling moments in matching climes, wearing a jumper.

Googling, I found my way to Self-Styled Siren, with a recent post on Joan Fontaine and Rebecca.

Monday, November 19, 2007

ben been

Last Saturday as I'm getting my hair cut, a woman rushes up and declares:
Ben Cousins is downstairs!!!!...
My hairdresser is (like totally) indifferent, and the woman retreats.
A pause before I ask:
Did she just say 'Ben Cousins is downstairs'?
- Yeah so what who cares he's a bogan.

- a line which inspires a Google poem

ben cousins
Compiled 11/19/2007 5:31:41 AM GMT

WITH the late-night behaviour
these days hey starro. spose, ur

Cousins drove through an underground
will arrive at AFL House in suit and

jetted into LA, where he was met by
in - From Consciousness Explained by

as What do you get when you cross
DRUG SCANDAL - In other news: grass

has bumped Britney Spears and Lindsay
team down at the cat bowl from a play

BEN Cousins will need AFL approval
was allegedly admitted to hospital

been forced to defend his wayward
is (your northern Have you heard

he was met by two attractive blonde
Cousins got picked up drunk outside

the football future of former West
grass is green, sky is blue – Post

Saturday, November 17, 2007

haiku


poorly placed chew toy
above the old cabinet
lonely but not dead

protagonist gone
soft-singing baleful ballads
what did I do wrong

Javascript Haiku generator via Twists and Turns
 

Friday, November 16, 2007

up there

My sister acquired a pianola recently. Of all the rolls I could choose to play, from the old June Balloon Moonlight Foxtrots, all the thirties ballads I love, all the forties songs I know by heart, at that moment I had to choose Up There Cazaly.

And maybe youtube is the pianola of the neo-noughties, but when I saw Up There Cazaly was up there, I had to play it 10 times. I love this clip.




In 1979 this gesture did not mean this guy's on his mobile. This crowd is a mobile free zone.

And the football was better in 1979 of course, "in those days when going to the football was not like going to the cinema..." Brian Courtis (When footy players have to pause on the field to let the ads run on telly you know they've lost the plot) But also part of my strange nostalgia for this clip may be that I was at the grand final in 78, the one featured in the ad, and I'm watching my past zoom in and out with the balloons in the aerial shots of the MCG where I stood in the standing room section with my brother and sister and their friends and my first crush.

But I also love the blend of words and images, the unpretentious verite of the crowd, the heritage stanza of champions in slow black-and-white, the rise and fall of the music matching the choreography of marking, that by Billy Picken becomes quite beautiful.




".....Cazaly" can still make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up even after all these years. To say that it is outdated or old fashioned is missing the point. Football is about memories of winters past and ".....Cazaly" will always be a part of that for me, regardless of what some soulless bureaucrat might say. Posted by: Buck Buckaw of the real world 7:59am October 02, 2007 Readers' comments: Cazaly may be benched

critical

well if I were a single issue voter, a single issue that might swing my vote would probably be orangutans.
It's sad that the tragic and desperate plight of these gentle creatures has become lost in the gesturing and jesting of electioneering
We need to recognise the massive amount of suffering being inflicted on a species that is 97% genetically identical to humans. AOP

Monday, November 12, 2007

lolinate



LOLinator
via grow a brain


Update: so thiz is how I shoulda written this

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

post cup day

My punting was dictated by a bird, that woke me at 5:30 with the call: Purple Moon, Purple Moon.

Well that's what I heard. It was actually saying: Don't be an idiot. As if I'd know anything about horses.

Monday, November 05, 2007

know your

via Mefi and via the US (Northeast Film History), I was idly seeking some AU home movie sites, when I finally sampled some offerings at Australian Screen .

Once there though, it was hard to go past Know Your Melbourne c1945
 

gilbert

He hates teabags with a vengeance.

Gilbert O'Sullivan FAQ/ What is Gilbert's favourite drink?

Friday, November 02, 2007

fido friday

Have only just caught up with this classic Pan's People clip on PCL Linkdump.


See also: Pan Speak and The Top 5 most literal dance routines

Friday, October 26, 2007

cameo



In the tradition of Laura's Woods Ware Beryl (see footnote), I'm happy to report that my china Kontiki was seen guesting in Love My Way series 2.

Glad it turned up in such a kool milieu as Frankie's place, but I hope the retro boho chic trip doesn't go to its head, or it may never speak to me again.
 

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

the parakeets

Years ago, I had four pet parakeets. They enjoyed listening to the radio, and would occasionally chirp along with the music. However, when a Beatles song came on, they'd engage in flights of full-fledged, full-throated, frenzied singing.
I've often wondered why The Beatles had this effect on them, and how they were able to differentiate The Beatles from other artists.
User Comment, TNR What The Beatles Backlash is All About cached

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Friday, October 19, 2007

bib book

Bibliodyssey - the book
It is my privilege and pleasure to announce that a book based on the this humble website is now in release and available for purchase by the general public

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

five ride

So it's Ride to work Day and one's five year bloganniversaire.

Five Ride To Work Day.
Five Ride To Work Day.
Five Ride To Work Day

f!v3 r!d3 70 w0rk d4y
Five make for the scene
Five wait for a hit


Meanwhile one's audience numbers have been consolidating.
 

Monday, October 15, 2007

foot notes

Learnt recently at Trivia: The difference between a King and a Queen is a foot.

Also: Buy boots in the afternoon when the foot is at its biggest size
Lawnmower boots

fibremakers

Thursday, October 11, 2007

qotd

Q I have been seeing this wonderful guy for seven months. I have fallen in love with him. He loves me, too, but there's one problem. Last month, I yelled out a man's name in an intimate moment - although I know no one of that name. The Sage
(I think it's more dumb than oops, but then, dumb might have been wiser)

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

thread

I'm closing this thread.


(Not really. I've always wanted to say that, along with: I've turned off the comments on this post, and I don't think I'll ever get the chance)

word smith

"you must never rest on your morals"
 

Friday, September 21, 2007

punnies

Also on a dramatic note, this was a recent literary query that sent a googler to boynton .

eureka

You wrote a play about Lalor - my cousin informs me.
No I didn't
Yes you did. Lalor. I read about it in the paper.
Lalor?
Lalor.
Good idea for a play, but I didn't write it.


(I think of the suburb rather than the historical figure during this exchange. A play about the suburb is more appealing to me as a play I didn't write)

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

random

For example, this image can be described by the labels: sky (50 points), bird (60 points), soaring (120 points), or frigate bird (150 points).
Google Image Labeler, a new feature of Google Image Search that allows you to label random images to help improve the quality of Google's image search results.



Is this the end of civilisation the random pun and poetic compound of the Google Image Search? It is the random quality of Google Images that I appreciate, and in honour of its odd surprises, I compiled a collage from the search "I prefer random images"




(Click for a better view)
 

Thursday, September 13, 2007

wood's



After the chainsaw massacre, they left a note on the nature strip.
At first I thought it was a grocer's apostrophe happening, but perhaps it's a ...

Free Fire Wood's... a sign of the times.
 

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

was here

 


I did not expect this thumbnail story of a roo and a zoo and a family walking off the land when I went looking for Whelan*

Thursday, September 06, 2007

name that

boynton's looking a bit half baked lately, in the #85C4CC sense of the word, anyway.

This is one of the the dropdown list of 1500+ colors at Name that Color (via the presurfer)

Interesting names include My sin, Neon Carrot, Wistful, Half Colonial White and Gossip, but it was the more prosaic Dingley that caught my eye today.

I suppose I had never really thought of the colour of Dingley before,

or of  dingley  having a colour.
 

Friday, August 31, 2007

no gnomes

There were no gnomes to be seen in the snooty nursery with Vivaldi, and why would there be.
So we went downstream to the garden centre where polymer cockies and budgies happily hang out with the medium shrubs and climbing roses.
There were about six footy gnomes gracing the terraces,
but none in red and white. So I asked the saleswoman:
- Do you have any Swans Footy Gnomes?
- Did you see any about?
- No.
- No. I think we only stock the Melbourne teams...
I don't mean to be racist.


I was more offended on behalf of South Melbourne Football Club. As a dyed-in-the-wool Victorian, I agree with the sentiment: NSW is a different country. But as there were a couple of non-Victorian gnomes in the cluster, a Crow and a Docker, I don't think this was an official policy.

Friday, August 24, 2007

faq

Q: Is it time to stop playing pub trivia when the answer is Labrador and I say Alsatian?

(OTOH - was it the time, two years ago, when I didn't know the middle name of J.B.Priestley)

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

needed

[citation needed] Sticker

Cut this sticker into three strips, and start flagging inadequately-sourced objects in the world around you
via As Above


(High on my list of top ten phrases of our times)
 

Monday, August 13, 2007

exotic



From Australian American Cookbook 1958 p70

On behalf of
 

Thursday, August 09, 2007

dental tv

More dental as

Remember: the television is there for you.
said my dentist, as I stared up at Foxtel on the ceiling.
Is this OK?
It was Chefs in a kitchen so I said yep casually before my mouth went numb,
Because talking Chefs in a kitchen seemed innocuous enough, despite the dollop of reality-tv competition, British not Iron.
But then suddenly it was all about meat.
And not in a discreet ingredients way, but MEAT, the full-on butchery thing with slabs and lumps and rumps and sides of MEAT in Catering quantities.
And close ups of chefs carving into carcasses was not the most relaxing thing.
I squirmed. The dentist looked up and went into emergency mode -
Turn it off, turn it off! he said to the assistants,
who had to leave the proceedings to fetch the remote.
What do you want? History?
I think I nodded.
Because it was all Pocahontas from there.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

qotd

Property expert on Channel 7 news:
"If you're not on the merry-go-round, you're going to miss the boat"

Monday, July 30, 2007

key words

As noted in a recent comment to Juke, I'd be lost without my recent referrers.
I like the weird accents of googlish, and the odd compounds of nouns laced with the urgency or the concentrate of searches.
It's the only Word/Quote/Thought of the Day feed I'd bother reading.
So I was intrigued to see Tolstoy Volkswagen last week.
Was it a What car would he drive variation?

Sometimes though, googling the searches has its rewards, and I found a few good blogs by this auto keyword combination:
The kombies at Woy-Woy Walkies introduced me to spike and This isn't Sydney

Also to his wonderful flickr sets, including:
1950’s Woy Woy
Gone: Demolished buildings in Woy Woy & the Greater Gosford Area AKA Brisbane Water.


And another find was War And Peace - the comic version - within this uni resource guide. (Scroll down to 1865-1869)
 

Thursday, July 26, 2007

wonderin

Do you blog? Do you Twitter, Pownce or Jaiku? Do you read feeds? 12 ways to use facebook
(No, I don't twitter or even flickr, and I haven't registered yet. But I'm beginning to idly wonder...)

Is Facebook killing blogs?

Or has SNS ennui kicked in already?



source

Update Tim Dunlop via LP
 

Saturday, July 21, 2007

woth douse

This search just in from the stats.

Wonder woth they douse.
 

78

 



Vinyl record generator via things

Thursday, July 19, 2007

impending


source

And speaking of dogs, nice lines and tumblers, Impending dog disaster might
be a useful phrase to unleash.

8 randomly

boynton at the coldest day since last

notes When really you get

to encounter another* sortie into the nice

line, check wiki

past this one. You hear the most

tumblers are taken about

dog but I watched

local where this point
The eight random things about myself meme defeated me. I could not find the correct line between chocolate and confessional.
So I used Rob's Amazing Poem Generator to extract 8 random boyntonesque lines for me.

Monday, July 16, 2007

ken fan

The Jack Russell dug Little Red Monkey by Ken Griffin.
Meanwhile, I was mesmerised by the movie.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

happy side



I had more luck at my local op-shop, where this record cover jumped off the shelf for fifty cents.

It would be too easy to run a caption contest on this one.
("You Can't Be True, Dear.") reportedly sold something like 3.5 million copies, but the funny thing is that the hit version was actual a dub of vocals by singer Jerry Wayne over a copy of the tune recorded by Griffin as an instrumental number for skating rinks.
Space Age Pop

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

some notes

When you go to the Standard in Summer, on a beautiful balmy evening, you sit inside.
When you go in Winter, you sit outside, because it's the coldest day since last August, and your breath flags speech like a cartoon bubble.

When getting your hair cut, do not take a book like Marley and Me to read. You will have to keep putting the book in your bag, explaining to the stylists and the wall of mirrors why you're crying in 10 words or less, when really you need a couple of inches.

You get told - You'll love $$$$$$ - by many people, fellow thrifters, for months. So you finally go there at the height of school holidays and it's not only thrift Kmart but Kmart on speed. Walking from the car, you hear the sound of crashing glass from the delivery van. Probably a crate of crockery and probably not given a second thought given the volume of cast-off glassware served up for recycling at the Recycling Factory. Inside, more glass gets broken as tumblers are taken off packed trolleys and squeezed next to flutes and vases. Kids run manic around the racks and racks of slacks and dacks and frocks and coats with cigarette burns on the pocket. It is so loud and vast you have to head to the parkas to take stock amid the excess and cacophony, and then flee into the carpark, free.
 

Friday, July 06, 2007

misc links

* Everything is interesting
* Everyone has a place
* Do something YOU like
* Find your own voice
* Make something that you're happy with
* Share it
a summary of I like's interesting2007 talk, (and blogging philosophy)
 

Fiction Writing 2.0: Six New Ways To Write The Next Great Novel
collaborative writing machines via Reeling And Writhing


This Is Your Life (and How You Tell It) via As Above
"...these narratives guide behavior in every moment, and frame not only how we see the past but how we see ourselves in the future.”

songbird via dirty beloved
Songbird is a desktop Media Player built on the same platform as Firefox...Songbird is a Web Player that surfs the Media Web, a growing network of media blogs, music stores, subscription services and social networks.

Aunts and Butlers
An interactive novella for the Electric computer
P.G.Wodehouse text adventure via things

Make your own Simpsons avatar via Twists and Turns

Monday, July 02, 2007

(passé)

What to buy. On The Nose

"Gumtree paintings" by artists such as Hans Heysen and Ernest Buckmaster - nobody wants them. They are too reminiscent of what this generation's parents and grandparents had hanging on their walls and they don't particularly suit contemporary architecture.
Art Wars.  theage(melbourne)magazine July 07 p54
 
(melbourne) bares no real resemblance to the city which bears the same name, and treats the city's inhabitants with contempt... According to (melbourne), we are an innately conservative city aspiring to drive 4WD BMWs, live in 'designer' city apartments, etc... and we love to read about estate agents (!) and the next generation of power-brokers (!). Huh?
one plus one Nov 2004

 

how to paint [picture]


 

Friday, June 29, 2007

ybtc 2

Actually, last Friday could have been called Black Cockatoo Friday, as I was lucky enough to encounter another* flock's sortie into suburbia. I watched (in pedestrian awe) a dozen or so glide around the creek, making crows look like sparrows in their wake.

Googling led to this illustrated post.

-which is from the wonderful Ben Cruachan Blog about the flora and fauna of Gippsland, Australia

I loved the recent post: In Praise of Trees

but the most recent posts liveblog the floods.
 

Saturday, June 23, 2007

greatest hits

The blog form is now ten years old. How better to celebrate that anniversary than with a "Greatest Blog Hits" issue? *
Quarrtsiluni Greatest Blog Hits

via Dick Jones
(whose That Long Grey Corridor is part of the collection.)

stovetop

 

 

Friday, June 15, 2007

just smile

...continuing the canine theme...

After seeing a link to Google Story Creator Google tells you a story (via things)
I decided to run the what is an e-word-heating-coil-in a toaster* idea through that machine.
The story created did include the nice line, check wiki for more information on the Watt , but I had more success after keying in my default lorem-ipsum-text-reserved-for-generators -
black labrador:
So for me and folks like me it s not just a dog but an embodiment of all the hopes and dreams of the future the fond memories of the past and the pure joy of the moment.

just smile because they just don t understand.

Tonight's visit was a definite low point in a slow period of decline. I ordered mine to be cooked rare and my husband and son ordered theirs to be cooked medium.

fido friday

Not long ago, it was noted that there were relatively few lol dogs in local circulation. So here's one for dogblog frido friday. And because Doug (RIP) would have been 18 tomorrow *.




Photo taken about 10 years ago. I'd been out to Safeway and this was how he greeted me at the door. He'd been quietly raiding the rubbish bin when (evidently) his head became wedged in the swing-top. I think the yellow plastic ball was being proffered in nervousness or desperate "gallows humour".

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

e word



A surge in my stats from this search was curious, and suggests a puzzle or quiz in the US that leads to a quick google-squiz? Who knows.
Anyway, its hotness is now mild.

But I thought it deserved a Google-Poem
Here's one compiled from a few throws of "couplets".


what e word denotes a heating coil in a toaster
Compiled 6/12/2007 2:41:45 AM GMT

The wire coils within a toaster have
denotationally denotations denotative

toaster , toaster ovens, hot short
- Take your toaster and take it apart

- File Format: - because
- 652k - - Mayonnaise

requires 60 watts and your coffee
2 toaster 2 toasts 2 tobacco-free

minutes of heating time. The food
Coil is visited by the Serpent God

E v e ry_W e st e rn
athletes may be reported to Popcorn

the toaster did not get red hot due
a word that can ever denote a true

in formulas though I must admit
and I could imagine hearing it

“heater raining cat” toaster
the coolest cuts to hit the street

and 'V' are commonly used to
and now it's but a word used to

the toaster oven simultaneously
coiling coils .. denotationally

toastier toasting toasts toasty
- Table 9: US Army Intelligibility

Sunday, June 10, 2007

casual

 

"Percy - quick- duck down!" urged Pam from the bushes.
"You're wearing the wrong pullover!"


 

(from School Friend Annual 1959) Purchased today.

Friday, June 08, 2007

reCap


The words above come from scanned books.
By typing them, you help to digitize old texts.
ReCaptcha Stop Spam. Read Books

via As Above

Thursday, June 07, 2007

tudor style

Tudor-style home in bush setting

A Tudor is the sacred cow of house styles. Don't get too experimental with colors


...eclectic housing revivals happen again and again. "In the 19th century people were able to choose housing designs from the book. There were styles like neo-classical and Italianate. In 1930s Australia we have had Mock Tudor and Spanish Mission," he says,...
"But now there seems little that is not a yearning for the past and often another place...
" The Age

Monday, June 04, 2007

the arkley

Further to Laura's HAs on Sars


The Age:
One change being driven by developers is the swing away from the fake historical facade such as the neo-Georgian, mock Victorian and quasi-colonial.

They want their estates to have a sharper, more contemporary look. This has opened the way for one new historical style — the neo-'50s. One of Metricon's most popular designs is the Arkley, inspired by the late painter Howard Arkley's renditions of postwar suburban houses
The Arkley


I've seen a few "retros" recently in real estate ads for fifties houses, and even a Post-modern. Which could mean your retro house is enclosed by a couple of giant quotation marks out the front, who knows?

Monday, May 28, 2007

world paper cut

A while ago I was reading about the magnificent Reader's Digest World Atlas at AceJet 170.
And the comments were intriguing:
As a small boy in the mid 1970s I got a really deep paper cut on my thumb from my parents' copy of that atlas.

It was page 31.

Posted by: David Atkinson | 01 May 2007 at 11:13 AM

Funnily enough there's a blood stain on page 31 of this copy!

Posted by: Richard | 01 May 2007 at 11:16 AM

I've just called my parents: they've still got their copy.

It would seem I'm not the only victim of this treacherous tome. It lures you in with its seductive information graphics on 'Whale And Eel Migrations' and the like, then bam! Dario Argento all over the Dralon.

Bleeders Digest, more like.

Posted by: David Atkinson | 01 May 2007 at 11:59 AM
*


Yesterday I finally checked my copy to see what was happening on the dreaded Page 31:



The Great Australian Bight?



(This seems to be an Australian edition. Page 31 may not be so inherently vicious elsewhere)

women in art

Women In Art

via bifurcated rivets
 

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Friday, May 11, 2007

cage


John Cage performing Water Walk on I've Got A Secret, 1960.
WFMU's Beware of The Blog via Ramage

Water walk
I've Got a Secret

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

dinner vs. tea

I like on the different names and times of meals in the UK:
Dinner at Noon
Meal Times explained

An Australian perspective:
Many an Australian youngster in earlier times would have said tea, not dinner, and we know from the literature that for much of early modern history dinner meant the main meal, originally eaten in the middle of the day. Why did the time change, and whatever happened to lunch? What times's dinner, Ma
I've been chided lately for saying "tea" instead of DINNER by someone snootier than me.
(Actually I think we said both in our family. Lucky I'm only aspirational to be anti-aspirational anyway.)
I had to make sure I didn’t say dinner instead of tea for the evening meal, and things like that, or my parents would say, ‘Dinner? Where did you pick that up from?’ Aspirationalism: The Search for Respect in an Unequal Society
Admittedly, it was quicker to find something on this by googling class + dinner tea

Thursday, May 03, 2007

he vs. she



Surprising. I guess all the doll dirt squarely outstrips the trousers.

He/She ratio via the presurfer

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

square trouser

These cricket player positions posted by Dick Jones might be one way of improving the World Cup.

(4,258.3 overs later ...)

ho nome

boynton looks pretty good in Italian

Well - Ho raramente un y'know nome beats I rarely have a name y'know.

I noticed this referral in my stats around the same time as I happened to watch
Our Little Girl again, with my sister who was always a fan of the movie and Boynton (the character)
It may come as no surprise to readers to discover miss boynton has misquoted Boynton.
In the film, Boynton actually says: I've really got a name you know.

Perhaps I should change it, but then I'd be tempted to change it to the Italian. Y'know.

football qotd

"So maybe not playing for 12 weeks would be a reasonable point of consequential punishment, if that's the word." -Lethal


(It was all in the...delivery. The...pauses)

Thursday, April 19, 2007

dental as

I was reclining at an angle of 100 degrees when the radio played It's a fine line between pleasure and pain which was not especially relaxing to hear in de vinyl dentist's chair.

(At least the monitor above my head was not showing My teeth:the movie. The only thing on TV was No Signal)

wishlist

All you need to do is press the button and keep pointing it at the TV until it turns off (which may take up to 69 seconds). The next 69 seconds will be spent quietly, or not so quietly, enjoying the perplexed expressions of the TV automatons
TV-B-Gone via Making Light

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

qotd

*Underlines. Don’t underline anything in a message (or on a Web page) that’s not a hyperlink. I always move the mouse toward it thinking it’ll take me somewhere. via

cowangie
 

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

oz harriet

An aussie Harriet in response to an impressive collection of harriets at db.

Friday, March 30, 2007

marble talk

and while we're talkin' marbles*:
Jane's Marble Collection

There's some Odd Large Cats (which makes it a Friday kind of post), among the Slags, Sulphides and Swirls...

Thursday, March 29, 2007

slow meme

 

As well as getting reacquainted with my books lately, I've been rediscovering my ephemera. Which means I've finally got around to scanning my Little Fork in response to I like

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

misc links

Some blogs (and how I got there):

One + One = thr33
Design, media, clulture and more
(via Troppo's Missing Link)

RetroLife - Mid-Twentieth Century Living...Today!
recommended by PK

And Lexicon Harlot
by Alexis (with whom I exchanged very small talk among the ottomans at the recent blog meet)

and two blogs I found while compiling that strange Google Images post:
A poem should be like an eye chart...led to this post from 2003(17/9) at Upsaid/Oolong on U.S. Poet Laureate, Billy Collins
and more recently, Search-Word Poem/(the words that get you here)

and does the amount of bicarb soda...
led to the local 2paw
Two Golden Labradors, books and food I adore, TV & films galore, knitting, craft and a whole lot more......
(I can never resist a Labrador)

Monday, March 26, 2007

stamped 'shark'

Greg Norman's Infamous "Lost" ball


(Found wandering around Google Images)

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Friday, March 23, 2007

bubbles and bowls



I was recently explaining boynton to an off-line friend.
Oh you know links...retro...photos...nostalgia I said, unable to think outside the tag cloud.
His eyes glazed over.

However, googlers make me feel hip as they search for (eg) does the amount of bicarb soda affect the height of bubbles produced when vinegars added and poems on lawn bowls.

So often, better results can be found via Google Images





Which is a not so random roundabout way of linking to Google Blogoscoped: random portraits randomly juxtaposed with random actual search queries

via the presurfer

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

nostalgia hit


...announcing the Gala Opening...

Yes Moomba is the season for nostalgia.
And I was almost hit on the head with nostalgia last week when my bookcase collapsed.
I was reading Graham Kennedy's Melbourne at the time, which is full of photos like this and this.
Actually it was mainly poetry and penguins that collapsed around me.
And top of the pile was Things Fall Apart.

Friday, March 09, 2007

fido friday

 

Moomba 1967


everything is worn down to dirt and dust in the parks
and gardens wear their recycled water signs warily
as neighbours who dourly lob buckets from the shower
think about dobbing in those profligate hosers and sprinklers somewhere
and all the elms are heat stressed
and everyone is stressed and losing it in traffic or watching the news
and every second grevillea is starting to die,
and the work is drying up for Jim's mowers and tennis coaches
but in Melbourne nonetheless, there's that shift from heatwave into vintage Moomba weather in March, which is a beautiful balminess.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Monday, February 26, 2007

lunar logie

Special Gold Logie For Providing TV's Greatest Moment In Their Moon Telecast: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin
12th Annual Logie Awards 1970


(See also GUESTS: ...Peggy Lipton, the US star of The Mod Squad, couldn’t make it at the last minute because of “a severe middle-ear infection”.)

Thursday, February 22, 2007

teev meme

I did this meme in January, after Genevieve, but have been a bit slow to post.


Earliest remembered teev:
Wasn’t the earliest, that was just a black and white mash of panel shows and andy pandy cowboys and americans.
But when I was about 4, I did a drawing of Batman and Robin at Kinder. I loved Batman and thought it was serious crime drama. I had the merchandise too - a jigsaw and an inflatable swimming toy.
I felt a bit of the same bat excitement to see this bat site last week (via PCL):
 


TV series I would want on a desert island
I would hope something complex, but I have a feeling with my luck it would be effin Midsomer Murders which seems to be everywhere at the moment.*
Something long running? Maybe the Simpsons – I’ve never seen an episode apart from the early incarnation on Tracy Ullman.

(*Update: Now it's February and Midsomer's been bumped)

TV that made me laugh
As a child Get Smart.
A few that have made me lol:
Python, Ripping Yarns, The Tracy Ullman show, Larry Sanders, Ab Fab, One Foot In The Grave, King Of The Hill, Big Train, Smack The Pony, Father Ted, The Office

Most recently: Curb Your Enthusiasm, seen in 21C mode- via DVD boatload. Love it and agree with Susie that The Doll episode
is one of the most perfectly crafted half-hours of comedy in television history
TV that made me cry
Most of my older sibs used to watch Bellbird. We all cried when Charlie Cousens fell off the silo, though I was probably running with the pack rather than understanding the significance of silos or iconic moments of oz TV
Anything with a dog. Even Inspector Rex can make me cry.

TV crap that I enjoy
I used to love Eastenders in the late 80’s. A show about everyday losers when TV was obsessed with glam winners. My dog got to know the theme music which (at the closing credits) signified walk, so he became co-addicted.
I used to keep watching As Time Goes By. I don't why.

TV you'll never forget
When I was very young our neighbourhood friends were starring on Showcase, a talent show. Just as they were about to perform a pas de deux, the TV died. The 8 of us sped around the corner to the house of an accommodating neighbour to watch it.
Pennies From Heaven was a revelation.

Favourite TEEV adaptation
Love in a Cold Climate (1980), The Camomile Lawn, In a Land of Plenty, The Shark Net and recently Bleak House

One TV program you are currently watching
Recently rented the DVD of My Brother Jack. One of my favourite books, and despite the creakiness of 1965, I think it stands up quite well. Ed Deveraux, despite not conforming physically to my imagined Jack, is fabulous. The very beginning is a great piece of footage, the pedestrian streets of interwar suburbs.
Also enjoying the repeat of Bedtime for its theatrical writing and staging (albeit conventional theatre)

(Update: My Bro Jack went a bit belly up towards the end, and was rather stagey. But it still seems closer to the authentiCity of Melb in the 30's than the recent mini-series which was too pretty to be gritty.)


One TV show/series you have been meaning to watch
I agree with Genevieve. Love My Way. Shame it’s not on FTA, but at least we plebs can hire the DVDs.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

shake-up

Shakespeare Sonnet Shake-Up
...mix and match the lines of Shakespeare's sonnets

via Twists and Turns
 

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

chaplin

 
Did the Channel Nine News really spell it School Chaplin?

Then again, a School Chaplin might be a thing to be.


 
 

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

scholarly

 


(An odd search request today. I guess I should read some articles to get up to speed)

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

compelling

It can take a while to get back into the rhythm of blogging.

The Naked Truth: Authors Who Write in the Buff
via As Above

Meanwhile, autosomal dominent compelling helioopthalmic outburst syndrome might bring an idle sneezer googler or two to boynton.

Monday, February 05, 2007

sport

I was inspired to write this last week after watching a spot of tennis on teev, but it's already rather passe I'd say:

Sun Men's ten
nis on seven
FED/GON
read the score
Fed/Gon Fed/Gon I said
put it on
nabs and tone
saw the set
end and
Gon was gone
but how good is Fed

Gon/Fed   Photo by CreativeJim


Anyway yesterday I found myself watching Women's Golf on television. For the rare meditative quality and the pleasant aesthetics, which is why I used to like watching the cricket. But as we know cricket has been ruined by the glare of dollars, the blare of ads and pundits, the loss of langour. (I liked the snippet of fictive cricket in Midsomer* on Saturday night though, which was sufficiently green and slow and inter-generational, commercial-free but murder-full)

Meanwhile currently watching some writerly golf:
Pitch 'n' Putt with Joyce 'n' Beckett

via bifurcated rivets
 

mm


suspension

who knew post number 2000 would cause such pause?

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Thursday, January 04, 2007