a recent comment by Sedgwick re stamps:
On t'other hand responses in comments boxes don't come with brightly coloured stamps from exotic locations. Belgian Congo, Helvetia and French Equatorial Africa, countries that put 1950's Australia way down on the Richter scale of philatelic design. Did the 50 quetzal toucan stamp move for you too? Did it for me.
well may I remember Helvetia but not the quetzel. There was a surplus of this Australian stamp in my album and tin, which both fascinated and repelled with its strange tone and scale. Giant Kangaroo Paws are threatening Perth.
My father tried to pass on an interest in stamps to his children, but we merely dabbled. But because I dabbled as a child, the set of stamps that I displayed and played with are fixed with that child's eye magnifier so that when I come across a page like this they suddenly all come back to me as old friends. Skyblue Winston Churchill, Douglas Mawson looking like a dispossessed knight with a chain mail balaclava, crimson flightless birds and pair-bonded flying machines. I think the stamps are safely cellared somewhere, but this brief glimpse has made me want to retrieve them.
Meanwhile there are some nice stamps that are more current than these that the current crop of Brownies might be collecting as we speak.
Comments: stamps
I've still got my stamp album.
The 'sticky' on the stamp hinges has long left on an extended astral travel to worlds yet to be discovered, even created. A reminiscing look through the collection requires archival quality cotton gloves, dimmed lighting and an industrial strength dust mask. The Sedgwick Dead Sea Scrolls Stamp Collection. (No flash photography, please.)
My pommie grandfather (top notch surgical bootmaker, loopy spiritualist and avid philatelist) used to send me parcels bulging with stamps each month ... along with copious copperplate hand written notes. "Keep this one, don't swap. Could be valuable one day." "Odd though it might seem, the postmarked one is more valuable than the mint version." "Here are some more with that bastard Hitler's ugly bonce on it. Back in '45 the rotten little bugger tried to doodlebug 8 Bell Lane Cottages six doors down." "Don't mix up your Sun Yat Sens with your Chiang Kai Cheks."
It was all beaut and exotic, but I never did let on too him that I much preferred the "Beano" and "Dandy" comics my Nana slipped into the parcels.
And yes, I do still have some of them too.
And yes, oddly enough I barrack for the Magpies.
Posted by Sedgwick at December 8, 2003 01:43 PM
"Giant Kangaroo Paws are threatening Perth."
and all these years I've thought they were the dreaded Triffids. Phew!
Posted by Sedgwick at December 8, 2003 01:49 PM
A rare one from my collection.
http://www.geocities.com/feralclothing2/snugcud.txt
Posted by Sedgwick at December 8, 2003 02:00 PM
Yes I lacked the motor skills neccessary for correct archival practice and the stamps would often come unstuck slip sliding away.
The slip in folders were better in this regard, but I think I may have desecrated them with mispelt biro-d headings like Helevitica...
Your grandfather's note are so wonderful. "keep this one, don't swap"... a wealth of subtext in the copperplate, of astral relationships.
yes I like your stamp, and good to see some political content gracing the pages of boynton. Apparently I need it.
and sorry , but there's only one true football team, again inherited from my father, and that shall be known as South Melbourne.
Posted by boynton at December 8, 2003 02:13 PM
Monday, December 08, 2003
Sunday, December 07, 2003
toys
Archive of OntarioThe toys of our childhood (via wood s lot)
I like the truth in this letter on the 1960's page:
"Dear Santa
My name is Joanne. I have been half good and half bad. "
guess that may be the best we can ever hope for.
Comments: toys
Dear Santa,
I am sorry I haven't written to you lately but I no longer have any private life. I have been taken over by blogging. A certain other blogger said "blogging forces you to focus when you write—blogging creates reader-centered writing" which is not happening in my house.
Can you please send me two presents? I want a concentration gadget I can put on my head so I don't rant inanely any more. And a small domestic sized time machine so I can blog AND earn money.
You might also think of something else that could help a lot of other people too - a kind of fairy dust we can spread around a room so that when we say: "Sorry, I haven't finished that because I was too busy compulsively blogging", the dustbreather will just say: "Wow, isn't that fantastic, you are building the civilisation of tomorrow". Rather than "I always knew you were a loser and don't expect another shonky short term contract from me..ever.."
Is this too much to ask?
Posted by David at December 7, 2003 07:32 PM
I wouldn't know what to do with jam dish no 48 - but I have tried to be a good girl, too.
Posted by wen at December 8, 2003 06:52 AM
Dear Santa,
My name is not Joanne but I have been half good, half bad, half fair to middling, half a pound of tuppenny rice and half a pound of treacle.
(As you can see from my ace arithametrics I am doing work experience in the Treasury. My eighth year in the job, and I'm quicker than all of the other kids at the bead frame.)
What I want for Christmas is world peace, the end of poverty, a cure for canc... Sorry, Santa that was my acceptance speech at the Miss World Contest.
What I really want is a go at the BIG job. I've been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting but the old codger what's doing the job I want won't let me have a go. He said I could have a go when he got really old. Well, he's rooly old now but he won't let me have a go still.
And I have been rooly good to him too. I've fetched his slippers, ironed his cardies and collect his big print books from the library every day.
So if you could do something about that for me this Christmas I'd be rooly good forever and ever.
Your bestest friend and true-believer, Peter, aged 13¾.
P.S. If you get a letter from that Mark from across the road arksing for you to give him the same presents I want don't take any notice of it. He's been rooly naughty lots of times and he's already got lots of hobby horses. Anyway he's just a Johnny-come-lately. (Not that other one, that bluddy Johnny-been-there-forever.)
P.P.S. I have left you some biscuits and a glass of Horlicks on the mantlepiece for you and if you look under the aspidistra you might find a few other $urpri$e$ for you in the big brown paper bags. ;0)
Posted by Sedgwick at December 8, 2003 01:09 PM
Santa: P.P.P.S Don't believe that wen girl about trying to be good. She's a tart.
Posted by Sedgwick at December 8, 2003 01:11 PM
thedge I am laughing so much I got spit on my cardie.
Posted by David at December 8, 2003 01:56 PM
I like the truth in this letter on the 1960's page:
"Dear Santa
My name is Joanne. I have been half good and half bad. "
guess that may be the best we can ever hope for.
Comments: toys
Dear Santa,
I am sorry I haven't written to you lately but I no longer have any private life. I have been taken over by blogging. A certain other blogger said "blogging forces you to focus when you write—blogging creates reader-centered writing" which is not happening in my house.
Can you please send me two presents? I want a concentration gadget I can put on my head so I don't rant inanely any more. And a small domestic sized time machine so I can blog AND earn money.
You might also think of something else that could help a lot of other people too - a kind of fairy dust we can spread around a room so that when we say: "Sorry, I haven't finished that because I was too busy compulsively blogging", the dustbreather will just say: "Wow, isn't that fantastic, you are building the civilisation of tomorrow". Rather than "I always knew you were a loser and don't expect another shonky short term contract from me..ever.."
Is this too much to ask?
Posted by David at December 7, 2003 07:32 PM
I wouldn't know what to do with jam dish no 48 - but I have tried to be a good girl, too.
Posted by wen at December 8, 2003 06:52 AM
Dear Santa,
My name is not Joanne but I have been half good, half bad, half fair to middling, half a pound of tuppenny rice and half a pound of treacle.
(As you can see from my ace arithametrics I am doing work experience in the Treasury. My eighth year in the job, and I'm quicker than all of the other kids at the bead frame.)
What I want for Christmas is world peace, the end of poverty, a cure for canc... Sorry, Santa that was my acceptance speech at the Miss World Contest.
What I really want is a go at the BIG job. I've been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting but the old codger what's doing the job I want won't let me have a go. He said I could have a go when he got really old. Well, he's rooly old now but he won't let me have a go still.
And I have been rooly good to him too. I've fetched his slippers, ironed his cardies and collect his big print books from the library every day.
So if you could do something about that for me this Christmas I'd be rooly good forever and ever.
Your bestest friend and true-believer, Peter, aged 13¾.
P.S. If you get a letter from that Mark from across the road arksing for you to give him the same presents I want don't take any notice of it. He's been rooly naughty lots of times and he's already got lots of hobby horses. Anyway he's just a Johnny-come-lately. (Not that other one, that bluddy Johnny-been-there-forever.)
P.P.S. I have left you some biscuits and a glass of Horlicks on the mantlepiece for you and if you look under the aspidistra you might find a few other $urpri$e$ for you in the big brown paper bags. ;0)
Posted by Sedgwick at December 8, 2003 01:09 PM
Santa: P.P.P.S Don't believe that wen girl about trying to be good. She's a tart.
Posted by Sedgwick at December 8, 2003 01:11 PM
thedge I am laughing so much I got spit on my cardie.
Posted by David at December 8, 2003 01:56 PM
bbq with spark
the small non-kettle chop picnic chez nous was quite pleasant, give or take the billowing smoke and ash from the chimenea that was fired up as the temperature dipped. It was perhaps fortunate we hadn't seen this link to a table-top sized Tesla Coil grill (for more spark) before settling on the old Jackeroo. (via diversionz)
screenplay
boynton just put boynton through this web screenplay generator at astonishing tales. (via J Walk) The scary thing is how closely it mirrors boynton's own life and social skills.
INT. A COCKTAIL PARTY
JULIA ROBERTS and BOYNTON.UBERSPORTINGPUNDIT.COM are enjoying themselves at a cocktail party. JULIA ROBERTS is talking to a handsome man while BOYNTON.UBERSPORTINGPUNDIT.COM is also making small talk with a member of the opposite sex.
BOYNTON.UBERSPORTINGPUNDIT.COM
As I blinked at my stats I think I caught a glimpse of an ad that said colon polyps.
MEMBER OF THE OPPOSITE SEX
Hahahahahahaha!! Oh, how frightfully witty. Shame on you, JULIA ROBERTS for not introducing me to BOYNTON.UBERSPORTINGPUNDIT.COM
which is why you would often find me in the kitchen at parties.
Alas, I doubt whether many members of the opposite sex would find miss b's metablogging observations that amusing at a cocktail party, although I guess you could read a fair bit of sarcasm into his over-hah response. This guy is obviously taking the piss, or seizing the cocktails.
And given the way that blogging rapidly colonises thought, it isn't too absurd to imagine that were boyton called upon to give a wedding speech, she would use the occasion to talk blog to a captive and boozed up audience:
BOYNTON.UBERSPORTINGPUNDIT.COM is making a wedding toast.
BOYNTON.UBERSPORTINGPUNDIT.COM
But thirdly, and most importantly, blogging forces you to focus when you write—blogging creates reader-centered writing.
WEDDING GUESTS
Hear, hear.
(I think miss b pinched that line, and has yet to work out how to seamlessly incorporate a link into RL performance.)
Comments: screenplay
Don't think incorporating that sentence will be too much of a problem - eventually an appropriate occasion will arise - you may just have to wait (as I typed that 'to wait' phrase I actually said it in RL to an impatient little person!) After all - you got to use the 'now then, be spry' line (I'm still waiting...everyone here's fairly spry, it seems)
Posted by wen at December 8, 2003 06:58 AM
saying it is one thing, wen, but how to turn a nice shade of #0099CC (haloScan) blue at the same time is the tricky bit ;)
Posted by boynton at December 8, 2003 01:03 PM
D'you know - I think it might be that very same iridescent shade of blue that the highly appealing mountain bluebird sports around his collar....
Posted by wen at December 8, 2003 03:05 PM
had a feeling that comment would come back to haunt me ;)
Posted by boynton at December 8, 2003 03:20 PM
INT. A COCKTAIL PARTY
JULIA ROBERTS and BOYNTON.UBERSPORTINGPUNDIT.COM are enjoying themselves at a cocktail party. JULIA ROBERTS is talking to a handsome man while BOYNTON.UBERSPORTINGPUNDIT.COM is also making small talk with a member of the opposite sex.
BOYNTON.UBERSPORTINGPUNDIT.COM
As I blinked at my stats I think I caught a glimpse of an ad that said colon polyps.
MEMBER OF THE OPPOSITE SEX
Hahahahahahaha!! Oh, how frightfully witty. Shame on you, JULIA ROBERTS for not introducing me to BOYNTON.UBERSPORTINGPUNDIT.COM
which is why you would often find me in the kitchen at parties.
Alas, I doubt whether many members of the opposite sex would find miss b's metablogging observations that amusing at a cocktail party, although I guess you could read a fair bit of sarcasm into his over-hah response. This guy is obviously taking the piss, or seizing the cocktails.
And given the way that blogging rapidly colonises thought, it isn't too absurd to imagine that were boyton called upon to give a wedding speech, she would use the occasion to talk blog to a captive and boozed up audience:
BOYNTON.UBERSPORTINGPUNDIT.COM is making a wedding toast.
BOYNTON.UBERSPORTINGPUNDIT.COM
But thirdly, and most importantly, blogging forces you to focus when you write—blogging creates reader-centered writing.
WEDDING GUESTS
Hear, hear.
(I think miss b pinched that line, and has yet to work out how to seamlessly incorporate a link into RL performance.)
Comments: screenplay
Don't think incorporating that sentence will be too much of a problem - eventually an appropriate occasion will arise - you may just have to wait (as I typed that 'to wait' phrase I actually said it in RL to an impatient little person!) After all - you got to use the 'now then, be spry' line (I'm still waiting...everyone here's fairly spry, it seems)
Posted by wen at December 8, 2003 06:58 AM
saying it is one thing, wen, but how to turn a nice shade of #0099CC (haloScan) blue at the same time is the tricky bit ;)
Posted by boynton at December 8, 2003 01:03 PM
D'you know - I think it might be that very same iridescent shade of blue that the highly appealing mountain bluebird sports around his collar....
Posted by wen at December 8, 2003 03:05 PM
had a feeling that comment would come back to haunt me ;)
Posted by boynton at December 8, 2003 03:20 PM
Saturday, December 06, 2003
invasion 2
apparently the webers did what webers are wont to do...their own thing...in their own good time and now lie decapitated. Tonight we'll be firing up the old trolley version for a chop picnic ( boynton's never heard this vintage oz expression but nonetheless endorses its revival). Boynton has idealised retro expectations of a bbq, along the lines of the 1960's photos on the right here - especially the 2nd one. But a quick check into Lileks and The hungryman's outdoor grill cookbook reminds her of the gap between "myth and reality"
Vegetarian recipes
retro recipes
Vegetarian recipes
retro recipes
Friday, December 05, 2003
invasion
There are three webers waiting ominously in the dark carport. They look like daleks. If boynton doesn't hop off now and start cleaning, she'll soon be hearing the cry exterminate.
Comments: invasion
Barbeque-minate!
Posted by Tony.T at December 5, 2003 01:54 PM
Weber lore in my family says: fire the monters up! All evil bugs will die.
Mind you, post fish cooking, your pig can taste decidedly transgenic.
Posted by David at December 5, 2003 03:21 PM
twas rather scary T, but just as I was writing "exterminate" the old Vulcan Conray beside me suddenly fried and died...
and David, the Weber (and tonight's festivities) have nothing to do with me. 'Tis all my housemate's doing. I never trust the things myself, preferring the good old basic gas cylinder barbie. Or even better, the retro tripod
wood/heatbeads variety.
but I'm blogging (bludging), and hear the e word rising again...
Posted by boynton at December 5, 2003 04:11 PM
"Or even better, the retro tripod wood/heatbeads variety."
A traditional barbequeueueuerer after my own heart. (Though on occasions I've been known to borrow Andrew Lloyd's.)
Posted by Sedgwick at December 5, 2003 06:14 PM
very classy bludging as far as I can tell..
somehow we have let the pun demon loose in thedgeflick and now he's floating high across the blogosphere like a windswept harpy, his beady eyes alert to anyone who will throw the bugger a crumb of appreciation..
I must be sick. I think he's funny.
Posted by David at December 5, 2003 07:22 PM
Comments: invasion
Barbeque-minate!
Posted by Tony.T at December 5, 2003 01:54 PM
Weber lore in my family says: fire the monters up! All evil bugs will die.
Mind you, post fish cooking, your pig can taste decidedly transgenic.
Posted by David at December 5, 2003 03:21 PM
twas rather scary T, but just as I was writing "exterminate" the old Vulcan Conray beside me suddenly fried and died...
and David, the Weber (and tonight's festivities) have nothing to do with me. 'Tis all my housemate's doing. I never trust the things myself, preferring the good old basic gas cylinder barbie. Or even better, the retro tripod
wood/heatbeads variety.
but I'm blogging (bludging), and hear the e word rising again...
Posted by boynton at December 5, 2003 04:11 PM
"Or even better, the retro tripod wood/heatbeads variety."
A traditional barbequeueueuerer after my own heart. (Though on occasions I've been known to borrow Andrew Lloyd's.)
Posted by Sedgwick at December 5, 2003 06:14 PM
very classy bludging as far as I can tell..
somehow we have let the pun demon loose in thedgeflick and now he's floating high across the blogosphere like a windswept harpy, his beady eyes alert to anyone who will throw the bugger a crumb of appreciation..
I must be sick. I think he's funny.
Posted by David at December 5, 2003 07:22 PM
bliksem
Averil, our expat trivia team-mate, read on-line about the worst storm in 100 years to hit Melbourne, and sent boynton this photo from the Age's gallery of Reader's photos. Weird and beautiful....Het regent.
colons
As I blinked at my stats I think I caught a glimpse of an ad that said colon polyps. I may have been hallucinating. But further to the yesterday's quiz, there is a great series on the semi-colon at Maud Newton Which is more pretentious: the colon or semicolon? parts one, two, three and four. (via cup of chicha)
Comments: colons
The future of every young person contains FEAR OF COLON POLYPS.
Eat your cruciate vegetables now. Aspire to that part of vegetarianism
Now I am going to water my semicolons and harvest some grammar to post.
Posted by David at December 5, 2003 01:46 PM
I have to confess to the occasional use. Not often, mind you, and probably wrong anyway. Think I'll put my novel in for a colonotomy before I show it to anyone.
Posted by wen at December 5, 2003 08:22 PM
Comments: colons
The future of every young person contains FEAR OF COLON POLYPS.
Eat your cruciate vegetables now. Aspire to that part of vegetarianism
Now I am going to water my semicolons and harvest some grammar to post.
Posted by David at December 5, 2003 01:46 PM
I have to confess to the occasional use. Not often, mind you, and probably wrong anyway. Think I'll put my novel in for a colonotomy before I show it to anyone.
Posted by wen at December 5, 2003 08:22 PM
Thursday, December 04, 2003
etiquette
We've been happily browsing this 1935 Pi Kappa Alpha Etiquette Manual (via J Walk)
Just confirms boynton's sense that she has a time-warped mind-set.
"Never use coarse language and expect it to appeal to anyone but coarse people" from the Important Tips page - some of which could read as blogger's netiquette.
Such manuals always induce a bit of anxiety. Not just for worrying about one's own effin' Ps and Q's, but also apparently on behalf of one's coarse bric-a-brac. There's to be a bit of social activity round here soon, so boynton had better watch it.
Don’t indulge in horse-play. Snatching a valuable vase or book and pretending to hurl it at someone may cost you endless embarrassment if by accident you destroy it.
from Guest Responibilities.
There is no English expression adequately describing the guest who accepts hospitality and collects souvenirs from the home where he has stayed.
Have a feeling there must be some adequate expression but it's probably quite coarse.
Meanwhile, along with the carcinogens cigarettes may also contain other strange properties to bring on this sort of chemical reaction:
A forgotten cigarette has caused many a hostess to shed bitter tears and strike the owner off her invitation list
Comments: etiquette
"There is no English expression adequately describing the guest who accepts hospitality and collects souvenirs from the home where he has stayed."
I think "thief" or "thieving" might serve nicely, with the help of a little coarse language.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at December 4, 2003 07:28 PM
Quite.
Although a side of thief might serve just as nicely with some coarsely ground pepper.
Posted by boynton at December 4, 2003 08:37 PM
It would certainly ginger up a house party.
thorry
Posted by David at December 4, 2003 10:00 PM
According to J Walk, cited above, my celebrity playmate, selected on my biorhythms, is Dolly Parton.
I am afraid to say I dont think she would stand by this man.
Posted by David at December 5, 2003 12:02 AM
whoops - looks like I put the wrong j walk permalink in there. So if you get to "goat beeer" - scroll down a few items to the etiquette link. (There's another manual there as well)
Sadly I can't seem to find the biorhythms test to find my celebrity playmate.
Posted by boynton at December 5, 2003 12:11 AM
Just confirms boynton's sense that she has a time-warped mind-set.
"Never use coarse language and expect it to appeal to anyone but coarse people" from the Important Tips page - some of which could read as blogger's netiquette.
Such manuals always induce a bit of anxiety. Not just for worrying about one's own effin' Ps and Q's, but also apparently on behalf of one's coarse bric-a-brac. There's to be a bit of social activity round here soon, so boynton had better watch it.
Don’t indulge in horse-play. Snatching a valuable vase or book and pretending to hurl it at someone may cost you endless embarrassment if by accident you destroy it.
from Guest Responibilities.
There is no English expression adequately describing the guest who accepts hospitality and collects souvenirs from the home where he has stayed.
Have a feeling there must be some adequate expression but it's probably quite coarse.
Meanwhile, along with the carcinogens cigarettes may also contain other strange properties to bring on this sort of chemical reaction:
A forgotten cigarette has caused many a hostess to shed bitter tears and strike the owner off her invitation list
Comments: etiquette
"There is no English expression adequately describing the guest who accepts hospitality and collects souvenirs from the home where he has stayed."
I think "thief" or "thieving" might serve nicely, with the help of a little coarse language.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at December 4, 2003 07:28 PM
Quite.
Although a side of thief might serve just as nicely with some coarsely ground pepper.
Posted by boynton at December 4, 2003 08:37 PM
It would certainly ginger up a house party.
thorry
Posted by David at December 4, 2003 10:00 PM
According to J Walk, cited above, my celebrity playmate, selected on my biorhythms, is Dolly Parton.
I am afraid to say I dont think she would stand by this man.
Posted by David at December 5, 2003 12:02 AM
whoops - looks like I put the wrong j walk permalink in there. So if you get to "goat beeer" - scroll down a few items to the etiquette link. (There's another manual there as well)
Sadly I can't seem to find the biorhythms test to find my celebrity playmate.
Posted by boynton at December 5, 2003 12:11 AM
punctuation
Don't think I'll disclose how I did in this BBC How's your punctuation quiz. Makes me wish I was American, then at least I could claim some "differences in conventions". Maybe oz is somewhere between us and uk on these things.
Comments: punctuation
[{er:k~!/"?}]
Damn commas. I am haunted by commas. Do I use too many? For all the Beeb's (singular noun) flaunting (verb used as noun?) of its skill with the errant apostrophe (and what a USELESS object), it still doesn't help with commas. Sorry, "commas". Or, if I am an American "commas". Or back to front. Or something.
SMS will clear all this crap out. If only I could read it without moving my lipth like thome themiliterate medieval monk.
Posted by David at December 4, 2003 02:16 PM
if you got better than five, you did better than I. I think the different conventions excuse is a reasonable excuse; Australians, for, example, are, noted, for, "overusing" commas.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at December 4, 2003 03:25 PM
Whereas I suffer horribly with period pain ...
(Runs away shamefaced.)
Posted by Sedgwick at December 4, 2003 03:34 PM
David - I'm yet to get a mobile, so am not even converthant in SMS.
Gummo, no comma, no I mean, no comment.
Posted by boynton at December 4, 2003 03:37 PM
just missed that mad dash, Mr. S.
Guess they cramp your style...
Posted by boynton at December 4, 2003 03:39 PM
Hoppo bumpo commo Gummo.
Now say that 10 times with a mouth full of popcorn.
(Guess who's avoiding a deadline.)
Posted by Sedgwick at December 4, 2003 05:20 PM
6. Lucky im not a english teecher.
Posted by Tony.T at December 4, 2003 06:39 PM
Six is the benchmark.
I got confused with the red herring of Sir Ian. Not to be confused with "smoked herring." Which would of course be "Kipper".
Posted by boynton at December 4, 2003 08:32 PM
Oh Nooo - I'm a teacher's pet.
Its, not, like, true?
Posted by wen at December 5, 2003 07:09 AM
And I lied - I wouldn't really use a semi-colon when asking for christmas presents. I prefer dashing through my sentences....
Posted by wen at December 5, 2003 07:11 AM
and as befits the season of gifts and mellow fruitful tarts ... in a one horse open sleigh.
Posted by Sedgwick at December 5, 2003 08:48 AM
'ere - who're you callin' a tart?
Posted by wen at December 5, 2003 10:59 AM
Yeah, but a "mellow, fruitful" tart.
(And with a careful excision of an apostrophe, wen ... well!?)
Posted by Sedgwick at December 5, 2003 11:33 AM
ooh ... er... that w'ere an accident. Honest. Not that clever.
Posted by wen at December 5, 2003 08:09 PM
Comments: punctuation
[{er:k~!/"?}]
Damn commas. I am haunted by commas. Do I use too many? For all the Beeb's (singular noun) flaunting (verb used as noun?) of its skill with the errant apostrophe (and what a USELESS object), it still doesn't help with commas. Sorry, "commas". Or, if I am an American "commas". Or back to front. Or something.
SMS will clear all this crap out. If only I could read it without moving my lipth like thome themiliterate medieval monk.
Posted by David at December 4, 2003 02:16 PM
if you got better than five, you did better than I. I think the different conventions excuse is a reasonable excuse; Australians, for, example, are, noted, for, "overusing" commas.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at December 4, 2003 03:25 PM
Whereas I suffer horribly with period pain ...
(Runs away shamefaced.)
Posted by Sedgwick at December 4, 2003 03:34 PM
David - I'm yet to get a mobile, so am not even converthant in SMS.
Gummo, no comma, no I mean, no comment.
Posted by boynton at December 4, 2003 03:37 PM
just missed that mad dash, Mr. S.
Guess they cramp your style...
Posted by boynton at December 4, 2003 03:39 PM
Hoppo bumpo commo Gummo.
Now say that 10 times with a mouth full of popcorn.
(Guess who's avoiding a deadline.)
Posted by Sedgwick at December 4, 2003 05:20 PM
6. Lucky im not a english teecher.
Posted by Tony.T at December 4, 2003 06:39 PM
Six is the benchmark.
I got confused with the red herring of Sir Ian. Not to be confused with "smoked herring." Which would of course be "Kipper".
Posted by boynton at December 4, 2003 08:32 PM
Oh Nooo - I'm a teacher's pet.
Its, not, like, true?
Posted by wen at December 5, 2003 07:09 AM
And I lied - I wouldn't really use a semi-colon when asking for christmas presents. I prefer dashing through my sentences....
Posted by wen at December 5, 2003 07:11 AM
and as befits the season of gifts and mellow fruitful tarts ... in a one horse open sleigh.
Posted by Sedgwick at December 5, 2003 08:48 AM
'ere - who're you callin' a tart?
Posted by wen at December 5, 2003 10:59 AM
Yeah, but a "mellow, fruitful" tart.
(And with a careful excision of an apostrophe, wen ... well!?)
Posted by Sedgwick at December 5, 2003 11:33 AM
ooh ... er... that w'ere an accident. Honest. Not that clever.
Posted by wen at December 5, 2003 08:09 PM
Wednesday, December 03, 2003
spam poetry
lots of people are starting to find literary value hidden among the porn, penis patches, generic Viagra deals and mortgage offers. BBC (via moby lives)
To beat the filters spammers are adding nonsense and a blitz of bits of found text from out of copyright novels, some up to 700 words. This story by Mark Ward links to some great examples of recooked spam, as well as some general sites. It also led boynton to Collision Detection - a blog by writer Clive Thompson who has blogged extensively on auto-generated poetry.
Comments: spam poetry
i just got a funny spam today with the subject line "If Onan did it, why shouldn't you?". but hey, trying to sell people masturbation - isn't that like trying to sell an eskimo snow?
Posted by Gianna at December 4, 2003 10:31 PM
yes indeed - not worth a toss.
on the other hand (so to speak) it sounds like it could be a good enough specimen of spam to cut up, for the purposes of poetic manipulation.
Posted by boynton at December 4, 2003 11:06 PM
To beat the filters spammers are adding nonsense and a blitz of bits of found text from out of copyright novels, some up to 700 words. This story by Mark Ward links to some great examples of recooked spam, as well as some general sites. It also led boynton to Collision Detection - a blog by writer Clive Thompson who has blogged extensively on auto-generated poetry.
Comments: spam poetry
i just got a funny spam today with the subject line "If Onan did it, why shouldn't you?". but hey, trying to sell people masturbation - isn't that like trying to sell an eskimo snow?
Posted by Gianna at December 4, 2003 10:31 PM
yes indeed - not worth a toss.
on the other hand (so to speak) it sounds like it could be a good enough specimen of spam to cut up, for the purposes of poetic manipulation.
Posted by boynton at December 4, 2003 11:06 PM
communication grill
Communication Grill Chang-tei
In order to eat roast meat, you have to continue carrying out a chat.
You have to continue carrying out the chat with the partner surrounding a table.
If a chat is stopped, the fire of an electric heater will go out.
(via sublimate)
(To prevent things freezing up Miscellaneous Mish-Mosh of Icebreakers from RealBeer might be useful)
In order to eat roast meat, you have to continue carrying out a chat.
You have to continue carrying out the chat with the partner surrounding a table.
If a chat is stopped, the fire of an electric heater will go out.
(via sublimate)
(To prevent things freezing up Miscellaneous Mish-Mosh of Icebreakers from RealBeer might be useful)
storms
Meanwhile a fierce electrical storm storms outside... posted casually by boynton at 12:38 am.
Turns out it was the worst thunderstorm in 100 years or Living memory and boynton has been hearing a litany of emergency stories and flood damage in nearby suburbs as local radio swings into quasi emergency service. All we got here was the sound and light show, with Flo barking along to the thunder until she was forced inside and sedated by armchair priviliges.
'Twas Sedgwick who earlier alluded to Lear and indeed one may have been inclined to witness bareheaded the full smite of the all shaking thunder, with Flo as a barking Fool.
King Lear and the fool in the storm form the BBC Painting The Weather
Stormy moods
Meanwhile the Bureau warns of more ahead advising: Please be aware that the atmosphere is very unstable
Walter Withers The Storm
Comments: storms
Twas a good storm indeed. We of the southern suburbs escaped largely untouched, although my large rain guage in the back yard (otherwise known as the swimming pool) rose about 3 cms overnight. About midnight, I was out walking, and admiring the most spectacular light show in the northern skies, it was impressive. You could tell something big was brewing.
Posted by phlip at December 3, 2003 12:40 PM
I probably should have gone out walking - I was wide awake. That weird non-stop lightning - almost flickering effect.
Disturbing to think of near drownings happening just down the road here, and of stranded people being rescued by boats on the flooded freeway.
Posted by boynton at December 3, 2003 01:42 PM
"Please be aware that the atmosphere is very unstable"
It's not just the weather. It's the zeitgeist. (Though I'm fairly sure that it was the weather and not the zeitgeist that caused the leak in our kitchen.)
Taking heed of the Bureau's warning, I went out this morning and put down a deposit on a very nice second hand gondola. (One owner, low knottage, only driven across a Monty Python travelogue by a little old extra on Sundays.)
The Walter Withers could have been painted in the far reaches of the Woolshed Paddock No. 2 where I wandered as a youth.
A youth red in tooth and claw, a snake-wire in one hand and my trusty .22 in t'other. An armed knight alone and not so palely loitering with intent.
No rabbit was safe from my scorched paddock forays.
At 3 bob a pair from the local rabbit dealer a young lad could live like a king in a grass castle.
Posted by Sedgwick at December 3, 2003 02:24 PM
yes the effin gondolas would do a good trade I imagine along the tuscany reaches of the eastern fwy. There is a very large canoe sitting here which may do just as well that has been out on the Yarra once in 36 months.
btw A man who grew up not so far from Ararat and who wore similar childhood armour was telling me recently that the rabbits seem fairly safe now, and you can get done for disturbing them.
As this is ecologically motivated it's probably a good thing, but he found it rather odd, and a cause of (nostalgic) regret.
Ah - there's the zeitgeist now, rumbling.
Posted by boynton at December 3, 2003 02:59 PM
What! They are imported vermin. Stealing food out of the mouths of our highly indigenous Merino X Corriedale lambs!
Posted by Sedgwick at December 3, 2003 03:40 PM
but..... these days,. get rid of the rabbits and the bush comes to life (tra la, tra la.. see the poteroos gambol in the native meadows..) THEN..
roll of terrible drumbs. Jangle of frenzied theremin played with EXTRA MAGNETS to get it really growly,,
exeunt native wildlife. Foxes, no longer fed on bunnies, eat everything they can find. Even Sedgewick's poorly frog.
Big dilemma. Truly.
Posted by David at December 3, 2003 07:12 PM
A de Bono moment.
Solution. Import the following exotic species. Saxe-Coburg-Goths, all their heirs and successors, British Governors and Members of House of Lords (Living or dead, no matter. Who can tell the difference?)
Red jackets, horses and hounds, "Yoicks tally-ho".
No more reynards.
We then invite Chopper Robespierre over for his thunder downunder tour of duty to clean up the now surplus to requirements exotics.
Voila! Our no longer endangered libertoos, egalitoos and fraternitoos left to gyre and gimble in the land of sweeping borogoves and rugged mountain wabes to their hearts' content.
Posted by Sedgwick at December 3, 2003 08:23 PM
I'm six hats short of a lateral thought here, but note that Sedgwick is not called 'the feral eye' for nought. ;)
had assumed that the (alledged) rabbit restrictions were more to do with soil ecology - hadn't thought about the foxes.
It gets complex when you have to manage the exotics, the balance of ferals is also fragile it seems.
Still - a bush saw might do just as well as a theramin.
Meanwhile the rain was absoloutely bucketing down just as I heard the National News forecasting light showers developing later for Melbourne...
Posted by boynton at December 4, 2003 01:14 PM
Not arrived here yet. Sky dark and forbidding.
Note to self:
1. Check hull of gondola.
2. Get updated list of excised migration zones.
3. Round up a pair of everything ... hold the foxes and the rabbits.
4. Pack copy of "Begatting 101"
Posted by Sedgwick at December 4, 2003 01:46 PM
Turns out it was the worst thunderstorm in 100 years or Living memory and boynton has been hearing a litany of emergency stories and flood damage in nearby suburbs as local radio swings into quasi emergency service. All we got here was the sound and light show, with Flo barking along to the thunder until she was forced inside and sedated by armchair priviliges.
'Twas Sedgwick who earlier alluded to Lear and indeed one may have been inclined to witness bareheaded the full smite of the all shaking thunder, with Flo as a barking Fool.
King Lear and the fool in the storm form the BBC Painting The Weather
Stormy moods
Meanwhile the Bureau warns of more ahead advising: Please be aware that the atmosphere is very unstable
Walter Withers The Storm
Comments: storms
Twas a good storm indeed. We of the southern suburbs escaped largely untouched, although my large rain guage in the back yard (otherwise known as the swimming pool) rose about 3 cms overnight. About midnight, I was out walking, and admiring the most spectacular light show in the northern skies, it was impressive. You could tell something big was brewing.
Posted by phlip at December 3, 2003 12:40 PM
I probably should have gone out walking - I was wide awake. That weird non-stop lightning - almost flickering effect.
Disturbing to think of near drownings happening just down the road here, and of stranded people being rescued by boats on the flooded freeway.
Posted by boynton at December 3, 2003 01:42 PM
"Please be aware that the atmosphere is very unstable"
It's not just the weather. It's the zeitgeist. (Though I'm fairly sure that it was the weather and not the zeitgeist that caused the leak in our kitchen.)
Taking heed of the Bureau's warning, I went out this morning and put down a deposit on a very nice second hand gondola. (One owner, low knottage, only driven across a Monty Python travelogue by a little old extra on Sundays.)
The Walter Withers could have been painted in the far reaches of the Woolshed Paddock No. 2 where I wandered as a youth.
A youth red in tooth and claw, a snake-wire in one hand and my trusty .22 in t'other. An armed knight alone and not so palely loitering with intent.
No rabbit was safe from my scorched paddock forays.
At 3 bob a pair from the local rabbit dealer a young lad could live like a king in a grass castle.
Posted by Sedgwick at December 3, 2003 02:24 PM
yes the effin gondolas would do a good trade I imagine along the tuscany reaches of the eastern fwy. There is a very large canoe sitting here which may do just as well that has been out on the Yarra once in 36 months.
btw A man who grew up not so far from Ararat and who wore similar childhood armour was telling me recently that the rabbits seem fairly safe now, and you can get done for disturbing them.
As this is ecologically motivated it's probably a good thing, but he found it rather odd, and a cause of (nostalgic) regret.
Ah - there's the zeitgeist now, rumbling.
Posted by boynton at December 3, 2003 02:59 PM
What! They are imported vermin. Stealing food out of the mouths of our highly indigenous Merino X Corriedale lambs!
Posted by Sedgwick at December 3, 2003 03:40 PM
but..... these days,. get rid of the rabbits and the bush comes to life (tra la, tra la.. see the poteroos gambol in the native meadows..) THEN..
roll of terrible drumbs. Jangle of frenzied theremin played with EXTRA MAGNETS to get it really growly,,
exeunt native wildlife. Foxes, no longer fed on bunnies, eat everything they can find. Even Sedgewick's poorly frog.
Big dilemma. Truly.
Posted by David at December 3, 2003 07:12 PM
A de Bono moment.
Solution. Import the following exotic species. Saxe-Coburg-Goths, all their heirs and successors, British Governors and Members of House of Lords (Living or dead, no matter. Who can tell the difference?)
Red jackets, horses and hounds, "Yoicks tally-ho".
No more reynards.
We then invite Chopper Robespierre over for his thunder downunder tour of duty to clean up the now surplus to requirements exotics.
Voila! Our no longer endangered libertoos, egalitoos and fraternitoos left to gyre and gimble in the land of sweeping borogoves and rugged mountain wabes to their hearts' content.
Posted by Sedgwick at December 3, 2003 08:23 PM
I'm six hats short of a lateral thought here, but note that Sedgwick is not called 'the feral eye' for nought. ;)
had assumed that the (alledged) rabbit restrictions were more to do with soil ecology - hadn't thought about the foxes.
It gets complex when you have to manage the exotics, the balance of ferals is also fragile it seems.
Still - a bush saw might do just as well as a theramin.
Meanwhile the rain was absoloutely bucketing down just as I heard the National News forecasting light showers developing later for Melbourne...
Posted by boynton at December 4, 2003 01:14 PM
Not arrived here yet. Sky dark and forbidding.
Note to self:
1. Check hull of gondola.
2. Get updated list of excised migration zones.
3. Round up a pair of everything ... hold the foxes and the rabbits.
4. Pack copy of "Begatting 101"
Posted by Sedgwick at December 4, 2003 01:46 PM
Tuesday, December 02, 2003
b on b
Yes it is indeed this strange effect of the datestamp that makes dailiness an imperative. Even after a year, the drive to post here remains, so we haven't had to procure the missing muse by potions or affirmations or athletic disciplines at dawn. And blogging for boynton has always seemed reader-centred. This may well be an illusion. Commenting makes it official. Perhaps its something about validating the public voice, a bow to the audience. When “commenting is temporarily offline” audience functionality is switched off, the dynamic is dead, the theatre dark.
boynton was reflecting again on writing and blogging the other night while sitting in the theatre. A year of linking and thinking fast and associatively, of scanning and surveying threads has had some benefits.(as well as the expected drawbacks) Seems to have sharpened the attention span in a good way. Do I now read all things as essentially multi-layered - with links nesting in the wings? Show us the data. It's not so much about narrative linearity but complexity. If there's no layering you can feel shortchanged.
On the other hand, watching Helen Morse sing some Sondheim moved miss b to tears. Nothing beats the human heart of theatre.
Comments: b on b
Hmmm... the date stamp thing is certainly a way of structuring time. BEFORE MIDNIGHT I have to post. Keep the unbroken line going on the calendar.. or if I post AFTER MIDNIGHT, I've done the next day already..
It should be the most undisciplined form. Rant and fire off into the digital unknown. And yet it creates its own discipline very fast. It makes me competitive, to my utter surprise. No slacking. Use argument like other people. Be brief like other people. Cultivate a quiet voice, like you..
Attention getting. Yes, surely. I want attention. When I feel depressed I imagine myself stupidly wasting my time on stuff that nobody reads.. to get attention, I have to do something THEY want.. but who? Absolutely reader centred.
And immediacy. YES. Everything else I do is sooooo slow.
The result? every day I read a large amount of fine writing. Often from people I disagree with totally - so invigorating. It is so fascinating because its completely organic. No marketplace, no editors, no critics, just an impromptu swirling community...
I have no idea where its going. But I know its important.
Posted by David at December 2, 2003 02:59 PM
"It is important" - an affirmation for bloggers.
(btw liked that found "blogger's prayer" you posted the other day)
I try to resist the competitiveness, because that (reality) was something from which I was escaping.
Nick Piombino has often talked of this. Collaboration is an alternative ideal.
Having said that you do pick up tricks of the trade. Brevity is certainly up there. One link per post is probably a good rule of thumb - but I keep breaking it. Compulsively.
Think I'm the only one who clicks through my links but that's ok. It's also a personal log of favourites, or possible ideas.
It's reader centred - like it always has been?
Writing for theatre has to be. But keeping that essential balance. Not chasing/spruiking. I'll take the low stats thanks.
And yep - it's this "amateurism" or organic content, free from the marketplace, or even bureucratic sales pitch, or treatment, that makes it exciting.
Posted by boynton at December 2, 2003 03:19 PM
I've been thinking a lot about the effects of blogging on writing, while I've been working on an essay. The upside has been the feedback I've received when I've "thought aloud" on the blog- people, as always, are generous beyond all possible expectations with offering feedback and advice. It's also good to have to check in everyday, to make yourself accountable to an audience.
However, I did notice that I struggled a great deal when actually writing up the essay, particularly in terms of creating a cohesive whole. I kept writing short, discreet paragraphs that in no way linked to what came before and what was to follow. This could partly have been a general "out-of-practiceness" with the whole academic essay genre, but I can't help but think it's something more, something blog-related. I've become very comfortable with writing short paragraphs on single subjects, then moving on to the next topic. It was a real struggle to stop doing it.
So now I'm wondering if blogging is teaching me bad habits...
Posted by mcb at December 2, 2003 04:08 PM
I didn't elaborate on the possible ill-effects, mcb. I could say it's a bit of the pollyanna today, but it may just as likely be the addict-in-denial speaking.
Too awful to contemplate.
I haven't had to write in that genre myself for a while, but always struggled "against coherency". I always became sidetracked by the marginalia -the footnotes and the tangents.
I once heard a playwright saying that "new media" had informed him greatly on "old media" - that writing for the web had taught him spatial writing and had loosened up his theatrical thinking. However this wasn't in regard to blogging, which is a strange hybrid thing of content(original writing) and community(reading/linking)
Perhaps the question could be - are these habits neccessarily bad?
I must say though I'm always 'relieved' to find theatre (or longer forms of narrative) still does it. (Or, indeed, RL.)
Posted by boynton at December 2, 2003 05:16 PM
Ramble alert, and none of the following can be backed up by the meticulous research of the august Ponds Institute.
I blog therefore I am ... putting off something that I HAVE to do (like now when I should be pencilling up the Mercury cartoon due for faxing tomorrow).
What does it for me is:-
[a] immediacy (the fact that while commenting I disconnected the laptop from the mains and the telephone line and typed this into Notepad as the weather blew its winds and cracked its cheeks overhead bears testimony to immediacy.)
[b] feedback/communication/exchange
[c] information
and additions, combinations and permutations of the above shortlist.
As a lad in the country back-blocks the phone was not a ready means of communication. One long ring and two short led you to Mrs. Maclean manning the spaghetti of plugs of switch board, listening in for local gossip. She was known to join in conversations much to the surprise of Mrs Combine-Harvester who was pumping Mrs. Wool-Classer for the good oil on why young Lucy Hereford-Cross had to suddenly leave for a 6 month holiday in the big smoke.
Most of my long distance communications were by letter. I had a raft of pen-pals.
At one level blogging for me is an extension of that early embedded practice but with the advantage of immediacy. On t'other hand responses in comments boxes don't come with brightly coloured stamps from exotic locations. Belgian Congo, Helvetia and French Equatorial Africa, countries that put 1950's Australia way down on the Richter scale of philatelic design. Did the 50 quetzal toucan stamp move for you too? Did it for me.
Whilst I'm not philosophically averse to reading blogs with opinions with which I disagree, I gravitate to blogs that share broadly similar views to me. Cutting across that is my rule that to grab my undivided attention and loyalty a blog needs be articulate, interesting, light-heartedly serious and seriously light-hearted. I have noted a couple well on the right of my warm and fuzzy but sceptical leftish lean. Shared experiences, an added advantage.
Truncates ramble.
I could go on, but the blessed three fingered muse has just lit upon my shoulder bearing an idea for this week's cartoon for The Mercury. Get it down on paper toot sweet before my already feeble attention span loses its grip on the zimmer frame.
Posted by Sedgwick at December 2, 2003 06:41 PM
Postscript.
I recently received an email from a pommie blogger who is arriving soon in Oz. Has been here before. He had stayed in our suburban neck of the woods and had visited my old home town, visiting a winery run by a family we know ... the genesis of blogging interraction.
2-3 degrees of blogging separation.
Is going to give me a ring after he arrives to organise a drink or a meal.
So it's not all virtual.
Posted by Sedgwick at December 2, 2003 07:05 PM
I've been puzzling over that word "competitive." It's not right because there's no victory or even any attempt to measure anything. It is just about standards.
I think our beloved Sedgwick is blogging more for himself, partly because he already has an immediate commentary form - the cartoon.
Whereas for me, who has always been paid to write (badly - the money I mean) on films I don't control, this thing which I own is deadly serious. And I push myself acccording to standards I get from other people.
It's such a fascinating form, just by itself. Sets of connections - day to day, item to item, link to link, feeling to feeling... nuff heavy. lightness is all. I need gin.
Posted by David at December 2, 2003 07:44 PM
Sedgwick - such wonderful rambling. Thank you.
That back-blocks paragraph deserves its own post -(at the very least) so striking is the imagery.
Love the 'spaghetti plugs of switchboard'. What kind of meta pasta is this - can it be imagined?
Always wanted penpals as a child, but this is better - a sort of laissez-faire, open range clustering of nodes in the meta-geography of 'blogland'. It would certainly be good to have some sort of stamp to announce graphically one's location (however that is defined)
The lovely icons of Lime Tree's blogroll come close to that.
http://limetree.ksilem.com/
'light-heartedly serious and seriously light-hearted.' very pinchable for alt motto, or should that be "mission statement"
David - I think I misunderstood your "competitive"
(being the goose again) - seems you meant 'against yourself' - which is that positive thing of 'pushing yourself' to better things.
Me too, and it's puzzling sometimes what it is about this medium that motivates such seriousness (when an off the cuff post about the weather works just as well )
But then you read something somewhere that takes it deadly seriously and it inspires.
Meanwhile a fierce electrical storm storms outside...
Posted by boynton at December 3, 2003 12:38 AM
boynton was reflecting again on writing and blogging the other night while sitting in the theatre. A year of linking and thinking fast and associatively, of scanning and surveying threads has had some benefits.(as well as the expected drawbacks) Seems to have sharpened the attention span in a good way. Do I now read all things as essentially multi-layered - with links nesting in the wings? Show us the data. It's not so much about narrative linearity but complexity. If there's no layering you can feel shortchanged.
On the other hand, watching Helen Morse sing some Sondheim moved miss b to tears. Nothing beats the human heart of theatre.
Comments: b on b
Hmmm... the date stamp thing is certainly a way of structuring time. BEFORE MIDNIGHT I have to post. Keep the unbroken line going on the calendar.. or if I post AFTER MIDNIGHT, I've done the next day already..
It should be the most undisciplined form. Rant and fire off into the digital unknown. And yet it creates its own discipline very fast. It makes me competitive, to my utter surprise. No slacking. Use argument like other people. Be brief like other people. Cultivate a quiet voice, like you..
Attention getting. Yes, surely. I want attention. When I feel depressed I imagine myself stupidly wasting my time on stuff that nobody reads.. to get attention, I have to do something THEY want.. but who? Absolutely reader centred.
And immediacy. YES. Everything else I do is sooooo slow.
The result? every day I read a large amount of fine writing. Often from people I disagree with totally - so invigorating. It is so fascinating because its completely organic. No marketplace, no editors, no critics, just an impromptu swirling community...
I have no idea where its going. But I know its important.
Posted by David at December 2, 2003 02:59 PM
"It is important" - an affirmation for bloggers.
(btw liked that found "blogger's prayer" you posted the other day)
I try to resist the competitiveness, because that (reality) was something from which I was escaping.
Nick Piombino has often talked of this. Collaboration is an alternative ideal.
Having said that you do pick up tricks of the trade. Brevity is certainly up there. One link per post is probably a good rule of thumb - but I keep breaking it. Compulsively.
Think I'm the only one who clicks through my links but that's ok. It's also a personal log of favourites, or possible ideas.
It's reader centred - like it always has been?
Writing for theatre has to be. But keeping that essential balance. Not chasing/spruiking. I'll take the low stats thanks.
And yep - it's this "amateurism" or organic content, free from the marketplace, or even bureucratic sales pitch, or treatment, that makes it exciting.
Posted by boynton at December 2, 2003 03:19 PM
I've been thinking a lot about the effects of blogging on writing, while I've been working on an essay. The upside has been the feedback I've received when I've "thought aloud" on the blog- people, as always, are generous beyond all possible expectations with offering feedback and advice. It's also good to have to check in everyday, to make yourself accountable to an audience.
However, I did notice that I struggled a great deal when actually writing up the essay, particularly in terms of creating a cohesive whole. I kept writing short, discreet paragraphs that in no way linked to what came before and what was to follow. This could partly have been a general "out-of-practiceness" with the whole academic essay genre, but I can't help but think it's something more, something blog-related. I've become very comfortable with writing short paragraphs on single subjects, then moving on to the next topic. It was a real struggle to stop doing it.
So now I'm wondering if blogging is teaching me bad habits...
Posted by mcb at December 2, 2003 04:08 PM
I didn't elaborate on the possible ill-effects, mcb. I could say it's a bit of the pollyanna today, but it may just as likely be the addict-in-denial speaking.
Too awful to contemplate.
I haven't had to write in that genre myself for a while, but always struggled "against coherency". I always became sidetracked by the marginalia -the footnotes and the tangents.
I once heard a playwright saying that "new media" had informed him greatly on "old media" - that writing for the web had taught him spatial writing and had loosened up his theatrical thinking. However this wasn't in regard to blogging, which is a strange hybrid thing of content(original writing) and community(reading/linking)
Perhaps the question could be - are these habits neccessarily bad?
I must say though I'm always 'relieved' to find theatre (or longer forms of narrative) still does it. (Or, indeed, RL.)
Posted by boynton at December 2, 2003 05:16 PM
Ramble alert, and none of the following can be backed up by the meticulous research of the august Ponds Institute.
I blog therefore I am ... putting off something that I HAVE to do (like now when I should be pencilling up the Mercury cartoon due for faxing tomorrow).
What does it for me is:-
[a] immediacy (the fact that while commenting I disconnected the laptop from the mains and the telephone line and typed this into Notepad as the weather blew its winds and cracked its cheeks overhead bears testimony to immediacy.)
[b] feedback/communication/exchange
[c] information
and additions, combinations and permutations of the above shortlist.
As a lad in the country back-blocks the phone was not a ready means of communication. One long ring and two short led you to Mrs. Maclean manning the spaghetti of plugs of switch board, listening in for local gossip. She was known to join in conversations much to the surprise of Mrs Combine-Harvester who was pumping Mrs. Wool-Classer for the good oil on why young Lucy Hereford-Cross had to suddenly leave for a 6 month holiday in the big smoke.
Most of my long distance communications were by letter. I had a raft of pen-pals.
At one level blogging for me is an extension of that early embedded practice but with the advantage of immediacy. On t'other hand responses in comments boxes don't come with brightly coloured stamps from exotic locations. Belgian Congo, Helvetia and French Equatorial Africa, countries that put 1950's Australia way down on the Richter scale of philatelic design. Did the 50 quetzal toucan stamp move for you too? Did it for me.
Whilst I'm not philosophically averse to reading blogs with opinions with which I disagree, I gravitate to blogs that share broadly similar views to me. Cutting across that is my rule that to grab my undivided attention and loyalty a blog needs be articulate, interesting, light-heartedly serious and seriously light-hearted. I have noted a couple well on the right of my warm and fuzzy but sceptical leftish lean. Shared experiences, an added advantage.
Truncates ramble.
I could go on, but the blessed three fingered muse has just lit upon my shoulder bearing an idea for this week's cartoon for The Mercury. Get it down on paper toot sweet before my already feeble attention span loses its grip on the zimmer frame.
Posted by Sedgwick at December 2, 2003 06:41 PM
Postscript.
I recently received an email from a pommie blogger who is arriving soon in Oz. Has been here before. He had stayed in our suburban neck of the woods and had visited my old home town, visiting a winery run by a family we know ... the genesis of blogging interraction.
2-3 degrees of blogging separation.
Is going to give me a ring after he arrives to organise a drink or a meal.
So it's not all virtual.
Posted by Sedgwick at December 2, 2003 07:05 PM
I've been puzzling over that word "competitive." It's not right because there's no victory or even any attempt to measure anything. It is just about standards.
I think our beloved Sedgwick is blogging more for himself, partly because he already has an immediate commentary form - the cartoon.
Whereas for me, who has always been paid to write (badly - the money I mean) on films I don't control, this thing which I own is deadly serious. And I push myself acccording to standards I get from other people.
It's such a fascinating form, just by itself. Sets of connections - day to day, item to item, link to link, feeling to feeling... nuff heavy. lightness is all. I need gin.
Posted by David at December 2, 2003 07:44 PM
Sedgwick - such wonderful rambling. Thank you.
That back-blocks paragraph deserves its own post -(at the very least) so striking is the imagery.
Love the 'spaghetti plugs of switchboard'. What kind of meta pasta is this - can it be imagined?
Always wanted penpals as a child, but this is better - a sort of laissez-faire, open range clustering of nodes in the meta-geography of 'blogland'. It would certainly be good to have some sort of stamp to announce graphically one's location (however that is defined)
The lovely icons of Lime Tree's blogroll come close to that.
http://limetree.ksilem.com/
'light-heartedly serious and seriously light-hearted.' very pinchable for alt motto, or should that be "mission statement"
David - I think I misunderstood your "competitive"
(being the goose again) - seems you meant 'against yourself' - which is that positive thing of 'pushing yourself' to better things.
Me too, and it's puzzling sometimes what it is about this medium that motivates such seriousness (when an off the cuff post about the weather works just as well )
But then you read something somewhere that takes it deadly seriously and it inspires.
Meanwhile a fierce electrical storm storms outside...
Posted by boynton at December 3, 2003 12:38 AM
meta b
Blogs are
not just pieces of paper. With a blog a writer
is an indepenent
publishing entity as well as a maker of texts.
This is empowering...
Nick Piombino on how blogging might change poetry
In the end, all writers need is a way
to exchange their writing and their ideas.
As I’ve been using blogging as a research tool for several years now, I’m starting to reach some conclusions. What it does most of all is encourage a sort of discipline to write. The time-centered nature of blogging makes you want to keep something on your page that is fresh
This Public Address
But thirdly, and most importantly, blogging forces you to focus when you write—blogging creates reader-centered writing. An audience, however small, is always out there to stumble on you by just the right search-engine mojo
Further, blogs aren't old, like an HTML document that's been there since 1997. Instead, blogs are very likely to be something that interests [the blogger] greatly. Bloggers are writing all the time about what's current in various contexts and subject categories. Blogs are off-the-cuff, candid, real—and now.
Contagious Media John Patrick on Weblogs (via anil dash)
I think we'll see blogging become the first derivative of the Web. It takes the Web to a higher level. It allows for more effective communications and sharing of information in a very structured way. So it will enable millions of people to infuse their points of view into the knowledge stream, a kind of massive enrichment of knowledge. Sure, there will always be wackos and dumb blogs, just as there are wackos and dumb Web sites and dumb forms of media now
Comments: meta b
and as the blog moves on from today, it build up a store of current memories, the question will be how to turn this store into a usable long term store
a question which if it becomes a concern in the bloggers mind wil influence the writing/posting...
Posted by Henka at December 3, 2003 09:47 AM
Yes - this is a really interesting point, Henka.
Blogs have this duality of the topical - the ephemera of the moment - and the archival.
The records are there but largely unused, except through occasional searches. But the thought of losing my own makes me rather anxious - even though they are yesterday's news.
I suppose if I enabled categories, my own personl store would be more useable, and there may be other simple strategies from a technical point of view.
The aesthetics of transcending ephemera is another thing.
Love your blog btw.
Posted by boynton at December 3, 2003 11:21 AM
Blogs as a permanent record of fleeting thoughts is both exciting and utterly terrifying. I have already started to self-censor, and I know several other people who read blogs but won't start one because of the potential problems it might cause in the future. This all arises because blogs occupy a peculiar area between the private and the public.
An excellent source of metablogging fodder is Corante's blogging blog. It's on hiatus at the moment, but the archives are a wealth of information.
Posted by Robert at December 4, 2003 03:22 AM
yes it's that mix of archive and the all-knowing steel trap mind of Google as big brother archivist that is cause for pause. I've tried to steer clear of the (litigous, allegedly)confessional, (that is - assuming anything may one day be litigious) so I don't think my archives will come back to haunt me in that regard.
Checked out Corante, and shall explore the archives. Thanks.
'Empty Bottle' is also good on the meta, and categorised.
Posted by boynton at December 4, 2003 12:46 PM
It is reported that Eleanor Roosevelt said whenever everyone is thinking alike, no one is thinking very well. This simple but profound truth is applicable in every field but especially in the bloggosphere.
However, as Winston Smith noted when he finished reading the occult "inner-party" book in Nineteen Eighty-Four: "The best books (blog links & entries)... are those that tell you what you know already."
We know also too well that there are some things too dreadful to be revealed, and it is even more dreadful how, in spite of our better instincts, we long to blog even more about them...
"Everywhere in the world literature is in retreat from politics and unless resisted the one will crush the other. You don’t crush literature from outside by killing writers or intimidating them or not letting them publish, though as we’ve all seen you can make a big fuss and have a lot of fun trying. You do better to induce them to destroy it themselves by inducing them to subordinate it to political purposes, as you propose to do."
Kingsley Amis, The Russian Girl
Posted by Jozef at December 7, 2003 02:35 PM
diversity and universality.
that duality is also there in the apparent paradox where the more local we get, the more universal are the themes. This is the great appeal of the 'place bloggers', the single grain of sand.
As far as truths too terrible to be revealed, I'm wondering what you mean, Jozef. On a personal level, even though I may have set myself up by going with a pseudonym, I don't feel as if I'm holding back a great deal. Gradually any remnants of persona have disappeared (as much as they can) and I've even reverted to the 1st person, as I found my voice was more unfettered in the comments without that rather silly conceit.
However as someone who has been more used to fictionalising reality, I'm wary of letting it go "unsorted" without placing it into some greater "pattern". Perhaps this is why I have resisted the smaller, candid details which I enjoy reading elsewhere.
But then - perhaps you don't mean the personal at all, and are urging us to stop trifling and get serious? Such a call to arms is always quite confronting...
Posted by boynton at December 8, 2003 06:49 PM
not just pieces of paper. With a blog a writer
is an indepenent
publishing entity as well as a maker of texts.
This is empowering...
Nick Piombino on how blogging might change poetry
In the end, all writers need is a way
to exchange their writing and their ideas.
As I’ve been using blogging as a research tool for several years now, I’m starting to reach some conclusions. What it does most of all is encourage a sort of discipline to write. The time-centered nature of blogging makes you want to keep something on your page that is fresh
This Public Address
But thirdly, and most importantly, blogging forces you to focus when you write—blogging creates reader-centered writing. An audience, however small, is always out there to stumble on you by just the right search-engine mojo
Further, blogs aren't old, like an HTML document that's been there since 1997. Instead, blogs are very likely to be something that interests [the blogger] greatly. Bloggers are writing all the time about what's current in various contexts and subject categories. Blogs are off-the-cuff, candid, real—and now.
Contagious Media John Patrick on Weblogs (via anil dash)
I think we'll see blogging become the first derivative of the Web. It takes the Web to a higher level. It allows for more effective communications and sharing of information in a very structured way. So it will enable millions of people to infuse their points of view into the knowledge stream, a kind of massive enrichment of knowledge. Sure, there will always be wackos and dumb blogs, just as there are wackos and dumb Web sites and dumb forms of media now
Comments: meta b
and as the blog moves on from today, it build up a store of current memories, the question will be how to turn this store into a usable long term store
a question which if it becomes a concern in the bloggers mind wil influence the writing/posting...
Posted by Henka at December 3, 2003 09:47 AM
Yes - this is a really interesting point, Henka.
Blogs have this duality of the topical - the ephemera of the moment - and the archival.
The records are there but largely unused, except through occasional searches. But the thought of losing my own makes me rather anxious - even though they are yesterday's news.
I suppose if I enabled categories, my own personl store would be more useable, and there may be other simple strategies from a technical point of view.
The aesthetics of transcending ephemera is another thing.
Love your blog btw.
Posted by boynton at December 3, 2003 11:21 AM
Blogs as a permanent record of fleeting thoughts is both exciting and utterly terrifying. I have already started to self-censor, and I know several other people who read blogs but won't start one because of the potential problems it might cause in the future. This all arises because blogs occupy a peculiar area between the private and the public.
An excellent source of metablogging fodder is Corante's blogging blog. It's on hiatus at the moment, but the archives are a wealth of information.
Posted by Robert at December 4, 2003 03:22 AM
yes it's that mix of archive and the all-knowing steel trap mind of Google as big brother archivist that is cause for pause. I've tried to steer clear of the (litigous, allegedly)confessional, (that is - assuming anything may one day be litigious) so I don't think my archives will come back to haunt me in that regard.
Checked out Corante, and shall explore the archives. Thanks.
'Empty Bottle' is also good on the meta, and categorised.
Posted by boynton at December 4, 2003 12:46 PM
It is reported that Eleanor Roosevelt said whenever everyone is thinking alike, no one is thinking very well. This simple but profound truth is applicable in every field but especially in the bloggosphere.
However, as Winston Smith noted when he finished reading the occult "inner-party" book in Nineteen Eighty-Four: "The best books (blog links & entries)... are those that tell you what you know already."
We know also too well that there are some things too dreadful to be revealed, and it is even more dreadful how, in spite of our better instincts, we long to blog even more about them...
"Everywhere in the world literature is in retreat from politics and unless resisted the one will crush the other. You don’t crush literature from outside by killing writers or intimidating them or not letting them publish, though as we’ve all seen you can make a big fuss and have a lot of fun trying. You do better to induce them to destroy it themselves by inducing them to subordinate it to political purposes, as you propose to do."
Kingsley Amis, The Russian Girl
Posted by Jozef at December 7, 2003 02:35 PM
diversity and universality.
that duality is also there in the apparent paradox where the more local we get, the more universal are the themes. This is the great appeal of the 'place bloggers', the single grain of sand.
As far as truths too terrible to be revealed, I'm wondering what you mean, Jozef. On a personal level, even though I may have set myself up by going with a pseudonym, I don't feel as if I'm holding back a great deal. Gradually any remnants of persona have disappeared (as much as they can) and I've even reverted to the 1st person, as I found my voice was more unfettered in the comments without that rather silly conceit.
However as someone who has been more used to fictionalising reality, I'm wary of letting it go "unsorted" without placing it into some greater "pattern". Perhaps this is why I have resisted the smaller, candid details which I enjoy reading elsewhere.
But then - perhaps you don't mean the personal at all, and are urging us to stop trifling and get serious? Such a call to arms is always quite confronting...
Posted by boynton at December 8, 2003 06:49 PM
art
Create your own Jackson Pollock (via the Ultimate Insult)
Mr Picassohead (via bifurcated rivets)
Comments: art
Jackson Pollock was a picassohead!
Posted by Tony.T at December 2, 2003 01:39 PM
you mean in his blue poles period?
actually I tried to combine the 2 but the collage didn't quite cut it ;)
Posted by boynton at December 2, 2003 01:48 PM
I taught both those lads everything they knew.
Not easy students. Pablo kept bunking off behind the shelter shed with the models. Jackson ... well, no matter how hard I tried, his colouring in kept going over the lines. Think he was sneaking something extra into his school milk.
Jeff Koons however, there was a lad that knew on what side his cheque book, sorry, canvas was buttered.
Posted by Sedgwick at December 2, 2003 04:50 PM
Mr Picassohead (via bifurcated rivets)
Comments: art
Jackson Pollock was a picassohead!
Posted by Tony.T at December 2, 2003 01:39 PM
you mean in his blue poles period?
actually I tried to combine the 2 but the collage didn't quite cut it ;)
Posted by boynton at December 2, 2003 01:48 PM
I taught both those lads everything they knew.
Not easy students. Pablo kept bunking off behind the shelter shed with the models. Jackson ... well, no matter how hard I tried, his colouring in kept going over the lines. Think he was sneaking something extra into his school milk.
Jeff Koons however, there was a lad that knew on what side his cheque book, sorry, canvas was buttered.
Posted by Sedgwick at December 2, 2003 04:50 PM
Monday, December 01, 2003
odd christmas
The Guardian's Dave Simpson picks the 12 oddest Christmas hits... ever! (via J walk)
(Although The Cast of "Bonanza": "Christmas on the Ponderosa" sounds like it coodabeen a contender)
googling round this theme had a wonderful outcome. Among my father's 78 collection is a favourite not heard since childhood.
Does Santa Claus Sleep with his whiskers...
These are the things that never get played anymore, but used to do the rounds on our stereogram. Raucous sibling chorus in kitchen. The nostalgic hit was rather strong and almost had me weepin'.
see also dinosaur discs Christmas where there's a nice O Come All Ye Faithful 1905
think I'm getting more and more dinosaur.
Comments: odd christmas
How did I turn into a lefty? Christian education and too many Away In a Mangers when I was young and impressionable. Gee, the infant baby Jesus was homeless..
Song still upsets me, along with Woodsman Spare That Tree ground out on the HMV emotaphone. Which accounts for the rest of my politics..
Maybe I would have been a hot plutocrat if my family had played Wagner.
Posted by David at December 1, 2003 04:26 PM
I guess Emerson, Lake and Palmer's "I Believe In Father Christmas" only came in at 11 out of 10.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at December 1, 2003 06:38 PM
I remember having to do that "in a cottage, in a wood" as a young child at school, where the "happy as can be" rabbit goes:
"help me help me help me he said
before the huntsman shoots me dead..."
made me side with the rabbits agains the guns, (and even more frightened of hunstmen)
Posted by boynton at December 1, 2003 06:42 PM
you got me googlin' there Gummo, and yes - I don't know how that one missed out.
An early exposure to that one may have encouraged me to read philosophy. Also missed out on
"Grandma got run over by a reindeer" - which may have only encouraged my infantile fatalism.
I've never herad the Singing Dogs Jingle Bells but suspect I would tolerate it. Although Silent Night may have been a better choice.
Posted by boynton at December 1, 2003 06:57 PM
As a wee lad there was a radio programme on 3YB (I think) in to which doting parents/relatives sent letters containing birthday messages which would be read out to kiddies glued to their ACME crystal sets (purchased from the back cover of a comic with a shiny crisp postal note).
Point being? Well, along with the greeting, each apple-cheeked birthdayee had played a 78 rpm record of their choice. Each year mine was the Singing Dogs version of Happy Birthday. My choice was not based in the ineffable beauty of the performance (and ineffable it was), but rather because it sent our dog into a high pitched howling, barking frenzy.
Heartless woman that she is, my mother pulled the pin on my birthday light entertainment when I was about 50. She also brought to my attention that our dog had died some 25 years ago. Like I said, heartless!
Posted by Sedgwick at December 1, 2003 07:48 PM
A great story there, Mr S.
'Singing dogs' sounds like it would be one of the very few acceptable versions of that tune.
Victor would be listening to "His Voice"
Bronte has the same reaction to hearing her kin sing, and really was crooning along to the Beatles link of a week or so ago.
And 3YB?...sounds rather distant.
Posted by boynton at December 2, 2003 11:13 AM
3YB. Warrnambool
Posted by Sedgwick at December 2, 2003 11:48 AM
aah...Why be the Y? W was taken I guess.
3LO. London. Sounds distant now too.
Posted by boynton at December 2, 2003 11:52 AM
(Although The Cast of "Bonanza": "Christmas on the Ponderosa" sounds like it coodabeen a contender)
googling round this theme had a wonderful outcome. Among my father's 78 collection is a favourite not heard since childhood.
Does Santa Claus Sleep with his whiskers...
These are the things that never get played anymore, but used to do the rounds on our stereogram. Raucous sibling chorus in kitchen. The nostalgic hit was rather strong and almost had me weepin'.
see also dinosaur discs Christmas where there's a nice O Come All Ye Faithful 1905
think I'm getting more and more dinosaur.
Comments: odd christmas
How did I turn into a lefty? Christian education and too many Away In a Mangers when I was young and impressionable. Gee, the infant baby Jesus was homeless..
Song still upsets me, along with Woodsman Spare That Tree ground out on the HMV emotaphone. Which accounts for the rest of my politics..
Maybe I would have been a hot plutocrat if my family had played Wagner.
Posted by David at December 1, 2003 04:26 PM
I guess Emerson, Lake and Palmer's "I Believe In Father Christmas" only came in at 11 out of 10.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at December 1, 2003 06:38 PM
I remember having to do that "in a cottage, in a wood" as a young child at school, where the "happy as can be" rabbit goes:
"help me help me help me he said
before the huntsman shoots me dead..."
made me side with the rabbits agains the guns, (and even more frightened of hunstmen)
Posted by boynton at December 1, 2003 06:42 PM
you got me googlin' there Gummo, and yes - I don't know how that one missed out.
An early exposure to that one may have encouraged me to read philosophy. Also missed out on
"Grandma got run over by a reindeer" - which may have only encouraged my infantile fatalism.
I've never herad the Singing Dogs Jingle Bells but suspect I would tolerate it. Although Silent Night may have been a better choice.
Posted by boynton at December 1, 2003 06:57 PM
As a wee lad there was a radio programme on 3YB (I think) in to which doting parents/relatives sent letters containing birthday messages which would be read out to kiddies glued to their ACME crystal sets (purchased from the back cover of a comic with a shiny crisp postal note).
Point being? Well, along with the greeting, each apple-cheeked birthdayee had played a 78 rpm record of their choice. Each year mine was the Singing Dogs version of Happy Birthday. My choice was not based in the ineffable beauty of the performance (and ineffable it was), but rather because it sent our dog into a high pitched howling, barking frenzy.
Heartless woman that she is, my mother pulled the pin on my birthday light entertainment when I was about 50. She also brought to my attention that our dog had died some 25 years ago. Like I said, heartless!
Posted by Sedgwick at December 1, 2003 07:48 PM
A great story there, Mr S.
'Singing dogs' sounds like it would be one of the very few acceptable versions of that tune.
Victor would be listening to "His Voice"
Bronte has the same reaction to hearing her kin sing, and really was crooning along to the Beatles link of a week or so ago.
And 3YB?...sounds rather distant.
Posted by boynton at December 2, 2003 11:13 AM
3YB. Warrnambool
Posted by Sedgwick at December 2, 2003 11:48 AM
aah...Why be the Y? W was taken I guess.
3LO. London. Sounds distant now too.
Posted by boynton at December 2, 2003 11:52 AM
feeler
probably should have waited a tad until the mondayitis lifted before going to
How do you feel. I just sent 3 : ( into the www.
Oddly this made me feel better. Still not quite : ) but getting there...
(via the Presurfer)
Comments: feeler
Surely there should be a mid-way point?
: I
Sort of an ambivalent, in between feeling?
Posted by mcb at December 1, 2003 04:15 PM
There's a short blunt lesson. Stop feeling bad David, you are contributing to the world supply of blahs. Now, if the world will just come and do all the paperwork I am avoiding, we can all feel better together..
Chastened I am. chastened.
Posted by David at December 1, 2003 04:21 PM
yes mcb, it's a rare early morn when I can feel much brighter than :| or maybe ;| ( a blink not a wink) but some people just can't get past the old binary. Guess the mid-way/grey/ok area would soon dominate the ww mood.
and David - what does "chastened" look like?
:~#
or maybe
:~¤
Posted by b at December 1, 2003 06:35 PM
boynton, that is very very funny. thank you.
maybe
:~}{ as in - a lip, slightly buttoned..
Posted by David at December 1, 2003 07:05 PM
How do you feel. I just sent 3 : ( into the www.
Oddly this made me feel better. Still not quite : ) but getting there...
(via the Presurfer)
Comments: feeler
Surely there should be a mid-way point?
: I
Sort of an ambivalent, in between feeling?
Posted by mcb at December 1, 2003 04:15 PM
There's a short blunt lesson. Stop feeling bad David, you are contributing to the world supply of blahs. Now, if the world will just come and do all the paperwork I am avoiding, we can all feel better together..
Chastened I am. chastened.
Posted by David at December 1, 2003 04:21 PM
yes mcb, it's a rare early morn when I can feel much brighter than :| or maybe ;| ( a blink not a wink) but some people just can't get past the old binary. Guess the mid-way/grey/ok area would soon dominate the ww mood.
and David - what does "chastened" look like?
:~#
or maybe
:~¤
Posted by b at December 1, 2003 06:35 PM
boynton, that is very very funny. thank you.
maybe
:~}{ as in - a lip, slightly buttoned..
Posted by David at December 1, 2003 07:05 PM
Saturday, November 29, 2003
googlechase
I think I'm possibly more tree frog than anything else.
Comments: googlechase
Ribbip.
Posted by Duckee at November 29, 2003 04:41 PM
Tree frog Boynton ... an anagram forgotten by Nero
Posted by Sedgwick at November 29, 2003 04:44 PM
Workin' beautifully, Sedge.
Posted by Tony.T at November 29, 2003 05:23 PM
Be ogre, front Tony.
Posted by boynton at November 29, 2003 05:43 PM
I identify with the ducks myself.
Posted by Scott Wickstein at November 30, 2003 12:21 PM
surely you're a bit of a goose too sometimes? i know i am.
Posted by Gianna at November 30, 2003 09:27 PM
Only the parson knows.
Posted by Sedgwick at November 30, 2003 10:59 PM
yes I'm so much the goose that it was a bit too non-specific.
Posted by boynton at December 1, 2003 12:39 PM
verses
Kenneth Koch's Permanently at fait accompli
fast version of fox in sox (via sarcasmo)
Comments: verses
Hey... someone else posts on a Saturday. It can be the best time..
Posted by David at November 29, 2003 03:04 PM
I agree - and also for reading.
especially when it's very warm to hot outside...
Posted by boynton at November 29, 2003 05:45 PM
After having been to Moonee Valley today, I now realise I should have stayed home posting this afternoon.
Well, it wasn't a complete loss. Wine and food courtesy of the MVRC Committee.
If only Smokey Ireland had hung on for 2nd.
Posted by Sedgwick at November 29, 2003 06:37 PM
Just to satisfy my curiosity, have you ventured to a cinema near you to see "Sea Biscuit"?
Taking a lead from David (in particular ... a "5" no less) and Margaret's effusive praise, we went to see "Mystic River".
Mmmmm, maybe a "3". Back to a "4" if it doesn't matter if you picked "whodunnit" half way through. Back to a "3" for not taking advantage of easy discovery of the "whodunnit" to make the film even more wrenching. Back up to a "4" if you explain to Sean Penn that "less is more".
Then again, that's why I do cartoons and not fillums.
And I still get a bit watery of eye whenever I see "Shane" which, and I proffer this just because you asked, was the first film I remember seeing. Later there were many, many films that I don't remember seeing.
(Usually at midday matinees where I was fully pre-occupied with the arcane engineering that is a bra hook and eye.)
Posted by Sedgwick at November 29, 2003 07:17 PM
... and if only Smokey Ireland had hung on for 2nd.
Posted by Sedgwick at November 29, 2003 07:30 PM
That trifecta of warm weather, Moonee Valley and free vino would have proved a dangerous one for me I imagine, and I would have been in no fit state to post. Pissed past the post. I had to wait until well into the late BBQ hour last night before imbibing a glass of free fizz.
Haven't seen Seabiscuit yet - but notice it's playing at an obscure suburban cinema I favour so soon will. And maybe Mystic River - with its wavering rating.
Yes - so many films I don't remember seeing from my youth with engineers- when I was the fumblee. Happy days.
Posted by boynton at November 30, 2003 01:06 PM
fast version of fox in sox (via sarcasmo)
Comments: verses
Hey... someone else posts on a Saturday. It can be the best time..
Posted by David at November 29, 2003 03:04 PM
I agree - and also for reading.
especially when it's very warm to hot outside...
Posted by boynton at November 29, 2003 05:45 PM
After having been to Moonee Valley today, I now realise I should have stayed home posting this afternoon.
Well, it wasn't a complete loss. Wine and food courtesy of the MVRC Committee.
If only Smokey Ireland had hung on for 2nd.
Posted by Sedgwick at November 29, 2003 06:37 PM
Just to satisfy my curiosity, have you ventured to a cinema near you to see "Sea Biscuit"?
Taking a lead from David (in particular ... a "5" no less) and Margaret's effusive praise, we went to see "Mystic River".
Mmmmm, maybe a "3". Back to a "4" if it doesn't matter if you picked "whodunnit" half way through. Back to a "3" for not taking advantage of easy discovery of the "whodunnit" to make the film even more wrenching. Back up to a "4" if you explain to Sean Penn that "less is more".
Then again, that's why I do cartoons and not fillums.
And I still get a bit watery of eye whenever I see "Shane" which, and I proffer this just because you asked, was the first film I remember seeing. Later there were many, many films that I don't remember seeing.
(Usually at midday matinees where I was fully pre-occupied with the arcane engineering that is a bra hook and eye.)
Posted by Sedgwick at November 29, 2003 07:17 PM
... and if only Smokey Ireland had hung on for 2nd.
Posted by Sedgwick at November 29, 2003 07:30 PM
That trifecta of warm weather, Moonee Valley and free vino would have proved a dangerous one for me I imagine, and I would have been in no fit state to post. Pissed past the post. I had to wait until well into the late BBQ hour last night before imbibing a glass of free fizz.
Haven't seen Seabiscuit yet - but notice it's playing at an obscure suburban cinema I favour so soon will. And maybe Mystic River - with its wavering rating.
Yes - so many films I don't remember seeing from my youth with engineers- when I was the fumblee. Happy days.
Posted by boynton at November 30, 2003 01:06 PM
Friday, November 28, 2003
wild goose
No gif to show for it but the latest offering from the Google Ad related searches thinks boynton may be interested in Goose Reppellants.
Put an end to unsightly droppings and unusable turf areas. (Geese leave behind an average of 1 to 2 pounds per day per goose.)
Of course were she ever to be Canadian and/or bothered by geese or even ducks, she could just do as the local (exclusive) golf course did, and shoot the trespassers.
Or perhaps like the Pure finders of London, (who scavenged for dog's droppings) she could start collecting (via Apothecary's Drawer)
Comments: wild goose
My solution. Let them have a gander at empty tins (marked "Refillable") of foie gras carefully dotted around the place.
http://volcano.photobucket.com/albums/v11/wombat3041/foiegras.JPG
Posted by Sedgwick at November 28, 2003 04:41 PM
It's my pate and I'll cry if I want to...
sorry - all this haggis and foie gras has upset my equilibrium ;)
Posted by boynton at November 28, 2003 04:50 PM
Less Gore, more Lesley. (Hell, this is getting far too infectious.)
Posted by Sedgwick at November 28, 2003 07:40 PM
more your 'bacterial' I would have thought, in the
gory 'Clostridium botulinum' sense of the word.
(maybe that's why Judy and Johnny left the party at the same time. A bad can of something)
Posted by boynton at November 28, 2003 07:53 PM
Now, if I were really beyond help (and the pale) I would make some reference to scat singing.
Posted by Sedgwick at November 28, 2003 09:00 PM
I surrender. Please. When I snort like this the neighbours look at me funny.
Posted by David at November 29, 2003 03:06 PM
Your white flag is recognised by the chair. Motion passed on the voices.
Posted by Sedgwick at November 29, 2003 04:41 PM
alas I had already conceded.
Impaled by punditry.
the link to Mayhew and the 'pure finders' among London's poor c 1851 is interesting (as the spambot might say) btw ;)
Posted by boynton at November 29, 2003 05:50 PM
Put an end to unsightly droppings and unusable turf areas. (Geese leave behind an average of 1 to 2 pounds per day per goose.)
Of course were she ever to be Canadian and/or bothered by geese or even ducks, she could just do as the local (exclusive) golf course did, and shoot the trespassers.
Or perhaps like the Pure finders of London, (who scavenged for dog's droppings) she could start collecting (via Apothecary's Drawer)
Comments: wild goose
My solution. Let them have a gander at empty tins (marked "Refillable") of foie gras carefully dotted around the place.
http://volcano.photobucket.com/albums/v11/wombat3041/foiegras.JPG
Posted by Sedgwick at November 28, 2003 04:41 PM
It's my pate and I'll cry if I want to...
sorry - all this haggis and foie gras has upset my equilibrium ;)
Posted by boynton at November 28, 2003 04:50 PM
Less Gore, more Lesley. (Hell, this is getting far too infectious.)
Posted by Sedgwick at November 28, 2003 07:40 PM
more your 'bacterial' I would have thought, in the
gory 'Clostridium botulinum' sense of the word.
(maybe that's why Judy and Johnny left the party at the same time. A bad can of something)
Posted by boynton at November 28, 2003 07:53 PM
Now, if I were really beyond help (and the pale) I would make some reference to scat singing.
Posted by Sedgwick at November 28, 2003 09:00 PM
I surrender. Please. When I snort like this the neighbours look at me funny.
Posted by David at November 29, 2003 03:06 PM
Your white flag is recognised by the chair. Motion passed on the voices.
Posted by Sedgwick at November 29, 2003 04:41 PM
alas I had already conceded.
Impaled by punditry.
the link to Mayhew and the 'pure finders' among London's poor c 1851 is interesting (as the spambot might say) btw ;)
Posted by boynton at November 29, 2003 05:50 PM
penguins
before the recent eclipse, boynton casually remarked that she worried on behalf of the Antarctic penguins. (Or- at least - she spared a thought about their possible confusion. At least.) Her companions found this rather bemusing and were flippant. boynton tried to google up some serious linkage but found reports differed.
Dr Jones, a veterinary pathologist from Bendigo in Victoria, said he and colleagues had wanted to see what effect the eclipse had on nesting penguins.
"But there was no discernible change in them - they didn't show any degree of agitation or worry," he said. (the australian)
but according to CTV:
"As for the penguins, they appeared agitated during the eclipse and started to roam around. But, they soon calmed down"
Klipsi's Dances with Penguins team What will penguins do in sudden darkness ? were disappointed, according to the news Live from Antartica 24/11
not perfect, but close. Alas, no penguins during totality :-(
And after reading of Edison's unfortunate eclipse experience with hens, we found Newton's penguins (via The Presurfer) rather diverting.
Comments: penguins
It's a bit like that story that if you fly a helicopter across a penguin colony in Antarctica, millions of little heads will swivel to follow you, until they all fall over on their backs.
I gather this story became so pervasive that scientists went out and... flew a helicopter across etc.
Sadly for the world's comedians, the etc after the etc didn't happen. But apparently they do get agitated and bang their little flippers..
Posted by David at November 28, 2003 02:31 PM
In one eclipse I observed birds.
I found their confusion disturbing.
The primal signs of absurd disruption, portents of apocalypse.
I also hope the observers here were not a cause of stress.
Posted by boynton at November 28, 2003 04:03 PM
No bother for me. I like the night-life.
Posted by Burgess.M at November 28, 2003 10:27 PM
I like the ice bergs.
Posted by Eli W at November 28, 2003 11:17 PM
Seen this Boynton?
http://authenticpics.members.easyspace.com/video/penguin.mpg
Posted by Nora at November 28, 2003 11:26 PM
rather apt for this penguin trip.
Posted by boynton at November 29, 2003 12:17 PM
Dr Jones, a veterinary pathologist from Bendigo in Victoria, said he and colleagues had wanted to see what effect the eclipse had on nesting penguins.
"But there was no discernible change in them - they didn't show any degree of agitation or worry," he said. (the australian)
but according to CTV:
"As for the penguins, they appeared agitated during the eclipse and started to roam around. But, they soon calmed down"
Klipsi's Dances with Penguins team What will penguins do in sudden darkness ? were disappointed, according to the news Live from Antartica 24/11
not perfect, but close. Alas, no penguins during totality :-(
And after reading of Edison's unfortunate eclipse experience with hens, we found Newton's penguins (via The Presurfer) rather diverting.
Comments: penguins
It's a bit like that story that if you fly a helicopter across a penguin colony in Antarctica, millions of little heads will swivel to follow you, until they all fall over on their backs.
I gather this story became so pervasive that scientists went out and... flew a helicopter across etc.
Sadly for the world's comedians, the etc after the etc didn't happen. But apparently they do get agitated and bang their little flippers..
Posted by David at November 28, 2003 02:31 PM
In one eclipse I observed birds.
I found their confusion disturbing.
The primal signs of absurd disruption, portents of apocalypse.
I also hope the observers here were not a cause of stress.
Posted by boynton at November 28, 2003 04:03 PM
No bother for me. I like the night-life.
Posted by Burgess.M at November 28, 2003 10:27 PM
I like the ice bergs.
Posted by Eli W at November 28, 2003 11:17 PM
Seen this Boynton?
http://authenticpics.members.easyspace.com/video/penguin.mpg
Posted by Nora at November 28, 2003 11:26 PM
rather apt for this penguin trip.
Posted by boynton at November 29, 2003 12:17 PM
saw
we saw a saw being played last night, and now want to rush out for some hardware.
You can listen to the mesmerising sound of the musical saw while you read a short instruction as regards playing
where to get and how to play the muscial saw inexpensively
Spacedog play the saw in six weeks
Musical Saw
sound files at the Musical Saw and Theramin page
Comments: saw
I saw that too.
Posted by Poncho at November 28, 2003 10:28 PM
eh?
sawing is believing.
Posted by Cisco at November 28, 2003 11:08 PM
You can listen to the mesmerising sound of the musical saw while you read a short instruction as regards playing
where to get and how to play the muscial saw inexpensively
Spacedog play the saw in six weeks
Musical Saw
sound files at the Musical Saw and Theramin page
Comments: saw
I saw that too.
Posted by Poncho at November 28, 2003 10:28 PM
eh?
sawing is believing.
Posted by Cisco at November 28, 2003 11:08 PM
Thursday, November 27, 2003
aviation
Pan Am Tea Set
from the Historical Museum of Southern Florida Pan Am Collection (via Plep)
Guess we could have gone this way but decided to take this local route:
Peter Dunn's Some Old Airline Tickets, A Flight Log Etc
ANA images from the Australian section of the vast Airline Timetable images
update via the site above, found the missing link that frames the post
Qantas China
from the Historical Museum of Southern Florida Pan Am Collection (via Plep)
Guess we could have gone this way but decided to take this local route:
Peter Dunn's Some Old Airline Tickets, A Flight Log Etc
ANA images from the Australian section of the vast Airline Timetable images
update via the site above, found the missing link that frames the post
Qantas China
Wednesday, November 26, 2003
suzanne
The story of the woman who inspired the Leonard Cohen song Suzanne
(via Incoming Signals)
One of my sisters used to sing this song rather soulfully around the house in days gone by. At least she didn't sing the canadian 'OR anges' like a domestic troubadour of more recent times.
Comments: suzanne
In some ways for me that song is emblematic of a whole generation. These days we are sidling up on "Closing Time"..
Posted by David at November 26, 2003 05:20 PM
well yes, but of course I was the YOUNGEST sister (she hastens to add)
Didn't mean to sound snarky about that song. I've always liked it - and agree about its emblematic meaning.
It was quite sobering to read of the mixed feelings - even sadness - associated with the song for "suzanne".
Posted by boynton at November 26, 2003 05:29 PM
It's a very odd combination - but I discovered Leonard Cohen about the same time as I read the poetry of Spike Milligan. Somehow 'Suzanne' and 'I thought I saw Jesus on a train' (I said are you Jesus/he said yes I am) are all mixed up in my head....
Posted by wen at November 26, 2003 09:04 PM
and you could throw in The Hollies for good measure:
"I can't make it if you leave me
I'm sorry Suzanne, believe me
I was wrong
And I knew I was all along
Forgive me"
something of the goony supplication there too,
but I do like that bit of Spike I must say.
Posted by boynton at November 27, 2003 12:08 AM
...Suzanne the plans they made put an end to you...
Posted by nora at November 27, 2003 03:57 PM
ah yes - another emblematic song that my sister used to sing, Nora.
Posted by boynton at November 27, 2003 04:47 PM
Ah, Suzanne. Immediately think of one of my top 5 favorite singers. The quite impossible, but wonderful Nina Simone. Velvet and mahogany in a voice.
(Dammit, I'm coming over all lyrical like.)
Posted by Sedgwick at November 27, 2003 07:45 PM
Yes, Nina is certainly up there round here.
Posted by boynton at November 28, 2003 03:48 PM
(via Incoming Signals)
One of my sisters used to sing this song rather soulfully around the house in days gone by. At least she didn't sing the canadian 'OR anges' like a domestic troubadour of more recent times.
Comments: suzanne
In some ways for me that song is emblematic of a whole generation. These days we are sidling up on "Closing Time"..
Posted by David at November 26, 2003 05:20 PM
well yes, but of course I was the YOUNGEST sister (she hastens to add)
Didn't mean to sound snarky about that song. I've always liked it - and agree about its emblematic meaning.
It was quite sobering to read of the mixed feelings - even sadness - associated with the song for "suzanne".
Posted by boynton at November 26, 2003 05:29 PM
It's a very odd combination - but I discovered Leonard Cohen about the same time as I read the poetry of Spike Milligan. Somehow 'Suzanne' and 'I thought I saw Jesus on a train' (I said are you Jesus/he said yes I am) are all mixed up in my head....
Posted by wen at November 26, 2003 09:04 PM
and you could throw in The Hollies for good measure:
"I can't make it if you leave me
I'm sorry Suzanne, believe me
I was wrong
And I knew I was all along
Forgive me"
something of the goony supplication there too,
but I do like that bit of Spike I must say.
Posted by boynton at November 27, 2003 12:08 AM
...Suzanne the plans they made put an end to you...
Posted by nora at November 27, 2003 03:57 PM
ah yes - another emblematic song that my sister used to sing, Nora.
Posted by boynton at November 27, 2003 04:47 PM
Ah, Suzanne. Immediately think of one of my top 5 favorite singers. The quite impossible, but wonderful Nina Simone. Velvet and mahogany in a voice.
(Dammit, I'm coming over all lyrical like.)
Posted by Sedgwick at November 27, 2003 07:45 PM
Yes, Nina is certainly up there round here.
Posted by boynton at November 28, 2003 03:48 PM
wrting practice
Some good writerly reading at The Sun magazine including
Keep The Hand Moving. Natalie Goldberg on Zen and the Art of Writing Practice.
"I consider writing an athletic activity; the more you practice the better you get at it…. All the other rules of writing practice support that primary rule of keeping your hand moving"
The Sunbeams are a good collection of writerly aphorisms. And the Reader's Write
Laughter was a timely read.
A neurological look at hypergraphia " the medical term for an overpowering desire to write."
How can both neuroscience and literature bear on the question of what makes writers not only able, but want, even need, to write? How can we understand the outpouring of authors like Joyce Carol Oates or Stephen King? Why does John Updike see a blank sheet of paper as radiant, the sun rising in the morning? (As William Pritchard said of him, "He must have had an unpublished thought, but you couldn't tell it.") This seems -- and is -- an unbelievably complex psychological trait.
Writing Like Crazy: a Word on the Brain By Alice Weaver Flaherty
(via Jerz's Literacy Weblog)
wonder if there's a hyperblogia variation of hypergraphia for the overbloggers of hyperspace?
Comments: wrting practice
Writing as an athletic activity? If only I could somehow work out a way to type with my hips!
Posted by wen at November 26, 2003 09:06 PM
I thought everyone did ;)
actually I heard once that such athletic typing might prevent RSI? While this was related to pianists and other musos, there might be something in that...
Posted by boynton at November 27, 2003 04:57 PM
Keep The Hand Moving. Natalie Goldberg on Zen and the Art of Writing Practice.
"I consider writing an athletic activity; the more you practice the better you get at it…. All the other rules of writing practice support that primary rule of keeping your hand moving"
The Sunbeams are a good collection of writerly aphorisms. And the Reader's Write
Laughter was a timely read.
A neurological look at hypergraphia " the medical term for an overpowering desire to write."
How can both neuroscience and literature bear on the question of what makes writers not only able, but want, even need, to write? How can we understand the outpouring of authors like Joyce Carol Oates or Stephen King? Why does John Updike see a blank sheet of paper as radiant, the sun rising in the morning? (As William Pritchard said of him, "He must have had an unpublished thought, but you couldn't tell it.") This seems -- and is -- an unbelievably complex psychological trait.
Writing Like Crazy: a Word on the Brain By Alice Weaver Flaherty
(via Jerz's Literacy Weblog)
wonder if there's a hyperblogia variation of hypergraphia for the overbloggers of hyperspace?
Comments: wrting practice
Writing as an athletic activity? If only I could somehow work out a way to type with my hips!
Posted by wen at November 26, 2003 09:06 PM
I thought everyone did ;)
actually I heard once that such athletic typing might prevent RSI? While this was related to pianists and other musos, there might be something in that...
Posted by boynton at November 27, 2003 04:57 PM
Tuesday, November 25, 2003
mobile places
Humble apologies to whoever but I have misplaced the via for this link, but the other night was reading:
Disconnected Urbanism The cell phone has changed our sense of place more than faxes, computers, and e-mail.
The great offense of the cell phone in public is not the intrusion of its ring, although that can be infuriating when it interrupts a tranquil moment. It is the fact that even when the phone does not ring at all, and is being used quietly and discreetly, it renders a public place less public. It turns the boulevardier into a sequestered individual, the flaneur into a figure of privacy. And suddenly the meaning of the street as a public place has been hugely diminished
The next day I was sitting among the birdsong and throng of ducks and geese at the Boathouse when the Nokia tone chimed in, and a woman started a loud rather personal mobile conversation at the next table. Does it seem stranger because it's a monologue or because it's directed elsewhere?
Sorry about this morning. I was a bit cranky. Yeah I was just cranky. So I hope you don't think I'm...
meanwhile some of the birds were getting rather bold and one jumped onto the table and would not be deterred easily from walking close to pie.
They have either lost their sense of fear or their sense of place.
Disconnected Urbanism The cell phone has changed our sense of place more than faxes, computers, and e-mail.
The great offense of the cell phone in public is not the intrusion of its ring, although that can be infuriating when it interrupts a tranquil moment. It is the fact that even when the phone does not ring at all, and is being used quietly and discreetly, it renders a public place less public. It turns the boulevardier into a sequestered individual, the flaneur into a figure of privacy. And suddenly the meaning of the street as a public place has been hugely diminished
The next day I was sitting among the birdsong and throng of ducks and geese at the Boathouse when the Nokia tone chimed in, and a woman started a loud rather personal mobile conversation at the next table. Does it seem stranger because it's a monologue or because it's directed elsewhere?
Sorry about this morning. I was a bit cranky. Yeah I was just cranky. So I hope you don't think I'm...
meanwhile some of the birds were getting rather bold and one jumped onto the table and would not be deterred easily from walking close to pie.
They have either lost their sense of fear or their sense of place.
genderise
Que es mas macho, pineapple o knife? Well, let`s see. My guess is that a pineapple is more macho than a knife. Si! Correcto! Pineapple es mas macho que knife
Laurie Anderson Smoke Rings
It is up to you and every other man, woman, and child to use whatever thought process, whatever logic, whatever heuristic you see fit to definitively choose the genders of the objects this world has produced.
(via the Presurfer)
Laurie Anderson Smoke Rings
It is up to you and every other man, woman, and child to use whatever thought process, whatever logic, whatever heuristic you see fit to definitively choose the genders of the objects this world has produced.
(via the Presurfer)
Monday, November 24, 2003
games
Giant Games
Giant Snakes and Ladders
Giant Captain's Mistress
Make your own Game of Chook Chook
A splendid Educational Parlor Game for Yong Children and Grown-ups
Board and Playing Card Games based upon Television Programs
The Patty Duke Show
Each of the scenes depicted on the board are typical of activities middle-class young teen-age girls living in New York City in the early 1960s might be engaged in
Comments: games
you do come from a big family. ! that site is wonderfully manky. captain cook reduced to a sort of plastic grid in an omaha back yard..
Posted by David at November 24, 2003 07:13 PM
Yes I have often talked here of Croquet chez boynton, and that might be Giant something. (Guess scale is all relative)
Hadn't seen all the "layers " in that Captain's Mistress myself. What a cultural text!
I like the warning:
"it would probably not survive too long in a rowdy pub or any other environment where people might fall on it etc."
wonder what "etc" could be?
Posted by boynton at November 25, 2003 12:40 PM
260 quid for a game of Captain's Mistress! What's it made of, gold?
Posted by Gianna at November 25, 2003 01:06 PM
There is a theory that croquet is giant billiards, or that billiards is midget croquet, which I think was originally a peasant game played in the fourteenth century with giant mallets.
Croquet took off in Victorian England because it was the only outside pastime that men and women could play together.
There is a giant form of croquet that came back from France in the 18th century called (if I remember rightly) Paille Maille. It had a really big field, one of which was laid out in the West End of London and eventually became Pall Mall, from which we get our Mall.
I want to see Giant Croquet played in Chaddy. The curve and the two levels would make it really interesting. All conversation should be in pre-revolutionary French; all participants should wear a sword; all umpires should be so elaborately courteous they would not be fast enough to stop duels..
YES!
Posted by David at November 25, 2003 01:12 PM
Yeah G - some Mistress.
(and let's not forget the full set of Spare Disks for an extra 90. Possibly quite wise.)
David - love this Giant/midget territory.
Aussie Rules started fairly free range didn't it -
both space and time-wise? I like the idea of mini games being set free. Rehabilitated into the wild.
Basketball is gradually becoming 'mini' given the players increase in height, perhaps outgrowing the old scale?.
& mais oui, I'd play Giant Croaky in Chaddy - the opportunity to converse in pre-revolutionary French would just be too hard to resist.
Posted by boynton at November 25, 2003 03:27 PM
that basketball idea is just great - Alice In Wonderland goes to the Geelong Stadium..
I sometimes think that international peace might be possible if we just set up parallel championships for short people. Max height 5'6" (gee that dates me..). Then the world could play basketball, soccer and AFL with all the nations plugging in .. except, sadly, for Pygmies and Masai.. but the West would be disadvantaged because the Huge Hotties would continue to dominate their domestic competition and therefore get all the practice..
OR; maybe we find a way of crossing team sports with ferret racing - transparent tubes laid out in the middle of the field so only the shorties could get through.. with a constant dramatic tension - is the Big Person just too big to try.. stuck in the middle after a few too many midweek pies..
you can tell I am not a tall person. or particularly skinny, for that matter..
Posted by David at November 26, 2003 03:09 PM
I've got one word to say to you:
libero and volleyball
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics2000/other_sports/935587.stm
Yes as a 5'6" person myself I endorse the suggested height limit, and may think of some more unter-sporting ideas for the smaller scaled
(shorter sports).
In my case it might also be useful to think of sporting activities for people who throw badly.
(or "thinking outside the square" Or diamond.)
Posted by boynton at November 26, 2003 03:54 PM
i have played cricket twice in my whole life.
Once where the batsman slugged me in the temple with the ball.
And once where I was bowling. Can't hit, can't catch, must be able to bowl. I had the action down pat. Arms windmilling around, I raced up, let go of the ball.. and it disappeared. Everyone just stood around looking bewildered.. until it landed SMACK on top of my head. I had thrown it almost straight up in the air and then stopped right underneath it.
This is why I am a middle aged man on a bicycle.
Posted by David at November 26, 2003 05:03 PM
Also, I think Gianni could pose a fantastic IP dilemma by handcrafting Captain's Mistress out of locally available NSW rural stuff (I dunno, old truck tyres or something..) while dandling her new baby Milan on her knee.
If it was played by Captain Cook, surely we have the right to replicate it?
If not.. the Americans will be patenting conquest (tm) next. Come to think of it..
Posted by David at November 26, 2003 05:10 PM
I've never had to play cricket fortunately, otherwise I'm sure I too would have bowled myself a few bouncers accidentally, just to intimidate myself.
My last embarrassing experience of throwing was in the park with Flo. I threw the ball in a northerly direction and it ended up going west in a high lob. Must have been the top spin.
Flo looked bewildered and even a bit miffed.
The lunching Council workers were no doubt highly amused.
I only do 'frisbee' now - or hitting with raquet.
Posted by boynton at November 26, 2003 05:15 PM
Giant Snakes and Ladders
Giant Captain's Mistress
Make your own Game of Chook Chook
A splendid Educational Parlor Game for Yong Children and Grown-ups
Board and Playing Card Games based upon Television Programs
The Patty Duke Show
Each of the scenes depicted on the board are typical of activities middle-class young teen-age girls living in New York City in the early 1960s might be engaged in
Comments: games
you do come from a big family. ! that site is wonderfully manky. captain cook reduced to a sort of plastic grid in an omaha back yard..
Posted by David at November 24, 2003 07:13 PM
Yes I have often talked here of Croquet chez boynton, and that might be Giant something. (Guess scale is all relative)
Hadn't seen all the "layers " in that Captain's Mistress myself. What a cultural text!
I like the warning:
"it would probably not survive too long in a rowdy pub or any other environment where people might fall on it etc."
wonder what "etc" could be?
Posted by boynton at November 25, 2003 12:40 PM
260 quid for a game of Captain's Mistress! What's it made of, gold?
Posted by Gianna at November 25, 2003 01:06 PM
There is a theory that croquet is giant billiards, or that billiards is midget croquet, which I think was originally a peasant game played in the fourteenth century with giant mallets.
Croquet took off in Victorian England because it was the only outside pastime that men and women could play together.
There is a giant form of croquet that came back from France in the 18th century called (if I remember rightly) Paille Maille. It had a really big field, one of which was laid out in the West End of London and eventually became Pall Mall, from which we get our Mall.
I want to see Giant Croquet played in Chaddy. The curve and the two levels would make it really interesting. All conversation should be in pre-revolutionary French; all participants should wear a sword; all umpires should be so elaborately courteous they would not be fast enough to stop duels..
YES!
Posted by David at November 25, 2003 01:12 PM
Yeah G - some Mistress.
(and let's not forget the full set of Spare Disks for an extra 90. Possibly quite wise.)
David - love this Giant/midget territory.
Aussie Rules started fairly free range didn't it -
both space and time-wise? I like the idea of mini games being set free. Rehabilitated into the wild.
Basketball is gradually becoming 'mini' given the players increase in height, perhaps outgrowing the old scale?.
& mais oui, I'd play Giant Croaky in Chaddy - the opportunity to converse in pre-revolutionary French would just be too hard to resist.
Posted by boynton at November 25, 2003 03:27 PM
that basketball idea is just great - Alice In Wonderland goes to the Geelong Stadium..
I sometimes think that international peace might be possible if we just set up parallel championships for short people. Max height 5'6" (gee that dates me..). Then the world could play basketball, soccer and AFL with all the nations plugging in .. except, sadly, for Pygmies and Masai.. but the West would be disadvantaged because the Huge Hotties would continue to dominate their domestic competition and therefore get all the practice..
OR; maybe we find a way of crossing team sports with ferret racing - transparent tubes laid out in the middle of the field so only the shorties could get through.. with a constant dramatic tension - is the Big Person just too big to try.. stuck in the middle after a few too many midweek pies..
you can tell I am not a tall person. or particularly skinny, for that matter..
Posted by David at November 26, 2003 03:09 PM
I've got one word to say to you:
libero and volleyball
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics2000/other_sports/935587.stm
Yes as a 5'6" person myself I endorse the suggested height limit, and may think of some more unter-sporting ideas for the smaller scaled
(shorter sports).
In my case it might also be useful to think of sporting activities for people who throw badly.
(or "thinking outside the square" Or diamond.)
Posted by boynton at November 26, 2003 03:54 PM
i have played cricket twice in my whole life.
Once where the batsman slugged me in the temple with the ball.
And once where I was bowling. Can't hit, can't catch, must be able to bowl. I had the action down pat. Arms windmilling around, I raced up, let go of the ball.. and it disappeared. Everyone just stood around looking bewildered.. until it landed SMACK on top of my head. I had thrown it almost straight up in the air and then stopped right underneath it.
This is why I am a middle aged man on a bicycle.
Posted by David at November 26, 2003 05:03 PM
Also, I think Gianni could pose a fantastic IP dilemma by handcrafting Captain's Mistress out of locally available NSW rural stuff (I dunno, old truck tyres or something..) while dandling her new baby Milan on her knee.
If it was played by Captain Cook, surely we have the right to replicate it?
If not.. the Americans will be patenting conquest (tm) next. Come to think of it..
Posted by David at November 26, 2003 05:10 PM
I've never had to play cricket fortunately, otherwise I'm sure I too would have bowled myself a few bouncers accidentally, just to intimidate myself.
My last embarrassing experience of throwing was in the park with Flo. I threw the ball in a northerly direction and it ended up going west in a high lob. Must have been the top spin.
Flo looked bewildered and even a bit miffed.
The lunching Council workers were no doubt highly amused.
I only do 'frisbee' now - or hitting with raquet.
Posted by boynton at November 26, 2003 05:15 PM
web empires
Building a Web Media Empire on a Daily Dose of Fresh Links
While Mr. Denton does not edit the sites himself, he says he does encourage his writers to be "more trashy," jokingly explaining that he comes from "the Felix Dennis school of publishing." (Mr. Felix is the publisher of the young men's magazine Maxim.)
(via A Media Dragon)
bit depressing to read about this trash led, google-market driven blogempire venture, run on 'catty writing and timely links'.
meanwhile boynton has discovered it's fairly easy to auto-emulate the preferred style simply by combining two generators. The fashionable formula would seem to be to take a bit of bile and then pornolize it. (latter via fiendish)
Comments: web empires
My own Blogempire venture would probably be more famous if there was more trash. Good thing I'm not in it for the money!
Posted by Scott Wickstein at November 24, 2003 01:10 PM
Oh I dunno Scott, sport is on the money in our culture. I tried to pornolise Barista but it doesnt help.
At least Mr Denton does Gizmodo, which is one of my faves.
Posted by David at November 24, 2003 05:13 PM
Hope Mr W. doesn't suddenly announce a trash quota for Uber blogs. Although I guess I can do retro trash ok.
David...Gizmodo looks good.
But here's what the bile/pornolizer thought:
http://www.pornolize.com/cgi-bin/pornolize2/pornolize2.cgi?lang=en&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chthonicionic.net%2Fbile%2Fdefault.asp%3Fgizmodo%2B&submit=submit
Posted by boynton at November 25, 2003 12:56 PM
Miss b can rest easy, there will be no trash quotas around here.
Posted by Scott Wickstein at November 26, 2003 12:26 AM
Scott - SPORT IS TRASH - that's the fun of it.
Posted by David at November 26, 2003 03:11 PM
While Mr. Denton does not edit the sites himself, he says he does encourage his writers to be "more trashy," jokingly explaining that he comes from "the Felix Dennis school of publishing." (Mr. Felix is the publisher of the young men's magazine Maxim.)
(via A Media Dragon)
bit depressing to read about this trash led, google-market driven blogempire venture, run on 'catty writing and timely links'.
meanwhile boynton has discovered it's fairly easy to auto-emulate the preferred style simply by combining two generators. The fashionable formula would seem to be to take a bit of bile and then pornolize it. (latter via fiendish)
Comments: web empires
My own Blogempire venture would probably be more famous if there was more trash. Good thing I'm not in it for the money!
Posted by Scott Wickstein at November 24, 2003 01:10 PM
Oh I dunno Scott, sport is on the money in our culture. I tried to pornolise Barista but it doesnt help.
At least Mr Denton does Gizmodo, which is one of my faves.
Posted by David at November 24, 2003 05:13 PM
Hope Mr W. doesn't suddenly announce a trash quota for Uber blogs. Although I guess I can do retro trash ok.
David...Gizmodo looks good.
But here's what the bile/pornolizer thought:
http://www.pornolize.com/cgi-bin/pornolize2/pornolize2.cgi?lang=en&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chthonicionic.net%2Fbile%2Fdefault.asp%3Fgizmodo%2B&submit=submit
Posted by boynton at November 25, 2003 12:56 PM
Miss b can rest easy, there will be no trash quotas around here.
Posted by Scott Wickstein at November 26, 2003 12:26 AM
Scott - SPORT IS TRASH - that's the fun of it.
Posted by David at November 26, 2003 03:11 PM
sleuths
Loveday Brooke from the stories of C L Perkis.
Which Heroine of Victorian Fiction Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
(I don't think I am really, but the picture was good.)
More stories
The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective By Catherine Louisa Pirkis
and One Pot Meal uncovers a rather dashing stealthy sleuth among some old books.
Comments: sleuths
Quizilla won't tell me who I am .... I tried joining, but now I can't find the quiz. Oh well, I was probably someone pathetic anyway.
Posted by wen at November 25, 2003 10:41 AM
This is something of a mystery, wen.
Did you click on the "Which heroine..." link?
It takes me straight to the quiz in question - perhaps I had onceuponatime registered.
Have a strong suspicion/bit of an inkling that
there is only one answer. In my quest to secure a jpg of Loveday I ran through the quiz willy-nilly, hoping to get to the "see all results" box in the fastest possible time. I was Loveday then. And Loveday later when I chose totally opposing answers...Hmmm...Is that logical or Fair?
Now then, be spry.
Posted by boynton at November 25, 2003 12:34 PM
Sunday, November 23, 2003
chipmunk qotd
I think it beat out the chipmunk song, or it was right up there with the chipmunk song To know him is to love him, and can you imagine what it was like to be a teenager and to be flipping through the dials and to hear that kind of silly pop and the next song is Blowin' in the Wind– what a revelation that must have been.
Writer David Hajdu on Blowin' in the Wind on the NPR 100
Writer David Hajdu on Blowin' in the Wind on the NPR 100
honk
Vocal Vowels. Hollow plastic models of the human vocal tract turn the squawk of a duck call into vocal sounds (via Plep)
The amazing honking sheep performing the Blue Danube (via the Presurfer)
The call of the Limnodynastes dumerili Pobblebonk (banjo) frog
Males usually call concealed in floating vegetation or less commonly from land at the water's edge. The call is a short musical, explosive note producing a resonant "bonk". The call is usually repeated every few seconds
(boynton heard this call last Sunday. A frog mistaken for a duck - or is that honk for bonk?)
The amazing honking sheep performing the Blue Danube (via the Presurfer)
The call of the Limnodynastes dumerili Pobblebonk (banjo) frog
Males usually call concealed in floating vegetation or less commonly from land at the water's edge. The call is a short musical, explosive note producing a resonant "bonk". The call is usually repeated every few seconds
(boynton heard this call last Sunday. A frog mistaken for a duck - or is that honk for bonk?)
van snoop
Miss Van Snoop sank into a cane-bottomed chair, laid her head upon the table, and cried. She had earned the luxury of hysterics.
from The Stir Outside the Café Royal: A Story of Miss Van Snoop, Detective
One of the e texts listed at Female Detectives in UK fiction 1850-1900 A Selective Bibliography (via Quiddity)
Comments: van snoop
CL Perkis "The Ghost of Fountain Lane" in the general page is particularly fun. "Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective" in 1893..
Posted by David at November 23, 2003 06:42 PM
Yeah - it is good isn't it.
Might even hunt down some more "Loveday"
Can almost see the BBC version of it.
Could work as long as it was played straight and not 'silly jolly'.
"I thought I was pining for a week of perfect laziness and sea-breezes, and so I locked up my desk and fled..."
Posted by boynton at November 23, 2003 10:00 PM
- although after reading more at the Loveday page
http://www.chriswillis.freeserve.co.uk/loveday.htm
- I'm not sure how saleable they might regard a "non-descript" detective of her type.
(Tho' it would be quite refreshing methinks.)
"In her detective work, she uses 'male' qualities of logic and observation rather than the infamous 'feminine intuition' which was to become the stock-in-trade of many female investigators."
Posted by boynton at November 23, 2003 10:27 PM
I like Miss Van Snoop's: "Now then, be spry" - just have to think of a reason to say it. And what tone to use...
Posted by wen at November 24, 2003 07:12 PM
from The Stir Outside the Café Royal: A Story of Miss Van Snoop, Detective
One of the e texts listed at Female Detectives in UK fiction 1850-1900 A Selective Bibliography (via Quiddity)
Comments: van snoop
CL Perkis "The Ghost of Fountain Lane" in the general page is particularly fun. "Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective" in 1893..
Posted by David at November 23, 2003 06:42 PM
Yeah - it is good isn't it.
Might even hunt down some more "Loveday"
Can almost see the BBC version of it.
Could work as long as it was played straight and not 'silly jolly'.
"I thought I was pining for a week of perfect laziness and sea-breezes, and so I locked up my desk and fled..."
Posted by boynton at November 23, 2003 10:00 PM
- although after reading more at the Loveday page
http://www.chriswillis.freeserve.co.uk/loveday.htm
- I'm not sure how saleable they might regard a "non-descript" detective of her type.
(Tho' it would be quite refreshing methinks.)
"In her detective work, she uses 'male' qualities of logic and observation rather than the infamous 'feminine intuition' which was to become the stock-in-trade of many female investigators."
Posted by boynton at November 23, 2003 10:27 PM
I like Miss Van Snoop's: "Now then, be spry" - just have to think of a reason to say it. And what tone to use...
Posted by wen at November 24, 2003 07:12 PM
Saturday, November 22, 2003
spambot
got a fresh piece of commentspam with the usual poetic prose between the links, like this:there's druglesy something to be done
wonder if this is what the spambot looks like?
(spam products via J walk)
Comments: spambot
Aaaargh! Looks like one of the Wiggles what has discovered tin container bondage ... or the ultimate in unsubtle product placement.
Posted by Sedgwick at November 23, 2003 09:49 AM
Is there a wiggle called druggle?
Posted by boynton at November 23, 2003 12:29 PM
wonder if this is what the spambot looks like?
(spam products via J walk)
Comments: spambot
Aaaargh! Looks like one of the Wiggles what has discovered tin container bondage ... or the ultimate in unsubtle product placement.
Posted by Sedgwick at November 23, 2003 09:49 AM
Is there a wiggle called druggle?
Posted by boynton at November 23, 2003 12:29 PM
Friday, November 21, 2003
olde britney
and this seemed to tie in with the day's posting.
Me thinkes I dydde it agayne
Britney goes Medieval (via wood s lot)
Me thinkes I dydde it agayne
Britney goes Medieval (via wood s lot)
old tunes
boynton read of a recent beatles bout (I hate the beatles/you have no soul) and probably suffers from that unfortunate condition "beatles-anorak nerditude" (source)
But then boynton's nerditude is much wider than that. Truth be known, boynton has a bit of the pianola-parka nerditude happening too - so was delighted to find the wonderful Tin Pan Alley and has been singing along solo to Apple Blossom Time and By The Light of The Silvery Moon very happily.
(and I suspect that certain demon-loving pundits might vote for this as the Top Song of the millennium.)
see also:
A sample page from Melody Lane early gramophone recordings in mp3
the music samples on Crystal Stream Audio - including the Before/After comparison with scratches removed
sing along at the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive.
The Internet Renaissance Band - early music midi files
He very rarely misses the early train now. The secret is ...
Update - related links
tinfoil wax cylinder music on CD (via James)
Dove Song (via Jeremiah)
The Virtual Gramophone - Canadian Historical Sound Recordings
Comments: old tunes
have you seen http://www.dovesong.com?
slightly newer than those, but still not the beatles.
I like some of the beatles stuff BTW. Oddly enough, I like this stuff as well. eclecticism?
Posted by Jeremiah at November 21, 2003 02:51 PM
Definitely eclecticism!
Actually I rememebered the excellent site from your comments over at Fred's - and even looked at it today, but sadly it seems the MP3 library has 'temporarily closed'. I hope it opens again soon - because there's some great singing and listening to be had there. Cheers.
Posted by boynton at November 21, 2003 04:03 PM
You might like this too:
http://www.tinfoil.com/
Early Recorded Sounds and Wax Cylinders
Not all Tin Pan Alley as such, but there's some remarkable antiquities on offer. This has been a favourite site of mine for about five years.
Posted by James Russell at November 21, 2003 05:25 PM
Fabulous!
Just listened to "In the Good Old Summer Time, sung by Mr. William Redmond, Edison record."
Love it.
(I think I'd better put these 2 links into the post.)
Thanks James.
Posted by boynton at November 21, 2003 06:05 PM
I have this vision of you and five other children standing around the piano singing Eleanor Rigby... while a huge number of dogs watch quizzically from the doorway.
Posted by David at November 21, 2003 06:19 PM
that's not too far off an image from my childhood.
We did sing around the piano - not always altogether harmoniously - and three dogs were lurking in the background.
Funnily enough it was inside the car (again) where a lot of the siblin' singin' went on.
This afternoon I had been thinking that my sentimental musical taste is probably driven by (honky-tonk)nostalgia. This memory would seem to confirm it. ;)
Posted by boynton at November 21, 2003 06:26 PM
I REALLY wanted to race to the G&S singalong but being a work Friday I will have to wait for the weekend so as to embarras myself only in private
Posted by averil at November 21, 2003 07:43 PM
we had a bit of a G&S singalong here before you left. Guess you'll just have to twist Ross' arm to get him to sing the 'wandering minstrel' parts.
btw - my tip is to open a 2nd window - for the lyrics - for the full karaoke effect.
Posted by boynton at November 21, 2003 11:08 PM
But then boynton's nerditude is much wider than that. Truth be known, boynton has a bit of the pianola-parka nerditude happening too - so was delighted to find the wonderful Tin Pan Alley and has been singing along solo to Apple Blossom Time and By The Light of The Silvery Moon very happily.
(and I suspect that certain demon-loving pundits might vote for this as the Top Song of the millennium.)
see also:
A sample page from Melody Lane early gramophone recordings in mp3
the music samples on Crystal Stream Audio - including the Before/After comparison with scratches removed
sing along at the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive.
The Internet Renaissance Band - early music midi files
He very rarely misses the early train now. The secret is ...
Update - related links
tinfoil wax cylinder music on CD (via James)
Dove Song (via Jeremiah)
The Virtual Gramophone - Canadian Historical Sound Recordings
Comments: old tunes
have you seen http://www.dovesong.com?
slightly newer than those, but still not the beatles.
I like some of the beatles stuff BTW. Oddly enough, I like this stuff as well. eclecticism?
Posted by Jeremiah at November 21, 2003 02:51 PM
Definitely eclecticism!
Actually I rememebered the excellent site from your comments over at Fred's - and even looked at it today, but sadly it seems the MP3 library has 'temporarily closed'. I hope it opens again soon - because there's some great singing and listening to be had there. Cheers.
Posted by boynton at November 21, 2003 04:03 PM
You might like this too:
http://www.tinfoil.com/
Early Recorded Sounds and Wax Cylinders
Not all Tin Pan Alley as such, but there's some remarkable antiquities on offer. This has been a favourite site of mine for about five years.
Posted by James Russell at November 21, 2003 05:25 PM
Fabulous!
Just listened to "In the Good Old Summer Time, sung by Mr. William Redmond, Edison record."
Love it.
(I think I'd better put these 2 links into the post.)
Thanks James.
Posted by boynton at November 21, 2003 06:05 PM
I have this vision of you and five other children standing around the piano singing Eleanor Rigby... while a huge number of dogs watch quizzically from the doorway.
Posted by David at November 21, 2003 06:19 PM
that's not too far off an image from my childhood.
We did sing around the piano - not always altogether harmoniously - and three dogs were lurking in the background.
Funnily enough it was inside the car (again) where a lot of the siblin' singin' went on.
This afternoon I had been thinking that my sentimental musical taste is probably driven by (honky-tonk)nostalgia. This memory would seem to confirm it. ;)
Posted by boynton at November 21, 2003 06:26 PM
I REALLY wanted to race to the G&S singalong but being a work Friday I will have to wait for the weekend so as to embarras myself only in private
Posted by averil at November 21, 2003 07:43 PM
we had a bit of a G&S singalong here before you left. Guess you'll just have to twist Ross' arm to get him to sing the 'wandering minstrel' parts.
btw - my tip is to open a 2nd window - for the lyrics - for the full karaoke effect.
Posted by boynton at November 21, 2003 11:08 PM
best lists
Tony looks at a couple of best songs lists and finds them wanting.
James links to the new AFI best 100 movie songs quest and finds it wanting by 24 years.
As the local sport of trivia dumbs down, and of all time lists generally take 'all time' to mean the last 30 years if you're lucky, boynton was searching for a list that might take a longer view and include old songs, songs of other generations, other times. So we've spent an enjoyable time listening to a few of the 12 minute segments from the NPR The 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century"
Love this site and plan to do a song-a-day.
Poet Laureate Robert Ginsky discusses the poetry of Stardust
"even the title Stardust ... it begins and ends with the same consonant sound and that consonant cluster of S T comes back –"and love is now the stardust of yesterday...The star is when your love is new and each kiss is an inspiration” Which I think is one of the best phrases in popular music..
And after it goes away there’s a little dust left…a little glitter from what was bright…
and Peter Yarrow discussing Blowing In The Wind calls it –‘part of the secular liturgy of our times' - one of the few Protest songs that effected change?
A couple of songs that boynton likes to sing around the house are destined never to make the hipster charts but have strong claims in the popularity/most influential popular songs lists
Danny Boy -
...this very beautiful tune seems to be taking such an extraordinary hold upon the people - for hardly a week passes by without its appearing in some form or another on concert programmes....within the last few years a perfectly bewildering array of settings and arrangements has appeared.
Henry Coleman Muscial Times 1918
from The Londonderry Air: facts and fiction. Brian Audley 2002
Lorena - first heard in The Civil War TV series.
Some have even gone so far as to blame the loss of the war on Lorena. So many Southern soldiers grew homesick and deserted after singing it, that several Generals prohibited the singing of Lorena, but most soldiers sang it anyway.
See also: the BBC Radio 2 Top 100 Songs of the 20th century
Comments: best lists
Funny how Un Bel Di never makes it onto any of these lists. Mustn't count as a song. Nor would any of Schubert's lieder I suspect.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at November 21, 2003 12:34 PM
You know I was going to go there, Gummo...
At the last minute decided not to go Elizabethan either. Where's Greensleeves!!
http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark/emusic/
Posted by boynton at November 21, 2003 12:52 PM
James links to the new AFI best 100 movie songs quest and finds it wanting by 24 years.
As the local sport of trivia dumbs down, and of all time lists generally take 'all time' to mean the last 30 years if you're lucky, boynton was searching for a list that might take a longer view and include old songs, songs of other generations, other times. So we've spent an enjoyable time listening to a few of the 12 minute segments from the NPR The 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century"
Love this site and plan to do a song-a-day.
Poet Laureate Robert Ginsky discusses the poetry of Stardust
"even the title Stardust ... it begins and ends with the same consonant sound and that consonant cluster of S T comes back –"and love is now the stardust of yesterday...The star is when your love is new and each kiss is an inspiration” Which I think is one of the best phrases in popular music..
And after it goes away there’s a little dust left…a little glitter from what was bright…
and Peter Yarrow discussing Blowing In The Wind calls it –‘part of the secular liturgy of our times' - one of the few Protest songs that effected change?
A couple of songs that boynton likes to sing around the house are destined never to make the hipster charts but have strong claims in the popularity/most influential popular songs lists
Danny Boy -
...this very beautiful tune seems to be taking such an extraordinary hold upon the people - for hardly a week passes by without its appearing in some form or another on concert programmes....within the last few years a perfectly bewildering array of settings and arrangements has appeared.
Henry Coleman Muscial Times 1918
from The Londonderry Air: facts and fiction. Brian Audley 2002
Lorena - first heard in The Civil War TV series.
Some have even gone so far as to blame the loss of the war on Lorena. So many Southern soldiers grew homesick and deserted after singing it, that several Generals prohibited the singing of Lorena, but most soldiers sang it anyway.
See also: the BBC Radio 2 Top 100 Songs of the 20th century
Comments: best lists
Funny how Un Bel Di never makes it onto any of these lists. Mustn't count as a song. Nor would any of Schubert's lieder I suspect.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at November 21, 2003 12:34 PM
You know I was going to go there, Gummo...
At the last minute decided not to go Elizabethan either. Where's Greensleeves!!
http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark/emusic/
Posted by boynton at November 21, 2003 12:52 PM
music 1912
Children at Glendaruel school listening to a gramophone. The gramophone has a very large loudspeaker. There is a union jack in the background. Date: 1912
A Family musical group in a garden. The two men play violins while the woman and two young girls sing. The singers are holding scores. Date: pre 1910
(images from Museum Victoria Collection Biggest Family Album)
Comments: music 1912
That's an acoustic horn, not a loudspeaker. But yes, 'tis a large one, whatever it is.
Posted by James Russell at November 21, 2003 05:16 PM
Yes tis indeed. ;)
Forgot to italicise those descriptions to indicate 'tweren't my mistake.
On the other hand, 'acoustic horn' twas news to me James.
Posted by boynton at November 21, 2003 05:47 PM
There's a still from the Connelly/Anderson documentary "First Contact" of PNG people sitting around a gramaphone which I tried to hunt on google. No good - damn and blast. Its such a great companion piece to this lovely photo...
Posted by David at November 22, 2003 03:27 AM
think I tracked it down
http://www.rgs.org/sections/ar/limitedpics/limited29.jpg
from this site:
http://www.rgs.org/sections/ar/limited3.html
yes - it is companionable.
Posted by boynton at November 22, 2003 12:43 PM
A Family musical group in a garden. The two men play violins while the woman and two young girls sing. The singers are holding scores. Date: pre 1910
(images from Museum Victoria Collection Biggest Family Album)
Comments: music 1912
That's an acoustic horn, not a loudspeaker. But yes, 'tis a large one, whatever it is.
Posted by James Russell at November 21, 2003 05:16 PM
Yes tis indeed. ;)
Forgot to italicise those descriptions to indicate 'tweren't my mistake.
On the other hand, 'acoustic horn' twas news to me James.
Posted by boynton at November 21, 2003 05:47 PM
There's a still from the Connelly/Anderson documentary "First Contact" of PNG people sitting around a gramaphone which I tried to hunt on google. No good - damn and blast. Its such a great companion piece to this lovely photo...
Posted by David at November 22, 2003 03:27 AM
think I tracked it down
http://www.rgs.org/sections/ar/limitedpics/limited29.jpg
from this site:
http://www.rgs.org/sections/ar/limited3.html
yes - it is companionable.
Posted by boynton at November 22, 2003 12:43 PM
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
bow lingual
Bow-Lingual The Dog Translator (via J walk)
is a device which analyzes your dog's barks then selects one of the nearly 200 preprogrammed phrases to represent what your dog is trying to say
Apparently there are six main emotions: happy, sad, frustrated, on-guard, assertive or needy. "Sad barks always exhibited a strong component in the 50 00hz range, but no harmonic component less than 30 00hz"
Another feature is the home alone mode which monitors and records your dogs barks and emotions for up to 12 hours while you are away.
The sample translations include: I'm on top of the world, Remember me?
and I'm Ok - how are you!
Even if she bought it, (and of course she leans towards this position) boynton would soon find the concept rather disturbing. If one of boynton's trio should bark assertive/showing off she wouldn't want to know if this actually meant: I'm ok - how are you!
enter FLO madly cartwheeling. She barks. BOYNTON receiving, analysing...analysing complete
FLO: I' m ok - how are you!
BOYNTON: Oh well you know Flo - it's all relative
Pause
FLO: I' m ok - how are you!
BOYNTON: Well you know - there are a number of different definitions of Okness
and at least four main positions.
Pause
FLO: I want to bite you.
this might be the cue for boynton to run away, switching the bow-lingual to home alone mode while popping on the Audio of I'm Ok You're OK here recorded by N/A
Or she could just play some good old Beatles Barkers. Brontë became very assertive during I Saw Her Standing There and showed off at 50 00hz, Flo joined in with a low subtle harmonic component, and poor old deaf, once-a-baritone Doug slept.
Comments: bow-lingual
Coco the Wonderdog has a great range of snorts, howls, moans, whimpers, slurps and whines. They all mean the same thing: Give me everything NOW.
Her tail communicates the essential contract - if you do that, I will adore you. Otherwise I will punish you by doing my flatdog in the hall and look forlorn.
That doesn't work when she has just been shorn by Wendy the Mad Dog Shearer, because when she does flatdog she just looks like an uppity rat.
Posted by David at November 19, 2003 11:43 PM
Bronte (Jack Russell) does that `uppity rat' look herself without the trauma of shearing.
She has the worst repertoire of barks too - loud, passionate and complex. Flo (blue heeler) doesn't bark much but has a high howl. She uses her teeth to communicate. Doug doesn't bark as much now - but he used to have that bark identified by Bow-lingual as meaning "I am on top of the world"
This always happened about 40 minutes into "I am on the edge of the Ocean...and I've just noticed"
Posted by boynton at November 20, 2003 12:43 AM
Thieu's brother has a theory that all dogs, when confronted with a stranger are saying "Come here! Go away! Come here! Go away!"
Posted by mcb at November 20, 2003 08:42 AM
heh heh - and I think he is spot on, mcb.
And there must be many dogs who mix in even more
messages into a bark. Which is why the 'bow-lingual' needs a 'random' setting - to generate a sort of bitzer mix of mangled expression.
Posted by boynton at November 20, 2003 11:24 AM
The real communication problem with dogs is the other way round. Big brained smartarse species that we are, I can work Coco out. What I really want her to understand is:
I am going to the butcher so you can't come but I will be back with bones..
If you wait a big longer you can have a good walk...
Do you want the long walk or the short walk?
You can't eat that disgusting thing from the street because you might get sick and die..
If you poop under the light its a lot easier to find it with a plastic bag.
This diet will last for a few days and you will not die of starvation..
Posted by David at November 20, 2003 01:54 PM
Yes indeed.
Or. To be less 'speciest' - ways to 'dialogue with dog' would be useful:
Flo - what makes you want to nip my leg when you get really excited about something?
What's going on there?
I don't want to put you down or put you down.
Can you find some other way to communicate your bliss?
on a serious note - I 've just read a post that looks at this anthropomorphic mindset in regard to parrots. Why don't we learn to speak Grey Parrot or maddog Flo instead? ;)
btw I never mastered the basics with Doug and separation anxiety. Not even the aquired familiarity of routine would help him. Never quite learnt the language for:
I'm going down the street. I won't be long. So there's really no need to gobble my Retro furniture or my Melways. I will return.
Posted by boynton at November 20, 2003 02:59 PM
I'm really sorry - I know the loss of a good vinyl pouffe is a tragedy - but i just thought that last post was hilarious..
and parrots only say simple things: go for this seed and i will bit your bum.... stay still, that hair is perfect for the nest.. look fellers there's tons, come quickly and bring the flock... something funny's going on, leave RIGHT NOW..
i've spent a lot of time watching them at close quarters..
Posted by David at November 20, 2003 08:07 PM
yes the vinyl pouffe went pfftt but was probably NOT one of his misdeeds. The wonderful green 'armless' 50's couch WAS an early casualty of my dreadful temporary absence, as was a large 50's squiggly scatter cushion. CHOMPED. Both never to be 'recovered'. I tried to see the positive side: oh well, at least I'm getting less attatched to mere 'things'.
Even if they are collectible...
And re parrots. Was going to post this but here's the link to story that suggests there might be more to the macaw (or other parrots) than b had thought.
http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2003/11/12.html
Posted by boynton at November 20, 2003 08:28 PM
is a device which analyzes your dog's barks then selects one of the nearly 200 preprogrammed phrases to represent what your dog is trying to say
Apparently there are six main emotions: happy, sad, frustrated, on-guard, assertive or needy. "Sad barks always exhibited a strong component in the 50 00hz range, but no harmonic component less than 30 00hz"
Another feature is the home alone mode which monitors and records your dogs barks and emotions for up to 12 hours while you are away.
The sample translations include: I'm on top of the world, Remember me?
and I'm Ok - how are you!
Even if she bought it, (and of course she leans towards this position) boynton would soon find the concept rather disturbing. If one of boynton's trio should bark assertive/showing off she wouldn't want to know if this actually meant: I'm ok - how are you!
enter FLO madly cartwheeling. She barks. BOYNTON receiving, analysing...analysing complete
FLO: I' m ok - how are you!
BOYNTON: Oh well you know Flo - it's all relative
Pause
FLO: I' m ok - how are you!
BOYNTON: Well you know - there are a number of different definitions of Okness
and at least four main positions.
Pause
FLO: I want to bite you.
this might be the cue for boynton to run away, switching the bow-lingual to home alone mode while popping on the Audio of I'm Ok You're OK here recorded by N/A
Or she could just play some good old Beatles Barkers. Brontë became very assertive during I Saw Her Standing There and showed off at 50 00hz, Flo joined in with a low subtle harmonic component, and poor old deaf, once-a-baritone Doug slept.
Comments: bow-lingual
Coco the Wonderdog has a great range of snorts, howls, moans, whimpers, slurps and whines. They all mean the same thing: Give me everything NOW.
Her tail communicates the essential contract - if you do that, I will adore you. Otherwise I will punish you by doing my flatdog in the hall and look forlorn.
That doesn't work when she has just been shorn by Wendy the Mad Dog Shearer, because when she does flatdog she just looks like an uppity rat.
Posted by David at November 19, 2003 11:43 PM
Bronte (Jack Russell) does that `uppity rat' look herself without the trauma of shearing.
She has the worst repertoire of barks too - loud, passionate and complex. Flo (blue heeler) doesn't bark much but has a high howl. She uses her teeth to communicate. Doug doesn't bark as much now - but he used to have that bark identified by Bow-lingual as meaning "I am on top of the world"
This always happened about 40 minutes into "I am on the edge of the Ocean...and I've just noticed"
Posted by boynton at November 20, 2003 12:43 AM
Thieu's brother has a theory that all dogs, when confronted with a stranger are saying "Come here! Go away! Come here! Go away!"
Posted by mcb at November 20, 2003 08:42 AM
heh heh - and I think he is spot on, mcb.
And there must be many dogs who mix in even more
messages into a bark. Which is why the 'bow-lingual' needs a 'random' setting - to generate a sort of bitzer mix of mangled expression.
Posted by boynton at November 20, 2003 11:24 AM
The real communication problem with dogs is the other way round. Big brained smartarse species that we are, I can work Coco out. What I really want her to understand is:
I am going to the butcher so you can't come but I will be back with bones..
If you wait a big longer you can have a good walk...
Do you want the long walk or the short walk?
You can't eat that disgusting thing from the street because you might get sick and die..
If you poop under the light its a lot easier to find it with a plastic bag.
This diet will last for a few days and you will not die of starvation..
Posted by David at November 20, 2003 01:54 PM
Yes indeed.
Or. To be less 'speciest' - ways to 'dialogue with dog' would be useful:
Flo - what makes you want to nip my leg when you get really excited about something?
What's going on there?
I don't want to put you down or put you down.
Can you find some other way to communicate your bliss?
on a serious note - I 've just read a post that looks at this anthropomorphic mindset in regard to parrots. Why don't we learn to speak Grey Parrot or maddog Flo instead? ;)
btw I never mastered the basics with Doug and separation anxiety. Not even the aquired familiarity of routine would help him. Never quite learnt the language for:
I'm going down the street. I won't be long. So there's really no need to gobble my Retro furniture or my Melways. I will return.
Posted by boynton at November 20, 2003 02:59 PM
I'm really sorry - I know the loss of a good vinyl pouffe is a tragedy - but i just thought that last post was hilarious..
and parrots only say simple things: go for this seed and i will bit your bum.... stay still, that hair is perfect for the nest.. look fellers there's tons, come quickly and bring the flock... something funny's going on, leave RIGHT NOW..
i've spent a lot of time watching them at close quarters..
Posted by David at November 20, 2003 08:07 PM
yes the vinyl pouffe went pfftt but was probably NOT one of his misdeeds. The wonderful green 'armless' 50's couch WAS an early casualty of my dreadful temporary absence, as was a large 50's squiggly scatter cushion. CHOMPED. Both never to be 'recovered'. I tried to see the positive side: oh well, at least I'm getting less attatched to mere 'things'.
Even if they are collectible...
And re parrots. Was going to post this but here's the link to story that suggests there might be more to the macaw (or other parrots) than b had thought.
http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2003/11/12.html
Posted by boynton at November 20, 2003 08:28 PM
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