I'm a sucker for some Elaine Lee

Vera Collins from Number 96 and Anne Louise Lambert from Picnic at Hanging Rock.


Knew both their faces instantly in this short film from The Age website. Is it just me or is it quite moving?

A new direction

Doing some reading and googling around for a new writing idea. It involves Japan, a failed first marriage and a terminal illness.

Saw this amazing page while trying to find out the name for the piece of equipment a soldier (British) would have used in WW2 to eat out of. A ramekin? Pannekin?

Above is a Polish soldier kit.

You can see a whole bunch of others here.

Just remembered how much I loved Bjork

Her Big Time Sensuality clip = amazing.

Recently I bought some books

Quelle surprise, I hear you say.

Well, out of the two novels, I read the first quite easily (Five Bells, beautifully written but there were some jarrings for me within that day depicted on the page) and then Animal People which after the very promising opening couple of pages I struggled with majorly.

And now, I have fallen into the arms of Orhan Pamuk's The Museum of Innocence. And like I described to someone else recently it's like falling into a beautifully made bed that has the finest linens, in a gorgeous room. With someone you really want to fuck. But make love is probably the more appropriate term, for there is nothing crass or hurried or fucky about Pamuk. The opening chapter, he is in his beloved's arms in an apartment in a block his mother owns in Istanbul.* She is so beautiful and he is so happy. This chapter lasts less than two pages but it is jammed with the room in which the lovers lie yet not crowded. The writing is not crowded. Then, right at the end the narrator says that within a month he will be formally engaged to another woman, Sibel.

The opening reminded me of another of Pamuk's books - The Black Book - one I was unable to read/finish. It was too dense or something but I will try again one day.

I have just finished Chapter 24 'The Engagement Party' and I don't think I have ever read such a thrilling, fraught, teasing, cleverly written number of pages. Ever. It is amazing and I can't wait for tonight when I climb into my own bed with reasonable linen in a pleasant room with no one to continue reading this book.

* This apartment is like a recurring motif; Pamuk's own mother had an apartment block she owned in Istanbul as well which figured in his memoir of that beautiful city.

Looking forward to this

Looking forward to Julian Assange's new talk show. The first episode is being released via a Russian English channel, I'm guessing it will also be all over youtube.

Oooh, found the trailer, via RT the Russian station:

But before we get to Rachmaninov

here's another Russian emigre.

Nabokov talking about Lolita, from a tv show in 1950. The man smoking is Lionel Trilling, American literary critic. This is just wonderful. I love the smile playing with Nabokov's lips throughout, the way he abruptly gets up and moves to the couch where he slumps to the side from time to time. You get a sense of his brain power and his humour, especially in the second part where they are discussing great love affairs.

To me it's extraordinary that not only can I hear Rachmaninov playing his own compositions on youtube, but I can see an interview with Nabokov. I love my life.

The only thing I like as much as Rachmaninov

Are Bach violin concertos.

Oh the beauty.




And the second movement:

So been a while

I have nothing much to report, well I do actually. Manuscript for book # 1 is with two publishers, on their request thanks to a feisty pitch via email by a writerly colleague of mine.

Imagine a bidding war between Text and Random House. Oh, I wish.

Everybody please cross fingers and any other bendy flexible bits of bodies. Thank you, I shall keep you posted.

Almost finished first draft of book # 2.

*

In other news, business is going well. We have 11 schools 'on the books' and debuted a few weeks ago. It's all going swimmingly though we'd like a few more bookings so we are doing mail out number 3 on the school holidays.

*

Today I went to Readings to kill time. This is what I bought:

Five Bells by Gail Jones.

Animal People by Charlotte Wood.

The Idea of Home by Geraldine Brooks (as part of the Boyer Lectures). I was disappointed with People of the Book and thus wasn't interested in Caleb's Crossing but liked The Year of Wonders and adored Nine Parts of Desire (non-fiction) so I expect this small volume will be engaging.

Quarterly Essay featuring Anna Krien's 'Us and Them' piece on animal welfare/animals/us and them

AND

Orhan Pamuk's The Museum of Innocence.

If just for the front cover, love it.

Which to read first, oh I love these types of conundrums!

Exporting blog for backup

Has anyone ever used the export blog function to back up a blog?

I want to do this but am scared of the whole thing disappearing.

My generation

This is fucking awesome.

It takes commitment, about 30 mins of your time, but it's a real statement of my time, my people, my comedians and actors. The way they can take the piss of themselves; I'd like to see the current young upstarts do something like this.

I wasn't a particular Beastie Boys fan but I always liked their style.


You might want to revisit the original for a refresher before watching the whole thing.

I want this bathroom

Or maybe I should be more polite and say I would like...

It would go nicely in my rambling country house that I plan to buy in about ten years. That's pretty much when city-duty will be over (?) ie kids will have finished school and left home or finished university.

I told Clokes last night his two old hard drives will not be allowed in the house, he can have the garage because of course I will have my writing shed, separate to the house.

Isn't the colour beautiful?

PS I found this via Sublimation's facebook page.

I know I know

It's been so long.

But this just caught my eye and I had to share.

I want a writers hut so badly, you have now idea. I want it in a beautiful garden, and I prefer the truly rustic ones, nothing flash.

Check out some others here.

Can't resist

Prediction: in 10 years, Paris Jackson will be 23 and The Biebs will be 27. They will be dating, and possibly engaged. They will get married, have babies and form a new musical empire.

You heard it here first.