nothing better/the postal service

Bent Books, West End

I've been listening to random songs recently and 'Nothing Better' by The Postal Service continually creeps in. I've listened to it three times in a row already tonight! It's a sweet girl/boy interplay and the voices are so sweet and the music has that urgency I just love driving it. I love Ben Gibbard's words and phrasing.

The last few days have been full of strange and lovely emotions. Saying farewell to a friend/work colleague. Greeting and taking advantage of some time with my beautiful aunty. Seeing friends for the first time in a while. Viewing an amazing and hellishly emotionally real film (Hotel Rwanda, which I recommend for a sense of perspective).

My aunty was visiting Brisbane for business. My sister and I picked her up from the apartment she was staying at and we all went to West End for a lovely dinner in the warm Brisbane evening. We drank red wine and enjoyed our dinner of pizza and turkish bread. For some reason our conversation kept turning to our concerns for the state of the world. My shock of the details after witnessing 'Hotel Rwanda'. The horrible thought that a similar situation is occuring in Sudan. Our aunty told us a story of a 16 year old boy in Adelaide who was shot in the head by another boy simply because he was talking to his girlfriend. Our consternation at how helpless and useless you feel knowing that a family member or friend's family member suffers from Alzheimer's Disease or dementia.

The conversation meandered and we began talking about tattoos. My sister has some beautiful rainbow butterflies and a sun that she designed herself. My aunty's daughter has two tattoos of very mischievious cartoon characters. We were all describing what we would have done if we were brave enough. Then I heard the most amazing story that I had never heard before. My aunty said that she would like to get a tattoo of a white rose. Here is the reason why:

http://korean.bruderhof.org/articles/white-rose.htm

There have always been amazing human beings out there trying to make a difference and expose how Government's and Leaders actions and decisions effect the world. Humans who realise that what is happening is not right and stand up and speak out for what they feel and know is right. There are people like Paul Rusesabagina whose instincts and whatever it was that guided him during that time in Rwanda enabled him to save the lives of over a thousand refugees from being slaughtered so terribly brutally just as those one million were killed in the genocide.

I really am having trouble fathoming anything that happens in this world.

manchild/eels

It is sad and surreal to hear that Hunter S. Thompson decided to end his own life. Though he was quite mad, his madness and writing seemed to have a place in this world. His writing certainly inspired me. Rest in peace.

The Eels have always sat quietly and humbly in my collection of records. Just comfortably waiting amongst the others to be chosen and spun. Tonight was their night and everytime I put their record 'Beautiful Freak' on, I never understand why I don't listen to it more than I do. Mark's voice and words are sweetly childlike and very appealling to my soul. His beautiful songs are like that feeling you got when you were younger when you had a little pocket money leftover and were allowed to buy lollies with it. Like sherbet straws or candy corn.

I have a problem with Prince Charles today. Not so much with him personally as my feelings towards him are indifferent. With the cost of his visit to Australia of one million taxpayers dollars. And it was his idea to come on down. Is it just me or is there an extortionate amount of money bandied about by Governments for this type of thing? Is it possible that the one million dollars for Prince Charles' visit could be used constructively for the benefit of those of the Australian population who need it? I think so. How many programs could be funded? Oh, many.

i might be wrong/radiohead

photo by flutterby charlie

I'm in a very Radiohead mood this evening. Therefore I am very pleased to be listening to their song 'I Might Be Wrong' from Amnesiac. There is something in my psychological makeup that begs a Radiohead phase now and then. Maybe it is my dark side. The melancholy in me.

Here are some more of the interesting words I've learnt from 'The Clinton Wars':

recombinant - to put together again
shibboleths - a peculiarity of pronunciation, of a habit, mode of dress, etc., which distinguishes a particular class or set of persons
feckless - ineffective, feeble, spiritless, worthless
populism - political philosophy concerned with the needs of the common people

I've been working my way through all three series of 'Black Books', a great comedy series starring the fantastic comedians Dylan Moran (a man with a very, very, VERY nice Irish accent), Bill Bailey and Tamsin Greig. How funny and silly is it? I love it! PLUS it looks like it was so fun for them to make. It is so manic and full of physical gags and giggles galore. I've just read an interview with Dylan and he mentioned "There is a guy in a Dublin bookshop who provided the image of Bernard Black (Dylan's character). He looks like he’s swallowed a cup of sour milk and peed himself at the same time. He has this green bilious expression, years of displeasure have shaped his face." If you've seen the show you'd know that Bernard almost IS that guy!

I'm really chuffed about technology. I really enjoy being able to chat to family and friends on MSN, some who I normally wouldn't because we are all too slack to pick up the phone or put pen to paper. I've also recently discovered how to make my holiday footage into fun little movies and burn them to DVD. As well, of course, as a free blog where I am permitted to blah, blah, blah ad nauseum into the ether. It has all been embraced by me, when, six months ago I despised it or, more softly, disliked it for its impersonality. I have discarded that opinion and now believe that anything that keeps us in touch is a good thing.

On the flip side I also still feel that Western guilt. Which is an acknowledgement of the plain fact that I am one of a teeny tiny percentage of the World's population that has access to all of this. That can afford a computer, that can afford internet access in order to do all this.

All this and a sick car as well. What is it Tyler Durden says in 'Fight Club'?

The things you own end up owning you.

old fashioned morphine/jolie holland

Jolie Holland is a singer/songwriter I discovered driving home from the city after seeing Sonic Youth play in June last year. I was listening to the 'Roots and All' program on Triple J and the presenter, Jordie Kilby, was very excited that she had just released a new album; 'Escondida'. He then proceeded to play the song 'Old Fashioned Morphine' and I was immediately hooked. I went out the next day and bought the album. Jolie has a fantastically old vocal style that is soothing and surprisingly fresh (yes, I've just used 'old' and 'fresh' in the same sentence).

Over the last few months I have developed an almost unhealthy obsession with comedy. In particular British comedy and more specifically the wonderfully silly and eccentric French & Saunders. I've always been a massive fan of The Vicar of Dibley and Absolutely Fabulous and I've always known of French & Saunders peripherally. It wasn't until this year that I fully realised the connection between the three - the fantastic Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders themselves. My awesome parents recorded a tape for me from the UKTV channel on cable that consisted of three very silly and hilarious French & Saunders Christmas Specials. I mean, two old ladies traipsing around the Tate Modern Art Gallery consulting their programs and wandering around looking quite bewildered by the strange concept art when in fact they are lost and frantic to find the cafe. Fantastic.

Having finished reading Joanna Lumley's 'No Room For Secrets' I've picked up where I left off with 'The Clinton Wars - An Insider's Account of the White House Years' by Sidney Blumenthal. I started reading it last year after I finished reading Hillary Rodham Clinton's 'Living History' and just found that it would be better for my brain to read something a little lighter. Picking up Hermione Lee's biography of Virginia Woolf was not necessarily a lighter route. So, I've started again on 'The Clinton Wars' and I am finding that I need to keep my Macquarie Dictionary close at hand to look up a word here and there. I've decided I'd list down the words I don't know. Here are the ones from my latest foray into the book:

patrician - of high social rank or noble family
protean - readily assuming different forms or characters; exceedingly variable
meritocrat - a person who has reached a position of authority by reason of real or supposed merit
cipher - a person of no influence; a nonentity
loquacious - talking or disposed to talk much or freely; talkative
reliquaries - repositories or receptacles for a relic or relics
quixotic - extravagantly chivalrous or romantic; visionary; impracticable

I love learning new words!

On a more serious note, the Iraqi elections are being held today and we can only hope and pray that they are a relatively peaceful affair. I've read that there have been attacks on polling stations including schools. It appears a lot of Iraqi's are coming out to vote regardless. I can't imagine what it must be like. I take it for granted that, come election day, I just walk to the nearest school and vote with no fear of any kind of violence at all. The only thing we have to worry about is those party faithfuls forcing flyers and how-to-vote cards in our faces as we approach the polling place.

A bit of perspective is always good.

mighty sword/the frames

I've noticed lately that The Frames' album 'For the Birds' is creeping into my player at quite regular intervals. It is a very beautiful album and 'Mighty Sword' just happens to be the soothing sweet song playing as I type. It is the sort of song that I wish I could crawl into. Melancholic and hopeful.

Today is the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps. 1.5 million human beings gassed and cremated for being jews, gypsies, homosexuals and communists in an attempt to fulfil Hitler's 'Final Solution'. There is speculation that the allies did not do all that they could to stop what was happening, having known since July 1944 what atrocious acts were being carried out. Apparently the bombing of Auschwitz-Birkenau was ordered numerous times, but the military wouldn't carry out the bombings for practical reasons. They weren't guaranteed, with the limited technology they had, that they would hit the crematoriums and gas chambers. They didn't want to hit the camps and kill innocent people. Mind boggles as to why in this case it mattered that they couldn't guarantee hitting targets. How many other bombs were dropped? Though to me it is more a humane than practical reason. Part of the speculation is that they, the military and the leaders at the time, didn't recognise the moral responsibility and the message that would have been sent if they had attempted the bombing. It sounds awful but during a documentary I saw, survivors of Birkenau said that they would have been willing to die by the allied bombs rather than go through another moment of the torture of mind and body they endured. I could go on forever. I'm sure I'm not the only person who finds the evil inhumanity of it unfathomable and surreal.

I like to believe that this world is full of hope and goodness and compassion and that if all our energies and the leaders energies were focussed on doing what is good for humankind that we could solve a lot of problems easily.

Though, that is probably just me being naive.

who knows who/clare bowditch

photo by flutterby charlie

I'm listening to Clare Bowditch and the Feeding Set's album 'Autumn Bone' as I write. Clare Bowditch has a rare and fabulous voice and the best thing is that she sings with an Australian accent and no pretense. The music is fantastic. Magical.

Today is Australia Day. I love the celebrations that occur on such a day. Sausage sizzles. Picnics with the family in the local park, play a bit of football, a bit of cricket. Lazy day in the sun (usually - it's rained a lot today). Well, I used to do those things when I lived in the same state as the rest of my family.

I was thinking about the fact that I'm Australian today and for some reason I don't feel it. I know I am essentially Australian. I was born here. I've spent most of my life here. I really don't know what else I'd be if I decided I wasn't Australian. Not that there is such a decision to be made. I really like the idea, as was so cleverly put in an interview with Bernard Fanning when Powderfinger released their album 'Internationalist', that we are all citizens of the World. That we need to take a broader view. That we are all a part of this world. We are all 'internationalists' (and that was all paraphrasing as I don't have the article anymore). So maybe that's how I feel. Even though I haven't been overseas since 1987. I'm not sure where I'm going with this. Maybe it's the Aussie 'culture' I don't understand. Beer. Football. Or maybe it's just that I rarely think 'I'm an Australian' until Australia Day comes along. Silly.

I read today that the fantastic comedienne Margaret Cho will possibly be touring Australia in July this year. This means I am very excited. Last year I witnessed by fluke on SBS TV her live performance 'The Notorious C.H.O' and she is so raw, merciless, hilarious, touching, silly and just really original. With any luck the rumours are true.

Time for Bedfordshire.