Do They Know Its Cliffmas Time At All?

Perhaps the worst Christmas song of all time. I believe Cliff Richard is solely to blame for the abundance of terrible christmas songs around. It makes radio around this time unbearable, and Cliff's influence and success in this music genre has turned well respected musical acts into silly season novelties - look at the likes of BobDylan, Alvin and the Chipmunks, The Royal Guardsmen.


This, however, is the greatest Christmas song of all time. Hands down. Good for duets at karaoke and wild gestured swaying on balconies as you steadily get drunker on Christmas Eve (now a tradition). Father on Fairytale of New York: The only interesting thing about that song is that Kirsty McColl died by being run over by a speedboat whilst scuba diving.

I am also distressed by the fact Vince Martin of 'Vince Martin & the Beaurepairs' fame has switched his popular Christmas jingle from Winter Wonderland to Silver Bells. Its just not the same.

Dress up, dress down town

Today I wandered down to Queen St and found myself face to face with a strange new shop: Sarpo. I believe it is the store which used to house Dymocks. It now seems to be part imported fashions from Asia, and part creepy 1950's prom dresses for 3 year olds. And perhaps the Tavi look-a-like, modelling here.
I am foreseeing a summer of many kindergarten sock-hops.

Spoonerism



The various alias's of Thomson and Thompson

Dupond and Dupont
Uys and Buys
Tik and Tak
Johnson and Rohnson
Kadlec and Tkadlec
Jansen and Janssen
Citserono and Tsicerono
Schultze and Schulze
Ντυπόν and Ντιπόν
Dupont and Duvont
Clodius and Claudius
Douponte, Doupont
Hernández and Fernández
Skapti and Skafti
Johns and Johnes
Tomson and Tompson
Zigue and Zague


At ease, at seas

I want to make some art about mysteries of the ocean. Like people lost at sea / Navy the colour / submarines and periscopes / icebergs and white horses. Capsized ships.





Long Hair

I am growing my hair. It is now the longest it has been in living memory. I have always wanted long hair, but have never had the mental mettle to last the distance, and I end up going in for the chop out of sheer boredom. This time I am serious though. By the time i get to Sweden I will have long hair.
So it can fly out behind me like a mane as I cycle.

tables turned



DJing with Elton 20.11.2009.

"it was like my coast fm in a bar without the ads fantasy come to life."

show name

WATERFRONT MORALS

WATERFRONT MORALES?

WATERFRONT -MORALES- MORALS

WATERFRONT MORALS / FATHERLY FUNCTIONS

Charmingly barmy

Today at Rocky's the shower exploded, and an emergency plumber arrived to save the day. He described the plumbing and water works as "She's all a bit Heath Robinson", a phrase I now believe will become part of my everday jargon.

W. Heath Robinson was a cartoonist known for drawings of 'eccentric machines' and his name has since entered British language as a description of any unnecessarily complex and implausible contraption that achieved absurdly simple results.

Used in scenarios such as the BBC's Planet Earth documentary series, in which devices used to create smooth camera movements, such as the effective steadicam made out of bicycle wheels and rope used to sail up a 100 metre high mound of bat droppings, were said by David Attenborough to be "Heath Robinson affairs".

In Pink Floyd's 1971 concert film Live at Pompeii, Nick Mason described the band's early on-stage musical experiments as "Heath Robinson".

Also. W. Heath Robinson was the man behind "The multimovement tabby silencer", which automatically threw water at serenading cats.



See also - Heath Robinson (codebreaking machine).

The usual suspects

Perhaps the greatest thing about the dectective stories of Ngaio Marsh is the 'Cast of Characters' at the beginning of each one. Posing like a police line-up or screen credits these names create the doubt & intrigue which festers inside your head as you try to piece together the fragments & clues into a pattern. With her background in theatre, the inclusion of a cast of characters transforms her novels into plays, an apt analogy of the classic whodunnit.




The mystery of the two cups of tea

While Florence Broadhurst was celebrated for her brilliant fabric, wallpaper designs and patterns, her 1977 death remains shrouded in mystery. Speculation was rife that she had fallen victim to a serial killer who murdered elderly woman However others believed Florence's killer was known to her, due to the presence of two cups of tea found near her body, suggestive of a rendezvous.




Dizzy Like A Fox!

Dr Jacoby experiences paranormal activity in 1963's The Haunting resulting in his prescription 3D glasses. Can I get anyone a drink?







Like Len Lye

Library find of the day: a bookmark advertising the latest Len Lye book, adorned with a comment by poet Alistair Reid.
Len Lye - "The least boring person who ever lived."
I feel that being the second least boring person to who ever lived definitely a goal to strive for.

Fiction & Pictures

I have decided to stop reading non fiction books. From now on I intend only to read tales fictitious in nature, as these happen to be the books that influence my art the most. Everyone I have mentioned this to either think I am a genius or a fool.
From now on every art book I browse, I will have to just look at the pictures. Which really, is what I used to do anyway.
Now its off to the library for some high literature and Philip Marlowe novels.

Are you a Mod or a Rocker

Perhaps one of the most perfectly crafted music videos I have seen, with some choice hand gestures from Ray himself thrown in for good measure. The simplicity of '65. According to those who live to tell the tale, they were real menaces in their live performances also.
Happy 40th Wedding Anniversary, Ray Columbus and the Invaders.

She always took her wooden leg off before having a bath

She always took her wooden leg off before having a bath. She would unhook the leg, and slip it off over her knee while sitting on the lip of the bath.
The bathroom was a sparse one, overtaken by a bath/shower combination. Everything else existed as a single entity: one toothbrush, one towel, one facecloth, one razor. In fact, the bathroom was so cramped it took just a little hop to reach basin, so she could rinse the wooden leg under the tap before before draping it over the shower rail to dry.
The only feminine trait of the room were the stockings dangling above the bath, drying.



A coffee with two sugars

While at the opening of the exhibition To Have and To Hold: Making Collections at Objectspace, my cousins and I began to amass a collection of words which we were forever finding spelt incorrectly. One cousin provided the greatest rule for remembering the spelling of 'necessary'.

"One Coffee, Two Sugars, please."


Installation shot of To Have and To Hold: Making Collections, 2009
image from Objectspace.