why I love country music

So back in the old teaching saddle and well let's say I am uninspired. And that's not the fault of country music! What is so wrong with southern white culture, anyways. To be clear, I'm not talking Garth Brooks or old achy breaky or even the dixie chicks. I mean Lucinda or Bonny Prince Billy/Palace Music. Particularly the latter. Gulf shores has got to be the most beautiful song ever written. Besides how could a man who looks like this ...




... not make beautiful music?

Yes, when I am nostalgic I still get out the old Smiths on vinyl and gaze at my shoes, especially now I wear glasses, and quite possibly ready for a hearing aid.

and so it ends,

the holiday, that is. Classes start in a week, and hopefully that will pull the curtain down on the bbq season. Have spent the day moping and listening to country music ... it improves the quality of one's moping so.

Apropos of Monkey's Max post for French cosmetics with the Naked-ish chef guy, I add to that general theme. Taking one's clothes off is becoming part of every one's job description. Calendars of firemen, post office workers, knitters, etc have somehow become a legitimate fundraising/charity jag. And to prove that one must be prepared to calendarise oneself no matter one's vocation I present to you ... men of mortuaries

my life is turning into

Tuesday night TV programming. There's nothing I want to watch and then on Tuesday at 9.30 I have to flick channels to watch my THREE favourite programs. Tomorrow I am double booked ... a potentially hot date and a birthday party and I am not a good enough negotiator to change things.

In other news, at the big red shed today where I bought a very crappy set of kitchen scales ... the container thingy where the stuff you are weighing sits keeps sliding off ... Oh well $9 ... Anyways a middle aged bogan couple there was arguing over the stuffed toys. They were comparing two white tigers. The woman was adamant - we should get this one. You can see the whites of its eyes better.

Makes it so much more authentic.

Spent the rest of the day killing spiders. I have been trying to live with them in a we-are-sharing-the-planet kind of a way, but they were just not keeping up with their side of the bargain. Too many babies and too many cobwebs. So I would have made a braveheart era Mel Gibson proud with my war cry and sword ... well duster ... wielding and the revelling in the spider carnage

another post? I must be

on holiday. Speaking of holidays, Valentines is coming up ... despite the implied tone of the previous post, I am not really a big fan of Valentines. Just recently in the big city I ran into Sam who married Melissa. This was a good idea. Proposing on Valentine's day was not. Now because the day is so meaningful ... yes italics can also mean slightly sarcastic intonation he was having a full on panic about what to get her.

For Sam, and others in the same boat I suggest Meg's anti-Valentines day cards. Hell you can even send me one.

The only real fun I have had on Valentines I have really had was back in 1990. Pathetic sad-do you say? That was my only American Valentine's day. I went to the pet store with K. First off, it was a 24hr pet store! Secondly, there was a special 'tarantulas for the one you love.' (I'm not afraid of spiders, they just annoy me with their goddam webs, and how their shit sticks to the ceiling ... would it be less annoying if it fell on my head? But, hell, don't send me that!). Thirdly there was the fun and shennanigans of hiding the card in the fridge, in the toaster ... yes re-used for more Valentines fun. Oh jolly japes .... Indeed I am a pathetic saddo!

my research is

sexy. Apparently. I have acquired a secret-ish admirer who discovered me through some research I was doing last year. We are to meet at the end of the week. Remember kids, there's a fine line between stalking and romance...

In other news my holiday taking abilities seem to have improved. I ran away to the big city and had big city fun. Saw J and S's completed renovations. The house looks extraordinarily beautiful, and would be way too house and garden for me if they hadn't incorporated S's kooky interest in industrial lighting. Also saw Dot'n'Ben for the first time in five years. She has has stopped dyeing her hair, and is kinda blond! Who knew? Well I guess EMO isn't big in Perth. Had dinner with them and J and J' sister and partner. I have to admit I sometimes feel like my Czech students used to feel. These people are unashamedly materialistic, and oh Bourdieu how right you were about symbolic violence, and the mean-ness and aggression that is bourgeois taste. I also ran into Marty and Matty. I got a big hug and a kiss from both of them, and they both seem more evenly keeled than they have been for a while. Marty especially was back to his charming self. Now this sounds creepy, but what I love about that city is that walking around, I occasionally get the glad eye. That never happens here. I feel invisible, or tolerated at best.

So Dr L's wife has gone south again, and suddenly he wants to socialise. That's okay I guess, but thanks for disappearing on me for a year ... and also please note, not every one loves surprise visits...

And thanks to Bryan's suggestion the panels are hung and are covering up the deep dark red of the lounge walls. I did though have to translate the term 'drywall'. We call it 'gib' though it may be spelled j-i- b. My next project - washing the windows ... Okay so maybe my holiday skills aren't all that great ...

Still no photos ... I keep leaving my camera at work.

I can't sleep without you,

television. So my holiday continues and I am gritting my teeth and bearing it. It seems to be making me grumpy and paranoid. I can't seem to train my friends not to make un-announced visits or be punctual. So I am running away to the big city. My second attempt...

In other news, I watched a charming segment of the news about Nana revivalism. These Art School Welly-ites host Nana Sundays where they sit and knit and eat lammingtons, and make ironic craftpieces. Reminds me of Caroline's punk crochet period. I got a crocheted spiderweb for my birthday once. Its awesome ... but its losing its pompoms.

Who said irony was so nineties!

crap at holidays

unless playing patience counts. I am never going in for home improvement projects again ... So about two years ago I bought some pacificcy flowery fabrics to make panels to hang on the walls to replace the yes-we've-been-to-the-louvre-and loved-Monets-and-only-like-Picasso's-blue-period prints my landlords put up to create bella figura in the Villa Palmangrada. And finally I got round to attaching them to frames. They look great despite the stress that hammering and gluing created, and if you look closely round the back you can see my blood ... That's what happens when you use a shoe for a hammer... But Oh God Oh God Oh God trying to hang them up ... my mouth was afire with obscenities. Getting them even ... getting them straight ... getting the hooks to catch the string ... then the adhesive hooks falling out .... Oh God Oh God ... I guess I will finish the project next year... Perhaps there are professionals who can come and do the hanging. It would be worth it whatever the price.

I had my haircut today which is always an awful experience. But Myra ... Yes, Myra .... was explaining that her previous client was throwing a 50th birthday surprise party for a friend who had already celebrated the anniversary of her birth on the day it fell, back in November last year. I guess she will be very surprised.

I future air hostess getranslated

Okay so I am a lazy language learner ... on occasion ... I added that last bit for professional purposes ... but sometimes I can't be bothered retrieving German verbs from the end of the sentence. I wanted to read a review of Kitty Solaris future air hostess. You know try before you buy, and all that. And I am wanting to recreate some Berlin cafe atmosphere here in the Palmengrad ... But like I said I got bored and so I resorted to Babelfish ... and got this ... which is almost as charming as the original ...

Lo-Fi-icon. Who please invents such words? Power itself surely well on pale t-Shirts, which stretch themselves over the chests of Indiemaedels with asymmetrical crop. Or alternatively also on schmalbruestigen gentleman bodies with Indietopfschnitt. Meant finally the employment is historical, no more with the state of the art of going geraetschaften in the studio. Or at least the creation of a likewise sounding sound. The "citizens of Berlin Lo-Fi-icon" Kitty Solaris and its partner Steffen fitter look for the well-being sound of the Grossstadtfolks on "Future air Hostess" above all. And dearest in strengthened form. Already the Opener and album high point "CHANGE Something" tells of inconspicuous arrangements and beautiful melodies. Usually are sufficient for it guitar, bass and a quiet schlagzeug. A bubbling Melotron possibly still refines by Moog and. Because somewhat too smoothly knitted, too many Songs appear however in all world living and can make so quite no impression. Surprise do rather those to suddenly bratzenden guitars in "You Have to Shave Mister" or thick "thousand tears the Tief" Blumfeld Beat of "Changing Cards". The remainder is all too often maintained boredom for citizen of Berlin scene Cafés, in which humans with Lo-Fi-icon-Shirts drink slat Macchiato. Plus or other beautiful melody.

My special favourites ... a quiet schlagzeug and schmalbruestigen gentleman bodies with Indietopfschnitt. And that is a killer final sentence. Now where can I get a pale Lo-Fi-Icon t-shirt?
Slat Macchiato anyone?