Dance Thursday

After my Swing dance lesson I went to see a contemporary dance performance, My Brother, My Sister, put on by Quantum Leap. It's 'an auditioned, elite youth dance ensemble' but the youth aspect seemed a misnomer as the dancing was of a level comparable with any professional company. Not sure about all of the choreography, which seemed in some parts to be pandering to 'youth concerns' which did not sit well with the rest of the work. Seeing as the dancers were mature in their craft and the audience was just mature there was some disconnect in what we were expected to take from this aspect. The use of video and voice over to try and bang home points about self esteem, social isolation and violence were also completely mistaken, as the dancers were quite capable of conveying any message required. But apart from those small quibbles it was extraordinarily good.
I was by chance in the front row centre, so although I had the disadvantage of not being easily able to take in all the movement, which from a large company was spread across the stage, but I did have the advantage of being very close which was very involving and allowed me to hear the movement on the stage, which I like.

Addendum

So the morning after, a couple of things.

The image of moving parallel lines across the stage is still very vivid.

But the annoyance about the videos prompts me to think. One part of it was a display of statistics supposedly to highlight social injustice. Now statistics like this when used without explanation or understanding always annoy me. I think of the Sickipedia joke 'statistically, 9 out 10 people enjoy gang rape' - which shows how presenting a statistic without knowledge, explanation or understanding is dumb.
One of the ones used here (they were all crap) was the bald statement that 0.13 % of the population has 25% of the worlds wealth.
Which plays on the nonsensical concept that there is finite wealth, with the implication that if there are some rich people and some poor, that the rich have taken from the poor, as though there was only a limited amount of wealth to share. Wealth is not finite someone growing rich is not at the expense of someone else, that’s the basic theory of wealth creation, the supply of wealth is not fixed like that. Those 0.13 have created wealth, i.e. created more goods/services/money, they have not reduced the supply of anything to anyone else. It's pretty simple stuff.
I blame some of this idiocy on Christianity, with the idea planted that if a man has 2 coats, he should give one away. That's fine as far as it goes (2 somewhat happy people) but in the long term the joint wealth of the 2 people is still limited to 2 coats. Wouldn't it be better for the wider population that more coats are produced, isn't it better that a new coat is created for the other person, than to give up one of yours. For when a new coat is created for the other with no coat, now there exist in the world 3 coats, and so overall wealth grows.

But what really annoys after all is that bad choreography (or whoever was responsible for the multimedia elements) has overshadowed the skill and beauty of the dancers, and not for artistic reasons, but just because they wanted to overlay art with some token mis-understood politics. Oh but the music was very good btw.

Forever Changes

This beautiful image is from Ben C's website http://www.forever-changes.com. It is part of a collection of photographs of buildings in decay or in the process of being built or redeveloped. They are all well worth a visit.

And while you're about it, why not check out his band http://www.shammyleather.co.uk

Carter and Space

I came across this passage by Angela Carter which I find very interesting. I had given no consideration really to how we fit into buildings or how they affect us until I was recently pointed to Gaston Bachelard's The Poetics of Space.
Certainly I know that to create large works of art (large in any sense) you need space (both physical and time), but how constrained one was or wasn't physically I did not think would affect how you worked, but now I am convinced it does.

Conversely and personally I thought being in a large expanse as in Australia would allow/prompt me to make larger works, but the opposite has happened, my pictures (and writings) were always on the small side but here they have if anything gotten even smaller.

Communication tools

So many means to communicate, but yet sometimes we don't

Australian top 5

People who don't know Australia well, often (well twice) have said to me, Edgar; please recommend some good Australian songs. Once I have got back on the chair, and the laughter died down (aren't I a bitch), I posit the following top 5, with YouTube links where you probably don't know the song - I am assuming correctly my 'audience' is overseas aren't I.

No. 5 John Paul Young - Love is in the air
No. 4 The Sleepy Jackson - Good dancers
No. 3 Master's apprentices - It's because I love you - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKE2hmgzUgo
No. 2 Russell Morris - The real thing - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ8d2EB435Q
No. 1 The Boys Next Door (early Nick Cave band, I haven't included his later works most of which were produced outside of Australia as he would take the whole top 5 obviously) - Shivers



And if people say why has Australia produced as much musical talent as Belgium I say watch this level of journalistic discourse which is not in any way exceptional - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2aEfdEhYZQ&

Note: I am not including the BeeGees, nor Olivia Newton John as Australian.

I hate Green Day

Well I waited like 24 hours for my Avril Lavigne t-shirt to arrive, but it didn’t magically appear. So I’m back to my old one!
Am I embarrassed to wear a t-shirt that my daughter has discarded and that I have then scrawled upon, apparently not.
To get this fully I suppose you must understand that this an jokey homage to an original as worn by John Lydon in 1975 – which said - I hate Pink Floyd

Historic Australian Newspapers, 1803 to 1954

Library news Library news Library news Library news Library news Library news Library news

The National Library of Australia is busy digitising newspapers and the first public Beta service is now online at http://ndpbeta.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/home
This is a very exciting project, whilst the Beta service only contains 70,000 newspaper pages from 1803 onwards, it will eventually have many millions.

punks not dead

I'm not one of those h8ers who are always criticising people who have some success, but
I don't know about you but I am a little bit disappointed by Avril Lavigne's new range of clothes.
I mean I get what people are saying that they are not very Punk, but Avril is still totally for real, so I'm still going to be ordering the t-shirts and everything, but you know, it does suck a bit. Anyway I hope I look as hot as her when I get mine.

ZarJazz the Magnificent – part two

ZarJazz at the head of his ever growing family moved forward quickly crossing the land to reach the Northern shore of Australia. Elsewhere the insects of the world were also on the move, moving towards the central land mass.

When ZarJazz came to the coast without stopping he moved across the water, his followers stepping and filling the surface of the sea, the waves died and the sea held them up. The fish which would have feasted hid unmoving in the deeps, and the dark mass of life crossed slowly over their domain.

When all the insects assembled from every part of the earth, they stood an undulating tapestry of colours a hundred miles across. And in an instant all the life that had previously teemed so thoroughly amongst the earth, within every building, among every plant, writhing deep within the earth or in the air, were gone. And the earth was quiet.

At first the spinning of the earth went on unchanged, the mammals and birds and the rest of life did not notice the change. Like tinnitus suddenly turned off all was peaceful, but soon the loss of countless billions of lives seeped into them. The remnants of the earth began to realise not that they had gained by the removal of an unwanted annoyance, but that they in fact had been left behind. The insects were not the ostentatious nuisance, the lower life there only to bemuse with its insignificance and unknowable countenance. They were in fact the webbing through which all other life had adapted around, their works unnoticed. The cockroaches in the kitchen, the spider in the bath were not there to annoy or scare, they had just been there working. Like the cleaner caught with his arms in the toilet bowl by the early office worker, the insects that humans saw had just overstayed to finish up. They were the knitters of the reality that all other life unthinkingly accepted; they had coursed through every part of the earth, binding it together. And now they were gone and the fabric would come apart. At first the air became putrid, the microbes that had been kept a bay had free reign, and the waste just would not disappear, the plants died and the buildings crumbled. The earth still turned but with every revolution, the sun shone on a lesser world. The remaining humans in their new deserts tried to summon forth a call to ZarJazz to bring back life to them. Not knowing the name of power, but somehow tapping into the unifying thought that was resounding through the cosmos, they picked up the sound zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. They stood where they were, intoning on the sound. But ZarJazz listening now to the singing of every life in every age throughout the universe, did not hear the sound of this tiny conglomeration of life as even a whisper.

The insects for their part, in their untold billions spread out amongst the vastness of space each one, no longer as a human perceived mindless part of a collective brain but as individuals, as gods with each one a galaxy of its own to nurse.

As the earth quietly spun on, infinitesimally small and empty, the rest of the universe moved with a new unity, galaxies which had moved untended changed course, new stars and new life was born to fill the void and the name of ZarJazz the Magnificent, the unifier, was spoken and written large across the heavens.

As each new life bloomed across the countless planets and the invisible strands that bind all existence together were re-knitted ZarJazz smiled. But within him there was still a part that was Edgar. For Edgar had lived within him, and although there was and would always be ZarJazz, so was there now an eternal Edgar.

And so ZarJazz turned to look again upon the earth. He saw the planet stripped, he saw the loss written on the land and seas, saw the remnants of life huddled together. He saw the face of a human that he at once knew. And he came to them again, his eyes yellow like the sun and his tongue stuck firmly in his cheek. And he spoke to them,” I am god, not your god, but god. Look through me and be as the gods you are. Raise yourselves and live wisely. Those that can see may stand beside me, and take your place in the dance of light that spins forever with and against the dark.”

Crook Frightfulness

I couldn't resist a link to this book

See the small print there
'Crooks can hear your thoughts.
Stranglehold you by ventriloquism.
Hold whole populations in service.'

Some points

I think as this blog seems to be continuing that maybe I should mention.

My job is to select and archive those sections of the Australian web that I believe (and fit within selection policy) are of long term cultural and research value. Whilst everything is of value, I do have to make judgements, purely because of the constraints of staff time and resources. I therefore view an awful lot of Australian websites and blogs, some of which I archive. But due to my role, I am not going to link to any, and also for the same reason don't ever comment on other's Australian blogs either, as I don't want to seem in any way partial, and really don't want to find myself archiving my own comments. So whilst I could be pointing to a whole load of great online Australian content, I'm not.
But anyway, you could go find it yourself if desired.







So we have established I don't talk work here, as a public servant I also don't talk Australian party politics here, for their privacy I don't talk about my kids, which leaves my vegetarian and general meanderings, doodles and literary efforts. Just so as you know, no I don't post them because I think they are great, I post because there is someone to post for and because I believe in the Internet. The Internet consists of vast amounts of material that primarily individuals have bothered to put online, how could I continue to use and enjoy all that others had produced, and yet not feel a debt to add to it in some way.

To quote Isaac D'Israeli
"To pass much of our time amid such vast resources,
that man must indeed be not more animated than a
leaden Mercury, who does not aspire to make some
small addition to his library, were it only be a critical
catalogue."

EMO Cutters

I took this Emo? Cutter? quiz here

The result was:
"No lie, You are EMO. True emotional hard core. you may cut or not my guess is that you do... and im not judging you either... but face the facts, your a true emo at heart."


So damn, I'm an EMO I better get down to the mall. No really I don't cut. But then maybe there should be a quiz, are you the sort of person who takes an Am I a cutter/EMO quiz? The answer to that would be equally depressing.

Canberra weekend

Shaun of the dead was on TV last night, that was the last film I saw with Mr Craig, the one before that was Ai No Corrida I think many years ago. Shaun of the dead was funnier than the Oshima, but obviously it had less of the interesting boiled egg aspects.

So what else did I do this weekend? Went for a walk, did my washing and ironing for the next week, all exciting stuff, and sat down next to my bookshelf to move something, idly picked up my Nathanael West collected works, and reread Miss Lonelyhearts, hadn't meant to, and only noticed I had when I finished it.

And so another weekend in Canberra, which reminds me of the Larkin line (someone I must stop quoting, but probably won’t)
‘Nothing, like something, happens anywhere’

Lentil soup

You know I cook (let's face it, not by choice) most days and it's generally pretty basic stuff. This is no exception, but today's soup - Lentil - was very fine indeed. I of course realise that lentils are the supposed very foundation of every vegetarian diet, and am thus supporting a cliche, but hey ho, I do like them indeed.

The ingredients for any eager beavers looking to copy are:
• Red lentils (use as many as you want, considering they are small you want to use at least 10, I did try and count how many I used but gave up at 323).
• Onion (half of one, or less, I don't know how much to suggest as I don't know how many lentils you are going to use, if you are only using 10, I would just add the smell of an onion)
• Garlic (1-2 of those segments are they cloves, or is a clove the whole thing?)
• Beef stock cube - only part of one (now I know what you're thinking but no, I use a meat free one from Israel (Osem))
• Cayenne (to your taste)
• Salt (to your taste)
• Pepper (to your taste)

Method – put all ingredients in a saucepan with double the amount of water, cook on moderate heat for just over half an hour.

Whilst preparing the soup I would suggest listening to some soothing French piano music, but whilst eating the soup you would need something revelatory, ecstatic and sensual and so would suggest Final Hymn the last part of the Firebird Suite that will give you approx 3 1/2 minutes to eat it in.

Here's the grand old master himself conducting Lullaby and Final Hymn if you are unsure of the music (tho actually the recorded version here is not the best by any means).