I’d really like to redesign this site. It’s been ages since I gave it a new style sheet – years. I have no idea what’s cool in the css world these days, so I guess I’d better have a look.
I actually use my ‘blogroll’ all the time, so that should probably be further up. I could ditch a lot of that other stuff in the side bar, though. Maybe drop menus for the categories – or is that _so_ four years ago? Are we all into clouds? I’m not sure I like the messiness of clouds.
I think I want the sidebar on the right. That’s where everyone else has it these days.
I might make it so that more entries are displayed on the first page, and then do the ‘older’ link at the bottom, so people can navigate backwards through time, a chunk of entries at a time. That’s how I like to navigate people’s blogs.
There are quite a few spacing issues that need fixing – some proportions need tidying up. I think I’m ready to go border free. Completely border free. Kind of a big step for someone as ob-con as myself; I like the order of boxes.
Most of all, I need to remember to do all this styling on the laptop, not on the imac. The imac has a fully sick screen, and the laptop is smaller and squashier. Using winblows? Well, I won’t be taking your needs into account. This will be firefox/safari friendly only.
Urambi Village Housing Cooperative, Kambah, ACT [6]
Urambi Village Housing Cooperative, Kambah, ACT [6]. Originally uploaded by canberra house.
There’s something fascinatingly ordinary about this Sydney regional architectural style. It makes me think of the SF I watched as a kid, and of my friends’ houses in the newer suburbs in Brisbane’s north.
what a lovely pic
I just had to share this lovely photo of two of my friends. I would have blogged it straight from flickr, but couldn’t. You can see it here, but make sure you check out the rest of this photographer‘s amazing pics.
This is a good bud of mine who’s living in New York, though she’s been living in London for a few years now (four?). The guy is another friend, an American who was living in Melbourne but now lives in the Netherlands. I love this pic because of the shapes and pose (they weren’t actually posing – just dancing), but also because I love the expression on D’s face. She’s having so much fun. We miss her a lot, but we’re also proud she’s off being jetsetting Woman of Business. This photo also makes me a little bit sad, because it’s all the things I love about dancing – having fun, being creative, figuring things out, making beautiful shapes, experimenting with weight commitment and leading and following. I also like the way G hasn’t dragged D over too far – he’s actually extended his arms. And that’s something a lot of guys can’t seem to manage (often because they carry far too much tension in their shoulders and just _can’t_ extend that far). I also like it that they’re wearing normal clothes, not vintage gear – this is everyday dancing for everyday people.
So I like this photo a lot. Nice framing, nice light – just the perfect moment capturing two lovely people doing something they both love very much. Sigh.
i have a thing for early 20th century australiana
We went to see the modernism exhibition at the Powerhouse a little while ago. Well, we actually went to have a look at The Museum, and this exhibition was on. It was, overall, dull. And not terribly well curated, I don’t think. But it had some fully sick stuffs in it. I was, of course, captured by the 20s stuff. But also by the late 19th century bits.
I have the beginnings of a full blown Thing for olden days Australiana. I like the stylised kangaroos. Flipping through a design/architecture magazine at the sports specialist a little while ago, I was struck by the set and prop design for the ill-fate Lurhman ‘Australia’. Gorgeous. There’s something about the super-kitchness of Australian animals (with their utterly bizarre physiology) done up by art deco or modernism (don’t really know the difference between the two, I’m afraid). I like the way the bizarre is made streamlined and beautiful. The way a kangaroo is styled up like a greyhound.
golly
New Matilda give good style sheet. Can’t wait to get in and have a gander at the code.
I know it suits my general aesthetic (ie white with pale grey borders), but there’s a reason newspaper pages are white. I really like a site where the design is invisible, or so very ordinary you have trouble figuring out how it works.
river and train obession
I can’t stop listening to this song. Not this precise version, but one that’s very similar.
It’s the first song in the film ‘Jazz on a Summer’s Day’. I’m obsessed. Suddenly, not dancing means that I’m actively listening to jazz that can’t be danced to. I’ve even dug out my Miles Davis CDs. And I’m liking it light and nice – nothing too challenging. No bop, thanks.
level of awesome: 10
more Loutit awesomeness:
Metal Heart from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.
city of sound
I think it’s the post-ride endorphines. They’ve jolted me out of my unemployed, understimulated lassitude.
Found city of sound and suddenly my cultural studies interests have merged with my (shy) interests in design and architecture and urban planning.
the way i feel about sydney: busy, all water and sun and people
I’ve been living in Sydney for six months, and I still feel like a tourist. It’s that sense of excitement and exploration that you get living or visiting somewhere new. It’s wanting to go out and just _look_ at the things around you. To take photos. To see interesting things and then tell people the story of your day.
I lived in Melbourne for eight years, and in Brisbane for about fifteen before that (and lots of other places in the years before). Living in Melbourne I never felt the urge to live near the sea, or even to visit it. The Victorian coast line never really woke the inner-swimmer in me. The person who used to live in Fiji and learnt to swim almost by osmosis. Living here, in Sydney, I think I’d like to live in one of those posh beach-side suburbs. I like the sound of Bronte. Sydney is a city all-about-the-ocean. Keith Loutit‘s little clips are the way I feel about Sydney: busy, all water and sun and people.
Bathtub II from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.
because everything i am is domestic these days
There are eight doozers erecting scaffolding around the three story heritage building across the road. The doozers are making lots of noise and performing general acts of physical skill, bravery and derring do. I am choking a little on the testosterone. Soon the painters will be able to finish the top floors. But not until these doozers have finished their show.
My foot has suddenly flared up over the last week or so. I began yoga two weeks ago. The connection is irrefutable. It breaks my heart. I will see if we can amend the poses for me tonight, but for now it’s not looking so good. I’m left with just cycling for exercise. It’s not enough. I have considered swimming, but something is putting me off.
Semester starts in two weeks and I’m teaching in (yet another) giant first year introductory media/cultural studies subject. Same old, same old. But I don’t mind it – I can teach it with one hand tied behind my back, and can get on with developing some decent teaching technique, rather than worrying about learning the content.
I have to get a book read and reviewed for a journal. It’s slow because it’s not a terribly well written book and I keep distracting myself. Will do better today, though.
We are both still losing quite a bit of weight. The Squeeze more so than me. One of us needs to go buy some smaller shorts ASAP. We share a few of them, and they’re all now ridiculously big on us. Neither of us is particularly keen likes shopping for clothes at all, so it will be a race to not go. I bet it’s me at Jay Jays sometime next week.
It’s killing me to not be able to dance. Just killing me. My foot has not improved, so there’s no chance I’ll get to dance any time soon. Just walking is still painful. Back to the specialist in a week or so. Where he’ll tell me there’s nothing that we can do. I haven’t gone this long without dancing in ten years. Hell, I haven’t gone longer than one month, let alone three in all that time. I am trying not to be badly depressed about it, but I’m not doing a very good job.
Oh, the comments are back on. The Squeeze fixed it. Good on him – he rocks.
Stumbled across this bloke recently. I am highly skeptical. I smell a bit of gendered division of labour there. There is no gendered division of labour in our house at the moment. The Squeeze has to do it all (bar grocery lists and purchasing). My foot is too sore for me to vacuum or stand up long enough to clean. He is a very wonderful Squeeze.
I am spending too much time on faceplant and twitter. But then, the entire developed world is, I suspect.