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.

meme-on

album.jpg
To make your band’s album cover, do the following:
1 – To get the name of your band, go to Wikipedia and hit “random”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
2 – To get your album title, go to Quotations Page and select “random quotations”
or click
The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your album.
3 – For your album cover photo, go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4 – Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together.
5 – Post it along with these instructions and tap the friends you want to join in.
I choose not to tap.

libraries gettin’ flicky wid it




Man and young boy boxing

Originally uploaded by State Library of Queensland, Australia

I’ve been fascinated by the recent sprouting of ‘official’ archives and libraries on flickr. The latest (and most interesting) is the State Library of Qld. These photos are wonderful for their ordinariness. And their… unordinariness. So Queesland. And it’s only since I left the state that I can really appreciate how unusual Queensland is.
A number of libraries and galleries have recently leapt into flickr. This fascinates me. I’ve also heard of some wonderful archive/google map hacks: historical google maps, as illustrated by the (Australian) National Archives. This is where my research interests sprout: I am utterly enthralled by the way people take ‘found technology’ and hack it to suit their needs and interests. de Certeau would be delighted.

The Columbia and OKeh Benny Goodman Orchestra Sessions

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Mosaic has a lovely Benny Goodman Orchestra set that I have my eye on. I’ve been going through my music lately, doing a little tidying, and I’ve discovered I have only a couple of Benny Goodman Orchestra albums. This must be rectified.
I know it’s just an obessive ‘must have’ completist type thing, but… must. have.
On other (related) fronts, I have been blowing through my 50 emusic downloads not within a month, but within a few minutes after my account ticks over. I can’t possibly get by with these few songs. It’s just not possible. Again, this is crazy ‘must possess all’ thinking. But then, I must. And emusic is really wonderful – it has all those chronological classics. And quite a few other hard-to-get indy labels. And that’s just in the ‘olden days jazz’ section. I’ve glanced through the 50s blues, but I really haven’t even begun to look at anything else.
Think of me, in my obsessive compulsiveness this week. I think I might ‘back up’ my downloads with CD copies. Nerd ON!

loose marbles

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I found this neat photo of the Loose Marbles singer here. That’s how lindy hoppers are looking these days – covered in tatts. Low body fat. Very ghetto Harlem, a la 1930s.
The Loose Marbles are a great American jazz band who do a lot of busking. They do have CDs, but they’re hard to find. The band’s hard to find online, as well. Look, here they are busking: