throat wobbler mangrove (just because)

Just some random thoughts and links for all my fans. I would write more but I haven't really the time today since I've got to go into town and do stuff. Damn stuff. Always taking me away from the interweb...

I've got many things to blog about (that word for instance: blog, ugly yet somehow alluring. Well, to me at least but then I find words fascinating) but I haven't really had the time to sort them out in my head for serious (or frivolous) discussion.

First off and most importantly: Sarah's back! Yay! Knew she couldn't stay away :)

I've just finished reading a couple of John Birmingham books (his new(ish) one Dopeland, and re-reading the first one He Died With a falafel in His Hand) which set me off thinking about my flatting experiences and the weirdos that I've lived with. Counting it up I find I've lived in 15 different houses (counting the three months living in a tent in Blenheim) and with more than 50 people (counting itinerant house truckers, couch dwellers, and tenters). There are definitely some stories there. More on that later...

I must write something on Australian TV as it compares to NZ stuff (generally pretty poorly, and I'm not just being patriotic either). The good (SBS on the whole, Merrick & Rosso, Strictly Dancing), the bad (most of the rest), and the ugly (the League/AFL obsessions...). But at the moment I'm just gobsmacked by the mesmerising awfulness that is the Eurovision Song Contest. Oh. My. God. The commentary on SBS by Des Mangan is hilarious, at least he's not taking it as seriously as the contestants do. I think I finally understand why people watch Popstars/Idol/etc, though it took a show of such transcending shiteness to get me there.

On a very different note, it's the 25th anniversary of Masquerade by Kit Williams. I loved that book as a kid, the magic of it, the beautiful detail in the pictures, and also the puzzle that was the idea behind the whole thing. Never did figure it out but the I was only 10 when I first read it.

I am sooo going to go on this! :D

And finally, sorehead. Samples:

Don't eat deep-fried food. Don't eat blu-tac. Unless you really can't stop yourself.

Following thoughts as they change shape. Turning on all the lights. Writing poems for strangers. The removal of one's own fingernails. Telly on mute. Moon on a stick, then backwards through goo.

He lost a friend once by illustrating his point in a musical disagreement too literally. He whacked her on the side of the head with a Bert Bacharach LP.

Strange and wonderful. Go look.

Right, that's enough for now. I'd better prepare for the day - going to karate this afternoon (eek!) and then to see Salmonella Dub/Cornerstone Roots tonight (yay!). Review of that tomorrow. Possibly.