Strike A Bell

Sellevision

2010-10-30T21:13:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/escapist/2103441969/

A big thanks to our guest blogger Kitty, for this great post :)

I never thought that I would spend my days thinking about how to sell things. I’m not what you would call the ‘sales-focused’ type; I was more about creating things and making pretty films, but all of a sudden, here I am in the throes of consumerism. How can I make this shampoo sell better? Should I throw in a styling product as an add-on purchase? And will it help if I throw together a fishtank demonstration of nanotechnology? Oh, and by the way, we can’t use the word ‘nanotechnology’ because it has negative connotations in terms of health, so we’d be better off using the term ‘microtechnology’.

One week we can sell a shampoo and conditioner set, and extol the virtues of a sulfate-free ingredients list. We tell the customer that they MUST buy this particular shampoo because anything that contains sulfates is B.A.D. The next week we’re flogging a different shampoo that has two different sulfates in it, but now we’re calling it a ‘natural botanicals based’ product (let’s just glaze over the sulfates things, guys!) and talking about how you couldn’t possibly consider using any other shampoo.

The television marketing business is a fickle lover. I love her because it’s exciting to watch sales; to plan and program; to figure out the best way to get people to buy this stuff. At the same time, my inner film-nerd just wonders – is it wrong?

Our average customer is a middle-aged woman with grown up, coop-flying children and a husband who makes a LOT of money. So dedicated are they to their viewing that they will record a show if they’re going to be out, and watch it as soon as they’re back in the house. Some of them play our shows all day, from the moment they wake up to the moment they go to sleep. One woman I met watches during the day but has to switch off the television before her husband gets home so that he doesn’t clue in to the fact that she’s been exercising the credit card in a major way since he left for work. She also told me that as soon as he falls asleep at 11pm, she sneaks upstairs to the study to jump on the web so she doesn’t miss out on any great deals. A colleague of mine tells a story about a customer whose house he visited to film a testimonial. When she ushered him in, he gasped out loud (before clamping his hand firmly over his mouth), for before him was a virtual display room of our products. She had twin massage chairs beside her fake fireplace, sitting on top of a hideous rug (a one-off show that everyone agreed was a mistake). She owned every single piece of jewellery that the company had sold in the last five years. She had a jewellery room. A ROOM! Sapphires, diamonds, emeralds, pearls, 14kt Italian gold and hand-crafted French silver. A bathroom full of cosmetics she had never used and about fifty handbags, carefully stacked up in rows and columns in her walk-in wardrobe. Upon returning to work, my colleague checked on her account to see just how much this woman had spent. Now, without even considering inflation, the sum is one that sends shivers down my spine. In the three months leading up to his visit, the customer had spent $258,000.

When we meet our customers, they tell us that they love our shows. They feel like the presenters are their friends and family, and that we are selling just to them. It makes them feel special, and they buy all these glamorous things because we tell them to. But if a woman has time to sit down and buy twenty handbags in a month, three different brands of cosmetics, a new wardrobe and fifteen rings, then I’d like to know how she finds the time to use them all. And how does her husband feel about it?!

Even so, every Monday I pop off to work and start looking at the next identical product, and try to figure out a new angle. Sulfates, no sulfates, natural botanicals, colour-lock technology, nettle to stimulate hair follicle growth, it’s made by so-and-so, celebrities love it, it’s used by so-and-so. And so on, and so forth, and I still don’t know quite how I feel about it. So I’m just going to go onto the website and buy something with my staff discount to make myself feel better.

Come with me on a journey through space and time...

2010-07-12T17:13:00.000-07:00

... and my record collection

Starting with:

Supertramp - Breakfast in America

Side One:

1. Gone Hollywood

2. The Logical Song

3. Goodbye Stranger

4. Breakfast in America

5. Oh Darling

Side Two:

1. Take the Long Way Home

2. Lord Is It Mine

3. Just Another Nervous Wreck

4. Casual Conversations

5. Child of Vision

The standout songs are all on the first side. At first I just wanted to listen to the title track (which was sampled in Gym Class Heroes' Cupid's Chokehold), but The Logical Song (anyone remember this?), Goodbye Stranger and Oh Darling have wormed their catchy ways into my heart. And actually, the last song on the second side is almost as good as any of these.

I don't mind Mondays

2010-07-11T16:53:00.000-07:00

Listening to mini-records. I'm usually too lazy for these, since you only get one song out of each side, but today it just hits the spot. I've been neglecting my records for a while now, so it feels right to be back just after the New Moon Eclipse in Cancer. Perfectly complimented by porridge :)

I inherited this collection from my Grandad, but I think they used to belong to my Mum, Aunt and Uncle back in the day. And it turns out, I love Neil Diamond! That's right, and I'm not afraid to say it!

The Beatles: Get Back, Don't Let Me Down

Donny Osmond: Puppy Love, Let My People Go

The Beatles: Instant Karma!, Who Has Seen The Wind?

Neil Diamond: Lordy, Cracklin' Rosie

The Monkees: She, Sunny Girl Friend, Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow), Gonna Buy Me A Dog

Peter Paul and Mary: One Kind Favour, Jesus Met The Woman, 500 Miles, Three Ravens

The Beatles: Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane

The Fifth Dimension: Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine In, Worst That Could Happen, Ticket To Ride

An Oldie, but a Goodie

2010-07-05T20:42:00.000-07:00

Drawings

2010-07-02T00:53:00.000-07:00

Hard Candy

2010-06-19T18:33:00.000-07:00

Guess Who...

2010-06-18T05:29:00.000-07:00

Hot!

2010-06-18T01:54:00.000-07:00

... hot outfits

... hot moves

... hot song!

New Postcard!

2010-06-14T22:58:00.000-07:00

Another postcard arrived in my mailbox today, this one is from Bojan in Varazdin.

Up Start

2010-06-12T03:54:00.001-07:00

I Am Not Numb

2010-06-12T03:50:00.001-07:00

Postcrossing: Gators & Nächtliches

2010-06-09T02:29:00.000-07:00

I received two postcards today, and I was only expecting one. Aren't they great? The weird thing is, I dreamt about gators just the other day. Scary!

From Monika in Duisburg, Germany

From Ryann in South Carolina, USA

Loving these right now

2010-05-30T20:55:00.000-07:00

Movie: District 9

Such a great film, definitely made me think twice... and it made me cry. Highly recommended.

Music: Something Good Can Work - Two Door Cinema Club

Such cuties!

Book: The Winter House - Nicci Gerrard

This made me cry even more. A cathartic book about friendship, love and life. Sounds cliché, but it's really well done. Makes you think about what's really important, and question how you might see your life when you're older.

Full Moon Rising

2010-05-28T07:21:00.000-07:00

when we were strangers

i watched you from afar

when we were lovers

i loved you with all my heart

because i'm still in love with you

i want to see you dance again

on this harvest moon

Witness: Five Poems from text

2010-05-27T05:02:00.000-07:00

apprehended, recorded and relived

sprawling venues of multitude

modest poetic and meaningful

A universal theme,

feelings relay loss and remembrance,

charcoal drawings on timber.

discussion

briefly abundant with residue

in the act of recording

one's own life

history can be soothing,

buried artifacts

Carefully and thoughtfully curated

depressive and uplifting, traumatic and hopeful.

the way psyche continues alongside

the entrance of faces

inscribed with peace.

A spectacular scale

of two bodies

text, snapshots

a third, exquisite haziness

wooden moving objects

semi-fictional traces of boundaries

obscure, obfuscated simplicity,

capturing the passage into

real time

the entrance and exit to

Loss

and achingly beautiful ordinariness

of this unspeakable location

touching,

An astute notion

in its physical scale

The result of disparate times

six different cultural parents

alongside

studio photographs of African Americans

'witnessed'

by a ghostly ancestral presence.

A Chinese-born performance hovers,

suspended in New York,

Accompanied by a sheep costume,

white doves enacted a gesture

to dominate the front lawn

wearing a series of calligraphic marks.

conceived specifically for martial arts

Recollections of characters

replete with the momentous symbols

In My Father's House and In My Mother's Garden

followed by a quiet text

containing terms of its installation

transcribed across the gallery walls.

Reigned in

2010-05-25T17:51:00.000-07:00

The rain is drizzling away, and I'm stuck inside waiting for my clothes to dry. Actually, it's quite a romantic morning and I'm glad of the excuse to spend time on the internets and procrastinate writing my essay (though that's a stretch).

This is what the world looks like from inside my flat today.

Pisces: A Poem

2010-05-24T03:22:00.000-07:00

Esperanto

2010-05-22T16:15:00.000-07:00

Thankyou, Brian Barker, for sharing this clip.

Here, Claude Piron, psychologist and former UN and WHO translater, speaks about the language of Esperanto and the value in adopting it as the universal language, not instead of our own languages but as well. According to Piron, Esperanto is a lot quicker and easier to learn than other languages. The structure is simple, and regular. As someone who has spent years learning French, a language quite similar to my native English, without gaining fluency, I can definitely see the value in this language.

Both Wikipedia and Google have versions in Esperanto. According to Wikipedia, Esperanto is 'the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language, meaning it did not evolve but was designed for its purpose. This purpose is to provide a language which is accessible worldwide, requiring minimal resources to access and learn it. I'm certainly interested in a language whose name means 'one who hopes'.

You can find Esperanto tutorials on Youtube.

Interestingly, Malcolm Gladwell writes in Outliers, that the reason it is widely believed that Asian people are the best at maths is because their number structure is much simpler than that of English, or other languages. Gladwell quotes Stanislas Dehaene's book The Number Sense:

'Chinese number words are remarkably brief. Most of them can be uttered in less than one-quarter of a second... The memory gap between English and Chinese is apparently entirely due to this difference in length.'

And goes on to state:

'It turns out that there is also a big difference in how number-naming systems in Western and Asian languages are constructed... The number system in English is highly irregular. Not so in China, Japan and Korea. They have a logical counting system. Eleven is ten one. Twelve is ten two. Twenty-four is two ten four, and so on.'

Because of these simple differences, Chinese students get ahead in primary school and it snowballs from there. Outliers is a fantastic book, informative and inspiring. Despite being non-fiction, it's a real page-turner. I highly recommend it.

It's Cold Outside

2010-05-21T23:27:00.000-07:00

So cold, there was nothing left to do but snuggle into bed with scissors and glue... voilá collage!

I did drag my weary bones outside today, spending the whole morning wandering through the MCA. I enjoyed myself, despite my soggy socks (boots, you'll soon be in the bin!). The Sydney Biennale is on, and if you go I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. At least, most of the work is right up my alley. Very contemporary, without being obscure or overly simple/ugly. I found nearly all of the work engaging, developing ideas of diversity and cultural criticism without pandering to the PC police. A good mix of installation, painting/drawing/print, photo and video work.

The stand-out pieces? Definitely Angela Ellsworth's Seer Bonnets: A Continuing Offense. These had an amazing presence, taking over one room. The bonnets are completely filled with pearl-headed hat pins, pointing inwards, from crown to the trailing lengths of the ribbons. The thought of them was painful, but they were crying out for me to touch them (don't worry, I withstood the urge). The folds of material took on another life, strangely sumptuous.

Another work that is surprisingly sumptuous is Salla Tykkä's Victoria, a sensual video portrait of a giant water lily. The slow motions of the bloom, as it matures, are otherworldly in this dense, jungle-like scene. At first, I wasn't particularly interested, but somehow it drew me in and my fascination grew. The effect is heightened by the classical music, accompanying the movements through sound.

Another video work, Susan Hiller's The Last Silent Movie, kept me coming back. Every time I caught a drift of voice, I was drawn into that dark room to sit and listen. A very simple but effective piece, the work made use of archival recordings of extinct and endangered languages, with a translation projected onto the wall. These ranged from familiar, French-sounding languages to those more akin to birdsong. One recording couldn't even be translated. In an adjacent room hang a series of prints; minimal, quiet and beautiful. They show an excerpt from each recording, and a corresponding soundwave pattern.

Fiona Pardington's series, Ahua: A Beautiful Hesitation, has a similar mournful beauty. Each image shows a life-cast, either a life or death mask, sourced from museums and photographed against a contrasting background. The ink on rag paper presentation allows you to fall into the image, unaware of the surface of the print. Each face is lifelike, yet heavy. The light passivity of the closed eyes sits uneasily with the solid bronze or plaster forms.

Wow, that's tired me out. I might speak more about the other works that blew me away, later.

Sometimes the best nights are spent Home Alone

2010-05-21T02:11:00.000-07:00

(Even on a Friday night? Yes!)

Chamomile Tea + Playlist* = I might actually get some Housework done

(with a few distractions, see below)

Here's what I'll be having for dinner, yum...

Artichoke Risoni (adapted to my pantry)

serves 1 (me!)

30g butter

1 tablespoon oil

fennel bulb**

150g marinated artichoke heart

75 ml cream

1 tablespoon whatever mustard I can find in the fridge

(in this case, Dijon)

3 tablespoons rosé thats been hanging around

1/2 cup shredded Tasty cheese

1-2 cups brown rice

bunch of English spinach

Cook and combine according to common sense

Serve with bitter salad leaves on the side, add dressing to taste

Enjoy!

*Midnight Special - Credence Clearwater Revival

Guilty - Barbara Streisand & Barry Gibb

The Woman That Got Away - J.J. Cale

Too Fake - Hockey

Such Great Heights - Ben Folds

(even better seeing him play this live in Ireland)

Hold Me Now - Thompson Twins

Mathematics - Little Boots

Where Did You Sleep Last Night - Leadbelly

**Couldn't find fennel, so leek will have to do. If I was a Boy Scout, this never would've happened... But then again, I'd probably be eating Beef Stroganoff cold from the can.

Jogging

2010-05-08T22:09:00.000-07:00

My sister and I have taken up jogging. Just a few blocks, a few days a week, followed by stretches. I feel so good afterwards, I don't know why I've been putting it off for so long. We started with a strict 5 days a week rule, but as soon as it's an obligation, my body starts objecting and I can't seem to make myself. It's been a relief to give myself some breathing space, jogging when it suits the both of us. I feel less resistant to the idea, and super proud of myself with each notch on the belt.

Flame-haired Betties

2010-05-08T05:34:00.000-07:00

First page in my new diary, the rule for which is if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all

Work In Progress

2010-02-27T23:55:00.000-08:00

These are some drawings and water colours that I did recently, some I'm still working on. I have discovered how fun water colours are, every mistake you make looks better than what you were trying to do.

From China

2009-12-06T22:44:00.000-08:00

I received this postcard through Postcrossing today, from China.

Lucky Dip

2009-12-04T19:23:00.001-08:00

These are some pages from a zine I was working on, called Lucky Dip. The project is on hold, so I thought I'd put them up here...

From Scotland

2009-12-04T19:06:00.002-08:00

I received my first postcard through Postcrossing yesterday, all the way from Scotland!

Coincidence

2009-11-17T14:28:00.001-08:00

'The word itself perfectly describes its meaning: co means "with," and incidence means "event." So the word coincidence refers to events or incidents that occur with other incidents - two or more events occurring at the same time. Because the experience of coincidence is universal, most people take them for granted, life's little quirky moments that we marvel over, then quickly forget.'

- Deepak Chopra, The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire

Postcrossing

2009-11-17T12:36:00.000-08:00

I've just signed up for Postcrossing, and I'm very excited to get my first postcard mailed off. I'll be posting received postcards here for all to see!

Maypole Dancing

2009-11-11T05:12:00.000-08:00

Chronicles - Vol. 1

2009-11-11T04:55:00.000-08:00

I borrowed Bob Dylan's Chronicles: Volume One from my local library the other day, and it's a fascinating read. It's refreshing to read about Dylan's life from his own perspective, having read so much that's been written about him by others. Cutting through different periods of his life, he uses details of his everyday reality to paint a compelling picture of his own experience. The feeling is real, rather than adding to the mythology, and not overly sentimental. The insight into his own struggles with creativity, those times when inspiration didn't come easily, are particularly interesting.

"Then, from out of nowhere in the midst of it all, came "Where Teardrops Fall." It was just a three-minute ballad, but it made you stand straight up and stay right where you were. It's like someone had pulled the cord to stop the train."

Proust + Madeleine = Flashback!

2009-10-16T05:46:00.000-07:00

Ad Infinitum

2009-10-09T05:56:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/swissrolli/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Sophia's Wisdom

2009-10-05T19:20:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fnogues/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

'If you haven't cried,

how can your eyes be beautiful?'

- Sophia Loren

The Open Book (unfinished)

2009-10-03T02:42:00.001-07:00

Home Voodoo: Lesson No.1

2009-10-03T02:39:00.000-07:00

Hearts (& Bones)

2009-10-03T01:08:00.000-07:00

Bones

2009-09-12T19:10:00.001-07:00

Creature

2009-09-10T23:32:00.000-07:00

Walking In Memphis

2009-09-10T23:24:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/abbyladybug/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

'She said "Tell me, are you a Christian, child?"

And I said "Ma'am, I am tonight."

- Walking In Memphis

Marc Cohn

Black & Whites

2009-09-08T01:30:00.001-07:00

Graceland

2009-09-08T01:21:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/autograt/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

'And she said losing love is like a window in your heart,

Everybody sees you're blown apart,

Everybody hears the wind blow'

-Graceland

Paul Simon

Celestial Bodies

2009-07-22T20:55:00.001-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/duncanfawkes/

'There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another star in glory.'

- I. Corinthians, Chapter XV, Verses 40-41

I came across this passage in the book I'm reading, The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard. It's quite an intense book, and the characters in it themselves seem like celestial bodies, following an unseen gravitational pull or orbit. I get the impression that the author's own life was like this. Here is a fascinating snippet of interview with Hazzard.

Mad Rain

2009-07-22T16:27:00.000-07:00

This is a little poem I wrote yesterday, just before it started raining.

Pokers stand up straight and fiery,

Exercising vain power against the wind

Heat rises up from an unseen source,

Joining with the wind to buffett and call up the rain

Every impending drop a word,

heavy with meaning like an unformed prayer

Every tongue vibrates with anticipation,

straining to translate the relevance of

almighty nature expressing itself in a common way.

Felt by everyone,

enlarged pupils look up at a partial sky

still scraped through with blue,

the remains of a fine but significant day.

But it cannot be grappled with.

The sky falling on warm hands and faces, incomprehensible.

Diana Film

2009-07-22T15:51:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the photos I got back yesterday. I've really been digging the local foliage.

Trip to Salvo's

2009-07-20T20:30:00.001-07:00

I'm just back from a trip to my local Salvation Army, a veritable smorgasbord of fun things for low prices. I bought some original art (I'm assuming they're all by the same artist, N. Gupta, although they're not all signed), a couple of novelty hats for my impending hat party, a box full of sequins and other goodies, and a gorgeous glazed bowl, all for under $15. To top of my lovely morning, I dropped off a couple of films, to be picked up tomorrow. It really feels like summer already, and it's only July!

Oh, and I almost forgot, I found a kaleidoscope as well :)

Blue Lace

2009-07-19T21:15:00.000-07:00

This is my absolute most favourite dress (today, anyway). And in the background is a mattress I rescued off the street. I love the blue floral pattern, and it has such potential. At the time I was determined to embroider it, but as yet that hasn't happened.

Mr Tambourine Man

2009-07-19T02:10:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/_counterclockwise_/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

'I'm ready to go anywhere

I'm ready for to fade

Into my own parade

Cast your dancing spell my way

I promise to go under it'

-Bob Dylan

'Mr Tambourine Man'

Pilgrim

2009-07-17T17:24:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hmorandell/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

I've started writing three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing in the mornings, as recommended by Julia Cameron in her book 'The Sound of Paper'. This book is a series of essay, with tasks, designed to help you get in touch with your creative self. This morning, my writing was strangely different from the usual anxiety and drivel. Here is an edited version.

I ask for genius to run through me like wildfire, as if I were a field of grass left for too long in the dry heat. I want to be in the exotic places of the Australian desert, I want to be in Coober Pedy. I want to be entirely alone, a stranger in an unknown land. I want to go by my own two feet, walking a dusty pilgrimage, marking a route that is mapped out inside me. Following some path that was determined before I was born. To discover things left there for me, by the last cosmic traveller. Walking on the land, but in a parallel dimension. There, but not there. In the world, but not of it. There, but for the grace of god, go I. And I will see my shadow pass before me and lead the way. Strung out in the afternoon sun to a stick figure of immensely skewed proportions.

I never would have dreamed. But keeping my eyes on my feet, I don't question but simply follow. Walking under the hot but cooling sun. Soon it will be cold. So cold I will wonder if the day will come, with its sticky closeness. The night opens up a space akin to agoraphobia. A stark contrast to the day, when you feel you can't get away from your own skin, clung down with humidity. The motion when you walk, is of skin sliding on skin, lubricated by salt water sweat. Sweat turns into air from your back.

You walk the pilgrim's road asking for favours. You're looking for signs from on high. You look into the faces of strangers, searching for a friend to tell you the way. But not one spark of recognition in their eyes. They don't see you, and you start to wonder if you are already a ghost. If you're caught in a time warp on an invisible plane of existence. One way glass, you can see out but they can't see in. You feel strangely liberated, free from their observance. Free to look how you feel and do as you please.

You sag under the heavy, dwindling sun, keeping up a steady rhythm. An insistent forward motion. Plowing through the air thick with your evaporating breath and the flies that cluster around the intake and exhalation of your mouth. Each time you suck in, they are in danger of being drawn into the vacuum. Soul food. Soul flies. To feed the hungry traveller.

You need somewhere to rest your weary head. In the safe and comforting caverns underground, where men have carved a home for themselves. An inversion of the outside world. Contained, like a lunchbox, and dark. A culture for groups to multiply, provide each other company through the night.

Kano

2009-07-17T17:05:00.001-07:00

'You exist at the perfect centre where the harmonious and beneficial forces of the universe merge and radiate. You are that centre.'

- from 'The Book of Runes',

commentary by Ralph Blum

This is from the explanation of the Rune Kano, the Rune of 'Opening, Fire, Torch'. If you can find it, this is a great book with really interesting and inspiring text on all the Runes. At the moment I find it more helpful than doing a Tarot spread.

Hair Clips

2009-07-16T17:56:00.000-07:00

These are some hair clips that I made a while back for a couple of my friends. I was really into that shade of blue at the time. These will look so much better on the gorgeous blonde girls that I gave them to.

Jack Kerouac

2009-07-16T16:15:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/deathtogutenberg/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

'I promise I shall never give up, and that I'll die yelling and laughing.'

- Jack Kerouac

Hat Party

2009-07-15T20:22:00.000-07:00

This is a design for the invite to our hat party. I'm really pleased with how it turned out, now I just need to run it past the other hosts to see if they like it.

The Gayatri

2009-07-15T16:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ren84/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

'You, who are the source of all power,

Whose rays illuminate the whole world,

Illuminate also my heart

So that it too can do your work.'

- The Gayatri

from 'The Book of Runes',

commentary by Ralph Blum

How To Be Idle

2009-07-14T16:06:00.000-07:00

'Let us be lazy in everything, except in loving and drinking, except in being lazy.'

- Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

This quote is from one of my favourite books, Tom Hodgkinson's How To Be Idle. It's basically a manifesto on living the good life, and sticking it to the man, all with as little effort as possible. Hodgkinson backs up his theories with plenty of research and examples from history and literature, presented with humour and wit. And if you're impressed with this one, he's also written How To Be Free.

There's a great interview with the author at Mother Jones, and you can got to the homepage of The Idler, a magazine founded by Hodgkinson and Gary Pretor-Pinney.

Weekend Drawings

2009-07-13T04:07:00.000-07:00

Here are some drawings I did over the weekend. Who would've thought the flu could be so inspiring?

Ayn Rand

2009-07-10T16:56:00.000-07:00

This is part one of a fascinating interview with Ayn Rand, author of 'Atlas Shrugged' and 'The Fountainhead'. These books are both on my reading list, and while I don't agree with everything she says here, I find her philosophy inspiring. She exudes intensity, even when she's not talking there's so much expression in her face and through her eyes. I think the reporter definitely comes off second best. Although this was filmed in 1959, the relevance of Objectivism has only increased in today's socio/economic climate. Mystic Medusa 's post on her astrological blog provides more insight into Rand.

Rock Lobster

2009-07-10T16:44:00.000-07:00

'We're just a tacky little dance band from Athens, Georgia.'

The B-52's

Ragged & Ecstatic

2009-07-09T18:40:00.000-07:00

'the ragged and ecstatic joy of pure being.'

- Jack Kerouac, 'On The Road'

This quote actually inspired the name of Yves Klein Blue's debut album which has just been released. I saw them at Oxford Art Factory last weekend and they were fantastic. The band has a great sense of showmanship and the lead singer is particularly charismatic as he brings the songs to life with exaggerated facial expressions. It's great to hear new music that's well-crafted and different, with witty lyrics. Deep Sea Arcade and Philadelphia Grand Jury played first, and they were also impressive.

Thursday's Quote

2009-07-08T15:47:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/valenjones/

'To be truly young and open minded and curious means you just don't have these types of limitations. And no matter what critics or anyone else think, you just go about doing what you need to do to express yourself.'

- Marc Jacobs

in July-August Russh magazine

Playdate

2009-07-08T05:45:00.000-07:00

My friend Jess came over today for a playdate. We spent some time digging in to an indoor picnic, listening to records. We did some drawing, of which you can see mine here. I did this with a felt-tip and some textas from a cheapo store. They started dying pretty much as soon as they opened up, but I persevered. We then hit the dance floor (conveniently located in my lounge room), busting a move to Beat It, Der Commisar, I'm Still Standing and Little Red Corvette. And as if the day couldn't get any better, we took a ride in a Valiant. The pic below is just a little drawing I did at work. I do market research, so drawing helps keep me sane while I'm between surveys.

Today's Quote

2009-07-07T16:41:00.001-07:00

'I want to be a living work of art.'

- Marchesa Luisa Casati