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Basking shark migration
I loved the Beeb's recent stories about the annual basking shark migration to the seas off Cornwall. "The first basking sharks of the summer" is a phrase with a certain ring to it. :-) Checking wikipedia, it's interesting (though maybe not very surprising) that the geographical range of the basking shark neatly splits with that of the whale shark ( Read more... ) -
Astra concert
Saw Astra in concert last night, in a converted church hall in Fitzroy (the Eleventh Hour Theatre). "New Voices in 2 X 2 Hands (1): actions/repercussions" offered concert-goers that rarity in the "new music" game, a programme with depth as well as breadth. Try this on for size: Andriessen, Byrne, Bach, De Jager, Frescobaldi, Planet X, Prokofiev, ( Read more... ) -
Wild food
Went mushrooming yesterday, on the edge of the Dandenongs. My Polish aunt A. decided that the season was right, and the weather gracefully obliged. We set out with a mission: if we couldn't find enough Suillus luteus, Christmas 2009 was off! I didn't know this before, but A. explained that, in Poland, the liturgical season of Advent -- like Lent ( Read more... ) -
The art of the index
Am reading Nan Fairbrother's New Lives, New Landscapes (1970). It's so brilliant, that I was inspired to research and rewrite her Wikipedia entry (although it still won't tell you much, if you go there), and I quoted from it for my talk last Friday for the Interaction Design Group. For anyone interested in the history of landscape, land-use, urban ( Read more... ) -
Leonard Cohen gig last night - amazing!
I originally wrote this up to share with M., but thought it was worth posting.
Aaaahhhh, that was an amazing gig last night at the Rod Laver. It was really, really long, as well - it started at 7:15pm, and didn't finish until 11.30. A fantastic setlist, chock a block with classic numbers, and shining through it all, the fabulous persona of Cohen.
( Detailed gig rundown... ) -
Bushfires
Our VC sent an email around this morning to acknowledge that staff, students and alumni from my institution have died in the recent fires. Our regional campuses are so far unscathed, but not yet out of danger. Other staff have lost their homes, and the uni is making temporary accommodation available to those affected - staff from two of our ( Read more... ) -
Constructing Australia
Best and most engaging doco series I've seen for a long time - highlighting local and national politics and personalities, as much as engineering, architecture, and construction. Will have to check out the ABC book. I assume the current screenings on Australian free-to-air are repeats?
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Green energy tariffs
Am confused. Is it worth while paying for a special "green energy" tariff?
M. suggested (rightly, I think - cf. the Mandatory Renewable Energy targets) that a percentage of energy from standard consumer tariffs may already be generated from clean/renewable energy sources -- albeit, a pretty small percent. He proposed I would simply be better off ( Read more... ) -
Preppy like Lilly Pulitzer
Reading Curtis Sittenfeld's first novel, Prep. It's the first book I've read by her and, so far, I'm enjoying it. It's light, but with deft dialogue, and a fine eye for the anxieties and acute self-consciousness of teenage life. The "voice" of the narrator, Lee Fiora, is convincing without being too omniscient.
So far, I don't really see the ( Read more... ) -
Hafu: on in-betweenness
I went down to London last night for the private view (a UK term not really used in Australia, where "opening night" or "launch" seems to be preferred) of this exhibition: Hafu / Half Japanese. It's an intriguing concept: an exploration of appearance, identity, and culture among those who share Japanese ethnicity / cultural background, but for whom ( Read more... )