Today is A. and my 12th anniversary. To celebrate, I drew a sloth on her morning cup of coffee.


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I was wrong. I admit it. I should have had more faith.

Un Lun Dun is a young adult novel from China Miéville. It's the story of two young girls: blonde and popular Zanna, and her friend Deeba. After some strange encounters with respectful foxes and portentous graffiti and a bus conductor who calls Zanna Schwazzy, the two girls find a doorway that ( Read more... )

Anything you think I've missed?

Crossposted from sharplittleteeth.dreamwidth.org
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Iain Banks has cancer.

Late stage gall bladder cancer. To quote his statement: "I’m expected to live for ‘several months’ and it’s extremely unlikely I’ll live beyond a year."

I drifted away from reading Banks's work the last few years. But that news was a punch in the guts.

He's one of the authors who, along with Neil Gaiman and Joss Whedon, helped ( Read more... )

I read Pride and Prejudice for the first time last year.

Last Tuesday, I went to the inaugural Melbourne Literary Salon, where I met Adele Walsh from the Centre for Youth Literature. She told me about the Lizzie Bennet Diaries - Pride and Prejudice retold as a series of YouTube videos. Several other people agreed that they were excellent. I said I' ( Read more... )

We know this story like the stations of the cross.

The Sex Pistols play Manchester's Lesser Free Trade Hall. Inspired, four local lads start a band. The band changes name. The band are accused of being Nazis. The singer has epileptic fits. The band sign to Factory Records. Martin Hannett produces their album. Peter Saville designs their sleeves. The ( Read more... )

We spent the weekend up in Ballarat, at my sister's house. One the train back, I was down to the last few pages of The Harp in the South when we started to approach Southern Cross Station, and I had to decided whether to race through to the end or wait until I could savour them.

I choose to savour. Because I loved this book. Absolutely loved it.

It's ( Read more... )

Amazing. Zoë Keating was amazing. Layer upon layer of lush, hypnotic cello loops, rising and circling and fading away.

She has a piece called Tetrishead which was inspired by the similarities between fitting together the brightly colored blocks in a game of Tetris, and fitting together her musical loops to make a song. It was a joy to watch that ( Read more... )

 I hate giving up on a book.

My Dad was always starting books then abandoning them. I used to tease him about it, back when I was younger and had enough spare time to finish every book I started.

I'm old now. I'm acutely aware that I'm a slow reader, and there are only so many books I will read before I die.

So, sorry Gillian Mears. I tried. But Foal ( Read more... )

The St Kilda Memo is an old art-deco picture theatre being brought back to life as a music and performance venue. Fitting then, perhaps, that it was used as the place to bring Rowland S. Howard's music back to life for two night.

The venue is still finding its legs, I think. The doors opened late, the queue was slow because they were wristbanding ( Read more... )