Since we don’t live by politix alone (I sincerely hope), what did people get up to this weekend? Join in, share some tales, regulars and lurkers all!
After a big burst of thesis writing, I’ve spent a rather miserable weekend, lamenting the fact that I didn’t get a flu shot this year. But before the lurgy got its grips into me, I did go down with an old Uni friend to The Bowery in Ann Street in the Valley - Brisneyland’s best bar to be sure - for a propitiatory Laphroaig or three. When the nights start getting cooler, it’s time to unstop the malt scotch bottle!
If you’d like to see a larger image of the photos, click on them then click on “full view” once you’re inside the gallery.
Bowery II by *phenomenologist on deviantART
Bowery I by *phenomenologist on deviantART
Bowery III by *phenomenologist on deviantART
I am in a frenzy of farewell parties for my imminent move to London. This weekend was a trip with my Japanese teacher and her husband to a little Middle Eastern restaurant in someone’s living room in the Mountains. First time I ever drank Tunisian liqueur. Today I am going to a party with some New Zealanders, where I will be drinking and eating way, way too much. Bloody kiwis.
In between, I have been itching mightily from a new tattoo, and getting a guilty pleasure from watching the pandagon/feministe blog meltdown.
“propitiary”? what is?
A word I can’t spell, evidently!
Try “propitiatory”…
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=propitiatory
Do tell!
[I note you sneaked in a Kiwi condemnation on this thread
]
On the Pandagon/Feministe meltdown, I was interested to see Twisty break her “awkward silence”:
http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2008/04/23/schooled/
I hate Twisty Faster’s blog - snide, condescending crap by someone who is all too aware of how “smart” she is.
The Tunisian liqueur was called Chebatine or something. I was already drunk on Tunisian sparkling wine by the time I got to it, so I forget the name. Sadly, it tasted like a cross between jagermeister and cointreau, so not to my taste. Nice citrus smell, about 36% alcohol, slightly sweet, spicy taste.
They also had bouhka oasis on their wine list - it’s a fig (?) or date (?) liqueur of similar strength, but when it arrived in the post that day all the bottles were smashed. Probably just as well…
I condemn my kiwi friends for cooking way too much food and making me eat it. I condemn all NZ generosity in the same vein. And I condemn myself for condemning it in the wrong thread.
Figs. Like figs.
There used to be a really spiffy Israeli orange liqueur which my erstwhile Jewish flatmate got me liking. But then they stopped importing it. And I can’t remember the name to buy some over the intertubes. Israeli wine is awful though.
also grown in the settlements, often… I try to maintain a little boycott of stuff grown on settlements.
Oh is it? Another good reason not to drink it then!
as if you needed another - if it tastes bad!
I love orange liqueur though. I just can’t take it with herbs. When I was last in Hiroshima the people around me were drinking Jagermeister shots, and I gag at the thought. Once I went to see the band “Inkubus Sukkubus” live, and the 4 of them drank a whole bottle of jagermeister straight over the course of a 2 hour set. Not good for the tongue, one imagines - and the singer was pretty energetic, so by the end of the night she had nearly killed herself twice. I think Jagermeister is best avoided.
I’ve been alternating this weekend between Laphroig and James Squires down here in Sydney…
Having at last completed my roof I spent the w/e going mad with a chainsaw & grubber to clear the north face for a new garden. What to plant, I incline towards the edible but cannot resist splashy colour.
Managed to do that so far, SG - thanks for the tip!
Nice stuff, that James Squier. I hasten to add my friend and I switched to Asahis shortly after the Laphroiag photo was taken. I’d hate to encourage teh yoof into teh binge drinking!
I’m getting from this that a couple of you think this is about Feministe vs Pandagon? Because that’s a pretty major misreading.
No, I think that’s just shorthand, lauredhel. I’m well aware of what the issues are. I just doubt this thread is the best one to raise them on, is all.
Mark, it’s not too late to get flu shots. I’m having mine on Tuesday.
We went to see The Edge of Heaven (”Auf der anderen Seite”), which won the gong as best film at the Berlin Film Festival. It also won three further ‘Lolas’ for best director, best original screenplay and best editing. The German-Turkish director Fatih Akin’s earlier 2003 film Head-On (”Gegen die Wand”) had apparently attracted international attention.
I thought it was a good movie, well acted and well-made, but not as good as last year’s winner The Lives of Others (”Das Leben der Anderen”). Actually our first preference was to see the comedy Rabbit Without Ears (”Keinohrhasen”) which was on at the German film festival at the Palace Centro, but it was all booked out.
Thanks Brian - will look into that!
Quiet weekend. Spent Saturday blogging a bit and finishing reading Jefferson’s America.
Sunday, reading bits of Cathcart’s abridgement of Manning Clark for background ro a book review I have to do.Watched East of Nowhere (reckon that kid is terrible for insisting his father delete the book he was writing), then the Berlin Airlift series on SBS.
I get bored in advance by yet another Australian tv drama set in the country. Can’t they do gritty urban realism any more? Do the same actors have to be in all of them?
I watched Shadow of the Vampire on dvd!
http://larvatusprodeo.net/2008/04/27/avalon-ii/
Yeah, I would’ve smacked the kid upside the head, PB, ultimatum or not.
You know how long it takes to write one of those, ya self-centered little punk?
Key problem with East of Whatever: none of the main characters are likeable.
I dont mind Jagermeister, myself, though it is certainly possible to have ein prosit too many.
Paul, I thought he was a self-centred little prick. My wife agreed.
I hate Twisty Faster’s blog - snide, condescending crap by someone who is all too aware of how “smart” she is.
When you can master the english language and write a blog that’s as fun to read as well as expressing quite advanced patriarchy-blaming theory in a way the rest of us can understand and enjoy, while undergoing chemotherapy and breast resection, then you might be able to talk, but the less than exciting wittering about Jagermeister doesn’t hold out much hope. Still, people do develop as they get older.
I hated that kid too. The trouble with the series is that everyone wanders around looking morose and not doing anything. Except for the hippie chick who also needs a belt upside the head.
Mark Don’t worry about encouraging us to binge drinking. I, myself, only binge drink sometimes.
Yes Helen, Twisty brings out the best in all of us doesn’t she?
Everyone, re East of Whatever
Don’t mind the hippie chick.
Do get the sense though, they’re trying to repeat Seachange, with a similar formula, but, while its enough to keep me watching, its not up to the same standard.
Liked the bits with the AQunties, though.
I mean, the title can’t even stick in my mind.
I went to Melbourne for my friend Stephanie’s 50th birthday party, caught up with some old mates, looked at a lot of fabulous clothes, shoes, book and food shops in Lygon Street, and went to see the exhibition at the Vic State Library of medieval manuscripts, which is very beautiful and awe-inspiring, and the one upstairs in the 4th floor gallery called Mirror of the World: Ideas and Books (or something like that) is fabulous as well.
“What to plant, I incline towards the edible but cannot resist splashy colour.”
Both! Both!
Just wondering why this piece of wankery cum antifeminist trolling gets a big *pass* while Lauredhel gets the big kissoff? Maybe if she had larded her comment with premium alcoholic references it all would have been better?
su, I don’t know about “passes”. I particularly don’t want these threads to become stoushes. I don’t see that comment as trolling. But I don’t want to have to deal with this stuff on this sort of thread. At all. I’m sorry, but I like to carve out some small spaces in the blogosphere where we can leave all this behind, and just chat. Perhaps that’s naive of me or whatever, but that’s what I’d like to happen here.
Everyone knows that there’s an open thread on this blog where you can take these discussions. My own contribution, by the way, was to suggest that I thought Twisty had it about right, but I phrased it in such a way as not to signal a lot of disagreement but to leave the link there for those who might want to follow it.
It should have also been clear that my comment wasn’t just addressed to lauredhel. If that wasn’t clear enough, I apologise.
That’s as far as I want to go in letting you know what approach I’ve taken to moderation on this thread, because I *dread* a discussion of moderation on this thread.
I really am pretty fed up in general with a lot of the ritualised position taking and stoushing that goes on in the blogosphere. That’s not to impugn people for holding strong opinions - far from it. But too much of it sacrifices openness in expression and openness of mind for restaging the same old same old fights. I’m not sure you’re being particularly helpful by characterising a comment that you disagree with but which I think SG intended to be reasonably light hearted as “wankery”. That’s my reading, at any rate. SG doesn’t have to like Twisty. I do. Not everyone does. But I don’t think - in general - it’s the sort of discussion - adjudicating on the merits of other bloggers and their politics, etc, which I want to host on this thread.
I started this feature because the first time I did it people liked it and I was asked to make it regular. If I have to start deleting comments which aren’t in the spirit of the thread, I will, but I really hope I don’t. That’s where I’m coming from.
So I’d ask anyone who wants to continue discussion of Twisty/Amanda M/etc. to take it to this thread.
http://larvatusprodeo.net/2008/04/25/long-weekend-salon-anzac-day-edition/
Thanks very much.
Fair enough.
Thanks, su.
My not so lazy sunday: both of my sisters were in Armidale this week, the younger one stayed an extra day to come cycling. It looked freezing so we put far too many clothes on and looked like a pair of Everest climbers. More people turned up this week than last week and thankfully this slowed things down a bit, so I managed to stay with the bunch aside from fading a bit one hill in the middle. Little sister wasn’t fazed - she is fit and had a very funky pink T-Mobile jersey on. I’m not sure if it contravened the LP ban on girly pink though.
Sent her home, spent the rest of the day trying to rebuild a broken database server. $50 worth of hardware running hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of database is not a good idea. I couldn’t wait for Monday to roll around to explain our problems to head office and wait a week for new hardware, so built a new server out of spare bits to get us going again. Could not re-use one of the mirrored disks and the motherboard has a dozen capacitors oozing Ghostbusters style slime, so co-opted a desktop machine. Cursed Microsoft already in another thread here so won’t do it again… no bugger it - their server operating systems are awful pieces of junk.