An open thread, where at your weekend leisure, you can discuss anything you like.
46 Responses to “Saturday Salon”
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Let’s just hope this one doesn’t wander off into Meso-American visitations, pristine passports, misinterpreted video footage, and “corporate jacuzzis”. There is a “special” thread devoted to those. Let’s just keep it all *quarantined* there, can we?
mille grazie
La gioconda, per voi il mio amico bello.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1433/628730467_b855a2ca26.jpg
joe2
I think that’s gioca’s much younger sister, isn’t it?
La legona, ambigulous?
ah, la legona
little maiden of the mysterious grin, that moment of seraphic and eternal beauty captured forever by brother Leonardo; the masterpiece itself one of the prized treasures of the Toy Dept, swooned over by thousands of tiny tots every year…
What profound lessons does this legendary masterpiece – and she herself- have for us in this cruder era of plastic knick knacks and pre-formed “art” ???
Okay, I’ll try again since the last time I put up this link the comment disappeared.
This Is a history War:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jfpRI3pTnVJalXXbhQcyQmmOx5Kg
btw, I’m currently reading Annette Gordon-Reed’s The Hemingses pf Monticello.
If you want a really good history read, I recommend it highly.
Oops! Should be The Memingses of Monticello.
It’s early in the morning. I haven’t finished my first cup of coffee yet.
The book I’m recommending is The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, by Annette Gordon-Reed.
Got it right that time.
A very good history well worthy of all the prizes bestowed on it.
I knowe nussink about art but I know vot I like. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVnfsIgN39c
http://www.thebricktestament.com/
Peaceful night last night, nothing more than a couple of scuffles, and plenty of yakka in the garden today to keep me in condition. Hopefully can report the same tomorrow morning.
Put 3 paintings in a local exhibition followed by some photo-taking. Cursing my clumsy hoofs for treading on a noisy stick and consequently missing out on shots of a family of wild ducks foraging on a secluded roadside pond. Also huffed at the uncooperative behaviour of water hens and egrets. Hurrumph!
Have come home and am currently looking for the scourge!
I felt like looking at some good art today. Unfortunately the Art Gallery SA has only the Brack’s show that I saw in Melbourne earlier in the year. I wish we had a decent CONTEMPORARY art museum. I wandered the permanent exhibition space at AGSA a few weeks back when we rented an apartment in town for a couple of days and pretended to be tourists in our own town. There was some new work in the contemporary Aussie art gallery – some spider web images that were beautiful, but most everything else is pretty staid. I actually think the SALA festival has lead to a worse situation rather than a better one for contemporary art here, like the festival of arts we have a flurry of activity, and then NOTHING! The street art is ordinary too, yet some of the better stuff in Melbourne is actually done by Adelaideans…go figure. Whoa, this is turning into a “Festival of Gripe”..ha! On the flip-side I think it was good that we started commissioning films for the festival, that seems to have shamed a few other states into action and may be part of the reason Aussie cimema has been so good this year. Also, the play, “When the Rain Stops Falling”, I saw it over 18 months ago, but I still think about it, I thought it was wonderful. BTW: to anyone in Melbourne I think that is playing for the melbourne festival this year and it’s worth seeing, if you can.
The Oz on twitter. Is twitter going to change the world? I’m sceptical…
Finished chapter 3 of my book, about ensign Francis Grose in the battle of Lexington/Concord. Its 10030 words long with the conclusion. So far I’ve managed to cut over 900 words. Not enough, so I’ll forget about it for a week or so, and come back to it. So, onto more research for chapter 3, which is about ensign Francis Grose, second lieutenant David Collins and Captain Robert Ross in the first weeks of the siege of Boston and in the battle of Bunker Hill. I’m going to be stuck with at least 2 of these guys for the next 3 chapters – this one coming, Bunker Hill, another on the siege of Boston, and another on the British in Halifax Nova Scotia before they go to New York. By chapter 6, I finally get to a totally new person, the slave John Mosely, who came out here as a convict in 1788, and from August 1775 fought with the Ethiopian regiment under Lord Dunmore in Virginia.
Just sayin’.
It has been an odd weekend. Human eccentricity seems to be the theme.
We started on Friday morning with the “boy floats off in a helium balloon” story. “Falcon Heene”, aged six, turned out to have hidden in the family garage for fear of all the hysteria his older brother had triggered. So it was “dog bites man” news. Gosh, but it turns out they went on wife swap and are storm chasers. Wow! Who’d have guessed?
On the same day, apparently, some woman bounced into a department store and announced that as she’d won the lottery, all purchases were her treat. Much chagrin amongst customers apparently when they realised they’d been hoaxed and the obligatory riot. What did they think? I mean, was she going to have cash? A credit card with the readies? Was she going to take their names and offer reimbursement? And if the odds of winning the lottery are 4 million to one, what are the odds of being in a shop where a lottery winner walks in and genuinely wants to do this? Hmmm …
Then I heard that apparently there’s a fuss over cigarette manufacurturers wanting to have non-plain packaging. It seems that if people buy cigarettes in blue or silver packets, they think they are less harmful than if they buy the same cigarettes in red packets. And we wonder why there are two parties in Australia and America that have the same policies but are often seen as different? Hmmm …
The clear absence of TV viewing on Friday lent itself to a Naked Gun marathon as hubby and I revisited this pastiche of site gags and stuff that recalled Benny Hill. It’s pretty stupid but at times it’s hard not to laugh. That bit with Unchained Melody where Leslie Nielsen and Priscilla Presley reprise that scene from Ghost is hilarious.
Much domestic stuff on Saturday — No2 son off to karate. Lovely walk through the Kokoda Reserve at Concorde in the afternoon with the dogs frolicking by the river and watching the ferries go past. Lovely part of Sydney out the back of the Repat Hospital. Get there if you can.
I woke up this morning to the sounds of the English soccer results. Sadly, that got me out of bed quick enough for me to miss what happened between the Wolverhampton Wankers and the Pottytown Totspurs or Queen of the Mouth and Sheffield Friday (sidebar: why are we hearing about it now if it happened on Friday?) Those English …
Then there was the story about “the boys” [aka al Shabab] in Somalia. Apparently there’s a competition in which, instead of an evening out on the town with your SO at the Intercontinental Mogadishu you can win useful stuff like AK47s, hand grenades and even a tank. 2nd amendment types in the US would doubtless be cheering as “the boys” saw it as a testimony on defending your “faith”. Apparently the boys think women should cover up but they don’t mind bare arms. (sorry couldn’t resist that pun). Apparently there was a pop quiz on Islam. I’m no scholar of Islam but the mind boggles at the questions. What was Mohamed thinking just as the Archangel Gabriel spoke to him in that cave? Probably about killing infidels would be my guess, but I do wonder if he had given any thought to the best methods for slicing and dicing the genitalia of pre-pubescent females? Surely he would have had to, no?
Back to school tomorrow … 9 and a half weeks to go …
Furious, thanks! I didn’t realise that Bracks exhibition had come to Adelaide. I’ll duck in to town and see it.
Joe2@2
Si chiama anche Mona?
I have a post on some vile homophobic journalism in the UK’s Daily Mail.
Vile Journalism
No worries David. When I was in Melbourne, I enjoyed the show more than I thought I would, having never been much a fan of his work. I especially liked some of the suburban paintings. The show is on ’til the end of January.
assolutamente corretta @18 Fran Barlow
Just heard that the Liberal ‘Fresh’ team won the UQ student election despite half the Liberals running with/helping the Socialists and ALP or something like that and in complete contrast the Socialist Left team won the QUT student guild elections. Talk about contrasting ideologies representing students at Universities.
And here I was thinking people went to university to study.
Parties, sex, street demonstrations, drugs,…… and… and.. politics?
Weeeell Joni @ 19, there is recreational drug use in the gay community, it’s pretty widespread, and it can be fatal – so why not state it? As Moir said, fit 33-year-olds do die suddenly, but the circumstantials are pretty compelling here. The bit about the young Bulgarian was gratuitous and unpleasant – but it would be preferable for drug-related deaths not to be euphemised a la Heath Ledger’s death. Legal prescription drugs are used to bring party drug users down from dangerous highs. I know all about it having dealt with a hardcore addict in the family. A miscalculation, a weakened system and: death. I’d prefer it if young men had the risks spelt out so there’s SOME benefit salvaged from a sad death. And I’d also prefer it if celebrity heroin and cocaine addicts didn’t scale down their confessions to the more socially acceptable alcoholism they suffer in tandem. Truths please.
Adam
Did you read the cause of death?
And there is recreational drug use in other comunities. It has nothing to do with Gately’s death.
I dunno, sounds just like the QUT I remember. The humanities students were the only ones who developed a proper campus culture because they were based out at Carseldine, so the guild there was always a haven for a particularly feverish brand of lefty. You know, the beardie-wierdies who give the rest of us a bad name. I still have not-so-fond memories of the way some of them behaved when VSU came in – lets just say they forgot that little part of progressive politics that demands a free and open exchange of ideas…
Interesting to see they’ve survived carseldine campus’ sale and amalgamation, though. I wonder where they all lurk now?
“It’s like gazing through a horrid little window into an awesome universe of pure blockheaded spite. Spiralling galaxies of ignorance roll majestically against a backdrop of what looks like dark prejudice, dotted hither and thither with winking stars of snide innuendo.”
I must say that was a nice little quote you found there, joni. One you could apply in more than just this instance. Fact is, it kind of reminds me of the scary rise again of one Phillip Ruddock.
Greens win Fremantle Mayor.
Slowly but surely becoming the natural party of inner urban local government.
That’s fantastic news, southpaw.
meant to do this on the weekend, but got busy enjoying sunshine and wreaking a holy war on capeweed.
As of 2 weeks ago, I’m now taking a break from dept. of immigration & citizenship to work for Christine Milne for a year in her Hobart office on campaign/constituent matters.
I don’t foresee myself commenting on anything here in any kind of official capacity, but if I do I’ll start any relevant post with a disclaimer, and ditto any post on greens policy in general.
I’m rather fond of being ‘myriad’ – it’s been my blogging id since I first started playing on international discussion forums waaaay back in 1998 – but if there’s a suggestion from those here that I should name up, I will. Old habits as a public servant who kept my political and professional life strictly separate die hard is all.
opinions on the above or any norms that LP expects cheerfully received
I’d say that the info you’ve just provided would be enough for someone to bust your anonymity without too much trouble anyway, Myriad. Once you start the job at least. So you might as well stay with whatever name you feel comfortable with.
Or get a gravatar and change it to whatever you like, whenever you like.
aw shucks FDB. Yeah, the gravatar is a good idea, and yes there’s certainly enough info to be ‘bustable’ if someone sees the need – altho I’d hope they would ask first, I’m easy to break (see the green cprs thread!)
My view is that you’ve chosen that job for a reason, so the whole conflict of interest issue is a lot more complex than some would like to think. Do you argue in support of the Greens because they’re your source of employment, or do you work for them because you believe it?
Don’t turn into a boring propagandist, and I for one am more than happy to see you remain the same old myriad.
Do you argue in support of the Greens because they’re your source of employment, or do you work for them because you believe it?
Definitely the latter, Anna. I’ve done many thousands of hours of volunteer work for the greens long before I got this 12 month gig (someone’s on maternity leave). As one simple eg I was Tas state secretary for 4 years.
working on the gravatar – looks like Myriad is taken (the horror the horror).
gravatar test, don’t mind me
and again, feel free to delete
ok, self-evident I think the change in handle sorry for the test posts couldn’t get the gravatar working.
Seconded, speaking myself as a boring propagandist. Congratulations on the gig.
Liam – never boring
Thanks Liam. I can’t promise never to be boring – not sure I’m regularly up to all the wits on this site – but like all good greens I’m far too personally opinionated to ever make a good propagandist.
G’Day,
What services is Graham Richardson, Lobbyist, offering his Property Developer clients and his contacts in the ALP ?
I would say cash, both ways.
Richardson uses his contacts in the NSW ALP to engineer Property Development approvals, rezonings whatever. Once the ALP State Kleptocracy approves the rezoning, Richardson is paid. Later on some donations find their way into Sussex St. coffers.
Why Richo ? Contacts, does not keep records, utterly discreet, trusted by the ALP.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/three-of-a-kind-20091019-h4zc.html
I am trying to distinguish the difference between Richo’s modus operandi and that of Brian Burke in WA – after he was out of the big house and set up as a lobbyist. There was a bullying element in Burke threatening sitting MP’s and ministers with possible dis-endorsement if his client’s planning schemes were not approved.
I was surprised by the cross pollination of former party officials and planning dept bureaucrats as revealed in the Baraholka SMH post. It makes you wonder if Richo was able to assure these movers – wannabe shakers – that career trajectories inside the party might be entertained. I hope I’m wrong but…whatever it takes rings a bell.
Among other books -the Hemings one -, (apart from trying to outthink the latest crop of trolls,)am currently dipping into Sir Henry Clinton’s History of the Rebellion (which I just got). Strange, though not novel experience of getting into the mind of sopmeone over 200 years ago.
So the week ends. And is it does, I have been wondering if Michael Atkinson’s behaviour is a Labour stunt or are they trying to test something in the polling? Like how hypocritical, offensive and bombastic a politician need be in Adelaide before the population has had enough?
Today, he rang ABC radio in a tizz about the announcer having called some aspects Anglicanism ‘extreme’. Seems Atkinson had a bit of an axe to grind with the radio announcer over his ’secularism’. He was really indignant about the description and ranted on and on about it. The guy is weirder than Tony Abbott, and probably at least as much of a zealot too.
Did anyone else notice Fran on RN this morning referring to “an exciting geological discovery”? [The recent treasure trove of gold objects found in England.]
Geological? Much older than first thought, then.
Just curious – how many NSW Prodders are changing their vote in the next State Election to make sure the ALP don’t get their first/second preference.
To put it another way, has the NSW ALP disgusted you enough to vote/preference Liberal ? As in, anything to get rid of Tripodi and the rest ?
Or will you be voting Green/anything but Liberal and putting the major parties last in an attempt to exhaust your vote because you just can’t stomach voting Lib under any circimustances.
Maybe the ALP vote will collapse to the benefit of the Greens.
How many Lower House seats will the Greens win in the next State election?