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!
Life, Culture and Politics from BrisVegas
Larvatus Prodeo was an Australian group blog which discussed politics, sociology, culture, life, religion and science from a left of centre perspective. more»
No dog obedience training today, but for Demi’s legion of fans here (OK, 2 fans
) here she is!
OK HERE she is!
http://www.jovialmonk.com.au/images/garden/tomatoguarddog.jpg
Awwwwwwwwwww!
I’ve been up at Flinders U on this beautiful Adelaide day to hear my very old mate Brian Matthews give the 2008 Australian Book Review / Flinders University Annual Lecture; he talked about Manning Clark, whose biography he recently published. He and novelist Peter Goldsworthy, who also has a new book out, were comparing notes on their respective mixed reviews later over the wine and chicken wings.
This counts as goofing off, so I’m having to put in a couple of hours’ work this afternoon. Reading the current novel about Daladier and Munich in 1938 is not as much fun.
What a great picture of the pooch…looks like a real good down to earth dog, albeit with quite a posh and Hollywood name.
Now if only someone could invent cat obedience training.
Jovial your dog looks a bit like a German Koolie? or maybe an elderly Border Collie cross? Whatevs she looks a real sweetheart.
Nope, Demi is a Jack Russel/silky terrier cross with who knows what else/ but all terrier. Probably didn’t look like a terrier because I have clipped her.
I’ve started reading the Matthews’ bio of Manning Clark and already appreciate David Marr’s criticisms, particularly about the odd priority given to elements of Clark’s life and the clunky, all over the place, non-chronological narrative. I’d also agree with Marr’s observation about the claustrophobic atmosphere created because of the seeming total absence of contact Matthews has had with anyone other than Manning Clark himself througn his history texts and personal memoirs. And, of course, these have been in the public domain for yonks.
I look forward to reading the rest of this book, because I like Manning Clark and his work. But I am stumped as to why on earth Matthews would begin his magnum opus with such mundane, dispiriting stuff as gossip about Clark’s purported alcoholism. It’s pathetic, disrespectful, boring and dumb.
htttp://www.jovialmonk.com.au/images/demi/sitandstayorelse.jpg
htttp://www.jovialmonk.com.au/images/demi/warmingup.jpg
With her full coat. I had spent about 4 hours brushing & combing & half a jar of styling gel, to no avail, still lookd like a ragamuffin
Both the above photos are from the last Royal Adelaide Show, dog obedience demo
Woops, one to many t’s in the above http bits
@jovial monk – wtf is the mutt doing in amogst the dope plants?
Jovial, the fact that your enslaved, abject mutt has done well in obedience trials is neither interesting nor uplifting. In fact, it is goddam depressing. Get a life, man and give one to the poor dog you have in your power. In fact, get a cat or two who, I am happy to say, will never in a zillion years submit to your sick, exploitative and demeaning obedience school, cos fortunately, they are constitutionally incapable of such abject, self-mutiliating behaviour.
Tomato not dope.
Posey, i can walk my dog for miles and it is a pleasure for both of us–and I give her as much off-lead time as possible
yeah but what about the dog
That stays chained up at all times
Should have been mellow after arriving back from holiday plus conference in NZ, but flying with Qantas (should they be described as ramshackle or cochamamie these days?) instead made me write a long rant about Perth media. having to read Perth media again wasn’t helping either.
http://theworstofperth.com/2008/12/07/perth-now-i-dont-think-so/
Had a great Hoyden Grogblog in Newtown with jolly good company today, drinking cider and eating squid. Was good.
Oh gosh! Just drained the Cointreau bottle. Double gosh, tomorrow is a workday and I finished the Cointreau bottle
Must have been Posey’s harsh words (at which Demi laughed BTW, bitch by gender, bitch by nature if you know what I mean! Abject HAHAHAHAHAHA)
I spent the day learning myself video editing with Final Cut Express.
I cooked my first Thai curry today….tasted like shit. Back to bangers and mash I guess.
Pavlov, you have not waxed critical of your Dutch Iris’s of late.
Pray tell, how are they progressing?
Mine have been somewhat dissapointing, producing only two spikes, but I’m hopeful of a few more later …
Tried to make a hedgehog slice but overcooked the caramel a little. It’s fine, but there are little hard bits of caramel mixed in. I’ll take it to work and they’ll love it.
I watched part 2 of that “Intelligent Design On Trial” series on SBS tonight. It was good to get some more background on those nutters in Dover. Tomorrow night the conclusion of “The Howard Years”. Will be interesting to see how much those clowns talk up WorkChoices or they might do a Costello and just pretend it never happened.
I went over to a girlfriend’s place to help celebrate her birthday. Lunch finished around 5:30. Much bubbles were had. Visited my eldest daughter who also was celebrating a birthday.
Posey @8:
1) There is more than one kind of biography. David Marr’s own biography of Patrick White is magnificent, but it doesn’t mean that all other approaches are deficient.
2) Unearthing new material is not mandatory for a biography; taking a different approach from the traditional one that assumes a unified personality and a chronologically structured consciousness probably is.
3) Brian Matthews was a good friend and academic colleague of Manning Clark’s son Axel, and by extension the family, for almost all of their adult lives.
4):
That is a gross misrepresentation and oversimplification; what that Prologue actually does is to pick a scene from Clark’s life that illustrates what a riven personality he was, at a crucial moment in his life.
What very reasonable responses from PC and JM to Posey, who does seem a very unpleasant character. I bet Demi would laugh at her.
Fine, you should have seen what I deleted. Jovial Monk would probably say the same.
I responded to this only because I disliked the idea that other people might take Posey’s comments at face value. The fashion for being as vilely abusive and rude online as one likes, safely hidden behind one’s anonymity, is starting to turn my stomach a tad.
Anonymity indeed.
If that’s not Jinmaro, I’ll eat all your hats.
Nah, it’s just Manning Clark, Fine. He’s the toxic ingredient for any comment, like any neglectful-fathering Communist-dupe millenialist drunk.
Had I the technology to bring back the dead I’d quite like to put CHMC and Marr in the same room in front of an audience, and let them duke it out with arch putdowns and thinly-veiled implications about each others’ motives.
YSTLIABT, Fine. I remember when Posey posted under a different now-prohibited handle—it’s been too long, J*nmaro. Stick around.
And in more pleasant weekendery: Sydney FC 2 – 1 Newcastle, and a lovely little goal from Brendan Gan. (Forward to 2’52″)
[ahem]
Her indoors took the two older girls to “High School Musical 3″ (my guess is it should be called “High School Musical Teacher 1″ ’cause the kids are getting a little old, but anyway…)
That left me and the toddler, so after cleaning up the kitchen we walked downtown and looked around the mall for possible christmas presents. Didn’t find anything that struck my fancy for any of them – I’m so out of the habit of shopping I now find the experience depressing. To cheer us up, we bought some mini donuts (“CAKE” in toddler parlance), an apple juice and an espresso. I fear for the economy is everybody is as bored with shopping as me
Uneventful walk home, still amazed at just how quickly she picks up new words at this age though (“truck”, “chee”, “dog WOOF” etc.) Very funny at this age.
Like Jacques above, watched part 2 of the Dover trial thing on SBS – was reminded of Brendan Nelson when he was education minister emoting that he thought teaching Intelligent Design at school in Australia was a good idea. Next time you see him in the gutter at 3AM, start urinating.
You could write a play.
Go on, I dare you.
With Patrick White in a minor role, also featuring Leonie Kramer, Russel Ward, Gerard “Filofax” Henderson and Wilfred Burchett in a puffy North Korean coat.
Like Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, only with more pointing of fingers.
Liam. I saw a bit of the Homeless World Cup, won by Afghanistan. Fantastic stuff and it was great idea to build the pitch in the middle of Fed Square. You couldn’t get a more central location.
And excuse my acronym ignorance, but what is YSTLIABT?
You Say That Like It’s A Bad Thing, and yes, the Homeless World Cup is a great event. Were I Melburnian I’d have made a point of going to see some matches.
As if.
Jovial Monk,
Like yer dog.
Re Manning Clark: His insight of the Protestant Ascendency, Irish Catholicism and Enlightenment values making up the core of White Australian history, esp. colonial European history, still has value, I think. (Though some of the Irish Catholics later went a bit mad and joined the Liberal Party. Class traitors or deluded anti-Communists?)
Enough.The week-end.On-line, off-line taking notes from Peter Oliver’s Origin and Progress of the American Rebellion. Also reading some of Higginbotham’s The War of American Independence (published 1971) Still considered one of the best military histories of the American War of Indepoendence, and, having read quite a few of them now, I can see why. Though I suspect the best might be John Ferling’s very recently published Almost A Miracle.
Evenings, watched TV. Quite enjoying Mountains on Sat. night now, it took me a while to take to it. The Bill. Sunday night, the Book show on ABC at 6pm, the doco on Romans in Africa at 7.30, the thriller on ABC. A Good Murder. Quite an uncompromising end. Amazing how these shows set us up to accept the murder of the baddies. That mother.
Over the weekend had the kids from next door in on the computer a bit. And their mother. We discussed Rudd’s economic stimulus package, how we’d spend it. Reckon my friend will get about $10,000 she’s got so many kids. She gave a bit of a smile and said, yeah, a lot of people have said that. Anyway, this isone Aboriginal moher I know is not going to piss it up oer gamble it away. Stuff Barnaby Joyce. Scratch a Lib or a Nat, and you’ll always find a racist somewhere. (Shut up, Paul.)
Like the play’s dramatis personae.
Could there be a walk on role for a dog?
Completed the first draft of my thesis — well, technically it Monday morning by the time that happened. Now I have to start revising it, and hopefully fix up the worst deficiencies …
I also got to see a bit of the Homeless World Cup, purely by chance. Nigeria v Philippines, a very one-sided game but the Philippines got a big cheer when they scored their only goal. I agree Fine, the Fed Square stadium was an excellent idea. Wish I’d seen more games!
It’s true, PC, I would feature him wearing that magnificent hat of his, but the main show would be Manning Clark, obviously.
Now that’s a party game for the whole family. Put your drinks down, turn out the lights, and let’s get denouncing.
I had officially my laziest Sunday ever.
I didn’t put on any clothes, nor go outdoors (fortunately, I suppose). Lying down and watching DVDs was as much as I could handle.
Saturday night, needless to say, was fantastic.
Pics or it didn’t happen FDB.
Actually, I should be able to help with that when everyone sobers up enough to update their facebook, but I didn’t have a camera myself. To give you an idea, 200+ people, (ware-)house party in Collingwood at a mate’s art-collective/residence, one of my bands and a couple of other acts including Ben Eltham’s Bristronix, copious unmentionables, etc etc.
I’m assuming you mean pics of the party BTW. Images of me lounging around nude watching 30 Rock are probably best left to the imagination. For my sake as much as anyone’s.