S&M Reunion: put this date in your diary now

(Of course if you saw the headline and thought of anything other than 'Screen & Media', you can get your coat now, because this reunion won't involve any funny business thankyouverymuch. Ok, well - actually - I'm expecting shenannigans a plenty, but not the kind that fit under THAT kind of abbreviation).

Saturday 13th January 2007!!

Its not really that far away. Here's the email Marama is sending out, with details that may well be of interest if you were skulking round Hamilton in the early 2000s...

KIA ORA!

Remember the S&M parties of old? The Rialto screenings? Editing all night in JB.02 till your fingers bled?

On Saturday 13th January from 5pm onwards we are going to re-live those university years!
Join us at Sam Browns house for a BBQ, some drinks and misty water coloured memories.

If you were apart of the S&M Club, or studied Screen & Media come and join us. Catch up with friends you haven't seen in years, watch some of our old films!
And remember our friend Sam Barnes. Sam loved parties, socialising and drinking so what better way to celebrate his memory?

There will be three strategically placed pick up points in town where you can hitch a ride out to Sam's place, with a gold coin donation.
For another gold coin donation you can also be dropped off again at the end of the night. Awesome.

Once you RSVP you will be allowed to know the top secret location that is Sam Brown's house. BYO BBQ stuff and drinks.
See you all there!

Hit me up for Marama's email address if you want to RSVP - my contact details are in my blogger profile thingy I believe.
I think its an awesome idea and am not surprised its Ms Organiser herself that has got the ball rolling. At Sam's funeral we all talked about how it was kind of tragic it took something like that to get us all back together.

I've been all nostalgic today going through some old photos - these ones in particular cracked me up - I'd love to know what we were dancing to! And oh yes, there's my favourite lecturer with the mohawk and the full bottle of wine in his lap. I'm sure there are more pics from that night though - of us of crammed on the couch, sitting with our arms folded or something?! Or perhaps I'm mixed that with another night we got messy at a staff member's house and it was all recorded on film... deary me.

choosing between a kiss or a punch, and a punch or nothing

I actually quite like Ryan Adams, however there's nothing like a scathing rundown of someone's character. Especially where the writer is equally willing to put themselves on the line, therefore, I quite enjoyed this: Ryan Adams Massive Douche or Real American Hero?.

In other rockin news, courtesy of Triple J, the boys from Shaky Hands have a free download of their track You And I right here which you should check out IMMEDIATELY because it is so so awesome and will improve your day.

Here is the video for it, which I LOVE:


And to finish, the same guy, Erik Henriksen, who wrote the Ryan Adams piece also has this amazing podcast interview with Jonathan Safran Foer.

He's the author Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, a truly favourite book of mine. One of those that I thrust upon people, insisting that they read, just open the first page and throw themselves into without questioning. (And then in some cases have extreme difficultly wrangling the damn thing back out of their wrongful possession, but we won't get into that right now).

The interview explores concepts of fame, the emotional aftermath of 9/11, the mix of visuals with his text and touches on his first book, Everything is Illuminated which is now a film starring Elijah Wood. Giggidy giggidy!!

Unless you can guarantee my babies will be this cool

there is pretty much no way you can convince me to spit kids out any time in the near future.
Seriously people, this freakin cool. Or no dice.
Well, at least not for another decade or so, when I start getting panicky and begin considering offers from people other than Mos Def. And ?uestlove. Damn, I bet his babies are cool.

ALSO: have got something up my sleeve for a post on Friday. So keep your eyes peeled.

Convenient Truths

Suse just flicked me through this link to the Dunedin Iceberg map which says its updated daily - today's one is there, as of 4pm. (The website is maintained by GNS Science, a research company owned by the government.)

A handy way for the locals to keep an eye on the hunks of Antartica that are floating by and even more of a wake-up to those still trying to pretend the 'greenhouse effect' is a conspiracy theory.

Hass Blew My Mind

I realise the headline looks like a typo (speshly after the overexcited, rather tipsy post of early this evening), however I can assure you its not. The US-based Poetry Foundation website has a feature on Robert Hass, with five poets each introducing their favourite of his poems.

The name Robert Hass might be familiar, as he got a bit of press when visiting here for the Readers & Writers Week during the Intl Arts Festival earlier this year. He has some amazing books of poetry out and was the US Poet Laureate in the mid 1990s, I believe.

This link is a great intro to his writing - and I can tell you from attending some of his readings that he is just the loveliest guy too, so adorable and a soothing SoCal accent. My favourite poem of his is probably actually is a long, strange prose-y piece from Sun Under Wood - you'll have to get the book out, as it needs re-reading and absorbing, its called 'My Mother's Nipples'.

To finish with, I'm gonna include this little snippet i found while googling to try see if there were any stanzas of 'My Mother's Nipples' online [note to self: be careful with googling the words: 'my' 'mothers' 'nipples']. Its come from some kind of interview where members of the public have been allowed to interrogate Hass on whatever they wanted.

I love it because it makes me think of those Q&As you get (I've seen them happen in both film and poetry related events) when some wanker in the crowd just wants to make themselves seem cool and the distinguished guest has almost nothing to do with it.
Also, his answers are even funnier if you know a bit about the kind of poems he writes, or just poetry in general. So yeah, I'm geeking out a little. This whole post is about an Poet Laureate fer goodness sake, what did you expect!?

Susan M. Williams, Nashville, TN:
First, thanks for your poetry. I'm probably taking advantage of the offer to ask "a question" by my request, but having fallen in love with the way you use words, especially your poem, "Meditation at Lagunitas," I'm curious to learn your responses to the Bernard Pivot quiz, made famous by James Lipton of the "Inside The Actor's Studio" show on the Bravo TV channel. So here goes.

Robert Haas, what is your favorite word?
your least favorite word?
What turns you on?
What turns you off?
What sound or noise do you love?
What sound or noise do you hate?
What profession, other than yours, would you like to attempt?
What profession, other than yours, would you not like to participate in?
Finally, if heaven exists, what do you expect to hear God say when you arrive?



Robert Hass:

What is the necessary word?
What are the least sufficient words?
What turns you in?
What turns you out?
What species of New England bog berry do you love, regret in the pulp and the sky ashy?
What animal insolence, what bell of what round in the contest between anguish and delight provokes you?
What feather of the winter cardinal would you like to attempt?
What taxi cab meter, measuring the fare uptown toward coffee con leche or the hurt dance of recalcitrant marionettes would you not like to participate in?
Finally, if poetry exists, what do you expect the grass to say, Susan?

I snuck off work early

by which I mean 5pm (whoo!!) and met Ebony for a beer in the sun at St John's. Okay, in the sun and the wind. This is Wellington. And even if November is finally starting to act like the start of summer, we are still here in the undeniable Te Whanganui-a-Tara. There had been a planned rendezvous with Sam to farewell his departure to go off to Spain but he was running late, as was Ebony intially, which meant I was sitting there all on my ralph with the largest glass of Heinken ever, wearing my broken heart necklace to boot.
(This accompanying pic was taken earlier today as part of demonstrating just how upset I was at how inaccessible Plum's white choc and raspberry muffins are now).

Anyway, as a result of my eagle eyes and impulsive cellphone dialling, we soon had more company, appropriate and otherwise. We discussed a certain rumour which turned out to be completely false - the source of the spreading was present, as was the subject of the rumour - so a case of 'too good to be true' muahaha and yet general consensus was the rumour was also too good to be stopped in tracks. Please contact me for further unfounded details.

I eventually dragged myself away as I realised I had to cook tea for the boys and when I rung home to apologise to my tardiness i found out that SIMON WAS BACK!!! and this made me very excited very VERY excited and i pretty mcuh invited everyone that I'd been drinking with & everyone in hearing distance to come back for dinner, that I'd cook for them all THEM ALL YES!
However, only Sam took me up on the offer. Thank god.
as I have had two rather large beers and am in capable of doing anything other than typing this rubbish while waiting for Hell Pizza to deliver (anyone who is aware of the location of our flat in relation to the nearest branch will be HORRIFIED by this, however,THINK OF THE HILL, PEOPLE!!) and occasionally nuzzling with Simon and listening to the boys play cards and say things like:

andrew: we're the African Ice Bees!
cam: no you're just the Africans... and we're the Willies.. and we're gonna score Bel too. She gets 200 just for coming home so boozed and not cooking us any tea. This may be reviewed once the pizza arrives.

Ok that's all for now but LATEr I shall write about The Departed, which I finally saw last night (lou - where ARE you - we must discuss!), and also I want to talk about comic books. Because I love them so much right now.

coming to a screen near you, so near

I am a big fan of trailers and i recently found two amazing ones online. One is your conventional teaser trailer, and the other is, well, it isn't.

Joe gave me the heads-up on Hot Fuzz which is coming from the same people as Shaun of the Dead and the TV show Spaced. This is the second trailer actually, can't make the first one that was up work now, dang it. But it looks like it gonna be HILARIOUS and the other trailer showed that they obv had a much bigger component of the budget for, like, blowing shit up and car stunts and stuff. Awesome.

To take a completely different tone now, this video, hosted by Marie Claire magazine, is for a documentary called Thin. Directed by Lauren Greenfield, an established photographer, it has been described as "that rare film whose harrowing viewing experience is crucial to learning all it has to teach". Even the few minutes here are hard to watch, but mesmerising at the same time for their honesty.

There has been a lot of media coverage lately of the Madrid Fashion Week's decision to set a limit on what was an acceptable BMI, then the recent death of a Brazilian model who suffered from anorexia (Lou has covered these on her blog here and here).

While I do think that representations in the media have a huge effect on people's body image (and generally it seems to be women susceptible to this), I don't think solely the fashion industry can be held to blame for the epidemic of eating disorders in first world countries. The Bartlett recently posted a link to an interesting article, and while a lot of the big words kinda threw me, I did like what it had to say about disordered eating and the issue of control.
The post is referencing a book called A Return to Modesty and the blogger summarises it: "In short, Shalit appears to be saying that because our culture puts women's bodies on display and for male desire, values a certain kind of body, and discourages modesty, some girls react to this loss of control over their sexuality and over their bodies with a kind of self-controlling self-hatred."

The thing is, I never think its as simple as one thing or another. Watching that extract from Thin didn't make me any angrier that Kate Moss has just been named Model of the Year, it made me want to reach out on a personal level. Because that it where it is going to make a difference it seems. With the friend you know has a dark streak of self doubt inside them. To the colleague who might just need to be told that that shade of blue really suits them. Not letting the casual jokey fat comment slide but instead step the uncomfortable line of putting them in their place.

When I was 17 and first told my best friend that I was bulimic, I couldn't even use the word. Oh - I knew it and everything, I wasn't a 'tard, just cause I lived in Wanganui, sheesh.
But that was not the word I had in my mind to apply to what I was doing to myself. I told her I was just stressed and that this was the best way for me to deal with things at the moment. Can you believe that?! Stress?? Not like, yoga or going for a walk or hanging out with my boyfriend - I'd chosen throwing up my meals!! It shows how warped your perception gets and your grip on reality. There were other factors, but it was definitely that control thing - life was all over the place and this was one thing I could get a hold over.

But of course, really the demon had the hold over me. When you have convinced yourself there is no problem, it takes so much longer to come out from under it. I was very fortunate that I had strong relationships and a good counsellor and was held accountable for my actions - and stopped the physical patterns very quickly. But the mind set takes much longer, and that is where the real work is done. My personal opinion is that some women are in the psychology of an eating disorder, without manifesting it physically. Which is just as unhealthy and damaging.

The other week I bought New Woman magazine, solely because Melissa had told me you got a free Napoleon mascara with the issue - which you did! Score! I did a cusory flick through the glossy pages, feeling a wee twinge for cover girl Scarlett Johannsen based on the stories seeping out from her boyfriend's movie currently being shot in Auckland. One line in one article has stayed with me. It was about a woman who worked as a model in the 80s and suffered the worst of the industry, the classic glamour and beauty horror story.

She said that if you were a heroin addict and decided to come clean, it was relatively easy to stay out of those circles if you wanted to, ensure you didn't have access. But for someone who has food issues, there is no such respite. You can hardly avoid food or eating situations - in fact, that's kinda the whole damn problem. Your whole attitude has to change to be able to engage normally and your ability to cope with an everyday thing... well, in some cases, that has to start from scratch.

It reminded me of this thing that happened while I was still wrestling with everything. I'd arrived late at a sleepover with my girlfriends but had some chocolate brownie slice saved for me. I ate and then threw it up into my friend's bathroom sink. I felt terrible about it because I knew I was letting myself down and the people I'd been honest with about the trouble I was in. For years later I couldn't eat the stuff, even the smell was too much, it brought back every emotion of that night, hiding in that bathroom. Mum cooked some one time as a treat and I wouldn't touch it. When she said "Oh what's with you kids? I thought it tasted just like the bought stuff!", I simply burst into tears.

I guess what I'm trying to say here, is more than just that I think Hot Fuzz will be a great movie with car explosions and jokes as well as taking the piss out of over-serious cops.
I guess I'm saying look after your self. Look after each other. I am so grateful to the people who listened to me - and who didn't listen to me - and when you hear those nagging sad angry voices inside bringing you down, don't always push them away, aside. Think about what has brought it on. Talk to someone about it. Someone who loves you, someone with a bit of perspective, someone who knows what they're talking about it. And look in the mirror, and love what's there. Because you can.

its a Law of Physics, Bel

The heading here is one of gems that Trelease revealed to me during her stay.

I was unaware it had been made official by scienticians, but apparently girls are not allowed to be with boys that are shorter than them. In keeping with this, here is a great article from The Telegraph (which the Dom Post rehashed and made look like it was a feature of theirs, oh don't we love those media conglomerates!).

It talks about the fact that despite that Katie Holmes is two inches taller than her now husband, Tom Cruise, their official wedding portrait has the couple standing blissfully cheek to cheek. No one's quite sure whether she's got her knees all bent up under that Armani gown, or if some kind of ditch was dug for her. I mean, she has buddied up with Brooke Sheilds now, so she coulda got tips!

It also has one of my favourite tall lady quotes - from when Nicole Kidman divorced Tom Cruise (oh Katie, think of all you've got to look forward to!): "At least I can wear high heels now". And also it slags off Scientology a bit, which is always great, so well worth a read really.

Oh a playful little kitten

If this does not make you two parts bubbly happy excited, one part panicky desparate won't be calm til ticket in hand and just a little sprinkle of longing for time pass mixed with needing time to go slow so can learn everything off by heart, well then GOLLY I just don't know what's wrong with you!!

In other news, I am unwell. Tis consumption I believe. I have all the symptoms: a wracking cough, feverish brow, quite wan looking ...um... I know lots of French ...quite possibly wasting away, oh yes ...um, yeah. I have been bedridden, woe is me, but am doing better. Thank you for your concern.

Long Letters (published poem)

Long Letters

She writes long letters -
fat envelopes with
pages forced to fold,
shoe-horned into my letterbox.

She begins (and then she makes
an aside (briefly commenting
on that and then (meandering again
she finishes somehow and when she does
the brackets stack up like plates in a dish rack )))

She has broken up with the possessive apostrophe,
sick of its demands and fickle nature.
Her colons are cancerous, while exclamation marks
have mated and multiplied, throwing themselves
at verbs, huddling in excited groups.

Recycled writing paper taken
from her bedroom floor:
old homework, sheet music,
ads plucked from windscreens - sometimes
I have to send back a page and say
honey you need to sign this and return it to the bank.

This poem has just been published in the NZ Poetry Society 2006 Anthology, tiny gaps - and yes, I realise that I helped make that book so it might look a little suss, but I didn't get to choose which poems went in and they were all done anonymously anyway so HAH!:P Its also included in my zine, The Knife Thrower's Apprentice, which you can pick up in Wellington from Dandylion and in Auckland from Cherry Bomb Comics. I work in arts marketing when I'm not churning out the stanzas, peeps, anyone picking up that vibe?!

To Celebrate a Decade of Kissing!

Troy
James
James
Robert
Tim
Joseph
Paul
Jared
Bevan
Random Rebound Boy
Scott
Sam
Sam
Rupert
Regan
Joe
Daniel
James
Karl
Chris
Ed
Ben
Random X-Air Boy
Luke
Jeff
Adam
Dan
Joseph
Gareth
Mark
Mark
Blake
Jimmy
Random Lovely Boy
Random Brown Sugar Boy
Random Lil Adrien Brody Boy
Josh
Michael
Silas
Will
Sam
Nik
Dan
Robert

The Fountain springs forth!

As a fan of Darren Aronofsky and his films, Pi (its not really about maths, its much cooler, honest!) and Requiem for a Dream (made back before Jared Leto was a douchebag!), I have been excited about his project The Fountain for a long long time.

The script has been floating round since 2002, when it was pitched as a multi-million dollar follow up, riding on the crest of this young director's popularity. The premise sounded fantastic, borderline ludicruous, but I trust dear Darren. Then something went bung when his star, Brad Pitt, pulled outta the project. Those of you playing at home may recall a phase in Brad's appearance when he grew a monster beard and Jen on his arm looked like she snagged a yeti or something? Well that was when he was, superfluously it turned out, getting ready to shoot The Fountain.

Recently, however, Defamer posted a link to a Wired interview where Aronofsky finally talks about what happened there. First I'd heard, as the project was shelfed at the time, hush hush, and the film has only recently been completed (reenvisaging, new cast, slashed budget - but inside word is its still gonna be orsum). Of course you could go to Wired and read the full article there, but if you go through Defamer, you get to read the awesome headline: How Brad Pitt Broke Darren Aronofsky's Heart ...heh hee I love those guys.

Ain't It Cool News did a set visit while they were shooting but I could only bear to read the first paragraph before I freaked out and clicked every X on the screen. I really can't cope knowing anything about a movie before I go to see, speshly something I'm amping for. I want every image, every detail of the story, to be presented to me up there on the silver screen. Spoilers just... spoil it. And I consider pretty much any prior knowledge under that category. Afterwards though, i suck up all the info I can, and want to know everything about everything! Aah... being a film geek. Such joy.

Special Guest Post! Rebecca Trelease in her own words:

First of all, lets get a few things straight. Why 'Trelease'? There were two Rebecca's in the last year of uni so by default it went to the surname. However, the other Rebecca hasn't been around for more than a couple of years now so lets get it back to the original status, huh? I'm mostly annoyed by the fact I didn't even get a The prefix, as in The Bartlett. I'm so jealous of that I'm totally going back to Rebecca (although it did cause some confusion as I was introduced around Wellington. Eddie met Trelease but was told he would be hanging out with Rebecca so he had NO idea who I was when I climbed into the car).

Bel and I both did the BCS so I knew of her from first year. I always thought she was really cool right from the start but alas she hated me. Although, I remember before we actually started hanging out or knowing too many people in common (i.e. only Shane and Gareth) she saw me walking around mega stressed at Uni one day and she walked over and gave me a big hug. Which I thought was lovely. Over the years we met at random parties, but the one she mentioned at my house - why did you come if you hated me so much! Although she did encourage me to have the vodka and orange juice that ended the night for me, so maybe it was all planned... *

Right. Wellington.

I managed to make it all alone into the city, except I got off at the wrong stop and totally ruined my grand entrance outside the St James. Was there for about 5 minutes before I was sat down with a stapler, stickers and pamphlets. Spent a couple of hours in the most gorgous but very uncomfortable costume from 'My Fair Lady', my hat made me 10ft tall but it squished my brains and the elastic cut into my chin. But no biggy. *

Explored every floor in Te Papa. This visit was a lot more educational than the last one where Bel just pointed to it and said 'well thats Te Papa'. *

That night, drinks at the Hawthorne (which I thought was the Matterhorne) and roasted marshmallows with Ebony, Sam and Sarah-Kay. Now Bel had talked this place up, how they have 'Connect 4' and lots of board games. They had cards for poker. That's it. We considered a round of Snap but instead ate more marshmallows. Went to the Matterhorne where I met Melissa but they didn't have any confectionary so we left.

We explored the Art Gallery which featured Sam Taylor-Wood * and while it showed random pieces of her other works, the main 'attraction' were her photos of actors crying (www.city-gallery.org.nz/mainsite/). We had both heard about it and had our criticisms before seeing it and I'm happy to report that it did absolutely nothing to sway our opinions of getting hired emoters to emote on cue and then call it an 'intimate portrayal of grief'. At one extreme was Philip Seymour Hoffman who actually looked like it could be an honest portrait, to Robert Downey Junior who seems to have a very elaborate way of lying himself out on a bed to cry. Although he did keep it modest. And don't get me started on the David Beckham video of him 'sleeping'. He wasn't. It was probably very difficult getting comfortable wearing massive diamond earrings and bracelets and flexing the pecs but it was by no means 'sleeping'. It was totally worth paying to see just so we could spend the whole time criticising the 'drawcard' of the exhibition. (note: The first part of her exhibition is quite good, especially 'strings'. Just not the crying thing).

Bel's brother Eddie took us on a tour of Parliament. As a security guard he would be in charge of Lost and Found so we handed over a soggy and dejected pink teddy bear found on the path. He also didn't need to go through (or explain) the security checkpoints, so as he kept walking we were stopped and I said 'but we're with him' (meaning he needs to stop or we'll lose him and don't know what we're doing) but being told 'that doesn't mean anything to us' in a very snotty manner as if I was trying to smuggle in stuff. However, that was when Bel was caught with (heaven forbid) her mobile to which he was quite horrified. * The question session in Parliament was a bit boring, when they start yelling you can't work out what they're saying. And no-one asked the tough hard-hitting question: Who lost their pink teddy bear?

Bel tells me we're going to 'Pao Pao Pao'. I had no idea what it was about but it starts and everyone is talking Te Reo. With no translations. However I'm sitting next to Cam and he was laughing away and agreeing with what's being. What I learnt: Pakipake means clap! Canicani means dance! We most enjoyed the performance by Hinemoana Baker (www.hinemoana.co.nz), and ended up seeing a second performance by her at The Marae in Te Papa. I've since heard her version of 'Secret Love'; the only other person I've heard sing this is Mandy Moore and I must say both versions are excellent.

Bridgit's wedding was beautiful and I was very honoured to be Bel's 'date' for this event. We did have to run off to Turnbull House for the Anthology Launch * in the middle (where Bel presented another glorious poem of hers) and I did have a moment out the window of 'That building looks like that main Parliament building. Oh, it is Parliament.' The night continued with our appearances at Mighty Mighty, The Hawthorne, Salsa night at the Jimmy and concluded with a Rosebud cocktail at Motel.

Random thoughts:

• Never seen Malasian restaurants before but they are GREAT.


• Whats up with only having fancy lemonade in glass bottles all the time, can't a girl get a decent watered down, overly carbonated Sprite? If I'm paying $8 for vodka do you think I give a hoot about the lemonade?!!


• The 'walk' signals are incredibly loud.No one waits for a 'walk' signal. The entire group would start crossing so I would too instead of being a scared loner because the man was still red! It took me one day to start running across whenever like a Wellingtonian.


• Yes, California Sushi must always be spoken with a reverent tone.


• Bel's friends in Wellington are all very lovely and I enjoyed meeting them all.

* Bel here, chipping in because I'm the editor and that's my perogative. I would've been in attendance at the at-the-time dreaded Trelease's party because Shane or Gareth or BOTH was so in love with her back then. Another contributing factor to my depising - ya know how possessive I was of those boys. About the same level as I am of Trelease now.
No comment on the drink thing tho. Heh heh hee...

* This is referring to the photo shoot I intended to involuntarily recruit Trelease for, mentioned in this post, which it turned out she hadn't read and therefore was oblivious to our broadcast weekend itinerary!

* We were in a hurry, people!! I thought our time would be better spent eating gelati at Oriental Bay... good call, right?

* Yes, I went along. Yes, this was partially because Trelease offered to shout me. Yes I folded over the sticker pass they make you wear at the door so I didn't have to wander around the building with that pink-shirted sap Hayden Christiansen attached to my body. However, I wholehearted agree with Rebecca's comments about the REST of the photographs/films included, and I think I felt even more strongly about them. Her images The Leap and Self Portrait As A Tree has such impact on me, much more so than some fucken actor working up crocodile tears in front of another lens.

* The 'he' being the snooty security guard that this, not my brother - who is just a regular security guard, feeling cool wearing his radio ear piece n all. The guy had a freakin MARE at me, as it was just before entering the actual, um, chamber? is that what they call it? ...am trying to think back to Social Studies... Anyway - pulled out my phone to put it on silent and they acted like I busted out a glock or something, honestly. What, am I going take scandalous photos of them flipping the bird to each other?! whoo!!

* You can read more about the launch of the NZPS 2006 Anthology here. As well as being Assistant Editor for the collection, and doing the typesetting and cover design, I had a poem included, called 'Long Letters'. Some of you may know it from my zine 'The Knife Thrower's Apprentice' - I'll probably post it up here some time soon anyhow... it went down pretty well on Saturday :)



Ok, better hop to it and get this posted. Trelease - I mean, Rebecca sent this through before COB as request but I somehow got busy and then had to head home from the office and THEN had all kinds of distractions, like ohhh I don't know sussinganewflatmate and stuff like that!!

Could someone please acknowledge two things? 1) my awesome anchor tags doing the whole footnote thang and 2) how I let the whole Mandy Moore thing slide. 'Cause you know she ain't trying to be funny at all there. K, sweet.

Tell me bout it, baby.

From Popbitch:

>> Who's afraid of the big bad Wolf? <<
Celebrity offspring puts teacher in place

Wolf Gillespie is the son of Primal Scream's
Bobbie and fashion stylist Katy England. He
goes to nursery school in Islington, where he
is a classmate of Fran Cutler's daughter
Mercy Magic.

Recently one of the teachers scolded little
Wolf for a misdemeanour. Did Gillespie Jnr
cry or throw a tantrum? Of course not.
He just shrugged and walked off, saying
"It's only rock and roll."

Wolf is four years old.

FYI: Wolf arrived for the school show and tell
day with McQueen couture samples to cut up...
rather than the usual old sheets and blankets.)

Sure, having a name like "Wolf" gives you a head start, but that is still pretty freakin awesome. In contrast, I'll show you exactly how cool I was at age four...

Yeah, that's me in the middle.I guess wearing sneakers with a party dress is more hip-hop than rock n roll huh? See, even back then I was repping it.

Popbitch always comes through with the goods. I'm not much of a Primal Scream fan, to say the least, and have no idea who Fran Cutler is, but the name Katy England rung a bell - and when you hear 'McQueen' and 'couture' in the same sentence, you know there's only one person they're talking about.

Katy England is a stylist in the true sense of the word - not in a Rachel Zoe, dress all your starlets in the same outfits, trigger dramatic weight loss, tanorexic kind of way. There's a great article here where Katy talks about her long working relationship with Alexander McQueen, including the rocky years at Givenchy.

I found this quote very encouraging, considering recent events like this which Lou covered in her blog, "I try to avoid the current big-name models, not because I don't like them, but because I think our interpretation of beauty should be broader than that."

The camera button...

...on my cellphone is on the side and its easy to press it accidentally when you're just holding the phone.

E.g:

However, it does give a snapshot of the lovely day we're having - sunny, still, warm - sharp contrast to the abysmal weather last week (when the Aucklander was visiting...sigh). The Jimmy's doors are wide open with people having coffee on the pavement. I'm wearing a summery white frock and don't feel like an overzealous fool. Cam & I are planning to have fish n chips on the waterfront for tea. Spring is here! ...about bloody time!!

the demise of Guise

Earlier in the year, Guise was one of my favourite places to visit online. More trustworthy than a fashion magazine, as the author Missy-J was uninfluenced by advertisers and editorial agendas, but had truckloads of taste, so her posts were guaranteed to be oh so delicious.

However, after posting as steadily throughout September as she had for the months, years, before, she called an adrupt halt to the blog. And fair enough too, I mean, we're all just in this for kicks right? I guess I'm just disappointed I came in on the tail end! I'd directed a few friends to the site too and we had a wee satorial sob in honour of the good times.

Missy-J's based in Singapore, a city known for its shopping, and also has a bunch of great links from her site to various fashion-orientated websites. Her talent seemed to be picking out from all of the flotsam & jetsam certain eye-catching pieces, or high fashion concepts that could be applicable to those of us living everyday lives. I liked her sense of fun and quirkiness, the way she'd enthuse about colours and be so unashamedly girly and enthusiatic! And, to boot, she was totally fashion forward.

In 2005 Missy-J posted a pic of a YSL (i think) frilled acid yellow dress that he had in his runway collection, which I saw going thru the archives one afternoon back when I was an understimulated receptionist. And what did NZ's Fashion Quarterly have in its Spring issue this year? A photo of Chloe Sevigny wearing the very same frock, saying it was this season's hottest shade.

She did it again posting about a designer putting models in black mary-jane style shoes, with huge silky ribbons tied around the arch. She had ideas for how you could do this easily yourself, as most of us lasses have a plain black pair of heels. And what did I see in the lastest issue of FQ?? On their 'Trends' page are Louis Vuitton wedges, very similar - except, eww, SO not pretty! - the sole is chunky, big waved grip pattern and the ribbon thing is like a fushia bowtie slapped on there. Plus they'll cost ya a whopping $1370 thankyouverymuch.

The archives all seem to be gone now, which SUCKS, but the blog hasn't been deleted completely, so you can get an idea - if you're so inclined! And check out the links, speshly if you are an understimulated receptionist.

No - wait - in that case, you should quit your job and move on. Your life will improve dramatically.

Its like the WGTN theatre Oscars basically

For those of you interested, the nominations are up for this year's Chapman Tripp's.
You can read all about it over on Theatreview.

Unfortunately I missed Yours Truly which has dominated with a total of nine noms amongst the 20 categories, but one of my favourites from the year is there, Death of a Salesman, which was at Circa. I see Kerry Fox is up for one of the acting awards... hmm I think the locals will be spitting tacks if that happens!
Congrats vicariously to Lou - I see that Golden Boys gets a mention thanks to Erin Banks' Supporting Actress nomination :)

Edit: Please note also that in my hurry to get this up when I got the email notification from the Theatreview website, I neglected to notice that Miss Steph's production of Wheel has also been nominated! Its up for the Peter Harcourt Award for Outstanding New Playwright :D ...at this rate I'm going to have to go along to the shindig myself and do all sorts of repping!

"cheap, nasty and tacky"

When you hear about these things, they're usually American and you never get the email sent to you direct. But this puppy landed in my inbox just a few days old (yeah, ok - that's ancient history in Internet Land) and is a customer service horror story blown sky high, thanks to the magic of email forwarding.

Here's the correspondence:

From: Steve Hausman
To: 'Events Team'
Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2006 4:06 PM
Subject: RE: Quote #00002417; from The Great Marquee Company Ltd.

Hi Klaus

Paula and I went and viewed your marquee setup at Devonport the other weekend and unfortunately we did not like it.

So this is just to let you know we will not require your services on 7 April 2007.

Thanks for your assistance and we are sorry that it turned out this way although we are glad we looked at the marquee prior to booking as that would have been a huge disappointment.

Regards
Steve Hausman

Not that bad, right? And it happens all the time in business - you receive an enquiry, they shop around, you roll with the punches. I mean, fergoodnessake, I'm taking a bunch of RSVPs for an up-coming opening night at the moment and some people are just writing the show name and "NO" in the email subject line! Sheesh.
And yet I still haven't felt the need to respond like this:

From: Events Team
Sent: Wednesday, 15 November 2006 6:30 p..m.
To: Steve Hausman
Subject: Thank You From The Great Marquee Company

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your reply. Your wedding sounded cheap, nasty and tacky anyway, so we only ever considered you time wasters.

Our marquees are for upper class clients which unfortunately you are not. Why don't you stay within your class level and buy something from payless plastics instead.

Kindest Regards
Katrina
Office Manager
The Great Marquee Company

Now, is it just me, or do you also detect a touch of sarcasm in that sign off 'kindest regards'? Hmm??

I took great joy in scrolling up through 40 or so people this had travelled amongst to get to my office (each of them forwarding AT LEAST half a dozen people). Third person on the list to receive it (before noon the next day) was the editor of NZ Home & Entertaining, which may explain how the incident wound up in the papers so quickly.

You've simply got to check out The Great Marquee Company's website to read their post-emptive strike disclaimer statement. It mentions that the staff member has been fired, but doesn't reveal that she was the wife of the boss...! What a shocker.

No doubt she'll be on Dancing With The Stars within two months.

outgoing

Trelease has just gotten on the shuttle out to the airport and left our house feeling rather empty again. It has been a whirlwind few days and she's promised to do a special guest post to update all our fun activities - nouvelle developments! Next thing she'll be asking for an executive producer credit or something... nah, that sounds like more of a Marama call :P

In the meantime, here's a wee pic - taken about 4 minutes ago - not exactly us in our wedding attendance finery of last night, but there ya go! Of course Miss Constantly Photogenic outshines once again, but we gammy faced plebs are sadly resigned to that.

More soon! While the rest of Wellington heads over the hill for Toast Martinborough today, I'm off on an exciting day trip to -wait for it- the bustling metropolis of Wanganui! Thrills abound.

incoming

She promised it much earlier in the year and has finally come through on it - with all of 48 hours notice I might add! But not that I'm complaining, having Trelease visit is going to be an absolute treat and I am so excited.

Flying in tomorrow afternoon, our first fun activity will be hanging out together at my work. I know - FUN!! We have a big photo shoot happening tomorrow, so really it is quite convenient that the most photogenic person I know is arriving bang on time. I had been invited to opening night of the NZ School of Dance graduation season, but will see if I can resched that for us to go later in the week. And also having to juggle my hair appt - as I need to get a cut and colour done ASAP. (Yes, that's right Tanya, there's another hair related post COMING SOON!!).

Thinking I'll take Thursday and Friday afternoons off work to show Missy round - last time we did it ALL in about 45 mins, no joke. Also, am in the process of booking various friends in for coffee dates and drinkies so we can catch up and so Trelease can, as requested, meet the people she kinda feels she knows from me whaa-ing on about them!

Friday night has a couple of things on the schedule. Cam & I are already booked to go along to Pao! Pao! Pao! so will round up Trelease and Melissa too, and then afterwards go check out Hayley's boyfriend's band The Crypt Kicker 3, who're playing their awesome retro surf rock at Tupelo.

Saturday is going to be the most exciting - its Bridget's wedding and the launch of the NZPS 2006 anthology!! So altho I will be wearing black, I won't be going alone, so that is some comfort. And the black I will be wearing is Zambesi silk, made into a dress for me by the guru herself, Melissa - hurrah!

So basically I am in a complete palaver and keep referring to my diary and trying to keep track of things and imagining what Trelease might want to do while she's here... It lovely 'cause we have actually seen a fair bit of each other over the last year: there was a flying visit just before last Christmas, if I remember rightly, then I was in Bucklame for almost a week at Easter, then of course there was the unintentional reunion for Sam's funeral, and just recently I was up again for Labour weekend.

Trelease is someone that I just adore and always enjoy spending time with, even though it wouldn't seem that we would be friends - and we weren't initially. In fact, I hated her. Sure, it was kind of irrational and based on the fact that my one girl friend in Hamilton had taken a disliking to her and I had a certain loyalty to uphold, but there you go.

I was friends with the guy who turned out to be her boyfriend, so we were somewhat in the same circles. And two of my good mates, Shane and Gareth, had tragic incoherent crushes on Trelease at possible coinciding stages. I remember going to a party at her place, and we were all so wasted, and none of the guys were capable of speaking to her, and I didn't even like her and I was like "why are we heeeereeee??" and then I got this genius idea for combining big woofy headphones with fluffy earmuffs and tried to text it to myself so I'd remember in the morning and Samuel J had to help me work my phone.

But anyway, that wasn't my point. My point was... we did wind up being friends, after Brooke left town and I was forced to make a replacement token female friend in Hamilton (Marama - bless) and she suggested we get this awesome chick Rebecca she was mates with to flat with us for Honours year.

Which turned out to be the best idea ever.


That's Miss Rebecca Trelease (no, I'm not entirely sure why I persistently shun her first name, but it works, ok?) holding a tiny little orgami camera... we were being all whooo with the camera-camera taking photo thing. Except of course mine was my cellbone and hers was made of paper. Shut up.

See you soon Trelly!! :D

e. e. cummings poem: up into the silence the green...

up into the silence the green...

up into the silence the green
silence with a white earth in it

you will(kiss me)go

out into the morning the young
morning with a warm world in it

(kiss me)you will go

on into the sunlight the fine
sunlight with a firm day in it

you will go(kiss me

down into your memory and
a memory and memory

i)kiss me,(will go)



e. e. cummings

it says 'best' people ohh yeah

My dear friend (I pinched her from my mum, so you know that's good value) and long term writing mentor, Suse Wylie, was the winner of last year's BNZ Katherine Mansfield Premier Award. This was by no means the first notch in her belt, but still a fairly prestigious acknowledgement of her talent.

Not to mention the whopping great cash prize. Also much deserved.

The short story which won her the long-running nationwide competition has just been published in the above collection, conveniently released just in time for your Christmas shopping and jam-packed some of the rest of the best of NZ's creative writers. Here's a wee sample of some the line up: Geoff Cochrane, Charlotte Grimshaw, Lloyd Jones, Owen Marshall, Carl Nixon, Vincent O'Sullivan, Jo Randerson, Fay Weldon, Peter Wells... Plus more.

In fact, I do believe its an extended edition of 'Lolly' at Fiona's request, so I am most looking forward to getting my teeth stuck into it!

one in five, and up to another four undiagnosed

I came across this article today and literally felt my jaw click as my mouth dropped open at what I was reading.

Basically you should just go and read it for yourself. I realise that we have just as a serious a problem here in New Zealand, particular among the equivilant ethnic groups - but at least here I do believe our government will do something about it and be less likely to get away with treating the indigenous people with complete comtempt.

You know what else it made me think of? That hideous ad for air travel or maybe just Australian tourism in general where they're all rah rah white sand beaches and they have a clip of some Aboriginal dancing and the sound byte is "we've been preparing this 3000 years for you" like the whole point of their culture has been solely lying in wait to entertain the whims of foreign tourists 'cause there's no other purpose to their existence shitballs!!

yeah more Borat and other movie stuff

I realise that Sasha Baron Cohen's latest film wound up being discussed rather extensively in the comments of this post but I can't resist posting this gem. You see, Borat is actually a friend of mine. Ok, not so much a friend as a Friend, as in a MySpace Friend, which means I get the bulletins sent from his profile, like the one below, which had me giggling so much Cam came to investigate the source of the hilarity:

Subject: Borat MySpaces ThanksYou!! (this one)

Jagshemash my myspaces besttfriends!!

I would like thank you alls from bottom of my chram for make my moviefilm great success and savings me from be execute. It was close - my Government had already made purchase of the 40,000 AA batterys necessary for power Kazakhstanfs electrics chair. I would also like thank generous anti-communist Fox Corporation for sharings profit of this movie. They have already fully honoured the terms of our deal and supplied my Government with the 25 iPods Nano. My nation has never known of such riches. Once again thanks you! I like you!! I like sex!!
Chenquieh.

You can make him be your Friend by visiting http://www.myspace.com/borat (it's worth it just for the authentic Kazakhstanian music... is it wrong that it makes me feel like a felafel kebab?). And the link to my MySpace is on the side there. Tho actually my profile is set on private now, so you'll have to be a logged-in capital-eff friend o mine to have a decent perve these days.

Oh and I saw my first Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan poster up on the weekend - apparently it opens here on the 23rd! woot! Now its the end of the year and the number of shows are finally trailling off at work, I have a chance to catch up on the silver screen essentials.

For example, I had a binge on the weekend and watched three DVDs. The fact I used the word 'binge' to describe the viewing of just three just then tells you how outta form I am.
My favourite of the bunch was definitely Miranda July's Me & You & Everyone We Know. It held me spellbound the whole way through - entranced by the characters and by each scenario that developed. I felt like there was so much humanity and emotion to relate to in the film, and it was so beautifully made too.
I loved what it said about commitment and sexuality, particulary in the context of the young. In one of the extra interviews, she said "we have to acknowledge that children grow up in an adults' world" and I think she portrayed this in such a tender way.
She talked about how we all have memories of sexual things as children but we don't really know what to think of that. And that perhaps if it was dealt with in a better way, rather than immediately and all encompassingly with shame and repression, people wouldn't grow up to deal with sexuality in a perverted way, whatever that may be.
Obviously this is a very fine line and a touchy argument - and I don't want anyone to stumble across this and think I'm condoning something abhorant, but I think that's the strength of the film, in showing the true beauty and innocence of relationships and finding a connection that means something.

I also really enjoyed the way contemporary art was explored and talked throughout the film. Although the main character Christine's artwork was presented in a kinda piss-take way, I really liked it hah! I don't actually know much about Miranda July in terms of her performance art or videos, but Steph saw some recently and said I'd love it. I believe I've ranted to Steph about my passion for Tracey Emin on at least one occasion, so I'll take her word for it and continue to seethe with jealousy that she got to see that firsthand.

PS the title is so much better in French: Moi, Toi & Tous Les Autres :D

bit of a heads-up

Blogger.com is doing a change-over, getting people to move their blogs over to the beta version, which has all kinds of bells & whistles apparently and involves logging in with your Gmail account and so forth. All very well and good, but in the meantime it seems to have made the comments section here go a bit bung.
Hopefully they'll suss it soon - I've tried figuring ways round it but to no avail. It vexes me greatly. For a while there, I (as a new 'beta Blogger') couldn't post comments on people who hadn't yet upgraded their blogs, but they ironed that out pretty quick it seems.

Damn poopy interweb.

Somebody write me a letter aye?
You never know, we might wind up co-habitating.

Subject: bubble wrap yourself

I sent my mum this link and got this letter back:

crazy girl pop pop pop bang. How's the poetry anthology coming on? What little sprog did your associate have? Daveman tells me you've been very busy.
Finished AHWOSG, ended up forgiving the guy for swearing so much and loving him because he raised Toph the best way he could. Damnit, I'm one of those people that would ask at a book signing how Toph is faring!
Love you xxxxxxx
Mum

The book she mentions is Dave Eggers' memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. If I haven't recommended that you read this book, then I don't actually like you.

Reasons You Will Love Her

Reading the Bartlett's blog the other day I discovered that he's no longer in search of a flatmate - because it seems he's found a German to fill their empty room. Asked Cam if he'd read the site lately and spotted the same funny coincidence and he said "Bel... you know I don't read blogs".
I've tried using the right combo of italics to get across the precise tone of both world weariness and condescendation, but there was also the fact he was about two days out from the last exam of his last semester of his last year of his law degrees, and slopey words just can't convey that kinda angst.

Anyways - I love blogs - and I've just found a fabulous new one: Reasons You Will Hate Me

The author is an Australian 30-something, writes for TV and is that great mix of socially aware, superficial, hilarious, scathing, analytic and compassionate.
She does a big Q&A thing on Fridays, kind of like an advice column and covers various other things during the week - lots political stuff. The first post that had me cracking up was one entitled Awkward fatherly moment #348 which reminded me of a car game we play called "That's where you live". Though it hasn't yet gotten to an desparately embarrassing scenario involving big screen condoms.

This one had me cringing in recognition with the procastination factor and, of course, any indie rock reference totally makes me think of Lou:

pathetique said...
So, as I checked up on my entertainment gossip in an attempt to procrastinate from finishing a 2-page mini-paper (note how short it is, yet I still find a need to procrastinate!), I found this article, and thought of you.
Unfortunately, the URL of the link ruins the surprise of what it could be.
Would it be 'poor form' to note that he's married to an older woman? And what are your feelings immediately after reading the article?
I was imagining you attempting to split the couple...and I found myself intruiged as to which 'celebrity' couples you would like to split - whether it be because they're so annoying together, because they're too cute together, or because you just want to be with one of them.

1. VALENSI HAD TWINS, O HAPPY DAY

2. It's not poor form at all, pathetique. Indeed part of my love and devotion for the gentleman is due to his adoration for an older lady (he also likes 'big butts', bless his skinny tie). He's additionally - may we note - a 25 year-old stepfather to a 14 year-old girl which is just so fucking adorable/odd it hurts.

3. My feelings after reading the article were wholly joyous. It's Valensi, for goodness' sake. THE NICEST AND PRETTIEST MAN IN INDIE ROCK. He deserves only true happiness, and the occasional rude kiss on the neck from nice Australian ladybloggers.

4. I wouldn't want to split them up. A portion of what makes Valensi magic is the fact that he's possibly so incredibly beautiful Satan was brought in on the early plans to build his face and he could therefore pick and choose any female or male persons for sexing at any time of day AND YET HE IS STARRILY DEVOTED TO HIS LUSTY-LIPPED OLDER WIFE.

5. I don't really like the idea of splitting up couples as there would no doubt be a major fallout and I'd be on the cover of Who Weekly with the words 'LOVE RAT' painted over my face (again). Though if you're making me choose, Drew Barrymore is dead meat.

And yes indeed, after checking with your friend and mine, Google Images, this Valensi chap is quite the swoon induser... I'm willing to lay some money on Mel P being susceptible to those cheekbones oh la la...

This one also rang true, in fact I found it immensely encouraging to know that I'm not the only person keeping the other side of the bed warm in this manner. I was replying to a friend's survey thing on MySpace the other day and there was a question 'who did you wake up next to this morning?'. I answered: 'brother of the more famous Jack'. Which was entirely honest. Sort of. That's the amazing novel by Barbara Trapido that Keiran lent me. I highly recommend it by the way. And as it turns out, its A-OK it keep your bed stocked up with miscellaneous items as I tend to, regardless of company, actually. One exboyf who was a midnight marauder found an open safety pin under the pillow on his side and took it quite personally. Please! This is someone who let me carve my name into his arm, you'd think he'd be a little more hardy.

Dear Ms Fits -
My question: Do you think it's acceptable for a single woman to turn the unused side of her double bed into a de facto desk cum wardrobe cum book depository; in effect, a tangle of pens, scraps of paper, poetry books and lingerie? Or, is it somehow cosmically thwarting any potential for picking up, or even starting a relationship?
I look forward to your response; I'm sure it will be golden.
K.

I would say it's perfectly acceptable, K. Both sides of my bed (the 'me' side and the historically proven 'he' side) are currently overflowing with comic books, copies of Found magazine, diaries, novels, bags of mixed lollies, pens, knickers and a kazoo. Presumably anyone willing to spend an evening in my company just takes it on board as the messy runoffs of a ditzy creative 'type' and sweeps it aside in order to make louche rudeness. If you meet some trussed-up stiff who shudders at the thought of being poked in the nethers by an e.e.cummings collection 'during' then you know you haven't met the right person. It's your space; do with it what you will. To hell with cosmic thwarting. AND YOU CAN TELL MYSTIC MEG I SAID THAT.

And the person who inspired her to blog officially thinks Jared Leto is a celebrity douchebag so that is just dandy too.

my latest bruise

It came about on Saturday night while making polite conversation with a charming young man. He got over enthusiastic with his gestures and bottled me (lout!), catching my hip bone with his Heineken as I stood there innocently. I had my hand on my hip and weight on one leg, so it was jutting out (and yes was possibly twirling hair and batting lashes, that is how I roll). Its on the left side, which makes a nice change, from my regularly battered right hip bone - where my satchel rests when carting the ole laptop around. The boy apologised profusely and we managed to resolve the situation amicably.

So. Just a pretty face then huh.

Great Britain's current presiding beauty queen has just been stripped of her crown (and check out the pic, its quite a nice crown) for revealing that she was dating one of the judges when she won the competition.

The previous story was that they got together after meeting at the pageant - won over no doubt by her unique good looks, ability to walk in high heels and wave at the same time, and desire for, you know, world peace.
However in a recent interview with a magazine, Danielle Lloyd, the now former Miss Great Britain 2006, told an enchanting story of a pair of shoes her lovely boyfriend had bought her for Christmas, that she'd unwrapped in bed while they were snuggled up together. But the beauty pageant was in February, two months later. Uh oh.

The articles also mentions the organisers were starting to get shirty about her impending Playboy spread as well (classy move Danielle!) so no doubt were glad she managed to shoot herself in the foot. Let alone that this judge/boyfriend man appears from the photo to be a ginga who lives in a weird dwarf cottage house.

Nice moat tho. I do like a good moat.

so THAT's where they come from

You know how movie posters and DVD covers always get slashed with great little quotes from reviews or some such that seem to sum up the film perfectly and convey the right tone of enthusiasm?
Well, i know that since I've started working in arts marketing, the reviews coming in having been very important to me - because I am The Laminator, putting the reviews on display front of house and on the website.

Ok, mainly I just want you to be able to click on a link that says: Borat Blows Blurb Whore's Mind and not feel bad about it. Because its educational!!
Turns out that in the States at least, there's this guy who writes for Rolling Stone and he writes in snappy little nuggets of quotable quotes. You've got to check it out. For the summary list of movies that the reporter has tracked down as being attributed to by him as "laugh til it hurts!"material if nothing else.

evil afoot in Aro Valley

Needless to say, Cam and I freaked out when we came across this feline demon creature on Sunday. Trelease, surely not even you can feel tenderly towards this apparation?!

Overheard In Wanganui 02/02/2002

Celina: What flavour chips are those?
Annabel: Chicken
Jennie (simultaneously): Green onion

[glance between them, Annabel tries another chippie]

Annabel: Oh man, that was a bad call
Jennie: If you can't tell your chips apart, you're gonna have to lay off the booze


--Amy Benton's 21st Birthday, 7:45pm

Marilyn Hacker poem: Nearly A Valediction

Nearly A Valediction

You happened to me. I was happened to
like an abandoned building by a bull-
dozer, like the van that missed my skull
happened a two-inch gash across my chin.
You were as deep down as I've ever been.
You were inside me like my pulse. A new-
born flailing toward maternal heartbeat through
the shock of cold and glare: when you were gone,
swaddled in strange air I was that alone
again, inventing life left after you.

I don't want to remember you as that
four o'clock in the morning eight months long
after you happened to me like a wrong
number at midnight that blew up the phone
bill to an astronomical unknown
quantity in a foreign currency.
The U.S. dollar dived since you happened to me.
You've grown into your skin since then; you've grown
into the space you measure with someone
you can love back without a caveat.

While I love somebody I learn to live
with through the downpulled winter days' routine
wakings and sleepings, half-and-half caffeine-
assisted mornings, laundry, stock-pots, dust-
balls in the hallway, lists instead of longing, trust
that what comes next comes after what came first.
She'll never be a story I make up.
You were the one I didn't know where to stop.
If I had blamed you, now I could forgive
you, but what made my cold hand, back in prox-
imity to your hair, your mouth, your mind,
want where it no way ought to be, defined
by where it was, and was and was until
the whole globed swelling liquefied and spilled
through one cheek's nap, a syllable, a tear,
was never blame, whatever I wished it were.
You were the weather in my neighborhood.
You were the epic in the episode.
You were the year poised on the equinox.


Marilyn Hacker

transpose 'cinematic' for 'literary'

and this razor sharp rant becomes relevant to more than just its original intentions. in my experiences anyway.

on the other side of the coin, mad props to Al Bol and Ian Wedde for getting Arts Lauraute grants this week. these are both people I've met, conversed with and was thrilled that they are just as awesome as their work that i had admired in the cinematic/literary fields

just as well there's no American living in my house right now

to be honest i haven't read the entirity of this article yet (and it looks like the feedback is getting interesting too) but I was so busy rolling my eyes and making TCHHH! noises to focus on the screen. tu meke!!

and in other spooky news

Over at Go Fug Yourself, I nearly did myself an injury laughing at this Halloween related post. Well, I'm assuming that's why they're dressed like that but who really knows. Anyway, Kate Moss finally cocked it up and got herself on the site. The Fug girls took this opportunity to lay the smack down regarding her choice of man-bag. (oohh just realised how COMPLETELY inappropriate my choice of words were just then heh heh!!).

Defamer weren't the first to bring attention to this Halloween house decoration, but I love their snarky side-comments. You've got to check out the pics, its SO hard out. At first glance, I assumed it was an actual plane crash, Donnie Darko styles...

I also got gorgeous PXT from Marama of their Halloween shenannigans, but unfortch when I texted it to my email, it never showed up! GRR. Bad telecom.

All Hallows Eve

Leanne just asked me if Hawthorn was cool when we went there on Saturday night. I had to write her a rather long-winded reply (I know - ME - who would've thought?!) to explain that it was indeed cool, but not in the way expected.

Sean had given me the head's up on Hawthorn, saying it was more like someone's luxorious living room than a bar. So it seemed like the perfect place for Sam and I to head to after checking out the Word Collective/The Literati gig at Happy.

The 'haunted' sign should've given us a clue. As we climbed the stairs, the handrail was entwined with fake cobweb stuff and it started to dawn on me that the strangley attired people I'd seen earlier in the night may not have just been the usual kooky upper Cuba residents, may be something to do with the proximity to Halloween. Pushing through the doors, there was a blast of sound and warmth and -oh lordy- absolute madness.

My living room certainly doesn't have bartenders dressed in full costume: the girl in a big white flowy thing with a red four-clawed scratch mark across her decolletage, another in a white lab coat covered in blood splattered and goggles around his neck, the last one looked sorta normal except we saw as we were leaving that he was wearing below waist/bar-level a big ole tutu and fish-nets. Of course.

There was a smoke machine just under the bar, going off and fogging up the place on a regular basis. In the bathrooms spooky organ music was playing - I actually got a bit freaked out, but I had had like three drinks by that stage so ...you know... was pretty much written off. There were cobwebs and dangly things hanging off everything, plus bowls of lollies along the bar, trick or treat style. And the place was packed - mostly with people in hard out costumes, people committed to the concept. None of this wishy-washy 'remove one item and back to looking decent' rubbish.

I attempted to take a photo of the adorned coat hooks and me with my broken-heart necklace but instead took this crap blurry photo that makes it look like my face is melting... still fairly appropriate for the night.



Apparently Hawthorn is usually very chill and cosy, and you can toast marshmallows and raid their stack of board games to play something fun like backgammon or Connect 4 while you enjoy some fine 42 Below. Mmmm.

kids these days

I am very very nearly finished on the anthology. By which I mean, having the whole thing up to final first draft status, ready for the first run of proof reading and feedback on the layout etc.

I have saved one nice thing until last, as a delicious sweet treat to keep me going. This is choosing the little line to go on each of the 'blank' intro pages for each section. E.g. "Poems from the Open Section" will have a italicised line from one of the Open section poems as a wee sampler of what's to come.

Am currently doing the Junior Section ones and am having trouble picking one. Am spoilt for choice and also, I want to set the right tone. I definitely have my favourites and that's probably because they stand out from the ones about cats or native plants or snow storms. (Oh trust me - the adult writers have just the same tendencies).

However, the overbearing committee is always on my mind, so self-censoring as I go and not even bothering with some I'd really like to use.

your delirious womb

When you come to me without telling me

Wake up so I can hate you.

I think I'm gonna go with " clinging to its slippery self " in the end. I quite like that. I'm trying to find ones that work as stand-alone lines and perhaps say someting about poetry in general. For the Junior Haiku section I've chosen " Looting from flowers " which is lovely on so many levels and comes from a really great lil poem comparing bees to helicopters.

The book is called tiny gaps and I can't mentioned it without saying what a hero the Bartlett has been over the last fortnight. Its going to be launched on the 18th November, more details closer to the date - when I am feeling less frazzled by it all.

PEOW PEOW!! fireworks :D

My bedroom has an amazing view pretty much any day of the week. But the last few nights have been spectacular - if not a little distracting from getting the first final proof of the anthology ready. And even getting settled to sleep.

Because as soon as i hear fireworks going off i just HAVE TO look.

In other news, Cam and Simon are saying DISGUSTING things right now out in the kitchen. It is making me giggle.

Also, am planning on doing a Halloween post so am feeling this Guy Fawkes is getting a little a head of myself - but that seems very kiwi to get all excited and have to set something on fire ahead of schedule, watch the pretty colours!!