Here's A Curious Fact

In 1975 I really did appear in this. I was 11, had a swarthy fake tan, drawn on mustache, a head kerchief and my big star turn song line was "This little duckie was a naughty little duckie!".

It was mortifying.

Lychees

Hey you know what, it's Summer!

I can't believe tonight is going to be my first lychee feast of the year. Normally I treat myself to a little bag once they start to appear in the shops, even if they are ball tearingly expensive (as Mikey the lovely ex would say). I saw these tonight in the supermarket, and sure they're still $20 a kilo, but that's kind of reasonable. (I've paid a lot more, but what price that luscious, sweet pearlescent flesh?)

You know you're a photography tragic when your second thought is, shit I've got to get home now before the light fades because I have to photograph these! A similar train of thought that saw me pick up a pomegranate last week, and consider whether I wanted to pay $5 each for them just so I could photograph them first. I decided I didn't want to pay that much, but I regretted it afterwards. They would have made a great shot, and been great in a salad...

So here you have it. Shot minutes ago as the shadow's lengthened towards an early Summer's evening. I grabbed one of my favourite little Japanese plates and set this up on my table in the courtyard. I had to act fast not just because of the light, but because these little babies are destined for my belly.

Farewell To The Master

Jørn Utzon
April 9th, 1918 - November 29th, 2008





Photo by me! Yes, it really looks like this.

Sydney didn't treat Utzon all that well back in the day, and even though the relationship thawed in recent years he became too frail to travel. So sadly he never got the thrill of standing by the water's edge looking across the harbour at its glory. Or climbed the steps to see a thrilling performance. Or sipped a sparkling on the balcony at interval, while a cruise ship sailed past.

Utzon was more than the Opera House, as this small gallery shows. Or even better, a search on Flickr that turns up over 600 results. Yet the Sydney Opera House is the perfect marriage of design and location. Something that seems so surprising and unlikely, and yet so perfect.

I'm sure Utzon came to understand the gift he gave Sydney, or at least I hope he did. Despite the acrimony of the past. Truly, Sydney would be so much the poorer without it.

What The Hell Are "Empire Cookies" Anyway?

It was a hot day today and the bus I catch from work starts at the beach, before wending its way through various light industrial areas en route to Newtown. You know what, half a bus full of boisterous post-beach youngsters and half a bus full of full of tired workers, not a natural marriage. I had a good first day at my new job, but I was kind of brain dead with information overload when I got on the bus.

So I was kind of cranky when I had to ask a young guy to move his bag so I could sit, but then when I realised he was a German backpacker and the girl sitting opposite him was a young Canadian staying at the same backpacker hostel, I couldn't help but listen in. It was interesting (and at times frustrating) to listen to two youngsters from overseas talk about the shortcomings of a summer Christmas. I wanted to say "look, I know you can't get the turkey you want" and "yes, it's stinking hot" and "no, fruitcake is not 'weird' or 'gross', even if it doesn't rate against the 'empire cookies' your Grammie makes".

Of course I didn't, but I nearly did nearly laugh out loud when the young girl was scratching at her scalp at said "Sand is, like, ridiculous."

Ah yes, the ridiculousness of sand.

It must be kind of weird to be away from home and having a completely different sort of experience. I mean, we're primed for the concept of a cold Christmas by generations of traditional wintery Christmas imagery, but I would still find a cold Christmas a strange experience. Christmas day without sweating under the airconditioner going full blast? That's ridiculous.

Revisiting The Recently Revisited

w00t! Pardon me those who live on foreign shore, but my fellow Australians, the 1981 mini-series of Brideshead Revisited starts tonight on ABC2.



It was only earlier this month that I saw the recent movie version, yet it's been 25+ years since I saw this original tv version of the Evelyn Waugh novel. That's a whole person's lifetime ago! Actually, it feels like my entire lifetime ago.

Oh, and it's up against "2 And A Half Men" or "Don't Forget The Lyrics". I call no contest.

[Updated: Ep 1 just finished. Better than I remembered. Curiously, whole slabs of it I don't remember at all. All the extended army bits at the beginning... who knew? Oh, and those who commented that they Upped The Gay in the new movie. Not. I'd forgotten the voice overs, when Charles is heading off to his first Plover's Egg Feast with Sebastian and chums, the lovely long piece about wanting to love, about heading towards finding the low door in the wall that leads to love and Sebastian. Not exactly The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name keeping shtum. Oh, yeah and not to mention the fantastic (and quotable) Ant-t-t-tony B-b-b-b-b-lanche!]

[Even More Updated: Squee! Right after "Brideshead" I'm now watching "ShakeseaRe-Told: A Midsummer Night's Dream" with... one of the cutest of The Ruperts, Rupert Evans. Hot dish in a wet shirt and (surprisingly) hairy chest. Num! Colour me King Of The Fairies all of a sudden.]

Bow-Wow Wow!

[All pics via www.art.com.]

Sentimental? Awwwwwwww!

Wait, NO. Ewwwwwwwwww!

My Prince Albert . . . - m4m - 42 (Raleigh)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reply to: pers-919936113@craigslist.org [?]
Date: 2008-11-15, 8:17AM EST

You are the hot bottom that came back to my place for some fun after the bars closed last night. You really liked the feel of my Prince Albert piercing. The problem is, after you left this morning, I noticed it is no longer there. I can't find it anywhere, and I'm thinking it might be inside you. Please get back to me. It was a gift from an ex-BF and I would like to get it back for sentimental reasons.

5 Things About Saturday, 29th November 2008: Divas Without Pants Edition

• Last day at work ever! After my official last day yesterday that is! Until my new job on Monday that is! 13 hours of overtime in three days?... ohyesthankyouverymuch! (Tell the man with the money to come pay me - as Mizz RuPaul Charles would say)
  
• Duffy! I loved Mercy... "I don't know what you do, but you do it well!" but then I discovered Rain On Your Parade. Oh. My. God. This song and I have pledged to be BFFs, pinkie swear and all. Thoughts: a) girlfriend can carry off the Liza-esque jacket sans trou, and that's not easy, and b) when she says "I hope you live on baby, so I can watch you cry." she gives me a little scared shiver. Don't push her, right?
  
• My new motto - what this song needs is more timpani.
  
• I bought more fabric today, because it was cheap and retro-y, and it was cheap... and well, he who dies with the most fabric wins. Apparently. (The same works for yarn. FYI.)
  
• I could use a beer right now. I sure wish someone delivered.

Finishing & Starting

My last day at my current employer today. Actually that's a bald faced lie, I offered to come in tomorrow (Saturday) to make sure that everything is actioned and neatened up, so my penultimate day today! Another staff member is leaving today too, and two new staff have started, so we're having a Hello! and Goodbye! lunch. There might be beers.

I have mixed emotions about the change, I like the people here but the workload is huge and the position I'm doing is likely going to disappear in the New Year. My new position is permanent and on a better rate of pay, but I worked there as a temp around 6 months ago and it's a very serious 'head down and do your work' environment. Still, it's the better option for me in these uneasy economic times.

Saddest of all I had to say goodbye to Coffee Guy and his wife. I've become really friendly with the sweet Persian couple who run the corner cafe, and Scarecrow - I think I'll miss them most of all. Which reminds me, when I left my last job at The Big Christian Charity I had the same deal, saying goodbye to the mother and daughter team of Judy & Fleur who ran the nearest cafe.

Good coffee is important in my life. I like to get to know my barista. Time to find a new one!

I Would Sponsor Him If I Could!

And not in a pervy way. I mean, it's not like I want to own him or anything.



Despite the surprise Gold Medal and being just named sports performer of the year, out cute as a button Olympian Matthew Mitcham has yet to find a sponsor. This injustice must be rectified.

Should we have a whip 'round?

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggedy Jig

Hola chicas. Yowsers, what a day.

I started work at 8.30 this morning and finally stepped away from the spreadsheets and wibbling wobbling mountainous piles of papers at 8pm. Knowing that the last bus home was scheduled for 8.17pm was an added incentive. (Although by 8pm, no incentive really needed to be added.)

Curious fact, for one who has traditionally departed the office promptly at 4.30pm (overtime has until now been verboten), the office is almost as fully occupied after 6pm as before. These people are cray-zay. However, after 6pm you can comfortably phone for Pad Thai to be delivered to your desk. Right to your desk! Even Pad Thai without peanuts, for those of us with allergic dispositions, which amusingly arrives at your desk with a hand written note NO P-NOT written on the container. Awwww, bless.

So I was home by about 9pm, and even grabbed a couple of beers from the local bottle-o (off licence, liquor store) on the way home. A couple of quick little blog posts (see below) and one of the two beers, and already it's about bedtime. The Bo-Bo Express has tooted it's horn. Time to climb the stairs to Bedfordshire (even though I don't have any stairs). Bedfordshire is a state of mind.

I See Your True Colours!

Of all unlikeliest of unlikely things, this is a commercial for a dating site... attached to an underwear brand... which is owned by a famous tennis player. [Warning: noisy flash interface.] Several elements of WTF? in that statement, but anyway. Having said that, the message of "Love For All" seems both timely and sweet (and probably good marketing, given the high end underwear market demographic. )

The commercial certainly seems timely and sweet in this post-Proposition 8 world.

Be Sure And Keep Your Area Clean

It's not only civic minded...



...but frankly, it makes it more pleasant for everyone.

In Denial

I've been biding my time, hoping it wasn't so. Reading other people's eulogies and not wanting to write one. Procrastinating. Denying. Playing look, shiny!



I've moved to a place of acceptance, sadly. I've visited Dowagers 'R' Us and purchased a Fabulon-esque mantilla of mourning.

R.I.P. Fabulon. Thanks for the good times Thombeau, the laughs and the community. Regroup, recharge, relax and refocus, and take my love and best wishes for your future with you.

source:life

Life magazine is progressively putting their photo archives online, in a joint project with Google. So now if you put the text source:life on the end of any photo search, it will search the millions of photos in the Life archives for matches.

Let's give it a whirl. What if I put in a few of my favourite things?...

swim 1930s source:life

The Yale Universtity swimming team, weight training for strength.
Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt, 1937.

sailor 1940s source:life

US sailor. Photo by Carl Mydans, 1940.

homosexuality 1970s source:life

"Campaign poster for admitted homosexual, Jack Baker, running for President of
University of Minnesota Student Association." Photo by Grey Villet, 1971.

Not bad results! The photos/pictures go right back to the 1750s! I have some serious browsing to do. Please send food and beverages if I don't resurface in a day or so.

Amir & Harel

New obsession! It may surprise you to find out that I like insanely hot Israeli men gazing into each other's eyes and kissing, but I do. Make one of them a butch wedding gown designer and well, he had me at guipure lace overlay. This little treasure is from the Israeli tv show "'Til the Wedding". Harel meets Amir; hijinks, romance, duo bathing and some dramas ensue.

Youtube user matan4il has a playlist of 10 clips so far. The clips have had little pop up English subtitle speech buttons added, which are a bit inconsistent in whether they decide to show themselves or not. If you can't see them, try stopping and replaying the clip, that seems to encourage them to come out of hiding. Oh, and read fast because some of them fly by! [Updated: Clip #9 uses Closed Captions, so make sure you don't have the Closed Captions option turned off if you don't get any subtitles at all. Click the triangle icon in the bottom right of the clip for the on/off options.]

Clip one. Boy meets boy at bus stop. Boy flirts with boy and uses a ruse to get his phone number while holding boy's wedding gown for him. A classic tale.

A big thanks to The Gays Of Daytime blog for the original tip off!

Steady Gaze

Firstly, yummers. Secondly, why can't we dress like this anymore? Thirdly, well I was going to say yummers again, but this time for the hat.

(Ok, I'm sure starched collars in particular lacked a comfort factor... but what price looking smart?)

[Pic via Shorpy.]

So

Pardon us while we pull ourselves together. I had a fab weekend, got farrrr too little sleep and had far too much fun. Tall & Handsome is jetting across the country as we speak, homeward bound. I am feigning interest in work, but feeling a little stretched thin by tiredness... and trying to decide if I have the strength for complex sentence structures.

I have to do overtime at work today and then I have to clean my house in readiness for the flying visit of my friend/landlord tomorrow night. Blech. Maybe I can meet him at the front door with my coat in hand, and bustle him out before he can set one foot in the door? Suspicion making do you think? And more importantly, do we have the energy to care?

Hit & Run!

Witnesses are being sought.

Police are reportedly seeking 4 brightly dressed men in a big red car.

[Found in the street this afternoon just around the corner from my house, while heading up with Tall & Handsome to meet up with a knitting group at a local cafe.]

5 Things About Friday, 21st November: Gluttonous Edition

• I spent so much of yesterday working, it was like the biggest shock to the system. Today's plan is to be somewhat more temperate about this whole thing.
  
• Tall & Handsome and I went out for a truly fab Thai meal last, and frankly I still feel full. OMG, discovery of the week is the very reasonably priced and incredibly quaffable Wirra Wirra "Scrubby Rise" Sauvignon Blanc Semillon Voignier. The name doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but the flavour makes up for it. All the tropical fruit and citrus flavours of a Sauv Blanc with a bit softer finish from the Semillon and Voignier. Nom nom.
  
• Free Coffee Morning this morning! My local cafe gives you every 7th coffee purchase free, and I never tend to keep track of it myself, so it's like a present every time it happens! For me? You shouldn't have!
  
• I was going to add a point about the huge tin of spice biscuits that one of our suppliers gave us at work, but then I realised this was going to be waaaaay too much about food and beverages. Like giving the wrong impression that I'm a glutton. So I won't.
  
• So, um. Another point not about food. Well, isn't sex just like the best thing ever?