Overheard at the Johnny Cash tribute show starring Tex Perkins

Yeah, it's kind of weird how Nancy Sinatra sang that song 'something stupid like I love you' with Frank Sinatra.

It's like singing 'Afternoon delight' with your dad. Sky rockets in flight...afternoon delight.

My Place & Yours -Where you sleep

Check out everyone else's sleeping spots at Hello Owl.

Monday

Yeah okay - so it is Tuesday, give me a break! It has already been a cold long week.

Canberra still surprises

Today was an extraordinary day in Canberra town. Perfect winter day. I used to always take the dog of the yellow house out and about, and somehow got out of the habit. So we got into the car and took off for the lake. This walk is our secret and it takes you past craggy rocks, and winding paths overlooking the water. The light was just perfect, silver flickering reflections on the water clear.

He went for a swim and then to dry off I took him for a bush walk. We walked down the hill through the gum trees and came across and old chimney with what looked like smoke seeping from the top. It can't have been smoke but it was so pretty and I've never ever seen it there before. A big old chimney in the middle of the bush, all on its own.

Future ex husband at Glastonbury

What a fantastic photo - thanks to the Sydney Morning Herald and AFP.

Exit through the gift shop

I didn't realise this film featured Mr Brainwash. I came across Mr Brainwash via another artist on facebook. I don't really like him. Now I understand why.

The film is fantastic though - it is the art worlds spinal tap. You should go see it. It is hilarious in one way, but highlights the stupid parts and the reality of the world of art in others. That bit is still funny, and very very clever, but kind of not funny at the same time.

Listening to Bumblebeez Black Dirt

Great day to be living in Canberra

And even a better day to be a woman living in Australia.

You know, it shouldn't be a big deal but it is. It is an unexpected, remarkable, big fucking deal. What a wonderful day to be living and working in Canberra, and it will be one of those few days to look back and remember as part of history - a history we all watched unfold in real time. A day where our country grew up.

I'm not one to usually be very nationalistic, but today I tell you, today I'm fricking proud.

My Place and Yours - 3 things you do everyday

Here are three things I do everyday.

I wake up in the morning and make a pot of loose leaf tea. At the moment I'm drinking French Earl Grey, but sometimes I have Melbourne Breakfast too!

Everyday I listen to music. Mostly on my Ipod, sometimes on CD and even on vinyl when I'm feeling retrospect.

At the very end of the day I remind the dog of the yellow house in the U that it is my bed too, and I whisper in his ear to move over.

Go here to check out everybody elses things!

Canvas Project volume 3

I am excited about participating in the next canvas project. Mainly because it is about words, and I often make artwork about words. I'm also excited because I love Brooklyn too.

The Canvas Project 3 looks at how each person interprets the same word differently. Each artist is asked to visually interpret three words that are assigned to them randomly and were submitted by the Art House community onto 4x4 inch canvases. A visual encyclopedia book will then be created that includes at least one canvas from each artist. An exhibition will be held at The Brooklyn Art Library on December 3rd, 2010.

Dear mother nature

we are pretty much in the middle of winter, so I think you fucked something up.

Unknown Pleasures

I heard on the radio this morning that Peter Hook is coming to Australia to perform Joy Divisions debut album, Unknown Pleasures, live.

I remember this poster being in my brother's room growing up and even when I was really little I understood the value of that Warsaw single he would play on his record player. I'm pretty sure it was a single - but my brother reads this blog so he can correct me if my memory is mixed up by nostalgia. Either way, Joy Division was an important part of my brothers musical history, and therefore, by extension, mine.

I always had my own taste in horrible music, but I was still heavily influenced by my brother's taste in music growing up (as I'm sure are many younger siblings). I didn't love everything he listened to, and I still proudly made my own choices (good and bad) but his love of music was definatly handed down to me and his own passion and experimentation have led to me having a lifelong love of seeing live music and buying and collecting music.

Our tastes took very different paths as I went to uni. He used to hang out at Red Eye records (and still does) and I was a regular at Waterfront Record and Half a Cow. I'd study the Drum every week for the Waterfront specials, and rush in for whatever signed/limited edition/ coloured vinyl they had on offer. It was a great way to collect stuff, but also introduced me to so much music I'd never have listened to. I loved those days.

So when I heard about this tour, I was first excited, and then a bit unsure. All of this music nostalgia of late has been fun, with the Pixies touring, and Pavement too - but this? I think it is fantastic and a little bit sad all at the same time. What I do know though, is if my brother wants to go - it would be pretty cool to go together.

He looks sad because....

I caught him trying on his panda ears, and I had to break it to him that the party was last night - not tonight. He said it was a pandastrophe.

Panda Cake

I made a cake over the weekend. All up it had 750 grams of butter...next time I'm going to gun for a kilo.

Whistling Willie

Here's the thing. Try really really hard not to look at the picture okay?

So a few years ago Frank went for a really long trip back to the homeland. He hung out with our relatives, played cards, did a bit of travelling...I believe he even bought a nice coat from a man on a bridge in Paris...but that's another story.

He was gone for ages, and when he came back we had a family dinner. Frank, me, the boy who schmooshed my heart, my brother and his wife. Before the dinner I spoke to Frank and he was super excited. 'I've bought you and your brother something back that I hope you like..I mean I love it so I'm pretty sure you'll love it too. All the relatives loved it....' He went on to tell me how he got to claim tax back as he left the airport, (which made the gift sound expensive) and that he bought my brother and I the exact same thing.

Now that totally made the alarm bells ring. Firstly, Frank has bad taste in nearly everything. And Austrians - they aren't renowned for their good taste, especially the ones from tiny villages...this was risky business.

So I talked to my brother, just to give him a heads up, and let him know Frank had purchased us something special.

And we waited.

So the dinner date arrived and my brother got there first and Frank insisted he open his gift before I arrived. I remember walking into the house and seeig my brothers face, drained of colour and then he whispered 'be afraid, be very afraid'.

So I tentatively opened the big box...and what was inside?

It was Whistling Willie! Frank was super keen to explain how Willie worked. You see, Willie was a clown statue holding up a lampshade which doubled as a clock. What a great idea!

On the hour, every hour, Willie sang a song while moving his head back and forth. It was the most horrible thing on the earth, its horribleness magnified by the tune he sung. Da daa, da da da da daaaa daaaa, dada dada dadaaaa. Over and over and over, until it stopped just short of the end of the verse. Short enough to make it noticeable. Short enough to make you want to punch something in the head.

My brother still has his Willie. I was generous and sensitive enough to notice just how much Frank loved that clock, so offered to leave it with him.

It was hard, but sometimes you just need to do what's right.

Artwork - Lyneham Shops

Frost

I walked through a world of glitter this morning

Don't change

Whenever I listen to this song I'm going to think of that fine day in June, the three of us together in my car driving down Northbourne Avenue with the blue sky above.

You said that this was like our theme song and you imagined a montage of all the fun things we have done together while the song was playing. I'm imagining that now.

Revolve

Went out to Revolve proper on Mugga Lane today. There were these great signs out the back. Taffy bought some bar stools, and I bought Charlie Virtue a windsurfer to take back to Boston. End the day eating icecreams by the lake.

And do you know what I learnt today? It is no fun playing hide and seek on your own, and I should only ever buy one scoop of icecream from the shop by the lake.

SUNDELLES

Sundelles - Dead Youth from Phil Pinto on Vimeo.

Someone 's got himself and honorary dogtorate

My Place & Yours -the view through your window

This weeks theme comes via me! I thought it would be fun to see through everyone's windows. Go over to Hello Owl to look at the rest.

I don't have many windows I look through, you know, with a view and all that. Come to think of it I don't look outside through the windows at all. I think I have too much stuff inside my house to distract me.

Most of my windows are small and poky. I do look out the kitchen window from time to time, to see what the weather is like.

And my bedroom window to see what is happening in the outside world. Today we had a big frost, and the condensation made it hard to see. Or maybe there isn't much happening out there at all.

Some of my other windows have crackled glass, so you can't see out or in. But the window sills make a good spot to store things.

But my favourite window of all, is the laundry window, and it isn't because of the view to outside, unless you are keen on old car ports and tin sheds. I love it because at night, from the outside looking in, you can see the glow of the big golden heart which is my home.

Fresh Prince of the OC

Skateistan

Have you heard about Skateistan? It is Afghanistan’s first co-educational skateboarding school. The school engages growing numbers of urban and internally-displaced youth in Afghanistan through skateboarding, and students come from all of Afghanistan’s ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds.They do awsome stuff especially for girls. Love, love, love!

Check out the website at http://skateistan.org/

What a difference an afternoon makes

This week was really horrible.

But guess what? That kid who has been hiding in Boston is back, and an afternoon with Taffy and him was just just what I needed. Things are now right in our small little world, well at least for the next three weeks anyway.

My Place & Yours -Things in your home that make you smile

This weeks theme is things in your home that make you smile. Check it out over here.

There are a million things in my home which make me happy. This makes me smile every day. Why? Well when I was growing up I had a set of kissing cousins, like these. They came from a trip back to the homeland when I was little. I loved them! The magnets in their lips meant that when you placed them near each other the boy and girl would lean forward and kiss.

Growing up my mother had the terrible habit of throwing everything away. I mean everything. Have I ever told you the story about my bike? I was changing the inner tube on the tyre, she figured that meant the bike was broken and put it into the council clean up pile. The next day the man up the road thanked me for the bike. He fixed the tyre and his daughter loved her new bike. I hadn't even had the chance to notice it was missing...

So the kissing cousins ended up who knows where, and about 5 years ago I thought about how I'd like to replace them, you know - something to remind me about growing up. I looked on ebay and online, without any luck so pretty much gave up. Fast forward 12 months and I'm in Mitte in Berlin, browsing in a shop....and guess what I found?

Dog (as a pup) of the yellow house in the U

The great postal disaster of 2010

So around a month ago, I got a call from Frank. He apologised for the card, and said that he didn't know what he was thinking at the time, and he hoped I would forgive him.

Sounds ominous hey? Turns out, he was talking about a postcard*. His crime? It was written in German.

I don't know why he has this obsession about me and German. I think he forgets that I can speak and read the language...I think he also forgets those many trips to Germany and Austria, where I have communicated freely with all our relatives, who, for the most part don't speak English. Or maybe he mixes me up with my brother, who as a teanager was sent to German school on Saturdays - and refuses to speak a word of German. Take that parents! I don't blame him for that, though by the by, German school was good for me. I didn't ever have to go and instead I got a set of stickers every Saturday while we waited for class to end. And they weren't just ordinary stickers, but those stickers that you can re-use over and over and over. Digress much?

Anyway, there is a crime that Frank is unaware of. After weeks of the cards non arrival, I asked about the address. He insisted he had got it right.

So today a bundle of mail arrives, all caught up with the not so innocent postcard. Two cards from Afghanistan (well posted in Canberra) and a thank you card from my niece all came together in a bunch. The card on top was from Frank, addressed to me, at a street which just doesn't exist.

The yellow house in the u's street name had been bludgeoned over the head with extra vowels and kicked in the guts with the odd rogue consonent. An extra two 'r's' where an 'm' should have been, an addition of an 'am' (which was a bit of a mystery) and a 'u' where there should have been a double 'o'. What does that spell? Warrambul! Warrambul Crescent to be exact. I live in a street.

* Translation of postcard: We are at the end of our holiday and have had a lovely time and wonderful weather. Yesterday we were in Bellingen and had coffee and scones. Coffs Harbour is still a small city. Hope you are well and that we see you soon.

Restaurant Wallpaper

The food was amazing, as was the company...and check out the beautiful wallpaper!