I mean it. This was one of the worst films I've seen in an awfully long time.

So poorly contrived (a mishmash of supposed zeitgeisty totems), appallingly directed and almost uniformly badly acted. I kept imagining the studio pitch throughout watching it:

writer/director/producer/mutant (to studio): It's like Donnie Darko meets American Beauty with a twist of whatever dark video games the Kids are into these days. Only with a slew of credible adult actors thrown in to boot.

It's just so, so bad.

How it ever got distribution is anyone's guess.

coming home to multiple packages in the mail (which aren't even related to my recent birthday) is always a lovely treat to brighten an otherwise lacklustre day.

Today, I came home to:

Joy!

We're headed for Sydney this weekend to mark my transition into yet another year of existence.

I'm wondering if there's anything happening. Like tunes that can be jiggied to. I need to swing my hips some.

Luke has been taking some nice photos at live shows around Melbs.

Like this:

And this:

Hi all,

We're sorry to have to tell you that our cat Oscar was hit and killed by
a car this Monday night the 23rd.

We had been at work all day and then stayed out at night for a comedy
festival show (leaving a window open so the cats could get in and out),
and when we came home he wasn't there. He rarely stayed out all night
(we would always try to prevent them going out at all after dark), and
we became more worried when he didn't return for breakfast. After
calling out his name around the block, our next-door neighbour told us
that a man had knocked on their door with the news that he had hit and
killed a ginger cat. He was directed to our place and apparently
knocked, but obviously without response, and left.

Unfortunately we don't have Oscar's body - our neighbour couldn't tell
us what the driver did with him, and we can only assume he took him away
with him, and we haven't heard from him or anyone else since, despite
the tag with our phone number, and the microchip. All of which makes it
a lot harder to accept it or feel any kind of resolution. It's just had
to be deduced, from word of mouth, and accepted as an unwelcome fact,
without proof, without trace, just an absence.

Farewell Oscy. You were loved. You were a family member, an esteemed
presence, so solid and ginger, and we always assumed you would be around
in ten years, a dignified, wizened tough old boy. You played your feline
role with such admirable seriousness, and your banal means of death did
no justice to the grace of your life. You were too noble and true for
this world. May the corn chips be plentiful wherever you be.

-K & L

Some favoured titles:
Steady and True
Little Wingnut
Ginger Heartbreaker
Noble Steed
Learned Scholar
Captain Dreamboat
Senõr Robo-Kitty

"What a piece of work [...]! how noble in reason! how infinite in
faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how
like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world!
the paragon of animals!"

Posted at 11:08 on Apr 27, 2006 in diary punk. | | 2 Comments

I have a list which sits on my desk at work to which I add any flashes of inspiration - an ideal karaoke song list.

This all comes after I went to Sydney over the Easter weekend and experienced my first genuine karaoke experience. 'Genuine' in that it was in a private room at Karaoke World on Elizabeth St, with an imposing song selection.

All that Johnny Young Talent School training and years of invisible-mike-singing actually came in useful! My sometimes-frustrating, often-terrifying memory for tonal inflections and useless lyrics proved itself worthwhile. And I *owned* Pat Benatar.

Luke is terribly bummed that he missed out on my debut. We'll probably be heading to Sydney in June for my birthday so that we can do it all again with the crew.

It's been a while. I've been battling back problems and the resulting treatment; suspending my thesis while I get on top of that; starting a new job outside academia now that my scholarship is dunzo; looking for a new abode a little closer to the action, yet still able to accommodate Luke's need to make a racket on his drums. And some other random stuff. Just nothing that inspired me to document it here.

Now things seem to be settling down, and I'm starting back work on the thesis before officially recommencing my (part-time) candidature in May. I'm so desperate to finish it this year. I need closure in a big way.

I was planning on 2006 being a better, more positive year for me, but it feels like the uncertainty is greater than ever. Two people lost their job where Luke works a matter of days after the IR reforms came in (one of whom had just announced that his wife was having another baby) and I'm feeling especially sensitive to the change in the entire system. Everything is much more tenuous and unpredictable now. Even if you work hard , there's no assurance there'll be anything for you in a week, a month, a year. I had been looking forward to escaping that after several years of sessional teaching and the pitfalls of that kind of work. But it's not just my employment that is the issue here for me - when everyone is a little unnerved and anxious at the possibility of an end to a stable livelihood (for those that had them in the first place), there's an uncertainty in the spaces between us all, and frankly, it's bumming me out.

Today, Luke drew my attention to some very disturbing internet artefacts.

First there was the Japanese cat breastfeeding video. The combination of the actual act with the giddy and frantic presentation style left me more than a little nauseous.

Then there were the hugely fat felines.

And here comes the shame. I share a given name with the World's Biggest Fatty of a Cat.

Choice observations such as "Katy's only interest is food" and " Food consumption: 1.3 frankfurters per minute" left me feeling more than a little self-conscious.

But I just can't laugh at these hugely fat cats. It's all just too sad. I just imagine them lolloping between their bed, food and litter tray, barely able to lift one enormous leg after the other let alone able to breathe through all the lardiness.

The owners of these fat cats claim that the weight problem is not due to overeating, but I can't get the idea out of my head that there are pet owners out there keen to get their cats into the Guiness World Records, and resorting to the same behaviour as Feeders.

I especially <3 that Happy Endings is screening.

I'm doing a little volunteering at MQFF too, to shake myself out of the stupor I've been in since my spine rebelled against me and I went into hibernation. Get engaged again and stop feeling so damn sorry for myself. And all that jazz.

I'm mightily excited that Mädchen in Uniform is screening in 16mm. It's been years since I've seen it, and then it was on VHS so a little lacking in dreamy celluloid aura.

Also on my To Do list:

Adam & Steve
Hellbent
Queeries 1: True Stories
Three Needles
Fucking Different

I'm loving the artwork for the latest 20th compilation.

Thanks Jeff's brother!

Luke and Mt are downstairs piecing together their belated submission for the next. Which means I'll be watching Clockwork Orange on my own tonight, I guess. And starting work on the felted bag I've conceived as a New Job gift to myself (complete with detachable, matchable felt pins).

You know when you have one of those live music experiences which remind you why you were so nutso about music as a teen? The ones that reduce you to a gibbering mess of jelly because they get you right there where it matters?

It happened to me on Sunday afternoon. With Deerhoof's live version of My Bloody Valentine's Lose My Breath.

It took me about 5 seconds before the realisation hit me, that this most awesome live band were actually performing probably my most favourite song ever and one which I would never ever hear played live by the originators. And they rocked the shit out of it. Thick and noisy and lilting vocals floating over the top. And it was lucky that I had sat down by this point because it just whacked me senseless and I even cried a little (because I am like the most emotionally volatile human on the planet - I'm forever weeping at the beauty of something or other).