I have just found a website with lots of pictures of literary tattoos, Contrariwise (I heard about it on the Radio National Book Show). There are some I really really like. There are (Tolkien) Elvish tattoos, the Little Prince, e. e. cummings and Kurt Vonnegut. I like some Sylvia Plath quotes and I kind of like the Death Eater tattoo (from the Harry Potter books).
A week ago, Paul and I hosted our second bookclub. This month’s book was Spud by the South African John van der Ruit. It was a funny, very easy-to-read book set in an elite boys boarding school in South Africa in 1990 - the year that Nelson Mandela was let out of jail and that apartheid was ended. It wasn’t very political or deep but it made me laugh a lot and I even cried. Next month we’re reading Y: the Last Man, a comic set on Earth where all the male humans and mammals have died except for one man (and his male pet monkey). I have read the first two volumes and wasn’t that impressed - it was interesting but I got the feeling that the writers thought they were being feminist but I wasn’t all that convinced that they knew what they were doing.
Read the rest of this entry »
Paul is loving taking photos and films on the go (on his phone) and uploading them to Flickr and Youtube straight away.
Read the rest of this entry »
Monday of last week I went to Craft Night at the Notting Hill Arts Club with Bella (who I work with) and Paul. Luckily Bella had a camera and now that I have received copies of the photographs from her I can share them here!
Paul wearing his fabulous cybercardboard spectacles he made at Notting Hill Arts Club’s Craft Night.
Read the rest of this entry »
A friend of Gordon’s has left a message on my blog entry announcing his death.
She said she recorded a song with him and you can listen to it at her website (or Myspace page).
The Applicant
First, are you our sort of a person?
Do you wear
A glass eye, false teeth or a crutch,
A brace or a hook,
Rubber breasts or a rubber crotch,
Stitches to show something’s missing? No, no? Then
How can we give you a thing?
Stop crying.
Open your hand.
Empty? Empty. Here is a hand
To fill it and willing
To bring teacups and roll away headaches
And do whatever you tell it.
Will you marry it?
It is guaranteed
To thumb shut your eyes at the end
And dissolve of sorrow.
We make new stock from the salt.
I notice you are stark naked.
How about this suit—-
Black and stiff, but not a bad fit.
Will you marry it?
It is waterproof, shatterproof, proof
Against fire and bombs through the roof.
Believe me, they’ll bury you in it.
Now your head, excuse me, is empty.
I have the ticket for that.
Come here, sweetie, out of the closet.
Well, what do you think of that ?
Naked as paper to start
But in twenty-five years she’ll be silver,
In fifty, gold.
A living doll, everywhere you look.
It can sew, it can cook,
It can talk, talk , talk.
It works, there is nothing wrong with it.
You have a hole, it’s a poultice.
You have an eye, it’s an image.
My boy, it’s your last resort.
Will you marry it, marry it, marry it.
Read the rest of this entry »
Last Thursday night I had dinner with my friends Jen and Mez and their kids Matilda and Otto (and others) which was really nice. They are friends from Brisbane who now live in Edinburgh but were down in London visiting family and friends. Matilda has recently finished her first year of school (I remember when Jen and Mez got together and when Jen told me she was pregnant with Matilda) - wow how time flies. Paul and I got lots of cuddles from the very boisterous, two-year-old Otto which was very cute (even though he stank of beer after knocking over Jen’s cousin’s beer all over himself and Jen)!
Saturday afternoon and evening was spent around Soho at Pride and Sunday was spent at home - it was rainy and depressing. Paul and I played three games of Magic and I lost all of them! Boo hoo.
On Monday night Paul and I went to Craft Night at the Notting Hill Arts Club with Bella (from my work). We made spectacles which was a lot of fun and I didn’t win a prize but my fabulous sun/rain spectacles did get a mention from the judge! Hopefully I’ll get Bella’s photos from her soon.
On Tuesday night I went to the ICA with Helen, Jess and Lucy to see the French documentary Her Name is Sabine. It was made by a French actress about her sister with autism. It was very good and Jess and I cried a lot. They had footage of Sabine in her teens and twenties and she was so vibrant and articulate and then to see her so withdrawn, years later, after years in an institution was very sad.
Tonight, Wednesday, Paul and I are going to a talk at the Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Southbank Centre as part of the Hayward Gallery’s 40th birthday celebrations. Speakers include Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor and Dennis Crompton.
On Saturday morning the ICA is having a members’ morning so I’ll probably go along and have a look at the new exhibition with a bunch of other members before the general public come in!
On Saturday night I’m going to another talk at the Southbank Centre (they are currently hosting the London Literature Festival) by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie and on Monday night I might go see a film about Christianity and homosexuality - I think it’s about a bunch of gay Christians and I’m worried that I might just spend the whole time thinking ‘why don’t these people just leave Christianity - they’d be much better off?’ After the film there’s a talk between Ian McKellen and a gay bishop.
I have been reading the Science-based Medicine blog recently. It’s really good. And Paul has started blogging again recently too!
Tuesday night is the feminist book club and I’m less than halfway through the book for it. Better get reading!
Yesterday Paul and I went into town for London Pride. We met up with Jess and Helen (above) who were very excited about it! Below are some of the photos I took but there are more on Flickr. Paul took photos too which you can see on his Flickr page (including one of the newly elected mayor of London, Boris Johnson, leading the parade.
Marching Unions. ‘Unite, the Union, Campaigning against homophobic bullying and harassment’.
Unison Union members.
More unionists.
Unite Union. Campainging for Equality with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members.
Read the rest of this entry »
Paul and I played a few games of Magic: The Gathering on Saturday. I won three times in a row! Heh heh heh. I told Paul it was probably for the best that I won the first three games I played. If I’d lost I probably wouldn’t want to play it anymore. We went into town and Paul bought more packs of cards for the game and he also bought the rule book for the roleplaying game Rifts. I’m interested in playing Rifts but I still don’t really understand how it all works - it’s a game like Dungeons and Dragons (which Paul has played but I haven’t). Paul has been trying to explain it to me. I think I just need to look up ‘role-playing games’ or ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ on the internet - Wikipedia might explain it to me. I think Rifts sounds really interesting. So, I’m finally becoming a geek!
And on the topic of being a geek: I am really excited about the Feminist Reading Group at the Glass Bar (they say they are London’s only women-only bar). Helen told me about their feminist theory reading group (which I think I will go to with Helen and Jess) but I also found they have a book club, feminist book club, film night and lots of other events (but Paul won’t be able to come to any of them!). I have bought the books for the next two meetings of the feminist reading group and the one for July is Right-wing Women: the Politics of the Domesticated Female by Andrea Dworkin. I’m going to start reading it in the next day or two and I’m wondering how I will find it - the very little I have read of Andrea Dworkin’s work I have hated, so we’ll see how I find this book! The book for the next month’s meeting sounds really interesting: Woman: An Intimate Geography by Natalie Angier
I’m catching up with my friends Jen Smith and Renee Dodds this week. Jen lives in Edinburgh. Renee had been living in London but she and partner Jason have been traveling around South America for the past six months or so.
Qwilm! Theme by oriol, css design by Lokesh Dhakar.
