A rare sighting of the Ampersand Duck

Duckie@work*, originally uploaded by Ampersand Duck.

I'm so bored tonight. I haven't had a proper weekend yet and I've been hard at work writing speeches for my boss to give at various book arts thingies around the country. Writing, words words, blah blah blah and constructing frigging powerpoint shows. I'm so BORED.

So here's a photo of what I'd rather be doing in a work sense. What I'd actually rather be doing is sleeping, but that's a few tedious hours away.

This weekend I'm going away from computers and presses, down to the farm for a long-awaited rest where I can sleep, eat nice things and watch the kittens run free with the chooks. Hooray!

*This is me, hard at work, having pulled off a proof on my work letterpress. I haven't pushed the button yet to make the press go back to the start, so what you're seeing is the inky underbelly of the press, plus a storage tray thingy full of scraps of paper and bookcloth.

Who, me?

Laura has passed me a meme which startles me, as I have never really thought about my autobiography, believe it or not. After a tiny bit of thought (not much, really), here goes:

Who would I like to play me in a movie based on my life?

Who else? He fits every criteria... Yes, I know I'm a chick, but I could do a lot worse.

But come on, who would probably really end up playing you in a movie based on your life?

Oh, all right. I wanted to find a picture of F O'C (great acronym) that wasn't in period dress, but when I think about it, all my aspirations revolve around rejuvenating dying arts, so maybe the movie could be done totally in period dress, as a metaphor for my luddite tendencies. Sans corsets, of course.

Passing it on to: crazybrave, Kate, Mindy and Harry.

I heart movies

It was an Albatross* weekend this weekend, so besides slaving at the Open Day and beavering away on the computer today, I did actually have some child-free fun moments. One was the Wigging and Penning of Canberra Bloggers on Friday night -- apparently some lurkers were there, not able to identify our group even though we had our fair share of delectable Amazons and obviously intelligent people... better luck next time, peoples. I think next time we should all be carrying red pens or something. I really enjoyed putting some more faces to names, even though one of the faces accompanying a blogging face was an old regular from a bar I used to work in over ten years ago, and he proved the point that old barflies never die, they just go and prop up another bar! He provoked major memory flashbacks for me, which were very distracting. Consequently I drank too much booze, and ended up very sore-headed for Open Day.

The other fortnightly child-free activity is, of course, seeing movies. As we are in endurance training for the upcoming AFI voting sessions (where we will get to see most, if not all, of the nominations for not only film but documentary and animation categories), we decided to see two in a row, albeit one in a cinema and one at home.

The cinematic experience was The Jacket, which for some reason has been promoted, at least in its glossy fliers, as a horror/sci fi. Not very scary, but sci-fi in a 12 Monkeys wanna-be sense. I quite enjoyed it, because I went in expecting something really bad thanks to the reviews I'd read. It wasn't offensive, and it wasn't boring, but it also wasn't terribly ground-breaking. I like the flashy bits when he was stuck in the jacket. But it definitely wasn't as good as 12 Monkeys.

Then we went home and cooked a splendid pork-in-mustard-and-plum-sauce meal and enjoyed I Heart Huckabees, which I'd missed when it came out. Thank you, crazybrave, for the recommendation. I REALLY enjoyed it. I haven't paid that much real attention to dialogue for ages. Usually I'm too busy watching the background. I'll have to watch it again now, for the background incidentals! Thumbs-up to Mark Wahlberg for a good piercing stare.

An open apology for anyone leaving comments now. I'm making you jump through the typing test hoop because I had an infestation of horrid blog spammers this afternoon... dirty little monsters.

*see the Sidebar Glossary.

Kit's cats

A few years ago the Canberra School of Art used to have fabulous open days. Live bands, a market atmosphere, radio coverage, fun for all. Then the school was swallowed up by the university, and then the university open days were swallowed up by an amalgamated Canberra Institutions Open Day. That means that for one day of the year, all the institutions open to the public. Each place has enough activities to keep a visitor happy for an entire day. So the audience that used to spend a few days a year checking out what Canberra has to offer now has to dash between campuses, or choose one place to devote time to. Thus nobody gets the attendance numbers they used to and everyone questions the value of organising such events. Granted, it means that those coming from interstate don't have to make more than one trip, but I personally don't think that they make up the bulk of the visitors. I think local people like a chance to explore something local (sorry, sounding like the League of Gentleman here) on their own doorstep, and will happily spend their money on all the fun fundraising events. Now the focus is blurred, and everyone loses out.

And it would help if the Australian National University started appreciating that they have a world-class art school within their grounds and actually spent some time and money promoting it. Yesterday there was absolutely NO mention of the art school in any press coverage or ANU material. Shame, ANU, shame. Because that was where the action was.

As far as I could see from my attic window, grinding out artworks for my slave-mistress, it looked like a great Open Day, apart from the huge spaces between people. In the room across the corridor was an exhibition of student works, and I fell in love with these:

Kit's Cats, not to be reproduced please!

The artist's name is Kit, and I will update this when I find out her last name. Don't know the title of the piece, but I'm sure I can find out.


Detail, not to be reproduced please!

Plenty of people came through the Studio while I was working, a small proportion of them the maddies I usually get. It's always fun to talk to people about artist's books and printing.

One woman wanted to know the point of making artist's books, and how much people usually sold them for. I asked her (nicely) what was the point of getting out of bed in the morning and said that I've bought artist's books for as low as $3 and we're selling the studio's next production for $10,000. She walked away looking a bit stunned.

Then there was the woman dressed like someone's Easter-show-winning quilt who told me that she was more creative than anyone else she knew and that people didn't understand her. Hmmm, I said. You need a studio. I've got one, she said. I bought the building next to my husband's business. I bet he was glad to get her out of his hair, if only next door!

Gorgeous day, too. Pity about all the noisy jet planes circling overhead for the Australian Defence Force Academy's open day...

Student Art Fest

The other thing happening anon is the ANU School of Art Open Day. Tomorrow! 9 until 4. Don't worry about visiting the rest of the ANU or UCan or ADFA. Art School is much more fun.

This is a really good chance to see cool things like glassblowers blowing glass! Eat a wood-fired pizza straight from a kiln! Buy cheap art by people who just might get famous one day! Buy a ticket for art raffles with better odds! Look at the excellent exhibition of design in the ANU Art School Gallery (I'm in it!)! Buy a t-shirt or poster from Printmedia & Drawing! Not sure what other activities are happening, but there's usually HEAPS happening, and it's a great day for the kiddies (both yours and the ones who go to art school)!!

I'll be there, making art (for someone else, of course). I'll give a chocolate to anyone who correctly identifies me as Ampersand Duck. What fun!

Smashing elbows

Canberra bloggers meet tonight! 7 for 7.30 at the Wig & Pen, Civic (that area that has a big sign on the highway saying 'City Centre'. Only Canberra needs to tell tourists that).
Mick from to blog or not to blog will be there early, saving a table and wearing this (in spirit), and I'll be the one not wearing this. Although I'd like the scholarly edition version that would quote both editions and page numbers on the same t-shirt. Maybe I should make one.
Other attractions include Zoe! TJ! Dean! Michelle! Possibly a rare but welcome sighting of Steev!

Be there or be in another place.

Vale Lenny

This post is dedicated to a friend's cat Lenny,

who was the founder of the only-recently-established cardboard club.

I say 'was', because poor Lenny has recently gone to kitty heaven, having been rudely and very sadly converted to road pizza by a horrid car a few weeks ago.

I'm very sad that I only knew Lenny in a virtual sense, because he looked like someone that Mr Pooter and Mr Padge could really relate to. And such a handsome puss, too.

Mr Pooter and Mr Padge wish to convey their condolences to Lenny's family and friends, as do I.

RIP LENNY