Disapproving Ducky

I'm feeling so sour about Australian budgetary matters and politics at the moment that I used AP's wacky webcam (I don't think she even knows it's on her new computer) to join the Disapproving Rabbits club. Horrendous, but then I'm not much chop without the distortion, so what does it matter? Desperate times need desperate humour.


I disapprove. And I will keep disapproving, I suspect, until after the elections.

Build it and they will stand empty

Just then (5pm news) on Radio National there was a story about how delighted university leaders are with the infrastructure money pledged to them from last night's budget.

The radio headline was BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME.

Build it and WHO will come?

I don't know about other campuses, but all ANU has done in the last few years is build buildings. I have heard university management admit that they have lots of money for buildings but no money for staff. Or fittings, for that matter.

WHO WILL FRIGGING COME? WHO WILL USE THE BUILDINGS? WHAT ARE THEY GOING TO LEARN FROM NICE BUILDINGS?

I had to stop folding book pages for a minute because I was spitting in my fury.

Where is the money for people, people? Save teaching jobs. Hire more staff. Give students value for money!!!

This Government sucks. And so will the next one, probably. I want to move somewhere sane. Any suggestions?


GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Remember to breathe

She's cut down
On her lovers --
Though she still dreams
Of them at night.

She's growing straight lines
Where once were flowers;
She is streamlined,
She is taking the shade down
From the light

To see the straight lines,
Straight lines.

Suzanne Vega


Well, that's what was going through my head on Sunday when I looked up and saw this in the sky.

Overdue cat blogging

The marvellous fluffiness of Pavlov's cat made me realise that there haven't been enough cats on this blog, despite there being plenty of cat action around Duck's Private Jetty.

Look at them.


Mr Padge


Mr Pooter

Butter wouldn't melt in their mouths, would it?

But witness this:



That's what happens when you watch them too much. They start showing off. All over the garden, all over the house. Sometimes we have to put them on their naughty chairs to make them ponder their behaviour. It doesn't seem to make much difference. Where's the Cat Nanny when you need her?

An open letter to Spammers

Dear spammers

I have hearing from you a lot lately. Some of you are quite open about your intentions, others of you try hard to be inconspicuous in your attempts to winkle money out of me.

I'd just like to tip you off on something. Nearly all of my friends know how to spell, and those who don't aren't regular correspondents, and prefer to use the phone. So I can usually spot your ploys immediately.

I received this lovely one today:

Hello friend !
You have just received a postcard from someone who cares about you!

This is a part of the message:
"Hi there! It has been a long time since I haven't heared about you!
I've just found out about this service from Your WIFE, a friend of mine who also told me that..."
If you'd like to see the rest of the message click here* to receive your animated postcard!

And when you pretend to be a bank or a service like ebay, there's always a telling typo to tip me off, as well as the fact that most of your bank names don't exist.

I'm only mildly cranky about getting so many of your letters, although I'd love to be totally free of them (something I'm working on daily); I'm cranky that there are many people out there who do think you're real, because they don't -- or can't -- spot the problems with your spelling and syntax.

So maybe I should be writing this letter to the Government, to point out that the best tactic against spam is literacy? Spelling as a form of self-defence? It's so crazy it might just work.

Don't say I didn't warn you,

&Duck


* new link provided by me.

Pushing some buttons

I'd like to share some scenes from a fabulous little show at the ANU School of Art Foyer Gallery called Push Your Buttons.

A badge show, featuring ten local contemporary artists: Al Munro, Barbara McConchie, Bernie Slater, Charlie Sofo, David Wills, Ivo Lovric, Lucy Quinn, Silvia Velez, Stephanie Jones and Waratah Lahy. They all made a heap of badges of their own design, and set up fab little installations, and then on the weekend they held a badge-making workshop (attended by many, including Ellis Hutch).

Forgive me for not going into this in depth (or favouring some artists over others), I'm chewing through my lunchtime here. But there is some pretty cool stuff:


In the foreground here is David Wills, with his row of baby singlets; on the wall behind is Bernie Slater's life-size drawings of a Cronulla rioter and a detainee.


Each DW singlet has a variety of badges. This is an example.


The drawn detainee wears real badges of blindfolded famous and ordinary people...


...thus.


The Cronulla rioter (or maybe ordinary Australian bloke) has Australian flag pins on his body...


... as you can see. I really like these works.

Another favorite is by Stephanie Jones. She habitually works with children's lollies and domestic imagery, like bubblegum used to reproduce decorative railings on federation houses. In this case, she has made badges using those loveheart lollies as her basic imagery, and then used every euphemism for breasts and vaginas that she could find (well, the ones that would fit within the loveheart parameters) and then used the badges to write with:



Here's a close-up:

Hopefully you can read some of the words!


Charlie Sofo made categories of badges of all kinds, from vintage designs downloaded from teh web to comments on his favorite cultural icons, to more domestic ideas like from scraps of orange bag net and bits of his favorite shirt. In his installation there are things to listen to, folders to open, categories to explore and relate to. The bloke in the excellent jacket is making the most of his time with the badges, he's not part of the piece.


Waratah Lahy is another favorite artist; she makes very wry and affection Australian observations within her painting practice. These badges all incorporate flies.


I want this one, which is a fly on the National Library. I'm such a covetous wench.



Lucy Quinn, a printmaker, made her badges into a flow of consciousness:




Alison Munro, another printmaker who sets up sticky questions about humans and nature, made odd bunnies which made my eyes go squiffy (in a good way). It's the combination of pattern and greenness.


Barb McConchie made weather patterns. The clouds are excellent, and so are the badges, which speak not only of earth's climate, but also our political climate.


Ivo Lovric pulls no punches with his observations about war and society. He used his badges like medals and chess pieces.

I just realised that I forgot to upload a shot of Silvia Velez's piece, damn. But you can see it in the background of the first image -- it's a peace sign, and each badge has a segment of drawings on post-it notes about peace rallies.

Finally, I'll give you a shot of some of the badges I bought from the show. They have bowls of badges for sale for $2 and it's been very tempting, so I've bought lots. here's a selection.

Can you see the one that made me do a double take? It's the name of one of my cats, which is apparently an American euphemism for a vagina. I went home and apologised to Mr Pooter, but he didn't seem to mind very much. He is a pussy, after all.

Push Your Buttons is on at the ANU School of Art Foyer Gallery until 5 May. Worth seeing, if you're in the area!

Womanly blessings

O, wot a week. Busy as hell, thanks to the demands of the Bot and her anxious spouse wanting a number of her books to arrive in London before the glue is dry. I tried to tell them that the British Library wouldn't be so keen on it if I made hasty mistakes, but they're blinded by the light. I have been in the Book Stud every day since I escaped from the clutches of Mary Gilmore, printing, stitching and gluing, and thankfully have only made minor boo-boos, nothing to really stuff anything up. Phew. That batch is done, only 11 copies to go, and last tonight I celebrated that and the fact I'm not pregnant with a large couple of glasses of Aldi's wine and dark chocolate.*

The latter celebration is a silly and controversial one; I have been forgetting to take the Pill, and then when I ran out of it, I couldn't find my prescription and have been too busy to see a doctor, so the last month has been a bit dodgy. Of course, I figured my insides were too scarred and old to fall pregnant randomly (last time was thanks to a massive dose of folate -- it DOES work, ladies.) so we got a bit cheeky with each other without protection. Ahem. And my reward was a late period and a complete inner freakout on my part because I've just put my foot down about not trying for another baby until my book project was in the bag, if ever again. Ahh, nothing like a scare to get the adrenalin rushing, and it made me realise that if I HAD been pregnant, it would have been a very very negative experience, and possibly damaging to our relationship. Isn't it fun, being a woman? I've said it before, I'll say it again... roll on menopause. Sounds like a big stretch of freedom to me.

Also, the pressure builds to get another car. Our poor old multi-coloured Suby-Ruby has a lot of things wrong with her, including the fact that her suspension is so buggered that she's chewing through tyre tread like white bread. I had a flat tyre last week in Civic, with AP sitting demurely in the car; quite an experience! Luckily a stray NRMA van came moseying past trying to find a park to do some banking, so he stopped to help much earlier than the operator had promised. I know, I know, I could have changed the tyre myself, but what the hell do I pay all that membership money for?! i can't do everything in this world, although I do admit that I seem to try.

I was going to drop in a taste of a great exhibition on at the moment, but it's turned out a bit personal, this post, so I'll write it up separately... remember to breathe, won't you? It might help you live longer (thanks, Zarquon!).





*$2.99 a bottle. Geez we're clarsy. Have I ever mentioned that both Best Beloved and The Albatross are big fans of Aldi stores? Each for very different reasons; but at least they've got something in common beside love of Bumblebee. Gives them something to talk about when they see each other, anyway.