29. South Of The Border, West Of The Sun - Haruki Murakami

This is one author that I keep coming back to; I finish one of his novels and feel drained, slightly afraid and totally in awe. I usually feel that that’ll be the last of his I’ll read, but I just keep reading more and more. This was the latest, one of my birthday presents.

The story involved a beautiful love and the regret of not following it, a story which most people including myself can relate to. Although in size it is relatively short compared to the others, it required so much attention that it took longer than it could taken had I rushed it. At most points in the story, I just wanted to sit and cry - it’s heartbreaking and honest.

The ending is not what I expected, but seemed so logical after a few days of reflection.

I quite simply loved this book, and want to re-read all of his others right now!

Sigur Rós and Hamlet

Yes you read right, this was my Friday and Saturday night entertainment.

Friday night I felt disgusting (with this cold that’s going around, and an empty packet of Sudafed) and tired to boot, but I donned some appropriate clothing and left into the cold night. The venue, Festival Hall, already held good memories of Atreyu, Avenged Sevenfold and Bullet for my Valentine, but this was just as good. I caught the end of the support band but spent most of the time trying to get comfortable on the plank of wood I was given called a seat. Thankfully I was on an end, and at the front row of the section, so I could come and go as I please. And I did, as I was in the licenced section.

As Sigur Rós came on, there was a general losing of shit and much excitement. And rightfully so - the show that followed was mind-blowingly good. The lighting was stunning, mostly backlit, and the giant weather-balloon type things were lit in time to the music. The brass band that came on for most of the show fit in well and were probably the icing on the cake. Before the encores, the shooting of paper confetti into the audience was hypnotising. The last time I saw that was at B*Witched in 1999. I can’t believe I just admitted that! Anyway, a fantastic night but I was definitely glad to see my warm bed when I got home.

So my Saturday wasn’t quite up to those standards, but was still enjoyable. Trav had booked tickets to see Hamlet last week without checking with Kat or me, so we gave him a lot for that, but I was actually looking forward to it. I haven’t read or seen it before, but I secretly like Shakespeare, so this was going to be good. Unfortunately we missed the first act because of the late trams, but we were let in for the rest of it, and it wasn’t hard to understand what we had missed. Brendan Cowell was an amazing Hamlet, although with some undertones of Rick’s character from the Young Ones! The performance was quite simply amazing, and with Brendan Cowell returning 3 times to bow to us, there was no lack of humour!

Following this, we went to dinner at Southgate. The Entertainment book has provided vouchers for quite a few meals so far, but unfortunately PJ O’Briens had stopped serving by the time we arrived. We went to another place, I believe La Camera is it’s name, and had some tasty cocktails and food. I’m almost positive that this is also in the Entertainment book, but as I had only brought one voucher, we paid full price. It was worth it. I’d be more than happy enough to go back there, the food was delicious.

28. He Died with a Felafel in His Hand - John Birmingham

This book was given to me by a friend with strong recommendations as we are currently having problems with a housemate. John Birmingham writes the book in quite a serious way, emphasising things that should never be done in a sharehouse, and the dire consequences, but the reader finds great entertainment in his and the others’ misery.

The key items of a sharehouse are not far wrong, ‘that couch’ especially. We’re actually looking forward to getting rid of it - we have real couches now!

The other stories from other people in sharehouses are just as entertaining and in most cases, quite bizarre. It makes me value the relative normality of my own home, and dreading the fact that we’re currently searching for someone else to move in. This book makes you realise just the kind of people that are out there and wanting a place to live.

So it’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to update this thing, but what else are cold Sunday afternoons for, right?

This week was my first week at a permanent, full -time job. Yes that’s right, after about 10 months, including the last 6 months in one position, I have moved into permanent work. After a relatively uneventful but slightly sad goodbye, I’m now working at a specialist cancer hospital as a pathology secretary. Although I’ve just started, feels like I’ve been there for weeks. It’s a positive atmosphere, as most people want to be helping, whether directly or indirectly with the patients. As always, it’s hard to get the hang of the things asked of me; also, I went for the job even though it specified answering and directing phone calls. People who know me, know that I don’t handle phone calls well, particularly when I don’t know who it is. Thankfully though, I’ve managed fine so far, and if all else fails, stick them on ‘hold’ and get someone to help!!

In seeking and succeeding in getting this position, I’ve finally accepted that I will not be able to study full-time from now on. However, I’ve recently been looking at Open University courses, which would leave a lot of flexibility for me to still learn. Besides this, it’s been highly recommended for me to take a medical terminology course to help my job - although I am picking a lot of it up very quickly. I often spend the few minutes spare I have a day (what a change, I’m used to having most of my day free!) looking up words and understanding what I am reading and typing. I find it fascinating.

To complete my first week at a new job, last night Kat, Kath and myself went to see Adam Hills doing a live show. This was my first time seeing him, and I was almost crying with laughter most of the way through - especially when at the beginning of the second half, they tried to move the lights out of people’s eyes. Thankfully I didn’t cry though, as they were recording the entire show for a DVD. And we were in the second row, behind some people, and down the row from some other people that Hillsy spoke to a lot. And were therefore filmed a lot. So look out for us on that when it comes out at the end of the year. Fingers crossed for the extras called ‘Beryl’ and ‘Blinded by the Lights’!!

Anyway, going back further, I just had my 19th birthday. I had a ‘family’ meal with my housemates on my actual birthday (being a Monday) which was most enjoyable. I had the day off work, so I’d been to the city to take photos and picked up some cake from the Cheesecake Shop (the first time since about 2003). I then had to sit and wait for everyone to come home until I could eat it!! The following weekend I had a small party with friends, and we made some cocktails - most of which were a bit iffy, but the frozen margaritas were the best! We had bought apple sour to make appletinis (which, by the way, are delicious), but also made frozen margaritas with it. The result was delicious and dangerous! A fun night was had and not too much mess was made. Thankfully I don’t think there are any photos hanging around from that night.

With the money I got from parents and various relos, I bought a scanner with which I can scan my photo negatives. I’ve had much fun with it so far, and it was relatively easy to set up and understand. I went for the Epson V500, although I had been looking at the V700 too. The V500 won out because I doubt I’ll shoot much medium format in the future, so I don’t need all the options that the V700 provides - and the V500 is about half of the price. I’d highly recommend it, it does very good quality scans and is so straight forward that even I worked out how to use it on my own.

I’d like to finish this entry with a series of amusing events that have occurred to me in the past 2 days. It all started with the kitchen door handle falling off in my hand yesterday afternoon. Twice. It’s never shown signs of being loose, but it just came off when I shut it! This morning, I went swimming. I handed over my membership tag and they scanned it, and the computer crashed. Swimming went fine. I caught the tram home, but one stop away from mine, it broke down. The brakes locked on everybody had to get off.

Now I’d like to just make a little side note here about how slow some people are. Our tram breaks down, and after a few moments we’re all asked to get off as it won’t be going anywhere soon. So most of the people get off and start walking. However, a small number of people get off the tram and walk back towards a tram that pulled up behind our one. They had smiles on their faces that said, ‘Oh we’re the smart ones here ho-ho-ho’.

The tram that’s pulled up behind another tram. One which cannot move. Therefore, the one behind us will also not be going anywhere soon. This is making sense to you all, yes? So these people think that by getting on the second tram, they’ll somehow overtake the broken down one and keep going on their merry way. Trams can’t really reverse into 2 lanes of traffic to get onto the other set of tracks, where other trams are coming through frequently. It gives you hope that you’re not that stupid after all when you see people like that.

But anyway. I wasn’t far from home, so I walked. There was a taxi slowing down to find a house number, and as I walked past it, the engine made some loud bangs and started smoking, and the taxi just stopped. I sped up to get home without breaking anything else. I understand it wasn’t me that did most of this, but it just feels like it when nothing else exciting is happening!

27. A Shite History of Nearly Everything - A. Parody

One of those bits-and-pieces books that can be read while waiting for Windows to try and fix itself or the router to connect. Some interesting bits, but needs to be long. My thirst for random facts has not been satiated!

It slightly reminiscent of the ‘Uncles John’s Bathroom Readers’ series, which have a random fact at the bottom of each page, with some articles of different lengths. Except this book did not have the ‘extended sitting’ section!!

26. Ecstasy - Irvine Welsh

As this is a book of three short stories, I thought I ought to review each separately.

1. “Lorraine Goes To Livingston” - Is an intriguing story of betrayal and revenge, which is believable but surreal. It started slowly but as the story progressed, and featured more exerts from the story being written by the character, more was left to the reader’s imagination as to what happened and how it concluded.

2. “Fortune’s Always Hiding” was another touching story. Reminiscent of my recent read ‘Black Widow’ with regards to rightful revenge being sought, the emotions touch true. Although this was short, I reckon it could work as a full-length novel. Obviously Welsh didn’t feel the same way.

3. “The Undefeated” is inspirational gives perspective of a ’straight’ person and an ‘e’d up’ person - on the same events. How they see other and their time together is comical yet quite sad, as they both have a distorted sense of reality, whether from chemical or emotional changes.

Thumbs up on this book.

25. The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides

A re-read from years ago, I’ve forgotten most of the details and had based my recent opinions on it on the movie version. So being able to re-read this book was a delight. I found it to be stunning, fascinating and horrific all at the same time. The commonplace of teen suicide has been in the media recently (with the high number of suicides in Wales) so it was hard to place the story in the appropriate time period in my mind, at least until the societal observations toward the end.

It is such a beautiful story, heartbreakingly so. The infatuation of the boys is believable - it’s happened to nearly everyone at school and is so easy to relate to. That they then investigate the girls and find out all they can is stunning, a sign of utter devotion to these girls that they barely knew, and yet now feel that they know everything about them now from everyone else’s stories. Then the society forgetting about them, and life going on as normal. There is little other option for the families, but it’s still sad. It happens in real life all the time.

A little common sense please

With the news that Bill Henson will not have charges pressed against him, the subject of photography and the law seems to be increasingly in the limelight. People’s stories of being asked not to take photos for any number of reasons are coming out, and it seems that many photographers are feeling persecuted for their choice in hobby/career.

For me, the whole thing surrounding Henson and his photos was, and is, ridiculous. It is common knowledge that for a photographer to be taking photos of a minor, the parents will usually be present. Whether present or not, they will have to had signed a model release form, stating Henson can use them in an exhibition. At this point, my logic says the parents would have been at fault had these photos come across as pornographic. If they were present, they would have voiced concerns. If not present, they would have likely seen the photos afterward (most caring parents would have asked to, right?) and again, voiced their concerns.

Looking at these photos, anybody can see that the children are not being sexualised. They’re not in provocative poses. It’s an artistic statement or whatever Henson says they’re showing. I’m not a huge fan; I can acknowledge a certain talent, but art is subjective and I don’t particularly like this. But, if we look at Leibowitz’s photos of Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana) in a recent edition of Vanity Fair, we can clearly a minor being sexualised. Sure she has pants on, but she is also holding a sheet over her upper body and looking quite provocative for a 15 year old. But then again, pictures of her pulling down her top were recently leaked to the internet in the latest Disney-strip-show, so this was nothing that hadn’t been seen before. Just a higher quality and bigger images, fantastic! And, we can’t forget, socially acceptable and Disney-endorsed.

So if something is well-lit, in a reputable magazine and taken by disputedly one of the most famous living photographers of the times, it isn’t considered porn. But poorly lit, moody, angsty, emotive images will be treated as highly suspicious. Society is intriguing sometimes.

Leading on from this, amongst photographers’ communities online, there are more and more stories of people being approached and confronted about their taking of photos in public. People simply taking an architectural shot will be asked not to because it’s a security threat; taking a photo in a street where hundreds of CCTV cameras record peoples’ every move is thought of as being creepy and acting like a pervert and people simply carrying a camera, even with a lens cap on, will be regarded with suspicion. Despite having virtually no first-hand stories of these sort of experiences, a quick word with most ‘public’ photographers these days will bring up a few. See this from a fellow Flickr-ite.

Although I’ve now left the country of tabloid newspapers, which exist to instil fear and create hype, there is still considerable societal fears that these photographers are preying on children and helping the terrorists. Just because a photographer is not taking a recognised study course, or is not being paid or even having work published, they are often targeted by security because their camera happens to be bigger than a credit card. Visit most cities, around the world, and people will be snapping away with a little Sony digital camera and they’re fine. Take even a Canon EOS 350D, and security will be watching you from the corner of their eye, perhaps even asking why you’re taking the photos or asking you to leave. In some cases, even threatening legal action (I’d love to know on what grounds).

Now, taking photos of people. This is a whole other box of crazy. Walking on the streets of major western cities is no private matter anymore. Hundreds and thousands of CCTV cameras will be watching your every move, and it’s reasonable to expect that anything you do will be recorded, even getting that wedgie out. Take a hand-held camera onto the streets however, and people become suspicious of your actions. With a large professional D-SLR though, it’s hard to be discreet. Unless you’re using a zoom lens and taking photos of cleavage from a distance, it’s unlikely that the photos will be derogatory or infringing on any rights people have, and yet people feel the need to confront photographers if they catch them taking their photos.

Society is simply afraid. Of what, I’m not sure. The photos might be mangled up, tagged with an un-flattering caption or laughed at by generations to come? I’m not sure, as the majority of people taking photos that I personally know, wouldn’t do any of that. It’s that the press and politics have made ‘security’ a top priority, and the masses now believe that somebody taking a photo of some early morning sunlight on an office-block could be the next 9/11 culprit. Use your common sense guys.

24. Animal Farm - George Orwell

This book has exactly the same honest charm that I found 1984. Orwell’s writing style is timeless, with the actual text being an easy read, but the subject slowing it down. Although the story covers so long, the story is relatively short and gives the impression that what happens in it, can happen so quickly. Although when you think about how quickly time goes by these days, it’s true - things can happen at the click of the fingers.

The book also took me back to when I started my vegetarianism, and the reasons behind it. Although this was more of a working farm, the principle was still there. It was just realistic and believable, the actions and subjects the animals raise are so valid, less so in these days of machinery doing farming, but still around. I must read more of Orwell’s books.

23. Medicus And The Disappearing Dancing Girls - R. S. Downie

Most historical novels I’ve read have been complicated in language, hard to follow and generally too long. The last point applies to this, but otherwise it is written like a Dan Brown novel - for kids. Very easy to follow and quite predictable. The ending being something of an anti-climax, this was quite disappointing.

The story follows the Romans in what is now the UK, trying to deal with the ‘locals’ as they call them and instill some order. Most of the details of life back then is all guess work, to an obvious level, and the notes at the back confirm it. It is interesting to see the one ‘modern’ and moral man amongst all the ‘typical’ Romans - jerks, however it gets tiresome quickly as it mentioned several times throughout the story.

Visiting the cheap book shop has come up with so many disappointing books - I must start reading some of the classics and must-read books I’m always told about!