On a day we celebrate invasion, oppression, and generally exercising our white privilege by refusing to listen to anyone who doesn’t want to spend the day getting pissed and wearing the flag as a cape to show others that we can actually name the country we live in, a short message from Will to our bloviating, corrupt, zealous godbothering pissant of a Crime Minister.
There have, in past days, been the occasional interview series’ on this page. We’ve seen Treacherous Carrots, the depths of Room 102, Precious Things, enjoyed Fetish Friday…… but always, the interviewees have been largely drawn from friends and peers from my writing world.
So this time out, I want to introduce you to my other world: the world of my visual arts practice. My Lego world. First out of the blocks (Heh. See what I did there? See it? You see it? Suit yourself) is mapmaker, lecturer in Geography, chronicler of Kiwi waterfalls, and bloody brilliant fantasy novelist (okay, so I’m not exactly tearing myself away from the writing world to begin….) — not to mention hilarious Facebook poster and all-round just lovely fellow, Russell Kirkpatrick. (And a more recent snapshot of what he’s up to can be found here).
I’m just going to say it very quietly, so that we don’t get unduly excited or anything, but for the first time in I genuinely don’t remember how long, I’ve just written a thousand words.
The new, resurrected 5 for Friday continues. This time, prompted by a conversation with Luscious and Darth Barbie, I’m looking at five bands that provided a connection between me and our late son Blake.
This one seems to be quite generation-specific, in that I don’t recall many of my peers having send-the-kids-to-bed-while-we-party-in-the-living-room type parties, although maybe it’s just that my friends didn’t want to invite me to them. But I certainly recall any number of evenings as a kid, where I was tucked into some strange bed while adults did strange, arcane adult things in the living room beyond — you know, like eating bits of cheese on sticks and listening to Boz Scaggs albums.
Anyway, I’m not saying I spent those evening rummaging around in drawers and amusing myself by speculating on what I found in the cupboards of Aunts, Uncles, relatives, and strangers that I otherwise would never be given access to. I’m just not saying I didn’t, either…
A couple of pieces still to be added, as soon as the postie brings me my Bricklink orders, but to all intents and purposes, The Bugbeast– the container ship at the centre of my display for Bricktober 2021– is finished.
And the 2021 return to normalcy continues. Today, it’s time to cast a few words in the direction of what is becoming an annual tradition: the spending of a shitload of cash on a stack of graphic novels during the Christmas return to Perth because Karratha doesn’t even have a proper bookstore, never mind anything as esoteric as a place to buy comic books no shut-up you’re bitter.
I seem to have become distracted…..
Alternative universes, crossovers, the completion of collections, better versions of other groups, and vampires: it’s comicapalooza 2021!
Starting the family-at-home movie year with a fun family favourite, which prompted us to discuss the similarities between the Predator and Terminator franchises: one classic original starring Arnold Schwarzenegger; one reasonably good sequel (this, and T2); and absolutely rivers of shite surrounding them…
Anyway, this is a movie chock-full of quotable quotes, as well as plenty of opportunity to play a take-a-shot-whenever-Adrien-Brody-can’t-maintain-his-stupid-voice drinking game, but there’s only one real quote for a Mixed Movie Quotes quote:
I spoke earlier this week about my plans for 2021, including returning to my regular blogging features, such as 5 for Friday. So what better way to kick off a new year of this feature than by expanding on my previous comments and detailing five goals I want to achieve, and maintain, during the coming year.
As discussed earlier, I’m determined to get myself back on track in 2021. Writing, exercising, eating well, being a good and kind and lovely person and all that shit… and blogging. So let’s get back to some of the regular features that this little stream-of-consciousness blethersite once featured, beginning with Thumbnail Thursday.
So…… lot of weather we’ve been having lately, innit?……
All right, let’s talk serious shit. I’ve lost my way since our son Blake completed suicide back in September 2019. Of course it’s understandable — Luscious and I have been swallowed by grief, and anybody who can’t understand how that level of grief can affect you has my permission to stay quiet — but the ultimate end of that process is that my life has turned in upon itself and started eating its own tail. Everything that was supposed to be good about coming to Karratha — gaining fitness, writing more, lowering my stress levels, finding my post-50-year-old-future, etc etc and so forth — was destroyed, and what’s more, I didn’t care.