aka R’acquel

Now it’s my own father’s turn for the spotlight. For years, he always used to go on about how he couldn’t wait to wear one of those graduation hats just so that he could have a go at being Groucho Marx for a day, and sing “I’m Against It”. Dream came true on my brother’s graduation day. If i had to summarise my Dad in a few basic shots, this would definitely be one of the best tokens so far.

Wonka…. clearly a very big part of our lives, along with the Marx Brothers. Other comedians like 3 Stooges, Laurel & Hardy, Charlie Chaplin ~ and every other comedian who got summarised within the documentary known as,

“Hollywood ~ The Gift of Laughter”

The gift of laughter… I definitely get that from my Dad.

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Documentary on my late FIL produced in 1998, together with Michelle Moo & Sam Hughes.

My FIL was quite the story teller, so it was very difficult for us to summarise him into “3 minutes”. As he talked so much, we felt it was necessary to exceed the time-limit set by Kate Richards and did our best to try and squeeze the bastard into 8 minutes. It was the equivalent of trying to sit on top of an excessively over-stuffed luggage bag and trying to zip it shut.

Very experimental in our apporach, that’s how we liked it ~ always, unconventional and baring the brunt of profuse criticism by many over whether or not this could actually be classified as a documentary. Funny how in the now of life, it’s summarised the late John James Smith’s life rather well.

We travelled by train, and had a big drama on the way up because the train got on fire. Had to take a bus up into Lithgow for the remainder of the journey.

As for the very bizzare scenes along the lines of nuking veggies in microwave ovens and getting murdered, a very natural consequence that results from when you drink far too much beer and are cooped up together with an old fart who doesn’t shut the fuck up. I speak like this as a term of endearment btw, because as i said ~ he was quite the story teller. One of his stories was almost something like 1.5 hours long until he delivered the punch line. Perhaps the longest running joke in history? ~ who knows, for now ~ it will never fit on a single stream via You Tube.

Ah… my late FIL. *sighs* Will i ever get around to the ‘directors cut’ that includes the hilarious funeral he always dreamed of? One day ~ I’m sure.

Going through a bit of a journey down memory lane with my old films. I stopped producing them shortly after The Child arrived. I get the feeling that life is telling me that…. hmm ~

No ~ I will just let life move forward, in the way it will go forward. In the meanwhile, a taste of Australiyarna for my international friends out there to enjoy ~ JJ style.

Like, my son is related to Captain Cook & Bob Hawke… hehehehe (yeah seriously, it’s TRUE!)

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The most painful laughs I have ever experienced in my life occured during the making of this short film, which is only just a small slither of just how crazy my husband & Sam Hughes got that night. Mitch is the one in the back who goes stir-crazy with the alluminium foil and Sam’s the one who knows how to do great things with a vacuum cleaner.

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Received a very patronising letter attempting to inform me about the provisions of the Education Act 1990 by a robot the other day, so this is my tongue-in-cheek reply ~ to that robot:

My typography teacher @ uni tried to fail me in the subject after these infamous words were submitted in a very naughty piece that broke all the rules and totally shitted all over the design brief. Rewarded with high distinction by another lecturer who happened to agree with it’s sentiment in this music video. For now ~ I am content with allowing this post to remain as it was originally intended to be.

A poem from 1997, which i’m now using in response to another stupid robot from 2008.

You Are A Robot

In negative philosophy,
time passes.
A lingering bad smell,
is stained upon the university walls.
Vacant stares,
evaporate into silence….

Tuberculosis,
on a hot
neon sign,
yearning for a good wank
in opulent water.

Sorrow burns tenaciously,
in an everlasting bubble of rushes.
I hate this so-called “God”.
Syphilis on him!

An absolute waste of copious time.
Of all that money has to offer,
I’m presented with this,
pathetic lecturer!
émigré?!
So what!

You are a robot.
Simon Says…
Doubt Yourself.

A seductive tool,
to remind us of time
and how distorted it becomes.
Away…. Away!
..at how the nadir darkens onto a
burnt-out pool of vomit.

Idiot!
Outrageously uncreative,
stupid,
little,
so and so.
Yearning to bring back to life,
dead old ways.

I close my ears,
to drown out your insipid notions.

FUCK YOU!
…I quietly scream.
Tolerating what I can…

You are a Robot.
Simon Says…
Confuse Yourself.

To you,
it’s all nothing!
Your idealism,
lacerates
every drop of inspiration.
A rancid reflection,
of eclectic lost causes.

How invigorating,
to see Neolithic half-witted dorks,
show their intolerance!

How do we fucking escape these contradictions?
Riot?!!
Stuff their mouths with
Kellogs Cornflakes?
~ Why not?!!

You are a robot.
Simon Says…
“Hate Yourself”

I know what lies ahead,
you have to find,
The Brain.
Only YOU,
can kill the brain!

Yes,
some of us just may disagree with your arguments.
Keen to attack it,
with our own opinion.
Then I think…
What good ~
…would that do?

Our own opinions,
are underrated,
and rejected ~
because having to listen to,
New Ideas,
don’t correspond to your own fucking idea of,
“evergreen design” ~
I fucking hate you!

Go on and forcefully insert your
foul iconoclast contradictions,
up into the air,
and hear us laugh at two baboons.

You people,
are the tyrannical rats,
of evolving dismemberment.

A long wait it becomes,
to complete the instructed tasks.

Buzz off,
Angel from Below.
I curse and will,
enjoy to see your stupidness
become further outmoded,
and DIE!

~

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Happy Easter, from Aidan…

Aidan & I were watching this Dr.Who song that appeared on ABC’s ‘The Chaser’ via You Tube a few times before the Dalegg evolved… my whole family was mesmerised by this song when it first appeared on the TV. My son was very excited to see it again. Lots of giggles…

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How does it work overseas? Do people in other countries experience the same follow-up phenomena (bird-call) we do in English with that,

“How are you?” question after you say hello…

…but when the person asks you that question, they really don’t care or don’t have the time of day to listen - so the question is just some kind of social protocal that’s more like an extended hello instead?

Does this happen in other languages/cultures?

I could really do with some alternative greetings, or ways to manage this question that has truly shitted me for eternity (a good 15 years at least). It doesn’t bother me so much when people do really care and want to know though.

I enjoyed one response to this question i found online,

“It depends on how much time you’ve got.”

Makes me wonder if other’s who get upset by the frivolity of this question like i do, are the kind who take quite some time to get around to explaining things.

The other thing i’ve noticed, is some people may actually be miserable, suffering, e.g;

“How are you?”

“Well gee, i’ve got chemo-therapy followed by another colonoscopy on my bloody colon cancer tomorrow”. (something not-so pleasant, therefore not so socially acceptable to digress beyond “fine/good”)

Ah well - a toast to the joys of blogging then, coz my mates can just ramble-on about how things are to their heart’s content and take as long as they need to.

~

Having a ball with my experimental phd by studying humans greeting me at the supermarket/business check-outs. It’s been fascinating to study their faces, let alone watch how people move their trolleys and have to navigate each other’s space (where some have peripheral vision and make allowances for you, while others are completely aloof to your presence)

Some don’t say much - but some like to ramble. The ones i enjoy the most are those that always start with a loud/bright/crisp/enthusiastic,

“Hi!” or “Hello!” and don’t do the sudden “How are you (but i don’t really care)” thing on auto-pilot. They’re usually the ones worth talking to, or - the ones most likely to talk. When people start to reveal personal details and preferences during the conversation, i know i’m dealing with someone interesting - especially if they have a good sense of humour and are not affraid of laughing.

I’m surprised by how much of a conversationalist this experiment has been turning me into and the amazing things you can learn about the world around you when you can tap into conversations that extend beyond “what a lovely day it is” (weather talk parading as another extended “hello”). It’s been quite funny actually. Sometimes, i’m able to twist things into a group conversation with the check-out person and the people lining up behind or in front of me. Sometimes, i meet people who just talk and talk and talk and talk. The other good news, is that about 90-95% of humans i’ve been in contact with, are seemingly really nice people too. Quite a contrast compared to the “doom, gloom & misery” that’s presented on the evening news.

I even made a friend with a saleswoman at the shoestore a few weeks ago. We ended up exchanging telephone numbers & email - have met up at the local park for chats. It’s the first time in my entire life i’ve ever gotten someone’s personal contact details like that which has lead to a relationship “out of the blue” - which trully surprised me.

An interesting journey so far, lots of fun

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See how busy we’ve been? Look at the state of the lawn in our backyard. Hubby has been so caught up with manufacturing his whistles that I ended up challenging my refusal to learn how to start up a lawn mower. I’m the one always cleaning the toilets in this house, because my husband doesn’t know how to use a toilet brush. The embarassment of owning weeds and scottish thistles gowing up to 1.5m high in the front lawn of this house, in a “Garden Village” for crying out loud, finally got the better of me.

The flies have been so psycho up this way, that i had to invent my new Woztraylian Bushwoman’s (Reverse Swagman’s) Hat for protection. The psycho flies were attacking my ears so badly, that i created some protective ear flaps out of sticky fly-catching paper. Instead of shooing flys away with a regular swaggie hat, i designed this one to attract and kill them.

The front lawn before i started to learn how to start the mower. Take note of how the quality of light in the sky begins to change with the next photo! It’s the early beginnings of a new afternoon storm approaching.

The front lawn after i learned that there’s no point in pulling the string thingie if you haven’t pushed the accelerator throttle down thingie first. The down side of finishing all the mowing, was that the sound of the motor was no longer drowning out the sound of the dying flies stuck around my ear flaps screaming “help me, help me, help me, help me!” in stereo! 555

It took me about 60 minutes to mow our lawn. This new hat of mine reduced the entire psycho fly population of Leura by close to 150 flies. That’s approximtely the equivalent of one psycho fly attacking your ears every 24 seconds. Can you see why i had to invent this hat now? I was hoping that i could send them a very strong message of “fuck off” - that maybe they could tell their friends to,

“Stay away from this woman’s ears! She’s dangerous!”

…but they seemed to be somewhat aloof to this.

It is no longer a myth for me that the sign of sticky psycho flies attacking your ears in Leura, now means that there is going to be a fierce storm that will be brewing in the afternoon. The more psycho & sticky the flies are, the more volatile the storm usually becomes.

Some shots of the orange hazed clouds post-storm. This is about the 4th time that i’ve seen this phenomena across the last 2 years. You can see more orange-sky phenomena photos from My First Storm Chase in Feb 2006.

It’s been the coldest summer i’ve ever experienced in my life. I had to wear my winter coat a number of times during December(our summer here), and we’ve had to put the heaters on for some nights as well.

The dought has broken in many parts of oz with the La Nina weather pattern returning. Very high levels of rainfall have been having a significant impact on my plants.

Napoleon has never flowered for 2 years, just as my dwarf palm hasn’t given birth to a new stem either.

I’ve had this breed of succulent for close to 6 years. The first time i ever saw it flower was last year, where it had no more than 5 or 6 flowers. This time around - it’s a a full blown explosion!

This other succlent, has never looked so pregnant in my entire life of getting to know it over the years. The intensity of it’s colour has never been this saturated or explosive in it’s display. Old plants once deemed as potential dead - have been rising from the dead in my front lawn as well.

What has been the most striking across this summer, is the weather pattern of hot mornings with clear blue skies, that are consistently followed by the formation of electrically charged storms in the afternoon.

I’ve found it fascinating how the storms always form between 3-4pm on average so consistently. As for why i’ve been able to register such a time frame? It’s because these cloud formations start to occur when it’s time for me to pick my son up from school.

We had another hail storm the other day. My son never enjoys the thunderstorms because the electricity blackouts upset him a lot. It scares him. He thinks it’s going to be the end of the world (without electricity) and he’s also seeing the news reports of the climate getting worse, with many floodings and all sorts of other natural disasters revolving around the weather on TV.

I decided to try and divert his negative regard towards the weather into something positive. Here is part 1 of measuring the Leura “Floods” at the front of our house:

After the storm subsides, my son does a more accurate reading of the water level with his red K’nex stick.

For now - i must return back to life & work/work/work ~ and learn how to take more time to relax. It’s been good to be able to pull out my camera… but *sighs* ~ i have to get back to my work. Life’s great - but there’s a lot of amazing things in my life that i have to get back to achieving.

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