saturday shopping and then some

Today has been a hell of a day.

I think the phrase of the day is definitely "and then".

But we did manage to pack a hell of a lot of stuff into a ten hour day.

It started with the usual morning routine, me wandering around tidying up the apartment (although these days it takes much less time and effort since my place is generally a lot tidier), then getting ready to start the day.

Ma got down to my place early and we were at the supermarket just before it opened, but a quick trip to Bakers Delight meant that we could just walk straight into the supermarket.

We managed to get everything done at the one supermarket, so by the time we got back to my place it was just around 9am.

Since we wanted to get down to Ikea nice and early I skipped the usual newspaper reading portion of the morning and after I'd put the groceries away we headed off.

While this wasn't the easiest or quickest trip we've ever made to The Land of The Long White Swede, I think it was the quickest trip that resulted in that large a purchase. Essentially we went upstairs, I had a quick look to see if the cheap shelving unit I wanted was back in stock (it wasn't, but there's no rush), then straight downstairs with a quick stop to pick up a couple of new glass storage containers in the kitchen department, followed by a shortcut through the magic shortcut doors and out into the racks to finally get the glass top table she's been mulling over for, essentially three years.

And thanks to the discount voucher I had, the table plus the two glass jars cost $8 less than the table would have cost on it's own. So nice work us... especially since today is the last possible day to use said voucher.

The table fit perfectly into the back of Ma's car (as we knew it would, at least as far as the measurements were concerned) and then we headed off to Ma's place to put the table together.

Granted, the travelling part of that statement took about 45 minutes, and we went a different way than normal. I'm not sure that it took any more or any less time, but it was a way neither of us would normally take, so it was something different.

And then when we got to Ma's place the actual construction of the table took less time than it took to a) get it from the boot of the car or b) get the glass top in the right position. All we (and by we, I mean me) had to do was screw the legs into the circular top support... but we spent a good long time moving the glass tabletop a little bit this way, then a little bit that way, then back the other way, then left a bit... I won't lie, at one point a tape measure did appear, although neither of us were particularly useful at doing any sums.

I'm sure during any of the trips I'll make up to Ma's place in the next month it will probably get moved... multiple times.

But the table looks great... thank god! It'll definitely make Christmas present wrapping, Christmas goodie making and Christmas Day different this year though.

Ma has her work Christmas function tonight and it's closer to my place than hers, so while we were there she collected up her outfit, accessories and associated bits and pieces and we took the more direct route back to my place.

So lots and lots and lots of driving was had during the morning.

After a quick stop off at my place to drop off Ma's bits and pieces and my Ikea jars we headed into the city for Part 2 of the day's adventures.

There were a bunch of errands we needed to run... but the main task was heading into Optus to get our iPhones upgraded.

That ended up being pretty much the last thing we did... and although we did try and start at one end of the Mall and work our way back to the Optus store it didn't work out that... but then it never does.

We weren't necessarily successful in all our errands, it seems that lime green has been replaced (possibly a while ago, who knows) as a fashion colour with turquoise and orange for this summer... so Ma ended up going with the necklace she brought with her... which worked very nicely.

Getting my moisturiser was an easier task and I always like the fact they give you a bunch of free samples of things to try. True it takes me ages to get around to using them, but it's nice to get free things.

We also stopped off to see Josh at Espionage so that Ma could donate some money towards the Save Espionage crowdfunding campaign. And as always we never don't spend a bunch of time talking to Josh when we go in. I always love then he mentions shows that are coming up.... specifically the fact that he's putting together a Lego show for some point next year with a combination of artworks made from Lego as well as artwork inspired by Lego.

So, yeah... I'll be at the front of the line for that one.

There's also a Batman themed show, a Studio Ghibli themed show, a Retro Gaming show and, I think, a Star Wars themed show. Woohoo!

After stopping off for a little bit of Mexican style lunch at Salsa's Fresh Mex, we headed back to the Optus store to see the girl with the groovy hair and update our iPhones.

And then after she'd filled out a bunch of paperwork and Ma and I had signed our proverbial lives away we were both the proud owners of new Apple products... a yellow iPhone 5C for Ma and a space grey iPhone 5S for me (and I decided to move up to the 32 GB as I was very often close to the point of filling up the previous phone.

Of course, I had to keep to the Transformers naming convention that I use for all of my electronic devices (usually related to the cases I start out with when it comes to iPhones), so this one is Bluestreak.

And by that point I think it was about 3:30 or so...

So after a quick detour to the Apple Store to get Ma one of the dotty covers for her phone (because, really, nobody has very many interesting cases for the 5C yet, except for those ones) and a pack of screen protectors to share between us, we came back here to my place.

But we weren't quite done yet...

We still needed to go through the list of Fringe shows I pulled together yesterday and work out dates and times and whatnot.

Sadly not all of the shows on the list made it through this stage... there were a couple of shows that were on way too late (although I did break my own rule for "no shows after 9:30 because they're often of questionable quality" rule for a couple of my solo outings) and there was one show that sounded really awesome that was already marked as "cancelled" which was a little disappointing... plus there were a few that we both decided weren't all that bothered on.

So with that 21 shows became 16... which is still pretty respectable, and we have a nice mix of shows in the line up.

I still need to go online and buy all the tickets though, but that's a job that can wait for a while, or even until tomorrow morning.

Once Ma left to head off to her work function, looking very spiffy in her black and white stripy dress and spangly shoes, I finally got a chance to relax... but then about an hour later I realised my old phone had gone to "SOS Only" and I could start updating my new phone with all my apps and whatnot. It took slightly longer than I thought it might have only because I hadn't already updated to the new version of iOS on my old phone and so after I restored the phone it then had to reinstall the operating system updates.

And that always takes a while and requires you to put your Apple password in about 50 times. But it was as easy as pie, it just took time.

The only problem was that a game that I've been investing a lot of time and energy in recently completely reset itself... and I don't know that I can be bothered going through all of that all over again. But if nothing else it's an easy way to break the "addiction" to the game in question.

Everything else seems fine though, which is good.

Of course, since then there's been a lot of general iPhone fiddling... from turning off all the things that need to be turned off when you upgrade your operating system, picking the perfect wallpaper, all those good things.

Part way through I realised that Ma was probably going to need a little assistance (plus some wifi) to sort out her phone so I left her a message at home to call me.

And that pretty much brings us up to now, more or less.

Like I said... a hell of a day.

Current Mood:

photo friday: street creatures

You officially know that your ongoing apartment cleaning fetish has gone pretty much as far as it's going to when you find yourself cleaning windows. Granted it wasn't as painful as all the jokes about not doing windows alludes to, however given the fact that 80% of the front wall of my apartment is actually all part of one giant window, it just took a while.

And I went through all of the paper towel I had.

But having cleaned all the windows, washed the flyscreens and whatnot I was both very pleased with myself and slightly surprised how much brighter my apartment seemed (mostly due to the flyscreens I think).

Although there are a few streaks on the top windows that occasionally bug me... although not quite enough to get the ladder out.

The Adelaide Fringe 2014 program launched today... and I'm not kidding but yesterday felt like Christmas Eve. So when 9:30 rolled around this morning I sat down with a cup of tea and started going through the list to check out what's coming for 2014.

I'm still making final decisions about what's officially making the list, but at present there's about 20 shows on the shortlist. There's clearly something about that number of shows since I've been to around that number the last couple of years.

There are some shows returning that I've been to see in previous years, or performers that were in other shows have new shows:

• Adam Richard comes back to present Gaypocalypse
• The Kransky Sisters are back with Piece of Cake
• The Boy with Tape on His Face has More Tape once again
• Dirk Darrow returns with 2 Ruby Knockers 1 Jaded Dick, a prequel to his previous show
• Gravity And Other Myths bring the amazing A Simple Space back
• Dorothy Parker's Sweet Release of Death makes a return
• One of the guys from Alice in the Madhouse (Cal Harris) has a new show, Elixir and the rest of the company return with Illuminate
• Sound and Fury bring back Hamlet and Juliet (which I missed last year) and have a new show, Hitchcocked
• The crew from the Dungeons and Improvisation Adventure Show are back with Improvise To Go
• Jethro Compton, the actor from my very favourite Fringe show The Boy James is back directing three shows which make up The Bunker Trilogy (Macbeth, Agamemnon and Morgana)

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random smith hotness

A return to something simple for this week's Random Hotness.

These shots of New York model Cameron Smith are by photographer Paul Reitz, but they don't seem to be for any specific campaign or magazine.

But I couldn't go past that face... particularly those eyes. Of course the lean body and tattoos don't hurt.

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movies: the hunger games: catching fire

I have to admit that of the three Hunger Games books, I think Catching Fire is possibly my least favourite.

Like a lot of middle parts of a trilogy, everything that happens directly relates to the first part and anything new is mostly there to set up the final part, and in this particular case I always thought that it ended too abruptly.

Having said that, I think I prefer the movie version of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire over the original Hunger Games.

I don't know if the difference comes from the fact that I've now read all three of the books, but last time I hadn't read any of them, but I was much more invested in the characters this time around, even though I pretty much remembered what happened to 80% of them, but whether I was filling in the movie characters with what I remember from the books or not I couldn't say.

And unlike the book where you have more time to develop and get to know the characters and their motivations, it did feel a little like some of the characters, most specifically once we get into the Games themselves, were a little bit sketched in, even the ones we spend more time with.

This time around though the return actors all do an excellent job... both Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson as Katniss and Peeta do a great job, although it is Lawrence's movie for the most part and she carries it well. I found myself actively caring about her character this time around, and by extension, caring about the people she cares about, most notably Peeta. In a lot of ways Hutcherson does kind of get the fuzzy end of the lollypop... while he's in almost all the scenes with Lawrence, you still come away thinking she has considerably more screen time. But knowing what I know about the final part of the story, I'm looking forward to seeing how he handles his character then.

Also returning is Woody Harrelson as Haymitch, who doesn't have as much of an impact on the story this time around and Elizabeth Banks as Effie, who actually does a fantastic job at turning this seemingly airheaded, fluffy character into a fully rounded human being in only a couple of memorable scenes.

I'm still not sure if Sam Claflin meets the idea I had in my head of the impossibly beautiful Finnick Odair (don't get me wrong, he's gorgeous, he's just not what I had in my head), but he does imbue the character with the requisite spark that makes him believable.

Other than some understandably CGI monkeys, the effects work in the movie is outstanding... I know that a lot of it had to be effects work, but it never feels like it.

All in all, a marked improvement on the first movie and, just like with the books, this movie just made me hungry (no pun intended) for the next part of the story.

yani's rating: 3 tick tocks out of 5

bowerbird related shopping with lots of walking

Today has been brought to you by the letter W for walking and the number 1 for one tired bunny... as in me, I'm the bunny in this scenario.

The day started somewhat earlier than usual... well, I think I got up at around the same time, but because Ma was getting her hair did I was left to my own devices regarding supermarket shoppery.

And because I was up and organised and didn't really need to do very much in the way of tidying up, I hauled ass to the supermarket very, very early.

So early in fact that the supermarket didn't open for another 15 minutes and even Bakers Delight hadn't turned their front lights on yet. Which meant that I just parked myself on a bench and waited.

The music they were playing in the shopping centre was a little weird... it seemed to be a combination of Christmas tracks and just regular songs... whether they introduce the Christmas music slowly or something, I don't know. But clearly I had too much time on my hands this morning, so these are the things I think about.

When the supermarket finally opened (after I made a quick side trip to Bakers Delight once they switched the lights on), I plugged in my headphones and got down to business. I ended up buying a bunch more stuff than usual... I'm not entirely sure why, but even so I still managed to make it all the way around the supermarket and head across the street to grab a few things at Coles in around the same time it would normally take Ma and I just to do the regular supermarket.

Once I got home Ma messaged me letting me know she was on her way, but I still had enough time to put all my groceries away and read the paper before she arrived.

And pretty much as soon as she got here we headed out to Bowerbird Bazaar for some pre-Christmas shopping.

I do love going along, but in a lot of ways I miss the days when less people knew about it and it was in the Old Queens Theatre. Grated there were less stalls then, but it also feels like it was easier to get around. I'm sure I probably complained about the number of people and/or the fact that they don't pay attention back then too.

But other than having to work around clueless folk it was a pretty good trip.

Ma and I only bought a few things... Ma bought me an original piece of art I really liked, I bought her a brooch and we bought a couple of things for Princess T and Miss Oh. We also stopped of at the Four Seeds stall as soon as we saw them to pick up some brownies so we didn't miss out on the flavours we wanted like we did at the last Fork on the Road.

After we'd done a full circuit and backtracked to one or two places we stopped off at Juice Junkies for a beverage and a bit of a sit down. We then went to check out Dough and tried their sourdough and raclette... which is a Swiss chess (not the kind with the holes) that I've never heard of before, but it caught my attention because of the way the cheese was being prepared (as seen on the right)... weird, but very cool.

Turned out to be very tasty too, and not overly oily like a lot of melted cheese can get.

And by that point we were pretty much done. We did take a last look at a couple of things, but nothing really caught our eye, so we headed off.

I do just have to have a little mini-rant about the insanity of whoever is in charge of the Royal Adelaide Showgrounds... they've put ticket machines in for the parking, which I don't have a problem with, but they're the type of tickets where you go to a pay station before you leave, then use the paid ticket to access the exit gate... again, no issue there. No, my issue comes from the fact that the only place it appears you can pay for your ticket is OUTSIDE THE SHOWGROUNDS! There might be pay stations elsewhere, but none that are obvious and right by where all the parking happens. Thankfully I wasn't the only one who could see the insanity in this, and as I was lined up to pay the woman behind me asked the question (a little bit to the universe I think, but I answered her) of who the hell thought it was a good idea, so we had a nice little collective rant.

It's always nice to meet a kindred spirit.

From there we headed off to Big W at Arndale to have a look at the iPhone 5 cases.... Lego iPhone cases. Yeah, that was a gimme really. I'd seen them mentioned online, but I was never sure if they were official Lego products or not, but yep, official logo and everything. Now I just need the phone to go in it.

We also ended up hitting all the "discount" stores looking to see if we could find some plate stands (don't ask), which we found in literally the last place we looked (and yes, I know once you find them you stop looking, but we didn't have anywhere else to look) as well as tracking down half of the present for Ma's work Kris Kringle.

By that point we'd done a lot of wandering, a lot of looking at things, and did I mention a lot of wandering?

So I'm a little bit of a tired bunny now...

Current Mood:

photo friday: riding the wave

It seems like after going through all of the obvious pieces of art I own on Monday, I keep discovering other bits and pieces that I either forgot about or didn't count in the original collection.

That also included finally getting the painting based on one of my Instagram photos on Tuesday morning. Although it caused me some drama and an unexpected additional cost, I have to say that the painting itself is really gorgeous.

I feel like this is the tipping point after which the rest of the year will just feel like it's disappearing at a rate of knots. When I think about it logically it's probably not true... but there are a few things that are happening in the next week or so that I've been looking forward to or that are on my calendar at the very least, and then it's December and there's Christmas trees to trim and goodies to make (although in much smaller quantities and varieties this year), and before you know it, it's Christmas Day... and then a week after that it's 2014.

So, yeah... we're definitely on the downward slide.

And doubly so since the 2014 Adelaide Fringe program gets released online next Friday... It's going to have to be a slightly more restrained version this time, so I'll need to be very strict with my culling.

Coming back to this week though, other than taking lots of photographs of things and catching up on the second season of The Legend of Korra, the only other thing of note was getting my hair did.

Tink and I had an audience for the first half hour of my haircut... Tink Jr. Normally she's in bed by the time I get there, but Tink had let her stay up a little later than usual. And she was fine... she pretty much sat on the couch with her Elmo doll occasionally singing to herself for the first half... and other than some brief whinging when Tink put her to bed there wasn't too much drama.

Other than that the haircut was about the same as usual. Tink cut my hair, we talked a lot of crap, Tink coloured my hair, we talked a lot of crap, we waited for my hair to cook... well, you get the idea.

And at the end it was after 10pm, my hair was short and blonde and we'd talked a lot. So, nothing new there.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and think about the fact we're headed towards the end of the year...

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random haynes hotness

I don't think there really needs to be any excuse for posting photographs of Colton Haynes... I mean c'mon... those eyes, that jawline...

So this week's Random Hotness comes from the recent interview of Colton in Flaunt Magazine, where he was photographed by Eric Ray Davidson.

Current Mood:

my art collection

One of the good things about having time on my hands currently is being able to go down my mental "I'll do that one day when I get around to it" list and checking things off left, right and centre.

From putting together bookcases, to baking cookies, to clearing out excess junk from my apartment... and the latest item was photographing my art collection and creating a blog to house the photos so I can keep track of it all.

And it felt like that was almost all I did yesterday. Granted I didn't start until after 10am when the light in my living room was perfect for taking photos, and it took me a couple of hours to unpack or unwrap or get each individual piece of art in position (and there were a couple that I forgot to do, so I had to add a few more this morning).

Then after lunch I went through and processed all the images, set up a private second blog and spent the whole afternoon going through old blog posts, receipts and the listing of Espionage's former shows so I could get the dates, prices and everything right.

While I said last week, in my post about the aforementioned Espionage's crowdfunding campaign, that I somehow became an art collector without exactly realising it, it isn't until I laid out everything in the blog (and there are four extra pieces that got added this morning) that I really realised how true that is.

Between commercial available prints, limited edition pieces, originals, commissions, vinyl toys and even wearable artworks, the collection runs the gamut of both artists, styles and media. Having said that, both Gary Seaman and Cameron Brideoake feature rather prominently (and I would never have discovered Cameron if it hadn't been for Josh at Espionage).

And interestingly, while I keep thinking that it's all packed away, after a quick head count just now I actually have about half of it out on display. Granted most of the stuff that isn't on display is the big stuff.

It also made me wish I had more than just the one Benzo piece, since that was really the one that started it all.

Current Mood:

seasonal consumerism saturday

Today was a much more productive Saturday than last week.

Although this whole "cleaning" rampage I seem to be on at present isn't good when it means you're standing outside at 6:45am cleaning your windows.

It started because I happened to see a giant spiderweb glinting in the sunlight just outside my front door, went out to knock it down with the broom and realised that the parts of the living room window that wind out (and the piece between them) were more than a little grubby. And before I knew it, there I was with Windex and kitchen towel in hand.

Granted I do still need to clean the top sections and the bottom section, and wash the flyscreens... but the windows are now much easier to see through.

I also dusted my laptop table while I was in the cleaning mood... and Saturday mornings are one of the few times where it's not switched on.

And that was all before I even had a shower.

Once Ma got here the supermarket portion of the morning was about the same as usual... although given that it's a little bit over a month until Christmas I did pick up some Turkish Delight for my annual batch of Rocky Road.

And speaking of the Yuletide season, that was pretty much the plan for today... to head into the city and finish up some bits of Christmas shopping, as well as picking up the vinyl toys from Espionage.

We managed to snag a car park in Hindmarsh Square, even though it did entail doing two loops around the square before we found one... but at least it was nice and close.

First stop was Kmart to return the frame I bought for the Burger Theory postcards, but which had one space too few for said cards, then we went awandering to look at bits and pieces for Christmas presents.

Fortunately we were only looking for a couple of things... or rather things for a couple of people, because as usual Ma didn't really have a plan about the what, only the who. And thankfully we found one of them fairly quickly, mostly by accident.


We also stopped off at Target so Ma could look for a shrug type jacket to go with one of the dresses from last week... which they didn't have, but she ended up trying on a bunch of shoes, looking for something to go with aforementioned dress. We did manage to find her a couple of pairs, although it's always a little bit of an ordeal trying to find shoes she can actually wear.

On the way back up the Mall we stopped in at Optus to find out what the potential wait was on new iPhones since we're both due an upgrade about now (given that it was around this time two years ago we got our current phones), and I figured it would probably be a similar scenario to the previous one given the phones are still relatively new at this point.

And it ended up being almost the exact same situation as last time... the phone Ma wanted (a yellow iPhone 5C) they had in stock, the one I wanted (a black iPhone 5S) they didn't. But the nice girl in the store with the very punk-rock hair assured us they'd be getting some more in in a couple of weeks, so we'll go in at the end of the month and do it then.

I only remembered on the way up to Espionage that the first ever Bicycle Food Court was happening in the laneway outside, so we had a quick look before heading up to see Josh.

It was a much better plan to pick up the vinyl today instead of Thursday, since they were all bagged/boxed up waiting for us, and Josh didn't have to rush around.

We didn't stay too long as he had a workshop about to start, so we headed downstairs for some bicycle foodtruck (foodbike?) goodness before heading back to the car.

We took a detour off to Mile End to pick up a present for Ma's best friend and then called it a day.

Thankfully I don't think we really have all that much Christmas shopping left to do, I mean there will be little bits and pieces, but I have everything I need and I think Ma has pretty much everything, at least other than a few things she can pick up at her shops.

So, yeah... I know I say something similar to this around this time every year, but hopefully that's about it for Christmas shopping, well, other than Bowerbird Bazaar next weekend.

Current Mood:

photo friday: horizon lines

It's been a weird week... not a busy one, just weird.

It started out on Monday night when I suddenly had the desire halfway through Mythbusters to dig out the box of tchotchkes under my bed and go through both that and the box of leftover bits and pieces from when I finished decorating my new bookcases (yeah, I know, I think I've mentioned them like every other post since I put them up).

And I found that a lot of the stuff that I'd put away the first time I no longer had any kind of emotional connection with... or I knew and acknowledged the connection, but really didn't care anymore. So there ended up being a box full of stuff that went away.

That then led, on Tuesday afternoon, to me clearing/cleaning the shelves in the kitchen that also housed a bunch of tchotchkes. And most of those just went straight in the sink to be washed since it was easier than trying to just dust them.

However I'm either generally allergic to dust, or else I may be allergic to the furniture polish stuff that I bought in place of Mr Sheen (I'll be on the lookout for that tomorrow), because I could not stop sneezing... even after I used one of the dust masks AND took some hayfever tablets I found in the medicine cabinet. I sneezed SO much that my whole torso was sore the following day.

Thankfully I improved once I got out of the house, because it's never nice to sneeze your way through a movie.

I only got halfway through clearing up the kitchen though, so I finished that off on Wednesday morning, right after I dragged the seemingly twelve tons of crap out from the courtyard to the front of the apartment block for hard rubbish, including three of my bookcases. When I was done it kind of looked like the entire contents of somebody's apartment, more or less.

Throughout the day at least four or five groups of people showed up to have a rummage through our little collection, and when I checked that evening two of my bookcases had disappeared, along with a few other bits and pieces. So, to whoever took them... enjoy them in good health, they served me well for many, many years.

As for everything else you took... good luck with that, most of it had been out in the rain for a couple of months.

Also on Wednesday I got the physical Lifescouts badges I've been waiting for... while I have 33 badges in total, I've only bothered with a dozen of the real-world badges which are pretty much all my favourites. And thanks to a trip to Officeworks on Monday morning and our last trip to Ikea I managed to frame them up nicely, and with room to expand if I want more.

Thursday I finished the kitchen clean-up by going through the stuff that permanently lives on the end of the kitchen counter and either ditching it or otherwise straightening it up.

I'm getting to the point now where I think about the only place left to go through (other than a revisit to all the papers and whatnots in my bedroom drawers) is the cupboard under the sink, and then I'm pretty much as organised as I'm going to get for a while. Granted I don't think this would have happened quite so quickly had it not been for the fact that I'm not working, but I knew the bookcases would be the tipping point that set all of this stuff in motion.

Halfway through that I got a phonecall from the shipping company I spoke to last week about one of my crowdfunding rewards... I'd seen from the tracking information that the package had cleared customs, so I thought that was that... until the shipping company called me to tell me that because Australian Customs decided they wanted to inspect this package, I was going to be charged for the privilege. To which I say, FUCK YOU CUSTOMS. Especially since the extra charge was actually more than the parcel was worth in the first place.

Sadly there wasn't much I could do about it... so hopefully that's the end of it and I'll get the parcel early next week.

Then Thursday afternoon it was time to head into town to Save Espionage Gallery.

And it's looking good! As of 24 hours since the crowfunding campaign opened, it's currently at 55% and it still has 28 days left, which is all kinds of awesome! But even so... go donate.

It was a great turnout for the opening, Josh and his crew of volunteers were all crazy busy. So much so that I didn't pick up the two vinyl toys from the last show... I'll go back in on Saturday and pick them up then.

I wasn't intending to actually buy any of the artworks, just donate money, but there was one piece that caught my eye and the more I looked at it, the more I loved it, so I went with that and also donated some extra cash online while sitting on the couch in the gallery.

At a certain point I got stuck in a conversation with a somewhat over-eager young lady. I think we had a conversation at Gary's solo show in the middle of last year (at least that's what she said, and I do vaguely remember having the conversation)... but she was a little bit intense, stood a little closer to me than I was completely comfortable with, and was one of those people who keeps the conversation on themselves.

So, yeah... sadly nobody came and saved me... but eventually she saw someone she wanted to harass. I'm sure she's a lovely girl really.

And then today I had my monthly chiro appointment. Which is much less weird, but it did get me out of the house. It was also the first time that I've seen the renovated section of Rundle Mall since it was opened... and I know the intention was to make it seem wider... but damn... I don't know if it's just because all the structures are gone, or if it's something about the colour of the pavers, or even because the Myer Centre has had a makeover to the outer facade which looks really good... but the Mall just seems really, really wide.

Anyway, that's about it for this week...

Current Mood:

random laugher hotness

This week's Random Hotness comes from the world of Olympic diving, by way of British gay magazine Gay Times.

The December issue features pint sized British diver, Jack Laugher (who, for my money beats fellow British diver Tom Daley by leaps and bounds).

The straight, 18 year old, 5'7" Yorkshireman is unsurprisingly at ease in a collection of very brief underwear, and according to the interview has no illusions about his sport's appeal to "middle-aged women, young girls and gay men".

Current Mood:

save espionage gallery

I currently own more than forty pieces of artwork, which makes me an art collector.

And that's not one of those things that I ever thought I would say about myself. I wrote about it at the end of last year, and when I put my new bookcases together I made sure that I kept a space just to show off a small part of my collection.

The reason that I'm now have an art collection is due almost entirely to Espionage Gallery.

From the first time I set foot in the gallery in November 2011 to see the All Stars exhibition I felt right at home, thanks to the wonderful Joshua Smith. On that first trip I spent my entire lunchbreak in the gallery talking to Josh about street art and artists and came away with a handfulof stickers and a desire to return for their next show opening.

Technically that second trip wouldn't happen for another six months for the Limited Edition group print show in April 2012, which is when my art collecting really started.

Since then I've spent a lot of time on the second floor off Lindes Lane, bought a lot of art and had a lot of really great conversations with Josh (and a few with his new offsider Charlie).

And now it needs saving.

I'll let Josh explain a little more...

Hello everyone! It is sad to say but Espionage Gallery Adelaide is under threat of closure. Rising costs including liquor licensing fees is making it very difficult to survive.

To counteract this from happening, local and interstate artists have banded together to help save Espionage from closing by donating works for our Pozible Campaign and exhibition.

The exhibition which launches on November 14th at 6pm at Espionage Gallery will be the start of a month long campaign to try and raise $7000. This money will not only be used for keeping the doors open and to continue helping local emerging artists but to also install a new shop section to the gallery selling prints, vinyl toys, books, t-shirts, jewellery and other assorted items.

For the last 3 years Espionage has helped over 200 artists and showcased over 50 exhibitions. The gallery has helped build many art careers some of which have gone onto big things. If you can, please help by either donating to the cause once the Pozible is launched on the night, attending the opening of the campaign or creating awareness.

Help us to help Adelaide's art community!

Once the Pozible campaign launches tomorrow I'll come back and update this post with the appropriate details. But I'd encourage any of my Adelaide readers to come along tomorrow night and see the gallery for themselves, especially if they haven't been there before.

Contribute to the campaign and help keep the doors open!

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