disappointments and laksa

Well I managed to get over the whole "running behind" thing pretty quickly this morning... I was actually all organised and ready to go out around 10am or so.

I grabbed my camera, cranked up the soundtrack for Little Shop of Horrors on the CD player, and trundled off into town in search of new street art goodies...

Unfortunately the place where I was headed was right near where all the road closures were for the Clipsal 500, and they were still taking everything apart... which made both driving, parking and just generally being a person in the world on those particular streets more difficult than it needed to be.

Anyway, got a park finally, wandered off down an appropriate side alleyway... and... NOTHING!

Big fat hairy scary nothing...

I managed to find the names of everybody involved scrawled on the corner of one of the buildings, and there was a bit of random unattractive tagging here and there... but overall, not a damn thing. Cue big pouty face!

I ended up circling the little maze of alleyways a couple of times, just to make sure I wasn't missing anything... but no, nothing! I have no idea what the hell happened there... maybe it was actually on the grounds of the pub that was promoting the event, maybe it just didn't happen, I have no idea (although I may have to swing past the TS Gallery and ask them!)...

There was this partially constructed or deconstructed building that had a new Benzo piece in it (another tiki face... this time with wings), but the way the light was falling I can't get the photo bright enough in the dark places and stable enough in the light places to do anything with it... so that's going to have to be another trip (maybe on Saturday after my haircut if not before)... but that was it really...

So by the end of my little trip I was slightly overheated (my own fault, I was wearing black), annoyed (partly because my thongs were annoying me and I was wishing I'd put proper shoes on) and was just generally over it.

Luckily as all that was coming to a close, the good bit of the day kicked in.

It's my buddy Stu's birthday today (Happy Birthing Day Stu!), and I sent him a general birthday SMS this morning, which I got a reply to while I was wandering about, and after a bit of first SMS, then voicemail pingpong, we decided to meet up for lunch (fortunately I had enough time to come home, change my top, put some proper shoes on and then go back out again).

I can't remember the name of the place we went (I just looked it up... it's Kopi Tim) ... it's Malaysian food, and they have a $7.90 lunch special of a bunch of different things, one of them being Laksa... and according to Stu, this is supposedly the best laksa in town right at the moment. I will admit, it was a very nice laksa... full of bits and pieces, and two types of noodles (okay, that kinda struck me like they were using up the stuff they had left), it was actually really nice. The decor not so great, but the food was good.

After we'd finished lunch (which, given the size of the bowls took a while anyway) and finished chatting and fiddling with phones, etc, I took Stu for a quick car based tour of some of the bits and pieces of street art I'd found in that general part of town... which was something of a challenge in some cases, because I just couldn't remember where everything was.

There were two particular pieces I was searching for... one being the huge red and black piece with the ladies (not sure I've actually blogged any individual shots of that though, it did show up in a montage though), because I thought Stu would appreciate that... the other being the piece I found before going down to Ma's during pre-Christmas prep...

The red and black ladies are all safely behind a wire fence at the moment... something to do with the Fringe, it's either an event space or something to do with parking, I'm not totally sure...

But the other piece had been removed... boring!

Fortunately the boys just came back and redid something over the top of the quite badly done removal... specifically the King and part of the Pigeon Army in the shots up at the top... along with some more random "subway style" text.

I LOVE Benzo's king though! Very much a playing card king, but I like that style anyway... the only thing that annoys me a little is that I just know that there's a word in the sash across his chest, there seems to be a K and a C, then later on an N and an A... so maybe it's not a word, just somebody's initials...

So I might not have found the new street art I was hoping to find when I went out this morning, but I did end up finding some new stuff anyway...

Current Mood:

unconscious mutterings 264

I'm SOOOOO running behind myself this morning... I was up late last night because I got on the trail of some new work by an artist I quite like and didn't end up getting to bed until about 1am... then I slept right through my alarm at 6am (or woke up enough to switch it off, but have no memory of doing so)... and woke up just before 7am...

Hopefully this doesn't mean I'll be playing catch-up all day... I hate those days...

But enough about me... let's talk Unconscious Mutterings...

1. Protocol :: Droid (I've been watching the newer Star Wars movies this past week)


2. Girlfriends :: Boyfriends


3. Shoulders :: Reconstruction


4. Coming home :: Quiet


5. Let it in :: Peace


6. Honor :: Klingon


7. Tyler :: Durden (it's a Fight Club thing)


8. Thriller :: Michael Jackson (unfortunately)


9. Angela :: 's Ashes


10. The winner is :: Sid-en-ey (thank you Mr Olympics Man)

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some sunday shopping

After doing a vast amount of not very much yesterday (there did end up being a visit to the sauna, but it wasn't anything to write home about... or more accurately blog about, since that's not the type of story I'm really going to write home about... now, where was I?) today wasn't any different than a typical Saturday... except that it was a Sunday...

The main downside of which is that the shops don't open until 11am... rude! Okay, maybe not rude exactly, I'm just happy that things are actually open, but it's still a bit annoying.

We didn't really do anything much different than usual as far as the whole Supermarketness is concerned... I mean maybe I bought a few more things than I usually would have, but I was suffering from a severe lack of food items by the time we got to this morning... so much so that my breakfast choices were reduced to either chocolate or jelly (jello)... sad really... tasty, but sad...

Then we headed into the city to take a look at the Rundle Street Markets and drop into Borders and a couple of other bits and pieces, none of them terribly exciting.

I will say though that The Gays were out in force today... I don't know if it was because it's a Sunday, or because the Fringe is on, or what, but even at the Supermarket they seemed to be coming out (no pun intended) of the woodwork... from the guy working at the chemist to two baby emo gays (or "bubee emo'mo" as I christened them) in Starbucks they just seemed to be everywhere. Not that that's a bad thing... just interesting.

There were also a large number of stupid people out... so maybe it's just that there were a lot of people out and about, I dunno...

Oh, and as much as I like the Festival and the Fringe, the one thing I hate about this time of year are the overly perky and annoying buskers... partly because they're overly perky and annoying, but also because they just take up huge amounts of space and end up with big crowds around them and just basically get in the way. I don't have a problem with people unless they happen to be in my way or otherwise interfering in my general sense of peace and wellbeing.

We stopped off to see the guy who makes the little dragons and other mythological things because he'd had some seahorse style dragons (or dragon style seahorses, I'm not sure which) last time... but he only had one left and Ma wasn't nuts about it. When I chatted with him last time I commented that he should try making some little mice/rats (he had some little pigs that made me think of the Chinese horoscope, and since this is the Year of the Rat)... turns out that he took that idea and ran with it in a slightly different direction, made a scorpion (for Scorpio) and it sold really quickly...

And because we started later than we usually would, the whole day seemed to really fly by at a rate of knots, and before we knew it places seemed to be packing up and getting ready to close.

Also, as I speak Benzo, Jules, Store and friends (eleven of them in all) are winding down a Fringe sponsored street art session in town, which Store actually mentioned when we were in the gallery. I did think about swinging past while we were out and just seeing what they were up to, but for whatever reason that just seemed weird (even though it was an official "event" and showed up in a flyer I got in the mail late last week)... so I'll toddle off into town tomorrow and photograph it while it's really fresh which will be cool.

Oh, and in the realm of minor freakouts... TWO WEEKS UNTIL SYDNEY! I had a minor "out of body" experience on Friday night when I caught the end of the SBS news showing some ocean liner (Queen Victoria?) coming into Sydney Harbour... I thought, wow, not long until I'm going to be standing right down there near the Bridge and the Opera House... freaky... cool, but slightly freaky...

Current Mood:

driveshaft rocks

Which Lost Character Are You?



Created by BuddyTV

Current Mood:

what to do

Good gods I hate having to change my routine...

And by the looks of things, it's going to be about a month before the regular Saturday morning routine returns completely. This week Ma is off to the undisclosed beachside location she takes off to occasionally... next week I have my pre-Sydney haircut ("somewhat blonde and nicely gay thanks!")... the week after is Ma's pre-Sydney haircut (they were supposed to be the same morning to make things easier, but then Tink had to go and take a week off and move my appointment)... then there's Sydney (although that's during the week, not over the weekend)... then there's the weekend after we get back, which may or may not involve shopping, because we talked about doing that on the Friday when we get home.

So I'm a whole world of "hmmm, yes, well... what now?" today...

Add to that the whole world of slight background growling from the Clipsal 500 cars that I can hear occasionally and the roar of planes that are probably something to do with the race too, since they're louder than the usual plane noise... not to mention the fact that I could hear the Clipsal post race concert and/or the Fringe opening party last night when the wind was blowing in just the right direction (really weird... sometimes it sounded like it was happening just down the block, other times you couldn't hear it at all). And since Ma and I were planning to go into town tomorrow after a much later Sunday shopping adventure, that could be a whole world of both interesting and really frustrating... what with the possibility of stupid amounts of people (or amounts of stupid people, either way really)... which I always love and adore... NOT!

It's also weird right at the moment... I'm half chatting with a guy who is probably going to model for me (and who I first had a conversation with on the same topic back in, I think, 2003... but then nothing came of it). But maybe I'm just over this whole thing of taking portrait photos, or maybe it's just that I've had a vast number of these conversations over the years that never lead anywhere, but I'm somewhat blah about the whole thing. I mean if it all comes together that's good... but I can't say I'm that excited about the idea.

Maybe it's just because I'm over people in general (okay, massive overexaggeration), or because nobody (with the exception of Fox) has made any sort of query about photos in the longest time (damn you easily available digital cameras!) or because this particular model has asked me the same question about 110 different ways (which basically amounts to whether or not his virtue is going to be safe with me if he takes off all his clothes... which is fine if you just ask the once, but asking a variety of questions on the same theme, when all the answers are basically the same is both presumptive and slightly insulting... and he may have to be told in a second... grrrrr...

And if the weather wasn't quite so windy and slightly chilly I might go out for a bit, but I'm not overly thrilled about that idea... doesn't mean it won't happen, but it doesn't strike me as a great plan just at the moment.

I'm also trying to decide if a visit to the sauna might be on the cards for this afternoon/evening... I mean, on the upside there will be a number of tourists in town currently for various reasons, so it could be jumping... however there could be a lack of parking spaces given the number of people running around the place... and it is a full moon this weekend, which usually, for whatever reason, puts my mind in that general kind of mode... and I also had it in the back of my mind that it might be a good idea to "get it out of the way" (which I don't mean the way it sounds, but I can't think of a better phrase right at the moment) before my trip. I dunno...

That does seem to be my theme for today actually... "I dunno"... I dunno much of anything really today.

Current Mood:

photo friday: miserablism

Now, I'm not quite sure what "miserablism" might be... but I'll go along with the "down with it" sentiment (especially since I seem to suffer from it from time to time)... I also like the added little sarcastic comment at the bottom... "No, I'm too sad"...

Although this is in a speech bubble, I don't think it was actually pointing to anything, which is kinda weird... almost like the building was talking.

I'm having one of those days right at the moment... maybe it's a Friday thing, that whole "can Friday be over now" thing... I dunno... but, yeah...

Current Mood:

random wannabe hotness

Today's Random Hotness is an ad for Patrick Cox Wannabe shoes, as shot by David Lachapelle... as found on the French blog L'Homme Est Un Concept yesterday (which I found because suddenly I started getting a ton of hits from the site)...

You just have to love an ad for shoes where the very last thing you look at in the image is actually the product... but hell... cute, blonde, mostly naked... what do I care about his shoes! *grin*

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a meme about blogging

I haven't done a meme in a while, and I picked this up somewhere during a Google search...

1. Do you promote your blog?
   Not really... I leave comments on other people's blogs, but I've noticed that kinda like some out of control science experiment, once you register your blog with a couple of "blogging list" sites, it has a tendency to just turn up in people's blogrolls all on it's own.



2. How often do you check hits?
   Just once a day, in the mornings when I do all my regular surfing. It's even better now that I started using Google Analytics (thank you J!), since I get that running total thing.



3. Do you stick to one topic?
   Hell no... I sometimes can't even stick to one topic within a single blog post.



4. Who knows that you have a blog?
   Ummmm... the people who read it? If you're talking about people from "my real life"... then none of the do really... well, J does now, but he only knows that it exists, not anything else.



5. How many blogs do you read?
   About eighteen a day... well, I look at eighteen of them, whether or not they've been updated it another matter.



6. Are you a fast reader?
   I would say so...



7. Do you customise your blog or do anything technical?
   Well, I took one of the standard blogger templates apart and put it back together again into my template, so I would say that that counts on both of those questions.



8. Do you blog anonymously?
   Yeah... I guess if you knew me really well AND read my blog you could easily connect the two, but I tend to like to section of both my online and offline activities, but also various parts of my online existance.



9. To what extent do you censor yourself?
   Not a whole hell of a lot. I'll sometimes leave some of the finer details of certain situations out (things of a sexual nature), since I'm not really THAT kind of blogger (plus I don't have enough sex to be)... but I find that I tend to censor myself more when it comes to leaving comments on other people's blogs... there are things I could say, but sometimes I just wonder "what's the point" or can't think of a way to say it so that it doesn't sound like I'm saying "well, aren't you just an idiot".



10. The best thing about blogging?
    The people. Which sounds weird, given that blogging is something that you do all on your ownsome... but there are some really nice fellow bloggers I've "met" doing this.
    

Current Mood:

bots

Hmmm... maybe there's some sort of robotic theme going on in my head this week... droids on Sunday... Benzobots today...

Two very different styles of Benzobot though... the, somewhat rare, big rounded version (which, thanks to the way the light is falling, seems to have a three dimensional belly button) and the more refined Big Red Bot (and I would have shot the WHOLE bot, but there was a car right in my way). Actually I'd seen the BRB on a bunch of other sites but didn't have any idea where it was until the Sunday before last.

There also seems to be something about the bots and doorways... not always filling up the entire width of the door, but just within that smaller and more defined "canvas".

Current Mood:

unconscious mutterings 263

I think the hot weather has melted my brain a little... roll on Tuesday evening and the cool change! Until then... Unconscious Mutterings...

1. Passport :: Jayistan (I blame the Triple J Breakfast Team for this one)


2. Small world :: After all


3. Radio :: Frequency


4. Marine :: One (and I blame 7 seasons of The West Wing for this one)


5. Wall :: Berlin


6. Wanna be :: Real


7. Pigtails :: Little girl


8. Hyphen :: ated


9. 9.99 :: Book buy nine ninety five (this one has a story, which I don't think I've ever blogged about)


10. Unrated :: Movie

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