The Boar's Bite

Vatsyayana ... his list of kisses included The Balanced Kiss (kisses on the curve between the breasts), The Forcible Kiss (kisses implanted on the breasts), and The Chaste Kiss (kisses given from the breast downwards to the waist). While among his recipes for erotic 'scratching and biting' is The Boar's Bite:

'the most appropriate portions of a the body for this type of biting are the female breasts and shoulders. A small portion of the skin of the breast or shoulder is held between the teeth and chewed, and then another portion is taken, and so on, leaving a long, unbroken line of red stain.'

Commenting on the violence of The Boar's Bite, one authority notes in the most charming and matter-of-fact way that for obvious reasons this particular bite should be strictly avoided 'when dealing with virgins or other people's wives...'

-- Mervyn Levy The Moons Of Paradise

Excuse Me, I Think Your Act Is Dead

'DeadAct.com is an online archive of videos found in the public domain that show electronic performers blatantly faking their "live set". To qualify as a Dead Act, the performer must have pre set out their performance in such a way that if they were to drop dead, the set would keep playing on as normal. Bonus points for fake knob tweaking, failed attempts to play real instruments , and good orgasm faces. email me - deadact@gmail.com! ....Do they think we're stupid?'

Nerd Is The Word

Don't quote me, but its possible, just ever-so-HUGELY, that I have worked out where to locate my theory and methodology in the thesis. Pretty much where most people would suggest, but as I tend to work in a non-linear, circular, rambling, fluid, contradictory way, it has taken me a while to make sense of it in terms of my own project.

And I may even have a few ideas on WHAT my theory and methodology is! Wooohoo!

Just don't ask me for my THESIS yet.

Zoo-Mobile

Sometimes the comfort of a room
Sometimes I'm quite alone
I pack to leave a foreign town
It seems I'll never know

But I'll rent new accomodation
We'll make plans for mobile homes

Slow boats moving with the tide
Drifting far from shore
It's the nature of this country life
I've never known before
Still we'll make plans for buildings and houses
From mobile homes

Plant life
My life
Still life in mobile homes
Plant life
My life
Still life in mobile homes

The sound of wildlife fills the air
So calm and dry
The bushland burns in this southern heart
Like an open fire

Still we'll make plans for buildings and houses
From mobile homes...mobile homes

-- Japan 'Still Life In Mobile Homes'

I began the year in London, returning to Aus via Sweden, San Fran and New York. I stayed with my folks, couch-surfed, found a home that seemed to offer some stability, was thrown out of that home in a matter of months, couch-surfed some more, house-sat, and then moved to Perth, with two trips back east so far and another in less that three weeks.

Some days I feel like the eye of a storm.

Ghosts

When the room is quiet
The daylight almost gone
It seems there's something I should know
Well, I ought to leave
But the rain it never stops
And I've no particular place to go

Just when I think I'm winning
When I've broken every door
The ghosts of my life
Blow wilder than before
Just when I thought I could not be stopped
When my chance came to be king
The ghosts of my life
Blew wilder than the wind...

-- Japan 'Ghosts'

If I remember correctly, one horoscope for this year advised that I would/should be tying up loose ends, putting the past in the past, that kind of theme. Its almost December, and I do believe it was right. I have done a lot work on getting out of bad loops with partners, booze, destructive 'friends', and other unhelpful behaviors throughout 2008. Still have the odd panic, and self-defeating pattern of thinking, but feel I have been forming productive partnerships with the ghosts of my past.

Syn City, Without The Syn

But with plenty of other fun! Highlights of the past 9 days:
* Film shoot with Necrotitties, Mimoiselle and the Naughty Nurse
* Art show and dinner with the delicious Y-- mentor, muse and mate
* Spending a lovely evening at Madame's new apartment, with piles of Mexican food, a darling Darkling, Mayhem on the telly, a walk by the bay, falling asleep reading Winterson and waking to coffee and a nice walk through Darlingithurts
* Catching up with a long-lost mate (as in, 15 years or so lost) at Coogee and spending a few hours swimming in seawater and sunning ourselves before sitting in the park with a big soy smoothie
* SO MUCH quality family time! Cable and Coco Pops, cuppas and cuddles and couch-sleeping! BBQ at my bros, my mam's birthday celebrations, and lots of chilling out and chatting. Yay!
* Kooky, of course
* High tea at the Sheraton with my mam and my aunt
* The usual catch-up coffee with Schwee, and seeing Biggles for a bit
* Uni stuff-- paper and review went well, and came back 'home' with tons of new ideas, and printed matter to engage with, and perhaps a new way of structuring the tome
* Random retail adventures: fairy lights, wig, another hula skirt, big black swooshy skirt that makes impressive rustling sounds when walking etc
* Beer and coffee with This Charming Man-- sweet!
* Just being out and about, wandering King St almost amazed at just how many freaks there are back east! I mean, you know, tattoos and piercings and silly haircuts and op-shop chic (not vintage) and scruffy anarchy and the general air of trashiness and sweat. Felt right at home!
* Monster waiting for me at the gate, and me sniffing behind her ear and cuddling up to her all night...

There's More To Life Than Books You Know

‘Book-learning is a weak substitute for the stench and frustration of the laboratory, just as art history of a meager reading of pictures unless it is based on actual work in the studio. To a non-painter, oil paint is uninteresting and faintly unpleasant. To a painter, it is the life's blood: a substance so utterly entrancing, infuriating, and ravishingly beautiful that it makes it worthwhile to go back into the studio every morning, year after year, for an entire lifetime’

– James Elkins (2000:5)

Excess Art

To make oneself into a work of art is in a sense the only response to an imminent and ridiculous redundancy of the specific forms of the body; and to make oneself into a work of art (as Nietzsche and, following him, Michel Foucault suggest) is not to simply aestheticize life, to dandify it, or to make oneself into an object or spectacle for the artistic investigation of others. It requires living one's life and one's body in excess of what is required-- in excess of discipline and even in excess of aesthetics.
To live one's life as a work of art is, among other things, to once again return to one's body as the site and source, the origin of pleasure and productivity and to utilize it differently, to move and act in ways other than those that have habitually confined us. Acting differently also leads to being acted on differently-- to sense differently, developing each sense beyond its usual biological reach and inquiring into the limits and transformability of biology itself. Developing alternatives-- synesthetically cross-mapping the senses onto each other, sensing differently, using the senses in terms of the range and scope of the other senses, exploring how each sense functions or is capable of functioning quite differently from its assumed and normalized role. To develop these alternatives is inherently invested in artistic activity. It is to render the body differently in representation, for representation is, as I have argued, almost a second skin, a diaphanous sheathing for bodies that transforms what the body is and does. It is looking good in both senses-- looking at something well (outside the domain or order of the gaze) and being looked at, as well.

-- Elizabeth Grosz, Naked (2006: 200)

Hanging On

It is often as though the skin were dramatising the primary significance of the word 'bear'. In much sadomasochistic practice and imagery, there is an obsessive interplay between the attack on shape carried out through the use of weights, or objects hung from the skin in order to distress and distort its contours, and the display of the skin's reassuring capacity to support weight. The skin bears weight as its owner bears suffering. In one ritual practiced by masochistic performance artist Bob Flanagan, a third meaning was enacted: he hung plastic babies from hooks in his skin, as a way of demonstrating the enforced bearing of children (1993: 61). Hanging objects from one's skin seems to reduce one's skin to an object, merely fleshly stuff to be played with at will and without mercy. But to hang yourself from your skin, or, as we might say, in a small but prepositional shift, by your skin, as practised, for example, by the self-modifying performance artist Stelarc, who hung himself high in the air through hooks in his skin, is to reduce yourself to the condition of object, or mere mass or weight. The hung person is of course reduced to an object, a mere carcass. They are wholly vulnerable and available. But they are also supported, borne up by the mortification they elect to have to bear. Suspension gives a curious compensatory sense of protection. Language gives us another literalisation here; of the person in the appalling condition, it must be said that they literally depend on their own skin.

— Steven Connor, ‘Mortification’ (2001: 44)

Two-Pussies For The Price Of One

I leave Perth for TWO seconds and look what they get up to!

From SMH:

'A two-faced kitten born in Western Australia yesterday is still in good health this morning, amid rumours its tale has been snapped up exclusively by Today Tonight.
The kitten was being closely monitored after its birth, but was back in the care of its owner this morning, a spokeswoman for Swan Veterinary Clinic said.The kitten was "still alive and going well'', she said. The kitten's mother was taken to the Swan Veterinary Clinic after suffering complications while in labour...There were three kittens born in the litter, but just one was left with such a unique deformity. The kitten eats out of just one mouth because of a cleft palate, but both mouths meow simultaneously.'

My Stars This Week

Free Will Astrology... apt as ever!

CAPRICORN [December 22–January 19] Long-time conservative writer Christopher Buckley, son of right-wing icon William F. Buckley, voted for Obama. Though he was once a speech writer for John McCain, Buckley was aghast at how the presidential campaign unfolded. "I didn't leave the Republican Party," he said. "The Republican Party left me." I urge you to be alert for a comparable development in your own life, Capricorn. A group whose ideals you have held dear may be changing right in front of your eyes.

AQUARIUS [January 20–February 18] "Never keep up with the Joneses," counseled author Quentin Crisp. "Drag them down to your level. It's cheaper." But I don't recommend that approach, Aquarius. To do so would be as big a waste of your energy as trying to match the consumerist folly of the Joneses. The same holds true about any situation in which you're tempted to compete for status with people whose values aren't very deep: It's crazy to get obsessed with wanting to either be like them or to drag them down. Try to carve out an independent path without indulging in envy, hatred, or superiority.

Birthday, Party

Many of you know that I am named in honour of a Birthday Party Song, Zoo Music Girl. Used to be an obsessive Nick Cave fan, and he still warms my cockles somewhat. And he is playing over here, at the Belvoir Ampitheatre ON MY BIRTHDAY! Tickets booked, and Zoo happy :)

Can I Get A Witness?

Just had one of those religious cult types at my door, trying to sell me his God. Told him I didn't need or want his God or his religion, as it was the same one that caused my mate's parents to try to murder her when she was younger. He scuttled off down the path telling me I had it all wrong, and they were peaceful people. Hmm. He wouldn't stay around to debate it at all, not for a moment, which just made me very cross and want to chase him for some sort of ANSWERS.

Still, it annoys me that I am so SHAKY after encounters like that. Like the Devil himself just came knocking at the door, I just feel unclean and somehow unsafe and grateful that THIS TIME they didn't win and take my soul. And that somehow the fact they have rattled me means that they DO win just a little bit?

Note to self: make NO JUNK RELIGION sign for the door.

LIMINAL: DIABETICS + ARSENIC

This exhibition presents a body of work that has been developed at the threshold of art and science. Leah Heiss has spent the past 10 months working with nanotechnologists to develop wearable artworks that address the emotional in therapeutic design. The outcome is a collection of jewellery scale artefacts and vessels which are both delicate yet compelling in their curative applications.

Two primary collections will be exhibited during liminal: diabetes + arsenic. Diabetes is a range of jewellery which allow insulin to be administered through the skin, replacing syringes. Arsenic encompasses a series of vessels which act to remove arsenic from water and are designed for people travelling through areas where arsenic is prevalent in well water (e.g. India, Bangladesh, United States).

Until 22 November, Monday – Friday, 11 am - 5 pm, Saturday, 2 pm – 5 pm RMIT Gallery, 344 Swanston Street, Melbourne. For more information, contact (03) 9925 1717 or email: rmit.gallery@rmit.edu.au or go to www.rmit.edu.au/rmitgallery

The Eyes Have It

The SMH, again:

A San Francisco artist wants to replace her missing eyeball with a video camera to record her life. Tanya Vlach, who lost one eye in a car accident, asked engineers through her blog to build her a miniature webcam that could adjust to different lighting and focus as she wished. She's also requested the bionic eye be Bluetooth capable, have a 3X optical zoom, have a slot for a 4GB SD card, and be able to take still photos. Vlach told the New York Daily News the eyecam would let her record her entire life or shoot a reality TV show from her perspective. Tech experts contacted by the Daily News said much of the technology needed for Vlach's bionic eye already exists, and she says she has received emails from dozens of engineers eager to help.

Fairy Lights

If anyone sees any fairy lights with battery packs for sale, can you let me know? Need some for an outfit...

Dance Your PhD!

Call to Scientists: 'Dance Your Ph.D.'

Stir-crazy doctoral students who want diversions from their dissertations have a new option: “Dance Your Ph.D.” The American Association for the Advancement of Science is sponsoring the project, a contest inspired by a wildly successful one last year at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology, in Vienna. “The human body is an excellent medium for communicating science — perhaps not as data-rich as a peer-reviewed article, but far more exciting,” says the contest’s Web site. This year’s “Dance Your Ph.D.” is open to anyone with or in pursuit of a Ph.D. in science or related fields, according to the AAAS. All contestants must upload to YouTube a video of a dance performance depicting their research. So far, there’s some stellar lindy hop and elegant ballet.

In one video, a woman in fringed bell-bottoms hula-hoops with fire to Dead or Alive’s “You Spin Me Round.” It’s a fresh take on “Hydrodynamic Trail Detection in Marine Organisms,” Christin Murphy’s dissertation at the University of South Florida. Lara Park, of Tufts University, was delighted to choreograph her research on “the role of folate in epigenetic regulation of colon carcinogenesis.” Once she heard about the contest, Ms. Park, a lifelong dancer and nutritional biochemist, says she “didn’t stop thinking about it.”

In her number, dancers representing DNA unwind their bodies to be transcribed. But alas, a diet deficient in folate — a vitamin found in leafy greens — inhibits that process, as dancers hold tight back bends over those in the role of DNA. In the end, the chaotic crowd congeals into a large tumor. Ms. Park, who made the video in two hours, says dance can “improve how people understand some of these concepts.” The idea is similar to the choreographer Liz Lerman’s “nonfiction dancing” and the explanation of research at the Large Hadron Collider, set to a rap beat, that was posted last summer on YouTube. Just a few days remain to “Dance Your Ph.D.” On Monday a panel of judges will name four winners. Each will have the chance to work with professional dancers to present an original work at the AAAS’s annual meeting, in February. —Sara Lipka

Did I Mention...

that we now have a FUNCTIONING SPA??? woohooooooo! bubbles! so many bubbles!

Very Dead Parrots

From SMH today:

"I'll tell you what's wrong with it. It's dead, that's what's wrong with it." For those who believe the ancient Greeks thought of everything first, proof has been found in a 4th-century AD joke book featuring an ancestor of Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch in which a man returns a parrot to a shop, complaining it is dead.
The 1600-year-old work entitled Philogelos: The Laugh Addict, one of the world's oldest joke books, features a joke in which a man complains that a slave he has just bought has died, its publisher says."By the gods," answers the slave's seller. "When he was with me, he never did any such thing!"

In the Monty Python sketch, first aired in 1969 and regularly voted one of the funniest ever, the pet-shop owner says the parrot, a "Norwegian blue", is not dead, just "resting" or "pining for the fjords".The English-language book will appeal to those who swear that the old jokes are the best ones. Many of its 265 gags will seem strikingly familiar, suggesting that sex, dimwits, nagging wives and flatulence have raised laughs for centuries.

In many of the jokes, a slow-witted figure known as the "student dunce" is the butt of the jokes. In one, the student dunce goes to the city and a friend asks him to buy two 15-year-old slaves. "No problem," responds the dunce. "If I don't find two 15-year-olds, I'll get one 30-year-old." In another, someone asks to borrow the student's cloak to go down to the country. "I have a cloak to go down to your ankle, but I don't have one that reaches to the country," he replies. The manuscript is attributed to a pair of ancient comedians named Hierocles and Philagrius. Little is known about them except that they were most likely the compilers of the jokes, not the original writers. The multi-media e-book, which can be purchased online (www.yudu.com/oldestjokebook), features veteran comedian Jim Bowen, 71, reviving the lines before a 21-century audience. "Jim Bowen brings them back from the dead. It's like Jurassic Park for jokes," Richard Stephenson, CEO of digital publisher YUDU, said in a statement. For Bowen, much of the material seemed very familiar: "One or two of them are jokes I've seen in peoples' acts nowadays, slightly updated: they put in a motor car instead of a chariot."

Pass The Butchy To The Left Hand Side

Yesterday we went a-walking to fetch the Sunday paper and take in some fresh air. I was in faded camos and a shaved head and a Mr B shirt, prompting Monster to turn to me and tell me I was hot when I was butch.

In reply, I turned and skipped with delight across the verge, and probably blushed a little. At least I stifled the squeal.

One More Sleep

Until I get on that plane heading east, and I am excited and silly at the thought of seeing my family and all my mates and the harbour and my library and dancing at Kooky and maybe getting to the women's pool and eating dumplings and going to the markets and...

I miss Monster already. Smitten. Absolutely smitten.

Perth-- More Good Stuff

Now I feel ungracious and ungrateful and like an awfully bad guest to be whingeing so much about my current hometown. Its been good to me, mostly, and hey, what is the point of travel if you are just looking for the same thing in a different town? Etc.

So, here be a list of things that have made me deliriously happy:

* Spare Puppets Theatre's version of The Arrival (Shaun Tan), which we went and saw last night in Freo. And Monster's cheekbones in the half-light...
* The Spa works! And we had a lovely long soak and wine and nangs the other night. Yummy.
* Sweet Lips in Freo's wonderful salt and pepper squid.
* Tinderbox products. Bless those hippies!
* ArtRage was goodly, for a sort of community-friendly slightly quirky art festival with a focus on cute things for people with line drawings of big-eyed dolls on their tshirts, girls with long-hair and mildly interesting shoes and their slightly mussy-haired boyfriends who probably play in a bad band. Inoffensive for the most part, in small doses, with the odd moment of joy, like Silent Disco and The Booth.
* I have a lovely study now that I have tidied it up, with the sun coming in the window and the kittens frolicking just outside and a big bookshelf full of
* The libraries at UWA and ECU have so many books that I have never come across anywhere else! Milkiness in many varied forms. And the one at UWA has a CAFE on the lower floor. Perfect.
* SymbioticA, as mentioned many times before, just blows my mind and makes me reconsider where I fit into, or if I fit into, the academic schema, in very good ways.
* Quirky new artsy folk to play with, and make stuff with. New role as Muse/Model.
* Pride festival, parade and afterparty.
* Wombling for magical items the street fairies have left. Everyone does it, and we picked up two fabulous bar chairs this morning on the way back from our walk. Yay!
* Satisfying maternal urges the true lesbian way by having cats and playing with them and feeding them and cuddling them even when they resist and being their step-mummy in some co-parenting arrangement.
* Morning Monster Walkies.

Hmm, guess its not too bad somehow *shrug*.

TRASHLESS PERTH PANIC *REPRISE*

thankyou all so much for you empathy, sympathy and offerings!

not quite sure what has got into me lately, more often i am admiring the pace of proceedings in Perth... and its not quite REGIONAL i suppose, but... oh, I DO MISS THE BRIGHT LIGHTS! and even the smaller stuff that comes from having your own crew, whatever the city: strolling down King St on the way home from Uni and stopping by the Newtown or Varga Bar and catching up with whoever is around for early dinner/coffee and cake/beer etc... I could survive most of the time without the BIG stuff if the little stuff was here, the smaller day-to-day interactions that add up to the bulk of one's socialising and just make things more PLEASANT... bbqs, picnics, drinking in the backyard, DVD nights, impromptu meals and blow-up pools and beach trips and people just dropping by... i long for my TRIBE!

sure things happens here, and I do get the OCCASIONAL invite, but its not the way I am used to living, this sort of locked-up-at-home-with-occasional-venturings-into-the-NIGHTLIFE type of reality.

hmm, time to gather my sensible head and stop being a drama queen and remind myself of what i love about Perth. i love her wide open spaces, her tiny little city skyline, the way time seems to stretch out forever, the fact that if you missed something (fashion/musical genre/play) its probably still/just available here, the peaceful river(no ferries really, or any other boats), wildflowers, freemantle, kings park, zoo (the club), cheap theatre, friendly folk... and most of all, time spent with Monster. Doing ANYTHING-- frolicking, washing up, renovating, watching telly, cuddling, playing with the kittens, hanging out in the spa, making shows, general pottering. LOVE HER TO BITS!

Another Displaced Sydneysider Rant

Oh Mayhem, how I miss you! From your blog, this description of Smellbourne made me giggle very very much, and get even MORE homesick! And try to resign myself to the total beige of Perthern Suburbia, after all, I'm writing up a tome to and the lack of bright/shiny/sparkly/vibrant/pulsating/breathing/trashy/exuberant persons and activities is a GOOD thing as far as that is concerned. Now, your recollection:

'...watching the audience members enter - and witness ALL THE ART ACADEMICS WEARING BLACK. I don't just mean the odd pair of faded jeans, a t-shirt, or a jacket - but the fully fledged raven look; muted hair, tailored flowing robes of fine light absorbing garments around the small wraith like forms of the females, and impeccably tailored, impeccably noir shirts and jeans for the menfolk. I'd joked about this in sydney - washing out the last of the orange dye from my hair, and buying a black leather jacket - but here confronted with a monochrome swarm of screaming class conformity I shuddered and quickly slunk out the back of the lecture theatre.....

Such traumas make it a bit hard to stay motivated for my tome completion - but that's what i'm here for - the final sweaty slog of editing, reshaping, structuring...... all in the absence of distraction from teaching, parties or bright colours......

I went and bought bright pink curtains for the study.'

So far I have just shaved my head, and am in the process of working on a garbage bag and gaffa tape ensemble for tonight's clubbing venture. Ah, Sydney on Wednesday!
----
Sod it, scrolling through more Mayhem and came across these snippets and she sums things up so much better than I ever could sometimes, so here they are! Also, I am laughing so hard that I am literally crying and can't do much more than cut and paste through the tears:

'Sometimes I think it would be nice if writing wasn't so bloody INTENSE.

I had a vague hope that doing a tome would force me to be less insane about writing and my undergraduate habits of procrastinating into a feverish wallow of self loathing before bursting into a mad-panic flight of adrenalin fueled insanity - would be resolved... and I'd become one of those earnest dogged rational types.......

I mean wallow/panic/boom/bust/collapse cycle works well for 1500 word rants - but not for 90 000 words surely..... alas - and this is a very sorry admission....... It hasn't changed - just intensified........ My mental "sound bytes" now consist of 10 000 word chunks - imagined in an instant and executed in a sleepless sweaty mania......

I eat too much, don't move, don't wash, grunt at Renaissance girl and trip over the cat......

Having realised that writing is rewarding but insane unhealthy and unsustainable, I'm kind of wondering what I should take up next as a rational form of income sustenance........'

and
'I've been faffing around in extremis dodo avoiding writing up/reediting/amending some article that I wrote AGES ago for some publication.... and I've gone beyond a point of such abject stupidity where I can't even write a sentence and I've been facebooking myself stupid, and sewing gratutious vulvas (Last night it was gratuitous pink & silver Kylie minogue faggot vulvas in tribute to the repressed selves of Jake and Ines coz we were watching Brokeback Mountain) and indulged EVERY SINGLE eating disorder I can mention (icecream, tim-tams, cheese singles, cheese spread, peanut butter on toast, dahl, duck, 2minutes noodles, brown rice, finnish licorice, wasabi peas, blueberries, silverbeet, etc... etc... etc......

and I haven't seen any art, and I haven't done any exercise, and I haven't done any writing, and I didn't go to reclaim the night, and I haven't had any beer, and I haven't seen any friends except that one friend I randomly ran into by chance, and I'm got the PERFECT PLACE to work hard and not be distracted.... but fuck o fuck - life sans horror crises pressure is..... WHAT?'

TRASHLESS PERTH PANIC *RANT*

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh! I just got sent an invitation to yet ANOTHER extraordinary party happening in Sydney when I am not there, and have almost lost the plot. Of course they are hiring a dirty rundown sports club, of course my mates are DJing, of course people will be super-dressed up and dancing til the wee small hours JUST BECAUSE THERE ARE BIRTHDAYS. Of course its the same weekend that my other mates, a perverted body piercer and one of the freakiest queerest performance artistes I have ever encountered, are having their housewarming party. Of course.

Monster just pointed out that 'its going to be a long summer' and I daresay she is right. I don't know m/any real trash bags here. I have nobody to play with really, people all go home early, can't go out on schoolnights blah blah blah. Outside of 4 hours of Zoo per week, there are NO queer happenings. We have NO queer performance art that I have encountered (with the exception of Stryker and myself). There are a few drag queens, like Kylie-lip-syncing, and that's about it! I have heard RUMOURS of long ago when folk had orgies in spas and took lots of chemicals and slutted about and... well, think the horse has bolted on that! Everyone has bloody mortgages and sensible haircuts and proper jobs and can barely muster the energy have a beer at the bloody COURT once a month...

Hmm. What to do? Be grateful for the time I DO have in Sydney, enjoy the civilised adventures of Perth (wildflowers, museums, art, quiet bars and laughing at the beige and bogan), make the most of Zoo, try to instigate some sort of PULSE and be grateful for the time I get to chill out and write my thesis without the worry of a potential hangover. SIGH.

Oh, and PLAY PARTIES! I almost forgot play parties! Like, queer ones, not just icky sticky swingers in bad PVC. Damn!

Somatechnics Conference 2009 *Call For Papers*

Usually a very interesting conference, for a number of reasons. Me certainly not presenting at this one due to PhD/life commitments, but I'll be attending for sure.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Fifth International Somatechnics Conference: The Technologisation of Bodies and Selves

Call for papers: Abstracts are invited for an international conference to be held in Sydney, Australia, on April 16th-18th 2009. Abstracts should be 300-500 words and should be forwarded to A/Prof Nikki Sullivan and Ms Jess Cadwallader at the addresses listed below. Proposals for panels and for performance pieces are welcome.

“Somatechnics” is a recently coined term used to highlight the inextricability of soma and techné, of the body (as a culturally intelligible construct) and the techniques (dispositifs and ‘hard technologies’) in and through which bodies are formed and transformed. This term, then, supplants the logic of the ‘and’, indicating that technés are not something we add to or apply to the body, but rather, are the means in and through which bodies are constituted, positioned, and lived. As such, the term reflects contemporary understandings of the body as the incarnation or materialization of historically and culturally specific discourses and practices.

Possible topics:
• Somatechnologies of the self (‘non-mainstream’ body modification, body sculpting, performance, fashion, drug use, ‘self-mutilation’, religious practice, etc)
• medical somatechnologies (cosmetic, reproductive, imaging, corrective, sex (re)assignment, implantation, enhancement, bio-techs, public health initiatives, etc)
• somatechnics of law
• somatechnologies of gender, sexuality, race, class, etc
• somatechnologies of normalcy and pathology
• somatechnics of war
• somatechnologies of the post-human (cyborgs, nanotechnology, virtuality, etc)
• soma-ethics

Deadline for abstracts: November 30th 2008. Keynote Speakers include:
Claudia Castaneda (Brandeis University). Nichola Rumsey (University of the West of England).Jennifer Terry (University of California, Irvine).

Email: nikki.sullivan@scmp.mq.edu.au or somatechnicsadmin@gmail.com
Phone: 61 (0)2 9850 8760. Or have a looksy at the Somatechnics Research Centre Website: http://www.somatechnics.mq.edu.au.

Hair Tales

Debuting next Thursday, 20th at 9:30pm (check the guide) on the ABC (Aus) be the documentary Hair Tales, featuring two mates of mine:

'28-year-old Esther Berry is a Canadian/Australian academic who explains the horrific nature of hair and its ‘zombie-like’ status, both alive & dead. Esther
discusses hair as the constant wardrobe that makes us ever locatable and reflects on personal experiences of dealing with her matte-haired hippy Mother’s hair loss through cancer.

and

'Margaret is a captivating eccentric, who has been keeping her cut hair for the past 10 years. Hair for Margaret is a creative medium, she has made a corset out of the hair of close friends and her own dreadlocks, and a hair death mask in memory of her deceased brother.'

and some other folk. It should be very entertaining, and probably quite funny too. Huzzah for arty-farty-academic friends!

If You In Sydney THIS SATURDAY 15 Nov Go To This (I Wish I Could!)

from pete, at medium rare:

hi guys,

well i know how naff this sounds, but it's true, we're very excited to present You Have the Body, an interactive performance installation by author, performance artist and provocateur, Fiona McGregor.

You Have the Body is a durational meditation on the experience of unlawful detention.

the audience is invited to participate in a series of actions that culminate in a one-on-one encounter with the artist. You Have the Body journeys through intrigue, foreboding and isolation. it is a confrontation with silence, an ambivalent exchange of trust and power. a relic of the work is received upon departure.

although an 8 hour performance, bookings are advisable, text or call 0414 577 972.

medium, rare gallery + studio
70 regent st (note, for this performance only please enter from the rear laneway, william ln). redfern

cheers
pete

ps. this will the inaugural performance of the undead festival of the living arts

Morrissey Symposium!

The Department of Sociology and The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick are convening a second one-day symposium on Morrissey.

Title: The Songs That Saved Your Life (Again): A Symposium on Morrissey.

When: May 1st 2009.

Where: University of Limerick, IRELAND.

Theme: This is an open-call for papers. We invite scholars working across a range of disciplines (such as, cultural studies, gender studies, musicology, media studies, popular music studies and sociology) to propose papers concerning Morrissey's work as a solo-artiste. Possible paper themes might include: Morrissey and masculinities; Morrissey's use of sexual and other forms of ambiguity; Fandom and Morrissey - and the phenomenon of Latino fans in particular; Morrissey and (identity) politics; and Morrissey and song-writing.

Publication Plans: It is intended to publish an edited and refereed book based on a selection of the symposium's papers.

Deadline: Abstracts of 250 words should be emailed to eoin.devereux@ul.ie
The closing date for abstracts is January 9th 2009.

The Bastard Is Back

My alter ego now has a facebook account,and if you haven't found hir already then please ask me for directions!

And Then There's Claude

My latest mini-obsession, and not for the first time, is Claude Cahun. Might be time to get out the clippers!

Ricotta Pancakes

Darkling, this one is for you!

Ingredients:
3/4 plain flour. 1 teaspoon baking powder. 1 1/2 teaspoons caster sugar. 2 eggs, separated. 1/2 cup (100g) fresh ricotta. 1 1/2 tablespoons honey. 2 teaspoons grated lemon rind. 1/2 cup milk. I'm all for adding a handful of frozen berries if you happen to have some in the freezer, and a pinch or two of cinnamon.

Method:
Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form.
Combine the rest of the ingredients in a bowl.
Gently fold your egg whites through.

Fry 'em up in some nice hot butter, and serve with whatever takes you fancy. So far we have topped them with: caramelised strawberries and banana, chunks of honeycomb, lemon, golden syrup, leftover ricotta-- the usual sweet pancake friends. Yummy, and fluffy. Small amount of faffing about whisking the whites, but well worth it!

Madame Has A Point...

From her LJ, and with the flu I can't think of anything to add! Other than that Madame, you are perfectly correct!

'I don't get Americans... They will vote for medical marijuana, assisted suicide, stem cell research, video lotteries, against defining human life as starting from conception, limits on abortion (parental notification, only in cases of impending death of mother, incest or rape) and lifting a State income tax.

But god forbid a gay couple wants to get married or adopt children. Florida, Arkansas, Arizona and California - you are weird*. California I am particularly disappointed with you. I have issues with gay marriage as the holy grail of queer rights, but I doubt that is why 60% voted to ban gay marriage or adoption.

Not sure what I think about the various propositions on the end affirmative action. Hmmm.

* My new approach to things I don't understand is to label them as weird. I have no energy for any greater intellectual engagement with them.'

MY FACEBOOK ACCOUNT HAS BEEN DELETED

If you want me, please email or call, or leave a comment here...

No idea why, and their contact box won't work!

Magpie

On Sunday the front lawn was full of feathers, and I wondered where they had come from. Later that day, I looked up while painting the fence, and saw a dead magpie hanging far up in the jacaranda tree. It's Tuesday now, and its still there, clinging on somehow...

Angst In My Pants

Just got told I sometimes seemed angsty, in a cool way. Geezus, time to get my black polo necks out of the cupboard and move to Melbourne to engage in bleak ironic humour and creating lengthy repetitive electronic music pieces? Not sure whether this was meant as a compliment, but think that somehow it might have been...

Cherrie, Pitted

Now, on a VERY disappointing note, the wonderful Katrina Fox is no longer editing Cherrie, as they wish to take it in 'another direction.'

Far be it from me to suggest that they may be wanting it to become the next LOTL, full of mortgage information and exciting stories of lesbian golfing weekends in the US, and avoiding ANYTHING queer, gender diverse, kinky, politically sound or ethically aware but... Of course, I may be wrong, and they MAY be pushing it towards a MORE radical agenda, but I doubt it!

Please let them know what you think via their website at
http://cherrie.e-p.net.au

Thanks