...to an oh-so-jolly bit of cyber rental space.
I've been delaying it like its some big life decision.
Honestly, its just net space.

So at least in the meantime, I'll be blogging @ naomi.vis-a-vis.org. Please update your links.

Toodles,
N.

I guess its easier to notice when one sees each other so sporadically, but you've really grown so much in the last year. Happy birthday Tiff. Lots of great things in your store for sure. Stay gorgeous. xo

There is a whole backlog of stuff to post here from this week. Really believe me.
But I'm in the middle of fluffing another cyber nest for myself. Updates on that soon.
Until then, wander over here where some of my fotos are up.
Happy weekend to y'all!

Looking out the door
I see the rain fall upon the funeral mourners
Parading in a wake of sad relations
As their shoes fill up with water

And maybe I'm too young
To keep good love from going wrong
But tonight you're on my mind so you never know

Broken down and hungry for your love
With no way to feed it
Where are you tonight?
Child, you know how much I need it.
Too young to hold on
And too old to just break free and run

Sometimes a man gets carried away,
When he feels like he should be having his fun
Much too blind to see the damage he's done
Sometimes a man must awake to find that, really,
He has no one...

So I'll wait for you... And I'll burn
Will I ever see your sweet return,
Oh, will I ever learn?
Oh, Lover, you should've come over
Cause it's not too late.

Lonely is the room the bed is made
The window open lets the rain in
Burning in the cornder is the only one who dreams he had you with him
My body turns and yearns for a sleep
That won't ever come

It's never over,
My kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder
It's never over, all my riches for her smiles
when I slept so soft against her...
It's never over,
All my blood for the sweetness of her laughter
It's never over, she's the tear
That hangs inside my soul forever

Oh maybe I'm just too young to keep good love
From going wrong
Oh.... lover you should've come over...

Yes (I) feel too young to hold on
I'm much too old to break free and run
Too deaf, dumb and blind
To see the damage I've done
Sweet lover, you should've come over
Oh, love I'm waiting for you
Lover, you should've come over
'Cause its not too late.

What's not to love?

Anyway, there's this musical baton. I didn't totally get it but I'm all for jumping on a bandwagon I'm just not cool enough to be on.
Markie and Rhea have theirs. Here's my set:

Volume of music on my baby: 2441 songs, 7 days, 10.92Gb

Playing right now: Disillusion: Badly Drawn Boy

Last CD I bought: That would be thinking back a while ago, possibly the Waifs but the last song I ripped was a moment ago, from Markie - Missy Higgins, The River (thank you!)

Five songs that mean a lot to me (in no particular order):

Lover, you should've come over: Jeff Buckley [lyrics above]
You hear it and it just feels so right. "My kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder".... how do you not melt. I'm 15 all over again, desperate for and scared of falling in love.

Hey Jude: The Beatles
One night, CP asked me to name my favourite Beatles song. I told him 'Hey Jude'.
He remembered the last time, I said 'Bye Bye Blackbird' (which for the record, I did say I really liked).
So he looked upset as he held out the White Album in his palm.

Why do you do that?
What?
Change your mind.

That was the time Asti caught us in the ISS room and it was last time. The last time we tried making up. The last time we fought. The last sober conversation. The last of everything really. But funnily enough, it didn't ruin those two songs for me, I still love them. Don't know how much that says about our relationship, or about me. Oh well.

Babe I'm Gonna Leave You: Led Zeppelin
Dancing around my bedroom in my underwear. Turns around any bad day, I say.

Blister in the Sun: Violent Femmes
Organising Group Pop for our st hild's arts festival and playing guitar really really quite badly in front of a really really large group of people. Hahaha Oh, and getting called out by the house mistresses for advocating drug taking because the lyrics alluded to getting 'high as a kite'.

Oh My God: Michael Franti & Spearhead
The first time Ash, JB & I went to see them play live was at Eclectic in the summer of 2003. George and Wicked Beats Sound System were opening but Spearhead came on just as light fell. It was Kings Park overlooking the city and just divine. It was the eve of the invasion of Iraq and they spoke so eloquently about it, how G.W. didn't represent them and I dunno, they're always so emotional when they perform so when they played this song it was just... emotional. The next day it turned out half our australian foreign policy tute, was there and it was all we could talk about.

Hmm.. this is longer than I planned.

Five people I'm passing the baton to:
Dunno who still reads this space during assignment season. I shouldn't even be here.
Either way, a good spot to plug Tiff, Irawan, Adrian, Garota, JP.
Anyway, if you're reading this, have a shot.

"I'm the most antisocial person I know."
"Are you trying to be ironic?"
"No. How is that ironic?"
"Well, if you're antisocial, you can't know all that many people can you. So it follows..."
"Shut up smartass."
"I love you too."
[later in the day; Someone eats the last mouthful of a chocolate eclair;]
"I'm the most hurtful person I know."
"But you said you loved me. That's kinda nice."
"I know. But I lied. You're an annoying little bitch."
"Nice."
"Now who's trying to be ironic."
[later still]
"If I ever end up writing a play, I'm stealing all our dialogue... just so you know."
"Ok, but I'll be expecting a cheque for royalties."

(i) a garagantuan rumbling of the atmosphere followed by the phosphoresence a crack of lightning that penetrated my curtains and lit up my room for a whole two seconds; I thought I was dreaming but then I heard...
(ii) the whimpers of my Puppy pleading for shelter from the storm; for a 91 year old he's a bit of a juvenile. Maybe cause we treat him like one. [I got up and fed him some homemade ice-cream cause I couldn't find the doggy treats].

In my last and admittedly very lazy post, I referred to an episode of Insight last Tuesday on the changing roles and relationships of men and women. Go the program website and find the link to the latest transcript if you can be bothered (its rather interesting) or check out Adrian's run down of it in his space.

_____

The demographer from KPMG suggests that there is a new life cycle driven by generation x (late 70s-80s babies) where by the 20s are the sportscar or physical relationship; the 30s you trade in the sportscar for a stationwagon or financial and familial responsibility; the 40s on you end up with a winnebago-soulmate (does anyone else have a problem with that symbolism?!)
I don't know. What's wrong with looking for the whole package? (NM says because they don't exist) Is it possible women are more ambitious about having it All and fearful for settling for Anything Less? Where as you don't see that driven ambition manifest itself the same way in men because they've always been taught that they will have it all - whatever 'all' is to them.

Of course, there are always exceptions.

UWS researcher Prof Jim McKnight found that when asked what and how they rate characteristics in a relationship, 90% of men said 'sex' was their top priority while women placed 'parental potential' at 80% and 'bread-winner' at 79%
Mmm... enough said I think.

Some men allege that 80% of breakups/divorces are initiated by women.
Telling this to the boy a couple of nights ago, he responded by saying that it was definitely true because in his opinion women thought [too much] about their romantic relationships. I thought I'd have to go through mental hoops to explain the statistic but he gave me a shortcut. Maybe men just don't think about them enough. That, or he's an anomalie.


Transcript excerpt
WOMAN: I'm not going to settle for someone. I'm not going to be unhappy. I'd rather be on my own than unhappy.
HY & I used to sit over tea talking about why we agree on this. But I've been thinking, isn't happiness relative to your state of mind? Sometimes I wonder if the revolution took a rather sad detour.

_____

At a job interview I once sat, my interviewer expressed great interest in the activism of my voluntary portfolio. Within the first five minutes, he assured me that their firm was quite left so I needn't worry. I'd barely spoken two sentences. Am I that transparent?

Political discussions when you're (moderately) trashed are confusing and political email discussions when you don't have proper internet access are even more frustrating even when they're still helpful and enjoyable. This weekend (and admittedly, every minute spent with the boy) confronted me about the topical dilemma that forms the title of this post. Because while I'm a devoted leftie (you can decide what that means), I realise that means different things to different people and moreover, my political identity is a dynamic little fucker so who knows what its going to think tomorrow. So I jumped on an existing email bandwagon and received assistance for the most part cause at least for now I can rest on the following conclusion (already emailed out). It's just FYI for the next time I meet up with any of you for a drink.

I think I'm a little more clear about my confusion now (if that makes sense)
because really, this whole argument over labels thing is misguided if
one doesn't believe in identity politics. And personally, i believe
it has its time and its place as well as breadth and scope. (how's
THAT for pragmatic!)

If I met someone new over a coffee, I would be happy to say I'm left
89% of the time (last year I would have told you 95%) because if I had
to list the things I do and don't agree with, we'd be there all day.
Sure its at the cost of submitting to generalisations. If that person
could be bothered to get to know me better great
but otherwise the margin of error is only 11%. For people like tedy,
it'd be a bit larger.

the WW* quote he uses** is apt but its a matter of context.
i was listening to a reporter (from the Telegraph mind you) last night
on Insight disparaging reports formulated by a woman from the sexual
harassment branch of OSW because her work was riddled with statistics
which disagreed with his own personal experience. Anyone can talk
about one's own opinion and the opinion of a 'bunch of friends who
agree' but surveys and labels serve a purpose when we're talking about
the larger political demographic.

my point, (let's hope I still remember it) is one should be wary of
whether a political discussion in generic or personal. Let's face it,
these days, most political conversations centre around the 'politics
of self' (eg. the successful uk anti-war slogan "not in my name").
Maybe I generalise and use labels too much in our conversations
because I'm a bit fucking sick of it or maybe because when we're
talking about the bigger picture you have to. Besides people these
days just don't understand the value of collectivity and ownership
(and I use the term loosely) of a social movement. They always think
they lose something by it. Ok fine, but sometimes you stand to gain a
whole lot too.

Rant of the day done.
Thanks if you're reading this still and haven't yet sent this to the trash.
Huggles.
N.

_______________________________________
* WW = West Wing
** from an episode where a gay Republican senator where Josh asks: 'senator, how could you be with a party who does not believe in you and your rights to exist?'...
the senator said: "I agree with 95% of the Republican platform. . . . My life doesn't have to be about being a homosexual. It doesn't have to be entirely about that."

At 05:57 this morning, I heard Damien Rice's cover of Prince's When Doves Cry and I am in love. I love it so much I think we should get married and have a gazzillion acoustic babies together. To top it all off Rice plays an ode to my favourite Led Zeppelin song of all time at the bridge. [ED: Babe I'm gonna leave you I swear made me wanna be rock star... or at least dance around my room and play air guitar in my undies... perhaps too much information] I could recognise that riff if I was in a coma but he played it so perfectly. Gush gush. Praise praise. You get the picture.

It's part of JJJ's Like a Version compilation - a Mel in the Morning baby. And a beautiful one it is. Off to the shops with you.

I've been stuffed with 500mls of slurpee concentrate and had blood taken out of me four times in the last two hours. If someone tells me one more time that I look pale and sickly...

There is this patch of man-made man-icured wilderness in along Davy St behind the Gateway. I walk by on my way to vampire clinic and leaning on the monet/japanese garden-style bridge, not 20 metres from the rambling waterfall, there are two teenagers standing in what looks like [undisclosed] private school uniforms. They're wrapped around each other so tight I first mistake them to be one person but even without my glasses, one knew they were busy making out at 7:30 in the morning. That's pretty dedicated lip-locking. Mine only get up that early if they don't have to roll out of bed (or get to class early).

An hour later when I return for my next test, no other soul in sight, the two figures haven't moved and I'm reminded of the irony of growing up. When you're in highschool, clandestine rendezvous aren't organised as an exciting addition to your lovelife but out of clear necessity. When you're older, without parents, albeit with more deadlines and responsibilities, most of us can hook up when and where we want to but generally it isn't public, hardly thrill-seeking, and clearly not clandestine.

Can you remember the last time you took more than an hour out of the day just to make out and think (or do) nothing else?
Perhaps you can. Or sometimes choice can be a bad thing.