b r a v e c r e a t u r e s

Its strange the routes we come to things.

I havent read any Shakespear since I was at University, studying a Batchelor of Music.They were shoving any culture they could at us in the hope that something would stick - it didnt really.

But recently some of Shakespears sonnets came past me from the most unlikely of sources (see the video below), and I have been reading a few of them.

 Now, at last they seem to touch me.

Maybe it was that as a 19 year old, I didnt have the experience to understand them. But a little battle scarred and love lorn as I am, there are words there that mean something.

This one has particular meaning. The people I have loved, I have never seen as perfect. In fact, when i look back, I think I have loved them for their humanity, their weakness and their flaws as much as the things that made them so obviously special. And part of me still loves them - that includes the one who broke my heart, and the one recently gone.

Sonnet 130
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

And now for something lighter…

My mother, being fiercely patriotic and  not wanting me to forget how fabulous the home country is while I travel the old world, sent me this the other day. It got a laugh, I thought I would share.

It reminds me of Sharon and my "Observations on London" from 2001 - which I must get around to bringing up to date.

1. You know the meaning of the word 'girt'.

2. You know that stubbies can be either drunk or worn.

3. You think it's normal to have a leader called Kevin.

4. You waddle when you walk due to the 53 expired petrol discount vouchers stuffed in your wallet or purse.

5. You've made a bong out of your garden hose rather than use it for something illegal such as watering the garden.

6. You believe it is appropriate to put a rubber in your son's pencil case when he first attends school.

7. When you hear that an American 'roots for his team' you wonder how often and with whom.

8. You understand that the phrase 'a group of women wearing black thongs' refers to footwear and may be less alluring than it sounds.

9. You pronounce Melbourne as 'Mel-bin'.

10. You pronounce Penrith as 'Pen-riff'.

11. You believe the 'l' in the word ' Australia ' is optional.

12. You can translate: 'Dazza and Shazza played Acca Dacca on the way to Maccas.'

13. You believe it makes perfect sense for a nation to decorate its highways with large fibreglass bananas, prawns and sheep.

14. You call your best friend 'a total bastard' but someone you really, truly despise is just 'a bit of a bastard'.

15. You think 'Woolloomooloo' is a perfectly reasonable name for a place.

16. You're secretly proud of our killer wildlife.

17. You believe it makes sense for a country to have a $1 coin that's twice as big as its $2 coin.

18. You understand that 'Wagga Wagga' can be abbreviated to 'Wagga' but 'Woy Woy' can't be called 'Woy'.

19. You believe that something resembling cooked-down axle grease makes a good breakfast spread.

20. You believe all famous Kiwis are actually Australian, until they stuff up, at which point they again become Kiwis.

21. Hamburgers. They contain Beetroot. Of course!.

22. You know that certain additional words must, by law, be shouted out during any rendition of the Angels' song - Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again.

23. You believe, as an article of faith, that the confectionary known as the Wagon Wheel has become smaller with every passing year.

24. You still don't get why the 'Labor' in 'Australian Labor Party' is not spelt with a 'u'.

25. You wear ugg boots outside the house.

26. You believe, as an article of faith, that every important discovery in the world was made by an Australian but then sold off to the Yanks for a pittance.

27. You believe that the more you shorten someone's name the more you like them.

28. Whatever your linguistic skills, you find yourself able to order takeaway fluently in every Asian language.

29. You understand that 'excuse me' can sound rude, while 'scuse me' is always polite.

30. You know what it's like to swallow a fly, on occasion, via your nose.

31. You understand that 'you' has a plural and that it's 'youse'.

32. You understand that it's not summer until the steering wheel is too hot to handle.

33. Your biggest family argument over the summer concerns the rules for beach cricket.

34. You shake your head in horror when companies try to market what they call 'Anzac cookies'.

35. You still think of Kylie as 'that girl off Neighbours'.

36. When returning home from overseas, you expect to be brutally strip-searched by Customs - just in case you're trying to sneak in fruit.

37. You believe the phrase 'smart casual' refers to a pair of black tracky-daks, suitably laundered.

38. You understand that all train timetables are works of fiction.

39. When working on a bar, you understand male customers will feel the need to offer an excuse whenever they order low-alcohol beer.

40. You get choked up with emotion by the first verse of the national anthem and then have trouble remembering the second.

41. You find yourself ignorant of nearly all the facts deemed essential in the government's new test for migrants.

42. You know that, whatever the tourist books say, no one actually says 'cobber'. That's a load of cobblers!

43. 'Mate', on the other hand, is compulsory.

44. And you will immediately forward this list to other Australians, here and overseas, realising that only they will understand.

 

So at last I am on my way for my first real holiday of the summer, a week in Ibiza. I have had a few long weekends, but not a good solid break. London is a fabulous city, but you do need to get away.

The summer here has been great so far, lots of sunshine and warm weather, but I have not found the groove of enjoying the warmth yet. I think that's because I haven't found a pool here to hang out at.

Hamstead Heath Pond is suppose to me great, but London is so vast I have not found my way there yet.

But for now I am off to the Spanish sunshine again with a song in my heart and a swing in my step.The DLR and the Standsted Express, not to mention Stansted Airport itself is not the most glam beginning, but with my friends E&C, J, my room mates F&M, L and D; I am sure things will be far more glam as the week progresses.

Everyone remembers Thunderbirds - well provided you grew up in the English speaking world serviced by the BBC - not the American speaking world which is of course, a dark cultural wasteland.

Thunderbirds standouts as a cultural reference point for everyone who grew up around the time I did. Strange and slightly creepy as the "SuperMarionation" is, Gerry Anderson's vision of the near future was creative, insightful and brightly coloured on many levels. It did not succumb to the American tendency to cast everything into start black and white. Thunderbirds actors might have been wooden, but his characters and stories certainly are not.

Important lessons in film making, and something that the makers of the drearily average movie "Thunderbirds " should have kept in mind - story, story, story people. In this at least I agree with Gerry Anderson, Jonathan Frakes and Bill Paxon need to be actively restrained - if not just killed outright. 

Captain Scarlet was another of Anderson's creations and the story is actually quite dark and conflicted. The alien "Mysterons" only attack Earth because they were provoked - quiet violently.

Dateline: the day after tomorrow. Spectrum agents Captain Scarlet and Captain Black are assigned to investigate the source of unexplained extraterrestrial signals which have been detected emanating from Mars. They discover a strange and fantastic alien city but when their Bison Alien Terrain Vehicle is approached by a glowing green sphere, Black assumes that they are under attack and launches missiles which destroy the city. Miraculously, the city reforms and its alien occupants, the Mysterons, are disgusted by the violence of the Earthmen, pledging to crush their world. Black is apparently killed but Scarlet is returned to Earth as the Mysterons' instrument of destruction… 

Creepy - huh. But very much in Gerry Anderson's style.

One thing that stands out in all his shows is that he clearly has a MAJOR boner for tricksy vehicles, particularly cars with more than four wheels. Nothing of course will ever beat Lady Penelope's Pink Roller - but the Angel Fighter came close. My Dad made me a model of this when I was about 5 and I played with it until it was shrapnel - all with my fathers constant loving repairs to it. I suspect my interest in the model gave my father some kind of hope of some incipient butchness - but little did he know, I loved it because it was FABULOUS - not cause it blew stuff up.

Interestingly Gerry Anderson managed to talk ITV in the UK into popping for a remake of 'Scarlet' or as they like to call it - Gerry Anderson's New Captain Scarlet. I am working on getting my hands on a copy for review but it looks pretty good from the trailer. I will admit that the CGI is attempting to be a little too realistic, and like most things that do it looks a little creepy because its not perfect enough. 'The Incredibles" worked because they built flaws in, so it avoided creepiness. Final Fantasy DID NOT work because it tried to be perfect and since it wasn't  - creepy.

So once again I am going to get to fly with Destiny Angel in one of the best looking aircraft I have ever seen - although I am not sure i will be rushing around the backyard making whoosing and blam-blam-blam noises. Ok, maybe I will, but only if I can get another model Angel Fighter.