Month: June 2007

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Does a chair have a motivation?

Photograph of script for Anywhere Chairs: click for more information

I’m a broken chair, abandoned in the street. Other rubbish is piled with me — household items that aren’t worth keeping, but not quite so useless that they go straight into the garbage. Am I happy to be with them, glad of their company? Is the imminent arrival of the garbage truck something to fear, or a long-sought-for liberation?

I’ve just finished recording the narration for ’Pong’s Anywhere Chairs, the short film that’s emerging from his Sydney Songlines project. And I’ve found myself in serious discussions about the emotional state and motivations of… an abandoned chair.

I bet Nicole Kidman doesn’t have this kind of problem.

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Touch thumbs!

Photo of Jeremy Boutsakis: click for the video

Further to my brief mention of the Jeremy Boutsakis show A Conference for Sole Traders, here’s some video previews to get your juices flowing. There’s a explanation of the importance of thumbs, the answer to the question What is Australia? and a personal invitation.

Oh and if you’d like to see this show before it closes on 29 June, and you think you can convince me… email me and I’ll give you instructions on how to score a freebie.

Naturally, you’ll need to explain how we can come to some mutually beneficial arrangement in order to qualify for this special offer.

Touch thumbs!

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Disconnected from Nature

Photpgraph of a bleak apartment building in Pelican Street, Surry Hills

I sometimes wonder whether the major cause of stress is the simple fact that us urban humans are too disconnected from Nature. We are mammals, after all. Like every other living thing on the planet, we must be connected to the natural rhythms of seasons and tides, storms and sunny days.

Last weekend we experienced a massive storm and I took a photo of a broken umbrella. Then over the subsequent days I started to notice how the world responded…

Continue reading “Disconnected from Nature”

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Novel-writing by snowflake?

Photograph of Randy

I’ve been talking about writing a novel for ages — not here, but certain friends are probably sick of hearing about it. So I was looking for ways of streamlining the writing process when I found Writing a Novel Using The Snowflake Method.

The website’s pretty cheesy, and I’ve got no idea whether the method works or not. But you’ve gotta love Randy’s moustache. It’s like the 70s never ended…

Now all I have to do is figure out what the novel is about and, you know… write it.