up in lights

a bit of neon work by meryl pataky, via stampede of horses








neon in a studio

neon cats

get drunk

not surprisingly, this idea came from dbc pierre
p&i went to "a conversation with mr pierre" as part of the melbourne writers festival, oh back in early september.















"this wine-drinking, perfume-spraying early morning Melbourne Writers Festival conversation" is available to read/view on slow tv, parts one and two, which is good because pierre has rather mellifluous tones and is good to listen to.

it was refreshing to hear someone thinking too.
he waxed along about the collapse of civilisation, and read (in part two) from charles baudelaire
GET DRUNK by Baudelaire
ONE SHOULD always be drunk. That’s the great thing; the only question. Not to feel the horrible burden of Time weighing on your shoulders and bowing you to the earth, you should be drunk without respite.
Drunk with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you please. But get drunk.
And if sometimes you should happen to awake, on the stairs of a palace, on the green grass of a ditch, in the dreary solitude of your own room, and find that your drunkenness is ebbing or has vanished, ask the wind and the wave, ask star, bird, or clock, ask everything that flies, everything that moans, everything that flows, everything that sings, everything that speaks, ask them the time; and the wind, the wave, the star, the bird and the clock will all reply: “It is Time to get drunk! If you are not to be the martyred slaves of Time, be perpetually drunk! With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you please.”

such a good sentiment,
i want to be drunk on life
it reminds me of oscar wilde (via chrissy hynde), we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars
which makes me think of van gogh's starry night

slowly, step by step, i'm getting there, exploring my joy, discovering my happiness (turns out it's green)

Won't you put on your dress

When spring begins, I can feel it in my body.
It's the balmy air on my skin. It always reminds me of the sensation of a light cotton dress against my bare legs, after the winter gloom of heavier, warmer clothes. (When I was a kid, it was the transition from winter uniform - woollen tunic - into summer uniform - cotton dress).
So, I'm thinking about dresses and skirts and bare (tanned!) legs.
When I think dresses, two songs in particular pop into my head. both are 80s/early 90s songs, and (i had forgotten, but was reminded) in the 80s, early 90s, "alternative" girls wore second hand, opp shop dresses. so these are the dresses i think of when i think of these two songs.
Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, Pretty Gone
...won't you put on your dress
and come down to magazine avenue
won't you
put on your dress
and come down ...
sadly, not online but possibly available here

And The Wedding Present, My favourite dress

unfortunately a song about getting dumped, but a bloody good song, with the plaintive ending

that was my favourite dress you know

that was my favourite dress

cool dress made out of a shirt (for a kid, though)

second hand clothes swaps, posh swaps

epoch vintage

just in case i ever want to make a dress, convert a dress,

thread den (north melbourne, fitzroy)

previous post, sew what

in utopia

i suppose i have always thought of "utopia" as a kind of fantasy land
and dimissed it.
but the other day, i was indulging in some self-critique and was advised to take a more romantic view of myself
that i should "just pretend you are in your own utopia and act like that, and enjoy yourself ..." (and crucially)
"as though it is normal"
re-arrange the world, or my own perspective of it, and live that reality
a nice idea. a very good suggestion. because the world is rarely as crticial, as scary, as forbidding, as i have become accustomed to thinking it.

sir thomas more's utopia he didn't quite start it all, but he has naming rights

another utopia, this one very different. the community and erstwhile station in the northern territory which has produced hardship but also the incredible works of artists like minnie pwerle, emily kame kngwarreye (her sister in law), barbara weir (her daughter), and emily pwerle (her sister)



trip to utopia
i listened to a wonderful story about friendship late last night, on life matters
old friends
it was wonderful not only in the way it talked about friends but also a trip to alice springs and its surrounds (1000 km radius, i think), visiting communities and sleeping under the stars
local gallery in alice springs
this, i think, would be wonderful to do,
tours of australia, guided by local indigineous people
- intrepid
- WA Bungle Bungle (Purnululu national park)



This parting thought,
you have everything you need
how often do we hear that?
not often enough, i reckon