Date:	2009-06-22 08:46
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	anxious

A note from bigbearok reminded me that I had a movie in the works that was 90 percent done. I decided to finish it last night.

This is a video of an aria from my great unfinished baroque-style operetta entitled "Jerry Aux Enfers," or Jerry in the Underworld.

In the operetta, Jerry, our hero, finds himself in Paradise. He encounters gay protesters objecting to his arrival, and in this aria, he expresses a sentiment that he shared in real life: That gay demonstrators were good for his fundamentalist fundraising.






The lyrics go like this:

Tho they be agents, of America's decline,
Drag queens and leather men are great for the bottom line.
Things perverse will loose the purse of our most frugal donor.
Men in heels make our appeals successful, and so festive.


To continue the synopsis of the story, Jerry starts to wonder why gays, and liberals, and other 'sinners' are in Paradise. He thinks he must certainly be in Hades. But the angelic Tammy Faye descends to tell Jerry that, indeed, this is Paradise, but he's in the wrong place.

I was tagged by seabear59 and bygbrat.


001: What are your nick-names?
Don, Doone, Doonda, D (my favorite), Sonata Minor (my drag name), Herr Kneedlefelter (my new crochet pseudonmym).

002: How do you style your hair?
Sandpaper.

003:What's new in your life right now?
2 gig memory on my little laptop.


004: How many colours are you wearing right now?
Three shades of blue (sounds like it should be a country song).

005: Are you an introvert or an extrovert.
I am an extroverted hermit. Prepare to be wowed if you ever get to my cave.

006: What book are waiting for you to read?
"Broken Song," a book about Theodor Strehlow, a linguist who studied aboriginal culture around Alice Springs.


007: Do you daydream a lot?
What? I wasn't paying attention...

008: What's the weather like now?
38C, with a breeze that feels like someone left the oven door open, sunny.

009: Is there anything that has made you unhappy these days?
Ya...Why did the Windy City Times wait until after the election to point out Obama once supported gay marriage, but changed his position to placate the fundies? Where was that information a year ago?

010:Where was the most memorable meal you ever had?
Our dinner in the outback last week was quite memorable. For some reason, I still remember a Thanksgiving dinner from about 1960. I think that memory trumps all others, just based on longevity.


011: How long does it actually take to get ready in the morning?
Ready for what?

012: What websites do you visit daily?
Huffington Post, Think Progress, Nifty Story Archive.

013: What classes are your taking right now? And, if not in school, what is your profession?
Homemaker.

014: Do you like to clean?
Clean, OK. Tidy up, no. There's a difference.

015: What 5 CDs/downloads are waiting to be listened to?
A Percy Sledge compilation, some Bix Beiderbecke, and some history books-on-tape.

016: What 5 DVDs/Tivos are waiting to be watched?
The rest of Seasons 1 and 3 of NIght Gallery (which my wonderful hubby joncub gave me for Christmas. I've already watched the first two disks.


017: What hobby would you like to take up if money/time/ability were no obstacle?
Collecting mechanical musical instruments.

018: What color do you look best in?
Gray.

019: What states or other places do you wish to visit in 2009?
Staying home would be fine. It's enough of an adventure.


020: What are you most looking forward to in the next month?
My first Australia Day as a member of the Alice Springs Town Band.

Date:	2008-09-14 11:34
Subject:	The eccentric Aunt Alice
Security:	Public
Mood:	grateful

For me, the name "Alice" always has floated on a cloud of eccentricity.

It may come from my late Great Aunt Alice. She lived on the next block when I was growing up, but she sure wasn't like all the other women in my little Illinois town. She grew up on Long Island, worked in Manhattan, traveled the world, married my Uncle Nyman when he was in the Navy, and came back to Erie when telephones had cranks and houses didn't necessarily have plumbing. When I knew her, Aunt Alice lived in a perfectly charming house, with a perfectly charming garden around it. She suggested I use the plots of Shakespeare with my sock puppets, and told me about far off places. I once asked her how a girl from New York City could ever have survived coming to a little town on the prairie. "I guess I'm adaptable," she said. When joncub called and said "Do you want to live in Japan...I need to know by 4 o'clock," or when he called me at work and said "We're moving to Australia... surprise," that was the first thing that went through my head. "I guess I'm adaptable."

I knew a woman in my home town named Alice Schryver, from my grandmother's generation. Her real name was Alagrace, but folks called her Alice. She was an uncomplicated woman, who had a hard life, I imagine, with few luxuries. I remember her telling about setting bowling pins for Calvin Coolidge and about surviving the tornado at Eight-Mile, a town that was named for being eight miles from anywhere. When I was a boy working at the town library, I learned that Alice Schryver had a secret. She studied. She researched the biographies of American women, and surely knew more about the role of women in our culture than anyone in my town certainly, my county probably and my state possibly. She was always nice to me, because in Erie, I was treated like the town's grandchild.

In college, I met a girl named Alice while working on the student newspaper. That was back in the days when I thought I should try heterosexuality, it being so common and all. Alice seemed like a good candidate... charming but strong, a vivid personality, good looks, a little older than the average "chick" in college. I remember working with her over a light table one night, drinking wine (you could drink at 19 back in those days) talking about art and literature. At a dinner party a few nights later, I discovered she was the wife of a sociology professor. Ooops. Thus ended my dabbling with notions of heterosexuality. Thank you Alice Timmerman-Schmidt, wherever you are. You may have inoculated me against straight-hood. Mind you, being towel boy for the high school track team may have had something to do with it, too.

I bring these memories up to explain that the name "Alice" has wonderful baggage for me, the more so because my new home of Alice Springs is surely the most eccentric aunt one can imagine. It is camp, and butch, and strange and comfortable all at the same time. I am so glad joncub and I are here, because it is the experience of a lifetime.

The whole notion of our town's special nature occurred to me as I was compiling a pair of videos to post. The first is of the Henley-on-Todd Regatta. Yes, I know this is the desert, but why should a lack of water prevent a good time?



Music by Schumann, by the way.

And I wanted to share a clip of the opening parade of the Alice Springs Festival, a special week of art and entertainment in The Alice. A flock of aboriginal youths dancing with a Chinese dragon in front of the cast of "Mulan" from the local Catholic school is a good example of the multiculturalism we enjoy here. Or maybe it's just delightful wierdness.

Time to clue you all in on my arts and crafts projects. Most of you know I won a first prize at the Alice Springs Beanie Festival with my piece entitled "Endangered Species."



It was made entirely of recycled plastic shopping bags. As a prize, I won this lovely custom-made plate...



... and 60 skeins of wool. My hubby joncub was especially excited to see me bring more yarn into the house.



I am sure most of you have read about joncub's recent outback adventure. While he was hiking with our buds, I was making this film, featuring a big doily I made of a handsome buck I saw at the Alice Springs Show back in July.



I usually do faces in lace, but this is the project I hooked while flying to and from the United States, so I had to use an "H" hook (my lace-sized hooks won't clear airport security) and a thicker cotton yarn.

Work continues on the recycled hand project, the buttcrack to outback trees project, and a little something festive for the yard at Christmas. Stay tuned.

Unlisted God.



I saw this on TV last night, and it made me think.

But no more heavy stuff today. I am taking a cue from joncub and making a picture post.



The theme... ( my life as a domestic goddess. )

Lately, I have been letting the trees of the Australian bush inspire my art...



...but sometimes one sees the most on a blank canvas.

I call it "Hands in My Pantry."




We're all doing great here in Australia.

Hopefully you have seen my hubby joncub's post from our visit to the West MacDonnell Range. Here is my version of the day on video. There are three chunks, best viewed in this order:







The good stuff is in the middle video. I am continuing with the music from Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" to accompany my films. This selection is "The Old Castle," with a promenade section on either end.

I just posted a film from our visit to the Royal Easter Show in Sydney last week.




The music is "Limoges, le Marche" from Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition."

Speaking of exhibitions, be sure you check out my hubby joncub's journal if you want to see more pics from the Royal Easter Show or from our other mischief making.

If you haven't seen joncub's post about our wonderful trip to Trephina Gorge, have a look. Meanwhile, here's some video I shot of the trip, with music by Mussorgsky.

I finished my first doily of an Australian face, and my last one of a Japanese gent.





( Click here for more pictures. )

Date:	2008-03-02 13:27
Subject:	The Wayward Trollies of Alice Springs
Security:	Public
Mood:	chipper
Music:	A big tacky mass by Berlioz.

Greetings, all. I have finally finished my little movie about the shopping carts here in Alice Springs. You can see the video at:



Music is "Bydlo" from "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Mussorgsky, courtesy of MusOpen.

toddpage declared "Draw a Dinosaur Day."

Unfortunately, fibers are my medium, and I only got as far as the dinosaur lips. Crochet is SO not about instant gratification. When is "Hook a Dinosaur Month or Two?"

John and Nick are back from America, Hurray.

Of course, I had to do just a bit of cleaning after two weeks of bachelorhood.

Howdy, all. I need some help preparing a Valentine's gift for joncub.

( Click here for more information, unless you're Joncub, in which case, don't even think of clicking this link. )

Bess was getting a kick out of watching herself on the computer last night. However, when 2D Bess ran off the screen, the 3D Bess went looking for her. We played this game all night.



I swear that tomorrow will not be about Bess watching Bess watching Bess. Unless it's really really cute.

I took this quick video so joncub could get a look at Bess, the Wonderdog, while he is on vacation in America. She loves the sprinkler.

Well. xxfalling_outxx said such nice things about my last post, I thought I would meet his challenge and post film. I made this musical number this afternoon.

Normally the music I write falls into two categories -- gay country songs and baroque opera. This song fits in neither category, it's just a jazzy little number I wrote long ago. I do like jazzy little numbers, and you know who you are. When I finish a song, I put it away in a digital vault so none can hear it. After this, you will understand why. As for the video, I decided to go quick and dirty black and white.

Without further ado:

I Know You're Straight, But...

Howdy.

I am sure you all saw my partner joncub's pictures from his vacation in Sydney. And now he's off to America, and I'm sure he'll post wonderful things from there, since he has the camera.

So you thought you would have no news from the Red Centre for the duration? No worries. joncub may have the camera, but he did leave me with my new drawing pad. Without further ado, I bring you my rendering of an exciting day in Alice Springs.



( Won't you join me? )

Date:	2007-12-21 13:38
Subject:	Ombra mai fu...
Security:	Public
Mood:	chipper

I showed this pic to joncub last night, and he suggested I share it. It is a high-contrast render of an Aboriginal gent sitting under a red gum in the Todd River bottoms. Some of you know that I do high-contrast images to make doily patterns; while this one is too complicated for a doily (I don't have enough string, time or Ben-Gay) I liked the result. Maybe I will find some other medium for it.



Unfortunately the only frames I have at the moment go vertical. Yesterday joncub called from work and asked me to run an emergency errand... fetch a turkey roast for a friend from Leonard's Meat Market down at Ypperinye Mall. Once that mission was accomplished, I popped over to Woolworth's Supermarket for a few odds and ends. I had just found the cream cheese for my mother's famous mashed potato casserole when an announcement came over the PA saying there were amazing close-out bargains in the front aisle. One of those bargains was a little desk-top picture frame for 20 cents each. And that's Australian cents, so we're talking maybe 19.5 cents U.S. I thought I would buy a dollar's worth, and then thought I could get 10 for $2. I brought home 80. I will find something to do with them someday I'm sure.