Noise in the attic

I woke up this morning, the 11th morning in a row that I have woken up sick, and found I was feeling a bit better at last.

For one thing, I could swallow without wincing. For another, my brain, which has lately felt about as animated as a large wet sponge, was turning over and over with ideas. (Normally, a lot of my unspoken sentences start with, “Hey, I have a good idea…!”)

Because I’m still pretty sick, The Doctor* intercepted incoming sprogs, quarantining them from their germy mother, and went to make pancakes for breakfast. So I had a few minutes to lie in bed, enjoy the ability to swallow and to think quietly to myself, anticipating food already on the table when I did finally get up. (And hey, it’s not even Mother’s Day.)

My old boss, Rolling Stone honcho Jann Wenner, is going to be on Enough Rope (Andrew Denton’s brilliant Q&A show on the ABC) tonight. This prompted some thinking about working life, and how I’ve been influenced by my work (Yarn was inspired in part by my time at Rolling Stone after all).

But I’ve spent my career thus far in supporting roles, crossing paths with characters living a lot larger than I am, and basically giving it up for marriage and motherhood.

So as I was lying there, I was reviewing things in my head. What a long, strange trip it’s been, sort of. I thought of the time one of the editors went into Jann’s office to meet Hunter S Thompson and returned wearing a slightly dazed expression and a peculiar sparkle in her pale blue eyes.

So? we asked her. ‘I said hello’, she said, offering us her hand as if to shake, as she must have done to Hunter.

And? ‘He slapped me!’

And?! ‘I slapped him back!’

There are so many little stories. It’s way too long for a blog post. I just found myself wondering whether there’s a memoir in an ordinary life lived on the fringes of interesting stuff, of being an observer and not so much a participant.

I used to write fiction and won a couple of prizes at uni for it. But over time I’ve become more interested in writing non-fiction, although not in reporting, which has never been a talent of mine. I do, however, have kind of an elephantine memory—not photographic, but encompassing, and accurate enough. So there’s a lot of junk in the attic, and personally, I enjoy rummaging in a good attic.

Anyway, I’m better enough for the idea to flicker onto my mental screen, nowhere near better enough to contemplate actually tackling such a project. Just thinking out loud.

* I think I will call Husband ‘The Doctor’ en blogge henceforth. I have the good fortune to be married to a Very Clever Man (although he is far too modest to say so and prefers to refer to himself as gormless) and I bet he could run a Tardis well enough if he ever encountered one. Although at times like this I wish he were more the sort of Doctor who could prescribe high-powered antibiotics and not so much the sort who understands things like string theory. He does make a fine cup of tea, regardless.

Installations

Installation is such a mechanical word. It makes me think of having to update things on my computer when everything was working fine — which is fixing what ain’t broke.

Maybe this is one of my little problems with art installations. They fix what’s not broken. Gilding the lily, you know. I went to see a little ‘installation’ at a place called Seedling Art Space in the Adelaide Hills last weekend. Or, um, the weekend before? (Already?) It was a bit hard to find, but it was a pretty neat little spot at the corner of a lovely old property in Hawthorndene. The art was a bit ordinary, made special by the place.

Is that the nature of an art installation? Turn something ordinary into art by putting it in a special place? (Like those fridges from way back?)

I’m not sure that’s all, actually. Sometimes, apparently, you have to add a lot of language to make it so. Like in this invitation I got this morning, to an installation in (coincidentally?) the Seedling Art Space.

During October, Seedling Art Space will experience a series of provocative artefacts installed by South Australian School of Art doctoral candidate, Sue Kneebone.

Of the installation, Kneebone states: “…Inside hang pelts and hybrid artefacts that allude to a discordant and ambivalent relationship with nature. The sense of phobic interiority in Hideout serves to reveal through the agency of materials and artefacts these slippages and blindspots in our unsettled relationship with nature.”

OK, where to start? My eyes are rolling so far back in my head it hurts. You know what all this says to me? Let me translate:

“…Seedling Art Space will experience…” = “I will hang some stuff at Seedling”
“…a series of provocative artefacts” = “a few wicked cool thingos if I do say so myself”
” …installed by [the artist]…” = “DIY”
“…Inside hang pelts and hybrid artefacts … ” = “didn’t I tell you this stuff is wicked cool?”
“…that allude to a discordant and ambivalent relationship with nature…” = “I spend a lot of time indoors”
“The sense of phobic interiority in Hideout …” = “by the way, it’s a very small gallery”
“…serves to reveal through the agency of materials and artefacts these slippages and blindspots in our unsettled relationship with nature.” = “No, really, I spend a lot of time indoors”

A nice thing about Seedling Art Space is that there’s a lovely little trail wending its way through the long grass up the hill away from the installation area and into the woods, so you can give the art a passing glance if you choose — and then you can spend your day considering (and building) your own relationship with nature instead of gazing into the ‘phobic interiority’ of someone else’s navel.

Tags: art, fart, installation

Searching for spring

The weather is waffling. Yesterday was spring. Today is winter. Never mind—the flowers are out, and there’s always tea!

I painted some poppies over the weekend in search of spring, and in preparation for The Marvellous Ms Doody’s Extraordinary Array of Affordable Art, an exhibit I’m in in November.

Affordable art is an interesting topic — one to return to. I’m a believer in the need (want?) for beautiful things to brighten the life of Everyperson. Conceptual art doesn’t (necessarily) do that, and in fact I find much of it determinedly pessimistic.

But in brief, the artist who wishes to make affordable art walks a fine line between creating for the joy of creating, and the notorious tendency of both craftsperson and customer to undervalue the handmade item. How to circumvent the problem? We shall return to this.

Detail of 'Poppies', watercolour and graphite

Tags: flowers, spring, watercolour

Getting political

I made a contribution to a political campaign today for the first time ever. I’m a registered Republican (and remember, you’ve gotta be registered in order to vote in the US, and most Americans must choose a party affiliation to participate in the primary elections) who’s really too apolitical to worry about what the card says. Maybe you’d call me an independent Republican. I’ve always voted Democrat in the federal elections. I even held my nose and voted for John Kerry. (I knew I was just cancelling out my grandmother’s vote, really — she got up off her deathbed to vote Republican, and I made a last-minute dash to ensure my overseas postal vote got in on time.)

But until today, I was on the fence. Until today, I didn’t know anything about Sarah Palin. Now I know. And it galvanised me (like a taser, really) to leap off the fence, and throw some money at Barack Obama at the same time. He needs more than just quiet goodwill and votes if anything is ever going to get better in my poor beleaguered motherland.

I remember feeling when Gore lost Bush seized control of the White House that we’d entered some kind of parallel dimension. It doesn’t seem to have gotten much better since then, and if the Republicans continue on in this completely misanthropic way, it’s not going to get any better. (Where is Dr Who when you really need him?)

I realise the Veep post is largely symbolic. I realise we survived four years of Dan Quayle. But I’m not sure we can survive four years of “if another country [Georgia] is attacked you’re going to be expected to be called upon to help”.

I’m absolutely over the Republican right speaking for everyone. I considered changing my registration, even. But no. Let it stand: Republicans for Obama.

–

Edited to answer Katie’s question: what was it that tipped me over the edge?

Simply put, an accumulation of detail. In the reading I’ve done, a picture has emerged of Sarah Palin as the kind of conservative right-winger who’s taken over the Republican party.

But let’s back up. I had hoped, against hope I suppose, that when Bush took office he would recognise not just his own limitations ha ha but also the fact that as powerful as the President is, he is also only as good as the people he chooses to surround him. Bush’s choices revealed the Republican agenda pretty clearly, no?

David Gelernter, whose writing I admire, has made an eloquent case for Americanism, a civic religion in which people believe in “liberty, equality, and democracy for all [hu]mankind”, regardless of—or in concert with—their own personal religions.

After September 11, the Republican party was in a position to revive this civic religion. I think people were starved for it. Instead, well, you know how the story has gone. The country has become more and more inward looking, belligerent, insular, and narrow-minded. And fearful.

As it loses power to growing nations like China and India, the US will have to find a new place in the world. And while Gelernter worries that the Democratic left wants to achieve the goals of Americanism via Euro-lefty global appeasement and pacificism (the sort that the French tried out in WW2, and look how far that got them), I worry far less eloquently but just as much about the Republican method of shoving it down people’s throats.

I felt McCain was capable of being centrist, of reaching out to liberals, moderates, conservatives. Of getting into office without pandering to the Republican right-wing fundies who would really like to shove their values down other people’s throats, both at home and abroad. Then he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate, and I needed to take some time to see what was what.

And now I see that McCain has done a Bush. By choosing Sarah Palin for a position of power and visibility in America, and thus around the world, McCain has shown what kind of people he will surround himself with as president (and also what kind of cynical, misanthropic advisers he’s surrounded by now). And I’m not voting for that kind of presidency.

Tags: election, Obama, Palin, yikes

Comfort knitting

In times of trouble n strife, I’m a comfort food person. Chocolate, thanks. And tea. (If the stars have aligned, I will have a cup of chocolate caramel chai on hand, a gift from my Mom, who sends it from the U.S. periodically.)

But today, because I have had four shots of novocaine in order to get three teeth drilled, I require comfort knitting. And possibly comfort soup. Tomorrow, the same — three more teeth. Hopefully less novocaine. All up, eight teeth need(ed) fixing. I won’t get into the whys and wherefores except to say that yes, I do actually look after my teeth and no, I don’t swill Coke all day long.

Maybe it’s the comfort food. It’s also to do with my (un)lucky dip in the gene pool. (Thanks Mom! And by the way, I’m out of chocolate caramel chai…)

In any case, I am going to finally knit up either the Suzie Horne yarn that’s been hanging on my wall for over a year or the Wendy Dennis yarn that’s been hanging on my wall for over a year. Not sure yet. Probably the Wendy Dennis — it has silk in it. Extra comfortable knitting. And it will make a nice new Clapotis, which is lovely comfort knitting. Haven’t made one in a few years. Dropping stitches will be nice.

Tags: chocolate, clapotis, knitting, teeth

Pencil it in

Is there anything so wonderful as a good pencil? The plain old pencils we were given at school were, to me, anything but plain. I appreciated the virtues of a good model—pink and rubbery eraser, shiny yellow brass ferrule—and loathed an inferior model, like the ones with weird plastic-y ‘wood’ or black-banded ferrules (which always seemed to have waxy erasers).

I even bear the mark of this love, in the form of a self-inflicted graphite tattoo in my right palm—from a day when the stars had aligned briefly (perfect new yellow pencil, fierce wall-mounted classroom sharpener). In my reverie I accidentally stabbed myself in the hand as I sat down. The point didn’t break, but it did rub off.

Until I stumbled across Bob Truby’s Brand Name Pencils site, I didn’t know that my most hated pencil was the Eberhard Faber Mongol, with that black-banded ferrule and the wax-prone erasers. And the white-capped green craquelure American Venus 3B was my favourite for sketching.

And the pencil which tattooed itself forever on my hand (if not my heart) was an Eberhard Faber Princess 1396 (No 2, of course)—how could I ever forget that big blue ‘2′? I couldn’t. And I think I might even sleep better tonight knowing this.

Tags: drawing, pencils, writing

Altered frames

Hi there to visitors from Sticks & String! I have long been a fan of David’s podcasting style (and I have a soft spot for physicists anyway, being married to one) so it was truly my pleasure to be one of David’s interviewees at the Bendigo Sheep & Wool Show a few weeks back.

I imagine it took him a while to whip that particular Q&A into shape—my brain tends to go a bit extra squirrely at the sight of a camera or microphone pointed my way (fortunately it doesn’t happen very often!). But with Sticks & String, you know you’re in good hands, whether you’re a listener or an interviewee, so I was able to listen back without worry.

I’m actually painting today. I love wooden furniture, but there’s something very special about painted wood. There was quite a bit of painted stuff dotted around the house I grew up in, and thinking of it, I finally painted up a few plain little frames from Ikea.

(O Ikea, how I missed you when I moved overseas! But since you have come to Adelaide, my supply of cheap, plentiful wooden things for decorating is undiminished.)

I had a few colour schemes in mind, and a rough picture in my head of a simple graphic. So, yesterday I painted the frames, and today I cut a little flower stamp and applied some design. Much nicer than plain, doncha think? Next step is to rub them with beeswax to deepen the colours and bring out the grain.

Altered frames

Tags: IKEA, paint, stamp, wood

No water

When you see those words, what do you think? Can you imagine a day when your tap runs dry? In Adelaide, it’s closer to reality than imaginable.

This is an aerial photo taken by a farmer I know. See those sandbars? Those are upstream from Swan Reach, South Australia. If the river drops another 50–70 cm, it is probable that it will no longer flow over the sandbars.

That photograph made me catch my breath. It makes me want to do something. But what can you do?

I want someone to reclaim water from upstream. But none of the politicians even turned up to the farmers’ rally in Adelaide the other day. Not even the state’s water minister.

Maybe they think that because it has rained in Adelaide recently that it’s all going to be OK. Or that we’ll forget this is what the Murray River looks like 60 kilometres (38 miles) upstream from Murray Bridge, and not much farther from Adelaide, a city of a million people who rely on the river for drinking water.

I’d just like to remind any eastern Australians reading that while you may have rain, we don’t have very much water here. And ask you to tell someone upstream, whether geographically or politically. Maybe if the message really makes it to the top, someone will try to help. I can’t say I’m thrilled about the government and opposition pecking each other’s feathers out over carbon trading starting (2010! No, 2011!) when I see what the Murray looks like now.

Meantime I guess we’ll fix our leaky roof (ironic, no?) and keep on catching the runoff in our rainwater tank. We’ll take whatever we can get.

On mulesing

Knitting has its hot topics. I don’t mean just straights vs circulars. There’s mulesing, if you really want to throw a firecracker into the lobby.

For the non-wool-aware reading, mulesing is the removal of folds of skin from around a merino lamb’s bum. It’s done with special shears, usually without anaesthetic (unless the lamb is 6 months or older). It protects the sheep from flystrike, which occurs when flies lay eggs in the dags of poo and wool in that area. (Fly eggs, as you probably do know, lead to maggots, and maggots eat the sheep’s flesh, leaving it susceptible to toxemia, septaecemia, anorexia and death.) The industry has committed to find alternatives to mulesing and end this practice by 2010.

Meantime, PETA is leading a push not just against mulesing but also the wool from it, and large companies (Hugo Boss, Benetton, Abercrombie & Fitch, Adidas, etc) are boycotting Australian wool because of it. More here.

It does not surprise me in the least that a corporation would leap at the chance to source wool from much cheaper sources (China, Africa, South America). This lets them appear ethical and get a better bargain. As a bonus, they may even reap some publicity for supporting a popular cause! (Check out Adidas, announcing their boycott even though they don’t even use Australian wool.) Seriously, how great is that? If you were a CEO, you’d do it too.

But if you’re reading here, you’re more likely to be a knitter. What are your options if you want avoid mulesed wool? You could throw your support behind PETA to boycott Australian wool. Here’s another, better option: don’t buy mulesed wool.

There are plenty of small wool growers in Australia who don’t (and haven’t ever) mulesed their sheep, and they seriously need the support of knitters here and worldwide if their businesses are to survive.

Some of these businesses are based near Australian cities and suburbs (Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth) so anyone who wants to can also buy a product with a small carbon footprint, if they are so inclined. Buyers can also talk directly with the people who grow the wool about the practices they use on their farms. (I know one grower who is a vegetarian and names her sheep — all 100-ish of them — so if you wanted to know about balancing the requirements of farming with ethical treatment of animals, she’d be a good one to talk to.)

Lastly, the thing that I find really astounding here is that PETA is happily giving mega-corporations an excuse to shift their business to countries that have poor track records for human rights including low pay and poor conditions for human workers — not to mention a great deal less public scrutiny in their wool industry.

You — yes, you, anyone — can download a free code of practice document on sheep welfare in Australia, and if you are inclined to boycott, I encourage you to do so, and read the appendix on mulesing so you know what you’re boycotting. (Care to point me towards similar transparency in China?)

Tags: AWI, mulesing, PETA, sheep, wool

I’ve been bamboozled!

I always loved the way Richard Hatch bowed out of the Survivor All-Star series, almost gleefully announcing, “I’ve been bamboozled!”

Me too! Been bamboozled by a knitting pattern! After all this time, all that yarn under the bridge, you’d think I’d know better. Nup. I’ve definitely lost the battle with this wrap (far right) by Tom Scott, who says he likes to think about the women he’s designing for.

Wonder what does he think when he’s designing? (That bag lady I passed on the way to the studio—so inspiring!)

The little number I knitted was very tempting, but I should have known better. The reverse stocking stitch sans selvedge. The way the sample clings to the model yet the pattern completely lacks shaping—clothespegs up the back, anyone? And the back waist, well, the less said about that the better. (Tommy, baby, you lied to me!)

What was I thinking, carrying on this long with it? I dunno. I’ve got to be a bit compulsive about finishing projects before I start new ones. Wanted to polish it off and have a stylin’ new sweater for me this winter. Not to be. Must get on knitting husband and child garments before the weather warms up.