Narrelle M. Harris's Blog, page 49

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here's a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,400 times in 2010. That's about 3 full 747s.

 

In 2010, there were 55 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 39 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 4mb. That's about 3 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was September 8th with 48 views. The most popular post that day was Pleasantly brain dead.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, twitter.com, members.iinet.net.au, goodreads.com, and narrelle.livejournal.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for mortal words, love songs for the shy and cynical, rob shearman, pride and prejudice tv series, and liar justine larbalestier.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Pleasantly brain dead September 2010

4 comments

2

Lessons in language: Tactfully changing tack October 2010

8 comments

3

Review: Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical by Robert Shearman October 2010

2 comments

4

GaryView: Get Vajazzled for $17! August 2010

6 comments

5

Theatre Review: A Midsummer Night's Dream by the Yohangza Theatre Company September 2010

GaryView: A Vampire Christmas

Lissa: Merry Christmas, Gary!

Gary: Merry Christmas, Lissa!

Gary: Cuppa?

Lissa: Yes, please! And fruit mince pies!

Gary: Yeah. They made them at the bakery down the street. They smelled good.

Lissa: They look good too, but oh god, I am still so full from Christmas lunch yesterday with Kate!

Gary:… Oh.

Lissa: …But not so full that there isn't room for another fruit mince pie. My Nanna used to make those every Christmas. Mmmmmm.

Lissa: Here, I've got something for you.

Gary: Ah. Thanks.

Lissa: Trust me. You look very festive.

Gary: So do you.

Lissa: I don't usually do the silly headgear, but Beatrice wanted us to look suitably Christmassy for the Christmas Eve kids' storytime at the library, so, you know. Antlers and Santa hats.

Gary: Oh. Well. They're. Um.

Lissa: Ridiculous, I know.

Gary: Yeah, but, you know, fun. You look…. happy in them. Leave them on. If I tried I could probably make this play Jingle Bells.

Lissa: You probably could.

Gary: I got you something too. Um. I forgot to buy Christmas paper. Sorry. I'm not used to the Christmas thing any more. When I remembered and went to the shop, there were… too many people. It was so noisy and I felt… I don't know. Out of place. Then this little kid ran into me and I sort of tried getting into the Christmas spirit and smiled at him, and he screamed and took off. Because of… you know… Anyway, I came home. I found this paper in a box in the spare room.

Lissa: Someone should show that kid The Nightmare Before Christmas. Don't worry. Thank you for thinking of me. This looks lovely, and very neat!

Gary: Yeah. I like getting all the lines straight.

LIssa: I got something for you too.

Gary: I know. My hat. Thanks.

Lissa: No, silly. That's just so we had matching ridiculous headgear. Here.

Gary: Oh.

Lissa: Go on. Open it.

Gary: You first.

The Elements. She flips it open and leafs through the pages.>

Lissa: Wow. This is gorgeous. Those photos are incredible…

Gary: Read the opening, and the entries.

Lissa: Listen to this! "The Periodic Table is the universal catalog of everything you can drop on your foot." This is so cool. It's funny science!

Gary: But still proper science. But like stories too.

Lissa: It is! Wow. Gary, this is perfect!

Gary: You said once that you liked the idea of the periodical table being all organised but you didn't really understand it. I saw this and I thought it might help.

Lissa: It's beautiful! Thank you! Here – open yours!

Gary:

Lissa: Gary?

Gary: Yeah?

Lissa: You okay?

Gary: Yeah. .

Lissa: I hope the shirt fits. It's from this website called Think Geek. It's for the geek types who like to stay inside and do science.

Gary: I like to stay inside and read about science.

Lissa: … Does it fit?

Gary: Looks like it will. A dinosaur plant.

Lissa: I thought it could go with the cactus I got you. They live a really long time, even if you forget to water them, according to the website anyway.

Gary: That's really cool. It comes with Genuine Volcanic Lava Rock.

Lissa: Do you like it?

Gary: I liked it when I thought I just had a Christmas hat. This is ace. Just a minute.

< Gary jumps up from the table with the t-shirt and disappears. Lissa sips her tea and leafs through the Elements book. Sometimes she laughs. A moment later, Gary returns.>

Gary: What do you think?

Lissa: That's a good fit.

Gary: It is.

Lissa: Here. There's one more thing. I know you can't eat it, but Kate made the most awesome Christmas pudding with brandy custard, the way Nanna used to, and I thought you might like the scent of it.

Gary: … Yeah. Yes I would.

Lissa: Merry Christmas, Gary!

Gary: Merry Christmas, Lissa. Thanks. For…you know.

Lissa: I know. You too.

*For newcomers, the GaryView is a review of books/films/TV/entertainment carried out as a conversation between Lissa Wilson (librarian) and Gary Hooper (vampire) , characters from my book 'The Opposite of Life'. Visit my website for more information.

Xmas eve

I am sitting at Perth Melbourne! airport, waiting for my flight to Canberra. I'm looking forward to seeing my family, and meeting my nephew.

I'm grateful to end the year with a new job I find interesting, working with people I like.

2011 is already a year offering new projects, forward momentum on some existing projects and, like every year, the promise of things I can't even guess at.

Thank you to everyone who has been part of my life this year. Have a wonderful summer break and I hope to spend more time with you in 2011!

Provided, of course, the zombie apocalypse doesn't come first.

You gotta have braaaaiiiinsss…

I was delighted to receive a box full of books this morning! I ordered a dozen copies of Best Zombie Tales vol 2 a while back, and they've finally arrived! They contain a lot of terrific zombie stories, and my own contribution, The Truth About Brains – about a 14 year old girl whose brother gets turned into a zombie, and she's trying to fix him before mum finds out!

There are a couple of ways to get your hands on these fine zombie tales -

From Amazon.com:

Best New Zombie Tales (Vol. 2) (Paperback)

Best New Zombie Tales (vol. 2) (Kindle)

or you can get a copy from me, for $20 plus postage (or you can get it from me in person). Just let me know in the comments and I'll send you my Paypal info!

GaryView: Moonlight

Lissa: Heya, Gary!

Gary: Heya. Come on in.

Lissa: Happy birthday.

Gary: Um. My birthday was in September.

Lissa: Yes, but you didn't tell me until November, so now you get a present. It's a cactus. They can live for hundreds of years if you treat 'em right, according to Google. Don't worry, I've typed up a 'care and feeding' guide for you.

Gary: Hundreds of years, eh? That's really cool.

Lissa: Thought you'd like it… Gary, what's that smell?

Gary: Does it smell bad?

Lissa: No, it smells… edible.

Gary: Come and sit down. I've got to get something… just a tick.

Lissa: Wh…?

Gary: Do you remember when we were watching Moonlight, and Mick cooked Beth that meal he couldn't eat because he's a vampire? You talked about it a lot.

Lissa: I did?

Gary: You said all this stuff about how feeding someone is a way of caring for them. You said a lot of stuff about nurturing and nourishment, and you talked about your Nanna, and how she used to bake cakes and biscuits, and made lunches and dinners and everything for you kids, and how you like to cook for Kate now.

Lissa: Yeah. I guess I did talk about it a lot. It struck a chord, I guess. So you made me soup?

Gary: Um. I made… a lot of stuff.

Lissa: Oh. That's lovely.

Gary: Does it? Because I couldn't taste it. It smelled okay.

Lissa: It tastes fantastic.

Gary: … Are you okay?

Lissa: Fine. Good. The best. Absolutely the best ever. This is delicious.

Gary: It's a beef consomme. It's got eggs and sherry in it. And beef soup. From a tin. I didn't know how to make it from scratch.

Lissa: This is… is… Where did you get all the stuff? How did you do this? You only own a kettle.

Gary: Oh, there were pots and plates and things in boxes in the spare room. And a camp stove, from when I was a kid, and the shop had one of those little toaster ovens going cheap, so. You know. I made stuff I could cook in that.

Lissa: I didn't know you could cook.

Gary: I did some stuff for mum, when she got too old to do it for herself. But mostly it's just following instructions. As long as it's straightforward I can do that.

Lissa: I'm… I don't know what to say.

Gary: That bit of the show really got to you, didn't it?

Lissa: I liked the series. It had a good developing story arc, and the status quo kept getting wobbly. It wasn't always predictable either. Pity it got cancelled. You said you liked it too. Even though the vampire stuff was only half right.

Gary: Beth reminded me of you. Always asking questions.

Lissa: Mick reminded me of you. Always answering them eventually! And other things. It was so sad, when he found the cure for being a vampire but had to give it up again so he could save Beth.

Gary: Yeah…

Lissa: Yeah. But this is lovely. Thank you.

Gary: There are more courses coming – prunes wrapped in bacon, savoury tomatoes, olive and almond rolls – that's got more bacon – melon and ham, well it's called something starting with 'p' I can't pronounce, but it looks like ham, and avocado with prawn and this sauce I made with mayonnaise and herbs and stuff.

Lissa: Oh my god, so much food!

Gary: Yeah. I had to use up all the ingredients, the perishable stuff anyway. I don't have a fridge. Oh, and I made a pavlova. I cheated a bit with that one and bought a base. But I used Mum's recipe book to work out how to do the rest of it.

Lissa: Oh!

Gary: I'll pack up the leftovers for you to take home.

Lissa: Which recipe book is this?

Good idea! written next to it in Gary's neat hand. The recipes he's used are all highlighted with red asterixes.>

Lissa: Wow. You really went to town.

Gary: I hope it's all okay. I mean. I haven't cooked since Mum died in the 80s, and then it was mostly toasted cheese. She liked toasted cheese. And soup. She really liked the consomme.

Lissa: I love it all.

Gary: You haven't even tried most of it yet.

Lissa: It's all going to be absolutely perfect. I can tell.

Gary: That's good. Cos… I think you're going to be eating it all week. It's a lot of food.

Lissa: It is! Tell you what, bring it all in and I'll describe it all to you as I go. How's that?

Gary: That'd be nice.

Lissa: And Gary?

Gary: Yeah?

Lissa: Thank you.

Gary: Thanks. And thanks for the cactus. I'll take good care of it.

Get Moonlight – The Complete Series at Amazon.com

The Australian Hostess Cookbook, edited by Hanna Pan and published by Thomas Nelson (Australia) is out of print. I found Gary's copy – marked up as stated – at a second hand shop.

*For newcomers, the GaryView is a review of books/films/TV/entertainment carried out as a conversation between Lissa Wilson (librarian) and Gary Hooper (vampire) , characters from my book 'The Opposite of Life'. Visit my website for more information.

Extra added fun

My day as an extra for the filming of Outland was a blast, despite the long periods of waiting, standing up all day and the awful sunburn. As we were taking part in a faux Pride March, my friend Julie was my tv girlfriend for the day. I'm told we make a cute couple. See pictures here!

Lessons in Language: Toe to tow

I was in Beechworth recently – enjoying a spot of fine food, excellent wine and a luxurious B&B called Freeman on Ford. It was all very wonderful, made more delightful by Beechworth's generally intact historical architecture and cheerily promoted link with Australia's most famous bushranger, Ned Kelly.

It was while partaking of the Ned Kelly tourist walk that I heard tour guide Daniel Goonan talk about Ned's exploits as a boxer. Goonan referred to boxers having to 'toe the line' or 'come up to scratch', referring to the way that 19th century bare knuckle fighters had to come up to the central line drawn in the ring – the line or 'scratch' – before beginning the bout.

After the tour, I chatted to Goonan and his colleague at the Beechworth Visitor Centre about the etymology of both expressions, and we discussed their boxing origins at length. We also discussed spelling.

'Toeing the line' is another of my language bugbears. According to my dictionary, 'toe the line' means 'comply with authority'. These days, I often see it in print as 'tow the line', which annoys me. Tow it where?

Actually, to stick pins in my own pomposity about this, I thought the term derived from military usage – ranks of soldiers having to line up, toe to the line, in precise ranks. Of course, just because the Beechworth historical experts say it's a boxing term doesn't mean they are necessarily correct. The Wikipedia entry on the subject (and we all know that this is an utterly reliable source of information) refers to its origins variously as foot-racing, the military and the British House of Commons.

Nobody, however, is suggesting it is or was ever spelled as 'tow' in this context.

Coming 'up to scratch' is a whole other matter. My dictionary lists this as 'up to the required standard', which I suppose you would want to do as a boxer or risk a broken nose. The Online Etymology Dictionary notes that it's a sporting term dating from 1778 but how it transformed from being at the starting line to being of a high enough standard to compete isn't covered. However, English for Students has attempted a more comprehensive reply, with reference to boxing and knockout punches, and who am I to disbelieve them?

As much as I love etymology, it can be frustrating. Many words and particularly expressions are in use in the vernacular long before they are ever written down. As a result, people often try to reconstruct the origin of words by deciding what seems likely or logical, rather than by tracing the actual route the words have taken. When it's all just words in the air, until someone pins them down on paper (or screen) that's not always possible. Remind me to tell you about the Australian expression 'Buckley's or none' one day.

In the meantime, I'm going to hunt up some more of that excellent Beechworth beer and wine, and drown my linguistic sorrows.

So you want to be in pictures?

On Friday 26th November, I will be going to Catani Gardens in St Kilda to participate in a fake Gay Pride March for the purposes of the new ABC comedy, Outland. It's the TV series being made from the short film by John Richards which did the rounds of the queer film festivals a few years ago, and in which I had a small role!

If you'd like to be part of a crowd scene in an Australian comedy about gay SF fans, check out how to join in and I'll see you there!

Review: Agora starring Rachel Weisz

As a lifelong bibliophile and Egyptophile, it's inevitable that I've long harboured an affection for the ancient Library of Alexandria and her erudite librarian, Hypatia.  When I saw their story was being told in a new film, I was very excited. The ancient library brought to CGI life! The awesome teacher, philosopher, astronomer and librarian Hypatia breathing and being awesome for the world to see! Hurrah!

Then, of course, I remembered how it all turned out in history, and there was a little less yayness. Philosophers generally don't fare well in ancient history, as you may recall.

But off I went to see Agora (named after the pubilc gathering place for discussion, announcements and denunciations) with a certain amount of trepidation. The film stars Rachel Weisz as Hypatia and was directed by Alejandro Amenabar.

It's certainly a handsome film. Fourth century Alexandria has been created in Malta and the CGI computers and it's hard to see where the set ends and the technology begins. It also has a terrific multicultural cast who all do a creditable job of bringing the period to life.

The story occurs at a time of great social turmoil (well, when isn't it a time of great social turmoil…) where followers of the new faith of Christianity are still persecuted, though no longer fed to lions. There are regular clashes between followers of old Roman gods, Judaism and Christianity – and as these faiths clash, there is of course the inevitable oppression, discrimination, violence and "my god is better than your god" slanging matches. Which leads to the inevitable bloodbaths. Those who govern Alexandria are left to find ways to manage the city between all these violently clashing ideologies and sometimes unhelpful directions from the Emperor back in Rome.

Against this backdrop, Hypatia teachs philosophy, fraternity, science and reason. Her determination that everything must be questioned and tested and questioned again naturally comes up against a host of people who prefer blind faith.

I don't think it's a spoiler to note that these conflicts lead to the sacking and burning of the library in a scene that made me cry. To see the loss of all that knowledge and art because of superstition and intolerance is hard – it's harder still to see it knowing that this sort of thing goes on in my own lifetime. And not just in developing countries. There are regular, ugly calls to ban books, to silence debate, even vilely to declare that certain groups of people 'deserve to die', from all kinds of people of all kinds of faiths in all kinds of societies.

There's a lot more of the story from that point, however, as Hypatia salvages what she can and continues to teach and to question the universe. We watch her slowly evolve a theory of the movement of the planets, starting with the then accepted Ptolemeic ideal of the Earth as the central point and heavenly bodies moving in perfect circles around it, towards a heliocentric theory – but only if she continues to challenge the basic precepts of knowlege and never to take anything as… well, scripture. Obviously, the respite can only last so long.

Agora is a film that champions reason over blind faith. The fact that 1600-odd years later, humanity is still seeking a philosphy of reason in the face of blind faiths that choose violence and oppression over debate and acceptance is kind of depressing.

I'm not sure I enjoyed the film – I found a lot of it very distressing, because its issues are still today's issues – but I think it was a film worth seeing. Rachel Weisz is a terrific Hypatia, and Alexandria looks pretty cool. When its library isn't on fire, anyway.

Read about Agora at IMDB

Review: Fall Girl by Toni Jordan

I'm a big fan of heist shows.  The Sting, Catch Me If You Can, the sanctioned heists of Mission Impossible, the doing-it-for-the-little-guy heists of Leverage, the for-the-hell-of-it larceny of Hustle. Even the cons in the gods-battling-to-rule-the-world story of American Gods. I don't imagine I'd be as enamoured of a real life attempt on my worldly goods, though I flatter myself that I'm both too honest and too smart to fall for one, but I'm all for a fictionalised con artistry.

Toni Jordan's Fall Girl is a delightful contribution to the genre. Dr Ella Canfield is an evolutionary biologist trying to get funding for research to prove that the Tasmanian Tiger still exists – and what's more, is living in the Mornington Peninsula. Only of course, there is no such person as Dr Ella Canfield. Della, one of a long line of elegant con artists, is just trying to relieve millionaire Daniel Metcalf of some of the funds in the Metcalf Trust. She doesn't expect he'll miss it, really.

It turns out, however, that there are a lot of things she doesn't expect, but they happen anyway. Like Daniel deciding he needs to see the scientist Dr Ella in action over a weekend before he hands over the cash. Cue a crash course in outdoorsy living and scientific method. But there's definitely some odd things going on, both at home and out bush, and Della will have her hands full trying to sort it all out before the end.

It's hard to comment without risking massive spoilerage, but it may be sufficient to say that Della and her family of con artists find that life is a lot harder to manipulate when you're not always sure who is lying to whom.

There's a delicious screwball humour about the whole story of Daniel, Della and Della's misfit family. There's also a warm sense of bygone eras about it – that whiff of the gentleman thief, like Raffles, the roguishly charming villainy of some Cary Grant films. Della's family, living in their ramshackle old home filled with secret doorways and hidden rooms, belongs to a more chivalrous time than the one they live in.

It's refreshing, too, to see a heist story from the point of view of a female protagonist, Della is sharp, funny, thoughtful and clever. Joining her on the journey to discover the layers of truths behind this simple job gone complicated, and her own family.

All these layers of lies and that sense of old fashioned chivalrous thievery are central to the plot and its resolution. This makes it more than a screwball romance or a heist story – it's also a story about people and change and belonging. But mainly it's huge fun and very engaging !

Fall Girl by Toni Jordan is published by Text Publishing.