Brooke.

Saw my favourite local artist, finally…

I can remember when I first heard Brooke Fraser, I was driving a ute or a hilux or some monster farm car from Tocal ag college into Newcastle to deliver some files to the printer, and I turned up the radio when I got to the Newcastle West railway crossing cos they were playing her Distant Sun cover. I was in love, and then never heard of her again for over a year until Anna at MM had her song Arithmetic. And then I saw the Shadowfeet video on TV and loved it so I bought Albertine and I've been waiting to see her play ever since.

Her 3 albums are quite different. I like them all. Her lyrics are quite subtle so I can always hear something new or understand something different, which makes them last, because once I know the lyrics of a song I get bored of it. And her voice is pretty special, of course. She can sing anything and make it sound heartbreaking. She's a weird a quirky person, which makes it a much more fun show than if it was dominated by her saddish songs.

I was a bit nervous that she wouldn't be good live, and the first 2 songs had me worried because the sound mix was quite unhelpful. The drums and bass were so heavy you couldn't hear her sing. But the 3/4 of the show with thinner arrangements were awesome. Sailboats was the most beautiful, I thought. We were all disappointed she didn't sing Who are we fooling? but it was not a certain chance cos it is a duet with a guy. A good reason to try and see her again ASAP.

More drawing at work.

I came to work on Thursday to start putting drawings on watercolour paper. I print out my layout sketches, which have been touched up where things are the wrong size or in the wrong place. I blue tack a draft page onto the window in Grimmos old office, and trace onto the watercolour paper on top of it. It's a pov sort of light-box, because the blood drains out of my arms! You can't see through the watercolour paper to trace without light, because it is too thick.

So I just finished tracing the last sketches for The Birthday Party today with a little friend watching me. I don't have my camera to show you a pile of drawings but this is an example of what is on each page.

A neat pencil outline. Pretty dull. It is one of the more awkward drawings, because it's busy, and it was a challenge to draw a child squatting (I draw always from my head, but in this case I had to find some photo examples on the web of squatting children to get some clues, but the right age child from the right angle was hard to find so it's still a lot imagined and it only just works).



I don't like drawing stuff. I like drawing people, particularly cute little kids and especially their feet, but I don't like drawing rooms, walls, furniture, toys. Gardens I don't mind as much. I think the trouble with furniture and stuff is perspective and people have to interact with them. It is much easier to have people in white space. Which looks good, anyway, and we are trying to avoid giving away too much in terms of wealth and class. I think in terms of Kmart, not Myer or DJs, and not too aspirational.


So that is why you have a lot of bare feet and not much furniture.

Buskpackers. I made up this word.

I saw the coolest buskers ever yesterday when I was wandering around the city after church hunting for my dream teapot. They are buskpacking around the world, I guess, cos they're from the US, and their kit is pretty small. They've been around Sydney for a little while. Guitar, violin (bowed and plucked) and a drum kit made of a bucket, a small drum, a cymbal flat on the ground and some sort of pot that sounded like a snare. At one point the cymbal flipped inside-out in the middle of a song so the guy picked it up, thumped it on his knee to pop it back and kept going. They must be like gap-year age, they were all barefoot and messy-haired and wild in a Peter Pan sort of way, and they was so much fun to see, I could have stood there for an hour just watching them smash away. I heard them do Little Lion Man and something else cool I forget, some originals which are catchy, and I gave them money, cos they definitely deserved to eat.

Watch on youtube, but the drummer is at the wrong angle so you can't really see what he's doing.

Fashion.

A blog I read in my rss inbox thing is Defunct Fashion. I do everyday sewing so it's not really for inspiration, it's more my interest in lady clothes from more romantic eras. And I have a good basic historical fashion framework in my head, I know where drop-waists came in and when skirts went up and when the empire waist was the rage.

One thing I've noticed: good fashion can hold its own for a long time. A pair of handmade boots from the 1800s or a cape from the 30s will still be just as stylish today.

Also, really good fashion is ahead of the trend. It doesn't just last a long time, it is ahead of its own time. Item 1, an evening dress from 1913. Beautiful, glamorous, and just typical of the turn of the century. Would still rock a red carpet or something.

 

Item 2, some kind of winter suit. I looked at it and thought WOW. I reckon an elegant 1920s flapper would wear it, right? Nup. It's from 1912! If you were costumer designer for the Titanic movie, you would not incorporate anything like this. That silhouette is a decade before its time. WOW again.

Whinge of a tea-drinker.

You know what else is bad about being surrounded by coffee snobs? I can't get my hands on any of those useful Moccona instant coffee jars with the glass pop lids. It seems they are endangered. They are really good for keeping tea, sugar, and other small ingredients.

My break recap.

I went to Maitland over Christmas. Went to church twice, had a nap twice, went on family walk twice, baked this mango cheesecake (was short one mango/the base was so yummy). The train was full, but the intercity platforms at central station is olde and the central coast line is gorgeous and I enjoy the sense of romance, as if I'm travelling somewhere exciting. I spent an hour next to a chatty man from Mackay, whose son will be on Aus Got Talent, and who made an awkward comment about "spot the Australian face" (meaning Sydney is so multicultural now, although it was a train OUT of Sydney so it looked pretty white to me). Made the trip pass quickly, but I prefer my space usually, to look out the window and listen to my train playlist. I know having a car would be easier, but I'll be sad when I no longer have these train trips.

Anyway, this is me and my bro at family Christmas lunch, which is the traditional Sargent's pies and McCains wedges.

The last week I spent a bit of every day with Jess K (who was flatmateless, computerless and had a borrowed car).









We had coogee picnics, a trip to bondi westfield, fireworks + movie and sleepover for New Year. Then started the year with a boardgame day in Strathfield, a dip at Clovelly, Georges housewarming and church at Wild Street. Then back to work. Now, away again to CMS Summer School!

Chocolate challenges.

This is the sort of dilemma I sometimes face. There is a bowl of chocolate on the bench at the office. On the one hand, it's Haigh's. On the other hand, it's coffee flavoured (even has a bronzed coffee bean on top). So it's not irresistible, but cos it's there I would normally eat one as I walk past anyway, just to see if it's nice or not despite being coffee-filled. NOW, I have teapot incentive to resist. I'm at $2. I'm on my way!

New Year Good Habits.

Good Habits sound more keepable than Resolutions.

Chocolate. Every day I don't have chocolate, I'll put $1 into a kitty to spend on something quality (like a zero japan robins egg teapot). I think my self-control is better when I have a positive (ie financial) motivator, rather than just "no chocolate", which spoils my fun. I got the idea from a news radio story about young mums in the UK who get shopping vouchers for quitting smoking or getting their babies immunized. It's called a "nudge": a bonus to nudge you to do what you already know you should do.

Daily bible reading. I've got a 7 column plan to tick off. I think I might cut the strips into bookmarks. Jumping around from day to day is a bit annoying, but the benefit is you are balancing all the different sorts of bible out over the year. So you don't read all the psalms in a lump, you have psalms every Wednesday all year.

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."

~ CSLewisDaily: I rss the twitter, it's awesome.