1. single gun theory / towards a plane of immanence — energy never dies, it just changes form… listening to flow, river of my soul this morning… rainy day in sydney, huge changes in my life/my head (all about process), constant re-evaluations, making progress, positive negativities, letting go, blah blah coffee, blah, coffee (& more coffee), late nights talking, early mornings walking, new ways of thinking, new things to think about, new modes of being… the time is now…

2. what the? no, look, i dunno either… more (or possibly fewer) words when i’m a bit more certain who i’ve been/who i’m becoming…

postscript — no cause for alarm. totally okay (more than)… just… refer paragraph 1. then read postscript. repeat as necessary.

no news is an absence of news — for anyone who was still a little unclear about that…

body overclocked — so i’m guessing i’m totally back into the work routine… i can’t think of a better explanation as to why i’d decide (while asleep, no less) that 5.40am would be the absolutely best time to wake up this morning… or maybe after a week of meltdown i just didn’t wanna miss a moment of the cooler weather…?

oh lordy — of course, getting up insanely early does have its benefits… for instance, had i slept a bit longer, i wouldn’t have read this email until later in the day, & really, i’m glad i didn’t have to wait…

http://britneyspears.ac/lasers.htm

which naturally lead to:

http://blah/blah/blah/alien.html

gosh! thanks everso, chris! you know, on reflection, those links may be even better than squirelma…

hmmm… possible new feature? a page-o-helpful-links compiled by chrisT… of course, when i say helpful…

alrighty then — 6.20am… time to start thinking about breakfast & a shower… mmmm… okay, thought about that. what next?

hey andrew — did you know that premiere 6.0 “goes a long way toward addressing the shortcomings” of premiere 5.1?

okay, okay — breakfast & a shower then off to work… have a great day y’all…

heat! good god y’all! it’s been icky-hot all week… it was so hot on friday morning i woke up at four & couldn’t get back to sleep… so i did what any normal person would do, i wandered about the flat for an hour or so then i grabbed my camera & went for a walk…

score! found a pretty reasonable lounge chair on the street on the way home, so i grabbed it & dragged it back to the flat… fortunately it was only halfway up the block, so i didn’t hafta drag it far… the upholstery’s a bit grotty, but i bought some fabric cleaner at the supermarket yesterday afternoon & hopefully that’ll remove the previous owner’s grunge & i can start adding my own…

domestic friday — had a day at home, doing the washing & a bit of tidying up & working listlessly on some numbers for work… headed off to meet keri at 6.30 for dinner & the opening of Things We Have Made, an art festival that christen helped organise… headed back to keri’s place afterwards, & it was so hot we finished up walking down to coogee beach at ten o’clock & went for a swim…

saturday: flatmate flatline averted — keri spent the day yesterday interviewing potential flatmates with good results… keri’s gonna hafta cover the rent on her second room for a week, but a new flatmate’s lined up & ready to go…

blister in the sun — i made the trip back to dulwich hill around midday as the stinky heat continued… if i wanted to live in weather like this i woulda stayed in townsville, sheesh… spent part of the afternoon in the bath, but by about four-thirty i could resist the siren call of the shops no longer & went for a bit of a wander…

overcast/overjoyed — things were starting to cloud up as i was walking home (i was hoping the changing light was a function of the weather & not just heatstroke… although, now that i think about it, i guess either way it’d still be a function of the weather, right?)

thunder! lightning! by about eight last night a slightly lethargic electrical storm was putting in a desultory appearance over dulwich hill… the rain started in earnest about eight-thirty, & i woke up this morning to find it’s still overcast & the temperature’s dropped by enough degrees to make it back into the comfortable zone…

sunday plans — heading into the city this morning to meet keri, & then maybe a swim & dinner at coogee in the afternoon…

vicarious

staring at the stockmarket.

antidepressants.

pornography.

new car seeks loving owner
for weekend excursions
& hot waxing.

furniture catalogues.

smooth, hard bodies.

the anthology.

celibate rifles.

the naked chef.

(frequent fliers.)

cartoon ocean full of real gone surfers.

package deals & street directories.

unleashing your personal power.

or the beast within.

heroin chic.

then early to bed.

my weird head — anyone wanna buy a used head? it kinda works most of the time, it’s just a little flakey (take that any way you like) & sometimes it’s just completely Off The Air… but you know, one owner, low kilometres, only used for thinking (very) occasionally…

the new model — i’m planning to replace my old head with a cardboard cut-out that has a photocopy of a picture of my face looking bemused & a logo that says something like, oh, i dunno, “ring bell for service if body is unattended…” most people won’t even notice, but hey, i’ll know, & that’s the important thing, right?

undead

nice night.

(though i suck.)

cheerfully.

cheap suit.

designer frames.

walking up oxford
to castlereagh.

defined by.

codified.

cigarettes i want /
don’t want.

blah blah.

dislocated.

distracted.

cut myself.

(shaving.)

sydney city hyundai.

three days of muesli.

my bowels in great shape.

dinner with the surf nazis.

cosmetic damage.

open 7 days.

in my new pants.

monstrous.

undressing in hyde park.

sullen renovations.

skinheads.

eat in or take away.

perspectivism.

(that terrible reading.)

goodnight dignity.

tax specialists.

pressure behind my eyes.

appearing live.

love you heaps.

like italy in a chocolate.

automatic for the people — the helpful happy hire car people handed us a happy hire car & hoff we went to wollongong late yesternoon… (which may or may not be a real word, & if it isn’t, just shut up, okay?)

poems to make you sweat — well, they made me sweat… it (the project gallery) was a cool venue in one sense, but in another, more immediately corporeal sense, it wasn’t really very cool at all… & then there was just like a totally huge amount of fog on the way back to sydney, which was kinda neat if a little freaky…

sleepy — i’ve been kinda sleepy all day (just for, you know, a total change) but also weirdly productive, like some kinda office zombie with a penchant for paperwork instead of brains… mmmm, paperwork…

inspectivorous — going to look at a possible new flat tonight in darlinghurst… & then some kind of meal &/or drinks at some kind of hotel in some kind of suburb in some kind of city where i guess i’ll be in some kind of mood… & maybe tomorrow i’ll write some kind of report to let you know how it all kind of went…

simonster = slimemonster — had a long chat to the simonster on the phone last night… he was surprisingly cheerful for someone who’s got another four or so days of highly contagious ickiness to put up with…

wollongonged — off to wollongong this evening in a rental car to catch that poetry reading i wuz talkin’ about last week…

wurk — cripes but there’s a lot to do at work… a few weeks leave, & a couple of days sick, & the onset of one of the major research funding rounds, & a database upgrade, & new PCs for most of the office, & reports & data &… eep! why am i doing this again? it’s the glamour, right?

anniversary — hey, i just realised it’s two years to the day since i arrived in sydney… gosh, time flies when you’re stressed outta your tiny little mind… <grin>

arrrggghhhh!!! i also just realised i missed chrisF’s birthday! happy birthday for the 21st chris! (at least, i think it was on the 21st… happy birthday in any case for you know, like, whenever…) i’d even planned a birthday robot… (wow. how lame can i get? i thought birthday robots were the lamest, but like, forgetting to make a birthday robot? wow. that’s like a whole new category of lame…)

illness abating — keri’s much improved today, & just about has her voice back, so hopefully another day or so & she should be feeling well again… i’m kinda sleepy (i’m having one of those rather-be-anywhere-else-than-at-work kinda days) but am otherwise okay… my throat seems to have sorted itself out, & i’m pleased to report a complete absence of headache…

a pox on both your houses! which is more than can be said for the simonster! but, uh, don’t you only have one house, si? gosh, life is confusing sometimes… also sprach der simonster:

Hi ted,

Just thought I’d let you know that we are now truly living in the time of
pestilence and plague. Or, at the very least, a most unpleasant bout of
chicken pox. That’s right, I’m currently a red splotched, pustule ridden
mess with a side order of fever and earache. So you and your blurk can crawl
back into that box, pal!

Oh, and since I seem not to have voted yet, I say tatts away. What you
should probably do first, though, is print your design on a piece of paper
like a temporary tatt, and stick it to your preferred location. Then, after
a few days, if you still like it, staple it to your preferred location
for that permanence factor. It’s cheap (at least until septacemia sets in,
but hey, you could get that with a real tatt as well)!

Get well soon,

Simno

yikes! a red splotched, pustule ridden mess with a side order of fever & earache? (uh, would it count as kickin-em-while-they’re-down to ask how that would be any different from normal? it would? oh, okay then.)

that’s a total bummer, si. still, your discomfort might be alleviated by the knowledge that now i’m no longer vegetarian i’m doing my bit to rid the world of chicken pox by eating as many chickens as i can… (&, as anyone who’s ever seen me eat can attest, that’s a whole mess of chickens…) & you know, the whole get well soon thing right back atcha! (booming back atcha, you might say. or might prefer not to say. i mean, now that i think about it, probably not, right?)

still, it was heartwarming to see you rise from your sick bed just to cast your vote! staples, you say? well, okay. i wuz gonna try & weld it on, but the paper kept catching fire…

final results of the inaugural readers’ poll — alrighty then… if i let this poll drag on any longer i’m gonna start feeling like the state of florida, so i hereby invoke the awesome power of my whim & declare the inaugural magicdog vs sydney readers’ poll closed! & the results are… [drumroll please…]

should i get a tatt? final results:

• yay: 8
• nay: 2 (hi mum!)
• helpity dave: 1

so there you have it. scientific studies prove that at least twelve of you spend way too much time reading my website. & at least one of you is helpity dave. & now it appears i must either go & get really drunk & try to pick a fight with some bikies or else break into a hospital & steal a big barrel full of local anaesthetic to rub all over myself… mmm, anaesthetic… & fightin’ with bikies… you know, i guess i could do both…

extended sickness — still not completely recovered from last week’s attack of the blurk, but the really bad news is that keri’s got a much worse case of whatever it is that i have/had… her throat’s been really sore & she’s lost her voice & is generally feeling miserable & wiped out… it’s even more frustrating for keri, because she’s been having half days where she starts feeling a little better only to have relapses where she starts feeling much worse… i’ve had a low level headache all day today, but apart from that (& a continuing case of mild exhaustion) i’m not feeling all that bad…

the industrial grotesque goes to the beach — in magicdog vs camera…

the self, imaged

where the conversation is comfortable
the head resides & problems derive from this,
drives mixing with desire & the cultivated solemnity
your lunch derides, ars poetica & your strained practice
informing the long walk back to work
where efficiency is a function of health
that resists definition, jaded & sentimental
& the whole thing subverts your better ideas,
a metaphor of circulation or discussion of white goods
form another indicator your office supplies
guide to a perfect landing, the illusion of presence
carefully fabricated as the radio releases
the pressure of thought, an adequate theory
dissipating in the gap between decision & action
or you take a photo & imagine it will serve,
a familiar logic with open arms
to rock you to sleep, blinking in the morning light

from the good ideas at the time department — we were feeling a bit zonked but not completely out of it on friday night, so we walked around from keri’s place to the clovelly bowling club to catch christen’s band, who were playing at an alternative electro night… it was great, we caught up with francesca & enjoyed seeing christen’s band (christen on vocals & electronics, & two other guys on electronics, acoustic & bass guitars), but given our subsequent state of health it proved to be Just A Bit Too Ambitious… on the whole we’re glad we went, but it might’ve been smarter to have a quieter night…

more tab from urban bohemia — okay, so i’ve been sitting around this morning listening to the dandy warhols again & i’ve figured out how to fake along with shakin’… basically, the verses sit on B & then do the descending thing from G to F# (have a listen & you’ll see what i mean) & the chorus just goes to E and then to A… easy as, & kinda cool, now you just gotta work on your iggy-esque vocal stylings & you’re good to go…

horse pills — & if you wanna hack along to horse pills, the verses just meander along with a really simple riff on the B & E strings & the chorus just goes E-F#-A, with a brief variation in the middle that passes for a bridge… so there you go. now, if you can come up with a good name for a dandy warhols cover band, you know who to call…

giant robot news from helpity dave:

This e-zine sucks for the most part, but this review contains one of the
most enlightened and indisputable observations of our modern age:

“As we all know, giant robot combat games are about two things:
compensation and blowing shit up. Fifty foot robots making me feel like
more of a man as I stomp around and blow shit up. MW4 has this in spades.”

how me obtainium titanium? gosh. how much do i want one of the new titanium powerbook G4s? well, if you got a great big hammer & mashed me flat, & then kinda fed me through some kinda string making machine & then stretched the resulting stringy me right out as long as it’d go, well, uh, okay, maybe that wasn’t a very good analogy to start with… but oh lordy, i want one bad…

using hypnosis for good, not evil

answering a question from a concerned reader — a concerned reader wrote to ask, “so who’s this keri you seem to be spending all your time with?” so naturally i wrote back to say, “mind your own business you stinking no-good concerned reader…” now, on reflection i realise my reply might’ve been a little harsh… i mean, i have no actual proof of any stench, or indeed of any incipient smelliness…

start again — uh, well, keri is this amazing person who for some reason seems to enjoy my company nearly as much as i enjoy hers, & well, we’re either dating, seeing each other, going out together, or having a relationship, depending on how you think &/or like to talk about this kinda thing… (& yes, the L-word - Lunch - is definitely happening… as is the other L-word - Lozenges… & did i mention Love? slap me with a wet fish if i didn’t. ow! hey! back way the hell off with that fish, buddy!)

so, like, yeah — so yeah, keri is just totally incredible, & i’m just incredibly happy at the moment… (everybody! awwww….)

closed due to embarrassment — magicdog vs sydney will be closed due to embarrassment for the rest of the day (some kind of residual repressed boy don’t-let-anyone-know-how-you’re-really-feeling kinda thing)… all you boys out there will know what i mean. even if you won’t admit it. (chorus of butch voices: “what? what’s he talkin’ ’bout? we don’t got feelings, we’re too busy being manly, dagnabbit!”)

morning at work, afternoon in bed — so i made it to work this morning but didn’t last the whole day… finished up getting home in the early afternoon & collapsed into bed until just after seven… i still feel like death, but at least my throat appears to have settled down… keri’s been sick, too, so i dunno if we’re going to have a very adventurous weekend…

which means? well, that means there’s probably only a very slim chance that i’ll be able to come up with some photos that are more interesting than these… (not, i guess, that there was much of a chance to begin with…) <grin>

travelogic

princes highway
(low skies,
lowering).

past the freight terminals,
st peter’s station
scoring an apostrophe.

inner west heterotopia.

green nails & a chest
full of phlegm
& rain in alexandria.

lost in space?

you bet.

lightning over randwick
& over newtown, lightning.

home from the sea
where you float me.

houses, billboards,
grey lines of horizon
to flow into.

& this would be your basic two-headed bear cartoon…

urgh, cont’d — day two of the whole sore throat, headachey, lo-energy thang. hurrah. i wuz gonna go in to work this afternoon, but i figured the two hours of transit time to get there & back again could be more sensibly spent working on the data files i brought home on monday night on my trusty green zip disk, so i’m drinking lemon & ginger tea & telecommuting again. at least the weather’s cooled off… it’s been overcast all day, which i always think is kinda nice… some kinda reaction to 30 years in the sunshine state, i guess…

exciting news about TV Broadcast! this just in from the world of TV Broadcast fandom!

Hi ted,

Have you read the news? I heard a rumour that there are plans to make a ‘TV Broadcast’ movie! Isn’t that fantastic!! Apparently it’s going to be made after season 2, with that season’s cliffhanger leading into the movie. And talk about guest stars - there’s talk of Marlon Brando playing Walter’s stepfather and Truckasaurus playing himself!! Kewl!!! Apparently the script’s to be written by Joe Eszterhas based on a story treatment by D. H. Lawrence. The rumour said the plot involved travel-timing robots and loads of angst. Neat, huh! When I find out more, I’ll let you know.

Yours in fandom,
Simblot.

exciting (to me) news about my new booklet — pam brown wrote to me today asking how my booklet for vagabond press was progressing… fortunately, it’s been progressing pretty well, so i was able to send pam a working draft (working title: wet robot)… looks like it wasn’t a hoax after all! <grin> still not sure on when it’s likely to see the light of day, but probably not until after april…

exciting news about keri’s vagabond booklet — keri’s having a booklet (super-regional) published by vagabond, too… she just found out today that hers will be coming out in april…

other poetry-related news — keri & i are off to wollongong next tuesday night to see the latest lot of five islands press new poets (series 8, i think) strut their stuff… this year’s new poets are: Lesley Fowler; Terry Jaensch; Cate Kennedy; David Kirkby; Sheridan Linnell; and Shen…

the quick brown fox better stay away from the sick magicdog — urgh. sore throat. headache. no energy. telecommuting.

late night visit from the auteur — andrew dropped over last night with a close-to-final edit of greta, the film he’s entering in tropfest this year. i did the narrative voiceover for the film, but even that couldn’t sabotage the project. it’s good. it’s very good. he was last seen hurtling back towards marrickville with a takeaway pizza & a grin brighter than the headlights of the oncoming traffic to do the final edit. he’s planning to submit the film today, & it’s totally kick-ass…

mayakovsky

readers’ poll update — gosh, i don’t check my email for a couple of days & look what happens…

a vote in the affirmative (with helpful suggestions):

Oh yes! Pain is good. Go for the tatt.
If you have Dogbot done on one cheek you’ll be able to get mechasaurus on the other at a later date. Probably worth asking them how long before you can sit down though. Especially with the possibility of tatt-related infections.

chrisF votes aye

thanks chris! although if i’m gonna get them tattooed onto my butt, i guess i’d better start thinking about scaling up the designs…

family divided by readers’ poll! film at eleven.

Aunty Marg said no! But I guess you would have known that.
Karen said “Yea, go for it. But if you get it on your arse then she
ABSOLUTELY DEFINITELY DOESN’T WANT TO SEE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’
And your bro says “Cool! Can I get it tattooed onto my arm so it looks
like it’s fighting the little DEMON DUDE?”

If you really want to get a tatt you might be either :-
A. Inspired
B. Shocked
C. Too bloody scared to do anything
after you see these! or
D. All of the above.
Check out www.bme.freeq.com and all will be revealed!

brief explanation of familial idiom: aunty marg is my mum. my brother & i started calling her aunty marg some years ago… why? because we have about 157 cousins, all of whom used to call mum aunty marg when they came to visit, & we wanted to be just like all the cool kids…

updated running totals: should i get a tatt?

• yay: 6
• nay: 2
• helpity dave: 1

great weekend — hope everyone had excellent weekends. mine was amazing. hired a little car on friday night & keri & i met up with cait for dinner at an excellent vietnamese restaurant… then we met up with his royal daveness on saturday, who was doing the change of planes thing on his way back to townsville from the bright lights of dubbo. we headed out in search of some non-airline food & took dave on an impromptu unguided tour of the backstreets of newtown, but we eventually managed to get him back to the airport in time to catch his flight. at least, i think we did. we didn’t get any disgruntled phone calls, so i guess he either made the flight or he’s sitting in the golden wing lounge lookin’ surly…

spent the rest of the weekend driving around with keri doing the shopping, sightseeing, café, & restaurant thing… i bought myself a wooden dining table & some cool orange chairs from ikea… the insatiably curious will no doubt be regaled with a seemingly neverending stream of digital photos of my new furniture in due course…

from the nothing more annoying department — nothing more annoying than an ex-vegetarian? well, after spending the last few years flirting with chicken, i finally bit the filet & decided to start eating white meat again, because really there just haven’t been enough heavy metals & steroids in my diet… mmmm, chicken… & calamari… so what does chicken taste like? well, i was surprised to discover it’s kinda like tofu…

holy titanium powerbooks, batman! — you’ll no doubt be pleased to know it’s not too late to send me a birthday present… or too early for easter… mmmm, titanium…

from the someone call the psi-corps department — epson printers are great & i’d recommend then to anyone! mine is actually telepathic! at least, that’s the only explanation i can think of for not including a usb cable in the box, dagnabbit…

dada publications archive — via metascene…