A thing that bugs me about a lot of watercolour video tutorials is they only show the part where the brush hits the paper. That leaves more than half of the process out and too many unanswered questions, like what colours did they use, and how much water? What does
I have several shoeboxes full of photos, letters, cards and the like that I've kept for nearly my entire life. The letters and cards all were given to me, including birthday cards beginning at age six (I was given five of the same card, clearly the only option
I mentioned in an earlier post that I would be taking a watercolour class soon. I'm now part-way through the seven week class. During the last fortnight or so I have settled on a theme, which is posts in water with a one point perspective (vanishing to a
Lottie, 15 September 2010 - 11 May 2025 The day after I picked up the eight-week-old pointer puppy from Brisbane airport, the Mackay-based breeder laughed at me over the phone. "You're going to have fun with this one." She meant it as a warning. Lottie was
1 June 2025 in Melbourne, supported by Rocket Science. Tucked deep up the back of Yarraville is an industrial area, copious roadworks and Kindred Studios and Bandroom. It's been years since I was last at this great little venue and I wish more bands I am interested in
When the vibes are off, it's more important than ever to remember: ducks' bums.
For the second year in a row I spent my birthday at Melbourne Zoo. It's just about the perfect day out when one also has evening plans: cute and weird animals to look at, fresh air, and not taxing on one's energy for socialising. Adrian gave
Yesterday I took a drive out to Mount Macedon to investigate the possible existence of weird fruiting fungi. I can now confirm it exists. It was a much-needed trip, a distraction from the very recent passing of our beloved Lottie and to make good use of my last week of
I completely forgot to mention I have started a new watercolour course. I am doing Open Studio Watercolour at The Art Room (TAR), which is for people who have progressed beyond beginner and want to focus on things like composition, creative goals, colour theory and so forth. It goes for
It's been a little while between posts but fear not. As per my previous posts (hehe) I've been on leave from work and preoccupied with bulk cinemagoing. I'm only one-and-a-bit weeks into my three weeks off and it already feels like a huge mental
The past five days I've attended every session of the Fantastic Film Festival at Lido (excluding repeat screenings). I've been logging reviews of each film on my Letterboxd account. Now in our third year of attendance, one thing is certain and that is that this festival
Last night we headed into the city to see Joshua Ladgrove's show for Melbourne International Comedy Festival. This is an almost-annual event for us and is almost always accompanied by dinner at Nam Loong on Russell Street. Nam Loong (not to be confused with the other Nam Loong,
Outdoors
A little local adventure, not quite to plan, but with lots of good bits. The original plan was to ride my bike along the Maribyrnong River Trail in the upstream direction from Footscray Park to Brimbank Park and explore the trails there. I took my first wrong turn just after
Outdoors
Last year I decided to get into fungus. I bought a copy of Bruce Fuhrer's A field guide to Australian fungi, signed up to iNaturalist and started looking. I did not have to look far. My local area is absolutely bursting with weird, colourful, tenacious fungi. I love
Music
5 April 2025 in Melbourne, featuring doktorb, Wet Electronics, Daydream Deluxe, Dark5lalom, Killawarra, Mada Yana (まだヤナ), JR / KS and Post Dive. A feature of the past few weeks at our place has been Adrian, also known as doktorb, rehearsing for this show. It was the brainchild of Benjamin Chesler who
Sportsball
Last night, my team (the Western Bulldogs) played Adrian's team (the Carlton Blues), making it the divorce round. Attending has become an annual event for us. We're still working through the circumstances in which this match would lead to our divorce. Whatever happens, one is faced
Movies
Last night we saw the Australian premiere of Death of a Unicorn, screening for the launch of this year's Fantastic Film Festival (If you want to know what I thought of the movie that's what Letterboxd is for). We discovered this festival back in 2023. We
Motorcycle
My neighbour and I had pencilled in a ride for the Sunday just gone, a perfect late Summer day (some might call it early Autumn, but not I, not today). She had to cancel (she traded in her scooter–more on that later!) but I went out anyway. I rode
Music
21 March 2025 in Melbourne, supported by Ferla, Hearts and Rockets and No Hoper. Sniff! The excellent Bench Press are ending. This was the first of their two farewell shows at The Old Bar. We were sad to miss out on tickets to the final-final show but this night'
Internet
There's a yarn shop with an emailing list, and I'm on it. I got there the usual way after buying something from them, and I stayed on it because I genuinely liked their emails. They're good at picking out patterns that match whatever yarns
Music
11 March 2025, supported by Mick Turner. Here I am back seeing another international touring act. I promise the next show I see will be something local (I already have the tickets). I feel like these live music posts end up being venue reviews too. In this case, I'
Motorcycle
My downstairs neighbour Sam just bought herself a new scooter, a very nice little Lambretta V-Special 200. I have no idea what the '200' in the name signifies as it's 169 cc. So today we took our tiny bikes out for a ride and to practice
Nonsense
Back in the early 90s the world invented the techno bunny, a youth subculture of illegal rave attendance and enjoyment of dance music. For more info--well. A Duck Duck Go search of "techno bunny" found me this little nugget which is best viewed using Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.
Music
2 March 2025 in Melbourne, supported by Freya Josephine Hollick I swear I don't only go and see touring acts, but you wouldn't know that looking at my schedule in early 2025. This was my second Kristin Hersh show in about a year and a half