Comings and Goings

Arrived after a few days away due to a cursed fever. The grounds are empty. Mid-semester break. Have decided to do things differently today.

A bitt jittery after excessive popcorn consumption at the SCASS Film Festival last night. Have booked tickets to see Crispin Glover show his films at Chauvel Cinema.

Spent the morning sitting in the cafe. Two cappucionos. Last week the waitress asked my name, curious after a year of my daily sittings. I introduced myself but forgot to ask her name. Now I sit in the cafe and wonder when it is appropriate to ask for her name.

A bird flew straight into my windscreen on the way over. He was flying with a friend. The friend flew off. He was swept up under my car. He was grey. A pigeon maybe. Never encountered death face on or in transit before. Usually I am standing.

Woke up to read that a 61-year-old man was stabbed to death at the pizzeria around the corner from where I live. Watched an excellent Australian film, Noise, last night on SBS. 6 people were shot to death on a train in the film. I had strange dreams.

It was Sunday and bright blue so I spent the day in the park reading Middlemarch by George Eliot followed by Digital Performance by Steve Dixon. Middlemarch has not captured me yet although I am trying. Digital Performance is an excellent look at the field I find myself in. Was it the impressionists that led [...]

Watched a 1958 movie of The Old Man and the Sea last night. There was some nice shark camera work in it. Read that Amanda Vanstone overturned the deportation of suspected Mafia 14 months after the Liberal Party received a donation from the man’s brother. She is the ambassador to Italy now. As John Howard [...]

Arthur Russell and Nat Baldwin. Two cellists I am currently enjoying. Springtime rhythms that I stroll along to. Accompanied by the syncopated sneezes of hayfever. Spring is a torturous period for me. Unrequited love. Favourite time of the year but I cower with irritation.

Came from a lecture by John Conomos that was part of the Sydney Underground Film Festival Symposium. Conomos said “Theory is good. Poetry is more important”. My camera has photographed some stranger entering and exiting my studio in my absence. She looked confused. Don’t know how she unlocked the door.

Came in late today. Worked the bar at the SCA Gallery last night for the Chromatic Visions exhibition. There was a smaller turn out than expected. Drank the left over wine at the artist’s residence with the inaugural visiting research fellow Tim Kellner.

Listening to Scott Walker on arrival. Thinking about learning to play cello. Brendan Nelson has been evicted. I wonder if Malcolm Turnbull will be agreeable or disagree on principle.