Recently there have been rumours that Sarah Palin, as Mayor of Wasilla Alaska, rang up her local librarian to find out how she could get books banned.

Via Boing Boing, i stumbled on this post from Everybody’s Libraries: “Why Banned Books Week matters”. You can find a list of books that have been banned around the world, as well as information about this book week.

Interesting to see that the South African govt once banned “Black Beauty”.

Not everyone is fortunate enough to live in a country where the right-wing lunatics have only a handful of seats in the parliamentary house of review.

image and photo credits: licensed under creative commons at flickr: Thanks very much: sidelong

i am a huge fan of Roundangle theatre .. the multi-sensory works of Will and Jodie. eg Source/Sauce which was so good that it won many awards.

So it was a buzz to be drawn into their blindfolded conga line at hi vibes.

“Hey Will, how are you?” i said.
“Do you want to join our conga line?” he replied, “.. just put on this blindfold.”

The experience was pretty much my highlight of the day. Several people blindfolded, walking through that enormous crowd, joined only at the shoulders. Will sent directions from the back via hand-on-shoulder touch: stop, go, left or right. Crowds swarmed around us, murmuring and shouting ..

How could i resist booking a ticket for closing night of the play, Deceased Estate .. this saturday.

Here’s Jodie talking about the Source/Sauce experience.

What a beautiful day.

i am completely blessed .. as the wonderful Louise invited me to a delightful brekkie in the wilds of westgarth, only moments from the action.

Yes this is the first year i’ve been an off-world visitor to planet northcote during the high vibes festival. i was feeling a bit sad, but being rescued with French Toast and Fruit Salad is such a good way to build up your spirits and get ready for a day of pleasure.

as i arrive, gray is tapping away on Renato’s drum kit, in time with Bessie Smith. Life is deliriously gorgeous.

The sun is shining, there are thousands of angels pouring gigalitres of love into the whole festival, and i’m filled with joy, as we wander up the hill to join the throng.

Everything is so packed, and the weather is so gorgeous that we don’t actively listen to much music .. but i dance to a couple of Tzigas numbers outside Open Studio; and Gerard has a funky dj in his backyard next door. That was fun.

The gig that i really savour later on is the magnificent spoonbill at 303 .. who plays a very enjoyable set. Listen here to his version of Gum Tree:

It was a bit weird when he invited dj drizzle on stage to do some MC work, and this guy just wouldn’t let go of the microphone. Some of the crowd shouted at him to get off so we could enjoy the spoon .. but mr bill was too polite to grab back the mic.

Ah madness. Oh fun. Potato cakes and broken yellow buckets. Huge sunglasses and crazy thongs made out of rubber LP shapes. Lots of wonderful people from the Northcote tribes.

.. and i forgot my camera, so only mobile phone photos. Will post if i can get the blue teeth to work.

Later in the week, i read in the local paper that there were 100,000 people at the event .. 30,000 more than last year. Big !!

Ciao.

Well, Clem Bastow from Defamer has posted his / her round up of the first week for the top twelve, and i must say i agree entirely with his perspective. Everyone i texted after the session agreed that Madame took the evening. i’d say we’re in for a really good season.

Is Clem a boy’s name? it is, isn’t it. i wonder if Clem is related to Nick and Polly.

Defamer seems to write a thousand posts a day .. i don’t know who they are or how they do it, but there’s nothing like an unhealthy obsession with trash culture to keep you going sometimes.

Many people know that i’ve spent the entire winter holed up in bed watching dvd of television programs. Yes it’s true, i watched

• the complete first season of Brothers and Sisters. Aaaagh.
• the mighty boosh, season three
• Torchwood, the Welsh spinoff from Doctor Who
• a few episodes of the totally trashy American Gothic
• Flight of the Conchords, again
• re-runs of Firefly, Buffy ..

Brothers and Sisters had me hooked from the start. Such compelling-ly mad characters. It was fun in B&S watching Calista Flackheat and Rachel Griffiths’ lips compete for whose could be the most wobbly due to puffy injections.

Mighty Boosh is of course beyond compare.

.. and now i’ve found something new, something i hadn’t seen before .. Life on Mars. Ooh it’s good. Unfortunately the first time round, the Movie Reel gave me disks 1 and 4 in the same case .. so i’ve had to wait for the next instalment.

American Gothic was strange, because it was promising .. but so disappointingly Lame. There’s one sheriff in town who rules the place with his mysterious psychic powers – and regular murdering – but somehow he doesn’t use his powers against the main heroes. The heroes are irritatingly pathetic. Not recommended.

This Saturday night looks fantastic on the Northcote High Street.

Emma Tonkin is playing the Uniting Church .. but not alone; she has a choir behind her to really stretch the beauty of her songs. (Have a listen here, or visit her space.)

Competing with “Girl, interpreted” which is a celebration of Auslan song interpretation. Oh, why are they on at the same time.

Boo.