Sweet, beautiful and gut-wrenching. Adam Elliot knows how to explore the mad side of life.

i thought for a moment the constant narration would be too much, but i got over it. How else can you tell the story in a claymanimation?

In the end, this story draws you in so well. The claymation is so invigorating and kitsch. The Glen Waverly curtains, the boots hanging over the power lines, Vera testing the sherry, Dad stuffing his birds in the shed .. Damian with his trips to Mikenos and his NZ pen-pal.

And the heart-stirring madness of Max the New Yorker who has anxiety attacks whenever Mary asks him a difficult question.

Really touching.

So fitting that Barry Humphries is the narrator. The madness of Melbourne.

i went along to the fundraiser for Pacific Black Box. Heck why not spend 6 extra dollars to support Georgie and her NGO on their mission to teach young adults on the Carteret Islands. They must be doing something right if the students are winning international awards, right?

i give it 4 and a half stars. Must see.

Don’t know what’s going on with the Rental Market, but when i heard Ju-Yuen and her partner were given notice – for the second time in a year – i sighed with despair.

Two weeks ago, David came into work looking depressed, and told us that with his partner and child he’d been given notice. Four years they’ve lived in this place, and they’re not looking forward to the idea of having to find somewhere else.

Rohan at work is telling stories of boarding houses in West Heidelberg that fit whole families into a room (for under $200 a week). The Four Corners episode on Debt – a month ago – was horribly depressing. Apparently the number of mortgage repossessions by banks in the last twelve months is higher than during the entire early nineties recession (in Australia i think).

So .. anyway.

Fingers crossed, eh ?!

i read today that Melbourne is growing at a furious rate. 1500 people moving here every week. Nice to be so popular.

(News check: “Supreme Court files show lenders claiming a record 57 homes a week, triple the level of five years ago.” from the Hun, feb ’08. )

The melb’n city skyline is invisible again, but this time it’s great news: a light shower is passing through, bringing the cool change after five days of side-splitting heat. (Like pigs roasting on a spit, we were!)

Half an hour ago we had bright blue skies and the muggy remnants of yesterday’s tropical torment. Now there’s a veil of mist across the city, and the delightful chill of rain on trees. You know that delicious fragrance, when the rain hits greenery?

mmmmm! oh that was a light shower, fifteen seconds of intense rain, a few sporadic drops and it’s clearing again.

Okay, enough weather report, back to study. mic x.

Big shout out to the Martini-Mahers in Halifax, Nova Discotia. Hope you’re all making the best of a chilly winter, and holding on tight to loved ones and nearby cousins. Bundles of love from this side of the world, to youse all.

It is still smoky in melbourne, but we only get the smoke, while the country folk get all the fire.

Intrepid blogger, Sam Downing writes about the yellow haze. “Victoria is burning like a mofo.” (What’s a mofo?)

(Sam also writes about the recent mic=40 gig .. btw, Sam gets the prize for most cheers on arrival, best cookies, and leaving a huge Rock Festival to come to my birthday.

Reasons to be cheerful about living in Canada:

• no springtime hayFever in September-December!
• no shroud of smoke covering the entire city where you live so the buildings are only faintly visible (ie. your entire country is not on fire).
• no days spent inside cowering from 42 degree heat.

Seriously, i am sitting looking across the city of Melbourne, and i cannot see the city skyscrapers. A faint outline is all that remains. Can only imagine how crap life is for people living in the bush. Fires joining up all over the shop, and no water to fight them with. Ouch. Your heart goes out, dunnit!!

extraordinary loveliness
i have had the most wonderful birthday celebration, the final in a big series (a glamorous and wonderful affair at Northcote’s magnificent Open Studio.. with the very incredible Tzigas playing their gypsy jazz under the stars).

Jude and Jody-Lee surpassed themselves in cooking, hospitality and astounding generosity. I have no idea how i shall ever return such huge favours. People who missed out on these Footscray Gourmandes’ sumptuous sausage rolls, goat’s cheese tartlets, cucumber and feta wraps, as well as Annie’s lemon slices – are the unluckiest people in the world, i’m very sorry.

Among the very few things to go horribly wrong were: no Martini-Mahers, and no sister KT. Oh and Lola couldn’t make it either, despite being coincidentally in the Dandenongs that night. Many apologies, and a few unexpected absences, thanks to the 37 degree heat.

Healthy, happy, but Grumpiness Approaches
Yes the evil buckwheat monster has left my body, and i am healthy again, fresh as a light thunderstorm in sunny springtime melbourne. Phew.

Now it’s back to study time, so my Grumpy-meter will be rising. (No, no, michael, embrace the joy of learning!)

(Here’s an old halloween entry)
i have been spending far too much time online as usual, and found this astonishingly silly ‘tv’ serial: “The only thing dry about this Halloween was the Canada Dry.”