October Rant part two:

Okay so October part two is crazy late. ShouldhavepostedNovemberbynow late. Sorry. My internet died. And I had to wash my hair. These are the other things that happened to me in October. Stand by for November Shortly…

Gig Rant: Again with the me-not-being-up-on-current-music-and-friends-dragging-me-to-things thing. This time I had a bit of warning and was able to do my homework. My friend got some work out of town and consequently couldn’t use her ticket to see the Jezabels and kindly offered it to me. Having some forewarning, but no cash or ability to download things, I did what any person in my situation would and listened to copious amounts of triple j in order to acquaint myself with this hip new band. Triple j, in October, were playing them about once an hour so I was able to quickly educate myself into fandom and completely enjoy the gyrating, sexy, awesomeness that is Hayley Mary. That’s all really. Hot. Good. Fun.

Art Rant: I don’t really have a rant. The new White Rabbit, exhibit, is, as usual, rad. Make sure you stand still in front of the rubble piece (god I should go with a pad and write down artists names, I’m such a shit blogger) you’ll know what I mean when you see it. Anyway if you walk around it you want notice that it is breathing. You have to stand still and watch closely. My favourite work is about plants talking to each other on the interwebs. Super awesome. I wandered a little around Art and About and was expectedly underwhelmed. I didn’t mind the lit up netting outside town hall though. Mad Square was neat. I loved the Metropolis prints. Crazy Yum. And I finally looked around the new Kaldor wing. Some of it is junk but most of it is FUCKING AMAZING, and such a great new space. super yum.

Eating Animals Rant: As part of the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, novelist and pseudo-philosopher, Jonathon Safran Foer came to Sydney to speak about not eating meat. I’m fond of the man as a writer. It took me a while, but I got there. I used to pick up Extremely loud and Incredibly Close in bookstores when I was at uni and flick through it and think to myself ‘how fucking pretentious does this shit look?’ then, a dear friend of mine bought it for me and I fell completely and totally in love with Oscar. He’s a magical, wonderful little kid character and the book is a really wonderful feat. It is heartbreaking and hilarious and magic. Everything is Illuminated, on the other hand, took me 4 years to read and I never really fell for it. I only just managed to finish it and return it to my poor friend that lent it too me all those years ago… I found it laboured and hard to read. But I know heaps of people who adore it so I’m prepared to accept maybe I’m wrong… However, needless to say, the boy can write. What he can’t do is open a festival of dangerous ideas. Or have any dangerous ideas for that matter. He reeked. His talk was stale. It was also really dumb. It felt like the sort of wank you’d spin if you were being interviewed by Opera not the sort of talk you’d give to a room full of thinkers who’s shelled out a hunk of cash to hear you speak. His main argument is that we need to take the dichotomy out of eating animals. He asserts that everyone is affected to some degree by cruelty to animals and that the meat eater/vegetarian (he never really used the word vegan, in his universe vegetarian is the strongest stance) split means that heaps of people, who care, but don’t care enough to give up eating meat are forced to shrug their shoulders at the problem and go, “that sucks but I like meat too much I can’t help” where, if there weren’t such an all or nothing dichotomy those that care could contribute to solving the problem by eating less meat. He told the room that very few of us would still be vegetarians in ten years time, but it’s highly possible all of us could be cutting down our meat intake in ten years time and that everyone eating, say, 5 less meat meals a week would greatly impact the planet and animal rights. I found the argument very definitely not new or dangerous. It’s fucking safe Idea if ever I’ve heard one. “Don’t be radical cos strong politics upset people and cause trouble in the long run cos people wont stick to it!” I found the argument condescending and stupid and I thought spinning it to a room full of thinkers (and most likely vegetarians or vegans) was just absurd. I’ve spun the same sort of crap, but only when I’m being bated by a cranky meat eater who takes it as a personal insult that I don’t eat meat. I get all zen and everyone-does-their-bit-in-ways-they-can about it… but I don’t then go sell out the opera house concert hall and expect people to clap and congratulate. Grow some balls wanker. And, if you’re touring to a country and charging large amounts to speak… re work your material a bit and maybe read up a bit on the country your talking to. I didn’t pay for your leftovers.

Flicks Rant: I finally saw Norweigan Wood. Rad. I found it a very dutiful telling. Sometimes this got to me but mostly I appreciated it. There isn’t actually enough time in a film to be entirely dutiful to a novel so I congratulate attempts to be so, but there are always going to be those absences and those bits where your memories of the text have to flesh things out and do some of the work. It made me realise how uncomfortable books becoming films really makes me. I mostly acts, like, say, chewing Nicorette when you really want a cigarette. Shithouse metaphor, I know, and I don’t even smoke so it’s a fraudulent one at that but… I dunno… You get transported back to this universe you’ve bonded with and a hit of something you once felt but it is a shadow. A ghost. You were never really taking in seriously to begin with. Don’t get me wrong, It’s a gorgeous film, and some of the photography is absolutely breathtaking. I was deeply moved and thoroughly enjoyed my overpriced Verona ticket (since when did it cost 20 bucks to see a fucking flick!!??? I swear just yesterday it was $4.50 with a shop-a-docket… grumble…) but, I dunno, I felt more complex things about Midori on the page and I understood more about Hatsumi. Anyway. It seems strange that I’m debating whether it should be filmified when I’ve always found Murakami’s writing so filmic… and he’s so drenched in pop culture of course we need films of his stories. Forget I started wanking. (but standby for more musings in my November rant) Meanwhile Norweigan wood is my least favourite of his stories in anycase. I prefer the more otherworldly stories and the dystopic nightmare ones. The man/boku losing woman trope (which runs through all of them even when shit gets trippier and more exciting) is my least favourite element and the entire focus of this one cos it was Murakami’s attempt at a mainstream love story so he deliberately toned down the surreal shit. I also might be growing out of Murakami… That’s not to say I’m not aching to be bought 1Q84 for Xmas… just… you know… maybe Murakami was an anxty early 20s thing for me… maybe… anyway I’ll stop inflicting this on you… I’m not ranting am I? I’m rambling indulgent crap. However… worth a look.  Filmy film.