Fizz and dp share a moment.
28
May 10
happy to be home
As the rain pummels the roof and the water overflows the clogged gutters, I reflect on the meaning of place and home and give thanks for the opportunity to spend six whole months in a far-off land and then return to this sodden slice of heaven I call home.
06
May 10
Quick Review cross-posted from Goodreads
Devices and Desires by K.J. Parker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I got hooked by the idea that an otherwise unassuming engineery-type might, through the meticulous application of engineery-type algorithms and process analysis techniques, create a diabolical scheme to reunite with his beloved wife and child. The fact the scheme might necessitate the total destruction of whole countries is, from the engineer’s perspective, a regrettable side-issue. “You go to war with the army you’ve got,” D. Rumsfeld famously said. Or, to borrow a more abstract formulation with a much better pedigree, “Give me but a place to stand, and I will move the earth.” It grows clear by the end of the book (the first volume in a trilogy) that the Reunification Machine the engineer has imagined is a horrible, bloody Rube Goldberg device composed of both machines and men.
Parker enjoys describing her imagined world. Mostly this is a good thing, but there is a certain amount of self-indulgent world-building going on. One entire chapter describes in minute detail the unfolding action of a committee meeting. No, really. The motion (carried, with no abstentions) actually has an important bearing on the plot, but you have to wonder if thirty pages of sub-committee intrigue was needed to ratchet the plot forward that tiny little bit.
I’m looking forward to Books #2 and #3, though I have the same misgivings about the Engineer’s scheme as I did many years ago, chewing on the premise of Asimov’s Foundation trilogy and wondering if I was going to be able to swallow: so much prescience without any margin for random human fuckups or unforseen changes in the weather? If you believe, as I do, that utterly unpredictable random events can upend any imagined causal chain, then your ability to buy into such a deterministic unfolding is diminished as the chain of perfectly anticipated events grows in links and length. Asimov’s psychohistory is compelling in theory but clearly just a clever brand of snake oil in practice; the Engineer’s machinations are similarly intriguing and unconvincing at the same time. Still — maybe in the second book the whole scheme collapses due to unforseen circumstances and the clever little bastard is forced to improvise?
30
Apr 10
Quick Book Review cross-posted from Goodreads
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Some really great writing, especially in the sections that focus on the childhood friendship between Amir and Hassan. I also enjoyed the expatriate section set in San Francisco. From the time Amir leaves for Pakistan the plot really started to creak and groan under the weight of all the coincidences and timely revelations. If it hadn’t built up so much momentum in the early stages I don’t know if I would have finished it.
10
Mar 10
nobody expects the penguin inquisition!
We took the Bruny Island boat cruise last weekend and had a great time. Three hours on the water with a wisecracking guide and boat captain. Lots of sun and great views of the Tasmanian coastline along with an uncommon species of albatross, cormorants, seagulls, seals, dolphins and one lonely fairy penguin made it a fantastic way to spend a Saturday.
For dp the trip was doubly productive as she fell in love with the full-length rain ponchos they provide for all passengers on the trip. After we docked she asked Robert, the guide, where she could buy one. It turns out the company has them made to order, but he offered to sell one to her for a decent price. Apparently it’s the greatest find in Tasmania (at least for those who will spend their fall/winter/spring outside in all weather, scooping up horseshit.
Get that woman a soft cushion and she’s in business!
07
Mar 10
the art of teleportation
February has ended so it’s become okay to get a little excited about two weeks biking in Vietnam starting the end of March.
Of course, it’s not a bad idea to get a little bit organized too, and one of the things to keep in mind when planning a visit to Vietnam is the necessity of arriving with a valid travel visa.
(I’d insert a snide comment about Communist countries at this point except last month I paid an additional $250 to have my non-Communist Australian visa extended so that there won’t be an unpleasant scene at Immigration when I land in Melbourne on the way home from said Vietnam trip. $250! Visas, it seems, are a great way to extract arbitrary amounts of money from tourists. At $75 the Vietnam visa appears to be a relative bargain.)
dp and I sort of knew a visa was necessary but didn’t do too much about it. March 1 we both had the thought that a glitch in the visa-approval process or delay in the sending and receiving of documents might result in our visas not being ready on time — or worse, our passports in transit limbo the day our flight left. So on March 1 dp came home with printouts of the visa application forms, and on March 2 I placed the forms, a cheque, and both passports in an Express Post envelope alongside a second, self-addressed Express Post envelope, and dropped the package into a mailbox. That would be 2 PM on the 2nd of March.
(Aside: mailing your actual, physical passport to a foreign embassy when you’re already living in a foreign country is a great way to obtain your recommended daily allowance of anxiety and dread.)
At around 9 AM on the 4th of March the motorcyclist/postman dropped off the mail. And in the mail was the self-addressed Express Post envelope containing our passports and visas.
It’s important to note the Embassy of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is in Canberra, ACT. That means our package made it from the mailbox to the Hobart postal facility, was dispatched to Canberra, was delivered, opened, and processed at the Embassy, and the self-addressed envelope was collected, sorted, returned to Hobart, sorted again and stuffed into our mailbox inside of 44 hours. Alternately, the Australian Post Office has figured out how to teleport mailbags across the country. Either way I’m impressed. And that’s not even taking into account the lightning speed of the embassy staff in getting the visas organized. Aren’t creaking socialist bureaucracies supposed to be ponderous and inefficient?
With the visa situation sorted out I can start obsessing about some other facet of the trip. For example, what’s the minimum amount of physical preparation one can get away with yet still expect to survive the bike rides on the trip?
04
Mar 10
covert operations fail
At the Hobart International Airport (why “International”? I think there must be a weekly mail flight to Auckland or something) there’s this parking spot — just the one — out front of the Virgin Blue arrivals area labelled “Undercover”. I cannot quite imagine how this works. I really wanted to park the Kia there and then, if anyone complained, I’d just put a finger to my lips and stroll away.
18
Feb 10
multicultural tasmania
We had a different kind of Valentine’s Day in Hobart. The weather wasn’t looking too promising so we decided to show Pat the little town of Richmond an hour or so outside of Hobart. We were a little surprised by the crush of cars and people when we arrived, but soon figured out the crowd was there for a Scottish celebration. A Highland dancing exhibition wrapped up as we arrived, and was followed by a pipe band competition.
We hadn’t really worked out that Valentine’s Day happened to coincide with the Chinese New Year celebration until later in the evening. After our Richmond tour Sarah and I wandered over to Salamanca to check out the second apartment we rented to accommodate Roger and then my parents when they showed up. (Our place in Sandy Bay can stretch to fit 3 adults; 6 is clearly out of the question.) It’s a somewhat soulless condominium, but it will suit the purpose just fine. The interesting bit occurred on our way back home. A parking lot off Sandy Bay Road was roped off and there were rows of white plastic chairs arrayed around the entrance of the somewhat upscale Chinese restaurant in the center of the plaza. There were a number of speeches addressed to the small audience in attendance and then a drum ceremony to welcome in the New Year.
I wonder if the fact that this is the Year of the Tiger has any additional resonance in Tasmania, given their nostalgic affection for the belatedly-famous “Tasmanian tiger”, a native marsupial that was hunted into extinction early in the 20th century?
Whatever the reason, it was a colourful display, and not what we’ve come to expect from the very UK-centric customs of this former colony.
07
Dec 09
a walk in the park
On the weekend we were determined to do a little bit of exploring. On Saturday morning we took a stroll through Battery Point to see the famous Salamanca Market down by the Hobart Waterfront.
05
Dec 09
barnyard shakespeare
Shakespeare’s plays have been performed for over 400 years. Think about that for a moment. It stands to reason there is a diminishing number of ways to breathe new life into these productions. Ian McKellan’s Richard III and Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo+Juliet are just a couple of examples of the lengths one needs to go in order to do anything new with the plays. Tom Stoppard wrote a version of MacBeth specifically for staging in the living room of homes within totalitarian states. Hamlet has been translated into Klingon. You get the picture.
I’m not sure if anyone has thought about the possibilities of non-humanoid Shakespeare. Which plays lend themselves to animal performance? I believe Shakespeare foresaw the problem and with his typically cryptic genius sketched out the solution for the generations that would follow. The key lies in the titles. Here are six of the immortal bard’s plays that would be suitable for barnyard production:
1. Hamlet (duh!)
2. Much Amoo About Nothing
3. Hen-ry V
4. Rameo and Mooliet
5. A Winter’s Tail
6. The Merchant of Venison
I could go on, but I believe I’ve made my point.
Farm animal adaptations of the Great Works could see novelty introduced to productions for decades to come. Add in a little kid-friendly retooling of the basic plots and run the whole shebang through the CGI filters that have already done so much to improve Dickens’s A Christmas Carol and the works of Dr. Seuss and you’ve got box-office GOLD.