peteg's blog

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Another late-afternoon swim. More decent waves. It's still a touch cold, difficult to stay in for more than half an hour.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Swim in the late afternoon (isn't daylight saving grand?). Some big waves (purportedly 2m), all classic neck breakers.

Suburban Mayhem.

/noise/movies | Link

At the Verona. I also signed up for their movie club: it costs $12 for a student, you get two free tickets per annum and the ticket price drops to an unbelievable $8.50 for oneself and one's friend. I'll make that money back in a month.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Quick swim in the late morning at Coogee. Flat as, a little cold.

Barry Jones: A Thinking Reed

/noise/books | Link

Took me a while to get through this one. Barry's writing style is a bit opaque, and the dry humour is welcome but unfortunately sparse. He has a tendency to explain his experience by referring to others', and then omitting concrete descriptions for those of us unfamiliar with his references. The book overflows with a self-aware immodesty, and the publisher's gamble is that the paying readership will indulge him on the basis of his historical place in the nation's bosom.

The last chapter is quite out of place in an autobiography, being a commentary on the post-reason, post-Enlightenment politics of 2006. Good to see John Quiggin get a guernsey though.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Quick morning swim at Coogee, a big swimming pool. A little cold.

Children of Men

/noise/movies | Link
At the Greater Union at Bondi Junction Westfield with Jen.

Soylent Green.

/noise/movies | Link

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Drove up to Queenscliff, just for some variety. If Surfcast can be believed it was about 19 degrees in, with some fairly small "one metre" waves. Beautiful day north of the Harbour.

A Prairie Home Companion at the Orpheum.

/noise/movies | Link

Ah, dear old Mr Blue wrote a movie. His schtick is timeless. It's a bit trying if you like a strong plot or dislike bumpkin-ism. Directed by Robert Altman, and his last.

Jarvis Cocker edits the Observer Music Monthly.

/noise/music | Link
Wow, he's back making noise again. Link courtesy of Jon.

The Departed

/noise/movies | Link

Very well edited but the plot is a bit paint-by-the-numbers.

Dan Kelly and the Alpha Males, The Maladies at the Annandale.

/noise/music | Link
Met up with Jon for a few pre-gig beers at the Courthouse and an Indian at Tamana's. I hadn't been to the Annandale before, and after seeing The Maladies give their least laid back performance yet, I got the impression that people expect rock when they go to the Annandale. Dan Kelly and the Alpha Males, nephew of Paul Kelly according to a guy I met at the bar, was also a bit harder-edged than I had been lead to believe. The Tucker B's put on a strange mix of sort-of-punk and soft rock, somewhat similar in my hazy memory to Metallica's ambit.

Ensemble Theatre: Are You There?

/noise/theatre | Link

I scored some free tickets from The Program. First time at the Ensemble Theatre, a tiny theatre on quite a pretty little stretch of the harbour at Kirribilli. Met up with Jen at Milson's Point train station and had a drink at what seems to be the only pub in the area; it pulls a strange cross-section of punters, that's for sure. We had a quick dinner at Luigi's (Italian, in the hub of restaurants) and hurried down the backstreets to be there just in time.

The play itself was a pretty standard exploration of themes surrounding relationships, e.g. as listed in this review in the Smage. I found it stultifying for extended periods, though the actress provided great relief whenever she was on stage. I just can't imagine too many new things to be said in this format, and a retreat to novelty as happens here is a bit of a cop-out. The social upheaval in Argentina over so many years could surely yield something more than this.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Went for a swim late-morning at Coogee. By about 11:30 the classic shore (read neck) break was in operation, and getting out was (relatively) hard yakka. A little cold but so damn hot out. Fortunately the sand isn't yet scorching my feet. Coogee: a big swimming pool one day...

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Dr Gonk popped over for lunch, and we went for a swim at Coogee before that. A bit cold with the standard dumpers. He's off to England come December 1. Lunch at Coffee and Things, a beer at the Royal.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Quick swim at Coogee, late morning. The classic dumpers rolled in the whole time, and were a bit stronger than they have been recently. A bit chilly.

David Malouf: Every Move You Make at Gleebooks

/noise/talks | Link
Another book-launch of sorts. Malouf is in fact slight in stature; I always envisaged an amiable six foot string bean. I especially liked the glasses-for-reading and glasses-for-looking-at-people.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Swim at Coogee, late afternoon. Supposedly the max was nineteen degrees, but I'm sure it was warmer at midday. A bit choppy with a persistent off-shore wind, bloody freezing getting out.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Went for a snorkel with Rob at Gordon's Bay around 11:30am. Started out quite flat and warm but descended into some whitewater when a blustery north-easterly sprung up. Didn't see much. Had lunch at Paris Seafood at La Perouse.

Blade Runner

/noise/movies | Link

Yep, I feel like some cyberpunk right now. The plot makes little sense. (e.g. How could Deckard not know that replicants have a limited life span? — surely if there was blood spilt on Earth over these things then the resolution would have been broadcast to reassure the citizenry.) Heck, we're not watching it for the plot though, are we? It's all about noir in a dyspeptic future.

Holly Throsby, @newtown.

/noise/music | Link
Review, eventually.

William Gibson: Neuromancer

/noise/books | Link

This was quite a lot better than I remembered. (The copy I have cost me $3.50 back in the early 90s.) I can't believe it hasn't been made into a movie, well, excepting The Matrix of course.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Yet another swim at Coogee circa midday. Some surf, a bit warmer. Quite a crowd for early October, perhaps due to the school holidays.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Swim at Coogee around 11am, hardly anyone about. Some waves relative to the past few days, a bit warmer, quite comfortable.

LTL-to-Büchi Genealogy

/cs | Link

How cool is this, someone's organised a family tree of Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) translations. Who would have thought there's so damn many.

Barry Jones: A Thinking Reed book launch at Gleebooks.

/noise/politics | Link

This is Barry's long-in-coming autobiography. The launch itself was another in-conversation-with Jennifer Byrne, who surprisingly managed to get some words in edgeways without talking over the big man. Bazza's schtick has always been to ramp up the geek in a self-deprecatory and seemingly oblivious fashion, though it is a pretence that he can't keep all the time. His anecdotes (e.g., roughly, "the return of Halley's Comet may well be the single greatest achievement of the Hawke government", uttered to the press gallery in his role as Science Minister, circa 1987.) make him human, but he also likes to use the ramble to avoid answering uncomfortable questions. Still, it's more entertaining than the bald dissembling and visionless blandness of the current mob.

Interesting in the light of Petro Georgiou's recent spray was his claim that Bob Menzies, late in life, gave up voting for the Liberals and went for the DLP instead.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
A quick swim at Coogee around midday. Pretty cold, about the same in as out. Some waves, hardly anyone else at the beach.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
Dave was up for the long weekend, attending a dance party at the lake out the front of Fox Studios. We went for a swim at Coogee in the mid-afternoon. Incredibly flat, a trifle cold.

New Theatre: The Voysey Inheritance

/noise/theatre | Link

Again, students and the unwaged gain free entry to New Theatre, it being the first Sunday of the month for these godless socialist types. My last two visits had proven less than exciting, and so it was with a what-the-heck sigh that I put my bum on the seat this time.

The play itself is an update of a century-old tale of inherited avarice, and examines the angles a family may take on ruin: honour, nonchalance, legalism, morality. It works. The cast was large, dynamic, well-used and effective. The narrative was a bit unwieldy at times, and the love sub-plot betwixt Alice and Edward suffered a bit in this abridged version, though what is there is funny enough.

Definitely worth a look.

/noise/beach/2006-2007 | Link
A quick swim at Coogee, early afternoon. Not as busy as one would expect on a warm Sunday arvo. Flat as, slightly cold in places.

Asimov: The Stars, Like Dust

/noise/books | Link

Urk, a sci-fi romance. Not one of his memorable works.