Literary Awards The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards are currently open and looking for entries. Most of the major awards are for published (or performed) pieces, but there is also $15 000 on offer for an unpublished manuscript by an "Emerging Victorian Writer." You also get 20 hours of "professional assistance" with this prize- I wonder if you can choose the type of professional assistance?
Entries are due on July 18th.
I love the term "emerging writer / artist." I have a picture in my mind of someone emerging from bed, for some reason, and pattering off down the hallway, still bleary with sleep, to the bathroom. I have been particularly bleary in the mornings of late, and have startled myself twice this week when I caught a glimpse of myself in the bathroom mirror and realised that one of my eyes is still shut, clearly trying to deny the existence of Morning*.
*how can it be morning, afterall, if it's still pitch black?
The Right Number Scott McCloud has posted the intro from his new web comic The Right Number. It's good- really good- I like the way each frame zooms in on the next, (although I'd like it even better if the new frame was more integrated into the previous image, rather than sitting as a rectangle over the top). Still, it is very effective in creating that sense of drawing you into a story, zooming in on details.
It's got me thinking and I'm also wishing, for once, that I had a credit card, because I'd happily give him the 25 US cents to read the rest of it.
School Holiday Buskers- sketch and stolen conversation
"Did you see that guy? He took a picture of us!" "I know, I saw him. God, I bet it turns up in a magazine somewhere." "Do you think?" "It might." "Busking is so..... real. And especially busking in the city." "Yeah, you can't be much more in touch with your audience than that. I mean, we were right there amongst it, weren't we?" It was great. We were great. You guys are so great!" "How much did we make in the end?" "Oh Alicia, it's so not about that. Anyway, I was thinking we should like maybe donate the money to Greenpeace or something." "Well, maybe we could buy a coke to share on the way home?" "Vanilla coke?" "Of course." "Quick! There's the Glen Waverly bus. We'd better run." "Do you really think that photo will turn up in a magazine?" "I wouldn't be surprised."
The Brazilian Internet Animation Contest, Anima Mundi is up and running for 2003. Anyone is able to vote and I shall personally be voting for Al Mcinnes's pieces Buski and Funsters, not only because he is an alumni from Aim but because the pieces are great.
I came across Super Flat Times via Boing Boing yesterday. Matthew Derby is an author and the site (which he apparently created) is a promotion for his latest book. It has the usual screensavers, wallpapers and an interview with the author, but what appealed to me were the "deleted scenes": three passages of text (either extracts from the book or, possibly, ones that were left out) with a "commentary" that makes it seem like they were scenes from a movie. A very weird and unusual approach, but one which I liked a great deal.
Scott and Natalie have launched a new site: Melbourne Blogs. It includes a random Melbourne blog feature and a round up of what's on in our glorious home town. I shall be signing up forthwith.
Do you think you're a glass- half- full or glass-half-empty type of person? I'm filling in a questionare.
Have I ever told you hold much I hate that analogy?
No.
Well, I really hate it.
Why?
Because it's completely stupid. The whole thing depends on what's happening with the glass. If you're pouring liquid into the glass, then it's half full. If you're drinking out of the glass, it's half empty.
It could be argued that this is a pessimisistic interpretation, you know.
OK, then. Have you ever considered that it depends on what is in the glass? What if there's something really horrible in there?
Like wee?
Well, I was more thinking of medicine. A glass of nasty, bitter medicine that you have to drink.
Now, the pessimist might look at the glass and say "Oh no, the glass is still half full of this stuff" while the optimist might say "Well, the glass is already half empty- it's not so bad."
So what is your point, exactly?
That a half-full glass does not necessarily equate with optimism.
I love this entry from Thomas / Marcus on Exit Page Left, especially the idea of an artwork comprising a hat and a pair of shoes that play a symphony when they detect each other's presence in a room. Fantastic. This would make such a great story in itself. I'd love to see that happen with the group fiction blog- stories diverting off the main theme and being fleshed out somewhere else.
We attended a farewell fondue party on Saturday night. I have something of a fear of fondue, after a disastrous attempt to make it with Ms R one night. Entrusted to purchase the wine that makes up a large component of a cheesy fondue I bought the cheapest, nastiest bottle, thinking that it wouldn't matter if it was for cooking. It did matter. What also mattered was that I got the proportions of cheese-to-wine completely out of whack and the resulting runny, foul-tasting slime was quickly abandoned. We ordered pizza instead.
Our Saturday night hosts, the Ds, however, had clearly done this before. They wisely opted for a vegetable broth type fondue in which you plonk your piece of prawn, calamari, broccoli or whatever while chatting with your neighbour and making sure they don't accidentally remove your fork instead of their own. It was very delicious and quite healthy. The chocolate fondue for dessert, however, was not healthy, but tasty, nonetheless.
I also inadvertently broke a couple of fondue etiquette rules: I accidentally ate a piece of brocolli directly from the fondue fork rather than removing it and eating it with another fork. A big no-no, which amounts to that other great crime; double-dipping.
The other mistake I made was to load up my fondue fork with a number of items, rather than just the one. I blame my dinner party neighbour for this breach- he was a packaging engineer and worked out the perfect way to load up the fondue fork for maximum edibility and minimum fork-loss: mushroom first, calamari next, then stoppered in place with a piece of broccoli. I was very impressed and felt compelled to follow his lead. Our German host caught us at it and was most disapproving.
Latest draft of the abstract, after getting Sensei to look over it.
The Weblog Studio
While the majority of weblogs are text-based, there are increasing numbers that include visual material. For some, this may be as simple as uploading a photograph, but others use the format as a digital version of a visual diary. This paper will investigate the possibilities offered by the medium as a centralised location for recording and publishing visual ideas by comparing and contrasting weblogs with the traditional concept of the artist’s journal and studio. Additionally, it will investigate the ways visual materials can be, and are currently being used, drawing on specific weblog examples, including the author’s own.
Mortensen and Walker’s description of weblogs as being a way to “trace the flight of thought” is an apt metaphor for the blogging process and this approach is of particular use to the visual artist. Like a journal, the weblog records the steps along the way, focusing on the process rather than the finished product. The promise to draw or write everyday becomes more pressing when there is an audience to please. There are benefits and potential pitfalls to the use of this medium for the visual artist, and this paper will explore both by drawing on specific examples of visual material on weblogs, including the author’s own.
Clusters of bloggers with similar concerns will often form around a resource, and information is exchanged, ideas fostered. This paper will discuss the effects on the artist of working in this “open studio” environment, where discussion and instant feedback is often a feature.
