The Sensei sent me this wonderful link to a gallery of Japanese illustrations from the 1920s (who I think was, in turn, sent it by Matt Riley AIM alumni and frighteningly talented person). There are so many beautiful ones that it's impossible to pick favourites, but I do really like this one and this one and this one.
While I was waiting for Shell on the steps of The State Library on Sunday night a man in a trenchcoat sidled up next to me. I have often been warned about men in trenchcoats and was most curious to finally meet one. Oldish, Eastern European. What had brought to the library? he wanted to know. Dinner, I said, and went to reading my book. He stood there, fiddling with the belt of his coat. I had spent the evening before watching Hitchcock's Young and Innocent in which a woman is strangled with a trenchcoat belt. Was he about to whip it off and garote me?
A group of overseas students were standing in front of us. "There's a real Asian invasion in Australia, isn't there?" he said, smiling. His teeth were yellow. "Well actually" I said the Asian population is only about 2 percent of the total ethnic mix." Then Shell appeared and I fled.
Today I did some research to see just how close my improvised figures were and discovered that I probably wasn't too far out. According to this article approximately 1.6 percent of the population was born in China and Vietnam (presumably the largest source of Asian migration to Australia). There is, by comparison 1.9 percent from New Zealand. How I wish I'd known this on Sunday - I would have loved to say "Well, it's not the Asian invasion I'm worried about, it's those New Zealanders."
Boing Boing, which often has some quite interesting things has really dropped into the realms of bad taste with this terrible article. Firstly, it's sickening that they've linked to images of a person being shot and falling to the ground (and I don't care that he's a kidnapper) but to then say that the policeman is cool looking (because he's dressed in black and has a gun) is really, really despicable. It's so bad that I wonder if it's a joke that I've failed to get. Dunno. Do they think it's a movie, perhaps?
