This will hurt me...

Ezra and I like to share a saveloy whenever we are waiting for the bus.

Straight lines. Table Cape, Tasmania's North West. February 2012. Emily Dickinson makes her first appearance and the boys and I wonder what we are going to do this weekend while Jen is out and about in Melbourne... Pain - has an element of blank (650) , Emily Dickinson Pain - has an element of blank - It cannot recollect When it began - or if there was A time when it was not - It has no future - but itself - Its infinite realms contain Its past - enlightened to perceive New periods - of pain.

Ezra hasn't even seen the film Zoolander , yet somehow he has perfected the 'Magnum' !

There is always one joker... Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston. February 2012. The Porcupine is a novel by Englishman Julian Barnes that was originally published in Bulgarian [ Бодливо свинче]. This should give us a very strong clue as to the identity of which post-communist country the story takes place. The novel concerns the trial of the former communist leader of Bulgaria, and its effects on both the central protagonists of that trial, as well as the broader community. The real strength of the book is the complexity of its characters. There is no clear ‘black and white’ here and the tones in which the former dictator and the new democratic government’s representatives are painted are very much grey. Barnes has done an excellent job of overcoming the certainties of Cold War triumphalism and creating human characters (especially given that the book was released in 1992, with events still very fresh in the mind). The point of the book seems to be more than exploring c...

Ezra is urinated on by a giant squid sea creature in Burnie.

Ezra takes over the world! Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery, Hobart. February 2012. Those of you logging in today this merry Theme Thursday expecting me to wax lyrical about the distribution of a characteristic of a physical system or phenomenon, or a graphic or photographic representation of such a distribution or indeed list a broad sequence or range of related qualities, ideas, or activities will be sorely dissatisfied ! When I here the word SPECTRUM I think about a computer system that I have never seen in person, let alone used or owned. Yes, the Sinclair ZX SPECTRUM ! To explain, we must travel back to the heady days of 1986... NASA needed another seven astronauts; we were all let down by Halley's Comet; and we all suddenly discovered an obscure little place called the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Unlike the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, we had a Commodore 64 home computer. At the time, the terminally slow cassette drive did not worry us (although we coveted floppy dis...

Hen and Jen look for stones at Sisters Beach.

Just prior to lathering myself in pig fat... Little Howrah Beach, looking west over Hobart. February 2012. What I like to do on a Watery Wednesday is knock off from work, stick the swimmers on then get my hands on a big jar of pig grease and do a couple of laps around the Derwent Estuary with the wife and kids...

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is a hole in my plan. Lindisfarne Village, Lindisfarne. March 2012. Tuesday Q and A and we visit the mysterious Scottish Meme ! 1. Where are you from and where do you live now? I am from the city of Burnie - on the Tasmanian Riviera (the north west coast)- but I now live in Hobart, which is 600 kilometres away to the south east. 2. Favourite childhood story/ book/ film? No single one in particular. Off the top of my head I know that I enjoyed Peter and the Wolf , George's Marvellous Medicine and Watership Down . 3. If you could change gender for a day what would you do? Once I shifted from in front of the mirror I might nip down to the pool. 4. Do you feel you family is complete or would you like more/some children? I think that we're right. Four seems a good amount. Any more kids and we are outnumbered! 5. What do you do/Where do you work and do you enjoy it? I'm currently aiding community-based mental health services in the developme...

Henry on the moon Sisters Beach.

He doesn't bite. Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston. February 2012. The Internet is a wonderful place filled with the rich and varied treasures of the world holds (as well as erotic fan fiction.) The following are some things that I've had a look at in the last week. I call this: a Compendium of Click-throughs for Monday Morning... How Gogol (and Chekhov and Dostoyevsky) explains the Post-Soviet World . An good in-depth piece on why Kevin Rudd challenging has done Julia Gillard a favour or two . I am firmly in the Che Guevara/ Fidel Castro open collar camp! Down with imperialist neckwear!!! Pickiness: The Secret Eating Disorder Nobody’s Talking About... A short consideration on Vaclav Havel's contested legacy . Come to Tasmania the Wonderland! An exhibition of beautiful Tasmanian tourism posters, 1920s-1950s , from LINC Tasmania collections. Catherine the Great was an impressive woman. Every World Press Photo Winner From 1955-2011 . Be warned though, it leans...

Ezra launches a space shuttle...

Tasmanian badlands. Somewhere on the Midland Highway (around Bothwell). February 2012. Sunday again and consider this week's Top Five a companion to last time . Thus, without further ado: My Top Five People Named Ezra! Ezra McCracken : Handsome devil heart-breaker-type... Ezra Jack Keats : Storybook hero... Ezra Pound : Angry fascist poet... Ezra Heywood : Free love socialist-type... Ezra the Scribe : Lead the Jews from Babylon-type...