Sunday, May 18, 2014
One of my most loved items in the world are Fayoum Portraits. They range from in poor shape and fragmenting to could have been painted last week. What are they? They are a result of a remarkable fusion of cultures, Egyptian, Greek and Roman and date from the late classical (200 BC) to later Roman (350AD) They are mainly small (lifesize) and are painting on wood panels with a paint that combines wax with pigment giving the sort of texual depth not seen until oil paints. They are this size because they were placed over the real person face and then the mummy wrappings wrapt around them so they looked as though a live person head was emerging from the wrappings (this must have incredibly startling for archeologists entering tombs) . Work calls
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Infinite regressions and international travel.
on airline travel
The phenomenon I am about to describe is not to be found on short haul flights; Europeans experience a mere mental shift in their sense of their biological age, which may explain their ill considered behaviour after they reach their destination in Ibiza or Benidorm etc. No, to really experience the travel regression syndrome one has be an Australian or New Zealander on a 24 hour flight somewhere.
The syndrome progresses as follows:
Shortly after boarding the plane the traveller regresses into the teenage state, typified by a desire to block out any other humans by donning headphones immediately and by mastering all available technology. Attention spans seem to be small and channel surfing and media hopping occupy the bulk of first few hours. The next stage, about 4 hours into the flight, is the child state, now tech is beginning to pall, but a strong sense of adventure emerges with a desire to make friends with strangers, here is where passengers want to run about and get under foot, narrowly missing being run over by the weary nannies (cabin crew). Excitement is present and passengers actually find the constant mini treats on offer novel and rewarding. However 10 to 14 hours in and the pleasure is dimming, the traveller through exhaustion is moving into the toddler stage. Simple tasks become too difficult to accomplish, technology which previously was enjoyable now becomes incomprehensible and the entertainment plot lines filled as they are with adult constructs are increasing difficult to grasp, communication becomes challenging, a strong level of fractiousness emerges. Resentment from being constrained in your little seat and fed bite sized pieces of food and small bowls of gloop starts to build; this the point where tantrums could erupt. Parents will recognise the overtired state, where although exhausted sleep is hard to achieve. The sense of oppression from the surrounding mass of large bodies can grow. Travellers grow now increasing infantile, constantly uncomfortable but powerless to make any changes that improve this, a numb misery takes over. A dropped handkerchief is irretrievable and everything necessary for comfort seems unobtainable or out of reach, the desire to scream is present but generally suppressed. 20 hours in and with 2 missed sleeps, standing up causes dizziness and disorientation, crying seems the only option but the dim sense that this is not appropriate prevents this. Time seems no longer to have any structure, day and night have no meaning any more. Passivity is increasing and short periods of torpor are interspersed with longer periods of deep silent suffering; the edges between these states are blurring and, reality and the nightmare state can become confused. 24 hours and the infant state is shifting to the foetal. Foetuses dream in utero but this opens the question, what do they dream about? Past life experiences or is it like long haul travelling,where awake merges into sleep seamlessly, here essentially dreams are more of the same. A study into travel and sleep deprivation could be insightful in studying this . Still in this foetal helpless state, hapless passengers are suddenly forced through the aperture into an alien world, full of large purposeful adults talking but not making any sense. Worse yet is the expectation that the traveller also has to be purposeful and take control of valuable possessions, fill out forms and find vital documents in a strange new environment . So when you see those white faced shell shocked strangers clustered around customs and more frighteningly in transit lounges, be compassionate, gentle, and know their befuddled brains are in an enormous catchup mode .
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Solving life’s mysteries 1 at a time. Number 1. Where do all the socks go?
Where do all the socks go?
Socks were always prone being mislaid, Archaeologists dig up Roman socks that were chucked out in bedding straw and sending socks off to the
laundry was always fraught with danger, which might explain why some young men have
a reluctance to wash their socks: they fear sock loss. However in the 20th century the
invention of the centrifugal motion on
washing machine and tumble dryers created a new hazard: the arcane
widdershins and clockwise rotations on these devices cause small fractures in
time/space continuum and open micro wormholes. The sock, due to its sympathetic
shape was, more than any other clothing item, likely to be sucked into these
mini-wormholes. This much is common knowledge, but I hear you asking where do
all the socks finish up? Well the other end empties onto a planet Sugob in an
alternate universe, here is where socks go on to fulfil their greater destiny.
On this planet there is only one sentient species, the Skcos. All Skcos were of
the same age, hatching out of their pseudo egg capsules at the same time at the
beginning of the long Sugob spring. Hurrah I hear the children say, but it was really
not ideal; Skcos had no accumulated wisdom, no transfer of culture and no
mentors. Why? Because of the strange life cycle of the Skcos; you see Skcos are
creatures without digits or limbs, imagine something that looks a flexible rubbery
flying saucer crossed with a limbless octopus and, can form a number of shapes
from cylinder to purse shape and you have a rough idea of a Skcos. Skcos are
quite mobile and clever but have almost no material culture, the nearest thing
a Skcos had to a home was a favourite rock, where it might leave a few
favourite things, pretty pebbles or a leaf. Of course we all know people like
this but for the Skcos this was a serious drawback, for at the beginning of the
long Sugob winter, the drop in temperature triggered the relentless Skcos
breeding cycle. Basically the well fed Skcos would lay around 4 egg capsules then
sit wrapped around them patient as a daddy penguin, unable to feed, gradually growing
weaker and weaker, the days growing colder and colder locked in a brutal race
against time to successfully reproduce. All adult Skcos died immediately before their young hatched (no harrays thank
you). Now many of you may think that all childbirth is a form of evolutionary
death, however you are merely waxing
metaphysical unlike the very real Skcos problem. Skcoses only art-form was
declaiming poetry that had a mono-thematic focus on reproduction and inevitable
death with literal rather than figurative allusions to the change of the seasons.
But the advent of the socks changed the
very basis of Skcos life. The first Skcos to encounter them merely thought them a
decorative additive to the otherwise dull terrain, and dragged them off to
their favourite rock, as décor features. Stripey football socks and pretty girl’s
colourful knee-hi’s were hotly contested
items. It is unknown which Skcos took the dramatic step of climbing into a sock
to lay its capsules but it was revolutionary! Skcos found that, particularly
with judicious multi-layering, that for the first time they were able to leave
the sock nest to forage, safe in the knowledge that their eggs were maintained
at an appropriate ambient temperature! That spring for the first time multi
generations of Skcos survived. Whole new themes opened up in Skcos poetry, i.e. the
problems of first time parenting and divine mysteries regarding the origin of
socks. Skcos Society really began. So
when you mourn the loss of a favourite sock know that it has gone a better
place!
Monday, December 29, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
PODCASTS FOR 23 THINGS!!
It would be great if we could add podcast of Author talks ( particular segments that deal with a specific title) to the catalogue record of the said title. Care I guess has to be taken that we don't slow the functioning of the OPAC. Podcasts of stellar storytime sessions would encourage excellence if listened to by staff and encourage public interest in this activity, if linked to children's pages or whatson on the elibcat. Podcasts, providing they were accessible , would be great for vision impaired people and assist in English literacy studies , they could be descriptive of different resources available.
Monday, December 8, 2008
23 things: Video's
I particularly like Mosman's library's collection of author talks in Google video. This a great way to generate awareness that these events occur. It is a shame that links to a what's on page aren't possible there. Olive Riley was an interesting character, there are quite a few clips of her on youtube, and she exemplifies how ordinary people can be deeply significant for the recording of local history.
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