My future plans are grand and expansive indeed - roll on 2008! LOL

Bundles of Kittens Tied Up With String (a few of my favourite pop kulcha things)

You have to love the ever-changing, always colourful, and never dull world of modern pop culture! If something doesn't please you, anoth dazzling creation full of fun, frothy goodness will be along in just a few nano-seconds to send your senses reeling from sensory overload. But why wait that long I say?! Hit the net, change channels or grab a book off the shelf (man I am old-fashioned!), but whatever you do, don't pay too much attention for too long....naturally while I did indulge in some vacuous slack-jawed milli-second attention spanning - thank you any number of b-grade sitcoms and dramas, usually shown in primetime TV while the good stuff like "Six Feet Under" is pushed to nether regions of early morning TV - I also ignored all that fleeting loyalty that staying loyal to certain TV programmes, reading books that had sat on my shelf for years, and going back day after day to the same sites in a display of consistency and faithfulness to make an Amish person green with envy....well one with a TV and Broadband connection anyway....

TV

2006

For something that should be wonderfully relaxing, as all those pretty fast-moving pixels and the images they form destroy your ability to function independently and slowly turn you into a drooling couch potato (yes I do paint an attractive picture don't I?! ), TV viewing can get pretty stressful. Well if you're going to do it properly anyhow! Naturally I take it very seriously and took to taping and watching shows with gusto, a job severely complicated by the TV channels insistence on programming anything good on Monday and Tuesday nights, at pretty much the same time! For someone who's in bed by 9.30-10.00 (see Sweat, iPod and Tears" above), this can be a real doozy of challenge and requires some wisdom borne of Solomon as I decide which of my TV children shall live, and which....dramatic and totally bombastic drum roll please.....shall.....DIE......

Those that made it onto the viewing, or taping schedule, were "LOST" (a show with more conspiratorial elements than the CIA's Christmas party), "ER" (11 years and counting!), "Grey's Anatomy" (thank you Dr McDreamy! see photo above), "Doctor Who" (the new series contained some seriously clever, highly emotive viewing), "Survivor" (in the beautiful Cook Islands- pity the people's personalities weren't as lovely), and the shows that allow me to exercise my inner plaid-wearing, thick black glasses-wearing inner geek - "Stargate SG1" and "Battlestar Galactica" ( a truly brilliant show that explores what it is to be human in a profoundly impactful way)..... now we're in the Summer viewing season , I am discovering the quirky delights of "Weeds" (about an upper middle-class suburban mum forced to sell marijuana to make ends meet, and exposing the cracks in our modern consumerist culture), "Men In Trees" (Anna Heche as a relationship counsellor stuck in an Alaskan town with quirky odd characters), and I am re-discovering the comedic delights of "That 70s Show" ... but thankfully the viewing schedule is a little lighter and the stress greatly reduced...yes I could watch less TV but where is the fun in that? Oh yeah, I remember reading.....

2007

Interestingly this was the year that I completely lost track of what I was watching and when...lest you fear I was struck down with some sort of TV guide illiteracy (the worst kind!), it had more to do with an increasingly busy social life, and the fact that I forgot to label my videos meaning that after 5 weeks of unwatched "Heroes" episodes for instance, I had no idea which episode was on which tape. Yes, truly brilliant organisational skills at work here! Thankfully the TV programme makers are now bringing TV shows on in those new fangled DVD box sets and so I am now just waiting for those to come out in lieu of watching lots of shows on TV itself....of course I did my best to keep up with the incisive social commentary of "Desperate Housewives"/"Brothers and Sisters", and sci-fi brilliance of "Heroes"/ "Dr Who", and the scary goings-on in the mysterious world of "Supernatural", and largely succeeded, but I am currently working through boxsets of "Stargate Atlantis", "Entourage", "Weeds" and "Gilmore Girls" which gives you some indication of just how far out of the TV rat race I slipped...

BOOKS/MAGAZINES/NEWSPAPERS/JUNK MAIL

2006

OK I only read the junk mail when I got truly desperate - although all those real estate agents wants to sell the apartemnt I rent were becoming ever more persuasive as the year wore on....I am sure my landlord wouldn't have minded - but I did keep buying the "Sydney Morning Herald" every morning including Saturdays (love reading the paper on a slow Saturday afternoon with possibly a nap to follow...bliss), and reading "TIME", "Empire" and "DNA" magazines, just to keep my brain ticking over....books didn't do so well this year although currently 4 novels are piled next to my bed.....not being read mind you but they look just lovely all stacked there with the inspiring hope they may be read gowing around them....

2007

I got books reads this year! Books that had long occupied the dusty bookshelves of my apartment were being taken off them (woh dude, like that's a totally rad concept!!) and the pages turned (I know - you can do that! Get out!) and....well...read....yes scientists around the world were stunned and amazed too.... this was largely due to starting the new job at Optus that entailed a train and a bus ride, which meant I actually had the time to read.....managed to get through a sci-fi space opera trilogy, a beautiful book called "The Lovely Bones" (Alice Sebold). and I am currently reading "Timbuktu" about a dying schizophrenic homeless man (who's also a talented writer) who sets off to find a home for his dog with his old English teacher in Baltimore, before it's too late and the dog is alone...a really touching read and highly recommended...

MUSIC

2006

This was the year of HUM. No, not a forgetting of words at key points in songs, but the funky, trendy CD store in Newtown (my new favourite part of the world) which has all this cutting edge music that defies the medocrity and blandness and which it is hard to ignore, though lately I am trying very hard to for the sake of financial solvency......standouts this year were the politically aware Nerina Pallot and her stunning album, "Fires", Charlotte Gainsburg's beauty, Regina Spektor, Peter Bjorn and John (yay the Swedes!), Pink's sassy new CD, Mew and the newie from my Canadian darling, Chantal Kreviazuk.....she is a delight and channels emotions with a dazzling intensity....what a voice....

2007

So much music, so little room on the iPod.....this was the year that HUM roared into it's own, elbowed all the other music aside and staked a claim to the heart and soul of my portable listening device.... I tried to say "Just Say No" to more music - well it's supposed work with drugs isn't it? - but I failed miserably and found myself saying "Yes" over and over, in the music-listening equivalent of the trampy girl at school who can't refuse the football team after practice.... ah well, my musically promiscuous ways yielded some gems including "Drastic Fantastic" by the folk/poptastic K T Tunstall, the idiosyncratic but superbly melodic pop of Roisin Murphy's sophomore effort, the indelibly sweet but rocking sound of The Frames, Grand National's "A Drink and a Quick Decision" and the distinctive twang of Kosheen, to name but a very few.....and the standout? Annie Lennox's "Songs of Mass Destruction" which found her in fine emotionally-emotive form, still singing about love and loss, and yet the occasional bright ray of hope too..... and oh yes, I finally tracked down the limited edition Christmas box set of Sufjan Stevens .....what a happy boy am I, and full of quirky poppy Christmas spirit too....

MOVIES

2006

Much as I love the occasional Hollywood blockbuster, with its confused overblown narrative, over the top action sequences and completely lack of intellectual engagement (perfect for a braindead Friday night!), I grew increasingly fond of Indie (short for independent movies) this year and saw some very cool flicks such as "Chumscrubber" ( a convoluted high school-set drama with wonderful film noir sensibilities), "Three Burials..." (a drama set in Texas & Mexico), "Water" ( a beautiful movie set during the struggle for Indian independence that examined the meaning of faith and humanity), "Junebug" (a touching movie about the nature of family and really belonging), and "Colour Me Kubrick" (about a man who impersonated Stanley Kubrick to con people)...I did see my share of Hollywood stuff too and loved the sequelised silliness of "Pirates 2" and the amazing intricacies of "The Prestige" ....I also had the great joy of seeing "The Wizard of Oz" on the big screen a the Opera House with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra playing the score....absolutely blew me away and it was a highlight of the year......

2007

The movie year started a tad inauspiciously with the rather average comedy "Night At the Museum" on New Year's Day, but hey, who really cares about high standards of anything the day after you've been up all night? You do? Really? Well good on you....I, on the other hand, was happy to let my brain rot just a little bit more....but things improved as the year wore on, and I saw some brilliant movies such as "The Last King of Scotland" (about Idi Amin and a Scottish doctor who fell into his orbit), "Bobby" (an ensemble piece about the assassination of Robert F kennedy in 1968), "The Lives of Others" (one man's journey from Stasi-like efficiency to humanity in the dying days of East Germany), "Priceless" & "Hunting & Gathering" (two more entries in the Audrey Tautou, of 'Amelie', canon of offbeat French romnatic comedies), and "Sicko", the latest controversial but thought-provoking doco from Michael Moore....and this was the year that I accidentally started a Tuesday night movie club with the afore-mentioned "Last King of Scotland" on Tuesday 6 March, which has now grown into a regular event with up to 20 guys attending on any given night...we may pay the cheapest prices possible for our movies but we savour them no less than anyone else.....it's been a great way to meet new friends as well, and has become a very important part of my week.....