So, it’s been an eventful month for me, to say the least, and I’ve been slacking off in my blogging promises (yet still meeting the once a month quota, hah!). I headed up to Sydney late last month for the Australian Romance Readers Convention, a week later I graduated once more with Honours, and the following Saturday I made my annual pilgrimage to Supanova Expo. I’ll be blogging about all those, and I still need to get round to my thoughts on My Princess (so abominably late, I am), but firstly – graduation!

In the lead-up towards graduation I was feeling pretty off about the whole ordeal; I mean, graduation doesn’t equate to getting a job or a good one at that; it just officially closes that chapter of tertiary study. And now I’m really in a limbo. So there certainly was a sense of finality this time, whereas last year I was joking alongside the other graduates, thinking “oh, I still have all the time in the world!” I’d been through the graduation drill before, yet this year I felt as flustered as ever. Perhaps when I finally get that PhD in the distant future, I will tick …

Last night, all was crowded on the Palace front. My uni buddies and I sidled into a space at the front, watching the opening band, Seja, perform (who was good in a mellow, Au Revoir Simone synth-pop/electronica way, if a little shaky) but we were really just  impatient for Goldfrapp.

The roadies unveiled a giant shimmering silver nylon/spandex set prop shaped like a gramophone horn. Just a teasing prelude into what the night ahead promised. Given the physical limitations of the stage I was a bit apprehensive about how it would all turn out. But come half an hour later, boy did I have absolutely nothing to worry about, because as soon as “Voice Thing” started sighing through the airwaves and the lights flashed and the dry ice made a smoky haze, it was just one continual stream of dazzling, palpitating, hallucinogenic spectacles after another.

Nearly gave up with finishing up this summary, but here I am! This was the last day of the forum, when the enthusiasm is still thriving but struggling to stay awake. Well, for me, it was. I still hadn’t recovered from the previous day’s madness. Who’d have thought sitting down in somewhat un-ergonomic chairs for hours on end would be so exhausting? We had free copies of Dumbo Feather, Pass it On on our seats; I had to make sure I picked a seat with a back issue that I didn’t already have (!).

Agnete Enga

Agnete is part of Smart Design. She established FemmeDen to “save good women from bad products”. It was interesting how she criticised the way products are biased towards the male target audience, when companies ought to place even greater precedence on women, who actually influence 80% of consumer products. She demonstrated the “differences” between the genders through a rather crude experiment—2 men and 2 women from the audience were asked to volunteer to come up stage, and both sexes had to hold hands. Once with the opposite sex, and once with the same sex. They were asked how they felt. I think the all-boy couple said …

Day 2 of agIdeas! A somewhat later start, but this gave Liz and I a chance to have “breakfast”, and what better way to wake up than with a large cup of Krispy Kreme’s caramel latte. HEAVEN!!

I’m pleased or not so pleased to say that no one particularly “bothered” me today; it was all generally pleasant… Though you’d think it’d be better to be roused into fury or fangirl delight. I did get Wayne Thompson’s signature on my sketchbook though; I may scan that in later, if anyone cares to have a laugh with me. :P Vincent said (somewhere along the line of) my being easily affected by fangirl tendencies. It’s called passion, and dedication, and yes, some healthy doses of obsession!

Also was able to collect our “free” agIdeas 20th anniversary book. I am so sad flicking through the 2007 speaker list. And I’m always sad about this because CHIP KIDD (The rockstar graphic designer who like, totes loves Batman, even more than me! How is this possible!) attended and I did not go to agIdeas that year. I was in first year; what did I know about design then? Zilch! This book is absolutely a brick, weighing more than …

So it’s that time of the year again—a week without classes so that we can attend agIdeas! But erm, that’s not why we go, right? Last year I started to write a summary post on my opinions on each guest speaker but that was too ambitious for me (!!!). However, I am determined this year to get it right. Just some brief words on all.

I may post pics of their works later, but for now Google is your friend. Or check out the agIdeas website for an overview of the speakers list.

Michael Mabry

A great prologue to the conference. Michael introduced his talk with a lively video using primitive but delightful animation techniques of all his “friends”, including Milton Glaser, Ella Fitzgerald and the President and Mrs Obama. There’s a warmth and humanity to his illustrations; he also showed us his process into making the “collagey, textural” look for one of his illustrations for Land of the Nod.

Richard Ferlazzo

Chief designer of Holden. Had  a perky kind of manner of speaking which was engaging and enlightening. Form may follow function but there’s a balance between the two somewhere round the middle, for what’s wrong with beauty in life if it is possible?

Eamo …