You know, Melbourne has an awful lot of brilliant independent bookshops, galleries and cultural avenues that I don’t know half about. Well, not really, I just don’t have the means to go to said places. I wish I lived next to Hoddle St, Bridge Rd, Chapel St, Brunswick St, Gertrude St or Clarendon St. Pooh. No, I live in a working-class suburban hole.
The Royal Melbourne Show is in its final two days, and the Melbourne Anime Festival (better known as Manifest, such a clever name, eh) has just kicked off. I cannot afford either, nor do I really care for it nowadays… although I should like to go to the latter just for all time’s sake. Or when I come up with a snazzy costume to wear. Perhaps next year. I was checking out the Show’s website which lists the assortment of showbags. Once upon a time, I eagerly waited for the Herald Sun to publish the exclusive liftout. It still does, of course. Just the other week on a busy morning peak-hour train to the city I was stuck between a delightfully hyperactive school girl and boy who were ecstatic when an old man gave them said liftout from his paper. Oh boy. It was a long ride to Flinders St…
Anyway, I was browsing through the utter crap when I found two Batman showbags (I pretty much surmised these would appear). The lameness and marketing scheming is just the same as it always was. Each showbag has a bunch of rejected factory items, barely dusted off from sitting too long in boxes, with value figures and then a significantly cheaper price.
Methinks the Batman Spy Ear would come in handy. Or the Batman Inflatable Mallet—you never know when you’ll be tempted to give an enemy a thorough pounding! Perhaps the Batman Sweat Band would be for more immediate use, given the fact that spring has sprung its springy self into Australia, and the intense heat is upon us once again.
A window sticker for $3.95? Are you effing serious?
It’s all very confusing, these concoctions of Batman. You have good ol’ Batman, then Batman Dark Knight, oh and don’t forget Batman Gotham Knight. Are there more than two personalities of the Bruce Wayne/Batman identity?
As for Video of the Week, I’m plugging my own! I made this 30 second clip for my digital imaging project; it was made with After Effects CS3 plus some help from Photoshop and Illustrator. The subject matter will surely not be unfamiliar to you:
I like yesterday’s Friday Five, merely for the fact that I can’t answer any of the questions single-handedly:
1. Who is your favorite author?
Why are we only allowed one? I suppose Paullina Simons comes close to being my number one; I’ve pretty much loved all of her books (although I have yet to read Tully, Eleven Hours and Road to Paradise; I is bad, I know!) I have favourites for genres:
- Classics: Dickens, Austen, Gaskell
- Contemporary: Sarah Dunant, Sarah Waters, Tim Winton, Ian McEwan, John Marsden, Tim Bowler, Nick Hornby
- Historical: Irene Nemirovsky, Tracy Chevalier
- Crime/Thriller: Agatha Christie, Janet Evanovich, Alan Furst
- Fantasy/Horror/Sci-fi: JK Rowling, Anne Rice (earlier works only!), Jasper Fforde, Tamora Pierce
- Romance: Kathryn Smith, Sylvia Day, Liz Carlyle, Lara Adrian
This is only a select few; can’t rack my brains right now.
2. What is your favorite book/series?
I cannot stop at one…
North and South – Elizabeth Gaskell
The Bronze Horseman – Paullina Simons
Harry Potter – JK Rowling, for reasons far too obvious
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
The Thursday Next Series – Jasper Fforde
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
Persuasion – Jane Austen
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
Girl with a Pearl Earring – Tracy Chevalier
The Girl in Times Square – Paullina Simons
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Summer Garden – Paullina Simons
The Quantocks Quartet – Ruth Elwin Harris
The Immortals quartet – Tamora Pierce
The Song of the Lioness quartet – Tamora Pierce
The Protector of the Small quartet – Tamora Pierce
The Magic Faraway Tree – Enid Blyton
Hand Job: A Catalogue of Type – Michael Perry
The TASCHEN All-American Ads series – ed. Jim Heimann
3. Who is a book hero you most wish to be like?
I wish I had Elizabeth Bennet’s sparkling wit, Hermione Granger’s sheer brain power, or Mr Knightley’s never-failing courtesy towards everyone, or Tatiana Metanova’s amazing resilience, also the latter’s beauty; not to be crude or anything, but the thought is there when I read the passages, you know. I envision a modest yet goddess-like figure, very beautiful indeed. With an equally gorgeous man. Eh, fiction really makes reality suck in these instances, eh. I am one of those many Asian women blessed with a complete lack of chest, and all height and skinny arms and chunky thighs. *sighs* Moving on…
4. Who is a book character that you envy?
Hermione Granger—she gets Ron Weasley in spades, and she has an incredible brain and resilience in the worst times. But I don’t envy her situation—it truly is hard times.
5. Which book do you wished you lived in?
Ooh, that would have to be Enid Blyton’s Enchanted Wood and the Magic Faraway Tree. I would love to visit the Lands above the Tree, like The Land of Goodies, The Land of Parties, The Land of Take What You Want, The Land of Treats…
