Beagle takes crown!

A beagle called Uno has won 'Best In Show' at the prestigious Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

He is the first beagle to win the prize.

I have been horribly hound-sick of late, missing my own beagle, Round Houndini also known as Basil. His kennel name is Raja Crown, but that really is too pretentious.

This prize could not come at a better time for my beagle deficiency, though in my biased mind, even at 18-years old Basil (yes, he is in his senior years) would have beat Uno, as my beagle is as perfect to me as it gets - even if he is a bit rotund, snores and is bossy.

Congratulations Uno, this is a victory for beagle lovers everywhere!

Instant - WRONG

POLAROID Corporation, the Massachusetts company that gave the world instant film photography, is shutting down its film manufacturing lines in the state and abandoning the technology that made the company famous.

I think this is incredibly sad, as much as I find my digital camera useful, it has never quite eclipsed the inherent sexiness of a polaroid to me. Additionally horror films will never be the same. Just think how many times polaroids scared or creeped the bejezus out of you.

Thriller25

Maybe you have to be a certain age, but to me Michael Jackson's "Thriller" was somewhat of a defining moment of my youth in terms of music.

I remember my eight year-old self threatening to beat up a kid in my class because he had stolen my little brother's prized "Michael Jackson Thriller" Magazine. Thriller was the very first tape my brother ever brought. Sigh he was always cooler. He brought the best selling album of all time, I brought Olivia Newton John...

To me 'Beat It' was about as bad-ass as it got.

In February 2008, a 25th anniversary edition of Thriller will be released, featuring bonus tracks - unreleased songs and remixes by artists like will.i.am, Akon and Kanye West.

So here's to celebrating a more innocent time in so many ways! With Thriller very impressively re-enacted 1,500 plus CPDRC inmates.


To view the original 'Beat It', that I can't embed click here.

Happy Chinese New Year

This week was Chinese New Year and hence we have now officially entered the year of the Earth Rat in Chinese Astrology.

Here's an excerpt of what some astrologers have to say about the year ahead"

After two Fire years, life may seem calmer during this Earth year. That could be deceptive, however, as the Rat never stops moving, especially when it comes to mental activity. Unfortunately, Earth has a destructive relationship with the Rat's fixed element, Water. This is not disastrous, but it means you should not rely much on luck this year.

I am not sure how this effects me as a Wooden Tiger, but we'll see. I just like that I am a wooden tiger in Chinese astrology, because it sounds cool.

Happy New Year and Year of the Rat!

Happy Australia Day

I've been hibernating of late, which is the only sensible thing to do when most days are -10 degrees (before wind-chill)...brrrr... this Aussie just wasn't made for such a climate.

Tomorrow (which is already 'today' back home) is Australia Day.

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY FELLOW AUSSIES! Have a lamington for me. Non-Aussies spare me your Fosters, it's only export beer don't ya know. Mum I hope you make the ice-cubes shaped like the Australian land mass, as usual. I miss them.



To celebrate I am off to see a performance called Small Metal Objects which is not only an Australian production, but from my home state of Victoria. Very fitting I think.

After that I imagine I will end up at Hemingway's (Toronto's Australian pub) at some point, less culturally refined but utterly suitable for celebration of my country's national day.

Persepolis

In the past week I read the graphic-novel and saw the animated film version of Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi.

I first encountered Satrapi's work a couple of years ago at the MOMA, NYC as part of an exhibition by female middle-eastern artists and have been a fan ever since.

The graphic-novel is delightful, the film is sublime due to the incredibly beautiful animation.

Both hold a great deal of humour; even though the subject matter is quite bleak; tracing the personal history of Satrapi growing up in Iran through the revolution and rise of the religious fundamentalist regime.

My knowledge of Iranian history is sketchy - to say the least - so seeing the film with my Iranian friend; whose own life has not been entirely dissimilar; was a treasured gift.

I loved this film and book and highly recommend them both.

TRIVIA: The film is in French. The role of the mother is voiced by famous French actress Catherine Deneuve, the grown-up daughter voiced by Deneuve's real-life daughter (with Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni), Chiara Mastroianni. I really liked that for some reason.

Wrong Number Woes

We've all rung the wrong phone number and we've all received calls for the wrong person, but sometimes wrong numbers just won't go away.

When I was a little girl my parents' telephone number was only one digit different from a Poodle Palour's. This was the 1970s, so the idea of beauty palours for pooches was very amusing to my brother and I. Eventually the owners of the business rang my family to apologise for all the wrong calls we were receiving. Or it may have been because my brother, due to reaching his frustration limits, had started taking bookings for "Fifi's bath and clip at 3:00pm" etc.

As an adult I've received the odd missed call, but recently the days of the Poodle Palour have returned, this time it's a school that keeps ringing me.

For the past few months I have continued to received calls from a school about 'my son Ryan'. He apparently hasn't been doing his homework and now he needs to have his immunization shots. Some of the calls were leaning on the nasty, angry side too.

There is only one problem. I don't have a son called Ryan, the only Ryan I know is a 31 year-old photographer, who I am pretty sure has finished school. In fact I don't have any children at all.

I keep ringing the school to tell them that they are ringing the wrong number, but the calls persist.

So please, Ryan, who ever you are, please do your homework, get your immunization shots and most of all give your school the correct number for your parents, because if I find you I am going to take away your pocket-money for a very long time as punishment.

Bitching About the Lost Art of Bitching

'Bring back the red-blooded bitch' is an article in Guardian by Julie Burchill.

It is a highly-enjoyable rave on what the writer deems to be the lost art of the clever female insult, particularly in film. Insults that are not wrapped in faux pity, or born out of writhing jealousy.

As the writer puts it:

These days, bitching is low-fat, decaffeinated and kick-free.

Overall, her primary protest is that women shouldn't be afraid to disagree and that such fear has caused the loss of the mighty female one-liner:

That woman speaks eighteen languages and can't say "No" in any of them.

- Dorothy Parker (1893 - 1967)

I am the first to admit that slinging a cutting insult with abandon isn't one of my strengths or natural forms of habit, yet the idea - on some levels - appeals greatly.

Being able to form an honest bitchy remark requires great skill (verbal and mental) and is ultimately, to my mind, less destructive than the petty passive aggressive path we too often take.

Maybe I should add it to my list of new year's resolutions.

Happy New Year

Happy 2008!

Celebrating the new year, goes back as far as the Babylonians in 2000BC, though they celebrated for 11 days.

It was the Roman Senate who designated the day of January 1st as new year, as westerners know it, back in 153BC.

Best of luck with your resolutions if you made them. So far I have also 'resolved' to make an adamant effort to use fewer plastic bags and to carry my reusable shopping bag.

More resolutions are sure to follow, including giving up smoking, I have to work myself up to that one... AGAIN!