Hypatia Avenue

"Hrrring!"

The correct pronunciation of the fish we dined on yesterday evening. It turned out to be a rather Eastern Bloc meal ? hrrrings!, red cabbage, watercress and potatoes. Taxloss and I had a glass of vodka each before eating and when Boatie Flatmate joined us, it would have been fitting to turn out all the lights, put on fingerless gloves, play cards and debate the best ways to top oneself.

There's been so much I want to write about but I have had so little time to actually put anything into print. The following are things I?ve been wanting to blither on about: here?s a summary of sorts:

1) talk What is Beauty? I went to at the ICA
2) Powerpoint is the new Photoshop (especially as I don?t have Photoshop)
3) Tori Amos
4) Cultural diversity vs. anti-racism and the marketing power of the safest, blandest, most Blairite bollocky rubbish ineffectual terminology for something that really can?t afford to have a Blairite bollocky rubbish ineffectual terminology if it is going to actually do anything or change anything
5) knitting
6) Update on the Vile Women
7) Fanfiction

Alas, no time for any of this especially as all these topics are maturing and fermenting like a possessed cheese in my compost heap of a brain... suffice to say:

1) I've got notes taken at this talk that I will host in entirety elsewhere and link to it so the uninterested or indifferent reader won't have to navigate around it; fascinating discussion involving ancient and modern analysis of taste and aesthetics (if you like that sort of thing) (and you might not so hosting it somewhere Other is for the best)

2) Powerpoint has become my new Thing since I no longer have Photoshop to piss about with (and even when I did have access to that B3ta pet programme, I was abysmally shit at using it and was unlikely to ever improve - I couldn't even do a spong properly, for chrissake)

3) I watched a really interesting interview with the flame haired piano-thumping loon, part of a series called faith and music and was very moved by the things she said about her own faith / non-faith and how it changed with her music when she got married, got pregnant, lost the baby then adopted a child. I've been a dedicated follower of her music since I was a cynical, bitter and twisted teenager and though her singing style now grates a little (whereas I used to listen to her shrieking and occasional eerie whooping non-stop without getting a headache), I went back to her albums and thought, wow. This is someone I can actually hear developing and changing across all these songs. And I can still remember what I, myself, was like when I listen to certain pieces of her work. Not quite the same effect as the cookie-cutter pap released by "artists" polluting the more mainstream music world.

4) Cultural diversity - I can't comment on this without spending the rest of the afternoon ranting, counter-ranting, doing some serious analysis and writing up anecdotal evidence. Basically... I hate this phrase passionately. Passionately.

5) Fizzwhizz (aka Deputy) has initiated me into the more complex and practical social world of knitting! I might actually produce something I will use / wear while wielding my needles under her wing! Huzzah for handicrafts!

6) Further complaints have come in from the Vile Women but mercifully not about me. My line manager (their more worthy enemy) is leaving and they seem to be pulling out all the stops to make his exit as difficult as possible. They need dildoes. Badly.

7) I've got back into it. I'm hooked again. Sorry.

More from me after the weekend. And it looks like it will be a very interesting weekend...