Renaissance Ruined!

Well, so much for a smooth come-back. You won't believe me if I tell you that in the riddle which comprised my 'witty' revival post, option (f) was meant to read "or, because I got stoned" and then option (g) should have read "or all of the above". At the cafe, I had written this out in draft form in my notebook (so I guess I have proof) but the trouble arose when I arrived home to type the post out, because I was indeed too stoned to reproduce it from the original and as such, I left out the punch line.

I can almost guarantee that it was Fred who posted that first comment. Such can poignancy can be expected from few other bloggers, these days. Now, Fred would not believe that his punch line was first mine, but I at least if you accept my explanation, and forgive me for this disastrous attempt to revive Mattalicious, you might laugh as hard as Piers did upon learning of my unfortunate tale.
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Revival!

I've decided to start blogging again because:

(a) I just love having Alaina critique my grammar;

(b) I read somewhere that writing for pleasure can counter the onset of chronic fatigue syndrome;

(c) I felt the Internets wanted me back;

(d) the L&D team seem to be on long-service leave;

(e) I dreamt up this witty-post; or

(f) all of the above.

Hej Da, “OK Bye”, or Farewellicious

Some of you have been predicting this post for months now. Yes, it will be my last post on Mattalicious. I have decided to retire my renowned blog. But before I do, a long winded celebratory post is, in my histrionically-charged belief, in order.

I began Mattalicious two years ago. It was time I had an 'online presence', given the rise of Jimmerish, Lists & Diagrams and Quality Event. Yet I had no idea what Mattalicious was to become, and I admit that it took a while for this blog to find its feet.

Mattalicious came to be characterised by grammatically-ill and linguistically-inventive posts about great parties, about food, cooking and coffee, the occasional political ran or personal crusade, news and bitching about The Globe Coffee House, intermittent moaning about law school and news from my travels to far away places like Saskatoon. I think Mattalicious enjoyed its most successful chapter when I went to live in Sweden, for during that period it served as a means of communicating all the awesome stuff I saw and did, with everyone on the other side of the world. I certainly enjoyed blogging in those months, and hope you enjoyed reading.

Early on in the peace, Mattalicious inspired Alaina was inspired to create a new blog. This was perhaps Mattalicious’s most noteworthy achievement.

I would like to say for the record that I really have been bitterly annoyed over the years, by the ambiguous commentary of Large Louie. Whether this is the result of my sensitivities or a sustained campaign to undermine Mattalicious, I am not sure. The evidence could point either way. Some believe that the success of my blog is reliant on Large Louie, and I think that for the record, I should acknowledge that his contribution has not been completely unappreciated.

I have decided that I have reached the end of the road with Mattalicious. I have waited a few months to see if the motivation to blog will return, but it has not. I see no reason to leave Mattalicious to waste away in a dusty corner of the internets without being properly concluded (like so many blogs these days), so consider forthwith concluded.

What now, you ask? Well, I have been encouraged to accept a flattering guest-post authorship at the reputable Lists & Diagrams, but it’s subject to the approval of a gal who once started a new blog in response my catastrophic grammatical performance…so I’ll have to wait and see whether I truly become part of the L&D team. I’ll keep you posted, but in the meantime, I’ll keep my flick account updated.

All that is left to say here is, I guess, thanks for reading and commenting. It’s been incredibly, deliriously, rambunctiously, satisfying. I shall leave you with the latest from the Globe: Rob has left to go surfing in California. The best Long Mac in Perth has gone with him, unfortunately.

Down on the Farm

My sister and I joined the rest of our family down at our new 'farm' at the weekend. In truth, it's far from a farm - there are some disfunctional chicken coops and a few fruit trees, but that's about it. The landscape undulates greatly, sloping steeply down to an intermitent creek surrounded by thick pockets of tall trees. It's a great spot. I see many, many parties down there, hopefully in the not too distant future.

Candid Canberra, Sexy Sydney & Marvellous Melbourne

I have uploaded a set of photos from my recent jaunt to the Eastern States, and added some notes and comments. These are three of my favourites; you can view the full set here.

New Look

Acquisition

The Beauty of Lists

My imminent departure for Marvellous Melbourne, has encouraged me to make a list of places to see and things to do while I'm there. Piers and I had a very successful trip to Melbourne once, on account of such a list - which I happened to come across tonight. Four years ago, this is what we planned to see and do:

Aquarium
Parliament
Art Gallery
Planetarium
Zoo
Crown Casino
Rialtos Towers observation deck
Pub crawl
Queen Vic Markets
Wesley Melbourne

We made it to Crown, the Zoo and the Rialto Towers. We did several pub crawls and saw the Parliament from outside but never made it to any of the other places - which was probably a good thing.

So far, on this trip's list is:

Aquarium (hopefully in a drug or alcohol-induced state for enhanced enjoyment)
Art Gallery
Chirpy Birds
Ginger
Gin Palace
Visiting Claire (who's moving over from Perth this week)
Meeting Judith (Piers' dildo lecturer
Movies
St Kilda

Off the list of usual places is Hairy Canary. It's simply gone too down hill. And of course, the MCG, which appears to have been permanently blacklisted for obvious reasons.

Any suggestions, let me know.

Flashback

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the design/comic styling of Mr. Piers Morgan:



I found this sketch while skimming through an old notebook, circa 2003. I had seen an immensely cool fish tank that sat on flush on the wall, only about 1 inch in width, when I was visiting Melbourne. Knowing that I was soon moving into a loft with very limited vertical wall-space, Piers suggested this design which also included space for a bed and wardrobe. It was never adopted.

Other gems from this notebook included a one page essay negating the proposition that Nazism and Communism had more in common than is generally though, written by my sister; and a detailed serious of notes on how to host a "Theory Night". May have to rejuvenate some thinking on the latter.

Yesterday morning, much earlier than I wanted to be awake

Vwah-Lah

Given it was taking up practically all my available floor-space, I decided to finish this project, instead of walking all over it. This is the finished result:



I'm reasonably happy with the result. I think it'll grow on me. If you look closely, you'll see that I fucked up some of the measurements - and I still need to make a straight cut along the top (angular) edge, as it's not sitting flush against the corner in the surface. Don't worry, Fred, I'm not blaming you.

Wall-papering, of sorts

When I was living in Sweden, I collected these posters - which were displayed around town to advertise gigs and other events that were going on at the student nations. I lugged them back to Australia with the thought of using them to cover a wall in my loft.

This afternoon, I selected a wall and took some measurements. Then I phoned Fred to discuss some geometry before calculating the surface area of the wall, to check I had enough posters to cover it completely. Concluding that I did, I then set about creating a backing out of old wall-paper, and laid it out on the floor to get an idea of how to arrange the layout of the posters. And I've basically got no further. I've glued down a few at the bottom, but am still trying to decide on those at the top.

The largest, longest poster is if from last year’s Montreal Jazz Festival. I paid $12 for it because I thought it was so cool. And the smaller, yellow poster above it featuring Marilyn Monroe, I stole from a club in St Petersburg.

I'll post a photo of the finished result.

The Reviews Are In...

Check out Lists and Diagrams for the first official (and very complimentary) review of last Sunday's Art Launch Party.