Lovecraftian love affairs

first image from: enter the octopus
I wanted to cry with wantiness!

It costs about R3 000 and is available from loot. Please can I have it?
I also want stuff from the HLHS Bazaar.

I found it because I am in a rather Lovecraftian mood.
I watched John Carpenter's In The Mouth Of Madness this weekend. just because. I was actually trying to get hold of Necronomicon, which I had seen at the not-our-local-video store but stupidly did not hire at the time. sigh. It's pretty difficult to get hold of, but it is available through amazon.fr.

Btw, I already own these so you see why I need the lovecraft retrospective... the Giger was a wonderful serendipitous bargain. We picked it up on a sales table for R120. no jokes. (it's valued at over R1 000). And the pretty Gollancz commemorative edition was a gifty from my loved one. and the plush cthulhu was a gift to myself.

Restart

I went in with great trepidation. I spent a semi-sleepless night wondering how we will get by on one salary. I planned my future as an aging bookseller.

I came out of the meeting with revitalised spirit. My fears were for naught. My skills are highly valued. I am about to start a new adventure. Officially. I spend the next six months with the fishies! Yup, taking my skills over to aquaculture! good night 'black sheep' project!

I also just got my shiny new toy; a work laptop. Okay, so I could have had one 3 years ago but I chose a desk top :P it's not often that one gets a completely fresh start.

Oh, and get this, I am also considered a senior researcher. *shock and anxiety* I can live up to that. I hope.

HT entertain a postgrad vegetarian art student

Well, foremost is to actually communicate with the above mentioned critter!
Once you have cornered it and have it committed to a day and time (give or take 2-3 hours), you can begin preparations.

Except, since she was staying over, cleaning out the spare room/flat in general took priority over cooking. So we ate out. Col Cacchio's. I have never been disappointed. I had a pina colada but was tempted by her Toblerone. Her brother and I decided to be polite hosts and order vegetarian, not tha she would have minded a carnivores pizza on the table. One involved brie, the other blackmushrooms and spinach. I made the fine choice of the fancy named beetroot/avo salad. It was a satisfying meal with excellent service. (we were at Canal Walk, choice of gourmet cuisine was limited). We rewatched HP with her (no, I will still not be called a fangirl) and I observed a few more aesthetic pleasures in it.

After a stop at House of Coffees to deconstruct with an art students perpective, we got to sleep pretty early the next morning. Did a lazy waking up process while my loved one cooked up a batch of pancakes for breakfast (flippng and all ;-).

It was fun having girl chatter while the boything did the shopping and skated. I was teaching myself how to crochet (an art form my gran excelled at, along with knitting, I appreciate it a bit too late) . It's cool having an art student around to mention the 80's revival of 'post-anti woman's work feminism' needlecrafts. She picked it up quickly too.

Some where in between I baked my choc pecan pie for her.
Then she offered to cook us an Indian veg supper, which is amusingly ironic, all things considered. We had fun in the kitchen and the meal turned out pretty impressive, despite the many cooks. (She cooks from recipes, I cook from memories of tastes and smells of an Indian kitchen. )

We ended the weekend with Everything is Illuminated. (I'm lazily posted a review I wrote the first time I watched the film)
A masterful directorial debut by Liev Schreiber.
(note my rare use of the applauding kitty to denote high praise!)

It is based on a novel by Jonathan Safran Foer (which I started reading but the book was for some reason removed from my possession :?).

The movie stars Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) as Jonathan and Eugene Hutz (of Gogol Bordello!*) as Alex in a brilliant comedic drama that gets everything correct.

The premise is that a slightly eccentric American Jew (Wood) is searching for his ancestors in the Ukraine and is assisted by the entrepreneurial "anti-semitic" Ukrainian "blind" grandpa driver (assisted by his "seeing-eye bitch, Sammy Davis Jr. Jr.) and grandson (Hutz = brilliant!!!) "translator" duo.

There is sincerity, depth and humanity perfectly balanced by levity in this excellent film. It's perfectly scripted and beautifully filmed. Heck, I would have been happy just because I could sing along to 'start wearing purple', but the movie delivered so much more.

Liev Schreiber is my hero. Bring it on, Sabretooth!

*awsomest gypsey punk! I have many favourites but Start Wearing Purple ranks highly and punk rock paranda and all of super taranta and and ....

Ketchup: squeezing the tomato juice out of li

While my blogging endeavors came to a grinding halt, life, thankfully, did not.

I saw rainbows, stupid people on cell phones and other odd things while driving. One of them may have been a corpse on the highway. Another was a military convoy, a large one, complete with a police flashy blue lights escort and tanks and soldiers driving ambulances. Bizarre.

Anyway, I did stuff, Like the Mad Hatters Tea Party Christmas in July. Ok, so Memento Vivere has critiqued the lack of intelligence behind the theme here so I won't deconstruct further. But I will mention that I had high expectations after the last actual Night Market at the Biscuit Mill! I had imagined the feast of crepes and waffles and belgian chocolate tarts and cheeses and breads and meats and gluhwein to the bounce of Them Tornadoes of yonder events. I was disappointed.

Earlier, we'd stopped in at the UCT Pub (because that's were a friend returning from Japan said she'd be...) and I had a drink in me so I did entertain myself a little looking at pretty shiny things I did not budget for.

Woodstock Lounge was pleasant, except for the smoke. Pizza was good as always and the cocktail tipped me into pleasant inebriation (though it doesn't take much these days). I vaguely recall cooking a pretty good veg lasagne and cool visit from my others little sister. She showed us her box frames (with her art in it, obviously) which looked very cool. I must acquire some of her art and coerce her into framing some of my bits and bobs while I can still afford her work ;-)

There was also a self saucing choc pudding. I made it while she watched the Slurm factory episode of Futurama. I have my talents ;-)

The evolution of flying pigs & Shotgun in Woodstock

I have always enjoyed the wordplay on this idiom. "the day pig's fly" The now overused, " the day I find feathers on my bacon" was fun while it lasted. I do so enjoy Zapiro's observant erudite wit. How fortunate for his art that news of South Africa's new President and the announcement of a possible pandemic did indeed share newsprint :-) Brilliant!!!

A while ago, this related stimulating invite arrived in my inbox:

Professor Barry Schoub talks on the H1N1 virus at the next Darwin lecture.
SWINE FLU - THE 2009 PANDEMIC: A PARADIGM OF BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION IN ACTION
Professor Barry Schoub will deliver the next Darwin Lecture. As Executive Director for the National Institute for Communicable Diseases he has been in the news recently commenting on the formal declaration of the first pandemic of influenza in this country - the H1N1 virus, commonly called Swine Flu. The influenza virus, one of the most enigmatic of all human viruses, is a perfect model of real-time evolutionary adaptation to selective pressures and as part of the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin lecture series, he looks at the future course of this pandemic by reviewing past pandemics which have some common features but also some very distinctive differences.
Thursday 23 July
"Swine flu - the pandemic threat: a paradigm of biological evolution in action"
Time: 5.30 for 6pm
Venue: New Learning Centre, Anatomy building, Health Sciences Campus, University of Cape Town, Anzio Road, Observatory


Anyone who knows me understands that I am a science geek and find things like this appealing. Ok, so I also happen to have a career in genetics but other people’s research and knowledge is always more thrilling and sexy.
The plan: I leave work a bit early to avoid traffic (Stellenbosch into town can be hectic). Pick up my other from The Old Castle Brewery and head the UCT.
I arrive a bit early so a play on the DS a bit while he finishes up work and then we’re off again.
Driving in Woodstock during peak traffic felt like it might as well have been the lawless and really wild west! Buses and taxis the equivalent of ruthless stagecoach drivers and the pedestrians as unherded cattle. I wished that Adam, who was riding ‘shotgun’, actually wielded a weapon. *grimace*

The talk itself was rewarding, once we found the pink building and got into those new-fangled horribly designed swing seats attached to low desks in the tiered lecture hall.

Firstly, I must mention Africa Genome, a very cool organisation that promotes public knowledge of molecular biology and science. *Applause* I have attended a few other public lectures planned by the institute and think they are super. (One in particular stands out, Art & the genome by Fritha Langerman, another thing I like: credible art+science, kinda renaissance-ish ;-)

So, Prof Schoub did a fantastic job of simplifying what could have been an overly complex topic, the evolution of the virus. He described the nitty gritty succinctly – I admit, I wanted more! He spoke of past pandemics and how WHO classifies them.
He spoke of flu viruses. It’s a bird thing (the flu flew- tee hee), then a piggy incubator thing, and lastly, a human thing. He told us the history (Spanish influenza). He quashed media hype and paranoia. He dealt with facts. He’s a scientist. I liked him. He’s kin.

Question time was fun, I just sat back and listened:
How do you explain this topic to people who don’t believe in evolution?
*giggles and snorts from scientists at a gathering celebrating Darwin* It was a cute little dig. I can’t actually remember his answer but I think “with difficulty” was part of it. (reminds me to blog about the Darwinism must die…essay ;-)
What about the fear of vaccination by some members of the public?
*more grunts and groans form the non-ignorant audience re- unsubstantiated nonsensical unscientific mass stupidity* A: We’re working on public awareness, vaccines are well tested and safe. (reminded me of stats that deaths from mumps and measles increased after years of low infection/mortality rates because of unvaccinated kids).

Oh, here’s an excellent Ars Technical inky that covers the influenza basics, which Prof Schoub made even more digestible for the public.