JOURNAL
documenting
&
discovering joyful things
New music + a monkey in space
Meet one of my favourite* bands in Melbourne, Skipping Girl Vinegar. They just sent a monkey named Baker into space. This is Baker. Almost in space.
First, they built a little space ship out of foam and gaffer tape. They piled into an old Volkswagen Kombi and drove out to an open field on Mount Barker in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia.
3. 2. 1. Blastoff!
Baker soared up, up and away, carrying with him a small video camera, and an MP3 player that beamed their new single "Chase the Sun" and other messages from the people (and monkeys) of Earth out to the universe.
He made it to 110,000 feet, almost to the edge of space, before his balloon burst and he deployed his parachute, drifting gently back home.
Watch Baker in action (and listen to the lovely song) here: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDpuxe0KryI] What did you think? I suppose I liked Baker's safe landing best of all. Although after all his adventures, I wanted them all to run up and hug him.
Ok, I wanted to run up and hug him. You know, "Hooray! You're back! Safe and sound! Let's go and have a cup of tea together." That sort of thing.
*I am making one of those nerdy "I liked them when" claims. I liked them when they called themselves May Fly. They were supporting an artist I went to see at The Basement in Sydney aeons ago. At least 10 years. I don't remember the headline artist but I do remember these guys and their glorious harmonies. I bought their EP. If you ever come across a single called "Said and Done" by May Fly, have a listen. It will transport you.
In the meantime, I'm listening to their latest album "Keep Calm, Carry the Monkey" as I type this. It makes me sigh in the best way.
(All images from Skipping Girl Vinegar on Facebook)
Cat philosophy
Meet Henri, the feline philosopher. Oh how he breaks my heart! The mournful way he hangs his head while submitting to the indignity of having his butt hair trimmed. His slow turn to camera, bringing home the irony of a little sign, "Pay attention to the cat." ("Not that they ever do.") And oh! Henri! "Immortalised on the wall. Forgotten on the floor." I sob.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q34z5dCmC4M] Credit: I first saw Henri on Hila Lumiere's blog, le projet d'amour. You should visit her lovely blog now and if you like what you see (which I'm quite sure you will), vote for Hila in the Best Australian Blogs competition. (There are several pages of blogs, listed alphabetically, and Hila's blog is listed under the letter 'L' on page three as "le projet d'amour.")
Elsewhere: Today I'm back on the English Muse, bringing you a taster from the stunning Hindu Festival of Colours. Won't you pop in and tell me what you think?
Image from Pison Jaujip
Free stuff to make your blog pretty
Guess what I discovered yesterday? FREE creative digital design downloads! But for a short time only. The lovely folks at Creative Market are just starting up and, while they get ready to launch, they are offering some wonderful freebies to give early adopters a taste of what's to come.
Here are some favourites I've already downloaded:
A set of vintage-style hang-tags
Beautiful herringbone patterns
Chalkboard-style icons
Snippets from a 1912 French text book on geometry
I think this is a super smart marketing idea, kind of like the digital version of those little tasters they give you in gelati shops that sucker you in to buying the three-scoop cup when you weren't even hungry. I'm fairly certain creativemarket.com has won a future customer in moi.
Also, I need to extend a big thanks to Nicole Balch of Making it Lovely for alerting me to this great opportunity.
Favourite things - love is all you need
Better late than never, in honour of Mr B's and my first anniversary two weeks ago, this post is all about love, love, love. Because, dear friend, love comes in all shapes and sizes. Ain't it grand?
1. Streethearts
Good street art just melts this heart of mine. I adore the creativity, vulnerability and generosity of street artists, and I know I've gone on about this on my blog many times before. So you can imagine how wide my smile was when I came across this collection of "dead hearts" by bicycle-loving, anti-asphalt Canadian artist Roadsworth.
2. Love notes
Danni of Oh, Hello Friend (one of my favourite blogs) made this book of notes, inspired by The Jolly Postman, a while back for her husband when he was having a tough week at work. She said there were about eight to nine notes in the book, with one even hidden in a tiny capsule. One day, I will do the same for someone I love. Isn't it adorable?
3. Wooden tiebreakers
Whenever you disagree with your lover, just flip for the right to be right! This is genius. "Relationship management in a tin," says distributor Greer Chicago. Found, as so many good things are, on Happiness Is.
4. Pop-up book proposal
When NYC student Chris decided to propose to his girlfriend Julia, he teamed up with paper artist Jackie Huang to make a pop-up book filled with moments from their relationship in which he would 'pop' the question. More from the book on Jackie's blog here. I have always loved pop-up books. In fact I think I want to be a paper artist when I grow up.
(ps. Julia said yes.)
5. The glow
I can't wait to experience this kind of love in just a few short months. This image is from The Glow, a site that calls itself "a glimpse into the world of inspiring and fashionable moms" and features gorgeous photography of mothers and their children. I don't expect to be either inspiring or fashionable, but I'm really looking forward to becoming a mum.
Something I remembered this morning
That time when I was 16 and I saw a rainbow end at the bottom of the horse paddock so I ran down to see if there was a pot of gold. There was: the pure gold of looking up to see a magical band of colours begin just out of reach of my outstretched fingertips, curving up, up into the unending sky.
I danced under the end of the rainbow and my brother's friend, still at the top of the hill, said it looked like I was dancing inside all the colour.
I don't know
This is the top comment on the YouTube video of Irish singer-songwriter Lisa Hannigan's sweet track I Don't Know. Scrolling down, others say things like "LOL that's how I got here too" and "omg!!! the same thing happened."
I guess there's a lesson in here on picking song titles that are also good search terms (and possibly on concentrating more on grammar and spelling in school. ARGH, Naomi, you did NOT just type that! Chill, word Nazi, chill.)
Continuing on...
Me? I'm simply in love with Hannigan's uncomplicated yet heartfelt love song, and the blue-and-white paper cutout garden she creates as she sings. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSaPbVjcrp4] Elsewhere: I'm also blogging on English Muse today, sending out the first of a weekly series of 'antipodean dispatches' on travel, books and whimsy. Do drop by and tell me what you think... here.
Picnic at Hanging Rock
I now live not far from Hanging Rock, the setting of one of Australian literature's great, unsolved mysteries Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay, as well as Peter Weir's haunting film adaptation from 1975.
Mr B grew up attending family picnics and horse races on this ancient site. His father's regular joke was to yell "I found them!" whenever he spotted three old ladies together (read the book to find out why this is funny).
I'm talking about Picnic at Hanging Rock on the English Muse today. I'll be blogging there every Tuesday evening from now on, so please pop by to say hello, and let me know what else you'd like to see on my guest posts.
Sing so that the kids will know
When a horrific abuse of human rights left 81 people dead after a fire broke out in an overcrowded prison in Santiago, Chile in 2010, musician Nano Stern wrote a song about it. Why?
"We have to sing about it, we have to make it into popular culture, we have to sing so that the kids will know what happened and will not be immune to such horrible things," he told Dumbo Feather magazine. More here:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDoSzcbVseQ]
In the wake of that Kony video (putting aside your thoughts on the activities of the charity behind it), what's your take on using the arts and popular culture for social education and to inspire change?
Oh hello, dark nights
Daylight savings ended on the weekend and I couldn't be happier. Not only do we get a bonus hour to sleep in of a morning, the end of daylight savings also heralds the imminent onset of winter, my favourite season.
Winter means reading books by the fireside (or the heater, now that we've moved). Hot chocolate and honey crumpets. Snuggling on the couch under a woollen blanket made of crocheted squares. Ugg boots. Candlelit dinners at which the candles are actually needed because the sun has set. Mandarins, beets and persimmons. Cuddling Mr B through the night. Morning walks wrapped in coat and hat and gloves, watching my breath form clouds.
The autumn weather hasn't been entirely cooperative lately, climbing to the high 20s and even 30 during the day, but it's slowly dipping overnight. This morning it was just 9 degrees when I woke up. I grinned as I shivered.
Winter also means cosying into soft, gorgeous woollen sweaters, and I am seriously crushing over these knits from Pugnat. True I'm not sure I could carry off a Princess Leia-esque knitted bonnet. But I love the unusual sculptured shapes of these pieces, the romantic-yet-futuristic drapery, the unexpected play of materials. They put me in mind of Brontes, and moors.
What do you love most about winter?