Had an artful
Sunday, 02 April, 2006
Busy weekend. Friday night was the FEVA art exhibition at my church. (There was an article in SydneyAnglicans about it which is kind of funny because we're not an Anglican church). Ben was feeling sick so only my mum and I went. There were some good works there but overall the quality wasn't as good as last year's (probably because little notice had been given about the exhibition). And I was stressing a lot about whether my knitting would sell (by the time we left, nobody had bought the scarf/shawl).
On Saturday Ben and I slept in, ate leftover for lunch and had music appreciation between ourselves. Ben likes music appreciation. We had it as a church activity except I didn't go for some reason. What you do is you invite everyone around and tell them to bring a song or two each to share. Then you go around the group and play the songs and maybe talk about why you like them. Ben and I didn't talk about why we liked them; we just took turns playing the songs and appreciating them while I painted my nails black.
In the afternoon we drove to a friend's place whose name must not be mentioned as I don't think she'd appreciate people knowing she used to be a goth. She knew all sorts of stuff about goth culture—like how most goths are either a lace goth, a velvet goth or a leather goth and apparently you don't mix materials. Anyway, she dug up a few items of her old goth gear and lent me her knee-high lace-up boots, her 1904s authentic fishnet stockings (complete with gothy safety pins to do up the holes), her Celtic arm bracelet and her leather kitty-kat ears. She showed me how to cut up a pair of stockings to make a funny kind of undershirt (runs are good, apparently). She also found all her old stuff to do my make-up (given that I don't own any and have no idea how to put it on). In the end, I looked something like this:
(The wrap is another one of those scarf/shawls I knitted. It's made of 100% wool [1x50g ball approx], Lincraft Mordor [80% polyamide; 12% acrylic; 8% wool; 6x50g balls] and Lincraft Arcadia [100% polyester; 2x50g balls]. I have discovered that, if you're using 4 types of yarn, you need to make sure you get 50g balls which have at least 50m in them or else you'll have to get three of them, not two. Wearing the wrap was breaking a goth rule—I was supposed to be a lace goth but I was wearing a furry thing. But it was cold and, amazingly, the warp kept me nice and warm all night.)
Ben and I left her place, drove to Luke's where I dropped him off and then I continued on to Wollongong for Hannah's 21st birthday party. The theme was “Culture but not Cool” (hence the goth part) but most of the guests (at least the non-Caucasian ones) took one look at me and asked, “Are you Catwoman?” *Sigh*. These international students have a lot to learn. And the concept was also entirely wasted on the birthday girl who didn't get the goth thing either. Oh well.
I had a nice time anyway, meeting some of Hannah's interesting friends (including a man and his wife who came from Iraq—he used to be a journalist, an editor and a playwright and he became a Christian because someone gave him a Bible to read), occasionally indulging in some dancing, catching up with old friends like Stu and Janet, and trying karaoke for the first time. I left at 11, drove back to Luke's to pick up Ben and then we went home.
How good is daylight saving when you get to sleep in for an extra hour! I got up at 9 and went to my old school (which even has a Wikipedia entry!) for its 90th anniversary. I probably wouldn't have gone but my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and grandmother-in-law are all St. Georgians and they were all going and I was curious to see how things had changed.
There was no one there from my year (tut tut!) We started with an assembly in the hall (which is still as drafty and cold as it was when I sat my HSC exams) and a lot of speeches were made which brought up a lot of memories about St. George—the relentless pursuit of academic excellence, the devastating sense of failure when you fell short of the goal, the immense pride the school took in the ones who performed well, and so on. St. George had many great things about it but I think, while it did well to build up minds and bodies in academia and sport, it didn't do as well to build up character.
There was morning tea in the Year 11 quad. Lizz and I went off to explore and we pretty much made it around almost the entire school in 20 minutes, though, disappointingly, the Year 12 common room and the music rooms were all locked. I took some photos but I'll put those in another post.
Then it was home time with a stop at the new Spotlight in Rockdale on the way (I splurged and got Ben a body pillow to help his back while he sleeps. And I drooled over the yarn but I need to stop buying it and instead work through my stash a bit more!). I fixed a hodge-podge lunch for me and Ben, spent the afternoon re-reading the delicious Jane of Lantern Hill (I'd forgotten how good Lucy Maud Montgomery is) and then realised Ben I were getting sick and so we decided to stay home from church.
Sleep now. Well, photos first. Then sleep.
Blinks:
A way of funding writing in the future: pitch and idea and get people to support it.
Place where you can hire play equipment for parties, etc.
How to recalibrate the home button on your iPhone.
Unsolicited manuscripts accepted by Pan Macmillan with certain conditions.
Thought Balloon is a group blog in which the writers tackle a new theme every week? month? with one-page scripts. This URL is for their Phonogram ones.
How to sew a zipper on a knitted garment.
Issues organised by tale.
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i think it has been noted before that you would make a good goth - it just works! the cat ears are an especially funky touch (and stacie told me all about them this morning so i was glad to be able to see them!)
Ah, L.M. Montgomery! I’ve been reliving my childhood myself lately, rereading the later Anne books after a gap of many years…
Thanks Bec! The words mean more coming from you!
Sandra, you know it’s funny I never liked the Anne books as much as some of her other work—I always preferred Emily and the Story Girl to Anne but The Blue Castle and Jane of Lantern Hill are far and away my personal favourites.
Have yet to read Jane. I loved the Blue Castle (especially the heroine) except for the occasional passages which reminded me of the lady poet from Leave it to Psmith.
This is probably unfair to the vast majority of goths, but I straightaway thought of Sunday afternoon, when I was sitting on a windowsill in Borders and saw a horde of zombies pass through downtown Brisbane. I recognised a few as the local top-hatted goths who sit on top of the entrance to the King George Square car park. The rest were quite possibly arts students.
Ah, Anne of Green Gables! You just reminded me of my childhood. I only ever read the Anne books. I was a redhead like Anne and I totally identified with her. Wow, memories hey.
My real reason for posting though, was to ask you if you could tell me how to make the stockings/undershirt thingy?
cheers.
I used to think about dying my hair red—not Anne red but very dark red. But then after I got my hair permed in Year 8 I vowed never to do anything to my hair again because I was appalled at how damaged it got. And probably red hair wouldn’t suit me. But I like red hair—it’s interesting!
Okay, for the undershirt thing, you get one pair of stockings (mids fitted my arms but if you have longer arms, you might have to get talls). You snip the toes off and then you cut a small triangle into the crotch which will widen as you put your head through it (your head goes through the waist and then through the hole) and then your arms through the legs. Hope that makes sense—it’s easy when you see someone do it. Runs, rips and tears are apparently more gothic-looking and it’s apparently very cool to pin the together with safety pins.
Yeah, I think I loved Emily more than Anne (shall have to read her again too)... i was just inspired to read Anne of the Island again because of certain parallels with my life (best friend going away to college etc.) - it’s interesting to read Anne’s grown-up years when you’re the same age (or older) than her character, rather than a little girl!
Am also noticing how much theology there is in Anne’s House of Dreams! interesting…
Really?? Wow, I’ll have to re-read ...