For The Love Of A Two-Faced Kitten ?

Yesterday a two-faced kitten was born in Perth (see above, in case you didn't already notice). Apparently it eats out of only one mouth but meows out of both simultaneously. What a plucky little blighter!! (or blighters).

The second most interesting thing about this event is that the vet nurse who assisted in the delivery of the kitten remarked "I have seen cats with two tails and extra legs, but not this." Apparently Perth, WA is the place to be for feline deformities.

Come On Spring, Do Your Thing

Don't you just love spring? Yeah, I know it's been happening for a couple of months now but I look forward to seeing the Jacaranda in flower all winter long, and when the purple rain begins, well it's a thing of magic. But spare a thought for the equally glorious Illawarra Flame Tree, a tree which has the temerity to loose all its leaves and flower bright red every spring. I have decided that I love the flame tree and all her red flaming beauty.

Here is a picture.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Fundraiser

MBH and I attended the Sea Shepherd fundraiser at the Argyle Hotel last night. We were drawn by the promise of hearing the great man, Captain Paul Watson, speak of his experiences protecting marine life since the late 1960's. Cpt. Watson was one of the founding members of Greenpeace, although he now criticises the organisation for wasting money on advertising campaigns and trying to get more money, and founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) in 1977. All Sea Shepherd funding is used directly to protect marine life.

The mission statement of the SSCS is to "end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world's oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species.

Sea Shepherd uses innovative direct-action tactics to investigate, document and take action when necessary to expose and confront illegal activities on the high seas. By safeguarding the biodiversity of our delicately-balanced ocean ecosystems, Sea Shepherd works to ensure their survival for future generations."

Sea Shepherd's operations are expensive, hence the fundraising event. It costs $13,000 per day to run an anti-whaling boat, even though the boats are crewed by volunteers. Years ago they had trouble attracting volunteers but now they receive more than 500 applications from volunteer crew members for each mission. I guess I'm not the only one to fantasise about running away to join Sea Shepherd and become an "eco-terrorist".

Cpt. Watson emphasised in his speech that despite media hyperbole to the contrary, the SSCS are an organisation that advocates non-violent intervention. I was talking to a friend about this issue today. He had heard that Sea Shepherd was responsible for pouring acid on the deck of a whaling ship, which apparently was widely reported by the media. What they did do was lob spoiled butter (aka butyric acid) onto the deck, which causes it to become slippery and therefore difficult to walk on.

Cpt. Watson spoke eloquently and compassionately about his decades of work protecting whales, sharks and seals. He spoke of the cries of pain made by a whale when it is harpooned. He also spoke of the moment of profound understanding he shared with a male sperm whale that was harpooned in the skull as it breached the water to protect a female from the same pod who had also been harpooned.

There is a wealth of fascinating information on the Sea Shepherd website, including the fact that a sperm whale's brain size is 9000 cubic centimetres (the largest on the planet), much bigger than the human brain at a pathetic 1300 cubic centimetres. 

Just Another (Ku)brick in the Wall

Welcome to Stanley Kubrick week on SBS!

The schedule is as follows:

Sunday, 16 November, 9:35pm - 2001: Space Odyssey (1968)

Tuesday, 18 November, 11:40pm - Lolita (1962)

Wednesday, 19 November, 10:30pm - Barry Lyndon (1975)

Thursday, 20 November, 10:05pm - The Shining (1980)

Friday, 21 Nobember, 10:00pm - A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Saturday, 22 November 10:00pm - Full Metal Jacket (1987)

I haven't seen Lolita, Barry Lyndon or Full Metal Jacket, so I'm looking forward to a full week ahead of Kubricky old favourites and new surprises.

Thank God that bloody awful Eyes Wide Shut isn't making an appearance!

The Monaco Bar is Baaaa-ack!

Looks like all our hard work has paid off. Some time ago I forwarded an online petition around to all my nearest and dearest to encourage "them" to bring the Monaco Bar back. Well, last night MBH and were at home watching a dvd on the sofa when we decided it would be a great idea to visit the corner shop for an icecream or some other delicious treat. I was just about to go with ole faithful (the Magnum Ego) when MBH casually mentioned that the freezer cabinet also contained ..... Monaco Bars!!

Luckily I bought two for myself because when we got back home we both stood at the front door, each assuming that the other one had brought the house key. Locked out! So we wound up at the pub waiting for one of our flatties to get home. Still, it was totally worth it. 

Oh, how I had grieved them all these years! Monaco Bars were my out and out favourite ice cream when I was a child/adolescent and now I get to enjoy them all over again. 

In summary, Monaco Bars. Yum.

* Please note, the top two pics are borrowed from the "A Table For Two" blogsite. 

Arresting Bumper Stickers - Part I

Are bumper stickers a window into the soul? I like to imagine the type of person that belongs to a particular bumper sticker, and why they chose to say that particular thing about themselves and/or their interests for the world to see. Stickers like 'I fish and I vote' don't tend to arouse too much interest, nor the ubiquitous 'Your Rights At Work' campaign stickers. They are simply too common and too broad. Unions and lobby groups send those kind out and sometimes the members use them. End of story from my perspective. Although, I still remember the time I saw an Energy Australia car parked in Centennial Park sporting a sticker reading 'I Work and I Vote', which was nicely counterpointed by the 'worker' sleeping soundly within the vehicle. As one of my friends said, 'I Nap And I Vote' doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

Another time I was stopped behind a van in traffic and noticed with mounting delight a full array of animal rights bumper stickers pretty much all over the back doors and window of the van. First I saw an Animals Australia sticker: 'Live Export: Indefensible' and Animal Lib's 'Ban Battery Cages' and the Animal Lib logo sticker, plus lots more that I am well acquainted with along the meat-is-murder lines and the oft-seen Greenpeace sticker. When the lights changed I attempted to drive up next to their passenger window so I could offer some acknowledgement of kinship. I don't really know what I was going to do, and I was spared the decision when they turned right ahead of me and out of my life.

Other bumper stickers grab my attention for entirely different reasons. The picture, above, illustrates a perfect example of that 'other' kind of bumper sticker. The kind that makes me feel that if I met the owner of sticker at a dinner party it would be a decidedly uncomfortable situation. There might even be tension and hostility if alcohol had already sufficiently disinhibited us before we met. Having said that, I'd love to meet the owner of this particular bumper sticker. The sticker's savage poetry intrigued me. When I first saw it I even wondered where such a thing could be bought!

I've never quite had the brass monkeys to put a bumper sticker on my own vehicle. The boring reason is they cause uneven fading on the duco and the more convincing one is the thought that everyone will think I'm a maddie. And who could possibly stop at one sticker? All too hard, which is why my ride has always been sans sticker.

Man on Wire Entertains Woman in Cinema

After a short, hot, crowded shuffle through the stalls of the Newtown Festival on Sunday we were ready to escape to the cool, dark confines of the Dendy cinema to watch 'Man On Wire'. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but knew that the doco received unanimously good reviews from critics and won the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary at Cannes.

No wonder it was such an entertaining experience. Previously, I had carried a vague smudge of memory around that someone a long, long time ago walked between the Twin Towers, but I had never for a minute stopped to consider the beauty and magnitude of such an act.

Much of the documentary focused on the planning and preparations for "the coup" which eventuated on August 7, 1974 (a bit more than 3 months after I was born). Phillipe Petit (the wire walker) relied heavily on his circle of friends, and for the final act on a small number of ring-ins, to achieve such an amazing feat. All the main players were interviewed 27 years on, and they all appear to recall the events with perfect clarity and a depth of emotion. Petit's retelling of the events was hilarious and deeply engaging, however the real hero of the piece emerges as we discover that the practical planning behind the wire walk was masterminded by Petit's close friend Jean-Louis Blondeau. I don't want to ruin the rest of the story other than to say that the viewer is left with a somewhat tarnished admiration for Petit, but admiration nevertheless.

One interesting fact about Phillipe Petit's high wire antics that I had not known prior to seeing the film is that Petit walked suspended between the northern pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1973. The old footage of the Bridge is pure gold and reason enough to see the film.