TV, movies, music, that kind of thing
In my neck of the woods, drycleaners seem to have a permanent “three for the price of two” deal going on. It’ll cost you about $7 to get one item cleaned, but about double that for two or three. It means when I have an item that is in dire need of cleaning, I’ll pontificate ... [More]
The Doctor Who episodes The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances won the Hugo award for best dramatic presentation, short form, beating other worthy contenders including Battlestar Galactica, much to Doctor Who writer Paul Cornell’s surprise. So how are we all enjoying the 2006 series? Overall, I’m loving it. And in keeping with my one-year-old tradition, here’s ... [More]
The school concert was last night. I’m sure I don’t remember us doing these kinds of full-blown all-of-school proper-concert-hall events when I was in primary school. But the kids all seemed to enjoy it. And the bar was open before the event started, to help the parents… uhh relax. Danny Katz (whose kids go to ... [More]
I was tagged for a literary meme. 1. One book that changed your life I’m struggling a bit to think of anything, but if I had to nominate something, I’d probably say Ben Elton’s Gridlock. It’s not an earthshattering philosophical work, but I think it (subconsciously) triggered a lot of my thinking about issues I’m ... [More]
Oh what a tricky language we use. grammer — how come so many people make this (almost ironic) mistake? grammar dammit, grammar! peninsular — actually this is a grammatical error. Peninsular is the adjective describing a body of land surrounded on three sides by water. But so many people seem to think it’s the noun. ... [More]
I’ve mentioned before how I hate the expression “I’ll let you go”. It just tells me in the most thinly-veiled way that the person talking to me is sick of me, and has more important things to do. Last week I overheard a work colleague who had evidently rung someone he didn’t want to talk ... [More]
The 2006 Australian census is tomorrow night, and once again participants have a chance to answer the religion question as: JEDI. Apparently 70,000 did last time (including me). As the Australian Bureau of Statistics says: If your belief system is “Jedi” then answer as such on the census form. Taking a look at the Jedi ... [More]
Arthur And George (Julian Barnes) — not quite historical novel, not quite biography, following the true story of Arthur Conan Doyle and George Edalji. Somewhere in between, perhaps. Really well written, I thought (no wonder if was on the 2005 Booker shortlist), getting inside the heads of the main characters using language they’d probably use ... [More]
Yesterday morning I had a blood nose in the shower. Very Psycho, I must say. My left side is clearly my best. My right side is… well, a bit defective. My right nostril is always the one that gets the blood. Semi-regularly in fact, particularly in high summer or when I’m blowing my nose a ... [More]
I had a reasonably bad cold last week, and I’m still periodically coughing yeuchhy stuff up very noisily. At its worst, I worked from home, which was actually pretty good — I reckon I got more done at home than I would have done at work, thanks to the tranquility. Thanks to a contact in ... [More]
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang — A kinda violent-yet-funny Lock Stock/Snatch type comedy-mystery-drama. Very well done, with some nice touches on the narration. Plenty of laughs, very enjoyable. Broken Flowers — Another of Bill Murray’s refined, old bloke, laid-back movie roles. Very good. Corpse Bride — Reminded me of one of those 80s/90s afternoon kids’ programmes, ... [More]
Before there was this blog on danielbowen.com, it was on toxiccustard.com. And before it was a blog at all, it was an email list. And actually the email list still exists, sending out the weekly extract of this blog, as well as the Guide to Australia (when I get around to updating it) and News ... [More]