The Banal Chew

Time has lost his name

Here it is Wednesday, and I'm woefully behind in just about every aspect of my life. Look at me. This is the first post since last Friday. 

Why is it the older I get the harder it is for me to squeeze everything in? 

It can't be that I'm moving more slowly.  Hell, I'm very healthy (touch wood) and not that old yet. 

It can't be that my to-do list is too big. 

It can't be that I don't get up early enough. 

It can't be that I've been watching too much Torchwood on DVD.  I haven't even received the new discs from our Netflix-type service yet. 

And it's certainly not that I've been spending too much time at the gym. My waistline will attest to that.

It could be a couple of things. 

I've made an effort to increase my hours at work.  Because I work from home, this can get tricky.  Discipline is in order.

Oh, and then there's Scrabulous, which I've recently discovered.  I'm not too worried about this one though.  I can smell the smoke of burn-out already.

Flashforward Friday

I've booked the travel for my late Nov, early Dec trip to the U.S.  (No details, as I don't want to jinx my reason for going.)

I will be in:

• Palm Springs
• Northwest Arkansas
• Kansas City area
• Tucson

Any bloggers out there in those areas, aside from Homer (I'll be shacking up with him a couple of nights), who might want to say hello in person?

Get the hook!

Yeah, what I said about blog karma and YouTube embeds...forget it for now.

And the winner is...

well, no one really, although TJ got the most correct and gets extra credit for even getting the spelling of the Stephen King book (nearly) right.

Only three people dared answer Friday's Flashback Quiz.  Sheesh, the last time I created a quiz, y'all complained it was too easy!  I guess I need to strike a balance.

Here are the answers:

1) Dennis DeYoung (of Styx)

2) The cover of Stephen King's book, Pet Sematary

3) Mrs. Voorhees, Jason's mother in Friday the 13th

4) Detective Chin Ho Kelly, from Hawaii Five-O

5) Ice Castles

6) "has a frog in her throat"

7) Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters

8) Lee Smith (from Fair and Tender Ladies)

9) Sambos

10) Needlepoint

Pedal power

In the interest of blog karma, considering the number of YouTube embeds I have done lately, there will be no Affable YouTube Monday this week. 

Instead, I bring you more potentially annoying descriptions and photos of family activities.

Yesterday was the 13th annual Sydney SpringCycle.  This was the first year I have done the ride.  With Zane's Christmas gift of a new bike last year, a big step up from the starter bicycle he  previously owned, he was able to join me on the ride.  I was delighted to have the companion.

Our ride, 40 kilometers in total, started in North Sydney and proceeded south across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, through the Rocks, around Darling Harbour to Pyrmont and our first rest stop. 

(you clicks the pics to enlarge)

 
8:00 a.m. at the starting point in North Sydney.  Notice how fresh we look.

We're off to see the Wizard!

Nearing the Harbour Bridge, which was closed to northbound traffic

Zane only looks dwarfed by his backpack. I'm happy he had this chance to ride across one of Sydney's iconic landmarks.

Nearly 10,000 cyclists, all getting revenge on Sydney traffic for a few brief hours. <evil laugh>

Cycling around Darling Harbour on the Western Distributor, which is normally glutted with vehicles of the motorized kind

Looking back from our first rest stop. You can see the Harbour Bridge in the distance.

Next the route took us across Johnston Bay on the old Glebe Island Bridge into Sydney's (hilly!) Inner West. Occasionally we would emerge from the maze of fairly uninteresting neighborhood streets to get a glimpse of the water as we cycled past Iron Cove, Canada Bay, and Hen & Chicken Bay.

Approaching the old Glebe Island Bridge, which lies adjacent to the impressive Anzac Bridge

In this part of the ride, the riders were often much more interesting than the scenery, like this hunk man pushing a basket and his two happy passengers.

We didn't see any.

After crossing the Concord Road Bridge at Uhrs Point, I knew we were getting closer to the end of the ride. That was good, considering the temperature was rising quickly. Zane was also starting to get fairly puffed out, resulting in a couple of minor melt-downs. I was ready to call Mark to come pick us up at whenever Zane had had enough, but being the trooper he is, he felt he wanted to ride across that finish line. So we took many breaks and sat in the shade to cool off and rehydrate. And we made it. It was a high point of my brief parenting experience to high-five him as we rode across the finish line at Sydney Olympic Park. Aside from being good ol' fun, I think it was also an empowering and educational event in Zane's life. Mark and I are very, very proud of him.

Another funky bridge

In the distance you can see Telstra Stadium at Sydney Olympic Park, which is where the ride officially ends.

Cycling toward the finish line at Telstra Stadium

Nearly there!

Success!  But wait, where are the throngs of adoring autograph seekers?

Quick, take the photo before we collapse!  By the way, that only looks like our new Subaru spaceship in the background.  It's actually the Olympic cauldron.

Flashback Friday (a day late)

I'm in the mood for a quiz.  How about you?  (No Googling!)

1) Who is this man? 
Hint: He was my idol when I was a teenager, mainly because I admired his lyric tenor voice. A tenor myself, I sang just about every hit song of his in my high school pop group.

2) This illustration appeared where? 
Hints: Down East, ill-fated older neighbor, shovel

3) What was this movie character's name?
Hints: rhymes with "More, please!"; world's worst mommie, next to Joan Crawford

4) Name this TV character and the show.
Hint: Aloha!

5) Which late-70s movie had a theme song featuring these lyrics?
Hint: Nancy Kerrigan, eat your heart out.

I can see what's mine now,
Finding out what's true,
Since I found you...

6) What's the punch line to this dirty Muppets joke?

Kermit and Ms Piggy were frolicking in bed one day.
The phone rang, and Kermit answered.
He said to the person on the line,
"I'm sorry, but Ms Piggy can't talk on the phone right now.
She ___________________."

7) In which J. D. Salinger story does the protagonist serve his guests a pitcher of Tom Collins, although he himself prefers to drink Scotch?

8) Which author of Southern fiction coined my favorite phrase that offers an excuse for having a drink in the afternoon: "Early? Why it's already dark under the house."

9) Which national U.S. restaurant chain, before it went bankrupt, infamously featured murals like this on its interior walls?
Hint: The restaurant name was initially a portmanteau word, but later achieved a controversial association with a story with racist subtones.

10) Which domestic activity did the American footballer, Rosey Grier, notoriously promote during the mid-70s, bursting stereotypes all over the country?

a) baking
b) needlepoint
c) macrame
d) housecleaning

A person who (surprise!) needs people

I have recently reestablished contact with an estranged friend. He's been a dear friend of mine for many years, but we had a falling out a couple of years ago over some extraneous circumstances that don't need explanation in a public manner. Whether or not these circumstances were avoidable is a moot issue, really. I'm simply elated that we are communicating again. I cannot bear to lose friends for any reason.

As I explained to another friend recently when they alluded to a conspicuous lack of reaching out on my part, I have learned a great deal since I met Mark and moved to Sydney. I have never been a terribly social person, for whatever reason, be it a social anxiety disorder, a painfully sheltered upbringing, or a fiercely competitive career focus.  With the support of a few wonderful people here in Australia, I have emerged from my shell in a way that I doubted possible. I am by no means an extrovert now, but I feel much more comfortable in the company of others and, consequently, in my own skin. 

In other words, I'm still a loner but I'm no longer lonely.

Facebook stole my baby

Must share...

Affable YouTube Monday

In honor of Björk's upcoming appearance in Sydney...

The parody (cum French & Saunders).

The real deal, mama.

Flashforward/back Friday

In the Southern Hemisphere, it's official.  I'm now 45.

I've decided on the look below for the next decades.  I don't know, I think it's very middle-age, and much less noisy than a Harley. 

Shamelessly pilfered...

from Raybob & Kelly.  But I felt compelled to share the laughs. 

Careful what you ask for

Zane called from Townsville with a request.  He asked us to call the Australian government, because he feels they have wrongly assigned the rating of MA-15+ to the movie, 28 Weeks Later. 

After reading the blurb on the DVD cover, he thinks it should be rated R.  According to him, kids should not see that kind of stuff.

I am so going to remind him of this when he starts giving us grief for not letting him watch horror movies.

Cogitation Tuesday

Maybe it's that I'm turning 45 in four days.  Maybe it's the NY Times article I just read about the plight of elderly gay people in homophobic retirement homes.  Or maybe it's that I'm weaning myself off Lovan (per my GP's directive).  Something is eating at me today, and I'm a little down.

Two dear friends of mine resettled in California a few years ago, in order to live in an area where gay men could live together in retirement facilities without being subjected to ridicule or hatred. These men are approaching the most golden of years. Soon both will be fully retired. They have been together over 40 years, having fallen in love while undergraduates all those years ago. 

They are remarkable men, these friends of mine, beautiful spirits whom I cannot imagine anyone ever wishing to cause harm.  The thought of them aging together in a care facility that caters to gay and lesbian residents warms and cools my heart at the same time.  I smile and cry thinking of how wonderful it must be to have shared your life with someone you care for so deeply for so long.  Then tears well from knowing that life in a "rest home", as they still call them in the South, signifies the less time I have to be around them full-stop.

Despite my opening salvo, growing older has never really bothered me in the context of the numbers of years behind me. What I find difficult to bear is that it means there are fewer years I have to enjoy la vita mia like I am now. Life has become very rich for me over the past 20+ years, the last 5 in particular. And while I do not normally sit around in a morose state fearing the unknown region and mourning my aging process, when the mood does hit, it strikes hard. 

Oh, I'll be much better tomorrow. 

Oh, you gotta have friends...

People sometimes ask me why I stopped working as a church musician, especially when choral music arose from and continues to retain a tight connection with the various liturgies.  My answer is always the same, quick and concise: "After 18 years, it's nice to have my weekends back again."  This weekend was a perfect illustration of what I mean.

Yesterday morning, Mark and I spontaneously jumped in the car and headed off on a drive down to the South Coast.  The plan was to have lunch in Kiama, stopping off in Wollongong on the way to visit with Mark's sisters.  As it turned out, the weather changed fairly quickly around noon, and it got cool, cloudy and windy.  We decided just to lunch in the Gong and spend more time visiting with the family. 

On the way down, we drove across the new Sea Cliff Bridge.  A few years ago, a section of the incredibly scenic road that travels along the ocean cliffs was permanently closed because of some dangerous rock fall incidents.  Instead of blasting and digging a new road into the side of cliff, it was decided that the roadway would be suspended over the ocean.  The result is a short, but breathtaking, driving experience as you work your way south through the old mining villages that freckle the coast about an hour south of Sydney.  While I think there is still an active colliery in the area, the demographics of these little towns have certainly changed. Older, fibro-sided cottages sit next to new, multi-million dollar houses.  Although handsomely paid, I don't imagine many coalminers can afford to live in these neighborhoods any longer.

 

As we drove back to Sydney, we passed a van full of guys in a very festive mood.  We think they were on their way to a buck's night (aka, bachelor party) in the big city.  Have a look at the pic below and I think you'll see what I mean.

Today was one of the best days of my life, and I don't say things like that lightly. Mark had already told me that we were celebrating my birthday about a week early, so that we could include Dean, who will be in Vegas for work next weekend.  They all kept the details very secret, feeding me only the tiniest of clues now and again.   I knew only that it had something to do with the water in or around the Harbour, and that I needed to wear something that could get wet, a hat and sunscreen. 

About 9am, Mark and I collected Lukey, Dean and Blair (a very nice friend of Deano's, visiting from Perth) and headed north.  About 30 minutes later we arrived at Manly, where my surprise was revealed: kayaking!  We paddled from Manly Wharf to Store Beach, where the kayaking staff had tables and umbrellas set up for us.  There was sparkling wine and an amazing seafood feast.  I couldn't have asked for a better birthday gift than to share the morning with my partner and friends on a secluded, beautiful piece of beach. I count myself as one of the luckiest men on the planet. 

 

Banalité du jour

It has been a quick week, what with the very full-on weekend followed by a public holiday on Monday. I have enjoyed it, though.

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent in a flurry of focused domesticity. My home office had reached feral status, so in the spirit of spring cleaning, I dug out the heavy-duty trashbags and oiled the shredder. Don't you love weeding and tossing? I could do without the scrubbing that goes along with it, but I suppose it's the no-pain-no-gain monster rearing its head in an unlikely place. My workspace is now tidy, organized and spotless.

Zane called yesterday to let us know he has a surprise for us when he returns from Townsville. The secret couldn't be kept, however, and it turns out that telling us he had a surprise was really his way of diverting any angst he might invoke from us by convincing his grandmother to let him to get a Playstation Portable by trading in his DS-Lite...plus an additional couple hundred dollars that she would have to cough up. Neither Zane's mother, Mark, nor I feel this is a wise decision for a variety of reasons that seem completely sound to us but hideously and reprehensibly unreasonable to a 9 year-old. Oh, there were tears and screams.

Mark's mum returned from Thailand today, stopping over at our townhouse to retrieve her car from safekeeping. Funny...she looked oddly stressed for a woman who's been lounging the past 5 days at a luxury resort in Phuket.

I have been doing some catching up of blog reading tonight. I am a little surprised by the number of birthdays my blogpals have mentioned recently. My birthday is coming up very soon. Mark has hinted around that I should make myself available on Sunday. He isn't forthcoming with details, but he did say it has to do with the Harbour (Sydney Harbour, that is).

Upon hearing this, I shrieked, "The Harbour Bridge Climb! Oh my God, Mark, you shouldn't have!" As soon as I'd even started to say it, I knew what was coming. 

"Don't worry, I didn't."

I rather like the taste of my own foot.

Lots to say...

By now, saying that I have been fairly inconsistent with the routine of my blog posting would be annoyingly apparent, kind of like my use of alliteration at times. As I sit down to quickly compose a post, I feel like I have too little time to say all that I'd like to. I will touch on a few things though. And in a way, I suppose that leaving a little up to the imagination isn't such a bad thing in reality.

It was a busier week than usual for me. Seems I was on the go just about all the time. It brought me to realize that when life finally presents me with the opportunity to work away from home, the shock will be fairly challenging at first. No doubt I'll fall into some kind of routine, but I wonder how long it will take.

Between working, compiling and posting academic job applications, taking care of Ralph (happily!) for Dean & Brad, a guest conducting gig, and all kinds of errands, I hardly had time for coffee. When Sandy can't have his coffee, it ain't pretty. But I survived.

Guest conducting gig. Sounds so glamorous. Actually I filled in for the director of the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Choir for their weekly rehearsal. It felt great finally to be doing music again, especially as I am going through the process of applying for conducting and teaching jobs. The group are preparing for a World AIDS Day concert, on which they will perform works by Morten Lauridsen and John Tavener, two very fine choral composers. The choir will also sing another work, this one written by a contemporary Australian composer as a gift to the choir. It should be a great program. If you're in Sydney, here are more details.

To answer Patsy's question in a previous comment, Zirkus! (Sleaze Ball 2007) was good fun. There were three dance floors.  There was the mammoth, main floor in the Hordern Pavilion with international DJs playing some very sensational music. The shows were amazing, too. What's not to love about 15 or so entertainers on stage and stationed on tall columns around the dance floor twirling flaming nunchuks to awesome music? Another floor was in The Dome. The music has a harder edge and the crowd tends more to the leather and fetish side. What a hoot. The third dance area, The Forum, was my least favorite, primarily because it was so crowded you honestly couldn't find a place to perch or dance that wasn't nut to butt. I suppose it would be better if I were more into the 80s remixes. But I'm not. Anyway, folks were having fun, and that's what matters.

In addition, there was the costume competition outside in the massive courtyard. With a theme of a 1930s Berlin circus, you can imagine how outrageously some people were dressed. When I first entered the area after arriving, I walked past a crowd of merry 20-somethings standing and talking. The guy closest to me, an attractive man dressed only in harlequin tights did a standing splits as I drew near, lifting his foot all the way above his head so that I could pass. I laughed and did my Jane Russell, "Honey, you'll hurt yourself" as I walked by him. (O come on, he'd never heard it before!) Anyway, then I thought to myself, "And this is part of what makes living in Sydney so much fun."

On Sunday, Mark came back from Wollongong, where he'd been visiting with his siblings who had gathered from all over to celebrate their mother's 60th birthday with a surprise party. She, on the other hand, had informed them only recently that her boss had already booked the two of them for a long weekend at a 5-star resort in Phuket. But that's another story.

Yesterday, Mark and I finished off a beautiful long weekend by taking advantage of the incredible weather and took Roger over to Clovelly Beach for lunch and some ocean air. (Zane is on school holidays and has flown up to Townsville to hang out with both his paternal cousins and maternal grandmother for 10 days.)

It was another one of those this-is-what-makes-living-here-fun moments.