Thursday, June 18, 2009

How dumb can the Liberals get?

Let me get this right – the federal Liberal Opposition's spokesperson for Women's Affairs, Sophie Mirabella, employs a male staff member who after three days on the job sexually harasses a number of women at a public event. (Allegedly, but what else do you call trying to or asking to fondle/touch their breasts?)

At last night's Mid Winter Ball hosted by the Parliamentary Press Gallery, no less?

What?

Tony Scrinis is his name. He was the shadow spokesperson's media adviser! I saw 'was' as he has 'resigned' today. You can't spin your way out of this one, mate. Talk about career suicide. Does this guy have any clue about this work, or was this just a job for one of the boys?

Importantly, does the Liberal's Sophie Mirabella have any clue about hiring the right people? I mean, this is Women's Affairs, for crying out loud!

How stupid can these people get?

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Sunday, June 14, 2009

King of the fruit - in Brisbane

I'm in Brisbane this weekend. My mum's best friend bought us some durian. Some think it's disgusting, but I think its the king of fruit. I haven't had it in years. Yum.


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Thursday, June 11, 2009

The best news all week

This Age report, Heat on to fix branch stacking, has to be the best news I've heard all week:
"The revelations [of serious branch stacking and questionable memberships in ALP branches] come as ALP state secretary Stephen Newnham fights to keep his job as factional forces and senior government figures push for change."
Barista has only a couple of the reasons why that makes me glad – mainly that the name of the ALP's state secretary crops up a fair bit around instances of dirty tricks and smear campaigns in various elections.

Though I doubt getting rid of him would really put an end to the old dirty tricks beloved by the ALP. Would make me happy, though.


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Thursday, June 04, 2009

Published

I am published.

Well, I've always wanted to finally be able to say that, and in terms of how the publishing world works, now I can. My short, short story 'How to Domesticate a Pirate [Live Fed Square Remix] has been published in the Remix My Lit anthology.

The anthology Through the Clock's Workings was edited by Amy Barker and published by Sydney Uni Press. You can buy it online from SUP (link above). There's an ebook of it floating around as well, but I can't find the link to it.

The anthology is part of the Remix My Lit initiative to encourage the creative exchanges, remixing and mutations of Creative Commons licensed creative works. Here's how they describe the anthology:

A world first! The first remixed and remixable anthology of literature.

This anthology of short stories is not some textual tome, frozen in time and space. It is alive, evolving organically in a constant state of flux. Why? Because each story is available under a Creative Commons licence, giving you rights to share and reuse the book as you see fit.

The stories are great They are excellent examples of what collaboration and creative sharing and remixing can do to creative interesting writing and works of art. I urge you to buy the anthology.

My story is a remix of a 'Remix My Lit' story by Danielle Wood, which is also included in the anthology. The stories and the whole anthology are published on the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australian license.

My remix was part of the live remixing event at Federation Square at last year's Melbourne Writer's Festival, which I blogged about. You can read the original version of my remix story as I'd published it on this blog then. I think the edited vesion in the anthology is better, though. It's short, but I had a lot of fun with it.

I'd heard much earlier this the year that my story had been selected, and it went through the editorial feedback process etc, but the publisher had asked contributors not to say anything publically until the launch. Well, I've just heard that:
Through the Clock’s Workings was launched at the Copyright Future: Copyright Freedom Conference at Old Parliament House (OPH) in Canberra on Wednesday 27th May by Dr Terry Cutler (Cutler and Co Melbourne).
Would have liked a bit more notice, but can't be too fussy, can I?

When I think of the idea that I am 'finally' a 'published' writer, I wonder what that means about the eight years and more that I have been writing, editing and publishing (and desktop publishing) in my previous and current jobs. Working in the community sector, I have written, co-written, ghost written, edited and published a lot of material for the organisations I work for, particularly currently. But I guess that doesn't seem to count as 'being published'. More than half the time, my name isn't put to much that I write. Not because I'm not proud of it, but because it's written and published under the organisation's name, or its leadership's. I'm okay with that. It's what I've signed up for. It's pretty much what 'communications' and much of project work is (and I'm finalising a really big one right now!). And I care about this work.

At times such as this, though, when a one-page story is published in an anthology and I'm publically credited as the author, and it is my first published piece of fiction, it makes me think of the reams of content I've written and edited that don't have my name to them. They are still my creative enterprise, and have a large part of me in them.

The image of the cover of Through the Clock's Workings is designed by Ali J and is creative commons licensed.

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Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Street art


Street art, originally uploaded by Mark Lawrence.

A good thing about a big art exhibition being in town is seeing art in unexpected places - even if it's advertising on tram stops - in the suburbs.


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Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Taking cleaning to new heights

A window cleaner working on the exterior of a building on Degraves Street.


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There be monsters


There be monsters, originally uploaded by Mark Lawrence.

In the city, monsters lurk around every corner waiting to pounce and gobble you up. Some also want to sell you charity.


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