Sunday 22 February 2009

Just when I'm contemplating future employment I see a Dumb Monkey Person

so what does one do on a Sunday when I was gunna then gunna and then some. I went for a walk around Enmore and Newtown.
On King Street Newtown, where Alice Street intersects there's a car wash. The owner of the car wash is frequently in the local paper due to council breaches and neighbour complaints.
To get customers on a Sunday (or any other day, I wonder?) he's employed someone to wear a monkey suit & wave at passing motorists. It could actually be the owner in there.
It was rather humid today and I wondered how the weather was in the suit and then I actually thought about how I could do that job - provided it was for no longer than, say once a week for say, no more than 2 hours.... just a thought.





People could call me that Dumb Monkey Person





Then again, I'm probably not the right height for the suit and I would likely have egg thrown at me or get pushed over...





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(All images copyright Anne Bentley)

Sunday 15 February 2009

One more day until mundane Monday

Sunday night already! damn. I'm procrastinating again. AH & I pottered down to a rainy, muddy Gay & Lesbian Fair Day today, ate white flour stuff and sunk a can of Coopers Light beer. We signed petitions and smiled at women and walked home in the rain.
AH has gone for a walk to buy a bottle of red to have with dinner. I don't know what I'll make us for dinner. I know if I turn on the television, I probably won't do anymore work tonight and I haven't done anything yet.
Oh, except email an Australian in Berlin who is after some Sydney urban shots to project onto a wall for a thing she's doing (x fingers).

Just now I was reading a friend's blog: http://www.ombites.com.au/ and found a link to the name & shame NSW food authority - all the restaurants and takeaways you so don't want to go to..
A lot of fun to read is the convictions page: http://www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/aboutus/offences/prosecutions/

on the penalty notice page
(http://www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/penalty-notices/) there was only one place in Newtown that was caught out for dodgy hand towels but the Blue Mountains makes me think twice about a weekend away. Fair enough, there are a lot of food places in the BM but Newtown has heaps of places too.
Ashfield has quite a list... Glebe had none.

I get annoyed when I waiting to be served to get, say, a salad sandwich and I watch the way some people use the same tongs for ham, chicken, cheese and then the tomatoes. Then it all goes on the same bread board, which is wiped with a grotty tea towel... I usually leave. Happens a lot. One time I asked the person serving not to use the same tongs she'd just used to cook bacon with to make my lunch. She replied, oh, you don't like bacon? geez.

meanwhile - I found a photo I took window shopping on Parramatta Road in October last year.
At first glance the model looks like breast surgery gone wrong,
"Oh nurse, what happened to the nipples I had in that dish?"
but I expect it's what women can buy to have that little extra in their cup. Living with breasts that discovered gravity as soon as they began to grow, having a D-cup since probably high school I'd swap with the lesser chesty any day:

Saturday 14 February 2009

Procrastination day as well


noodling about my folders, found a set of shots from 2 or 3 years ago - playing with orchids and cornflour mixed with water. gross, hey...
it wasn't a rainy afternoon when I did this. I was playing around thinking I'd come up with some fantastic art project and be held in awe and all that shit.
I had the idea of placing a dripping orchid in the hands of young men - one youthful beauty with ivory skin could hold it to his chest etc etc...
I saw the project run in my head, was duly entertained and left it at that.
I may watch the re-run one day.

Flat day Saturday

a flat day - it's been raining for 2 days (the rest of last week, just drizzle). there's a radio babbling on in the next room - it's been chattering for hours now... No new old records this week... I even played a CD yesterday... Walked in the rain to pick up some photo orders only to find I'd incorrectly re sized 4 and they are too small so I will have to get them re-done and be out of pocket - again. Think I'm in some mug's game.

But most of all, I think I need toast and honey.

after an inspiring look at the scenery:

Saturday 7 February 2009

Another 45 in the post box





I couldn't help it - a favourite from when I was a kid. We take in a lot when we're kids - like knowing lyrics to a song without consciously learning them.
for years I didn't connect the female singer in Blue Mink was THE Madeline Bell and of course, it's her voice that makes the song

this treat in the mail means there's another tape on the way for Meggs!
I ask myself, why fuck around with accounts and tax when I can play with records!

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Making a tape for Meggs Side A

I've been having great fun finding some old favourite songs.

at a shop in Erskineville (funny how I seem to make time to pop into some shops when I'm out to meet a friend).

As we sat in the yard of a pub, I showed off my treats one being one of the most fab songs released at the very end of the 1960s 'Venus' by Dutch band, Shocking Blue:



this clip is so worth it just to watch the wonderful Mariska Veres (1946-2006)

Along with that I picked up a Nancy Sinatra LP for just one song, Bang Bang (damn, I wish that was released on 45 - however I scored an excellent copy the 45 of These Boots Were Made for Walkin' from Phil at Vintage Records - love ya Phil!)



Bang Bang was written by Sonny Bono (go figure, hey.. I couldnt stand him on the Sonny & Cher show. He died 10 years ago when he hit a tree while skiing) and was the biggest 1960s hit for Cher but her rather muffled version is not a good production and not a patch on Nancy's crisp telling.
Cher also didn't do a good version of "Take Me for a Little While" - I've got to ask, knowing Dusty Springfield's version (from her "Where am I Going" album), "Why, Cher, why??"

but Cher did have a couple of gems - the one I like and collected is a fun epic:






and that will do me for Cher but I do admire her acting - Silkwood, Mask (not the comedy), Moonstruck and Mermaids (but before she acted well she did things the film clip to her Half Breed is a cracker! - remember the docile horse she's sitting on ? There's Cher in feathers, spangles and not a lot of clothes - the horse is so docile, I think it's chewing dope, not wheat)...

- where was I? I was showing AH and wonderful friend, Meggs Yeo (http://meggsyeo-art.blogspot.com/) my bargain purchases and we decided then I would make her some tapes of some of my 45s - home later last Sunday and a little wine under the belt saw AH and I having a great time making a fun selection for Meggs (who owns a cassette Sony Walkman - I'm a bit more into my Creative Zen mp3 thanks!)
making tapes was always fun. side A goes like this:


1. Venus by Shocking Blue (45 1969)

2. Gypsies, Tramps and Theives by Cher (45 1971)

3. Only For Sheep by The Bureau (45 1981)

4. Sugar Me by Lynsey dePaul (45 1972)

- AH has just called out, "you're not linking that to your blog are you?"
Of course I am!
Phil at Vintage Records (http://www.thevintagerecord.com) let me have it for nicks when I made my other purchases, it made him cringe so much he simply couldn't not ask me to pay money for it! I had to return the next week to tell him we are still getting a kick out of it!
- everyone who does remember her remembers the mole on her top lip.
a warning, just because one song is fun, doesn't mean the B side will be ok - the B of Sugar Me is truely dreadful and we could only listen 1/3 the way in...
LdP also came 2nd in the Eurovision with some other song I don't want to ever hear again, sang a song for the British conservative party (Tory Tory Tory or something) and made a women's self defence DVD.
It is also reported that she did a tell all interview about Sean Connery after she found out he was violent with Diane Cilento and asked him to donate to a women's refuge - he refused and the money she made from the 'kiss&tell" she donated and it paid for the running costs of a women's refuge in Chiswick UK for a year.


note the floppy had matches the outfit...


5. Let's Spend The Night Together by David Bowie (45 1973)



6. Aquarius / Let The Sun Shine In by The 5th Dimension (45 1969)



7. I Can Never Go Home Anymore by The Shangri-Las (EP 1964): an hilarious piece of teen drama


8. New Toy by Lene Lovich (45 1981)



9. Counting the Beat by The Swingers (45 1980)

10. Hush by Deep Purple (45 1968) - I've had that 45 since I bought it for 5 cents at trash and treasure when I was 15 - a lifetime ago)here they are playing at Hefner's Playboy mansion. One has to ask where Rod Evans got those pants from - not a good look... (Ian Gillan became the lead vocalist in 1969)



11. The Wizard by Black Sabbath (45 1970) - B side of Paranoid another 5cent gem

12. Georgy Girl by The Seekers (45 1966) I have no idea where I got this one!

13. Lola by The Kinks (45 1970)
wish I could get The Raincoats version on vinyl but that first album of theirs sells for big bucks

14. D Days by Hazel O'Connor (45 1981) - yes, Des O'Connors daughter

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Meggs tape #1 side B

 Days (decadent days) by Hazel O'Connor didn't quite fit so I flipped the tape and put the last part on at the beginning of a much fun side B.

2. Can I Get A Witness by Dusty Springfield (EP 1964) (well, I had to put something of hers on!)





3. Echo Beach by Martha and The Muffins (45 1980)
(see blog: http://artzinephotography.blogspot.com/2009/01/45s-in-mail.html )

4. After Midnight by Eric Clapton (45 1970)

5. Spinning Wheel by Blood, Sweat and Tears (45 1969)

6. These Boots Are Made For Walkin' by Nancy Sinatra (45 1966)

7. Santa Baby by Eartha Kitt (EP song originally recorded in 1953)

8. Too Drunk To Fuck by The Dead Kennedys (45 1981)



9. Turn Up Your Radio by The Masters Apprentices (45 1970)

10. Itchycoo Park by The Small Faces (45 1967) (I know it's one of the least cool songs they released but it's the only record that I have at the moment - Tin Soldier may come home if I find it cheap enough...)



11. Ruby Tuesday by Melanie (45 1970)

12. That Old Black Magic by Dean Norman and Terri Greer (45 - date unknown but it's a heavy piece of vinyl probably late 1950s)

13. Leader Of The Pack by The Shangri-Las (45 1964) more fab teen drama!



14. Silver Threads And Golden Needles by The Springfields (EP 1963)

it was a number 1 hit in Australia when it was first released in 1962 and they were the first British group ever to have a record (this song) in the top 20 of the USA Billboard 100 - 15 months before the Beatles conquered the world...





(while I looked for a clip of The Springfields I found a 60s cover of that song by a Singapore band called the Crescendos but I can't bear to put the link up - it's really awful - you can go to youtube and find it.. if you dare)

15. Bang Bang by Nancy Sinatra (LP 1967)

16. Ghost Town by The Specials (45 1981) viva the specials!




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