Arf arf

When I get my dream home I also want a dog - one or two of the living breathing Staffie kind and one or two of the wooden designer variety. How cool are these library dogs! From the Pack of Dogs project, these beauties come in a range of designs with fabulous names inspired by famous Mexican wrestlers like Mistico, El Santo, Dos Caros Jr. They work as side tables, benches, stools and book shelves. Good dog.

Wacky.

From the 'people will think of anything to make a buck' files...

Life with books...

What is a bibliophile to do? Stacks of books piling up in every available space (no I'm not a convert to the Kindle / iPad...yet.) My dream would be to start from scratch and design my books into my home - imagine having enough space to house an endless stream of lovely fat, skinny, long, tall, short, stumpy, hard, soft books. Bliss. 
In the meantime...found these creative ideas online. The well-read Ex Libris dining table, the found object and the book porcupine.

Men of literature

Click here.

Need I say more?

Recycled rejections...

I love inventiveness.

Here's a fresh look at recycling - one author's contribution to preserving our natural resources. This dress is made entirely from rejection letters received from publishers. Haha! And this from a writer who is actually published, so it can (eventually!) happen. Check out Writer, Rejected's Literary Rejections blog for a laugh and a little inspiration.

Hush please, you're interrupting my eavesdropping

Late one Saturday night, walking through a bar/restaurant precinct in Sydney:
Girl #1 to Girl #2: 'You look like a mushroom in that dress.'
Girl #2: 'Thanks George Michael.'
Girl #1: 'You're such a shit. I like this colour.'
Girl #2: 'Yeah it's beautiful. If you're wearing sunnies.'
What happens next?
Does the friendly banter escalate into a full blown biatch-fight right there in the street? Fingernails ripping through silk knits. Stilettos gouging chunks of flesh from bloodied knees. 
Does the mention of George Michael set Girl #1 sobbing into her clutch purse because last week she caught her fiancé in flagrante with the rock star himself after a chance encounter at a hedonistic post-concert soiree on his tour Down Under. And Girl #1 knows, with fiancé's affections redirected, she is surely doomed to exist, barren and alone, with nought but two mangey cats to share with her their fleas, night after pathetic night, in a crummy dark bedsit, forevermore. 
Or, does Girl #2 flee in an alcohol-induced hissy-fit, only for her body to wash up inexplicably, sodden, lifeless and with three teeth missing, in a storm water drain three days later?
.....who knows...?
We were delving into dialogue in my writing class this weekend, playing around with 'ear' and 'voice', when someone suggested a handy tool. Eavesdropping.
More specifically, using eavesdropping as a means to jumpstart your imagination. It makes sense to me. Suppress those giggles, jot down a few delectable snippets and let your imagination go nuts. I'm giving it a go.
Oh, and as for Girls #1 and #2? They said goodbye at the next set of lights. Tottered home and went to bed. I know, so boring. The imagination is much more fun.

A prince among books

How beautiful is this copy of Machiavelli's The Prince! 
Can't wait to start reading it. The perfect gift from a faraway friend.

Living the dream...

Home is the sailor, home from the sea.

   - Robert Louis Stevenson, Requiem

She did it! Welcome home Jessica Watson, the Aussie teenager who sailed around the world and achieved her dream. Of course there's a book deal and no doubt it will be a best seller. 

Respect.

Books at play...

Lucky kids in Beijing! The city has possibly the coolest children's bookstore on the planet. Kids Republic was designed by architect Keiichiro Sako. Along with picture books from all over the world, it has an activity room for storytelling and animation screenings. Check out the round reading nooks and playground style layout.

Laureate of the larrikan

Long after the clock struck 12 while tripping the Sydney Harbour night fantastic last week, my friend Angelina and I hopscotched our way along the Writers Walk at Circular Quay.
It's a personal ritual whenever I walk the Walk, that I never walk on any of the writers. I make sure I step carefully around them, out of respect. You know?
Anyway, there we were, just past A.D. Hope and James A. Michener, and a stone's throw from Mark Twain when, in my haste to get to Banjo Paterson I almost missed C.J. Dennis altogether. 
One of my childhood heroes, his Book for Kids, with its distinctly blue-ish spine and musty, dog-eared pages, still gets an airing by me a few times a year. The poems and vivid pictures in it are nothing less than awesome. (The Triantiwontigongolope - for example - a triumph of the imagination!) Dennis wrote poems for grown ups as well - Songs of a Sentimental Bloke is probably his most popular collection - but it's the rollicking kids rhymes I like best.
C.J. Dennis' plaque on the Writers Walk spruiks a quote from the man they called the Laureate of the larrikan:
It 'appened one day, I 'ad jist come down,
After long years, to look at Sydney town.
'An 'struth! Was I knocked endways? Fair su'prised?
I never dreamed! That arch that touched the skies!
The Bridge!...
       - I Dips Me Lid (1936)
Now if only some clever soul could translate C.J.Dennis' ingenious tales into a 3D animated film, a DS game or an iPhone app, perhaps the next generation of kids would come to know and love his genius too.

Yaka-wow!

A little story of how a simple mistake spawned a brand new word that swiftly set the globe alight.
Two journalists writing for The Times of London have told how they were interviewing the  Baroness Greenfeld - a neuroscientist no less - who was despairing at the technological habits of young people who flip relentlessly from games to Facebook to YouTube. 
In describing these brain-frying computer geeks, the journos thought the scientist said 'yaka-wow'.
Within 24 hours of publication, Google had amassed 75,000 results for yaka-wow. There was a Facebook page, a Twitter stream, and some nut had established online the 'First Church of the Yaka-Wow'. 
'Is it phonetic for Eyjafjallajokull?' someone asked.
Another dubbed it 'Kumbaya for the 21st century. A world of people saying ‘yaka-wow’ is better than a world of people shooting each other and smoking.'
You can now purchase your 'Yuka-wow not war' T-shirt in a range of 10 colours.
The word is, in fact, a transcription error of the humble 'yuck' and 'wow'. The scientist's comment misheard by the writers to be:
'Is it going to be a planet worth living in if you have a load of breezy people who go around saying yaka-wow. Is that the society we want?'

Computing undercover...

What will those tricky computer bag designers think of next? 
Hmmm... do you reckon this is for: the book lover who has everything; the pretentious creative; the Mac-geek; the guilt-ridden (but stealthy) e-book convert; the wannabe intellectual; or just the quirky cat with a sense of humour and a taste for individuality?
I kinda like it. Especially the plush red leather zipper pull (cleverly disguised as a bookmark). And, if some greedy rascal spies your first edition T.S. Eliot Collected Works on the coffee table and nicks it, all they'll get is your shiny new Mac. So the joke's on them. 
You can buy one here.

Writing words

"Language has to be beautiful in a way the world cannot be."

I came across this line from contemporary American poet Jay Hopler. 

Just something to ponder.