The Banana Lounge

Hey Hey + Safran

2009-10-27T22:42:00.007+10:30

It has been such a while since I posted, and I've been itching to get back into it. Blogging is so much about habit; the less one does it, the less one thinks to do it. I read other people's well-written, savvy blogs (e.g. Eurasian Sensation, Strong Coffee Please, Unique Schmuck) and automatically feel inadequate. Rhubarb rhubarb about blogs serving one's own needs and not being for others but, really, having a public space like this freaks me out sometimes. I self-edit a lot when I post about work stuff, and keep reminding myself that this blog may only be regularly read by a handful of folks but can be found by anyone. I also stop myself from writing too much about my academic work because - I cringe even as I think this - it's work that needs to be channelled into publications and I have little enough time to do that properly (also, there's that little issue of 'pre-publication' if things turn up on blogs before Haughty Publisher X gets their hands on material).

Good golly, how did this post become a defence for my slackness and mediocre content?!

To the topics in my title:

1. Hey Hey and the infamous 'black face' skit

Chris of Eurasian Sensation has already done a fairly comprehensive job of discussing this and the various developments around the issue (see HERE). I guess I'm just putting in my 5 cents as a matter of record more than anything else. I sure as heck haven't got any amazing insight to add - it's almost midnight and I was up at 4.30am this morning, orright? I didn't find the skit particularly offensive but I did think it was a really stupid thing to do, given contemporary sensibilities. It's not as if Hey Hey is known for challenging takes on issues, or any irony, so including the skit just seems dumb. Yes, I'm saying that it could be a skit that could function beyond just 'being racist' but that show sure wasn't going to pull it off.

I was annoyed by those who dismissed Harry Connick's comments as an 'American' response. Puh-lease. Australians wouldn't be offended by 'blackface' because we're such a laid-back bunch of funsters? And haven't had any history/experience persecuting black people? I can think of quite a few people who would happily set them straight on that latter point, and how...

And, finally, Daryl Somers? Wasn't funny for the almost 3 decades for which Hey Hey ran, and his penchant for lame double entendres was particularly appalling in his role as compere for Dancing with the Stars. All of that, plus the running 'jokes' with Kamahl, add up to a Barry Crocker of a celebrity. Shame, Dazza, shame.

2. John Safran's Race Relations - Episode 1

I know this series had its fair share of controversy before it even aired (which is ridiculous, in my book - how can you be pre-offended by a show? You could be dubious about the content but, until you actually see it, how could you be offended? Inquiring minds want to know...). I must admit to not being very interested in it because I'd watched Safran's stuff before and had never been particularly engaged, but my sister and her partner recced it today and - good lemming that I am - I watched it straight away.

I enjoyed it. I was appalled, I cringed, laughed, and called out, "Idiot!" at the screen a few times. This is the way telly should be. I had no expectations about the show, and didn't emerge enlightened about much at all (though my admiration for Penny Wong was only exacerbated by the fact that she didn't return Safran's phonecalls). But I didn't care. Given my work is researching and analysing race relations all the time, I don't actually want heavy doses of that material in my off-time (perhaps this explains the lack of substantial posts in this blog...ahem).

While I know we're not meant to take much of what he's doing seriously, I was slightly disturbed by Safran's puppy-like embrace of his 'Eurasian preference.' Having done way too much reading about exoticisation and racial/cultural essentialism, particularly in terms of the gendered nature of 'Asian' stereotypes, it was hard to dismiss his 'preference' as a quirk. I've met too many pasty white boys who like 'Asian women', and it's hard not to get the heebies about it. Even worse are those pasty white boys who like 'Asian women' AND costume themselves with Asian clothing and accessories. While I love indulging in the awfulness that is Steven 'The Orientophile' Seagal (cf. Glimmer Man), seeing manifestations of this in real life is another thing. I once sat behind a (pasty white) composer of 'fusion' music at a conference and he wore a brocade jacket with frog-buttons and also had meditation beads around his neck - OMG*gag*. I guess I have a wariness in general of anyone who dresses up 'ethnic', and sometimes this wariness is directed at ethnics themselves (yes, I'm talking to you, Kylie Kwong...).

Next time?

My Asian credentials, let me show you them...

Bit more than a fortnight on...

2009-07-06T14:51:00.003+09:30

OK, so the (more) regular posting rule's fallen by the wayside after a fairly good innings (for this blog).

I have an excuse! I've had a 2nd baby in mid-June, four days after the last posting. G. was 11 days early and is now 3 weeks old. We have quite a few family birthdays in June/July and G.'s adds another one to the pile.

As always, the first few weeks after a new baby comes home is a blur of meeting the new little person, getting back into the feeding/changing/sleeping cycle for the bub (and the lack of sleep for the big people), and generally having one's domestic and social stability obliterated. It's not like I'm a vastly social animal since I've moved to Melbourne but it can be a bit disconcerting to be unable to see any appointments beyond community health nurses and doctors for the next little while. I look forward to coffee dates with buddies an inordinate amount, especially if they take place in cafes that serve lusciously yeasty cinnamon scrolls drizzled with swirls of icing.

As for my low GI-ness? My sugar levels were back to 'normal' almost a day or so after G. sprang into the world. To describe my attitude towards my diet as lax is no bad thing. I haven't gone out - yet - to hoover up huge bowls of hot chips, but I'm sure not missing out on chocolate biscuits and cake these days. I'm still sticking with the cracked wheat for the most part, and trying to retain control of portion sizes. The driving force for being on the well behaved dietary trail, though, is now the one ramping up my appetite like nothing else. G. feeds very well; so much so that the community health nurse has suggested I cut back on feeding him so much. I didn't think it was possible to 'overfeed' a breastfed baby...? Anyway, because I'm breastfeeding at least 8-10 times every day, I'm like a plague of locusts with my meals.

No farewell with promises of more regular posting cos, y'know, don't know if that's really going to happen for a while! Just wanted to make sure there was at least one post for this month.

Things I don't have time to post about properly:

OMG, Michael Jackson! RIP, my '80s icon.
2 birthday feasts + 1 fabulous steam-boat meal and counting.
How fantastic it is to not be at work.
Mourning the 'three of us' family dynamic even as we're stoked about the 'four of us' coming into being.
Various female crime thriller authors I've been trying out (sometimes against my better judgement). Thus far, they include Lisa Scottoline, Sara Paretsky and Tami Hoag. Very block bustery listing, no?

Another low GI find, which remains elusive...

2009-06-11T13:01:00.005+09:30

Another product that I've become aware of since joining the low GI bandwagon is agave nectar (or syrup).

Apparently, its GI is only about 11-19, which is very, very low.

The only thing is that it's usually imported from the Americas (mostly Mexico), and isn't widely available on the shelf in Australia.

We've been scoping various natural/organic foodstores and checking out online sites, too. It's here. It's just not easy to find.

But, hey, upside of all this research is that we've discovered quite a few organic supermarkets/stores near where we live, which is a bonus.

By the time I order and receive any of this product, though, I probably won't need it anymore (fingers crossed, my gestational diabetes will take a hike after Sprog 2 joins us).

For your info:

Spiral Foods is importing it, and I'd assume it'd be stocked by any place that has a fair range of their products, and there is an outfit called Maretai, which has an online ordering system.

Caveat: I haven't actually tried the stuff, so can't vouch for its amazingness or otherwise in the taste stakes!

Can we fix it? Who bloody knows, sometimes...

2009-06-11T12:41:00.003+09:30

I'm still appalled at the way in which violence against Indian international students here in Melbourne is occurring and being reported / sensationalised. Similarly, the ways in which the incidents in Sydney have escalated and the complications of why certain other minority groups think it's OK to target other Others.

This Melbourne Age article gives you an idea of what's been going on, and '"Curry-bashing" on the rise in Melbourne' by Eurasian Sensation (ES) from March 2009 gives a good overview of how things have simmered/exploded.

He also follows up on this initial posting with a couple of other ones recently:

The situation has become much worse in recent times, though has been a concern for months. A special police taskforce was set up more than 6 months ago to look into how to defuse the targetting of these students and the prevalent thefts/bashings against them. There is certainly a classist element mixed into the racism as well: international students are perceived as rich and dripping with snazzy mobiles and iPod gadgetry and there have been calls for these students to stop being so obvious about them (cos, y'know, only international students would have those items...). It's really sad that this kind of 'hints' page needs to exist at all, though I can understand the feelings of persecution and generalised fear that have arisen recently.

I'm glad that ES wrote about the Kamahl quote, too, because all I heard was the soundbite and I was getting all high-horsey about how offensive it was to have someone advocate assimilation as a panacea. Particularly when that someone is a well-profiled and established celebrity on the Oz scene. Racially marked difference wins out every time; you could be as 'strine and Anglo in habit and outlook as you like, but if someone's out to target an Other, they'll go by skin colour and 'Third World lookingness' (pace, Ghassan Hage) more than anything else. True/false?

UPDATE: ES just posted an update today HERE. I suspect escalation will come before any prospect of defusion. Alas.

Agave - Autumn 2009

2009-06-05T15:11:00.003+09:30

Agave heart
Melbourne, Victoria - May 2009
[Photo by Tseen]

Gestational diabetic + low GI lifestyle

2009-06-05T12:00:00.005+09:30

From my extensive 2 months' experience of being a gestational diabetic, I've put together some hints and strategies that I found useful in keeping my blood sugar levels (BSLs) within the desired range. Nearing the end of my pregnancy now, and having managed to stay off insulin by making significant diet changes, I think I'll keep on with many of the habits I've created.

I should flag that, being a non-obese gestational diabetic, my aim was NOT to lose weight. It was to keep my BSLs within the preferred levels, and I had to keep my calcium levels up (therefore, still have a fair bit of dairy in my diet). The preferred BSLs I had to keep in mind:

Fasting/pre-breakfast - 5.5 mmol/L
2 hrs after each meal - 7.0 mmol/L

As always, with these things, this blogpost is based on my experiences only and not to be taken as gospel (oh, except the bit about chocolate spread below - everyone should try that stuff...).

Below, I'll be naming actual products in Australia/Victoria because it's the kind of information I wish I'd had when I was launched into my new 'lifestyle' after my glucose tolerance test back in mid-April this year. Luckily (?) for me, my mother is a Type 2 diabetic and had a few books about the key factors in keeping the diabetes under control, including the uber-useful booklet, The New Glucose Revolution: The Low GI Solution for Optimum Health (Version for 'People with Diabetes'). For me, the most useful things about this booklet were the food tables + GI rating in the back, and the suggested snacking and meal options that they listed in the general information about what it meant to be eating a low GI diet. Never having been a carb or calorie counter EVER, getting this involved in the nitty-gritty of what I ate took some getting used to. Also being a bit of a listmaker, voila this blogpost!

The authoritative site for all GI information can be found at the USyd site, The Glycaemic Index (includes listings of publications you can get, formally 'approved' low GI products, FAQs, and info about how they actually test the GI of foods). Word of warning: Doing a general search online (e.g. Googling) for specific GI values of food can throw up some super-dodgey sites so remember to validate sources and only go with what's trustworthy.

GI values (from the book I mentioned above) appear in [square brackets] below.

The major things to keep in mind when trying to keep BSLs in the preferred range:

Small, consistent portion sizes. At the beginning, I kept having to look up what a 'portion' of carbs should be at a given meal/snack. Putting this kind of portion-control into practice was another thing, and sometimes a little hit/miss. For me, I was appalled at how little I needed for a 'meal' (e.g. three-quarters or one cup of cereal at breakfast, two tablespoons of cracked wheat at dinner, one slice bread for lunch) to stay within preferred BSL levels, and the fact that these much reduced amounts were actually fine with making me feel full. I say I was appalled because I was previously eating 2-3 times more than I needed to, with a big emphasis on white rice, breads, (processed) cereals. Proteins (e.g. a piece of lean chicken or lamb) should only be the size of your palm - I balked at this, too, when I first started, but it has turned out to be enough to sate my appetite and, really, if I'm still looking to fill myself up, I'll tend to turn to (non-starchy) vegetables, which is all to the good.

Something I'd really recommend is changing the size of your crockery at meal-times. No, really. Don't run away! Use smaller plates/bowls - they give you a much clearer idea of what and how much you're putting together. I found that using the standard sizes I used before just meant that I'd tend to fill it up the way I did before (then be scraping most of it off again).
Pay attention to the type of carbohydrate consumed. Basically, there are carbs that a quickly digested by your body and send your BSLs spiking, and those that aren't/don't. I found that highly processed foods were the worst things for my BSLs (basically all junk food - not that I was a big eater of such, but I did have the occasional burger/fries combo, packet of chips, etc). I'm not a sweet-craver, though, so cutting out much of the shop-bought cakes/biscuits/muffins, pies/cheesecakes, ice-creams, etc, wasn't too difficult. Savoury stuff has been my bug-bear, being an established hot chip and sometime sausage-roll-eater.

Upping the amount of wholegrains, veges, and legumes in my diet overall made a huge difference in controlling BSLs for me. As I mentioned in another low GI post, I cut out all jasmine rice [89-109] and potato [72-101] after a few scarily high BSL readings. There are 'better' rices that you can have, like Doongara [54-66] or basmati [58-65], but I thought the lower GI of these rices weren't worth the swap. Instead, I swapped to bulgur/cracked wheat [48] as my staple grain (and ate it with all the stuff that I'd normally have with rice) - it has worked out beautifully and I think I prefer it to rice now. This feels particularly weird, given that jasmine rice has been my household staple for almost 40 years.

Our household now bakes most of its own bread, with my 'low GI' bread being quite heavy with wholegrains, added fibre mixes and seeds (pumpkin, sunflower). It's delicious: nutty, dense and flavourful, and toasts well. I usually only want/need one slice of it at any meal.

We also bake our own biscuits, muffins and cakes. Where possible, we're using LoGIcane (low GI sugarcane [50]) or yellowbox honey [35]; wholemeal/wholegrain flours; and margarine/plant butters rather than standard butter (this is more for S., who's aiming for low cholesterol). It has been fun experimenting, mostly because the baked stuff tastes fab and I can eat caramelly ANZACs without living in fear of the glucose monitor's readings.
Shake off the food myths associated with diabetes (e.g. Sugar as the ultimate evil - actually not true at all. White rice and boiled/mashed potatoes are more your diabetic Lucifers...). Read up properly about what a 'diabetic' diet is all about - you may well be surprised. I was. Never having had to know much about it, I found that most of the info is commonsensical and part of what recommended healthy diets are these days anyway: eating less more often, reduce fats/sugars/salts (esp processed foods), increase veg/fruit servings, + keep up the hydration with good old water. The main thing with diabetes in particular, of course, is the carb/blood sugar dynamic (mentioned above).

Right now? I'm eating a LOT more veg, salads and non-starchy veg in particular. I've never been a salad fan - in fact, abhorred it for a long time. Something about cold vegetables just didn't appeal. Now, I'm finding combinations that I love and it has become a staple part of my 'going out' eating strategies (where portions are always so huge). I'm also making hearty salads at home as meals in themselves; I'd always previously associated salads with deprivation and feeling hungry 10 mins later.

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Random other hints for your gestational diabetic phase (or Type 2 diabetic lifestyle in general):

I found it really useful to keep a food diary (of all meals/snacks) in the first few weeks. This allowed me to monitor what gave 'good' and 'bad' results, and change my diet accordingly. It also gives you a good idea of the kind of variety you've got in your eating plans - and to change this accordingly, if necessary! Getting bored with your food isn't any fun. I kept mine for over a month, then stopped because I felt that I had a good enough idea of what to eat/not eat, + a broad enough foundation in the basics of what works for me that I can get creative without worrying that I'll send my BSLs too high.
ALWAYS wash your hands before checking your BSLs. Not only is this for hygiene reasons (you are about to break skin/draw blood), but it ensures that there are no sugary contaminants on your hands to skew your reading. When I started doing the regular checks, I'd sometimes forget to wash my hands and had some bizarre readings that caused the endocrinologist to frown and make comments about putting me on insulin. Now, if I get an odd reading (i.e. what I've eaten shouldn't have spiked my BSL that much), I'll re-check after washing my hands again, or on another finger. It's been surprising the number of times my blood reads as 'normal' the second time. Another factor to keep in mind is that the portable blood glucose monitors most of us use all the time are NOT the most accurate things in the world. Some of my readings, taken within a minute of each other on different fingers, have been different by 0.5-0.9. Given that my diabetic doctor has raised eyebrows/threatened insulin at readings that happened to be 0.2 higher than preferred levels, let's just say I'm more than a little sceptical about the overall level of monitoring that goes on in the public hospital system...
Work in more exercise and movement into your everyday life. I know this is easy to say and a bugger of a thing to put into practice, but it makes a huge difference. As one gets increasingly waddly and huge at the tail end of a pregnancy, working in exercise isn't that easy or possible. Still, a regular short walk (10 mins), some household stuff (e.g. the dreaded vacuuming), and low-impact aerobic workouts (e.g. wall pushups - which don't feel like you're doing anything at all initially but once you get to about 100 a time, it starts making a difference) can make the difference between having more consistent, lower BSLs and not.

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Foods and products that worked for me:
(These are presented here with the caveat that they worked FOR ME. YMMV)

Cafe/restaurant meals that usually kept me within range -

Pasta with non-starchy veges and protein - you don't need to finish the plate and, chances are, half the pasta should stay on your plate. I'm partial to creamy pastas and have often had smoked salmon/capers/roasted tomato combos.
Grainy bread sandwiches/wraps (if the servings are gargantuan, I usually take half home with me, or for a snack later).
Grilled/roasted/baked meat or fish, + majority non-starchy salads.
Freshly made small pizzas (again, I tend not to have whole servings and will either share with someone or take some with me).
Most breakfast stuff (e.g. bacon + eggs, mushroom + eggs) won't send you over because there isn't much carb in evidence at all. I love going out for breakfast, but don't do it often so have no guilt about indulging in these kinds of things once in a while (as well as the occasional French toast + bacon + maple syrup).

Food franchises that have good choices -

Sumo Salads. Fantastic place, this one. I'm a total convert. They even offer specifically "low GI" salads and sensible portions (a 'small' is actually small). There are many things one could choose from their line-up that would suit a diabetic/low GI diet, and it's all super-fresh and delicious. I've been there a lot these past couple of months and it has all been good. And, no, I'm not getting a commission for this plug. I was excited when I found the chain (esp having avoided it in the past - see aversion to salads above).
Subway. Heaps of choices - avoid sugary sauces and white breads, and you can have pretty much what you like...as a 6-inch sub, that is...
Any kebab place. A standard-sized kebab with meat/protein + non-sweet sauce + non-starchy veges is pretty safe. I've had quite a few of these. Many kebab places are even offering gluten-free wraps and low-fat meat options (e.g. grilled chicken breast). I never really went with those because the standard ones are darn tasty and keep me within the range (it's all about the range, eh?).
Sandwich bars. Pretty basic, but one of the places I tend to overlook because they are so ubiquitous. Hopefully, if you can tell someone exactly what you want on your grainy roll/sandwich, you can't go too far wrong.

I should note here that I avoid all rice- and potato-based things, so a sushi place for me was out (though others who don't get as much of a spike with rice could well do this).

Supermarket/grocery products that have become pantry staples -

Vita-weat '9 grain' biscuits. I've always avoided these because, frankly, I'd always thought them hard and inedible (+ ppl at school used to eat them with Vegemite and I thought that was altogether a bad thing). Now, again, I'm a convert. I could eat these things all day: crunchy, so toasty with the seeds, and super with a smear of peanut-butter.
LoGIcane sugar. As mentioned above, for baking and other cooking.

LoGIcane sugar [50] - substitute for normal sugar [65]
Sweet William Chocolate Spread. This is perfect if you want a nut-, gluten-, and dairy-free chocolate spread. Plus it's a chocolate spread with a GI of only 43. I've had this quite a few times with my homemade grainy bread... *Homer drool*

Even if you're not following a low GI diet, this stuff is delish. If you're cool with nuts, dairy, gluten: Nutella has a GI of 25, so a fairly good snack topping once in a while!

Sweet William dairy-, nut-, gluten-free chocolate spread [43]
Yellowbox honey. One of the lowest GI honeys around at 43. Stringybark and Ironbark are also quite low [44 and 48 respectively].
Bags and bags of wholegrains, and wholegrain products. We make up our own porridge mix, which we have most mornings (rolled oats, rye, triticale, barley), and (as mentioned before) we do most of our own baking now. All biscuits contain wholegrains (mostly oats) and wholemeal flour (this flour usually added as half of the flour for pikelets, muffins, breads, etc).
Bags and bags of whole dried fruit. Also for baking our breads/snacks. Mostly sultanas, currants, apricots, prunes, + dates.
Bulgur/cracked wheat. My rice substitute.
Cashews and peanuts. These are good as snacks, and eminently portable for work and outings with the munchkin (er, not that she gets any - just me).
Pinenuts. In salads, these toasted little fellas are love. I also tend to make my own semi-dried tomatoes for pastas and salads (from mini-Romas) - highly recommended and so tasty.

Well, that got long, eh? May tinker with this post as I remember other things, but this is it for now.

We'll be returning to the normally eclectic topics on this blog next...

What's that smell?

2009-05-15T09:26:00.018+09:30

A very good reason why I love working from home:

(Low GI) Berry & cream cheese muffin, made by S. for me
* 1/2 plain flour swapped for wholemeal * Smidge of yellowbox honey instead of sugar *

I was diagnosed as a gestational diabetic a little over a month ago. This means that I've had to keep very close tabs on my diet and portions to ensure that I stay within the recommended blood sugar levels (BSLs); otherwise, if my levels are all over the shop, or stay too high, I'll be prescribed insulin shots for the rest of the pregnancy. On top of that, I wouldn't be able to stay with the midwife-only care that I had for my first pregnancy/baby, and would be transferred into hospital obstetrics care. Which isn't the worst thing in the world, but I'd much, much prefer to stay put.

Insulin and care-model change in the last month or so of the pregnancy - how unattractive would that be?

So unattractive that it's enough to prompt me to:

Cut out all rice for the moment. Have discovered that cracked wheat/burghul is a fab-o substitute and, weirdly, I'm even preferring it. It's strange to have had rice as a staple part of my diet for decades, then to cut it out totally (literally, I was chugging along eating rice like a fiend, got diagnosed, read some low GI guff that same day, and excised it from my diet from then onward) and not to miss it. I thought I would go into rice withdrawal, as I do when I've travelled for extended periods on a budget (and tend to subsist on sandwiches or cereals...).
Cut out all potato. No matter how small a portion of potato I eat, it seems to affect me a lot. The hardest part about this one is giving up hot chips. With the icy winds starting to set in for autumn and winter in Melbourne, my cold-weather vice has always been scarfing down a bowl of hot chips every once in a while, preferably with an aromatic, full-fat aioli to accompany it. Woe.
Only eat half the amount I think I want to eat at just about every meal. This was quite difficult to do initially, given my family's religion is feasting and we believed very much in the centrality of food in socialisation and bonding. For a few reasons, S. and I chose to eat semi-vegetarian (or sometimes vegan) several times a week; this was rather challenging for a few folks (esp my mum).
Expend energy on thinking about every meal I have. Having had some closer than preferable encounters with medication-happy registrars at the diabetic clinic I regularly have to visit, I've decided not to wear my ranty-pants about over-medication, lazy and unproven protocols, and passive-aggressive doctoring. I figure I only have a short time to go, and I've successfully controlled my BSLs thus far, so I just have to keep on doing what I've been doing. Having to think about everything I might eat, and how to configure meals, was all a bit tedious and irritating in the beginning, mostly because I'd never really given that much thought to what I ate. I didn't eat badly, just not thoughtfully.

There are some pros to the changes, though, and some of these include:

Being forced to be more aware of how abysmal and non-existent my 'exercise routine' is, and making good changes. You'd think that I'd have realised by myself that the aim of "trying to go for a walk every once in a while" doesn't really cut the mustard, metabolism-wise. I'm taking regular (short [I am super-waddly right now]) walks around our neighbourhood and that's been a revelation in many ways. I've always liked where we live, but travelling around it regularly on foot gives me a new appreciation for its layout, moseying vibe and the level of communal care that's taken.
The strongly recommended meal portion reduction is accompanied by the encouragement to eat 6 (smaller) meals a day. This usually works out as 3 meals (b'fast, lunch, dinner) and 3 'snacks' (am tea, pm tea, supper). I love eating 6 times a day! I was previously a non-snacker, and only had 3 squares. Chances are I'm eating approx the same food per day, just spread out more evenly through it. Actually, that's probably not quite true. I am eating a much healthier diet, and almost never having junk food is no bad thing. I read on a gestational diabetes information site (that was otherwise super-useful and sensible) that one could probably have a McD's 1/4-pounder as a 'lunch' that balanced the things you were meant to include...er, I just don't think recommending eating any kind of McD's is a good option for people who have health issues. Is that old skool?
Expend energy on thinking about every meal I have. I've had a very valuable and gradual learning curve about food, types of carbs and sugars since the diagnosis. It never hurts to be more aware of these kinds of things, I suppose, and I've gotten much faster at processing whether something is OK to add to my current (somewhat restricted) diet. The diabetic nurse earnestly intoned to me that one should think about this as a 'lifestyle change' rather than a temporary diet, and I know what she's getting at, but...yeah. Another plus is that, with the ratcheting up of label-reading that I've been doing, trying to reduce our grocery-list 'food-mileage' is something that's floated up in priorities (yes, a tangential benefit but, what the hey). Found out that most of the 'homebrand' organic canned food comes from overseas - I was appalled, but maybe I shouldn't have been? We've also been making a lot more of our own things (esp baked stuff like bread, muffins, biscuits, cakes), and consuming way less than we were before. All Good Things, no?

NEW ISSUE of Peril now online!

2009-05-11T14:32:00.010+09:30

NEW Issue #7 of Peril - "fashion/fetish" now online!

This issue's articles:

"Nailed to the Family Tree" by James Laidler
Interview with author of Look Who's Morphing, Tom Cho (by Hoa Pham)
"Skin" by Komi Sellathurai
"The Neon Witches of Shibuya" by Corey Wakeling
Artwork and interview with Kelly Mollenido Robson (by Owen Leong)
"Racial Consciousness = Fetish?" by Jen Kwok
Artwork and interview with Shigeyuki Kihara (by Owen Leong)
"You Can Love Hello Kitty but Why Can't I?" by Tiffany Loh
Poetry by Qi Guo and Yi Sha (trans. Ouyang Yu)
Poetry by Tammy Ho Lai Ming and Tass Holmes

Don't forget that this issue will be officially launched at the Sydney Writer's Festival by Annette Shun Wah:

Saturday, May 23 2009
11:30 - 12:30

==> Full details about the launch can be found HERE.

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You can also now follow Peril magazine on Twitter HERE.

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The Call for Submissions for issue #8 of Peril, "Why Are People So Unkind?," will be circulated shortly, so watch out for that!

Sydney - Feb 2009 - Near UniSyd

2009-05-06T16:19:00.006+09:30

Near University of Sydney, Feb 2009
[Photo by Tseen]

Pimping - Tom Cho's Look Who's Morphing...but wait, there's more

2009-05-05T12:12:00.013+09:30

I've been meaning to pimp this for a while now, not that Tom's fab new work needs any momentum from me, given it has already garnered a bunch of publicity in its first few weeks out in the real world.

I'm reproducing the blurb from the publisher's site below:

Look Who's Morphing.
Tom Cho
Giramondo Publishing, 2009.

Look Who's Morphing is a collection of bizarre, funny, often menacing fictions in which, along with his extended family, the central character undergoes a series of transformations, shape-shifting through figures drawn from film and television, music clips and video games, porn flicks and comics. He is Godzilla, a Muppet, and Whitney Houston's bodyguard; the Fonz, a robot, a Ford Bronco 4x4 - and, as a climax, a Gulliver-sized cock rock singer, played upon by an adoring troupe of sexy Lilliputians in short skirts and sailor suits and cheerleader outfits.

Within these fantasies there is a deep intellectual and emotional engagement, a fundamental questioning of the nature of identity, and the way it constructs itself in a world dominated by the images of popular culture. Influenced by the young adult book series Sweet Valley High, Tom Cho began writing fiction in his mid-teens. His stories have appeared in many publications in Australia and overseas, and he has performed at festivals around the country, including in the award-winning show Hello Kitty, which combined literature with power ballads. He is currently completing a doctorate at Deakin University. His work can be found at www.tomcho.com.

You can read a range of recent reviews HERE,
and find ways to get your hands on the book HERE.

===============

I've been a fan of Tom's work for a while now, and got to know him from his zine-ing days with Sweet Valley High (which I still miss, btw. No pressure, Tom, but now you have that PhD ousted...). I think we first 'met' online at the asian-australian_discuss group and only saw each other face-to-face when I moved to Melbourne in 2004. Since then, we've worked together on various things, including Peril. We've also braved ASAL (AustLit), ASAA (Asian Studies), and other stray academic conferences. Getting to know Tom has been super-fun, and he's one of those people who I always wish I saw more often.

Seeing his first book out and about, with the amazingly striking cover pic by Owen Leong, is truly satisfying. First, I can now point people to a hardcopy object rather than do the 'go see his website for excerpts'-patter and, second, it's just great to see Tom's hard, wonderful, uber-considered work in the public domain. As you'll see if you go to his website, Look Who's Morphing already has nationwide launches lined up (thus far: Melbourne, Sydney, Perth), and Tom is giving talks and readings around the ridges as well (including the Sydney Writers' Festival [SWF: 18-24 May 2009] - it's going to be tough hangin' with the likes of Kazuo, I'm sure).

So, public and resounding congrats on the new book, Tom! Remember the little people, eh?

===============

On a related note:

I was excited to see in one of Tom's site updates that Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre is holding several sessions during the SWF focused on Asian Australian writing and authors.

They include:

Writing Asia (featuring Brian Castro, Tom Cho, Merlinda Bobis, Nick Jose + Adam Aitken)
Triple Identities (featuring Subramani, Satendra Nandan, Devleena Ghosh + Seona Smiles)
Love, Honour, Sacrifice (featuring Chi Vu, Hoa Pham, Khoa Do, Ivor Indyk + Nathalie Nguyen)

[Writers bolded are part of the AASRN, which I convene]

If you're in Sydney for SWF (or other nefarious reasons), scoot along and support some great talent! Wish I could be there, too!

ALSO - last bit of pimpage for this post:

Peril Issue #7 will be launched at SWF by Annette Shun Wah.
Check out the full details HERE.

Cyber-peerpressure, you win

2009-05-04T13:47:00.004+09:30

I had been reading about various people's encounters and repulsions about Twitter. It's become the 'new Facebook' in some ways. This is definitely true for me in terms of Twitter as a topic of water-cooler talk or dinner conversations. Where once folks were extolling the sins/virtues of Fb, it's now all about Twitter. I still don't like the idea of Twitter. From what I've seen/heard about it, it suffers from many of the same things that irritate me about Fb + more: the incessant (banal?) 'updates' (Fb status inanity being one of my pet hates), the same 'look at my friends' attitude, the short message box, the need to 'check in' (I know you can get feeds, etc, but bloody hell, there are WAY too many feeds in our lives already)...oh, hang on, this wasn't meant to be an anti-Twitter post. Mea culpa.

This was meant to be a post saying that I'd succumbed and signed up there. I don't know if anything will come of it (thusly did I first get entangled with Fb), but there you go. What I couldn't believe was that my first name was already taken! My first name!! As far as I know, there is no-one else in the world with my first name. I had to settle for my full name and, as my (almost) first tweet indicates, I've already committed my first faux pas in that medium. Go, me!

There is a more substantial post lurking in my brain somewhere. Alas, it has not yet cohered. I have, however, nixed two posts that were very large whinges against:

a) the ARC, and

b) stupidity + being a journal editor (yes, they do go together well in more ways than one might imagine).

I do consider the public good once in a while.

Coffee (+ bonus pregnancy factors)

2009-04-17T13:56:00.002+09:30

Being only a very short time out from taking maternity leave, my thoughts on coffee are necessarily ambivalent. Pregnancy and caffeine fixes just don't mesh well, and one is made to feel very irresponsible and evil for lamenting giving it up (cos you are automatically a Bad Parent if you don't sacrifice all for your children, and how dare you even contemplate eating that sashimi or ricotta...but that's a rant for another time. Lucky you).

Pre-pregnancy (this time around), my coffee habit wasn't that chronic. Perhaps one 'regular' latte that would sit beside my work PC for hours as I drip-fed caffeine through the day. The 'regular' size is one I would call large, but I realise that we've lost all sense of proportion (literally) since the advent of mega-sizing and those 'grand grandes'. I like my coffee strong and with milk, and have taken to ordering lattes rather than flat whites because some cafes seem not to comprehend what a 'flat white' is. The drink that often turns up irks me with its stupendously expensive 40% hard milk foam ration. It's so wrong.

The problem, as all milky coffee-drinkers would know, is that whether you order a cappuccino, flat white, or latte, many places will just give you a stupidly frothy coffee that bears no resemblance to any of those styles. Just in case any budding baristas are reading this, this is the coffee gospel according to Wiki:

a latte is typically prepared with approximately one third espresso and two-thirds steamed milk, with a layer of foamed milk approximately 5 mm (¼ inch) thick on the top. The drink is similar to a cappuccino, the difference being that a cappuccino consists of 1/3 espresso, 1/3 steamed milk and 1/3 foam. A variant on the latte is the flat white, which is served in a smaller ceramic cup with the creamy steamed milk poured over a single-shot of espresso, holding back the lighter froth at the top.

A flat white is FLAT. That's the whole point. No foam, you silly buggers!

I've taken to having mostly decaf lattes (less regularly, but still at least once a week) because of Sprog 2 and, while I know a bad coffee when I meet it, I'm by no means a connoisseur. So, decaf doesn't really bother me. I figure a badly made decaf latte in a particular place would probably have also been a badly made full-caffeine latte. When I was first pregnant (with E.), I was hardcore about not having coffee. I think I might've had half a dozen those entire nine months (and half of those were decafs). When I was off coffee, and trying not to have sugary drinks (being borderline gestational diabetic as I was [my litany of health woes, let me show you it...]), I found it really hard to find things I'd enjoy as hot drink substitutes. The thing with lattes is the creamy, robust flavour. So, while I don't mind tea, it doesn't quite cut it on either score. I went herbal (peppermint) for a bit and found it very unsatisfactory. Hot chocolates were way too sweet (sickeningly so) and I've never been a fan of chai. It was a tragic time, especially on chilly autumn/winter days.

I've had very few bad coffees since I moved to Melbourne, over 5 years ago now. The bad ones have been expectedly dire (e.g. I foolishly ordered one in a shopping centre food court), and even my blasted heath of a campus has halfway decent coffee at various sites (there remains a distinct dearth of funky and interesting cafes, but I'm resigned to this).

Getting back to my full-blown caffeine habit after I stopped breastfeeding (1.5 years later...sigh) was liberating. Having been mostly off caffeine all that time, I've come back to it a bit less rabid (I think my daily fix, pre-E., was at least 2, and often 3, lattes a day).

Also, having felt rather deprived and pathetic all the time I couldn't have it, I now approach my coffees with more respect and appreciation. It always takes being without those you love, eh?

Green things

2009-04-02T23:00:00.000+10:30

I've been inspired by Unique Schmuck's blogging about her garden. It's satisfying browsing the back and front yards and knowing what's coming on the vines/branches, what might be ripe soon, and thinking of things we can cook to complement our own produce.

Below are a couple of pics of a raspberry S. harvested for me today. Our daughter, E., tends to descend on the raspberry bushes like a locust so we normally don't get to partake in them (unless we sneak the ones on the bush that are above her eye-height...). This season is the first time I've ever had fresh-picked raspberries from the garden. They're fantastic. I don't think we'll ever have enough harvested in one hit to make anything raspberryish (see reference to locust-daughter above), but it gives us hope for next season's crop...perhaps.

We've had a good crop of capsicums (below) so far this year, heatwave notwithstanding (anything that was on the bush at the time of the heatwave shrivelled and dropped with alacrity). Being a family that's partial to regular Tex-Mex meals, these often ended up in (or on) burritos and enchiladas.

S. built two raised vegetable beds when we moved into our Melbourne house (along with a cactus/succulent shed, fancy front fence, and water-tank stand...). One of the beds is mostly herbs: chives, spring onions, garlic, oregano, flat-leaf parsley and Vietnamese mint (below, with a new basil in the foreground).

The other houses the bushy veges: (rather sad) tomatoes, capsicums, beans, pumpkins (see the beginnings of a Kent below), some stray strawberries and cucumbers.

The front yard has a dedicated fruit tree zone where S. has put in pear, apple, peach, and plum trees, grapevines, and raspberry bushes.

The set-up complements my idea of what a garden is for. I grew up in sub-tropical Queensland with what one might term 'an ethnic garden' (if one wanted to open a can of taxonomic worms): rows of styrofoam boxes with all manner of herbs/spices/veges in them, long beds of bushy vegetables and chillies, kaffir lime, fountains of lemongrass, low beds of cassava and turmeric, and a much-prized parrot mango tree that rewarded us with bumper crops of fragrant, succulently smooth-fleshed fruit every 2 years (the intervening year was not as bountiful). As much space as possible was devoted to growing things that are eaten and used in cooking. The front garden was the only concession to a 'pretty' space, and my father planted out some roses (my mother's favourites) and other flowering things. We had a gigantic wisteria covering a pergola, and its trunk was thicker than my arm by the time we sold our family home.

In Melbourne, I can take just about no credit for the burgeoning garden. S. is the one with the green in his soul, who nurtures the entire enterprise. I'm a staunch vicarious gardener.

Must sees - Red Cliff (2009) and Race to Witch Mountain (2009)

2009-04-02T13:40:00.011+10:30

Two films I'm busting to see:

>> RED CLIFF (2009) <<

Angry Asian Man wrote about it back in July 2008, but I've only just stumbled across some pics and reviews of it (including this light one on LJ - half-naked Tony Leung? *books ticket*). I love a historical costume-drama, and when it's an epic Chinese one, odds are it'll get watched in my household.

John Woo directs and, while I'm not a big Woo fan, his association means it'll be a slick flick with great production values. That's all I want from it, really. Simple, yeah? A quick skim around on google images confirms that the movie looks gorgeous.

Oh, you want to know what it's about? Well, ok, this Wiki entry gives you more info about the film than you'll want/need to know. I didn't even make it through the whole Wiki entry so chances are not good that I would ever read The Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms (the historical text, not the war game!). If there's a choice of meticulous, long historical document OR swashbuckling big-screen rendition? I would say that's not really a choice...

Screen shot from Red Cliff - At least we know who gets the remote...

I feel guilty every so often that I haven't got a clue about many of the Chinese literary classics. I know some titles, and I know some authors, but I've never read anything in the 'canon' and don't intend to. Perhaps it's the 'never intend to' aspect that brings forth the guilt, rather than the 'haven't got around to it yet.' Why do I feel the guilty need to know about 'my culture', especially when my entire professional life is based on challenging essentialist assumptions about cultural attributes? Good question...

=====================

>> RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN (2009) <<

[Wiki entry that fills you in on plot, if you're into that kind of thing...]

There are only two words to describe why I'm so keen to see this Disney movie:

Dwayne Johnson.

For those who haven't caught up with recent naming changes, another two words might be necessary:

The Rock.

I'm a huge Dwayne movie fan. I can easily trace this to his turn in The Scorpion King (2002), which is a Class A cheesy fare.

From The Scorpion King: Leather-clad Akkadian The Rock (aka Dwayne Johnson, on left)
and Michael Clarke Duncan sporting blue eye-shadow as a tribal king (of course).

I've seen just about all Dwayne's movies and none of his stints on WWF. I think this is a good thing with wanting to take him semi-seriously as an actor. His filmic vehicles are all blockbustery action and comedy (I think he can do good comedy), and exactly the kind of bubblegum I'm after with big Hollywood fixes. He's chosen his films quite well and made memorable cameo 'character' roles (e.g. in Be Cool). Even though folks are always ready to trash someone who comes from a WWF background (which is precisely part of his cheesy appeal), I don't think he's ever let a movie down (oh, I know, I know; how earnest am I, eh?).

I always feel as if I have to justify why I like him so much.

I mean, really, what's not to like?

They lied? Say it isn't so

2009-04-01T10:01:00.002+10:30

This is probably the most incongruous thing you'll ever see on this blog.

While getting home yesterday - or was it on the news last night? - I happened to catch snippets of some footy news. Always thrilling for me, as you can imagine, being the great AFL fan that I am...

ANYway, I distinctly remember a footballer declaring that he was a "one-man team" and would stay with X team forever. I remember this clearly because I did the internal snigger I always do when I catch a piece of classic sports talk with lovely wrong turns of phrase (my favourite remains the commentator who said that Y was like "a bull in a Chinaman's shop").

Today, I see this article about Lance Franklin and his vow always to stay a Hawthorn Hawk, and the quote is taken as:

"The 22-year-old Coleman medallist yesterday categorically declared he would be a Hawk for life.

'Definitely. I'm going to stay a one-team man and never look like leaving Hawthorn ever,' he said ahead of Hawthorn's clash against Sydney on Saturday night. 'I love the club.'"

Now, that's just wrong. He didn't say that at all. We all know what he meant when he said he was "a one-man team," but that's not what he said.

Oh, sports reporting. You make me doubt your integrity.

Literary prize lists + winners - a load of hoo-ha?

2009-03-26T16:24:00.000+10:30

Courtesy of sarsaparilla lite, the 2009 Miles Franklin Award long-list:

Addition by Toni Jordan (Text Publishing)
A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz (Penguin Books)
Breath by Tim Winton (Hamish Hamilton)
Fugitive Blue by Claire Thomas (Allen & Unwin)
Ice by Louis Nowra (Allen & Unwin)
One Foot Wrong by Sofie Laguna (Allen & Unwin)
The Devil's Eye by Ian Townsend (Harper Collins)
The Pages by Murray Bail (Text Publishing)
The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas (Allen & Unwin)
Wanting by Richard Flanagan (Alfred A Knopf)

It's testament to how much I've fallen off the 'literary' wagon that I have read none of these novels. That said, while I loved Murray Bail's Homesickness (the only book of his that I've read) and thought Christos Tsiolkas' Loaded was a welcome change to the Aust.Lit scene, I don't find myself particularly enamoured of much Australian literature. Or drawn to support it in specific ways. Hypocritically, I find myself championing it against charges of parochialism, but I can also be ambivalent about the use of 'local colour' in vernacular and setting for some narratives...

*waits for lightning bolt of outrage*

I worked on 'Aust.Lit' for many years. My theses (MA and PhD) were both engaged with the notion of what might constitute and/or challenge the Aust.Lit 'establishment,' positioning of ethnic minority authors on literary scene, and how notions of 'Australian-ness' were conveyed/examined/refuted in various narratives and personas.

I haven't really worked with literary texts for about five years now, and have regained my love of reading as a hobby. Colleagues have pointed out to me that I have obviously 'moved away' from literary studies. I'm not entirely sure what that means, but I think it's something to do with my more frequently verbalised and disparaging remarks about certain novels and types of writing. I used to be painfully wary of being un-judgemental about Literature, mostly because so many people out there were more than happy to sink the boot into anything that may require more thought and engagement than they were willing to give. Now, I fear that I have become one of 'those people,' especially when it comes to finding some books/writers consistently overrated and pretentious.

I don't tend to read books just because they have nice gold stamps on the front declaring they've won some literary prize or other. In fact, I tend to swerve away from anything that won a Nobel Prize for Literature (worthy and D&M narratives have their place; that place just usually isn't my couch at night when my brain is only partially active), but am happy to give Orange and Booker Prize winners and shortlisters a go. One of my all-time favourite books was an Orange Prize winner: Anne Michaels' debut novel, Fugitive Pieces. Pulitzers normally don't get a look-in and (I feel I should say this sotto voce) neither do Miles Frankliners.

My reading habits these days are highly variable, shifting from blockbuster genre fiction (usually crime/spy thrillers) to independent press 'local' novels to books that could be categorised as 'International Literature.' While I'm supportive of experimental writing and textual adventures in principle, I feel sometimes that I need to preface discussion about my reading with, "Hello, my name is X, and I like my books to have a narrative..."

Zany packaging pics

2009-03-18T17:26:00.004+10:30

I realised that I'd gathered a small collection of entertaining packaging photos so here they are:

Snack foods are so easy to love when they're packaged thusly.

Just for the record, I'd like to point out that there was no plastic dinosaur in this otherwise tasty crispy corn snack...

Everyone should own a "Benign Girl" doll at least once in their life.

JCVD - The review!

2009-03-10T17:00:00.002+10:30

How's this for follow-up? I waxed enthusiastically about it AND went to see it! This is a first for 2009! I'm talking about JCVD, of course.

I'd flagged the film in this earlier entry, and we went to see it last weekend.

Nutshell: Loved it.

Larger nutshell: The film's plot, which I was afraid could be an elongated skit rather than a full-blown movie, was very well sustained. The script was clever and wry, the visuals appropriately moody and drab, and JCVD himself? Really, really impressive. Seriously. I was surprised and slightly shocked (having seen him, as mentioned before, in some rather integrity- and talent-challenged productions). Belgium and its public 'embrace' of Jean-Claude was also an enjoyable and consistent element of the film, with warring popular sentiments driving the plot in key ways.

** Longer ramble below - probably chockers with spoilers **

Jean-Claude: Not lookin' so fine and yet...

I liked the fact that 'Jean-Claude' (in the movie) was jaded and yet comfortable with his celebrity status. The sombre, deteriorated look of the streetscapes in Belgium, and JC himself, contrasted with what one would expect of a JC movie. Even though his flicks are consistently B- and C-grade, they were slick enough. Hardcore action fans may be disappointed with this film because it seems to be overflowing with JCVD-ness in ways that are exposing, awkward, uber-normal, and unsupported by sharp fight or car-chase scenes.

I admit to being happily pulled into this film as a play on the biopic, but accepting it to a large extent as a biopic nonetheless. It's a perfect movie for Cinema Studies 101 courses, especially when examining notions of the subject/object (as an additional layer of control/self-promotion [?] Jean-Claude produced the movie, too). Steven Shaviro twittered that JCVD is:

"A lovely take on celebrity, on action movies vs real life, and on what to do when you're washed up and the dream has died."

Shaviro also writes an excellent review of the film that surpasses my meagre efforts here - it's HERE at his blog, "The Pinocchio Theory." I must admit to never having read or heard of Shaviro before delving around the topic of JCVD (mea culpa), and I really liked his take on the film. There's also a slightly catty 'interview' with Jean-Claude in the Herald Sun HERE that also provides some interesting insight into the actor/producer's perspective on the film (is it just me or does the reporter make fun of JC's non-English-speakingness along the way...?).

Springvale - Feb 2009

2009-03-05T16:08:00.003+10:30

Springvale, Feb 2009 - Atrium activity
[Photo by tseen]

2009 Junket + WTF Telstra

2009-03-05T15:03:00.004+10:30

I wrote about a prime junket in which I regularly partake back in Feb 2006. I didn't attend the one in 2007 because I was on maternity leave, but I did go to the 2008 gathering at the Langham Hotel. This year, we were at the Park Hyatt. Now that I'm an oldish hand at these things, I'm enjoying them more and more. First, all of my editorial team was able to attend and we always have fun meetings. Second, we know many of the publishing staff now. Third, we scored by sitting at a table with a new and enthusiastic marketing guy, and their online submission platform person. Very useful folk to be around when we're working out strategies for the next few years for our journal and its direction.

In the midst of the plush surrounds and super-nice food, though, it was somewhat disheartening to know about the huge drive for citation impact factors that influence the outcomes for our academic careers and at the same time hear from the publisher's UK manager that the Thompson ISI folk (who churn out citation impact factors and suchlike) produce figures for social sciences and the humanities (SS&H) that are of little use in actually indicating impact. The current models only cover a too-short timeframe, PLUS so few SS&H publications are in the ISI system that there isn't enough data upon which to base 'impact' with any integrity. So, why do it at all? Australia's just bringing it in (admittedly not in an overt way yet - but journal-tiering is a slippery slope...), when the UK has just booted it out as an indicator. Increasingly, we're asked to provide citation stats for our work where possible. Unless we manually record-keep our citations (with a little helping hand from Google Scholar), there isn't an easy way to find out what these might be. The usefulness of this bibliometric stuff is constantly brought into question, but the fact that it's currently in vogue in ARC circles means that a lot of time, money and effort will be expended on something that may well be cast aside in a few years' time. Same as it ever was.

========================

And my utilities rant for the moment:

Monster house is almost finished next door. It didn't improve on completion and, in fact, looms even larger and more ugly over our house now that its 'outdoor entertainment villa' is complete. We are privy to the knowledge (through some random boasting by the owner) that they also have a spa in the master bedroom and will have a giant plasma screen in the living room...colour me surprised...

Anyway, Telstra dude was out to do some work for the monster house and messed with our cables. We've had Foxtel for a while now (children's channels for E. and 24/7 cooking shows for my mother). It suddenly stopped working. On investigation, we found that the Telstra guy had moved the cable and wrecked the connection. He refused to fix it, saying it was 'frayed' and would've been up for repairs anyway. He told us to call Foxtel to come out and fix it. When we pointed out that the connection was perfectly fine until he broke it, he still refused to fix it.

This kind of thing just boggles my mind. You broke it, you fix it, no? WTF, Telstra?

JCVD (omg, omg!)

2009-02-27T14:27:00.006+10:30

I can't help myself. I'm so excited about this film. Below is cut'n pasted from the ACMI newsletter that I'm subscribed to:

Who gives a Van Damme?

JCVD

You will after witnessing the rebirth of the 'Muscles from Brussels'

Jean-Claude Van Damme, aka "the Fred Astaire of karate" (according to Jean-Claude Van Damme) and "that guy who was in those martial arts action films in the 80s and 90s" (according to almost everyone else) is back with a vengeance. In Mabrouk El Mechri's JCVD, screening in an exclusive Long Play season, the Karate King plays an ageing movie star called JCVD. He's broke, he's making crappy action shlock that's destined to go straight to DVD (because Steven Seagal is getting all the decent parts) and he's embroiled in a bitter custody battle for his daughter (his entire filmography is used against him as proof of his unsuitability as a parent). And when he innocently finds himself caught up in a post office robbery-cum-hostage crisis, the cops and the fascinated throng that wait outside all think that their once national hero has finally gone, well, postal. It sounds like a big farcical parody of Van Damme's persona, and it is, but at the heart of the film is the conflict between Van Damme the knuckleheaded action star and Van Damme the man. JCVD is Van Damme's doppelgänger - the actor's real life has become fodder for gossip rags worldwide with his failed marriages, custody battles and drug and money problems. In El Mechri's film, he's a defeated yet sympathetic hulk of a man, one who is only too sadly aware of his lost potential. "It's hard for people not to judge me", he says. JCVD goes a long way to changing our own clouded judgements of the 'Muscles from Brussels'.

----------------

My family has had a long-standing love of martial arts flicks in general. Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan were the biggies when I was growing up. Most of the first Jackie movies we saw were in Cantonese, with JC sporting his infamous bowl-cut hair and doing amazing kung fu training feats that involved pummelling pebbles into sand, or doing moves while balancing atop the lips of jars, etc. Our family finally owning the entire Bruce Lee oeuvre was a momentous occasion.

Jet Li joined our embrace of the genre much later on, and consistently there in the background with their B- and C-grade efforts were Steven Seagal (Glimmer Man, one of the best worst movies in the entire action/martial arts movie scene [see pic below]! And I know that's a grand claim to make!), Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Chuck Norris (oh, and let's not forget Sammo Hung).

Keenen Ivory Wayans envying
Steven Seagal's sharp Oriental threads
[Glimmer Man, 1996]
[Photo from www.steven-seagal.net]

Even though the latter's films are mostly awful, cardboard, and pain me on many levels, I still find it hard to pass up a chance to watch one of them (though Van Damme's Replicant [2001] did sorely test me...). I find it's the same relationship I have with Christopher Lambert movies (Mortal Kombat, anyone?); often, it's so bad, it's gold!

I'm really excited about JCVD because I love it when actors self-parody and, let's face it, Jean-Claude has a lot of material to work with. Who could forget Jean-Claude and Kylie Minogue in Street Fighter? The film's premise looks like fun, and one hopes it can deliver.

What is also an amazing thing about Jean-Claude is that he's still pumping out the movies after all these years and all those turkeys. He has two currently in the pipeline: The Eagle Path (post-production) and Universal Soldiers: The Next Generation (filming). You could never say that those Kickboxer fans are fickle or disloyal!

De-irritating Wordpress blogs

2009-02-23T15:29:00.003+10:30

Do you browse Wordpress blogs (or own one)? Are you sick of the whacking great 'snapshot' of links that intrudes on your reading pleasure?

Well, this blogpost shows you how to be done with it!

Many thanks to JG on Memes of Production for the heads-up.

Pimping: Peril, and the good kinds of committees

2009-02-23T12:00:00.000+10:30

Oooh, can't wait for the stats on this entry and what kind of search terms folks put in to arrive here...

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REMINDER - Call for Submissions - Peril #7 - "Fashion Fetish"

'Fashion Fetish' is the theme for Peril Issue 7! Love it or hate it, everyone has an opinion on fashion and fads. Is it, as Bowie says, big, bland, loud and tasteless? Or is it the realm of risk-takers and visionaries? Do you follow or buck trends? Is Oriental in (yet again) this year? Are we talking clothes or cultures?

Below are some prompts that we hope are only the start of what you might do with the theme:

* (Un)healthy obsessions
* 'So hot right now' – lure or deterrent?
* Extreme fashion
* Fashion, culture and identity – who or what does it say you are?
* What's class got to do with it?

Let's see and hear what you think about 'Fashion Fetish' – write, create, draw, compose, collaborate! We accept submissions of any kind of text, sound or visual art, as long as it can be presented online (e.g. essays, blog entries, reflections, poetry, fiction, memoir, spoken word tracks, photos, etc.). Text limit is 1000 words, preferably submitted in .txt format.

We are fortunate enough to have two issues sponsored by the Australia Council this year, and will be paying contributors for Issues 7 and 8. Issue 8's theme will be "Why are people so unkind?"

The deadline for Issue 7 material is March 31 2009, to be published online by May 2009. This issue will be launched at the Sydney Writers Festival by Annette Shun Wah (full details forthcoming).

Please send your submissions and queries to peril@asianaustralian.org

Check us out at http://www.peril.com.au

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If you didn't already know, I'm one of the editorial advisors on Peril (and if you don't know what Peril is, go HERE and check it out for heaven's sake). It was established in 2006, the same year that AASRN officially came into being, so that was a rather smashing year for Asian Australian culture and scholarship.

We just had our second board meeting on the weekend and, as always, I come away from those (and our editorial get-togethers) inspired and hepped up to do more. Hence, the spamming of my networks with Peril material today, as well as this post. I like working with this editorial team a lot. One of them, who had a baby less than a month ago, was at the meeting - I was so impressed, as I wasn't able to contemplate facing the professional outside world for quite a few months after I had E.

I have three editorial teams I work with now. Two of them I really love and find stimulating, fun and constructive. The third is very new so I haven't got as much of a feel for it yet; it's also a group that's much larger and more articulated so I haven't seen all of them in one room as yet (and not sure if this will be something that ever happens).

I've also attended an ACSANZ meeting recently, our first of two for the year. Seeing as I'll be on mat.leave for the latter part of 2009, I won't be seeing them again till late 2010. I was on this committee for many years, from when I was a PhD student. I took a break from it for a couple of years and re-joined in 2008. One of the things I like best about it is the range and calibre of people I've had to work with. Right now, I have a few buddies who happen to be Can.Studs folk, and that kind of bond on a committee is great. Because I've worked with many of the current committee members before, there's a sense of collegiality and support that isn't quite there when you join a group 'cold.' Knowing the strategies and personalities of various people also helps a lot in the necessary maneuvering during tricky discussions. I like being part of larger organisations that still feel 'cosy,' and this one, with its connections to the Canadian High Commission in Canberra and the govt and international association in Ottawa, has added perks and heightened interest. I remember going to a 3-course lunch at the house of the Canadian consul (I think that's what his title was...), and feeling totally out of my depth. I'm not au fait with diplomatic chit-chat and embassy-level etiquette.

I feel disappointed at times that I don't currently have a focused Canadian component to my research (it's almost all Oz focused, with the ARC project broadening it to include USA perspectives). While I enjoy the committee and association, the networks and events aren't really feeding my work at all for the moment.

Lemming behaviour and generosity +

2009-02-19T15:04:00.004+10:30

I saw that one of the blogs I read regularly has swapped over to WordPress and, knowing that many have shifted over there, I went to check it out for myself and ended up creating a replica of this blog there (no real entries). The posting interface for WP is much nicer than this one's, but I think - being a creature of habit - I'm used to the quirks and format of blogger so I'll stay put for the moment. The other one is just reserving interweb real estate...

I did the same thing on Facebook with starting up an Asian Australian Studies Research Network group. I've been on Fb a while now and I have yet to see the worth of those Fb groups. I just find them clunky. Some of them have novelty value, but the interface seems to depend on you going there regularly to find out what's happening with the group. I don't like bulletin boards for the same reason, much preferring the direct 'news' or interaction that a mailing list provides.

That said, since I've stepped down from moderating asian-australian_discuss, I've changed my delivery options for that list to "no email." I find the emails from that list too distracting and, if a topic takes my fancy, I'll want to respond straight away. This way, if I just catch up on what's happening there every week or so, I can just pick and choose the ones that interest me most (and overlook the annoying ones). It's such a basic thing, something I should've done a while ago. Feels liberating nonetheless!

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I know I go on about bookmooch a lot here. I'm not exactly sure why that is because it's not as if I spend all my waking hours stalking and mooching books. I only drop by the site if I have to check off certain activities/receipts, or if someone's newly recced me something and I want to see if it's moochable. This means, perhaps, once a week; several times if I've just uploaded inventory and people are snaffling items. Blathering aside, I've always admired the way bookmooch started and what it stands for, which is why I persist with it even though it means I generally spend more on books than I did before (because of the postage/packaging costs for mailing books out; the books themselves are 'free'). This is the case because, before, I wasn't reading very reguarly at all, and not tapped into the habit like I am now. I much prefer now, but yes, it's not a money-saving development for me.

Recently, John Buckman (the guy who created it from scratch) posted an entry on the bookmooch blog outlining how much it costs to run the mooching site. I found it an amazing read, and my jaw dropped when he mentions that he's put in about $70K (US dollars, people!) to get the site to the stage it's at now. I have self-quibbling sessions sometimes about the money I toss into 'hobby' endeavours that I wish someone would step up and fund properly, but my piddly expenses pale in comparison. I've signed up to give a little each month to help keep bookmooch non-commercial (one of the things I like about it).

As with all of my friends, I wish I had more time to read and the browsing the vistas of what's on offer in people's inventories is my cyber-version of loitering around 2nd-hand bookshops (which I just don't really get to do anymore, unless I'm killing time before meetings or conferences...). I've seen some delicious inventories from which I'd like to mooch about a half dozen books but I stop myself from being that greedy. I usually limit myself to mooching two books at a time from people (unless they offer more because of particular author sets, etc). I've got more points than I know what to do with, and have twice given points to charities listed on bookmooch (once to the Australian lesbian and gay archives, and another time to the Auckland Women's Centre Library - obviously, I was endeavouring to give 'locally'...there aren't many charities on this side of the pond at all).

If you are on bookmooch and haven't friended me, let me know you're out there. I'm easy to find. I don't have an internet 'handle' to save myself...

Here endeth the sermon about bookmooch.

Gratuitous pic post: Venice Carnevale

2009-02-12T15:27:00.003+10:30

The 10-day, super-touristy Venice Carnevale starts this weekend. I've never been to Venice, having only dipped my toe into Italy via a very short week in Florence in 2005 (incidentally, my last overseas trip to date).

Found this gorgeous pic on my trawl through the NY Times 'The Moment' blog.

During Venice’s 10-day Carnevale, Caffè Florian on the Piazza San Marco,
admits only those with the finest costumes.
(Photo by Chris Bickford)

More flouncy, OTT photos can be found on the Google image search HERE.