01. I’ve been to see #ALLTHETHINGS over the last few weeks –
- A Star is Born – started crying at the first duet and didn’t stop.
- Markus Zusak – he’s really lovely (also see below).
- La Bohème – I had seen this 1930s-Berlin-inspired production before but was more than happy to see it again.
- Astroman – great eighties references but honestly, The Architect was a hard act to follow.
- James Reyne – Boys Light Up followed by Downhearted at the Corner Hotel? Doesn’t get more Melbourne than that.
- Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg – six hours of Wagner might be 5 hours and 55 minutes too much for some but I loved this opera (experience).
02. Just on Zusak – is it very wrong to go to an author talk that you’ve known about for months and to have not read the book? This is the question my friend and I pondered… she caved and ploughed through Bridge of Clay. And hated it. I’ve had an ARC for months and just couldn’t get into it…
With days to go before the event I decided not to read it – felt like all kinds of wrong.
The thing is, Markus is so lovely and I thought again about reading it when he said it was a story about grief. And about brothers (“…all that knocking of shoulders and fists…”).
And also because he said how much he loved World According to Garp because it was “exhilarating and exhausting” (just like Bridges of Clay).
Actually, Magda Szubanski said of Bridges, “It’s like pushing through a thicket, to find a labyrinth and then a hall of mirrors but Markus has given you the ball of twine to find your way.”
03. Loved this story about a bookshop.
04. My daughter is obsessed with all the patterns on Fluffmonger.
05. Fairly certain I need an Aperol Spritz doughnut.
06. You know when you’re in a dispute with an online retailer because they couldn’t deliver when they said they would and you needed the item by a certain date? That.
07. Very excited to be asked to have one of my photos included in the Cloud Appreciation Society’s forthcoming book.
08. Finally, here is a news report about the palliative care biography program that I am very proud to be a part of.
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I’ve heard others say that Markus is lovely. I do like when you find that your favourite writers are also nice people!
07. Congratulations! What type of cloud was the photo of?
08. I’ve said before, I wish we had something like that here, it’s such a worthwhile project. The news programme was very moving.
05. We *all* need an aperol spritz donut (I’m typing this with Brexit news in the background. It’s awful 🙁 )
05. Brexit 😕
07. A horseshoe vortex. I’ve see two, but the pic they’re using was my first one which was crystal clear.
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