The good , the bad and the ugly- April 2013

The Good:  Life.


There seems to be so much bad stuff happening at the moment. So much hurt, suffering, sadness and death. From the Boston bombings, Earthquakes in China, ongoing starvation, ongoing war and on and on......through it all and perhaps because of it all, I am reminded of the fragility and the preciousness of life...

I am reminded to enjoy what we have while we have it.... and where we can and for those who need it, to help them so that they too can enjoy what life we have, what life they have.
For all we know it could be over in an instant.



The bad:  Inappropriate in-talk/code between friends

 I was reminded of this recently when talking to a friend about how we refer to each others dates by code name instead of by the date's actual name. I casually said 'I might blog about this', to which my friend screeched, No!!!  Don't blog about it, it will make us all look like arseholes!!!!!!  And when I thought it, this friend was right. I mean, how unfair that a man who wore tracksuit pants on the second date, was forever referred to by myself  and my friends as 'tracksuit pants man'... When I have referred to him by his actual name, my friends quizzically ask 'who?'

So now, all of our conversations about him go a little bit like:

'How are things going with tracksuit pants man?'

'When are you seeing tracksuit pants man again?'


Poor, poor, poor man, his only crime was a crime of fashion and a tiny little dating faux pas. I wonder if his gravestone will remember him as tracksuit pants man as well.

Would it be heartless of me to mention 'heart attack man', who had a heart attack early on in the dating game and has since passed away, bless him....or my friend whom a clairvoyant once foretold would next date a woman who was (and I am quoting the clairvoyant here) 'mutton dressed as lamb'... which meant that subsequently, every woman this friend showed any interest at all in, the rest of us would look over and consider if she was in fact 'mutton dressed as lamb'. Terrible of us I know... but I personally blame the clairvoyant.

There is also (and let me finish on a more harmless note), my friend who dated a man who had 500 cd's and was forever referred to as '500cd'. To this day I have no idea what his actual  name was......



The Ugly:  Work colleagues and  inappropriate disclosures.

Speaking of  inappropriateness, a while back an ex manager of mine bragged to the whole team that they regularly stole fruit and veg from the supermarket. What makes this worse is that this person was in a role where we were meant to be modeling appropriate behavior and enforcing rights and laws.

This manager bragged that they would use the self service at the supermarket checkout and scan more expensive items through as cheaper ones. For example, broccolini  was put through as broccoli. Truss and hydroponic tomatoes put through as standard tomatoes.This manager then disclosed that their partner would take hydroponic and truss tomatoes off the stems and pretend that they are standard el-cheapo tomatoes... once a supermarket staff member overseeing the self-serv machines pointed out that the tomatoes were in fact the more expensive hydroponic tomatoes, but my old mangers partner ARGUED this was not true and kept arguing until they got away with it... the manger then said, "what we learned from that was to go the supermarket during peak times so that there is less chance of being monitored and caught"....
Yep... My face must have given away my disgust, as my then manager said in front of the team  'oh Matthew doesn't approve'... Hell no! I don't, but in this instance I was more subtle and responded with a simple 'I didn't say anything'. No I didn't say anything, but my expression did.

Of course after this my friends and I referred to this manger in conversation as 'light fingers', 'the thief' or 'the self serve check out thief'. Can you blame us?

People and faces - April 2013

I thought I would share a couple of photographs of the people and faces I have taken so far this year.
Much thanks to everyone (and the respective parents), for allowing me to plast your images (or your childs) on the internet.


Seeing Jan and the world in Black,White and Colour:

 

 

Nuria's wedding- Nuria:

Nuria's wedding- her sister Marian:

Who said kids are cute?
My nephew Jacques demonstrates my point- I think I'll take two of these....:

Ok, now speaking of cute..... Spot the cute one below.

Is it...

a) Dean

b) My nephew Jacques (again, but this time cuter! and let's not forget his friend Vincent who is on the right):

c) My second cousin (or is it my cousin once removed?)- Cooper:

or is it
d) me (picture kindly taken by Dean).

Yep, according to my mum and 97% of polled people, the answer is d.


all photographs copyright matthew schiavello 2013 (except where taken by others, then the copyright is owned by the stated photographer).

All-Female Bands

How much do all-female bands rock?
Recently I was chatting with a friend and the topic of all-female bands came up. We both started talking excitedly about how much we love ladies with guitars and particularly, all-female bands... before you could say 'can you believe that in this day and age that females are still disgracefully treated like second class citizens?!' we started rattling off a list of all-girl bands that we loved! Upon returning home, I thought 'I have to blog about this and share the love!!'

So here are a few of the great all-female bands that had come up in our conversation:



The Spazzys

The Shambelles

Electrelane- 'To the east'


Shonen Knife

The Runaways

The Slits- 'Typical girls'



Chicks on speed

The Raincoats

The 5, 6, 7, 8's- 'I'm Blue' (from the film kill Bill Vol 1)


Sleater-Kinney

L7

Ummm, did someone say all-female Chinese punk rock? If so then you will LOVE:
Hang on the box - 'Now I wanna say apology to you'



The Donna's

Stonefield


Luscious Jackson- 'Lady fingers'





Now, this is very cheeky I know, but here are a couple of almost all-female bands (does a male drummer really count?):

that dog- 'never say never'


The Breeders- 'Divine hammer' (as a friend and I were listening to this track on a road trip, my friend  said '"I love this song, but what the hell is a 'divine hammer?".. I replied "no idea, but who cares? this song is cool". My friend agreed and we kept singing lines like:

"I'm just looking for one divine hammer
I'd bang it all day
Oh the carpenter goes bang
Bang bang
I'm just looking for one divine hammer
one divine hammer"

The Breeders- 'Divine hammer'



If you have a favourite all-female band that isn't mentioned.. then please comment and mention away!

"Welcome to my humble home" said Be Free.

There was a notification- tomorrow from 9am come visit."Enter via the back alley", we were told. I knew the place, it was in North Fitzroy and used to be a squat. It had been burnt out a while back. Some speculated the owners doing an insurance job... Right now it had become Be Free's home.
A mate and I went over. Quietly walking through the back alley, we sneaked through the gap in the rear fence and then trampled over sheets of corrugated roofing that were strewn across the ground. Upon entering the house I was mindful that it was an OH & S nightmare, what was left of the roof could collapse at any moment.. but it was all worthwhile to visit Be Free's humble home....


As we enter:

Closer shot of the art work and hand written note to the squat 'rest in peace'.

The Kitchen/Dining area:

What was left of the roof:

All of these images need to be seen in the wider context of the rooms they inhabit....I am just showing you a glimpse.. you need to see it for yourself !

All photographs copyright matthew schiavello 2013
Art is of course copyright of the artist Be Free.