lightning strikes twice

The Selby is fantastic!

Great story about a basketball legend and his life and influence in Harlem: Harlem When

Dear Freddie,

This month you’re becoming a little person!  Just when we were getting so tired and frustrated with it all, you started getting used to being out of the womb, and giving us amazing smiles all the time.  You recognise our faces now, and you’re sleeping for long stretches at night.  We’re so proud of you, and love taking you to visit our friends.  

Sometimes though, it just gets to be a bit much for you, and you’ll need lots of cuddles to make you feel better, but we’re okay with that.  Your little face gets so tight and red and you scream so loud and long when you’ve had too much that we think you’re going to explode.  But we’ve seen some of the delights of being a parent, and how enjoyable you can be as a kid, so we can handle it better now.

Also, your mother is an amazing woman who gives you everything she’s got, never forget that.

Lots of love,

Mum & Dad

Just finished reading a collection of Albert Camus’s essays, including The Myth of Sisyphus.  Exceedingly well written, where each sentence and phrase is so dense with meaning that any simplification is certain to lose something.  I suspect that the translation from the French may not have aged so well, because the prose feels a little stilted in sections.

The Myth of Sisyphus is Camus’s reactions to the concept of suicide.  In short he reasons that life is absurd, and that knowledge of this absurdity forces a man to question whether there is any point in living.  Camus responds by saying that in the face of the absurdity, one must both accept this and revolt against it.  It finishes with the myth of Sisyphus, who is consigned to eternally  moving a large stone up a hill, only to have it tumble back to the bottom.  Camus imagines that Sisyphus has resigned himself to his fate, and is actually rather happy.

The other essays are similarly interesting but deal with more digestable topics, and in particular his geographical descriptions of Algiers and Oran include much clever imagery.

• The Black Balloon – unfortunately a not very good Australian film.  The main drawcard seemed to be that it features Gemma Ward, and she certainly gave her best, but with the body and accent of an international model, she just seemed out of place.  Also, the incessant 80s/90s styling was just a distraction, and far too contrived to add anything to the film.  The only realy point worth noting was that it made me think about autism (particularly as a new dad), but not much else.
• Slumdog Millionaire – fantastic film from the director of Trainspotting and 28 Days Later, this follows a young boy who makes it onto ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’, and the story that gets told through the questions that he is asked.  The love story that unfolds is touching, and the view of the Mumbai slums is telling, if somewhat romanticised.  8/10
• Vicky Christina Barcelona - not sure why this has been heralded as a ‘return to form’ for Woody Allen, because it seems about as good as usual — I don’t think he ever lost his form, a Woody Allen film is a Woody Allen film.  Anyway, this is a interesting diversion into the way people frame themselves, and the interplay between romantic desires and the realities of the dreams manifested.
• You Don’t Mess With The Zohan – pretty funny mindless Adam Sandler film.  The characterisations were great, particularly in the first half of the film.  Lots of fun.

My sister has an article in the Sydney Morning Herald today:

Black-tie barbie would do us proud – Opinion – smh.com.au

Wouldn’t it be nice to throw open the doors to the many Americans who have spent time working or studying in Australia, or who have visited Australia on their vacation-of-a-lifetime, or who have never owned a passport but have been saving for years so they can one day make it to Australia?

St. Mary’s is a college just out of San Francisco, and their current basketball team features five Aussies, most notably Patrick Mills, the young phenom from Canberra who also featured for the Boomers in the Beijing Olympics.  ESPN has really come to the party by scheduling a whole raft of St. Mary’s Gaels games this season — I’ve probably seen about four or five already, whereas last season they were only on once.  They’re an exciting team to watch, with bigs Samhan and Simpson dominant in the paint, along with Patty Mills, and Carlin Hughes being a dynamic and busy backcourt duo.  Here’s hoping they make it a couple of rounds into the NCAA tournament, as with Patty playing so well and the NBA beckoning, they may not have him for much longer.

I love it! Also see KNITTA PLEASE

Graffiti artist spins a new kind of yarn – Arts – Entertainment – smh.com.au.

Dear Freddie,

Your first month with us has been, ummm, tiring.

For future reference, there has been:
- endless walks around Stanmore in the pram (more than a few between midnight and 7am)
- lots and lots and lots of night feeding, meaning Mum has only slept for two to three hours at a time
- lots of crying, for reasons we can’t decipher
- some really cute smiles
- very few trips out of the house, but a little bit of showing you off to friends

We’re very happy to have you around, but it’ll be even better when things are little more stable.

Yours forever,
Mum & Dad

This is the context in which the men we are calling “pirates” have emerged. Everyone agrees they were ordinary Somalian fishermen who at first took speedboats to try to dissuade the dumpers and trawlers, or at least wage a ‘tax’ on them. They call themselves the Volunteer Coastguard of Somalia – and it’s not hard to see why. In a surreal telephone interview, one of the pirate leaders, Sugule Ali, said their motive was “to stop illegal fishing and dumping in our waters… We don’t consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits [to be] those who illegally fish and dump in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas.” William Scott would understand those words.

via Johann Hari: You Are Being Lied to About Pirates.