The Tumbling Tosca

Jun 132008

I’m no great lover of opera though I can happily listen to some of the great arias when removed from their pretentious surroundings. This morning on Australian Classic FM, they were playing the final scene of Puccini’s ‘Tosca’. Unfortunately this scene contains nothing I can claim to like listening to either.

However they did relate the tale of how the late great Eve Turner somewhat annoyed the stage hands throughout the opera’s run at the Lyric in Chicago back in the early 1940′s, with the result that they took their revenge. This was accomplished at the final scene where Tosca throws herself to her death from the walls of the church when instead of the soft blankets she usually found underneath her… she landed on a trampoline.

Much to the surprise (and laughter) of the audience, Tosca reappeared several times behind the wall!

Of course it could all be apocryphal but as far as I know nobody has yet denied it and it’s a great story.

Unlucky for some.

Environment No Responses »

Jun 132008

Dropped into the petrol station this morning to fill up ready for the weekend and as you can see from the picture, it cost me AU$107.63 in total.

Petrol Prices June 2008 - Australia I commented on the price to a friend and said we only paid 68c a litre when we arrived here. She told me back in 1971 she could fill her car for 17c a litre!! She recalled filling the tank of her Honda 90 for 20c!!

Of course since then world demand for oil has escalated and Middle Eastern oil producers flexed their muscles after realising how the Western world was exploiting their resources.

It can’t last of course. For years people have been claiming the resources are finite and will soon be used up, yet until the recent explosion of affluence in China, there has never been any real sign of it happening, and there is now a real fear it will happen sooner rather than later. Yes there are unexplored oil fields to be
exploited but common sense tells us that even these will be used, and soon!

The answer? Well one would be to start producing oil from crops… but as this increases, so world food production has decreased with the result that basic necessities has risen dramatically in price leaving millions in danger of starvation. The obvious alternative is to reduce dependence on oil, but this is proving harder than you’d think… despite rapidly increasing costs to consumers!

Perhaps the best long term answer would be to shift to renewable resources such as utilising solar energy, but research into sustainable energy sources isn’t being seriously followed up by the largest oil consuming countries.

If we’re to maintain our current standards of living into the next centuries then people need to act now… if it isn’t already too late. Our limited oil reserves should be put to more important uses than moving small numbers of people around the planet, consumption needs to be curtailed and soon, but the only way to do this is to provide an alternative that isn’t being seriously looked for. Meanwhile we bury our heads in the sand and wait for a miracle.

Waterless washing machine – a step too far.

Environment No Responses »

Jun 112008

Story here culled from from news.com about a new type of washing machine (called Xeros?) developed in the UK that uses just one cup of water, yet cleans a full wash and leaves the clothes virtually dry. Seems instead of all that water, the machine uses the cupful to loosen the dirt, then 20 kilos of plastic chips absorb and remove it leaving the clothes fresh and clean.

Well ok the chips can be used a 100 times, the machine uses far less water and energy than the usual machines, and yet… whilst it all sounds good in theory, I’m wondering how much water and energy are actually going to be saved in total.

For example, how much energy and water will be used to create the chips? And 20 kilos is one hell of a lot of plastic to be using for just 100 cycles of a washing machine!

In our house for example, the wife handles the washing and does uses at least 6 – 10 full loads a week. This means we’d need to buy a new load of ‘chips’ every couple of months, and that depends on how dirty the clothes get. The dirtier they are, the fewer times you can use them.

So if this technology took off, instead of using billions of litres of a renewable and recyclable element like water… we could end up using untold millions of tonnes of plastics with god only knows what effects on the environment. Multiply the 20 kilos with just the 30,000,000 dwellings in the UK and you begin to see the *massive* disposal issues that could arise if it was adopted.

Can these things be recycled? If so, how much does it cost to do that and will that use more energy and water than using the old fashioned machines to begin with?

Seems like ‘progress’ for the sake of progress to me and hang the consequences. Maybe we should all get back to the river and start bashing our clothes with rocks again??

People of the Book

General Ramblings 2 Responses »

Jun 092008

Want a good read? How about a *great* read?? Well I picked up ‘People of the book’ by Geraldine Brooks expecting to find the literary equivalent of a chick flick as the wife had read it cover to cover in a few days and highly recommended it… not the best of starts I thought.

Still, after sitting on my desk for the best part of a month I finally picked it up… and read it almost straight through cover to cover.

The subject of the story was the conservation efforts about a book, the Sarajevo Haggadah to be precise. Yes it’s fiction, but it is quite realistic in the telling and covers the history of the book and the people who protected it and brought it through to the 20th Century.

A bit dry?? Nope… in parts really exciting. If I was you I’d buy it, especially via the picture link, but ordering it through the library would be just as good tho probably a little longer.

To order elsewhere, the detail you’ll need are:

“People of the Book” by Geraldine Brooks, Harper Collins 2008, ABN 36 009 913 517, ISBN 978 0 7322 8037 6 (pbk.) – I hope that’s enough information!

Six of one… five of the other.

General Ramblings No Responses »

Jun 092008

I like finding things like this out in the wide world. No idea why I spot them when other people just pass by… or maybe they do see them and choose to ignore it. Either way, this I saw in the local ‘Lincraft‘ store (Lincraft sell lots of stuff for craft, dressmaking and the like – great place for a rummage!). We’d gone in to buy ‘things’ for the daughters Roman shield but came away with just the felt for the backing.

five in one... or six? I suppose looking at it, the reason I thought it was odd isn’t as obvious as it might be…. but look again for the little mistake.

Well, In case you’re wondering the point isn’t the decoration on the hammers, as interesting as that decoration is. To be fair I thought they were quite attractive in their own way, though admittedly not the sort of thing to wander on to a building site with… even in Wales.

Besides, I’d have thought the first time the tool was used in anger the decoration (enamel?) would flake off or/and shatter which would sort of destroy not just the hammer but the purpose of buying it.

Nope. The reason it caught my eye is that the box the tools were supplied in clearly describes them as a “6 in 1 Hammer Driver” and yet whoever drew up the sales blurb on the poster beneath, declares it to be a “5 in 1 Hammer”.

Obviously they can’t both be right so I’d assume the manufacturer has the hammer nailed, so to speak which means some ‘marketing guru’ at Lincraft needs a boot up the backside for their lack of attention to detail !!

Well alright it was hardly an earth-shaking error, but us pedants find this sort of thing aggravating. Oi… you with the dirty mind… that’s “pedant“… look it up!!

What an appetite enhancing name!!

General Ramblings No Responses »

Jun 082008

On the subject of ‘odd holiday photos’, we found this tasty offering on sale at a Parisian sidewalk cafe.

Luckily it didn’t taste anywhere near as bad as it looks… !
Tasty drink? Not!

Trannies rule in South Wales?

General Ramblings No Responses »

Jun 082008

I was scrolling through one of the two CD’s we have of photos from our holiday in the UK. Apart from the family photos (some of which which I’ll try to upload to the gallery later) I found this interesting little shot!

This display was at the McArthur Glen, Designer Outlet outside Bridgend. The wife spent £2,000 – £3000 buying clothes perhaps because she forgot the 2:1 difference between Aussie dollars and British pounds!?!

Perhaps Not? To be fair it was worth the cost. Some items were 50% below original retail price and the quality showed. We’d already spent several hours meandering around Oxford and Bond Streets in London but found nothing she liked.

Either way, it raises interesting questions about guys around the South Wales area. Is this really a sample of the underwear they’d expect to wear!?!

If so, things have certainly changed since the mines closed. My grandfather and his mates would have dropped dead before wearing an ‘over the shoulder boulder holder’.

Jackpot won!

MoneyMaking 1 Response »

Jun 062008

The Powerball jackpot which eventually accumulated to AU$58,000,000 has been won… by a single person… but sadly *not* by anyone in New South Wales so it looks as if the wife still has to go to work today.

Still, there’s always next week to look forward to.

Pink Floyd, “The Wall” revisited.

Entertainment 1 Response »

Jun 052008

Revisiting and listening to a lot of the Floyd tracks over the past few weeks reminded me the film of “The Wall” existed so I sat around for a while at the computer yesterday watching it. Whilst nominally a Pink Floyd production, other than some credit for musical collaboration, it is totally credited to Roger Waters, a fact which probably makes Dave Gilmour more pleased than annoyed.

I’d all bar entirely forgotten about it except for the vague memory of the ‘marching hammer’ video that was accompanied the release of the title track and of course the song itself.

Bob Geldorf - The Wall (1979)

For a start I’d totally forgotten Bob Geldorf starred as Pink! Hard to believe but true. I’d also forgotten most of the other tracks… just as well probably because I can’t say I felt they stood up to the test of time as well as their other more ‘mainstream’ music. This was probably because much of the film revolved around RG’s cathartic attempts to blame everyone he’d ever met in his life for all the psychological demons he felt he was carrying around with him

Some of the film was quite creepy… to say the least… but Pink’s deterioration into insanity was very cleverly done though some of the violence was perhaps overdone.

Having had this wild burst of nostalgia I’ve gone out and sourced The Who’s, Quadrophenia which was released as a film in 1979 roughly around the same time that The Wall was released as an album. Perhaps it was the success of Quad that encouraged RW to embark on the project that was to culminate in the release of The Wall a few years later… not sure. Of the two I think Quad works better as a film, though perhaps musically The Wall holds its ground a little more firmly, dated though it is.

Overall, though the film reached out from the corners of my mind I can’t say I found it pleasant to either watch or listen to despite the excellent production. For me the film was disturbing so I doubt I’ll be watching it again soon. Still, it was good in some ways to remind myself of what was one of the first ‘rock operas’ ever written, and perhaps one of the longest rock videos ever made!

Sexperts!

Health No Responses »

Jun 042008

As usual when having a mid-morning cuppa, I was perusing the online version of one of the local rags. In this case it was the Sydney Morning Herald and saw for the first time a section at the bottom right of the page entitled’ Videos’. Nothing much being in the news I went to have a look. You can get to them easily by clicking on this link.

As you’ll see there is a list of ‘topics’ to look at which are, in order, Ask Sam, The Girls Guide, Fashion, Essential Baby, About the House, Health and Fitness, and Sexperts.

Being a bloke the one that attracted my interest first was the last one… Sexperts. So what was on offer?

Surprisingly enough, what was on offer was a lot of highly useful if occasionally uncomfortable information about, of course, sex.

It seems each heading releases a short video each week with useful information. For ‘Sexperts’ this weeks video discussed Sexual Injuries, and very nasty some of them were… no examples, just discussion with a few drawn images (and they were painful enough). Previous weeks available were on Sex Surrogates, Impotency, STD’s, and Genital Piercing.

I ought to point out that none of the stuff I saw is in the least erotic… but it *is* informative so again I’d suggest popping over there and having a look if you’ve a few minutes to spare. You might just learn something. I for example (as I sit here squirming with my legs crossed and eyes watering in sympathy) have learned never to try some of the things that caused injury to the guys!

It was painful enough just hearing about them!

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