Inspired by ambiguity, lets take a moment to check out the Top 10 Lesbian-ish Men I just accidentally found. Personally I think all these men are hot. I also think they’d look great in skirts (where was the survey question: do you prefer cross-dressing men who look kind of like girls or gorgeous lesbians who kind of look like boys…like Daniela Sea in Itty Bitty Titty Committee?”). I must admit I am a little surprised that Johnny Depp didn’t take out the number one spot, having heard recently about some kind of Johnny Depp Lesbian Facebook Appreciation Group*. But Jake Gyllenhaal, fair call. And he gets extra points for having a hot sister. (I love pussy-bow blouses).

I think Cillian Murphy should be on the list too, but I’m not sure my opinion actually counts or if Cillian can’t be included because he’s really some sort of beautiful alien like David Bowie.

From reading the comments on that blog post I’ve just discovered a new appreciation for Ville Valo. He’s the frontman of Finnish rock band H.I.M….which means there is a slim chance we could be related (great great grandad being the harbour master in Helsinki and all). But even if we were related we’d be very distant cousins or something so it’s probably still cool to be lustfully youtubing him. Not sure about the music yet but I love the clips.

So on that note I’m going to bed to do a bit of reading (sorry, no lesbian erotica tonight, I’m catching up with The Elegant Universe -what do you mean, string theory isn’t as sexy? Keep an eye out for an upcoming post about hot theoretical physicists). And I’d like to thank Scientific American Mind for attempting to label me, since in a round-about way it led me to discover a Finnish rock band.

*probably not the actual name of the group

I don’t even remember the boys strutting down the candlelit runway but Jughead Jones and Frankie Trouble were playing some radical tracks throughout the night. And it’s always lovely to spend some time with M.Dambinatrix and HardCormac.

Right now I’m obsessed with Lady Gaga’s Paparazzi clip (the long version full of Alexander Skarsgard) and Jakwob’s remix of Ellie Goulding’s Starry Eyed

On the same titillating theme of dangerous curves and art supplies I spent a hefty portion of Thursday night painting a lovely burlesque model forThe New Scum show at Versus gallery, curated by the exuberant Miss Dambinatrix. And when I say I was painting my model, I mean I was literally painting her. Apparently having ones’ arms painted is incredibly sensual. There are some work-in-progress photos at the link above, but none showing the finished piece just yet. There was lots of posing afterwards though so I’ll track some pics down soon.

In the background I’ve been reading Anais Nin’s journal of smut Henry and June… Anais’ sexual exploits come across as quite evil. I guess I might read Incest next, and I’ve promised myself I’m going to make another attempt at reading Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer, even though it irritates me. The Miller in the journal is so different from the Miller who seeps out of his own books.

Not sure what I’m doing today. It’s really nice just doing nothing.
x

Hoping there might be a way to record some gameplay…I’m exploring new adventures in live digital drawing/vj stuff. Last night I did a drawing session supporting Simulcast with graphics for Chip Sandwich a new chaotic chiptunes mini event my flatmate is running. Dot.ay and Crazy Hearse played amidst a sea of yellow balloons. Was great, but hard to wade through the balloons to get to our gear so I wasn’t too sad when most of them burst during the show (and it meant we didn’t have to bring too many home). Not sure when the next mischief is happening, but hopefully sooner than later.

Just to make sure I stay ridiculously busy I’ve also landed a volunteer position as art director of lip magazine. Easing into it still but I’ll be doing a lot more with the next issue.

Been a bit cold for hooping in the evening but I’m still wiggling away. I’ve managed to move on from the hideous bruised elbows I was getting while in the early stages of chest hooping. Now it happily goes all the way up to my neck and I can get my arms out and in and…eh, I know, I need video.

Now my hands are cold and it’s time for bed. Have a photoshop disaster.
xx

Smooth.

My sister: “Oh, the romance language!”. Thanks sis.
James: “Is he like your last french teacher?”. I decline to comment.
etc etc etc

So I have renewed my efforts in order to have a conversation without accidentally talking about… things, below the belt/above the knee. In between grammar drills I’ve dragged out the old podcasts and have been listening to Learn French by Podcast and One thing in a French Day. There are some crap podcasts out there but these two are really good..

In hooping news, I was a bit slack for a couple of weeks and now I’ve picked it up again. I could actually feel my hooping brain maps shrinking. According to The Brain the Changes Itself it’s all about use it or lose it, so I’m making sure I use it. I seem to be back to where I was now, and am seeing improvements in the chest-hooping department.

I’ve also been roller skating the past couple of weekends and I haven’t broken anything – hooray! Aaand I went to a roller derby and it was freakin cool. Since we are talking about rollerskating it’s time to watch M83′s Kim & Jessie. Do it. Watch it. I promise it’s great.

In other exciting news Em and I have started work on a publication for Plank(!). Anyone want to give us money to print it?

xx Jen

Then I dropped into the Australian Financial Review coference at the Hilton, had some lunch, took notes on my boss’ talk, before heading to my hotel. I stopped on the way and bought a cute pair of black velour shoes for $10. My feet were a bit tired, I really needed them. I thought I might go to the Curvy exhibition but after dinner at one of the Vietnamese places downstairs I was so exhausted I just curled up in bed.

I’m going to wrap this up tomorrow but for now I’ll just leave this, which I’m obsessed with. More on Sia’s Buttons tomorrow.

night. x

Ok, Monday, continuing on. So Qwux has done a pretty decent SP09 wrap-up over on his blog If Forever Exists so I won’t re-hash it all. Key points of difference were that I could have listened to Kris Moyes go on and on and on. Could we have traded Tamara and Dean’s time maybe, or Ron English? They were all very good at what they do but I found these couple of sessions quite tiresome.

My other favourite part was hearing people talk about dealing with, lets call them “problem” clients and the boring shit-kicking side of things. Like Daniela Federici reminding us all that hey, sometimes you’re not photographing celebrities, you’re shooting easter egg catalogues, or Kate Gibb dealing with superstars who don’t see eye to eye with her creative ideas – and that’s ok, that’s just part of it.

XYZ Studios also really struck a chord with me and I can see some really interesting applications for that expensive diploma in animation I keep tucked away. Get past games animation and bring in some traditional elements and suddenly it’s all cool and fun again.

Speaking of games, I laughed so hard in the Digital Domain session. Vernon spoke about making the Gears of War trailor, and how it was directed/shot from within the game engine itself. Not being familiar with gamers, Vernon was amazed to see the gaming community embracing the trailer with such enthusiasm – in one instance someone was comparing the character in the trailor with a screenshot from the game, counting polygons to check if they were the same. I’m not telling this right. It was funny. Maybe you had to be there. Anyway, so it went viral in a flash. I’m not a fan of the FPS genre, but snaps for DD for making something cool. Perhaps the lesson here is don’t try to trick people into viralising some sensational piece of trash, just make something awesome and we’ll happily spread it?

Finally, Timba Smits sounds quite mad in a good way. My favourite part was when he recalled spending hours redrawing some lettering in the same style an artist had used so that the title of his magazine feature could match the art, only to have the artist get back to him and say “cool man, but you could have just asked, I’ve got the whole alphabet”. Ouch. That sums him up quite well I think, obsessive attention to detail, dedicated to making everything match. The overall message I got from him and really from everyone was to not worry if you don’t have the skills or no-one will hire you, just do it anyway.

And that, was my Semi Permanent 2009. Great speakers punctuated by seagulls, delicious Vietnamese and Japanese food from pokey little restaurants in China town and four glorious days not having to share a bathroom. Was really lovely to get away. Only back for a little over 24 hrs but I’m already plotting my next trip to Melbourne in a few weeks.

First time I’ve used the free online WordPress…think I’ll buy CSS editing capabilities asap.

ciao kittens

x