Great moments over the weekend

Ceremonies: The marriage of fred_mouse and artisanat will remain in my happy memories for a long time – the vows were especially charming and more people should insert disclaimers in the future. Congratulations.

Entertainment: We were all Cultural and went to see ”Conductor Laureate Vladimir Verbitsky, cellist Gautier Capucon and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra as they perform a romantic, Russian musical feast” at mynxii’s urging (and thank you very much for doing so). I utterly failed to identify a bassoon (looks like very ornamental plumbing).

Puppy sitting: We collected three bonus dogs this weekend and having all four of them holding complicated doggy politics in the kitchen was no joke. This mostly involves working out who gets to sleep on the humans as opposed to just near them. Bosworth continually charms me with his quizzical looks. I recommend not letting all four sleep in your bedroom as getting out of bed the next day is challenging.

Domestic: Cracked the back shed for the first time in months and found ascetic_hedony’s long lost laundry then mowed the front lawn for which my shoulders should forgive me in about two more days.

His Master's Voice: The Corruption of Public Debate under Howard

A public lecture delivered by David Marr. He's articulate, charming and a good public speaker.

( Lecture blurb )

David talked about the Australian tendancy to ban things, about our authority loving country, about techniques for silencing public debate and about how our politicians can tell lies and not end their careers.

I wasn't aware that representatives from various Australian media organisations have formed a group to publicly lobby for the government to "relax some of the hundreds of bans preventing you from knowing about the way you are governed". I'm appalled.

It was a strange to talk to go to because we are the converted and rather than heading off to discuss for the next several hours, we nodded, said 'ain't that the truth brother' and went home.

I lie; maharetr and I then spent the next hour batting back and forth different experiences of truth telling and engagement and speculating about Australian Cultural inhibitions.