Time to catch up with a few events of recent times. First off, Supanova. I went to this with Sam last Saturday at Olympic Park. There weren’t too many celebs we were that interested in so it was a good chance to enjoy the rest of the event properly. We started off with a publishing seminar where we heard some useful things from Garth Nix as a successful author with experience in the industry and from a couple of publishers. The bookseller representative I have to admit thought she had more useful info than she did and showed her distinct dislike of e-books a little too clearly. Anyway it was useful and we later had a chat with Caroline Lowry of D-Publishing who is likely to hear from me again when I finish something worth publishing.
From there we met up with our good friend Erin, moseyed about the stores, listened to Christopher Lloyd answer some fairly inane questions (for the most part) and met a few more people. Artists’ Alley was of course home to some interesting and inspiring people. Last year we found Girl Quirky and Goblin Design and bought a few prints, since then Sam has done a workshop series with Girl Quirky, so we went back to say hi to them and of course buy more prints. We then stumbled across Selina Fenech and her beautiful fairy-based artworks and her silent graphic novel Fallen.
Having enjoyed hearing him in the seminar and learning that he’s a prominent Australian fantasy author, I decided I should buy a book by Garth Nix and since he was signing at the time we got it signed, and I must say he’s a really nice guy, very encouraging of writing in general. We then heard more from him in a fantasy writing seminar which also featured Marianne de Pierres and Kate Forsyth. There were some encouraging words spoken indeed. I’m not sure I learnt much specifically but many ideas were reinforced and felt strangely confident by the end of it. I’ve since started reading Marianne’s Burn Bright, which we bought last year at Supanova and she signed then, and I plan to buy one of Kate’s novels electronically – partly for convenience of reading it at work and partly to annoy the bookseller from the publishing seminar.
The other event I want to mention is the Sydney Dance Company show The Land of Yes & The Land of No. I managed to win a double pass to this via Australian Stage so Sam and I went down to the Riverside Theatre in Parramatta for opening night. Now, I’m not that into modern dance I do confess, my previous experiences of it were some rather ... well, pretentious shall we say, shows at The Performance Space back in my uni days. My opinion was not high. This show however changed that and you can see the difference between a high-quality company and a bunch of people being “artistic” (oh I’m an opinionated so-and-so I know but there you have it).
Anyway, I found this show quite fascinating in its way and the performance was elegant, graceful and beautiful. I didn’t have a way to reference what was happening so much of it remains an enigma to me, but there were some scenes I could get the gist of. I found myself quite in awe of the physical mastery of the dancers themselves and viewed the movements with the music so they became one expression. I think if there were a way to combine, seamlessly, the movement of dance with the poetry of written performance that would be my ideal theatre.
Just a general development, I rearranged my computer desk to create a more efficient and hopefully inspiring workspace. Books right in front of me and more sunlight – it has to be a good thing.
Keep Dreaming!
From there we met up with our good friend Erin, moseyed about the stores, listened to Christopher Lloyd answer some fairly inane questions (for the most part) and met a few more people. Artists’ Alley was of course home to some interesting and inspiring people. Last year we found Girl Quirky and Goblin Design and bought a few prints, since then Sam has done a workshop series with Girl Quirky, so we went back to say hi to them and of course buy more prints. We then stumbled across Selina Fenech and her beautiful fairy-based artworks and her silent graphic novel Fallen.
Having enjoyed hearing him in the seminar and learning that he’s a prominent Australian fantasy author, I decided I should buy a book by Garth Nix and since he was signing at the time we got it signed, and I must say he’s a really nice guy, very encouraging of writing in general. We then heard more from him in a fantasy writing seminar which also featured Marianne de Pierres and Kate Forsyth. There were some encouraging words spoken indeed. I’m not sure I learnt much specifically but many ideas were reinforced and felt strangely confident by the end of it. I’ve since started reading Marianne’s Burn Bright, which we bought last year at Supanova and she signed then, and I plan to buy one of Kate’s novels electronically – partly for convenience of reading it at work and partly to annoy the bookseller from the publishing seminar.
The other event I want to mention is the Sydney Dance Company show The Land of Yes & The Land of No. I managed to win a double pass to this via Australian Stage so Sam and I went down to the Riverside Theatre in Parramatta for opening night. Now, I’m not that into modern dance I do confess, my previous experiences of it were some rather ... well, pretentious shall we say, shows at The Performance Space back in my uni days. My opinion was not high. This show however changed that and you can see the difference between a high-quality company and a bunch of people being “artistic” (oh I’m an opinionated so-and-so I know but there you have it).
Anyway, I found this show quite fascinating in its way and the performance was elegant, graceful and beautiful. I didn’t have a way to reference what was happening so much of it remains an enigma to me, but there were some scenes I could get the gist of. I found myself quite in awe of the physical mastery of the dancers themselves and viewed the movements with the music so they became one expression. I think if there were a way to combine, seamlessly, the movement of dance with the poetry of written performance that would be my ideal theatre.
Just a general development, I rearranged my computer desk to create a more efficient and hopefully inspiring workspace. Books right in front of me and more sunlight – it has to be a good thing.
Keep Dreaming!
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