blog graveyard of DOOM index                                                                                                           <  |  >



Booty.
19th April 2004, 3.55pm

1) L'air du Temps 1985 (audiocassette), 10c - RSPCA Op Shop, Castlemaine

Containing such classic pop-Français chart-toppers (or should that be dessus du défilé populaire de cou?) as Julien Clerc's "La Fille aux Bas Nylon", Yves Simon's "Amazoniaque" and Isabelle Adjani's (yes, that Isabelle Adjani) "Marine", described by Coup de Fracas magazine as "Simplement la méditation néoclassique la plus remarquable sur les thèmes universels du fromage, de la perte, de la solitude et de la langue de l'amour."

2) Hints on Mediumistic Development (New Edition) by Ursula Roberts, 20c - Chewton Market, Chewton

The author of Look at the Aura: and Learn and Hints on Spiritual Unfoldment provides a basic guide to developing the skills required to communicate with the spirit world."Use your reason and test the spirits. If they flatter you, or tell you that you will be, for instance, "a bride of Christ", or that you are a reincarnation of Jesus, or that you will be the greatest medium ever born, then beware - for these spirits invariably belong to the realm of the deceiving spirits, and it is your vanity which has made it possible for them to draw near you."

3) The George Benson Collection (audiocassette), 10c - RSPCA Op Shop, Castlemaine.

Featuring "Give me the Night", "Turn Your Love Around", "Breezin'" and a truly unique version of "The Greatest Love of All". According to the liner notes, this cassette is "equivalent to two LPs".

4) Women Fly When Men Aren't Watching by Sara Maitland (short story collection), $4.80 - Smith's Bazaar, Campbell's Creek

Smith's is an amazing second-hand book shack on the road from Campbell's Creek to Castlemaine, full of dust and old magazines and shelf after shelf after room after room of books. Hard to drive past, even if you've been there the day before. Something might turn up. Better just have a quick look.

Women Fly caught my eye with its title, and the title of one of the stories in the collection: "The Loveliness of the Long Distance Runner", which is evocative of the best puns of Billy Bragg. Three stories in I'm hooked. Maitland is deft, witty, engaging and all those other adjectives you use to describe stories that hook you in like a really good metaphor about hooking someone in. "The Lady Artemis", about a hunter turned into a stag by the Greek goddess, is hypnotic and sensual; "The Tale of the Beautiful Princess Kalito" is perversely delightful and heavily sarcasm-laden in its portrayal of foot-binding practises; and "Apple Picking" seduces with its buttery apple dessert recipes just in time to whip your appetite away with the twist at the end. More, please.

5) When the Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs, 50c - Chewton Market, Chewton

An endearingly sweet and heart-breaking graphic novel about an English pensioner couple dealing with the aftermath of a nuclear attack.

6) Zenyatta Mondatta by The Police (audiocassette), 10c - RSPCA Op Shop, Castlemaine.

Irreparably chewed up by the cassette player in Catherine's kitchen.  

Total expenditure: $5.80.

blog graveyard of DOOM index                                                                                                           <  |  >