FUNNY STORY: so I thought I was eligible to vote for the Hugos already, but then I realised that I didn’t have a membership for the current WorldCon. So, a few weeks ago, I bought a supporting membership … for WorldCon 75. You know. Next year’s WorldCon.
But now it’s all sorted, I have a supporting membership to the right con, and more importantly, I have the Hugo packet.
Instead of posting last week’s linkspam on Friday, I was in Brisbane, visiting the museum shops of my youth.
Back in the day — which is to say, the early to mid 2000s — the Museum of Brisbane was a funny little museum in a basement below City Hall.
(Steph interjects: a basement in a city that floods is a TERRIBLE place for a museum, Brisbane, wth.)
(Liz adds: City Hall is above the flood zone!)
It contained your standard local history exhibits, covering Indigenous cultures, the convict era and the 1972 floods, but sometimes it also featured totally whackadoo art instalments. My favourite was the film of a guy humping a mud puddle — sans pants — and apologising over and over again to the planet.
My favourite part of the Museum of Brisbane was the shop — in fact, it was the very first museum shop I fell in love with. It carried your usual doodads and whatnots, but it also had local history books that you couldn’t get anywhere else.
I was excited to revisit the museum and its delightful little shop last week.
Continue reading “Museum Shops of the World: Museum of Brisbane”
Chapters 6 and 7 make a good pair, so I’m just doing 5 this week — in which Daphne’s less personable side makes an appearance.
Stephanie is still penguining it up in Europe, putting the “world” in “Museum shops of the”. Here, she reports on the Schwules Museum* (the asterisk is part of the name), which is dedicated to “archiving, researching and communicating the history and culture of LGBTIQ communities”.
Continue reading “Museum shops of the world: Schwules Museum*”
It’s Friday! Steph is in Europe, Liz is at home with Terrible Back Pain, but here are some links for your afternoon’s reading!
Chapter 2 ended with Gwen dooming new girl Daphne to guilt by association:
“Hallo, everyone! This is Daphne Millicent Turner, a new girl. She’s in our form and in our dormy. She travelled down in my carriage and I’m sure she’s going to be a favourite with all of us in no time!”
Oh, Gwen.
Many sausages have been eaten. (Liz ate too many and had a gluten reaction, always remember to preference gluten LAST on your ballot.) Many votes have been cast. A slightly smaller number has been counted (so far).
We … don’t seem to have a government yet?
(Has Antony Green called the election yet? Thanks for that, Our ABC!)
It seems likely that one of the major parties will end up forming a minority government with a motley crew of Greens, independents and random assorted crossbenchers — exactly what both parties and the media have been describing as a chaotic worst case scenario since 2010.
Well, suck it up, guys, minority governments are pretty common around the world, and they’re actually … quite good. The need for compromise prevents extremism, but if compromise can be achieved, the results are usually quite effective. See, for example, the Gillard government.
Whether either of the major parties is currently capable of compromise remains to be seen.
Here are some links!
21 Very Different Ways Aussies Filled Out Their Voting Forms – an account of different approaches to informal votes that ends up being infuriating (WHAT A WASTE! THIS ELECTION IS SO CLOSE, ALL OF THOSE VOTES COULD HAVE COUNTED!) rather than funny. (Content warning: penises.)
Pauline Hanson’s back in Parliament, and her agenda is quite terrifying. On the upside, it’s unlikely she’ll achieve anything on her list; the downside is that her special brand of xenophobia, anti-science and — an exciting new addition — men’s rights activism will suck up oxygen and money, and it will encourage every other bigot to speak up.
Meanwhile, Celeste Liddle says, We shouldn’t be surprised by the return of Pauline Hanson:
For years, we have seen racism bubbling away, yet politicians and the media continue to neutralise it. The rise of various nationalist groups such as Reclaim Australia, United Patriots Front and the True Blue Crew, while extreme manifestations of this socially-embedded racism, also do not occur in a vacuum. They have been buoyed by several years of anti-immigration policy; demonisation of minority communities; years of attacks on Indigenous autonomy and social programs.
Okay, now I’m REALLY mad at the informal voters:
https://twitter.com/mariekehardy/status/749767372735586304
YOU HAVE LET DOWN BATMAN, INFORMAL VOTERS
BATMAN
FIRST HIS PARENTS ARE MURDERED IN FRONT OF HIM, AND NOW THIS?
SOMETHING A BIT LIGHTER
One Thing We Learned On Election Night: Don’t Fuck With Laurie Oakes
The 19 Most WTF Moments From Election Night
I can’t seem to find an update on the recovery of the Greens volunteer who was bitten by a Liberal vollie in a scuffle on Friday night, but I hope the alleged victim is recovering — infections from bites can be nasty. Just ask almost anyone who’s met my cat!
At last, we come to the final days of this marathon eight-week election campaign. How do Americans cope with campaigns that drag on for years? Is that the reason behind their low voter turnout? Is it just coincidence that “voter burnout” almost rhymes with “lower turnout”? HAVE WE JUST CRACKED THE WHOLE CONSPIRACY?
…probably not, but here’s some stuff to read and watch while we prepare for the most important part of Australian democracy: the sausage sizzle.
Note from Liz: While Stephanie is off exploring the exotic wilds of Europe, she organised a guest post to inform, delight or horrify, depending how you feel about birbs.
This time on Birds of Australia: The Sacred Kingfisher, a very inner norf birb
Continue reading “birds of australia: the sacred kingfisher”
Stephanie’s out of the country, which means … IT’S SQUID TIME! And also, you know, time to relaunch the Malory Towers readthrough.
You can find previous posts in the series here.
Second Form at Malory Towers! Let’s go!
Darrell, Sally, Gwendoline, Mary-Lou and all the other girls from the First Term at Malory Towers are now in the second form and they are as lively as ever. Mam’zelle Dupont is still trying to be strict, Alicia plays a terrible trick with invisible chalk and Gwendoline and Daphne inevitably get into trouble.
Thanks, blurb!
Continue reading “Second Form at Malory Towers – Chapters 1 and 2”
no-award.net 