Boys with Toys

B took possession of a new car on Monday. He traded in his conservative Honda sedan for a Mercedes sports coupe. I must admit it is a thing of beauty, a sleek silver machine with all mod cons or wankeries as I call them, like satellite navigation, automatic everything. Admittedly I am not a petrol head and have never learned to drive, so cars are not something I take very seriously and I normally can’t tell the difference between one car or another.

However, for B it is the attainment of an earthly desire. He’s been lusting for an expensive sports car for years and finally selected a Mercedes, based on several factors, like anti theft protection, seating etc. I had a ride in it last night, and I must admit it was comfy.

It’s a bit late for me, in terms of the song The Ballad of Lucy Jordan, to ride through Paris in a sports car with the warm wind in my hair. After all, I’m way past the age of thirty-seven. But at the age of sixty I can at least ride through Melbourne, or the Paris end of Collins Street, with the warm wind in my hair. Somehow that doesn’t quite capture the desperate romance of the original song.

Back in the days of my foolish twenties, boys with sports cars had a certain charm, and I did get to ride with a few of them.

One had a little red MG with fur lined doors and I remember my brother had a Citroen . The most memorable ride was after a wedding, where a fellow wedding guest and I took off after the celebrations in his red sports car - another MG - and went on a wild drive around Melbourne University, including the underground car park which was featured as a setting in the original Mad Max movie - then through the city to St Kilda Road. We swam in a fountain (pictured above) outside the Shrine of Remembrance, swigging Cointreau, before damply collapsing back in my little room in Parkville. In those days people did drink and drive as matter of course. It’s amazing we survived, though come to think of it, some didn’t.

Other stuff, cats included…

Yesterday we had an evaporative cooling system installed to combat the extreme heat of some of Melbourne’s summer days and nights. One of the workmen brought his dog with him – a large Labrador called Douglas. This of course alarmed the cats no end. Douglas chased Willy over the road and back again, Willy eventually taking refuge elsewhere. Lizzie took one look – eek! dog! - jumped the fence to next door and refused to come back home even when the dog had gone, maintaining a stubborn vigil on a shelf on the next door neighbour’s fence. The neighbour actually built the shelf for her some time ago as he doesn’t mind visits from our cats and provides handy fence jumping aids along the party fence. Timmy, on the other hand, held his ground and spent the day under a table, hissing if Douglas came near.

The three cats are getting on well these days, though Willy still maintains a wary distance from Timmy, unless, as was the case this morning, when he is very hungry he will barge in on Timmy’s plate and push him aside fearlessly. Lizzie has no problem with Timmy and these two elderly cats sit companionably together as if they were the best of friends.

Lunchtime Concerts return to Basement Discs

Justin Grounds @ Basement Discs - 15 Feb 2008

On this pleasant sunny day in Melbourne I took the opportunity to see the first In Store performance for the year at Basement Discs. The artist was Justin Grounds, an ex patriot English singer songwriter and multi instrumentalist. He was there promoting his latest CD “Love is Strong as Death”. It was a very impressive performance with Justin accompanying his singing with guitar and violin and a sound effects machine which added depth to his performance. He has a great voice reminiscent of Jeff Buckley and he writes intelligent and literate songs. You can listen to some of his music on My Space and watch a video or two there as well. I recommend you listen to “The Earth is A Woman” track. He played that today and I thought it was pretty gorgeous.

Next week. local Melbourne Blues band Collard, Greens & Gravy are In Store. I’ve heard them many times before and they are a great little ensemble.

Autumn Racing Carnival – Week 3

Tomorrow sees the racing program move to Moonee Valley for the running of the Group 1 Australia Stakes. It’s another sprint and Apache Cat will be endeavouring to make it two in a row. He certainly does look to be the one to beat as he handles the Moonee Valley track well and is in form. Miss Finland will be competing too, along with former top Sydney sprinter Dance Hero. It promises to be an interesting race.

Maldivian last week did not impress, so I have second thoughts on his ability to be competitive this autumn. The fillies I was interested in didn’t do too badly with Sugar Babe and Burgeis at least running strongly into second and third places in the Blue Diamond Prelude.

Several other horses in my top 30 stable are racing in Sydney tomorrow – God’s Hand, She’s Meaner, Stripper and Empire’s Choice. I’ll be following their progress through the afternoon.

Autumn Racing Carnival – Week 2

Another Group 1 race is to be run tomorrow at Caulfield. The Orr Stakes, run over 1400 metres sees the return of Maldivian who caused all the drama on Caulfield Cup day last year when, as race favourite, he reared in the barrier stalls and cut himself badly on some video equipment attached to the stall, and was subsequently scratched from the race.

As are most of the Orr Stakes field, Maldivian is a distance galloper so there is some doubt as to Maldivian’s ability to win this race, but he does look to be one of the class horses in the field and class generally prevails.

Also on the cards tomorrow are the Blue Diamond Preludes for 2 year old colts and fillies that also should be interesting to watch, especially the fillies race, where I am curious to see how fillies, like Burgeis, Sugar Babe, Piece of The Sky and Chilean Miss perform.

Other stuff…

An interesting connection between Edward Whittemore and the Myst and Uru games has come to my notice, via web stats on the Jerusalem Dreaming site. A fan of the Uru games at this site http://www.eblong.com/zarf/uru/story/lara-memoir.html has paid homage to Whittemore by composing a story that is inspired by the mythology of the computer games, but written in a Whittemore style. He’s done quite a good job of it as the Whittemore imagery and style is easily recognizable.

Currently reading…

At the moment I am half way through The Secret History of Moscow by Ekaterina Sedia, an unusual fantasy set in Moscow or rather in an alternative Moscow. I am finding it an engrossing story, ideal commuting literature. At the same time I am rereading Edward Whittemore, on the hunt for quotations to include in a prospective 2009 Whittemore Calendar. Despite the fact that I have read Whittemore’s books many times, I find it as ever a pleasure to read them again. There’s something addictive about his prose style and it is a joy to reacquaint myself with his fascinating characters. Reading the books in the light of sussing out quotes, only enhances my appreciation of Whittemore's style.

Prior to picking up The Secret History of Moscow, I read a couple of books I borrowed from my brother at Christmas. One was DBC Pierre’s Ludmila’s Broken English and the other was The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon. The former is a crazy story involving conjoined twins and Russian brides with a totally outrageous, sometimes shocking plot. I really enjoyed DBC Pierre’s Vernon God Little which won the Booker prize some years ago, and though Ludmila is a completely different kettle of fish, it is distinctly the work of DBC Pierre nonetheless. I once saw an interview with the man and he came across as a very interesting individual.

The Chabon book is excellent; I was immensely impressed with it. It is an alternate history of sorts, the novel being set in an imaginary Jewish settlement in Alaska. It is a noirish hardboiled detective mystery novel, but is much more than that. It is melancholy and haunting and not in the least a conventional detective novel. I highly recommend you read it.

Whilst on the subject of books, the publication of the 25th Anniversary Edition of Little, Big is surely imminent and I can hardly wait to receive my copy and see it in all its glory. Meanwhile, there is a very good essay by Michael Dirda on John Crowley's Aegypt Sequence in The American Scholar – read it online here. As was my opinion, Dirda concurs that it is a masterpiece. All the books in the Aegypt quartet will be back in print by the end of the year, courtesy of Overlook Press.

Kacey Jones and Becky Hobbs at the Noise Bar

Kacey Jones

The Kacey Jones and Becky Hobbs show on Friday night at the Noise Bar was quite enjoyable and I was glad I was there to see and hear it. Kacey in particular was riveting. She has a very mordant wit, and is laugh out loud funny. Her risque feminist songs were a hoot and her stage presence and presentation was cheerful and ironic. She and BecKy took turns to sing songs and I found myself looking forward to Kacey's offerings with more anticipation than to Becky's. Becky was exclusively a keyboard artist and sang more country orientated songs. She was joined at one stage by local country artist Leslie Avril who performed Becky's song "Cowgirl's Heart" with Becky providing piano accompaniment and vocal backing. I did however meet Becky before the show and she was a very sweet and friendly person and obliged me by posing for a portrait shot.

Becky Hobbs

The opening act was Snowy Townsend's Bona Fide Travellers who play a type of country rock. They were pretty good, and performed some good covers of Bob Dylan, Randy Newman among others.

Snowy Townsend's Bona Fide Travellers

All in all it was an entertaining evening and the venue, to which I had never been before, was pleasant and laid back. We managed to get seats close to the stage, so it was comfortable as well.

Update on the Lightning Stakes

Apache Cat won the Lightning Stakes yesterday and proved what a good racehorse he is. Gold Edition started the short priced favourite, but only managed to come fourth. She apparently pulled up lame, whereupon her connections announced her immediate retirement from racing. Known as the iron lady of racing, she's been a joy to follow and I for one will miss her. Now of course I'll have to replace her in my top 30 stable (below) with another horse. I think I will replace her with Marching who appears to be the favourite for the Caulfield Guineas.

2008 Autumn Racing Carnival begins on Saturday

I’ve been slack on the blogging front of late, but truth to tell there’s been little to blog about or I haven’t felt inspired to write.

Anyway, for racing enthusiasts the good news is that the Australian autumn racing season kicks off on Saturday with the first Group 1 race, the Lightning Stakes, at Flemington race course. It has a crack field of sprinters and should be a very interesting race to watch. The iron mare, Gold Edition will be contending with Miss Finland who is returning after a disappointing spring campaign. Also in the picture is my old favourite Apache Cat who could cause an upset. He races very well fresh, but then so do Gold Edition and Miss F.

The equine influenza virus crisis has now passed, so Sydney and other interstate racing clubs are back in action. Sydney has a major carnival during autumn, running time honoured and famous races such as the Golden Slipper and the Doncaster Handicap. Haradasun won the Doncaster last year. He’s been exported to Ireland, so won’t be contending in any Australian races this year, but is likely to be racing in the UK later this year.

There is no autumn super stable competition so I’ve settled for the next best thing, the autumn 2008 Top 30 competition on the Racing & Sports web site.

In this competition one selects a stable of 30 horses. One earns points according to Group level, placing etc. and score extra points if any horses in the stable run a quinella or trifecta.
It gets quite complex later on in the competition when substituting inactive horses with active runners, but I have selected my initial stable as follows:

APACHE CAT
BURGEIS
CAMARILLA
CAUSEWAY QUEEN
DESERT WAR
DEVIL MOON
DIVINE MADONNA
EFFICIENT
EMPIRES CHOICE
EREMEIN
EXCEEDINGLY GOOD
GOD'S HAND
GOLD EDITION replaced by FIUMICINO
GUILLOTINE
HERE DE ANGELS
LUCKY SECRET
MALDIVIAN
MENTALITY
MISS FINLAND
MUTAWAAJID
PURREALIST
RACING TO WIN
SEACHANGE
SHE'S MEANER
SLIDING CUBE
SNIPERS BULLET
STRIPPER
SUGAR BABE
WEEKEND HUSSLER
WONDERFUL WORLD

The above represents what I hope to be a good mix of sprinters, milers and stayers along with likely 2 year colts and fillies for the Blue Diamond and Golden Slipper. In any case they are all potential winners and I shall enjoy following their fortunes over the coming months.

Other news…
Tonight I am going to see a couple of singers from Nashville, Kacey Jones and Beccy Hobbs aka “The Shameless Hussy & the Cowgirl”. I have never heard any of their records, nor have I seen them perform before. The show is a Nu Country promotion and I have been given free admission, so I feel obliged to go, even if the music is unlikely to be to my taste. You never know, I might be pleasantly surprised, so I’m not really going with any preconceptions, other than an expectation of being entertained by undoubtedly professional artists. Both ladies are old troupers. Kacey Jones is known as a comedienne with a bent for feminist songs.