This was touched on in the book (chick-lit wedding voyeurism) that I'm reading, but is something I was pondering anyway.
How much is my sense of identity tied to my name? If I change my last name to Lee's am I giving up a part of me? Becoming a bit of him?
I've always felt my first name doesn't really describe me. Not a lot of Western names describe the person but I guess I've just never really felt like Jenni is adequate. Sometimes I'll hear my name and think "Oh yeah, weird. That's me."
If I changed my entire name would I still be the same person? Would I feel the same?
Keeping my own last name is a kind of feminist matter of pride. I don't hate my last name and I don't desperately want to get rid of it. By the same token I don't need to worry about keeping my name to pass it to the next generation because my brother's got that covered.
If I did change my name to Lee's I'd have the initials JD. Would anyone call me JD?
Party Capital gears up for huge weekend
Wellington will truly live up to its reputation as the Party Capital this weekend with city-wide music and entertainment planned for the thousands of visitors flocking to the city for the British and Irish Lions vs All Blacks Test Match.
Courtenay Place will be closed to traffic from 7pm Friday night through to early Sunday morning and the entire precinct will host a variety of music, street performances and roaming entertainment.
The festivities kick off with top indie pop/rock Wellington band Ghostplane and soulful singer Deva Mahal with her five-piece band who will perform from the lofty heights of the Paramount Theatre’s new balcony from 8.40pm.
A DJ booth on Manners Mall will see some of Wellington’s popular talent, including Barnaby Weir of the Black Seeds, spinning tunes non-stop on Friday night and then for a 12-hour stint from midday to midnight on Saturday.
And the music will be everywhere – The Whopper Chopper Sound System – a travelling DJ booth connected to, and powered by, eight of the coolest chopper bikes in town will be seen around the city streets. The iconic Whopper Chopper crew will act as party ambassadors and will be handing out Party Guides showing people how to get into the action in all four quarters of the city.
Kiwi comedy will hits the streets from midday on Saturday with buskers from around the country getting the crowd going with spectacular stunts and raucous antics. Christchurch’s crazy Motley Two (complete with mullets and mohawks and…ladders!), Wellington’s hilarious Mr Fungus and Auckland’s daring Shamus will take it in turns to keep the crowd in fits of laughter on the buskers pitch at the corner of Courtenay Place and Tory Street.
At 3.30pm the RNZAF Jazz Band will play from a stage on Courtenay Place and to get the crowds ready for the pre-match haka, the powerful Kapa Haka group from Mana College will perform. The Wellington Pipe Band will play with a 22-strong troupe marching from Courtenay Place to the stadium via the Waterfront.
And no-one will miss out on seeing the game - a huge 40-foot big screen on Courtenay Place will play the game live for those not heading off to the stadium. Tickets are still available for the Big Screen Blackout – a free family event at the Michael Fowler Centre with entertainment starting at 5pm followed a by a live screening of the Test Match. (Tickets from MFC Ticketek outlet only).
The driving rhythms of the Batucada Band will rev up the tempo after the game as they lead the crowd back along the Waterfront and into Courtenay Place. Other roaming musicians including Wellington Brass Band, Wellington Carnival Street Band and jazz group Night Train who will provide great atmosphere as people wander between bars, restaurants and venues.
Some of Wellington’s hottest bands will take to the stage with a line-up that includes funk band The Aviators, followed by The Reveals, finishing up just passed midnight with Wellington’s much loved OdESSA.
A large percentage of bars in the city are erecting marquees and have planned entertainment to ensure that the entire city will be absolutely buzzing. A special liquor ban will be in place in the central city from 5pm Friday 1 July until 6am Sunday 3 July.
I'm not sure if I like it more for the prettiness of the postcards or the voyeurism of the secrets. It's both for sure but which more???
It reminds me of notproud.com which I used to go to all the time.
I've been happier updating on livejournal for some reason.
It's too too cold, Jenni's feet are cold.
On the plus side, I only have to get through one-and-a-bit more weeks of work before my two week holiday. I call it "Jenni's adventure in Rarotonga with a little film festival at the end."
On the plus side I have a lovely new hat which I love to pieces. I have been wearing it so much Lee is concerned I'll never stop wearing it :)
Soon I shall also have a butterfly adorned scarf and long stripey fingerless gloves and legwarmers. (Note to self, measure legs)
I had a nice weekend with much relaxing and I even watched the rugby! I also made a lot of fun of the rugby but I also got a bit excited at the end there.
I am powering through the hand quilting of Rachel's quilt, I think it has something to do with the promise of knitted goodies.
I am reading Chick-lit. It's called "Who's Wedding is it Anyway?" and is about a woman who agrees to be a magzine's featured bride. This means she has to accept all the things they choose for her, such as brown rubber bridesmaid dresses. It's not terribly well written but I'm enjoying the wedding-planning-horror voyeurism.
I read the latest Alice book. Called "Alice on her Way" it was very very good and I love it to bits. Celeste has it now so we can compare notes soon.
Nothing to say today except that I am looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow.
one other thing: tempted to go to neither Stage Challenge nor dinner out and play Sims2 instead. Alone. At home.
I am a grumpy cranky moaner Queen today.
I blame the darkness in the mornings. When it's so dark when my alarm goes off I do NOT want to get up. Especially since I've been having so many dreams lately.
This morning Giffy and I went to Te Papa. It wasn't Te Papa as we know it but a kind of awesome interactive children's library with huge computer screens and tvs that talked to you. Stuffed toys and a Yeti enclosure with a staff member dressed as a Yeti.
We were having a fantastic time exploring all the animal related stuff when Giffy decided she wanted to go into a kind of tunnel thing. I didn't really want to especially when I saw in the gift shop that they had Sylvanian Families for only 50c per character. I was grabbing up handfuls of families and being super happy about it when the alarm went off.
Bloody consumerism. I don't know how I can avoid it if my very subconscious is obsessed with things too.
Happy Midwinter everyone!
I am celebrating the shortest day in the following ways:
what are you doing to celebrate?
Last night we watched two more episodes from the second season of Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock is much more demonstrative since he came back from the dead and Lee and I are both disconcerted by it. He's all shouty and gesturey and skips and dances. Very odd. I don't mind the new Watson, although I'm sure they change LeStrade episode to episode. Lee says it's the same actor all the time but I never recognise him. It's just lucky they say his name all the time.
favourite quote from last night?
Sherlock: "Women are your department Watson."
I think my Sherlock/Watson fanfic has gone out the window. Holmes is asexual. It's fun to invent lover's tiffs for them though....
Finished Piratica. 'twas very silly but enjoyable and last night I dreamed I was the title character. I had a crew of pirates and I was babysitting a toddler in an art gallery. Of course.
My weekend started well with Batman Begins, which I adore.
Things I liked: It's so much more canon than any of the other movies, the guy playing Scarecrow was really attractive to me, Katie Holmes did well in her first Leading Lady A-List role, Batman had a "Batman Voice", Liam Neeson is teh r0xx0rs, hilariously funny script, Gotham looked fantastic, Michael Caine strikes the right balance between Butler and Father-figure, Morgan Freeman is great as Lucius Fox, how Batman assembled his weaponry/suit/car made sense.
Things I didn't like: Errrrr...at one point Christian Bale looked really orange.
On Saturday I slept in a long long time. Mmmm yummy sleep. Read the film festival guide, wept silently to myself over my inability to see everything I want to. Visited Janjo's flat briefly, then on to Karori Sanctuary quiz night which I didn't enjoy very much. Me and my workmates got so bored in the second half (as all the questions were beyond our realms of knowledge) that we staged a gang-war between a juice box, a ginger beer bottle and a much larger L&P bottle. It was hilarious. Then I made an invisible sheep so that C could kill it with a toy gun. It's pretty terrible that these were the highlights of the night...
Sunday not so much sleeping in, but off to Yum Char with work mates which was filling to say the least. Then I bought ballet tickets and Lee went to audition for the G & S that Giffy, Sok and Janjo are involved in. He's got the chance at a main part if he can master the very high solo. He's not sure, he says he can sing it but it might not sound pretty...hopefully he's going to see his mum tonight and work on it.
Rachel, Sass, Chelle and Jase came over for the afternoon and there was mucho crafting. I get a lot more done when people come over. yesterday I assembled a border for Rachel's quilt, attatched it to the quilt, safety pinned top to backing and began hand quilting. Whew!
I also managed to do a load of laundry, make a chocolate cherry torte and do the dishes. Oh the cleverness of me!
So, most of the time I'm either the Banker or the Queen Bee.
If Giffy's around she's usually the Queen Bee (in my mind anyway :p) but with other groups of people I think it's me. Not sure about that. The Queen Bee is the leader and the one other people want to be like. She is held up to high expectations and often fulfills them at a loss of personal identity. I'm not sure I'm the girl everyone wants to be like, but I do think of myself as a leader.
I think the role I mostly fill is that of Banker. The Banker is the Lacey Chabert character in Mean Girls, (although she's also a Pleaser)...she knows everything about everyone. My hair isn't as big because I don't know everyone's secrets but I do love to gossip.
I dislike mean gossip so mostly my gossip is of the information sharing kind. Of course I do the mean gossip thing sometimes, I mean who doesn't? But my favourite kind of goss is when you learn things about people and you share what you've learnt.
Reference: Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman.
Chelle asked me some jeans quilt questions on her blog and instead of doing a novel length comment I thought I'd transfer it here and make my blog into a sort of craft-based advice column, if even for one day.
1. How many pairs of jeans did you use?
Hard to say how many pairs of jeans were used as I went crazy cutting up lots and then put a quilt together and there was a bunch left over. Rough estimate? 5 for the patches and one for borders and dividers.
It all depends though: how big do you want the quilt to be?
What size jeans are you cutting up? (Size 16 yield much more denim than 10!) How close to the seams you cut also makes a huge difference, and can I just suggest you get some really good sharp scissors before you start, because lacking scissors gave me a massive callous.
2. What kind of thread do you use - special quilting or ordinary cotton?
I used ordinary cotton for sewing the patches but quilting thread for the quilting. Oh and embroidery thread. Some of the seams I did twice though since the machine was a bit leery of mutliple layers of denim.
3. What size is the animal polar fleece you bought from spotlight the other day?
It's 115cm wide which should be plenty wide unless you're making it Queen Bed sized. I used about 1 2/3 metres for my finished quilt, that's including the binding round the edges.
Hmm sure there were more questions in my head. Oh well will let you know if I have anymore
I will wait with baited breath.
If anyone else has craft based questions for me, please comment and I will do my best ot answer them :)
Watched the first two episodes of season 2 of Carnivale last night. Can I just say "Wow!"? I mean, I love the first series but BAM! Second series starts and BAM! mysteries answered, characters developed, amazing shiznit in the hizzle.
I've been saying shiznit inside my head for a while now. How do you like it?
I'm reading Piratica by Tanith Lee which is an Over The Top pirate novel about a parallel history with a sassy spunk of a lead chick. The main guy is called Felix Phoenix. Tanith Lee seems to have had fun naming the characters in this book, so it's hard to take it real serious, but I'm pretty sure it was never a serious novel.
Batman Begins today. I'm not meant to be spending money but I can't resist. It's Batman!
Also out today...the film festival guide. I am a bit sad that I'll not be able to do my normal attendance justice this year, but that's the price I pay for going to Rarotonga. Here I come Howl's Moving Castle, Steamboy and Woodsman! Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell: Innocence are also screening for anime fans. I'm also looking forward to movies which aren't animated or about criminals, but I don't know what they are yet.
I might not be able to see Woodsman actually, given the screening times, but I'm sure it'll come back. It has Kevin Bacon in it after all.
Film festival website has all the info up now, including said screening times.
Not that impressed with the Director's cut of Donnie Darko. As others have said before me, it explains too much and leaves you with no doubt as to what happened. This takes rather a lot away from the mind-fuck movie, as you can imagine.
I also though some of the new songs were intrusive and not as good as the ones in the original cut. They put in a bunch more scenes as well which I felt made the movie slower and more self-indulgent. Not good.
We finally watched Equilibrium on Sunday. Giffy will be happy as now she can finally have it back! It was a very slick movie, and I liked Christian Bale a lot, but the movie didn't follow its own rules which was a pity. I was astounded by how much of it was ripped off 1984 as well.
Mostly my main problem with it is that for a society that arrests people for showing emotion, there was a whole lot of emotion. Some of the actors were better than others, eg Christian was fantastic, but his new partner was all smiling and emotive speech patterns and basically Lee and I were sitting there and yelling "Sense Offence! Arrest him!" Much more often that people actually got arrested.
I also fell asleep during the climax, so there you go.
Ladykillers I was also unimpressed by. The music was lovely and Tom Hanks was completely wonderful as the hammiest Southern Devil you ever did see, but I just didn't see the point of the movie. Maybe I was just disappointed that the Coen brothers didn't make a new movie? Also I couldn't work out when it was supposed to be set for the longest time.
Lee and I did both love seeing the old lady slap a Wayans brother repeatedly though. I think we could watch a whole movie of that.
...the finalist winner from Auckland won the Grand National Finals of the 48 hour film competition. I was pretty umimpressed with the quality displayed in the show last night. Perhaps TV is an unforgiving medium for the 48 hour films, but it seemed like some of the films we saw at the Wellington finals were higher quality than winners from other cities.
That being said I gave my vote to Mosgiel Tonight which was the Dunedin winner...Lee voted for Chip and Manny.
My problems with the winner (Fairly Good Tale) were that it was too much a copy of Princess Bride and the story wasn't very strong. The special effects were very slick though and they had some great actors, costumes and jokes. I don't know. It left me somewhat cold.
The presenters of the special show were pretty lacking too. Just...not very good...
Anyway, enough moaning. Lee is sick with my flu now and feeling very sorry for himself. I'm unreasonably hungry and craving tacos. I finished my jeans quilt last night (Huzzah! Huzzah! Five ducats for the King!) and will now begin to work on Rachel's one.
Tonight on C4 at 9pm the National finals of the 48 hour film competition are screening. It's a one hour special showing the best of each city plus a Wild Card entry chosen by Peter Jackson.
Winning is based on viewer text so make sure to watch it and vote for your favourite!
My picture's up on the library website in two (three?) places. The newest one is here where you can see me reading The day I swapped my Dad for two goldfish by Neil Gaiman.
You probably wouldn't know it was me though, unless you recognise my jersey.
I'm feeling distinctly muzzy today. I blame the Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) which I saw last night. It was completely hialrious and wonderful but if I hadn't gone to it I would have been asleep earlier and therefore healed more, etc etc.
I highly recommend the show I especially liked the audience participation bits because I got to chant "Cut the crap Hamlet, my biological clock it ticking and I want babies now!" while doing the actions. If anyone is going to attend this show I suggest you get a front row seat as they had the most participation stuff going on.
Oliver Driver was completely awesome and I have nothing but respect for him. The other two were also very very good and I loved the show a lot. My favourite bit?
Hamlet's father the ghost: Don't let Denmark become a couch for incest and villainy!
Hamlet (despairing): Incest!
Horatio (despairing): A couch!
hee hee hee.
Lee also enjoyed the show a lot, but couldn't help himself from making two complaints...King Lear is fictional not historical and there wasn't enough Timon of Athens. Or something.
hee hee, a couch!
Definition of Mum: child vomits and she catches it in her hands.
I'm feeling much better today and am back at work and all. I'm well dosed up on Codral but I'm still achey. My eyes keep getting hot too, I don't know what's up with that but it made me very thankful for the "ouch pouch" Zefphi gave me for my last birthday. Aaah the soothing blue goo.
In a fit of cruelty I have the Girl Guide doing volunteer work with us shelving the Junior Non Fiction. This is cruel because a huge number of kid's non-fic fits on a trolley, and the shelves are always out of order and awful. It takes ages and is not fun. "Ah the cleverness of me!"*
woop. Lost my train of thought. Normal transmissions will resume after the conquering of the virus.
*Thanks to Matt and Debz for lending me Peter Pan. 'Twas great up until I had to have a nap.
Still sick. Last night I went to bed very early and had dreams of being a chinese peasant (Thanks to reading "Falling Leaves"). Lee came to bed later on and was very cold, so there was cuddling for warm which was very confusing to this small chinese girl.
Some time last night my cough turned into Nose From Hell and I've been sneezing ever since. This morning I am super miserable, and I know I'm sick because I teared up reading people's get well messages from yesterday. Nothing like uncontrolled weeping to indicate illness. My throat every so often reminds me that there's phlegm but otherwise it's all about the nose right now. Oh and the aching.
It was really really cold last night too. I couldn't tell if it was actually cold or me getting feverish again. Could've been either. Groan. I feel crappy.
The Good Morning show is much how I remember it, although Mary Lambie's replacement looks like Nicole Kidman. She seems to be a carbon copy of ML in behaviour and speech though. Go figure.
am sick with flu. Yesterday I had a fever and was shivering if I felt any cold air on me. I had a bath at 3pm to warm up. I'm playing Civ3 again so I waged some wars and my legs ached. I went to bed real early but was unable to sleep, so I read Powers: Sellouts which is a really good story although not sure I apporove of the ending. The title may be ironically self-referential.
Head muzzy and throat sore. Back aching today and I have that "woe is me" sick outlook on life. You know, like I am the most piteous creature in the world and everyone should bring me chocolate. Back to bed now that I'm caught up on lj and email.
Chest congestian is concerning. I keep coughing and then fighting to breathe through the mucus.
Ewww.
I've just spent the morning cleaning. I did machine washing and tidying and vacuuming and mopping and hand washing.
I am now worn out and need to go back to bed! Actually, what I really should be doing is going to Arthur Toyes and looking through their pattern books but I've mostly talked myself out of it now. I can't be bothered heading into town and I don't want to go out in the cold for such a boring job. So I think I'm staying home now and God knows what I'll do.
Am tempted to start playing Civ3 again. Oh dear.
...and I talked about Kingdom of Heaven on my lj if'n you're interested.
If I could be an innkeeper... I would be a busty/lusty/musty wench type keeping an inn in the lush countryside. I'd be friends with all the adventurers that came through looking for work and I'd give the elves free beer.
I'd have a fine stable of horses that would be available to those on long urgent journeys...they could leave their worn out horse with me and take a nice fresh one. I'd serve hearty soups and roast beast, every night there'd be a qualified Bard singing songs and an open fire keeping everyone toasty.
If I could be a professor... I'd be a professor in Film Making and would hold stuffy lectures about theory and so on. I'd reccommend the Disney Family Movie in 48 Hours to build teamwork in crews.
If I could be a writer... *sighs* Get up 9ish most mornings. Make tea and have breakfast reading through what I wrote yesterday. Write all morning, and break at about 2pm for the day unless deadlines were getting near or I'm on a roll. The rest of the day would be either housework and reading or visiting people or seeing movies or wandering around town.
If I could be a backup dancer... I wouldn't accept any jobs from Hip Hop or Rap artists and I'd keep my clothes on. I'd like to work with Gewn Stefani cause she's cool. If I wasn't a music video dancer but a stage dancer then I'd want to be invloved in modern ballets danced classically, like Dracula and Maui.
If I could be a bonnie pirate... I wouldn't kill people. I'd take their chocolate and candy and brand their ships with my mark so that everyone knows how awesome I am. Cary Elwes would be my valet ;p
After five years marauding I'd retire and live like a King in Patagonia. Or Rarotonga. Or the Greek Islands.
My fears of going without Strawberry Delight Dream have been assuaged. I have in my possession an entire king size block and three thick and chunky bars. I know you were worried about this, which is why I'm telling you. Of course, I will still accept any Dream strawberry donations you care to make.
My decision to wear a skirt today was a bad one. My knees are cold.
I have a niggle at the back of the throat which I don't want to turn into a cold/flu/meningacoccal sickness. Stay away and let me enjoy my long weekend!
Dinner at Cambodiana last night was verrry niiice. I reccommend it and will return soon. Veh-rey soon. Hee hee.
Gots me a new Empire mag yesterday so I had a nice couch blob session with it. I am really looking forward to War of the Worlds. I also want to see The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants and Steamboy, both of which will likely be straight to DVD release if Empire is correct.
On of my Gamer Boyz mentioned on Tuesday that they're making a movie of Ender's Game which I am very excited about since it's true. I've always thought they should do it in anime form but am quite excited about a live action version.
Changeling was great fun last night, everyone was really into the game and we sussed out the story and most importantly my character was cool.
No, I jest...that wasn't the most important thing. The most important thing was that everyone was working together to complete the goal and there was awesome roleplaying and it felt like Changeling again. I really like the Shadows of Yesterday system now that I understand it. I adore the one roll resolution of conflict and I love how quickly fights work using that system.
Seriously though, my character Izzy Starlight did some cool things last night. It helped that Svend was rolling way bad for the mooks but I did some kick-ass stuf. My favourite moment was going into my bedroom, NOT being surprised by the assassin behind the door and quickly disarming him then beating him with my coat rack.
I also liked the not-quite-so-impressive moment of asking my childling ward if she'd be warm enough going out in the middle of the night and did she want to borrow anything?
She asked if I had any shawls?
Oh yes, what colour?
Rainbow?
Here. (The neat thing about this character is that she works at Supre - to combat the massive banality of the place. Of course that also means she's a fashion plate and shawls are in fashion, so....)
Maybe that's not cool to anyone else but I enjoyed it immensely.
Tonight I'm having dinner with the Awards committee people. Should be great fun. Still require more sleep though. I blame it on how it's being winter now.