Saturday, June 20, 2020

Writing with Dev: Session Eleven

I'm not feeling the love today - and I have novel brain and I've been watching Queer Eye for the Straight Guy all afternoon. So for my blog today I'm going to do a Dev session for a bit more balance.

I'm hoping we get to go to Dev's retreat in July. More on that later.

One minute

What is a song that I can't get out of my head?

I have a constant ear worm and the song varies, but if there is anything that gets stuck in my head more than anything, well that would be the Rolling Stones Emotional Rescue. I like to think about it with Ralph Fiennes Dad-dancing along to it. I get a lot of Rolling Stones' songs stuck in my head.

What am I wearing right now?

Blue underpants, black bra an comfy black jersey top and grey trackie dacks. No shoes, no makeup, no glasses.

What is a restaurant or shop I've been meaning to visit?

A lot of me wants to go to Attica. I'm really curious to see what the food is like. I'd also love to find some friends and go back to Cumulus Inc if it is still open once this lockdown is over. Or I'd love to find a really good Spanish restaurant that isn's Bomba.

Write down a mistake I am glad to have made in the last 12 months.

Not pressing the issue and going to see my uncle when I was in Adelaide in February. He died on Thursday.

When was the last time I was so excited I couldn't sleep.

I can normally sleep. The last time I was riled up and couldn't sleep was when I got my handbag stolen in February.

Five minutes - on teeth. (And this will be about one of my novel's characters)

Harry was very proud of his teeth. It was something that never sat well with me and my country sensibilities as we were lucky to see a dentist once a year. Being brought up in the country, we didn't have flouridated water, so lots of kids had chalky teeth. Thankfully, never having problems, my teeth were jsut my teeth. Vaguely straight, sort of white. I didn's smile with my teeth as I hated my gummy smile, but Harry... Harry has a movie star's smile. Harry, with his Scotch College sensibilities and flamboyant ways loved everything about his smile. On a good day, he had Roger Moore's smile - which would probably look a bit long in the tooth as time went on, but he was Harry, and Harry had a 2000 kilowatt smile that would blind everybody - men and women were not immune to his grin, in which you could see each of his 30 teeth. He had two wisdom teeth removed to make way for the three years of braces he endured as a teenager.

Write about my first experience of Art: 

My grandmother took me to see Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado when I was about five years old. It was staged at the Festival Theatre in Adelaide and we went to a matinee. It was a hot day and I was dressed up in my best frock for a five-year-old, complete with the long white socks and black patent shoes. My sister was only a baby, so she couldn't go. I remember going into the auditoroum and sitting in our seat, which were up in the dress circle. My grandmother loved theatre, particularly musical theatre and opera. If her circumstances were different she would have studied at the conservatorium, but her father died when she was twelve and the family didn't have the money to send her there.

I don't remember anything of the performance other than feeling overwhelmed by the whole experience. The music, the costumes, the fact that a story was being played out in front of me, just for me. The songs were fantastic. There were all sorts of strange characters - Nanky Poo, The Lord High Executioner. I loved the three little maids from school, Peep-Bo, Yum-Yum and  Pitti-Sing. The orchestra and the sound was electric. Amazing things for a young kid from the suburbs to witness. And then it was over and I went back to my suburban  house in what is now the middle Adelaide Southern suburbs.

All I know is that this experience went on to shape my love of theatre. I've had an affinity with the theatre from that day on. Any chance I get to go to live performance, I'm there. There was something inherenty in the risk people take when they get on stage which thrills me. I can only admire performers. The pure adrenaline they must feel as the walk on stage.

All I know is that this was one of the most formative days of my life.

My grandmother helped raise an aesthete.

And I'm still not going to apologise for this.


And now this writing with Dev is over, I'm going to go onto my novel.


Today's Song:














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