Tunes for 2012...yep blogging my hottest 100 vote again

So just when you'd all given up on me...I'm back...though maybe people haven't given up on me as for some reason this blog got 200 views this month despite my not having posted anything since July (weird much?).

Last year I blogged my Hottest 100 votes and for some reason that interested people so here we go again...including once again so voting recommends for those yet to cast their vote that I didn't have space to include. Last year I said best song of the year was a tough call...this year it wasn't but sadly it wasn't on the list and I only vote the list so I supplemented another awesome song by the same artist (song in question was Don't Leave Me (Ne me quitte pas) by Regina Spektor if you wanted to know).

This year big for female singers and Scandinavians...

So the songs:

 - Starting with the replacement Regina Spektor song...All the Rowboats. I could have sworn this was released as a single last year but it was the only Regina Spektor song on the list and her album, What We Saw From the Cheap Seats, was far and away my favourite of 2012 so I had to make sure to vote where I could. Still bummed that her recent shows in Sydney were so damned expensive. With this album, she may have replaced Sarah Blasko as my favourite female singer.

- King of the World by First Aid Kit. Not my favourite song off The Lion's Roar (that would by Emmylou but it wasn't on the list...I suspect it was released right at the end of 2011) but the whole album is sublime. The whole odd vibe of a Swedish folk group that is at times more than a little country in their vibe just makes them worth the listen. Pity there isn't a film clip of this.

-Boy by Bertie Blackman. I'm such a strong believer in supporting Aussie music that I feel very awkward that Berte Blackman is the only Aussie artist to get a vote from me this year. Like other five artists who got my vote this year I was a last comer to Bertie Blackman. I own her first album (unlike the others in the same category i.e. First Aid Kit, Ladyhawke, Chairlift, Bombay Bicycle Club, and Bat for Lashes) but I only bought it late last year after seeing her at the Nick Cave tribute concerts that Triple J staged. Her sound is so different from the other female artists out there in the best way.

- Black and White and Blue by Ladyhawke- I could do what Aussies do to Kiwis all the time and try and claim her as ours but that would be a big lie. Earlier this year (read before Regina Spektor's album was released), this was my favourite tune of 2012. I was not so much indifferent to Ladyhawke's first album as I really disliked it...I have since re-listened and realised that I was more than a little insane as it is a great album. Her second album is truly great and this song is a complete highlight...love the film clip too.

- Met Before by Chairlift. Though Regina Spektor claimed my favourite album of 2012, Chairlift's Something was probably the one I played the most. I know I'm not alone in loving their 80s synth styles and one of the musical choices of times past that I wouldn't mind making more of a return.

- All Your Gold by Bat for Lashes. I missed her in the past and recently have been listening to her back catalogue a lot. Loving her new album hence this vote which is one of the most recent releases on my list.

- How Can You Shallow So Much Sleep? by Bombay Bicycle Club. One of the breaks from the female singers so many female singers vibe of this year's vote. Quite an interesting album from them and very different from their past ones.

- Varou by Sigur Ros. The second Scandinavian artists on my list (and not the last) and another male singer. Yet another outstanding album from them and you can't go past voting for them in the Hottest 100 when they do release something. My chill out band of choice and I'll be always be thankful to my little brother for introducing me to them a few years ago.

 

 - Angels by the xx. Finishing the actual vote part of this post with two songs by the "it" bands of 2012. I love this tune and in fact that whole of the xx's album, Coexist. And even the overplaying of it didn't lessen that love.

- Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men. My money is on this track taking out the number 1 slot (and I'm pretty sure many who are more in the know than I am agree) and I'll be on a six year run of being too mainstream and voting for the number 1 track. I completely understand why this song and the whole of Of Monsters and Men's album has been played to death and got much buzz this year. Another lot of Scandinavians doing well and I'm very excited to see where they go in the future.

So there are Clare's Hottest 100 votes for 2012- very heavy on the female singers and the Scandinavians and sadly light on the Aussies.

...have you lodged your vote?

If not, you may like to show some love to the following song which just missed out on a Hottest 100 vote from me:

-All of Me by Sarah Blasko. I love I Awake, like I do all of Sarah Blasko's albums, but I decided to vote for artists who I haven't voted for every year for many many years so no songs from it got a vote. This or God-fearing definitely deserve your vote and it was my number 11 and I was very sorry to see it not make the final vote.

OK so that is my Hottest 100 spiel for 2012....see y'all in 2013 (possibly tomorrow).

Belated Books: Week 1: Book 2: This year's obsession begins....

So prior to obsessiveness...first things is that the MS Society have upped the security on their donations for the Readathon which means no link for you all directly to my donation page. HUMPH! Hopefully this changes for next year. Having no easy link means that instead of going about this the normal way, I will just read and suggest charities for you to donate to each month for the next three months...despite my misgivings about their complexity donation set-up for the Readathon, I still say this month is for the raising of fund for the MS Society. To donate to them, follow this link http://www.msaustralia.org.au/donate.asp

And donation info provided I move onto the author who will be this year's Franzen (i.e. the author I will blog about at insane length and gush about the awesomeness of), John Green, and the book he co-wrote with David Levithan, Will Grayson, Will Grayson.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson is the story of two teenaged boys both called Will Grayson (you never would have guessed that, right?). Will Grayson (always written in title case) lives in the central suburbs of Chicago. His motto is "shut up" in the sense that he doesn't talk or engage with the issues as that has caused him trouble in the past. He is largely a loner except for his best friend, "Tiny" Cooper, who to paraphrase the novel (as I'm not certain this is the exact wording and I don't have the novel with me) "is the largest person who is also gay or the gayest person who is also large". will grayson (always written in lower case) is a profoundly depressed gay teen living a ways from central Chicago. He is medicated for his depression and lives in his own very dark world. He has a few friends at school (in particular a girl called Maura who has a crush on him but also suspects that he is gay- a fact he is yet to tell anyone) and an intense internet relationship with a boy called Isaac. One night, Will tries to go with Tiny and their mutual friend Jane to a concert only to find his fake ID has been botched and says he is 20 not 21. As he is ejected and they attend the gig, Will looks for a way to entertain himself until the concert is over and decides to indulge in one of the few things in the States that you do with a fake ID that says you are 20 i.e. go to an adult shop (the age for these being 18). On the same night, will has made plans to finally meet the mysterious Isaac but is shocked to discover that Isaac has suggested that they meet in an adult shop which of course turns out to be the same central Chicago shop that Will is checking out. The lives of the two boys intersect and every changes....

I was introduced to the brilliance of John Green about six months ago by a friend who was mildly obsessed with the vlogs that he and his brother Hank upload to youtube (in defense of said friend, I will add that he was obsessed due to unemployment but in a crazy creepy "I must get home to watch me some vlogbrothers in lieu of having a functioning social life" kinda way...I hasten to add not that there is anything wrong with the latter...please don't hunt me down with pitchforks, you nerdfighter types...I even ordered me a Crash Course World History t-shirt so I'm like this close to being one of you). The vlogbrothers videos are mildly entertaining fun and even better is John Green's Crash Course World History which I will admit I am legitimately obsessed with (much better than his brother's science ones). As we watched vlogbrothers videos, the discussion of "I wonder what John Green's novels are like?" came up on occasion, and this is my first attempt to answer this query (the second Looking for Alaska will be blogged about soon- I just finished it yesterday but this is week 3 and I'm still catching up on week 1). I've not read a great number of novels that are written by multiple authors and I often get distracted as I read them by trying to figure out who wrote what section and get all crazy about figuring that out (listen well Pratchett and Gaiman...Good Omens is one of my favourite books and I will one day fight to discover which of you wrote what). Luckily having watched the amount of John Green video I have figuring who wrote what in this case felt profoundly easy as the narrative voice in the odd numbered Will Grayson chapter was so obviously him and the voice in the even numbered will grayson chapters was so obviously not...I checked on wikipedia after I finished and yep I was right.

That out of the way, what was the book like? It is frustrating and confusing! Not because it is bad, but because WHY WHY WHY are teenagers, who the book is aimed at (yes it is YA fiction and I don't mind admitting that I'm an adult who on occasion reads some YA fiction), reading tripe like Twilight or The Hunger Games when they could be reading this!?!?! About a year ago I started to think that YA fiction might always have been as bad as the Meyer and Collins factories make it look (it should be noted I don't consider Harry Potter YA fiction as it was aimed initially at a slightly younger than YA market) and that all I remember about good YA fiction from my childhood/teenage years was a nostalgia cloaked lie so I reread Tomorrow When the War Began and Looking for Alibrandi and it turns out good YA fiction definitely used to be a thing. This novel proved to me that in fact it is still a thing but that the teens are for some reason making the trash more popular than the gold. Will Grayson, Will Grayson, especially the chapters by John Green, is, hyperbole aside, some of the funniest YA fiction I've read in years and I often found myself laughing out loud. In its tackling of big issues such as self confidence, acceptance and homosexuality, it reminded me of my favourite funny YA author when I was a YA, Morris Gleitzman (if you haven't read his Two Weeks with the Queen, even if you are an adult, you should seriously check it out). Both of Will and will are perfect models of awkward teen boys struggling with their identity and the character of Tiny Cooper and his quest to produce his life story as a musical entitled Tiny Dancer is simply visionary...I adored Tiny and he may go down as one of my favourite ever fictional characters. Whilst the book is about teen boys, it is easily readable and accessible to teen girls (at a guess) and adults. I would say to anyone out there with teenagers that they should pick up this touching, hilarious gem of a novel, and give it to their teens but also maybe read it themselves and restore their faith in YA fiction.

Belated Books: Week 1 Book 1: Of slightly dodgy blokes in pre war Berlin

Once again proving my lack of reliability...I promised last week but still I lie.

It is that time of year once more, when I blog and I blog about books for three months as I raise money for the MS Society- last year as part of MS Novel Challenge, this year as part of the now open to adults MS Readathon. I'll post the link of donating when I have it...the MS Readathon website this year is nowhere near as clear or as tidy as the Novel Challenge one last year and I'm struggling to figure out how one goes about donating .

So first book off the ranks...Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood.

It is Germany in the early 1930s...on the train traveling to Berlin, late 20s Englishman William Bradshaw meets the fellow Englishman Arthur Norris. Norris is in his 50s and is a highly nervous and slightly suspicious individual but nevertheless he and Bradshaw form a friendship. Meeting again in Berlin, where Bradshaw is working as an English teacher and Norris is doing something vague that may involve importing, despite the warning of his friends Bradshaw is drawn into Norris's world and is fascinated by the characters that occupy it. There is Schmidt, Norris's sinister secretary who Norris is slightly afraid of; the Baron Pregnitz ("Kuno") who is a prominent member of the rising Nazi party and who has a thing for young fit men (including Bradshaw); Anna and Otto, Mr Norris's favourite prostitute/dominatrix and her partner/pimp; and various members of the Communist Party in Berlin. Bradshaw's commitment to Norris is proven again and again even after he is repeatedly given reason not to trust Norris, and ultimately Norris constructs a scheme that requires Bradshaw to assist with the connecting of Kuno to French business man in order to help with some deal Norris has going.

This novel was half of a combo book of two Isherwood novels written about Berlin in the 1930s (the other being Goodbye to Berlin- I read it in week 1 too and the review is coming). I was not surprised to discover that William and Bradshaw are in fact Isherwood's middle names, and that the characters are mildly based on real people as the novel does have that feel about it. However what with the frequent references to people's sexual preferences, to prostitution and to sadomasochism, and the barely veiled references to homosexuality, I did have to a bit of a shock as I kept reminding myself that the novel was first published in 1935 and that (as far I'm aware) it was never banned as books with this kind of subject matter published in that era often were. The novel is an interesting picture of pre-WWII Berlin and though I preferred Goodbye to Berlin, this is a lot of good here. It is very witty and the characters (even the minor ones) are well drawn- one of them, Bradshaw's landlady, reappears in Goodbye to Berlin. Personally I found the character of Kuno the most endearing (despite his being a Nazi) and pathetic (literally pathetic I mean) with his weird affectations , his love of boy's own style children's fiction, his hopeless lust for various characters and in the awareness that in Nazi Germany he probably wouldn't last long. I also found the presentation of Communist party quite interesting as they struggle for recognition and are then increasingly repressed as the Nazi party sweeps to power.

Very much worth the read in the end...

Next book for blogging, book 2 of week 1 Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan...post to come soon...

Of films and the like...

OK so first time on the computer at home for over a week, my larger computer having given up the ghost and my small one not being ideal for typing in cold weather...I feel very much the luddite...then again I do use computers all day everyday at work and my non-computer having state has simply "forced" me to use my PS3 more so maybe not. Oh well, time to stop grumbling and re-enter internet land on my small computer...cold fingers on small keyboard NOT FUN!

I am reminded that I promised a blog on last month's film festival and don't say I don't deliver on my promises...though don't look back at past posts either because then it becomes abundantly obvious that I regularly don't. This year marks my sixth year of Sydney Film Festival attendance and sad to say it was a bit of a let down...no gripes to the organisers as I'm sure the fault is partially mine as I got in late and missed out on some films I was super keen to see like the new Wes Anderson and instead wound up with some films I wasn't super keen on. In the end I saw eight films from six countries and it is just sad that from my point of view two of the eight were not brilliant, and another one was variable. So from the top in the order I saw them Clare's run down of her film selections from Sydney Film Festival 2012:

Tatsumi

Love me some anime but this film is not for those who think cartoons/ animation is just for kids. The film is the autobiography of Yoshihiro Tatsumi one of the pioneers of manga for adults and it is interwoven with animated versions of some of his works. Tatsumi's works are quite confronting even the ones earlier in the film that contain less sex and sexual imagery as the latter ones, as are some of the moments of his life. I almost cried at one point in the film and there are definitely moments that tug at the heart strings. Whilst this film wasn't the greatest film, it was told with an honesty and an admiration that is admirable and it is definitely worth seeing for anyone interested in manga and anime.

Play It Like Godard (or JC Comme Jesus Christ to give it, its French title)

It's a long while since I've seen a truly good mockumentary and I thoroughly enjoyed being reminded of how funny a good mockumentary can be with this little French film. It follows a fictional French film directing protege who at the age of 15 won the Palme Dor and is now making a new film. It charts his strained relationship with his parents, his dreadful treatment of his similar brilliant teenaged girlfriend (though academically not artistically brilliant in her case), his affairs with several much older women, and his being hero worshiped by every actor on the block. Ultimately it is an hilarious story of the manipulation of youth by fame albeit tinged with slight sadness and longing for a time when children could be children.

Last Call at the Oasis

There is one every year and was the 2012 film to make me cry. This documentary about water usage, shortage and contamination around the world (though mainly in the US) is not going to set the world alight with its brilliance as a documentary but it is talking about a timely and important issue and this makes it worth the viewing. I challenge any Australian who knows anyone from rural communities who has struggled through the recent years of drought not to cry in the brief section where the documentary team visits rural Victoria and talks to farmers and a community support worker...it brings grown, very tough looking men to tears on the screen and you can tell that this is not through any kind of manipulation.

Liberal Arts

This film simultaneously marked both my highlight of the festival and little did I know at the time, the preemptive brilliance to be followed by mid-festival slump. Written, directed and starring Josh Radnor (Ted from How I Met Your Mother) this is one of those films like Garden State or Reality Bites about the generation of people, often men, in their mid 20s to mid 30s who forsake growing up for a state eternal youth often coupled with a longing to return to their college years. It tells the story of an mid thirties college admissions officer in New York with little in his life of note- he hates his job and he was just dumped by his girlfriend- who returns to the liberal arts college he attended to give a speech at the retirement party for his "second" favourite college lecturer. Radnor's character is a little like Ted in HIMYM but that doesn't bother me as I find Ted mildly endearing and also as Radnor has landed himself an outstanding supporting cast, Elizabeth Olsen (the Olsen to watch...forget her big sisters) is brilliant with the 18 year old the main character has an ill thought out semi relationship with as is Richard Jenkins as his retired professor BUT the true highlights of the films are Alison Janney as his icy English professor (the scene between Radnor and Janney is one of my highlights of the film and it just made my West Wing obsessed brain love her more) and in completely shocking turn of events, Zac Efron as a random young guy who the main character encounters on campus (the boy can actual act...Who knew?!?! And he is hi...wait for it...larious! (sorry Barney reference had to be made)). I just say watch it as if I go on much longer I'll start quoting it and ruin it for you...it was a film that inspired me to want to listen to classical music and write proper letters...and in the best possible way.

The King of Pigs

One of the true low lights of my festival, this, at times quite brutal, Korean anime about school bullying and class differences seemed to last an eternity. It follows two men in their 30s (? maybe late 20s) who meet to discuss when they were both bullied in high school, and their high school years unfold in flashback sequences which are actually the focus of the film. The brutality of the film didn't bother me (though as a lot of the bullying takes place in a class room, the absence of teachers wigged me out a little) but for a film with quite a lot going on it dragged and dragged and dragged...my friend and I left after the film shocked to find that it was only about a hour and a half long as it had felt like over three hours. There was good material at the base of this film (school bullying, class differences, the impact of high school on attitudes later in life, etc.) but its pacing left a lot to be desired.

Dead Europe

My Australian film for the festival. I found this film quite variable as it had some very strong points and other points that didn't quite gel with me. Based on the Christos Tsiolkas novel of the same name, Dead Europe follows an Australian photographer's journey to the small Greek village his parents immigrated from in order to scatter his father's ashes and then his subsequent journeys to Paris (to visit an old friend of his father's) and Budapest (to visit his elder brother). I'll say up front that I haven't read the novel, though avid readers of this blog, if there are any, will recall I read Tsiolkas's The Slap last year and found it quite brilliant if confronting. Dead Europe had some very strong points- the performance of Ewen Leslie as the main character and Cody Smit-McPhee as the young boy he meets in Athens were outstanding, and the cinematography was quite brilliant- but the pacing was slow and there was a feeling that something had been lost in the translation to screen (the director was at the screening and explained during a Q&A that the novel was set in two time periods but they only used one in the film and this explained my feeling that something was missing). At a push I'd say see it to support our film industry (especially as it is better than a lot of the Hollywood crap that is sure to rake home the big bucks this year) and also to see what are some very fine performances even if other components are missing.

The Loneliest Planet

Last year when my film festival highlights was Even the Rain, a Mexican film starring Gael Garcia Bernal and true be told that man is so attractive that I'd pretty much watch anything if he was in. Sadly this film is about the limit of that equation. Set in the Georgian wildness, it is story of two American backpackers (yes from the United States though Bernal's accent is very much still Latin American) and their guide as they hike through the wilderness. That is pretty much it...nothing much happens and you find out very little about the characters and the characters barely talk...all that can be said is that the scenery is pretty as is Bernal but you can only content yourself with that for so long. This film is quite amazingly boring and there is next to no plot except the hiking.

Wuthering Heights

Thankfully for all involved, my festival didn't end with The Loneliest Planet but with the brilliant new adaptation of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights (having seen and loved Jane Eyre at last year's festival, Sydney Film Festivals are definitely adding to my love of the Bronte sisters). This adaptation is so innovative (I hate using that term though) that it will leave some cold as it did several people at the screening I attended. I won't bother with a plot summary of Wuthering Heights as I assume you know it and if you don't, FOR SHAME...go and read the book!  This production is insanely stripped back, the language is sparse (much of it is cuss words...I never thought I'd hear the c word in period drama but I've been proven wrong) and the performances are outstanding (Effie from Skins plays the older Cathy the fact of which entertained me...though her performance was brilliant). The swearing and the lack of dialogue are not everyone's cup of tea and I heard one woman remark as she left the screening "I'm sure Emily Bronte wouldn't have approved of the language"...but I disagree! The stronger language is employed mainly by one character, Hindley Earnshaw, (though Heathcliff does also swear a little) and it is completely in line with Bronte's portrayal of the Earnshaws are a lower class farming family and Hindley as just a generally unpleasant individual. The other major difference from previous version of the novel is that the actor who plays Heathcliff is black which adds an addition interesting level of complexity to the film. My only downside was that the film is that like most adaptations of the novel stops before the latter section of the novel...not going to give anything away by saying what happens about two thirds through the book, but needless to stay most adaptations stop there and I quite like the latter section (I know many don't) so I often feel a little cheated there. That said this adaptation is totally worth seeing even for the unconverted to the novel's brilliance...as an added bonus there is brilliant (newish) Mumford and Sons song over the closing credits.

So there is my Film Festival for you...next post the beginning of books, many books...to come tomorrow, it was to also be tonight but my hands are too cold from typing on small keyboard and it is near midnight on a weeknight...

And she's back...

My friend starting to be more regular with her blog posts reminds me that the people of blogland haven't heard from me in almost three months! How remiss of me...

Well I'm back with a short post about things to come.

Sydney Film Festival starts tonight so posts on films will be forth coming in next two weeks (I'm seeing 8 films - the first one tonight), and then the 2012 Novel Challenge starts and you can look forward to three months of book reviews again. If anyone has a book recommend for the Novel Challenge, please pass it on for my consideration for my list and also I'm trying to raise more money than last year (I raised $325 (officially- there was a last donation or two that didn't officially count to my tally) and placed 73rd on the individual fundraisers list (out comes my inner (or not so inner) competitor)). Also if you want to join me in the reading, you should!

Finally have a small photo or two of the vivid festival...you should definitely check it out (especially the projections on Customs House and the MCA...not pictured here) this week if you are in Sydney.

Awareness versus Action

It's OK people of blogland, I haven't disappeared. I just haven't had the focus and interest to write a complete post. So I'm back with some hot topic thinking....

Over the past two weeks unless you live under a rock, you will have heard of the Kony 2012 campaign arranged by the American based charity Invisible Children to raise awareness of the issue of child soldiers and to encourage people to campaign to get Joseph Kony charged with war crimes. Someone may have shared it on our facebook or emailed it to you or tweeted it at you.

A few years ago there was another charity campaign that got similar attention and the 2012 event for it is fast approaching. That event is of course WWF's Earth Hour which started in Sydney five years ago and is now a global event.

So you may be asking yourself, aside from the fact that both of these campaigns are run by not for profits, what do they have in common? Why even mention them in the same post?

The reason is simple both the Kony 2012 campaign and Earth Hour are primarily about awareness. As has been plastered across the media since about a week from the original appearance of the Kony 2012 campaign, Invisible Children's focus is not on the ground action. Their focus is on awareness. At the same time, though WWF does brilliant actual environmental activist work around the world, their Earth Hour isn't activism, it is symbolism- an hour of darkness will do little to actual slow the impact of climate change.

In both cases, especially the Kony 2012 campaign, this has lead to criticism from various sources about their effectiveness at fixing the real issue.

Since I know everyone is waiting for them, I have a few thoughts on the usefulness of awareness campaigning as opposed to activism.

Like many people, I have been aware of the issue of the use of child soldiers in several African nations for many years. This horrendous practice has been going on for decades across Africa and has been employed by governments and rebel groups. There is likely no-one in the Western world who is not horrified by it. Unfortunately however the issue has often been overshadowed by other more "pressing" matters in the eyes of the international media and the complexity of the issue has meant that international governments and groups such the UN have found it difficult to address- yes we all agree using children to fight wars is profoundly wrong but active international intervention of any kind in that region could act to further destabilise a fractured place and has the potential to lead to human rights abuses, displacement of communities and even genocide on a colossal scale, and to add to this we are often looking at situations where all sides in a war are using these tactics (not Western forces but by this I mean both government and rebel forces in many countries). This combination of low media attention and complexity of direct international intervention has meant that many people actually don't know muh about it and in the case particularly of many younger people (sorry to my generation) they may actually be completely ignorant of the scale and the history of it.

I have to confess that as yet I have not watched the Kony 2012 video- my internet is too slow at home and 29 minutes is a big chunk of the work day to use on it- though I do plan to watch it in the next few days. I have however been aware of the work of Invisible Children since 2009 when I first saw an episode of Veronica Mars entitled "I Know What You'll Do Next Summer". It seems a trival way to find out about a charity that is working on such a big issue but one of the actor was a supporter (Ryan Hansen who played Dick Casablancas if you're curious) and bought the charity to the attention of the show's creative team.  Next to the West Wing's episode "Isaac and Ishmael" (nothing compares to that really), this episode of Veronica Mars is the finest charity call I've seen from a fictional TV show and if you can track down a copy have a watch. After watching it I looked into Invisible Children and found, as many people have in recent weeks, that the majority of their work is in advocacy and awareness, and has been since their 2006 foundation. My next question at the time was this worth it? Did this charity merit my donation, especially since much of their work is based in the US?

Another confession is that I decided then not to give money to Invisible Children and to this day I haven't. However I would not rule out giving them money or calling people to support them in the future, and here is why. Advocacy and awareness of ongoing issues in our fast paced world of three second memories is important, and campaigning by Invisible Children has had impacts on raising awareness of the general population in the States and has assisted making sure that the US government still has a eye on this issue.

When we turn to climate change and environmental issues, the kind of attention that is given through viral marketing to Earth Hour raises similar questions. Will turning the lights off for an hour once a year change the world? Of course it won't but it will be a great show of support for the need for environmental activism and change. Support for positive action on an issue like cimate change is an important thing. Unlike Invisible Children, I should say I have given money to WWF in the past and almost certainly will again in the future but hasten to add that it wasn't Earth Hour which provoked me to so.

This is the point unfortunately where we face the bigger issue that awareness of the base viral marketing kind will never solve a problem. Many people will have "liked" a video on facebook or youtube and many have shared it on facebook or tweeted it or emailed it to friends, but this is where we hit the true issue of our social media age. It is never sufficient! We can advocate for the issue and we can raise awareness but if this new found awareness does not lead to action we are lost. Sharing something on facebook or twitter or sticking posters up over the places or giving to advocacy groups is great but you need to also think of what concrete action you can take. My advice (such as it is) when you receive notification about an issue via social media is this:

• Before you pass the issue onto other people, research it. Look up what legitimate sources have to say and look at the history it- even just look at the wikipedia page and following the reference links can be a good start.
• The same holds true of the organisation asking for your support. Look at their website- who do they say they are and what do they say they do- and then look at the wider information available on them.
• Only then share the issue in whatever format with others.
• Be prepared for others to ask you questions and remember they may have done their research too.
• If you discover that the group asking for your support is an advocacy only group don't let this stop you supporting them but do ask yourself what else can I do on this issue that will actively help, and if the answer is give to a group involved directly in the issue, give that group more money then you gave the advocacy group.
• Talk to people about the issue and actually engage- don't just share and forget but get talking and kept talking so that the purpose of the awareness/advocacy is served and the topic is getting airplay in your conversations.

When it comes to child soldiers, the complexity of the issue means that actual action can be quite hard to get at. Most charity organisations on the ground in Africa are dealing with poverty, warfare, famine, AIDS and myriad other concerns, so you may not able to find one completely devoted to the assistance of child soldiers- I'm not aware of one but I may well be wrong. If you are concerned with issue, you should look at supporting one of the charities active in central Africa- all of these will be working on the effects of children being recruited to fight wars- these include issues such a support of children and families, assisting with the aid required in a war torn area, and refugee issues to mention but a few. The other thing you can do is get political involved- if people are campaigning or marching on the issue get involved, and also write to members of parliament who might be involved in setting pace on this issue- your local member who is supposed to speak for your concerns or the  foreign affairs minister (now that we have one again) or even the PM. It may not sound like much but if enough people get politically involved in an issue that the government is more likely to sit up and notice especially if that issue is not controversial and likely to get support from both sides of politics.

I have a whole other post on environmental action that I could post for those for whom environmental action is just Earth Hour.

So don't feel bad about supporting Invisible Children as long as you do something with your new awareness and turn your lights off on 31 March (I will be).

Holy 2012, Batman!

So I swore to myself that I would come back to Sydney and make productive use of my remaining few days of holiday...do the washing, clean the apartment, work on the thesis, go for a bike ride or two, etc... Instead today I have watched several episodes of Mad Men (I finally cracked and bought seasons 3 and 4 yesterday), had bad mall lunch and coffee (lunch so bad that I had to return some of it due to mouldiness..'TASTY!'), read Amanda Palmer's blog about her wedding to Neil Gaiman (interesting reading if you are a Palmer fan, a Gaiman fan or a fan of unconventional weddings...all three in my case...check it out at http://blog.amandapalmer.net/post/15120706154/the-wedding-blog ) and will later watch more Mad Men and read some more of The Maltese Falcon. Productive, right? OK not remotely but heat and Clare mix not well so staying inside and moving as little as possible seems a wise option in my books....

In order to lend a mildly less lazy air to my day, I've decided to blog some resolutions for the new year as yikes it's 2012 already!

I'm not big with the resolutions but I do have a good track record of keeping them. I made one back on 2001, "Stop watching daytime television" (I was in the gap between school and uni at the time and was watching quite the insane amount of it) and I kept it BUT I had never made one before that and haven't since. So blog people, you have to keep me honest on these.


Resolutiony type things

- Buy a sports coat

One of my favourite Christmas presents this year was my gift from my brother and his girlfriend who bought me, among over things, season 2 of Bored to Death on DVD. In one episode of that season, Jonathan makes three impossible goals for himself and they are that he will become a successful writer, lecturer and detective. He declares that one of the best things about this is that all three professions wear sports coats and he look good in a sports coat.

Now I have no desire to become a detective (though I do often feel the urge to describe people and situations in Hammett/Chandler hard boiled private detective way) and my writing, such as it is, would probably never be of a quality that I would attempt to publish it, but one day I may be a lecturer and to do so I may actual require more than a sports coat (especially since I don't look so good in them and don't really want one). For the resolution may say "Buy a sports coat" but the meat of it is that I resolve to actually working on my thesis. My poor neglected thesis has seen minimal love in the last six months (I think I may have added less than 5000 words - most of them probably useless- in that period) and if I plan to finish the thing by end of 2013, committing to more work will be key. So in a more tangible sense, I resolve to spend at least one evening/night a week in the library working on the thesis and to give it some attention on weekends. Hold me to it, people.....

- Be more like Joan

Overloading on Mad Men over the last day or so has once more reinforced my admiration of the character of Joan...sure she isn't perfect and she married quite the repellent man (whoops spoilers for those stuck back in season 2 or earlier, or not yet wise enough to look into its brilliance) but she is confident even in an extreme crisis and, my goodness, her clothes! Ultimately the resolution is not be more like but more dress more like or just be mildly more stylish.... I mean look at these outfits:

Back before Mad Men, I had impossible style icons. Try as I might I will never be able to dress like Grace Kelly or Katherine Hepburn (I have completely the wrong body type) but still a girl can dream, right? Then along came Mad Men and the most stylishly dressed non-stick figure woman on television, and I thought wait a second here is a style I can rationally aspire to have. Also I now have a job that isn't quite as cool with the wearing of jeans and t-shirts to work on days that don't start with "Fri-", so the wardrobe needs a revamp in any case.

This will actually mean two resolutions....clear out wardrobe especially discarding of clothes that have not been worn for over a year (yes people of the blog world I own that many clothes) and updating to a more stylish band of clothes (or at least appearance of more style...I mean if you can make something from K-Mart look good and last well, why bother with something that is ten times the cost elsewhere). If people of the blog world have suggestions of places to get clothes with more vintage aesthetic especially cheaply and/or based in Australia, I'm happy to hear them as currently much as I love their clothes, my credit card is not liking the shipping charges from ModCloth.

- Became a fitness freak... or whatever the Clare version of that is.....

Those of you who know me in reality will no doubt have heard my exercise is bad for you theory but being as I turn the big 3-0 later this year it might be time to bite the bullet and embrace the exercise in a bigger way.... The plan was to do it last year after changing jobs by making use of the stairs to my 7th floor office but as it turns out there aren't stairs for regular use just for fire related use so there goes that plan.

So which will Clare the fitness freak look like? Ultimately it will involve two things, firstly there is a 24 hour gym opening in my suburb which will mean that I can exercise at insane hours of the night which is just every workaholics dream so I will be looking into that, and secondly it will involve Zoë. 

Who is this Zoë you may ask? This is....

Yes I name objects- though Zoë was suggested by and approved by others before the bike got that name.

Bought a few months ago (in October if memory serves), Zoë has been parked in my kitchen for most of that time. The plan is to start riding the bike places but as at today I have taken it out twice- the first time ending in disaster when I discovered the guy at the shop hadn't fitted the seat correctly (I almost fell off the bike onto the luggage rack and/or the road and was lucky that I kept my balance and that I was only a few blocks from home at the time) and the second going quite well except for the woman in a van who tailgated me down a hill and overtook me by a matter of centimetres on a difficult corner (quite scary for someone who hasn't ridden since childhood and never on the road before- except for the seat breaking incident). 

So bike wise the resolution is to buy a lock (still yet to do that), start riding the bike to church and youth group as both are shortish rides from home whilst I get my appalling fitness up to standard, and by March at the latest to start trying to ride the bike the 7 kms to my office (having the double benefit of also saving public transport costs).... Also if anyone with bike in the Inner West zone wants to ride in the Canada Bay area on weekends, let me know and maybe while summer is ongoing, picnics or the like could be had.

- Use the cookbooks

And yes that is tea in those bags/boxes on top of the books....

I have acquired a few cookbooks over the years and I don't really cook especially since my flat has no space for a  full size fridge (I have lived out of bar fridge for the past almost 5 years) and also has a dreadfully ineffectual electric oven. Therefore this resolution is actual quite larger than it first appears. Part one, look for and rent apartment with kitchen that works (and that is better/ larger than current apartment in many ways). Part 2, look for good recipes in books and start using them- it's a pity many of them have a LOT of meat type recipes or maybe I'll just have to cook for more people in my new apartment so I can use more of the recipes.

The other side of this resolution is less take away food, less dairy and finding more good vego recipes. I currently eat take away for dinner at least once a week (twice if it has been a busy week and I'm too tried/lazy to cook) and my aim is to cut that down to once a month by the end of the year. Dairy is the vego animal fat crux and so I'm cut it down (not out...still not treading the vegan path)- cheese will be found in no more than three meals a week and at least three coffees a week will contain soya or no milk (probably the latter as the former makes me gag and is my main reason for not being vegan). Good vego recipes? This question I leave to you....if you know of places/books with good vego and vegan recipes please let me know.

-Books, books, books

Finally and most importantly (OK maybe not more important than the thesis), find more time to read especially non-fiction. I am deeply shamed that I read at most 40 books last year (I counted 35 but I'm sure I read a few more than that and have just forgotten them). Many people would say that isn't a bad haul for someone working full time, studying part time and doing a lot of other things with her week BUT I say yikes people that is less than a book a week and there were weeks last year when I read two or three books in the week so the total should be much higher.  So I resolve to read at least 50 books this year and I'm hoping to up the number of non-fiction books from 5 which was this year's tally. If you have suggestion of books I might like or you read something you think I'll like let me know. Currently I'm starting the year with Don Watson's Recollections of a Bleeding Heart: A Portrait of Paul Keating PM (Best.Christmas. Present. Ever.....I mean just revel in this description of new Parliament House- "Australia's national parliament is interred in a vast lawn beneath a giant rattling aluminium Hills Hoist of  flagpole on a hill, an elephantine expression of the suburban dream, yet wanting only a few sheep and a Southern Cross windmill on it to also represent the rural rump") and Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon (started today and no I haven't read it before).

That's all for the resolutions and I know I did promise a more serious end of 2011 blog but I ultimately decided against it- it was to be a bit too death focused for people easing into the new year maybe I'll post it later when the year is a little more mature. 

Thanks to all the people who've been with the blog through 2011 and I hope you stick with me for the fun of 2012.