Have some fun. Put yourself out into the spaces we all talk about: YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, blogs, etc. But beware: someone will eventually pull the cat’s bum face on you.

Do you snack while watching TV?

One thing that my sister and I did together was to select the music to be played at out brother’s funeral. This was a really hard thing to do, but I think very beneficial. As I said in the eulogy, a really good friend of ours sang at the service during a period of reflection after the eulogies and that was very hard for her too. It was one of the most wonderful gestures made for our family.

Anyway, here are our selections. We thought it would take a while to get everyone into the chapel, so there were the following two pieces:

We wanted reasonably contemporary music, but did not want to use music that was inappropriate or shocking to the older people who would be attending. I think both of these pieces worked really well and they created the right atmosphere for mourning. (I hope that doesn’t ruin them for anyone else!)

On exit from the chapel we used one of Muz’s favourite bands, The Cure.

This such a beautiful song. Some Cure purists (like @paulhagon) will say that this is not the best version, but we used the Extended Dub Mix from Mixed Up deliberately. I think it is softer and even more beautiful than the original. The lyrics are not completely appropriate, but this is the song that will always put images of my brother in my mind.

My experience is that music is very important at funerals, especially for those people who respond emotionally to musical stimulation.

Do you snack while reading?
Sometimes, but not as a habit.
What is your favourite drink while reading?
I don’t normally drink while reading, but either espresso coffee or juice I suppose.
Do you tend to mark your books while you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?
The idea of writing in books horrifies me.
How do you keep your place? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book open flat?
A bookmark if I can find one or any old bit of paper that I can get my hands on.
Fiction, non-fiction or both?
Both.
Do you tend to read to the end of a chapter or can you stop anywhere?
Depends on the book. I found Shackelton’s Endurance very had to put down mid-chapter because I didn’t want to leave the men on some awful island under a boat.
Are you the type of person to throw a book across the room or on the floor if the author irritates you?
No.
If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away?
If I’m near my laptop I’d look it up.
What are you currently reading?
Beneath Hill 60 by Will Davies, Men I might have known by Brad Saunders and City Boy by Edmund White. I am making very slow progress on all three, but at least I’m carrying the first one around now. Usually they sit beside my bed protecting me from invaders and vampires at night.
What is the last book you bought?
Probably that series of three books by Stieg Larsson with the first being The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Do you have a favourite time/place to read?
Bed or my arm chair.
Do you prefer series books or stand-alones?
Neither, see above as both are mentioned.
Is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over?
Yes, these authors: John Le Carre, Robert Ludlum, Len Deighton, Alan Hollinghurst, Evelyn Waugh, Edmund White and John Mortimer.
How do you organize your books (by genre, title, author’s last name, etc.)?
Subject areas and a bit by value I suppose. The better books are all downstairs in the better bookcase. The crappy books are also downstairs, but they’re in boxes under the stairs. The rest are wherever they can fit in the bedrooms upstairs.
Barbara’s additional question: background noise or silence?
Doesn’t matter.
Moonflowerdragon’s additional questions:
How often do you even open a meme post by someone else?
Not very.
About how much of that post would you really READ rather than scan?
About 70-80% I suppose. It depends on how interesting it is.

I had no energy left today. Needed to recharge, so I stayed at home.

I hope you all stayed up late waiting for this. It was a late night. And I must say that tonight Rage is playing the worst music I’ve heard in ages (apart from the stuff after 5.30 am). Terrible guest programming.
So tonight I went out to two flicks at the 2010 Sydney Film Festival. Firstly there was the Australian premier of The Tree at the State Theatre. It is a decent film about loss, grief, imagination, families and country Queensland. As I’ve recently lost my brother in an accident it was all a bit close to the bone for me. Everyone is going to say it is beautiful, poetic and lyrical, but I’m not so sure. There was a lot I liked, but overall, I don’t think it grabbed me or convinced me. Sorry.
After that we walked down Macquarie Street to look at all the Vivid lights and then entered the Sydney Opera House for Nosferatu with Darth Vargus. The band and score were excellent as were the sound effects by Miss Death. Jamie Leonarder’s introduction just went on for too long. And for me the film is just pretty corny. It may well be historically significant, but I’m glad we didn’t have to sit through it without the amusing live soundtrack. Even so I fell asleep a number of times.
I have to add that the seats in both venues were excellent and I had heaps of leg room. You cannot say that about all film venues in Sydney, especially some old cinemas in Oxford St.

In early May 2010 I gave a talk at the State Library of NSW to a meeting of reference librarians. Ostensibly it was to talk to a series of images that I took while making a curatorial visit to Iraq for the Australian War Memorial in late 2008, but I thought that I’d put that trip in context by discussing why I think getting curators, archivists and librarians out “into the field” is important. So here is the gist of my talk. The embedded slideshow above should be viewed with this outline of my thoughts.

It has been raining on and off for ages in Sidknee.

Just a quickie! Kathryn Greenhill has created a list of all the bloggers we know that are taking part in the 30 posts in 30 days challenge. She is way clever.