Thanks to Bonito Club for this meme.

Two names you go by:
1) Mal
2) Malcolm (but I hate it!)

Two things you are wearing right now:
1) Old Nike Free shoes
2) G-Star jeans

Two things you would want (or have) in a relationship:
1) Fun
2) Decent sex

Two things you like to do:
1) Excercise (swim, ride, run)
2) Visual arts

Two things you want very badly at the moment:
1) The leak to be fixed in my house & all damage repaired
2) The new camera I purchased online ages ago to finally arrive!

Two things you did last night:
1) Watched Animal Kingdom
2) Ate Turkish food for dinner

Two things you ate today:
1) Cheese & spinach roulade with salad
2) Muesli

Two people you last talked to:
1) Gary (a close friend from Melbin)
2) My Mum

Two things you’re doing tomorrow:
1) Breakfast with Gary
2) Working

Two Favorite Holidays
1) Hawaii
2) Sweden

Two favourite beverages
1) Piccolo Latte (espresso)
2) Coffee

Two things about me you may not have known.
1) I hate hot spicy food (like chilli)
2) I barrack for Hawthorn in the AFL

Two jobs I have had in my life:
1) Army officer
2) Intelligence analyst

Two movies I would watch over and over:
1) Magnolia
2) Big Wednesday

Two places I have lived:
1) Melbin
2) London

Two of my favourite foods:
1) Choklit
2) Even more choklit

Two places I’d rather be right now:
1) New York City (‘cos I’ve never been)
2) Milan, Italy (ditto)

Oh. the image is a decent-looking fixie I saw after the Melbin Midsumma parade earlier this year. Go figure.

Sydney sometimes feels like that to me. A bit of a race or a competition. Survival of the fittest, or those with a parking fairy.

Today I spent wandering around the 17th Biennale of Sydney with three of my best friends. Frankly, most of the contemporary visual art that we saw (mostly at MCA) was pretty lame, especially the junk masquerading as “video art”. Apart from Bill Viola’s work at the MCA, it really is self-indulgent, second or third rate rubbish in my opinion. What we saw at MCA is from all over the place and not just Australian, so in saying that it is mostly rubbish I guess the problem stems from poor curatorial selection because it isn’t indicative of the state of Australian contemporary art practice. I have better contemporary art hanging on my walls at home. The Biennale selections just don’t rate for me, nor did they compare with the quality of work still on display at the State Library of NSW in their One Hundred exhibition. In that exhibition there is something for everyone from Banks’ HMB Endeavour journal to a really beautiful illustrated letter from Brett Whiteley to his mother. I’m so glad that I didn’t miss this great exhibition.

Later on we went to see the brilliant Australian film Animal Kingdom (see image & link to the film website). It deserves all of the rave reviews it is getting and Jackie Weaver deserves some big acting award for her portrayal of the convincingly disturbing crime matriarch, Janine “Smurf” Cody. She is seriously creepy. It is a big leap above the recent spate of TV crime dramas that are based on real events in both Melbourne and Sydney. It is more relaxed in the way it portrays the story and it looks so much better. The acting is better, the direction and writing is superb and the film just works so well.

It is easily the best Australian film I can remember seeing for a long time. The violence in the film is both direct or inferred and you never quite know when it is going to happen, or not. There is a lot in its title and they manage to stay true to that right up to the final scene. I also liked the way they frankly portrayed the lives destroyed by crime and the fact that at some stage most criminals make a big mistake or come undone. They are not all brain surgeons or lucky for their entire lifetime. Don’t miss it and see it in a cinema, not on DVD.

How many films do you see a year at the cinema?
Probably around 30 or so. (I’ve joined the Dendy now I live so close to Newtown, so intend to see more from now on.)

What’s your favourite film(s)?
Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Jesus’ Son, Magnolia, The Dreamers, Downfall, Without Limits, The Good Shepherd, Wings of Desire, Mou Gaan Dou 1 2 & 3, The Ignorant Fairies, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Lawrence of Arabia, Big Wednesday, Donnie Darko, Fargo, The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Latter Days, Lords of Dogtown, An Englishman Abroad, and A Single Man.

Who is your favourite director?
Don’t really have one, but I liked what Tom Ford did recently with A Single Man and have a lot of respect for David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia & many others).

How do see most movies (eg tv, cinema, download, dvd)?
Cinema and DVD.

Do you think 3D movies will be a fad…again?
Yep.

What film do you hate the most?
Avatar. Absolute rubbish.

Do you have a guilty pleasure?
Porn & the films of Ashton Kutcher.

Who is your favourite film reviewer?
I suppose I like the reviews of Margaret Pomeranz & David Stratton because they usually give you different perspectives. There is also Paul Byrnes in the SMH and I read his reviews most Saturdays.

How many times have you seen The Sound of Music?
Several & enough.

Name a film, or films, you’ve seen multiple times?
The Sound of Music, The Great Escape, Star Wars, Gallipoli, Field of Dreams, Magnolia, Lawrence of Arabia, On Golden Pond, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Big Wednesday, & probably several others, but I cannot remember them all.

Have you ever yelled comments at the screen in a cinema? (…did people laugh?)
Not since uni and I cannot remember.

At the end of my previous post I said what I really admired about those libraries that are putting themselves out there: guts, initiative, energy and imagination.

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.