Monthly Archive for March, 2006

The Wedding Plans Six Months Out

Published
by
Simon
on 30/3/2006
in Wedding
. 0 Comments

Today is exactly six months until our wedding. Laura is the kind of person to remember any and every, even slightly significant date. She often says things like “Guess what, it’s our five year and four month anniversary today. Here, I got you a card.” or “One year ago today we were leaving for a holiday.” More often than not, this really shits me. I mean, who cares? It’s hardly worth remembering the date on which we left for holidays in 2004. What a waste of brain space; luckily, she’s a really smart girl and has brain space to spare. Five years and four months isn’t even an anniversary, let alone one to celebrate with a card. Of course, these spontaneous romantic gestures are part of what make her so special to me. Anyway, she enjoys it, so I live with it (even if I do make fun of her, just a little bit).

So earlier this week when I realised today would be exactly six months to our wedding I was kind of impressed with myself just for realising. When I went to bed last night I thought, “Yes, I’ll be able to score some points with this tomorrow.” I figured it would play out one of three ways.

  1. Laura says “So, guess what today is.” And I say, “It’s exactly six months until we get married.” And I get points.
  2. I say, “Guess what; today is exactly six months until we get married.” And I get points.
  3. Laura says, “Guess what; today is exactly six months until we get married.”
    If this third possibility plays out, then I’ve lucked out, because I can’t then go “I know.” It simply wouldn’t be believed. My past record at remembering such things precludes it.

So after breakfast Laura still hadn’t said anything so I thought I’d get in quick and make sure it played out something like option two. So I say, “Guess what today is.” Laura replies with weak sarcasm, “Thursday.” After a few more futile guesses I tell her and she hasn’t even realised. So it didn’t play out at all the way I’d expected, and so much for those points I thought I’d get.

Preparations

How are the preparations going, you (and everyone else we talk to[1]) ask? Well, not bad I think.

The location has been locked in as Sirromet Winery for a while. We had morning tea there with the families a couple of weeks back so they could check it out and I think everyone liked what they saw[2]. It’s a great looking (and apparently award winning) restaurant and the location is beautiful. We can only hope that the warmer spring weather comes on early and with a bit of rain this year so there are some decent leaves on the vines by the time the wedding rolls around.

We’re close to having the guest list nailed, but I think the hardest part is yet to come. We are going to have to be pretty brutal about who we won’t be able to invite because it’s an unfortunate reality that our budget is limited. If when it comes time to send out the invites you find yourself waiting by the mail box for something that doesn’t arrive, please, please don’t be offended. There are at least a dozen more people on our ‘really want to invite’ list than will fit in either our budget or the restaurant. I’m going to have to blame Laura’s gigantic family for this, but what ever you do don’t say that out aloud…ah…oops[3].

Laura has pretty much arranged the dresses, but most importantly, the dress. She is having her dress made to her own design[4], and as is tradition I haven’t, nor will I, see the dress or the design beforehand. Although I have seen a sample of the fabric for possible tie matching purposes.

The female side of the bridal party has been decided (and was decided months, maybe years ago) and I’m still working on mine. I’ve got three of the four locked in (in my head), and I’m struggling to make a firm decision on the fourth. Sorry in advance to whoever misses out.

We are, as yet, still to arrange a celebrant, but I’m working on it. Honestly. The florist and photographer are lined up, and I think Laura also has makeup under control.

Laura seems somewhat concerned that we haven’t looked at (let alone decided on) any stationary yet, but I’m fairly confident that isn’t an issue. We did, ages ago, start thinking about possible fonts and colour schemes, but didn’t get very far. Some fonts under consideration were: Adine Kirnberg Script, Italian Cursive (in italics) and Dragonfly (I’m not a fan). If anyone has a good font suggestion, let me know.

Honeymoon has not yet been arranged, but at this stage the plan is a week in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, probably somewhere around Montville. The idea is to find a romantic self contained house/B&B/cabin to relax in. If you’ve had a wonderful holiday up that way and can recommend anywhere, let me know.

While having lunch with Aidan today I mentioned the six month thing and he said something along the lines of “I’d better start organising a speech or something.” It seems to me that some people have an un-warranted urgency about certain arrangements for this wedding.

  1. If you get engaged and don’t postpone the wedding indefinitely then expect to be asked this by everyone you haven’t seen in over three weeks. [↩]
  2. Although, the restaurant was closed for renovations which was a little annoying. [↩]
  3. But, really, I love you all. That’s right, all 62 of you. [↩]
  4. Which she had some help with from a few people, special thanks to Noela for helping out. [↩]

Apple v. Apple

Published
by
Simon
on 27/3/2006
in Geek and Music
. 0 Comments

Edward, over at TechTalk posted a link to this most interesting article on the Times Online website.

I’ve heard in the past about Apple Computer and Apple Corps having stoushes in court over the name, but I don’t think I realised the full history. Since I currently work in the IP field and have more than a passing interest in computers and good music this case really interests me. It will be interesting to see a little more of the history between the two companies and also, how the court rules.

Inside Deep Throat

Published
by
Simon
on 25/3/2006
in Movies
. 0 Comments

Inside Deep Throat movie posterSocietal attitudes toward sex are something that fascinates me. Last night, Laura and I watched the documentary Inside Deep Throat IMDb Icon about the first porn movie to really hit the big time. Deep Throat IMDb Icon, which I’m yet to see[1], has been described as the most successful and influential pornographic movie ever made. The stories behind the individuals involved and how Deep Throat was made, promoted and distributed is fascinating (and in many ways, very sad). However, by far the most interesting thing to me is the reaction of various elements of society (especially, the People and the Government) and the far reaching affects it had (or at the very least, threatened to could have had).

The personal stories involved, primarily those of Linda Lovelace[2], Gerard Damiano (the writer/director), and Harry Reems tell, above anything else, very sad stories. For starters, none of them made any significant money from Deep Throat. Linda was paid something in the order of $1,200, Harry Reems even less and the writer/director was muscled out of his one third share of the profits by the other two partners who were part of the Mafia.

Linda, after staring in the box office failure Deep Throat Part II in 1974 eventually became a vocal anti-pornography campaigner on the back of the Feminist and anti-pornography movements in the early 1980s. In 2001 she did a pictorial (once again as Linda Lovelace) for a magazine called Leg Show prompting Hustler to name her asshole of the month for March 2001. Drawing any conclusions from a film about issues like whether or not Linda was forced to perform in Deep Throat is an obviously impossible task, however, since the movie prompts one to do so, I will. I’m led to think that Linda was probably pressured into making the film, but that overall, her character was very malleable and that it wouldn’t have taken much to convince her[3].

Harry Reems’ story is possibly the saddest of the lot[4], and is linked inextricably with the political and social struggles that made the movie so famous. Harry Reems was eventually used as a massive scape goat by the FBI when he was indicted for conspiracy to distribute obscenity across state lines. Even though he was initially found guilty, the charges were clearly a load of crap[5]. Many of the big names in Hollywood[6] got behind Harry, simply because they saw the charges as an attack on art and freedom and also to be an underhanded attempt at censorship. The charges were eventually overturned. Unfortunately, the social revolution and the idea that pornography would become more main stream and accepted in society had lost steam. Hollywood still wasn’t willing to risk casting well known porn stars in main stream roles, and consequently Harry began a descent into alcoholism due in part to his inability to find work.

The film seems intent on trying to convince us that there is an even greater extent of censorship and repression in today’s society, and therefore the revolution started or spurred on by Deep Throat hasn’t been successful. What I think it fails to recognise is that this is the kind of battle that will never be won. There will always be liberals and conservatives in society, and I guess it’s just a question of who has the upper hand. Without claiming to have a great understanding of the political and social climate before I was even born, it’s my feeling that in many ways society is more liberal than it ever has been, however there is the constant threat that it won’t stay that way. One thing Inside Deep Throat did concede is that the massive scale of the porn industry today is, in some senses, evidence that the ‘battle’ was won.

One thing that struck me toward the end of the film is the similarities between the pornographic movie[7] and music industries. There is a huge volume of content created and the vast majority (and, unfortunately, often the most popular) is total rubbish.

This has been a very poor synopsis of Inside Deep Throat. If you want to know more I suggest you see the film or have a read of the insightful user comments over at IMDb[8].

  1. But I’m downloading it as I type. [↩]
  2. Later preferring to be known by her real name, Linda Boreman. [↩]
  3. Although, it has been admitted by her husband at the time of making the movie, Chuck Traynor, that he was excessively controlling, more serious allegations made by Linda, such as rape, have been strenuously refuted by Traynor and others involved with making the move. [↩]
  4. However, it does seem to have a happy ending, I think. [↩]
  5. At least they were to any rational mind. [↩]
  6. Notably, Jack Nicholson and Warren Baetty. [↩]
  7. In this I would include all movies that attract a restricted rating for their sexual content. [↩]
  8. You may need to sign up, which is free and easy. It really is worth the effort. [↩]

Just some photos

Published
by
Simon
on 24/3/2006
in Photos
. 1 Comment

I since I’ve uploaded a bunch of great photos recently (well I think so anyway), I thought I’d make it easy for you to look at them[1]. The following links will open a Flickr slideshow.

Feel free to go check out all my photos while you’re here if you like.

  1. Does anyone actually visit here? If you see a photo you like, do me a favour and leave a comment either here or at Flickr. I like comments. [↩]