I took a 300 bus down to Circular Quay (yes, where the famous turtle-backs of the Opera House sit) to go once more to the MCA. This week, though, unlike last week, the MCA has no floors open to the public (the Ed Ruscha exhibit is leaving the building, and the Biennale is being put in) so Meg Taylor, librarian of Tasmanian origin, had to come down to 1 and get me in the elevator. "How was your weekend?" I said, and she said, "Oh, good, I saw a film." "Me too," I said, and we compared notes.
I sat down with my pile of books, my writing implement and my scrap paper. Photos of landscape, land art, Arte Povera, and cities. My words scrawling, scrawling over the white paper. Made some photocopies. "I think," said Meg, "It's about time you buckled down and wrote that essay." "It's funny, you know..." I said.
Afterwards, I met Mike outside and we walked around the ferry terminals to the Dendy cinema, where Super Size Me was being premiered. I'd bought our tickets earlier that day, so we joined the queue, which soon grew to curve around the shopfronts. The film opens in two weeks in Australia, and has already opened in North America. The feature was sold out, and we even got goody bags courtesy of the Sydney Morning Herald--a free paper, juice, and cassava chips. Whoo hoo!
The film was a clever stunt, I'm sure you're all aware of it but I'll just outline: Morgan Spurloch decides to eat only McDonald's food for 30 days, inspired by a lawsuit being pursued by two obese American girls against the food giant. Their case: that McDonald's made them dangerously overweight and should pay. McDonald's rebuttal: eating McDonald's and only that would not be that dangerous. So, Spurloch sets out to find out. And over the course of it, discovers some dirty secrets about the company, and that binging on Macca's (as it's called here in Oz) makes your liver react similarly to a two-week alcohol binge.
After the film, Spurloch did a Q&A session with the audience. At one point 4 men in suits in a row near the front got up and walked out quietly, like spooks.
Today, Sozza and I went to the Danks Street Depot and got bowls of coffee, 4$ each. And jam with toast, haha. (Burnt Fig, and Banana w/ Orange, and Rhubarb...ooh baby!) Then we drove out to Botany Bay, where the Caltex refinery is, and also a National Park of dubious enviromental standards (pipes were sticking up out of the earth with signs on saying 'No Smoking within 6 Metres') ... watched the big jetliners coming in from across the ocean, and the small waves battering the salty rocks, and walked along the folded and cracked rocks where small perfect circles had been formed by tidal action or who knows what, filled with tiny, dusty-blue seashells that looked like waxy seeds.
Driving back, we listened to les fils Beastie and felt strung out on caffeine. It's a warmish fall day, the air feels like rain. Sarah's making us polenta bread to go with the lunch soup, and then we might watch some Michel Gondry films. It's good to be young and alive today, nasty sneezes notwithstanding. Time passes. And sometimes blogs don't have conclusive endings.
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