Yes, I know it's Saturday - but I was busy being misty at a sold out screening of the Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls at ACMI as part of Melbourne's International Film Festival last night to post this on the correct day. I had tried to catch this home-grown documentary while I was in New Zealand recently, but the screening times and the cold and the general lack of vehicular transportation during the day meant I missed out. I was pleased to find that the film was part of MIFF and added a ticket to my viewing schedule. The movie was personal, joyous, toe-tapping and moving. The twins dedication and love for each other is enduring and obvious. Their humour infectious. The archival footage is magical - who were those people smart enough to video tape two cheeky girls busking in Christchurch and Auckland? well done! I can't recommend their documentary highly enough. The Topps are only a couple of years older than I am and have been part of my whole New Zealand life. I have always connected with them and continue to adore Jools and Lynda Topp. Their live shows are so much fun. So_much_fun. If they come to your town, grab a ticket and you will have a great time. They are master ring leaders and as their audience, you will be so very happy to follow even as your sides split. At the end of the movie last night, the audience was asked "How many of you are kiwis.." only a smattering of hands were raised - much fewer than I expected. I had thought maybe you had to be a New Zealander to appreciate the humour and the back story, but I was wrong. Judging by the laughter during the show and the continuous applause through the credits and then again at the end as the houselights were raised, I'd say that the Twin's story resonates with everyone.

I have reached the age where, not only do young gentlemen offer me their seat on public transport, but I now accept it. I have grown to accept this phase I have shifted in to. It's taken a while, but yes, I got there in the end. The woman who looks tired and old enough to require someone giving up their comfort to help a poor old lump - that's me: the one sitting down on a crowded tram. Tonight, though, I seem to have begun nudging my way into another phase of life. It seems people like to take my dining chairs. Not the one I am sitting on, obviously, but the spare chairs at my dining table. "Excuse me," she said, her eyebrows lifting a question as her hands are already removing the chair, "May I?" and it's gone before I can even answer because she knows I'm not going to mind right? why would I say No, it's obvious I'm not with anyone and I'm dining alone. I don't need that chair. Or that chair, or.. that chair. One after the other, they go. Off to laughing groups of friends and canoodlling snugs of lovers who have a more pressing need to buttocks the funiture into service than consider the very weak, and obviously outside chance, someone might want to join my table and therefore require one of those repurposed pieces of furniture. I might need that chair. Imagine, if by some pure miracle there was someone in a bar within my line of sight stumbled, bleary after-works hazed, in my direction. That silver fox of a business suit decided he'd had another lame duck day, and two too many whiskeys and maybe he'd just pick some woman up for a fumble and a bit of disorganised rumpy-pumpy cos Lord knows, it's been a long time since he'd seen his penis but he was aware it "popped up" from time to time. Making his way over to my table only to realise, in transit, there were no chairs to aim his unbalanced progress and it all gets too hard (hello!) to think of options. With no seating for his intoxicated butt, he decides to aim for the big gap that is front entrance to go hail a cab and go home to his wife because frankly, when he starts trying to pick up singular middle aged women with no chairs at a bar downstairs from work, it's clearly time to go home. I'd probably prefer the company of someone who could rustle up his own seating arrangements, anyway.

Fox sent me a link from An Ampersand's tumblr about a set of workshops organised by AGDA. Keen as mustard, I signed up for Letterpress 1 (morning workshop) and Bookbinding: Practical (afternoon) adding Letterpress 2 (next Saturday) . It was an action-packed day. The Letterpress 1 Workshop utilised a compact and gorgeous original Heidelberg Platen Letterpress. Its heavy black cast iron frame, beautifully lathed pistons, cogs and platens all working in perfect harmony - really was a sight to behold, I was quite mesmerized by it. You can see it in my rickety video below which does it little justice. We learned to create the photo-polymer plates - the raised, reversed design we printed from - as well as the history of other plate-making methods. We watched our printer, Paul, mix the inks to match the red we'd chosen as our printing colour. He created a make-shift box to carry the ink from the mixing plate over to the press, and filled the ink reservoir at the back of the machine. Cranking the press up, the platens rotated, each picking ink from each other, until just the right amount was rolled onto the polymer plate held fast in the chase. If you are even remotely interested in printing, I highly recommended, if you ever get the chance to do attend such a workshop, you do so.
The afternoon was spent making my first notebook. It was such a full 3.5 hours of flat out work, that I didn't have time to take a photo or grab any video. I learnt to use an industrial guillotine, a book making machine (these puppies ought to be in every mall!) that took all the mess and fuss out of gluing a block of plain paper together and creating an instant notebook. We cut and we glued and we got sticky and concentrated so hard that hardly a peep came out of any of the 8 participants. We clamped and pressed and embossed and end-papered until we finally each had our very own-made notebooks to take home. Because I had done the Letterpress in the morning, I had my very own name to include on the inside of my notebook. It was such a wonderful afternoon and we all did pretty reasonable jobs. NOTE: if you are interested in bookbinding, and live in or can get to Auckland, check out MOTAT's introduction to book binding.