Diversionary Daily

Off My Feet

I'd originally taken this photo in amongst the autumnal flurry back in June, intending to tie it into the challenge of using different phrases in place of "busy at work."

One of the phrases in question was 'off your feet' so when I ended up with my foot in one shot of some leaves I thought, hey, shoes... feet... that post practically writes itself! But then I got tired of posting leaf-in-autumn photos, so it slipped off the radar.

Then the other day a friend told me that the white shoes made it look like I would break into dance at any moment, Fred Astaire-style. I've yet to actually break into spontaneous dance, but it's nice to know the option's there, and apparently the shoes are willing.

If I were to break into some kind of impromptu hot-shoe-shuffling, it'd probably be some vaguely un-coordinated take on jazz ballet. For the uninitiated, jazz ballet is a kind of dance style that's a mix of classical ballet movements and a more modern, faster, smoother dance. Think of it as taking elements of Mozart, and adapting it to today's musical styles and tastes.

Same concepts, different interpretation.

I'm not sure if the name is an Australian thing - I know in the US it's usually called jazz dance. Probably in the hope that guys might actually sign up for classes.

In my experience it's a predominantly female undertaking, and I'm prepared to offer a Google Image search as supporting evidence. I'm not sure why, maybe it's just that ballet stigma.

But forms of jazz dance have sneakily slipped under the radar and become vaguely cool again with the mainstream resurgence of musical theatre: in case you missed it, there were a few low-key dance numbers involved in both 2002's Oscar-stealing Chicago and (surprise!) 1972's Cabaret.

I've never tried learning a formal dance (and I'm pretty crap at informal ones)... what about you? (and do you have a secret jazz ballet story?)

Posted on Sunday, July 30, 2006 | Life | 4 Comments

Bricks

I've been a little preoccupied at work this past week, with client projects and following up on last week's announcement.

So here's a picture of a wall I came across in Melbourne.

I'm a sucker for old bricks, their colours and patterns are kinda mesmerising.

Posted on Thursday, July 27, 2006 | Melbourne 2006 | 3 Comments

Growing

In work-related news I'm excited to announce a few changes at the Cube today. Cube7 (that's us) will be merging with Bam Creative, another Perth design company, from August 1, 2006. It's been a while in the making, so I'm glad we can finally talk about it openly.

Everybody here's looking forward to working with Miles, Myles and the rest of the gang at Bam, they're a great bunch of people. In the meantime we're all flat-out working on a stack of great new projects, and there's plenty more exciting things ahead for the combined gang.

It's funny, I've been wanting to tell everyone about "the plan" for a long time, but now that it's public I can't think of much to say other than I can't wait for everybody to move in together and make one big happy family... It's going to be a lot of fun.

There's more info on the merger site, which also has a photo that might look familiar...

Posted on Friday, July 21, 2006 | Work | 5 Comments

Disappearing for a Weekend

A few client schedules got bumped around at work last week, so I took the opportunity to sneak in a very last-minute long weekend in Melbourne this past weekend. Yes, the place is still damn cool.

After the mainly sunny Melbourne holidays of the past few years, the city's wintery welcome this time was a bit of a shock, and I think I've brought back a cold.

Anyway. Winter in Melbourne: behold the fog.

Full hot chocolate reportage soon.

Posted on Wednesday, July 19, 2006 | Melbourne 2006 | 2 Comments

The Other Stack

I've previously talked about the stack of CDs waiting to be played so I thought it was time I mentioned the other stack: books to read.

Right now I'm half-way through Mankell's Before the Frost, and next in the fiction line is Fight Club which has been on the must-read list for ages.

In terms of non-fiction there's the seminal (but somehow unread until now) Design of Everyday Things which I started before I got distracted by Mankell. Further down is a copy of Freakonomics and also IDEO's Art of Innovation. And in case you somehow failed to notice my fascination with architecture, the copy of de Botton's The Architecture of Happiness should give it away. That one was a birthday present that I'm really looking forward to reading. I think it'll jump the queue and end up next in line.

Lastly, there's a hardback illustrated copy of Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything which I flick through when I don't feel like reading something else.

I'm always up for suggestions... What books are in your stack right now?

Posted on Tuesday, July 11, 2006 | Life | 4 Comments

After the Flurry

After a brief flurry of posts to mark the end of June, I let the first nine days of July go by without a word.

Or photo.

The end of June this year was marked a bit of a milestone, one I'll explain another day when there's a bit more time. In mean time I'll no doubt be immersed in a few random client projects at work.

One of the joys of doing client work is becoming an expert on fairly abstract subjects for brief periods. For a month or three I'll know everything there is to know about wine, then that'll be kicked out of my brain so I can learn up on carbon offset politics, public architecture, coffee or (most recently) marine biology.

Posted on Monday, July 10, 2006 | Work | 4 Comments