Happy Valentine's Day!

That's what I'm having so far! With a restless gut, I've had to take the day off work- sending in my lesson plans to the poor soul tasked with "teaching" my students. During the last few sessions yesterday, I had to take a few trips to the bathroom which gave students several moments to unleash havoc...

But there you go! You know what that means? I have a job! Where, you might ask? Here (click link).

That's correct. The most disadvantaged of Victoria's 79 municipalities. And I'm very glad to be there. What started out as a gold-mining town, has for decades been a centre for poverty, joblessness and poor health. To anyone passing through, you would be forgiven for thinking it to be an idyllic little town, with small corner stores and a rich history, but take a look around the the streets and you soon get a better picture. There are houses in disrepair, car wrecks, and a multitude of classic indicators of severe "disadvantage".

And how are my classes? How are the students? Well, let me say, there's hope. Students usually stay in my class. More often than not, they'll even be doing their work. I teach three VCAL classes in Literacy, Numeracy and Personal Development Skills. For many students, VCAL is an option to keep them in school, despite a complete disinterest in academic skills. When at its best, VCAL offers an alternative to the VCE for those who want to go straight into work placement, and offers them practical skills for everyday life. At its worst, it can merely stand as day-care for 17 and 18 year old delinquents. That won't happen on my watch.

Let's head back to the romance for a while, shall we? St. V's day brought a lovely gift (one I'd been meaning to buy myself, and have been enjoying all morning).

The sound hits that sweet spot in between indie, pop and rock- a place I rarely depart from. Thank you so much, My Love! And I'm told there's one more to come!

I made her a rather large card this year...

She seemed to like it, and I hope she'll have fun creating real-world pixel art with the 450 blocks that came in the pack! I had fun planning the piece on the computer on a 32 x 32 pixel image file, then reproducing it in Lego.

Here's a look at our music room. It's gotten a lot more fun lately.

You might notice the twin (not identical, though) to the piece in the lounge room. It's the cover jacket from v. 2.0 of the Mother 3 Handbook. The picture has authentic lines where the cover has been folded, and the fantastic guys at the framing place put a colour scan of the reverse side on the back. It really is a lovely display piece.

There have also been a few addictions to the book shelf... You may recognise the singer on the left from Mother 2, or Earthbound, or my poster from Fangamer. He's Lucky, of Runaway Five (or Tonzura Bros.) fame, and the dame on the right is the incredible singer, Venus!

See? Proof!

The other front-man (Nice) will be arriving sometime from The States.

Here's the shelf as it stands, adorned with many a useless trinket, most of which were gifts. It worked the same way when I used to buy nail polish. Once people know what an easy present to get you consists of, your collection grows fast. Everyone would empty their old nail polish collections into mine until it grew to 65+ bottles at one stage!

You might notice the pair of Tachikoma tanks (by Nendoroid) from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Aren't they easily the most adorable piece of military-grade weaponry you've every seen? I love their child-like personalities in the show!

And here's some shots of the decorative drawing going up our staircase. Pretty, right?

We got those lovely, owl-y prints in Singapore, and each one represents a season, with items typical of each season in Singapore.

I might return to mention a few more things about my new job, while I'm here. On the Tuesday before school started, I received a call from the school asking if I was still interested in taking casual relief work. I said yes, and they proceeded to call me back, half an hour later to ask if I'd in fact like a full-time position. Excited, I accepted the offer for an "interview" the following morning.

I arrived at 8:30am and by 8:45 I was employed. "Can you start today?" was about the only interview question they asked.

I'm glad to have this opportunity for full-time employment, and I'm very happy to have the chance to make a difference for my students. Praise God!

I hope you have a lovely St. V's day! Mine's off to a good, if turbulent, start.

Much love,

Evan

Trying to write a poem

[MASSIVE SPOILERS] - Like you care...

I've been meaning to post a poem I've been working on. I haven't, obviously. Why? Because the words can't live up to the inspiration for the piece. I really want to capture that grin that smiles so hard it cries- I want to express the melancholia of the coloured balloon, the darkness of true friendship and the terror of believing in yourself.

I want to pay homage to what is a satisfying children's novel, an allegory for personal growth, and a parody of what we expect from life. Penned by a philosopher; it's an essay about nature, humanity, capitalism and family.

And it's a video game.

Surprised? Probably not. Most of you are familiar with my unwavering interest in the works of Itoi Shigesato, and Nintendo: The Mother series.

I want to tell the story of Mother 3, in all of its heartbreaking, clownish, inspiring splendour. I want to bring you on that journey. But I can't. I'm not Shigesato Itoi. And most of you won't bother to play his magnum opus.

Not wanting to merely transpose its content into film, or printed medium, I resolved to show how the work could withstand the solemnity of reflective prose-poetry. I didn't feel my skills were anywhere close to the necessary standard to pay adequate tribute to Mother 3, so I figured I'd start small. I figured I start with a gimmick.

I'd tell the story in reverse, as a means of conveying the potency of the punch line- I would begin and end with the darkness and confusion. Where the game starts in the idyllic village of Tazmily, sees corruption take hold then would have Earth cleansed, I wanted to paint an image of the darkness receding. I started at the end- or a little before it:

In the mines a boy cries- mother gone, brother in arms
We find child suicide at the end of the arc 

The Blue Marble- the stage opens with potential

Before darkness covers our friends stumbling in dark

In which act did we arrive? The tragic end.

The wording was too strong- I realised the audience hasn't had time to watch events build, and it's jarring to be left with words detailing a very specific despair, belonging to characters as yet unknown. We see a horrific scene, but we can't feel what we're meant to feel. It's just a scene so horrible, it lacks any reality to relate to the reader.

And "potential" runs off the tongue like dry Weet-Bix. It is a mess.

So I tried to capture a different time, just a little earlier in the story, as our heroes are hunting down the opiate that's keeping their fellow man captive:

Next our actors descend on the city of dreams

A farce carved of anachronistic legacy

Culminating in such a perverse wonderland

Its porcine king teaches a love of heresy

Again our film rewinds.

At this point, it became very clear that rhyming might not be such a good idea, especially if I'm going to use words like "legacy" and "heresy". I was too far into the poem and I still hadn't given a glimpse of the cartoonish whimsy present in the source material. Much of Mother 3's power is in its ability to make the player feel uncomfortable at the acts of terror carried out on the literary equivalents of gummi bears - all sugar and smiles. It feels wrong to see these characters, like gummi bears, getting their heads bitten off.

I tried rewriting parts of it, toying with the idea of losing the rhyme, or the meter, or both:

Next our actors descend on the city of dreams, [alight with neon heralds, deception, a lustful projection (projection of what?)- guiding the moths to give up their life]

A farce [One big, new toy] carved of anachronistic legacy, Culminating in such a perverse wonderland

[And at its helm, the] porcine king.

Again our film rewinds (make clear later on?).

With a little tweaking I was happier with the expression of what King P.'s Utopia represented. Mother 3 is at its best when it's telling a fable with the simplicity of Aesop, and the wonderfully vulgar "New Pork City" shows us what happens when the selfish boy next door gets everything he ever wanted.

I poured out and pawed over the verse again, to see what should come before, and where I should go next:

Our actors descend on the city of dreams, 
Alight with neon heralds, deception, a lustful projection- 
Guiding the moths to give up their lives

A monstrous child's toy carved of anachronistic legacy, 
Culminating in such a perverse wonderland- And at its helm, 
The porcine king.

At this point I wasn't sure where I was going with any of it. Should I return to a simple retelling, or could I start with confusion, then win the reader over as I filled in the gaps? Even the phrase "anachronistic legacy" was almost too much- it was mostly word play intended for those in the know- I didn't see myself having time to clarify its literal meaning later in the piece.*

I decided to have a crack at some cold, hard facts. How was I going to introduce the Magypsies? The Mr. Saturns? Rope snake?- all the colourful side characters that make Itoi's world so vibrant and twisted. And I needed to mention love. Love, as in adoration and service and camaraderie and self-sacrifice and loyalty - it needed to be referenced. Mother 3 is about love.

So that's how I started the next verse:

But we see love coagulates at the edges

Trans-gender, no gender, all gender- Magypsies!

Join a pink, mononymous, polysemous race

T'ward a battle of mind and colour and whimsy

It never feels good to start a line with "but". In school they drilled "however" into our heads as the correct and appropriate opening to a statement that runs contrary to the one proceeding it. But "but" fits. And what do you know- I'd returned to both rhyme AND meter.

But how was I to appropriately dissect this verse to explain clearly that I was talking about trans-gender immortals and naive, armless inventors that all carried the same name?

After this point, my lines descended into one-off plot points or turns of phrase that I felt might demonstrate my intentions:

Spines in the ground restore to life- and anaesthetic

and

The dragon sleeps through the unnatural warfare

I was tired of trying- and I was ashamed that I was tired of trying. 

But it doesn't have an entirely sad ending. I had a different idea- one that was much less painful, but still showed my own desire to deliver a message. It would allow me to explain a little of why Mother 3 stays at the forefront of my topics of discussion.

My decision? To write about my inability to write about Mother 3.

Thanks for reading.

Evan

*The "Pig King" built his army with set pieces stolen from different time periods in Earth's "history". The city literally doesn't belong to the time it exists in.

Portal 2 Turret and Hayao Miyazaki & Studio Ghibli Piano Sheet Music Book

Thanks, Frase and Adi! It's so nice to be woken by machine-gun fire when a cat accidentally steps in front of this adorable sentry turret from Portal 2. A wonderful wedding gift!

We've had lots of fun listening to the cute comments the turret makes when it's found us, or when we knock it over. There's nothing like hearing "I don't hate you" after you've pushed over this adorable piece of Aperture Science (Read: Think Geek) technology.

Although we're yet to convince 'Cini of its value...

A few things arrived in the post today, and one of which I put straight on the piano stand and tried my best to belt out a tune- to no avail. It'll take me a very long time to get even one of these pretty pieces sounding any good. But I'm sure I'll get a lot of joy out of them when I do.

These are the songs in the book...

...And these...

...And these!

I hope you're having fun somewhere,

Much love,

Evan

Australia Day, Franz Porcelain Kathy Ireland Monkey Mischief Teapot, Tintin Market Scene Plastic Coffret and the Mother 2 Piano Book

Australia Day

For most people in Australia, the 26th of January is a day to kick back, have a beer and barbecue with friends and listen to TripleJ count down the Hottest 100. For others, it's a time to raise awareness of what we might be celebrating- "Invasion Day", when the First Fleet landed on our shores. For others still, it's a day to ignorantly lament the growing racial diversity of our nation, while harassing our newest arrivals to this land.

My wife and I were blessed enough to be able to engage in the first option with our beautiful friends, Jo and Richard, and their lovely children, Daniel, Grace and Esther- along with the kitten, Lilly, and the baby bird, Kiwi (which we helped name!).

It was the first truly Australian Australia Day my wife had celebrated, and our first as a married couple. There were Australian flags everywhere, hamburgers shaped like Australia, Pass-The-Parcel dress-ups (I'm hoping we get some of the photos soon) and plenty to drink.

It was great to share in the celebrations of our freedoms and the beauty of this country, and to remember those who aren't as lucky as us, who fight oppression without rest. We're very lucky to have new friends in our new home, not least of all because of their preposterously generous nature. 

My jaw hurt from grinning when this was "awarded" us after the Pass-The-Parcel...

Franz Porcelain Kathy Ireland Monkey Mischief Teapot

This teapot is the first item I fell in love with in the Impress Tea House in Elmore, and still the loveliest teapot I've ever seen. Thank you so very much, Jo and Richard! It will be treasured and it will always remind us of our generous friends up north.

As my brother-in-law once said of me, "I've never seen anyone as enthusiastic about monkeys as him."

Mother 2 Piano Book

Today, in the mail, another piano book arrived, and this one is much more at my current level. Mother 2 (Earthbound) contains some of the best music every written for a videogame, and the simple, but strong melodies lend themselves very well to piano renditions, both simple and complex. It's a beautiful (and cheap) book for anyone who's interested and has some cute images of the original clay models used for the guide book and advertising. You'll probably recognise the four on the back from their plastic reproductions by Banpresto that I recently purchased.

And do you know what I've just noticed? There's a notation guide in the back that teaches beginners how to read music! How cute is that?!

Off I go to play some of this lovely music, but not before I show you the pretty gift I received from my sister after her return from France...

Tintin Market Scene Plastic Coffret

Fiona knows I love Tintin, and I love toys, so she bought me this cute plastic scene of Tintin at the market inspecting the model of the Unicorn. There is an assortment of bric-à-brac modelled around him, with the masts and rigging of the model ship printed on transparent plastic. It's very cute, with Snowy scratching behind his ear. My sister sure knows me well- Thanks Fi!

In the background, on the cardboard display, you can see the pick-pocket, the detective, and at least one thug- it's very cute, indeed.

I hope you take time out to celebrate how lucky you are. Get some friends, and some food, and spend some time enjoying each others' company. I highly recommend it.

See you soon,

Evan