Gitchi  
stephen clark
 
 
September 18th, 2003
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stephen reading
 
 
Every year in the suburb of Diamond Creek, they have this thing called the Town Fair. I always look forward to it. I've been going to it almost every year for the past twenty years. I traveled to Diamond Creek on Saturday afternoon. It was a two hour train journey. When I arrived, I saw things like thrill rides, stalls, and things set up for live music. After I checked everything out, I walked to my parents' house which was nearby.
 
 
new dvd experience
 
 
My parents' house was cold and quiet. I noticed that they had a Digital Versatile Disc of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" lying on a shelf next to the new DVD player – I decided to have a look at it because I've never operated a DVD player before. It's one of those pieces of technology which I'd never had the pleasure of exploring, and everyone seems to know all about it except me. So I had a look at the special features on that Harry Potter disc – it had stuff like, deleted scenes, interviews with the actors, how the sets were built, even little games and interactive activities which one could explore using the remote control. I didn't need to read the instruction book, because it was all self-explanatory.
 
 
offensive
I made this face in the 3D modelling software this
week – I was trying to make a cute and cuddly
character but it turned out like this instead.
 
 

I had another DVD with me too, it was a movie called The Big Hit (I didn't buy it – I found it) and that was interesting too – I didn't watch the whole movie but I looked at some parts of it and I noticed that it's possible to change the language – that is, while the characters are talking, you can make them speak French instead, and you can still understand it if you turn on the English subtitles. The Big Hit is a somewhat offensive adult film, much more so than Harry Potter – but I found that it seemed much less offensive when I was watching it in French. It's also possible to play the movie at a slightly slower or faster speed – and unlike a normal video, the sound still comes out and the characters sound like they're talking faster or whatever. That must be useful, when you want to watch something in a hurry.
 
 
empty fairground
 
 
 
It was getting dark outside. I decided I'd better go back down to the Town Fair, to take some more photos while it was still a little bit light. I was also hungry, because there was no food in my parents' house and I hadn't had any lunch. So I went out. But on the way to the fair, it started raining very heavily and I got wet because I had no shelter.
 
 
diamond creek people
 
 
 
The bad weather was what made this year's fair a bit of a disappointment. People don't hang about in the rain to watch live entertainment, and they can't sit on the grass on the oval when it's all wet. There was a bit of a respite from the rain while I ordered a battered saveloy and chips, and ate them while standing in one place. But then the rain started again and I went to the football club pavilion – it was the only place where I could shelter from the rain. There were a lot of people there, but most of them were members of the football club so I felt a bit out of place. And even there it was not very sheltered because the wind was so strong, it was blowing the rain inwards.
 
 
welcome to diamond creek football club
 
 
 
I had half a mind to leave Diamond Creek, because there was a band that I wanted to see in the city on that night. But I decided to stay, and eventually I was glad that I did. The rain stopped and I had a look around at the thrill rides and stuff. There was one, called the "Ali Ba Ba" which sort of picks you up and lifts you up high in a circle whilst keeping you parallel to the ground. I looked at it and noticed that there were a lot of teenage girls on it and they were looking pretty good, as were the girls that were waiting in line. So I bought a ticket.
 
 
girl on the ali baba
 
 
 
"What, are you crazy?" I asked myself a minute later. "You always get queasy when you go on these rides, and you've barely had time to digest that battered saveloy and chips!" But the ticket was non-refundable so I went on the ride. As it turned out, it was well worth the money and unexpectedly enjoyable – not because of the teenage girls, but because of the awesome view from the top. And how exciting! I didn't get queasy until right at the end, and only a little bit.
 
 
 
the pretend house is on fire
burning house
 
 

Soon afterwards, there was a display by the local fire-fighters where they set a car and a pretend house on fire and then they put it out with their hoses. Then there was a fireworks display. It was very impressive. But I left halfway through because I wanted to go back to the house and watch The Bill on television. It was a pretty awesome feeling, walking back through the deserted shopping district in the darkness while the fireworks behind me were going "Bang! Boom!" and everyone else was watching them.
 
 
stephen in darkness
 
 
 
Much later, after I had watched the TV that I wanted to watch at the parents' house, I went back to the railway station through the remains of the fair. It was about half-past ten o'clock. The clouds were mostly gone, but the thrill-rides had stopped and the only people who were still there were carnival workers and gangs of roving teenagers who wanted to prolong the social event. There were more teenage boys and girls at the station, along with police officers to keep an eye on things. I was in a very good mood because sometimes I could spy on the beautiful young people kissing and playing about in the station car-park. As for the train ride, after eleven o'clock, that was like a journey through heaven, because there were at least four girls whom I was able to look at without seeming weird – they were part of a social group that was congregated in front of me and I could alternate between looking at them and their reflections in the windows. So despite the rain and the disappointment, it was all worth it.
 
 
 
playing keyboard violently
 
 
 
Nothing much else happened this week – I slept in till at least midday on all the other days. I was going to start a new painting, but I couldn't find any big pieces of masonite in the shops. So I was going to do a series of tiny paintings on some small pieces of masonite that I have, but I didn't get them started because I'm still putting coats of primer on them. Tonight I had a practice with the band that I'm in called The Floyd Show – we made some headway and extended our repertoire to about fourteen songs, but at one point there was a disagreement when the backing singer said a phrase should be sung one way, and the lead singer said he'd rather sing it the other way. The disagreement created tension which wasn't resolved, so that the two singers later made comments to the other band members about how troubled they were by eachother's behaviour. I'm tempted to take sides, but this band will fall apart if members can't find a way to get along.
 
 

Flash animation – move your mouse over it (try clicking and dragging,
too, but it might get a bit messed up).
 
 
 
Television:
I saw that movie Bring It On on TV a while ago, that's pretty cool, I'll probably buy the DVD. I don't have a DVD player, but it's that good that I want to buy it anyway.
 
 
Historical photo of the week:
 
 
Stephen Clark Age 26
Stephen Clark, 26 years old.
 
 
Live Music:
Last Friday night, at the "Laundry" venue I went to see a band called Meebar. They are a rock band and whenever I see them, it's always a good night for dancing. They have two girls out front, singing with passion and power. The music they make is heavy, but with a lot of contrast and they don't stick with the same tired old styles. Tonight they only played a short set and they didn't sound as good as at previous gigs, but I still liked them and I'll see them again later.
 
Karaoke:
I went to the karaoke on Wednesday night and it was strange – the Laundry venue was over-run with at least fifty girls who all knew eachother. They were all about twenty years old, extremely drunk and dressed as if they were on a summer holiday in the south Pacific. Normally I'd be very pleased to be in a crowd full of girls, but there were a few drawbacks – firstly they were all grouped together at the front of the room, thus preventing me from seeing the words on the karaoke screen. Secondly, ninety percent of them were bad singers and they had a tendency to pick the most annoying pop songs. The ones who could sing were generally drowned out by the ones who couldn't because they went up on stage five at a time, on average. But towards the end the goodness of the situation shone through, as they did a couple of wild songs and somehow synchronized their dancing to accentuate the party atmosphere. And then they all left together, about ten minutes before me. But near the start of the night I sang a song called "Sandy", from the Grease soundtrack, and it felt good 'cause they all sang along and they gave me lots of applause at the end.
 
 
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