I just spent a pleasant 48 hours in Hobart, the capital and largest city of Tasmania. It's a small place with a charming boat-filled harbour, at least 9 bookshops, a dozen good fish restaurants and a few decent pubs, all of which, though, close at 11pm. (Last night I had to go to a rather seedy casino to get an after hours drink.) Hobart is like a cross between Inverness and Wellington, New Zealand, though not quite as happening as either Wellington or Inverness which may surprise residents of those relatively sleepy places. I liked it a lot though as I like most port cities. And the harbour isn't just a marina but has real ship
s in there including a Russian icebreaker, a French Antarctic research vessel and the Sea Shepherd cutter Steve Irwin. I didn't really know much about the Sea Shepherds before coming here but apparently they are an organisation militantly opposed to whaling - an aquatic version of the Animal Liberation Front, seemingly more violent than either Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth. A crewman proudly talked about the number of boats they had sunk or otherwise put out of action which rubbed me completely the wrong way as did their version of the skull and crossbones disturbingly flying from the prow and main deck. (I'm from a naval family, so perhaps I'm a little too sensitive about 
this.) Anyway, the Steve Irwin was an interesting vessel and their hearts are definitely in the right place if not their piratical tactics....
On a happier subject I walked south out of Hobart to the town of Taroona where Tazzy's very own royal (on nearly as many Aussie gossip mags as Nicole Kidman or Katie Holmes) - Princess Mary of Denmark was born and raised. It was a nice little walk to Taroona and got the blood flowing, though it poured mercilessly on me the entire trip back to Hobart. On my return, for professional reasons, I checked out the bookstores, used and new and got a great Peter Matthiessen travel book about Africa and a Graham Greene biography. Locally though, the brilliant Richard Flanagan and knitting books seem to be whats popular.
... 
But this isn't a NY Times 36 hours in Phoenix feature. I didn't really do a serious investigation, just wandered and pretty much did my own thing. I was surprised to find a good Cambodian restaurant where I had lunch and an even better Iranian place where I had dinner. I also ate at a curry house frequented by the Indian cricket team, which was ok and at a floating fish and chip barge which was delicious. The Tasmanians are a laconic, self depreciating and funny lot and the Belgian-Flemish couple I met up with and went searching for a late night watering hole with were also pretty funny too (and brave to the point of foolhardiness if half of their What We Smuggled Into Beijing story is true).
But this isn't a NY Times 36 hours in Phoenix feature. I didn't really do a serious investigation, just wandered and pretty much did my own thing. I was surprised to find a good Cambodian restaurant where I had lunch and an even better Iranian place where I had dinner. I also ate at a curry house frequented by the Indian cricket team, which was ok and at a floating fish and chip barge which was delicious. The Tasmanians are a laconic, self depreciating and funny lot and the Belgian-Flemish couple I met up with and went searching for a late night watering hole with were also pretty funny too (and brave to the point of foolhardiness if half of their What We Smuggled Into Beijing story is true).
26 comments:
Princess Mary's mother in law BTW, the Queen of Denmark, is a Lord of the Rings fanatic, who - according to Wikipedia - not only translated the book into Danish but illustrated it too. If he was going to go all antipodean couldnt her son at least have married a Kiwi and maybe she could have been in the movie. She could have played Galadriel. Whats the point of being in a European royal dynastry if your kids are going around marrying for love? Its ridiculous.
Adrian -
Just a quick note here. I burned the midnight oil last night because I couldn't put 50G down and had to finish it. Great book. The story was one hell of a good ride, and the plotting was tight.
Brian thanks for that man. I bet you were surprised at the bit when the Voyager probe came back demanding to know what happened to all the whales.
Brian probably was surprised, but I wasn't. What did surprise me was that the whales contribute so much to the warm, fuzzy--well, wet and not so fuzzy--ending. And best part? They all had their own individual personalities.
Speaking of hobbits, did you notice Yoani's blog post after her site being down for a few days?
Seana
Yeah I read that post. I have to say that Yoani's blog makes me boil with anger and is not good for my blood pressure. Every time I read one of those "Cubans know how to throw a party" pieces in the NYT (I read one today) or have to listen to Sean Penn talk about what a great couple of guys the Castro brothers are in real life, I think back to Havana with the CDR on every block spying on everyone and the secret police hassling young boys, accusing them of being "jockeys" and taking their money or worse, and the utterly corrupt cops and soldiers hassling women, blacks, anyone who has contact with foreigners.
Of course the embargo must end but we shouldnt be under any illusions about what the thuggish regime is like down there on the island paradise. Messers Penn etc. unfortunately are under such illusions.
Apologies to the NYT. That story was actually on today's CNN:
Fiesta Time in Cuba
This is the Amnesty news release on the sixth year of the arrest/imprisonment of 75 dissidents in Cuba, 57 of which are still in detention:
Six years in prison
Here's the a bit more about the harassment faced by Yvonne Mallesa, in Spanish and other members of the Damas de Blanco. You can write an appeal to the authorities listed following the recommendations expressed in the document.
So, how is the knitting going? You did buy, didn't you?
I have a vaguely half remembered story to do with the Tasmanian royal wedding, and a B&B in Scotland, but it's a little lost just now. Something to do with my pesky cousin.
Marco
Done it. Its madness isn't it really? But I've got to believe that engagement not isolation is the answer.
Miss Witch
I'd like to hear that story if you remember it. Her parents were from Scotland.
Adrian -
I was very surprised, though I shouldn't have been, when the probes showed up. Thank God Mercado quickly figured out a way to travel back in time to when the humpbacks were greater in number and was able to bring a couple back to the present to communicate properly with our galaxial (word?) neighbors.
I was a bit disappointed, though, that Hitler didn't jump out of the piano at the end. Maybe you're saving that twist for the next book. I hope so.
And yes, engagement is the way to go IMHO. And would someone tell all these "well-informed" celebrities that Cuba is not the people's paradise they think it is? Or maybe they know and are just in denial, because that would mean they would have reevaluate their own politics.
I found the orgy scene with Bono, Clive James, Raul Castro, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt a bit too explicit for my taste. All those poor squished Banana slugs!
Like Brian I would have liked to see a bit more of Good Hitler, the timetravelling alternate Hitler who saved Mercado from the whale/alien hybrids, but I suppose he'll have a bigger part in the sequel.
marco
that would be a fantastic sequel.
Adrian:
Little known is that all the original Rings manuscripts and many other fascinating JRRT items are at my alma mater, Marquette U. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which has made an insane fetish of JRRT collecting since the 1950's.
So the good Queen can visit the shrine (at the University Library) the next time she's in Beertown.
PKL
Marco
Yeah that scene proved to controversial and I had to take it out for the British edition. Though I did slip in some libelous acrostics.
Brian
As I thought I made clear a dingo already ate the sequel
Patrick
It was a wise move. Those things are bound to have increased in value at least twenty fold. If they ever have financial troubles, they can sell em to Denmark, or Peter Jackson.
Adrian, your The Lives of Others analogy was very apt, or at least was from all the Yoani posts I've read. But can't you vent some spleen by writing another Mercado story that is actually set in Cuba? Keeping this one away from the dingos? And doesn't it help a little to know that Tolkien somehow managed to provide some sort of respite for Yoani?
Did I tell the story here about my sister and Sean Penn? She was ushering in an L.A. theatre, and it was a popular enough show that there were many celebrity audience appearances. One of her duties was to tell people that they couldn't bring food and drink into the theatre, and one time Sean P. was there, and being such a celebrity and all, he just thought it didn't apply to him. He didn't take to well to her not having any of it. Luckily a manager intervened before he punched her, but it was a close thing.
I thought his acceptance speech at the Oscars of him not being the easiest person to work with was hilarious. Still, he is a good actor.
Acrostics. That's the ticket.
Seana
Your sister got off lightly. In the police filing Madonna said that he hit her with a baseball bat. And he certainly pleaded guilty to second degree spousal battery. I dont know if he hit Robin Wright Penn or not. Here's his piece on Huffington Post where he goes to Cuba and meets Raul. Mysteriously Christopher Hitchens didnt get to meet El Presidente and as for bringing up the political prisoners, well...read it for yourself.
Yeah, the whole Madonna scandal was still close enough in memory that it provided a sort of heightened level of suspense to the incident as I recall.
I will have to wait till after work to ready Sean's article, but I took a look. You know, it's not Bono, with his lightly, sprightly way with words, but I do think there are going to be things to well, relish in it. Between he and Hitchins, there was probably enough hot air to float that plane over to Venezuela all by itself.
I've got some more name-dropping to do--Karen Joy Fowler brought Kim Stanley Robinson in to the store yesterday. She was hoping to introduce him to one of our younger employees, who had just written a paper on Kim's work for Karen's class. It was one of those occasions where I wished I'd read those Mars books, or at least read that whole terraforming discussion you and Brian were having more closely.Instead, all I could do was wave and say, "Oh, hi!" I read a story or novella he wrote about the Yeti once, but I didn't think that was going to really fill out a conversation.
Seana
Yeah he's written a lot of eco stuff about California too. He was certainly right about Mars having lot of underground water but I still dont buy his colonisation of the planet by the great Swizz-Arab alliance.
Seana
Yeah he's written a lot of eco stuff about California too. He was certainly right about Mars having lot of underground water but I still dont buy his colonisation of the planet by the great Swizz-Arab alliance.
I thought maybe I could dissect the Sean Penn-speak, but I think it's going to prove too much for me.
It isn't the politics--God knows, I am really too ignorant to form an intelligent opinion about Cuba, though of course I have my shallow critique. What is so hard to puncture without an extended satire that I feel unable to give just at the moment is this overweening sense of his own importance that colors every line Penn writes. And actually, what I think his fatal weakness here is that he is flattered--by Raul, by Hugo Chavez, by being in the company of the 'Oxford educated' Hitchens, by the private planes afforded him, by all of it. You would think from a cold reading that he had never tasted stardom in his own right. But I expect that's just the bind that actors find themselves in. They win acclaim, but it doesn't really answer anything.
Seana
I'd like to believe that thats true but I suspect he's having a great life. He can beat up women with impunity, he hob nobs with Raul Castro and Hugo Chavez, he has the utmost respect of his peers, he's married to a beautiful woman, his kids love him, he has many friends and he's rich. I dont think the demons come very often to Mr Penn. Even if he were made aware of Yoani's blog he'd probably say she was a CIA plant and he'd probably believe it too.
Oh, I don't think Yoani's blog would change his perspective either--not judging from the posts of the people who read it all the time, anyway. But I don't think he's a sociopath, so I expect he has his regrets in the wee small hours of the morning, just like anyone else. The litany probably begins with, 'why was I such a prick to that charming young usher when she was only doing her job? And what am I doing following Bono's lead, trying to be a world ambassador, when my true vocation--if I have any at all--is to be a damn good actor. I may not be a good man, but I may just be a great actor...hey, that sounded pretty good, maybe I can use it in my article. Yeah, tweak it up a little, although I guess I'll have to use it to refer to someone else...Shit, I hope that usherette wasn't part of the infamous Maharg clan, because I've heard that, once slighted, they never, ever, ever forget. And I just have a funny feeling about it...Robin! Did you hear a noise in the backyard?"
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