Permablitz

Rachel just sent me this article from The Age about Permablitzing: permaculture meets Backyard Blitz. What a great idea! Volunteers use permaculture principles to transform a backyard to make the household more sustainable, reducing the need for heavily transported food, and building community in the process. I nominate Rachel and Alex to start a movement in Sydney.

The Mini MEme

Having only just realised that I've been tagged, here is my contribution to Rachel's mini MEme. For all these questions, there could be many answers; I've picked the first ones to jump to mind today.

A Piece of Art that you Love
Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas (and this one). I could have kept wandering and wandering in this enormous public sculpture. Very moving: enormous, dramatic and yet understated at the same time.

A Line in a Song or Line of Poetry that Reaches Your Core
I will show you fear in a handful of dust - from T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land. I remember coming across Eliot in year 11 and he was probably the decisive factor in 'converting' me to love English. Until that point, I'd always avoided humanities. Now, I barely remember all the maths I used to do...

An Experience in Nature that was Really Special and/or Spiritual
The heavens on a glorious Sydney day.

The Movie that Changed the Way you saw the World.
Atarnarjuat: The Fast Runner - I will never look at snow the same way again. Seriously, this was a fantastic movie, unlike anything you've seen and was the first full-length film made by, about and in the language of the Inuit people of the Arctic circle. See also here.

A Piece of Music That Makes You Cry
Wake up dead man - U2. The eschatology of U2 deserves its own series. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) Drew has already beaten me to it! Enjoy the series as it progresses.

I tag Beeston, Frank, MartyK, David, Cynthia, Rob, Patrik and Christopher. I've tried to tag different people to last time. I've also done more tagging of people I've only met over blogs. Hope you don't feel I'm rushing the friendship...

Speaking of books...

The One Book Meme
Ben has started a new one book meme. Here is my contribution:

1. One book that changed your life:
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil.

2. One book that you’ve read more than once:
Jorge Luis Borges, Labrynths.

3. One book you’d want on a desert island:
How to get off a desert island in three easy steps, or failing that,
Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics (finally, I'd have time to read it!).

4. One book that made you laugh:
Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.

5. One book that made you cry:
Antoine de Saint Exupéry, The Little Prince.

6. One book that you wish had been written:
An ebook containing all the lost manuscripts from the library of Alexandria.

7. One book that you wish had never been written:
Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, Left Behind.

8. One book you’re currently reading:
Augustine, Confessions.

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read:
Eberhardt Jüngel, God's Being Is in Becoming.

10. Now tag five people:
I've picked people from different areas of life/Sydney/the globe (though all of whom I know outside the blogosphere and so can be certain are actual people): Paget, Annette, Drew, Meredith, Rory, Rachel, MPJ, Mr Tim. I know that's eight, but I couldn't help myself. If you were still left off, better luck next time, but I couldn't be bothered adding more links.