Ruby Street

I now know a new word. Scombroid : of or relating to a class of fish that includes the mackerel and tuna. OK, fine you might say. Why a tuna? Next bit of info. According to the US Food and Drug Administration crowd: "Scombroid poisoning is a type of food intoxication caused by the consumption of scombroid and scombroid-like marine fish species that have begun to spoil with the growth of particular types of food bacteria. Fish most commonly involved are members of the Scombridae family (tunas and mackerels), and a few non-scombroid relatives (bluefish, dolphin or mahi-mahi, and amberjacks). ... The suspect toxin is an elevated level of histamine generated by bacterial degradation of substances in the muscle protein. This natural spoilage process is thought to release additional by-products which potentiate the toxic effect. The potential toxins are not destroyed by freezing, cooking, smoking, curing or canning." So, last night, after my tenderly prepared meal of sea...

from Kirsten Kaschock's Negative Wingspan - "Primary substance, original thing, an essential, core, chora, cadmium. Yellow yes. Colors are ladders of light reception. Sound is pattern, is wave—has visual rep: frequency has height. ..."

Swept across news sun helpless against I fly easy wings rattle shame You got me against the fence Way you do shame on you Elbows shadow scaffolds halfway up, into God among clouds several versions believe Songs creation machines dot aspirations/ blow! Advertise right buttock keeping the score Front page morning a sliding puzzle People look up sex+civil+war My dragon statue tacks the corner Ready to lie in the corner

there's nearly always colour in it

I finally got around to watching Grave of the Fireflies last night. We have a box set of Studio Ghibli anime films, mainly Miyazaki films like My Neighbour Totoro , Nausicaa and Princess Mononoke etc, but there are other directors involved with the studio. Fireflies was directed by Isao Takahata and is based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Nosaka Akiyuki. It was originally released in 1988 at the same time as Totoro . It's definitely an anti-war film, sad and quiet with flashes of horror. It tells the story of a young boy who tries to look after his little sister during the period when Japan was being firebombed in 1945. Unlike the Miyazaki films, which I love, this one is realistic anime but it, too, has a focus on the natural world and the story of young people caught up in great upheavals. The animation isn't spectacular but the overall feel - the complexity of emotions and the detail and quiet movement of many of the scenes - is what makes this film. I'm told...

walking with a headache into air potent with rain, grey with water the sky and too much attention needed for bottle brush, wisteria siamese at a window each step past all other need and game, the rain down my right side - temple to ear brow to cheek somehow is undoing me between gutters and crossings the four island girls taking all the path threads unwinding before me visions waves as it sees me going between crowded conversations past election posters, oil, legumes taffeta, sacks of rice looking for the temple of coffee sitting in a cool corridor under sky-dropped noise beside road fuel and daily racket seized with news and comment the same, all the same in the test of minutes before the way again foot for foot in walking language back into the valley and sky.

Here's an item from today's Sydney Morning Herald Spike column. An antidote to some less salubrious cat-related news . Note that, although I don't have a cat at the moment, I have had them round as company on-and-off during my life. " Curl up and watch TV And we thought reality TV couldn't get more bizarre. Yesterday saw the launch of Australia's first reality TV-inspired DVD for cats. Yes, cats. A Walk on the Wild Side boldly claims to "bring the excitement of the outside world into your home for the enjoyment of your cat", for $24.95. The DVD shows birds, mice, crickets and fish cavorting in their natural habitats - perfect for when Fluffy can't be bothered going outside. Unconvinced that any self-respecting cat would be interested in reality TV, we tested the DVD on the Spike cat, Christopher. He pawed the screen, miaowed a bit and looked generally very confused, which sounds like a perfectly normal reaction to the genre." ...