by Adam Grubb and Annie Raser-Rowland (foreword by Costa Georgiadis)

“Step into the world of our least-admired botanical companions, peel back the layers of prejudice, and discover the finer side of the plants we call weeds.  An astonishing number are either edible or medicinal, and have deep and sometimes bizarre connections to human history.”

My old housemate Adam has co-authored this great book about edible and medicinal weeds in Australia. When I was living with him, he grew Vietnamese mint in a fishpond alongside a poisonous plant that looked a lot like Vietnamese mint. You can imagine the problems that would cause.

Adam also does edible weed walks around Victoria, identifying the useful local ones: http://www.eatthatweed.com.

Check out the book and find out whether whatever’s growing through the pavement can be added to your salad.

http://www.eatthatweed.com/edible-weeds-book/

Hail director Amiel Courtin-Wilson on his and creative partner Michael Cody’s next film Om Tuk, a Cambodian language film shot in Phnom Penh, on the Mekong and in Angkor Wat.

Peril – Hail and momentum

A still from Om Tuk.

This fellow was in my front yard in Footscray tonight, recorded on iPhone memo, a pale imitation: cicada

40x60cm

oil on canvas

2011

Finished on the last day of the year. This was a commissioned piece that allowed me to follow my thematic interests. The building can be found on the Travessera de Dalt, on the nice walk uphill to the Park Güell from Lesseps station in Barcelona.

http://poulosenglishblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/pigs-from-home-by-hop-dac.html

I’d just like to clarify, for anyone who stumbles across this, that I don’t actually hate pigs. I just don’t like the way they smell and that may be due to childhood memories of my uncle’s house in Bien Hoa, Vietnam, where the pig sties buttressed right up against the back of the house and the smell was all pervading. Anyhoo, I AM NOT A PIG HATER!

In related news, I have a piece published in the latest edition of Peril, the Asian-Australian arts and culture magazine:

http://www.peril.com.au/featured/cuisine

It’s a reworked and shortened piece initially published by Paroxysm Press and mentions my uncle’s house. There’s no pig hating here, although there is more eating of blood.

Here at the frontier

Oil on canvas

137 x 107cm

2011

Here at the frontier there are falling leaves.
Although my neighbours are all barbarians,
And you, you are a thousand miles away,
There are always two cups on my table.

by Unknown, from the Tang Dynasty.

Hi Folks

After weighing up our commitment to the enormity of the task and considering our involvement with other projects, we’ve decided to pull the pin on the Sunday Drivers Press website for the time being. We had intended to use it to publish written and video submissions, while using it as a means to create our own content. Unfortunately this proved to be too ambitious for our resources. We’ll continue to work on projects in the lackadaisical manner we always have, but have decided to let it go for now.

We did manage to create some great stuff, though. Below are two short films we finished while the site was being built. They were part of a planned series of web-friendly docos/interviews with people who created strange but amazing things at home in their spare time. We’d hoped to capture something of the creative undercurrent that runs through the urban/suburban Australian landscape:

Thanks to all those who have helped us. We hope to be back to share some more stuff with you soon.

Hop Dac

 Oil and pencil on canvas

120 x 100 cm

2011

A commissioned painting. The brief was for a room looking out into a natural scene. I’d had a painting in mind for a while of a scene after an all-nighter, when at the dawn, one reaches a convivial state where inhibitions can be put aside, when nature unfolds and one’s moment on the earth is unchallenged.

Oil, charcoal and pencil on canvas

120 x 100cm

2011

Commission. Initially I was asked for the perfect holiday picture, with no pointers as to what that might be. You’d think that I’d relish in the freedom, but it turned out to be impossible to paint. My idea of a perfect holiday isn’t going to be the same as anyone else’s, so after much handwringing and going down several dead ends, I asked for a starting point and was given “watermelons”. The painting followed quickly after that.

Oil on canvas
120 x 100 cm
2009

Commission. Just about finished when this picture was taken. I was asked for something red with a cat in it. The title came from a conversation with a friend. We were talking about schizophrenics hearing voices, how the voices muttered away in the background while you’re going about your daily business, as though you were hearing a conversation in a room that went wherever you did. I thought that suited this image nicely.