Silas Sydenham
Super Member
Proud Donor

About Silas Sydenham

About me:

Pedantic. Tactless fool. All too prone to inappropriate self disclosure. Australian living in Sydney, in my sixtieth year of life, gay, single, Catholic/Gnostic/Syncretist. (In that order)
Always trying to manage time, but rarely succeeding. I attend Mass every day. I am flirtacious. I survive reasonably well with insufficient paid employment. Lifetime radical and activist.

Country/location:

A crummy but exciting multicultural inner neighbourhood of Sydney, Australia.

Hobbies:

Gardening, reading, music, making a nuisance of myself to authority, pretending to be deaf in music shops, travelling around on public transport on my free pensioner's ticket, arranging the flowers in Church (sometimes re-arranging someone else's 'do'). Drinking. People-watching.

Occupation:

Freelance welfare worker for faith-based organisations, part-time activist for political prisoners and interned refugees. Day-job: Bookseller.

Gender:

Male

Favorite websites:

Cannot give a meaningful answer. I use Writeaprisoner more than any other. But then I use the 412 bus a lot, too. That doen't mean that Campsie to Circular Quay is my favourite journey.

Last book read:

I read and re-read a lot, refer to my albums for an inkling. My last new-read is Michael PatrickMacDonald's "All Souls"

Movies:

"Baghdad Cafe" (for CCH Pounder),
"Apartment Zero" (everyone's hidden agenda gets them go buggerup in the end),
"Fire Over England" (patriotism trancends nationalism),
"Young America" (Jane Withers at her best).
"Matewan" (even the humble need to struggle)
"Maurice" (1987) (One of Merchant-Ivory's gems. I read the book as a teenager, so I was prepared for it, but even so, I had to watch it in installments. The subject matter hits close to my bones. And at 2hours20minutes, it is quite long. The young Hugh Grant is a delight to behold!)
But, above all:
"Now Voyager" (Bette Davis in her best role, and all about living life with nobility and steadfastness.)

Music:

kd lang, Cowboy Junkies, Patsy Kline, Mary Schneider, Opera (but NOT Wagner), Dwight Yoakam, Winifred Atwell, almost anything played on a pipe organ, Welsh hymn-tunes, Scottish accordion. I have recently developed an extreme dislike for the boy-band "One Direction", and distaste for Justin Bieber.

Marital status:

Single, falling in love most of the time.

Heroes:

Gladys Aylward, my Parish Priests, Desmond Tutu. Aung San Suu Khi. See my albums for others.