Monthly Archives: October 2008

Richard Thompson

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Richard Thompson

Time for more music and videos…

Few younger people can appreciate contemporary folk rock and its subtleties and depths, even though you didn’t need to live through the ’60s in order to appreciate it.

Richard Thompson’s work sits pretty comfortably within folk rock and exemplifies it well. His ouvre is one of the most extensive and easily accessible. I was lucky enough to have been introduced to his remarkable music years ago by one of my partners and I spent years catching up with several decades worth of his music… it’s great to dip back in!

So here’s a selection of some of my favourites… so difficult to choose from a lifetime of magnificent song writing, superb guitar playing and live music. Awesome :D

And one more about a soldier in Iraq, played with a whole band: Dad’s gonna kill me (embedding disabled on this one)

I’ve also discovered a wonderful channel on YouTube full of fantastic contemporary folk, including June Tabor.. gotta spend more time here!!! :)
Mnemonyxx’s channel

Rubber Ball IV

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Rubber Ball IV

Chris and Chryl arrived a few hours early to get ready together my place while Tamsin was helping out with rubber shiner that I used on a gorgeous rubber dress I picked up from Marisa… genuine community effort here ;)

We all arrived in our fetishy finery and the party went off… and it was a blast! :D C&C were treated to the sights and sounds of a rubber-clad Niko’s high and judging from all the smiles had a great time. Caught up with so many friends and snogged and played with guys and girls, as a nice bi girl would in an open relationship ;) (Craig was in Wagga for a wedding)

Ended up at a rather posh after party with beautiful slutty people, a living room dungeon and friendly catering of ALL, and I mean ALL needs. I chilled and played and talked and got to know some really interesting people there… then crashed at home and slept through most of Sunday.

My new camera did fantastically at its debut, I had sooooo much fun photographing my friends and cute strangers… spreading the joy around! Mmmm…

New camera!!

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New camera!!

Craig got me an early birthday present… yeeeee!!

It’s a new Canon IXUS 860 and it’s the best ever compact camera with great features. Apart from the optics, which are very good, and zoom which is limited (well, you need an SLR body with several lens systems to go beyond this) you get a lot of features you get in SLRs but here in a compact form. How good is that? I’ve already been playing around with it heaps :D

For its first assignment I took the camera out to Rubber Ball on Saturday night.. and shot the best ever pics with it! Macro and white balance adjustments are fantastic as is the interface, the optics etc. Best of all it has a super cool flash synchro which I use to create the most gorgeous light streak artifacts superimposed on the subject… I simply drool when I get these!! :)

First Australians

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First Australians

This wonderful series started a few weeks ago and is still running here on SBS on Sunday and Tuesday nights (2 new episodes a week). It traces the history of indigenous people in Australia from the time the white settlers arrived. Episodes concentrate on the story of particular areas, tribes, flash points and incidents.

What I love most about this series is that it walks a fine line between white and black viewpoints and brings forth hitherto unexplored details of Australian history that must make it into future curricula!

It is horrowing to watch some of the segments yet it is essential viewing done with care, commitment and awareness of the conflicting viewpoints and differing historical perspectives. It is a very sad story on the whole yet Aborigines are not just victims here. They are depicted as complex and insightful people and we see intimate portraits of remarkable individuals amongst them who came to shape colonial events. These portraits now must become part of our national history.

The only small criticism is that some viewers would love to know more about the Aboriginal lifestyle before the settlers’ arrival. We do eventually get a glimpse of the details of this through the stories of trackers, tribes, rituals etc. The Dreamtime especially gets a lot of attention and the conceptual details are beautifully animated.

Highly sophisticated, fascinating and deeply caring story telling.

Watch the first chunk of the First Episode here on SBS’s website.

crazy weather & poly disc group

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crazy weather & poly disc group

Sydney’s weather is often crazy but today’s weather is especially weird… we had 2C in the Blue Mountains with snow, about 8-10C in the city with howling gusty winds, choppy waters, sometimes almost horizontal rain!! Coldest October day since 1978 apparently.

From here at Craig’s place you can see out onto the ocean, the crazy clouds keep rolling in very fast, the colour of the sky and sea keep changing each minute and the cold air streams in like crazy around the edges of the windows. When I walk the wind almost blows me away! Look at the insane light and choppy waters on this photo… I could only stay on the balcony for a few seconds as I was being blown into the glass as I was shooting this!

I hope this won’t deter people from turning up to the poly discussion group tonight at Craig’s!! We’ll have two new people I met on OKCupid, exciting! I’m off to chop up some celery for the dips and prepare drinks and food for the guests… :)

UPDATE:
Lots of wonderful people turned up to the poly social, including 7 newbies, yay!! :) We had one of the liveliest of discussions ever and the atmosphere was wonderful!!

The weather calmed down eventually, well, by Friday… Wed was 10C but Sun will be 30C… how crazy is that?