Thursday, January 25, 2007

Tim Flannery named 2007 Aussie of the Year

Scientist, author and Director of the Australian Museum Tim Flannery has just been named Aussie of the Year. After this years journey down the Murray for 'Two Men and a Tinnie" with John Doyle and a couple of celebrated books, lectures etc perhaps the current election issue of WATER swept [pardon that] Flannery to the award!!

It will certainly help maintain the rhetoric beyond just that and will keep the issue out there while we seek genuine solutions to our substantial problems!!

Maybe we could get the Big Day Out organisers to tell people to drink lots of water and we'd instantly solve the problem!!

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Five Things the World Doesn't Know About Me

Like Viral Videos and Chain Letters, the latest "tagging" is to choose a few others in the blogosphere and ask them to share answers to these questions and to similarly tag others!!

Anyhow...
known for suggesting in late night Camping D&M fireside chats that people can ask me any question they like and get an honest answer, as a way of encouraging a small group of people to do likewise, I'm up for the challenge...

1. I have seriously considered gastric banding as a weight loss option:
Twice before in my life I have returned from overweight to a healthy 100 kgs with totally consuming lifestyle changes and exercise that have later slowly dissipated... other events and issues have generally caused the gains to be greater and recent injuries and allergies have caused me to be in terrible shape!! Earlier I was able to focus on rugby union and walking and at one time was so angry and on edge in a relationship that weight just fell off.

Both times the trick was a sweet low sugar drink, copious quantities of fruit, no snacks and eating whatever meals I wanted to for dinner... with chocolate and a supper once a week!! Oh and the killer was not telling anyone and never mentioning the word "diet"....

More recently as above I've had food allergies preventing healthy eating e.g no fruit except pears [which can get a little monotonous!! Then I've ruptured and had surgery on both kneecap tendons!! No rugby, no running and more recently no walking...

BUT I'm now a swimmer and my allergies as mentioned elsewhere seem to have miraculously resolved [misdiagnosis must be considered, but the reactions have stopped]....
Anyhow.... maybe one day...

2. Elton John:
Some may also be aware I was a huge Elton John fan and have seen Elton live at least four times in Sydney... particularly Elton's early stuff and the heavy rock numbers... anthemic, great lyrics, storytelling...

3. I was a Booth Organiser for distributing Liberal Party pamphlets for a State Election:
AND scrutineered in East Maitland while still at High School. I almost signed up as a Young Liberal. My personal politics could hardly be further from those early roots and influences these days after deconstructing and reconstructing my view of the world and the values of God around Year 12 and early years at University.
I never thought once I went into Youth Work that I would ever use my eventual Economics Degree BUT I realise that "economic rationalism", privatisation and their effects on the poor are very much issues of faith, lifestyle, ethics and values... as lived out in community!!
I still harbour a little ambition for political office and if I return at some point to a local faith community I would happily join a group working to make the world a better place and see how I went!!

4. I hate making mistakes:
I know this because I make my share and kick myself everytime... but as an IDEALIST I carry the mixture of knowing better but operating out of a mindset that leaves room for stuff to go wrong and just adjust and move on. Tiredness and haste are my worst enemies... I can get so tired whole hours or half days are a blur. I recently lost a bag which I assume I put down next to my car after swapping gear between two bags and driving away BUT I cannot visualise it happening... its just the only remaining explanation!!

If I operate or am pushed outside my gift of 'listening' and 'summing up' then I am liable to miss the best solution and go for a lesser option!! I really like to hear other peoples ideas and would prefer to push them forward in leadership than myself.... BUT if I do that without proper time or resources so they have the job but not all the tools or time then I am negligent!! Other veneer thin self important gurus and pretenders can step in and take over those spaces but I still rsik that to give others a chance... if they can thrive I am happy!!

5. 2007 is a critical year to my future:
Will I get the balance right and be content and focused or will it be hectic and frustrating and stressful causing me to burnout? Some of that is frighteningly in the hands of others... colleagues I trust, people who need to step up and be encouraged to lead and take up the space as I encourage them... well, we'll see?

OK.... too much information...

Five Crap Movies I Love to Watch

Five Crap Movies I Love to Watch
I was literally spoiled for choice at this task, inspired by Ray via Jono's Urban Stone Blog!!
I see Rocky Balboa and Diehard have new instalment due... some would include the 'Blues Brothers' in this kind of list because they have no taste for films....
Dumb and Dumber has its moments and we always used to include a Chuck Norris film in our mid 80's allnighters... I especially remember one where running through an open plan office, Norris falls over a waste paper bin and with one leg still atop it he takes a gun from the bottom desk drawer, points at his pursuer and fires.... the next camera shot neatly shows his own toe and that of his right shoe missing!! Great shot!
Anyhow.... at the risk of ridicule and judgement...

1. “Rambo: First Blood” starring Sylvester Stallone
“Boogetta, boogetta, boogetta” From the first dulcet tones uttered by Sly Stallone to the incredible plot that has him cutting down one State Trooper after the next… leaves me wanting more. Perhaps this films endearing qualities are lost on the average punter but any Richard Crenna cameo is worth a look. This film is perhaps only outdone by John Rambo singlehandedly liberating Afghanistan from the Russians. “Who are you?” “I’m your worst nightmare!!”

2. “Pink Panther” starring Peter Sellers
Choose any of the first three, after that Blake Edward lost the plot [literally].
At High School my mate Graham and I would catch the train for the 30min journey from Maitland to Newcastle to see the new release Pink Panther from the masterly Peter Sellers. Without exception we would leave the cinema with sides aching from laughing so much… particularly at the interplay between Kato and Clouseau.

3. “Last Action Hero” starring Arnold Swarzenegger
So nobody got the joke!! Arnold is so wooden and unrealistsic that when he decided to do a film poking fun at the genre and cleverly trying to do a “Purple Rose of Cairo” with action figures jumping between the world and the film. Some clever scenes as the young boy tries to convince Arnold’s character that not everyone’s phone number begins 555 and in the video shop where Sylvester Stallone apparently stars in some classic Arnie roles!!

4. “Diehard 3” starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L Jackson
John McLane and an African American store owner play the robbers game as they zig zag across New York to prevent a bomb blast in a local School. Its all a distraction while the real plot unfolds. How the whole plot swings on a bottle of headache medication from Van Nuys is just a remarkable thing!! Yipeeoo Kiyee….

5. “Striptease” starring Demi Moore
I know, I know…. A film that promised so much and then destroyed the book the story was drawn from by offering us nothing more than Demi’s naked and surgically enhanced body and a dumb sleazy cameo from Burt Reynolds!! Need I say more!! In the end Ving Rhames minor role shines amongst some other ordinary performances!! This is an intellectual film compared to GI Jane!!

The Annual Rasberry Awards


And likewise the pop culture cousin of the Oscars gives awards for the worst films, actors, etc!!

http://www.razzies.com/history/27thNoms.asp

79th Academy Award Nominations Announced!!


Check em' out with various other information here...
http://www.oscars.org/79academyawards/noms.html

MY HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:
Performance by an actor in a leading role
Peter O’Toole in “Venus” (Miramax, Filmfour and UK Council)
Will Smith in “The Pursuit of Happyness” (Sony Pictures Releasing)
Forest Whitaker in “The Last King of Scotland” (Fox Searchlight)
and others...

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Alan Arkin in “Little Miss Sunshine” (Fox Searchlight)
Eddie Murphy in “Dreamgirls” (DreamWorks and Paramount)
Mark Wahlberg in “The Departed” (Warner Bros.)
and others...

Performance by an actress in a leading role
Penélope Cruz in “Volver” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Helen Mirren in “The Queen” (Miramax, Pathé and Granada)
Meryl Streep in “The Devil Wears Prada” (20th Century Fox)
and others...

Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Jennifer Hudson in “Dreamgirls” (DreamWorks and Paramount)
and others...

Best animated feature film of the year
“Cars” (Buena Vista) John Lasseter
“Happy Feet” (Warner Bros.) George Miller
“Monster House” (Sony Pictures Releasing) Gil Kenan


Achievement in directing
“Babel” (Paramount and Paramount Vantage) Alejandro González Iñárritu
“The Departed” (Warner Bros.) Martin Scorsese
“Letters from Iwo Jima” (Warner Bros.) Clint Eastwood
“The Queen” (Miramax, Pathé and Granada) Stephen Frears
“United 93” (Universal and StudioCanal) Paul Greengrass

Best documentary feature
“Deliver Us from Evil” (Lionsgate)
“An Inconvenient Truth”
“Iraq in Fragments”

Best motion picture of the year
“Babel” (Paramount and Paramount Vantage)
“Letters from Iwo Jima” (Warner Bros.)
“Little Miss Sunshine” (Fox Searchlight)
“The Queen” (Miramax, Pathé and Granada)

The telecast should be the evening of Monday 26th February from the Kodak Theatre

COMING SOON Nominations for the Rassy's... including Sharon Stone 'Basic Instinct 2'

Sunday, January 21, 2007

The Audreys



So Steve Schubert reminds me of this band we heard and saw at the ARIAs and next thing you know I'm chilling to their blues and roots sound from their debut CD "between last night and us"....
The whole album has a cafe ambience or potential for reflective time BUT I am particularly fond of "Long Ride" as a tune asking that 'there must be something else we've missed or not found?' and the brilliant cover of INXS "Don't Change" that closes the album!! Check out this ARIA winning mob at http://www.theaudreys.com.au/index.htm

Saturday, January 20, 2007

U2 'Window in the Skies' Melbourne and Various Artists Clip



Colleagues are probably still tossing ideas around on the multimedia egroup I belong to about the 100 or so artists featured cleverly in this latest U2 track...

Back and Posting

Hi all, if this post works I'll be back to posting a whole range of pop culture, ideas and resources in coming days and weeks!! I have stuff about the Oscars, U2, worship ideas and some catch up on '5 Things the World Doesn't Know About Me', DEAD Pool, and 5 Crap Films I like to watch anyway!!