Friday, January 30, 2015
The Darkside of the Superbowl!!
Impressive to see the NFL allowing/encouraging this campaign to air during the football grand final [Superbowl] on Sunday their time and it reminds of the 'downside' of the big game that travels the country to different hosts. The first is the drunken violence that exists in society and can be amplified around football games and their outcomes. The second is the sex trade requiring hundreds of prostitutes to be brought into town for the influx of fans travelling to [in this case] Arizona to see the game or hold a tailgate party in the surrounding grounds or to attend fanzines etc...
"Leaked" Superbowl Ads 2015
They used to be as big a surprise as the end result of the game BUT Rolling Stone again says it has access to 15 'leaked' multi-million dollar TV adverts ready for this Sunday [US time] so Monday daytime for us here in Oz!! You can check them out here
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
"Miracles" Coldplay while you find your wallet at the end of the movie "Unbroken"
"Miracles" Coldplay
From up above I heard
The angels sing to me these words.
And sometimes in your eyes
I see the beauty in the world.
Oh, now I'm floating so high.
I blossom and die.
Send your storm and your lightning to strike
Me between the eyes (eyes)
Sometimes the stars decide
To reflect in puddles in the dirt.
When I look in your eyes
I forget all about what hurts.
Oh, now I'm floating so high.
I blossom and die.
Send your storm and your lightning to strike
Me between the eyes
And cry.
Believe in miracles.
Oh hey, I'm floating above the world now!
Oh hey, I'm floating above the world now!
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah!
"Uptown Funk ft Bruno Mars Mark Ronson
So the 80s are 'it' at the moment... neon, pastels, music and and Knighthoods for British Royalty...
Monday, January 26, 2015
"Timeless Land" Yothu Yindi
I forgot to apologise that an earlier clip had images of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have died... this is again the case... for the sake of sharing creativity and thoughts on this day...
"Mount Beauty" Jen Cloher
Jen was a musical highlight of Bluesfest I went to a few years back where I got very unwell but still caught her set twice alongside 'Rockwiz' live...
Happy 'Australia Day' people...
"The Greatest View " Silverchair at Newcastle's Civic Theatre
Talented local lads still to be found plying their creativity around the place...
Happy 'Australia Day' weekend
Australia Day, maybe one year...
Maybe one year we will ask the hard questions in time and in ways to make a change
We will choose to celebrate on a day our indigenous brothers and sisters could fully embrace
We will do this because it's important to us, more important than other reasoning
Maybe one year we will stop demonising already traumatised asylum seekers
We will recall the welcome of the 1970s and move beyond slogans of fear
We will identify with those who travel across the sea and we will have boundless plains to share
Maybe one year the social justice and wellbeing indexes will be reported on the news
We will stop adding historically simplistic descriptors to our fallen idols
We will have news, genuinely presented differently without hyperbole or sensation
Maybe one year more people will be served in mission than attend church on a Sunday
We will host meals, provide counsel, offer non judgment and discover more of God's identity
There will be a link between hurts, hopes and mission that's overt and recognised as 'good news'
Maybe one year the Fred Hollows Foundation will have all the money they need
We will restore our overseas aid budget and fund UNHCR processing in Asia
We will know as much about 100 tragic deaths overseas as we do about two in Sydney
Maybe one year our symbols and celebrations will reflect and embrace our values today
We will be able to define who we are by our ethos and not just our folklore
We will recognise, celebrate, compensate and embrace our indigenous cultures
Maybe one year our government will articulate a vision for the long term
We will understand that taxes and borrowing fuel investment in the future
The 'fair go' will not be reinterpreted to punish those most in need
Maybe one year we will understand the new demands of a global world of faith and culture
No doubt we need to stay real about senseless violence and oppression
Will we seek values of peace, compassion, grace and understanding to combat fear?
Maybe one year our flag will be ours whether it goes into battle or onto our singlets
We will celebrate a diversity of sports and the arts or science as we forge a renewable future
The idea of sustainable living will lead us to harness the power of the sun
Maybe one year my words will be unnecessary in the wake of my actions
I will have participated actively in the creation of the hope I know to be real
I will stand back and reflect on a life well lived with a little room for an introverted smile
Maybe one year...
"Anthem" TIDDAS
'Australia Day' a complex 'celebration' which one day will be held on a more appropriate day recognising some hurts and hopes are bigger than the need to stay the same...
"Black Fella/White Fella +The Deadheart" Warumpi Band + Midnight Oil
This song was written by Neil Murray for the 'Warumps' and in this clip it shows how the song was used as the 'changeover' between they and the Oils on their 1987 tour through the top end... the tour which was only a few weeks long but as Rob Hirst said "once this place grips you it won't let go" and so it shaped the band and it's music for over twenty years of reflection, advocacy and art. Happy 'Australia Day' Weekend.
Yes people get worked up about indigenous references to 'Survival Day,' or Anglo advocacy for the idea, but objections to this demonstrate a lack of empathy and/or a need to be right, ahead of a need to build relationships. I'm grateful for every great thing that it means to live in this country and to be Australian, yet the scar on this nations soul can be healed through reconciliation and a genuine and sustained effort to build on the gentle and creative spirit of the complex and rich cultures that make up our entire history. May it be so...
'Recognition' in Australia's Constitution would continue a worthwhile path that should lead to restoration and compensation. It's the kind of regard and working relationship reflected in the artistic side of the Sydney Olympics but with a more far reaching impact and more at stake...
I'd rather effect on this than whether our national flag should be available at the $2 shop on satin boxers, budgie smugglers, a singlet, bikini, hat and thongs...
Sunday, January 25, 2015
"To or not Let Go" Megan Washington at TEDx Sydney
I had no time for Megan Washington's first forays into 'making a name for herself' as an indie artist but as she goes on making music I like it more and more... happy "Australia Day' Weekend Eve
'Australians of the Year'
Being announced in Canberra right now!!
Energy, a picture of something different and better, focused on the hurts and hopes of others
Cleverness, ideas, causes, gifts and passions
Stories and opportunities to celebrate and gather around
"If you want to change a society, then you have to tell an alternative story"
Ivan Illich
Energy, a picture of something different and better, focused on the hurts and hopes of others
Cleverness, ideas, causes, gifts and passions
Stories and opportunities to celebrate and gather around
"If you want to change a society, then you have to tell an alternative story"
Ivan Illich
"My Island Home" Neil Murray
Yes, that's right, written by Neil Murray for the Warumpi Band and later identified with Christine Anu and others...
"From Little Things Big Things Grow" The Waifs + Claire Bowditch + John Butler
Great Aussie collaborators...
Once someone does a version of a Kev Carmody song he considers it 'theirs' to run with and he was impressed with the Waifs changing the tempo of the song for 'Cannot Buy My Soul' album
Saturday, January 24, 2015
"The Deadheart" Midnight Oil
I consider this to be the perfect Australian rock song... the perfect Oils song anyhow...
Band, horns, didgeridoo, justice, story, giving voice to the voiceless and filled with hope...
It's my fav. live Oils track with many a punter trying to decipher the increasingly obscure jamming that leads into it so you can get in early on the "do, do, do do do, do do, do!!" and so it includes a very masculine sing-a-long so different to 'Khe Sanh' or 'Last Train Out of Sydney'...
"A Thousand Miles Away" Hoodoo Gurus
Crank it up, imagine a colourful [red and orange and brown carpet] wood panel 1980s pub with cigarette smoke, only four poker machines, sticky carpet, VB and a crowd pressed in just beyond the fire regulations and a PA where the bass drum and guitar cause your lungs to vibrate when hit...
"Australia Day' Weekend music mixtape!!
The Stiff Gins and Sydney Childrens Choir at TEDx Sydney
This was a stunning performance to experience live... here it is for this weekend... more to say on that in coming times...
"Sounds of Then [This is Australia]" GANGgajang
The first of my 'Australia Day' weekend posts!! Loving the humidity!!
Friday, January 23, 2015
Thursday, January 22, 2015
"I Will Wait" Mumford and Sons Red Rocks
Don't you just love it when a band that gets huge takes a solid break [live 12 months] so that you do get to miss them and can't wait for any new material. Mumford and Sons have their critics, imitators etc BUT their passion and energy are hard to copy well!! Red Rocks looks an amazing concert venue and by all reports they played Coachella too... not to mention Sussex and Dungog!!
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
2015...
Things I'm Looking Forward to:
1. Better health and fitness [with the work needing to be put in]
2. Lap swimming at least 3 times a week
3. "The Making of Midnight Oil" at Newcastle Museum
4. Seeing "Matilda" some time on stage in Sydney
5. A holiday in Fiji two years on
6. Wanderers Rugby 2015
7. Waratahs Super 15 [4] Games v Aussies
8. Another School Year for the girls
9. Rugby World Cup whatever happens
10. A Live Concert or Two
11. 12 month Check Up
12. Taking Photos
13. Mentoring/Learning/Training/Consultations/Creativity/Relationships in my work
14. A better year than 2014
15. Working out what next in my vocation by the end of 2015
Things I'm Not Looking Forward to:
1. Winter
2. People that are 'impossible' to work with
3. Having too many things to do
4. Conflict
5. Working out what next in my vocation by the end of 2015
1. Better health and fitness [with the work needing to be put in]
2. Lap swimming at least 3 times a week
3. "The Making of Midnight Oil" at Newcastle Museum
4. Seeing "Matilda" some time on stage in Sydney
5. A holiday in Fiji two years on
6. Wanderers Rugby 2015
7. Waratahs Super 15 [4] Games v Aussies
8. Another School Year for the girls
9. Rugby World Cup whatever happens
10. A Live Concert or Two
11. 12 month Check Up
12. Taking Photos
13. Mentoring/Learning/Training/Consultations/Creativity/Relationships in my work
14. A better year than 2014
15. Working out what next in my vocation by the end of 2015
Things I'm Not Looking Forward to:
1. Winter
2. People that are 'impossible' to work with
3. Having too many things to do
4. Conflict
5. Working out what next in my vocation by the end of 2015
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
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