It's Your Turn Now

Hi to each and everyone of you who drop by this blog!! For some time now I have been wanting to ask you all, and I mean you all, to give me a bit of feedback about who you are, where you’re from & why you visit. I get far fewer comments than I get visits you see, and I’m just wondering who you all are and why you’re remaining so silent. C’mon, just a little info please?! Thanks!

Friction in the Groove

prisms of golden light
filtering into the cracks in the floorboards
warming
soothing
filling my soul
with stories
with memories
with feelings i've felt before
reminding me
of
love



a season ends
a seasons begins
the continuity of time
the continuation of wondrous beauty
all a perfect timing

The Upside of a Cyclone

Aside from it just being a natural force of nature and part of the whole energy system of the planet and a very normal occurence - a huge and devastating cyclone that came through the north east of australia last week, 1000's of km's away is bringing huge surf to us lucky folk down here in Sydney.



Vision on TV last night made it look like Hawaii. Just awesome.



The harbour yesterday was even getting the swell - the ferries had choppy rides and sick passengers and my nice local protected harbour beach - that doesn't get swell like the coastal ocean beaches - had nice little waves and plenty of surfers riding them.



The first 2 photos aren't mine - I borrowed them from the SMH. If I had a super nice long lens and had been up at Avalon I still probably couldn't have gotten shots like this.

Shine Like He Does

Last night I was introduced to the sound of The Church live. AMAZING, COMPLEX, BEAUTIFUL, HAUNTING, and they ROCKED! Steve Kilbey was shining.

Live at the Basement and recorded for ABC radio for some time in the future, they launched a new album "Uninvited, Like The Clouds" - which is stunning - and they played acoustic and I was floored by their performance. They’re real. Such beautiful lyrics and arrangements and melodies – and they seem to have an ancient chanting undercurrent of energy to the music which is fascinating and totally speaks to my heart – so much so that I stayed in light sleep from all that energy awakened. They definitely have that universal subconscious, unconscious and conscious way of conveying sound and music going on.

No pics - left the camera at home. Silly girl.

It's all about the Qi

Had a very interesting acupuncture session this morning. Next time I'm going to try and take photos because those little tiny needles look very cool. So hopefully my nice doktor has gotten my kidney and liver meridians moving in the right way!! It's all about the flow, tempo and voracity. Bring it on!



Travelling across the bridge always puts me in a good mood. I guess seeing 2 amazing engineering and architectural icons in a setting of blue harbour does that.



My 2nd module in Kinesiology starts today until Monday - looking very forward to that. Just loving learning again.



And also can't wait to see our old friend Evil-John all the way over from New Jersey - look out kids - Saturday could get ugly.



Love one another and stay safe!

The Rain Helps Me See the World Differently

I can't report any drought breaking stuff, but what I can say is that the air feels crisper, the streets are cleaner and the puddles make me want to look down rather than up.


I had the park today almost to myself. Well apart from some cockatoos, galahs and kookaburras.



Walking in the rain with my umbrella, squelching in the muddy debris underfoot and when not looking properly splashing in a deep puddle gave me a lovely satisfaction.

An Ordinary Day

Huge clouds were forming and called me to the sea.



Hunger called me soon after that.



The need to move my body called me - I had to breathe and feel the wind on my face.



And then I got nicely distracted for the rest of the day.

Self Portrait Tuesday: Time

Post arrived today well ahead of time with 2 books of photos from a flickr set of mine - although I'm not overly happy with the images - and now I realise that the photos are all compressed and resized to fit the flickr stream so the quality for print is compromised.



Dashing around town this morning with little traffic around was a pleasant surprise, but why was it impossible to find a park anywhere, in any suburb? Does this mean people are leaving their cars parked at home and taking public transport, or even better - walking to work?



Put in a few hours of study today and am feeling very good for it.



These images are from my little breaks or procrastinating, into the fresh air and solitude of my backyard. I figure the light changed during the day and this may succeed in falling into SPT's monthly theme - I could be pushing it a tad. You be the judge.

Sunday Pleasures

My endless talk about this endless summer we're having is probably boring you all by now, but again today, we had true blue skies and heat.

I was on the go the whole day, but being with family and friends is what life's all about now isn't it? And I think I find it more energising than depleting. Visited my Mum. Had Yum Cha with old friends. And then rounded the day off with a superb bbq feast at my girlfriend’s for her birthday. Happy Birthday Noni!! Thanks again for another awesome feast.



This ocean trout was huge and fed 12 of us not counting the kids.

I wish I could show you all the amazing enormous golden moon that was hovering above the horizon. Simply beautiful! But I was driving home on a freeway, and by the time the moon comes up enough for me to shoot it from here it will have lost that orangey goldeness that made that moon so special. I can't stop thinking about it.



JD sent me some photos from last weekend when he went home to visit his family. They've been on the other hand experiencing a never ending winter. And this snowman in March proves that.

It was a really lovely summery Sunday.

A Saturday in March

Stumbled on to "Dogdays" or Hundestage by Ulrich Seidl last night on SBS - what a film! and couldn't stop watching. Amazing cinematography. Some of the early scenes are so hilarious, and so tragic and just so simply beautifully shot I was sucked in right like that. And the relentless heat theme hanging over the people reminded me of "Do The Right Thing", another brilliant film. I won't go into all the different sub-plots as there are about 6 parallel stories - but it's described as a "pornographic exposition of human despair". It's about dysfuntionality of the alliance between the sexes; alienation as people become divorced from the natural flow of nature by the industrial landscapes they inhabit; the ordinary & mundane; loneliness & desperation; exhibitionism & cruelty. A serious must-see and apparently it won the Venice Film Festival in 2002 if that tells you anything.



It definitely is Autumn, because I filled another bag today full of leaves. Replanted 2 yucca's and did general housey maintenance stuff. And why do all my light bulbs blow when JD is away?



Enjoyed the beach minus the glare of the sun this afternoon. The sand was so nice and warm underfoot and so was the water temperature but the sky was filled with clouds with some big black ones building up down south looking like thye might be heading our way soon, hopefully.

Missing You and Everything About You

Party Pooper

Funny how when you take a Panadol the whole headache thing goes away. I didn't have any in the house the night before and so struggled alone for approximately 15 hours. I hate taking "medication" but the remnant shadow of the killer from the day before was still there and I just couldn't deal with it anymore. Thank you everyone for your kind thoughts.

So the opening ceremony of yet another major sporting meet has passed - so what! Who really cares? Why do we waste all that time & money and effort? And while I'm whinging, why do I care if someone wins a medal? They're not winning it for me, or the country - they're winning it for themselves. And I can't hear any more crap about the devotion and sacrifice these athletes put themselves through - who's asking them to do this? Who wants the adulation? Who wants the big prize? Who wants to be the best in the world? Who gets to have a cushy media job the rest of their lives because of their sacrifices?



And now to the ceremony - my friend - and his band did perform the first song of the evening, not that you would have noticed. There was 1 tiny shot of the band for about 1.5 seconds and that was it. And the back announce at the end of the song was clipped and cutoff and not clear so again no recognition of the artists. It was The Church and they performed their beautiful "Under the Milky Way". How disrespectful is that? Go figure what the hell that was all about.

And why do we continue to involve and incorporate our Indigenous culture into events that put Australia on the world stage? Who are we trying to kid here? Ourselves? The rest of the world? It's ok to use and identify with Indigenous art and dreamtime imagery and the digeridoo. But when it comes to land rights and health care and education - that's another story we should keep swept under the carpet. Hypocrites is what we are! It starts right at the top and it's weeding it's way down to the bottom. And then having the Queen come to open the bloody commonwealth's games - give me a fucking break! If that just isn't the most ironic set of circumstances: indigenous culture be honoured and respected and incorporated into the mainstream, and the Prime Minister sitting side by side the Queen - and none of the media say boo about it.

And why is Condaleeza Rice commenting on who would be Australia's best trading partners and who Australia needs to be afraid of? Back off sister!

Out of the Fuzz

A migraine or a weird 12 hour bug got me so bad yesterday. I was sick as a dog and the headache is still with me now but fading. I wanted to die.



This morning the rain, or to be more preceise the drizzle must have been bothering the wildlife. Firstly the parakeets were going nuts and so loud it was almost unpleasant to listen to, and then came the cockatoos - swooping in and aggressively screaming at the other birds. It was a crazy cacophony that lasted about an hour. Living in an inner city suburb with loads of traffic, pollution and a lot of housing, I continue to be happily astounded by the number of native visitors.



Tonight I'll be watching the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games (yawn) very briefly. A friend is performing and that's the only thing making me feel any interest at all.

The poor Queen flew 24 hours to declare these games open and on her travels around different cities so far she has been far from welcomed. Most reports talk of people lining the street in their hundreds. How embarrassing for her. I'm sure she wasn't expecting such an underwhelming lack of interest in her, but basically this is a sign of the people voting with their non presence - she's a nice old lady and all that but hey we don't need royalty being the head-head of this country!!!!

Sunday

Beached it. Studied. Swept up the millions of leaves swamping our backyard (is autumn really coming or are the leaves falling off from heat & exhaustion?) and then went to the inaugural Sydney Flickxibition organised by the very decent and talented talsit de cod. The bunch of flickrheads living in Sydney is quite huge and the number of people who make it to meets is also big and they're a really nice group of people. The opening was fun, there was some cool work on the walls and then some of us had dinner together at wagamama's.



And while I'm enjoying the +30 degree heat, JD has just told me that he's been enjoying a blue sky freezing sunny day with loads of deep fresh snow. Can't wait to get some photos through from him to share with y'all. Goodnight & sweet dreams.

Meme Madness

Many moons ago I was tagged to do the meme by Nicole. It has been doing the rounds for months, so here goes, as I'm not sure I have anything else to add right now - apart from telling you all I'm a big WINNER over at redcurrrent- yeaahhh - one of my nieces will be the proud owner of a redcurrent original. Thank you Kath!!!

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four jobs i've had:
1. production asst & autocue operator on a live tv show
2. production manager of a jingle/music prod. house
3. english teacher in germany
4. personal assistant

four places i've lived:
1. surry hills
2. bondi
3. hannover, germany
4. redfern

four TV shows i love:
1. RAN
2. global village
3. survivor
4. foreign correspondent

four places i've vacationed:
1. new zealand
2. western europe
3. vietnam
4. usa

four of my favorite dishes: top 3 are family comfort food
1. steamed bream chinese style w. rice
2. chilli & blackbean mud crab w. rice
3. steamed pork with shrimp paste w. rice
4. pasta w. cherry tomatoes, zucchini, chilli & crispy prosciutto

four movies i could watch over and over:
1. trading places
2. the royal tenenbaums
3. japanese story
4. brokeback mountain
OK the last 2 i added in because i love them right now and can't think of 2 others - my brain is hopeless like that.

When you were little, what three things did you want to be when you grew up?
Ballerina/Dancer
Anthropologist
Documentary-maker/Journalist

You can live one day from you childhood over again. Which day will it be?
The day my Mum took my sister and I to see our first film – it was at the Academy Twin in Paddo, and we saw “The Little Prince”. I fell in love, woke up to a new reality, and felt the amazing impact of cinema as an artform. I was on cloud 9 for weeks after that, although I was pining for the Little Prince. I must have been about 5 years old.

You have two minutes (and a mover with you if you need heavy lifting help!) to grab 5 things from your home before it morphs into a polka dotted hobgoblin and hops away. What will you take? (Food/drink/family/friends excluded!)
ALL the photographs and slides and albums & cd’s of photos & home videos.
ALL the gifts given to me that have been hand-made.
My paintings.
My box of old letters.
My favourite clothes.

What is one thing you want to have accomplished by the end of this year?
Give birth to a healthy baby or babies if 2 of you decide to come at the same time!

You are moving to the moon for one year and can only bring one flower with you. What kind will you bring?
Frangipani (tree)

You just received word that aside from one flower, you can also bring five books with you! Your choices?
This one isn’t easy, I love so many books and forget which ones I love when new ones come along. So at this minute I would take:
The Tibetan Book of Living & Dying
The Life of Pi
The Death of Vishnu
Wild Swans
The Shipping News

4 sites I visit each day:

1. flickr
2. smh/süd deutsche post
3. redcurrent, la vie en rose and at it varies between 50-100 more bloggies
4. utata

4 places I wish I lived:
I wouldn’t want to live any one place else for a whole 365 days a year. The perfect life would be moving around every 3 months. These are some places involved in that idea:
Germany (and hopping around Europe from there)
Byron Bay
Margaret River
Vietnam

4 favorite Authors:
Tim Winton
Yann Martel
John Pilger
Annie E. Proulx

4 of my favorite artists:
Brett Whitely
Sidney Nolan
Tracey Moffatt
Camilla/Rosa/Lisa

4 dreams I have (for myself):
Be a mother
Live life as art and make a living from it
Learn kinesiology & many other forms of healing
Become a good swimmer.

So now you all know a hell of a lot more about me. I'm just a simple girl living a simple life.



Marisa you wanted to know what Kinesiology is - it's best described as energy balancing. It uses a holistic approach, combining western techniques with eastern wisdom, and basically locates blockages in the energy systems of the body and unblocks them. The underlying belief of Kinesiology is that the body has innate knowledge about how to look after and heal itself, but if there are imbalances in the body this cannot occur and therefore unwellness or disease can take place. Hope that helps.

Flatness Becomes Rounded Out

Studying took up the most part of today. Anatomy & Physiology - The Skeleton! Yup interesting stuff. Not dry at all.

I knew from the morning's weather report it was meant to be hot outside but I'd only ventured as far as the verge in front of my house to pick up my emptied garbage bin and my backyard to spy on the workmen doing new paving at my neighbours. Their radio was blaring out crappy top 40 scheisse and their power cutting tool to slice through pavers was so piercingly loud I was almost losing my mind.



So 3pm came and I stepped out into the sunshine and was sold on heading down to the beach. It was HOT and I needed a major change of scenery.



The blueness calmed me. The waves caressed me. The sand grounded me. The saltiness tickled me. MW & SK & the doodle triplets company revived me and then the Thai food nourished me.



Home again, a bit more study, connecting with JD via voice & spirit and I feel good again.