Do your homework, Little Man

If anyone is unsure, the Dave Matthews Band and Dave Stuart and the Spiritual Cowboys really have little in common, and are not to be confused in general conversation.

Grab a deckchair, have an early summer!

Last night on my travels I had Elvis "the King" Costello accompanying my lonely self on the journey home. Not the real Elvis Costello, though that would have been a bit of a laugh. Actually, for the sake of the creative opportunities that the internet presents, let's say it WAS the real Elvis Costello, and I was just giving him a lift to the Great Lakes, where he has a cozy little chateau. He just happened to have his guitar on him (the mountain air is great for writer's block, so I'm told), and he played me a few tunes. One song in particular perked my ears up and caused a bit of a sing-a-long. It's very eighties and just a little daggy, but there's something about that song that gets me every time. After a brief discussion with Mr. Costello I realised it's because it reminds me so much of last summer. And it seems I really enjoyed last summer.

It never ceases to amaze me how much sound/music relates so closely to memory. To this day listening to They Might Be Giants' Mink Car conjures images of Bilbo Baggins roaming around Middle Earth, simply due to my choice of soundtrack while reading the Hobbit. So it suprised me how fondly I looked back on last summer as Elvis strummed away with his...synth keyboards, because I'm not one who puts that much affection into summers. But this particular one was pretty darn special. I was just wrapping up my Cert. IV course and probably had a better understanding of myself than I have ever had, I had so many close friends at that time that currently I miss dearly, and a burgeoning relationship with my current boyfriend. So when I hear Elvis' "Everyday I Write The Book" it brings back feelings of driving through my home town in an insufferably hot car, laying in my bed as the morning sun illuminates my room, and all the feelings of contentment and happiness I felt at the time.

And to think, if I hadn't picked up that bespeccled hitchhiker with his guitar/synth keyboard last night, I probably wouldn't have even realised any of this.

παρακαλώ! (Or, How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Appreciate Street Theatre)

All my friends are going to Greece! Well actually, they're gone already, flying out of the country yesterday morning. Boy I'm jealous. I was planning to go this year but then I did Diploma instead. What a silly idea that turned out to be. Kidding, of course.

A whole bunch of people who are a part of this Youth and Community organisation that I study with (that is, Fusion) are going to Greece to do, well, youth and community work. Which in this case is Open-Crowd Festivals, which is Fusion-speak for mass street theatre. Which means that the rest of us are expected to pick up the slack while they're off playing. I wish I was with them.

Below are Heather, Bec and Geri (with some very distracting blokes in the background, thanks guys!) saying goodbye before they jump on a plane. They are three of many who are venturing into a country where they dont know the language, but are required to do a lot more communicating with the locals than a regular tourist would. Some of them have never been out of the country before, so prayer for them would be very appreciated. Peace.

A.I.

Artificial Intelligence my foot! I dont know how this happened, or how we can make it un-happen, but somehow the image on the monitor of a HeartFM work computer suddenly decided to look at the world from a different point of view, expecting us to join in,and refuses to go the right way up again.
We tried to get some co-operation, but all we got were sore necks and a retraining of our motor skills trying to use the mouse...

Brrrrr...

It's cold.

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodnight...

Well Monday night was Senior Presenter Kris' last official night on the Captain Midnight Show, and being the shy gremlin that he is, he wanted to sneak out of town without anyone noticing. So what did we do? AMBUSH! Yay! Canons and all came charging over the deceptively quiet peasant-worked field, while the mightiest rode on galliant stallions weilding broadsword and fruit platters.

So Kris hid. Yes, the whole of Heart FM and all his trainee children who had not yet gone forth to forge their own path in radio like others before them, showed up just to show their love, and he ran away. Once found, however, he had a great time, and so did the rest of us. Though I have to say, that many people in such a small radio studio made for interesting manouvering. Here's a bunch of really daggy photos taken on the night.

The blurry station ghost, aka Joe Baxter, gives Kris one last haunting.

Yay! Murder! Daniel goes about his daily "business"

Chleo works it for the camera

The teacher has one last reflective moment, taking in his place of deep learning one last time, before haning it over to the apprentice, aka me, who surpassed the teacher long ago....

Colours

I was inadvertedly caused to think about colours just then. "Strange", you may be thinking. "I would have thought that with the abundance of colours in this world you would either be thinking about it constantly, or have ignored the topic for the rest of your life". But really, all that colours are and what they represent. I'm so glad colours exist. Of course there's literal colours, blue, green etc. They're great. But also in terms of diferentiation, racial, national, political, sporting, chess clubs, clothing, anything that defines individuality.

Actually, lets stick with the chess analogy. Black and white, you and me. That's all there is, really. And we tend to view the world a bit like that. Us and them. Good and bad. I was listening to Conversation of the Nation last night (first time ever, actually) with Mal Garvin, and it raised a few issues like this. Like how do we view citizenship? What makes an Aussie and what makes a foreigner or migrant, and should there really be that definition between them? The issue wasn't resolved, but it really makes you think. (Mal Garvin joke).

Well, that's my ponderings for today. Yay! Go colours!

Success!

Oh, and I got the thumbs up from Daniel on the picture (see below)! Well, more like a "Yee-ha!" and a high five, really. I love enthusiasm.

Well, here I go...

Kris leaves in three days. And with him being both my boyfriend and the now ex-team leader of my radio show, it means a WHOLE lot of stuff is going to change for me. This past week has been my first week at my diploma placement at Heart FM studios, and it's been pretty hard getting my head around all my new responsibilities. Also not having a place to live or any money has presented a few interesting challenges. I'm currently shacked up in the local backpackers, next week I move to a pretty darn luxurious house-sitting sort of arrangement for six weeks, then who knows what. I'm a nomad. Roaming the far reaching lands of Poatina looking for shelter.

With the departure of Kris the Captain Midnight Show is all mine. And the kids who get taught there in the art of media are all mine too. Gee I hope I don't stuff anybody up. So all these little worries have been on my mind, and then yesterday they all came tumbling down. Crash. It made that sound and all. In Poatina we have a strange little ritual whereby all residents spend morning tea together and someone sits up the front and talks. Yesterday that person was Steve Bell. Long story short, he had a car accident last year which put him in hospital for four months and he still can't walk with as much ease as he used to. And he used to be a performer too. So his story is pretty insane, and I can't really do justice to what he said, so I wont try. All I can say is that it caused a LOT of tears. Not in a sappy, sentimental way, but in a pretty raw, honest way. Nitty gritty stuff, as he called it.

So I've been given a bit of perspective, it's fair to say. Gee I love it when that happens, it gives me more appreciation of other people's ability to improve me.

Socks!

Socks are marvelous, magical things. They live in the forest of Ooshdoop, down near the river of Dingly-Dell.
I just got a new pair to live on my feet, and we are getting along quite swell-ingly. They are knee-high, brown with orange and green spots, and flowers just below the top. It is an exciting time of discovery when one tries out a new pair of socks, especially ones as overbearingly attractive as these. Such is the power of these socka, that all bow in awe of the IMMENSE POWER AND MAJESTY THEY BEHOLD! MWAHAHAHA!! Lucky for everyone I'm not a megalomaniac, otherwise I could quite easily rule the universe. At the moment I'm too distracted just trying to run a radio show. It's hard work, OK! Geez, you don't have to be so mean about it.

I thought about posting a picture of my socks for all to fully grasp the beauty of the power of such creatures, but then you'd all become my brain-altered zombie-like slaves, and I don't really want that responsibilty.

Oh, and fickle me is changing my photo back.

This is becoming a Regular Art Gallery...

I thought that since my profile pic was so old (well, 8 months or so) I should update it. Incidently, it's the last picture taken of me in my room. Yes, I'm moving out. And it has a nice winter feel to it too. Note the hoard of angry Dalek's that also live in my room...




Here's the pic of Little Man that Megski requested...