shortlisted poets' names and entries can be found on the ABR website.
The winner will be announced in the May edition.
ABR Shortlisted Brisbane Poet Ynes Sanz.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
STOP PRESS: BRISBANE POET SHORTLISTED FOR ABR POETRY PRIZE
Announced in the April 2010 edition of the Australian Book Review, this year's five
shortlisted poets' names and entries can be found on the ABR website.
shortlisted poets' names and entries can be found on the ABR website.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Poppies in the Gardens
Click to see details of this special event in the symbolic Freedom Wall pavilion at
Brisbane's Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens.
Friday, March 26, 2010
A bit of a Song and Dance
If you're in Brisbane, you might consider the invitation on this flyer ....
A few clicks on the image will let you see the fine print ... and the splendid dancer.
A few clicks on the image will let you see the fine print ... and the splendid dancer.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Thespianism: No. 9 in an occasional series entitled 'Harmless Hobbies for Mad Old Bags'.
Some of us were in Alice in Wonderland before Johnny Depp was born.....
Seen here, the Chislehurst Road Infants' School, Orpington, Kent, England
performance, c. 1954.
CAST LIST:
Gail Foster - Alice
Marian Wiseman - The March Hare
Leslie Adams - The Dormouse
and David Something-or-other that I have forgotten (the teachers only shouted his first name) as The Mad Hatter
No green screen for us, it was one night only and if you froze you were finished.
Don't make 'em like that any more.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Sainthood, Statues and the 'Patience' of a Saint
Mary MacKillop has been announced as Australia's first saint by the Vatican.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation Broadcast: 19/02/2010
Reporter: Ticky Fullerton
Transcript
TICKY FULLERTON, PRESENTER: The Vatican announced a short while ago that Mary McKillop will become Australia's first saint. Pope Benedict revealed tonight that she will be canonised at a ceremony in October in Rome.Mary McKillop founded the Sisters of Saint Joseph in 1866. She is revered by Catholics for setting up schools in remote country areas and working with children, female prisoners and prostitutes.
PAUL COLLINS, HISTORIAN & CATHOLIC COMMENTATOR: I have described her as a great Australian sheila. Now, that's perhaps a rather crude phrase, but nevertheless, I think it sums up the type of person that she is: a practical person, a person who saw a real social need, who saw the children in the bush particularly needed education and culture and she organised a group of sisters to be able to meet that need.
TICKY FULLERTON: She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1995. Last year the Vatican accepted that blessed Mary had performed a miracle involving the healing of a person suffering from cancer. Mary McKillop had a controversial life and at one stage was excommunicated from the Church for allegedly disobeying authorities. However, she continued to spend her life caring for the poor.
The Common Shrew says that's as may be. You can read what a poet of her acquaintance had to say on the subject on the occasion of her canonisation at the post for 11 August 2010.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
The Poetry of the Winter Olympics
No I don't just mean the poetry, I mean the poetry. Up there at the opening ceremony! Acclaimed by that huge crowd and seen the world over, Canadian poet Shane L. Koyczan, the nicest guy anyone could wish to meet, a man who can reduce even the most hard-boiled old bag to tears with a line, as I know from personal experience, having mc'd his gig at a Queensland Poetry Festival!
Poetry - on the world stage !!
and you can hear that poem - right here
and here, from his website, at http://www.houseofparlance.com/koyczan/index.html is another small example of the reason why
write me a poem to make me happy"
Poetry - on the world stage !!
and you can hear that poem - right here
and here, from his website, at http://www.houseofparlance.com/koyczan/index.html is another small example of the reason why
6:59 AM
I’ve been told
that people in the army
do more by 7:00 am
than I do
in an entire day
but if I wake
at 6:59 am
and turn to you
to trace the outline of your lips
with mine
I will have done enough
and killed no one
in the process.
- Shane Koyczan, Visiting Hours
and there was kd lang, too singing Leonard Cohen, and suddenly I thought, yeah, all right, I DO belong in this world!
... and so I say to the vast majority who perplex and perturb my life day after day, in the immortal words of Shane L. Koyczan:
"stop it
write me a poem to make me happy"
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
The Euphonious Ukulele : No. 8 in an occasional series entitled 'Harmless Hobbies for Mad Old Bags'.
Well thank goodness the end-of-year kerfuffle and dust has settled.
It's time to get down to the serious pursuit of idleness again.
Not mere half-assed insouciant idleness, but idleness enhanced
by a rich tapestry of hobbies, that is.
And so for your delectation I bring you the ukulele, an instrument
named for 'a jumping flea'.
You have not heard the last of this, dear reader.
Meanwhile, to get you used to the idea, you may like to
contemplate this 1916 postcard, sourced from http://www.janesoceania.com
It's time to get down to the serious pursuit of idleness again.
Not mere half-assed insouciant idleness, but idleness enhanced
by a rich tapestry of hobbies, that is.
And so for your delectation I bring you the ukulele, an instrument
named for 'a jumping flea'.
You have not heard the last of this, dear reader.
Meanwhile, to get you used to the idea, you may like to
contemplate this 1916 postcard, sourced from http://www.janesoceania.com
Friday, November 27, 2009
The Patented Antidote for Seasonal Insanity
OK I''ll admit it, the previous post was so premature as to risk seeming malicious.
Blame the sea of earlier-than-ever pre-Christmas hype in which I am sinking.
In an effort to atone I offer the following cartoon as an antidote:
( a simple click will render it visible, dear reader)
You may see more of the like wit at the Patented Wondermark
Blame the sea of earlier-than-ever pre-Christmas hype in which I am sinking.
In an effort to atone I offer the following cartoon as an antidote:
( a simple click will render it visible, dear reader)
You may see more of the like wit at the Patented Wondermark
Thursday, November 26, 2009
What! Christmas in November? Ha! greyhounds don't follow calendars either ...
Well, 12th night has come and gone, so the cheesy Christmas-musical greyhound elf-dance has been turned off for this year, but don't despair, I'm sure I'll find something equally tacky to post in 12 months' time .....
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Gladrags from Bags : No. 7 in an occasional series entitled 'Harmless Hobbies for Mad Old Bags'.
Ladies, ever wondered how to clean up those bags AND look chic on a budget?
Well here's your answer.
Cathy Kasdan knitted these amazing garments out of discarded plastic bags!
These and other examples of one woman's plastic fantastic at the artist's website. http://www.cathykasdan.com/
Sunday, November 8, 2009
November is Orchid time
Yep orchids from my garden to my table has this lady dancing! Sorry, folks, you'll just have to imagine their delicate melon-y perfume. Enjoy!
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
The Secret Gardener
Yippee! With Spring truly sprung and the first rains bringing out the snails, it's good to have seen this beautiful creature a few times and know that I have back-up in the garden.
Can't see it yet? What you're looking for is the Blue-tongued Skink. Its scientific name is Tiliqua scincoides. This 25cm lizard likes to wander round gardens in the daytime finding many different things to eat, including fruit, flowers, eggs and snails.
Here it is in a more assertive moment ...
Here it is in a more assertive moment ...
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Happy Spring!
Printemps - Marc Chagall
Yes, it's Spring in the Southern hemisphere.
All over Brisbane, dogs with short memories are being startled by bluetongue lizards, viruses are raising their tiny heads and soon, all kinds of large black and white birds will begin to swoop on human beings who will respond by drawing eyeballs on their hats in a vain attempt to deter them.
Make of it all what you will.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Ecological Crochet: No. 6 in an occasional series entitled 'Harmless Hobbies for Mad Old Bags'.
Photos © The IFF by Alyssa Gorelick.
Go there! Prepare to be amazed!
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Crazy like a baboon
Women in red drive men crazy, says study
Tuesday, 28 October 2008 Will Dunham, Reuters
Men find women in red more sexually attractive, say US psychologists, confirming it really is the colour of romance.
Professor Andrew Elliot and Dr Daniela Niesta of the University of Rochester, New York report their findings in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Men rated a woman shown in photographs as more sexually attractive if she was wearing red clothing or if she was shown in an image framed by a red border rather than some other colour, says Elliot.
He says although this "red alert" may be a product of human society associating red with love for eons, it also may arise from more primitive biological roots.
Noting the genetic similarity of humans to higher primates, he says scientists have shown that certain male primates are especially attracted to females of their species displaying red.
For example, female baboons and chimpanzees show red colouring when nearing ovulation, sending a sexual signal that the males apparently find irresistible.
"It could be this very deep, biologically based automatic tendency to respond to red as an attraction cue given our evolutionary heritage," says Elliot.
The study involved more than 100 men, mostly college undergraduates, who were shown pictures of women and asked to rate how pretty they were, how much the men would like to kiss them and how much the men would like to have sex with them.
Men were shown a woman, with some of the pictures bordered in red and some bordered in white, grey or green.
Even though it was the same picture of the same woman, when she was framed in red the men rated her as more attractive than when she was bordered by another colour.
Men were then shown photographs of a woman that were identical except that the researchers digitally made her shirt red in some versions or blue in others. And once again, the men strongly favoured the woman in red.
The men also were asked, "Imagine that you are going on a date with this person and have $100 in your wallet. How much money would you be willing to spend on your date?" When she was clad in red, the men said they would spend more money on her.
The researchers noted that the colour red did not alter how men rated the women in the photographs in terms of likability, intelligence or kindness - only attractiveness.
The researchers then had a group of young women rate whether the pictured woman was pretty. Red had no impact on whether women rated other women as pretty, they found.
Gay men and colour-blind men were excluded from the study.
Source http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/?site=scienceWednesday, July 29, 2009
Looking, looking
I would have included 'dress-ups' in my 'Harmless Hobby' series, but I didn't like the look of those asps!
Yep, tell Theda Bara she can stop looking, she's in Fanny the Flying Housewife & other stories too!
Her poem's in the previous post.
Yep, tell Theda Bara she can stop looking, she's in Fanny the Flying Housewife & other stories too!
Her poem's in the previous post.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Shameless Self-Promotion
WHO WAS
FANNY the FLYING
HOUSEWIFE ?
*
A sample can be found in an earlier post about Josephine Baker, & here are another couple to tempt you ... but that's all, now you'll just have to borrow a copy from a Brisbane Library or request your own for the paltry sum of $AUD20 by posting a suitably grovelling message!
'Kiss me, My Fool'
Theda Bara, silent film actress, 1885 — 1955
she spoke not one word
in a dozen years on the screen
this all-new 1914 model
for a Hollywood tired
of sweet innocence
the original vamp
woman as bloodsucker
eyes like smudgepots
let her studio bosses
promote a Cincinnati girl
as a Middle Eastern Beauty
and hint that her name was
an anagram of 'arab death'
instead of short for
Theodosia (God's gift)
this clever girl
knew just what to reveal
and what to veil
always let the text
do the talking
Persistence of vision
Olive Cotton, Photographer, 1911 — 2003
no snapshot for the life
of a woman who never stopped
framing images in her mind's eye
in twenty years away from the darkroom
a tent her first chosen home
with laughing children playing
in a dry creek bed
deep in the backlit bush
a woman with suitcases
filled with negatives
watching for the moment
when the sky was just right
who never thought to see the day
she'd step out of the shadow
set galleries aglow
indirect light still eloquent under her hands
and focus deep enough
to illuminate a soul
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Spot the Dog
Spot the difference between these two shots.
That's right. The muzzled dog in the left-hand shot is revealed as .... just a mild-mannered hound.
Hooray for the Queensland Government (and don't expect to see that kind of sentiment too often in these posts).
Recognizing the true nature of these noble hounds, as from July 1, 2009, all Greyhound Adoption Programme greyhounds will be muzzle-free in their official green collars in The Sunshine State. No longer will the parents of small children or other nervous passers-by draw back in fear on seeing a muzzle as this gentle creature approaches happily anticipating pats.
As to the desirability of muzzling her owner - Aah! That's a different matter entirely.
Friday, June 19, 2009
The Musical Saw: No. 5 in an occasional series entitled 'Harmless Hobbies for Mad Old Bags'.
Ladies, want to while away the time in mellifluous bliss? Look no further!
Rub that resin! 'Amaze your friends'! If it was Good Enough for Dietrich,(and we all know how versatile she was ....) it's good enough for us
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