Words Aren't Needed.

This Was It!

We watched Michael Jackson's 'This Is It' movie last night, showcasing the rehearsals for his huge London Show before he died in 2009. 

I was blown away at the enormous talent he still displayed and the respectful kindness he showed to all performers and technicians.

The music was amazing, as always, and the dancing was inspired. I think his style is the most stirring of modern group dance. Perfect timing and rhythm and spectacular moves.

Apart from the shock of his dying suddenly, with a dark cloud over the means, I felt ashamed at not mourning his lost talent before last night, because it was still there.

They had booked 50 London shows, and were planning more when they sold out immediately, so the poor bugger must have been totally overwhelmed. 

Orianthi Panagaris (pictured above with Michael) is an Adelaide born girl, who has played with major musicians on her climb to fame. Michael asked to meet with her, listened, and booked her that day. There is a lot of footage on the film with her playing her guitar with him. She looks so spectacular as well, with her striking face and long blonde hair.

She has since gone on to play with Alice Cooper on his tours, and has an album out, so is doing extremely well. She has some clips on You Tube, if anyone's interested.

What's the World Coming to?

Outrage at the treatment of our Prime Minister in Canberra yesterday, and the sight of gleeful aboriginals waving her shoe around like a scalp will not further their cause at all. I'm not keen on Julia and her constant backtracking on her promises is making her very unpopular, but we don't treat our leaders like that. 

The other thing that disgusted me yesterday is the new Pilot Frixion Pen advert on TV, where a man is supposedly reading his handwritten recipe and urinates into the mix instead of adding 'leeks'. Yuk! I was so pipped off, I have written to them. Will the ad make me rush out and buy their pens (?), nope, but I will remember its name. That's what they want, I suppose....

Australian to the Core.

Aaaahhh! Australia Day. Need I say more? Except we paraded up the Grand Ridge Rd with flag ($4.99 from Aldi) flapping proudly, getting lots of laughs and waves.

We copped out on a sausage sizzle early this morning because we were too lazy, and then watched Chips Rafferty and the Eureka Stockade (1949) at lunchtime. I never knew the full story before, but I haven't Wikied it yet to check the facts.

Mr Bliss is out polishing and fiddling with his brand new Harley and I'm chatting on the pooter and uploading a silly photo. Life is indeed good.....

Absolutely Fascinating.

I was up early one morning recently and saw our resident grey thrush rolling around on an ant's nest.... really enjoying himself like he was having a dust bath. Curious, I wondered whatever he was up to, until I Googled it and discovered this:

... 'There are microbes everywhere that threaten our health and cause diseases. These microbes are a danger to other living creatures as well as human beings. Therefore these creatures, too, need to protect themselves just as we do. When living creatures are observed, we see that they use some methods to protect themselves against microbes. For instance, ants produce a kind of acidic substance that incapacitates microbes. They apply this acidic substance to their bodies and to the walls of their nest. In other words, they know that not only they themselves but also the nest they live in should be purified of microbes. Microbes disturb birds too, but birds do not have a system in their bodies to produce protective substances as ants do. Consequently birds have found a different but equally practical solution to this problem. They go to and lie upon an ant's nest, and wait for the ants to wander through their feathers. Ants that search for food stroll among the bird's feathers and the substance that kills the microbes is smeared on the bird's feathers as they do so. Thus, the bird is purified of microbes.'

 

How do you like that?  love Google, and all the people who put interesting info for us to read and learn.

Discovery

I was rattling through my studio preparing for my coming exhibition. I thought I might find something small that would go well in the show. People love to buy, but don't always want to buy BIG.

I found some that I had done and put away, thinking they didn't measure up. But it's funny how absence make the heart grow fonder; I really liked them, so they are off at the framer getting tarted up. 

I really enjoy the scribbly layered effect, so will do more when this madness of a solo show passes.....

This Week's Favourite Pics

An Adelie Penguin grooms a soft penguin toy as researchers and crew of the Aurora Australis get out onto the fast ice which the ship has settled into at Commonwealth Bay 20 kms from Mawson's Hut in Antarctica.

Easter Island Revelation.

 I love Angels, and intend to do some watercolours of Angels from Cemeteries soon.

 Magnificent Art!

 Tired maybe?

Macro Shots

I got a macro lens for my nearly new Canon Eos DSLR for Christmas. I have always loved taking close up photos, and used to push my past cameras to their limit to get as close to the miniscule world as possible. 

But my new lens brings photography to a whole new level and I am discovering tiny creatures and details on plants I never new were there. It's a tiny world where everything is living their tiny little lives as best they can, and we know little about what's happening around us.

Macro lens have a very shallow depth of field, so things go in and out of focus within a few millimetres. Breathing in or swaying slightly can turn your carefully planned shot into mush. Using a  tripod is something I haven't done yet, even though I have one, because a slight breeze can render that ineffective. I have trawled the net for possible solutions, but have decided the secret is to take lots of shots and hopefully one will turn out OK, which they have..

Bright iridescent sparkles on a beetle

The ethereal beauty of a common cabbage moth

A section of a budding head from a leek plant. reminds me of the egg pods in 'Alien'!

A spectacular thingie on a geranium stalk.

Kinda proud of this one - exactly right!

Tiny little fly on a hebe blossom

A tiny beetle in my Julia's Rose

My delicious raspberries

Wonderful Reception!

Some of my blogger mates have come back in and commented after 3 years! Wow! Thank you so much for wandering by occasionally.

Since my last vaguely meaningful post, I have had a knee replacement (motorcycle accident in '07), and settled my claim with TAC, who treated me very respectfully and didn't drag me into court. But I felt a bit lost for a while after it was all done.

I have only painted here and there since, but had a collection of 6 paintings that really hadn't been anywhere much, and I liked a lot. I decided to snap myself out of my comfort zone and plan another solo. The last one was in '07. So, I got back into the zone and have completed the series with another 5 largish oils and a few watercolours and my show is on Feb 5th (see invite below). 'Archies on the Creek' is a very posh Restaurant/Gallery at Archies Creek, near Kilcunda. They have quite an impressive group of bars, cafes and a top notch restaurant, and the gallery is tagged on as well.

I wondered whether I could pull together my followers after such a long time, but friends have really rallied and are bringing extras, so we should have a nice couple of hours.

I am looking forward to getting up and running again.

I have heaps more to tell. This year is going to be a wonderful one, but I'm not going to spill the beans on it all at once!

Solo Exhibition

Fresh Blogging on the way .... truly!

I have really given myself a good talking to (finally) about letting a perfectly good blog stagnate for such a long time., so I have gone in and freshened the look of it up and reacquainted myself with the possible pleasures of having a functioning Blog and regular visitors who comment on your thoughts and images.

Blogging can be very time consuming, but rewarding in many ways, if only going in and following your history and thoughts over the preceding years.

I do have a stat counter on the bottom and was amazed this morning to check visitors and found there are still people coming in for a look.

So there! I am exhausted by all this adjusting templates and colours and fonts, so will go and have some lunch and a ponder on other things and be back as soon as my inspiration rekindles!