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QUOKKA TIME AGAIN

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Because Rottnest is so popular, you have to book 9 months in advance without really knowing what you're going to be doing then let alone what the weather might be like. We managed to get a three bedroom bungalow looking out over Geordie Bay in the hope that it would be warm and that Sebastian might be able to join us. He was far to busy with work and box-lacrosse referring in Melbourne and so we offered the spare room to our friend, Barry. He goes to the island whenever he gets a chance and so was a good guide to places and beaches that we hadn't explored in the past.  The weather forecast was rather dismal with temperatures in the low 20s and windy conditions but it was never enough to put us off either swimming or drying off lying on the sand afterwords. Geordie is one of Barry's favourite spots and I can see why. Walking distance to four good beaches, balconies looking out to the water, a shuttle bus to the main settlement, and a little supermarket and a cafe nearby. We ...
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HISTORY THROUGH A DISNEY LENS

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Luckily, I'm still on a few Opening Night lists although these days, because I don't expect to be, by the time the invitation arrives, I've already bought my ticket. But this wasn't the case with Disney's Anastasia presented at the Crown Casino theatre. I confess, it's not a musical I would have chosen to go to but when the opportunity presents itself, why not.  We started the night with some very glittery cocktails, alcoholic and non, crafted specifically for the show with the rich purple created by the addition of butterfly pea flower. And this helped us get through the night. It's not that there was a problem with the cast which featured the amazing octogenarian Nancy Hayes, the long limbed comedienne Rhonda Burchmore, and some younger folk with great voices. It's just that the music is rather bland. On the way home, we listed to a "best of" musical soundtrack on Spotify and I was reminded that what makes a great musical is the specificity o...
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BROKEN ENGLISH

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One of the films in this year's Perth Festival collection at the Somerville Auditorium was a documentary about Marianne Faithfull. I've dipped in and out of a being a Faithfull fan. I was too young to appreciate her early work in the mid-1960s, but discovered her with the album Broken English in 1979 which is full of strong, bold songs that still resonate with power 45 years later. After that, every so often I'd dip and out of her repertoire being fascinated by her album of the Romantic Poets, She Walks in Beauty (2021) and being in love with her reading of the letter at the heart of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos's epistolary novel from 1782, Les Liaison Dangereuses. I've managed to track down what I suspect is an illegal recording of her reading it:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chhYlqRoJVs The book it comes from is an absorbing work which I read, day after day, on the beach during a Perth Summer holiday years ago. It's inspired all sorts of responses including...
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WHEN DO THE RICH GO TO BED?

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On the one hand, I have no interest what so every about the lives of the rich and famous who thought that mixing with Jeffrey Epstein was a good thing. On the other hand, it's hard to avoid all the press coverage about this ongoing story. So what's the best balance?  I decided that reading Virginia Roberts Giufree's autobiography Nobodies Child  would give me one important perspective. And it did. Although written with help, her voice reaches out with such clarity after years of abuse and then years of standing up to her abusers. A tough read but if you're up to it, I recommend it. After that, I needed to find a good analyst recommended by believable sources to make sense of her story. Hamish Macdonald, one of the hosts of Radio National's Global Roaming  suggested an interview on the Ezra Klein Show and as I've always found Klein's choice of interviewees interesting, that's where I went. He interviewed Anand Giridharadas a journalist/sociologist of Amer...
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VOICE OF HIND RAJAB

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  After writing a post about the Iranian war yesterday, I was feeling up to watching what I knew was going to be a difficult documentary. Some people weep through it. Some people object to it's manipulation of the death of young girl. And others, like me, say you must watch The Vocie of Hind Rajab. It's the story, the real story, of the death of 5 year old Palestinian girl in January 2024 and the attempts by Red Crescent staff based in the West Bank (because there's nowhere safe for them to be in Gaza) to negotiate safe access for an ambulance, that's only 8 minutes away, to rescue her. You may have seen commentary on social media at the time. The genius of the Tunisian film maker,  Kaouther Ben Hania, is that she uses the recorded voice of the child and even some of the original recording in the Red Cresecent phone room. A child who is hiding in a car with 6 dead relatives. A child who is in kindegarden. A child who is afraid of the dark. A child whose voice finally go...
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WAR

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I don't know where to start. It's 8 days into the illegal US/Israeli war agains Iran with no sign of either side being willing to compromise. I know Iranian-Australians who are terrified for their families back home. I know Jewish people terrified about the existential threat that the Iranian government and its proxies are to Israel. And I have a friend, on her way to a well deserved holiday in Paris, whose flight out of Doha was turned around on the night of 28 February as war broke out. She shared this pattern of her plane's journey: She's been stuck in a hotel in Doha ever since although there was word today that she might get a flight out.   Every story that comes out the Middle East is horrible but the one that really shook me yesterday morning was the an interview of the new Israeli Ambassador to Australia. When asked about the attack on the school in southern Iran. The BBC is saying that the satellite and video evidence appears to show that the school was attacke...
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WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT

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One of Festival of Perth highlights was a Scandinavian singing group, Akervinda.  Named for a Swedish wildflower whose roots spread far and wide, the award-winning group is made up of four jazz singers – Lise Kroner, Iris Bergcrantz, Linda Bergström and Agnes Åhlund – united by a deep love of folk music. In the words of their publicity" "Celebrated for their fresh, modern interpretations, and praised across folk, jazz and a cappella scenes, they breathe new life into traditional Scandinavian folk tunes."  Their concert was at St Mary's Cathedral and the first thing that surprised me about the event was that there was a bar outside! I've never seen a church, let alone a Catholic cathedral, serve wine outside as well as inside! The second surprise was that their folk songs are rather pagan in concept and the concert, Spellbound, was built around spells - a journey through nature, love, tradition, womanhood & witchcraft. There was even a song for about difficult...
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