Love Love Love My family. Grateful for nature, Oxygen, water and shelter. Writing, reading, good film, music, sharing, learning, good food, (some bad food too), uncontrollable painful belly laughs (when u can getsome!)Trying not to get too tired. Connecting with people. Recovery, the fellowship and the inside shine job the Programme and the steps allow God to bring to my life.
I'd like to meet:
The Dalai Lama...face to face altho' I did meet him when he was in Sydney a few years back, I was sitting on a milkcrate with newspapers atop for cushioning comfort but it was only on a huge screen at a park filled with at least a thousand others at Darling Harbour...On the screen we definitely made eye and soul contact, I loved his humour, his joyfulness and I love all that he teachs and all that he is. Nicki Caro NZ Film Director,(Whale Rider & North Country) Jane Campion, (awesome director also), Sofia Coppola and Margaret Pomeranz.
Music:
Music sources inspiration, connection, memory and emotion... Energy in motion - from melancholy Cio-Cio San - lead soprano in Madame Butterfly, to rootsy country of Gillian Welch and Alison Krauss to the soaring tenor highnotes of the Blind Boys of Alabama I love it all! How this happens is ineffable and unexplainable. Music offered and offers a sanctuary and calm place to go...this was how i was transported away from my reality in the "olden days" ... Gladys Knight, Phoebe Snow,Carole King, Steely Dan, James Taylor, Michael Franks, Marvin and Steveland, lotsa Motown - Aretha, Chaka and Smokey Robinson...Bob Marleys influence on Herbs, Katchafire and UB40. I believe Lauryn Hill's miseducation produced a milestone work that plunged hip hop into the mainstream because she has the most amazing amazing vocal emotion yet she is edgy grit!I love love Angie Stones hip, honest take on relationships in her love songs, Jeff Buckley's pathos,India Arie and how she communicates empowerment for women and girls with her talent and beautiful spirit. Jill Scott is a beautiful and poetic queen. Ngaiire's natural vocals, quiet spirit and soulful gifts. Dean Zachariahs voice singing, playing guitar in the lounge room when he thinks no-one is listening. So many more... Love Michael Franti's politics, humanity and profound message via his grounded love and music. Old style Samoan songs, Puccini's tragic Madame Butterfly makes me cry... I love love songwriting genius of Burt Bacharach/Hal Davids lyric awesome awesome! Even tho' I get 'trouble' for loving "The Carpenters" - I love Karen Carpenters voice and the cheesey cheese of these pop songs remind of sad/happy days! Rainy days on Mondays ... talking to myself and feelin small! tralalala
Movies:
"Beneath Clouds" is a film by Ivan Sen that I loved when I first saw it and love still! I was blown away by a film starring Felicity Huffman called "TransAmerica", she was amazing and it was a fabulously unusual movie experience!!! I loved Jackie Brown inspite of others' cool reception of it, I think its brilliant in a different way (dialogue and black culture) to the aesthetics Tarantino masterfully imagined and realised in Kill Bill I & II. More recently, I enjoyed "Hustle & Flow", Terence Howard and the girls shine.
Television:
Denton's "Enough Rope" is essential viewing in my household! Thorough and intensely researched - Andrew Denton is such a sensitive, intuitive and smart interviewer -no contest... the best talk show ever! I love Margaret's (Pomeranz) passion, verve and intelligence counterpointed by David's (Stratton) unwavering and unequivocal old school values as seen on The Movie Show, Wednesday night. I like to watch British period dramas, for example (Dickens') "Bleak House" just finished on Sunday. Favourites from the past...Hornblower, Daniel Deronda, Mansfield Park of course Pride and Predjuce. I like a lot of Brit shows, Cracker, Vincent in the past the satire "Human Remains". I love well-made documentary and no doubt this is a genre which is improving every year. Saw a good doco on Charles Bukowski last week. And I used to love "Australian Story", but lately it seems to have lost some of its illustrious former shine. I love watching the "Insight" forum - always engaging and informative! Foreign Correspondent and SBS documentarys about Australia and Australians/ Immigrants and Culture are greatstuff! "The Office", "Shameless" is shamelessly shameless! I love Lano & Woodley with the kids, laughing out heads off and mocumentary "We Can be Heroes" was also great (Chris Lilley). Also, "Six Feet Under" was once an absolute Monday night imperative! I support "Compass" on 99% of Sunday evenings even tho' Tony gets bored sometimes.
Books:
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, "Great Expectations" by CHarles Dickens. I loved the fairy tales of Oscar Wilde (The Happy Prince) when I was little and "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott - the latter all read devoured when I was an highly impetuous, accident prone library risk truant. Naomi Klein's "No LOGO", Just finished Lee Stringers "Sleepaway School", straight after reading his first book "Grand Central Winter" - Love to read books by authors like him... Poetic, eloquent and vivid - Lee Stringer is extremely cool and honest. I loved Patricia Grace's "Cousins" awhile back. Currently reading "The Known World" by Edward P. Jones, unfortunately because of its unusual bleakness if i read it before sleep it carries over into my dreams. Consequently, it has been a slow slow process, which has seen me read "The Rachel Papers" by Martin Amis inbetween... which at times made me laugh but disturbed and annoyed me at the same time.
