Bea Arthur 1922-2009

                  

One of the greats is gone. Actress Bea Arthur died today at the age of 86. Like other greats before her, she put her stamp both on the stage and the small screen in a fashion that was as unique as it was memorable.

Born a plain New York girl by the name of Bernice Frankel, she spent her younger years coping with extra inches in height and a voice so deep that made people wonder whether she was feminine at all. But she used that loud, deep, raucous voice as many others of her ilk would use it; on the stage. She had a successful stage career before venturing into television. She was convinced by Writer/Producer Norman Lear to do just one episode of  ‘All In The Family’, but after that one appearance, they wanted her to do her own show. The producers even asked, “Where has that girl been?” That girl was fifty years old!

The characters she played in Maude and in The Golden Girls were strong, no nonsense, ascerbic women who did more for feminism than the entire women’s liberation movement combined. She was unique. She caught your eye. You knew Bea Arthur was in the room. You knew Bea Arthur was on your screen. Not everyone gets the attention of television producers from the first scene they ever do on television. Well, they may get the attention, but their own show? Not a chance. When they made Bea Arthur they destroyed the mould. An old cliche I know, but you try and think of a better one.

I remember the TV show ‘All In The Family’ and I remember ‘Maude’. This masculine deep voiced woman made us all wonder whether she had been a man and…’had the chop.’ My parents were huge fans of both shows and I think that both shows were popular because of what they could get away with at the time. The lines in both those shows were iconic and without such a stellar cast, with Bea Arthur front and centre most times, those shows would not be a part of television folklore now.

I remember ‘The Golden Girls’ much more, but apart from the brilliant interplay between the four women, I remember looking at the clothes Bea Arthur wore. She was a tall woman, like my own mother, and watching her dressed so elegantly, gave me ideas to throw at my own mother, as my mother has always hated being tall. Bea Arthur showed the world that you could be tall, mature and downright elegant. I always admired her for that. ‘The Golden Girls’ was an ensemble cast that was in itself unique. Four retired women sharing a house in Florida. It was destined not to work, but it did. When Bea Arthur left the series in 1992, the remaining three women tried to carry on with another series called ‘The Golden Palace’ but it was a dismal failure. It didn’t have Bea Arthur.

So here’s to you Bea. The stage will miss you, the small screen will miss you and thousands of fans will miss you. Your uniqueness made you special.Here’s a little something I found. It’s a nice interview with Rosie O’Donnell. Talk about two loud broads together!

Enjoy your day

 

Stealing the soul of Burma

Not so long ago, we were all watching the anti-government demonstrations in Burma, or Myanmar as it’s now known. We saw monks being beaten, people being taken away never to be seen again, and the harsh reality of a military junta demonstrating full force. We then cried and were deeply saddened and even angry watching that same junta sit on its hands after Cyclone Nargis, and refuse humanitarian assistance from the outside world. Through the eyes of both these events, we clutched at straws trying to work out a way of doing something about this brutal and hideous regime that has had a stranglehold over its people for over forty years. It seemed hopeless.

I regard TIME magazine as one of the finest publications that I have ever read. I have said to people that I hate it in a way, because I can never escape reading it from cover to cover in under 90 minutes! Every page has quality journalism. Every story, whether it is finace, the environment, politics or just pure witty observations, is just downright interesting. It is not a magazine one just ’skims’. I have tried to skim it. Just not possible.

The reason I wax lyrical about TIME is that one of their recent issues had a superb article about Burma which literally opened my eyes and made the recent events there, and our lack of pressure on the junta, much clearer.

While American and European foreign policy thinkers ponder how to financially strangle an army government that has ruled since 1962, Burma’s regional neighbours are embarking on a new Great Game, scrambling to outdo each other for access to this resource-rich land

 The New Great Game – Hannah Beech- TIME Vol. 173, No.12

It does not get more heartless than this. On the one hand we watch innocent peaceful monks being bashed, on the other we say “Oh well” and elbow every other country out of the way to rip the riches out of their soil, and further abuse a people that have been abused enough. These are just some of the natural resources that Burma has to offer: Gold, Jade, Hydropower, Logging, Nickel, Rubies & Sapphires, Copper, Gas, Oil. The treasure trove does not get any richer than that, and the military leaders know it. Try to find a natural resource that Burma doesn’t have. So of course they can snub the world. They need not rely on the world for anything. They have everything, and their neighbours would love a slice of that everything, especially China.

China wants Burma as a buffer state. It wants Burma to be secure – so China will be secure.

          -Col Gun Maw, spokesman for the Kachin Independence Organisation

 The New Great Game – Hannah Beech- TIME Vol. 173, No.12

As we move further into the 21st Century, I am finding that we are becoming more self absorbed, more greedy, more corrupt than we have ever been before. The corporate greed that we have discovered has been happening during the late ’90’s and throughout the first decade of this new century. Corruption is being uncovered in high office, and crimes against humanity are still being committed. Now we uncover the true reason behind why we turn a blind eye to the woes of the Burmese people.

Burmese dissident and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest for absolutely no reason, and will remain there until her death, that fact is unfortunately true. Releasing her and allowing her to take power that she democratically achieved, would have dire consequences on the mining contracts put in place by the junta. The junta is raping the land, and its people. That’s how their pockets are being lined. We think that the junta don’t wish to relinquish power because of the simple fact that they have ruled with an iron fist since 1962. Any injustices that will be found out after they are gone will land them on trial in front of the International Criminal Court. That fact is a given.

But with all the other countries being ‘accessories’ to the raping of Burma, the tangled web may end up with the leaders of quite a few other countries in the hot seat as well. Burma is an easy country to exploit. The fat cat military just let anyone walk in who is willing to pay a good price. With an endless rich cocktail of minerals and energy laying deep within Burmese soil, the door is open, the world is their oyster, and ethics, humanitarian issues, environmental issues or even legal issues for that matter are of no concern. It’s a greedy corrupt person’s paradise.

I’d like to say that there is a silver lining to this, but what I read in this article further confirms to me that unless Burma’s business associates, especially China and Burma’s regional neighbours, develop some sort of conscience, the people of Burma are doomed for many years to come, if not forever.

The best thing we can do is find out who deals with Burma and boycott their goods as well. That all depends how many countries are involved. After reading this artcle, the list could be endless and no one is going to be part of a campaign of boycotting 40-50% of the world’s nations.

Saving our planet from environmental disaster? If we can’t save one country, how can we possibly save the world?

Enjoy your day

 

History in ruins

                     

Over the last eighteen months, we have seen a number of devastating natural disasters. In Burma, we saw Cyclone Nargis, in Australia, ferocious bushfires and floods, and in China, as is the case in Italy a few days ago, thundering earthquakes that show no mercy and land a brutal blow.

The historic town of L’Aquila is a part of the world where an earthquake will cause more damage than we can imagine. Apart from the immense human cost involved in any natural disaster, this is a town that has buildings, or had buildings, that dated back 200, 300, up to 500 years, possibly even more. Whole slabs of history are now rubble, and for those who are left behind, L’Aquila will never be the same quaint village it once was. Those historic buildings were L’Aquila, and no new building is ever going to be the same.

What has come out of this, as usually does when these things happen, is the buildings that were all those hundreds of years old, were the ones that faced the earthquake and came off better than their younger constructions. The hospital was built ten years ago, and has been damaged so badly that it is unsafe to use. This is the epicentre during these sorts of tragedies, and because of shoddy workmanship, it was useless at a time it needed to be most useful.

Why is it that structures 500, 1,000, or 10,000 years old fare better than the ones we literally made last week? Look at the pyramids. Men with ropes, and brute strength built those constructions. Nothing else, because there wasn’t anything else. They still stand today, maybe a little worn from erosion, but their damage is minor, and these were built in a time so far back we cannot even mentally calculate that far!

Bribes, kickbacks and corner cutting are not things of the past, but very much in the present day. The buildings in L’Aquila that are not historic were built in recent times. Knowing what I have seen in parts of Asia, poor building standards exist, if there are any standards at all. Health and Safety regulations are non existent for the workers, let alone incorporated into the plans or the construction.

Questioned about the issue, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said there could be “no magic wand with which we transform our old buildings into earthquake-proof ones.”

To which Thomas Braun, a seismologist at Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology replied:

“The Italian engineers and architects I think are some of the best engineers in the world because already in medieval times they constructed churches and buildings much better than anyone,” he said. “So it’s not the technological know-how that is missing, it’s a political problem.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7987772.stm

Countries such as Italy, Japan, and parts of the United States, just to name a few, all know what they should do. But when the boss wants the job completed early, or wants to cut costs, all that a lowly builder can do is to obey orders. Then you get a Prime Minister who says he doesn’t have the foggiest idea what can be done. Maybe he needs to sit down and have an open air breakfast with the survivors. I am sure they can give him some ideas.

Pope Benedict XVI said he would stop by the region…after Easter Sunday. No real sense of urgency is there? One must put all the opulent religious mumbo jumbo first before one visits his people. Jesus said to St. Peter, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church. Jesus saw Peter as a tough strong dependable character. The Pope follows the line of St. Peter. I don’t see the Pope being a rock to anyone at the moment. If he was, he would have been visiting L’Aquila today and made himself available to counsel people and just to be with them. He holds a shepherds crook when he is officiating at a Mass. That crook is meant to symbolise that he is the shepherd and the people are his flock. The L’Aquila flock are scared, Your Holiness, and where are you to watch out for them? But they will forgive you. They are Italian. To them, ‘Il Papa’ is almost at the level of a deity.

My heart goes out to the people of L’Aquila and if any of my readers have relatives and friends in the region, I offer my condolences for those who have died and my thoughts to those who are recovering.

As I always do during these natural disaters, please donate to the red cross in your country.

http://www.redcross.int/en/default.asp

Enjoy your day

 

 

An honour many will never experience.

Last week, the late Heath Ledger was only the second actor in just over thirty years to win a posthumous Academy award, the other being the late Peter Finch. It is ironic that both posthumous awards have gone to Australian actors. It is also a testament to just how talented Heath Ledger was, receiving an award that has escaped some of the greatest actors to grace the screen, among them Peter O’Toole and Richard Burton.

What always struck me about Heath Ledger was not so much his acting talent, but his speaking voice. He had one of the finest speaking voices of his generation, up there with the likes of James Earl Jones and Orson Welles. But with every movie, his pure acting talent shone through, and he was getting better all the time. His portayal of the Joker was twisted and stylish, like no one had ever done the Joker before. This was not a comic book character, but a real life sociopath that any of us could encounter in our lives. His ’smile’ was not just ‘part of the act’, but had its roots in abuse he suffered as a child.

You wanna know how I got these scars? My father was a drinker and a fiend. And one night, he goes off crazier than usual. Mommy gets the kitchen knife to defend herself. He doesn’t like that. Not…one…bit. So, me watching, he takes the knife to her, laughing while he does it. He turns to me and he says, “Why so serious? He comes at me with the knife. “Why so serious? Sticks the blade in my mouth…Let’s put a smile on that face!

 http://www.moviemistakes.com/name2747

Ledger made the comic book joker incredibly real, and like all crazed psychopathic killers, we saw what caused him to be the way he was. It was an acting triumph of the highest order.

I remember as a kid watching Stevie Wonder get awards, and being very cynical even then about whether they just gave him the award because he was blind. I now don’t think that way at all, and believe Stevie Wonder is one of the greats, and deserves every accolade he receives. Many may think  Ledger received the sympathy Oscar. Watch either Brokeback Mountain or The Dark Knight and then say truthfully that he didn’t deserve it.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is not driven by pity. If Ledger was not that good, he would not have even been nominated. They have no time for meloncholy nonsense. Clint Eastwood was snubbed at this years awards for his movie Gran Torino, and Martin Scorcese has only received one award in all the years he has been directing.

Ledger was good; very good. I believe he deserved the Oscar for Brokeback Mountain, but it wasn’t to be. To see tears in the eyes of Hollywood heavyweights was not contrived. They genuinely and wholeheartedly believed that his performance deserved that Oscar, and were saddened that yet another up and coming great was cut down in his prime. It serves them no purpose to overdo the sympathy. Ledger is dead. He is not at the top of anyone’s ‘A’ List now. None of them will be invited to a party at Heath’s house.

Hollwood, for all its bullshit, and scheming, is a network of people who live on the left side of the social and political landscape. If there is a cause to fight for, it will be one of them who fights for it. If there is a right wing idiot to be canned, the Hollywood elite will can them. To them, Ledger was a young, incredibly gifted man who was very quickly mastering this craft called acting.

When I was growing up, my father used to say to me, “Aussie’s couldn’t act their way out of a paper bag”, and they couldn’t. We were, at one stage, embarrassingly bad actors. But with the likes of Hugh Jackman, Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Mel Gibson, Toni Collette and Rachael Griffiths taking centre stage, we seem to have thrown that paper bag well and truly away. Heath Ledger was in that category. Hollywood has not only saluted him, but the hard work and determination that all Australian actors have put in to take it up to the plethora of fine American actors and hold their own with the likes of Freeman, Nicholson, Streep and Hoffman. Heath has made us proud in more ways than one.

Ledger’s daughter Matilda will grow up not knowing her father, like so many before her. But she will know just how talented he was, and will be able to display the tangible tributes his colleagues bestowed on him. Even though she won’t have any personal memories of her Dad, she will know that he rose to the heights of his career.

Don’t ever let anyone make you feel like you don’t deserve what you want.

(Heath Ledger, “10 Things I hate About You.”)

http://www.moviemistakes.com/name2747

Enjoy your day

 

I’m here to recruit you.

This is the way gay activist and San Francisco politician Harvey Milk  began every public speech he ever made. Gay rights and gay equality was his mantra and the only way he was ever going to get those rights or gain that equality was to recruit every man woman and child to care about his cause.

When I started this blog, I said that the purpose of it was not to bore you with private details of my life ad nauseum and tell you what I did from day to day, and that included what movies I saw and how they affected me. I intend to stick to that, even though I am about to tell you about a movie I saw. However, it was not the movie that I want to talk about. It was what effect that movie will have on the countless millions of heterosexual people that go and see it, and especially the hundred or so that sat with me last night and watched it.

Milk is not a great film. It’s a good film, but not a great film. But it is an important film. We hear the words ‘gay rights’, and ‘equal rights for all’ bantied about, and we kind of take them for granted. We have seen over the years fights for freedom, whether that be the American War of Independence, or the various battles countries and their peoples have had over colonial rulers for a chance to be a nation in their own right. We have seen the fight women have had to just be able to vote, and the struggles women still have today to be free from oppression and be paid the same as everyone else. We know the gay community have fought hard to win some of the freedoms that they enjoy today, but never have we seen the struggles displayed so vividly as in the movie Milk.

Harvey Milk was a boy from New York, who, on reaching 40, realised that he had done nothing that he could be proud of. A closeted gay man, he decided to up and move to San Francisco and begin his kind of revolution. Just like in the ABC documentary Dancing In The Dark that was made to mark the 20th Anniversary of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Milk was a movie that screamed out to the heterosexual community how tough the struggle has been, and that gay and lesbian people are not ‘perverts’, deviants’, and other forms of degenerate beings, but are normal everyday people with the same ups and the same downs. So many times during the movie when something blatantly wrong was being said, the audience would breathe back quickly in shock or disgust. The sound of ‘tsk’ was audible. They saw the horror of it. They felt the pain. They were disgusted. It was wonderful to hear it, and to see people even crying at times. For the first time, some people saw just how bad and tough the struggle was. Hopefully it has changed them forever.

It has always amazed me how it is totally acceptable to see a man and a woman holding hands and window shopping, or having a quick kiss at a coffee shop. If gay men or lesbians do it, it is seen as perverted, sick ,or just plain wrong. Holding hands is holding hands. Kissing is kissing. It fascinates me how the connotation varies so much depending on who is involved.

I say Milk is not a great film, because it isn’t. I don’t think it is meant to be a great film. The main characters were real, and each and every one of them instigated many of the organisations that we know so well now e.g AIDS Quilt Project. Without these immensely courageous people, gay men would still be at the bottom of the pile in more ways than one. Sean Penn’s portrayal was nothing short of sensational. It was so good, I hardly recognised him. I tried to see the character he played in Mystic River which was a tough working class Irishmen, but for the life of me I couldn’t. Harvey Milk himself would have been proud.

I knew very little about Harvey Milk before I saw this film. But after seeing it, I believe that Harvey Milk deserves to go down as a great American. He was the true earthquake that rocked San Fransisco to its core, and he was well ahead of Barack Obama. Obama says ‘Yes We Can’. Harvey Milk not only said it, he made it happen.

Many people would have left that theatre last night with much to think about. Let’s hope they turn that thought into action and at least smile and feel proud when two men or two women nervously try and show affection for each other in public. You may even hear them whisper over their coffee cup, “I’m Harvey Milk, and I’m here to recruit you.”

Enjoy your day

 

Is it enough?

During this most devastating time for those affected by the Victorian bushfires, those of us who were not affected think about what we can do. Money? Clothes? Essentials? What? We struggle to come up with clear thought or a way in which we can be truly useful and not hopelessly useless.

So many times over the last few days, I have heard of people donating more money than they can realistically afford, or giving more than they humanly can. That is the Australian spirit and I commend it. We help our fellow Australians when they are down. But we also have to look after ourselves and remember that we still have to keep food on our table, clothe our kids and pay our bills. It is hugely heroic to give everything you have to those who have nothing, but then all that will do is make you one of those that needs help, which in turn creates a vicious circle.

As I said to the children I teach,  if everyone gives just one dollar, then our school of 250 will raise a fairly decent amount. This is not a competition. This is about pulling together as a nation and helping. Making ourselves broke by donating hundreds of dollars we don’t have in cash and goods will not help you and it will not help those affected. I just think we need to say, “I can donate this much, maybe more later.” Please be sensible. We don’t want any more financial casualties to walk alongside those we are trying to be there for.

Also, one of the arsonists has been caught and arrested over the fires in Churchill, in the south-east of the state. I wrote a blog a while ago on the ways which we react to the pertpetrator of a crime when they are found. We want to inflict the worse punishment on them that we can. We want them dead. But what good will that do to the people of the most ravaged areas? Will it bring their loved ones back? Will it bring their homes back? No. All we can do, as civilised human beings, is lock that person up for the term of his or her natural life. They will cop enough shit in prison over this. They will get their punishment. And they will wish they were dead.

But this tragedy has not only brought to our attention the problem of arsonists in on our community, and on the great Australian spirit, it has also made us aware that recommendations that should have been put in place after the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983 have not been implemented. This tragedy could have been averted, or at the very least, not as severe as it has been. Premier of Victoria, John Brumby, has ordered a Royal Commission into the fires, but one of those was done back in the early ’80’s. Very few of the recommendations were ever followed through.

I have worked in a high fire risk area. I know something of the plans you have to have in place. People who live in those bushland communities know exactly what the risk is. A former colleague of mine sold her house in the Dandenong Ranges because the fear of bushfire was too big. It is stunningly beautiful, but it is also ferociously dangerous living there. Things happen for a reason, and maybe this was meant to be the wake up call for bush communities all around the world. There needs to be serious questions about building houses in densely wooded areas, the types of homes built, safety plans, and many other such issues. My heart goes out to everyone who lives in these communities, but they have to seriously take a look at how they can avoid this happening ever again. Remember, this fire broke all the rules of ‘fire etiquette’. It did not behave as it should have. As the climate changes dramatically, this is likely to happen more often than once every twenty or so years.

Please keep donating. Essentials such as toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, shampoo, toilet paper, tissues are urgently needed. The people DO NOT need clothing or other items. Cash and essential items only. Please donate within your means. You are doing your bit, as am I.

Donations to www.redcross.org.au   Victorian Bushfire Appeal.

Enjoy your day

 

Just another good news story

The latest bushfires in the Australian state of Victoria have been the worst natural disaster in Australia’s history. Close to 200 people are dead, and the death toll continues to rise. Entire communities no longer exist on the map and the prospect of rebuilding seems impossible and overwhelming. With all that sadness and tragedy, it gives the media a chance to score a big story.

Journalists have got the words down pat; ‘tragedy strikes’, ‘hell on earth’, ’state inferno’, just to name a few. Yes, they need to be there to cover these stories and let us know what is happening, but it is when they purposefully drive a couple to the ashes of their former home, and film every last bit of emotion, tears and heartbreak, that you have to wonder if they really care, or is this the biggest scoop they have seen all year.

If I hear another journalist ask someone who has lost everything, ” What are you feeling now?”, I will throw up. How do you think they feel? What answer do you possibly think you will get? It’s almost like they ask the question that will guarantee a tear or two, or if they are lucky, complete emotional breakdown.

These television presenters, news anchors and roving reporters come dressed in appropriate ‘gear’ for the event. In this case, we see them in Akubra hats, Drizabone coats, fireproof suits, as well as the ever so casual open necked shirt and jeans. They have to look like the locals. They can’t be accused of looking like a reporter or a member of the media. Looking like one of the locals gives them more of a chance to ‘connect’ with the locals, and with any luck, get inside stories of survival. The best story gets the best ratings, and when the next journalism awards presentation comes around, it may very well be their network that scores big for their coverage of the worst natural disaster ever to hit the country.

I have stopped watching the news now. The media sicken me, as they don’t really care. The only time I think it truly rocked them was when they were talking about a fellow colleague, former longtime Melbourne newsreader Brian Naylor, who perished in the fire in the small town of Kinglake along with his wife. It was only then did we see hard nosed, unemotional journalists truly realise the extent of this tragedy.

The worst thing about this is that half, yes half, of the fires were deliberately lit. It is unfathomable to think that someone could do this knowing what it would do. We all knew that last Saturday was going to be the hottest day in Victoria’s history; it tuned out to be the hottest day an Australian capital city has ever experienced at 46.4 degrees celsius. The hot northerly winds were vicious. To think that someone on Friday was preparing to set the state ablaze is one of the most horrific things I can think of. They are serial killers who have a compulsion, but their compulsion is fire. What should be their punishment? Send them to the Antarctic where they will never see fire or warmth of any kind again. Nothing will burn there. They love fire so much, deprive them of it for the rest of their lives. Torture them with pictures of ice, cold, and not a clue that warmth of any kind exists. Do that for the term of their natural lives.

There are many bushfire appeals happening all over the country. The Red Cross in Australia would be the best way to donate should you feel the need to. Whole communities have nothing, absolutely nothing. No schools, homes, hospitals, supermarkets…nothing. Anything you can give will help. Remember that there are fires still burning, and more tragedy will surely come of it.

Let us all pray that we never see this day repeated ever again.

Enjoy your day…donate now and at least make somebody’s day enjoyable too, at least for a little while.

 

Each of us is different

On the 16th January 2009, a great man passed from this world. He was my father. I know that everyone thinks that their parent, whether that be a father or a mother, is the best. My Dad was no greater than any other loving hardworking Dad. He was just my Dad, and I thought he was great, simple as that.

Being a very private person, I don’t intend to walk you through my Dad’s life and my memories of him. You didn’t know him and it wouldn’t resonate with you. But over the last three weeks as I have farewelled my Dad and come to terms with the fact that he is no longer with us, I came to understand how incredibly complex grief is, and how one can never prepare for it.

As my family and I were working through the funeral arrangements, we were all struck by how clear our decisions were and how quickly they were made. We all knew Dad so well, that putting together a funeral service, whether or not to have flowers, and even the music, basically looked after itself. I cannot profess to having ‘felt my father with me’ in that ’standing right beside me’ way, but in a way I did. Every choice I made regarding his final farewell felt good deep in my gut, as if Dad was there approving.

We all grieve so differently, and it shows in how demonstrative or undemonstrative we are. As we were choosing Dad’s gravesite a few days before his burial, we noticed all the ostentatious European graves, mainly Greek, Italian, or Eastern European. Grief to these cultures is to be shouted from the rooftops, and it is expected that a headstone is one step away from a full on mausoleum. But we as a family put a simple notice in the newspaper, organised a simple Catholic Mass for Dad, and had a simple floral arrangement on his coffin. The ‘gut’ reaction guided us through. That ‘gut’ was Dad.

Another friend has just this week lost his grandmother at the grand age of 102, and he, his mother and his sister wrote obituaries in the paper. They were beautiful, and I know his grandmother would have loved seeing them, and been proud of both her daughter and her grandchildren.  For me, I would rather stand in a rainforest, look up to the heavens and say my thoughts directly to Dad. But that’s the beauty of individuality. Some people need to put a  poem or a meaningful dedication in the paper. It is how they grieve.

My grieving so far has consisted of tears, numbness, loss of reality, plain stupidity, complete mental and physical exhaustion, too much booze and way too many cigarettes. For others it’s anger, denial, hatred, leading to complete and utter breakdown. What I am saying is you have no idea how you are going to react until the time comes. You just hope and pray you can pull it together and keep it together until the last of the mourning visitors leave the house after the funeral. Luckily I did.

Thank you to all those who have offered your love and support to me and my family at this time. We couldn’t have done it without you. Dad is now where he always knew he would be when he died. Whether I believe the same thing, or you do is immaterial. I am happy in the knowledge that he believed it. Only he knows now whether it was true or not. I hope for his sake it is.

Enjoy your day

Darcy John O’Bree            25.3.1927 – 16.1.2009

Requiscat In Pace             

 

Christmas is…

Christmas conjures up a myriad of emotions ranging from belief to disbelief, sadness to happiness or simply apathy. Some of us love the spirit of Christmas, whatever that may be for each of us. Some cherish the religious aspect of Christmas. For a lot of us who are not Christian or have no religious connections at all, it is just another day of the week.

However, let me express my feelings of Christmas through two very different, but equally powerful mediums; the written word and song. The letter that I have reproduced here was a written response to a little girl’s letter to a newspaper editor back in 1897. It is probably the most reprinted editorial letter in the history of print media. It sums up for me what at least the feeling of this season should be. Whether you are Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Taoist, Buddhist or Atheist, no one can deny that this time of the year should be about peace, understanding, respect and tolerance.

My second offering is the very talented young Australian singer Anthony Callea singing my favourite carol ‘O Holy Night.’ All I ask you to take from it is that at this time of the year, on this night, as we gather with family or friends, or both, that having someone with us is a special, holy night, to be treasured. Please enjoy my two Christmas offerings and a very happy, safe Christmas to all my readers, my family and my friends wherever you are in the world.

DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
“Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
“Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.’
“Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?”VIRGINIA O’HANLON.
“115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.”

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.  

http://www.newseum.org/yesvirginia/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy your day

 

Honesty and Integrity

                      

This week, Australian comedian/ interviewer Andrew Denton brought to a close six years of his highly acclaimed series ‘Enough Rope.’  The title of the show came from the phrase ‘Give someone enough rope and they will hang themselves’. This short, bespeckled man, joins the long list of interviewers praised for their incredible skill in getting the most out of their subjects.

Denton had a remarkable skill; the skill of finding the Achilles Heel. Everyone has one. For many of us, it takes others a long time to find it. But when they do, the impact is incredible, and unpredictable. I have not seen all of Denton’s interviews, but I have heard and seen many. Whether it is his quirky charm that gets results, or the naughty schoolboy about him, his subject will invariably walk into the most taboo of topics, like a blind person walks into a wall; totally unaware. To us, we can tell he’s doing it, but to them, they seem oblivious, or maybe they just let him. We will never know.

Six of the more memorable interviews I saw were with actress Cate Blanchett , the ‘Interviewer’s Interviewer’ Sir Michael Parkinson (twice), Australian Ex- Convict Mark ‘Chopper’ Read, Former Australian fashion editor Maggie Tabberer, British actor Richard E Grant  and Australian artist Wendy Whitely, who was his final interview.

What made these six interviews memorable was not only Denton’s ’spider in the trap’ technique, but that this technique was successful on very street smart, savvy, intelligent people who have their wits about them constantly and are not easy to catch out. This was the magic of Denton. They allowed him to take them by the hand and lead them to a place that no one else could get them to.

For Maggie Tabberer, it was the topic of her son she lost to Sudden Infant Death Syndome (Cot death) forty years ago. Maggie is a tough cookie and showed that throughout the interview. But at that moment, she was a tearful pussycat, right back at that moment in time staring at her lifeless child in shock.

For Mark ‘Chopper’ Read, it was almost scary watching Denton take on one of the toughest boys in the criminal game. Mark Read is not a man to be messed with, and Denton attempted to find out what makes ‘Chopper’ tick. Chopper went with it, and for but a brief moment, the tough as nails criminal showed us that he had a heart after all. But, as he was being lead by Denton, he let Denton know he didn’t like what he was making him do. Denton still got at least a little something. Probably way more than anyone else ever has.

Finally, Wendy Whitely was the perfect guest to complete six amazing years. Her late ex-husband, artist Brett Whitely, was a heroin addict, an alcoholic, but also one of the most gifted artists that Australia has seen. She freely allowed Denton to take her through the hazy drug filled days of the 1960’s and 70’s, her tumultuous marriage to Brett, and the death of her daughter Arkie from cancer at the age of 37. As with the other five, it was a mesmorising interview from beginning to end.

To me, there is more than just Andrew Denton’s quirkiness that gets them in. They trust him. They trust him, like the world trusted Michael Parkinson who also has hung up the microphone this year. People will reveal so much to you if they trust you. Trust is where another person feels you will honour them with a promise of secrecy, a promise of respect, a promise of fidelity, a promise of honesty. Denton gained that trust.

All those who gave Denton a great interview knew that they were giving their story to someone who would hold it, nurture it, investigate it a bit, but above all give it back in pretty much the same condition that it was given to him. He would not batter it, beat it, abuse it, mock it. Those interviews that didn’t work or fell flat, were obviously with people who had no perception and intuition, were boring, or just plain rude. According to Denton, the latter applied to actress Goldie Hawn who was rumoured to be so objectionable, they didn’t even run the interview. Obviously a person who could not trust.

For the majority of those who have been at the end of Denton’s ‘noose’, I am sure they are richer for the experience, albeit with a slightly sore neck.

Enjoy your day