and pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space
And turkeys everywhere are trembling.
My favorite Christmas carol is easy to pick, choosing which version is much harder. Here are a couple that I like, take your pick (or point me to a better one) …
Interestingly, it was totally unfamiliar to me until I was called on to play it about three years ago.
I was a lad in the era of the girl groups, no not like the Spice Girls, the classics such as the Ronettes and the Crystals. It’s music that I absolutely love. Behind the groups that I gave as examples was the producer Phil Spector.
Spector produced the “wall of sound“, thought of the studio as the instrument and to him the girls were interchangeable. He’s a rebel for example was recorded by Darlene Love and released as a Crystals record for whom it was a great hit. Nor did Spector bother to tell Ms Love that he’d done it.
After that magic era he worked with such artists as John Lennon, George Harrison and Leonard Cohen. He co-wrote and produced the song that received the greatest amount of US airtime of the twentieth century You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ with the Righteous Brothers.
Where is he now? In jail for murder, oops.
I had the enormous pleasure of performing this song the other day …
… not with Darlene Love but with Wendy Stapleton and the Australian Women’s Choir. Look out for what happens at 1.19 into the clip. I was playing the bari sax but I didn’t get the thrill of descending from on high. Next year I hope.
So this is how it started, a walk on the beach, more in an effort to calm the nerves than to take a photograph. Managed to take a photo but it did little for the nerves.
Why nervous? Tonight I get to play with this guy.
James Morrison, one amazing musician, admittedly my part was as a humble member of the sax section. He goes in my CV … played with James Morrison, I doubt that I will go in his. Here I am …
… both photos by Gayle from tonight’s show. It was followed by the fireworks,
and a glass of champagne.
Not long ago I managed to trim down the weight of my camera kit. The ever tightening stance of the airlines caused me concern. I even managed to get a lighter pair of binoculars. But …
Inevitably the weight has crept up again. I currently carry two cameras when I travel, one for landscape and time-lapse, a Lumix GH4, and a Cannon 7d mark ll with a telephoto for wildlife. At home I leave a full frame Sony with a nice macro lens. Of course none of them talk to each other, three different sensor sizes, incompatible lenses. Why? Because no one just buys a whole kit in one go and times change.
I’m thinking ahead to another big trip. Do I buy a bunch of lenses for just one of my much-loved cameras? What happens if it fails in the time I’m away? It is so hard but fortunately there is a flow chart …
It doesn’t solve the problem but it does amuse you while you ponder.
Some birds are residents, some are migrants. Some birds just wander around in response to conditions, none of them care a fig about state boundaries. So if you hang out near the borders of your state or territory your list will grow.
I live in the western half of Victoria where sooner or later you can expect to find Budgerigars, Diamond Doves, Black and Pied Honeyeaters and other occasional visitors. These are birds that spill out of the more arid interior.
Over in the east of the state their counterparts are birds of the east coast forests that wander around the corner from New South Wales, usually in summer. There have been reports recently of a few congregating in one particular front yard in the little town of Metung. It seemed a good time to put in some time in the Gippsland Lakes region. The weather gods thought it might be a good time to visit the same area.
The Fig Trees of Mairburn Road deserve to be as famous as the Flame Trees of Thika. In the space of half an hour I saw Koel, Channelbill Cuckoo, Topknot Pigeon, White-headed Pigeon and Figbird. All in or close to two enormous Morton Bay Figs thoughtfully planted as ornamentals in somebody’s front garden. Thanks, mate.
These three were new to my Victorian list …
You can’t spend all your time pointing your binoculars and telephoto lens into fig trees in people’s front gardens. You have to consider the Grevilleas in their back gardens …
and maybe even wander into the forest …
The Goldfields enjoyed quite a storm last evening …
The view from outer space (courtesy of Google Earth) shows the guano on Lawrence Rocks. You can also just make out a tiny spot more on Point Danger, the nearest point on the mainland. The cloacas at work belong to these …
The colony on the rocks spilled over onto Point Danger, the only mainland breeding colony of Australasian Gannets. It’s survival has been greatly assisted by fencing that keeps out foxes and other terrestrial predators.
The rocks also provide a resting place for Black-faced Cormorants and Australian Fur Seals. In winter the White-fronted Terns can usually be seen here. Crested Terns are common all year.
Not many people get to resign at 93 years of age, Mr Mugabe can put that on his list of outstanding achievements.
Achievements like turning the foodbowl of Africa into a net food importer, reducing the country’s life expectancy by more than 18 years, attaining staggering rates of inflation and unemployment. Simultaneously he and his allies helped themselves to the mineral resources and development funds and looked after themselves very nicely.
Those allies included the Zanu-PF machine, the military and Mr Mnangagwa. They had no problem with kleptocracy enforced by violent suppression of an impoverished and long-suffering people. Their problem was the spectre of the Amazing Grace gathering the reins of power into her hands and cleaning out the old order.
What now for Zimbabwe? Probably more of the same … but it could have been worse.
Sadly, the opportunities for it to be much better were missed long ago.
The border with Zambia … Zimbabwe starts where the paint stops.
Stuck in Melbourne between a rehearsal and a gig. Totally bored, and just to prove it …
This is of course the Hollywood version, in real life you die.
Don’t believe me then volunteer for a double blind crossover trial. It is, after all, the gold standard for clinical trials and indeed the subject of a scholarly article in the British Medical Journal of December 2003 …
Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma related to gravitational challenge: systematic review of randomised controlled trialsGordon C S Smith, professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Cambridge University, Cambridge CB2 2QQ,Jill P Pell, consultant, Department of Public Health, Greater Glasgow NHS Board, Glasgow G3 8YUAbstractObjectivesTo determine whether parachutes are effective inpreventing major trauma related to gravitational challenge.DesignSystematic review of randomised controlled trials.Data sources:Medline, Web of Science, Embase, and the CochraneLibrary databases; appropriate internet sites and citation lists.Study selection:Studies showing the effects of using a parachuteduring free fall.Main outcome measureDeath or major trauma, defined as an injuryseverity score > 15.ResultsWe were unable to identify any randomised controlledtrials of parachute intervention.ConclusionsAs with many interventions intended to prevent ill health, the effectiveness of parachutes has not been subjected to rigorous evaluation by using randomised controlled trials. Advocates of evidence based medicine have criticised the adoption of interventions evaluated by using only observational data. We think that everyone might benefit if the most radical protagonists of evidence based medicine organised and participated in a double blind, randomised, placebo controlled, crossover trial of the parachute. BMJ 2003;327:1459-1461.
bobmcgee 