Ozymandias

The poem describes the quintessence of hubris.

See here and here for analysis of the poem

The Ship Song

The Ship Song is an iconic and beautiful ballad sung by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds.



In 2010 the Sydney Opera House sought Nick Cave's permission to record a version of the song, and he agreed.

Many musicians and dancers were involved in the production of the song:

Neil Finn, Kev Carmody and The Australian Ballet, Sarah Blasko, John Bell, Angus and Julia Stone, Paul Kelly and Bangarra Dance Theatre, Teddy Tahu Rhodes and Opera Australia, Martha Wainwright, Katie Noonan and The Sydney Symphony, The Temper Trap, Daniel Johns and the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Sydney Opera House CEO Richard Evans:

“We set out to create a tribute to the House’s role in the global creative community – a love song to creativity if you wish.”

“We wanted to give people everywhere the opportunity to experience the creative genius that makes this place tick, to get a taste of the artists, venues and other spaces that power the heart that beats beneath our soaring white sails.”

The result was the wonderful evocation of the song below:




Here is Nick Cave's view of the lyrics:

I wrote the song because Anita and I would argue at a constant pace and I would always tell her to unleash the dogs and burn the bridges as a way of saying you can say what you feel but forget the past and let's move forward. In an argument one always has to stand down until the other quits. This cleans off the slate. The first verse contemplates arguing all night long until one gives in and they embrace each other and start over. This was not one of my "dark" songs. I write what I feel and I was not feeling "dark". If you want "dark" then immerse yourself into murder ballads.

The comment can be found here.

Lyrics

Come sail your ships around me
And burn your bridges down.
We make a little history baby
Every time you come around.
Come loose your dogs upon me
And let your hair hang down.
You are a little mystery to me
Every time you come around.

We talk about it all night long
We define our moral ground.
But when I crawl into your arms
Everything comes tumbling down.

Come sail your ships around me
And burn your bridges down.
We make a little history baby
Every time you come around.

Your face has fallen sad now
For you know the time is nigh
When I must remove your wings
And you, you must try to fly.

Come sail your ships around me
And burn your bridges down.
We make a little history baby
Every time you come around.
Come loose your dogs upon me
And let your hair hang down.
You are a little mystery to me
Every time you come around

J P Steffensen

We live in cold times from climateclips on Vimeo.

The Colour of Magic: The Film

This is the first episode of the film version of Terry Pratchett's book, The colour of Magic.























The story continues here.

Sir Terry Pratchett

For those who have not read any of the Discworld Novels this is how Terry Pratchett opened the first one, The Colour of Magic :

In a distant and second-hand set of dimensions, in an astral plane that was never meant to fly, the curling star-mists waver and part ...

For those aficionados of the Discworld series (and I know that there is at least one amongst my Facebook Friends) this conversation with Terry Pratchett includes a reading from his next book, Snuff.

Although the books might be described as fantasy (a description that Pratchett rejects) the interview shows he has a great sense of the realities of this world.



For the first episode of the film version of The Colour of Magic follow this link.

A requiem for newspapers

This is a talk that Bruce Guthrie gave at the Wheeler Centre.

Guthrie has been editor of The Sunday Age, The Age, Who Weekly, the Weekend Australian Magazine, the Herald-Sun Wish.

In this talk he discusses the newspaper business, the changes brought about by the Internet, the threat posed by the decline of the very lucrative advertising pages and particularly his experience with the Murdoch Media Empire. He also discusses his book Man Bites Murdoch.

Thomas Friedman

This is a talk that Thomas Friedman gave at the Melbourne Town Hall. the video comes from the Wheeler Centre.

Freidman notes four major issues:

1. Adapting to the IT revolution
2. Adapting to globalisation
3. Managing our whole entitlement, deficit and debt issue
4. Energy and climate

The first two merge into one issue as globalisation drives more IT revolution and more IT revolution drives more globalisation. Together they are hyper flattening the world. By flat Freidman means the inter-connectedness of the world.

He wrote The World is Flat in 2004. What particularly took my attention was the following:

If you pick up a first edition of that book and look in the index under “F” you will notice that Facebook isn’t in it. So when I wrote The World is Flat, Facebook didn’t exist, Twitter was a sound, the Cloud was in the sky … applications were what you sent to college, Linked In was a prison and Slype for most people was a typo”. All of that has happened in six years.

Maths lessons can be fun