A beautiful and uplifting song by Australian singer-songwriter Russell Morris. Released in 1973. Its significance for me is twofold. This song was included on the soundtrack of the marvellous and quirky Australian movie called The Dish, released in 2001. In a fashion, laced with laconic Aussie humour, this movie tells the story of Australia’s contribution … Read more
For a Dancer. Jackson Browne. 1974. I. Love. This. Song. It was like a personal discovery. You experience a latter album. How good is this guy? So you randomly buy an earlier album, one you have never heard of before. And maybe, it is even a better compilation. OK, maybe equal billing. But then that … Read more
Musicians, especially the songwriters, are like elite athletes to me. Their performances so memorable, their skills so wonderous, and forever connected across space and time, as we reminisce. When we were young and the music, the words, the energy, the social interactions, the shared joy, the life transitions. Such intimate experiences with people we never … Read more
Trauma is a memory problem. A trauma experience may interfere with our ability to establish and maintain a coherent network of explicit and implicit memory about an event. Trauma occurs when the combination of conscious (explicit) and unconscious (implicit) memory systems related to a very frightening or confronting event lose connections in the brain (central … Read more
An ode to a complex world methinks Is a wink to an over wrought bubble Because as entitlement assumes its throne Nature will render those kingdoms to rubble. It need not be so but will be Because humans of greed are blind As fragile egos absolve their humility Their wickedness and dismissiveness aligned. So what … Read more
Today is a special day in Australia and New Zealand. Anzac Day. A day when we honour those who have come before us, to fight for the freedoms of their respective countries, and for other free-loving peoples of this planet. Sadly, we could not honour them in the usual way with all our dawn services … Read more
The Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) have published a very helpful guide to how the Covid-19 transmission rate is tracking, and the one number we need to be most aware of. There is also comparative data for other countries tracking this. Of course, such data is only helpful when (1) the method of collecting and recording … Read more
Sure, it is so much easier when we contemplate risk at the individual level. When people take responsibility for the consequences of their actions. People will risk death, as improbable as that might be, in the pursuit of adventure, exhilaration, exploration, research, innovation, to be the first, or to become elite. So many reasons. And … Read more
If only it were that simple. If only we could rid ourselves of this pandemic as if it were a defined enemy, that could simply retreat, surrender or agree to a genuine ceasefire. Sadly, we are dealing with an invisible enemy, that is clandestine, cunning and agile. Humans provide such an extensive network of communication … Read more
Before the pandemic, there were plans for 2020. Here were my hopes for success, from January. 2020 vision. There still can be, now you have time to reflect, plan and change. And as was quoted by another, nothing will return to normal. But then again, which part of normal would you like to remove? Now … Read more