In the media, if a beautiful woman got treated as a lump of meat for every man to have a piece of, the public would jump up and down complaining that its not right, sexist and unjustly. However, lets reverse roles for a minute and put a beautiful young man in place. He has the most blue of bluest eyes, a body to die for and is extremely tall (yes, fits the mould of tall, dark and handsome).  Does this make it acceptable for women to treat him as an object of desire? That he is their property to do whatever they like to him, invade his personal space by placing their hands on his body when he has not even invited them to do so. What disgraces me the most is that, this kind of behaviour is seen as acceptable in the media, (or anywhere else) because  many people (especially women) think that any man is desperate for sex and will chase after anything that moves. If he extemely good looking, then issues get even worse which can go in two different directions:

Women/people :

1.  thinks that the guy is so desperate for sex he would do anything to get into a woman’s pants and women throw themselves at the guy without being invited.

2. or totally judge the guy and instantly think he’s a player, dishonest and has a huge ego.

Ok some guys are like what has been suggested above, but is it right to stereotype everyone? Not every guy out there (no matter whether he’s good looking or average) thinks this way. There are decent blokes who want to do the right thing by women and wish to be respected.

This guy that I know is good looking and women will not leave him alone. They seem to think that because he’s totally hot, he wants any woman that approaches him. These women are so blinded by his outside appearence, they fail to see the beauty that is within: a sad but beautiful, kind, talented young man who wants to share his gifts for music and poetry with the world. Thats the thing though, this guy is a totally incredable muscian but women don’t even bother to take time to listen to his music. They are more interested in the outside and it hurts him so bad, that it makes him feel so small. Like he’s worthless…Things get worse for him when women stalk him and won’t leave him alone. He never asked to be born beautiful.

 No matter if you are male or female, how would you like a total stranger come put their hands on your private parts (or anywhere on your body)? Wouldn’t you feel uncomfortable and want respect? I know I would.

Often we complain that we are not beautiful enough and so forth. Not many of us are that lucky to be that stunning, but really would we really be that lucky to have supermodel looks where stangers want a peice of your meat, Don’t take you seriously for your true worth, or follow and stalk you where ever you go. Now question yourself and put yourself in this guy’s shoes? Personally I would rather be average looking and live my life in peace.

Alvin Purple

http://australianscreen.com.au/titles/alvin-purple/clip1/

Melvin, Son of Alvin

Australian movies such as: Alvin Purple and Melvin, Son of Alvin give an insite to what it would be like to be stalked by women..

To listen to songs on my media player, press on the ‘Launch Standard Player’ button.

Enjoy!

Another website thats a bit of fun is I-am- bored.com. Lots of funny photos/videos and useless, time wasting games to play!  

Another website similar to I-am-Bored.com is Bored.com that too has lots of useless things to do. Just check out a this painting that was based on my personality!

Anyway thats a few websites to keep you amused! Enjoy!

What great about this site gives me two options in the way of drawing online pictures. Option 1, enables me to draw a regular digital picture on my computer like most website drawing programs or for option 2, I can join in an online community of artists and draw pictures on a huge world wide canvas! What makes it extra fun is that I can either draw on one tiny square of canvas and create one single tiny work of art or take up a multitude of canvases and draw one huge, giantic artwork!!

So what am I waiting for? I better get cracking and draw myself a huge drawing of a-ha !

I’ve been a fan of the Norwegian trio since I was 13-14 year old teenager (34 now!) and still continue to be blown away by their music today. Don’t think I’ve ever have loved another band as much as I have loved a-ha!! I do love other music … infact I’m a huge fan of Australian music but a-ha stole my heart away 21 years ago!! Never really got over them!

Anyway, in Australia most people think that the band split up back in the 80′s and only ever produced one big hit in 1985 called: ‘Take On Me’! Well thats not exactly true … just because a-ha died in Australia doesn’t mean they died in other parts of the world too !! Infact the Norwegian lads went onto producing 8 other albums and the latest album: ‘Analogue’ was only released back in 2005!!

Finding information on a-ha in Australia was never easy before the internet came along. I did manage to get in touch with a handful of Aussie a-ha fans during the 1990′s. Thankfully by the time the internet appeared on the scene, I could get my hands on the latest information on the group through forums and find some new a-ha fans from around the globe (along with some aussie fans!)

It was only last year I spoke with a few other Aussie a-ha fans and we’d discussed about creating an Aussie and Kiwi a-ha fan forum called ‘Sycamore Leaves’.

If there are any Aussie or New Zealand a-ha fans who would like join Sycamore Leaves… you can access the site here:  http://ahaaustralia.forumup.com.au

 Come join the SL community and meet some other Aussie/ NZ fans. Prehaps discuss what it was like about being a fan back in the early days or discover the new music by a-ha!

Hope to see you at SL …

Penny (Proud to be an a-ha fan!!)

TAKE ON ME (1985)

ANALOGUE (2005)

One of my biggest problems is that when I enter into a newsagency or stationary shop, I can never walk away without buying a pad of paper and makers. I also adore those coloured gel pens and sometimes I can buy a big packet for under $5. When gel pens first came out onto the market, they were so expensive but once they became popular (and made in china), the prices dropped.

I have a bad habit of drawing pictures in the middle of a church sermon!! The minister will be preaching to the congregation and I’ll be sketching away. Actually I find I listen better if I’m drawing. I don’t know how to explain why, but it does!!  Its the same with watching TV … i’m usually creating something and listening.    

Lately, my new obsession is drawing images over the internet. I know quite a few drawing websites but my most favourite drawing site is Rate My Drawings . It is there where I can create a drawing and all the other artists there can rate it out of 10. My goodness some of the artworks on that site  are just amazing!! I don’t know how some people manage to create such masterpieces with a mouse!! They things aren’t the easiest things to work with!!     

Anyway I thought that I would show some samples of my drawings on this page for readers to enjoy!!

http://www.ratemydrawings.com/drawings/emotions/41345.html

http://www.ratemydrawings.com/drawings/future/37378.html

You might have heard of  Australian soundtrack composer Lisa Gerrard  and female vocalist of cult band Dead Can Dance.  

For 25 years now, Lisa has had a career writing, singing and composing music. She first entered the music scene in 1981 with Brendan Perry of Dead Can Dance  and together their music slowly developed world recognition with albums such as: Dead Can Dance, Serpents Egg,  Into the the Labyrinth (and many more to name of).

Towards the late 1990′s, Dead Can Dance  split and Lisa moved onto a solo career, composing soundtracks to movies such as: Ali, The Insider, Whalerider, Gladiator. She also collaborated with Pieter Bourke  to compose two movie soundtracks such as The Insider  and Ali, which each score won them two Golden Globe Awards.

My Connection with the Gerrard family.

Now moving towards my connection with the Gerrard family before Lisa took her first steps into the music scene. This is a personal recount of my childhood (and my mother Sue’s) memories of our friendship with the Gerrard family.

When I was toddler, mum searched for a creche to send me to while she worked throughout the day. On one particular day, mum first stumbled upon a creche called Leprechaun Child Minding Centre in South Yarra, Melbourne. The woman who ran the centre was Nanette Gerrard and it was her job to take care of local children during the week. Some days while Nanette was working her shift at the centre, her youngest son Mark Gerrard would arrive after school and spend time at the creche waiting for Nanette to finish for the day. 

(Nanette holding my ice cream birthday cake as I blow out the candles.)

(Mark Gerrard at the Leprechaun Child Minding Centre.) 

Mark was the youngest child to Nanette and John (senior) Gerrard. Their two older children were John (Junior) and Lisa, who use to live in a big house in Parkdale, Melbourne. I don’t really remember how mum and I became friends with the Gerrard’s but we use to spend a lot of time at their family home. On one occasion, as a young child I vividly remember being at John Jr’s 21st birthday party. At one stage I got up to dance to some music and Mark teased me about my terrible dancing !

Once I reached school age, Mark use to come spend his school holidays with me on my grandparents farm in Morac (near Mt Gambier, South Australia). Together Mark and I use to travel by coach to Mt Gambier from Melbourne and my Grandparents would come collect us.

During the two week stay on the farm, Mark use to climb the hay stacks on my grand folks property and would go on adventures amongst the hay stalls. On one occassion Mark came across a litter of helpless baby mice sleeping amongst strands of hay seeds. Carefully Mark collected each of the mice, wrapped them in his jumper (to keep warm) and climbed down the metal frame of the hay stack.

When my grandfather found out about the baby mice he was not amused! In his eyes, the mice were nothing but a huge pest that ate his horses’ feed and bred like crazy. I remember grandad asking Mark to get rid of the mice because he would not tolerate them!! The next day in front of my grandfather, Mark told grandpa that he disposed of the mice. However later in the evening, Mark privately told me that the mice were still alive and he’d hidden them in a safe place. That became our little secret that only us children knew of.

Another memory I hold close to my heart is the day I came to visit Mark at home and he was in his bedroom, strumming on his guitar. Mark told me he wanted to sing me a song which was Led Zepplin’s, Stairway to Heaven. He sang so sweetly.

As Mark grew older into manhood, our friendship grew appart. The last I heard of him, was his mother talking about how Mark was in London, playing his trumpet at a Dead Can Dance concert.

Many years later while I was in Melbourne, I decided to buy myself a copy of Dead Can Dance’s Spirtchaser. As I opened the CD’s cover and read its contents, it clearly had inscribed ”In Memory of Mark Gerrard”. This was a shock and thought to myself, ”Oh no what did this mean?”, “No, Mark can’t be dead!!” A few months later, I showed mum the CD cover and she was in shock as much as I was. For a long time, mum and I were both in denial that this was possibly true. A few years later, mum got in touch with Nanette and asked about Mark and sadly it was all true. Mark had passed away!!  

Now here is a small section about Lisa that I can remember and some are recollections of what my mother had told me about her. Lisa is at least 11 years older than me and I was very young at the time when I first met her at the creche (and at her family home). In fact I would have been about 2 years old and Lisa was 13.

In the eyes of a young child, (especially by the time I reached 4 0r 5), I found Lisa very unusual. I remember being in the Gerrard’s kitchen which looked onto a room with a woodern dinning table.  She was into Gothic styled clothes and music back then which I had never seen or heard before. In fact as I look back, I found it really quite terrifying because she would whiten her face with powder, wear purple lipstick and nail polish and she always dressed in black.  Black seemed to be her favorite colour and often mum would tell me a story about how Lisa once painted her toilet black!

Other stories that mum has shared over the years on  a teenage Lisa, who as a young girl she use to sneak off to be with her friends and busker in the streets of Melbourne. Her mother Nannette was not impressed and would complain to my mum: ” oh what am I going to do with Lisa?”(Never knowing that her daughter would take that busking a huge step further by oneday becoming a world famous composer! )

The last time I saw Lisa, when I was about the age of 10. On one occasion I came over to the Gerrard’s for a visit and walking into the loungeroom, Lisa was sitting on a her mother’s couch with Brendan Perry!! As I came close to Lisa, she said “hello Penny, how are you?” and I said “hello” in return. I think I took it all for granted back then of who Lisa was. However I do remember once telling her sister-in-law when I was a teenager, that I had this feeling that “Lisa was going to become very famous oneday” and how right I was!!

Below are some videos from youtube of Lisa during her Dead Can Dan Days and a solo projects.

 Dead Can Dance

The Wind That Shakes The Barley

Lisa Gerrard’s solo projects

Gladiator

Sacrifice(Collaboration with Pieter Burke)

As I listen to Lisa sing in this video, it brings tears to my eyes. Its so breath taking!!

Lisa’s Official website:

 http://www.lisagerrard.com/

Info on Lisa’s Australian Tour here: http://www.frontiertouring.com.au/currenttours/Lisa_Gerrard__Australian_Tour

Here is a mp3 player of Lisa Gerrard and Dead Can Dance songs … enjoy!

http://www.seeqpod.com/music/?plid=445efa9513

Its late at night but I’ve decided to write something before I go to bed. I must admit I feel rather sleepy and my eyes want to close for the night.. LOL!!

So what are some good bedtime/children’s stories that you  can remember from childhood? When I was about 9 or 10, I use to love to go to bed with a good ‘Enid Blyton’ book.

Her books were always so  enchanting don’t you think? Stories that took you far away into an imaginary world about fairies, pixies, ‘Noddy’ and ‘Big Ears’ oh and not forgetting ’The Magic Far Away Tree’ with good ol’ ‘Moonface’, ‘Silky’ and ‘The Saucepan Man’. Yes those were the best books to curl up and go to bed with!

Since I have been practicing to be a teacher, I have noticed too that Enid Blyton books are still read to young children during story time in primary schools! The children just relax and unwind at the end of the day having ’The Magical Far Away Tree’ read to them. So it goes to show that a Blyton story never out dates, even if it was written back in the 1930′s.

Oh and the Illustrations on the front cover or inside the book were just exquisite!! They really had a 1930′s feel to them but in more recent times, the illustrations in Blyton books have been modernized and are not as delightful as the original artworks!! The printing of images and colours seemed to be so much more intense back then!! Oh how I would have loved to have been an illustrator myself of the 30′s!!

In more recent times, Blyton’s books have been branded as ‘racist’ or ‘sexist’, because the ‘Gollywog’ characters were always up to evil doings. Well that was the sign of the times and she wasn’t the only writer of the 30′s who wrote like that back then. As a reader of today, we need to turn a blind eye to those sections of the book and simply enjoy them for what they are!!