They will run and not grow weary.
February 9, 2012 Leave a comment
Oh well, in a week where I have been informed my last post was the “gibbering of a limp-wristed idealist” I figure I might as well continue in that vein. I’m damned anyway.
Here’s one of my favourite songs, Peter Gabriel’s sublime “Make tomorrow today”.
Put on the dress in which you were married
Pull down the veil till your eyes are hid
Can you remember where we both came from
Let us do as we did
May 6, 2011 Leave a comment
Last night at Mapleton we were hosting a high school group from the local area. You can always tell when a high school group is in, rather than the dominant weekday clientele of primary schools. The volume levels are a bit higher, the tone of half the voices is lower and the movies in the hall go later and are louder. But strolling around the campus you’re also reminded of the awkwardness of adolescence, that half world between childhood and adult where we slowly feel our way towards independence.
All of a sudden parents and teachers aren’t the sole, or even most important guiding voice. The opinion of your peer circle grows in importance and so does the influence of popular culture. And at the moment there’s few artists with a hold on the teens like Lady Gaga. And last night she fired the next shot from the breech of her latest album – a single entitled Judas. She’s been pumping it for ages on Facebook, complete with scarlet cross, just in case you were in any doubt of its religious connotations.
April 29, 2011 4 Comments
Well thank goodness that’s over! I have to admit I’ve not watched the video of my own wedding, so the thought of watching hours of British pomp and ceremony over two strangers born with a silver spoon in their mouth was all a bit much. I’m just a bit cranky the football was delayed to accommodate it.
So many people swooning over the fantasy princess strolling down the aisle to her dashing (erm …..??) prince and a life lived happily thereafter.
March 15, 2011 Leave a comment
The scenes coming out of Japan are nearly incomprehensible, the violent shaking of the ground and the uncontrollable surging of the following tsunami. It might only be mid-March but 2011 has already obtained a level of infamy for its ferocity.
We were close by during the Brisbane floods, arguably it was the run-off from the Blackall Range we live on that was primarily responsible for the water that raged through Brisbane to kick-start the year. My sister bunkered down as Cyclone Yasi tore through North Queensland with unprecedented force. Then we had the Christchurch Earthquake.
December 9, 2010 2 Comments
Last night I joined a throng of 50,000 concert-goers trooping into Suncorp Stadium to see the U2 360 concert tour rock Brisbane. It’s the second time I’ve seen them play live, the previous time was the infamous Zoo TV tour of 1993, the night where Adam Clayton actually took the stage in Sydney after a drug-bender the previous evening saw his bass tech fill in.
It's a beautiful day
Then, as now, my experience of the concert was primarily a cerebral experience, probably in contrast to many of the crowd at both venues. Let me explain.
My relationship with U2 is more one of grudging respect than slavish devotion. Unlike the majority of my peers, I just wasn’t all that into them during the 1980s. Sure I will admit that some of their anthemic tunes play as a soundtrack to teenage life, but I think that’s a given for nearly anyone living in the West who was born in the early 1970s. Arguably they were the biggest band of both the 1980s and certainly the 1990s, and in this century they’ve leveraged their fame and firmly established themselves as proud members of a small galaxy of über bands – Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, U2.
