When I was a child, I used to play this record incessantly. (Part 1 & 2 of the audio below). Today, as a 45 year old man, it still brings a tear to my eye! It remains the most beautiful…
Blog Archives
The Happy Prince – Oscar Wilde (adapted and directed by Orson Welles)
Tagged with: bing crosby, Citizen kane, orson welles, oscar wilde, the happy prince
Posted in Reading, Reflections
Posted in Reading, Reflections
‘The Future of War Video’ and Political Grace (The Art of Disagreeing Well)
I think anyone who uses social media needs to see this video especially right up until the end because in a sense the future of war most definitely will involve each one of us. If you haven’t got time to…
Tagged with: Crime and Punishment, Destin Sandler, future of war, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Jordan Peterson, Political Grace
Posted in politics, Reading
Posted in politics, Reading
11.00 am ANZAC Day 2003
My brother Jonny and I sat on two wooden chairs opposite the bed hunched over our knees. Numb. The chairs had never got so much use as they did that morning nor would they get any kind of practical use…
Murky Waters
Deeper thoughts lay withinA cove of great despairIt’s sad and it’s of murky watersOnce shone a lustrous blue Touching remains sunk deep withinOh, time heals everything, butYour stirring love, scarring detailTreasure chest full, rusted and torn I hear on the…
The Tattoo
When I was in my late teens I wanted a tattoo. The Navy seemed like the right place to make this happen. Tattooing, I learnt had been linked with the seafaring life of the Navy for centuries. I remember one…
Breath – Tim Winton (A Classic Australian Novel)
“It’s funny, but you never really think much about breathing. Until it’s all you ever think about.”― Tim Winton, Breath Tim Winton is Australia’s most-lauded novelist. He has won Australia’s highest literary merit the Miles Franklin Award an unprecedented…
Tagged with: Australia, breath, cloudstreet, miles franklin award, tim winton
Posted in Reading, Reflections
Posted in Reading, Reflections
Virginia Woolf’s Final Letter and To the Lighthouse
Virginia Woolf’s final letter was found by her husband Leonard on the day she disappeared in 1941. Her body was found some weeks later in the River Ouse, dressed in an overcoat with pockets filled with stones. In August last year,…
Tagged with: final letter, goodreads, Juliet Stevenson, Nicole Kidman, the hours, To the Lighthouse, Virginia woolf
Posted in Reading
Posted in Reading
Charles Bukowski – The Genius of the Crowd
there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average human being to supply any given army on any given day and the best at murder are those who preach against it and the best at hate are those who…
The God Delusion – Richard Dawkins
I was a born again christian (baptist) turned agnostic. Tomorrow I could be a Jedi. I have read a lot of books in recent years about theology and the validity of the new testament. I began to really question my…
Tagged with: agnostic, Atheism, atheist, Biology, Christopher hitchens, Evolution, religion, richard dawkins, The God Delusion
Posted in Reading
Posted in Reading
Charles Bukowski’s Gravestone Epitaph ‘Don’t Try’
Many people have wondered what the gravestone epitaph of the great American counter-culture poet and novelist Charles Bukowski means – ‘Don’t Try.’ I was baffled by this too until I came across this illuminating quote from Bukowski which should substantiate…
Tagged with: all the way, Charles Bukowski, Don't try, novelist, poem, poetry, screenings, slow night in the fast lane, The New Censorship
Posted in Reading
Posted in Reading
Observation Blogger 