Being hung out to dry

being hung out to dry

G’Day  Possums,

Mrs Wombat and daughters 1 and 2 went to a concert t’other night at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. The Bowl is a nice open air venue where we and many hundreds of others picnicked and thoroughly enjoyed Smetena’s Overture “The Bartered Bride”, Dvorak’s Symphony No.8 and Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D all encored with The Polonaise from Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” beautifully played by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

 

It’s been quite a while since I’d been to a live performance and much, much longer since I’d been to one at the Music Bowl and had forgotten the density of the sound produced and its wonderful clarity in this humid Summer’s night setting.

On the way back to the burrow there were fireworks going off over the city. It was either Chinese New Year, a Chinese invasion, the start of the revolution…or perhaps, all three.

And just one more Ballet Pic from Ballet Theatre Australia… their Group shot.

BTA Group

Wombat Droppings

Or the Sad Chronicle of Oz’s slide from Egalitarianism into Fascism.

Rabid-the-Hun, Australia’s Prime Miniature received, unusually, some good news for once. His propaganda pamphlet in Sydney run by “The Ugly American”, Murdoch, informed the Captain that although SS Liarbril was still sinking, it wasn’t going down as fast.

In material that read more like “Push-Polling” than a real survey and which made some odd assertions from the figures given; this news has cheered the Captain who recently had been strongly advised to abandon ship.

It remains to be seen whether “the-storm-in-a-teacup” over his Party’s federal treasurer threatening to jump ship over concerns about fundraising and the malignant cabal of Rabid’s Chief of Staff, “Bloody-Idiot” Credlin and her hubby, federal director,  “Brain” Loughnane will cause the becalmed vessel to ship more water.

Hmmm... sailing too far to the right, to right? 

Larger waves have appeared though.

News that Captain Rabid was wanting to unilaterally invade not only Iraq but Ukraine, too have been followed by the botched character assassination attempt on Gillian Triggs, 

Human Rights Commissioner by “Bookshelves” Brandis our Blimp of Attorney General. The complete bastardry of this ruling rabble has been on displayfor 8 hours with their disgusting behaviour toward Triggs. Their total lack of humanity, their total lack of morality and the baseness of their characters is now fully exposed. They have elevated the putridness of their treatment of Gillard to a different plane in this star chamber which looks more like a Stalinist Show trial than an enquiry. These Liarbril are the scum of the earth and are not fit to hold the positions they do.  Then there are revelations that job agencies are rorting taxpayers money; something which the ruling rabble knew but chose to do nothing about.  Another example of the nation being sold down the drain... but let's not forget how Mrs Rudd made her Millions.

And that “Horse-shite” Cormann ignored advice that the National Australia Bank was as incompetent and as bad as Commonwealth Bank in its mis-handling of superannuants funds and did what Liarbrils do best…nothing 

These waves just might be enough to swamp such a dodgy vessel and send it to the bottom particularly if the AFP investigation into Triggs' attempted forced resignation is found to be a criminal "inducement" of a statutory officer.

Attempting to inspire his tattered forces with a call to the Flag of National Security, Rabid-the-Hun, in a mini Nuremburg Rally setting, insulted all the Muslims in Australia to keep the Bogans happy.

picture courtesy Peter Grace.

In an abundance of sometimes rhyming rhetoric containing little substance, Rabid said we’d been too nice for too long and that dual citizens must split their personalities and become “one-of-us”.

Sadly he missed the opportunity to settle the rumours concerning his own dual citizenship.

This occurred just after he’s insulted the Swedes’ capacity to build submarines.

STOP PRESS: Chinese announce collapse of Aussie Flag production due to peak demand by Rabid-the-Hun. Looms caught fire and cheap nylon melted as overload on computerised spinning machines halted production. Chinese Government has announced a reverse 457 deal where 800,000 unemployed Australians will be granted visa's to finish production quota before 2016 election.

Pay rates & conditions will be assured at normal Chinese ones.

Those not accepting this generous offer will be re-educated on Manus Island once the asylum seeker "Illegals" have been sold to Cambodia.

And if Rabid’s Rabble think it’s safe to go back in the water, there’s always the details of the Pacific trade deals, their attempted dismembering of Medibank and the possible tsunami of response to $100,000.00 uni fees…there’s some rough weather ahead.

Hoo-roo Petals,

Shane.

having a dip at Wells

Shane at Wells

G'day Possums.. just a short one this week.

I've been having a gander at some English medieval architecture... interesting stuff it is too.

 The one in the pic is Wells Cathedral  might be worth a look I reckon.

More later...




Then there are some more from Atelier Paul Stewart...

Atelier Paul Stewart..125 Auburn Rd Hawthorn.

Wombat Droppings

or the chronicle of the demise of a Egalitarian Nation 

Saturn Devouring his Children

Well, Rabid-the-Hun, in his first act of consultative collegiality has sacked his "whip" and "Father of the House" Phillip Ruddock. Seems Rabid wants to hear more from his revolting back-benchers before the Ides of March.  Ruddock was a good Liarbril.   He was not what one would call a "good-bloke." Amnesty International asked him not to wear his Amnesty badge whilst on government business because of his treatment of Asylum seekers and he was investigated for alleged bribery on an immigration matter.... Ya gotta hand it to the Liarbrils, when loyalty needs showing it's often in very short supply.... 

It's been a week since "Good Government" allegedly has returned to Oz and Joe "Cereal-Toyota-Killer" Hockey after dropping his bottom lip at a tough interview with Sarah Henderson and getting her slapped on the wrist by ABC management has gone off sulking because no-one appreciated the genius of his first budget... and now he's got another one to do.... which sort of depends on the first.There is much speculation that Joe might soon  be a victim of another "Night of The Long Knives"episode.

Gillian Triggs, Human Rights Commissioner has handed down a damning report on child abuse in the Asylum Seeker concentration camps. Both sides of politics got hammered in the report but Rabid-the-Hun and some of his feral media lackeys decided that the best way to deal with child abuse was to viciously abuse the report's author.
Triggs' fellow Commissioner, Timmy"Twat-Freedom-Man" Wilson the ex IPA and Liarbril Libertarian who would have had a hand in producing the report for his $390,000.00 wage, has been unheard and unseen in defense of his boss. It would seem that not only does freedom of speech  not extend to raising concerns about child safety in concentration camps but neither is impartial advice needed.

The Libertarian

Hallmarks of "Good Governance" for this Liarbril rabble seem to be brutish bullying and bully-boy intimidation.

Then there was "Von Ribbentrop" Turnbull play-acting the "good liarbril" on QandA last night. All soothing words and waffle... I nearly threw-up when he said that as a country we need research and innovation when he's wholeheartedly supported stripping funding from CSIRO research and he's responsible for bowdlerising the NBN that will cost the country big-time in the not too distant future.This pretend patrician, this shallow faker... Different Dunny..same shit.

So this is Orstraya! 

The Aspirational Bogan Paradise. 

Where mindless selfishness is applauded and anti-intellectualism celebrated, bully-boy behaviour practised and misogyny is humourous.

In their finest embodiment, characteristics found in abundance in our holy owned office-boys club, the Larbril Party.

Leadership…. Pffffft! 

Rule, that is strength

Hooroo, Petals.

Shane

PS ..and if you enjoy your sea-food please consider the ramifications of this, care of Fukashima Nuclear.

Radio-Active Contamination plume from Fukashima. 

And just remember, like Coal, Capitalism is good for you!

..on a brand new day

G’day Possums,

Shane with sculpture

Well its been a busy week of this and that and little more of that than usual and politics in Oz becoming  ever more surreal than it was before….. but more of that later in Wombat Droppings.

Mrs Wombat’s brother has been building a aeroplane, a Jabiru Ultra-Light. Very nice it is, too.

Jabiru Ulra-Light

We made a visit to the Mill Market in Daylesford … lots and lots of second-hand stuff and met “Chewie” from Chewton….. Chewies servants have a stall the market  and he is a very friendly chap.

 “Chewie” from Chewton

We made another visit to Atelier Paul Stewart to do some interior shots of his new premises Paul has re-located to 125 Auburn Rd Hawthorn and if you’re looking for exquisite bespoke jewellery   this place is really worth a visit.

Atelier Paul Stewart

Ohh, I’ve made another little foray into sculpture again there have been some ideas bubbling to the surface so we’ll see how it goes…it’s been a while …

Wombat Droppings

the chronicle of the demise of egalitarianism and rise of Fascism in Oz.

Prime Miniature, Rabid-the-Hun has had a near-death-experience. Many were disappointed that it wasn't the full death experience but with armed guards to protect the pollies now in Parliament House for the first time in our history it may not be long before the disappointed one’s hopes are perhaps realised.

Rabid has lost much face in having a party vote on whether to “spill” him. 60% of his party would prefer, it seems “nobody” rather than him. And really, Petals, it doesn't take $4.8,000,000.00 to find out what people think of you. The slow rise in the tone of anger throughout Face-Book should be sufficient indication that this ruling rabble is the most hated mob and deemed utterly unfit for the job of leading a nation.

It was obvious in 2012 that Rabid-the-Hun's  foetid rabble were a policy free zone.
It was obvious in the unseemly viciousness of their personalized attacks on anyone deemed an enemy that this Liarbril Party and its aspirational bogan supporters had become a Mongrel Pack.
It was obvious too, that The Coots-With-Queer-Ideas-From-a-Parallel-Universe (IPA) led by “Le Jongleur” Roskam were writing the script, which was being published by their mentor “The Ugly American” Murdoch.  Blame then for the election losses in Victoria and Queensland can be fairly sheeted home to the Ultra-Right “free-market” thought bubbles emanating from “the Coots” and implemented by both these one-term outfits. But as much as these policies are destroying Australia as a Social Democracy they are also slowly destroying the Liarbril Party too.

Federally, the Liarbrils are in a total mess. The National Interest is a bad, third in their line of priorities.

Ist the Liarbrils own survival.

2nd their donors interests.

3rd The nation. ...and that's one of the reasons why "The Ugly American" Murdoch is unhappy. Not only can these incompetents not properly implement his IPA agenda but now they’re not even thinking about it.

National Interest? Pfffft!

On “Insiders,” Savva gave Rabid,  Exteme Unction, Farr the eulogy and Crabbe delivered the jocular but incisive homily. Dead man Walking. The fool has now said that we are in "Day One of Good Government" which has only invited the obvious rejoinder : So is this an admission that the last 500 days were bad? 

Some are saying that this rabble is so ludicrous that it's impossible even to satirise them!
Take Kevin "medieval"Andrews.. including Julia Gillard with Rabid as the best leadership team... ??? And he never tried to correct himself....

It's the "Age of The Aspirational Bogan." Selfishness rules, Greed is a virtue and Compassion a sin.

I’m beginning to wonder whether we, as a nation can pull back from the abyss being presented and re-think our future?

Hoo-roo, Petals,

Shane.

P.S. this is worth a read if you are interested in “Lifters and Leaners”….

http://theaimn.com/age-entitlement-pollies-worth/

..with the Ides of March

G'day Possums,

Shane contemplates the Ides of March

Interesting times in Oz presently  but more of that later in "Wombat Droppings."
















The book I'm compiling of the last ballet performance photographed is nearly finished and has afforded during the lengthy post process, selection and lay-up, time to consider the value of books in comparison to individual or video images as a method of presentation.

Obviously I favour the book having produced and self published some 12 of them over the years.
I find that the photo-book falls into categories of A/ Collection or Album, B/ Collection/Record, C/ Narrative or D/ The subject/object itself.

Each book is without question an amalgam of all these categories but each should, I think, be looked at within the general category framing them.

Nude: Themes And Ideas is very much in category “A” as a collection of images taken over many years with the individual subjects grouped by theme or concept.

http://www.blurb.com/books/4001005-nude-themes-ideas

or

http://www.blurb.com/books/4450730-invitation-to-the-dance 

Invitation to the Dance may be seen as partly “A”, “B”, slightly “C” but mostly “D”.

The visual delights of cinema are many but ephemeral. 

As with the actual performance, all you retain in your memory is the sense of your response to discrete moments and the totality of the whole.

Video, (well the bog-standard, single viewpoint record of a performance, that is) contains little or no emotional engagement with the subject and is really just a very plain record that the event actually happened.

The book on the other hand by the very nature of its post performance process can elucidate an essence of a performance and bring together the overall “feel” of the whole in its discrete selection of images that are cropped and adjusted to enhance the moment. The disadvantage of movement being reduced to “stills” is more than compensated for by those “stills” being able to be read at leisure within the performance narrative.

Shooting video or film for cinema is a wholly complex creative business of another form but books contract that event into a more accessible one.

And this little meme from   http://bookriot.com/   says it perfectly.

I have just been notified of having been short-listed as one of the 25 images selected from around 100 entrants for the Kingston Arts Lens Mist 2015 Award at the end of February..... image below.

St Kilda Beach, Melbourne

Wombat Droppings 

or the chronicle of Australia's inexorable slide into Fascism.

Rabid-the-Hun’s constantly foolhardy “captain’s picks” have landed him like Julius Caesar, facing the Ides of March or more appropriately from his “Team Australia” rabble, a  (k)”Night of the Long Knives.”

According to Rabid, the “Far Northerners” of Queensland were being as “absent-minded” as the “Tardis State” Victorians, in their historic turnaround of their political landscapes by voting out in a single term, Conservative, right-wing, free-market oriented governments.

That people in this country look like they are awakening  that the agenda promoted by “The-Coots-With-Queer-Ideas-From-a-Parallel-Universe” (IPA) and being implemented by the Liarbril Office-Boy  rabble under Rabid-the-Hun is not to their communal advantage at all is a welcome change.

Attempting to salvage his badly listing, barnacle encrusted ship, SS Liarbril, Captain Rabid made one of his few forays to the Canberra Press Club to reset his now poisonous narrative.

Unfortunately, all he could do was reiterate the lies, slogans and blame of the 2013 election campaign with stuttering repetitions that the aforementioned public have really ceased listening to.

The most ludicrous of his assertions was that, "We've never been a country that's ripped off generations to pay for today. And under my government, we never will."

He forgot to mention the years of plenty under “Little Johnny” Howard when instead of investing in infrastructure it was all given away to middle class welfare for short-term political gain.

He forgot to mention his “Climate-Change-Is-Crap” idiocy; and in extolling the “virtues” of repealing Carbon Pricing and ruining the development of Alternative energies, he is inevitably condemning future generations to far greater expense and hardship.

He forgot too, to mention the dismantling of a “world’s best” National Broadband Network to satisfy the business plans of IPA Donor, Rupert “The Ugly American/ Phone-Hacker” Murdoch or that reducing wages and stripping penalty rates, introducing $100,000.00 University fees and dismantling one of the worlds best health systems is actually not conducive to a prosperous or civil society.

In short, with this mongrel Prime Miniature still ranting about Labor being a shambolic rabble is, as I said years ago, only a projection his own rabble’s incompetence and complete lack of ability to lead or think creatively about a vision for the nation other than destroying it.
They have to rule as they have no capacity to lead.

The Ides of March are on the 15^th of that month… will he last that long?

Hoo-roo Petals,

Shane