David Varela — digital storytelling

Varela’s visit to Australia was sponsored by the Screen Writers’ Association and the Australian Society of Authors nabbed him for a talk about transmedia.

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Picnic

The Sydney Order of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence held a picnic at the weekend to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the local house, the second one of its type in the world (the first is in San Francisco.) Several nuns were dressed in their homemade habits among the Gathered Faithful at Long Nun Point Birchgrove (used to be known as “Long Nose”, now Yurulbin Park) because this was where the Sisters held their first event in November 1981.
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Michèle and Dorothée Heibel’s art

Drove 2.5 hours to Cessnock. Great going over the Harbour Bridge, the gorgeous stretch with Spectacle island and Dangar island on the Hawkesbury.  The dried trees, like upright witches’ brooms and the canopies of eucaplyptus trees breaking like waves over the heat below. It was so hot. Saw a kangaroo resting in the grass when I went for a walk near a service station.

The exhibition was excellent, really blew us away as we walked in, so vibrant. I knew Michèle Heibel from when we worked at ACP for the Packers, around 1995. A couple of other friends from those days had turned up too, Ashlea and Fi, and thanks to Facebook, we’d all been in touch again.

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Backstage tour at Sydney Opera House

Went to this — which usually costs $150 — but was free because the Sydney Opera House was having an Open Day. Thousands turned up. I stood on the stage and saw the orchestra pits, the rehearsal room and backstage areas, green rooms, costume-making.

My favourite bit was reading the staff noticeboards and the many clippings from The Sydney Morning Herald (reviews and also smaller stories from the My Career section or other little features about lesser-known chorus or orchestra members). It was great to see these are so important and often took up one-third of the noticeboards! They’d also pinned up postcards or email printouts from audience members praising their performance — this pleased me as I do this after feeling inspired by a great show, so I wonder if my emails are printed and stuck up somewhere? Nice to see they’re appreciated.

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Poetry inspired by a visit to Oxford

Poems inspired by my visit to England.

OXFORD
It’s a city of “dreaming spires”*
With colleges and herds of deer
Clever clogs like Oscar Wilde
composed his epigrams here.

Evelyn Waugh dunced out
His partying got out of hand, a bit.
Later writing Brideshead Revisited
Sort of made up for it.

For those who don’t feel athletic
and find rowing to be fraught,
you can still become a champion —
Tiddywinks counts as a sport.

If you get sent down
for failing to swot,
Get a job showing tourists
where Harry Potter films were shot.

*”city of dreaming spires”, a term coined by poet Matthew Arnold  in Thyrsis (1866).

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RABBIT IN CIDER PIE
Yummy bunny in my tummy
Ooh I’m feeling rather funny
Hmmm… I think I’d better runny,
Quickly to the nearest dunny.

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MARKS & SPENCER’S FOOD HALL

I like to eat Vegemite on Sao,
But here nothing beats prawn and mayo.