A postcard of snippets from my family's year. Hope your year has been filled with happy memories too!

Snippets from our family’s year, a lot of it spent away from home … a little ‘moving postcard’ via Animoto.
Hope your year has also been filled with happy memories!

If you’re a regular here, then you’ll know that Groundling loves software, apps, services, and devices that are well designed, and which optimise productivity and simplify communications.  If you use a Word Press blog, then you are going to love a really clever plugin which I’ve just installed on a couple of my blogs today. [...]

You must have been living under a rock if you haven’t been aware of the health reform debate currently playing out in the US. Here’s a terrific example of the way a group of protestors ‘flash-mobbed’ a meeting of health insurers recently, grabbed attention in a playfully serious way, and then got it up [...]

Earlier this year I wrote in praise of (Much) Older Women Artists, and did a little podcast just after the Tony Awards in June.
Listen!
This post adds to my ongoing hommages of women who inspire.
Yesterday afternoon I saw Robyn Nevin’s performance in The Year of Magical Thinking, directed by Cate Blanchett for Queensland Theatre Company.  Her [...]

Image by Dramagirl via Flickr

Einstein reckoned it was more important than knowledge. Now here’s Declan Donnellan (Cheek by Jowl) talking about the importance of imagination for the actor.  You bet!

Here’s the latest video response from XPLANE, stimulated I suspect by a terrific slide show Shift Happens that’s been doing the rounds for a couple of years. In fact, I wrote about here just over a year ago.  Want a glimpse into how our lives are changing in this digital age?

Flloyd Kennedy, actor, director, and voice coach talks up a new ‘Bits’ fringe festival for Brisbane, scheduled “loosely” for late November this year.  She enthuses about the kind of wild and woolly “and deeply unreliable” fringe festival that she wants to see in the city, and challenges the group to get organised, and get going.
It’s [...]

I’ve had some fun today playing with Apple’s new 5th generation Nano iPod. Specifically, I’ve been testing the inbuilt video camera for usability and results. I’ve sent up an Audioboo which discusses my reactions so far to the Nano, and although I call it a ‘Nano video-camera’ on this boo, it’s no such thing at [...]

I stumbled across this one today – one from the TED Talks series and recorded this year.
It’s Natasha Tsakos talking briefly about the relationship between theatre and technology, and performing excerpts from her solo multimedia show ‘Upwake.’ Enjoy; it’s terrific and inspiring.

Test

The insights of Clay Shirky are always worth reading, watching, or listening to. He’s as knowing as he is prolific. This video via TED says it all. Welcome to the revolution – you’re right in the middle of it.

I’ve been collecting snippets of my life for years. I guess I am a confirmed diarist at heart, although the collection process is random and not nearly as organised as it might be. I’ve had a camera since I was 11 years old – a Box Brownie as I recall – and have been collecting [...]

Oh well of course I had to post this. I’m tired of having to explain the what and whys of my own online engagement. ‘The Society for Geek Advancement’ is a delightful, short video to which I related … immediately. I wonder can you tell why?

Image via Wikipedia

The last couple of days have seen reports of the outbreak of swine fever in what the media are calling ‘the Americas.’ Initial reports have spawned comment and further reports which have then been retweeted, reblogged, and sent on their way. It’s not overstating the mark to say that in some cases the responses have caused panic in readers. Whilst the possibility of a global pandemic is frightening, the mass response via the interwebs has raised the issue of social networking’s capacity to misinform and cause disproportionate responses to the originating story.
It brings to mind Orson Welle’s famous live radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds on October 30 1938. Welles and the Mercury Theatre’s interpretation of H.G. Wells’ story of the invasion of earth by Martians, was a famous example of a play within a play; that night the supposed normal broadcast of dance music was interrupted several times by ‘breaking news’ of gas explosions on Mars and of hydrogen gas moving towards Earth. ‘Experts’ were interviewed, and eventually ‘our reporter in the field’ sent back the shocking news from a ‘field in New Jersey’ in a recognisable newscast format that indeed, aliens from Mars had invaded. What happened next is infamous in radio drama history.
About 12 million people across the US were listening to the broadcast that night, and approximately 1 million (according to the analysts) reacted in panic, while many fled their homes in a major freakout. You can hear the whole backstory of this prime example of mass hysteria in response to media via WNYC’s Radio Lab. The podcast was broadcast last November live from St Paul Minnesota to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Welle’s radio drama. At the time the presenters asked ‘How did this happen?’ and ‘Could it happen again?’ It’s a terrific, fascinating podcast. Check it out here where you can listen or download.
Now this was a drama … not ‘real’ but peo

Given the conflicting points of view on the YouTube commentary on this video, I’m interested to hear the reaction from ‘middle-class’ actors in the US on the implications of the AFTRA ‘deal’ struck with the film industry. As an Australian-based actor I can’t but feel that these issues will arrive onshore pretty darn quickly down here.
Given that most see the arrival of web-based entertainment in a big way over the next few years, what are the unions - SAG doing to assist their membership? What does this AFTRA deal really mean?

I couldn’t resist posting Charlie Rose’s recent conversation with Ben Kingsley … for a couple of reasons. Firstly Sir Ben talks about the nuts and bolts differerences between stage and screen acting … something we all like to sift through. But in the second part of the conversation, he opens up in quite an extraordinary personal way, providing an intelligent and insightful glimpse of how he works as an actor.
It proves to me, if I needed to be convinced, of what I reckon is the secret ingredient in good performances - the emotional and intellectual intelligence of the actor in the role.

I can thoroughly recommend Alan Bennett at the BBC which is currently available from Audible.com or the iTunes store. I’ve just finished listening to the inimitable Mr Bennett reading what is a miscellany of his work from the past 30 or so years, and all via the BBC. By the way I very much also enjoyed his reading of The Uncommon Reader which is all about HM the Queen’s discovery of the joys of books and reading. It’s a wonderfully witty little piece of fiction, and the reading is made all the more enjoyable by Bennett’s own droll performance style. He’s got a great line in character voices … have a listen to him doing The Telegram in the video above. This piece is also included in the collection.
With Alan Bennett at the BBC, we get pieces which range from anecdotes during interviews, pieces from his radio plays and television productions, diary entries and commentary on family, friends, and people he’s worked with; his portrait of Peter Cook, a colleague from Beyond the Fringe is especially moving.
I love Bennett’s work as actor and writer. He is a most English playwright whose brilliance lies in an ability to capture the poignancy and detail of the ordinary lives of his characters. His wonderful series called Talking Heads must be one of the finest collection of extended monologues ever written for actors. They are funny, achingly sad, wise … the whole box and dice that make up a good piece of actorly text. Talking Heads was written for the stage and filmed for television, and if you don’t know it, then treat yourself and do something about getting access now. You’ll see Bennett at work in Talking Heads in a piece called A Chip in the Sugar. You’d be hard pressed to pick a favourite, but I still vividly recall Maggie Smith as the alcoholic vicar’s wife who found companionship and love with an Indian grocer in the extraordinary Bed Among the Lentils. Bennett  like Chekhov, writes plays which bob and weave their way between ...

It’s the first of the month, so today is the second ‘give a damn day’ where I nudge myself out of my self-absorption into an outward focus on things that need attention … things at least, that I can deal with. I’m a great believer in personal responsibility, and little things building up over time into something greater.
Whether or not others join me is immaterial, though it would be nice if everyone in their own ways took time out to focus energies on making a difference for the better in whateve

Here’s a little keeper video, a collage of Seesmic users on election day in the US. There’s comment and reaction from others around the world. Nice job from the editorial team.
PS I make a fleeting appearance. Spot me if you can.
Seesmix: November 6th 2008