Breakfast Thoughts

“There are too many awful people, who I don’t care about”, I thought to myself as I scrolled through today’s paper. I got to about page fifteen or thereabouts, and decided I really didn’t want read any more. So I pulled out my laptop, and went looking for some more interesting reads.

I also put my thoughts toward the last few weeks since I’ve updated this blog. So much has happened, without an obvious narrative. So I guess this is a “bits and pieces” blog update with some of the most interesting things that have occured. And there has been a fair bit happening.

Catchups

There have been some terrific catch-ups with friends in the last few weeks, including a roast lunch last Sunday with my friend, Michaela (who has been overseas), as well as family and friends.

I caught up with a bunch of ABBA-fan friends.

Matthew James O'Brien — A couple of weeks ago my cousin, Matthew was briefly in Sydney, and we caught up for a coffee and some family memories. Though we share the same grandfather, it’s only in the last couple of years that we’ve connected. Though I was a good friend of his next door neighbour, I didn’t really know we were related until much later in life (when I did some serious family history research).

Movies

In the last couple of weeks I’ve seen a couple of good movies. “Rocketman” was an awesome film, even if Elton John was a bit of an arsehole. I thought the whole film was very enjoyable, and the actor who played him was very good. Unfortunately, it reminded me it’s been a long, long time since Elton John has had a decent song. Another film I’ve seen, “Red Joan” was also very good. In a true life story, Judi Dench played a woman who leaked information to the Russians during the 1930s/1940s. At the end of the film, I actually had a tear roll down my face. It was that good.

Theatre

On Friday night, Grant and I went to see the latest show by Tim Draxl. “Love Is A Drag” (currently playing at the Seymour Centre, as part of the Sydney Cabaret Festival), is based around an album recorded in 1962.

What was interesting about the album was that it was a series of classic love songs, normally sung by women about men, sung from the perspective of a man singing about other men. Interestingly, the singer and musicians remained anonymous until 2012. Tim sang songs from the album, amidst a narrative about changing perspectives on homosexuality in the last one hundred years.

Grant and I have been big fans of Tim for many years, and both really enjoyed the show. I remember first interviewing Tim when he was eighteen or nineteen years old. Grant and I tried to remember how many times we’ve seen him perform live, and our memories struggled. But here’s a nice photograph from his Chet Baker Show from 2010.