NOTE: If you cannot handle me bleating on again for approximately 500 words about the sheer amazing-ness of Alphabeat, discontinue reading here. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

The new Alphabeat album “The Spell” leaked online recently and, as you may have gathered from the above image and warning, IT IS AMAZING!

Regular readers of my blog are likely already familiar with my mild obsession avec the pop powerhouse that is Alphabeat. Their first album was positively overflowering with sunny melodies and had more solid gold hooks than… a pirate convention? (I guess that works kind of? Either way I’m going with it.) Anyway, in case you missed my extensive gushing over Alphabeat previously, it can be found here.

So, while their first album was largely influenced by 80s pop music this second one has a very early 90s sound with influences like Black Box’s “Ride on Time” – the very same that I had commented on here, as I am obviously a conduit through which zeitgeist flows out into the ether.

HOW AMAZING ARE A BAND THAT LOVE “RIDE ON TIME” IT’S LIKE THEY LOOKED INTO MY BRAIN AND BASED AN ALBUM ON THAT!?!?!?!?!

Here is one example of the ludicrously good songs found on “The Spell.” It’s called “Always Up With You” and not only is it a solid gold pop moment, I can’t help but smile when the “uh uh uh oh”s come in. AMAZING! That really is the genius of Alphabeat: the songs manage to capture a sense of fun and of the ridiculous as well as containing fantastic melodies.

I’m tempted to buy a fluorescent tracksuit and some pumps high tops so that I may properly throw myself around like fool while dancing to this song. It needs to be a single with a killer video. Ooh, here it is live as well. Loving it, obviously.

I know I over-use this word a little but let’s be honest here, AMAZING! Another great song from the album is “Heatwave” which I have attached below. I see Always Up With You being a bit more Trevor to Heatwave’s Jo-ann, if that makes any sense at all. Actually, that doesn’t really make any sense without explanation does it? What I mean is that Always Up With You strikes me a song for people who already love 90s dance music whereas Heatwave is more directly accessible. Anyway, overly verbose explanations aside, here is Heatwave.

You hit baby, I’m hit baby! Again, AMAZING!

The whole album is fantastic. ALPHABEAT ARE BACK AND HAVE AVOIDED THE SOPHOMORE SLUMP!

HURRAH!

Total Babe is a quartet of teenagers out of Minnesota. What I like about Total Babe is their simplicity. The keys drive the melody. The strummed guitar fills out the sound, but isn’t overwhelming, and Clara Salyer’s vocals are striking and stay with you.

I wouldn’t say Total Babe is unique; quite the contrary.  Their sound comes in somewhere between chamber pop music and indie rock, as you might expect from a group of very talented teens that grew up during a   decade (the 00′) defined by Rilo Kiley and The Postal service.

Listening to Bearbones, Shape Up, and Gary Coleman (songs from their LP Heatwave) I just imagine myself at their live show, standing against the wall, dancing with my hands in my pockets and I love it.

Heatwave Outdoor Fireplace (28″) Review

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Related : Televisions & Video

Melbourne New Years Eve, Docklands 2009 by The Starry Eyed

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Major and memorable events – focusing on Melbourne, in Victoria, Australia, 2009:
(I’ve only included news that I care about, so sorry the AFL and other sporting events don’t make it in)

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January

- Heatwave, causes train chaos, blackouts, fires, breaks power usage records, tops of 45 degrees.

- Darcy Freeman, 4, dies after being thrown off West Gate Bridge into Yarra River by her father.

- 2 Melbourne brothers killed in New Zealand glacier collapse.

- student activists squatting at Melbourne University evicted.

- Melb writer Harry Nicolaides released from Bangkok prison after 5 months in jail for insulting Thai royals in a book which sold fewer than 10 copies.

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Day Fifty-Four | Earth Fire Wind Water Heart., originally uploaded by The Starry Eyed.

February

- Melbourne’s Southern Star Observation Wheel closed after only a month of operation. As of dec 2009, has been disassembled and is being rebuilt, is yet to reopen.

-underworld killer Lewis Moran sentenced to life in prison.

- Victorian Bushfires – 173 people killed and 413 injured after bushfires (up to 400 individual fires) raged throughout the Yarra Valley, Gippsland, Dandenong, Beechworth and Bendigo regions in Victoria. Bushfire smoke seen as far as New Zealand.

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Southern Star by The Starry Eyed

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March

- Coldplay come to Melbourne, perform at Rod Laver Arena.

- Sound Relief concerts held in Melbourne and Sydney to raise money for victims of the Victorian Bushfires and the Queensland floods. Features artists such as Midnight Oil, Coldplay, Taylor Swift, Kylie Minogue, Jet, Wolfmother, Kings of Leon, Jack Johnson, The Presets, Architecture in Helsinki, and many more.

- Earthquake felt across Melbourne and Victoria, 4.6 on richter scale, epicentre just north of Korumburra in South Gippsland.

-Emirates plane almost crashes at Melbourne airport during takeoff due to the wrong numbers being entered into an aircraft computer, pilots forced to resign.

-Man attacked with meat cleaver in Port Melbourne has face slashed, case of mistaken identity.

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Coldplay by The Starry Eyed

April

- a gorilla, named Yakini, uses a palm tree to escape from Melbourne zoo enclosure.

- storm crosses Melbourne with winds reaching up to 150km/hr.

- major heroin ring smashed with arrests in Sydney and Melbourne, heroin seized worth AUD$9 million.

- announced that new suburb to be created in Maribyrnong, in Melbourne’s inner west, potentially size of Castlemaine or Lakes Entrance. Construction to begin in 2012, to cost up to $1 billion.

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Swine Flu Hanky / Design Glut

May

- Indian Students start rallying over ‘Indian related’ attacks.

- Swine Flu starts spreading in Melbourne, first cases reported are from a primary school. As of Dec 2009, over 37,000 Australians have been infected (of those reported), and 191 people have died.

- Melbourne woman arrested in Thailand for stealing a bar mat.

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June

- first death from Swine Flu reported.

-Katie Holmes, Tom Cruise and daughter Suri arrive in Melbourne, stay at Crown, visit Aquarium, watch AFL, Katie films ‘Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark’.

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July

-Swine Flu at its peak during the winter months.

- a pet dog returned to Melbourne owners after being found in QLD 9 years after going missing.

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August

- 7 Chinese films withdrawn from thr 58th Melbourne International Film Festival.

- Four Melbourne men arrested, members of suspected terror cell, in second-largest counter-terrorism operation in Australia’s history with 400 police raiding homes across Melbourne and Victoria.

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September

- Michael Jacksons white glove sold in Melbourne for $49,000.

-Swine Flu vaccinations begin.

- First case of Tamiflu resistance found in Australia.

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October

- Metropolitan Train hits baby in pram at Ashburton Station, baby ok.

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November

- Conjoined Twins joined at the head, Krishna & Trishna, separated.

- Britney Spears performs in Melbourne, and other Australian capitals. Holidays in Sydney, turns down a marriage proposal.

- Tiger Woods plays in Melbourne.

- Schoolies week in Gold Coast labelled ‘worst ever’.

- Tony Abbott becomes new liberal leader of the opposition.

- Kevin Rudd apologises to the Forgotten Australians.

- Fire out of control on an oil rig off the coast of Western Australia, has been leaking for 10 weeks into the Timor Sea.

- Asylum Seekers leave Oceanic Viking after more than a month, which created debate over immigration policy.

- Metro Trains (operators) take over from Connex, delays reported.

- Heatwave.

- Thunderstorm, 100km winds, worst damage in Eastern suburbs

.

December

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Il Fait Chaud

I don’t remember it ever being this hot in Canada. I’ve had to adjust again to this

archaic standard of measurements. Feet, yards, miles and Fahrenheit. I think we stopped

using them up in Canada around 1980. When the British abandoned their own system,

we figured it was time to get sensible too.

It was almost nine in the morning and I spent the night at my girlfriend’s

apartment. She lives in a village called Oak Park, which is directly ten miles west of the

giant buildings that make up the skyline of downtown Chicago.

I stepped outside in a fog. The fog is in my head. I tossed and turned all night. It

was way too hot and too humid to get comfortable enough to sleep. I tried freezing my

sheets and taking a cold shower, but that only helped for a little while. If I slept, it was

fleeting and felt as though I never descended to that deep level where you dream about

sitting on a teeter totter across from Abraham Lincoln. I kept looking at the digital clock

and listened to the ceiling fan make a clicking sound at one second intervals. My

girlfriend slept like an angel in my Québec t shirt with the phrase underneath that reads,

“Je me souviens”, which is I remember my French heritage. She is African-American or

black and I am a blend of French and Irish. I have difficulty sleeping in extreme heat

even if I’m naked and she has no problem sleeping in a t shirt.

The roof of the eighty year old apartment building, is flat and is covered with

black tar and tiny rocks. When the temperature exceeds ninety degrees Fahrenheit, the

roof heats up like a hot plate and makes life on the third floor inhumane. My girlfriend

doesn’t believe in air conditioning. She thinks it ruins the vintage feeling of the

apartment. She tells me constantly that there was no air conditioning in apartments or

homes in the pre-Depression era. I have asked a few people old enough to remember that

era and they told me on extremely hot nights, they would go to Lake Michigan and camp

out near the water. With crime being what it is today, such a thing would not be safe. I

told my girlfriend this and she just shrugged her shoulders. She smiled at me, well rested

and a bit frisky and I told her that I would not be spending the night again until the

weather gets better unless she gets air conditioning. We separated this morning a little

cold towards one another on the hottest day of the summer.

America, just celebrated it’s independence from Great Britain last week and since

then the weather has been beastly. The air conditioning stopped working in my minivan

and so even though I showered less than an hour ago, I already have that not so fresh

feeling.

I checked my voice mail and had three messages before nine in the morning. My

job is to face people who are angry and disgruntled. I work for a developer who buys up

old apartment buildings and converts them into condominiums. My job is to answer

complaints of new owners who have discovered shoddy work.

Call number one. First message was from an irate homosexual named David who

left me a message at 6:15 this morning. If I had not turned off my phone, he would have

been the first voice I heard this morning.

David was able to marry his partner in Boston a few years back and refers to his

partner as his husband. David is a stay at home wife.

“Listen, Luc! I need you to come by this morning and look at the damage to my

walls! I have mold growing in my closet and I am highly allergic to dust and mold. I

have been suffering all night. If this is not taken care of today, I will be spending the

night in a hotel of my choice and I will send you the bill via certified mail. My husband,

who has to work early, was up with me half the night due to my asthma … My walls are

alive with living spores. If I do not hear from you today, I will be going to the village.”

Message two from a trust fund child who has never worked a day in her life and

calls me on a weekly basis to complain about everything. Today it was about noise.

“Luc? This is Mrs. Watkins… Look! Something has got to be done about that

woman upstairs and her two goddamn racing dogs. She owns two greyhounds which she

bought from a society that attempts to save former race dogs. Well I have news for you;

they’re still racing. They chase each other around all night and she is a night nurse and

has no idea what is happening. I have asked her to buy oriental rugs and she just tells me

that she prefers the look of hardwood floors. I’m at my wits end. I’m not getting sleep.

I cannot concentrate during the day and I’ve had problems with migraines and ulcers. I

need to know how you will resolve this.”

Message three. Somebody removed someone’s lock and then took out all of their

belongings from a storage locker in the basement. The man who called happened to be an

attorney.

“This message is for Luc! I have called twice now and the next correspondence

will be through the courts. My belongings are scattered all over the laundry room floor…

Okay… This has to be resolved one way or another… Okay. You were supposed

to mark all the storage lockers and it was not done… Okay. Our board specifically asked

to have laminated placards, 3X3 in size, stating clearly who’s locker is who’s… I need a

call from you today… Okay. I would really appreciate it.”
Um… Okay.

My first stop was at a Jiffy Lube. I stopped there for an air conditioning recharge

and they told me that my system won’t hold the Freon. The smallish blue collared man

with really yellowish teeth and a tattoo on his neck of a spider, seemed almost pleased to

announce this. He looked like a transplant from the deep south and had a twang to his

voice that one finds as soon as you reach Chicago’s southern suburbs.

“My best advice to you is to sell this thing… Better yet, hang on to it. It’s a

collector’s item. They stopped making Plymouth a few years ago. You can fix this up

and sell it in like twenty years,” said the man with a foolish grin as he picked at his

yellow teeth with a toothpick. His hands were very dirty too. I was thinking that a good

strep infection would take the smile off his face.

Now on top of the problem of my vehicle’s incapability to keep Freon, I got into

an accident a year ago and my fan got crunched. On hot days in heavy traffic, I would

have to run the heater on high to relieve some of the heat from the engine. Picture the

nearly hundred degree temperature Fahrenheit and then a heater blowing full blast while

the traffic is dead stopped. I was praying that this would not happen but low and behold

there was a ten foot patch of street being repaired on Harlem Avenue. The cars queued

up for over a mile. When I got up to the spot where they were working on the street,

there was a black man with a shovel while three fat white men stood around watching. I

wanted to scream at them. I was sweating profusely now. The back of my shirt was

soaked and I had wet rings under the arms and a line running down the middle of my

shirt. I was already crabby and it was 9:30 AM.

I stopped at the hardware store and listened to a cashier talk on her phone for

nearly five minutes. She had huge thighs and was wearing polyester pants with an elastic

waist band. I could not imagine being so fat that conventional pants with zippers and

buttons, would not fit. She had a face that was so bloated that her eyes disappeared when

she smiled. She pulled back her hair like a Sumo wrestler and had mutton chops. She

had a pretty strong moustache going on too. I must note that her nails looked flawless

though. She hung up the phone and looked at me as if I had been eavesdropping.

“Is there something you need, sir?”

“Yeah, I could really use some air-conditioning. Do you have any window units

left?”

She laughed and slapped her enormous thigh that looked like two of mine put

together. Her eyes disappeared and the skin under her chin shook like Jell-O. I have to

point out that Americans are the most obese people in the world. We have Tim Horton

donut shops on every corner and yet the people in Canada are not so grotesque. I wanted

to snap at her for being so insensitive and rude. Instead I just looked at her blankly.

“You people never do the smart thing and buy something like this in the winter…

You’ll probably need a shovel during a snowstorm… I think we got a few left but the

BTUs are low. You’re gonna have to sleep right on top of it to stay cool…” she said as

she giggled.

By 10:00 AM, I had to deal with two really ignorant human beings that find

humor in discomfort. I could only hope one day to be nearby in a lawn chair with a six

pack when misfortune hits them. It would bring me great pleasure. It is but a fantasy.

I got to the first building where the homosexual called. He was waiting at the

door with his hands on his hips. His hair was bleached white until it was blue and was

spiked every which way as if squirrels had wrestled upon his head. He had really hip

horned rim glasses that one could tell were just glass, no prescription. He had a smart

assed comment too.

“Were you running in your work clothes? Your all sweated up. Do you want

water or a towel or something?”

“Um… I’ll be okay. Can I see the damage?”

There was a tiny bubble on the ceiling that had a tiny blotch of spores. This spot

was the size of those fifty cent coins with John F. Kennedy’s face on it or a two dollar

double loony coin in Canada. This is what was causing this person to have asthmatic

conditions? There are people living in shacks in seventy percent of the world with no

heat, air-conditioning or in door plumbing and this guy is crying about a spot on the

ceiling. I called the janitor and had him clean the spot with bleach and then called a

heating and air conditioning guy to look at the unit on the roof. The man insisted I take a

bottle water with me and so I did.

Without boring you with the details of problem solving little insignificant things

that mean nothing in the larger scheme of things. I went back to my girlfriend’s

apartment to put in the unit. I carried it up three flights of stairs. I continued to perspire.

I fought with the old window that had probably been painted a hundred times in the past

eighty plus years. I had to hit it with a hammer to get it to open with the humidity .

I placed the unit in the window and held it with my right hand and pulled on the window

which was stuck in the open position, with the other hand. The hammer was on the bed

and I could not reach it and hold the unit in place. I needed another two inches to reach

it.

I kicked the bed until it fell to the floor. As I was stretching to reach it, the air

conditioner started to slip away and fell three floors to the cement path below and broke

in numerous pieces. I didn’t know if I should cry or punch a hole in the wall. I almost

began to cry in frustration. I just lost $200.00. I got downstairs and the janitor was

stupidly looking up at the sky as if a bird possibly shit it out. I walked by as if I didn’t

know what happened. I really wanted to just stop everything I was doing and just go to

the beach.

I got to the car and realized that I had locked my keys in the apartment. I was

really ready to punch the window of my car but instead I asked the janitor to let me into

the apartment. He gave me a bit of a hard time.

“Are you on the lease?”

“No, it’s my girlfriend’s place but I stay with her half the week… You’ve never

seen me before?”

“Oh yeah… Oh yeah… That one girl… On the third floor, right?”

“Right, right. The tall girl of African descent.”

“Right, right.”

Oak Park is overly politically correct. It has the highest percentage of

homosexuals per capita in the country and I think for that reason, everyone is very careful

to not say anything to offend or discriminate. Between two white dudes, saying that

someone is black should not be too difficult. At any rate, I got my keys. The janitor

stood in the doorway and shook his head up and down while making a frown with his

mouth and squinting his eyes. The apartment was spotless.

“Very clean! That’s a nice surprise.”
“They don’t live in trees anymore… They’re much cleaner than they used to be

when they were barefoot in the bush or picking cotton.”

“Oh no! I didn’t mean to insinuate nothing… I’m really sorry sir.”

I felt bad then. This guy was going to spend the rest of his day worrying about

whether or not I would call his boss to report race discrimination. I couldn’t let him think

that was going to happen. He was nice enough to let me in.

“Don’t sweat it, I’m just having a tough day. I just dropped that A/C unit laying

in the courtyard… I have no air-conditioning in my car and I didn’t sleep last night.”

“I have some at one of the other buildings that someone left. I’ll give them to

you… No problem, sir.”

I always feel sort of sad for old men who call me sir. I’m under forty and he’s

over fifty. He should call me kid or son or dude but not sir.

My brother remained in Canada. He lives outside of Toronto and runs the

Zamboni at a rink. He plays hockey six days a week and sits up in the bar above the ice

rink and watches other hockey games. He has a really pretty wife that was his high

school sweetheart. They have a little boy and my brother is so happy. He told me that he

secretly wants his son to play for the Habs ( Montreal ) instead of the Maple Leafs. That

had more to do with the fact that we loved our grandfather. My mother’s parents

lived in Quebec and spoke only French to us. We spent nearly every summer with them

up in a small town called Chicoutimi which is about two hundred miles north and east of

Quebec City. Nobody up there speaks English. My mother got a job after college with

Air Canada since she was bilingual. She met my father in Toronto where she was

working at the time and the rest is history. In any case, I bring up my brother because he

is happy and not hurried. He never went to college and never wanted to. He coaches ice

hockey, plays it and works at the rink. His whole life is hockey and he loves it. His wife

loves it. They live very simple. If my brother were here he would commandeer the car

and drive straight to Lake Michigan. My grandfather, who was exactly like my brother,

would have done the same thing. He loved to fish. He fished everyday after retiring.

Grandpere would wake in the morning and give my grandmere a kiss and say, “Il fait

beau…” and she would say in her grouchy way, “Non. Il fait chaud…” My grandfather

always said it was beautiful and my grandmother would declare that it was too hot. I

found myself mumbling a few times to myself the same words that my grandmother used.

“Il fait chaud.”

I ran around the rest of the day like any other worker ant does. I did my part for

society and worked hard to keep the wheels of the giant machine moving. I dealt with

hornets, squirrels and rodents inside of units. I dealt with mold and dog shit. I mediated

between a woman with two racing dogs and a woman who hates animals. I watched

plumbers unclog drains, toilets and sewers. I went up on hot roofs to find the source of

leaks. Nothing unusual and the same sort of complaints will come tomorrow. The

difference is that on no sleep, it is difficult to face the world. I don’t know what would

be worse, to not sleep or to not eat. I know now know vividly what no sleep is like with a

good dose of frustration.

I finished my day at a condominium board meeting where people without much to

do, agonized over the cost of cleaning the carpeting in foyer versus new carpet. I needed

clothes pins on my eyelids to make it through the hour meeting with people who

averaged eighty years of age. I felt like getting up and saying something very frank.

“Listen! You are very old and have very little time left on this earth. Worrying

about replacing carpeting versus washing it, should be a minimal thing in your lives. Go

to the zoo. Go to a museum. Go see a play. Look for people you used to know sixty

years ago and stimulate your memories with things you haven’t thought about in ages.

Enjoy each day as if it were your last because one day really soon, you will be gone…

But the carpet will remain.”

I didn’t say that. Instead I looked at an old woman who instructed me to get three

estimates for new carpet and three for carpet cleaning and they would discuss and choose

the best course of action. I thought about all the things going on in my life and hoped to

heck that mundane things like carpeting, would never stir passion within me. With global

warming, wars, nuclear proliferation and starvation in the world, how could we be

worrying about carpeting, air conditioning, mold spores, dog shit and storage lockers?

When you don’t have to worry about survival, you can turn your attention to many things

that mean very little.

I was too tired to go to my apartment across town. I was going to take a cold

shower and go to sleep before my body heated up. I walked in to my girlfriend’s place

and there was a window air-conditioning unit in the living room and another in the

bedroom. It was in the sixties in the apartment with very low humidity. The janitor found

two units and installed them for me, free of charge and without killing them in the

courtyard below. It was the nicest thing to have happened to me all day. I owed the guy

a huge thank you and a gift card to Starbucks or a local restaurant.

I went to bed that night and my girlfriend put on flannel pants and socks to go

with my Quebec shirt. She pulled the comforter up to her chin around her head and

poked her nose out. I laid there in my hybrid underwear that is neither a boxer nor a

brief. It is neither 100% cotton nor 100% spandex. I laid there smiling ready to sleep

like I had not slept in a long time because I had not. I was almost excited. My girlfriend

whispered to me.

“It’s cold…”

I whispered back in French.

“Non. Il fait beau…”

December 14th, 2009

Mid August Lunch is out on DVD and I am nervous of writing about it. The film has been highly praised by reviewers and has obtained a few awards, in particular the Satyajit Ray Award at the London Film Festival. Friends have recommended it and the majority of people (mainly women) at the Lexi and the Phoenix screenings enjoyed it. It is obviously a feelgood film about ageing and care.

It is not easy to go against other people’s feelgood reactions to films. It is all the more difficult to question this film when it is widely broadcast that the male director lived with his mother and cared for her in the last ten years of her life. But havins seen the interviews with actors on the DVD extras I am more confident to propose that the film reinforces prejudices about older women  and diminishes them.

There are a few feature films that deal with an older woman and a carer as the main subject : Tati Danielle, Driving Miss Daisy, Pauline and Paulette, Iris, not to forget the wonderful Paul Cox’s A Woman’s Tale. There are fewer that films featuring a group of old women: Alive and Kicking, The Company of Strangers, and Starukhi. Unfortunately the better of these films have had very little distribution and are unknown to the general public.

Mid August Lunch described as a comedy is unusual in that it features four old women with the son of one of them as carer.

The action takes place in Rome one hot August week-end. A middle age man (Gianni) who likes his drink and has financial difficulties cares for his demanding mother. The manager of his residence asks him to look after his mother Marina and aunt Maria over the Ascension week-end. His doctor who is on duty, also begs to bring his mother Grazia because her Rumanian carer is away. Both sons offer financial incentives for this favour. Initially the four women behave in an obstructive manner. Eventually they all get together and share a convivial Ascension day meal.

The style of the film has a documentary flavour. Filmed with a handheld camera in natural light, in the restricted space of a Roman flat, the shots are mainly close-ups, and big and extreme close-ups.  A lot of the shots focus on the hands, arms, faces and hair of the women. It is dark and claustrophobic in the flat. Marina’s escape is filmed in the night light and a very long shot,  and retain the feeling of containment.   The one escape from this confined atmosphere is when Gianni goes shopping for food in the light of a summer day.

The titles sequences set the underlying idea of the film. A close-up shot follows the hand and arm of an old woman in bed and settles on her profile. Lines, folds, liver spots are prominent on the skin. The next shot shows a middle age man sitting by the bedside reading aloud from the Three Musketeers. The woman interrupts to ask him to describe d’Artagnan. The man is forced to leaf through the book in search of the relevant pages. She declares petulantly that she would not ‘fancy’ his beaked nose. She eventually goes to sleep. He turns the light off. In the next scene we hear her call  !Gianni!. It is the middle of the night and we see him patiently get out of bed to attend to her.

The contrast of the close-ups on skin with the bedtime story, the choice of reading matter and the interruptions suggest strongly the idea of a child mind in an old body. This idea pervades the rest of the film.

The other scenes suggestive of children are the ones where the other women are dropped at Gianni’s house as parent drop children at a day care centre. The women have nothing to say and the sons talk directly to Gianni and give him instructions. In a more subtle way, the behaviour of the women can be described as childish rather than adult. Gianni’s mother declares she will welcome Marina but then does not want to share the evening meal with her. She then repents. She lends her TV to Marina and then wants it back. Grazia eats irresponsibly

Physically the women seem able-bodied. Maria does not show any sign of having lost her memory in spite of her nephew mentioning it. The characterisations of the four women are very thin indeed. Each one has one main feature: the mother is concerned with her appearance and is seen making up with great care, Maria is good at making pasta and we see her doing so, Grazia dwells talks incessantly on the past, and Marina is the bon vivant. She smokes, drinks and makes sexual advances to Gianni.

When finally the women communicate, their activities and talk remain as puerile. They watch TV, they read palms, they set the table. And a jolly time is had by all including Gianni and his friend.

When I first saw the film I thought it was boring, that most of the laughs were at the expense of the women and their childishness. Gianni’s infinite patience and dependence on alcohol was somewhat funny and there were too some laughs of recognition in the dietary restrictions and amount of pills needed. But otherwise it was difficult to understand why the film was so praised.

It is only when I read the interviews with Gianni  - the director- that I understood that despite a very poor narrative, no characterisation and no tension, the magic of the cinema worked to project the personalities of the women by their sheer presence and possibly some of their contributions. The director said “I was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the four ladies, entering the scenes with the power of their personalities, twisting some parts of the screenplay and bringing a sense of truth and superior spontaneity to what I had written.”

He also said previously that before filming he “… was struck by their (old women in general) vitality but at the same time by their vulnerability and the fear of loneliness”, “ I wanted to underline the sense of possession that some mothers have on their sons and especially singletons. Alas none of these interesting dramatic intentions are reflected in the film.

He is also quoted as saying that there was something of his mother in each of the women. By imbuing only one of his mother’s trait in each of the women he has impoverished each of the characters. It can be argued that the women are not supposed to be full-blown realistic persons. Alas the style of the film would be in contradiction with this notion. Also how come none of the women displayed any signs of intellectual life? The enduring concern with one’s appearance and sexual feelings in old age are touched upon but Gianni’s mother’s make-up is more like that of a pantomime dame than a dignified old woman and Marina’s sexual advances is played for laughs.

Philip French of the Observer found the film witty. There is not a single line uttered by any of the women that is funny or intelligent. As mentioned before, the laughs at both the Phoenix and the Lexi screenings were mainly in response to the childish behaviour of the women, the carer’s alcohol dependency, his infinite patience.

On the DVD, the visits to the old women actors none of them professionals, shows powerful, competent, intelligent women with an independent life and with no need of carer for a week-end. Marina Caciotti who played Marina displays real rebellion. She objects to the inclusion of the scene where her character is said to have used a bidet cover on the cake she brought as an offering. She also rebels at the editing that she says deprived Marina of any substance.

It seems to me that this film functions on the audience as Gianni’s dose of herbal infusions and sedative pills that he used to pacify the women. The women are comfortably well off, they are able in body and not too questioning in mind, they rebel gently and are brought to reason gently. Their sons are concerned enough, the carer with the help of good wine and some money is patient. Give them good food, wine and forced company end everybody will be happy.

The reviewers are nearly unanimous in liking the film. Why is it acceptable even laudable to portray old women as immature children? Are old men similarly treated in films?

Michelle Hanson who looked after her mother and wrote about it in the Guardian says from an older woman point of view.“But I am torn over this film. Is this the only sort of old lady future on offer for us? Because it’s more or less the only one we ever see. I know these are Italians, but old women are apparently the same over here. A bit childish, with nothing much to say for themselves, and not much interest in the wider world.

How about you readers? Will you turn into silly old ladies who tantrum because they can’t have the telly, who have no friends, can’t manage on their own and live a lonely life, dependent on their children?

In this film there is no space to think and ponder why perfectly able and capable women accept to spend the night in the flat of a stranger, and why their rebellion is so tame and why the Italian heat wave of August 2003 killed 8000 old people.

In the context of sexism/ageism of today’s media, this film and its success is disturbing.

Come back Tatie Danielle.

You know how much you need to take time for you, so plan to give yourself a break.  Start with a few moments of a smooth sound while you’re deciding …

Cheers,

Coach A.

www.LifeTrekkingCoach.com

I’m back from a long hiatus from blogging and man am I having a fantastic time as we move into the new year! I just recently reconnected with a special someone I had lost contact with for a long time, and it was just great to hear from her. Yeah, I’m just going to tell you she was very special, but that was a long time ago (although she will always have a place in my heart).

That inspired me to post this beautiful song by my all time favorite group, Heatwave. It’s called Find it in Your Heart, and it has a story. Its taken from their fifth and final album entitled Current recorded in 1981, two years after the tragic car accident in 1979 of its lead singer, Johnnie Wilder, Jr which left him paralyzed from the neck down. Due to his injuries, it was necessary to bring in other artist to record this album in fulfillment of Heatwave’s five album record deal.

One of those groups called upon to complete the project was the British singing sensation Imagination who sang background on the track, featuring lead singer Leee John, whose incredible falsetto sounds remarkably like Johnnie’s. The lead was sung by J.D. Nicholas who replaced Johnnie Wilder in concert. I was curious about how exactly this track was recorded, so I contacted Leee through email and he was gracious enough to explain to me how the entire project came about. The email is below. Read into the song whatever you like, but I think it’s about not overlooking someone who may be just right for you, if you’ll only find it in your heart. It’s a great feel good song, and I hope you enjoy it.

From Leee John

THANK you Abdur-Rahman  , so great to hear from you , its a wonderful piece of history, the HEATWAVE years. I was glad to be a part of it . I get asked many questions regarding this. Johnnie at the time was incapacitated from the neck down, he could sing but only one line at a time . He saw and heard me in the “IN and OUT” video and I got a call by BARRY BLUE their producer to sing on the album . The tracks FIND IT IN YOUR HEART and NATURALLY I sang with ASHLEY my bassplayer the backgrounds , but I needed extra high vocals at Johnnie’s request . I did do a lead vocal but due to my record company and band members who complained that I was giving the IMAGINATION
sound to HEATWAVE  ( at the time I didnt see it,  as I was so in awe of the group ) it got politcal so my lead got taken off and JD NICHOLAS, who is now with the COMMODORES,  replaced my lead. We recorded it in Olympic Studios in London  1981 summer (before our BODY TALK album) in on day and night session. I remember as I had to fly out to France the next day for a show. Johnnie was very intense on the sound and watched my every vocal , tone, consonent , vowel, how I breathed, it was a UNIQUE but pleasurable experience. I hope this answers your question…. Take care ABDUR-RAHMAN and GOD BLESS, LEEE JOHN of IMAGINATION dec 2009.

By Jenny Griffiths

The UK will stage its biggest ever demonstration in support of action on climate change – The Wave – just before the United Nations conference commences.  To help to ensure that the health voice is heard loud and clear, health professionals will meet on Saturday 5th December to hear inspirational speakers and share ideas before joining the main event, walking to Parliament, demanding a healthier, low carbon society for ourselves and future generations.

The increasingly unstable climate has been affecting health in the UK for some years: the 2003 heatwave and the 2007 floods being the most dramatic examples.  The fight is on to avoid the tipping point of two degrees of global warming, beyond which catastrophic impacts around the world could trigger food and water shortages, ecosystem and associated economic collapse and mass migrations.  This is a public health crisis: we have only 5-10 years to stabilise greenhouse gas emissions, which rose by a third globally in the last decade.

A growing movement of health professionals is leading the way to a healthy, positive future.  As the Faculty’s Peder Clark notes in his post of 27 November, there is increasingly strong evidence that what is good for the climate is also good for health.  There are many inspirational examples of public health action:

• Directors of Public Health are taking the lead in explaining to their populations that climate change is a major health issue; see for example Dr Paul Edmondson-Jones’ 2007 Annual Report which was entirely focused on environmental issues
• Public health staff are involved with community development initiatives, such as Transition Towns which are creating self-supporting, healthy, resilient communities – for example Angela Raffle, who made a presentation at the FPH conference in Scarborough
• Primary care trusts are working effectively with local authorities to plan and design healthy, sustainable communities – CABE’s recent publication “Future health: sustainable places for health and well-being” has examples
• Many health organisations have joined the 10:10 campaign to reduce carbon emissions by 10% in 2010 – most health organisations are reducing their consumption of energy from buildings and travel, as well as developing adaptation strategies to cope with heatwaves, floods and energy crises
• The Sustainable Development Commission and the NHS Sustainable Development Unit have recently launched the new Good Corporate Citizenship Assessment Model to support progress on sustainable development

We have, of course, yet to reach the critical mass of public commitment to resolute action.  A recent Times poll suggested that over 40 % of the population are still in denial that climate change is happening now and is caused by our lifestyles; and it is likely that the Copenhagen summit will not deliver legally binding commitments.

But the health community can be ready with a powerful non-pharmaceutical prescription for post-Copenhagen depression: a public health movement for healthy, sustainable, low-carbon communities.  It is the most important public health movement of our lifetime, its underlying aim being no less than to secure the future for the human species.

Change will be difficult because we are deeply addicted to carbon-dependent ways of living.  But a low-carbon life rewards us with a health dividend: an improved quality of life replacing a focus on materialistic standards of living.

And in public health we have decades of experience to draw on in how to help people to overcome the most intractable behavioural challenges, through an effective combination of policy and practice.

We know what to do.

• Jenny Griffiths, co-author of the Faculty of Public Health’s guide Sustaining a Healthy Future: Taking Action on Climate Change and lead editor of the new book, The Health Practitioner’s Guide to Climate Change

Hailing from the sunny shores of Queensland on the east coast of Australia, Slynk makes some of the funkiest funk around. He’s been kind enough to share 3 of his latest and greatest edits / bootlegs etc etc with you all so go show him some love on his MySpace and be a good friend.

Slynk – Ooh the Noise

Slynk – Whatcha Doin (Slynk Hospital Re-Rub)

Heatwave – Boogie Nights (Slynk Re-edit)

December 2, 2009 – Space Daily

If Earth heats by four degrees Celsius — some seven degrees Fahrenheit — the planet we call home would become a very unwelcoming place.

Even as some world leaders tamp down expectations for the December 7-18 UN climate conference, experts say the threat of a 4C (7.2 F) warming over pre-industrial times is all too plausible.

Once that threshold is crossed, what might a four-degree world look like?

Brace yourself

Oceans have risen by at least a metre (3.25 feet), drowning several island nations and driving hundreds of millions of people in Bangladesh, Thailand and Vietnam and other delta nations to scramble for higher ground.

Polar bears are a folk memory, starved to extinction in an Arctic where temperatures have soared by 15 C (27 F), nearly four-fold the global average.

Australia is routinely swept by white-hot fires of the kind that claimed 170 lives last February.

A third — perhaps more — of the Amazon forest has been reduced to desolate shrubland, its treasure chest of flora and fauna decimated.

Asia’s eternal fountain, the Himalayan glaciers, are running dry.

South Asia’s precious monsoon, once reliable as clockwork, has become fickle, dumping too little or too much rain.

A quarter of the planet’s mammals are on a downward spiral toward extinction.

"A 4.0 C increase in global mean temperatures has the potential to threaten human security and quality of life in a manner unprecedented in recent history," says Arizona State University professor Pamela McElwee.

Francois Gemmene, a researcher at France’s Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), adds: "At 4.0 C, climate-driven migration redraws the map of population distribution across the surface of the globe."

Science fiction? If only

On November 16, an international team of scientists, the Global Carbon Project, said carbon emissions had surged by 29 percent from 2000 to 2008.

This places Earth on track with the worst-case warming scenario put forward by the UN’s Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it said.

Under its so-called "business-as-usual" forecast, voracious use of coal and other fossil fuels would see planetary warming of 4.0-to-6.4 C (7.2-to-11.5 F) by 2100 compared with 2000.

To that, add another 0.74 C of warming that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution.

This would spell disaster for Earth’s population, 6.7 billion today, on course for nine billion in 2050.

"The carrying capacity of the planet could fall to one billion people or less," said John Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany.

In September, Britain’s Met Office, a leading centre on climate change, said the 4.0 degree rendezvous could come as early as 2060 — in time for you or your children to experience it first-hand.

Crossing that threshold, they conclude, would send the misery index into unchartered territory.

In 2080, three billion people would struggle to find adequate water.

Yields of the major crops that feed most of the planet today would shrink, some dramatically, resulting in chronic hunger for tens, possibly hundreds, of millions. Africa, where so many teeter today at or below subsistence levels, would be hit especially hard.

For biodiversity, already on the cusp of the sixth major extinction in Earth’s history, "a four degree world would be mayhem," said Pavan Sukhdev, a leading expert on the economics of ecosystems.

"Even two degrees, if you break it down, would create regional catastrophes in many places," he told AFP.

The loss of coral reefs — which may be a foregone conclusion even at current levels of warming — will leave half a billion people without livelihood.

The good news, virtually all of these experts said, is that there is still time to halt the slide if greenhouse-gas emissions peak soon enough and fall thereafter.

But the window of opportunity is narrowing rapidly.

 The Best Of (Re-Recorded / Remastered Versions) by Heatwave

2009 (4 tracks, 18:38)

pop

Genre: pop

And here we come to an end of the 1970s in the Any Major Soul series. There are two mixes covering ’80s soul HERE and HERE. Still, the years 1980/81 and possibly 1982/83 were good enough to yield any major mixes; I’ve not thought about later years.

It’s tempting to dismiss the soul music produced in the disco era. I think this mix shows that it was still a golden era for soul, if not of quite the incredible standards a few years earlier when there was the happy confluence of the influences exerted by the likes of Philly, Motown, Hi, Muscle Shoals, Atlantic, and the Chicago scene.

If I was asked which of these tracks in this mix I’d take with me to a desert island, I would be hard pressed to choose between Bill Withers’ Love Is and Minnie Riperton’s Never Existed Before. I think the latter would win. Released after her death from cancer, Minnie’s vocals are equally cute and sexy (nobody has done cute and sexy as well as Minnie did). It’s not the best-known track from the Minnie LP, but it is my favourite Riperton song.

Several of the songs here are touched by disco golddust. The Gary Toms Empire are perhaps more disco than soul. Former Motown writers Ashford & Simpson certainly were in their disco groove, and You Know How To Love Me by Phyllis Hyman (another wonderful soul singer who died too young, in 1995, the same year Bobby DeBarge, featured in the bonus tracks, died) is the sort of mid-tempo song one can dance or chill to.

Cheryl Lynn is better remembered for one of the great dance tracks, Got To Be Real. The track featured here, You’re The One, comes from the same eponymous 1978 album, one of the few ballads on the LP on which the 21-year-old Lynn delivered a fine, octave-traversing vocal performance. Signed by CBS on strength of her winning performance on the TV talent programme The Gong Show, Cheryl Lynn was a prodigious session singer too. It’s her soaring voice on Toto’s excellent Georgy Porgy, and she also backed Lenny Williams, whom we encounter in the bonus tracks.

Peabo Bryson does not have a good reputation among soul fans (with that name, it’s surprising he ever enjoyed any credibility), while Natalie Cole’s soul credentials have taken a knock with her endeavours to become her father. Don’t let such perceptions worry you as you hear their excellent jazzy cover of Bobby Caldwell’s What You Won’t Do For Love.

Jean Carn (later rendered as Carne, for “numerological” reasons) sang with Duke Ellington’s orchestra just before his death. Through her stint as a regular on US TV shows she was picked up by Gamble & Huff for their Philadelphia International Records label.

The Jones Girls also found success with Gamble & Huff, via two soul legends. The Chicago sisters were first mentored by Curtis Mayfield, through whom they got to work with Aretha Franklin. It was as a support act for Diana Ross that the Jones Girls — Shirley, Brenda and Valerie — came to Gamble & Huff’s attention. Besides releasing their own albums, they also provided backing vocals for the PIR roster.

Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson was cited by Jimi Hendrix as a major influence. He might also have been nicknamed “Organ”, for he played keyboard for Herb Alpert during the 1960s, reuniting with Alpert for his 1979 hit Rise [EDIT: Apparently he didn't. See comments]. Before that, the man known as “Elvis’ private guitar player” had toured with Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson. Here he gets seriously funky, providing one of the few instances of snoring released on vinyl. Another legend, Wilson Pickett, made a brief comeback fusing the funk with old school soul, creating a sound which Tom Jones has tried to emulate for years, but never coming near his ambition.

The “Pops” in the title of the penultimate track is, of course, Berry Gordy, paid tribute here by four of the greatest stars in music history. I’d not have included it was it not for this year being Motown’s 50th birthday.

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TRACKLISTING
1. Gary Toms Empire – Welcome To Harlem
2. Ashford & Simpson – It Seems To Hang On
3. Jean Carn – Don’t Let It Get To Your Head
4. Bill Withers – Love Is
5. Rufus and Chaka Khan – Stay
6. Cheryl Lynn - You’re The One
7. Denise LaSalle - A Miracle You And Me
8. Neville Brothers - Washable Ink
9. Minnie Riperton - Never Existed Before
10. Natalie Cole & Peabo Bryson – What You Won’t Do For Love
11. Phyllis Hyman – You Know How To Love Me
12. The Jones Girls – You Gonna Make Me Love Somebody Else
13. Johnny Guitar Watson – It’s A Damn Shame
14. Wilson Pickett – Lay Me Like You Hate Me
15. The Whispers - Let’s Go All The Way
16. D Ross, M Gaye, S Robinson, S Wonder – Pops, We Love You
17. Roberta Flack – And The Feeling’s Good

DOWNLOAD

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At one point I thought of making this a two-part mix, because a bunch of longer numbers would fit on the mix, which I have kept, as always, to standard CD-R length. Instead, here are a few bonus tracks.

These include Betty Wright’s live recording of the song about losing her virginity, Lenny William’s fantastically overwrought lament of lost love (“…and then I played my records till I didn’t want to hear them no more), Mtume’s The Closer I Get To You which was a hit for Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack written by James Mtume and Reggie Lucas, the O’Jay’s tribute to a dog, Kandidate’s proto ’80s soul sound, a track by Motown artists Switch who included two older DeBarge brothers, and more.

Lenny Williams – Because I Love You.mp3
Heatwave – Mind Blowing Decisions.mp3
Betty Wright – Tonight Is The Night.mp3
Ray Goodman Brown – Inside Of You.mp3
Brenda Russell – So Good, So Right.mp3
Switch – I Call Your Name.mp3
Mtume – The Closer I Get To You.mp3
The O‘Jays – Brandy.mp3
Kandidate – I Don’t Wanna Lose You.mp3
Rick James – You And I.mp3

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More ’70s Soul
More Mixes

Well it’s been 9 days since the last post and not alot has been happening. Most of the jobs that were half finished, like the skirting boards and cornice have been finished and the eaves have been started with only about 2 metres worth to go until that is finished (it’s taken them 6 days to get to that stage). You’d think the tradies would stay abit longer to get these jobs finished but instead they’ve gone by 3.30pm most days which is frustrating because we can’t get inside to have a look at things unless they are there. Kell could go around and have a look inside on Mondays but there is never anyone there as they must all be having long weekends every weekend. Oh well we shouldn’t complain as it really hasn’t taken long to get to this stage and we did have the first heatwave ever recorded in November last week with 5 or more days over 35 degrees (the hottest day was 42.1), so I probably wouldn’t want to be working in that heat either.

Eaves

Still, it was another lovely morning. The beach was far more packed out with people than it had been the previous day, with people partaking in activities ranging from splashing in the water to surfing, and rowing to kite-surfing (without the surf board – no, honestly!). The majority of people seemed to be crowded at the southern end of the beach, so a couple of strolls up and down from one end to the other offered quite a variation in scenery, both human and natural. One thing I did notice is that the seaweed here that washes up onto shore seems to have these kind of grape things growing on it. Maybe that’s common, but it’s not something I’ve ever noticed before. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me so couldn’t take any pictures, I will however ensure I bring it along next time I go.

After that we got back to the house, and that’s when the heatwave really kicked in. Over a hundred bush fires flared up around New South Wales, although they were too far west to be of any serious danger to us. Being just on Pittwater, it was quite a moist heat round here, and in fact you could visibly see a haze rising off the water, so nothing like the dry, instantly parching heat that slaps you in the face like a boiled sock when you get off a plane in Tel Aviv. Still, unlike in the UK, where if it’s too cold people complain, and if it’s too hot people complain, everyone here just went about their business. That left me with not much to do, so I wondered round the garden taking some pretty boring photos. You can see one at the top of this post, and clicking on it should take you to the album. But you’d probably have to be pretty damn bored to do that.

Anyway, today I’m back off into the city, to hand in a couple of forms to the bank, and this time for a bit of job hunting. I’ve applied for some online already, but thought I’d make myself known to some of the IT recruitment agencies around town. I’ll probably have another blog post ready this evening, maybe even with a couple of pictures of the city. No promises though!

Stay tuned!

Matt x

When you hear a song, do you associate it with a place you were at or something that you did? One song that does that to me is “The Groove Line” (1978) by Heatwave.

The memory I have when I hear this song is roller skating with the lights out and the disco ball spinning and the bright lights flashing. Now waht’s strange with this memory is that I really don’t remember roller skating to it, since I hated to roller shake. And I can count the number of times I went roller skating on one hand while I was growing up. So I don’t know if I saw people skating to this song one of those times at was a the skating rink or if I dream about it or saw it in a movie?

Regardless, whenever I hear this song, I get a smile on my face and I picture myself skating to it with the lights flashing and the disco ball spinning.

The north wind is tossing the leaves

The red dust is over the town

The sparrows are under the eaves (or, in this case, the galahs are under the trees)

And the grass in the paddock is brown

Those words are taken from an old Australian Christmas song written by Bill James (WG) and John Wheeler in 1948. But I think they’re appropriate for describing Alice Springs today.

Dust in the air & grass doesn't grow anymore

On the lush lawns of the Alice Springs casino & convention centre

Too hot to fly, too hot to sit in the trees

On the well-kept and watered lawns of the Alice Springs Casino & Convention Centre on a hot day you will see birds taking refuge from the fierce and scorching heat.  If there are any puddles of water lying about (from the sprinklers not rain), the galahs will be spotted splashing about in an attempt to keep cool.  I was driving past at lunchtime today and saw these galahs and a couple of parrots resting and panting in the shade.

Here’s a link to a short video I made today earlier this afternoon.  Apologies for the audio – sound of the camera focussing and the wind interfered.

It was 41 degrees celsius at lunchtime today.  We got to 43.

November 16, 2009 – The Independent, UK

Low-lying and impoverished Asian coastal cities such as Dhaka, Manila and Jakarta are vulnerable to "brutal" damage from climate change without global action, environmental group WWF warned Thursday.

Energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions must be curtailed in "mega-cities" where global warming will affect everything from national security to water availability, the influential campaign group said.

"Climate change is already shattering cities across developing Asia and will be even more brutal in the future," said Kim Carstensen, head of the WWF Global Climate Initiative.

"These cities are vulnerable and need urgent help to adapt, in order to protect the lives of millions of citizens, a massive amount of assets, and their large contributions to the national GDP (gross domestic product)."

Including their suburbs, Dhaka, Manila and Jakarta now have a combined population of about 49 million, according to WWF.

It said better-off cities such as Shanghai, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore also faced varying degrees of risk from climate change, such as rising sea levels, excessive rain, flooding and heatwaves.

Hong Kong could see dramatically fewer cold days per year while dengue fever appears to be spreading to previously unaffected parts of Singapore, it noted.

"Asia is the most populous and arguably the most vulnerable continent in the world because of the high risk of climate impacts and relatively low adaptive capacity," the report said.

"Unfortunately, the full extent of climate change has likely not been fully realised," it said, noting that temperatures in Asia have risen by one to three degrees Centigrade (two to five degrees Fahrenheit) in the last 100 years.

WWF issued its report to coincide with a weekend summit here to be attended by US President Barack Obama, Chinese President Hu Jintao and other Asia-Pacific leaders.

The summit takes place three weeks before crucial talks on a new world climate pact open in Copenhagen on December 7.

WWF said that on a "vulnerability" scale going up to 10, Dhaka rated nine points, and Manila and Jakarta eight each.

"Leaders in hotspots of danger like Dhaka, Manila or Jakarta need urgent support from their counterparts in the industrialised world," Carstensen said.

"Effective near-term and long-term adaptation will depend on financial support, technology cooperation, and capacity-building," he said.

Calcutta and Phnom Penh received scores of seven each on the WWF danger scale, Ho Chi Minh City and Shanghai six each, Bangkok five, and Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Singapore four each.

It urged the leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum to use their summit to promote strategies to reduce carbon emissions across the 21-member organisation.

In a communique to be issued at the end of their annual meeting Sunday, the APEC leaders are expected to declare their support for a global deal at next month’s Copenhagen climate gathering.

"We believe that global emissions will need to peak over the next few years, and be reduced to 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, recognising that the time-frame for peaking will be longer in developing countries," said a draft of the statement obtained by AFP.

China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said Thursday that it would seek a "fair and reasonable" result at Copenhagen but reiterated that rich nations must bear most of the burden for redressing global warming.

The WWF report said that while they cause many of their own climate-related problems, Asia’s big cities are also part of the solution.

It said "cities are hot spots of innovation and technology and have therefore traditionally been the places where many of the solutions to the world’s problems have been developed."

So it been hot lately roughly 35-40 degrees and I’ve been feeling ill, sweating patches off and getting a faster hence quicker intake.  Expecting tops of 41 degrees 3 days in a row this week!!! I don’t have an air conditioner. So it staying wet and in front of fans to stay at a reasonable temperature the anxiety and shaking has kept my weight down quite alot. Even if I eat my body just either gets rid of it or it makes me loose weight!!!. I’m not anorexic. Different people will say different things but Im definatley not dangerous. I will be soon If I keep loosing weight like this.

Note: 53kg this week.   58kg 2 weeks ago…

I will keep eating and remembering my medication so I am less anxious and feel like eating more often.

Peace,

NW

Hope it cools down soon.

Stay cool if ya feelin it.

So much for my plan to blog at least twice a week! This week I’ve been house, cat and garden sitting while my brother is in Sydney. Also we’ve had unprecedented high November temperatures this week. We have weather like this most years but usually in late January to early March.

My brother and his girlfriend are vegans and their garden is their main source of food, so it’s very important that the plants survive at least until they get back (then if they die it’s not my fault). They said to water once a day, but after a few things wilted I stepped that up to twice a day. And it seems to be working (although a few things under a gap in the shadecloth did die off). I have been using a watering can so as to avoid breaking South Australia’s water restrictions and also because it makes it easy to get the water to the roots.

Watching things grow in the garden here has inspired me to see what I can grow at home. The wife and I live in a tiny upstairs apartment with a small paved courtyard at the bottom of the stairs, so there’s nowhere we can really dig. We’re going to try some potted plants in the courtyard and maybe some indoor plants. The plan:

• Step 1: do some research about what plants are likely to work.
• Step 2: source the plants, pots, etc. (as cheaply as possible, we’re on a budget)
• Step 3: grow stuff
• Step 4: profit in the form of lower grocery bills. Hopefully the savings here will outweigh what we spend on plants.

hmm, what was going to be a post on the hot weather turned into a post about gardening. The heat related post will come tomorrow.

As Melbourne continues to heat up for the sixth day running, I thought it was about time to vent again.

I like the heat. I like summer, sun, warm weather and everything that goes with it, including going inside where it is slightly cooler. Apparently our place isn’t like that, and summer is going to be quite uncomfortable.

This week when it rose to 35 degrees outside, our third (and top) storey apartment also rose to 35 degrees. With the curtains shut, windows open and fans running to try and move the air even a little, we might have got it down to 34 degrees. Even outside there was a slight breeze, but nothing inside. As I said, I enjoy the heat, but when it gets so that you can’t even sit still without sweating, it becomes an issue. Yesterday afternoon it was down to the early 20s by late afternoon, and I had hopes that this would transfer to our house as well. It dropped to around 29 degrees inside. Our place isn’t too old, I think from the 60s or so, but the insulation is non-existent. Of course, because we’re renting, the landlord and real estate agents have little care for our comfort, so it would be up to us to purchase air conditioning. Unfortunately, the portable air conditioning units are expensive to buy and run, and chew up electricity – which leads to a vicious cycle with climate change and emissions.

Now, obviously one early season heatwave itself doesn’t indicate climate change, the fact that it’s becoming more frequent, particularly in areas where it’s been unusual (far north or south of the equator), raises the questions of climate change and whether we are eternally doomed because of our pollution and emissions.

I believe that yes, there is such a thing as climate change and we are experiencing it, if only in the early stages. I believe we should be doing a lot more to stop the damage that is occurring and the irreversible changes. Just yesterday there was someone from a wilderness charity who stopped me in the street. She asked if I cared about the forests – and the obvious answer is yes, yes I do. However, if we’re going to save the planet, you’re going to have to do a lot more than tell us the forests are dying and can we please have a few dollars a month.

Every little bit helps, I believe that, but we’re at the stage now that without major support from the governments, we are in big trouble. A lot of the deforestation and water pollution that has occurred already is irreversible, and to prevent any more damage will take a huge amount of money and effort.