One of the great pleasures of having a blog is being able to be self indulgent - This is one of those self indulgent posts.
As you may know I dance tango for pleasure, a great pleasure! Sure I’m still learning after 3.5 years but I think tango is one of the life passions that is all about learning and the journey rather than the destination. To that end I’m slowly, very slowly becoming enamoured by this most wonderful of dances. If you have no idea of what I’m talking about I suggest you go and watch Sally Potter’s The Tango Lesson and you may get some small idea of what I’m talking about… But that is not what this post is about.
On twitter I’ve made the acquaintance… (yes that’s right, a small friendship that is possible to be generated on twitter), with a quite spectacular musician in Sean A McGee and his ElectroTango (read nuevo style) music.
I must admit that when it comes to dancing Tango I tend to be a bit of a traditionalist (it’s what’s familiar), only occasionally dancing the more modern styles of tango that have become popular with Gotan Project and Carlos Libedinsky. But when it comes to listening pleasure I adore the electronic blends that are this style of tango music and I much prefer to listen to it over the traditional (Piazzolla and a few other excepted) music.
To give you a bit of a taste here is a player of some of Sean’s music. Click away and imagine being in one of those wonderful milongas in Buenos Aires, like the image above, when I was there last year, and the rich tapestry that is that city, that is the very heart of Tango.
The album Nebulosa is out in September so if you like his music go and buy it… go on, you know you’ll love it
Today’s Episode 54 of Your Story is about looking at what we are told regarding domestic solar power generation and how viable it is as an environmental and economic alternative to base load power generation such as coal, gas, hydro, geothermal and nuclear.
From a personal interest in energy and a desire to share what he knows with society in general and other members of the University of The Third Age (U3A), Ken Harrison has set about looking at the viability of solar generation and has come up with some surprising and disturbing facts relating to the viability of using grid connected domestic solar panels to augment and replace power generated by the coal fired power stations in New South Wales.
Ken’s interest in managing power developed while he was responsible for strategising the energy usage of the Australian National University immediately after the first energy crisis in the 1970′s. Because of his hard work, ideas and understanding of the use of power around the university he was able to reduce the ANU’s energy costs and consumption by elimination its usage of fuel oil in favour of electricity and by computer controlling that usage in the most cost effective and efficient manner. This hands-on understanding of energy usage in actual situations is the foundation of his interest in wanting to understand how the new system will work and how efficient it will be. Continue Reading »
I remember when the first Gulf War started in 1990 I thought “OhOh here it is, Armageddon, nuclear war, WW3, what ever” and I started to wonder if it was possible to run somewhere and go 100% self sufficient. What would we take with us? I composed a long list of what I thought was important and contemplated that for a while. Fortunately it never came to pass and we all went merrily on our way.
But this talk has just made me realise that I was completely fooling myself. There is no way I would have been 100% self sufficient. I was taking society with me and eventually if we were the only community(for argument sake) we would have consumed and exhausted what resources we had taken with us.
Matt mentions that today no one knows how to make anything. Bold statement I thought. I know many people who know how to make things, I include myself amongst them, then I got thinking…
Take a piece of timber furniture. Sure I know how to build a stool but do I know how to cut the tree or mill the timber? What about the tools that I would use to cut, mill and dress the timber? What about the chisels and hammer for cutting the joints and that is assuming that I don’t use any fixings or glue. Continue Reading »
In June 2009 I had the good fortune to travel to Buenos Aires to experience all that you can in such a short time and to partake of some of the Tango Scene from the city where Argentine Tango originated.
While I was there I spent some time with Tango teachers and performers Fabrizio Forti and Celi Arias in their home El Sol that is a tango studio and tourist accommodation for travellers to this city of 13 million people. I’ve already produced several episodes of my time in Buenos Aires while I was there but lately Fab and Celi were here in Brisbane and I thought that this was a good time to talk to them about the life they have in Buenos Aires, travelling and teaching and some things about the wonderful dance that is tango and how it is different to most of the other dance forms.
They were here in Australia conducting workshops and classes followed by a trip to Wellington for the new Zealand Tango Festival. I hope to get a copy of their performance for the Kiwis to show you very soon but in the mean time here is a video from last years festival.
It’s funny how people who have similar interests keep revolving around each other and are constantly mixing in the same circles. Even if they don’t necessarily know that they each exist.
Andrew and Trash Video
When I started Your Story on 2007 I modelled myself on Australian Story and Andrew Denton’s Enough Rope but before too long I started hearing about Richard Fidler’s Conversation Hour on Brisbane’s 612ABC radio. To my surprise I discovered that Richard and I are doing basically the same thing, conversations with people about their lives.
I have only listened to a few of his shows but I know that we happen to have had some of the same people on our shows. Frankly with the resources of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation including a producer to help it’s not surprising that he has harvested all the interesting people who live in our city. To that end, as I poke around to find some of the interesting people with my limited resources we are going to cover the same territory. Today is one of those situations.
As I write this I am listening to Richard interview Andrew Leavold from one of the most enjoyable episodes that I’ve had the pleasure to produce. You may remember Andrew as the passionate, hyperactive cult film video store owner, Trash Video here in West End where I live.
I thought it was time to get you up to speed on what I’ve been up to with Your Story and the new podcast Create Your Life Story. This is 18 minutes of me filling you in on developments over the last couple of months so you know that I haven’t abandoned Your Story and what I’m hoping to achieve in the next few months.
Create Your Life Story
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Over the last few weeks there have been quite a buzz in the skydiving community of Australia with the 50th Anniversary of the Australian Parachute Federation(APF) and Newcastle Sport Parachute Club(NSPC).
The latest APF National Conference is underway and a few weeks back NSPC had a huge week end of celebrations for their 50th.
Podcast Episode with Claude Gillard
Last night I was looking at a lot of images on the Facebook fan page for the APF and was reminded of the podcast episode I did with Claude Gillard two years ago. Claude was one of the early pioneers in parachuting in the late 50′s and president of the APF for 30 odd years.
Inspired from Your Story a New Podcast is now Online.
I’ve been very quiet these many months here on Your Story. I’ve been busy putting a few things in place, starting a new podcast and site. I have been a little bit head down getting everything done so to speak.
I mentioned that I recently spent some time with my uncle, Bill Kath where I recorded our conversations and published them on his own site to share his Life Story with our family and anyone who may come along from the greater community.
This inspired me to start a new podcast to help explain how the average person can now record, edit and publish an audio Life Story, then share that story with family and the world if they choose.
I have always said that Your Story is a personal passion and I would love, one day to travel a lot more and record stories from around the world. For three years now I have been learning and developing the skills needed to converse and produce audio while slowly going backwards financially. With Create Your Life Story I hope to create a podcast to allow me to develop an income that will give me the ability to continue to produce Your Story while helping others to gain some of the amazing benefits that I have seen from sharing personal Life Stories. Continue Reading »
Why do we have to live our life the way people and society says? Why can’t we make our own rules and if we’re happy with the results of our decisions isn’t that all that matters?
Ian Pettet has decided to live an unorthodox lifestyle. Not only is he studying Electrical Engineering at Queensland University of Technology in his 50′s but he has also chosen to live on a side street to the City Gardens that adjoin the Uni sleeping on his motorbike and living with his dog out of the trailer attached to the rear of the bike. Not what is normally thought of as student accommodation. This is the life style that Ian has chosen for the freedom that he gets from not requiring a high income and responsibilities that most of us feel that we can’t do without.
Most people would find this lifestyle challenging but Ian embraces it and with happiness and joy leaving me wondering if maybe there are some lessons here about what makes some of us truly happy. Continue Reading »
