I’m testing whether I can post to my typepad blog from the OPML editor…
Cool! Its worked!
Just trying to see how the changes and tiltles work out
Happy New Year
Happy New Year, blog friends. A new year and my 300th post!
Last night I dreamed vividly (and I mean vivid physically!) of giving birth – one of those oops-I-need-to-push, and-I’m-in-the-supermarket-and, oh-my-goodness-here-it-is! births, and then a tiny crumpled gorgeous creature cupped in my hands! (maybe because I had seen the tiny animals on fingers photos?)! You will have to take my word for it that it was a good dream, though, and surely its auspicious to dream of giving birth on a new year’s day, don’t you think?
These are the draft drawings I did for the poster for The Moth Tree. I’m particularly fond of the one with the little girl in it.
I used some chalky pastels to do this, and I always forget what lovely effects they give and how much pleasure I get from using them. I should really draw more often, just for pleasure.
A while ago I discovered a lovely sculpture in the ANU, Winged Harvest by Fiona Foley, which has silver bogong moths. I didn’t give them a thought when I was doing the poster, but I really think there must have been some subconscious connection going on here.
(photo credit: Tim Raupach: Cutflat)
I oppose the death penalty
As I have said before. And even when it is a tyrant. It’s barbaric.
Penguin and Moomin stuff
Penguin books beat Time to the punch on focusing on you, the user. They have a series of classic books with blank covers, so you can do the cover illustration yourself. It’s a cool idea, and I might buy the Woolf or Austen if I saw one, but I’m not really tempted. However, it has lead me to drool yet again over the Penguin book mugs. I noticed Laura has one, and I am dead jealous! Maybe I’ll just go ahead and order one.
Puppet Up! – Uncensored in Australia
Puppet Up! – Uncensored is coming to Australia late in the summer, first to the Big Laugh Comedy Festival in Sydney in March, and then the Melbourne Comedy Festival in April. I’ve just been watching the video clip and it looks like it could be a lot of fun. The Age recently had a short interview about the show with Susan Provan, the director of the Melbourne Comedy Festival.
Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience: new slideshow
(Photo credit: Craig Sillitoe)
Today’s online Sydney Morning Herald has a slideshow of new photos by Craig Sillitoe about the making of Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience with a narration by their Head of Creature Design, Sonny Tilders.
Previously: Workshop footage, Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience
Satellite image of fire fronts in Victoria
This is a satellite image of the Victorian bushfires from the satellite NOAH/AVHRR at 10.15 am ESDT, on Dec 7 2006 (click on the image to see it full size). It was processed by Edward King from CSIRO’s Division of Marine and Atmospheric Research. The colours indicate green for forest, blue for smoke and cloud, and red for heat of 45 degrees Celsius and above. The squiggly red lines just to the left of centre are the actual fire fronts – amazing!
The fires were started by lightning over a week ago, and there is a lot of worry that in the extreme weather conditions expected this weekend, they will merge into a 100 km front. It’s scary stuff.
This all reminds me of Doc’s idea for a river of news site for bushfires. He was talking about California, but we could surely benefit from a similar site here. But I’m not sure how you go about setting up an aggregator like that.
A couple of other links:
Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment’s Statewide Map of Current Fire Incidents
NASA’s Earth Observatory satellite coverage
Smoke plumes: NASA satellite image : this was why it was so hazy in Canberra yesterday – the smoke was swept around and back over us at high altitudes
Sentinel Hotspots
The Moth Tree opens tomorrow night
Over the last while I have been involved in designing and making the set, costumes and puppets for Canberra Youth Theatre‘s production, The Moth Tree: An Awesome Adventure.
The Moth Tree is a quest story set in a distant place, in a quiet part
of the world, where the ancient and beautiful Algoma City lies. Since
the very beginning of time the city has been protected by moths that
grow on an enchanted tree. Until now the city has been a haven of
harmony and a place of gentle joy. However, a band of villains have
hatched a wicked plot to bring the city to its knees. All that stands
against the coming darkness are a ragged pair of unlikely young
heroes…
The play has been developed in a collaborative process involving the group of 8 to 12 year olds, the director, Tim Hanson, and the writer, Shiereen Magsalin, workshopping and developing characters and plot lines. The intention has been to offer the kids the experience of creating and presenting theatre, with a crew of professionals. We open tomorrow night! If you are in Canberra and have kids, why not take them along to some live theatre?
Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience: Workshop footage
Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience (see previous post) has released two videos of their awesome dinosaur puppetry:
Footage from the workshop
Torosaur v. Utahraptor
And here are a couple of stills from their newsletter.
Steg
in the workshop. if you want an idea of HOW BIG this shows going to be, check out the size of the person working on the BABY brachi in the background (seen through Steg’s legs) … remember, he’s the BABY!
Ankylosaurus in the workshop. To the right you can see one of the utahraptors in the making. There are two now in their final makeover stage and will be ready to wreak havoc with our first utahraptor who was one of the stars or the walking with dinosaurs launch, facing off with Torosaurus. (You can see someone behind the dino’s head, as an indication of scale)
I can see how you would come to call them affectionate things like baby Brachi and Steg if you were working on the build. I dare say they would have come in for a lot of swearing too! With only about five weeks till the first show in Sydney the makers must be under a lot of pressure.
