Swan Lake

Last year I blogged about Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake (it's the one with the male swans) and I said I didn't think I could ever look at a traditional swan lake in the same way again.

Well last night I watched another Swan Lake - this time the Australian Ballet performing the Graeme Murphy choreography.

I've seen it before, in 2002, with Steven Heathcote, and in 2005? with Damien Welch. Yet still I love it.

This time it was the turn of Robert Curran and Madeline Eastoe to wow me, and they did. As always with this version it's the second act that captivates me. I could watch it over and over again.

As always the reviews point to the similarities between this story and that of Prince Charles, Princess Diana, and Camilla Parker-Bowles. Maybe it does, me I just love the swans.

The dance of the little swans, regardless of the choreographic version, always does it for me.

We took mum with us, she'd never seen it before and she sat mesmerised (could have been because we remembered to set her hearing aid to the hearing loop setting so she could hear).

The precision of the swans was excellent, all the dancing was above par - I would heartily recommend it to anyone.

Decluttering my PLN (or not...)

I was (re)reading a blog post about keeping your Personal Learning network (PLN) under control.

It basically talked about reducing the number of RSS feeds you have to a more manageable amount (numbers like 10 or 50 were being bandied about).

Unfortunately my PLN works differently to everyone elses and whilst reading about how to reduce the number of feeds I'm following I somehow ended up adding eleven more.

I think it's supposed to work the other way :>(

80 online resources for booklovers

From Kevin Bondelli's blog via Library queue

Just what I need - more websites to play with...

Quite a few here I didn't know about.

The 80 are divided into sections:

* Social Networking for Book Lovers
* E-books
* Online Bookstores
* Find the Best Prices for Books
* Audiobooks
* Study Guides and Summaries
* Library Resources
* Bibliography and Research
* Book Exchanges/Swapping
* Online Documents
* What to Read
* Miscellaneous

The list is quite 'americancentric' and just reading through the 80 resources I can think of a few more to add.

Bookjetty
Booktagger
Booktour
LitLovers
Booklamp

and will add more as I think of them

Chocoholics delight

I treated TappingBetty to morning tea at the Lindt Chocolate Cafe with my winnings from last night.



From there it was a short stroll to Circular Quay and a ferry ride to Darling Harbour (there was a St Patrick Day's parade in the centre of the city which we were trying to avoid) then a short walk to our hotel before heading to the airport and home.




We also stumbled across a shop called Library which sells womens fashions (and not as TappingBetty suggested clothes for librarians, or clothes to wear to libraries). From the look of the shop and the fact it is next to the Sofitel on Wentworth I would guess it sells clothes that this librarian can't afford :(

Spin the wheel

Rocky Horror was on at Star City Casino. After the show we exited via the casino where they had an instant win promotion on.

You swiped your card and if you were an instant winner you got to go up on stage and spin a big wheel (the sort of wheel they use on Wheel of fortune).

On the wheel there was one prize of $100, one prize of $50, and lots of small prizes of $5 bets and drink vouchers etc.

Anyway TappingBetty swiped her card - no luck. I swiped my card - instant winner. Went up on stage, spun the wheel and spun up the $100.

TappingBetty was heard to mutter that she doesn't know why she bothers entering these comps when I'm around (sour grapes I hasten to point out)

To claim my crisp $100 bill I had to fill out a sheaf of forms including one idemnifying Star City against legal action should I fall off the stage (I didn't fall off the stage btw)

Interesting aside - you fill out way more forms to win $100 at Star City than you do to win $1000 at Crown Casino in Melbourne.

Another interesting aside - at 1.30pm today I reached 26 years with TODETEM (aka CoBLS)

I deserve more that $100 for that...

It's just a jump to the left...

Well a complete change of pace from last night's musical theatre offering to tonight's.

A new production of Rocky Horror. With an awesome cast.

Frank'n'furter (iOTA)
Riff raff (Paul Capsis)
Magenta (Tamsin Carroll)
Columbia (Sharon Millerchip)
Eddie (Michael Cormack)
Brad (Andrew Bevis)
Janet (Kellie Rode)
Narrator (John Waters)

The star of this is undoubtedly iOTA - I saw him last year in Hedwig & the angry inch and was blown away by his talent - he is perfect in this as Frank.

Paul Capsis as Riff Raff, also excellent,he makes the role his own.

Tamsin Carroll as Magenta - also fantastic - it's rare for her not to be the standout performer (imho) but thsi cast is just so strong.

The time warp was done with energy and life - the encore version had the whole audience up and jumpinbg to the left.

At a tick under 2 hours long (including a 20 minute interval, it is one of the shorter musicals around but I could have watched them do the time warp all night.

The Hatpin

"When you're left with nothing, you try to hold onto everything"

The Hatpin is a new Australian musical inspired by the true story of Amber Murray an 18 year old unwed mother in Sydney in 1892.

Amber could not afford to look after her baby son, Horace, so she advertises for a family to care for him until she is able to. The Makins respond to her ad and Amber entrusts Horace to them - signing a contract with them, whereby she is to pay the Makins ten shillings a week for looking after Horace.

The story of Amber Murray and the Makins in 1892, is considered influential in bringing about awareness in Australian society of the need for welfare for single mothers and the need for an Australian Child Protection Act.

This was a superb musical. The sets were minimal (almost to the point of nonexistant), all the costumes were in shades of gray to represent the bleakness and the cast was awesome.

The cast received a much deserved standing ovation at the end of a highly emotional and well performed musical version of a significant even in Australia's history.

The cast included:

Peter Cousens
Barry Crocker
Caroline O'Connor
Melle Stewart

Will definitely go and see it again if it tours to Melbourne.