Well, here are my comments on the terrible tragedy that is the premature death of Michael Jackson. I used to love him so much in the 80s! So much! Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad were on heavy rotation in my bedroom. He really was an integral part of my childhood and teenage years, fuelling my obsession with pop and dance music.
Some of my 80s memories of MJ are:
Getting Thriller for Christmas 1983.
Buying a Michael Jackson showbag at the Royal Easter Show! I can’t remember everything it contained, but I still have the little MJ address book. A quick eBay search found MJ tattoos were in the showbag.
Buying MJ badges when I went on holidays to Canada in 1984.
My cousin working for Pepsi when they sponsored the Bad Tour and getting lots of posters for the concert.
Seeing him in concert twice at Parramatta Stadium in 1987 for his Bad Tour. I’ll blog about this separately later.
I always had a soft spot for him after all this time. I still have a penchant for wearing the Bad Tour T-shirt every now and then. Every time one of his crazy antics were reported on the news, I would stop and listen. About 6 months ago, I watched a doco called Michael Jackson: What Really Happened which kind of gave me the heebie jeebies about him. The ironic thing was that someone said they hoped that when MJ died he would be remembered for his music and not being a child molester. Well, it looks like he has according to all the tributes coming in.
Do you know how many times a Michael Jackson song has saved a party? When no-one is dancing at a wedding, nightclub or whatever, all you need to do is play one of his many dance floor fillers and the next thing you know everyone’s going off. It works for me!
Where was I when I heard the news? Standing in my kitchen with the Today Show on. I think I stood there with my mouth open for 60 seconds. Luckily the Today Show kept going on and on about it for another two hours in case it wasn’t clear. It wasn’t until I came home that night and watched the 6pm news that it really hit me. Seeing the reaction of the media and people around the world really showed the enormity of the event. And yes, I’ll admit it, I shed a tear for the King of Pop, Michael Jackson.
Pretty awesome interactive web stuff here. One of favourite brands, the only trainers I wear. Join my party, I’d love to win a trip to LA and maybe I’ll take you with me. Check out my Last FM playlists to see what I play at home…
The Agony and Ecstasy of Phil Spector
The Sky Crawlers
We Live in Public
The September Issue
Red Cliff
24 City
No Impact Man & La Mangue
Valentino: The Last Emperor
I’m sharing a Flexi Pass with Toddles (no link, he has no web presence - he needs a blog). NB The SFF ticketing and general website is still crap. It does improve each year but they still haven’t got it right. eg Why do you have to click through several pages to see all the films offered on a particular day. Anyway, I’m still looking forward to checking out all these flicks in the next 2 weeks.
You may remember I started the Town Hall Steps project in 2008. In my lunch breaks, I’d take pics of random people waiting at Sydney Town Hall Steps. I haven’t really worked on it since being made redundant last year. Why? Too embarrassed to be seen around my old workplace? Moved on to other things? Unmotivated. I even have a better camera now than I did back then hmm….
Anyway, I was really interested in the Creative Sydney Festival coming up and received a call for entries for the Three Minute Sydney session. I decided at the last minute to enter. I didn’t really think they would pick me but I thought it was worth a try. Well they didn’t choose me, but they have told me they will be using some of my images at the Creative Sydney Salon Bar. So, I’m excited!
CREATIVE SYDNEY SALON BAR
The CREATIVE SYDNEY SALON BAR at the MCA’s Foundation Hall is the place to meet and mingle with Sydney’s most exciting creative minds. Join us Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 5.30pm until late.
I went to both days of Semi Permanent 2009 in early April but I never got around to blogging about it until now. Forgot my camera on the first day and forgot a pen the second day. So here goes (not that) briefly and a lot of point form.
Timba Smits from Wooden Toy Magazine.
I really liked Timba’s presentation, he was really personable and had a well prepared talk (that wasn’t too slick), he’s inspiring and insane (hand drawn type, doing a magazine that makes no money!). It was funny when he made the sign language lady sign the words: gimp gear! Other stuff he mentioned:
It is exactly one year ago today that I (or my position) was made redundant at ad agency X. I just noticed that at least 15 of the people in this staff photo do not work there any longer. I was so depressed when it happened. Obviously, if it happened to me today, it wouldn’t be so surprising. Boo for the GEC. Since then, I have done freelance and contract work, completed a Certificate IV, holding 2 different jobs and not paid myself any super for 12 months… geez, my life is so much better for it ;p
I went along to this Wardrobe Planning & Personal Style Workshop in March. After a year of trying hard to Compact last year, I’ve really gone the other way when it comes to buying new clothes. The seminar was interesting and it did well to include a group of about 15 really different aged and sized women. They really skimmed through the sorting out your wardrobe part. That’s something I have to work out on my own unless I pay for a personalised Wardrobe Consultation. Participants were asked to bring in an item from their wardrobe that they wanted advice on. I brought in a new pair of grey Country Road jeans that I bought (on sale) and tried to ask as many questions as possible in the few minutes I had with the stylist. Eg. How high should I take these jeans up to? Where is a good place to buy & get bras fitted? What is my body shape? There was a plentiful morning tea/lunch spread but hardly any of it was eaten. Maybe everyone was watching their weight??? The cost was $75 which I thought was a bit expensive, but I did find out that my body shape is rectangle, when I thought I was a small pear I also received a goodie bag which I wasn’t expecting. I think their peronalised service would be really worthwhile if I could justify the cost.
I sent another pic of this to www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/. I see stuff all the time that I want to send to them. This one I see every morning on the way to work at the college and I just had to get a photo of it. www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/
March is a special month in Australian Rozie world. My birthday is on the 2nd so I always have that to look forward to. Although I have been saying for years that I am “old”, I still look forward to my birthday. I’m not one to have a meltdown on my special day. It also officially marks the beginning of autumn, my favourite season. There’s the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras as well. I’ve been doing quite a lot this month so far, and of course taking lots of photos of everything I do. There were 3 different birthday celebrations, Mad Racket starring HMC on Mardi Gras night, Pivot’s secret gig at the Hopetoun, various meals of Sydney and Piper & Kris‘ 30th party. The majority of my photos go on my Flickr, but occasionally some will go on Facebook. The bad thing about March is it marks the anniversary of when my mum (Chinese Betty) passed away, so next week will kind of suck for me.
I also received a 
