April Fool’s Day
Posted: November 23, 2012 Filed under: ART, AUSTRALIA, WRITERS | Tags: April Fools' Day, Australian memoirs, Bryce Courtenay, Damon Courtenay, deaths from AIDS virus, heartbreaking books, ode to a son, RIP Bryce Courtenay Leave a commentThis is how I will remember Bryce Courtenay. His book about his son Damon is heartbreaking.
Bryce Courtenay – ABC Radio interview
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When your dreams are dying hold tight
Posted: November 8, 2012 Filed under: COMEDY, Self improvement, SONGS, Thought For the Day, WRITERS | Tags: Australian literature, Blue Mountains, Cameron White, Dreams coming true, Evin Donohoe, Katoomba, New Radicals, Nicky Smith, The Eleanor Dark Foundation, The Writers' House, Tim Ferguson, Varuna, You get what you give 3 CommentsIn winter I spent a week at Varuna, the Writers’ House in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. My fellow comedy authors Nicky Smith, Cameron White, Evin Donohoe and the very cheeky monkey Tim Ferguson and I had a great time workshopping ideas for scripts, stand up comedy, YA novels and a sitcom, laughing, eating great dinners and drinking red wine (just a little bit on our cereal in the mornings). At Varuna I realised how my writing is almost as important to me as my children. My dream is to get my books published. I’m getting closer by the minute. I left Varuna inspired to continue my life of comedy, writing and clowning.
Whenever I think I’m not going to make it through the day or that life is just too hard, this song comes on the car radio
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Día de los Muertos
Posted: November 1, 2012 Filed under: LOVE, Parents, WRITERS | Tags: All Saints Day, All Souls Day, Jack Pollard, los angelitos, mexican holidays, remembering, Sonnet 30, The Day of the Dead, William Shakespeare Leave a commentWhen to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night,
And weep afresh love’s long since cancelled woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanished sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o’er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restor’d and sorrows end.
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He ain’t heavy
Posted: October 31, 2012 Filed under: AUSTRALIA, WRITERS | Tags: A friend in need, brothers, Lou Pollard, Roxbury Hotel, story telling, Tell Me A Story Leave a commentThis is a story I told in October at Tell Me A Story, a monthly event run by the fabulous Kathryn Bendall at the Roxbury Hotel in Sydney.
Lou Pollard – A Friend In Need
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I can resist everything except temptation
Posted: October 16, 2012 Filed under: ART, WRITERS | Tags: 1854, a lord of language, De Profundis, great Irish writers, Irish dramatists, Irish Writers, October 16, Oscar Wilde birthday, Rupert Everett, sorrow and beauty Leave a commentOne of my favourite writers, Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was born today. 20 years ago I visited his grave in Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris. I wanted to somehow be close to the man who had given me so much joy. Dear Oscar, we love you so, you are gone but never forgotten.
“I see when men love women. They give them but a little of their lives. But women when they love give everything”
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Raindrops keep fallin’
Posted: September 2, 2012 Filed under: SONGS, Theme Songs, WRITERS | Tags: American composers, Burt Bacharach writing partner, greatest songs of all time, Hal David, RIP Hal David Leave a commentVale Hal David
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The Divorced Lady’s Companion to Living in Italy
Posted: July 23, 2012 Filed under: Self improvement, Thought For the Day, TRAVEL, WRITERS | Tags: Catherine McNamara Writer, http://thedivorcedladyscompaniontoitaly.blogspot.com.au/, Indigo Dreams Publishing UK, The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italy 3 CommentsI just read a funny book and I think you should buy it. It’s Eat, Pray, Love without the whinging for smart women who’ve had a life or children or both, and are looking for an escape route. This is the fabulous first paragraph:
An old friend of mine named Jean fell through a tear in her marriage and landed on her feet. Jean met a solicitor from Milan on a singles trekking tour in Peru and packed her bags one autumn. She sold the house with its clutch of hydrangeas. Her adolescent children learnt Italian with ease. It was reported that at forty-four, Jean gave the Milanese man a chubby male love-child.
The author takes her heroine Marilyn on a journey through Italy after Marilyn discovers her husband is leaving her for a younger work colleague. Marilyn cuts loose, having fun away from her husband and children and re-discovering what Marilyn wants.
Definitely a witty book to read in bed!
Lungo Vive Uomini Italiani!
Catherine McNamara is originally from Sydney. You can read more about the author here:
http://thedivorcedladyscompaniontoitaly.blogspot.com.au/
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Finding it hard to get off the couch?
Posted: June 1, 2012 Filed under: ART, Self improvement, Thought For the Day, WRITERS | Tags: Annabelle Drumm, creative thinkers, Get off the couch, getting organised, kick up the bum, life coaching, procrastination, self help Leave a commentCan’t find your trackie dacks? Lost the remote? You’ve spent all day sitting in a milk bar and no famous Hollywood agents have discovered you?
I usually have a million things going on in my head, and creatively I’m the sort of person who has 47 projects on the go at any given moment. If I’d lived 100 years ago I would have needed a butler and a maid just to get me to the breakfast table.
I’m a single mother of three kids (driver, maid, washerwoman, servant) professional fool, speaker, writer and stilt walker and I wanted to finish writing my book, go overseas and get back to performing stand up comedy this year. I do not have a sherpa or a chauffeur (yet), so I went to see a life coach. A good one. One who helped me get my shit together (yes, it’s very technical this stuff). We set goals and worked out how I could possibly achieve them in the spare five minutes I have each day. And I now have a mentor for my book, I’m booked to speak at engagements this year and I’ve just been overseas.
So as Molly Meldrum would say, do yourself a favour. If you live in Sydney you can give her a call. If you don’t live in Sydney she’s on Skype. It makes sense to get someone who is very organised help you arrange the mad thoughts in your head (just me?). Especially if you’re a creative type. This is not an ad, it’s a recommendation.
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Nothing good gets away
Posted: May 25, 2012 Filed under: LOVE, Parents, Thought For the Day, WRITERS | Tags: 25 May deaths, advice from fathers, authors, Jack Pollard author, John Steinbeck, journalists, love, Nothing Good Gets Away, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck; A Life in Letters, tribute Leave a commentWhen I was 11 my Dad told me I had to read the classic authors, these included Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck. My Dad, Jack Pollard, was a writer and journalist and his favourite Steinbeck book was the Grapes of Wrath. I preferred Of Mice and Men, warming to Lenny and George at a young age. As my Dad died 10 years ago today I’m posting this beautiful letter written to Steinbeck’s son as a tribute to my Dad. Love you Papa Jack. I miss you every day.
New York
November 10, 1958
Dear Thom:
We had your letter this morning. I will answer it from my point of view and of course Elaine will from hers.
First — if you are in love — that’s a good thing — that’s about the best thing that can happen to anyone. Don’t let anyone make it small or light to you.
Second — There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you — of kindness and consideration and respect — not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable. The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn’t know you had.
You say this is not puppy love. If you feel so deeply — of course it isn’t puppy love.
But I don’t think you were asking me what you feel. You know better than anyone. What you wanted me to help you with is what to do about it — and that I can tell you.
Glory in it for one thing and be very glad and grateful for it.
The object of love is the best and most beautiful. Try to live up to it.
If you love someone — there is no possible harm in saying so — only you must remember that some people are very shy and sometimes the saying must take that shyness into consideration.
Girls have a way of knowing or feeling what you feel, but they usually like to hear it also.
It sometimes happens that what you feel is not returned for one reason or another — but that does not make your feeling less valuable and good.
Lastly, I know your feeling because I have it and I’m glad you have it.
We will be glad to meet Susan. She will be very welcome. But Elaine will make all such arrangements because that is her province and she will be very glad to. She knows about love too and maybe she can give you more help than I can.
And don’t worry about losing. If it is right, it happens — The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.
Love,
Fa
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I hope you’re dancing
Posted: May 21, 2012 Filed under: LOVE, Self improvement, SONGS, Theme Songs, Thought For the Day, WRITERS | Tags: 70s music, Bee Gees, disco, Robin Gibb, Stayin Alive, Thank you for the music, Vale Robin Gibb, Whether You're a Mother or whether you're a brother, You Should Be Dancing Leave a commentRobin Gibb died today. The boogie of the Bee Gees was a big part of my childhood. I loved their tight, white pants, their blow dried hair and their harmonies. So many musicians who were a shining part of my youth have died in the last few weeks and I want to say thank you for the music that kept me dancing and kept me sane. Thank you Robin Gibb for your beautiful voice, it will live on.
Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk, I’m a woman’s man, no time to talk.
Music loud and women warm.
I’ve been kicked around since I was born.
And now it’s all right, it’s OK.
And you may look the other way.
We can try to understand
The New York Times’ effect on man.
Whether you’re a brother
Or whether you’re a mother,
You’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive.
loupollard 