Monthly Archives: April 2009

junior pixels

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Introducing junior pixels…

space-prawn1

These pixels show the inside of Kitty’s belly.  They also sorta show what junior pixels, also known as space prawn, will look like when he/she arrives. It’s apt that all we know about junior pixels is what we can see in these pixels: pixels really have come to represent the very first stages of life.

We’re both crazy excited. The arrival of junior pixels will be a big milestone for our relationship, and will be the beginning of many adventures and good times ahead. I just need to ensure I don’t bore people too much with talk about babies.

We fly to Los Angeles on Friday morning. I just hope we don’t get swine flu when we’re there :(

lior with shadows and light @ the brisbane powerhouse

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We saw Lior play at the Brisbane Powerhouse on Thursday night (23 April 2009). It was yet another amazing Lior show, this time he was accompanied by a string quartet, a shadow artist Stephen Mushin, and a special guest who played a tabla for a couple of songs, which was really amazing.

Lior singing "I'll forget you" with Katie Noonan

Lior singing "I'll forget you" with Katie Noonan

The shadow artisty really made the show, it was simple yet so effective. It was projected on a round screen directly behing Lior. Originally Lior planned on having two shadow artists on tour, but he quickly had to change plans when of them gave birth very recently. Stephen Mushin did a really great job by himself, changing the screen in time to each song, with very subtle indicators of change.  The concept of shadow artistry can be seen in the film clip for Lior’s “I’ll forget you”:

All in all, it was a very enjoyable concert. Lior finished this two song encore with a brilliant instrument-less solo chant, which reminded me of Fajr we heard every morning in Malaysia.

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redefining wealth

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It’s definitely a confusing time for many people at the moment. I’m sure that a lot of people have started to realize their so called wealth during the boom years was really just an illusion, and like any illusion, it can quickly vanish. Many people who used to feel wealthy no longer actually are. Many people have started to question why they’re working longer, doing less things they enjoy and spending less time with their family and yet they’re no better off.

Most definitions of wealth are about abundant valuable material possessions, all of which are worth a lot less now. One of the positive outcomes of these times is that I think we’ll see a better definition of wealth emerge, wealth meaning we can lead a better life instead of just having a lot more shit.

rose-in-hands

In my opinion, being wealthy isn’t about:

  • owning heaps of shit and having to work 70 hours a week just to afford to pay for it all;
  • working so much that you need to pay others to care for your family whilst you work;
  • having a hugely expensive house that requires multiple incomes just to pay it off and constantly worrying about how much it is worth;
  • using your home equity as an constant ATM because it is suddenly worth so much;
  • owning the biggest and latest SUV to drive your children around in, polluting the planet and ripping up the roads whilst doing so;
  • having absolutely no savings, but heaps of assets (and debt) that supposedly only ever go up in value;
  • having no control over your life because all the decisions you make are financial and are about getting ahead.

To me, being wealthy is actually about:

  • having just enough to live comfortably;
  • having savings that enable you to make decisions about what is right/wrong;
  • being generous with your time and money, to make others lives better;
  • being able to spend time with your family;
  • being able to do things you enjoy as much as you like;
  • not trying to continually compare how much you own to others, just being happy with what you’ve got and what you do;
  • being happy that the value of your house stays the same, so you only make improvements for yourself rather than what you think will make it worth more to others.

So hopefully out of these tough times we will see  a new definition of wealth emerge, and once the dust settles, we can actually work at becoming truly wealthy, the kind of wealth that can’t disappear overnight.

Photo by Hamed Saber (Creative Commons)

fat freddy’s drop @ the northern, byron bay

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We saw Fat Freddy’s Drop live at the Northern in Byron Bay last Saturday night. They were really good, but not as good as last time I saw them in Brisbane, probably because they played mainly new stuff (unreleased) so I didn’t really know that many songs. It is probably a better idea to tour after releasing a new album, as that way the crowd can get into the new songs they know. It was a great night nonetheless.

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