I was half way though my last beer when two young buskers set up in front of the cafe, he with a squeezebox and all of the brass, class and front of a seasoned performer, his younger sister hesitant and less assured. They rattled off a few tunes for the passing parade and received a few donations. As I finished my beer and wandered over to drop a Euro in their paper cup an old man stopped by and told them: “Vous êtes de vrais artistes …”
Posted in Art, Fun stuff, Music, Photography, Some places I've been, The Arts, The Northern Myth, Writing and writers
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Tagged 13th Congress of the International Society of Ethnobiology, Barcelona, coutellerie, Feria de Pentecôte, International Society of Ethnobiology, Le Cafe Riche, Montpellier, Nimes, Place de la Comedie, Rue des Augustins, Sala Apolo, south of France, squeezebox, Tomber la Chemise, Vous êtes de vrais artistes ..., Zebda
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Rue Cremieux is lovely in the pre-dawn, and not too bad later in the day when two old men strolled along the pave playing along on their trumpets … looking for well-earned tips for their Saturday tipple.
Posted in Art, Fun stuff, Music, Photography, Some places I've been, The Arts
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Tagged 12th arrondissement, 13th Congress, International Society of Ethnobiology, Montpellier, Paris, Rue Cremieux, Rue de Lyon, Rue du Bercy
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Basil is a kind and attentive host, particularly when evening scraps are his due. He might be ugly, scarred and with a bad case of bung-eye (I forgot to get some Golden Eye ointment for his conjunctivitis from the local clinic) that hopefully should be cleared up in a few days. He isn’t riddled with ticks and is obviously reasonably healthy – in mind and body. In all he is just a normal dog – except that he is (technically) homeless.
Posted in Animals, Camp Dog of the week, Dogs, Northern development, Northern Territory politics, NT local government, The Law, The Northern Myth
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Tagged Arnhemland, Basil, bung-eye, camp dog, Gulf of Carpentaria, NT
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The falcon was gone. A hundred birds were before me in the sky and on the ground. Here two Whistling Kites cruised downwind effortlessly away from the risen sun, doubling back with obvious efforts into the freshening breeze. Singleton Great Egrets rowed upstream against the morning breeze, all Omo white body and neck and black legs and beak. Torresian Crows – all beak and croaking caws – wandered in from their night roosts. Silver Gulls cruised downwind along the shoreline and Crested and other terns cruised offshore. There at ground level irregular ranks of Magpie Larks picked their way across the open grass in a score-strong horde, all black and white flutters and jumps as they grazed. Where one bird had dominated the morning landscape five minutes before, now everywhere was birds.
Posted in Animals, Bird of the Week, Birds, Birds and people, Ethnoornithology, Photography, Some places I've been, The Arts, The Northern Myth
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Tagged Australian Hobby, Falco longipennis, Great Egrets, Gulf of Carpentaria, Magpie Larks, Silver Gulls, Torresian Crows, Whistling Kites
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Arandic languages have a spelling system which takes a lot of getting used to – but the introduction to the dictionary is a real winner. It explains the system, demonstrates how sounds are made, gives respellings that will help English speakers, and even fuzzy spelling search clues. One thing I really like is the cross reference to words that sound similar arerre ‘collarbone’ and ararre ‘white bread’ are cross-referenced to help you distinguish between them.
Posted in Australian politics, Birds and people, Ethnoornithology, Fun stuff, Indigenous land management, Northern development, Northern Territory politics, Religion, Some places I've been, Writing and writers
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Tagged Aboriginal Australia, Aboriginal Languages Workshop, Alison Ross, Arandic languages, Endangered Languages and Cultures, IAD Press, Jane Simpson, Kaytetye, Kaytetye to English Dictionary, Myf Turpin, Stradbroke Island
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Warlock Ponds is just a few kilometres south of Mataranka and locals will tell you that on certain nights a ghost rider on a horse can be seen on the old bridge. If ever there was a night for the ghost rider it was last night that saw a blood-orange perigee moon rising over the [...]
Posted in Art, Fun stuff, Photography, Some places I've been, The Northern Myth, Writing and writers
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Tagged Francois Truffaut, Mataranka, Perigee moon, road-trains, Stuart Highway, Warlock Ponds
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April 16, 2012 – 10:51 pm
“It’s terrorism.” she says. “The croissants have to be refrigerated because Sydney Airport says that if they aren’t then they could be used by terrorists so we have to refrigerate them.” That comment went through to the keeper until “terrorism” & “croissant” fell together in the back-blocks of my jet-lagged brain as unlikely companions. “What did you say?” “The croissants. We have to heat them up because Sydney Airport says so. It’s a terrorist thing.”
Posted in Australian politics, Crime, Fun stuff, Some places I've been, Stupidity, The Law, The Northern Myth, Writing and writers
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Tagged Boeing 777, Cherry Creek, Darwin, Dazbog Coffee, Denver Airport, Denver Botanic Gardens, Holiday Inn, LAX, Society of Ethnobiology, Super Shuttle, Sydney Airport, terrorism, terrorists, Tom Bradley International Terminal, Virgin
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A real highlight for me was catching up with Amadeo Rea, whose magistral book “Wings In The Desert ” on the ethnoornithology of the Northern Piman peoples is one of my all time favourites. I’m looking forward to bringing my interview with him to these pages soon.
Posted in Aboriginal & Islander Art, Animals, Bird of the Week, Birds, Birds and people, Ethnoornithology, Fun stuff, Indigenous land management, Some places I've been, The Law, The Northern Myth, Uncategorized
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Tagged "Wings In The Desert, 35th Society of Ethnobiology, Abstracts, Aegotheles cristatus, Aguaruna, Amadeo Rea, Amazonian Bird Ecology, Australian Aboriginal, Australian Owlet-nightjar, Botanical Gardens, Colorado, Denver, Ethnoornithology, Eurostopodus argus, Fairbanks, Goatsuckers, Kevin Jernigan, Nicole Sault, Nightjars, Northern Piman, Peruvian Amazon, Peruvian Andes, Sally Glean Center for the Avian Arts, Society of Ethnobiology, Spotted Nightjar, University of Alaska, whose magistral book
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“Bad Law of the Week” will be an (ir)regular feature looking at my choice – or your nominations – of legal measures that are but should no longer be on the statute books. I can think of a half-dozen candidates off the top of my head. I’m sure that readers will be able to supply [...]
Posted in Australian politics, Crime, Northern development, Northern Territory politics, NT Police, The Law, The Northern Myth, The NT Intervention
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Tagged Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, Alice Springs Bar, article 27 of the ICCPR, Australian Parliament, Bad Law of the Week, Canada's Supreme Court, Criminal Lawyers Association of the Northern Territory, Ipeelee, Ipeelee's case, Justice Steven Southwood, Kim Hill, Law Council of Australia, Magistrate Michael Carey, Manasie Ipeelee v The Queen, National Native Title Council, Northern Land Council, Northern Territory Emergency Response Act, Northern Territory Emergency Response Review, Northern Territory Library, NT Library, Numbulwar, Paddy Dodson, Patrick Dodson, R v Wunungmurra, R. v. Gladue, Russell Goldflam, Sacred Site, Senate Legal and Constitutional References Committee, the NTER, Tony Fitzgerald, Tony Fitzgerald Memorial Lecture, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, [1999] 1 S.C.R. 688
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