What I've been working on.

I'm currently working on a paper about human rights abuses occurring in Papua New Guinea in relation to deforestation. I'm enjoying writing about something that I'm passionate about but when you write till a very late hour on some harrowing material it doesn't go down so well with someone who already struggles to sleep a whole night. If you would like to find out about the situation (condensed version) in PNG click here . I will post my paper when I've completed it (or parts of my paper).

come along!

This Saturday April 27th, the 400 delegates to the Australian Labor Party National Conference will vote to discard or retain the long-standing No New Uranium Mines policy.

Join the public lobby to stop an expansion of uranium mining this Saturday 12-2pm.

We need to send a strong message to the ALP that we don't want a policy U-Turn.


No U-Turn: No expansion of uranium mining

The ALP's No New Mines policy recognises uranium is a unique mineral with drastic implications and risks. After fifty years in the global nuclear industry, there is still no safe way to store radioactive waste. Uranium deserves special status. The current policy recognises this and should be retained.

The vast majority of Australians do not want Australia to go further down the nuclear path. 66% of Australians believe there should be no new uranium mines opened in Australia, and 78% of ALP voters don't want new uranium mines in Australia or want uranium mining stopped altogether (Newspoll, 30 May 2006).

Uranium directly leads to radioactive waste and nuclear weapons. It is not clean, safe or needed. Leave it in the ground!


Uranium: No Solution to Climate Change

Australian people deserve a genuine alternative and strong leadership in the face of climate change. The argument put forward by the Howard Government that we need to expand Australia's nuclear industry to combat climate change is not credible. Nuclear power is too slow, too expensive and too dangerous to be an answer to climate change.

The ALP should continue to be part of the broad opposition to Howard's nuclear push. Any changes in this policy would create more similarities, rather then alternatives between the Coalition Government and the ALP.


Join the action to lobby the ALP Conference

Join community members from environment, community, peace and union groups to retain the ALP's uranium policy.

Join us Saturday, April 28th, 12-2pm for the Rally, Speakers and Public Lobby .

At Darling Harbour Convention Centre, front entrance

Places you should go...

This Band - The Boom Band Krewe

This launch party -this Saturday - we'll be there - as will Alex playing 80's tracks trad style with a sousaphone and banjo player (you will have to see to believe). We are very excited to be part of this project and can't wait to see where it will go. Come along and sign -up to become a 'Friend of The Earth'.

This Caberet show for the performance of your life - and I am not biased because my friend is in it - it is seriously magical.

This website - I am currently addicted to.

The album that changed my life

being the little copy cat that I am I'm going to use the above title taken from a FRANKIE magazine editorial and start raving.

(PS If you feel like sending me a title - i may meet the challenge and come up with a blog entry to match)

Album that changed my life? mmm I feel the pressure to say something really cool here but not necessarily truthful. Because there are some people that that I listen to these days that may be considered cool by some.... I'm goona go with the truthful option and am prepared to loose any shards of 'cool' I had going for me.

I am internally debating 'Martika's Kitchen' -just because it was the first album i ever owned... but na, didn't exactly change my life.

OK I'm going to delve into the time of my life that was Ben Harper "Welcome to the Cruel World". Think high school, think big crushes, think intense year 12 major art works, think Bens.

The Summer of 1997 was the year I discovered Ben Harper. and it was not really a surprise that I fell in love on first listen - he was after all the fourth 'ben' crush I had had that summer (sadly there was a succession of ben crushes to follow into my uni years - thank goodness i married an Alex.) My gorgeous friend Ivy first coined the term "there is always a Ben" first it was in relation to my crushes, but then the saying seemed to embody all boys that were slightly bewildered by life and generally had that 'oh please show me what it's all about" look about them. It got to the point that when i met this guy on a train and when he said his name was ben i said (out loud) 'of course it is'

anyway back to Ben Harper.

Wow This album was and is pure magic. There was blues, soul and humour and suddenly it dawned upon me that there was a whole world of country style music that was actually OK - that was not like the music that I heard down the main street of my hometown during country music festival. suddenly country could be cool and lightening bolts descended midair. I was changed never to return to my smashing pumpkins cranberries loving faze again. The best bit about this album was that he sang about 'issues' and yeah well... I was a teenager and that was my job right, to love all things intense an 'meaningful'?


I used to go to sleep every night to 'waiting for an angel',This guy sang me 'walk away' at a festival (for all i knew he could have been a ben too), and i danced around the art room to 'we will rise'.

Sadly my ben harper experiences plateaued when i saw him live twice - O be honest! my affection was waning and i was more interested in the guy i was standing next to (Alex) than with Ben Harper.

then ben harper ... well ... in my opinion... got crap/sold out and I discovered other 'country' albums like M Ward, Iron and Wine, Calexico and more recently The Be Good Tanyas and Jolie Holland and now I seem to be progressing to dirty grubby raspy country rock and haven't really looked back.

but thanks for the memories to all the Bens and ben wannabees.

so how bout you tell me about the album that changed your life...