Hello Birdy

If you love birds like me, then I recommend you get a copy of the ABC TV show series Hello Birdy, hosted by William McInnes.

"In this six part series, William gets up close and personal with some of Australia's diverse bird-life. 
With his offbeat sense of humour, William takes us on a refreshing journey to observe Australia's incredibly rich bird-life and the people who work alongside it. 
From the iconic emu through to that expert mimic, the Lyrebird, you’ll never experience bird-watching quite like this."

Ironically, I just finished watching the series on the DVD that I bought from the ABC shop (because I missed it's run on ABC TV) and I just saw the movie Birdman today starring Michael Keaton.

"A washed-up actor who once played an iconic superhero must overcome his ego and family trouble as he mounts a Broadway play in a bid to reclaim his past glory."

Of course, the irony is not lost (and maybe it was the intention of the producers all along) that Keaton once played Batman years ago, as well.

William McInnes is also an actor and author, who has starred in the films, Look Both Ways, My Brother Jack and Unfinished Sky.
And written a number of books with his latest being The Laughing Clowns (I haven't read any of Bill's books yet).

I have written a few posts before on this blog about William's late wife Sarah Watt
Look Both Ways
Worse Things Happen at Sea, which was co-written and illustrated with photos taken by his late wife, the filmmaker Sarah Watt, describes their family life together as they face the news that she is terminally ill.

Bill being a Bower Bird and showing off
 his acting skills in Hello Birdy

Getting back to Hello Birdy though, if you are a bird lover, then this show is for you.

There are even some musical numbers in Hello Birdy, as well

A galah on top of a football stadium?-)

The mystery of the pissed parrot

Magpie waiting to attack in Hello Birdy

"There's a sucker born every minute".
Leech on Bill's lip

Cassowary

Bill trying to collect Emu semen in Hello Birdy

I've got to say after looking at that last picture with Bill and the emu, that I'm not that kind of bird lover;-)

Rod Taylor, star of The Birds, dies aged 84

On a synchy note, I saw Australian actor Rod Taylor, star of the movie, The Birds just passed away.

I only just realized reading a Wiki entry on William McInnnes that his first name is Daryl, so he is a Daz, too, (although my name is Darren).

He also played Senior Constable Nick Schultz in Blue Heelers and Schultz was my father's real surname before he took his stepfather's surname as his family name.

At the moment I'm reading Carrie Tiffany's book Mateship with Birds, which was a book I bought at this year's Byron Bay Writers Festival.

UPDATE: January 11th, 2015 

Not long after writing this post and mentioning Rod Taylor's passing and William McInnes playing  Nick Schultz in Blue Heelers, a blogging friend of mine wrote this latest post on his blog -

In Honor of departed pals Howard Schultz and Rod Taylor ...
 and even uploaded the film he made starring Rod Taylor.

I first corresponded with Rich Martini when I wrote about Angelina Jolie, who Rich meet on the set of the movie Salt, where he was assistant director for the movie -
The Flipside of Vanity

And he replied in a comment to this post I wrote a month later reviewing his book and movie Flipside -
"Flipside" - Richard Martini

Also on the subject of Angelina Jolie, Rich's last post before the one on Taylor and Schultz was about Angie's new movie she directed, Unbroken -
"Flipside" "Unbroken" and "The Great Zamperini"

The real weird thing too was that Angelina and Loui Zamperini were virtually neighbours, but didn't really know until the film was in production.
Watch the You Tube below to see how far apart their houses were from one another.