The World's Gone Mad? Oscar Night 2016

There certainly is a great selection of social issues covered in the films in the 2016 Oscar lineup. 

I mean if fighting over and controlling the world's oil resources isn't bad enough, what happens when we start fighting over the world's drinking water? 

At the end of The Big Short it was revealed that Christian Bale's real-life character is investing his money and betting on the world's water resources. 

Hmm.

Mad Max: Fury Road also spells out that it's not only oil that future wars will be fought over, but also the fresh water.

Maybe it's time to really get going green instead of gold?

There are a lot of issues in the 2016 Academy Awards in the Spotlight and it's good to see them not getting swept under Hollywood's Red Carpet for once.

 Let's not worry about life on Mars when we should be more worried about life on earth at the moment.

Will It Be a Lovely Day for George on Oscar Night?

I have to say that my heart is divided on who should get the 'Best Director' Oscar tomorrow night.

Having seen most of the films up for grabs this year, I have to say my favourite is The Revenant and it should take away 'Best Film', but I think it is 50/50 when it comes to 'Best Director', as I personally think (and do remember I am an Australian, so my vision may be a bit clouded here;-) that Mad Max: Fury Road would have been a slightly harder film to direct than The Revenant, especially when George had to put up with that little prima donna Quentin Kenihan, who played Corpus Colossus.

Kenihan didn't get the name Dr. Plonk from starring in a movie of the same name, he got it from turning up legless on the set of  Mad Max: Fury Road every morning and complaining to George that his bar fridge's premium Champagne, which was full the night before, was now empty. 
And that thousand dollar- a- day cocaine habit of his is fairly evident in this recent You Tube filmed in a bathroom no less (favourite hangouts of Coke-heads) where Kenihan doesn't even hide the fact he is sniffing Coke through his cocaine dispenser.

It's quite clear that Q is a member of the Russell Crowe Rat-Pack, as well, as on the back of Kenihan's wheelchair can be seen the South Sydney Rabbitoh's white rabbit, a sure sign of a man with a big drug habit who is always chasing the white rabbit.

And let's be honest here, Q only was kept in this movie because of the implied threat with that white rabbit on the back of Quentin's wheelchair that Russell Crowe would not be happy if his little drinking buddy was dropped from this film.

George was well aware that 30 Odd Foot of Grunts (did I spell that band's name right?-) could easily turn up at George's next backyard BBQ and make life in his neighbourhood quite unpleasant on the ears.

George Miller

Now, if George doesn't deserve the 'Best Director' Oscar for working under pressures like that, which can probably not even be surpassed in horror by Leo's bear attack scene in The Revenant, then I don't know who does deserve that Oscar.

But all joking aside, (that wasn't a joke about Russell's band though;-) Happy 40th Birthday Quentin, I love ya and I wish you and the gang from Mad Max a night (Monday morning in Australia) of gold.
My tips for tomorrow -
Best Film - The Revenant.
Best Actor - Eddie Redmayne.
Best Actress - Kate Blanchett
Best Director - George Miller.
Best Supporting Actress - Rooney Mara.
Best Supporting Actor - Christian Bale.
Best Animated Movie - Anomalisa.

And don't blame me if you are stupid enough to put money on those tips of mine.
Cheers and I'll be watching the event live in a Brisbane cinema cheering you and the Mad Max gang on to a lovely day hopefully Q.

The Art of Patti Dragonfly

Images of my favourite lighthouse on Cape Byron, New South Wales

When I was down at the Somara conference a few weekends ago I came across these calling card paintings on the counter when I was buying some prints that I was after.

I hadn't taken any notice of the artist's name until yesterday when I flipped one of the cards over to see where I could buy some prints off the artist if I wanted to.
And since I had written a post about the Dragonfly and transformation and used a butterfly print of what I now know was Patti's in that post, I found it amusing to learn this artist went under the name of Patti Dragonfly.

Quilted Celtic Butterfly hanging
 - linoblock print

A Dark Night of the Soul?

I  found this dragon fly GIF at Patti's Facebook page with the following quote -
"The dragonfly, in almost every part of the world symbolizes change and change in the perspective of self realization; and the kind of change that has its source in mental and emotional maturity and the understanding of the deeper meaning of life."
That quote seemed to resonate with me, as well. 

Blue Dragonfly cushions
 - linoblock print

I was attracted to this painting pictured below in the art gallery at Starseed Gardens of the birds flying around Cape Byron and the lighthouse.

I had just read a passage about condors being the highest-flying birds in the world in the book of shamanism I was currently reading and while we don't have condors in Australia the above painting made me think of condors flying around the most easterly point of land in Australia and me coming down to Byron Bay to spend the weekend at a shamanic conference there.

I'd rather be a sparrow than a snail? 
Sparrow/Self-Reliance Syncs 
The only reason I knew about the Somara shamanic conference was because I saw a newspaper article in the Echo about a Peruvian painter, Luis Tamani.

I got to meet Luis, but he only spoke Spanish and I only spoke English, so it was more just a nod, a wink and a smile and me watching him paint in the gallery at Starseed Gardens.

I did buy a print of Luis Tamani's, which I have now framed and in my living room to remind me of the weekend that I saw him painting at Somara.

My framed print of Luis Tamani's sitting in my living room

Luis Tamani being presented with a hand made flute at Somara on the final day of the conference.

I also liked the linocut print of Patti's of inside the lighthouse looking down the spiral staircase of the Cape Byron lighthouse.

Start of the spiral staircase
to the top of the lighthouse

Guiding Higher Light
I will have to drop in and take a look around at Patti's artworks next time I'm down in Byron Bay.  

A Déjà vu News Story Greets Me This Morning

A snake was spotted with a possum in its
 mouth in Brisbane's suburb, The Gap

I saw this news story on the ABC news website this morning -
'You could hear the cracks': Snake eats possum in Brisbane
"It is not everyday that you see a snake eating a possum in broad daylight.
But that is exactly what greeted passers-by this morning on a walking track in Brisbane suburb The Gap.
One of the witnesses to the display, ABC employee Jane Clark, spotted the snake with its mouth wrapped around the possum and stopped to take a closer look.
"It must have constricted the possum to death before I got there," she said.
"As I arrived I saw it's mouth opening over the possum. 
"You could hear the cracks of the possum's body as the snake consumed it.""
and it took me back to my own memories of witnessing a snake eat a possum that I came across on a bush-walk not far from Brisbane (The Lamington National Park). 

The carpet python I saw on my bushwalk, eating a possum.

I wrote about it in this post and posted my own photos -
Stillways: A Memoir
And yes, you can hear the bones cracking as the snake constricts the possum to make it easy to swallow.

Opportunity?
 Talk about photo opportunities when it comes to snakes and possums:-)

The carpet python I saw on my bush-walk, eating a possum.

I should also mention that I took out a one-month free trail of Netflix yesterday and started watching the TV series Zoo, about animals turning on humans after developing some kind of group mind.

I only watched two episodes, but I was impressed to hear the name Andras in the second episode titled 'Fight or Flight' -
Pigs on the Wing?
Andras is a name I haven't heard all that often, apart from my American friend who told me about the band 'Pigs on the Wing' doing the 'Dark side of Oz', which inspired my 'Pigs on the Wing' post. 

Jackson Oz is also the name of the main character in the TV series Zoo.

A Great Little Tiny Book

This book is only about 30 pages in length and it's about 5x4 inches in page area, but this is a little book that is worth a read ... and it won't take you too long at all.

 I like Carolyn North's theory on synchronicity and it pretty much matches my own in that synchronicity is more about connections and connecting to other things, places and people at the right time with the universe's/God's help more than about personal gain and guidance, but these can also be side benefits when we follow our hearts and back our intuition and go with that flow. 
One for your bookshelf and it won't take up much space on it at all.

A Dark Night of the Soul?

I wrote of attending Daniel Pinchbeck's talk at the Somara conference on Friday February 5th, 2016 in this post - 
Are the Owls What They Seem?

His talk was titled, 'Breaking Open the Future of Humanity' and while I enjoyed the talk, I couldn't help thinking that the tone of it mirrored so many groups that I know of and reflected where they all seemed to be heading in 2016.

Daniel Pinchbeck's  

How Soon Is Now (excerpt)

Most of the so-called "groups" I'm writing about here, while showing tremendous promise a few years back seem to be fragmenting and stagnating and questioning their way forward as a group in 2016.

I couldn't help thinking of the #16 Tower tarot card being a good representation of the year 2016, as a lot of groups seemed to be falling apart, or trying to rebuild themselves in some way, with a hint that they may not be able to or want to put themselves back together.

When I had bought my Somara weekend pass a few weeks ago at early bird prices and booked my motel room on the beach at Byron Bay I thought I was in for a really good uplifting weekend, but after the Pinchbeck talk and because  of a rescheduling of the talk after Dan's I thought that was enough for the night, as far as Somara goes, and I would have an early night and head back to my motel room and try to finish the two books I had bought down with me for the weekend to try and finish.

My two books on my motel beside table

The book I really wanted to finish that weekend was Lightning in My Blood, a book on shamanism, the other was a book on Synchronicity that was recommended to me by someone who hadn't even read it.

The funny thing to remember here though, before I go on, is that before I saw the Dan Pinchbeck talk that night I got to view and buy some tremendous artworks that were on display at Starseed Gardens.

They mostly involved images of transformation themes and I quite liked the blue dragonfly and butterfly prints, but I had a bias towards the dragonfly for many reasons, some were because the dragon is my Chinese zodiac, and also my wife loved collecting butterfly and dragonfly nick-knacks and putting them together as images of transformation and I thought it was ironic because dragonflies eat butterflies, and since she walked out on me I now see the dragonfly as my symbol of "he who has the last laugh", while transforming into something much stronger in spirit. 
And my favourite colour is blue, although a more turquoise shade of blue than the shade that the dragonfly print is on.

I also couldn't help thinking how the planted winged seed that was the symbol of Somara this year, looked like a dragonfly.

With the rain bucketing down outside my motel room and the prospect of a walk along the beach in the morning seeming unlikely, I looked through my Saturday programe for the Somara conference and thought none of those talks looked interesting to me and I wasn't going to go.

The Saturday programe for the Somara conference

Instead, I had decided since I was down here that I would head 23 kms down the road and visit the town of Ballina, if the rain eased up a little.
I wasn't even sure if I was so interested in Sunday's programe either, now in the gloomy mood I was in, but I wanted to pick up a print from the art shop, so I decided that I would go Sunday.

Sunday's programe

And looking out of my motel room at the rain falling I couldn't help but feel I was like one of those caged owls looking out of my own caged life, at the moment.

Are the Owls 

What They Seem?

I picked up my book on shamanism and started reading and although I had enjoyed most of the book so far there was one chapter where James talked about a visit to a "shaman" in Peru who rubbed a black Guinea Pig all over him and then skinned it with a knife, just to fix James' hurt back, or some minor pain. 
This really pissed me off when I read this barbaric act which to me was NOT an act of shamanism, but primitive superstition, which I could in no way condone. 

Guinea Pigs at the Animal Farm on Friday

As coincidence would have it, I had come across some Guinea Pigs that day at the Animal Farm and had already read a bit of the chapter about the Guinea Pigs before heading to Byron Bay the night before.
This just pissed me off even more that James would include this act in his book on shamanism.

I threw James' book on my bedside table and picked up the other book on Synchronicity that I had purchased and started reading that instead and read through the old Jung and the scarab beetle story which I had heard about a thousand times in my life already.
Chris Mackey explained that the scarab beetle was a sign to Jung of transformation and in my dark mood with the rain pouring down and my air-conditioner wining away, and me not even being able to hear the soothing waves crashing on the beach not far from my motel room, I thought I was sick to death of reading about Jung and his stinking dung beetle, why couldn't it have been a butterfly that Jung saw instead of that stupid beetle, or better still a butterfly being eaten by a dragonfly? 
Now that would be some symbols of transformation I would take notice of after tonight.

I put that book on my bedside table and just stared at the blank TV screen thinking why did I think I was guided down here this weekend to the same motel that held some truly great memories and started me on my sync journey? 
Behind the Door at Byron Bay
To me this weekend (apart from the zoo visit) was turning into the exact opposite of my past visits to this motel.
The TV reminded me of the Monolith out of 2001, so I took a picture of it and with my reflection in it thinking mankind is just still a bunch of apes even with all this so called technology and I can't see much hope for humanity at present with the way things are going on this planet.

I decided that I had had enough of reading for the night and didn't feel like turning on the idiot box to try and find something to watch for the sake of watching something.

So, I got up to turn off the overhead light that I had been reading under on the bed and noticed the painting over the bed of the beach I was hoping to walk along tomorrow morning, if the rain eased up (which it didn't by the way).
More irony I thought, just keep taunting me why don't you?

My motel room with the lights out

In the darkness of the room, I couldn't help thinking how funny it was that the blue light on the air-conditioner and red light on the TV were like something was offering me the red or blue pill choice like in the movie The Matrix.

I couldn't sleep, so I got up and turned the overhead light on again and read some more of the synchronicity book.
Chris Mackey then was relating about Joseph Campbell and the praying mantis in his book which reminded me of my unusual experience when reading about that story about Campbell when I was reading Grof's book, which I wrote about in this post linked below -
When The Impossible Happens ... to Me
That brought back memories of when I thought life was on track and was heading me somewhere through all this weirdness. 

My praying mantis sync

I was tired of reading and decided to put the book back on the bedside table and turn out the light once more, but as I put the book on the bedside table, I caught something out of the corner of my eye and at first thought it was another praying mantis, but it was a baby dragonfly just sitting on the wall.

The baby dragonfly next to my bedside table
 in my motel room.

I thought if I should try and take a photo with my cell phone before it flew off, and really thought that I had no chance of getting a shot off.

It just stayed put, letting me take as many pictures as I liked, flash on, or flash off.

Even when I awoke at eleven past three in the morning the dragonfly was still on the bedside table and still alive.
But by morning the dragonfly was gone and I couldn't find it anywhere.
Normally I would have taken the dragonfly outside, but because it was torrential rain outside for most of the night I left the dragonfly where it was, as I thought it would fare better inside the room than outside.
It's a mystery to me whatever happened to it, though.

And by morning the weather had not improved much at all, certainly not for a walk on the beach.
I didn't bother going to Somara on the Saturday, I headed to Ballina in the rain hoping the rain would blow away.
And it did briefly, but was soon back to its torrential self, so I bought a six pack of beer and headed back to my motel room and watched my team the Sharks progress through the Auckland Nines football tournament, since my room had cable, which I didn't have back at my house, so the day wasn't a total loss after all. 

And while my team did alright on the Saturday in Auckland I was still on a bit of a life downer, so it made me chuckle to see the sponsor of the Nines was a company named Downer;-)

Oddly enough, when I was writing about the Auckland Nines I found a notification about Halfasheep's new You Tube on occult Auckland, so I thought I would include it above, as it was a bit of a synch although I haven't even had time to watch it yet.

Sunday, leaving my motel and
heading for the last day of Somara

So, Saturday was spent in my motel room all day watching football and reading books and come Sunday I left my beach-side motel without ever setting foot on the beach, but I did head back to the Somara conference and spent most of the day there before heading back to Brisbane ... but that's for another post.

Sunday heading to the Somara conference
 in glorious rainy conditions.

Izzy Ivy Art

http://www.izzyivy.com/

Oh ... and if you would like one of those cool dragonfly prints then Izzy Ivy is the artist who makes them.

My new desktop background for my computer