He Knows No Other World . . . Storm Boy

I saw in a recent newspaper article (September 4th, 2017) that the "classic" Australian film 'Storm Boy' from the 70s is being re-made or re-told with Geoffrey Rush playing Mike 'Storm Boy' Kingley and telling the story from the perspective of a grown up looking back at his life.

Shawn Seet (L) will direct the actors, including
  Finn Little (C) and Geoffrey Rush (R).

Storm Boy remake with actor Geoffrey Rush about to start filming in SA Coorong

There's a storm coming?!

An advert from the same September 4th, 2017 newspaper

David Gulpilil is one of my favourite Australian actors and probably one of the most mysterious Australian actors to appear on a cinema screen.

David was in films like 'Walkabout', 'Crocodile Dundee', 'Australia', 'Rabbit-Proof Fence', 'The Proposition' and even 'The Right Stuff', which might be films more familiar to overseas readers of this blog.

But my favourite film of David's is 'The Last Wave' directed by Peter Weir, which I've written about before on this blog -

The Last Wave

My other favourites of David's would be 'Ten Canoes', 'Charlie's Country', 'The Tracker' and 'Satellite Boy'.

Although all of the films he has starred in are worth watching.

I watched my DVD copy of the original 'Storm Boy' a few weeks ago, as I hadn't watched it for years.

I guess the thing that I could relate to when I saw the movie in 1977 at the cinema was that I'm the same age as Greg Rowe, who played the lead role of Storm Boy and we both had the same haircut at the time and looked similar.

We don't look the same anymore though.

Greg Rowe, now and then

Greg Rowe (Storm Boy) looking back 40 years later

It's a pretty basic story to me and I only really like the movie for the scenery and the birds having had my fair share of pelican interactions, especially last year on my road-trips through Oz.

Black Friday/Black Swan Event in Canberra

A pelican getting ready for a
black swan attack in Canberra

I captured the above photo of a pelican and black swan squaring off on a lake in the heart of Canberra last year.

The premise behind the movie 'Storm Boy' is that if you kill a pelican it brings on a storm.

Oddly enough, I was down in Canberra waiting to go back to Sydney to see my side the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks take on the Melbourne Storm in the 2016 NRL Grand Final, which we ended up winning ... just.

This year the Storm won the Grand Final easily against the team who knocked us out this year, but we knocked out last year ... the North Queensland Cowboys.

Not in 2017 unfortunately for us Sharks supporters:-(

HORROR footage captured the moment a pelican – described as “psychotic” by viewers – attempted to swallow a shark in one gulp

My Happiest Birthday Ever

What goes around comes around I guess?-)

Me celebrating the Sharks Grand Final
 win against the Storm in 2016

I did see this pelican story above on the net on my birthday which was posted on my birthday this year, though.

And I saw this news story below about a pelican that was killed when it was tangled in fishing line not far from Sydney in September.

"ANGLERS have been urged to dispose of fishing line carefully after one of Narrabeen Lagoon’s familiar pelicans was found dead.
The bird was tangled in reams of the line at the beauty spot.
It was found by a Taronga Zoo keeper who believes it drowned after being unable to escape."

In fact, there were a lot of disturbing pelican stories in the news in September and not just from Australia, either.

"Pelicans are a familiar sight to anyone near Perth's Swan River and they're definitely hard to miss in the latest public artwork from Dutch-born artist Amok Island.

The internationally renowned, Fremantle-based artist is known for creating large murals that depict things of significance to their local environment in a minimal yet graphic style."

"The last TV show starring Snooki "ruined" Pelican Island, she said.
"What Superstorm Sandy didn't do to Pelican Island, Snooki did," Kosakowski said.
The "Snooki and JWoww Show" was filmed in the summer of 2013 in Sandy-shattered Pelican Island over the Township Council's and residents' objections.

But the ordinance the council was set to adopt didn't come in time to stop the filming.

Pelican Island residents had hired an attorney and filed an injunction.
"Snooki and JWoww" was a reality show that followed former “Jersey Shore” cast members Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi and Jennifer “JWoww” Farley.
In addition to noise, airbnb and Snooki, some homes that have not been properly repaired since the brutal Oct. 29, 2012 storm are being used by business owners with businesses in Seaside Heights for storage, she said."

Pelican Harbor Seabird Station in need of help after Irma

Watch: Aerial ignition operation on the Preston Fire west of Pelican Narrows

Disabled man, 48, was crushed to death by lorry when he fell into road from mobility scooter as he stretched to press pelican crossing button

Indigenous people march for recognition of holiday
"Against a backdrop of wedding photo shoots and tourists strolling Hermann Park, Oscar Gonzalez sat in the shadow of the Sam Houston statue with pelican feathers in his hair and red ochre painted on his face, beating a steady rhythm with his drum.
Gonzalez is a member of the Karankawa nation — native to southeast Texas — and organizer of the Rally and March for Indigenous Peoples Day Saturday.

The protest called upon City Hall to recognize Indigenous Peoples Day as a replacement to the federally recognized Columbus Day.
"America came here," Gonzalez said.
"We are indigenous to this place.""

“Native American Day” to replace Columbus Day in Tulsa

A pelican feather I found this year

How Many Birds?

Pelicans and Animal Dreams

"In her wonderful book Animal Life in Nature, Myth and Dreams, Caspari describes comments made by Carl Jung concerning pelicans.

She said about these comments, “Jung says that the pelican could illustrate the process of realization in which new insights emerge, die, go back into the unconscious and return again.”
When pelicans appear in dreams they can be powerful and meaningful images.

Just by their behavior alone, they represent an animal that absolutely needs the water to survive. The unconscious is often symbolized in dreams by water or the ocean.

Individuals, like the pelican, also need an intimate relationship to water (the unconscious) in order to live a balanced and whole life.
It is important to regard the animals, including birds, in your life and dreams as living images. They are “alive” with a psychic energy that may be necessary for your own psychological development. James Hillman (1997) said in his book, Dream Animals:
Animals wake up the imagination.

You see a deer by the side of the road, or geese flying in formation, and you become hyperalert. I’ve found that animal dreams can do this too.

They really wake people up.

Animal dreams provoke their feelings, get them thinking, interested and curious.

As we get more into imagining, we become more animal-like.

Not bestial, but more instinctually alive, and with more savvy, a keener nose and a sharper ear… (p. 2).
Whether you live by the Central coast in California or if you are fortunate to live in another part of the country where pelicans frequent, take some time to watch and study this great bird.

Pelicans have captivated us for thousands of years and hopefully will continue to do so for thousands more.

Be open to allowing the animals in your life, as Hillman says, to “wake up the imagination.”"

Pelican Water Provides Floridians Important Water Safety Information In Hurricane Irma Aftermath

Let's hope the storm on the horizon is just another small breeze coming our way, or at least nothing but more hot air.