Oaistar.

Some time ago, I had a request to use one of my photographs for some of the art on a new CD by French rock group, Oaistar.

I replied 'why not?' provided they agreed to abide by a Creative Commons license and that they fling a couple of CDs my way. I didn't really think about it again until I received an email from Caroline, the instigator, asking for my address. A week later, I'm the chuffed owner of CD's and other band merchandise. the CD features a photograph of a Madonna mosaic that I took at Lourdes, France in 2002, and whilst I might be biased, I think it looks great. As for the music? Well, I barely understand a word of the lyrics (Aussie tourist French aside), but I love it!

Lots to say, just freakin’ busy.

So busy, in fact, that I seem to have neither the time, nor the inclination to post here.

In a list-shaped nutshell, a small sample.

• we are moving back to Australia in January (that's only six weeks away!)
• until this morning, our house was a mountain of boxes, bags and full garbage bags.
• Marley is almost 3 months old. He grows out of his clothes overnight it seems.
• I'm most impressed with his flatulence skills. I won't swear to it, but I think he might have started adopting the famous Griffiths leg-raising technique.
• Tricky continues to amaze me with her mothering skills. And she's pretty good with the baby, too.
• we said goodbye to an old friend, Max, the Best Dog in the World.
• its turning very cold here. A bitter Winter comes. Even more reason to look forward to some Southern Hemisphere sunshine.

I'll try to elaborate on some of these later. I feel at the rate I'm going, that won't be until we are back in Australia.

Welcome to the Land of Pooh.

What a month its been. Little Snowy is five weeks old tomorrow.

I'd almost forgotten what a good night's sleep was like (until he started sleeping five, six or seven hours overnight – I'm told by other, more experienced parents that this is not allowed and is against the new parenting rules) , Tricky and I are up to our necks in pooh and wee filled nappies (his pooh now looks like peanut butter. Crunchy. That's just for info), we are discovering he has the countenance of true little Virgo ("This isn't the way things usually are, this goes here, that goes there, you're doing that the wrong way, I know a better method, and I'll quietly protest until you get it right." Well, maybe not so quietly) and we are still getting used to generally having another human being around (albeit a bald, 54cm one whose routine at the moment, apart from quite a lot of eye contact, and maybe even some smiles, is eat, sleep, gurgle, wave arms and legs, repeat) but we just love him so much. Its impossible to explain any better than that. Ask any new parent. Its love.

He babbles incoherently and gesticulates wildly. He’s an eating and sleeping machine.

Yet I can't stop staring at him in wonder. He needs me and loves me unconditionally. He holds my heart in his tiny hands. I would do anything for him and I am completely smitten. Six pounds fifteen ounces. Born from the love of my life on September 14th, 2005. Welcome, Marley 'Snowy' Lewis.

Antony and the Johnson’s who?

The £20,000 Mercury Prize is a UK music prize which essentially is awarded to what is considered the UK 'Album of the Year'. The nominations are usually wide-ranging and include many genres but tend to focus on indie or alternative music and this year was no different (Cold Play's "X and Y" aside.)

This year the prize was awarded to Antony and the Johnsons, a group led by Chichester, England-born Antony Hegarty who has lived in the United States for 20 years. Some pundits have criticised the British award being given to what is really an American group. The members live in the US and the album was recorded in New York. Fellow nominees, Kaiser Chiefs, also criticised the original nomination although they now deny that on the Kaiser Chiefs' website. (much as I like the Kaiser Chiefs, I had to laugh at their website. Ringtones is the very first menu item. Not music, not gigs, but ringtones. WTF?) The award has boosted Antony and the Johnsons' album sales by 900 percent on Amazon and it is in the top 5 downloads in both album and singles on the UK iTunes. Nevermind the fact I have barely heard of them, aside from seeing them briefly on a TV music news channel (I didn't care for Antony's torch-song vocal style), the group is signed to UK indie label, Rough Trade Records. They have a great roster of artists including one of my current faves, Hal (where were they in the Mercury nominations?) Check them out. I saw a few of the award show's live performances and a highlight for me was KT Tunstall. She did a unique solo acoustic version of her song "Black Horse and The Cherry Tree" with voice, acoustic guitar, tambourine and she also sampled vocal grabs for backing. Well worth seeing if you can find a copy.