Lemon Meringue Pie

I made this video for fun a while ago ... two robots (one quite tetchy) discuss a recipe for lemon meringue pie.

Some lovely videos

While in W.A. recently at the Denmark Festival of Voice, I had the chance to see some wonderful performers ... here are some of my favourites, for when you have a rainy afternoon.

The Pepperjacks - incredible playing and stunning harmonies


Kate Wilson - an awesome beat poet, makes paintings with words


Penny Larkins and Carl Pannuzzo - just listen, it's so beautiful...

The Trouble with Teleporting

My favourite conversation from the Denmark Festival of Voice. We bumped into a couple of our friends in a cafe:

Monica: We've just been saying that what you really need at a folk festival is a Tardis. It gets you to all the different gigs you're singing in, plus it's somewhere to get changed.
Me: Yes. That's the advantage of a Tardis over a standard teleporting machine - somewhere to get changed.
Clive: Plus, when you teleport, you risk turning up as a fly.

So true.


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Ironfest

Here's me with an old friend, at Ironfest in Lithgow a couple of weekends ago:

The pic was taken at an exhibition by the Sydney Robot Workshop, a club for people who want to build robots. Awesome!

Although it was freezing, Ryan and I had a great time at Ironfest. We performed in a friendly venue, The Shed, tantalised by the smell of delicious coffee and chocolate brownies on display at the cafe. Thanks Ian Walton for the first pic below, and Ian Moore for the second! :-)


Meanwhile, outside on the oval, people dressed up to recreate famous battles, while others displayed their artwork in stalls. The costumes from all eras were amazing, but as previously established on this blog, I am a poor excuse for a photojournalist, and spent my time gawking instead of taking photos.

What I did manage to get, however, is a pic of the Reapers. Representing the forces of darkness, they had a motorbike-jousting battle with the friendly mortal Knight Riders in an attempt to steal the souls of everyone on earth.

(You'll be relieved to know the mortals won!)

A big cheers from Ryan and I also to the Brothers Three, who also performed at The Shed, and joined in with some tap-dancing during our set!

Mr Bandicoot photos

Here are some of the photos from the Mr Bandicoot show at the Victorian State Library in April (see two posts ago).

That's me and Elsha Lawson-Boyd on stage, and also Elsha being a train with the crowd! It was probably the best audience train I've ever seen, made of dozens of kids going round the library lawn in a conga line.

We were there to help launch the Library's Young Readers Program CD, which is a CD of fun nursery rhymes supplied free to libraries and health centres across Victoria.

Mr Bandicoot is a kids picture book and cd by Anne Lawson (Elsha is her grand-daughter which is extra cool!). It is made up of gorgeous nursery rhymes about tigers, seashells, fairies, trains and more that Anne made up for her kids fifty years ago, sung by me, and the book is illustrated by Hugo Moline and Heidi Axelsen. More info on Mr Bandicoot here!

Awesome Coffee Alert!!

These fantastic coffees are by Mike at Dr Java in Fitzroy, Melbourne (the cafe is on the corner of Gertrude and Smith St, and highly recommended!). The one with the dog's paws is in honour of my song Fred the Dog, about a dog who learns to talk. (If you haven't seen the YouTube clip click here.)

I'm still having a fab time playing around with kids songs for the album, including Fred the Dog. Recording starts in May. T-Rexes, the Big Bang, space rabbits, computers and Sparky the Giant Squid all get a look-in.

And before that, Ryan Morrison and I are off to the National Folk Festival in Canberra, to do both grown-up and kids shows over the Easter weekend. I love the National ... I can't wait!!!

4th Rock from the Sun

I was at the Melbourne Museum earlier this week. Wandering through the fascinating Minerals section, minding my own business, when suddenly, inside an ordinary glass case, this:




This is apparently a rock from Mars. If you can't read the label in the photo, it says that an asteroid hit Earth, and a bit of Mars flew off, and here it is. The piece itself is 2cm tall, 1 cm wide, and as thin as a silicon chip.

I didn't even know we had bits of Mars on Earth. It seems too incredible to be true. There was no info given on when, or where this bit landed. But its composition marks it as a Mars local.

I love Melbourne. The night before, I had been watching Shaun Tan's exquisite animation "The Lost Thing" on an open-air screen in Federation Square, and now, after brilliant coffee at Dr Java, I had wandered up the road and seen a piece of another planet.

I was in Melbourne to perform at the State Library of Victoria last Sunday, as part of the launch of their Young Readers Program CD -- it was great fun, and I'll post pics as soon as I have them.