Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds...

The clock tower at Hobart's General Post Office bathed in nice winter afternoon sunlight. We've had too little of this lately, as it's mainly been raining.

Time for the Sunday Top Five! Today I am revisiting my Top Five Ever Karaoke Performances

Total Eclipse of the Heart: for the amateur vocalist, the sheer overwrought emotion of Bonnie Tyler's raspy voiced paean to wandering lovers the world over is a good song for the confident (or inebriated) to belt out.

Come on Eileen: a rousing, jaunty little number that harks back to the music hall. The chanting bit in the middle can rescue strugglers. The fact that there are not many words also helps.

Sexual Healing: easily the most challenging of the bunch, as not many are blessed with the pipes of Marvyn Gaye. That said, the degree of difficulty makes it a triumph if pulled off, especially if the intent is to send a [ahem] message to any ladies in the audience.

Suspicious Minds: you can't have Karaoke with an Elvis track. The distinctive voice makes it easy to imitate, and I'd advise sticking to the later, crooning hits as the early belters can be tricky work. Generally the songs about failing love affairs are good grist for the mill, as emotion can carry those less fortunate in the vocal departments (see: Heart, Total Eclipse of the).

Islands in the Stream: If you lack confidence, don't do it alone! However, group efforts are usually embarrassing unless you've got a duet to work with. I prefer the Kenny role myself, as I can't quite reach Dolly's high notes...

Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it...

I still have the robot on the job. Here you can see the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery . And here is a poem: Soliloquy for One Dead Bruce Dawe Ah, no, Joe, you never knew the whole of it, the whistling which is only the wind in the chimney's smoking belly, the footsteps on the muddy path that are always somebody else's. I think of your limbs down there, softly becoming mineral, the life of grasses, and the old love of you thrusts the tears up into my eyes, with the family aware and looking everywhere else. Sometimes when summer is over the land, when the heat quickens the deaf timbers, and birds are thick in the plumbs again, my heart sickens, Joe, calling for the water of your voice and the gone agony of your nearness. I try hard to forget, saying: If God wills, it must be so, because of His goodness, because- but the grasshopper memory leaps in the long thicket, knowing no ease. Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it... I like Bruce Dawe. He just my be my favourite Austral...

There was nothing left. No reason, no conscience, no understanding; even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, good or evil, right or wrong.

Here is a self portrait. I’m calling it Portrait of a lady in a dirty window . Shocking, isn’t it? However, it is apt! Samhain , Nos Galan Gaeaf , Hop-tu-Naa , All Saints , All Hallows , Hallowmas , Hallowe'en or HALLOWEEN . It’s Theme Thursday and we’re talking about the festivals traditionally held at the end of the harvest season. Huh? No wonder Australians have trouble with the concept of HALLOWEEN. For the record, in my thirty-two L O N G years on the planet, I can’t say I’ve ever seen ghosts ‘n goblins, trick ‘n treaters or Michael Myers stalking Tasmania’s streets at the end of October. [That said, I did once see a woman as pale as a ghost turning tricks that looked like Michael Myers in late November one time.] Despite the best efforts of Hollywood, sitcoms, and innumerable companies; it seems Australians are impervious to the [ahem] charms of a corporatized variant of a celebration of the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darke...

In dreams begin responsibilities.

A life at sea, that's for me, only I just don't have the BREAD. That's right, Theme Thursday yet again and I post a photo of a yacht dicking about in Bass Strait just off Wynyard. The problem is, I am yet again stuck at work, slogging away, because I knead need the dough . My understanding is that it is the dough that makes the BREAD. And it is the BREAD that buys the yacht. On my salary though, I will be lucky to have enough dough or BREAD for a half dozen dinner rolls. Happy Theme Thursday people, sorry for the rush.

This will hurt me...

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