Be like a chicken – find happiness in the little things. A tasty slug here, a little seed there, some new shoots, a scratch in the mulch, dirt bath in the sun … fluff up your feathers a little!
Month: August 2019
Happiness as Anarchy #100: Backyard Construction
Building things and solving problems makes me happy. The chicken have moved in and seem happy in their new palace. It is a fine construction built with my kids and my dad. To the stranger it may appear to simply be a chicken coop, but I see a memory palace – the day three generations spent together dismantling, rebuilding, talking, learning, and creating something together.
Happiness as Anarchy #99: Snail Mail
Yesterday’s image got me thinking about letters – the real ones, written on paper, folded into an envelope, arriving in the mailbox out the front – and what a joy it is to send and receive them. In my first week in my new house a little postcard arrived in the mail from a friend. She lives nearby and she wasn’t on holidays, she was just sending good wishes for the new house. Such a delight! The postcard is now on the fridge, where postcards belong. I think I might start a habit of penning real letters and cards to people, an ordinary way on ordinary days to say, “I see you out there and I’m glad. Aren’t friends grand?”
Happiness as Anarchy #98: Technology Tasks
Digital technology is not my forte. Managing my own website is something I can do but it’s not always quick or easy. Like a 16th ship falling of the edge of the world, somehow the sign-up-to-my-mailing-list form fell off my website. Tonight I managed to reinstate it. It’s on the contact page (because I couldn’t work out how to put it in the sidebar – that’s a task for another day) and if you’d like to sign up you can test it out for me.
Happiness as Anarchy #97: Quantifiable Progress
As a qualitative researcher, I’m normally quite suspicious of quantitative measurements. However, there are times when the numbers are both meaningful and deeply satisfying. I just updated my song list document – I haven’t done it since January when was sitting around the century mark – and discovered that it now numbers 180. That’s a lot of new songs, and I hadn’t realised just how many I had crammed into my cranium until I made the list. The quantitative data, on this occasion, makes me feel like a good girl!
For my regular monthly gig at Craig’s Royal Hotel next Wednesday I’m asking the audience to choose the songs. If you’d like to be part of that, here’s the list (with Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits at the end):
| A Child Is Born |
| After You’ve Gone |
| Ain’t Misbehavin’ |
| Alabama Song |
| Alice In Wonderland |
| All About That Bass |
| All of Me |
| All of You |
| Anything Goes |
| At Last |
| Autumn Leaves |
| Beautiful Love |
| Better Him Than Me |
| Black Coffee |
| Blue Moon |
| Blue Skies |
| Blueberry Hill |
| Boum |
| Box of Stars |
| Brahms Lullaby |
| C’est Magnifique |
| C’est Si Bon |
| Careful With My Heart |
| Ces Petits Riens |
| Come Away With Me |
| Comes Love |
| Dance Me To The End Of Love |
| Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup |
| Don’t Get Around Much Anymore |
| Don’t Sit Under The Apple Tree |
| Dream A Little Dream Of Me |
| Drink A Little Poison |
| Drinking In Pyjamas |
| End of Every Day |
| Everybody Loves My Baby |
| Fever |
| Five Foot Two |
| Fly Me to the Moon |
| Frère Jacques |
| Frim Fram Sauce |
| Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good To You |
| Gentle On My Mind |
| Georgia On My Mind |
| Give Me One Reason |
| Gone Fishin’ |
| Habanera |
| Have You Met Miss Jones? |
| Honeysuckle Rose |
| I Can’t Give You Anything But Love |
| I Hear Music |
| I Love Paris |
| I Touch Myself |
| I Wish I Was In Love |
| I Won’t Dance |
| I’m Beginning To See The Light |
| I’m Walkin’ |
| I’d Love To Make Love To You |
| If I Can’t Sell It, I’ll Sit On It |
| In These Shoes |
| Inch Worm |
| J’ai deux amours |
| J’attendrai |
| J’suis snob |
| Java Jive |
| Je Cherche Un Homme |
| Je te veux |
| Just A Gigolo |
| Just One of Those Things |
| Just Squeeze Me |
| King of Starting Over |
| King of the Road |
| L.O.V.E |
| L’il Liza Jane |
| La Mer (Beyond the Sea) |
| La Vie En Rose |
| Lazy River |
| Le déserteur |
| Le Tango Neurasthénique |
| Les Caresses |
| Les Yeux Noirs |
| Let’s Do It |
| Let’s Fall In Love |
| Let’s Misbehave |
| Louisiana Fairytale |
| Love Is Just Around The Corner |
| Lullaby of Birdland |
| Mack the Knife |
| Melancholy Baby |
| Memories are Made of This |
| Miss Otis Regrets |
| Moonlight In Vermont |
| Ne Joue Pas Au Soldat |
| Nearness Of You, The |
| Never On A Sunday |
| Non, je ne regrette rien |
| Only Ghost |
| Opium |
| Padam |
| Parlez-moi d’amour |
| Peacock’s Feather – Paddy Fahey’s Reel |
| Peel Me A Grape |
| Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps |
| Quand Je Danse Une Java |
| Que Reste-t-il de Nos Amours? |
| Que Sera Sera |
| S’Wonderful |
| Santa Baby |
| Secret Love |
| Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise |
| Somewhere Over The Rainbow |
| Speed of the Sound of Loneliness |
| Stand By Your Man |
| Stardust |
| Stompin’ at the Savoy |
| Sugar In My Bowl |
| Summertime |
| Sunday Kind of Love |
| Sweet Georgia Brown |
| Sympathique |
| Taste Of Your Smile |
| Tea For Two |
| Temptation |
| Tennessee Waltz |
| That’s Amore |
| Perfect Spot, The |
| Taste of Your Smile, The |
| They Can’t Take That Away From Me |
| They Tried To Tell Us We’re Too Young |
| To & Fro |
| Too Darn Hot |
| Un Eléphant |
| Under Paris Skies |
| Underneath The Arches |
| Way You Look Tonight, The |
| We’ll Meet Again |
| What the world needs now is love |
| When Doves Cry |
| When You Wish Upon A Star |
| Willow Garden |
| Winter Waltz |
| You Don’t Own Me |
| Your Heart Is As Black As Night |
| Your Place or Mine? |
| LEONARD COHEN |
| I’m Leaving The Table |
| Chelsea Hotel |
| Take This Waltz |
| Le Partisan |
| Tonight Will Be Fine |
| Dance Me To The End Of Love |
| Alexandra Leaving |
| Bird On The Wire |
| Heart With No Companion |
| Hallelujah |
| TOM WAITS |
| Tango Till They’re Sore |
| Shiver Me Timbers |
| Diamonds On My Windshield |
| Time |
| Little Drop of Poison |
| Jockey Full of Bourbon |
| Gun St. Girl |
| Picture in a Frame |
| Chocolate Jesus |
| Temptation |
| Walkin’ Spanish |
| House Where Nobody Lives |
| Kiss Me |
| The Piano Has Been Drinking |
| Jesus Gonna Be Here |
| Anywhere I Lay My Head |
| Jesus Gonna Be Here |
Happiness as Anarchy #96: Stashed cash
I’ve been cleaning and sorting out sixteen years of living in my little orange brick house. It’s been hard work work, physically, mentally and emotionally, but there have also been many tiny moments of joy as I find long forgotten letters, kids drawings and curious mementos from past lives. And stashed cash in odd places, so well hidden that I found $100 yesterday with a note from eight years ago. I think I ought to spend that on something fun and frivolous!
That’s none other than Dame Nellie Melba on the $100 note. She had a three octave range and sang her final concert in Melbourne in 1928.
Happiness as Anarchy #95: Dear Hearts
Here’s a little bit of Dinah Shore to round off the weekend. Dear Hearts and Gentle People was a hit for Dinah in 1950. Bing Crosby and Perry Como, among others, also recorded the song, written by songwriting team Sammy Fain and Bob Hillard. It’s happy and wholesome, impeccably arranged and recorded.
Happiness as Anarchy #94: Unsolicited dress-ups
I popped along to the Foto Biennale opening this evening in Versailles costume (doing a little promo for the next show on the 20th September in Ballarat). I was lucky enough to find my favourite after hours loading zone park outside Karova (heavy rock venue), where there was quite a queue of young people dressed in various shades of black. It was very fun to open my car door and emerge in my large and ruffly dress and wig! Twas also quite enjoyable to mingle with the trendy photographer crowd (who, incidentally, were also wearing a lot of black). Perhaps I’ll wear it to the supermarket next.
Happiness as Anarchy #93: New Growth
There was a thick layer of frost on my windscreen this morning, but despite the chill, spring is coming. There are buds about to burst, the first flowers on the stone fruits are out and the grass is growing like crazy. I love the vibrant green of new growth, it holds such promise and hope. Juvenile eucalypts put out leaves that are uncharacteristically bright for the Australian landscape, and round. The leaves become longer as the tree matures, but in the early years they are naively fat.
Happiness as Anarchy #92: Strollin’
Prince was one of the pop musicians I really enjoyed growing up. Diamonds & Pearls (1991) was one of my favourite albums. I loved the imagery in Strollin’ and the super chilled groove. I’m looking forward to some strolling when Spring arrives.