Sunday, July 18, 2010

Thinking of the Holidays

Hello! Thank you for visiting my blog!


Just a quick post today. Lately I've been thinking about all the lovely holidays I have been on with my family, so I went looking at all the photos we have of these great trips. One of my favourite holidays was when we went Europe for the Christmas holidays a couple of years ago. One of the places we visited was Paris and, naturally, we went to the Eiffel Tower. Although we didn't venture to the top, we had a great time looking up at the giant tower from the ground and taking photos. You can tell how cold we were, despite the beautiful blue sky!


On Holiday in Paris  
Image taken by me, Maddy, aged 13.



Linking with the latest Kids Click them 'On Holiday'.

Thank you for having me, Simoney!

I also thought I'd share a Sunday Song with you, and when I came across this song by Madeleine Peyroux called J'ai Deux Amours I thought it would go perfectly with my picture of the Eiffel Tower. I hope you enjoy it!



Linking with my Mum's Sunday Song linky party.

Thank you for having me, Mum!

Well, I am off to do some more school work and get ready for school. Please come back soon!


I hope your day is sweet,

Sunday, July 11, 2010

A Sunday Song from The Karate Kid

Hello and welcome to my blog!


It's the last day of the holidays today. We have done so many fun and exciting things over the last three weeks. Most recently we went to see The Karate Kid starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan. 


It was a fantastic movie, about a boy named Dre Parker, played by Jaden Smith, and his mother who move from Detroit to China. Dre is bullied by a tough and nasty group of kids, and the janitor, Mr Han, who is played by Jackie Chan, teaches Dre kung fu in order to restore peace through a kung fu competition. If Dre wins, the boys promise that they will leave him alone. Along the way, Dre befriends a Chinese girl named Mei Ying, played by Wenwen Han, who is an amazing violinist and also Dre's crush. Throughout the movie, Mei is rehearsing for an audition and the piece she is playing is absolutely beautiful. I went home that night and discovered that it is called Nocturne in C-Sharp Minor. I then found a clip of Joshua Bell playing this beautiful piece and thought I'd share it with you for my Mum's Sunday Song linky party.


Joshua Bell is an American classical violinist, born and raised in Indiana. At four years old Bell began violin lessons after his mother discovered that he had stretched rubber bands across the handles of his dresser draw to pluck out music he had heard his mother play on the piano. He took to the instrument and at fourteen Bell appeared as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti. He studied the violin at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and received an Artist Diploma in Violin Performance. He has been named an “Indiana Living Legend” and received the Indiana Governor’s Arts Award.



Bell has now performed with almost all of the world's major orchestras and conductors and performed the solo part on John Corigliano's soundtrack for the film The Red Violin. He was also featured in Ladies in Lavender and made an appearance in a movie about the power of music, Music of the Heart, with other notable violinists. I hope you enjoy Joshua Bell playing this song as much as I do!




Well, I had better get ready for school tomorrow. I hope you get a chance to see The Karate Kid - make sure you listen out for this song if you do!


I hope your day is sweet,

Friday, July 9, 2010

Ron Mueck

Hello! Thanks for dropping by!

During the holidays we have been up to many things. We've gone on picnics, been to the beach and most recently we went to the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art to see the Ron Mueck exhibition.



Ron Mueck is an Australian-born, London based sculptor, who began his career working on the Australian children's television program Shirl's Neighbourhood as the creative director and creator of some of the puppets featured in the show. He later worked on the sets of other television programs, and then went on to establish his own company in London, making photo-realistic props and animatronics for the advertising industry. In search of perfection for his sculptors, Mueck made the transition into fine art, working with his mother-in-law Paula Rego to produce small figures for a tableau at the Hayward Gallery. This made an impression on many artists and his piece Dead Dad later featured in the Sensation show at the Royal Academy.

Mueck's sculptors focus on the fine detail of the human body, playing with scale to produce 'disconcertingly jarring visual images' (Wikipedia). Every detail of his sculptors are incredibly realistic, as you can see in my photo of his sculpture Two Women.

Look at the detail in the face. Amazing!

The exhibition featured twelve of Mueck's sculptures, including Dead DadA GirlWild ManWoman with SticksIn BedTwo WomenMan in a BoatOld Woman in BedDriftStill LifeMask II and Youth. 


Our school is taking us to see this exhibition soon and we have to write an analysis of the sculpture called "In Bed"

In Bed 

























Old Woman in Bed

























Mask II

























Some of Mueck's sculptures were a bit graphic but they were still totally amazing. I will be interested to learn more about his work when I come back on my school excursion.

Well, I hope you liked Mueck's work as much as I do. I find his sculptures absolutely fantastic - they are so realistic! 

I hope your day is sweet,

Sunday, July 4, 2010

A Sweet Sunday Song

Hello and welcome to my blog!


Recently we went to the movies to see the latest Shrek movie, Shrek Forever After (you can read a review at my brother's blog) and, as always, we had to sit through an endless amount of advertisements. I was patiently waiting for the movie to start when a promotional add for Channel 7 came on. I immediately perked up when I heard the beautiful song used on the add. I later found out it is called Sweet Disposition by The Temper Trap.


The Temper Trap is an alternative rock band from Melbourne, Australia, formed in 2005 and made up of Dougy Mandagi, Jonathon Aherne, Lorenzo Sillitto and Toby Dundas.


  
The group's debut album, Conditions, was released in Australia in June of 2009 and was ninth on the Australian ARIA Charts. From that album, multiple songs have been featured on television, movies and movie trailers. Sweet Disposition was featured in multiple shows and movies, including (500) days of Summer, Greek and Skins.


I absolutely love Sweet Disposition because it is inspirational and motivational and is generally a sweet song. I thought I'd share it with you so you could enjoy it as well, but also because it is called 'sweet disposition' and this title goes perfectly with my blog title! I hope you find it as sweet as I do!



Linking with Sunday Song at 5 Minutes Just for Me.

Thank you for having me, Mum!

Well, thank you for visiting my blog! Please come back soon!


I hope your day is sweet,

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Back from the Beach

Hello and thank you for visiting my blog!

I'm sorry I haven't posted for a while - we went to Mooloolaba beach for the week!

Although it was too cold to go swimming in the ocean and the weather wasn't very pleasent on some days, we had plenty to do - we went on walks, read and caught up on sleep. I had a great time taking photos on our walks. Here are a few of my favourites -





















































































On the first night we were there we couldn't stop admiring the moon. We had good reason to be so amazed, as it turns out there was a partial lunar eclipse! We didn't know of the eclipse until the next morning so I didn't get any photos of it, but I did get some of the moon before the event.


































We also went to Montville for the day when we were there, which is about half an hours drive from Mooloolaba. We had high tea the Poet's Cafe, which is a beautiful French/English cafe in Montville.


























We also went to a great look-out point and admired the fabulous view of the countryside.


I especially loved this photo because of all the different shades of green you can see in the trees. The trees look amazing clustered together like that with all their different colours mingling. It's also great to see so many trees - it is good to know that our environment has a chance to survive deforestation.

The Many Shades of Green























Image taken by me, Maddy, aged 13.

I loved this photo so much that I decided to link it up to the latest Kids Click competition theme, 'Green'.

Thank you for having me, Simoney!

Well, thank you for visiting my blog! I hope you come back tomorrow for another Sunday Song!

I hope your day is sweet,