Wednesday 24 February 2010

The Road

A shocking and gruesome murder wakens an unseen ancient evil force in Outback Australia. A truck driver, a schoolboy and a retired couple on their dream holiday, are among a group of travelers caught up in a supernatural time-loop.

Following the grisly discovery of the bloodied and battered bodies of a young woman and a man on a property not far from the highway, the truck driver is forced to confront the very real possibility that there is a killer on the loose and then convince his fellow travellers that they are all in danger.

Trapped on a long stretch of the Silver City Highway, just outside Broken Hill, they enter a nightmarish journey in which they are powerless, and from which there seems no escape. They are unable to go either forward or backward—on this nightmarish journey littered with road kill, that just won't end. And when they run out of petrol, the land seems to channel them towards the homestead property where the gory murders occurred.

Told from shifting perspectives by characters who each seem to be hiding something, the suspense builds as the group collapses under the escalating stress.
A chilling, foreboding supernatural horror set in the harsh light of day. Turly scary - Catherine Jinks' best.

Tuesday 23 February 2010

Free MP3s


This is the final Thing in the Web2.1, and I’ve been attempting to finish it for months. When I first saw the title Websites that offer free MP3s, I thought wow! - free music, can’t wait. The Discovery Exercise, was to:
1. Go to one of the websites posted below.

2. Choose a song to download.
3. Transfer that song from the computer to your MP3 player .

I started accessing the sites, and spent ages flipping past heaps of music I either didn’t know or like, it wasn’t the Nirvana (pun intended) I thought, believe I’ll just save time and pay Mr Itunes the money.

Here are the sites, with my comments in red.

Amazon MP3 Store - The vast majority of the music at Amazon is for sale, but they do have a rotation of free tracks available for download. Only available to U.S. customers
AmieStreet.com - Focused on promoting new and independent music, their downloads range from free to $0.98 as they grow in popularity.All genres Afrobeat, experimental, lots of Hip hop

Archive.org - An enormous collection of public domain music, expired copyright tracks, as well as some free contemporary music.
Weird assortment of new “I want to kill everybody” to Margaret Woodrow Wilson (daughter of US Pressie) singing the “Star spangled banner” in 1915 from an old cylinder recording
ArtistServer.com - It started off as a resource for independent electronic musicians, but is now open to all. All tracks can be downloaded for free.

Kept locking up when attempting to stream songs
BeSonic.com - Offers over 13,000 free tracks from mostly European acts.

Is in German & wants email signin
BetterPropaganda.com - A music webzine covering hundreds of music labels, and offering thousands of free & legal songs for you to download.

Sends you to iMesh which wants to download it’s file
CCMixter.org - a site dedicated to music that you can download to remix and post your results, all under the Creative Commons license.
Cooltoad.com Gave up when it kept telling me my passwords didn’t match, even though I pasted the same one in both fields!
Download.com - Most people think CNet’s Download.com is just about software, but they also have tens of thousands of free MP3s you can download from new as well as up and coming bands.
Epitonic.com - A large selection of free tracks from smaller record companies that are free to download with larger releases available for purchase
It states its is “cutting edge” maybe that is why its genres are mainly Techno, and Rock only has Punk, Indie & Math Rock.
EZ-Tracks.com - Offers over 30,000 legal downloads that are managed through a partnership with the labels. Starts you off with credit for 101 free upon registering.
Need to look closely to see often not performed by the original artists
FreeAlbums.blogsome.com - A blog that posts reviews of complete albums that are available for free downloads from numerous sources.
Has a range of genres, and a range of download types. My choice linked to Jamendo (see below)
GarageBand.com - Independent bands can upload their music, then have it rated by users, as well as downloaded for free.
Imeem.com - Features streaming music from all of the major labels as well as numerous smaller companies, with numerous free downloadable tracks.
ItsFreeDownloads.com - Finding the free downloads on iTunes can be a chore, this site does the work for you and lets you know what’s free each week.
Wouldn’t open
Jamendo.com - Artists upload their albums under Creative Commons, allowing new listeners to discover their work. Although free, there is the opportunity to donate to the performers of your choice.
Last.fm - While most people know Last.fm for its streaming and social aspects, they offer a weekly chart of downloadable free mp3s. Loved Last.fm till they wanted me to pay.
Live Music Archive - Part of Archive.org, features thousands of live performances by smaller bands as well as the likes of the Grateful Dead and Jason Mraz.
MetalHordes.com - A band promotion site focusing on various forms of heavy metal, and allowing bands to upload mp3s users can download for free.
MP3.com - Besides their paid section, MP3.com does offer a large selection of free tracks from acts small and large alike.
MP3.com.au - Focusing on Australian bands, mp3.com.au offers a repository for bands to upload their music for people to download and try for free.
MP34U - Works in conjunction with Muzic.com, this site finds sources of free music & legal music from all over the Web.
MP3Raid.com - Searches multiple sources to bring you approximately a million free song downloads.
Muzic.com - A sister site to MP34U, wherein the artists upload their tracks themselves, and muzic.com helps them promote their work.
Music.download.com—click on “111,000 Free MP3s” at the top of the page
Purevolume.com - Allows independent musicians to set up profiles for themselves, stream their music and gives them the option of enabling their work for free downloads.
Ruckus.com - Ruckus provides free music to people with .edu email addresses, and requires you to renew your licenses for DRM once a year.
SoundClick.com - Offering a mixture of signed and unsigned artists the opportunity to set up profile pages and either stream their music or offer it up for free downloads.

SpiralFrog.com
- Major release albums and tracks available for the price of just watching some advertisements.
Stereogum.com - Daily free mp3s from various artists, as well as rotating free albums.
TuneShout.com - A site for independent artists to promote themselves. Artists can upload tracks either for free or at a user cost of $0.89.
We7.com - We7 offers mp3 downloads for free, but they do have advertisements attached to them. If you want them without the ads, they do offer a paid alternative.

So finally finished!!

Celebrating the book


Saturday 20 February 2010

101 uses for a tractor

Needed some more shade for Barb's Surprise 45th on the weekend, so after standing out in the mid 30s heat, with a the gusty north wind blowing dust from the surrounding paddocks handing-up lengths of steel & pipe, I assisted with the erection below.


Since it was a surprise all of this work couldn't start till Barb left the premises, and was still happening as guests started to arrive, so more hands helped to stretch the tarpaulin.
The camping trailer served as a tie-down weight for a corner of the frame-work.


Bush ingenuity - tied the tarp down with baleing-twine and rope, but worried about the increasing strength of the wind gusts, decided to use the forks of the front-end loader on the tractor to hold the flapping tarp down.

The larger wheelbarrow is holding the drinks & ice, the smaller one the plates and eating utensils. Sorry I didn't get a photo of the varied assortment of chairs liberated from the shearing shed for the occasion.
It was a surprise, Barb didn't suspect even when she found the unexplained supermarket EFPOS payment.


Wednesday 10 February 2010

Lost

The book Lost! commemorates the story of Jane Duff.
Jane was born on 7th January 1857 near Horsham, and is remembered for the events of "Lost in the bush".


In August 1864, on Spring Hill Station between Goroke and Natimuk, the Duff children - Isaac 9, Jane 7 and Frank 3 were asked to collect broom (tea-tree branches) for sweeping the hut floor. They became lost and wandered further into the Nurcoung scrub.

Their parents began searching and were joined by their neighbours.
On the 8th day, Aborigines from other stations - King Richard, Red Cap & Fred - joined the search. In the late afternoon of the 9th day the children were found.

The children had spent over a week without food or water, and walked nearly 100 kilometres.It was Jane's selfless attitude in caring for her younger brother Frank which sparked the interest of the nation.
Jane's schooling was paid for by one of the searchers and neighbouring squatter Alexander Wilson of Vectis and Longerenong homesteads.



Jane married George Turnbull on 24th June 1876, and reared 11 children (5 predeceased her). When George died of fever, Jane was left in troubled circumstances. She died at Horsham on 20th January 1932.

The story was told in the "Fourth Book" of the Education Department's school reader.

An appeal to Victorian school children raised money for a headstone over her grave, and to a memorial (by the roadside at the Jane Duff Highway Park near Duffholme) to her 1864 endeavours. Unveiling the memorial, Mr Graham declared her importance to a national self-image of the pioneering legend. Stating that Jane's actions were part of the wider contribution by women to opening up the land and played a part in the development of the Australian identity.

The plight of the Duff children has been covered in art and story by a number of people over the years. In September 1864, well-known engraver Nicholas Chevalier, working for the Illustrated Melbourne Post, drew Jane caring for her brothers.

In the 1970s Peter Dodds made the film version of Lost in the bush on location west of Mt Arapiles and used local talent in the roles.

Famous goldfields artist S.T. Gill painted the finding of the Duff Children in his Australian sketchbook. And equally famous - artist William Strutt (who sketched the Burke & Wills Expedition, and painted the epic Black Thursday bushfire) in 1901 wrote Cooey, or, The Trackers of Glenferry - a version of the story and illustrated it with beautiful watercolours and sketches.

The story has been told in rhyme for the young, but the most comprehensive retelling is L.J. Blake's Lost in the bush, which includes the local history surrounding the actual event.

Now, another author has entered - Stephanie Owen Reeder has just published Lost! a true tale from the bush (the cover is at the beginning of this post). This was inspired by Strutt's Cooey, and features many of his illustrations. What makes Stephanie's retelling different is that she has finished each chapter with an informative section on how children lived in the 1860s, much of it illustrated with works from the National Library's Picture Collection.