Month: July 2010

beyond beautiful: the fully sick rapper’s “life in a day”

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A month or two ago I posted an interview with Christiaan, the Fully Sick Rapper who’d been quarantined in hospital with TB for 106 days. He’s just emailed me this link and, if  I were you, I’d watch it. Even if you haven’t had to face your own sadness in a mirror, or wondered where to find strength, or been sick in a scary way. But if you have, be prepared for little tears of human connection.

The video was made on day 180 of his stay in hospital, three days before he was told he could finally go home. When he made this, he had no idea when or if he was going home. It’s raw. I like that we finally seem him smiling.

He was invited to make the video for a youtube project – Life in a Day – that will see director Kevin Macdonald and producer Ridley Scott create a documentary capturing one day in the life of thousands around the world – July 24, 2010. Go to  Life in a Day to get involved. It was only announced two hours ago. Pretty rad.

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have you seen this very funny election spoof?

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There are all kinds of ways to encourage you to get enrolled to vote. There’s this spoof that GetUp put together. You might have seen it on Q&A Monday night?

There’s also this dotpointed cheat sheet, which you might like to copy and paste and pass around your email list.

Please enrol. Please?

  • The previous (Liberal) government introduced laws that make it difficult to enrol to vote once the election is called
  • If you’re enrolling for the first time (like, you just turned 18 recently): you have until 8pm the same day the writ is issued.
  • If you’re updating your details: you have until 8pm three days after the writ is issued.

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Lily Allen searches for meaning…and the doubters hate on her

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Lily’s just come out saying she can’t see the point of life and that she worries about her life not having substance.

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And she’s decamped to the Brazilian rainforest to speak out on deforestation.

“A lot of my life is very vacuous. It doesn’t have a lot of substance and I guess I feel it’s a bit pointless. And, yes, coming here makes me feel I can put my fame to good use. I’m not pretending to know everything and I don’t understand this as well as I should, but I’m here to get my head around it.”

She also admits she hates how “glossy” celebrities look, and thinks of it as a personal challenge to rebel from that stereotype, telling UK You mag.

“I see it as my responsibility to be like that. There are always pictures of me looking like s**t in the papers, but you can’t wear make-up all the time, and if you do, just because you are famous… well, I don’t think it’s a very good message to send.”

All of which is quite interesting. And bravo to her for making changes to her life. But more interesting are the comments from readers this news has prompted.

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Tuesday eats: kale (plus: my “fridge surprise soup”, below)

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I’ve mentioned kale before here. I call it kale. Foodie types with an Italian affection call it cavalo nero. It looks like a more rustic, crinkly version of spinach, and is ssuuuuuuuuuper nutritious. Actually, here’s a fact: Kale’s one of the most nutritious superfoods on the planet, packed with chlorophyll, calcium, iron & vitamin A. Et-a-cet-er-a.

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On Saturday I had breakfast at Sopra (if you’ve never been, you must….the one at Danks St Waterloo is the most divine space in Sydney, I think). I skipped the breakfast bit and had the shaved brussel sprouts with kale and poached egg. That’s how much I love the stuff.

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have you read this? The end of men?

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What do you think of this month’s Atlantic magazine cover story: The End of Men?

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The factoids to be drawn from it if you hate clicking open long features:

  • There’s a “mancession” going on: three-quarters of the 8 million jobs lost in the GFC were lost by men. The worst-hit industries were overwhelmingly male and deeply identified with macho: construction, manufacturing, high finance….
  • Earlier this year, for the first time in American history, the balance of the workforce tipped toward women, who now hold a majority of the nation’s jobs.
  • Women dominate today’s colleges and professional schools—for every two men who will receive a B.A. this year, three women will do the same. Of the 15 job categories projected to grow the most in the next decade in the U.S., all but two are occupied primarily by women.
  • And while female CEOs may be rare in America’s largest companies, they are highly prized: last year, female CEOs outearned their male counterparts by 43 percent, on average, and received bigger raises.

Another US study has found the pay gap between women and men will disappear (poof!) in 14 years.

Big, big, news.

BUT HERE IN AUSTRALIA, while our PM is a chick (have you noticed?), news today is that Gen X women are dropping out of the workforce at a rapid rate because they’re….weary.

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are you being authentic? how do you know?

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I’ve been fretting a little lately about whether I’m being authentic. I’ve been catching myself saying things to impress and to create a certain image of myself. Then I cringe inwardly.  It’s easy to do, especially when you blog. You can easily get swept up in your own story. Press “publish”. And go eat a peanut butter rice cake.

So what does it mean to be authentic in such over-sharey times?

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I love this quote from George Orwell:

“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

I don’t know that we’re living in non-truthful times right now. It’s more that the truth gets convoluted by our meddling.

Over-sharing can appear to be authentic. Blurting stuff out, warts and all, can certainly look and smell and feel real. But it’s often a seductive guise for the truth. We can carefully select what we wish to over-share, and then broadcast it on Twitter and our blogs, thus painting a picture of ourselves as wonderfully transparent. But are we just being shouty? Are we authent-a-bragging?

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Sunday life: a chat with Oprah’s life coach Martha Beck

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So, this week I get “wordless” with Martha Beck

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You know that conversation starter where someone asks, “So who would you most like to sit next to on a plane”? For some deeply intuitive and not wholly understood reason my hypothetical answer (because, in fact, no one has ever actually launched a conversation with me in this way) is Martha Beck. Martha is one of Oprah’s advisers and cited as “the best-known life coach in America”. The only magazine I’ve ever subscribed to is Oprah’s O Magazine, and mostly for Martha’s tack-sharp, “and-now-sweetheart-it’s-time-to-get-over-yourself” advice column. Let’s just say, she speaks to me.

So in New York , while I didn’t sit next to Martha on a plane, I do share a green tea with her at the swish Hudson Hotel…and watch on as she defiles the restaurant’s cutlery.

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i am bewildered, and I am mad

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A reader (and I’m sorry, I can’t recall exactly who) pointed me to this Rumi quote on bewilderment….

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There are many guises for intelligence.
One part of you is gliding in a high windstream,
while your more ordinary notions
take little steps and peck at the ground….

…We must become ignorant of what we have been taught
and be instead bewildered.

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stuff I’m not paid to endorse: beautiful oils

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Every Thursday I post a list of things I like. I’m not paid to say these things. I just think you might find them useful. Today, it’s all about oils, ain’t it!

*This post has been updated

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There is a lot of misinformation about oil, as something to ingest, but also as a beauty product. Know this: oils don’t make you oily. Quite the opposite, in fact. Soaps, for instance, are made of oil. Oils nourish. Oils carry toxins from your cells. Oils clean.

I follow Ayurvedic thinking when it comes to oils. This style of healing uses oils to heal a number of ailments, particularly those that stem from a Vatta disposition. Vatta is a personality tendency characterised by flightiness, agitation, an inability to focus, excitement, sleep problems, digestion issues. I’m VERY vata. But even those of us who aren’t Vata-dominant experience the craziness of out of control vata because our culture if very Vata. Fast food, fast traffic, fast timetables, chaotic schedules…it’s knocking our vata about. And one some of the best ways to calm Vatta involve oils. Oils are heavy and grounding. They coax Vatta back down to earth, like Miss Jane pulling Mr Squiggle back down to the ground.

1. If you’re interested in learning more about the Ayurvedic take on oils and Vatta behaviour, Deepak Chopra’s Perfect Health (you can buy direct on the right there) is a good start.

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