I’ve had a lousy week. Seven days of a respiratory infection, coupled with a feverishly ill son. I may not technically be dying, but I’ve definitely wallowed in the possibility as I’ve lain on the couch with a whimpering child and a hacking cough. Attractive image, I know.

As a consequence, my posting has fallen off a bit. My new SHE-POWER Fiction is still in draft form and I hope to polish it up and publish it in the next day or so. In the mean time, all this lounging around the house has had an upside in that I’ve spent lots of time surfing the web, feeding my groggy, medicated brain.

Here are the links I’ve cruised and loved this week:

Life on a Shoestring Budget has some creative and adventurous ideas for how to make your dollar go further. Check out their new 5 part series: 20 Ways to Live on Almost Nothing.

Cath Lawson writes about how to make yourself stand out as a freelancer in: Nude Freelancer Storms Google Campus

Leo from Zen Habits provides some tips for how to lift yourself out of a funk in: Flip Your Karma: 8 Tricks to Turn the Bad into the Awesome

Celebrate being a free woman with generous human rights this Saturday, 8 March by visiting the official International Womens Day website. There’s podcasts, photographs, information on the 97 years of IWD and some interesting links.

Caroline Middlebrook gives 6 Steps to Find the Right Work-Life Balance. I really liked this article as this is something I struggle with. I seem to go through binges where I neglect my work and lavish family, friends with quality time, then I panic that I’m not getting enough writing done so I chain myself to the computer and fob everyone off until my son practically has to rip my fingers off the keyboard. Can I blame astrology here? Us Librans struggle with balance…

The article, Sex, Blogs and Screenwriting got my attention this week with a focus on Diablo Cody, the winner of this year’s Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The film in question, Juno is a must see, and Diablo Cody is particularly interesting because she first gained attention as a blogger. This led to a book deal, which then led to a screen writing career, which then led to her stealing MY DREAM!

And following up with more Juno goodness, Mia Freedman, a well known Australian writer/media personality wrote a funny post on the Academy Award nominated actress, Ellen Page. Check out Not that there’s anything wrong with being a lesbian, you understand. Make sure you watch the videos. I like people who don’t take themselves too seriously.

Enjoy this blog while you can; a Hollywood producer is going to be calling me any day now…

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With FIVE GRAMMY AWARDS and a rocking Grammy performance under her belt (albeit via satellite), does 2008 herald the return of Amy Winehouse?

This music devotee hopes so, because despite her recent troubles, Amy Winehouse deserves to be more than a the equivalent of a tabloid car crash. With her unique fusion of soul, jazz and hip-hop, Amy has a voice that begs attention with its emotional depth and range.

From the silky, elegant tones of You Know I’m No Good to the gutteral rawness of Rehab, Amy Winehouse has created a musical masterpiece with her album, Back to Black. Add to that her signature style - a tattooed, Cleopatra version of Betty Boop - and a feisty demeanor reminiscent of Janis Joplin, and you have a truly unique musician.

I first fell in love with Amy Winehouse’s music a year ago, and since then it has been depressing to see the media go from celebrating her distinctive music to salivating over her spiraling drug problem and seeming lack of dignity. As I pointed out in my Britney Spears article, there are many problems with this kind of celebrity media obsession, but the tragedy with Amy is she is now more known for her self-destructive behavior than her music. My guess is a lot of people who see Amy in the tabloids have no idea who she is. They only know the sad spectacle her life has become.

Let’s not forget Amy Winehouse is more than a quick headline or a shocking photograph. She’s a person with all the fears and anxieties the rest of us have, plus a crazy new level of fame that no one trained her how to deal with. Intensely creative people are often prone to addictions, depression and needy behavior. She’s hardly the first, and she won’t be the last.

Sometimes in life we get lost. We don’t trust our innate sense of what we need, and we lean on the wrong people who are themselves incapable of leading us back to our true path. Amy Winehouse and her incarcerated dead-beat husband are a perfect example of this kind of unhealthy co-dependency.

Luckily for Amy, and all of us who have ever lost our way in life, EVERY DAY IS A NEW DAY. Every day we get to choose how to define ourselves, and falling down in life is nothing to be ashamed of. We all fall down and behave in ways we later regret. This is how we learn who we are and what life is all about.

Only, some of us have our demons aired to the entire world and are subjected to ridicule. Not only does this create the illusion that a single event or mistake defines a person, but it destroys an already fragile person’s sense of self.

I hope 2008 is the year of Amy Winehouse, the Comeback Queen. I hope these Grammy wins convince her that she deserves saving. Everybody does.

In a world full of MTV plastic pretty girls and big bad Hip-Hop dudes, we need the originality of Amy Winehouse. If you have no idea who Amy is beyond the world of tabloid trash, then check out You Know I’m No Good. Pure genius.
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photo by grinder10

Australia awoke this morning to the news that one of its most talented sons, Academy Award nominated actor, Heath Ledger, was dead at the age of 28.

In our country, there are only a handful of international stars. People who have crossed the world to make their mark in the golden mecca that is Hollywood. These Australians are trail blazers for those with big dreams. Our Nic (Kidman), Naomi (Watts), Russ (Crowe), Cate (Blanchett) and Heath are put on a precarious pedestal where everything they say is news and their every move is dogged by the local paparazzi.

So when someone like Heath Ledger dies, Australia goes into shock. His fame is enough for even our Prime Minister to offer his condolences. We are treated to endless updates on the circumstances of his death and for many there is a sense that this is not real. How can a man who achieved a phenomenal level of success, who was still so young and full of promise, be gone?

For me, the day started like any other. I woke up, fed my son, debated what to have for breakfast and then turned on the computer to find that the world had changed while I slept. An actor I truly admired, a fellow Australian, a man almost a decade younger than myself, had died. It was one of those moments when I am reminded that life can be painfully brief. Today, you’re drinking coffee and wondering what to do on the weekend. Tomorrow, it’s all over and there will be no more weekends. That’s life. Unpredictable. Unfair. Apt to be extinguished swiftly and without warning.

Contrary to my headline, Heath Ledger was not a “Movie Star”. He was not a public party animal or a gossip column joke. He was an actor’s actor. A private man who struggled with his fame, was uncomfortable on red carpets and surly in interviews. But most of all, he was a rare talent. An untrained actor who made bold choices and showed glimpses of greatness. A unique individual lost too soon.

These are just some of the reasons I was a fan, and have been since Heath’s break out performance in the Australian gangster film, Two Hands. Even though he was still a teenager at the time, it was obvious that this guy had it all, including that elusive X Factor. He had an intensity that leaped from the screen and would soon see him hand picked by Hollywood heavyweight, Mel Gibson, for his film, The Patriot.

The media are having a field day with this tragic story. It’s a better ending than they could ever ask for. Youth, beauty, talent, drugs, and a mysterious death. It is a cruel irony that a man who loathed the spotlight, who worked so hard to be a serious actor, could become in death the one thing he never wanted to be. A salacious tale. Another celebrity felled by drugs. His talent and his dedication to his craft forgotten. It will be the ultimate tragedy if that is how he is remembered.

It’s enough to make me avoid the news. I want to see tributes, a celebration of an extraordinary life. Not the continued speculation on how and why he died. To me, it really doesn’t matter. A young man is gone. Performances that I loved in films like Brokeback Mountain and Candy will never be repeated. A daughter will never know her father.

For all the fans, I say let us remember Heath Ledger as he would have wanted. An everyday Aussie bloke, a gifted actor, a loving father, a man living his dream.

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I’ll let you know up front, today I’m going to rant. Why?

Because I opened up MSN Messenger this morning and what was the first news item headlining MSN Today? Britney Bloody Spears.

Now, I have nothing against Britney and the rest of her lip syncing, scantily clad peers, but there is something seriously wrong with the world when the most prolific news story day in and day out is the slow and cringe worthy demise of a fading pop star.

Let’s be honest, Britney hasn’t been known for her music in years. Not unless you count her stumbling performance at the MTV awards last September. Most of 2007 saw her hit the news stands for her lack of knickers, bad mothering skills, driving mishaps, custody battles and possible substance abuse problems. Are these acts titilating? Sure, but they’re hardly worthy of lead headlines.

I’m not saying I don’t understand why this woman is constant news. I do. Every move she makes begs for attention - it’s as if she only feels she exists if someone is there to photograph her. And this constant exposure to every facet of her life makes the rest of us feel like we have a vested interest in watching her train wreck of a life. But this is an illusion. We do not know Britney Spears. We are not her friends. Indeed, we are part of her problem, she’s just too fucked up to see it.

When we participate in the paparazzi circus by buying the magazines that print the invasive photos and scandalous articles, when we watch and provide ratings to her every struggle, we feed the monster that is eating this woman’s dignity. The problem of course is human nature. Most of us find it hard to look away when the mighty fall. A little piece of us - not the loving, empathetic part, maybe not even the conscious part - feels intrigued, and maybe even a little happy that someone who has so much could screw up her life so spectacularly. And not just her life, but her children’s as well.

I don’t live in the USA, but can all problem parents in custody disputes get a new court date every few weeks? I think not. I am sure many mothers and fathers who have had their visitation stripped go months waiting for a chance to plead their case again. But not Britney Spears. She’s there at least once or twice a month, in between clubbing, shopping, having sex with the paparazzi and running red lights. And they say justice is blind…

Now, I know I’m not saying anything new here, and I really don’t mean to sound sanctimonious because I can be a gossip glutton as much as the next shopper in the supermarket queue, but it’s time this stopped. IT IS TIME THE WORLD LOOKED AWAY FROM BRITNEY SPEARS.

Following the self destruction of a vulnerable, possibly mentally ill, young woman is not news. It’s just sad, and it diminishes all of us. It doesn’t matter that Britney courts the attention, hungers for it even, this is part of her sickness. I don’t know whether she’s bi-polar or pathologically narcissistic, but Britney Spears needs professional help. And that help is unlikely to be sought until she hits rock bottom, because as long as her every move is in the spotlight and she is the object of sniggering jokes, she won’t get it.

Take away her kids, take away her audience, take away her special treatment. Shock her like you do an out-of-control child. Let’s just get out of the way so the real people in her life - her family, her friends - can take care of her. Britney Spears doesn’t need us. We are nobody.

photo by CDs single

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