Sep 1st, 2010
by Rodney Olsen.
Australia’s most awarded women’s barbershop chorus, Perth Harmony Chorus, brings together around 100 women from all walks of life, ranging in age from early 20′s to early 70′s. Most have had no formal background in music, simply a love of singing and performing.
On Saturday night the 11th of September they’ll be joined by The Idea of North and The Australian Army Band Perth for an incredible evening of entertainment at the Perth Concert Hall titled Too Darn Hot.
This morning on radio I spoke to Helen Bolton about the concert and Perth Harmony Chorus. I was also joined in the studio by ten ladies that are part of the chorus who gave listeners a live sample of their work.
You can hear our chat and some of their performance by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.
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Posted in: Radio.
Sep 1st, 2010
by Rodney Olsen.
I’d like to invite you to visit a brand new blog. Beyond Belief is my new faith blog.
What we believe is vitally important but belief alone isn’t enough. We must move beyond belief to a living faith. That’s what I’m hoping to explore at Beyond Belief in the coming weeks and months. I’ll look at belief and how that impacts our daily lives. I’ll write posts on a range of faith issues and hopefully, I’ll be able to share some of my own Christian faith journey in a deeper way.
Since November 2003 I’ve been writing posts here at RodneyOlsen.net that reflect a range of interests from my observations on life, to faith issues, family, cycling, my work in the media and much more. That won’t change.
I’m not a fan of segmenting our lives and putting areas of life into boxes and so I’ll still be talking about all those things, including my Christian faith here at my main blog. The reason I’ve decided to create Beyond Belief is that there are times I want to speak more deeply about Christian issues and I don’t think that RodneyOlsen.net is always the place to do that.
Some posts at Beyond Belief will also appear at RodneyOlsen.net, in fact I’ve exported dozens of posts to Beyond Belief which will remain at both sites. That means that even though Beyond Belief has just launched, there’s already almost 200 posts there in the archives that you can browse.
As well as the posts that this blog will share with Beyond Belief, my desire is to write many faith posts that will only be found there such as the post Creating Fake Christians which explores a recent article focussing on the faith journey of American teenagers.
I’m looking forward to developing Beyond Belief and hope that you’ll join me in the journey.
Posted in: Blogging.
Aug 31st, 2010
by Rodney Olsen.
Where’s the little girl that we loved so much?
Pauline and I went to school last night. We attended a meeting where we were told about Emily’s options for courses in Year 10 next year. Within the next few days we must decide, together with Emily, what courses she will study next year. Those courses will then become the platform to launch her into Years 11 and 12, her final school years. We need to make decisions this week that will imapct her journey through university or whatever career she will move into.
Emily’s a very capable young lady and there are many directions that she could take and she’d excell in them all but now’s the time to start narrowing the options.
The odd thing is that it really wasn’t that long ago that school meetings were more about what crayons to choose. It seems like such a short time ago that we were getting her ready for her first days of kindy and then pre-school.
We were warned about how quickly the time passes and so we have tried to make the most of every moment. We’ve seen her develop her own interests and personality, all the while charming most of the people she has met along the way.
Now, at the age of 14, Emily is moving into yet another stage of life. Many fear their young ones entering the teenage years and to be honest we don’t know what waits around the corner, but I can honestly say I’m not all that worried. I know my daughter and I know the God who holds her safely in his arms. I’m just standing on the sidelines watching God pouring his amazing creativity into developing the young woman we have the privilege of sharing with him.
Where’s the little girl that we loved so much? She’s growing into a beautiful young woman that we love more today than we ever thought possible.
Posted in: Family.
Aug 30th, 2010
by Rodney Olsen.
Our family headed off to a book launch yesterday afternoon. The book is part of the Born Storytellers series which contains short stories written by various school students.
Kevin Price chose to be a professional writer in 1987. He began as a columnist for an advertising industry magazine and a lifestyle magazine before moving on to copywriting for local advertising agencies and businesses.
While he still writes advertising, he now also teaches storycraft to bright young minds in Western Australian schools and writers centres and edits the resulting works for the Born Storyteller books. He completed his first novel in 2007, which remains unpublished. He is married, has two daughters, and writes in his rural studio in the hills north of Perth in Western Australia.
Since its inception in 2005, Kevin has delivered his creative writing program, Learn to Write like A Born Storyteller in ten West Australian schools and a leading writers centre. He has edited and published over 200 young authors in 18 volumes.
We were very proud to hear our daughter, Emily, read part of her story at the launch. I can now say that she’s a published author.
Kevin Price, who taught the students the skills they needed to get their story to publication, spoke about the power of stories and how important story tellers have been throughout history. Seeing the smiles on the faces of the students from the four schools that had their books launched yesterday was indeed powerful.
I really believe that we were created to have a very strong connection to stories. Stories can connect us with each other and our creator in very powerful ways. Stories can be so much more than an entertaining read on a lazy afternoon. We can’t afford to neglect the importance of storytelling.
There was a great collection of talented storytellers at the launch yesterday. I certainly hope they’ll all continue to put their storytelling skills to great use.
Posted in: Books.
Aug 26th, 2010
by Rodney Olsen.
I saw an incredible show last night at the Regal Theatre in Subiaco. Tex Perkins was the Man in Black, telling the Johnny Cash Story. He was backed by an incredible four piece band and some amazing vocals by Rachael Tidd playing the part of June Carter-Cash.
I’ve never really been a big Johnny Cash or Tex Perkins fan but from the opening number the audience was captivated. I think I’m now officially a Johhny Cash and Tex Perkins fan.
As well as the faultless musical performance, Tex and Rachael talked us through the story of one of the most popular names in music. Did you know that Johnny Cash released 75 albums over his lifetime or that he chose the name John himself in his teenage years because his parent simply named him JR? I didn’t either until last night.
Two hours of Cash’s magnificent music interwoven with the story of his rise to stardom, his fight for survival and his eventual redemption.
The show explores his relationships – with hardened prisoners to the beautiful June Carter and lots in between.
Johnny Cash was dealt a very tough hand, early in life, but through his music and dedication, he became a legend throughout the world
Enjoy Ring of Fire, I Walk the Line, Folsom Prison Blues, Sunday Mornin’ Coming Down, Get Rhythm, A Boy Named Sue, Hey Porter and a dozen more hits.
Tex Perkins will lead The Tennessee Four in a night of memorable music. – The Man in Black
If I had the money I’d buy you some tickets for Man in Black and drag you along because I know there’s no way you’d be disappointed, and it would give me the opportunity to experience it all again. Unfortunately I don’t have the dollars so you’re on your own on this one but it really is worth checking out.
Posted in: Entertainment.
