Rediscovering a love of music

February 8, 2010
by Rodney Olsen
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Ashley ArbuckleHow long has it been since you picked up a musical instrument? Do your playing days seem long ago?

One man is hoping to make a difference for musicians in Perth as he helps them rediscover the joy of playing music.

Ashley Arbuckle is a past concertmaster of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and former co-leader of the London Symphony Orchestra.

He has developed a very high reputation as a teacher of the violin and is currently artistic director of the WA Philharmonic Orchestra.

Ashley has now developed plans to lead a new string orchestra with a difference. Encore Strings is an orchestra for those who’ve packed their instruments away thinking life has become too busy to enjoy playing music together with other music lovers.

I want people to rekindle their passion for music by bringing their violins, violas, cellos and basses out from under the bed and dusting them off.

Ashley joined me in the studio during my radio programme on 98.5 Sonshine FM today to tell listeners a little more about his vision for Encore Strings. We also talked about the variety of musical styles that have been enhanced with orchestral backing. Ashley tells a great story of an encounter with Frank Zappa when the London Symphony Orchestra was recording with him.

You can hear our chat by clicking the play button at the bottom of this post.

Ashley understands well the pain of life without being able to play music. Some years ago it was thought that his musical career could be over due to injury. Thankfully, he made a full recovery after successful brain surgery by the renowned Sydney neurosurgeon Dr Charlie Teo.

[audio:http://mpegmedia.sonshinefm.ws/feeds/MOR020810_1115.mp3]

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World’s Greatest Shave

February 4, 2010
by Rodney Olsen
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The Leukaemia Foundation World’s Greatest Shave is one of Australia’s biggest annual fundraising events.

The idea is simple. Participants get friends and family to sponsor them to shave or colour their hair. The money that’s raised is used by the Leukaemia Foundation to fund free services to support patients and families living with leukaemias, lymphomas, myeloma and related blood disorders. It also funds blood cancer research to find better treatments and cures.

More than 125 000 people are expected to shave or colour their hair this year, and while I won’t be one of them, a friend and colleague will. John Donoghue will be shaving his head and dedicating his effort to a friend who is going through Chemotherapy and other treatments at the moment. John has been supporting and praying for her family for many months as they go through this, and he sees this head shave as another way of offering his support.

Hi there, it’s JD here from 98.5 Sonshine FM. I’m taking part in the Leukaemia Foundation’s World’s Greatest Shave 2010. Please consider sponsoring me! It’s a relatively small thing to do considering the pain and suffering of those living with, and unfortunately, dying from this disease.

The funds we raise will help the Leukaemia Foundation to provide practical care and support to patients and families living with leukaemias, lymphomas, myeloma and related blood disorders. Please consider donating and supporting this cause by sponsoring me to get my head shaved in March.

Just click here to find out more and to support John.



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Celebrating Small Victories

February 4, 2010
by Rodney Olsen
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Finally … after months of trying I finally got our garden watering system working. That may not be quite as exciting for you as it is for me but I’m getting ready to kill the fatted calf for the celebrations.

We moved into our current home in August last year so for the first few months we were there we didn’t need to water our garden. God took care of that for us.

Over the past few months I’ve been trying to get the controller programmed to do what it needs to do. I’d set it to run each station for ten minutes but when the time for it to start rolled around it would only ever run each station for three minutes. I’d check and re-check the programming but everything was set correctly. It was definitely displaying ten minutes for each station yet it refused to water any section of our garden for more than three minutes.

I ended up turning each station on manually on our watering days. (In Perth we are under watering restrictions and can only use sprinklers twice a week on designated days.)

Finally, last weekend, I pulled the plug on the controller for a couple of hours. I removed the backup battery and pulled the fuse on the main supply. It was a kind of reboot. I then reprogrammed everything following the same steps I’d followed several times before. I had no idea if it worked because today was our next watering day and the first opportunity to see if it could get past three minutes.

This morning I woke to the sound of running water. It’s finally doing what it should. I’m not going to touch it ever again.

I know that getting a watering controller sorted isn’t quite the same as discovering a cure for the common cold but sometimes you’ve got to appreciate and celebrate the small victories.



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The Spirituality of Avatar

February 3, 2010
by Rodney Olsen
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AvatarI’m probably the only person on the planet who is yet to see Avatar. I was at the cinema to see Old Dogs on Sunday afternoon and the queue for Avatar went half way across the city. Well maybe not … but it was a very long queue.

I don’t know if I’ll get around to seeing Avatar but I’ve certainly heard conflicting reports about the spirituality presented in the movie. Some say that there is a strong messianic theme to the movie while others talk about the strong pantheistic themes.

We need to keep in mind that the movie is the work of James Cameron who not only brought us the blockbuster Titanic, but also the documentary The Lost Tomb of Jesus, claiming that a tomb containing the bodies of Jesus and other members of his family had been discovered. Cameron is certainly a spiritual person who is critical of the beliefs of Christianity, leaning more towards a belief of universal energy.

My regular Wednesday morning guest on 98.5 Sonshine FM is Ross Clifford who is the Principal of Morling College in New South Wales and Vice President elect of the Baptist World Alliance. Each week we chat about a range of issues relating to spirituality and belief.

We discussed the spirituality of Avatar today, highlighting the various themes it presents.

If you’d like to hear what Ross had to say, simply click the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

[audio:http://mpegmedia.sonshinefm.ws/feeds/SPI020310_1033.mp3]

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Object Permanence

February 2, 2010
by Rodney Olsen
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We’re supposed to develop Object Permanence within the first year of our lives but I sometimes wonder if we’ve all still got a long way to go.

Child development expert and psychologist Jean Piaget coined the phrase Object Permanence to describe the stage in a child’s life when they start to realise that an object still exists even when they can’t see, hear, or touch it. Most agree that children reach that point at about eight or nine months of age.

I wonder if we need to develop some Object Permanence regarding Haiti.

The massive tragedy that hit Haiti has already started to slip from our headlines. Stories about the relief efforts are now moving further and further inside our newspapers rather than being splashed across the front page.

I know that such a tragedy can’t continue to occupy the same place in our hearts, minds or media, but we can’t afford to forget. Just because we can’t see, hear, or touch the hurt each day, we must maintain our Object Permanence.

In weeks, months and even years from now, the people of Haiti will still be dealing with losing around 200 000 mothers, fathers and children. The millions of people affected will still be trying to put their lives together.

I’ve seen first hand the kind of conditions the Haitian people faced every day before the earthquake hit. It’s a long road back to even those conditions but we can’t let things go back to how they were. We need to ensure that things are better than they have been. That’ll take years and probably even decades but these people require our ongoing assistance.

Compassion has been working in Haiti for over 40 years and they’ll be there long after the initial clean up and relief effort is over. I’ve seen the work they do and know how much of a difference it makes. That’s why I’ll still be making whatever contributions I can to help Haiti and its people over the coming years.

Please donate generously to Compassion to help those in Haiti. Click here to give through Compassion International. If you’re in Australia, click here to donate through Compassion Australia.



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