Just Dance (Perth International Festival)

I've recently picked up sketching again, in addition to photography. So here's something I did a few days ago:

Apparently being "emo" makes creativity flow sometimes :P Wonder if it's always true though? I was in a rather stormy mood when I did this picture...

Anyway, let's move on to today's topic....

"Just dance, gonna be okay, da da doo-doo-mmmm,

Just dance, spin the record babe, da da doo-doo-mmmm,

Just dance, gonna be okay, d-d-d-dance,

Dance, dance, j-j-just dance..."

Lady Gaga, "Just Dance"

Today's post features the Afrotonics - an African drum and dance troupe, and a random couple who started dancing to one of the bands - Odette Mercy and Her Soul Atomics.

The Afrotonics really reminded me of one of the subjects I took back in my undergraduate days - African Drum and Dance. Although it was pretty hard keeping up with the various polyrhythms, I enjoyed it nevertheless! The Afrotonics themselves were inspired by mainly Ghanean, Senegalese and Guinean music. Check out their link here.

What I really like about the Afrotonics was their spontaneity. They always had a smile on their faces, and they often attempted to engage their audiences (aka us). Oh and I snapped a picture of Dan getting a shot of the dancers... :P oops...!!

One of the dances involved soloists, so some of the girls did their own solo moves...

And of course, they stopped for drinks every now and then. Their dance moves were really, really vigourous! I remembered being totally dead beat after a session of African drum and dance during my undergrad days - these ladies must have lots of stamina or something!



And at the end of their performance, they were conversing amongst each other while packing up.




The second dance group featured today involves a spontaneous, random couple sitting amongst the audience during the performance of Odette Mercy and Her Soul Atomics. They just stood up during one of the songs and started dancing. Well...the lady did her solo first, and then her partner joined in.






The band was pretty impressed by their performance and got them to come on stage for a "dance off".

This was the less intense, more random first round...




And this was during the second round. Now, it looks like the dude's trying to kick the singer, but NO, HE IS NOT. He was just doing his dance routine, and he landed up in mid-air :P



His female partner didn't attempt any "flying kicks", which was fortunate.



The couple was applauded after that, and they just ran back to their seats! Minutes later, they were gone. I guess they went to celebrate St Patrick's day - which was coincidentally on the same day as the festival itself. There were many people dressed in St Patrick's hats and colours...and even I coincidentally had shades of green on myself!

That concludes part 2 of our Perth International Festival series! I'll be putting up the 3rd installment soon!

Till then, back to the WAIS-IV assignment.

Red Bull is essential for uni (Perth International Fest)

As the title suggests...today's post is about Red Bull and the University of Western Australia (UWA). During the Perth International Festival, which I wrote a preview on, there were 2 Red Bull chicks handing cans of Red Bull to people at the festival...and for some reason most of the people surrounding the car were guys...

This post also kicks off part 1 of the Perth International Festival "series" that I'll be rambling about for the next post or so.

OK...maybe not all the time...coz girls DID collect their free Red Bulls every now and then :P

And of course, I took pictures of the Red Bull car because of the car plate! WIINGS. It seriously reminds me of the time I took half a tiny glass of Red Bull, and I was like @_@ the whole night. Couldn't sleep, yet felt so light-headed. I never took Red Bull or any energy drink for the matter, ever again.

The girls were loading their containers with Red Bull cans when they arrived...



And of course, they started chatting with customers and taking pictures! Through the camera lens, they looked really friendly and approachable. I never approached them though - remember I mentioned that I decided to avoid Red Bull or any other energy drink?

Unfortunately the girls ran out of Red Bull - thanks to the massive crowd, and had to leave and grab more.

They did come back in the late afternoon, though! And the chatting resumed.





And of course, the Red Bull supply depleted pretty fast and they had to leave.

A couple of days after the festival, I went to the University of Western Australia (UWA) to gate-crash one of my awesome buddies' classes. It was during a one-week break, and I heard that UWA was a pretty good place for taking photos. So my buddy dropped by and I spent a whole day there. The bulk of it was spent in class...

And playing piano of course. The first place I visited was the music studio in the music faculty. They were actually pretty spacious! But they didn't have grand pianos. The good thing was that the pianos were new and relatively well-maintained...for now.



UWA kinda reminds me of Melbourne University. Probably because of the old buildings. Did an entry on the Old Quad in Melbourne University, about a year ago, and did a Memories of Victoria post before I moved to Perth. WHOA...time sure flies. And I miss my buddies in Victoria very (x infinity) much!!



Of course, I HAD to visit Winthrop Hall and the famous clock tower! I heard people actually came to Winthrop Hall to take wedding pictures - maybe they met in UWA and hence decided to make UWA one of their destinations for wedding pictures?

Anyways...'nuff said. I guess it's pretty self-explanatory why Winthrop Hall is such a prominent landmark in UWA.




We actually went to Winthrop Hall twice - once in the afternoon when the sky was really clear and blue, and once more in the evening during sunset.

Intricate carvings on the highest points of Winthrop Hall, lit up by the setting sun.



There were also ducks swimming in the shallow pond - spotted them in the arvo and in the evening. These were taken in the evening...

And one of the ducks - presumably the biggest, fattest and most laid-back one, was just sitting by the side LIKE A BOSS. Oh no. I mean #likeaboss. He never moved, and only made some noises when I came up to take a picture of him. And all the while, my buddy was muttering, "I want my Peking Duck"...you can roughly guess why.



His buddies? Well they were swimming around.

I guess that pretty much sums up part 1 of the Perth International Festival "series"! Will be back! Now...time to focus on interpreting some WAIS-IV (aka intelligence testing) scores!

The Future is Yours to Create

Oh hi little cutie! :)

Bought this adorable little guy in my university's bookshop and he's now sitting with my mushroom from Typo. I really love him - especially his little smile. And took pictures of him with a few of the props I have, including my mousepad and my piano calculator. I've got LOADS of music merchandise! And they make good props!

Also did a still-life photoshoot last week, when I bought these - a gorgeous brunette figurine in a graduation gown and an adorable teddy bear birthday card. These are actually for one of my awesome friends back in Melbourne, who really loves teddy bears. And of course, I chose the figurine for her because the phrase "The Future is Yours to Create" is really encouraging.

She's already a graduate though, and she's definitely working very hard to create a bright future for herself. Hope this year brings her good luck and happiness, and of course, I'm sure she'll be really, really successful!

Moving on to the pictures - initially I decided on a plain background...just normal shoots with the figurine and putting her on my windowsill (that's how I got the plain background). Just to get pictures of how the figurine looks like and the details.

To be honest, I really like the hem of the figurine's dress and the neckline. It really suits her.

I then used the birthday card as a backdrop for these pictures. The idea of these pictures is that graduation is often a great day for us students, and that graduating entails lots of wonderful gifts. Hence the various manipulations in backgrounds.





The teddy bears in the card came in all shapes and sizes, and of course, the main highlight was the front cover - a mum looking over as her baby unwraps a present. So yea, this explains all the combinations of backdrops I've got here.

I'm glad the present's been delivered successfully too! I actually sent it interstate from Western Australia to Victoria, and was praying hard that nothing would happen to it...and I'm so glad it arrived in one piece in Victoria. :)

So I guess that's all for now - see you guys soon!