Andrew Ioannidis, musician and artist extraordinaire has now launched his two new websites, and they are well worth a visit! 

This is a man whose talents and inspiration know no bounds musically and artistically.  My favourites of his songs are: 'This is Your Day' from the Mercury album which I listen to several times a week.  

He wrote a song Environmental Take Over Bid which was drawn from some poetry I wrote about the latest backyard craze, the outdoor room and how people forget how our buzzy little friends, and their habitats, are affected by all that building up and out! You can go to the blog page to see the lyrics and listen to this.

Here is a link to the site.  Been spending some time getting the voice content ready for the You Tube video for the Eco Creativity exhibition we did back in Feb 013 so as usual my attention to this blog has been a bit remiss to say the least. 

At our Get Eco-Creative exhibition last weekend there was a theme running through: river and acquatic health and the ways our green messages can be conveyed in relation to this theme. So it is time to get back in to the serious business of the day, and talk about some more seriously inspiring environmental videos which also have a major bearing on river/sea environments. 

Two names bubble, foam and spring to mind: Shark Girl and Mission of Mermaids.   

You can also see my blog where I provide plenty of stimulating discussion about fertilisers,  pathogens, engine oil and the like and how these impact on river and sea species (are you still awake? No I actually try to write the blog in a way so that the material is kept 'hale and hearty' as far as possible. )

Well, today's eco-creative exhibition went over well. Those who came stayed for a while and enjoyed the material and visual exhibits. The turn-out was a little quieter than we had expected, but we had a number of overseas visitors which was good to see.  Will be posting a You Tube video of the exhibition in due course. 

After our exhibition we did a bit of a jaunt around town, a few of us, to check out Melbourne's first White Night festival (2013), first of all up to the State Library to hear the sweetest youth choir our ears had ever been graced with.  The singers wore purple roses and managed bird calls, exquisite whistles, and sounds.  It was really quite esoteric ...  the musical arranging that is.  The Exaudi Youth Choir (Night Songs) did our city proud. 

Then downtown we went to hear more music and witness some of the various light shows where the city buildings were illuminated in artistic patterns. It has to be said, you had never seen our city streets full to brimming with people milling along at a snails pace, as there was no going anywhere in a hurry. Every street was a sea adrift with people, as you would see at a protest march, except you would turn the corner and there was yet another protest march, except there was n't a feeling ...  of protest but of eager anticipation. You felt that the image of the crowds had been superimposed, as in a computer generated image, like the computer light images placed around every second street.  It was just so surreal. 

So it is correct to say that the final weekend of the Sustainable Living Festival has been eclipsed by those out looking for free evening entertainment and culture, and it's a tad difficult to compete with over 300,000 people.  And as for the cars ... well, hmm... they were not a patch on the crowds. Anyone in a car may just as well have given up ! It's no surprise too that the word 'tram' rhymes with cram and ram (ram referring to pushing through the cars I mean).  

Hope to have some footage of our exhibition up in a video,  soon, but first, have to let the White Night effect wear off first! 

There is a festival that is most fine, which is underway in Melbourne and we trouped along to the Market Day yesterday and were happy to see some of the organisations we know well there, including the Thin Green Line (helping rangers who protect wildlife in some of the most dangerous parts of the world), Fifteen Trees  (revegetating rural Victoria), Friends of the Earth and so on and so forth.  I had a lentil burger with homemade tomato sauce - delish.  

Our preparations for the Get Eco Creative Exhibition next weekend have taken up a lot of personal time, and hence there hasn't been much written on here.  We are all volunteers for this Festival so it's nice when people get acknowledged. 

Huge thanks must go to Master Andrew Ioannidis, artist (architect and musician) without whom I would be having huge hissy fits, by now! And as of yesterday, the Get Ec0-Creative Exhibition is coming together, much more smoothly than anticipated.  

Hope to see you there next Saturday or Sunday 23-24 February, from 11am to 5.30 Space 39, upstairs 39 Little Collins St Melb.  It's a visual and conceptual exhibition as to how we express our green messages. 

Over a year ago, I had this zany idea to set up a website where people share their ideas for ways we communicate about anything to do with looking after our planet. I was finding the websites I was coming across are fairly 'highbrow' and academic in their analysis of environmental communications, and I really felt that we all need to be on a  similar level when discussing these important issues.  

So as we are past our one year anniversary, I thought I'd keep this post even lighter green than usual, in celebratory mode, as it's also the onset of spring down here in the Southern Hemisphere, in Melbourne, Australia and a very balmy 23 degrees Celcius. So what better time to talk about something light and fluffy like -  err .... going out and painting the town green,  and eco-dating!

This topic is different from most, because it is concerned with who we choose to communicate about greenie issues with, rather than how. A while back I raised the notion 'greenie extinction status', and the idea that greenies could be unwittingly rendering themselves extinct by marrying within the movement, choosing to have small families, or not to have children, at all, as is the case with many of my greenie friends and relatives. Now that concept was arguably far-fetched, as there are probably loads of people being born in large families who have an environmental conscience, but if we take the idea of greenie extinction status, a little further, we get on to the topic of eco-dating (eco love, eco-sex, and all the other variants of the one theme) ! When we talk about intentionally meeting likeminded people we can actively narrow off the community we are engaging with. And this is not a good thing. As I say, repeatedly in my book - Green Spin - Promoting the Green Message - I believe, we need to be extending our reach, rather than narrowing it, if we are to get inside the hearts and minds of other people.  If environmentalists circulate predominantly with other greenies, we are literally deoxygenising the debate that we need to be having. My beaux have mostly been men who shop frequently and consume gazillion plastic bags, and have varied to the degree to which they have cared about the planet (each one has had their good aspects, admittedly, but none of them has owned up to wanting to be called a fully fledged greenie), so there was plenty of room for debates!  

Now the thought of going out with a plastic bag guzzling consumer may be unbearable for some greenies, but mixing in more broadly makes for a much more interesting dialogue amongst more moderate environmentalists, as we greenies and non-greenies have much to learn from each other about how  to communicate on green matters.  One notices the internet abounds with eco-dating, eco love and planet earth singles websites, so I am merely putting this different angle out there, as I wonder whether or not we should be seeking  to close ourselves off from the rest of the world or let those with slightly different views in. In our home lives, there has to be some give and take - as to whether one has one or two cars, the use of recycled toilet paper,  opting for a small dog over a large one etcetera. I can see that some of these matters have to be non-negotiable (devout veganism or a home composting toilet for example!)  

So when we go out actively seeking a like-minded person for a partner or even just seeking friends why not consider the degree to which the relationship can be spiced up a little, and a bit of difference might actually be a good thing!