Some pics of inspiration

Hey, NJ, hope you don't mind me posting a Youtube vid here. I'll blame it on chlorine, but my eyes are kinda misty after hearing this....


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3pU7rsim3E

RabidAlien said:

Hey, NJ, hope you don't mind me posting a Youtube vid here. I'll blame it on chlorine, but my eyes are kinda misty after hearing this....


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3pU7rsim3E

Click to expand...

That is fine but this is better. And please look through some of the other attached videos with the one below

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JV5nbOGRu3Y

Talk about misty eyes. This to my fellow Australians. Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi

Great additions, Rabid and Emac!!

Njaco The Band Played Waltzing Matilda was written by Eric Bogle and is at such an Anti War Song and can be used as such just like I Was Only 19 (Walk in the Light Green) by Redgum. However Waltzing Matilda written by Australian Poet Laurette A B Patterson known effectionaly as The Banjo is sung by Australians every where and can mean a myrid of emotions to Australians. Waltzing Matilda is our Unofficial ANTHEM. Even Eric Bogle recognised this when he wrote The Band Played Walzing Matilda. When Australian Troops left for Foriegn Shores or even on ANZAC Day itself Waltzing Matilda is always played. And even to the extent when Australians are participating in International Sports Walzing Matilda will be sung by Aussies. I will give you an example Njaco. When John Williams comes out singing Watzing Matilda say at an Australian Rugby Union Match against New Zealand or England or even the hated French and even against International Rugby Board rules Waltzing Matilda is sung unofficialy after the National Anthems have been preformed. We as Australians refuse to be dictated to by any one and as such we sing Waltzing Matilda as a form of brotherly protest in the spirit of being Australian. And we sing Waltzing Matilda to encourage our sportsmen and women just as much as we as Australians encourage our Service Men and Women. As Australians we know the words to Waltzing Matilda better than our National Anthem Advance Australia Fair. Rabid placed The Band Played Waltzing Matilda as he sees it as an American. Which is fine and I thank him for it. But the true nature of being Australian can only come about being Australian. As Waltzing Matilda was sung by our WW1 WW2 Malaya Korea Vietnam Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans etc. So that is why I added the Seekers Version of Waltzing Matilda with one of Australia's best known singers Judith Durham singing the song. It strikes home to Australians very much more so. It links itself to our ANZAC Heritage but it also links itself to just being an Aussie. Us Aussies do find inspiration from the strangest places at times. Just put it down to our nature of seeing things a bit different as being citizens of the Great Southern Sun Burnt Land we call home and is known as AUSTRALIA. We truely are as John Patrick O'Grady once wrote about Australians in his Book A Weird Mob but we are what we are Proud Aussies who will defend our freedoms to be exactly what we are. And I know other Aussies watching the Seekers version of Watzing Matilda would shed a tear. Their hearts will burst with pride and their minds will think about Australia and being Australian. Waltzing Matilda brings all that to us and more so Njaco

Understood, Emac. One of my favorite vinyls (yes, I have an exstensive collection of vinyl "records" ) is a double ablum of Australian songs. Love it. haven't played it in years as my turntable lost its needle but I remember a few of the songs. Several versions of "Waltzing Maltilda" on it. I'm kinda goofy like that. have a few records of Louisiana Cajun music along with another of Gregorian Chants. Softens up the Led Zeppelin in me.

By the way that what I said wasn't a slight against Rabid in any way. I just felt it was necassary to explain why Walzing Matlida is held in such high essteem by Aussies and how we find as Aussies a spirit in ourselves when singing about a swagman who steals a sheep and drowns himself to avoid capture by a land owner and the police. In reality its the first and utmost protest against authority as Australians have this personality of disliking and rebelling against authority. It is the spirit of being Australian Njaco of being FREE and we cherish it until death and defend it with our deaths if need be. We as Australians will never succumb to our Freedoms being taken away from us. And in the words of my fellow Aussies. Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi

Right on Emac....

Here's to you Aussies?

*G* No slights taken, Emac! I totally and completely (as far as a non-Aussie is able) understand where you're coming from. I would imagine the rest of the world hears Lee Greenwood's "God Bless The USA" and thinks "okay, nice song", whereas I absolutely cannot hear that without getting choked up inside. So no offense taken, none intended, and I will stand here (well....slouch in my 'pooter chair, really) and salute you and all other Aussies.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q65KZIqay4E

Returns the salute to our Gallant Friends and Allies the USA. Rabid the one thing I thought of was both your country and mine cherish FREEDOM and to choose what we want to do with our lives within our own countries. We are on the same page just approach it differently as we see it. There is no doubt at all that Aussies Yanks Brits Kiwis and any Country that values FREEDOM over oppression will survive these times of uncertainty as our nations have always stood against tyranny. We Aussies see our wide brown land as you Americans see your own country in a similar fashion to us. But that is only slight differences. I think we are not that different we just say it differently which means ultimately the same thing. By the way I did like God Bless the USA by Lee Greenwood made me feel grateful to having such good friends across the Pacific Ocean. But given that Rabid even though we approach FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY from different angles on the same page that very FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY gives us that right to agree to disagree at times but we defend our mutual FREEDOMS that we all share. So GOD BLESS ALL NATIONS WHO VALUE FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY

Hear, hear!!!

Amen, Emac! It doesn't matter the flavor, Freedom is still Freedom and Oppression is still Oppression the world over. And Freedom, no matter the source, will always stand against Oppression.

MY COUNTRY by Dorothea Mackellar

The love of field and coppice
Of green and shaded lanes
Of ordered woods and greens
Is still running in your viens
Strong love of grey-blue distance
Brown streams and soft dim skies
I know but can not share
My loves is otherwise

I love a sunburnt country
A land of sweeping plains
Of rugged mountain ranges
Of droughts and flooding rains
I love her far horizons
I love her jewel-sea
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me

The stark white ring-barked forests
All tragic to the moon
The sapphire-misted moutains
The hot gush of noon
Green tangle of the brushes
Where the lianas coil
And orchids deck the tree tops
And ferns the warm dark soil

Core of my heart. My Country
Her pitiless blue skies
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die
But when the grey clouds gather
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army
The steady soaking rain

Core of my heart. My Country
Land of rainbow gold
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold
Over the thirsty paddocks
Watch after many days
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze

An opal-hearted country
A wileful lavish land
All you who have not loved her
You will not understand
Though Earth holds many splendours
Whenever I may die
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

A poetic tribute to my fellow Australians. The words are not mine but our songster Dorothea MacKellar. Who wrote of Love of Country and compared Australia to England whence she came from. But over the years MY COUNTRY symbolizes Australia.

And of course we NEVER will FORGET OUR ANZACs LEST WE FORGET

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY_ezjs0vkI


And to often we Aussies forget to mention our New Zealand Mates. Who have often stood by us Aussies when things were tough. You Kiwis are our mates and I found this video on Youtube and is my tribute to our friends across the Tasman. To those who may recognise the song or to those who don't. Its called Po Karekare Ana. Please don't ask me what it means as I don't speak Maori. But basically it is a love song of a New Zealand Sailor during World War 1 to his girlfriend back in New Zealand. I believe the song was written about 1914 but had various updates and was used in New Zealand in song sheet fashion to gain funds for Returned New Zealand Service Men from World War 1 Retirement fund etc. However the Folksong Po Karakare Ana is a beautiful song of New Zealand

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrhB_d8M-64

Started a thread on this but I wanted to post here also. Its great!

The Gratitude Campaign

Just recieved mor pics of the USS New York that has some of the steel from the WTC used in its construction.

Great pics NJ..what kind/type/class of ship?

One of the places I find of inspiration is ANZAC Square in Brisbane and the Shrine of Memories. The Bronze Statues outside in the Gardens surrounding the ANZAC Square dedicated to Australian Servicemen and Women. And the Shrine of Memories located under the War Memorial itself. Hope you don't mind me adding these photos of places around Brisbane that I took yesterday. And the background history on the Statues are as follows and dedicated.

1st Statue dedicated to the Men and Women who served in Korea.
2nd Statue dedicated to the Nursing and Medical in all Wars Australia has been involved in.
3rd Statue dedicated to the Vietnam War with not only Army but RAAF.
4th Statue dedicated to the Pacific War particularly Owen Stanley Campaign

Emac, perfectly appropriate. Thanks!

Great pics Emac! Thanks for posting.

Excellent Emac!