The Sassy spirit of spring

Saturday's pic of the day!

Yesterday was the annual Selwa Anthony Author Management seminar and Sassy Awards, an event not to be missed, even though I am now Selwa's longest serving member who's never earned her any money. Somedayrealsoonnow, I going to have to redeem myself. But Selwa continues to have faith, and I have plenty of half-baked projects just begging to be completed, so we'll see.

As per usual, the seminar part of the day was filled with inspirational stories from Selwa's stable of Aussie talent, and the hours just flew by until it was suddenly time for the awards banquet.

This time, though, the event was moved to September, so we bid farewell to the ol' Novatel, Brighton-le-Sands, home of this annual seminar since November 1993 ("Succeed Some More in '94"), when the group who attended dinner in a nearby Brighton restaurant all fitted around one large round table! (By comparison, last night the ballroom of the Swissotel, in Sydney's CBD, had almost 200 people in it!)




A beautiful sculpture in the Level 8 foyer of the Swissotel.

I was also able to catch up with Sorrel Wilby, Selwa's "Sassy presenter" for this year's awards, and to remind her of her encounter with another McLean, my younger brother Brian (aka "Furry"), in one of her "Australian Geographic" television specials last year!



Okay, Selwa, I hear you: fun's over for the year. I'm back to the old drawing board (or, rather, keyboard).

Speaking of drawing boards, this is what happens when award-winning cartoonist Eric Lobbecke sits behind you at the annual Selwa Anthony writers' seminar:



Thanks Eric! That was so cool!

depouiller - to strip off

My friend, Sydney political cartoonist and children's book illustrator, Eric Lobbecke, sent me an invitation to the opening of his new exhibition at NG Art Gallery, Chippendale. I simply had to brave the steady rain - and my new head cold - to get there, and what a fun night! Thanks Eric!


I counted fifty people not long after I arrived and this number
quickly seemed to double!
Eric is towards the back of this pic, the smaller figure in the white shirt.


The topic of the exhibition is politicians,
stripped of their accoutrements, until they are all the same underneath. I think.


The former church windows revealed sculptures and a herb garden perched on the roof,
although this wasn't part of the exhibition.
The mural on the next building, seen through the right window, makes it look like stained glass in this pic!


Eric is again to the right of the middle of this pic, in the white shirt.

With all the fat naked men on display I was quite flattered that Eric hadn't asked me to model. And the rest of the world breathes a collective sigh of relief.