FIVE THINGS YOU PROBABLY NEVER KNEW YOUR

MOBILE PHONE COULD DO.

There are a few things that can be done in times of grave
emergencies. Your mobile phone can actually
be a life saver or an emergency tool for survival.
Check out the things that you can do  with it:

FIRST

Emergency

The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile
is 112. If you find yourself out of  the coverage area of your
mobile; network and there is an emergency, dial 112
and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly this number 112 can be dialled even if the keypad is locked. Try it out.

SECOND

Have you  locked your keys in the car?
Does  your car have remote keyless entry? This may come in handy someday. Good reason to own a mobile / cell phone:

If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call
someone at  home on their mobile phone from your cell phone.

Hold  your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at your  home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. Your car will unlock. Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other ‘remote’ for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk).A mate tried ….. It works fine! We tried it out and it unlocked our car over a mobile phone!’

THIRD

Hidden Battery Power
Imagine  your mobile battery is very low. To activate, press the keys*3370# Your mobile will restart with this reserve and the instrument will show a 50% increase in battery. This reserve will get charged when you charge your mobile next time.

FOURTH

How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone?

To check your Mobile phone’s serial number, key in the following digits on your  phone: * # 0 6 #

A  15 digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to
your handset. Write it down and keep it somewhere safe. When your
phone get stolen, you can phone your service provider and give them
this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even if
the thief changes the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless.

You probably won’t get your phone back, but at  least you know that whoever stole it can’t use/sell it either. If everybody  does this, there would be no point in people stealing mobile phones.

FIFTH

Also -ATM   PIN Number Reversal – Good to Know

If you should ever be forced by a robber to withdraw money from an ATM machine, you  can notify the police by entering your PIN # in
reverse. For example, if your  pin number is 1234, then you would put
in 4321. The ATM system recognizes  that your PIN number is backwards from the ATM card you placed in the  machine. The machine will still give you the money you requested, but unknown  to the robber, the police will be immediately dispatched to the location.
This information was recently broadcast on CTV by Crime Stoppers
however it is seldom used because people just don’t know about it.
Please pass this along to everyone.

Aussie $ 100 Note

MY EIGHTH STEP TO PROSPERITY.

Aussie $ 100 Note

With the purchase of the house at Broken Hill, I’d run into a common stumbling block faced by many real estate investors for decades – no more loans at my income level.This was in spite of all four places being cash-flow positive and totally self supporting.  B#%%$&@**&* ……banks ! No sense of adventure I say.

NEW MENTORING GURU APPEARS

The mentor gentleman I’d worked with had decided to retire from his role of advisor and enjoy his 53 houses and whatever he had.  It was time to chase up another real estate mentoring  GURU, so with lots of internet time researching, and lots of phone calls seeking personal recommendations I found, and decided to join 21st Century Academy, an education company owned by multi millionaire property GURU Jamie McIntyre. His story
is of being $150 000 in debt at 22 and becoming a millionaire, mainly through real estate by  the age of 29.

I bought the 21st Century Academy homestudy kit via a Western Australian company, Universal Wealth Creation P/L, http://tinyurl.com/2bym7vm ,  who were their distribution and sales organisation, and where one of their staff, Simon, was  extremely helpful. As it happened, I was to have a huge  amount of business to do with him  a year or so later.

THE HOMESTUDY KIT.

Talk about millionaire generating information ! The kit comprised 80 hours of DVD s which were mainly filmed live at 21CA seminars, plus a variety of books authored by Jamie, including such titles as:-

What I Didn’t Learn At School But Wish I Had,  Buy Here   http://tinyurl.com/34r8ug8

What I Didn’t  Learn From My Real Estate Agent But Wish I Had. Buy Here  http://tinyurl.com/2wgfxt2

What I Didn’t Learn From My Financial Planner But Wish I Had Buy Here http://tinyurl.com/32ylb2o

The financial commitment to buy the complete  Homestudy package is a fairly serious amount of money, but by using only 2 of the stategies suggested, I paid for the package in a matter of months. I’d suggest you purchase one of the books mentioned above to give yourself a preview of the quality of 21 CA’s products.                                                              They are also available here http://tinyurl.com/yf3pt2t where there is some great extra information

THE 2 TO 4 DAY SEMINARS

Very hard hitting information. 21 CA offered a 5 year membership with mentoring and free access to their 2 to 4 day seminars included. These seminars are attended by up to 400 eager to learn members of the public whose major interest is to learn the skills needed for creating wealth. They are not disappointed because there are many different speakers over the 4 day seminar, each with a different slant or passion on helping to make the attendees richer. The positive vibe OR buzz in the auditorium is so powerful and really gets one’s enthusiasm going.

BACK TO SEE DAVID THE BROKER

My first IMPORTANT piece of learning from 21 CA was to spend lots of time checking out my loan documents and seeing if I could improve the structure of the loans. Of course it was a case of contacting David the broker , with whom I’d developed great rapport over the years, and by using the 21 CA info and his skills, we set off after a good deal.  The bank which had both Mt Isa and Geraldton on the one loan was WAY above all the Big Four Aussie banks at  10.8 %,and thanks to 21 CA and David we got them transferred to ????? Bank  at 9.4 % which saved about $ 900 per month !!!!!!!!  That was a huge relief and made life a lot easier.

WHAT IS SHARE RENTING ?

Sounds a bit strange, doesn’t it ? It’s Jamie’s pet name for selling covered calls in the share market, and is a great way to generate regular cashflow.  The BIG question is how to fund such a venture ?  What we did was to establish a Line of Credit when the loan restructuring was done and to use some those funds to purchase shares and then generate income by selling the calls on them.  As a rule of thumb, the return is usually between 2 and 3 %  PER MONTH  or 24 to 30 % per annum. Almost beats your savings account interest rate, doesn’t it ?

Applying that to the real world, lets say you purchased 1000 shares in the XYZ company for $ 30 000, and sold the calls / rented the shares for 2.5 % per month [ this will vary up or down on a monthly basis ] giving you an average income of   $ 750 per month, or $ 9000 ANUALLY !   That would certainly help with the mortgage, wouldn’t it ? Learn more from one of Jamie’s books.

MORE ABOUT SIMON MENTIONED ABOVE.

Click Sean's Face

Simon, the Universal Wealth Creation guru had advised me very well about the home study kit, so when he suggested I look into becoming a part of their organisation, I was predisposed to do so owing to his excellent advice and wonderful followup service.  UWC’s CEO is Sean Rasmussen who uses the “Job Description ” of ” Aussie Internet Marketer and Life Conessuier.”  I decided to join in with the fun and learn about Internet Affiliate Marketing by initially purchasing Sean’s book, ” The Year Of The Affiliate 2008  “  which in 175 pages, gave huge amounts of information enabling me to enter the fantastic world of Internet Marketing.  More on the next Step

TOWARDS PROSPERITY – NOW  3 WAYS

So, now there are 3 strings to my ongoing wealth increase strategies :-

1 Real Estate Investing

2 Share Renting & Options Trading

3 Internet Marketing

Hold on………………..it’s an exciting ride.

Baldwin Concert Grand Piano Click Here

AUSTRALIAN LAWYERS BORING ADVICE

This is really good and valuable information to pass on, particularly the phone numbers at the bottom. It is orientated to Australia, but the    principles apply fully  Internationally.

So far I’ve only needed one of the credit card numbers [ below ] several years ago when a gambling scam took $ 5 000 from me – they did this in smaller increments of just under $ 500 over a one week period. Credit card companies usually are alerted automatically if a series of  purchases over the $ 500 amount are made and will phone or email to confirm all is OK. Mastercard cancelled my old card and had a new one to me in a few
days. Great Service – thankyou MC.  Did I get a refund of the money                   I didn’t spend on  casino type gambling ? The answer is near the grand piano picture below. It’s almost a joke that I should be targeted because I do not gamble in any form, not even Lotto.

LAWYER’S ADVICE  – NO CHARGE ( for a change ! )

A corporate LAWYER sent the following out to the employees in his company:

1. Next time you order cheques, have only your initials (instead of your first name) and surname put on them. If someone takes your cheque book, they will not know if you sign your cheques with just your initials or your first name, but your bank will know how you sign your cheques.

2. Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead, put “PHOTO ID REQUIRED”.

3. When you are writing cheques to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the “For” line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your cheque as it passes through all the cheque processing channels won’t have access to it.

4. Place your work phone number on your cheques instead of your home phone. If you have a PO Box, use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a PO Box, use your work address. Never have your Centrelink Number printed on your cheques. You can add it if it is necessary, but if you have it printed, anyone can get it.

5. Run the contents of your wallet through a photocopy machine. Do both sides of each licence, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel. Keep the photocopy in a safe place (not your wallet). I also carry a photocopy of my passport when travelling either here or abroad. We’ve all heard horror stories about fraud that’s committed on us in stealing a name, address, Social Security or Centrelink number, credit cards.

Unfortunately I, a solicitor / lawyer / attorney, have first-hand knowledge because my wallet was stolen last month. Within a week, the thieves ordered an expensive monthly mobile phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Dell computer, received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information on-line, and more.

Master and Visa Cards

But here’s some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know:

1. We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately, but the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them.

2. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one).

3. But here’s what is perhaps most important of all: (I never even thought to do this.)  Call the three national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your Tax File Number your passport number and driver’s licence number. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name.

The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorise new credit. By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves’ purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away. This weekend someone handed it in. It seems to have stopped them dead in their tracks.

Now, here are some numbers which you might need to contact if

Master and Visa Cards

1.  Visa Card Australia – 1800 621 199
2.  Visa Card International – 1800 450 346
3.  Lost Travellers’ Cheques – 1800 127 477
4.  MasterCard Australia – (02) 9466 3700
5.  MasterCard International – 1800 120 113
6.  Bankcard Australia – (02) 9281 6633
7.  Medicare – 132 011
8.  Centrelink Fraud – 137 230
9.  Seniors Card – 1300 364 758
10.           Passport – 131 232
11.           ANZ FREECALL – 1800 033 844
12.           Bank West – 131 718
13.           Citibank – 132 484
14.           Tamworth Coles/Myer Source  -2340 1300 306 397
15.           Commonwealth – 132 221
16.           CUSCAL- MyCard 1300 135 538
17.           GE Capital – 1300 369 904
18.           Members Equity – 1300 654 998
19.           National – 132 265
20.           St George – 1800 028 208
21.           SydneyVirgin – 2000 1800 080 000
22.           Westpac – 1800 230 144
23.           Woolworths Ezy Banking – 137 288

One of our http://webvision2020.com/ forum members, Karen, has sent the following piece of information – Thankyou Karen -

A couple of extra suggestions for when you travel overseas.

Before you go, tell your credit card company where you are travelling. If you don’t tell them and they see overseas transactions on your credit card they may cancel it automatically just in case those transactions are fraudulent.

Also, photocopy your air tickets and any other travel tickets that you have pre-arranged. If they get stolen you will still have the ticket numbers and getting replacements will be easier.

Cheers
Karen

IN CONCLUSION

Aussie $ 100 Note

The answer to the question on no-one’s lips [ !!! ] about the refund.

YES I GOT IT !!!!!!!

Bechstein Concert Grand

TO ALL SENDERS OF EMAILS – PART 2

On the previous post I wrote about the correct etiquette for forwarding emails to reduce SPAM and VIRUSES. It is pleasing to have gotten several positive, encouraging comments within 24 hours, so here is more information about the clever way to keep your internet email experience safe for both friends and yourself.

Please take a few minutes to read the following information concerning the
re-sending or ‘forwarding’ the emails we receive from friends and relatives.
Here is something everyone should read and take the advice. If you don’t,
you’re hurting yourself and your email buddies.

By now, I suspect everyone is familiar with  http://www.snopes.com> and/or http://www.truthorfiction.com> for determining whether information received via email is just that: true/false or fact/fiction. Both are excellent sites.

Advice from Snopes.com very important!

1. Any time you see an email that says,

“Forward this on to ‘10′ (or however many) of your friends”;
“Sign this petition, or you’ll get bad luck/good luck”;
“You’ll see something funny on your screen after you send it”;
or whatever,

It almost always has an email tracker program attached that tracks the
cookies and emails of those folks you forward to.

The host sender is getting a copy each time it gets forwarded and then is
able to get lists of ‘active’ email addresses to use in SPAM emails, or sell
to other spammers.

Even when you get emails that demand you send the email on if you’re not
ashamed of God/Jesus …that’s email tracking and they’re playing on your
conscience. These people don’t care how they get your email addresses -
just as long as they get them.

2. Also, emails that talk about a missing child or a child with an
incurable disease –

“how would you feel if that was your child?”
…Email Tracking!!! Ignore them and don’t participate!

Almost all emails that ask you to add your name and forward on to others are
similar to that mass letter years ago that asked people to send business
cards to the little kid in Florida who wanted to break the Guinness Book of
Records for the most cards. All it was, and all any of this type of email
is, is a way to get names and ‘cookie’ tracking information for
telemarketers and spammers – to validate active email accounts for their
own profitable purposes.

You can do your friends and family members a GREAT favour by sending this information to them; you will be providing a service to your friends, and will be rewarded by not getting thousands of spam emails in the future!

If you have been sending out (FORWARDING) the above kinds of email, now you know why you get so much SPAM! The other important task when forwarding has been written about at length on my previous post, called “Practicing  ‘ Safe Forwarding’  for Emails ” http://tinyurl.com/yylqytx

Do yourself a favour and STOP adding your name(s) to those types of listings
regardless how inviting they might sound, or make you feel guilty if you don
t! It’s all about getting email addresses – nothing more!

You may think you are supporting a GREAT cause, but you are NOT! Instead,
you will be getting tons of junk mail later and very possibly a virus
attached! Plus, you are helping the spammers get rich! Let’s stop making
it easy for them!

Also: email petitions are NOT acceptable to Government, or any other
organisation – i.e. social security, etc. To be acceptable, petitions must
have a signed signature and full address of the person signing the petition,
so this is a waste of time and you’re just helping the email trackers.

Please read the full story here:

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/petition/internet.asp

As a passionate lover of grand pianos,  I’d like to share some Bosendorfer models with you. Delightful Instruments !

Bosendorfer Strauss

Bosendorfer Liszt

FORWARDING EMAILS – A PASSION FOR SOME

One of the first things we learn with our computers is the fun of sharing information or emails  we’ve been sent by friends,  with other internet users. We do this by FORWARDING the email.  However, there is a very definite set of rules about doing this correctly. Do it correctly and life is beautiful, but disobey the rules and mayhem prevails ! SPAM and VIRUSES can be the result and all they do is to cause chronic irritation to the user OR to really screw up your whole internet experience. I know that all the members of the http://webvision2020.com  / YOTA Forum are aware of these correct practices, and would NEVER forward in an unsafe manner, but it’s better to be sure than sorry, so a reminder follows. Please share this with all your email correspondents.

IMPORTANT!! HOW TO FORWARD EMAIL APPROPRIATELY

A friend who is a computer expert received the following directly from a system administrator for a corporate system. It is an excellent message
 that ABSOLUTELY applies to ALL of us who send emails. Please read the short  letter below, even if you’re sure you already follow proper procedures.
 
“Do you really know how to forward emails?
 50% do;
 50% DO NOT.
 
Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail? Do you hate it?
 
Every time you forward an email there is information left over from the
 people who got the message before you, namely their email addresses & names.
 As the messages get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds, and
 builds, and builds, and all it takes is for some poor sap to get a virus,
 and his or her computer can send that virus to every email address that has
 come across his computer. Or, someone can take all of those addresses and sell them or send junk mail
 to them in the hopes that you will go to the site and he will make five cents for each hit.
That’s right, all of that inconvenience over five cents 

  HOW DO YOU STOP THIS NONSENSE ? 

 
 (1) When you forward an email, DELETE all of the other addresses that
 appear in the body of the message (at the top). That’s right, DELETE them.
 
 Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever it is you
 know how to do. It only takes a second. You MUST click the ‘Forward’
 button first and then you will have full editing capabilities against the
 body and headers of the message. If you don’t click on ‘Forward’ first, you
 won’t be able to edit the message at all.
 
 (2) Whenever you send an email to more than one person, do NOT use the To:
 or Cc: fields for adding email addresses. Always use the BCC: (blind carbon
 copy)field for listing the email addresses. This is the way the people you
 send to will only see their own email address.
 
If you don’t see your BCC: option click on where it says To: and your
 address list will appear. Highlight the address and choose BCC: and that’s
 it, it’s that easy.
 When you send to BCC: your message will automatically say ‘Undisclosed
 Recipients’ in the ‘TO:’ field of the people who receive it.
 
(3) Remove any ‘FW :’ in the subject line.
 You can re-name the subject if you wish or even fix spelling.
 
(4) ALWAYS hit your Forward button from the actual email you are reading.
 Ever get those emails that you have to open 10 pages to read the one page
 with the information on it? By Forwarding from the actual page you wish
 someone to view, you stop them from having to open many emails just to see
 what you sent.
 
 (5) Have you ever got an email that is a petition?
 It states a position and asks you to add your name and address and to
 forward it to 10 or 15 people or your entire address book. The email can be
 forwarded on and on and can collect  thousands of names and email addresses.
 
A FACT:
The completed petition is actually worth a couple of bucks to a
 professional spammer because of the wealth of valid names and email
 addresses contained therein. If you want to support the petition, send it as
 your own personal letter to the intended recipient. Your position may carry
 more weight as a personal letter than a laundry list of names and email
 address on a petition.
 (Actually, if you think about it, who’s supposed to send the petition in to
 whatever cause it supports? And don’t believe the ones that say that the
 email is being traced, it just ain’t so!)
 
 
(6) One of the main ones I hate is the ones that say that something like,
 ’Send this email to 10 people and you’ll see something great run across your
 screen.’ Or, sometimes they’ll just tease you by saying something really
 cute will happen.
 
IT AINT GONNA HAPPEN!!!!!
 (Trust me, I’m still seeing some of the same ones that I waited on 10 years
 ago!) I don’t let the bad luck ones scare me either, they get trashed.
 
 (7) Before you forward an Amber Alert, or a Virus Alert, or some of the
 other ones floating around nowadays, check them out before you forward them.
 Most of them are junk mail that’s been circling the net for YEARS! Just
 about everything you receive in an email that is in question can be checked
 out at Snopes. Just go to http://www.snopes.com/”
 
 Its really easy to find out if it’s real or not. If it’s not, please don’t pass it on. So please, in the future, let’s stop the junk mail and the  viruses.

HERE’S A REALLY COOL IDEA!!!

Let’s send this to everyone we know (but strip my address off first, please). And  send them using the BBC (Blind Carbon Copy.)

IN CONCLUSION.

 If you find there is a person who persists in forwarding emails with a long list of names still there, and won’t practice ” Safe Forwarding ” after being reminded, be ruthless and block them as I’ve done for 3 stubborn emailers !

Baldwin Concert Grand Piano

US Navy Battleship Missouri

THE END OR A NEW BEGINNING?

After six years of warfare between 1939 and 1945 the world had become extremely tired of warfare. It was only 21 years since World War One, which was supposed to be the ” WAR TO END ALL WARS  “  had finished,  and World War Two was under way, with Germany invading Poland starting the whole European conflict all over again.  The Pacific War really started seriously when the Japanese Navy bombed Pearl Harbour in the Hawaiian Islands on December 7th 1941. War continued until September 2nd 1945 when Japan capitulated and the Documents of Surrender were signed on board the US Navy battleship Missouri moored in Tokyo Bay. As history will show, Japan lost the war, but due to their incredible work ethic, and the support of the Allied Nations, went on to be a very prosperous nation. They WON the PEACE !!!

To view this historic film click this link   http://tinyurl.com/yk8veef

THE RARE GIFT IS FILM OF THE SIGNING OF THE DOCUMENTS OF SURRENDER.

General McArthur with corncob pipe

Firstly I must thank Don, an Internet mate who found this and passed it on to me – Thankyou Don. We have the actual movie film of the Ceremony on board the Missouri. It is a very moving sober piece of film and hopefully may make us think about how we can help such a conflict to NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN. It is very moving. It’s a MUST SEE film for any history buff, especially those whose special interest is World War 2.  Of special interest is the number of Allied officials signing including Australian,  General Blamey. The voice we hear is that of General Douglas McArthur.

MY MATE DON’S STATEMENT.

Emporer Hirohito 1945

Not sure if he’s correct, but let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. Don claims that this film has not been released for public viewing until now. He claims we may have seen stills but not the movie. Let’s not nitpick, enjoy it ! It’s interesting to see the variety of small movie cameras held by the sailors in addition to the large Hollywood style cameras on tripods. The contrast between the formal attire of the Japanese signing party and the simple khaki of the USA military party is worth observing

IN CONCLUSION

If we can learn a lesson from history such as this and realise that war is entirely futile, it is well worth while viewing this historic piece of film. And now for my tradition of a Grand Piano Photograph at the end of each blog. This time it’s a Steinway – yummy !

GLAD MY TEACHING DAYS HAVE FINISHED !

Yamaha C3 Grand

During the mid 1970’s, a significant part of my music career was involved with teaching piano to a diverse  group of students, most of whom were taking lessons at the request of their parents.  Needless to say, the enthusiasm level was not always of great significance with most of the young students, and the teacher’s main role was encouraging them to practice regularly.  VERY hard work indeed, and it’s the main reason I no longer teach.  I have discussed this with many other teachers, and found it to be very common – it’s now called burnout !

THE EXCEPTION TO THE RULE  [ AND HOW ! ]

Hanon - a foundation of piano technique

One day a 15 year old student named Ashley Irwin commenced lessons which  usually lasted 30 minutes.  This was due to a severe rolling off of concentration after that amount of time – typical of his age group.  Ashley rewrote the 15 year old ” concentration and application to task “  rule book in a way I’d never encountered before, and in no time the lessons increased to an hour, 2 hours, 3 hours and eventually all afternoon.  I guess it was a repeat of Chuck Yates generosity of time when I studied with him.  [ See an earlier blog Vale Ed Thigpen for the whole story ]

His thirst for knowledge, his  intelligence, and his incredible work ethic blew my mind. He was the most stimulating student I have ever had !  We worked on playing the piano,  jazz improvisation,  arranging, scoring, composing and discussed ethics in music at great length.

SUCCESS IN HIS CHOSEN FIELD.

Obviously someone who works that hard deserves to succeed and very rapidly. By 17 he was a full time working musician, composer and arranger, and had a residency as pianist in the hit show Jesus Christ Superstar. On top of that work he was frequently called to compose, arrange and play in the Sydney studio recording scene – anything from a jingle for soap powder with a small band to a full orchestral session.

He came to the attention of an American  composer / arranger named Bill Conte who was recording  in Sydney, and next thing I knew he was off to Los Angeles to work in conjunction with him.  The rest is history. I’d  like you to checkout his website which is a magnificent success story in its’ own right.

www.ashleyirwin.com/

THE SKYPE SESSIONS

Skype Logo

Over the last year, we have had some delightful conversations, for up to 2 hours at a time on SKYPE.  What a wonderful way to communicate after many years. As you have seen from his website, he’s been a regular at the Oscars and the Emmies, but this year decided to come home to Australia to work in Perth, Western Australia during that time. The ” GIG ” was to conduct the Western Australian Philharmonic  Orchestra for a season of Disney music at the Perth Zoo.  Sure makes me very proud. I’ll let the media release tell the story.

Disney In Concert

Zaccaria Events and the WA Philharmonic Present

Disney In Concert

An Australian Premiere

Perth Zoo
Sunday March 7th, 2010

NOTE: NOW AT PERTH ZOO.

2 Giant Screens. An 84 piece orchestra. 4 amazing singers.

Kids come dressed as your favourite Disney character! Prizes and Giveaways! Special appearance by Fat Cat!

Disney in Concert is a magical journey through Disney’s classic animated movies, projected onto the big screen with the original score played LIVE by the WA Philharmonic Orchestra and accompanied by live vocals and narration by George Houvardas, featuring very special guest Elliot Spencer…

Outstanding movie scores to be featured during this magical evening include Aladdin, The Lion King, Mary Poppins, The Little Mermaid and more. Check out the latest TV ad!

Hosted and Narrated by Channel 7 personality George Houvardas.Born in Sydney on January 3, 1982, George Houvardas has become an overnight star in his role as “Carbo” in Channel 7’s hit series Packed To The Rafters.  George trained at Screenwise in Sydney before attending his first audition which was for the role of “Carbo”. One of George’s acting heroes is Marlon Brando, especially his earlier work like “On the Waterfront” and “Streetcar Named Desire”. He also admires the work of Anthony Quinn.

Elliot Spencer is an energetic performer and writer who excels in character performance, audience interaction, interviewing and highly imaginative comedy. After five years as host and writer of Roller Coaster on ABC TV, Elliot has clocked up over 180 hours (1124 episodes) of new Australian content and is now ready to share his unique style of entertainment with a broader audience.

The WA Philharmonic Orchestra was established in 1993 for the purpose of recording film scores.  At that same time Lucasfilm chose the WA Philharmonic to record the score for “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles” that achieved six Emmy awards for the score and since that time the WA Philharmonic have worked on many film productions.  Due to the huge growth of innovative live orchestra performances worldwide, the WA Philharmonic is not only dedicated to recording live film scores, but also to performing movie music live for the visual arts.

The WA Philharmonic Orchestra will be conducted by Ashley Irwin, an Emmy award winning composer from Australia who resides in Los Angeles.

Concert Master will be Perth’s own Ashley Arbuckle, former co-leader of the London Symphony Orchestra and also past Concert Master of WASO.

To add to the fun and glamour of the evening, the promoters invite children ‘of all ages’ to dress as their favourite Disney character.  These ‘special guest’ appearances will be captured on camera and projected onto the big screen for all to see, with interviews by a celebrity roving reporter.

GENERAL EVENT INFORMATION:

Kids come dressed as your favourite Disney character! This is a fully licensed event. Minors (children under 18 years of age) may only attend the event if they are accompanied by their parent/step-parent or legal guardian. We play rain or shine. No umbrellas permitted. This is a family friendly, smoke free event. No admittance to any child under the age of 18 unless accompanied by a parent or legal guardian

Ashley Irwin has warned the singers in Disney in Concert that when they hear the orchestra strike up around them, it will take them back to their childhood.

“Standing up there on stage, you feel like a total kid again,” says Irwin, who will conduct the WA Philharmonic Orchestra in this event under the stars where a collection of famous and favourite songs from Disney movies are brought to life by the 84-piece orchestra and four singers.

Disney in Concert makes its Australian premiere at Perth Zoo next week and to date is the only show scheduled in the country. The songs are drawn from much-loved family films such as Aladdin, The Lion King, Mary Poppins and The Little Mermaid and giant screens will simultaneously screen clips from each movie.

“There are a set of songs that go together and have a structure and a story plus they have strong images. We go right back to Mary Poppins and through to the Pirates of the Caribbean. We’ve also found these wonderful drawings of the artwork from early cartoons where they are creating the characters, which work in as well.”

Originally from Sydney, Irwin is a four-time Emmy-winning composer and arranger who has been based in Los Angeles for two decades. His credits include music for the film Rocky and scoring Hitchcock’s The Lodger to celebrate the filmmaker’s 100th birthday.

“I’m very excited about this,” says Irwin, who remembers his first professional gig in Perth around 1975 playing keyboards in Jesus Christ Superstar and returning five years later as Garry McDonald’s musical director.

Irwin has been arranging music for the Academy Awards for almost 20 years, was back in Australia late last year working on music for television coverage of the Winter Olympics, and works regularly in film, but says lately he’s been returning more to conducting.

In the US, Irwin has worked with Disney a lot, being involved with large-scale movie launches.

“They often play songs from the movie first or do a greatest hits and then screen the premiere of the movie. The beauty of Disney is that as cliched as it is, in terms of the great American songbook, no one else is adding songs to the standard repertoire anymore. These are actually great songs.”

Irwin is looking forward to working with the WA Philharmonic Orchestra and says he is already impressed by their formidable achievements.

So, there you are – do you understand why I’m proud ?

Baldwin Concert Grand Piano