More on the cast for Behind the Sun

See my earlier blog for the casting of the Millennium crew. But my ambitions don't stop there!!

I would cast Damien Lewis as Rick Jones - such a great actor and he can do the American accent ok.

On Earth 2, you would see Naomi Watts, Cate Blanchett, Rufus Sewell, Catherine Zeta Jones, Claudia Black (so great in Farscape), Scarlett Johansen,

and a couple of lesser known faces

Jens Albinus

www.avforlaget.dk/html/indlaser/jensa.html

Peter Mygind- http://www.nkbooking.dk/?Iid=307&Eid=36

Got the physical proof of Behind the Sun in the mail today - such a big book - so weird to see it in hard copy. I have to check it through and then once I sign off on it, it will take about 3 weeks for it to become available on amazon.com.

Now when I look at it, I remember all the things I thought about, and the research I did while writing it - so much more than is in the book. But it's been a great journey and really only the first step on where I want to go.

The Earth and the moon

One of my favourite photos - one of the few shots of the Earth and Moon together, taken by Voyager 1, way back in 1977. (Thanks to GRIN - Nasa's copyright free image website). We only have one moon but it has such an amazing relationship to our planet - why we can only see one side of the moon; how the moon can eclipse the sun. What an amazing series of coincidences - nothing mystical about this - just another wonderful set of facts.

International Year of Astronomy 2009

I have been checking out facebook groups for IYA and there are some great groups, but I wonder why noone seems to have set up an Australian group.

The Australian website is great http://www.astronomy2009.org.au/

I aim to do more stargazing in 2009. What about you? Send me your ideas here for celebrating IYA 2009.

Behind the Sun - the song

Ok, ok. I give in. Here is a link to the other "Behind the Sun" (from one of my favourite bands)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suH0xS1zxHA

In my dreams Peter Jackson turns "Behind the Sun" into a mega saga

with the following cast (I can dream)

Major John Armstrong - Taye Diggs

Sally Burns - Rose Byrne

Alistair Stuart - Russell Crowe

Jeremy Stuart - Gerard Butler (but blonde & with an Oz accent)

Asronaut Sima Vaschenko - Oleg Menshikov (also blonde)

Astronaut Sharon Bright - Jodie Foster

Vicki Law - Michelle Yeoh

Thomas Beecham - Jude Law

Mohun Patel - Daveen Andrews

When you've read the book, let me know what you think :)

Deaf Services Queensland and learning to sign.

Visited DSQ at Annerley today to sign the agreement re donating 10% of profits. What an inspiring bunch of people - so enthusiastic and knowledgeable. DSQ provides great services, including a support group for parents of deaf children.
I can't wait to do Auslan level 2 (but first I need to practice a lot more to get the most out of the Auslan 1 class).
So if you ever see me gesturing furiously to no one in particular - it's just me trying to improve my signing. I sign a lot to my grandson but as I see him only a couple of times a week, I need to make more effort to sign on a daily basis. Auslan has a great website with videoclips of signs
http://www.auslan.org.au/

Where is Ulysses now?

The Ulysses spacecraft was launced via shuttle on October 6, 1990, and used Jupiter's large gravitational field to accelerate out of the ecliptic plane. The aim was to achieve high latitudes, to get a view of the sun that we can't see from Earth.

One of the characters in 'Behind the Sun' used data from the Ulysses' mission to make an important discovery. You can check this website to see where the Ulysses is now.


http://ulysses.jpl.nasa.gov/