Hi everybody my dad wants to say that he is sorry about being late with my Blog. He has had computer problems on top of all hisother ones. But now we are here so this is what we have been up to. About a year ago my dad wrote a poem for me called "Tender Mercies." Well we have a friend called Craig Burnett and he has a band called Scat - I don't know what that means but they are very good. Craig took my dads poem and made it into a song. IT SOUNDS GREAT!!! They even went into a real recording studio to make the song.



This is Craig Burnett and Chris Poulson from Brisbane based Jazz group Scat who put the music to dad's song "Tender Mercies".



This is the bands Bass player whi is having trouble finding where to plug his guitar lead into. This is Scat's drummer - dad says there are lots of jokes about drummers but he doesn't no why



This is Naomi Price she is the girl voice you hear on the song. I have not met her yet but I think she sings very  well and she sounds like a very nice person. My dad is going to put the song on our website really soon.



Above this is the sound engineer who engineers the sound and this is Nick and Z from Ultrasonique studios who very kindly donated the studio time to Beneath the Stars - Thankyou very much !

Also my dad has a friend called Chris Talbot she is a very enthusiastic lady when it comes to making quilts. And when my dad was fixing her computer one day she asked if I would like to have a quilt made for me - Oh Yeahhhh!!! Would I!! So she asked me what I would like to have on the quilt and I said a kite, a Jesus cross, Fish, a motorbike and lots of other stuff. Well what Chris Talbot did was get all her quilting friends together for a quilting party - it's like haveing a party for a quilt. Anyway she said to come over one Sunday after the party was almost over - I couldn't go at the start of the party cos I had to go to another party earlier in the day. Well you wouldn't imagine it there were all these ladies who I never met before except for Chris who I had met before and they were all sitting around a table with a quilt the size of Tasmania my dad said.

 Here are all the quilting ladies and me with my beautiful quilt. IT IS ENOURMOUSE.You can see I am smiling as big as the smiley face on the quilt. Anyway my dad said that maybe they ladies would like to make a quiltiing calendar. Well everyone started to laugh and one by one they said "I'll be in it". I didn't quite know what they would be in cos they were all laughing so hard. Later dad said it was something to do about a movie where all the ladies made a very special calendar to raise money for a hospital. When I said what made it special he said "Don't you worry about that son", in dad's no nonsense voice.

Chris Talbot is the lady holding the quilt at the top.She was my community health care nurse when I was a baby.I was very small when I started to get sick . Dad said it was about 4 weeks old - boy was I small - Dad rang up Chris one night and he was vary worried cos I was spewing across the room - The doctors just said "Don't worry about it he's just settling in". Yuk what a way to settle in.So dad rings Chris late one night and says what should he do? She said "Peter (that's my dad) "If you don't speak up for that boy no one else well - you are it's only voice." Well my dad got right on the phone that night to the doctor and "I'm bringing him and you better
help my son." And guess what? The very next day I went in and had an operation. So Chris Talbot deserves a big pat on the back - thanks Chris Talbot and the reat of the Quilters. All the best with the calendar.

Whew!!! my Dad and I have been writing this blog for days well dad is the typer and he writes down what I say. Sometimes he keeps writing after I stop speaking and then reads it out to me so I can see if it's what I want - which is good cos it makes it go faster.



Emmanuel Candi, Me (James) and Denis Handlin

Right now my dad and I are in Sydney and on Friday we had some VERY IMPORTANT meetings to go to starting with Sony BMG - they are a record company but don't make records any more cos they really make CD's but in the olden days my dad says they used to make big CD's called records. I have never seen a record before.

Anyway we had a meeting with a man called Denis Handlin who dad says is a music guru. I don't know what a guru is but I say it like gooroo. He is also the boss of Sony BMG in Australia. And we met a man called Emmanuel Candi who is the General Manager of Sony and I asked did he know that his name meant 'God is with us'? And he said that he already knew that. When dad first told me his name I thought that dad meant that Emmanuel Candi WAS God!!! But then dad explained that it was his name that's all - whew I thought I was going to meet a guru and God in one day.

Anyway it was just the best meeting. Denis gave me a brown paper bag filled with CD's just for me. And then I said to Denis if he could get Shannon Noll and Natalie Bassingthwaighte from Rogue Traders (Dad had to look up how to spell Natalie's name - it's a beauty) to sing the depression song at my concert. Cos I have a friend who has depression and I think it might make her feel better .

if she listens to them sing that song called Don't Give Up. Well Denis went outside and brought in 2 CD's with that song on it - one for me and one for my friend who has depression. He was really a very nice man and so was Emmanuel - he was doing a lot of writing the whole meeting. Then Denis said that he would get Sony BMG to ask ALL the artists on my list INCLUDING Barbra Streisand, Stevie Wonder and The Hoff to come and sing at Beneath the Stars. AWESOME!!! And just before we left Denis played the song that my dad wrote called "Tender Mercies" and he and Emmanuel said they really liked it. Then a lady called Holly helped me and my dad get out of the building - which my dad said we needed a map and compass to get out of.

 This is me and Holly who is Denis Handlin's Personal Assistant. She said that she is very close to her Nan and Pop. Holly was very helpful getting me and dad into a taxi when we left Sony BMG.

While we have been in Sydney I also had a meeting with Vision Australia. They used to be called the Royal Blind Foundation. Dad and I had an interview with Anna McCauley who asked a lot of questions about my eyesight. Then she said that she would make some phone calls so when I get back to Brisbane I can get some help using a cane for blind people. Anna also asked me if I liked dogs.

I said I do but a guide dog might be too much for me to handle. Also my mum and I live in a townhouse complex and I don't think they let you have dogs. I also met a really nice lady called Julie Lassithiotakis - She said it was a Greek name. Well Julie and Anna showed me all this cool stuff to help visually impaired people. Clocks and phones with big numbers and special things that help me with my cooking.  (Anna, Me James and Julie from Vision Australia )

 Just before we left for Sydney dad and I and Katrina Witham who is the Public Relations lady for the Starlight Children's Foundation in Brisbane - well we met with a man who works with the Veronicas.His name was Tim Eisentrager. I just called him Tim - well we aksed Tim if he could ask the Veronicas if they would sing at Beneath the Stars and he said he would definitely ask them for us. He also arranged for us to meet with the Sydney office of Warner Records while we are down here. (Tim Eisentrager from Warner Music and Katrina from Starlight in Brisbane )

A very special thing has happened while we have been in Sydney we met with good friends of Dad's Phil and Jo Antman - well they have two grown up daughters called Brooke and Chelsea. Well Chelsea is comming up to Brisbane to work on Beneath the Stars FULL TIME - WOW!!!

  
Chelsea Me James and Brooke Antman
Chelsea Antman who is going to work full time for Beneath the Stars

Well that's about it from me - (Dad says his fingers and ears are falling off with all this typing). We are goind to meet BillyBirmingham today YYayyyy!!!! Bye for now.