Everything's coming up Didgeman!

This has been a really good week for Rob! By week I mean past few days, whatever.

Mostly, he won a very big and international didge competition! He submitted a two videos as there were two competitions being run by the same people. His videos were judged by 6 international judges (pro didge players [yes there are pro didge players] from Germany the Netherlands, Australia etc). The first competition was to win a Bob Druett Didge, which are concert class, guaranteed for life handcrafted didges that professionals use. They cost $3000 AUD to buy. Rob didn't buy or win one of those. I should point out that Bob Druett is the pope of didge making in Australia and worldwide. You make pilgrimages to visit his studio/home which is a really big storage unit in the industrial outskirts of Darwin Australia. All of his tools are pink. He says no one wants to steal pink tools.

Anyway there was a second competition run in conjunction with Northern Territory Essence, a business that specializes in Aboriginal artists making a living wage on their own terms. The guy who runs that is Bob Druett's next door neighbour (in the storage units where you can apparently live. it's loft style and hard to explain), his apprentice with didge making, and his didge tester. Rob won that competition, and he's going to get a beautiful playing didge with a commissioned special paining on it from a part of Australia we weren't allowed to go to due to restriction on Aboriginal land. He will also receive a commissioned painting from an Aboriginal artist , also from Arhnem land, where you can't go without a permit.

His prize is valued at about $1500 Canadian total. It's a very big deal for him to get recognized this way by other didge players, since there really aren't too many ways to get officially recognized by the didge community, you know? So we went out for beer and pizza! Yay Rob!

If you want to see the poster or his name next to the word "winner" you have to click trough some stuff. First go to this link.
Then click on the moving type on the left hand sidebar that says "do you want a free didjeridu?"
Then look at the poster for the competition, then click on the poster, and there you go! Rob's name!

Yay him!

As for me, I have marking to finish, and two major papers to write then I'm done. Easier said than done!!!!