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DESMOND KELLY

“I OVERLOOKED AN ORCHID” – By Des Kelly Some of the most beautiful flora on God’s Earth.  This most interesting horticultural extravaganza was sent in via Ian, my brother in Sri Lanka, and also Maxy. Gerreyn, a good friend of both Ian & myself, from Perth.      While roses are also beautiful, colourful, and offer us humans fragrances that cannot be matched anywhere in the World, there is something extra-special in orchids. Something that makes one wonder if these beautiful specimens are actually REAL!. No human hand of the finest sculptor on our planet would even come close to replicate the entrancing beauty of this very special species of flora, so, it is with great pleasure that I feature them, together with a couple of “music-clips” that I hope you good folk enjoy, as you gasp in amazement at these objects of beauty, created by God. HE did this, ...

Aug 3, 2018 Posted by In Articles, DESMOND KELLY Tagged , , , , , , Comments 0
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“THE LATEST NEWS” by Des Kelly Photo thanks to: MamaMia  Lee Lin Chin, has done, and bin there. I write this in confidence, as our spellin is now takin it on the chin, pardon the pun. NEWS.com.au “serves up” this serious headline on the subject, as follows. Lee Lin Chin serves up serious farshun on final SBS news broadcast of the 29th of July, 2018, at exactly 8.40 PM. Very well written, photographs & all, by this “Journo”, excepting for this word “farshun”, and serious farshun, at that. I looked for this word in my dicshunary folks, but, look as I might, had to give up the fight, after spending half of the night, with no delight!!., that’s right. ...

Aug 3, 2018 Posted by In Articles, DESMOND KELLY Tagged Comments 0
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“THE NIGHTINGALE SINGS” by Des Kelly     Photo courtesy of National Film Corporation What a beautiful title, especially for this songbird of Ceylon, Rukmani Devi, born Daisy Rasammah Daniels, a proud combination of Tamil(Rasammah), Daniels(Burgher), & the Colombo-Chetty Christian tradition, on the 15th of January, 1923, in the Central Province Village of Ramboda, Nuwara Eliya.       She was the second child in a family of six, loved music and singing from a very early age, spending most of her time standing by the family gramaphone and singing along with the songs that emanated from it. The very first song that she sang, in the presence of (Master) Rupasinghe, her music teacher, I suppose, was titled “Siri Buddha-gaya Vihare”, a classical Sinhala-song, when she was just 13 years old. He, the master, had a keen eye for talent, and before her professional singing career was launched, it was decided ...

Jul 28, 2018 Posted by In Articles, DESMOND KELLY Tagged Comments 0
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“ARMS OPEN” by Des Kelly      At last, we can now open our arms, as we find out that there is water on Mars. To my eLanka readers, who are all in the “higher I.Q.” class, there is absolutely no need for me to tell you how important plain unadulterated WATER is.        As an example of this importance, let me relate a true story, as told to me, many moons ago (strange, how these celestial subjects intermix), by my own paternal grandfather, Jack Kelly, God rest his soul. This grand-dad loved to drink (anything BUT water). Toddy, Kithul or Coconut, Beer, local or international, Arrack (Mendis Special was his favourite, but ANY arrack would do, in an emergency. Whisky, Brandy, (anything handy), Gin, wasn’t considered a sin, either, in fact, any bloody thing that had alcohol in it, Jack Kelly drank it.         To ...

Jul 26, 2018 Posted by In DESMOND KELLY Comments 0
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IN MEMORIAM – By Des Kelly The end of July, this year (2018), should bring back memories of one of Ceylon’s most talented artists of the 20th Century. It was on the 31st July, 1993, that Sri Lankan artist Kalasuri George Keyt passed away after a short illness, at a private nursing home in Colombo. He was 92.   V.M.(I believe that it could have been none other than my good friend,Victor Melder, has written this story about G.K.), and I can inform all our eLanka readers that, when it comes to “news from Ceylon”, what Victor does not know about Lanka, generally, is certainly not worth knowing. Anyway, let us leave V.M.(the human encyclopaedia), for the moment, to carry on with the human-interest story of this very famous “Son of Lanka”, on what is the 25th anniversary of his passing.      George Keyt was born in Kandy on ...

Jul 25, 2018 Posted by In DESMOND KELLY Tagged Comments 0
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“A LIFE IN DREAMS” – By Des Kelly Now, “A life in dreams”,(heena walata panak thibenawa), featuring Sri Lankan Singer/Songwriter Senaka Batagoda, and his daughter, who accompanies her dad on guitar, sings with him and presents a pretty picture, to compliment the you-tube clip which I hope my eLanka readers will enjoy.   These video clips from Lanka are ample proof of the loads of talent emanating from my lovely Island home at the moment. It seems that the entertainment industry over there keeps on getting better and better with each passing year. I know, for a fact, that the “Sooriya Village”, in Havelock Town(I believe), has got the facilities to cater for any International Artiste or Band, not only for “recording” purposes, but also for residing & rehearsing their music on the same premises. I did have the pleasure of knowing the “Founder” of Sooriya, Gerald Wicramasooriya & his ...

Jul 23, 2018 Posted by In Articles, DESMOND KELLY, Sinhala songs, Sinhala Videos Tagged , , Comments 0
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“TALES OF TCHAIKOVSKY” by Des Kelly   Something completely different, especially for the members and readers of eLanka. This is a rare marriage indeed. Something I feel very privileged to write about.  The love I feel for both “Country/Classical” music intermingled together, music, that I feel will thrill the hearts of all of you, out there, who enjoy “great music” no matter from which source.      First, as I did, with another superb Composer of the years gone by, Johann Strauss, I shall endeavour to bring in some hitherto unknown facts about another extremely famous Composer, TCHAIKOVSKY. Pjotr llyitch, born in 1840 and died in 1893, was known world-wide as the greatest of all Russian Masters (of Music).      He was a boy, just six years old, when he had been permitted to listen to music, (yes folks, it was back in 1846, and Russian children had to be ...

Jul 23, 2018 Posted by In DESMOND KELLY Tagged Comments 0
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“THE GOOD & BAD”(The happy & sad) – By Des Kelly      Friday, the 20th of July, 2018, a bleak, cold Winters day in Melbourne, & here I sit (as I do, most of the time, nowadays) warm & comfortable, at home, in a “Retirement Village”, with my television tuned in, as usual, to Channel 2, to watch two consecutive programmes, “One  plus one”, followed by “Foreign Correspondent”. Journalist & T.V.Presenter Jane Hutcheon’s featured Rhonda Burchmore, today. This 6 foot, stunning Australian Entertainer had an amazing story to tell, and anyone who may get the chance to see a “repeat” of this interview, would be well advised to do so. It was so very interesting because Rhonda tells her life story (in brief), yet, in details, that were both very happy & also heartbreaking, at times. There was no acting, here. I thoroughly enjoyed the reality of it all, and congratulate ...

Jul 20, 2018 Posted by In DESMOND KELLY Tagged , , Comments 0
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“STRAUSS SECRETS” – By Des Kelly      Everyone knows the NAME. Johann Strauss, the “Waltz-King”, as I would like to call him. A composer of some of the very best light-classical music, especially his Waltzes, known and loved around our Planet. However, there were certain “items” about all of these great men of music, of yesteryear that were not generally known by their adoring public. I hope that this will make some interesting reading for all my eLanka readers, everywhere.         On the 5th of April, 1874, a very very long time ago, the most sparkling & inspired of all operettas, Die Fledermaus was said to have been written by Johann Strauss in only forty two days (yes folks, this is but a brief period in which to write an operetta. I suppose a complete Opera would take the best of six months, if not longer), and ...

Jul 20, 2018 Posted by In Articles, DESMOND KELLY Tagged Comments 0
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“ARE YOU READY, EDDY”? – By Des Kelly Richard Edward “Eddy” Arnold was born on the 15th of May, 1918 in Henderson Tennessee, and died, just a week before his 90th birthday, on the 8th of May, 2008, in Nashville, where he made a huge name for himself, as, not only “The Tennessee Ploughboy”, but also the innovator of the “Nashville-Sound” of the late 1950’s.   He performed for 6 decades, scoring no less than 147 songs on the Billboard Country Charts, at the time, a record only broken by “The Possum” George Jones, who scored 143 singles that hit the “top 40” on the same Charts, with no less than 13 of them reaching the top of the ladder. Eddy Arnold was another favourite Country Singer of thousands of people around the World, a mghty effort, taking into consideration that even without the internet publicity that was afforded the ...

Jul 20, 2018 Posted by In DESMOND KELLY Tagged , Comments 0
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