now now festival in the mountains

The 2008 NOW now festival of Spontaneous Music - much to my pleasure and convenience - will be up in the blue mountains at the Wentworth School of Arts next year. The festival launch is on tonight at the Abercrombie in the City...

It's a 3 day festival of music making, instrument building, workshops, installations, sound walks, and outdoor events and will be held from 18-20 January.

Some of the artists include: Phil Samartzis (VIC), Marcia Jane (VIC), Paul Winstanley (NZ), Amanda Stewart, Greg Kingston (TAS), Caroyln Connors (VIC), Rosalind Hall (VIC), Taste of Teeth (QLD), Son of the Seventh Sister, Passenger of Shit, Joyce Hinterding, Ross Bolleter (WA), Jon Rose, Clare Cooper, Thomas Meadowcroft, Dan Whiting, Rory Brown, Matt Earle, Adam Sussman, Rivka Schembri, Louise Dibben, Xavier Charles (France), Emmanuel Pellegrini (France), Brendan Walls, Splinter Orchestra, Mathieu Werchowski (France), Jim Denley, Natasha Anderson, Ben Byrne, Dale Gorfinkel, Sam Dobson, Alex Masso, Monika Brooks, Simon Ferenci, Yusuke Akai (QLD), Daiji Igarashi (QLD), Nik Mayer-Miller (QLD), Sam Mitchell (QLD), JoJo Dogshit (QLD)...

For more detail see here: www.thenownow.net

tchaikovsky piano trio op.50 no.2

I came across this iPod MEME at Marc Geelhoed's Deceptively Simple. Given that I share my iTunes with my flatmate (and we don't always have the same taste in music) and that I have some absolute shockers stored in my files, this should be hilarious...

The rules:

1. Put your iTunes/ music player on Shuffle
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER WHAT

1. If someone says ‘Is this OK?’ you say?
'Melinda the Mousie' Ella Fitzgerald

[yep, it's OK for sure. Love is always bound to go wrong...]

2. What would best describe your personality?
'Oll Birtan' Bjork from Medulla

[distinct, expressive, unusual, creative, sweet, fun, playful, goddess... :-)]

3. What do you like in a girl/boy?
'(return of) the electric horseman' Powderfinger, from Double Allergic

[In your climb to be unique / Why don't you see you have all turned out the same - yeah I'm not bitter about love at the moment, really I'm not...]

4. How do you feel today?
'Raised on Robbery' by Joni Mitchell from Court and Spark

[I'm rough but I'm pleasin']

5. What is your life’s purpose?
JS Bach Cello Suite # 1 in G, BMW 1007 - Prelude (Pablo Casals)

[to be grounding, influential, calming, inspiring, and beautiful? I can live with that!]

6. What is your motto?
Turn Out the Stars by Bill Evans

[hhmm...]

7. What do your friends think of you?

'Road Movie to Berlin' by They Might be Giants from Flood

[I'm leading them astray?]

8. What do you think of your parents?
Buenos Aires Hora Cero Astor Piazzola

[I think they should dance more...]

9. What do you think about very often?
Beethoven's Piano Sonata No.30 Third Movement (Maurizio Pollini)

[god I can't think of anything worse...]

10. What does 2+2=
'Nothing but Sunshine' by Atmosphere from Lucy Ford

[what more can I say?]

11. What do you think of your best friend?
'The Woman with the Tattoo' by Atmosphere from Lucy Ford

[Ha. She doesn't even have a tattoo, but she is an artist and she's pretty damned special...]

12. What do you think of the person you like?
'Outside the Wall' Pink Floyd The Wall

[After all its not easy,
Banging your heart against some mad buggers wall - Yup, It's true!]

13. What is your life story?

'Spaghetti Eastern' by Uncle Ho from Circus Maximus

[hmm...low budget, minimalist, eschewing convention, violent and all with an ironic twist...yup!]

14. What do you want to be when you grow up?
Partita No. 3 E Major BMV1006 Gigue by JS Bach

[didn't we already mention this? ...grounding, influential, calming, inspiring, and beautiful ;-)]

15. What do you think when you see the person you like?
'Heartattack and Vine' by Tom Waits from Heartattack and Vine

[If you want a taste of madness, you'll have to wait in line - oh, dear...]

16. What do your parents think of you?
Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 32 First Movement (Maurizio Pollini)

[angry, loud, expressive, unconventional and a bit of a nutter? yeah, something like that...]

17. What will you dance to at your wedding?
'Mumuki' by Astor Piazzola from Tango: Zero Hour

[I'm gonna get married?]

18. What will they play at your funeral?
'Wake Up' The Arcade Fire from Funeral

[Ha! I should bloody hope so!]

19. What is your hobby/interest?
'Good Timing' by Rastawookie EP Album

[Yes, my main interest in life is living to the beat of a metronome. Good timing is everything! Eek!]

20. What is your biggest secret?
'Heat Miser' by Massive Attack from Protection

[It's true. I'm the source of global warming. I'm a heatin' it up]

21. What do you think of your friends?
JS Bach's Partita No.2 D minor BMV1004 Sarabanda

[Bach again? Yikes... oh well, um...grounding, influential, calming, inspiring, and beautiful...]

22. What should you post this as?
Tchaikovsky: Piano Trio op.50 no.2

[ew... what's that doing there? I dont even like Tchaikovsky...]

political death of howard

So, he's gone... hoorah! I could prattle for hours about the lies and deceit of the Howard years, but instead I'll point you in the direction of the Museum of Fire who sums it all up quite nicely.

Other bloggers have posted about Howard's political funeral held a few days after the election.
Members of the Aboriginal Community in Adelaide held a smoking ceremony to 'symbolise the burying of the Howard era'.

In the last few weeks 'Howard's stump' (which sits across the road from my house) has been replaced by a fragile sapling. With Howard's ousting, I guess it's thought that his Oak Tree in the Corridor of Oaks will now be allowed to grow in peace... Oak Trees for the prime ministers of Australia I hear you ask? Well it's typical really. Cultural cringe at its best. Not only is the oak tree a symbol of strength and endurance, it's also the national tree of England (and a few other nation Euopean nations)...

Already, a new plot has been prepared for Rudd's tree. Someone has added an 's' to the sign next to it, so it now aptly reads: "Rudd's (s)election"... Yes, that's right Rudd: a lot of people voted for you simply because you weren't Howard... a fresh government might be just what this country needs, but there's a lot of work to do...

a new dimension to dumpster diving

This adds a whole new dimension to food activism and dumpster diving... I can't believe it's never occurred to me to do things other than eat the piles of wasted food we find...

anti-human and bestial policies?

With only one and a half weeks until Australians hit the voting booths, election fever is rampant. My letterbox is struggling with the copious amounts of party propaganda being stuffed into it daily... It seems ironic that, as I type this entry, I'm looking (from my bedroom window) across at the famous Corridor of Oaks, where a new oak tree has been planted over the course of history for each Australian Prime Minister. Will a new one be planted in the coming weeks? Or will "Howard's stump" (his tree was chopped down long ago by locals) continue to serve as the symbol for Australia's current leadership?

In the midst of arguing politics with friends, writing letters to local members and organising/participating in rallies on climate change and human rights, I stumbled across an arts policy that made me realise I had it all wrong!

Who needs to worry about 'aspirational' goals on climate change and the violation of basic human rights for Australians in the NT and refugees, when we can turn to classical music to "generate a culture of beauty, allowing us to understand the true nature of mankind"?

The Citizens Electoral Council of Australia promote "classical music, visual arts and great classical theatrical productions to counter the anti-human, bestial policies represented by the rock-drug-sex counterculture, which took off in the 1960s." The policy is all too brief, but it seems that they actually mean 'Classical' in the true sense of the word and their opinions on "hideous modernist and postmodernist 'art'" is quite clear. Hmm, it doesn't seem to fare well for contemporary composers either! Though whether their music is also "anti-human and bestial" remains unclear...

All hail Classical music!

loud, soft and with feeling

I interviewed percussionist Claire Edwardes a while back for an article published in RealTime magazine's Issue 81. You can read it here.

dramatic counterpoints to a relentless drone

A piercing relentless drone of cicadas is the current background music to my life. Unless the air pressure drops significantly, there is no stopping them. Summer is here! It's really quite an overwhelming sound - each creature producing a slightly different frequency than its friend. The dissonant pitches throb against each other like the loud shrill echo that remains in your ear after a loud rock concert - only worse (or perhaps the throbbing is actually from attending too many rock gigs!?). I can't decide whether I like it or hate it - it brings back pleasant memories of summer holidays spent camping in the bush, but it isn't very conducive for getting work done!

While the cicadas - who apparently have a seven year breeding cycle, hence why they're so much louder this year - have been emerging to announce summer, the rest of my life's activities have served (some much more than others) as a dramatic counterpoint to their incessant repetition...

For various reasons I've been doing more thinking lately than writing (especially thinking about writing!), but so much has been happening in the last month that I feel the urge to summarise so that my poor feeble brain doesn't forget... So, at a quick glance, here are a few of the random happenings of late:

* Chatting on Radio: Along with oz composer Damien Barbeler, I was invited to speak on New Music Up Late about the Australian works that have been chosen for the Paris Rostrum of Composers over the last 25 years. Aside from being ultra nervous (I've never spoken on air before), I had heaps of fun. It was a very relaxed affair with Damien, Julian and I chatting freely about what we personally liked and disliked about each piece.

* With the weather in the Blue Mountains finally getting warmer, some friends organised a community forest doof in Faulconbridge. I spent the afternoon going creatively nuts, designing some funky installations to decorate the space. The night was amazing, with some great psytrance sets and awesome fire twirling acts. Photos will be up here soon.

* I've been to a bunch of gigs and concerts in the last few months. Some include: The Caged Uncaged festival, presented by The Song Company and Ensemble Offspring (you can read an a review of the concert here); This is Not Art festival (an amazing 5 days of 'stuff' - gigs, workshops, forums, debates, ginger beer, discussions, zine fair, poetry readings, etc. etc. etc.); Combat Wombat's 'Get rid of John Howard tour'; the delightful Peregrine and The Saturns at The Annandale, Cloud Control at the Red Room, Katoomba... the list goes on...


* 2007 APEC forum: Of course, the biggest highlight of the last two months was the APEC forum held for a weekend inside a massive 5 kilometre fence in the heart of Sydney. Sydney-siders not only had the pleasure of hosting APEC, they also had the pleasure of paying for it. And with the resulting 'aspirational goals' from participating governments, who can argue that it wasn't all worth the hundreds of million dollars spent out of tax-payers pockets? While thousands of protesters rocked up in Hyde park to demonstrate, some of the more musically inclined activists spent an afternoon exploring the 'sonic wonders' of the hideous construction, by performing on the fence.

* While tempted to stay at home on Wednesday 12 September and watch the cheeky antics of the Chaser’s War on APEC: I didn’t. Instead, I frocked up and headed to Sydney Theatre where the music industry was celebrating the 2007 Classical Music Awards. It was a fun night – exceptional performances, great food, wine and a chance to pay tribute to the excellence and dedication of our arts practitioners.

I was initially disappointed that Liza Lim’s Mother Tongue didn’t win the Best Composition by an Australian Composer award – it’s an amazing piece. Based on the poems of Patricia Sykes (commissioned by Lim herself), it explores the concept of language – its loss, acquisition and intimacy. I have to admit though, that it’s easy to see why Roger Smalley’s Birthday Tango won the award. While I don’t think it’s on the same scale as pieces such as his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, this work for string orchestra is delightful! And as you’d expect this work is no ordinary tango. He delicately pushes the boundaries of the tango form by subtly distorting the well-known tango rhythm and exploring rich dissonant harmonies, while maintaining a strong lyricism in the melodic lines. The orchestration is certainly well crafted and the unusual rhythm creates a compelling momentum, which I find really appealling. Roger performed at the awards, along with Topology, and Taikoz. You can read the list of winners here.

... so there you go: a few highlights of the spring just past... and if I manage to find a way to block out the cicadas, there's certainly lots to look forward to this summer - did I mentioned I have tickets to see Bjork? Yippee!