… played on the Chinese hammered dulcimer, an amazing instrument.

Posted in Chinese and China, music, Sunday music

A rather powerful combination…

I’ll have more to say on Louis Nowra’s Ice later.

Posted in Best read of 2009, Fiction, music, OzLit, personal, reading

The region to our north and north-west continues to be hit by earthquakes and typhoons. Take time out to help. Most readers will know what organisations to contact to make donations. Some are listed in this article. The Uniting Church offers a direct donation facility here.

Posted in Australia, environment, events, humanity, Indonesia, South-East Asia [...]

Posted in environment, events, humanity

Here is the very album I bought as a teenager.

Posted in America, memory, music, nostalgia, USA

A lovely classic, but also a classic put-down in its way.
When you are old and grey and full of sleep, And nodding by the fire, take down this book, And slowly read, and dream of the soft look [...]

This was taken at interval and is totally noir. At one point a shadowy Sirdan may be seen — or intuited…
Enjoy.

Posted in Australia and Australian, events, personal, Sirdan

Why? I’ll tell you later…

Posted in events, music

… or perhaps “Quick go the shears…”

Yes, that is SO Australian. But it tells of time past rather more than time present, and is more true of 1909, even 1959, than of 2009. All things must pass, as the article I linked to above in The Australian notes.
THEY are becoming icons of a passing era. [...]

It has to be at this time seventy years later: W H Auden’s “September 1 1939”.
Auden and Isherwood sailed to New York in January 1939, entering on temporary visas. Their departure from Britain was later seen by many there as a betrayal and Auden’s reputation suffered. In April 1939 Isherwood moved to California, and he [...]

Seventy years ago today World War II was declared.

I am strictly speaking not a baby boomer as I was born during World War II and even have a memory of the end of the war. Looking back, there is no doubt World War II profoundly affected all of us for years to come.
Take two men: [...]

Very uncharacteristic!
But first the local good news: the South Sydney Rabbitohs beat the premiership favourites 41-6 on Saturday. Sirdan was pleased.
Now the news with wider import: Hazem el Masri’s final day for the Canterbury Bulldogs.

More pics at Zimbio.
We won’t talk about the Cronulla Sharks – out of sympathy with my grand-nephews who are [...]

1. The good Communist
Back in Cold War days Prime Minister Robert Menzies attempted to ban the Communist Party of Australia. The Australian people rejected the idea – not that the Communists were not subjected to zealous monitoring by intelligence agencies. That went on into much more recent times, and no doubt people on the extremes [...]

Enjoy.

Posted in Asian, Indonesia, South-East Asia, Sunday music

1 The Tracker (Rolf De Heer 2002)

This truly magnificent movie — so resonant, so beautifully made and acted — came out when Australia was lost in Howard’s Great Stony Desert. As Margaret Pomerantz said at the time:
The film opens with a painted landscape – and this is signficant because paintings by Adelaide artist Peter Coad [...]

Posted in music, Sunday music

Posted in Australia, Australia and Australian, Indigenous Australians, music, Sunday music

  I watched this partly out of HSC-related duty, but also out of interest. I have to say I was very impressed by its accuracy and fairness. The lead review (at the moment) on IMDb pretty much sums up my reaction.
In 1998, "Hilary and Jackie" explored alleged episodes in the short life of [...]

Nice version of a still inspiring song.
Posted in Asian, music, Sunday music

This month Simon & Garfunkel are here in Australia, probably for the last time.
This song is one of my favourites, capturing the spirit of the time but also channeling T S Eliot.

Posted in memory, music, Sunday music