…perhaps. I don’t spend a lot of time on Twitter these days (for others’ benefit more than my own) but yesterday was A Very Good Twitter Day. My Scottish-born friend recited Robert Burns’ Address to a Haggis. Then there was Radiohead demonstrating the purpose of reading books (via @rageabc). Gush.
Tagged poetry recitation, Radiohead, reading, Robert BurnsIT’S OVER. What an exhausting, exhilarating week. On a chronic illness front, I’m really proud I made it through. Sadly, I couldn’t stick around for planned oysters and martinis celebrations as planned because I just needed to go home and die. The first session was all of us listening to each others’ settings of Luke [...]
Tagged Alexander Garsden, Caroline Lee, Chamber Made Opera, Chamber Made Opera librettist workshop, contemporary Melbourne-based composers, contemporary opera, David Chisholm, David Young, Deborah Kayser, Dr. Christine McCombe, Dr. Linda Kouvaras, Elliott John Guyger, Helen Gifford, Ida Duelund Hansen, Jesse McVeity, Kevin March, Laura Vaughan, libretto writing, Luke Paulding, Paul Horan, poetic intent, viola da gambaI succumbed. Last night, I took sleepers and ugh the legal drug hangover that ensued this morning. Still, at least I got a solid ten hours’ sleep: even slept through Paul Verhoeven’s irritating announcing on Triple J (drinking game: have a shot every time Paul Verhoeven mentions Paul Verhoeven’s name when Paul Verhoeven is doing [...]
Tagged Chamber Made Opera, Chamber Made Opera librettist workshop, libretto writing, National Australian Poetry Week, Stephen ArmstrongReached the halfway mark! Still not sleeping much. Thankfully, commuting and our central location means that two exceedingly notable coffee joints are keeping me alive – underneath Flinders Street Station, there’s Cup of Truth (omg, they had a Radiohead song playing from OK Computer when I got there! best Radiohead album ever!) and on Little [...]
Tagged Alison Croggon, Chamber Made Opera, Chamber Made Opera librettist workshop, David Young, Deborah Cheetham, Deborah Kayser, identity, libretto writing, National Australian Poetry Week, Overload Poetry Festival, Pecan Summer, postcolonial anxietyMan, insomnia’s really starting to take it out of me. However, with the help of coffee, it’s time to do day two. Sadly, Brett Kelly, our original presenter could not be present for our first session but we had a delightful fill-in: the Danish-born performer and composer Ida Duelund Hansen. She came armed with her [...]
Tagged Chamber Made Opera, Chamber Made Opera librettist workshop, classical music, Dido and Aeneas, Die Winterreise, editing, Franz Schubert, Henry Purcell, Ida Duelund Hansen, Judith Rodriguez, lieder, Lindy, Moya Henderson, National Australian Poetry Week, opera, Wilhelm Muller, writing poetryIt’s National Poetry Week! That means some srs poetry action. For me, this also means getting to attend a workshop aimed at introducing writers to the art of writing a libretto, the text of an opera that is then set to music by a composer. It’s a joint effort run by Chamber Made Opera and [...]
Tagged Chamber Made Opera, Chamber Made Opera librettist workshop, counterpoint, David Young, Deborah Kayser, Gram magazine, Island literary journal, Islet, libretto writing, Margaret Cameron, National Australian Poetry Week, The Wheeler Centre, Victorian Writers CentreA while back, I freaked out because I realised I had no access to a copy of one of my favourite albums (it’s technically an EP but whatevs) of all time. Not on CD, not on my laptop’s hard drive, not on an external drive or flash drive, not on Dropbox. I panicked. And then [...]
Tagged classical music, essential music, Gustav Mahler, hard drive crises, Johann Sebastian Bach, Kathleen Janna, post-punk, Radiohead, The FallAfter seeing my best friend sing at my old stomping ground (The Con’s Melba Hall) last week, whether or not she thinks so, she’s an early musician. This also meant I got to see some of my old early music teachers at the concert too. I had a rough time at the Con but as [...]
Tagged early music, Marin Marais, viol, viola da gambaSo Luke recommended me on Twitter as a non-wanky classical music nerd, which I must say is one of the nicest things I’ve had said about me that hasn’t been from bestie or partner. It made me think that perhaps I should blog about some classical music pieces I’m digging at the moment. Glenn Gould, [...]
Tagged Bela Bartok, classical music, Glenn Gould, Herbert von Karajan, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, melodica, music schoolVery, very recently, I’ve started listening to classical music again. Before I had any writerly leanings, at uni I did a BA/BMus. I would have graduated with both except that the current Dean at the time, Prof Warren Bebbington, didn’t see me as an asset to his faculty and after chronic illness, gave me two [...]
Tagged classical music, communities, condescension, Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Music, Melbourne University, nurturing, The Con, unhealthy competition, Warren BebbingtonI missed the supporting act, and, in a fit of old-personitis, actually had seats. Festival Hall was packed but not uncomfortably so. I’m pretty sure Vampire Weekend are the sweetest band alive – they are very friendly, and polite in a sort of old-school way – or at least Ezra, the lead singer presents that [...]
Tagged concert review, Festival Hall, live music, Melbourne, Vampire WeekendI confess when initially I was told that I was bought a ticket to see some musicians from a film I’d never seen, I was not exactly brimming with enthusiasm. It’s good to be proven wrong about such things – what I assumed would be some love story with boring folky songs, was actually really [...]
Tagged acoustic music, Glen Hansard, live music, Marketa Irglova, Melbourne, Once, The Swell SeasonMet up with friends and gig-buddies beforehand and ate like kings. As usual, things didn’t get packed till it was time for Spinnerette to perform. Initial observations indicated that there were plenty of Brody wannabes, and people looking for a reason to get ‘loose’, by which I mean thrash themselves around and try to knock [...]
Tagged live music, Melbourne, SpinneretteWhat awesome luck it was to not only get a half-decent parking spot near the place, but as I walked to the Corner, I saw two musicians sitting on a park bench, playing softly to one another. The man had a guitar, and the girl had a keyboard with a mouthpiece. It was just perfect, [...]
Tagged Deerhoof, live music, Minimum Chips, Tenniscoats, The Corner HotelIt’s quite hard to believe that The Forum didn’t want Amanda to play at this venue because they didn’t believe in her ability to gather the required numbers to fill the space. Incidentally, her gig last year was at The Corner Hotel in Richmond – a much more intimate space (yes, way smaller). Thanks to [...]
Tagged Amanda Palmer, live music, Melbourne, The Forum