Skadoosh!

On Sunday, I woke up and went in to the Unitarian Church right around the corner from me. What drew me to go here was that their sign was advertising a Music Service this week. I walked in about 10 minutes before service was supposed to start, and was greeted by one jolly member of the church. By the time that the service got underway, there was a total of 7 of us in the room... and that included the speaker and the pianist! It was a pretty good service, and the pianist, who is a student over at the Con, did an amazing job. After the service, we gathered in their little meeting room for some coffee, and to chat a bit. After it came out that I am also studying at the Con, and am a violinist, they offered to pay me to come back and play for one of their services in the coming weeks. Pretty sweet. I could use a good motivation to practice a bit more.
After service, I went over to the Art Gallery, where they were having a recital for a bunch of little kids who are part of the AIM, (Australian Institute of Music.) They were amazing. I mean, they were all under 16, and most of them were more like 11 or 12. One 12 year old played the first movement of the Mendelssohn Concerto, by memory. Bravo. After this concert, I went over to the Con to watch the Early Music Ensemble play an all Bach concert. So much music!
Some other notes on living here... The movie Kung Fu Panda just came out here this past weekend. I saw that movie before I left home, which was about 3 weeks ago now. I think its funny seeing bits and pieces of American culture popping up like that. Skadoosh! Also, I have now counted at least 5 people who thought I was from Canada, or at least I sounded like it... I mean, I guess it's not really that far away from good old Derry, New Hampshire, but still a little surprising. After talking to more and more people my age around here, I have found that the majority of kids have never seen snow, which is so hard to imagine for me, growing up in New England... and especially after this past winter with so much snow. Speaking of cold things... I bought some Cadbury ice cream the other day, and it came in a container of 2 liters. I thought that was kinda funny to buy ice cream in liters rather than gallons. Yum.



Upon request from Rob, I think I should start adding a little more about what I've been watching/reading about in regards to my project... A few days ago, I watched a video called Yolngu Boy which was only made a few years ago. If you'll recall, Yolngu is the name of the group of Aboriginal people who live up in Arnhem Land. This film presented a story of 3 teenage Aboriginal boys facing the troubles of modern life up in AL. It was quite confronting in the way that it showed the issues with alcohol, petrol sniffing, and other things like that which are causing major problems in the society up there. It also brought up the issue of the younger generation wanting to carry on the traditions of their people. Some of the kids are interested in this, but many are more interested in other things which do not really involve carrying on their traditional roots.
A lot of my reading has been of articles that deal with Aboriginal music. Again, I am mainly focusing on music in Northeast Arnhem Land, but I will be reading material on music from all around the country to get a more broad view as well. It is really becoming obvious why music is so important in the Aboriginal cultures. They do not have written language, but instead all of their histories and stories must be past down through their songs. Song series, called Manikay, are specific to each clan, and deal with the ancestral beings of their area. Each series can last up to even five hours. These are broken down into many many short songs that deal with one item or being. Then, over the course of the entire series the story becomes clear, and the scene is set as to the origins of that particular clan. Manikay are sung by a small group of men who are accompanying with bilma (the Yolngu word for clap sticks) and one man accompanies by playing the yidaki (didgeridoo)... How's that for a little glimpse into what I'm reading about?


A few pictures:














AIM recital, with the 12 year old playing Mendelssohn from memory.



















A book store window downtown displaying a new book that just came out, in which Peter wrote a chapter.














Hungry Jack's = Burger King.


I tried uploading the gamelan video again... but after letting it go for 2 hours, I decided to give up. I guess that's not going to work, sorry.


When I was walking down the street today, I saw an advertisement for Cirque du Soleil coming to Sydney!!! Ahhhhhhh, I have always wanted to see Cirque, and now I may have a chance! It's expensive, so I'll have to see how my bank account is looking as the performance period comes closer.

Power... Superpower

Good week with lots going on.
Wednesday, in the morning, I went over to the New South Wales Library, as they were having a showing of a film Jimmy Little's Gentle Journey. Jimmy Little was the first Aboriginal 'pop star.' He was a country musician, (still alive today,) who became famous back in the 1960's, when Aboriginal people weren't even counted in the national Australian census. After this movie, I headed over to the Con just in time to catch the Wednesday lunch-hour concert, which this week was a couple different chamber ensembles. My favorite of which played this really cool piece for percussion, piano, and two clarinets. The piece was called Circles, and it is by American composer Matthew Burtner. Apparently this was the Australian premier of the piece... pretty sweet. For the rest of Wednesday I hung around the Con library reading. Until 6 o'clock when the gamelan group meets to rehearse. I finally got some pictures to show you, and a short video clip too!
Thursday brought more of the same, basically, with lots of reading, and a few films to watch in between as well. Peter has been giving me lessons on the gamelan instruments a couple times a week now, which is really quite fun and very interesting. We have been playing on both the kantilan and the gangsa, though we also did some work on the gongs and some of the other instruments. So, last week I got an email from the guy who is in charge of one of the Aboriginal dance groups in the area (Descend Dance). He had told me that there was a performance at 10pm on Thursday in at the Hilton hotel. Excellent, that is only about a 15 minute walk from my place. So I got there and went up to the front desk. The ladies working there had no idea what I was talking about, so we pulled out their schedule planners, and couldn't find anything on it. I asked if it would be okay for me to wander around the building a little bit, to try to find them in one of the big rooms. I wandered for a while, (it is big place,) but to no avail. Maybe the show got canceled or something? So after I got home, I emailed the guy to ask what the deal was. He got back to me, saying... oh yeah, that was a private performance for some business conference, and I wouldn't have been allowed in even if I had found them. Oh great, thanks for telling me to come to the show that I wasn't allowed to see. Luckily there is another show in a few weeks that I can go see (at least that's what he says now...) and then hopefully be able to talk to the dancers as well a bit.
Friday, the weather was gorgeous. Then again, the weather is really nice pretty much all the time here. It is winter, yet many days I'm fine with shorts and a t-shirt, though I always bring my jacket or sweatshirt just in case. It is the nights that get pretty cold, and when I go out, I always need to wear long pants and a jacket.
Saturday, I spent most of the morning and some of the afternoon in at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. It turns out that the Biennale of Sydney is going on right now. This is a huge festival of contemporary art that happens every two years in Sydney. There are exhibits at 5 or 6 different locations all around the city, and entry to all of them is free. (That is something I forgot to mention about my trip to Canberra as well... everything that Peter and I did in Canberra was free, including the parking at the different venues. pretty cool) Anyways, also as part of the Biennale they are having film showings, lectures, and other fun activities over the next two months. I will be trying to go to as many of these as possible, especially on the weekends and on week day evenings. After that, I came back to the apartment, and Joey brought me down to Paddy's market. This is a huge market set up which is great for souvenir shopping. They also have lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, so it was it was fun to walk around for a while.
In other news. I was hopefully planning on going down to Melbourne at some point while I was here to see the Percy Grainger museum in at Melbourne University. Peter and I emailed them the other day, and found out that the museum building is currently under renovations, and the entire collection is in storage. If I were doing research, I could get access to specific items that I wanted to look at, but I was more interested in just seeing the whole collection, including the various instruments that he invented. So... I think I'm going to scrap that trip :( Sorry Mrs. Cullen.
On the home front, everyone here in Sydney is deserting me, haha. Joey is going home to the Philippines for a week or two, and is leaving tomorrow. It is really nice having him around, both as a good friend to hang out with, but also because he cooks really good dinners. Now I'm going to have to cook for myself a bit. Meh, that'll be good for me. Also, Peter is leaving on Thursday this week to head off to Bali. He is going to be making a documentary on Balinese shadow puppetry! mainly focusing on the music used to accompany it. Peter was telling me a little about this, and my favorite part was that the master puppeteer sits behind the screen with all of his puppets laid out in front of him stuck into some sort of log. He has assistants on both sides who hand him the next puppet that he needs. Also, there is a little wooden box down by his feet, and he holds something like a door knob between his toes. Whenever he wants the music to start, or to move on to the next section, he knocks on the box with this door knob, and the musicians know to then move on. hahaha. I hope I get to see his footage when he returns. Luckily he will only be gone for a week or two. But don't worry, I have plenty to do around here while he is gone.
This week is probably going to be the hardest to be away from home for me. This is the week that my family goes up to Whitney Pond in Maine... which is a very special lake up near Oxford Plains that we have been renting a cabin on every summer since I was born basically, and this will be my first summer ever missing that week :( Please have loads of fun for me mom, dad, joel, katie, grandma and grandpa.
As a side note on my eating habits since I've arrived... It seems that I eat my meals much later than I usually do in the States. For instance, I usually don't eat lunch until 1pm, and dinner usually comes around 8pm, sometimes even a little later. I've been drinking a lot more coffee since I got here, though coffee here is not really like coffee in America, (a large portion of it is frothed milk... mmmmm). The soda here has a different taste than in America. Particularly I've noticed it in the Coke and Fanta... I don't like it. meh, whatever.
Anyways, tomorrow I think I'm going to go to the Unitarian church right around the corner from my place. I believe they are have some special music service tomorrow, so that should be nice to see. After that, there is a concert over at the Con, which is put on by the early music ensemble. They are playing some Brandenburg Concerto and some other stuff. fun fun :)















the opera house and bridge.















Peter joking around with other gamelan players at the rehearsal.















Peter and me at my gamelan lesson. We are playing gangsa in this picture, and then the cheng cheng (I'm not sure on the spelling... but it's the one that looks like a little turtle) is sitting in front with some cymbals and the bell tree.




















Playing the didgeridoo in Peter's office.















Part of the Biennale at the NSW Art Gallery includes a bunch of these goofy little comic drawings chalked both on the outside and the inside of the museum. Speaking of quirky portions of the exhibit, the walls inside the main foyer of the gallery are constantly being painted back and forth between black and white throughout the entire duration of the Biennale (from June 18 to September 7).




















Another one inside.

Sorry, the video wouldn't upload this time, I'll try again next time.


Thanks for reading.

Luke.

The music is the culture

I'm sitting in my apartment right now listening to Steve Reich's 'Music for 18 Musicians.' This has probably been my favorite new musical discovery since I began studying at UNH 3 years ago... (thanks Rob, for introducing me to the piece.) A few days ago, Peter and I were discussing Balinese music, which is now sort of becoming my secondary topic of study while I am here. We were talking about how in the Gamelan music that I've been learning, there are these patterns that repeat over and over again, until some particular player gives a certain signal, at which point the group knows to move onto the next section. I brought up that this idea reminded me a lot of Steve Reich's music, and Peter said that many of the minimalist composers claimed that one of their big influences was Balinese music, or at least other world musics. I had no idea, and I found that really interesting... and a great way to connect my new experiences to my old experiences, expanding my web of musical appreciation.
My project has taken a bit of a different spin than I had been imagining. When I was back in New Hampshire planning this out, I had sort of imagined myself doing hands on field work out in the bushlands of Australia. Notebook and pen in hand, accompanied by my pocket sized digital recorder... I was going to be exploring new lands and making recordings of never before heard music. Haha, well, this is a bit of an exaggeration, but I had been planning on at least doing more interviews and such than I am so far. Today, Peter and I sat down in his office, and made a huge pile of the material that I am supposed to go through. This includes lots and lots of books, connected to piles and piles of CDs, accompanied by a small stack of DVD and VHS's. As we set out the stack, it seems somewhat overwhelming to me, and I have a hard time imagining that I will be able to get through all of it while I am here... but luckily, I am not expected to read every word of every book, just mainly get an idea for what most of them are about, and then really get down and read a handful of the most important ones.
This is not to say that I will not be doing any interviewing and hands on field work. In between much of my reading, I have also been hard at work emailing and phoning different people trying to set up meetings and interviews. For instance, I had a meeting on Monday morning over on the main campus with a lady in the Koori Centre. Koori is the Aboriginal word meaning Aboriginal person in this area, New South Wales. The Koori Centre at the university is mainly in place to assist Aboriginal students to enroll in the University, and act as a support center for any help they may need. The Koori Centre also works to help all the departments incorporate Aboriginal studies into their classes, which is now required. From this interview, I was referred to another guy who works at the University with a mentoring group (AIME). This group works with young Aboriginal kids in the area mentoring them in any way needed. I will be meeting with this man next week to chat about the different things they do. I know that these meetings and interview may not necessarily be directly related to my musical interests in this project, but I definitely think it is important to keep the whole culture in mind.
I am also working at getting interviews with the two main Aboriginal Dance Theatre groups in the area. One I will be meeting with later this week, as well as getting a chance to see some of their performances. That should be really good.
As we were going through the books I'm to read, there were a few that Peter put aside meaning I am not actually meant to read those whole books. For a few of them, he said they are the next step beyond what I am doing now... and if I were to stay for say, a year, rather than two months, I would then need to read those books. So I responded, 'so that goes beyond the music, and delves more into the culture?'... to which Peter replied 'Well, really the music is the culture... but these books bring the complexity to the next level.' Right on, well that's what I really needed to hear about my project in general... "the music is the culture"... that's the main aspect of my project that I need to fully grasp and bring back home with me.

Aside from my project going really well, other things here are also quite nice. Sunday, I decided to go with Joey to high mass at St. Mary's, the huge catholic cathedral right down the road from where I live. It was a really nice service, and interesting to see a Catholic service, which I'm not used to. The singing was also very good. (On a side note, the Pope is coming to Sydney in about 3 weeks for world youth day... that'll be funny that I didn't get to see the pope in Italy last summer... but after traveling all the way to Australia, I may see him here.) After church, we went down to one of the main shopping malls, and got lunch at the food court. Later in the afternoon, I went over to the Con to hear that recital I had mentioned before. It was really great. Goetz is quite a violinist, and his wife was great on piano too. The music was beautiful, and sounded especially great in the Verbrugghen Hall.

I will again be going to the Gamelan rehearsal tomorrow night, and I hope to be able to snap some photos of the instruments, and maybe some sound clips too, to share with you all.















In Hyde Park looking over at St. Marys. Notice white sign by the side entrance which is counting down the days until the Pope arrives.




















My little work station in Peters office.















My reading materials...















The view from my work desk out into the Botanic Gardens :)















I forgot to mention that the new Apple store just opened in Sydney a few days ago. I've been told that this is the first Apple store in the southern hemisphere, and the second biggest Apple store in the world. It's pretty cool... even the staircases between floors are made out of glass.




Ha! I finished this post, and I still have another 10 minutes or so of 'Music for 18 Musicians' left to listen to and enjoy.

Over and out.
L-Mo (Elmo... get it?)

Over the river and through the woods... to Canberra we go!

What a great weekend!
I got in to school like normal on Thursday morning. Peter and I left around 10:30. The drive down to Canberra is about 4 hours, so we definitely got some good discussion in about my project. However, that is not all we talked about. As I think I have made clear already, Peter is a very easy going, and hilarious guy. In fact, another one of his little sayings from the other day went something like this: "You know, I reckon you've got to have a sense of humor to travel. You know you see those people on planes who are just sitting there all serious looking... how can they be having any fun?" So, next, I would like to give a few examples of why Peter is so fun to work/travel with...
Obviously, sometimes things can get tense and stressful at work, no matter where you work. Whenever some really bad situation comes up at the Con, like professors getting in some big argument over something at a meeting, Peter will pleasantly comment, "Man, this little part is going to be great for when they make a movie about us." In other words, every movie needs a little drama, so Peter always likes to joke that "they" are going to make a movie about him and all of his colleagues. Conveniently, this can nicely lighten up the mood because who could really stay upset when someone makes a comment like that? So another game they like to play related to this is the "who will play me in the 'movie' game?" They like to take turns picking out who would play them in the 'movie.' Naturally, it has to be the worst possible choice of actors to play you, someone who looks/acts/represents nothing like you. I've been trying to think who would be a good actor to play me in the movie... any thoughts?
After this, to help the time pass a bit, we played the alphabet game, which Peter made up. What you do, is name off a letter of the alphabet, then challenging the other player to come up with three musicians whose last name starts with that letter. Only two of the musicians can be from the same category... meaning you could have two classical composers, and a rock musician. Try it out, it's quite fun.
Upon arriving in Canberra, we checked into our hotel, and then drove up to the Black Mountain Tower, which is where there was a big phone tower, and a great view of Canberra. Incidentally, Canberra was created as a circle. Parliament House is a the center, and then the roads form big circles around that... quite a strange design. Everything is pretty spread out too, not quite as crowded as Sydney. There are a lot of trees, and open spaces.
The next day was packed with loads of adventures. We first went to AIATSIS (Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies). Peter dropped me off, so that I could get a tour of the building and talk to a couple of the people who work there. I also got a chance to do a little browsing in the library, though much of the research they have on music is also in the Con Library. One of the services that the institute offers is to assist Aboriginal people track their family history. To do this sort of searching through the collections, you have to get on a waiting list that is nearly 6 months long... wow. I got to meet the lady who is in charge of the publishing department, and she even gave me a few books that they have published on music. Building up my library, right on.
The next stop was the National Museum. The building had a very interesting design. Very modern, and nice. On one of the outside walls, it looks like there is something enormous written in braille, with each bump probably six inches or so in diameter... to bad I don't read braille.
After the Museum, we went to the National Gallery. This was a great stop. One of the first things you see when you go into the exhibits is this large Aboriginal Memorial. There are 200 poles standing up in this sort of field arrangement. There is a nice little path weaving through the middle representing a river up in Aboriginal lands. Each pole is painted in a different style... each style representing a different region of land/group of people. The painting on each and every stick was beautiful, making the whole exhibit almost overwhelming. My next favorite piece in the gallery was Jackson Polluck's Blue Poles. Really great.
Next we went to the War Memorial, which was a really nice setup. Just like when I visited Washington DC a few years ago... there is a tomb of an unknown soldier, an eternal flame, etc... that kind of stuff.
Finally, we went to visit the new Parliament House, but only got to go in for a few minutes before it closed. The building is sort of built into a hill, so parts of it are underground. The foyer is supposed to represent Australian bushlands. There are pillars that look a lot like gumtrees, and all of the materials come from Australia. On our way out of the building, we noticed a person dressed in a koala costume walking around out front, and some other guys were filming him. why not.
That evening, we got to meet up with one of Peter's old friends Margaret Gummow. We went out to dinner with her, and got to talk quite a bit about my project. Margaret is also an ethnomusicologist, and did a lot of research on the music of the Bungalung people. These are the Aboriginal people in the region of northern New South Wales and Southern Queensland. She also attended the Garma Festival a few years ago, which is the festival I will be attending in August. She gave me a lot of good advice about what to expect when I go up there.
After some more talking with Peter, we've decided to give my project a little more focus. Many people might think that there is just one big collective Aboriginal people in Australia. However, when research on Aboriginal people was beginning, there were nearly 250 different Aboriginal languages... there are now thought to be somewhere around 80 left, but that still begins to give a sense that tribes from different areas can vary quite a bit. In fact, traditionally, didgeridoos were only used by Aboriginals in the northern part of the country... So, after some discussion, we decided to focus my project on Arnhem Land, which is up in the Northern Territory, (where I will be going for Garma.)
On the way home, Peter took me through a number of different small towns off of the highway. It was cool to see these more remote towns out in this very different countryside (from what I'm used to in Sydney anyways.) We also go to see the Big Sheep. There is a series of 'Big Things' around Australia, which I think is hilarious. Some of the other ones include: the Big Pineapple, the Big Banana, the Big Prawn, the Big Potato, etc...
We also go to pass Lake George, which doesn't actually have any water in it. It is huge though. Apparently, this lake fills up and empties at unexplainable times, with years in between. Peter says that it has been empty for quite a few years now. How odd.
Tomorrow Goetz Richter, the head of the string department in at the Con, is giving a recital! He will be playing the Prokofiev Violin Sonata No. 1, Brahms Violin Sonata No. 2, and others, I believe. I can't wait! His wife is accompanying him on piano too.




















The Institute.















The National Museum.




















Peter! (at the War Memorial)















Me! (Behind me is the road into the Parliament House)




















The Big Sheep!



Don't forget to suggest who you think should play me in 'the movie.'

signing off,
L. Chesterfield

a few days in

So, things are going great so far. I know I'm only a few days into my actual research, but I'm having loads of fun. Generally I wake up around 8 am, shower, have some cereal and coffee, make my lunch, pack my bag, and then head into school. I've been getting in to the Con, (Conservatorium of Music), around 9 in the morning, at which point I usually meet up with Peter briefly to chat about some stuff. Then I'll head to the library where I spend most of my day browsing through books, journals, databases, etc. Once lunch time comes, I'll head out to the Botanical Gardens, take a stroll and eat my sandwich. (On a side note, there are tons of bats in the Gardens. I don't know how I missed them the past few day, but they are very noisy and fill many of the trees.) After lunch, I'll come back and practice either the didge or violin for a while, after which I'll head back to the library for the rest of the afternoon. I'll finish up around 5 pm, when I'll then head back to the apartment for the evening.
Of course my schedule will vary from day to day, depending. For example, yesterday (Tuesday) I took a stroll down to the main campus, (which is about a half hours walk away... maybe a little more). I walked through Chinatown, and some of the rougher parts of town to get there, but once I got there, the campus is lovely. I had to go get my library card made so that I can officially check things out of the library. It was very easy to do after I had all of the right signatures and what not... and now, according to the University databases... Luke Miller is 'Associated Academic Staff.' Awesome! I have a nice little ID card and everything. So after I got that I walked around the main campus a bit, getting a feel for the area. I walked through the Macleay Museum. This was a nice little museum on the main campus which had a little exhibit on Australian anthropologists. There was even a small section on the Aboriginals of Arnhem land, which is where I will be going in early August. After this short visit to the main campus, I headed back to the Con, where I spent the rest of the afternoon in the library.
Today held even more 'out of the ordinary' events for me... I guess I can't really say anything is 'ordinary' since I've only been here less than a week. Anyways, this morning I watched an introductory film on how to play the didgeridoo, which gave me some nice tips to start off with. There was a nice lunch time concert today put on by the Conservatorium High school. That's right, not only is this music program amazing in itself, but it also has a connected high school, whose students study with the same private lesson teachers, and the actual building is even connected. Anyways, this concert featured music by Mozart, Faure, and then finished with 'The Fountains of Rome' by Resphigi. Not only were they playing very challenging music, but they were playing it very well too... Plus, the orchestra had 5 French horn players, full string section (including 2 basses) and even three harp players! What kind of high school has those numbers? While at this concert I met this very nice local lady, Christine, who gave me some nice tips about seeing the city. In fact, she also told me about another concert I could see later tonight... more about that in a second.
Later today, I met the chair of the Music Education department, Kathryn Marsh. In case you didn't know, Peter is also on the music education faculty. That's right, even with all of his ethnomusicology involvement, the department he is connected to is music education. I guess that's because, unlike UNH, the music education department here realizes that it is important to include world music in the curriculum for the music education students... (I know that most of the UNH faculty feels strongly that we should include world musics in our curriculum... but it just does not show in what we are learning.) Anyways... Kathryn is a very nice little lady, who specializes in early childhood music education, very friendly.
Later this evening, I got to go to a Balinese Gamelan rehearsal. Every Wednesday night, the group that Peter plays in meets to rehearse. I sat in for a little bit, chatting with some of the players before the rehearsal began. I would have recorded some of the rehearsal to show you all, but I had to leave early, and they weren't playing much as a group by the time I left.
After the bit of rehearsal that I saw, I ran across town to get over to the St. Andrews Cathedral. There was a choral concert on tonight, (which is the concert Catherine told me about.) I walked into the Cathedral, and right into a healing service... oops. I was a bit confused, but decided to sit down anyways, figuring Catherine had been a bit confused about dates or something. After a few minutes, I got up and walked out the back door... and what is in front of me? but the Cathedral school, with big glass windows looking right on a choir singing! I found it. This was a farewell concert for the Cathedral singers who are leaving in a few weeks for a tour around England. They sang some really nice music, including 'Sing a song of Sixpence' by John Rutter... which if I'm not mistaken, the UNH Chamber singers sang last year. Anyways, it was a nice concert, followed by some refreshments... and who doesn't like a few free glasses of wine, really?
After the reception, Catherine took me out to Hyde Park, which is right near where I am living, and we fed some opossums together. They are very cute, but apparently they are quite the little pests, sort of like squirrels in the US. Often they can nest in the roofs of peoples houses, and then be nearly impossible to get out. Anyways, they are all over Hyde Park at night, and very cute at that.
Two little side notes before I sign off... Two different people today asked if I was from Canada. I guess it was something to do with my 'soft' American accent, that made them think I was from the north. Also, Peter talked to the conductor of the group that plays a lot of early string music on period instruments. It might be possible for me to sit in, and play with them in some of their rehearsals later on while I am here! I think they are playing some of the Brandenburg Concertos right now, what fun :)
So, tomorrow Peter and I are off to Canberra to visit the AIATSIS and a few other museums and galleries. I think it is about a 4 hour drive from here, so it will be a nice trip to get out of Sydney and see some more of Australia... plus, it is the capitol of Australia, so I suppose I should probably see it while I am here.















The main campus. Hogwarts anyone?















The Conservatorium High School. Notice: Three harp players on the left side, organ player in the back, etc.




















These are some of the bats in The Gardens.















Speaking of Hogwarts... haha. A few guys playing a huge chess board in Hyde Park during the day.















Feeding some opossums in Hyde Park.



Until next week.

Luke.

A few more beginning thoughts

After the initial comment from Peter about "G'day mate," I have actually been greeted that way a number of times! Excellent. One thing that is still taking a bit of getting used to is the fact that the cars all drive on the other side of the road. Upon entering every crosswalk, there is a big sign painted on the ground stating 'Look Right.' If these hadn't been there, it is quite possible that I would've been hit by a car, or bus, already. haha.
I was getting a coffee with Peter this morning, and was introduced to even more of the faculty around the building. There was one comment Peter made that really wrapped up the Australian feeling so far, and it went something like this: "You've got to be nice. Can you imagine being a nasty person? You'd have to live with yourself everyday." It reminded me of something Kurt Vonnegut would have said... in fact, I think he said something very similar at one point. Anyways, Peter said this after buying me a coffee, despite my protest to his continuing to buy me coffees and such. He said that it is all part of travelers carma. He's just paying it forward, as people who have helped him before.
One place that I have already fallen in love with is the Royal Botanical Gardens. They are so beautiful, and huge. There are so many different plants. I even passed a section today that had 15 or so patches of different types of grass laid out with a little description of each one. Yesterday it was a bit rainy around here... but I still wanted to be out and about a little bit. So where did I go? To the Gardens of course, and I found some shelter from the rain under an enormous Small Leaved Fig Tree. It turns out that if you are traveling alone, sometimes you have to ask natures assistance in taking pictures :)



















So, today was my first day of actual work. What did I do, you may ask? Well, Peter and I basically laid out a rough schedule of what I will be doing while here. There are so many resources in the library that I am going to take advantage of. Peter already has given me a number of articles. He even gave me a copy of this chapter he just recently wrote for a book that is not even published yet. Also, most of the main scholars on Aboriginal music are at least somewhat in contact with each other. This means that I have a connection through Peter to a lot of the highly published people in this field. Together we are going to work on setting up interviews for me with a few of them. I will also be going to see a number of local Aboriginal dance groups while I am here... hopefully being able to interview them as well.
In other news, if all goes according to plan, Peter and I will be driving down to Canberra, the country's capital, this weekend. Though it is apparently a pretty boring city, (and very cold too) it does house the AIATSIS (Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.) This is sort of a 'must see' while I am here doing research on Aboriginal music. There are also a number of other touristy type things that we will probably do while down there, including visiting museums, etc.
After talking to some more people about didgeridoo lessons, it turns out that I should wait a little while, until I have had some more time to work a few things out on my own, before I take any lessons. Therefore, I will be using Peters didgeridoo for a while, trying to figure the basics out on my own before I go out and take some lessons from a professional. I practiced for a bit today, and got my lips all buzzed out. My mouth felt very funny after about a half hour or so of playing around on it.
I think that'll be all for now. Thanks to those of you who have already commented, I appreciate to know that people are actually reading this.

Cheers,

The Didgeri-dude ;)

I made it!

Wow, what an adventure so far. Let us begin with the plane rides. Over 21 hours of flight time, plus 8 or 9 hours of layover time. After leaving Derry a little after 8 on Wednesday morning EST, I arrived in Sydney at about 8 am on Friday morning, local time. The lady sitting next to me on my first flight to Chicago had her tomato juice spilled on her, which is all she talked about (complained about) for the rest of the trip... well, that and the life story of her first prize grand daughters. Flying to San Fransisco wasn't bad either. I got to watch 'Dr. Seuss's Horton Hears a Who' which was pretty funny. Next came the big 14 and a half hour flight to Sydney. We got delayed a little, and didn't leave California until a little after midnight, local time. Luckily my flight was no where near packed full. In fact, I was in a side isle seat, and both seats next to me were empty... which meant I could actually lay down and stretch out a little. That made the flight much more bearable. On this flight I watched 'The Bucket List', which was not nearly as good as I had been hoping. Two airline meals later... We touched down in Sydney!
When I arrived at the airport, I quickly picked up my bags, which both made it thankfully, and easily moved through customs. Peter, my mentor, was waiting for me just like we had set up. We jumped in his car and he first off brought me to the place that I'm staying. I dropped off my bags and took a quick shower. One of the first thing Peter and I talked about were accents, and how they can be greatly stereotyped on tv and in movies. For instance, apparently the phrase "G'day mate!" is not something that Australians actually say. Bummer, I was looking forward to that, haha. After this, Peter and I went in to the University to Peter's office. A very short car ride, this trip is also only about a 15 minute walk from where I am staying. After meeting a bunch of the other professors and a few students, I started feeling very welcome here. We then went down to one of the music department equipment rooms to pick out a violin for me to use while I am here, and it turns out to be a decent instrument. After buying me some lunch, Peter then took me out shopping to get some of the things I will need to get started here, for instance: my air mattress, and my power adapter to plug my laptop in. It's really funny seeing stores here that are very similar to stores in the US, but with different names. For example, we got my air mattress in a store called 'The Big W.' If I hadn't seen the sign coming in, I would have believed it was WalMart. The price markers, signs, even the setup were all nearly identical to those in Walmart.
After this shopping, we went back to Peters home, where we had some tea and chatted a bit about the sort of things that he is currently researching. It appears that I am going to get even more than I bargained for in this project. When I originally came up with the idea for what I wanted to study, it was a result of my realization that UNH does not have any courses in world musics, but instead we are taught only about Western music. I think this is a major flaw in the program, as there are so many other ways to think about music. As a result, I chose to study Aboriginal music here in Australia. As it turns out, on top of Peter's research and extensive writing on Aboriginal music, he is also very involved in researching Balinese music. He even gave me my first lesson on a Balinese gamelan. On top of this, while I was at the University earlier I got to hear Peter and a few other professors playing some music on a set of split log drums from Papua New Guinea, (I can't remember the actual name of the drums.) After a little while, Peter brought me back to my place. Here we said goodbye for the weekend, and I won't see him again until Monday... Hopefully my first weekend goes well. I went out for a little walk to acquaint myself with my immediate neighborhood, and grab some dinner. I got some tasty Thai food at a noodle bar down the street called Wok on Inn. I was very tired after so much traveling, and the jetlag finally got to me... bed time.
As Saturday morning came, I had my room mate, Joey, show me where the closest grocery store is. We went for a little walk, and he showed me both where the grocery store and the laundromat are. Both very close. I did a lot of exploring today, and a lot of walking. Hyde Park, which is right next to my place, is very beautiful. As are the Royal Botanical Gardens. There is a sign in the Botanical Gardens which says 'Please Walk on the Grass. We also invite you to smell the roses, hug the trees, talk to the birds, and picnic on the lawns.' Awesome! From here, I took the ferry over to Manly to do some more exploring and window shopping. I spent a good portion of today going into a bunch of different shops and trying out many didgeridoos. Peter and I talked a bit about this yesterday, and decided that I should really shop around before I actually buy one. There are tons of stores that sell them around here, though many are more for tourist-y people than for people who are interested in seriously playing them. Therefore I need to find a place that has nice, musical didgeridoos. I found a few, now I'll just wait until next week and have Peter come back with me to get his opinion as well.
The weather has been beautiful. Although it is winter here and we are coming up to the shortest day of the year, it is still quite nice out. Probably in the 60's somewhere. I've been wearing long pants and a t-shirt with my light jacket, which has been fine, though it does get quite a bit colder at night. Also for the most part it has been very sunny, which is great. Today it did cloud over for a few hours, and even sprinkle a little bit, but not much at all. I think that is all I have to tell you so far, as my project will actually begin Monday morning when I go in to meet Peter in his office at 9 am. I am very excited about getting started, but for now I will leave you with a few pictures:















Flying in to Sydney.




















The building I'm living in. 158 Liverpool St. Darlinghurst















My first Balinese Gamelan lesson.















Exploring Sydney Harbor.

School's out for the summer!

For those of you who don't know, I will be spending my summer in Australia doing research on an IROP grant. (IROP = International Research Opportunities Program, at UNH) The title of my project is 'Australian Aboriginal Music and the social and cultural roles that it plays,' and that is precisely what I will be spending my nine weeks researching. I will also be learning how to play the didgeridoo, of course. I made this blog so I can keep you all up to date on what I'm doing and learning. I will hopefully be posting pictures throughout my trip. I will be departing the US on Wednesday, June 11, arriving in Sydney, Australia on Friday, June 13. So, stay tuned... and there will be more entries to come once I actually get to Australia!

Ciao for now.
-Luke-