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.