Time to put on my tourist pants

Saturday, before I headed over to the airport here in Sydney, I decided to do a few things around the city that I've been meaning to do. After a nice breakfast of bacon and eggs with Joey, I walked down to the Observatory. They have various exhibits set up showing the different telescopes and equipment that have been used over the years. They also had a bunch of displays of the southern sky, showing the constellations and things that you can see down here. On the top of the building is this thing called the Time Ball. Before the Observatory was built, there was no standard time in Sydney... so the Observatory measured the time by the movement of the stars, and this ball still raises and falls at 1 pm every day. cool. After that, I decided that I really wanted to walk across the Harbor Bridge. It seems like such an easy thing to do, but I've been putting it off and putting it off. I hear that it's one of the big touristy things that a lot of tourists don't get around to doing while the are in Sydney. Well, not me... I've walked across! It was nice, and gave a great view of the Harbor. You can pay lots of money to actually climb the bridge, but I didn't really see the need for that, and had plenty of fun just walking across.

I got to the airport extra early, as this was the first time I've ever had to go to an airport all by myself for a trip. I wanted to make sure that I got there in plenty of time to catch my plane. This meant I had checked in and was all set nearly two hours before my flight took off. Haha, at least I got some more good reading time. My flight was nice, nothing special, and took about three hours to get up to Cairns. The hostel I was staying at provides airport transfers, which was great. I stood out at the curb waiting for my ride. While I was waiting, vans from a bunch of other hostels showed up, all nicely decorated, clearly announcing which hostel they were from, with friendly drives and all. Then, this little rickity white unmarked van pulls up, and the driver jumps out yelling 'Nomads Esplanade!' That's me... Unfortunately the trunk of the van wouldn't open, so me and the other two girls (From Ireland) had to carry our bags in our laps. Haha, nice start. When I finally made it to the hostel, it was between 8 and 9 pm. I headed out and got some dinner, watched a little football on the TV at the restaurant, then made my way back to the hostel. I stayed in an 8 bunk room, and there were other kids from all over the world in my room. I find hostels a little bit sketchy, but really... everyone is in the same position. Everyone who stays at hostels is traveling around, and looking for a nice, cheap place to stay. Whenever I left the hostel, I made sure to keep any important paperwork and ID stuff with me, but it never seemed to be a problem to leave my bags and stuff. In all of the hostels that I stayed in in Europe last summer, there was at least one person who snored really loudly. I was lucky this time around, and was not awoken once in my whole stay by a snorer. Hopefully I wasn't that one snorer.

Sunday I woke up around 6:45. Ew. I had to get ready and set to go for my Great Barrier Reef trip. After getting ready, I headed down to the Reef Fleet Terminal to meet my boat at 7:30. I went out with a company called the Passions of Paradise. When we first got on the boat, we had to fill out a little paperwork, just informing the company of any medical conditions we had, etc. etc etc... They also provided a morning coffee and biscuits. As I was filling out my form, a girl entered the boat and set her form down on the same table as me, then went to get some coffee. As she was gone, another girl came, sat down, and accidentally started filling out the other girls form. (I didn't notice at the time.) When the first girl came back, she was like, 'you're filling out my form!' ... 'No I'm not, this is mine.' ... blah blah blah, it turned out they were both named Rachel, and Rachel No.2 accidentally started filling out Rachel No.1's form. Haha, I just sat by laughing the whole time. Instant friends. Rachel No.1 is from Canada, while Rachel No.2 is from England. We spent the rest of the trip together, good fun. Let me just say, that the Great Barrier Reef is amazing! There are so many colorful corals, fishes, etc... I even got the chance to see a turtle and a sting ray. The boat also offered the chance to do some dives for a little extra money, but I decided to just do the snorkeling. Most of the other people who were snorkeling, and even most of the divers didn't get to see a turtle or ray, so I felt pretty lucky to have seen both:) We stopped at two different dive sites, and had a great lunch in between. Despite my multiple re-applications of sunscreen, I ended up getting probably the worst sunburn of my life all over my back. It's still a bit painful, but I'll get over it. Thankfully I went out that night to get some Aloe, which has really helped make it feel better. After getting back into the Terminal a little after 5pm, the Rachels and I decided to meet a bit later for some dinner. A couple of the other girls staying the same room as Canada Rachel came along, a number of whom were German. I spoke a bit of very broken German with them, and they seemed very excited to hear anything I could say, even though I really can't carry a conversation in German. It was great fun, and got me really excited to start taking German classes again this coming semester. One of the other guys who came along with us was from France, and has been in Australia for about 10 months doing a big circle trip around Australia, taking various breaks to work here and there for a bit of extra money. He bought a car when he got here, and has just been sleeping in it the whole time to save on accommodation. What fun. Such amazing people and stories you hear when you're traveling like this. I headed back to the hostel a bit after midnight as I knew I had an early morning ahead of me.

Monday morning, my alarm clock woke me at a nice early 6:15 am... Ouch. After getting ready, I made my way down to the bus stop to be picked up at 7am. Today was my day on the Billy Tea Bush Safari! After a nice drive up the coast, we got to take a boat trip up the Daintree River, spotting quite a few crocodiles. Crocs are very territorial, so the guides can pretty nearly predict which ones are going to be in approximate locations. First we saw the one they call Elizabeth, our guides favorite on the river. She was a beauty. After a few more, we got to see Scarface. This guy was about 4 meters long! Whew. Just sitting up on the bank of the river sunbathing. He got his name from all of the fighting with other crocs in the river. Like I said, they are very territorial. We then got to do a nice trek through the World Heritage Rainforest. Among various birds and plants to be pointed out, we even got a glimpse of a cassowary. This funny looking flightless bird, (kind of like an emu) is not very commonly spotted on these tours, so we were pretty lucky to see it. After an amazing lunch, I got to hand feed some Kangaroos and wallaby's, (being kept for care because of previous injuries in the wild.) A bit later in the day, we stopped out at this nice little creek in the woods. The guides encouraged us to go for a swim in the river, though I was the only one brave enough to do so. Then they cut up some fresh exotic fruits for us, which were delicious, and made us some Billy Tea. As we were leaving this site, a bit down the river, we noticed a sign that was warning about crocodiles in the river! Ah, and I had just gone for a swim! The guides said that the place where we were was perfectly safe, as it was much clearer water, and the crocs stay far away from that area. The warning is just for people out on their own who don't know what to look out for, and where to expect crocs. Still, if I had seen that sign before, I don't know how eager I would have been to jump in the creek, haha. After we arrived back in Cairns a bit after 6 pm, I met up with the Irish girls I had met on my way from the airport to the hostel (Emma and Beatrice.) We went out to get some dinner, and then went window shopping and got some ice cream.

Tuesday, I walked a bit away from the main city area I was staying in to go do some hiking. There were a few really nice trails set up just outside of town. I spent probably 4 or 5 hours in the morning/afternoon following these trails and hiking a mountain. When I got to the top, I met this German guy, and shortly after he arrived, these two Australian women made it to the top. It turned out that one of them was turning 50 years old that day. So, the four of us sat down and had a little birthday party for her. Haha. They had even brought some cupcakes up and shared them with us. When it started getting a bit later, I headed back, and met up with Emma and Beatrice again, (who I had talked into going to see the Tjapukai dancers with me.) We got picked up by the bus around 6:30pm, and made it out to the Cultural Park around 7pm. They started with painting our faces, then did a fire ceremony. They sang some songs, and included the audience in the whole experience. After walking us back inside, they served an amazing buffet dinner, and performed a bunch of dances up on stage. It was a very touristy event, but really enjoyable as well. It gave me a chance to realize, even if Aboriginal culture is very varied around Australia, there are lots of similarities as well. I noticed that many of their dances were very similar to those I've seen in Sydney, and a lot of the themes matched up as well. This is something I will look for further confirmation on when I head up to the Northern Territory.

Wednesday, I took a bus out to Trinity Beach, and basically spent the entire morning/afternoon basking in the wonderful sun, swimming in the ocean, and walking up and down the beach. Everyone around Cairns said that this week was probably the best weather they've had in nearly a month, as they just got over an odd spell of rainy weather (this is supposed to be the dry season.) It was around 80 degrees Fahrenheit every day, and stayed very comfortable at night. Finally some of the real summer weather that I'm missing out on from home. Probably the best part of it was that the sun stayed up until nearly 6:30, where back here in Sydney it doesn't last much longer than 5. After I was satisfied with soaking in plenty of sun (after being sure to cover myself many times with sunscreen) I made it back over to the airport to catch my flight back to Sydney. So sad to leave the nice warm weather :( However, I was just heading back to Sydney, so I really can't complain.















(Left) Out on the Passions of Paradise with Michaelmas Cay in the background. The darker water is the reef.
(Right) From left: Ashke from the Netherlands, Rachel from Canada, Me! and Rachel from England.















(Left) A couple fish viewed from the surface. I didn't end up getting an underwater camera, but one of the other guys on the boat did, and is supposed to be sending me some photos. Hopefully I'll be able to show some underwater photos later.
(Right) Our safari guide, Brad, checking out the banks of the Daintree river trying to spot crocodiles and other wildlife.















(Left) Scarface basking in the sun on the banks of the Daintree.
(Right) A little view into the rainforest.















(Left) Feeding a nice little kangaroo. I also got to feed and pet some wallabys!
(Right) Me and Beatrice after we got our faces painted for the Tjapukai show.
















(Left) The Tjapukai Dancers performing their fire ceremony.
(Right) A nice view down the Trinity Beach.



Back to work in Sydney. The plan for this weekend is to head out and do some hiking in the Blue Mountains. I will be staying at Michaels house, who is one of the other Music Ed. professors in at the Conservatorium. More adventures to follow!

Thanks for reading, sorry this post was so long, but even so, I'm sure I left some things out.

Ciao for now.
Luke

You never see the real ones... just the models.

The strangest thing happened to me today, and I still don't really understand what it was all about. I was sitting in the Botanic Gardens late this afternoon doing some reading, (because I wanted to get out of the building for a little bit and enjoy the sun.) I heard this click, and so I look up to see a lady taking a photograph of me. odd. She was standing about 30 feet away, and as I looked up, she sort of leaned closer and said 'Is that you?!' As I had no idea who she was, I said hi as she ran up closer. Then when she got up to me, she said that when she saw me up close she realized that I wasn't who she had thought I was, but looked very much like him. So she took another photograph of me sitting there that she had to show her girlfriends. She said that I must be a model dressed up like this other guy... and that 'You never see the real ones... just the models.' She went on explaining how she and her husband knew this guy, and then how she and her friends put dance routines together... It was all very confusing and she was just rambling on about who knows what. Then all of a sudden, she said that she had to get going, and just walked away. bizarre.

Anyways, about this past week here in Sydney. Thursday I went down to the Quay and had a didjeridu lesson from my teacher. It went really well and I feel like I learned a lot. We talked quite a bit about rhythms, breathing, techniques, etc... and then a little about background info on the didge as well. He has recommended that I should definitely wait until I get up to the Northern Territory until I buy my own instrument, as that is where the instrument originated, and that is where the master makers come from. He also said that I can get one up there for much less money than I could get an equivalent one down here... so I think that's what I'll do. After the lesson, I was going to head back to the Con, but there were tons and tons of people lined up along the street waiting for the pope. I figured he must be coming soon, so I joined in the lines so that I would at least be able to say I saw him... Well. An hour and a half later, the pope finally drives by us. And, I figured that after waiting so long, he must at least be driving at a very slow pace so that people could actually see him. No. He flew by so fast that I hardly even got a good look at him. Nice waste of time, thank you very much. After that, I went back to the apartment to drop off my stuff and get ready to head out to Alex's house. Alex is the Aboriginal guy that I met last week, who invited me over for dinner. I jumped on a train and took a quick ride out to Petersham. I stayed there for probably three or four hours for dinner and some nice talking. Alex used to work for the UN, but now works as a lawyer to represent Aboriginal kids and help keep them out of trouble. His wife is a high school math teacher, and he has two boys as well. They are both learning to play the violin. Of course they brought out their violins and asked me to play for them. It is a little different playing on a six year old's violin than I'm used to, haha... but none-the-less they were still very impressed and excited to hear me play. I also gave a little sample of my didge skills, as they had a pretty nice one laying around.

Friday I got a great interview in down in Redfern. I met up with one of the musicians that I met last week at one of the NAIDOC launches. This guy, Leslie, does a lot of performing in Aboriginal arts. He is mainly a dancer, but also plays the didge, and was selling some of his paintings in his store as well. I thought he was a great person to talk to, because he is a good representation of upholding aspects of traditional culture in a big city like Sydney. Now I just have to transcribe the interview... Although it's nice talking with some people around here, I'm glad that I haven't done too many interviews, because it takes so long to transcribe them that my time could be much better spent doing other things, I think. Besides, I'm more interested in the traditional culture up in the North, which is not represented by people around here.

Saturday I spent almost the whole day out on Cockatoo Island. First let me explain that Cockatoo Island used to be a prison, then it was turned into an Industrial island, though now it does not really serve any function. All of the old buildings, and some of the old machinery, are still out there, and everything is being maintained as part of a historical preservation effort. However, as part of the Bienalle of Sydney, they have allowed 20 or 30 artists to put up exhibitions in the different buildings. This was really cool, because each building was basically dedicated to one artist, and most of the exhibitions were sort of combinations of video, music, and visual art. Many different ideas going around, and lots to think about, but I liked that it was so spread out, because that gave you more time to think about each exhibition. In a normal art gallery, there is no way you could read every single little plaque describing the individual paintings, but out on the island I was able to read all of the descriptions and give some good thought to each one. Plus it was fun walking through these old buildings that were scattered with old machinery.

Sunday, Joey and I headed down to Randwick Racecourse to go to the final mass of World Youth Day. We had to walk down because so many streets were closed off, and there were thousands of people heading over there. The more adventurous of the actual pilgrims who had registered for the event had spent the night under the stars out at the racecourse. By the time it was all said and done, I think they announced that there were about 400,000 people at the mass. I got to see him drive by in his little pope-mobile, at a slower pace this time. The mass was nearly 3 hours long, ouch... but they did have a full orchestra and choir performing all the music which was excellent. At the end of the mass, Pope Benedict XVI announced that the next WYD will be held in Madrid, Spain, in 2011... good luck to Spain for organizing an event this huge, I can't imagine all of the planning and organization that would have to go into such an event.

Today. Nothing very special. I watched a short video about Charlie McMahon, who is a white Australian who is pretty famous for playing the didjeridu in a band. This video followed him up into Arnhem Land where he was talking with some Yolngu people about making instruments, and painting them, etc. At the end of the video, there was a little clip of Charlie playing at a concert, and among his traditional didges lined up on stage, he also had a slide-didjeridu made out of pvc pipe, which he could change the pitch on. haha. A 'slideridu' perhaps... maybe a didjeri-bone?


Money Matters:
First of all, I would like to state that the US dollar and the Australian dollar are basically equal right now. What's up with that US dollar... losing all of your power, thanks a lot. Whatever, it's not that big of a deal for me anyways. As far as the money here goes, I did want to at least record what it looks like. The money is very colorful, and is made out of a sort of plastic material. The bills are about the same size as US money, but if I tried to rip it, I don't think I would be able to. For bills, they have 5, 10, 20, 50... like we do, (but notice no 1 dollar bill.) For coins, there are the silver coins which are 5, 10, 20, 50... (notice no 1 cent coin.) Then there are the gold coins which are 1 and 2 dollar coins. The 2 dollar coin is about the size of the US dime, and the 1 dollar coin is slightly larger, maybe US nickel sized. Then the 50 cent piece is massive, probably bigger than a silver dollar in the US. It's kind of annoying piling up all of these coins in my wallet, as it can get kind of bulky, but I do like the 1 and 2 dollar coin idea. At first I thought it odd that the dollar coins would be the smallest, but now it sort of makes sense, because they are the ones you would be most likely to carry more of around, so you wouldn't want them to be too big and bulky... plus, they have the gold color to help them stand out. Also, if you go shopping and your bill comes out to be an odd number of cents (due to tax), it will be rounded to the nearest 5 cent mark... well, it's probably just rounded up to the next 5 cent mark, I doubt they'd round it down.















(Left): Garamut practice. From the left, it's Peter, Heather, Tony, and me. Tony is writing his PhD on Garamut drumming, and is working with one of the other professors at the University, (Michael) who was actually in the US during this practice.
(Right): A picture of me at the final mass down at Randwich Racecourse on Sunday.




















(Left): When I was in Milan last summer, there were cows all over the city which had been painted by different artists. Now that I'm in Sydney, it's statues of Jesus all around which have been painted differently. This is part of the WYD thing, and they are being auctioned off later this week... I assume as some sort of fund raiser for the Catholic church.
(Right): This was a hip hop dance performance down at the Museum of Contemporary Art on Sunday.















(Left): Part of the Bienalle out at Cockatoo Island. One of buildings had this huge mobile sort of thing in it, with these funny animals made out of colorful plastic material. A crocodile, shark, emu, and something else that I can't remember.
(Right): One of the old buildings on Cockatoo Island full of old machinery.














The pope! Sorry, this was the best picture I could get. He's in there, I promise.


Anyways, that's all for now. Over and out.
-The Didgeridude.

Half way through

1. I can't believe that I have already completed over half of my time here. The time has really flown by, as I've almost been here five weeks now. The second half is going to go even faster, I'm predicting, because it is much more broken up. Where for this first half I have pretty much just stayed in Sydney... coming up: I'm in Sydney for about a week and a half, then I go to Cairns for a couple days, then I'm in Sydney for a week, then I'm in the Northern Territory for a week, then I'm in Sydney for a day, then i go home! ahhh.

2. Peter is back! excellent. He seems to have had a great time in Bali filming for his documentary on Balinese shadow puppetry, but it is really nice to have him back. We have moved back into having somewhat regular gamelan lessons, and again I went to the gamelan rehearsal tonight, and even sat in to learn some of the more complicated pieces that they are playing. I think that his teaching me gamelan is as good for him as it is for me, because he likes coming up with his own pieces, and working out new things... but you can't really test if they work by yourself, because you really need two people to play through the kotikans, which are two separate parts which weave together. I was surprised how much I remembered since he left. fun fun. (Side note... yesterday was Peter's birthday! I will probably take him out for dinner some time after all these World Youth Day people are gone.)

3. Yesterday I got to meet William Barton! This probably doesn't mean much to any of you, but it's really cool for me. William is a very famous didgeridoo player, and for the past ten years has been basically touring the world promoting contemporary didgeridoo pieces. He has premiered didgeridoo concertos, etc... and is also a composer who writes for Western instruments and didgeridoo. In fact, in a week he is going to Beijing in a week or so to premeir this piece written by one of the composers here at the Con, Steven Yates, which is written for string quartet, bassoon, oboe, soprano, piano, harpsichord, and didgeridoo. I not only got to meet him, I also got to do a short interview with him, get some tips on my didge playing, and then sit in on their rehearsal. Awesome.

4. A few more of my new favorite Aussie sayings:
-When someone is not bothered by something... they may say 'No drama, mate.'
-Instead of saying thanks... sometimes people just say 'ta.'
-Instead of saying awesome or sick, they use the term 'deadly.'

5. This World Youth Day thing is out of control. There are people everywhere. Many of them are wearing their country's flag, and chanting different cheers all over the city. Temporary fences have been set up all over the place, directing people in different directions, and keeping people out of places they aren't wanted. Traffic patterns have been altered, roads closed, etc... The Botanic Gardens will be closed tomorrow :( This past weekend when I was down the street doing laundry, I was talking a little with the owner of the Laundromat, and it turns out that the guy who usually comes in to do his dry cleaning lives on the other side of town, and can't easily get in to the shop, so he isn't coming in at all this week. Because of that, this guy has to turn all of his customers who want dry cleaning done over to one of his competitors down the street. Then again, after talking with some other Sydneysiders, Sydney can become some what of a boring place in the winter because they all go into a hibernation... so having all these WYD pilgrims here is at least living the town up a little bit... I'm not really sure how I feel about the invasion, but mostly I just think it's funny listening to everyone complain about them so much.

6. I've got some nice practice cooking for myself these past few weeks. I do think that I quite like it. It's fun thinking about what it is that I want to eat, and then making it... I'll admit though, that I've defaulted to pasta quite a few times, because it's so easy. However, the other night I made quite a nice rice and chicken dish, with a side of asparagus, that I was quite proud of. Some of my other favorites from this past week have been my omelets and corn on the cob. However, one of the really nice things here is that there is a grocery shop right across the street from me, which makes things really easy... they are not going to be quite so nice when I get back to Durham, and have to walk all the way down to the DuMP. I bet that in the time I could go from my apartment to the grocery store, shop, and come back to my apartment will take about the same amount of time it'll take me just to get down to the DuMP this fall... Anyways, it's still fun cooking for myself, and I look forward to exploring more recipies.

7. Speaking of corn on the cob, one thing that I've seen a number of times around Sydney is people eating corn on the cob... on a stick, haha! They are sold at a number of different shops around town, and I think it's so funny looking.

So long for now!

The Opera House is Alive!

I know, I said I need to start updating more, then I go a week without. Oops... it's just really hard to find the time to sit down and think about writing a post sometimes. So, now it's Sunday night, and I have a few minutes to think about this past week before the next one starts. This is probably going to be a pretty long entry, so read what you want, skip what you want... remember this is as much a journal to help me keep track of my trip, as it is for you all, so I won't feel offended if you skip parts.

Let's jump back to Wednesday. After a morning of doing some reading in the library, I headed down to the Opera House. As part of the Biennale of Sydney, French artist Pierre Huyghe created a forest in the Concert Hall at the Opera House. The exhibition lasted for just 24 hours and was titled 'The valley obscured by clouds: A world without metaphor.' After waiting in line for some time, each person going in got a little head lamp to strap on. Upon walking in the door, it was very dark in the concert hall. The entire hall was full of trees, shrubs, bushes, etc... lots and lots of green. There was mist streaming in from the sides, and it really looked like you were walking into a forest. You could see a trail of little lights bobbing around the designated paths through the hall, but that was pretty much the main source of light, with the exception of a few of the small lights way up on the ceiling, which were dimly on. There was a lady walking playing guitar and singing somewhere in the hall as well, very peacefully and soft. She would play a little bit, and then move on to a new spot and play some more. I believe the main idea behind the exhibition was to encourage the audience to get lost somewhere between reality and fiction, finding a special place in nature, and making a connection with the Australian bush. I would have loved to take a picture inside, but photography was not allowed... which I'm actually happy about, because constant photos would have ruined the experience.

Along with Wednesday night came After hours over at the Art Gallery. To start off the evening, they brought in Mark Olive. He is an Aboriginal chef, and his nickname is The Black Olive. Haha. He basically talked about a bunch of different herbs and plants that are native to Australia that the Aboriginal people used to use a lot, and people still can use, but they just don't realize it with most of them. His big push was to promote a lot of these plants as Australia's national cuisine. He whipped up a few olive oil mixtures with some of the herbs, and then let us try them out with some bread, tasty. Mark is currently in the process of trying to get his own tv show going. After his presentation, I went downstairs to the theater, where they were showing 'Ten Canoes.' This is a recently made film about Arnhem Land up in the Northern Territory. It told a (relatively) present day story about a man and his tribe, while linking it to one of the tribal stories about their ancestors and history. Although it was a serious story, there was also quite a bit of humor tied in, which was really funny to see. For example: There was one point where a group of men were walking through the forest on a hunting trip. The man at the back of the line all of a sudden yells out 'Stop!' and the other men freeze, thinking that he heard something approaching, or sensed an enemy nearby. He then goes on to explain that he refuses to walk at the end of the line any longer, because one of the other men in front of him keeps farting, and though it may be silent... it's silent but deadly! hahaha. I got a good laugh out of that one.

Friday, I walked down to Alexadria for a NAIDOC market day. I got down there around 10am, as the event was just getting going. There were booths set up all around the field, with different groups handing out information about anything from Aboriginal census, to teacher recruitment, to sexual health, to native title rights, etc, etc, etc... Also, they had a free BBQ, and a bunch of different local Aboriginal musicians performing. I got talking with one Aboriginal guy who works with the UN, though what exactly he does I'm not totally sure. His wife is a high school math teacher, and both of his boys are learning to play the violin. After discussing my project with him for a little while, he invited me over to his house for dinner later this week. He said that over dinner, he will teach me about Aboriginal culture. Plus, he said that they are going to cook Aboriginal food for me. Awesome. Alex also introduced me to one of his relatives (Les) that does a lot of work with music. I briefly talked with Les, in between all of the running around that he was doing, as part of the event. I did manage to get his card though, and we will hopefully be meeting later this week to have an interview.

Saturday brought with it my last NAIDOC event. I walked up to Woolloomooloo, for their community day celebration. Again, we had music, food, and lots of people. I had a little chat with another one of the musicians who played at this even, and set up a meeting with him later this week hopefully. Then, as I was getting food, who do I bump into again, but Alex! This time his wife was with him, so I was introduced to her, and then sat down to eat with them. We confirmed my coming over on Thursday for dinner, but then I had to take off, because I was going to a performance up at the Art Gallery. The Wangatunga Strong Women's Group was giving a performance with both some singing and dancing. This group of women is from Bathurst Island up off the coast of the Northern Territory. About a year ago, a Sydney musician heard their music, and began a collaboration project with the group, attempting to combine their musics. However, I will get to more about that later, as this performance was just the Wangatunga women. They sang a bunch of songs all in their language about their ancestors, land, animals, etc. It was really fun to watch them, because they were very clearly having a great time. Most of the women looked pretty elderly, but even the oldest one was having a great time moving around the stage. A few of them could speak English, though it didn't seem like they could speak very well, or at least they were pretty shy. Wow, Saturday was a busy day. After this concert, I went down to the Museum of Contemporary Art to check out their collection. They had a really great display of Aboriginal art up on the fourth floor, with lots of bark paintings from Arnhem Land. They also had a exhibit downstairs of John Cage's 4'33''. There was a projector in a small room, constantly looping a video of the BBC Symphony Orchestra's performance of the piece. I thought it was cool that they incorporated a musician into the contemporary art gallery, even if it was John Cage... just kidding Rob! (That book better be done by the time I get back, by the way.) Ah! And we're still not done with Saturday. I then headed over to the Opera House for a concert down in the Studio, which is sort of down underneath the the big concert halls. The concert was put on by Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, who is a blind singer/songwriter from NE Arnhem Land. Backing him up was a small combo of violin/viola, guitar, and double bass. All of his songs were in his language, and they were very relaxing and pretty. His brother, Mandawuy, is actually the lead singer in the popular Aboriginal rock group Yothu Yindi. I bought a cd after the concert, and it is great, (though I was a bit disappointed that the little back up combo is not on the album.

Finally, we can move on to Sunday. I got up this morning to head out and try a different church. I was thinking all the way back about a year and a half ago, when I was first starting to think about this project. Down in Pennsylvania for Christmas, Uncle Stu said that there was this great church in Sydney that I would have to check out if I ended up going on this trip. This church, Hillsong, is famous for their huge conferences, and powerful worship videos/cds. This had slipped my mind for the first few weeks that I was here, but since I remembered this past week, I decided to try it out. The church has two locations, one in the city, and one in the 'Hills,' which is a little further out in the suburbs. I went to the one in the city, which still took me about 45 minutes to walk to. This church has 4 Sunday morning services, and the one I was in was still packed with probably 6 or 7 hundred people... Let's just say it was a bit different from the 6 or 7 people that I met at the Unitarian church. The worship part of the service was basically a rock concert. Up on stage there was a lead singer/guitar player, backed by at least two other guitars, bass, drums, trombone, sax, and 5 or 6 other people to help lead singing. Behind him, was a choir, which was very into jumping and raising their hands in the air while singing. Behind the choir were 5 enormous screens, onto which was projected video image of what was going on on stage throughout the whole service. Also while they were singing, there were all kinds of lights and colors flashing around the room. It was one of the most powerful worship services I've ever been to, and the entire congregation was so alive and into it. Even the preacher had the whole rooms attention, and was weaving jokes and funny stories into his whole sermon. I don't know if any of the Osbornes are reading this, but thanks for recommending Hillsong to me, Uncle Stu, I'm glad that I at least got to visit it while I was here. After church, I grabbed a sandwich at a nice little cafe around the corner, and then spent the greater part of my afternoon wandering around Centennial Park, which is a huge. Lots and lots of grass, ponds, birds, families, trees, plants, etc. I sat down to read for a bit by one of the ponds, and then wandered through what used to be known as the Lachlan Swamp (named after General Lachlan Macquarie.) These were some really cool paths weaving through this swampy area which was like a mini forest full of paperbark trees and other local flora and fauna. To finish off my busy little week, I headed back over to the Opera House to see the Wangatunga Strong Women perform again, but this time with the Sydney musicians. It was sort of a fusion between jazz and indigenous musics. It was interesting, but I did note a few things. I can't say anything for sure, because I don't know the whole back story on this project, but I felt like it was a little intrusion on the Womens group. I've been reading a lot about the different influences on Aboriginal music, and how the traditional stuff is really disappearing in many places. It did seem like the women got along great with the Sydney group, but it also seemed like they were much more comfortable, and were having a whole lot more fun when they were performing by themselves. This was also evidenced by a couple times in the concert when they were uncertain of where to enter when the jazz musicians were playing, because their music does not have the same kind of structure as we are used to. Again, I could be wrong on that, those were just my observations from the concert, which was very enjoyable.

On a side note, I started feeling a little scratch in my throat on Friday night... :/ I hoped that it might just be in my imagination, but I woke up on Saturday to a very painful throat that made it difficult to swallow. I took some of the medicine that mom thankfully reminded me to pack (thanks mom) and had to go on with my day regardless. This morning (Sunday) I woke up, and the sore throat had moved to more of a stuffy nose, pressure in the head. I again took some medicine, and continued on with the day. It is still hanging around a little bit, but I'm hoping that within a few days it will completely pass over. I just can't afford to miss out on any of my days here.

I had some other thoughts that I was going to talk about, but this is just getting too long... I'll try to post again in a few days with other random thoughts. For now, here are a few pictures, as a reward for reading this whole novel...















(Left) A performance at the Glebe NAIDOC day, with some local Aboriginal guys performing some traditional dances.
(Right) A flag presentation at the Hurstville NAIDOC day. On the left is the Torres Strait Islander flag, in the middle is the Australian flag, and on the right is the Aboriginal flag.




















(Left) An example of some of the Aboriginal art in the MCA.
(Right) The Wangatunga Strong Womens Group, performing at the Art Gallery.















(Left) I don't think I will ever tire of taking pictures of the bridge or the opera house, especially when there are nice sunsets involved.
(Right) World Youth Day is everywhere. This is going to be busy week in Sydney.


Thanks for reading.

-Luke

Slow down, you move too fast. You got to make the morning last...

A grab bag of thoughts:

Since I've been in Sydney, I've been walking pretty much everywhere within reasonable distance. (Though I have been using the train/buses this past week a number of times to get to places a bit further away.) Anyways, this past week my feet really started hurting, especially my heals. At first, I thought it might just be the shoes I was wearing, and that my Converse might not be giving me enough support... so I started wearing my Doc Martens more. Although this did help a little, it was still a quite painful to be walking around. Thinking about other explanations, I thought it might be possible that I was just in too much of a rush, and the constant running around could be making an impact. Believe it or not... this has worked! I was just in too much of a hurry to get places, which is silly, because my schedule is very laid back here. Now that I have chilled out, and slowed down a bit, my feet have started feeling much better.

One of the things a few people asked me to look into once I got to Australia was to see if the toilets really flush the other way, haha. It turns out, that every toilet that I have used since I've been here does not really flush in a circular motion either way. The water comes from both sides, meets in the middle at the front of the bowl, and then flows backwards.

A few of my favorite Aussie expressions:
--When someone is not bothered by or worried about something... they may say "I'm not fussed."
--When someone wants to look at something, (take a peak)... they may say "Let's have a sticky beak."
--The other day on a tv commercial, a guy who was hungry said "I could eat a horse... and chase the jockey."

World Youth Day is coming up very fast... the sign outside of St. Mary's now says just 8 days left. Then again, World Youth 'Day' is actually more of a week. It last from next Tuesday until Sunday. The rail workers announced that they will be going on strike next Thursday, which is supposed to be the busiest day during World Youth 'Day.' The news is saying that there will be over 125,000 international pilgrims during this event, (more than the 2000 Olympics.)

I'm still not quite used to the whole traffic going the other way thing. I've pretty much figured out which way to look when I'm going into a cross walk, (especially since it is printed in big white letters of every cross walk which way you should look.) However, I often find myself drifting to walk on the right side of the sidewalks. Not that this is a huge deal, because with so many tourists here, many other people are doing the same thing, and all of the pedestrians adapt... but I'm still working on walking on the 'right' side of the sidewalk... which is actually the left side.

Last night I went over to the Opera House for another documentary showing as part of the Message Sticks Festival. The documentary was called 'Aboriginal Rules' and was made by an Aboriginal film company, Warlpiri Media. The film was about the Aboriginal rules football, and focused on one team who had been fighting for a few years until they won a championship. The film makers were there, and went up on stage afterwards to talk for a bit about the production of the film.

Other than that, the past two days I've been to two different launches for NAIDOC week. Yesterday down in Glebe, there was a free BBQ accompanied by some musical performances and dances. Today, down in Hurstville, there was another performance where Descendance performed, which is an Aboriginal dance group in the area. In both performances, as with other Aboriginal ceremonies I have witnessed, all begin with a 'welcome to country.' This is when one of the Aboriginal people get up, and basically acknowledge the traditional people of the land, and thank the traditional people who are the owners of the land. I think this is a really cool way to begin a ceremony.

Good start to a week, I'd say.

Life, I love you.
All is groovy.

Happy Fourth.

I should try to update more often, because now I have a whole week to look back on... hopefully I don't leave anything important out.

Tuesday night Peter took me out to dinner so that we could talk about what I've been doing so far/what I plan on doing while he is gone. We went out to this nice little Vietnamese place in Newtown. Next week is NAIDOC week (Originally 'National Aboriginal Islander Day Observance Committee'... but now it more broadly means National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Week.) This week is set up to celebrate history and culture of the Indigenous people of Australia, and there are events held all over Australia. Because of this and other festivals going on next week, I should be kept quite busy outside of the Conservatorium... so we'll see how much I even get to go in and continue my library research.

Wednesday after another day in the library, I went over to the Art Gallery for the opening performance of the World Shakuhachi Festival. It was just a short introductory concert, but it was still really cool. If you don't know, the Shakuhachi is the Japanese bamboo flute. After the concert, I went downstairs to the theater to watch the Sergei Eisenstein film 'Strike.' It's fun to see how the music is used in silent films. Granted, there are relatively frequent breaks in the movie where text will come up giving a brief overview of what's going on, but in the absence of the actors speaking, the music plays a huge role in setting up the scene.

Thursday was pretty average. I spent a good amount of time reading about tips and techniques for playing the didgeridoo, and then also put in a fair chunk of time in the practice room working on those things. I do believe I am getting a lot better, and it's fun to hear myself progress and feel the improvements in my technique. In a conversation I had with Rob a week or two ago, we were discussing the difference between working with a didgeridoo and any Western instrument. When someone begins learning how to play the violin, say, there are endless scales, etudes, and other technical exercises to constantly drill. There are definitely techniques to work on with the didge, but it's really a completely different thought process.

Friday. Happy Fourth of July! ... it was weird not being in the States for Independence Day. So, what did I do? It was actually quite a busy day. I woke up around my normal time, and started walking down towards Redfern. A very different part of town that I've been living in. It is actually kind of a rough area, and I was warned by numerous people to be cautious when going down there. I didn't run into any trouble, but... lucky me, it did start downpouring as I was walking. I stopped in the nearest train station for some shelter until most of it had passed over, and then continued on. I can't really complain though, because I think that was only the second day of rain since I've been here. I headed over to the Community Center for the launch of this book, 'Down River.' The book was inspired by a song of the same name which was made popular a couple years ago. Down River is a rap song which was made by a group of Aboriginal kids out in western New South Wales as part of a community project to provide more opportunities and activities for kids. The book tells the story of the kids and their community, and how the popularity of the song has really helped their community. It was pretty interesting, and I got to meet the author and a few of the people who were involved in the song and book.

After the launch, I made my way back to my place, where I regrouped, dropped some stuff off, and then got ready to head out to Castlehill, (another suburb of Sydney.) I took a 30 minute train ride out to Paramatta, and then another 30 minute bus ride up to Castlehill. Why, you may ask? Well, to meet up with some other Americans! Chris McCallum, (who is the current vice principal at the elementary school I went to, and where my mom still works,) is Australian, but has been living in the states for about 10 years now. Right now, he is on vacation visiting his family back here in Sydney, so I thought it would be fun to meet up and go out with the fam. I feel like everyone I met that night has been to Derry, NH, which was really funny seeing that I'm over 10,000 miles from my hometown, talking to people about street names and Derry Village School. One of the other families who came out actually lived in Derry as well for 4 years, and only just moved back to Australia a year or two ago... what a small world. Of course, I go and order a burger, being the American that I am. However, this was no normal burger. The thing was so big that I could hardly fit it in my mouth (and I have a pretty big mouth.) Not only was the burger itself thick and piled with the normal toppings I'm used to, it also had beets, bacon, a sunnyside up egg, and probably some other things. It was delicious. Anyways, it was nice to be around some other people who really know what the fourth of July is about, so thanks for inviting me out Chris, if you are reading this. (Besides, I finally found someone who could give me an pretty solid explanation of the Australian rugby rules.) One of the couples gave me a lift back to the train station, and after a quick train ride back into the city, I got home not too long after midnight. No fireworks or racetrack, but a good Fourth nonetheless.

Today, Saturday, I was supposed to have a didgeridoo lesson... but my teacher didn't show up. I'm still not sure what the deal was, as I couldn't get through to him. I will try to figure that out tomorrow. So instead of a lesson, I wandered around Bondi Beach this morning. It was a beautiful day, though not quite nice enough for me to go swimming in the ocean. There is a really nice pathway along the cost. I walked down it for a few miles and got some great views. Then I headed back to the city to see some films showing at the opera house. Along with NAIDOC week, there is this festival going on now called Message Sticks. This festival is showcasing some new films about Indigenous life. I thought the best was a short documentary about this dance routine which was posted on YouTube last year some time. The link is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-MucVWo-Pw
The dance is called Zorba the Greek Yolngu style. The director of the documentary, who was at the showing today, commented that music has no boundaries, and it can cross all barriers. I though this was a great representation of my project. The guys who did the dance did it as a thank you to this Greek lady who is taking care of the directors daughter. The music and the dance style may not be traditional Yolngu style... but it shows how their culture views music and looks to music as a way of life. The dancers had also traveled down all the way from Elcho Island up in Arnhem land to give us a little performance of their dance right there in the Opera House. It was a really fun experience.

A little side note... I booked my trip up to Cairns the other, and I will be going up at the end of July for a few days!!! This is going to be my one big touristy thing to do while I'm here. I will go out to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef, I will go on an adventure in the rain forest, and of course... to tie it in with my project at least a little bit, I will be attending a performance of the Tjapukai Dancers. I am really excited about that whole trip.




















Another picture of my with the didgeridoo I'm learning on. Notice the tall skinny figures painted on. These are called Mimi Figures, and from what I understand, they are something like the boogie man.















An exhibit of contemporary Aboriginal art over at the Art Gallery.




















Redfern Community Center, where the book launch was.















One glimpse of Bondi Beach.




Thanks for reading. I hope every body had a nice Independence day where ever you may be.


Ciao.
Luke.