| So 2008 has arrived and it is full of promise. I was going to maintain this blog regularly, but I then realised that if I wasn’t that interested in reading much of what I had to say, then why would others? With that in mind, I thought that I’d just give little roundups every now and then and this is January’s collection.
The majority of my social life involves catching up with friends and enjoying time with them – on the whole this involves catching up one-on-one over a meal or something along those lines.
January followed this pattern with the occasional outing to keep me amused.
So there was a gig at Festival Hall on the 8th. I have heard about Festival Hall for all my time here but have never visited the place where the Beatles played when they were here. It was a shame that they haven’t changed the place since that time – like putting in an air conditioning system that works - but it is an interesting venue and fairly unique to Melbourne in as much as its size and layout - it holds 5500 people and the majority stand. It was different. The Band were The Kings of Leon from the US and I had actually gone off them since the time of booking the tickets last year, so I wasn’t thrilled to be going but I’m glad that I did – it wasn’t too bad though the band made no attempt to connect to the audience. They occasionally said “We are the Kings of Leon” (which we all knew) and the crowd would cheer – now that is an easy audience.
The next big gig was at the Hamer Hall where Pink Martini were playing on the 10th – now that was a sensational gig. Pink Martini consists of a singer, pianist, violinist, cellist, bass player, guitar player and three percussionists - plus another chap who sang a bit and played the maracas to fill in time. Everyone of these people was extremely talented and every song was a pleasure. Their style is hard to define so I wom't try - but I will say that they take songs from many countries and work their magic and make them distinctly Pink Martini songs - they are excellent and I look forward to seeing them again.
Another event was that I had a medical to see whether I am still alive and the results were positive, so I had better continue to go to work. Actually, my cholesterol is a bit high, so I will look managing that – apparently eating the equivalent of half a horse each day is not ideal, so I will cut down to half a pony.
I also attended a funeral for a mate’s wife that was extremely sad indeed. Not that one death is worse than another, but when a lovely 39 year old mother of two is taken, it is very upsetting and isn’t something I will linger on at this time.
And the final event I will mention is Australia Day on the 26th. I spent some of the day at an Aboriginal music event in the Treasury Gardens where the day was called Invasion Day. I love being in Australia and I love the people and culture, but I really don’t know too much about the Aboriginal culture, though I am learning. A true Australia Day celebration would involve a mix of events and not necessarily a separate Aboriginal event – it will be good when we all unite. |
