Well, it might be a little early to be declaring the Gig of the Year award, but I'm pretty confident the show I saw last night at the Form Theatre will be a strong contender. Yes, it was the wonderful Mr Stevens, taking time out of his forthcoming "Delaware" effort (no, not really) to tour Australia for the first time. And what a privilege it was to have him here. No, sadly I don't have any photos, but I'm sure you can find them with little difficulty - and it was quite a visual spectacle, with Sufjan and his brigade of mountain men and women dressed in something that appeared to be Park Ranger attire, Sufjan himself sporting some sort of lumberjack-chic winter hat (only Sufjan could carry that off). And what a band too - two trumpets, a sax, trombone and French horn, along with guitars, banjo (of course), piano, sometimes even a xylophone - all coming together to create that inimitable Sufjan sound that's somewhere between "Appalachian Spring" and Will Oldham doing gospel classics, but also not like anything you could really describe.
The highlight was, almost without question, the newish song "Majesty, Snowbird", which we all hope is from a forthcoming album. Please, Sufjan, please. Replete with glorious, multi-coloured bird wings, Sufjan and brigadiers proceeded to perform one magnificent, 10 minute piece of musical and visual art, a performance that was perhaps only just bettered by the encore: first, a sound-and-image suite about the Brooklyn roadway, complete with a hula-hoop dancer (and Sufjan having an impressive go at a bit of hoop-dancing himself), then, of course, "Chicago", because they couldn't have done a show without "Chicago". Maybe, just maybe, the encore topped "Majesty, Snowbird", but I'm still not sure the latter could be bettered.
There are a lot of videos of it on YouTube, none of which are all that good, but have a look anyway. It might give you some idea of just how wonderful it was. If you like Sufjan, and I'm not sure how anyone could NOT like the man. But I've been wrong before. And some people just don't have taste.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Sunday, January 6, 2008
They write books about this sort of thing
So here's where, first of all, I have to admit that I'm writing a book. So - I'm writing a book.
Good. Now that's out of the way, I can get down to business.
The trouble with said book is that, much to my surprise, it's getting to be quite long. Anyone who has had the patience to endure my sometimes very long posts on this blog may not be surprised, but I'd always assumed brevity was the soul of my wit. Now, maybe this book just isn't very witty. But it's certainly very long, and isn't finished. At the moment, on A4 paper, in size 11 font, 1 1/2 spacing, it's coming in at 222 pages. My estimate is that there's probably another 20 or so pages to go. So, if put into a normal book format, it would come in at around 400 pages, give or take. Which is fine, except that I'm wondering if my humble tale of going to school and University and falling in and out, and in, and out, of love is worthy of so many pages.
I take great encouragement from the literary genius of Say Hi To Your Mom, who say that "they write books about this sort of thing" (this sort of thing being relationships in which couples play computer games and eat Thai food; not far from what my book is about, just without the computer games and the Thai). What I need to know is this: are the kinds of books they are talking about more than 400 pages in length? If so, I'm on the right track. Otherwise, my book, if I ever finish it, may need a bit of trimming.
Which it probably will need anyway. I'm just not looking forward to the lengthy process of proof-reading. I rarely read 400 page books. I'm hoping mine's good enough to maintain my interest for the that long.
Who knows. Maybe, after a bit of quality control and trimming, I'll be about to cut it down to a really high quality limerick. Let's hope.
Good. Now that's out of the way, I can get down to business.
The trouble with said book is that, much to my surprise, it's getting to be quite long. Anyone who has had the patience to endure my sometimes very long posts on this blog may not be surprised, but I'd always assumed brevity was the soul of my wit. Now, maybe this book just isn't very witty. But it's certainly very long, and isn't finished. At the moment, on A4 paper, in size 11 font, 1 1/2 spacing, it's coming in at 222 pages. My estimate is that there's probably another 20 or so pages to go. So, if put into a normal book format, it would come in at around 400 pages, give or take. Which is fine, except that I'm wondering if my humble tale of going to school and University and falling in and out, and in, and out, of love is worthy of so many pages.
I take great encouragement from the literary genius of Say Hi To Your Mom, who say that "they write books about this sort of thing" (this sort of thing being relationships in which couples play computer games and eat Thai food; not far from what my book is about, just without the computer games and the Thai). What I need to know is this: are the kinds of books they are talking about more than 400 pages in length? If so, I'm on the right track. Otherwise, my book, if I ever finish it, may need a bit of trimming.
Which it probably will need anyway. I'm just not looking forward to the lengthy process of proof-reading. I rarely read 400 page books. I'm hoping mine's good enough to maintain my interest for the that long.
Who knows. Maybe, after a bit of quality control and trimming, I'll be about to cut it down to a really high quality limerick. Let's hope.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
I've seen the future, and it's amazing
A jaunt to the outer East of Melbourne to catch up with a friend yesterday led me, on the way home, to Blackburn, not a place that I'm especially fond of, but the home of Koorong Books and Music - a shop, for those of you not in the know, that sells a range of Christian books, music, and merchandise of varying quality. It's pretty rare for me to find anything there that I feel especially inspired to buy, particularly in the music department, and yet it's perhaps equally rare for me to find good Christian music outside of Koorong. So, every few months, I like to go there when I am in the area and see what is available.I was just beginning to despair on the state of Christian music - it's a bit of a routine of mine at Koorong, but a feeling that I think was this time most inspired by a CD that professed to be for fans of "Switchfoot, The Fray and Ryan Adams"; now, how can a band possibly sound like all those artists, without being simultaneously wonderful and utterly MOR? - when I came across a gem from the almost infallible Seattle indie-CCM label, Tooth and Nail, an unheard-of 2007 release, "Love Is For the Rich", by a band called Surrogate. The little sticker on the cover told me that this band, unlike my earlier discovery, was for fans of Sun Kil Moon, the Red House Painters and Pinback. Now, it's rare enough for not one but two Mark Kozalek projects to be mentioned with reference to a Christian CD, and Pinback have won me over whenever I've heard them, so I was instantly sold; as was the CD, by the time I took it to the counter.
Several listens yesterday and today have confirmed the wisdom of my purchase. There are more than enough quality indie reference points with an album like this - aside from the very accurate descriptions on the cover sticker, there are definite hints of early Death Cab For Cutie, Say Hi To Your Mom, and even a few moments of a Northern Californian Phoenix (if you can imagine what that sounds like). The lyrics are far from preachy; in fact, they are quite enigmatic. Rather, this CD reminds me, if I needed any reminding, of what makes Tooth and Nail the prince among Christian music labels; they produce quality alternative music that simply talks about the world from a Christian viewpoint. Tooth and Nail bands rarely aim to convert all their listeners. However, being Christians, they want to be honest about how they see life. So Christianity comes through in the way they talk about the world. A wonderful example of this is the wry and catchy "Death Penalty", which talks nonchalantly about the singer's less-than-perfect past but looks forward to a wonderful future in Heaven. There's also the less optimistic but equally godly anthem about climate change, "Stay Out of the Sun", which is a simple but compelling listen, and definitely the best environmentalist indie-pop song of 2007.
What my favourite Tooth and Nail bands understand is that you don't have to be singing "Jesus is my boyfriend" songs to be creating meaningful, Christian art. They get the Christian perspective out there, in a way that people may actually be able to listen to without feeling completely alienated.
They often also aim to make wonderful music, which I figure has to be important, although not everyone would agree with me. Thankyou Surrogate, for not disappointing. I suspect you'll stay stuck in my CD player for a few more days yet.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Search for a super-mouse
I came home yesterday afternoon to find a mouse peering at me through the glass of the back door. He (or perhaps she) was outside, in our enclosed garden, and I would love to know how he/she got there, although I had no intention of asking. When I walked closer to him, my foot no doubt at his eye level, he ran away; I'm not sure where to. Hopefully from whence he came. He was very fat - perhaps a rat, rather than a mouse? I've gone out into the garden to hang out washing since then and haven't seen him. I have nothing against him as such, but I don't want to see him again. I hope he's gone away.
Reading blog updated
I would like to make a New Year's resolution to update my reading blog more regularly, but I'm quite confident I still won't. There's too much to say about books that half the time I just don't know where to start. Besides, being an English teacher, when I read I like to do it for fun, not in order to then go and write something about it.
However, I have come up with an idea that will, hopefully, give me an incentive to be more regular in my Northside Reading posts. I've always loved compiling lists, so I've decided to put together a list, in no particular order (and I'm not even sure of an overall number), of my favourite books. Let's see how long it lasts. At least it's something I can plug away at slowly. It can often be easier to talk about the books you know and love well, than to find something new to say about a book you've just read.
So, if you're interested, you can check out the first post in this grand scheme, on Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms by following this link, or clicking on "Northside Reading" in the blogroll.
However, I have come up with an idea that will, hopefully, give me an incentive to be more regular in my Northside Reading posts. I've always loved compiling lists, so I've decided to put together a list, in no particular order (and I'm not even sure of an overall number), of my favourite books. Let's see how long it lasts. At least it's something I can plug away at slowly. It can often be easier to talk about the books you know and love well, than to find something new to say about a book you've just read.
So, if you're interested, you can check out the first post in this grand scheme, on Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms by following this link, or clicking on "Northside Reading" in the blogroll.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
So this is the new year, or, Do I feel any different?
U2 once wrote that "nothing changes on New Year's Day". It seems true enough. But they also wrote "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me", which might discredit them a bit. Nevertheless, Bono has a point. Yes, the earth begins a new cycle around the sun. We buy new calenders. We make jokes like, "Good morning, haven't seen you since last year!" to our family members (at least, my family does; we're kind of lame). And we also make New Year's resolutions which last five minutes. But does all this amount to any particularly significant CHANGE? If not, then why do we bother staying up until midnight? All so that we can clink champagne glasses and maybe cop a "Happy New Year" snog? Hardly seems worth it, does it?
And yet, each year, I like to reflect on the year that has been, and at some point I like to think ahead to what I expect the newly born year to be like. I don't make resolutions, because I figure they don't really work; besides, why wait until New Year's Day to start dieting, or exercising, or quit smoking or shooting smack? Why put off what you probably should start doing (or stop doing) immediately? Do new resolutions work better when they come with some nice, neat sense of turning over a new leaf, as the earth starts that new orbit and we change our calenders? I doubt it. Some of my new year resolutions have worked, but others haven't. Any significant change in our lives will always be hard, whether it's made on 1 January or 27 August. In this sense, it's true that "nothing changes on New Year's Day".
That said, I do have to admit that I'm approaching 2008 with a sense of freshness - perhaps from the nice, extended break with family that I have just returned from; perhaps because, as a teacher, a new year IS significant, bringing with it new classes, new students, sometimes new subjects to teach. In my case, this change in the academic year is certainly a key aspect of 2008 for me. I was able, with very few tears (if any) to hand over some rather difficult classes at the end of last year, and now I look forward to the new classes that I am taking up this year. They won't all be easy, I'm sure, but sometimes a change in itself is a nice thing. I'm also looking forward to my second year of teaching, as I can't help feeling that I'll start the new year off much more effectively than I did in 2007. I'm more confident as a teacher, and hope that this will mean that, whatever challenges come my way in 2008, I will be better equipped to handle them. I also will have the joy this year of teaching Year 12 Literature - a subject I've always hoped I would get the chance to teach - and am confident that this class will give me a level of personal fulfillment that was perhaps lacking in some of the classes that I taught last year.
I am also entering my second year in my new suburb, and am starting the year at the same church. So, where last year brought a few too many changes with it, this year seems to be starting off with a pleasant amount of familiarity. I know where I stand better this year; less is uncertain, less is different. So, in some ways, it's nice enough that a few things are staying the same this New Year.
Some things never change, but other things in our lives are changing constantly. Someone or other said that the only constant in life is change. I'm not sure who it was, and I don't know if I agree with them. It might have been Homer Simpson, for all I know (although that's unlikely). But there's some truth in it, just as there's some truth in that U2 song. Who really knows how it all works. I certainly don't. But I hope this year's a good one.
And yet, each year, I like to reflect on the year that has been, and at some point I like to think ahead to what I expect the newly born year to be like. I don't make resolutions, because I figure they don't really work; besides, why wait until New Year's Day to start dieting, or exercising, or quit smoking or shooting smack? Why put off what you probably should start doing (or stop doing) immediately? Do new resolutions work better when they come with some nice, neat sense of turning over a new leaf, as the earth starts that new orbit and we change our calenders? I doubt it. Some of my new year resolutions have worked, but others haven't. Any significant change in our lives will always be hard, whether it's made on 1 January or 27 August. In this sense, it's true that "nothing changes on New Year's Day".
That said, I do have to admit that I'm approaching 2008 with a sense of freshness - perhaps from the nice, extended break with family that I have just returned from; perhaps because, as a teacher, a new year IS significant, bringing with it new classes, new students, sometimes new subjects to teach. In my case, this change in the academic year is certainly a key aspect of 2008 for me. I was able, with very few tears (if any) to hand over some rather difficult classes at the end of last year, and now I look forward to the new classes that I am taking up this year. They won't all be easy, I'm sure, but sometimes a change in itself is a nice thing. I'm also looking forward to my second year of teaching, as I can't help feeling that I'll start the new year off much more effectively than I did in 2007. I'm more confident as a teacher, and hope that this will mean that, whatever challenges come my way in 2008, I will be better equipped to handle them. I also will have the joy this year of teaching Year 12 Literature - a subject I've always hoped I would get the chance to teach - and am confident that this class will give me a level of personal fulfillment that was perhaps lacking in some of the classes that I taught last year.
I am also entering my second year in my new suburb, and am starting the year at the same church. So, where last year brought a few too many changes with it, this year seems to be starting off with a pleasant amount of familiarity. I know where I stand better this year; less is uncertain, less is different. So, in some ways, it's nice enough that a few things are staying the same this New Year.
Some things never change, but other things in our lives are changing constantly. Someone or other said that the only constant in life is change. I'm not sure who it was, and I don't know if I agree with them. It might have been Homer Simpson, for all I know (although that's unlikely). But there's some truth in it, just as there's some truth in that U2 song. Who really knows how it all works. I certainly don't. But I hope this year's a good one.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
The Year in Review Part 2: A Year of Listening Dangerously
I'm not the world's most up-to-date music listener. I love music, and listen to it quite constantly, and yet my listening habits are very much dictated by mood, and often mood has a lot to with familiarity. You have old favourites, like old friends. I love making new musical discoveries, but they are not always recent releases. I take a while to discover the music of a particular year, and usually the year's over by the time I have come to love the music it produced.
Towards the end of this year, I've had the fortune of inheriting my brother's old iPod, along with all the music that he had on it. So, wanting to actually know what the music of 2007 was like (I knew a few albums and songs, but not many) I searched through the albums from this year, and have come to love many of them very quickly. Only, I think it takes a bit longer to digest albums than it does to appreciate songs. Songs tend to be more immediate. Admittedly, you do listen to some of the albums of 2007 and, immediate as some of the songs are, you know that they are much stronger as albums. Stand-outs are few, but the overall impression is quite amazing.
Nevertheless, I feel that, to do justice to the music of 2007, I'm going to have to rate songs, not albums. I wanted to go with albums, but I'm just not sure that I know them well enough overall. Some albums - Low's "Drums and Guns", for example - I'm sure will grow on me with each listen, but right now are not so immediate on the whole. Other albums, like the new Jose Gonzales, have grabbed me with the handful of tracks I know well, but I have yet to hear them in their entirety. I'm sure Jose's effort would be in any list of top albums if I knew it all, but it's not really fair to put it in my list just yet.
So, enough of the preamble. Here, in some sort of an order, starting at number 10, is my list of the top 10 songs of 2007.
10. Amplifier Machine - Poor People In Church
9. Radiohead - All I Need
8. Low - Always Fade
7. The Field - Over the Ice
6. Jose Gonzales - Heartbeats
5. The Chariot - And Shot Each Other
4. As Cities Burn - Contact
3. Apparat - Not a Number
2. Jesu - Conqueror
1. Blonde Redhead - 23
And here, albeit a day late, ends the year for Ideas From the North.
Towards the end of this year, I've had the fortune of inheriting my brother's old iPod, along with all the music that he had on it. So, wanting to actually know what the music of 2007 was like (I knew a few albums and songs, but not many) I searched through the albums from this year, and have come to love many of them very quickly. Only, I think it takes a bit longer to digest albums than it does to appreciate songs. Songs tend to be more immediate. Admittedly, you do listen to some of the albums of 2007 and, immediate as some of the songs are, you know that they are much stronger as albums. Stand-outs are few, but the overall impression is quite amazing.
Nevertheless, I feel that, to do justice to the music of 2007, I'm going to have to rate songs, not albums. I wanted to go with albums, but I'm just not sure that I know them well enough overall. Some albums - Low's "Drums and Guns", for example - I'm sure will grow on me with each listen, but right now are not so immediate on the whole. Other albums, like the new Jose Gonzales, have grabbed me with the handful of tracks I know well, but I have yet to hear them in their entirety. I'm sure Jose's effort would be in any list of top albums if I knew it all, but it's not really fair to put it in my list just yet.
So, enough of the preamble. Here, in some sort of an order, starting at number 10, is my list of the top 10 songs of 2007.
10. Amplifier Machine - Poor People In Church
9. Radiohead - All I Need
8. Low - Always Fade
7. The Field - Over the Ice
6. Jose Gonzales - Heartbeats
5. The Chariot - And Shot Each Other
4. As Cities Burn - Contact
3. Apparat - Not a Number
2. Jesu - Conqueror
1. Blonde Redhead - 23
And here, albeit a day late, ends the year for Ideas From the North.
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