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How to Train Your Dragon in Concert

Welcome to Berk. No, not the small town in western New South Wales where the summer temperature always seems to be above 40. That’s Bourke. Berk is “12 days north of Hopeless and a few degrees short of freezing to death. Most places only have mice or mosquitoes. We have… Dragons!” We certainly do! We also have the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under the baton of conductor, you guessed it, Maestro…

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Celebrity

How is it that many celebrities can be such arseholes and yet still be popular? There is one basic rule they must follow: Don’t be an arsehole to other popular celebrities. You can be violent, misogynistic, racist, bigoted, so long as you only target victims and groups that most people don’t care about. People see celebrities as deserving of their status, as possessing special skills and those…

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The Terminator Live

I’ll be back That’s what I said on Saturday, when I was at the Sydney Opera House for the John Williams concert. However, my re-entry to the venue didn’t involve driving a vehicle in. No, I caught the train. So, are Terminators alive anyway? Human flesh over a polyalloy skeleton, a microprocessor brain. Can they count? Were they trained on cat pics from the Internet, which would explain why…

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The Music of John Williams

Too much John Williams? Not possible. And with 92 years and 54 Oscar nominations under his belt, there is a lot of John Williams. A couple of years ago I travelled down to Melbourne to attend The Music of John Williams: A 90th Birthday Celebration, a concert featuring the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the hosts from the Art of the Score podcast. At the end of my review I wrote: I hope…

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Timesheet

I thought keeping a timesheet tracking 30 second intervals was ridiculous until I discovered how much more productive I have become. It’s amazing. I think I’m so focussed that I’m finding that I have completed tasks that I can’t even remember doing. I’ve spoken to the others on the team and nobody else was asked to keep a timesheet. But the instructions sent to me were quite clear. I won’t be…

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Four hours to SET(I)

“Prime Minister, I have some important news!” “What now Harold? Was Barnaby found drunk on the street again?” “Well, yes, but that’s not important. Our scientists have picked up a signal from space!” “What does it say?” “The scientists are still working that out. There seems like a lot of redundant and confusing information in the packets received. They think it is a set of instructions, but…

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Sutherland Shire Relay For Life 2024

One more lap. Just one more lap to reach the milestone. My legs ache, my feet blistered, my shoes soaked by the puddles across the track. It has started raining again. But I can do it. One more lap. On Saturday I participated in the Sutherland Shire Relay For Life at Don Lucas Reserve in Cronulla to raise funds for the Cancer Council’s research and carer activities. I’ve done it maybe four or so…

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The Perfect Travel Journal Device

I am on the Victorian border in Mildura feeling tired and sad. On my back is a rucksack containing a tent, clothes and sleeping back. Hanging off my front is a day pack full of cassettes and a Sharp portable cassette player, the equivalent of a Sony Walkman. But I need to play some music. I seek out a music store to give their keyboards a go. It is January 1993. I’ve written a program in BASIC…

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The ten Elements of a great trip

What makes a holiday great and what makes it unsatisfying? I have long pondered this question and after analysing hundreds of days of travel I think I may finally have the answer. But, this is what makes a great trip for me. It probably doesn’t apply to you or most people. Everyone is different. Even in my house, the other two won’t agree with all my choices. And so every trip is a compromise…

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The wizard and the fairy

The wizard hears a tiny knock at his door. He opens it, but can see nobody. “Down here!” squeaks a voice. The wizard looks down and sees a red faced fairy panting on his door step. “Hullo,” says the wizard. “Hello! I’m the Occupational Health and Safety Fairy and I’ve come to talk to you about some hazards in your workplace.” “Did you just walk here?” asks the wizard. “Fairy dust is a…

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The year that was 2023

It’s a quarter past two in the morning and I’ve woken up after an hour’s sleep, hot, with my mind running through all the tasks of the day to come. Because that’s what happens when you have forgotten how to relax. That was 2023. This was the year when everything got back to normal after the COVID pandemic. Except it didn’t, because supposedly-war-in-driven-but-actually-profiteering inflation…

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 in Concert

Every journey has an end. This one began in April 2017 at the Sydney Opera House with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in Concert. When our conductor, the excellent Nicholas Buc, asks those of us who had been to this and all six subsequent concerts to stand, I am amongst them. It’s not an obsession with Harry Potter books but a love for the music that accompanies their movie adaptations.…

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Anne-Sophie Mutter and The Music of John Williams with the SSO

This was it. The BIG concert of 2023 with international virtuoso violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter performing the music of John Williams with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Simone Young live in concert at the Sydney Opera House. And not just any John Williams music. This was the Australian premiere of Williams’ Violin Concerto Number 2, written explicitly for Mutter. I arrive early at the…

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Noren

The old train rattles along as night descends upon the lonely countryside, the view out of the windows turning black as it enters the long narrow tunnel. It comes to a slow stop as it emerges into the tepid grey light. We have arrived at the terminus. With a hiss, the doors open and I step out alone on to the empty platform. A few lamps illuminate the platform, their cones of light hard edged,…

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Hollywood in Concert

After planning my concert year in great detail, this was a rather unexpected, but welcome, concert. I’ve been a fan of The Metropolitan Orchestra over the past decade, attending their performances of Doctor Who and Jurassic Park, along with a delightful cushion concert in Petersham. I bought tickets to Hollywood in Concert at the Riverside Theatre in Parramatta, not knowing if I could attend. I…

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Cirque du Soleil Crystal

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Black Panther in Concert

The magic of the talking drum at Black Panther in Concert.

“Take on me. Take meeee on.” I’m sorry, I couldn’t stop hearing it, so now you have to suffer it as well. What does the eighties pop band A-ha have to do with Black Panther? Listen. It’s there in Swedish composer Ludwig Goransson’s score to the Marvel movie. A-ha were Norwegian, by the way. But anyway, Black Panther is Marvel’s first African superhero movie and Goransson did go outside of…