Art

Yo-Yo Ma, The Middle East, and David Bowie

 
Yo-Yo Ma, posted on Song Exploder Instagram, 21 December 2018

Yo-Yo Ma, posted on Song Exploder Instagram, 21 December 2018

 

What I’m listening to:

  • ‘Yo-Yo Ma - Prelude, Cello Suite No 1, in G Major' in the Song Exploder podcast: This is a very special podcast featuring Yo-Yo Ma, one of the most famous cellists and musicians in the world. The production and audio qualities are sublime. Yo-Yo Ma breaks down the Prelude from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cello Suite No 1, in G Major. While the episode is ostensibly about the musical work, it’s also a thoughtful meditation on Ma’s life, music, and growth as a performer. Yo-Yo Ma has recorded the Cello Suites several times: in 1983 at age 27, in 1998 at age 42, and in 2018 at age 62. Ma recalls the first time he listened to the original 1936 recording by Pablo Casals, and what he felt at the time, and the personal remembrances about his father who introduced it to him. The listener is intimately stepped through the mechanics of playing the opening notes of the prelude, and it actually feels as if Ma is personally instructing you in a lesson. When reviewing his own recordings, it’s interesting to note the emotional, technical and musical development of Ma as a performer and a person.

“There’s no question that with life experience, as you experience loss and love and tragedy, you are slightly changed. As a musician, you make your living to being sensitised to these changes, and digest them and make sure that you are always giving your full self to whatever you’re doing, which means that any experience that you’ve had has to be revealed in the process of making music. That almost forces you to make yourself vulnerable to whatever there is to be vulnerable to, because that actually is your strength.”

  • Thelma Plum’s cover of Powderfinger’s “These Days”: I first saw Thelma play at Falls Festival in Byron over the 2019/2020 new year period, which feels like several lifetimes ago now. I think she’s one of the most beautiful, powerful vocalists and lyricists in Australia, and this cover is so soothing in these Corona times.

This life, well it's slipping right through my hands
These days turned out nothing like I had planned

It's coming round again
The slowly creeping hand
Of time and its command

  • ‘Cardigan Song’ by Kikagaku Moyo: an insightful YouTube comment describes this song as having “telluric vibes”. After Googling this, I learned that “a telluric current or Earth current, is an electric current which moves underground or through the sea”. Very apt: Kikagaku Moyo are a Japanese psychedelic folk band(!), with soft vocals, delicate harmonies, and exploratory instrumentals, all of which combines to create a cosmic soundscape.

  • Gang of Youths cover The Middle East’s Blood on Triple J’s Like a Version: one of the most beautiful songs ever written, heard as if for the first time with David Le'aupepe’s powerful, honest vocals and the band’s sensitive arrangement. Everyone I speak to about this song has a story about why it’s so moving, and why it often brings them to tears. I remember being 17 and falling in love for the first time, listening to it while sleeping on a mattress we’d laid out on my balcony on a hot summer’s night. Extraordinary.


It was the only woman you ever loved
That got burnt by the sun too often when she was young
And the cancer spread and it ran into her body and her blood
And there's nothing you can do about it now

 
Dale Marsh's painting of Teddy Sheean hangs in the Australian War Memorial. (Australian War Memorial)

Dale Marsh's painting of Teddy Sheean hangs in the Australian War Memorial. (Australian War Memorial)

 

What I’m reading:

  • ‘Behind China’s newly aggressive diplomacy: ‘wolf warriors’ ready to fight back’ by Rowan Callick in The Conversation: I spoke with Rowan about democracy and authoritarianism in China and the fate of Hong Kong in July last year on my podcast Bloom. This piece in The Conversation highlights the growing nationalism and revanchism of the Chinese Communist Party under Xi Jinping and his “New Era”, and how it’s manifesting through “Wolf Warrior” diplomacy.

  • ‘Noticing nature is the greatest gift you can get from lockdown’ by Lucy Jones in The Guardian: A reflective piece which homes in on our changing ways of being in society during the Coronavirus lockdowns. Many of us have found peace in the stillness. The single-tasking has helped us to be mindful of the everyday beauty and intricacy that surrounds us in the living world: from the lives of birds and other critters, to the colours and shapes of plant life. The sentiments remind me of the line from The Doors’ “Tell All the People”:

Can't you see the wonder at your feet
Your life's complete

  • ‘Accounts of WWII hero Teddy Sheean’s act of ‘outstanding bravery’ inspire continuing fight for Victoria Cross’ by James Dunlevie and April McLennan in ABC News: an extraordinary account of the bravery of seaman Teddy Sheean, who died firing an anti-aircraft gun at enemy aircraft which were strafing his shipmates in the water. The evocative painting above gives you some idea of his exploits.

  • ‘Caliban’s speech’ (Act 3 Scene 2) in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest:

Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises,
Sounds, and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices
That, if I then had waked after long sleep
Will make me sleep again. And then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked
I cried to dream again.

Caliban’s speech has always reminded me of a stanza from Pedro Calderon de la Barca’s poem Life is a Dream (La Vida Es Sueño)

¿Qué es la vida? Una ilusión,
una sombra, una ficción,
y el mayor bien es pequeño:
que toda la vida es sueño,
y los sueños, sueños son.”

What is life? A frenzy.
What is life? An illusion,
fiction, passing shadow,
and the greatest good is small,
That all life is a dream,
and that dreams themselves are a dream.

And finally, something beautiful:

  • David Bowie on artistic integrity:

“Never work for other people at what you do. Always remember that the reason that you initially started working was that there was something inside yourself that you felt that if you could manifest it in some way, you would understand more about yourself or how you coexist with the rest of society. 

I think it’s terribly dangerous for an artist to fulfil other people’s expectations. I think they generally produce their worst work when they do that.

And the other thing I would say is that if you feel safe in the area you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little out of your depth, and when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.”

 
 

Andrea Motis, Helen Garner, and Charlie Mackesy

It’s been a hectic week on many fronts, so I’m pleased to have been able to follow through with last week’s (impulsive) decision to produce a weekly blog. Hope you enjoy a quick summary of the podcasts, music and articles which have stayed with me this week.

What I’m listening to:

  • ‘Stephen Fry: City of Myths’ in the new "We’ll Always Have Athens" podcast. I love anything Stephen Fry, but particularly his podcasts, which distill his best quality for the audience’s pleasure. Also appreciated this new podcast series for its fostering of post-Corona wanderlust.

  • Andrea Motis & Joan Chamorro Quintet playing Box Barcelona Music Sessions. One of the brightest young talents and most brilliant musical groupings going around, the opening rendition of the late Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine” is out of this world.

  • Tyler, the Creator’s Tiny Desk Concert with NPR Music. I love these NPR Tiny Desk performances, which allow so much of the artist’s personality to be explored. There’s a lot of joy in this jam, and the backup (lead*) vocalists - Kaye Fox and Kiandra Richardson - are sublime. Worth watching for the Spanish step change alone. While you’re here, check out Tyler performing EARFQUAKE/NEW MAGIC WAND at the 2020 Grammy’s. Verily, The Creator.

  • Snakehips (what the hell are snake hips?) and MØ’s cover of Childish Gambino’s ‘Redbone’ at BBC Live Lounge. Nothing better than discovering new voices through covers of your favourite tracks, and there’s something special about the earthy honesty of the lead singer’s voice and this arrangement, which infuses the words with a kind of meaning I don’t get from the original.

What I’m reading:

  • ‘I wish my single life was enough for me’ in The Outline. Speaks to the loneliness many come to feel in their late twenties and early thirties, with all of the major ‘adulting’ planets in alignment, except for somebody to love and be loved by: “My life is basically the best it’s ever been in every way, but I have not loved someone who loved me back in a number of years now, and the longer this persists the more sorrowful it makes me.”

  • ‘Helen Garner: ‘I may be an old woman, but I’m not done for yet’ in The Guardian. Beautifully rendered, honest piece on ageing, writing and life by one of Australia’s greatest (and funniest) contemporary writers. “What I really mean is: How will I stay alive, if I stop writing?”

  • ‘Wolf warrior’ diplomats reveal China’s ambitions’ in Financial Times. A disturbing read on China’s hardening diplomatic posture, supported by its “lupine envoys” as The Australian later coined them in its 16 May editorial.

  • ‘Rwandan Genocide Suspect Arrested After 23 years on the Run’ in The New York Times. A lucid piece about the historic arrest of a man substantially involved in crimes against humanity in the Rwandan Genocide of 1994. Demonstrates the indefatigable efforts of the International Criminal Tribunal in seeking justice.

  • ‘We feed you’ in The Saturday Paper. Innovative digital storytelling, featuring portraits of low-paid migrant workers in Australia who have not been afforded the same protections as other workers in the wake of the COVID-19 health and economic crisis. Life and dimension is added to their stories through interactive audio files, gifs, cartoons, and beautiful portrait photographs. “Over the last two decades, low paying work has increasingly been done by workers with no right to stay in Australia. It is especially the case in the food system. Temporary migrant workers plant, pick, pack, slaughter, slice, cook and deliver food for everyone else.”

And finally, something beautiful:

  • I’m a big fan of artist and Instagram sensation Charlie Mackesy. I’m going to write a standalone piece on his work and new book ‘The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse’. His sensitive and gentle work reminds me of a 21st century Aesop’s Fables, and it feels so timely with the COVID-19 pandemic. More to come, as they say.

  • You can check out his website here and his Insta here. I’ve also included the first post I saw of his below, which was published just as everything started to dramatically change in Australia in response to the pandemic. There was - and still is - a lot of fear in the community about the future, but this beautiful image reminds us that adversity is easier to overcome with others than on our own.

 
Charlie Mackesy, 13 March 2020, at https://www.instagram.com/p/B9pMt4KHcrO/

Charlie Mackesy, 13 March 2020, at https://www.instagram.com/p/B9pMt4KHcrO/

 

Bluestone and Mother’s Day

I’m trying to get into the habit of writing a weekly blog, rounding up interesting things I’ve watched, listened to, read or written in the past week. Hopefully this provides fertile ground for developing long-form pieces, and gets me into the habit of regular writing and publishing, even if I’m not entirely happy with what I write, or if I leave some things out:

So, here’s the first ~lo-fi~ version -

What I’m watching:

What I’m listening to:

  • Billie Eilish’s rendition of Bobby Hebb’s Sunny from Global Citizen’s One World; Together at Home concert.

  • Mac Miller’s Circles

  • Dope Lemon’s Smooth Big Cat

What I’m reading:

  • This really sensitive photo essay called “Put out to grass: when animals are allowed to grow old”. Most of the subjects have been rescued from slaughterhouses or farms after cases of cruelty. Recalled for me how sickening I find factory farming, and how any kind of animal cruelty makes me uncomfortable even with the idea of being human.

  • The real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months, by Rutger Bregman in The Guardian.

  • 10 reasons why COVID-19 favours a Trump re-election victory, by Associate Professor Timothy Lynch in UniMelb Pursuit.

  • This charming piece on Bluestone and Melbourne by Stephanie Trigg, in The Conversation and in longer article form (before her book is published). It explores how bluestone has shaped Melbourne as a city - or as Ben Wilkie put it on Twitter, “the intermingling of human and lithic histories”. It’s something I’ve thought about for a long time. Melbourne and bluestone have always been synonymous in my mind; not because it constitutes so much of our built environment, but because - probably for reasons of synaesthesia - it reminds me of the character of the city: a little bit melancholic, calmer and cooler than Sydney sandstone, and strong and durable. One of my favourite things is the glistening and reflective light of bluestone streetscapes after it’s rained. It also reminds me of the stunning Parisian cobbled roads made up of intersecting concentric circles. I love the texture of these streets, and how they used to feel when driving or riding over when I lived in Paris in July 2012.

 
Parisian Bluestone, Yutaka Yamamoto, 2018 available on Instagram

Parisian Bluestone, Yutaka Yamamoto, 2018 available on Instagram

 

And finally, something beautiful:

  • I’ve been a fan of New York based artist and illustrator Mari Andrew for a long time. I even went to one of her private sketching workshops in Melbourne in 2018; it was a surreal experience to see an Instagram character assume material form.

  • Today is Mother’s Day, and Mari posted this beautiful image from a year ago on her story. Like most of Mari’s work, I think it’s really thoughtful and touching and is particularly welcome for those who find Mother’s Day difficult, lonely and saddening for various reasons. It also adds complexity and dimension to the notion of motherhood, drawing attention to the negative space of idealised, affirmative concepts.

 
Mari Andrew, 11 May 2019, at https://www.instagram.com/p/BxUYs-Bh916/

Mari Andrew, 11 May 2019, at https://www.instagram.com/p/BxUYs-Bh916/

 

Three Poetic Fragments on Love and God: Easter Sunday, 2020

My friend Tess produces a beautiful weekly newsletter called The Other Side, which provides a curation of wholesome, funny, and personal content. It’s a delightful reprieve from the endless blizzard of Corona-news we’ve become accustomed to. I encourage you to read, subscribe and share with your friends here: https://www.theotherside.community/

Today’s Easter Sunday edition included this beautiful poem called The Emperor by Matthew Rohrer, an American poet. It’s a gentle and cosy meditation on love:

The Emperor,
By Matthew Rohrer


She sends me a text
she's coming home
the train emerges
from underground

I light the fire
under the pot, I pour her 
a glass of wine 
I fold a napkin under
a little fork 

the wind blows the rain
into the windows
the Emperor himself 
is not this happy. 

I love the simplicity of the poem: its hardboiled, elemental words, the haiku-like immediacy of the present tense and the mindfulness of each moment, and the way a broad picture of their love and happiness is depicted through a focus on small, everyday phenomena.

 
Japanese White-eye on Persimmon, Ohara Koson (1877–1945)

Japanese White-eye on Persimmon, Ohara Koson (1877–1945)

 

It made me think of the below poem “The Earth Turned to Bring us Closer” by Venezuelan writer Eugenio Montejo. I’ve long admired the poem for its cosmic perspective of the Earth, the way it collapses and interweaves time and space, and how it movingly depicts life and love as music or a dream:

The Earth Turned to Bring us Closer
By Eugenio Montejo

The earth turned to bring us closer

it turned on itself and within us

until it finally brought us together in this dream

as written in the Symposium.

Nights passed by, snowfalls and solstices

time passed in minutes and millennia.

An ox cart that was on its way to Nineveh

arrived in Nebraska.

A rooster was singing some distance from the world,

in one of the thousand pre-lives of our fathers.

The earth was spinning with its music

carrying us on board;

it didn't stop turning a single moment

as if so much love,

so much that is beautiful

was only an adagio written long ago

in the Symposium's score.

 
The last sunrise of the 2010 decade Byron Bay Lighthouse, Australia 31 December 2019

The last sunrise of the 2010 decade
Byron Bay Lighthouse, Australia
31 December 2019

 

The final poem I read today is called Rain. It’s by Hone Tuwhare (1922-2008), New Zealand’s most distinguished Māori poet writing in English who became the country’s second Te Mata Poet Laureate in 1999. I thought about this poem after flicking through A New Zealand Prayer Book. While it’s ostensibly about the natural world, a source of deep inspiration for Tuwhare, notions of love and the divine emanate from the poem:

Rain
by Hone Tuwhare


I can hear you
making small holes
in the silence
rain

If I were deaf
the pores of my skin
would open to you
and shut

And I
should know you
by the lick of you
if I were blind

the something
special smell of you
when the sun cakes
the ground

the steady
drum-roll sound
you make
when the wind drops

But if I
should not hear
smell or feel or see
you

you would still
define me
disperse me
wash over me
rain

Tuwhare’s words drip gently down the page like raindrops. For me, the poem captures the ambient, all-encompassing nature of love, and how it’s able to reach and affect us in so many different ways. Even when we’re not attuned to it, aware of it, or able to experience it, the love is still there.

On Easter Sunday, the religious readers of this post might also think about God’s love in this way.

Happy Easter, and please enjoy Julia Jacklin’s stunning rendition of “Don’t Let the Kids Win”.