The rain is starting to shit me.
Having lived in the country for most of my life I know how important the rain can be.
However, I think the last time Surry Hills had any significant number of farmers was in about 1830.
Of course, I acknowledge the presence of market gardeners in western Sydney, so, please Lord, move the rain a little further west than Surry Hills…
I’ve only ever eaten durian in one of those sweet pancakes you will often find in an Asian bakery. I can vaguely remember the first time I tried it, thinking it was going to be one of those foods which smelled terrible, but tasted wonderful. My conclusion? It smelled terrible, and tasted pretty average.
I discovered yesterday I’ve been missing out on the more “superior” version of thefruit, the Musang King.
I learned this at a cooking demonstration by Jackie M of “Malayasian Heritage Cuise”. I’ve been following (and have chatted with her) on social media for close to a decade, but this was the first time we’ve met in real life. She does some terrific cooking classes which you can see on her website.
Now that I’ve learned a little more about durian, I’ll persist.
She also explained a few more interesting things about Malaysian food, including that sugar is often added to meat to make it taste sweeter. A lot of Western people don’t like sweet tasting meats, she told us, adding that her own taste preferences have changed in the time since she moved to Australia.
Her presentation was part of a whole weekend international celebration of Malaysian food. A significant part of this weekend was to promote Malaysian fruit, such as durian in Australia.
It was a lovely way to spend an hour or so on a Saturday afternoon, ahead of a big night, attending the opening night in Sydney of the much-hyped musical, Hamilton.
It lives up to the hype.
It’s an interesting, and well told story of the late eighteen century in the United States, as told through the life story of Alexander Hamilton, one of the “founding fathers” of the republic, who later became President.
It has a wonderful, very contemporary musical score, with lots of great songs. As I watched it, I couldn’t help but think of the “revolutionary” way in which “Jesus Christ Superstar” incorporated modern styles of music into the format of a musical, or “rock opera” was it was called back then. One song “The Room Where It Happens” is stuck in my head today.
And the performance by the Australian cast was absolutely wonderful. Great singing, great choregoraphy, and beautifully staged. “The cast look like they’re having a lot of fun”, my friend who came with me said.
She saw the original musical in the United States a couple of years ago. “It’s as good, if not better than the original production”, she said.
Flawless. Highly recommended.
The producer of Hamilton came on stage at the end of the show, extolling the virtues of this production, the only production of the musical being staged in the world right now. He also paid tribute to Australians who’ve “done the right thing” during COVID, to allow live theatre to return.
It’s late on a Monday night and I’m watching David Letterman on Channel 10. It’s that or repeats of “Fast Foward”. Due to the writer’s strike, it’s a repeat of Letterman and Meryl Streep is about to appear to promote “her new film, ‘The Devil Wears Prada'”. Although I know a lot of people really hate Letterman, I really like him. And for all the apparent predictability of the program, I love the way Letterman works hard, but doesn’t look like he does, if you know what I mean. I’m absolutely sure that when I visit NYC next year, I want to go to see Letterman live, even though it is recorded at four-thirty in the afternoon.
New York is on my mind at the moment, as I have a couple of work colleagues there right now who keep posting comments on Facebook about how terrific it is.
Lisa…is eating a bagel and cream cheese and about to head off to central park – it’s 3 degrees..
Tara… is sitting in the nosebleed section watching NYC Ballet’s performance of The Nutcracker.
James… is enjoying a net increase in personal happiness
Well, maybe not terrific. But certainly different. And my friend Kate is in Beijing (more later) with similar tales of a more exotic life than I’m leading at the moment. I also have some family stuff that makes me think I wouldn’t mind being in either Lismore or Brisbane for a while also. But work keeps me in Sydney, and I really can’t/shouldn’t take a break at the moment.
Thankfully, I am having a few days off soon, heading up to Lismore. Part of it’s work and part of it’s pleasure. And hopefully, I’ll squeeze in a brief trip to Brisbane as part of the five days away. And then I’m taking a couple of weeks leave in January just to chill out, though I’m not really sure what I will do, since I’m planning to see if I can save as much as I possibly can for my overseas trip later this year. Yes, a holiday is well overdue.
The last few days have been fun though. After catching up with some workmates for a beer at the Court House at Newtown on Saturday afternoon, Damo and I headed back to my place to watch the Federal Election over a pizza and a bottle… (or was it two?)… of wine. As we’re both “election junkies”, I prepared well: with Foxtel on the main television (ABC, 9, Sky), and everything else via the digital set-top-box on my computer. Naturally enough, we thought the coverage from Sky and ABC were the best, combining good analysis and easy to read graphics. As the Channel 7 coverage was mostly talking heads, we quickly tired of that, as we just wanted to see results. Results. Results. Results.
Throughout the night I received a number of phone calls from friends who were also watching the coverage, including a terrific phone call from my friend Kate who is currently in Beijing, who attended an expats election party there. The audio, used with permission, is one of those “moments in time”, which I thought was worth preserving…
The first time I saw “The Ten Commandments” starring Yul Brynner and Charlton Heston was on a Saturday morning at the “Star Court Theatre” (as it was known then) in my hometown, Lismore.
I used to go there every Saturday morning with my friend Mark. When we started going it was just twenty cents entry (yes seriously) for the morning session. Vividly, I remember going to see a bunch of cinematic classics ranging from “Jason and the Argonauts” (OMG, I loved that film) to Disney classics such as “Herbie” and “The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes”) (OMG, I loved Kurt Russell). And for twenty cents, you got not just one, but two movies with an intermission.
Anyway, I do remember seeing “The Ten Commandments” in the early 70s, and ever since then I’ve had a fondness for those classic religious epic films. Any religious film, actually, as they almost always have a great narrative and a real sense of drama and occasion. (It must be the Catholic in me!)
You can imagine those involved in making “The Ten Commandments” had a real sense of the history they were making with this 3.5 hour movie which involved a cast of thousands, I assume.
In fact, as I watched it tonight, and in particular the construction of the narrative with those wonderful asides such as the early dance sequence with the daughters of the sheikhs and the comedy stylings at the oasis, I began to wonder if they had used Shakespeare as a model for narrative construction. Obviously without the sophistication of Shakespeare, but in a general sense of how to give people 3.5 hours of entertainment for what is essentially a reasonably straightforward story.
I was watching it tonight with my family, as I’m home for Easter. Not all of us made it to the end, as it’s such an epic production. I swear if it had been released now with Twitter-critics, it wouldn’t have made it past the first hour, as it moves reasonably slowly for most of the early part of the film. Later, however, it picks up a bit of pace, until finally we got to the good bits, such as the burning bush and the parting of the Red Sea.
As a film, it fails to stand up to the test of time and looks quite dated. Still, it’s a great piece of cinema history, and a fun way to spend a Saturday night home with the family.
And watching with an adult eye, I couldn’t help but notice what hunks both Yul Brynner and John Derek (playing Joshua) were. There again, I might have made that same observation all those years ago at The Star Court.
I spent some time today booking accommodation for my forthcoming trip. My main priorities were for the first two nights in Stockholm, the following two nights in Norrköping (which I’m travelling to for a concert), the two nights planned in Copenhagen, and my final two nights in Stockholm.
The Crystal Plaza in Östermalm looks like a pretty good place to end my trip. It’s in a nice area, it looks clean, and I got it for a good price. I’ve had a look at photographs of the room on the net. They look classically Swedish in design, like something out of an IKEA showroom. The room looks pretty small, I have to say, with a 90 centimetre bed. I’m assuming that means I might need to lose a few kilograms between now and then, and the chances of a bit of unexpected hokey-pokey are significantly reduced :) But it looks good, and it’s great to know I’ll have somewhere nice to stay on my final two nights, and that it’s sorted :)
My first two nights also look good, as I’ve booked into The Clarion on Södermalm. Despite also being quite small, the room is actually considerably larger than at the Crystal Plaza at 14-18 square metres. The photographs on their website don’t reveal much. Close-up shots of a bed always seem to suggest there’s not much more to the room aside from the bed, but that’s okay, as I’m planning a holiday to see a country, not see a bedroom.
I’m also putting this all in the context of having shared 12 bed dormitories in a range of youth hostels and being quite happy with the experience. Unfortunately I’ve got a few hours between when I arrive and when I can book in, so I’m hoping that if I’ve done all my sums correctly in terms of time zones, I’ll be fine when I arrive in Stockholm and won’t collapse in a heap on the back streets of Gamla Stan.
Accommodation in Norrköping was a little tougher. Although it’s a city of about 100,000, much of the accommodation for the nights I’m there was already booked out. But I found somewhere which looks good and at a good price. I was also concerned about accommodation in Copenhagen, having been told it’s incredibly expensive, and noting accommodation was already heavily booked. Perhaps because of the conference I’m attending But I found somewhere at a good price that also looks clean. As I read some of the online reviews, I note the only concerns expressed were that their breakfast “was too Scandinavian” (bring it on) and that it was on the edge of the red light district (fine by me!). So I’m happy.
When discussing it tonight with Graeme and John at the pub, they were both appalled that many of the places I’m staying have a shared bathroom. They both agreed they were at a point in their lives where they couldn’t do that any more. I have no such qualms. As I travelled eighteen months ago, I learned that my tastes in bathrooms and bedrooms were reasonably “western”, but that said I’m happy to share with others, especially if it halves the price of staying somewhere.
Speaking of which, I got some good deals by booking ahead. With apologies to Swedish readers of this blog, here’s hoping the AUD remains strong and the SEK remains weak :)
Often when you read articles about today’s female pop stars, they’ll say they spent their childhoods standing in front of a mirror (with a hairbrush as a microphone) singing along to songs by ABBA. In the latest “ABBA Special” (Agnetha: ABBA and After), Agnetha Fältskog summons up some similar imagery, describing how, as a young girl living in a small town in Sweden during the 1960s, she would sit and lip-sync songs by Connie Francis. I knew she was a fan of the legendary American singer, but I’d never thought of her devotion in these terms before.
A few years later, and already composing her own songs, and performing with a local band, Agnetha was “discovered” and her career was given a boost by Little Gerhard who was described in the special as “Sweden’s answer to Elvis”. He’s still alive (and appears in the special) which surprised me because I thought he was a much older man, and may not still be with us. To set the scene, the documentary features lots of great outdoor shots of Stockholm from the late 1960s, which I enjoyed very much.
The documentary then goes on to detail some of Agnetha’s early solo career, before very quickly transforming itself into the story of ABBA, as seen through the prism of Agnetha. The singer, Gary Barlow describes Agnetha’s voice as being “the sound of ABBA”, and Bjorn all but says they gave all of the good songs to Agnetha until Frida started to complain. Benny is more circumspect saying they sounded best when both women sang today. Nonetheless, the documentary re-inforces the view sometimes expressed that ABBA was Agnetha and that Frida, Bjorn and Benny were merely there to support her career. There’s a joke in ABBA circles that ABBA stands for “Agnetha backed by Anni-Frid”. I can see the humour, but also feel a bit of pain because Anni-Frid (Frida) is actually my favourite member of the group.
Frida doesn’t appear in the documentary, though an explanation is given as to why, since both Bjorn and Benny are there. In ABBA fan circles there’s been a discussion about this, with some people justifying the absence of Frida by saying it’s a documentary about Agnetha, and Frida’s presence would have taken away from the central focus on Agnetha. I don’t buy that argument for one obvious reason: the greatest amount of the documentary is focussed on ABBA, not Agnetha. After the earlier mentions of Agnetha’s solo career, it’s not until 46 minutes into the documentary (after discussing ABBA for most of the program) that it returns to Agnetha’s new solo album. In the remaining ten minutes or so they skip over the next twenty or thirty years of her life rather quickly.
Memorable quotes from the program include the narrator’s description of Australia as being “optimistic, beautiful and yet conservative” and Ingmarie Halling (from the ABBA Museum) who says (without any sense of irony), “the media made her into a Garbo, but Agnetha just wanted to be alone”. Also memorable is the uncomfortable shocked look on her face when Gary Barlow asks her if she would perform their duet together live on stage.
A lot of the documentary features lots of repeated, staged quotes and cliches. Oddly enough, Bjorn who is usually the most guilty of that shows some honesty around the relationship breakup. Previously he’s been on the record saying he couldn’t understand why Agnetha wanted to stay at home with their children, at the same time they were being asked to travel for promotional visits. “Why not? We have a nanny” he said in one previous documentary. In this program he says he understands her point of view now, and that that brings you to the obvious conclusion about what was the right thing to do, though he doesn’t explicitly say as much.
As I watched the documentary yesterday afternoon I thought it was a nice program, though nothing special.
It doesn’t rain all that much in Sydney, but when it does, it really does. Much the same can be said for my experience of the Swedish summer.
I was reminded of an experience three years ago when I was in Stockholm for the summer and was waiting for Allsang pa Skansen to begin. It’s the sing-a-long tv program that runs for just a few weeks over summer each year. Crowds line up for hours if there’s a good act, and on this occasion the act was Benny Anderssons Orkester. As my friend Tony was expected to arrive in Stockholm later in the day I lined up, obtained a great view of the stage, and waited patiently in the rain. By late afternoon when Tony had arrived I was numb. The combination of cold weather and rain – even though it was still summer in Sweden – was all a bit too much for this lad from the North Coast. Soon after Tony’s arrival I found a spot indoors to thaw out.
That wasn’t exactly how it was today, but I still felt a little under-prepared for the combination of heavy rain and colder weather. The weather has been wonderful, and I was hoping I wouldn’t need the North Face jacket (fleecy inside with rain protection on the outside) which I left behind in a bar last week. Oh well, never mind.
I spent the morning updating my blog. I had a bunch of posts written in my head, but hadn’t actually put them to paper. Later in the afternoon I went out for lunch at Slussen, and then did a little bit of souvenir shopping. My prize purchase? A t-shirt that says, “I Love Swedish Boys”. I’m not sure if I can think of an appropriate place to wear it back home – aside from maybe a Eurovision or Melodifestivalen party – but it gave me a laugh.
I also picked up a copy of the book, “Mit liv som hund” (My life as a dog). It’s the book which inspired the fabulous 1987 Swedish film of the same name, The film is one of my favourite films of all time, and so I’m hoping that with that background I’ll be able to make some progress on the book over the next few months. I was also interested to discover the book is part of a trilogy.
Later, Graeme and I caught up for a drink at Torget where DJ Karl (aka Scandipop) was playing.
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As one who left his flat this morning without closing his bedroom window and has therefore returned to a damp bed I thoroughly agree with this post. Rain… I’m over it.
Yes, let’s push the rain away. Newtown is awful in the wet. I quite envied the girl at Dendy with the very pretty rain boots – I think they had ladybirds on them.
It got to Leichhardt… lovely lovely rain.