... between bourke 'n' elizabeth ...

... djembe drumming ...

See the concentration on some of these faces: this is what we - Irene, Margaret, Christine and I - do for an hour and a half every Tuesday evening. Tonight was lesson 3 of 8. I guess there are about a dozen of us, led by the "facilitator" Beau and a "facilitator-in-learning", Kimberley who run the Bondi Junction circle for In Rhythm. It takes a tremendous amount of discipline and self control to maintain a rhythm when there are three or four competing rhythms going at the same time. Beau will also stop the pattern and then count it in again. Sometimes, we have to swap over the pattern on the count of four. It is very exhausting and I for one, get immensely hot. Sometimes my head just gives out after three minutes of the same pattern and I cannot remember it, so I have to concentrate on the pattern Beau is beating out and come back in again.

At the end of the eight weeks, all the drum circles around Sydney who have been learning the same pattern, come together for a Drum-Fest. Such a good way to spend an evening. My motto at the moment: Not going gentle into any good night.

... bulli pass hail storm ...

Travelling back from Nowra this afternoon, Irene and I were inundated by severe weather.

As we reached the top of Bulli Pass - which is an escarpment above Wollongong - we entered the traditonal fog patch that inhabits that part of the stat. Not content with that, Thor was having his way with the elements and down tumbled torrential rain. But the sky was telling us that more was to come.

I have no memory of driving through the hail, but it suddenly appeared on the road in front of us. The freeway was covered with drifts of hail for maybe 10kms. By the time we were negotiating the treacherous surface, it was back to torrential rain. All vehicles reduced speed and increased the distance to the car in front.

As we left Nowra Irene had asked if I wanted to drive but, remembering my uncomfortable experience driving Christine's car back from Bermagui, I declined. Poor Irene had to drive through this entire mess.

Thank you, my friend.

... oz tyke ...

Graham Hilgendorf who has been with Taikoz since 1998 studied percussion at the Sydney Conservatorium. Graham's son responds to the pulsating sufi standoff drumming of Turkish father and son. I guess the rampant-right would simply write this off as "metrosexual".

... four winds festival, bermagui ...

As a Four Winds virgin, this will be an unrepentant homily. The standard of music was astounding; the level of pleasure was exhilarating; the location was a joy.

The Four Winds Festival is a new music biennial festival held at Easter in the town of Bermagui on the far south coast of New South Wales in Australia. In this case "new music" encompasses both contemporary classical music and world music. The composers celebrated this year were  Johan Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, Ross Edwards  and Peter Sculthorpe who was also the guest of honour. The Australian soloists who participated included Genevieve Lacey (recorder), Diana Doherty (oboe), Riley Lee (shakuhachi), William Barton (didgeridoo), Mina Kanaridis (soprano) and Timothy Constable (voice). The Australian musical groups who participated were Synergy, Halcyon and Taikoz. Two of the international musical groups involved were from India. Neither of them resonated with me. I did, however, very much enjoy the Sufi music of Omar Faruk Tekbilek and his ensemble. There was  also a "backing group" of classical musicians which was conducted by the dynamic, personable - and totally gorgeous - Roland Peelman. This backing group included such luminaries as Kim Walker on bassoon (who doubles as the Dean of the Sydney Conseratorium of Music); and,  Christopher Latam on violin (who was also the Festival's Artistic Director).