Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
When an Australian thinks of seagulls, the relevant species is almost certainly our most common, emblematic one.
Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae – the Silver gull – has prospered mightily, post-1788.
Arguably, this highly-adaptable bird should no longer be described as a “seagull”.
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Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all…
So begins a justly celebrated poem by Emily Dickinson.
In this post “hope” is viewed through photographic, musical and poetic “lenses”.
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…with a musical bonus, 100% free of irony…and a suitably ironic “salute” to Australia’s most prominent “bad Santa”
Merry whatever to everyone!
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…is an arresting, humorous/sinister/beautiful composition by Carla Bley. (for more, see footnote at bottom of this post)
Probably, Carla was inspired by some fellow Americans – Venus Flytraps.
Possibly, she had in mind the spectacular pitcher plants that lurk in Asian jungles.
However, the hottest spot for carnivorous plants is somewhere Carla has never ventured – Western Australia’s southwest corner, where more than 25% of “our” planet’s flowering carnivore species live, exclusively.
Many have exquisitely delicate flowers and look like they wouldn’t hurt a fly.
Comments closedAccording to the people who were already here for many thousands of years before “European settlement”, southwest Western Australia has six seasons.
Each is determined by what is actually happening, rather than by a calendar’s fixed dates.
Currently, in and around Perth, it is very evidently Djilba – the first of two “Spring” seasons.
One CommentAll photos copyright Doug Spencer, taken on recent walks on local streets and footpaths.
The lovely, spacious musical bonus comes from the northern hemisphere…
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Arguably the quintessential nostalgic song, I’ll Be Seeing You was composed in 1938. (music by Sammy Fain, words by Irving Kahal)
That year it was inserted into a Broadway musical…which flopped.
The song, however, became a “standard”, covered by countless singers…and not a few instrumentalists.
It was a #1 hit for Bing Crosby in 1944.
Frank Sinatra recorded it more than once.
Even Eric Clapton did so, in 2016.
The most celebrated recording – Billie Holiday’s 1944 version – is the one which reached Mars in 2018, as the conclusion to NASA’s final transmission to its Explorer rover.
However, the most “out of this world” version to reach this Earthling’s ears is a “live” and exploratory instrumental trio treatment, delivered in “the city of fallen angels”, in June 2016.
Comments closedNot all deciduous trees have home addresses in cool temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere.
This one’s home is in a very particular part of tropical Australia.
This individual is circa 750 years old, weighs 36 tonnes, and is thriving in a place with quite the “wrong” climate, 3200 kilometres from home.
Even more amazingly, to get “here” it survived uprooting, followed by almost certainly the longest road trip ever undertaken by a large, living tree.
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In the USA, it is currently “yesterday”, Tuesday, 11 May, 2021.
I hope that Carla Bley is enjoying a very happy birthday with her beloved, Steve Swallow.
For rather more than my entire adult life, Carla Bley has composed, arranged and played singular music, variously – sometimes, simultaneously – provocative, surprising, very amusing, satirical, sublimely lyrical, complex, seemingly-simple…
Her three most recent releases – all, new trio recordings of new music, made between 2013 and 2019 – are some of her finest, ever.
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