Tag: music
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The Day Radio Beat Homework
You get some great, amazingly fantastic news. What’s the first thing you do? I tell the right person first. Not by email. Not by text. No social media announcements. If it’s truly great news, it deserves a voice. It deserves someone on the other end who can hear it properly — and share the moment…
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Sharing What You Love
What was the last thing you did for play or fun? We went to the Sydney Opera House a few weeks ago to see Paul Dempsey, frontman of Something for Kate, on his Shotgun Karaoke Vol. II national tour. An acoustic concert. Just him and a guitar. At one point he was joined on stage…
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The Komodo Dragon
What is something others do that sparks your admiration? I’ve spent enough years teaching performing artists to know that they move through the world differently. They don’t just perform something—they become it. And that has always sparked my admiration. Music was my first window into this. I’ve watched musicians touch the human soul with a…
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Nearly 30 Years On
What’s your all-time favourite album? That’s a hard question to answer. It depends on the day, it depends on the mood, it depends on the occasion. There could have been any number of albums I might have chosen. Rather than overthink it, I went with the first album that came to mind: Loreena McKennitt’s The…
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Ziggy’s Party
Yesterday we celebrated Ziggy’s 6th birthday. Ziggy, for those who don’t know, is a cavoodle who has left paw prints on the heart of our college since the day he arrived. His story is already legendary: at just 12 weeks old, his owner was encouraged to let him sleep outside. The fences were secure, but…
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My Ideal Week: A Musical Passage
Monday – The Overture (Maestoso)The curtain rises, and the score begins with steady, determined chords. Monday is planning day, where the motifs of the week are laid down. Meetings cluster like brass fanfares, decisions gather like rolling timpani. It is fresh and expectant, but also weighty—anticipating all that is to come. Tuesday – The Allegro…
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How Do I Relax? A Soundtrack
If you asked me how I relax, I wouldn’t begin with a chair or a cup of tea. I’d begin with music. My relaxation comes with a soundtrack, one that slows the pulse, deepens the breath, and makes time feel longer than it really is. Silence has its place, but music often does what silence…
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The Difference Between Grace and Guilt
The last thing I searched for was an article called “The Broken Grace of Leonard Cohen.” I was thinking about Cohen’s views about God after a funny mix-up in conversation. Someone said that “Into My Arms”—the song about an “Interventionist God”—was Leonard Cohen’s. It isn’t. It belongs to Nick Cave. And while it mentions God,…
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Free as a Brat
For many, the announcement of a “Word of the Year” might feel trivial, especially when the chosen word is “brat.” It’s not about war, policy, climate crisis, or scientific breakthroughs. It’s a cultural blip—mildly amusing at best, eye-roll-inducing at worst. The redefinition of “brat”—from spoiled child to a blend of chaotic confidence, hedonism, and emotional…
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Just Passing It On
It wasn’t really my kindness, not in the way people usually mean it. Two years ago, a student from China arrived at our college.Shy, polite, still finding his feet — and his English.One Monday morning he came to see me, agitated and afraid.The story took time to piece together:he’d been caught in an online scam,forced…
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Conversations with a Restless Library
I don’t curate.I don’t pre-select.I don’t build productivity playlists. I just hit shuffle on my entire music library and wait to see what sort of mood it’s in. Some days, it’s a model colleague — thoughtful, supportive, gently nudging me into creative flow.Other days, it behaves like a caffeinated record-store assistant with a point to…
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What Is Your Favorite Genre of Music? It depends on the day. And sometimes, it is a surprise.
Some people have a favourite genre like they have a favourite coffee order — fixed, dependable, always the same. I’m not one of those people. For me, music is mood. It’s memory. It’s atmosphere and longing and curiosity all rolled together. My listening habits are not about allegiance to a particular genre but about what…
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A Brief Encounter with Someone from the Analog Age
A 42-year-old Sydney resident has today admitted to growing up under what can only be described as Stone Age conditions. The shocking confession came during a casual lunchtime conversation at a suburban café, when Peter R., a self-described “analog native,” revealed to a table of younger colleagues that he memorised phone numbers. By choice. “I…
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What We Keep
I used to have collections. Years ago, I was deep in the world of second-hand record shops, trailing my fingers across shelves stacked with dusty vinyl and history. My treasure hunt had a clear target: old comedy albums. There was something about them—tiny theatrical worlds trapped in grooves. I found Bob Newhart, Shelley Berman, George…
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Brilliance Too Bright to Bear
The last live performance I attended was Nijinsky by The Australian Ballet. It was also, perhaps surprisingly, the first ballet I’ve ever seen. I’ve always appreciated the performing arts—music, theatre, poetry—but ballet had remained at a distance. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I certainly didn’t expect it to stay with me the way it…
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A Kind of Home
Sometimes the people we need most are the ones we’ve never met before. There’s something oddly tender about the first conversation you have with a stranger—especially when it happens in a room full of strangers, where no one yet knows how the story will go. That first confession, “I’ve never done this before,” offered by…
The Afterword 