Australia: Aboriginal Music and Dance

Going through old files, came across this amusing photo taken in Perth, Australia, at an Aboriginal music event, with wild didgeridoo and rhythmic sound sticks.  As you can guess, I was an official, on duty!

Reconciliation (Alan Dargin on didgeridoo)

Over the Road (Alan Dargin on didj)

And Cedric Talbot playing at a reception at Government House, Sydney: a rather more formal event!

Treaty! (Yothu Yindi)

With Cedric Talbot and Terri Janke

Treaty (Remix)

I also recall a less formal event with Cedric, about which I have blogged in the past; we once performed two poems (for voice and didgeridoo)"The Apocalyptic Blues" and "Jindyworobak 1997" at the Lyric Theatre, Sydney, for the Sydney Poetry Olympics (for three consecutive years, 1995-1997, I was invited to be one of the judges/adjudicators; in '97 they asked the judges to perform too). Fantastic didj! Alas, no recording.

Judging another Poetry Olympics (Sydney Opera House),
with Komninos and Yusef Komunyakaa

Axel Poignant Photograph, Leading the Dance

Four B/W Photos above by Axel Poignant

Bangarra Dance Company, Ochres

Harry Wedge (detail), You don't know nothing about us (1996)

Kakadu, Rock Art


 Uluru

Update, BBC News, May 24, 2017 - 

Why doesn't Australia have an indigenous treaty?

Rhythm 'n' Blues, A 50 Year Relationship

It's more than fifty years that I've been writing about the blues and rhythm 'n' blues.

This letter reminded me of the fact, as it refers to a letter I wrote to DISC magazine. It was published on 26 May, 1962. My letter was an expression of appreciation of the soul music, blues and
R 'n' B songs of Ray Charles. A reader wrote the letter below in response to mine.

Brewery Square, Dorchester

Progress report (BBC)

Una candida cerva: some sonnets for a change; Petrarch; Wyatt; They Flee From Me; Whoso List to Hunt

Wonderful poem! Petrarch Sonnet 190, and Sir Thomas Wyatt's very free version (Whoso List to Hunt, I Know where is an Hind).

Carol Rumens' article (The Guardian) - Poem of the week: Whoso List to Hunt by Thomas Wyatt

My Galley Charged with Forgetfulness

More Wyatt: They Flee From Me

Video animation

Ted Hughes' reading

See also -

Wyatt, Petrarch, and the Uses of Mistranslation,: Joe Glaser, College Literature, Vol. 11, No. 3 (Fall, 1984), pp. 214-222: The Johns Hopkins University Press

Constructing Cultures: Essays on Literary Translation,  Susan Bassnett, André Lefevere (pp 67 - 70)

Greece, Property Taxes and Fiscal Union

On property tax developments (in Greek, Kathimerini)

On the pros and cons of Fiscal Union for Greece (Kathimerini)

Greece and Britain in Women's Literary Imagination

A fascinating topic for a conference in Cambridge