On the drive back from visiting a friend I heard the song Tuesday Morning by The Pogues. I bought it on iTunes. It's now 10:41pm Monday night and I keep listening to it. When I was a kid, I can remember hearing late one night a radio station that played a bunch of songs by Queen without interruption. This was possible when DJs made decisions about what music to play. I remember hearing Bohemian Rhapsody for the first time. I just wanted to listen to it over and over again all night long. Just like I want to listen to Tuesday Morning now.
Back then, I didn't have any means to instantly purchase Bohemian Rhapsody. And I was a kid so my parents told me to go to bed. Now I can keep listening to Tuesday Morning all night long!
Well, except that I have to go to work tomorrow morning...
"I thought of tomorrow. And I wished it was Monday evening."
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Multicultural Australia
Melbourne is a cultural mashup. At alternating times it felt like the US, Europe, or Asia. Maybe I should realize that it was Australia with its own distinctive culture. Like some other cities, there were people of varying appearance, lots of ethnic cuisine, a variety of languages being spoken and religions being practiced. There was a Chinatown as well, but it looked similar to other instances throughout the world. I often wonder if this familiar "safe" appearance is deliberate. One of the reasons I enjoy Big Trouble in Little China is its playful, campy premise that there's something lurking below the facade of Chinatown.
Looking below the obvious surface revealed a great deal about multiculturalism in Melbourne. There was a Scottish Christian church, which might not seem that unusual, but the church sign mentioned a guest sermon from an Indonesian pastor. A movie theater showcased the latest Hollywood hits, but also featured a list of Bollywood movies. One of my cousins who grew up in Bangladesh attended graduate school in Australia. It seemed like an unusual choice to me, but he pointed out that Australia's a lot closer to Bangladesh than the US. Australia feels remote because it's a 14 hour flight from the west coast of the US (or 20 hours of flying from Baltimore). But recent events have started to demonstrate that maybe the US isn't the "center" of the world anymore.
When I visited Melbourne in September, the US stock market meltdown had started. Through a combination of BBC, CNN International, Asian and Australian news sources, I managed to learn about worldwide perspectives regarding the US economic meltdown. The interconnectedness of our world became very evident as finance ministers from several countries started assessing their exposure to the US financial crisis. I also learned some very interesting facts about the influence of China's holdings in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
In a rather interesting juxtaposition of events, Australian news also covered China's first space walk mission. While Chinese news agencies showed images of the Chinese applauding the "tigernauts" (astronauts) as national heroes, US news agencies showed people wondering about who to blame. Folks in China were looking to the stars above while folks in the US were staring at the bottom line. Australia may seem remote, but by being equidistant from so many places in a flat world, at times it felt like a crossroads of the world.
Looking below the obvious surface revealed a great deal about multiculturalism in Melbourne. There was a Scottish Christian church, which might not seem that unusual, but the church sign mentioned a guest sermon from an Indonesian pastor. A movie theater showcased the latest Hollywood hits, but also featured a list of Bollywood movies. One of my cousins who grew up in Bangladesh attended graduate school in Australia. It seemed like an unusual choice to me, but he pointed out that Australia's a lot closer to Bangladesh than the US. Australia feels remote because it's a 14 hour flight from the west coast of the US (or 20 hours of flying from Baltimore). But recent events have started to demonstrate that maybe the US isn't the "center" of the world anymore.
When I visited Melbourne in September, the US stock market meltdown had started. Through a combination of BBC, CNN International, Asian and Australian news sources, I managed to learn about worldwide perspectives regarding the US economic meltdown. The interconnectedness of our world became very evident as finance ministers from several countries started assessing their exposure to the US financial crisis. I also learned some very interesting facts about the influence of China's holdings in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
In a rather interesting juxtaposition of events, Australian news also covered China's first space walk mission. While Chinese news agencies showed images of the Chinese applauding the "tigernauts" (astronauts) as national heroes, US news agencies showed people wondering about who to blame. Folks in China were looking to the stars above while folks in the US were staring at the bottom line. Australia may seem remote, but by being equidistant from so many places in a flat world, at times it felt like a crossroads of the world.
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Cultural Melbourne
One of the most appealing aspects of Melbourne is its emphasis on the arts and culture. I had the pleasure of visiting the State Library of Victoria, which was a short walk from my hotel (it's interesting how everything seems like a short walk when I'm outside the US).
The Library featured a fantastic reading room with an overhead ceiling that invited sunlight to stream into
the open space. I was struck by the number of young people studying in the Library, especially since I often read about the demise of libraries. These youngsters certainly had their share of electronic gadgets, but there were quite a few engaged in the satisfying act of reading a book in solitude. The magazine section with offerings from various countries and wide ranging topics provide ampled evidence of the diverse interests within Melbourne. I examined what types of job were available within the library. More than anything, I noted that every job posting included a phrase about "commitment to work, life and family balance."
The National Gallery of Victoria provided my first exposure to aboriginal art. At first glance from the uninitiated viewpoint, it seemed nothing more than geometric figures and lines. After spending some time learning about--most powerfully through a video of aboriginal artists at work--I started to see the art as connections to the dream world and ancestral stories. I kept moving along the emotional path for appreciating art when I read the following phrase at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI):
"Because here it is about something other than just the registering of events, that ultra-modern impulse that converts, through the use and abuse of new technologies, human experience into an archive."
I was spellbound by an exhibit called "Correspondences" that brought together the cinema of Abbas Kiarostami and Victor Erice, an Iranian and a Spaniard. I can still vividly recall Kiarostami's film clip featuring images seen through his rain soaked car windshield and Erice's "sea-mail" correspondence. The intertwining of water and different cultures seemed an especially appropriate theme for Australia.
The Library featured a fantastic reading room with an overhead ceiling that invited sunlight to stream into
the open space. I was struck by the number of young people studying in the Library, especially since I often read about the demise of libraries. These youngsters certainly had their share of electronic gadgets, but there were quite a few engaged in the satisfying act of reading a book in solitude. The magazine section with offerings from various countries and wide ranging topics provide ampled evidence of the diverse interests within Melbourne. I examined what types of job were available within the library. More than anything, I noted that every job posting included a phrase about "commitment to work, life and family balance."The National Gallery of Victoria provided my first exposure to aboriginal art. At first glance from the uninitiated viewpoint, it seemed nothing more than geometric figures and lines. After spending some time learning about--most powerfully through a video of aboriginal artists at work--I started to see the art as connections to the dream world and ancestral stories. I kept moving along the emotional path for appreciating art when I read the following phrase at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI):
"Because here it is about something other than just the registering of events, that ultra-modern impulse that converts, through the use and abuse of new technologies, human experience into an archive."
I was spellbound by an exhibit called "Correspondences" that brought together the cinema of Abbas Kiarostami and Victor Erice, an Iranian and a Spaniard. I can still vividly recall Kiarostami's film clip featuring images seen through his rain soaked car windshield and Erice's "sea-mail" correspondence. The intertwining of water and different cultures seemed an especially appropriate theme for Australia.
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