If Music be the Food of Love

i have just returned from a highly unusual concert performed by the Armidale Symphony Orchestra for its last concert of the year. It contained three works, all twentieth century English, connected with Shakespeare's plays and had two actors reciting large slab's of the Bard's works. So it bought together music and drama and a beautiful way and all participants performed well - all 100 of them! Yes, there was a 60 piece orchestra and a choir of 40 who also supplied the various soloists required. One of the two actors was actually dressed in battle fatigues for reasons that will be apparent shortly.

The first piece was Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music, first performed in October 1938. The words of this rather beautiful work are from Act V of The Merchant of Venice and it pieces together various lines penned by Shakespeare on the subject of music including, for example:
How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!

Here will we sit and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony.
Williams selective used the text, picking, choosing and re-arranging the lines that appealed to him.

The second work was William Walton's film score for Henry V starring Brian's some-time neighbour, Olivier. This was completed in 1944 and apparently the motivation for the film was a morale booster given that Henry defeated the French at Agincourt on Friday 25 October 1415 and it was hoped that the same was about to happen to the Nazis. The orchestra performed most of the film score including: the Prologue, at the Boar's Head (a pub), the Interlude after Falstaff's death, Harfleur, the Night Watch (not Rembrandt's painting of the same name), and Agincourt. All of these required orchestra, soloists and/or choir. Just before the last item there was a large orchestral interlude depicting the battle, which was well orchestrated and quite vivid. The actor in fatigues was, of course, King Henry preparing for battle and his orations included the well known "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more"; and "This day is called the feast of Crispian"; and "The day is ours!". This performance brought thunderous applause and it was very well done. By the way, one of my doctor's - Bruce Menzies (correctly pr Mingies) - was the conductor.

Bruce came out for the final work wearing a pair of wings, as did quite a few of the cast! It was part of Benjamin Britten's opera "A Midsummer Night's Dream". I last saw the play in spectacular surroundings - in the open air on the banks of the St Lawrence in Montreal. The finale we heard this afternoon feature two school-boys singing the roles of Cobweb and Mustardseed. I don't know if they were embarrassed being dressed as fairies! They were joined by Puck, Oberon and Titania. Britten's score was not as striking for me as Williams' and William's.

It's great that we Armidalians have some many opportunities of this kind. And the local orchestra is always willing to do the unusual, this time the mix of opera, film score and concert piece, together with exciting and dramatic recitations of key passages from Henry V. The package was a great success.

AS

Awash

We have heard about heavy snowfalls in Britain and sympathise with those affected. But spare a thought for Australia's farmers. Some places have had a decade of dry conditions and even the worst on record. But 2010 was shaping up as one of the best years in last 35 with ample rainfall in the growing season. Now that is turning to disaster in some cropping regions as 2010 is now shaping as Australia's wettest year on record. In our part, we have to go back to 1917 to find a wetter season.

It's great news for Armidale because this district has little cropping and livestock are not in danger of drowning in flood-waters because of the hilly nature of the terrain. On the plains 200 km west of here, however, the water ponds up disastrously after very heavy rain and the land is so flat that flood events may take 3-4 months to reach the sea through the Murray-Darling system.

It might be surprising to those in Britain to find that our part of the driest continent makes much of your country look a bit like Saudi Arabia. Just south of here had about 120 mm of rain yesterday - that's nearly 5 inches. Armidale had getting on 50 mm over the same period and lots more is forecast today.  Over the month of November parts of the Northern Tablelands had over 200 mm, or c. 8 inches. The downside of all this is lack of warmth. My British readers would probably rejoice at temperatures in the low 20s, but that is something like 6 degrees below normal for the start of summer (officially the 1st December).

I guess we should head out to the gorge country and have a look at the massive waterfalls out there. For overseas readers, this region is about 50 x 50 km of dramatic scenery as water tumbles over the edge of the Tablelands into steep-sided valleys up to 300-400 mm deep.

AS

South America

Emily and Greg returned nearly a week ago from 6 weeks in South America. From all accounts the trip went brilliantly and the pictures they've brought back make me want to get on a plane immediately to visit the same spots. What are we doing sitting our boring homes leading humdrum lives when we could be out there enjoying spectcular experiences!!?

Don't believe me? Well go to the following web-site and see what I mean!

http://flickr.com/gp/93675103@N00/oW872p

Life's too short to sit around familiar cultural and visula landscapes. Let me know if you disagree.

AS

Third Re-Birthday

Today marks the third anniversary of my cardiac arrest and the beginning of my amazing recovery back to more or less complete normalcy. Two kind friends remembered this event in advance, for which I thank them - and Emily who is good a remembering this kind of thing has no doubt sent me a card from Quito, which has yet to arrive. Yes, Quito in Ecuador! She and Greg are off shortly to the upper Amazon jungle and I wish them good luck.

Meanwhile, back here we're going to celebrate this evening with a night out. It looks like being a nice day in another way. The sun is beating down after yet another day of rain - getting on for another 25mm (or inch) or so. Dumaresq Creek flooded again. So, I might get out of the car and take to by bike to work at UNE. Yes, work. Well, I'm now interim Director of the Centre for Applied Research in Social Science (CARSS) and I've circulated a 5 page discussion paper on CARRS's future. And then I'm working on a grant application which, if successful, would keep me employed until 2015 - when I turn 70! And a owe an article to a colleague by Monday. Oh well, it's sort of fun and keeps me off the streets where I might get up to mischief.

AS

Under Water

We have just had several days of rain, and the next four will also be wet. We probably had about 60mm all up, or about 2.5 inches in imperial measures. After several months of above average rain, virtually nothing sank into the saturated ground and it ran off into Dumaresq Creek, which runs through the middle of town. This is a perpetual creek and always has water in it, but constrained to a narrow channel maybe 2 m wide.

Well, the latest rain generated an immediate flood and the accompanying pictures were taken about 4 hours after the last lot of torrential rain stopped and just as the grey cloud was lifting. Several streets cross the creek at right angles via causeway and the photos are of the Faulkner St crossing, which was closed to traffic. As you can see, the creek is now about 5 to 10 times its normal width. The first photo looks south down Faulkner St towards the CBD; the second looks east towards the coast - 100+km away; and the last, west towards the Great Divide, just 10km away. Such events usually occur once every two years or so, but the long dry period of the noughties reduced this somewhat.

AS

A Complicated Life

It's a while since I made a new posting here, but that is not through lack of anything to say!. Things are just becoming more frenetic and complicated. Last weekend, for example, I attended the Armidale Chamber of Commerce awards night because someone tipped me off that I might be getting an award, and I did after a fashion because a business school colleague, who is participating in a major study on small business innovation with me, one a lovely trophy and the citation included our work!

And then, last week, I was put back on the University payroll for a few months as interim director of the Centre for Applied Research in Social Science, with a remit to reform it in line with School (of Behavioural Cognitive and Social Science - BCSS) needs and emerging UNE Centres policy. There's a large number of meetings scheduled here.

On Thursday I gave an hour long staff seminar on the subject of "The relevance of Quantum Mechanics to Regional Science (i.e. economics)". The was a lunch-time presentation, not that I had time to eat anything. It went down well and I'm fortified to deliver versions of the paper in Melbourne in December and Monterey in California in February.

Also on Thursday, the Faculty held is annual celebration of research at a late afternoon function in Booloominbah, the grand old house at the centre of campus. Since (a) BCSS published the most articles in 2010, (b) I was newly appointed to that payroll, and (c) I was one of the more prolific staff, it was politic to turn up, even though the speeches were predictable.

I rose early (6 am) on Saturday morning to put the finishing touches on the full draft of the conference paper I delivered on Thursday, which I finished at 8.00am. It was then emailed to my colleagues at the University of Arizona at Tucson for inclusion in the Monterey program. I'm a member of the Western (US) Regional Science Association which has perhaps 150 members world-wide, including two here in Armidale.

Then it was off to a bridge tournament being held here this weekend, which means sitting at a card table for 16 hours over two days! I'm off for the Sunday sessions shortly. We didn't do well yesterday, but today should be a lot better and yesterday's poor results are history since today's event is completely separate.

Immediately after the closure of yesterday's event, I headed off to an Indian Cultural Festival in the Town Hall organised by by one of my work colleagues, Kiran Shinde, who comes from Pune (or Poona for the plebs). It was fantastic. There was a 90 minute show of Indian classic dance from various parts of the country, some Bollywood numbers, and some very lively dances by Sikhs from the Woolgoolga community down on the coast from us. After the dancing came a nice Indian meal enjoyed by the c. 200 guests. I didn't know that Armidale had so many people of Indian background - although I know well Kiran and another colleague, Raja Rajaratnam. Sounds Indian, eh! There I also met my new Head of School, who started his job on Friday. He's from the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, but believe it or not was born in Hastings in Sussex, the same English County as me. Even more interesting was his living for a while near Brighton Station - presumably a few yards from where I was born!

Oh well. It's off to bridge in a few minutes, so I'll draw the curtain on this post!

[PostScript]  We did really well in the bridge today and ended up a close second out of 27 teams contesting the event. Meanwhile, I attach a lousy picture of the Indian festival taken with my mobile phone!

AS

Dangar's Lagoon

Eastern Australia has been deluged with rain over the last few months, and even the Armidale district, which escaped most of the drought conditions of the last few years, has witnessed a dramatic greening of the landscape. Even Dumaresq Creek which runs through town has flooded mildly from time to time and all the wetlands, which dot the New England Tablelands, have been rejuvenated. We set out early today to visit one of them, Dangar's Lagoon and, as the picture shows, the open landscape tot he east of it indeed looks lush and green.

The timing was not accidental as the forecast was for another heavy rain event this afternoon and we thought it best to see the lagoon in sunlight, if possible. However, the cloud scenes in the photos posted here testify to the impending storms. Our lagoons are areas of internal drainage not connected to the local river systems, so they contract sharply under dry conditions - aided and abetted by farmers who surreptitiously pump water for their own use, driving all the water birds away. Today, however, was just brilliant. The water level was highest I've seen it and the lagoon was teeming with families of ducks and swans (of the black variety).

The cluster of photos shows, firstly, the middle portion of the lagoon looking west and you'll probably make out three black swans in the middle among the reeds. Then we drove around the edge of the lagoon to a lovely hide provided by the national parks service where we could spy on the bird-life in a less threatening way. The second of the trio shows a black swan (they're all black in this district) on its nest atop a little mound surrounded by a variety of ducks. And the last of the three shows a bloke paddling a canoe around the lagoon with darkening clouds hovering overhead.

As you can see the scenery is very pleasant too, not to mention the peace and solitude.

AS

Spotlighting

Last night Dot, Max and I went spotlighting in the Oxley - Wild Rivers National Park. To be precise we headed to Dangars Falls, a 190m drop from the Tablelands into a deep gorge, at dusk to meet up with the National Parks & Wildlife Services rangers who conducted the event. There were perhaps 25 or 30 people there and we heard a talk on the ecology of the area and what we might see after dark up in the trees. They also had some stuffed animals to see and touch, pygmy possums, a spotted quoll and that sort of thing. By the time the talking had finished, it was pitch black - the falls, which were thunderous after heavy rains, are perhaps 20km from Armidale.

So we spent the next 80 minutes walking the nearby tracks close to the top of the gorge, which wasn't particularly dangerous as most people had torches or 'headlights' and the spotlight illuminated the tree-tops. Still, we kept a close eye on Max who romped along at the head of the group right next to the leader. He doesn't seem to know fear and I had visions of him falling off the walkway over the creek and being swept over a 190m waterfall in full flood. Such fears were unfounded, by our expectations were confounded. If there were rock wallabies, owls, ring-tailed possums, koalas, sugar gliders, and other nice furry creatures around they kept to themselves. So, fortunately, did the brown snakes! However, we did spot quite a few brush-tailed possums, one mother carrying her baby on her back, which was cute. The odd bat also winged its way through the illumination, and we heard a chorus of mating frogs and various other croaks and chatter from unseen animals.

I'm sorry I have no pictures to show ... for obvious reasons.

AS

Max Meets His Cousins

Max had a visit today from his two cousins, Hain and Abigail, who live on a large pastoral spread near Kentucky (New England, not the United States!). They came across with Stephanie, their mother and one of Max's aunts. The meeting lasted about 90 minutes or so and Max and Hain hit it off really well because they are both 6, with Hain slightly older. Abigail is only 3, so was rather out of the loop.

The two boys were soon outside in the wet garden and took only a few minutes to round up a lot of snails. Max had 5 on his arm at one stage as the photo shows, and Hain had one or two. The snails also found their way on to the kids' faces and their trails had to be washed off. Dirt and slime seem to find Max wherever he's located! Then they played hide and seek, marbles and the usual sorts of thing for six year olds.

AS

English Weather Again

It's a month into Spring and our weather has turned awful. I hope UK readers will excuse me if I complain about 'English weather'. We haven't seen the sun in three days and temperatures have been colder than charity - around 12 degrees instead of the 18-20 we expect at this time of year. And we're in danger of dissolving from persistent light rain - although a quick look at the on-line rainfall radars suggests that we will shortly be deluged. Mushrooms are coming up all over the lawn. We haven't had anything like this in years! At least the vegetation is Irish green. It's so gloomy at 6.15 pm despite the fact that we've gone onto daylight saving.

AS