Hawaii

International Patron of the Arts.  Surely if there is anywhere on earth to patronise the arts it is in the United States of America.  The home of Jazz and Blues.  Home of Elvis and Billy Ray Cyrus.  Wait what?

I figured that if I was going to drag His Grumpiness around the world on an arts odyssey then Hawaii is a non-threatening way to start.  I mean who doesn't love warm water, beaches and cocktails.  And as His Grumpiness pointed out as we were relaxing by the pool on the first day, "Too much spirits.  Is that really a thing in a cocktail".

We stayed at The Modern in Honolulu which has a great bar called The Study.  Whilst his Grumpiness slept away his jet lag I went down to watch the soulful Jegaan Singh Faye play. With his cap on backwards and dreadlocks he was a great soulful singer and guitarist in the style of  Craig David.  He also did some very cool vocal beatboxing.  His version of Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" made me want to literally let my hair down (not clever for curly haired girls in humid climates) and dance like a loon. I looked around and I wasn't the only one.

Looking around the room was a big mistake.  The room was filled with lots of beautiful young Hawaiian girls groomed and made up within an inch of their lives.  They were all wearing in tiny dresses and very high heels. My beachy shorts and thongs didn't cut it, I had neglected to wear my short jumpsuit and thigh length boots with six inch platform heels.  Woefully inadequate.

The following evening we went to Tropics Bar and Grill on Waikiki Beach.  A great covers singer was the entertainment for the evening.  He seemed to have gotten hold of my playlist and just kept churning them out U2, Colin Hay, Pete Seeger.  A great version of a Muddy Waters complete with harmonica.  Very much enjoyed and it was a shame he didn't play tunes deep in to the night.  A near perfect time was had beside His Grumpiness getting a brain freeze from his bright blue ice slushy cocktail.

We returned to our hotel and we went and saw Jeremy Cheng play at The Study.  His singing was excellent, a sweet soulful voice somewhat like Stevie Wonder but with potential for a slight country influence.  He did a great soulful version of Tennessee Whiskey.  The atmosphere was somewhat different tonight.  No young girls in six inch heels searching for their next vodka and soda.  More relaxed atmosphere for which I was glad.

Night three we had an amazing at Signature Restaurant on the top floor of the Ala Moana Hotel.  The most magnificent views over the pacific ocean.  The was live piano and signing with Asian accent covering Careless Whisper and My Way.  With the accent the music was more amusing than inspiring.

Our final night we embarked on a sunset cruise on Star of Honolulu. The entertainment was a cheesy as it comes although the eye candy was not too shabby. They have been doing this show for 60 year and it looked like it.  I don't feel that I have any great understanding of Pacific performance and the arts after viewing this shocker.  The show finished with music and dancing with classics like "I Will Survive", "Crocodile Rock" and "Celebrate".  The final song of the evening was "YMCA".  Need I say more?

So far the international live acts have been mixed but certainly not anything amazing.  Were to go next then in search of quality music and live performances?  Vegas, where else!

The Rants - Act 101

Act 101.  Jeepers!!!

His Grumpiness, Harp Man and I went to The Republic to see a band that none of us had heard of called The Rants.  They are a local outfit performing a range of covers.  They started with Otis Redding's "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" which was promising but unfortunately is was a promise not keep.  They were a bit of a rag tag bunch with one of the singers gong with a cocaine chic look whilst the other sported a hippy dreadlock style.  

They covered reggae, soul and disco, there was something for everyone.  Whilst The Rants were musically dubious the performance was a lot of fun and the crowd was a diverse one with very unusual characters of all ages which was entertaining on its own.  

Harpman was impressed by the drummer.  His skill was most evident in there version of Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings' "100 days 100 nights" and his disco drumming was excellent.

Act 101.  How did I get here?  It is only July and I have already hit my target of live acts for the 12 months.  It has been blast and a eyeopening and heartwarming experience.  But what comes next.  I have experienced the Hobart music scene, I have been to a big interstate festival.  Perhaps it is time to adventure overseas.  Can i manage 30 live acts in 60 days?  I can't wait to see what international arts patronage has in store for me.

Huon Mid-Winter Festival

Winter in Hobart marches on and the unseasonably warm weather has given way to colder evenings but I kind of like this. Warm clothes, outdoor heaters, hot cider envelope you like a warm embrace and make you feel comfortable and at home.

His Grumpiness said to me, "I don't expect much from life anymore so things aren't quite as terrible." Classic. It was in this spirit that I convinced him to attend the Huon Valley Mid-winter Festival with me.

This festival is held at Willie Smith Apple Shed about 30 minutes south of Hobart. Holy smokes I love their cider. It is a traditional mid-winter festival where people come dressed in pagan costume with shrubbery and antlers and a vast array of really interesting hats. There are stilts and face paint, men wandering around playing the accordion and creatures unknown and unknowable. There is great food and drink.

To cap it all off there is fantastic music. The first band His Grumpiness and I saw was The Ramshackle Army. Their music just made me want to dance. The came The Dead Maggies. They were not at their best. I think that they were over emotional about this being drummer Bicket's last Tasmanian show.

The following day I went again with The Blonde and Pink Thing. We ate delicious food, drank tasty hot cider and stood around the ridiculously huge and infinitely hot bonfire. We joined in the Apple Wassail and 'howled' to the orchard. We watched fire dancers and listened to The Scrims play great folk music featuring covers from the Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly. As The Blonde is wont to say, much fun.

When I set out on my journey to become a 'Patron of the Arts', I set myself the challenge of seeing two live act each week or rounded off - 101 live acts in a year. The Scrims were act 100. I have all but reached my target and it is but June. What next? How can I increase my Arts Patronage status?

Gin & Folk Punk

 

Now that we are renowned 'Patrons of the Arts' The Blonde and I receive invitation to classy events all over the city. Well, this might be a slight exaggeration but we did secure an invite to Knocklofty's mid-winter gin party at Schmorgasbaag.

The soiree was held in an uberchic setting and with cool London beats.   Despite the sophisicated setting the crowd seemed to be full of faces that should be familiar yet are not known to you.  The vibe was friendly and everyone was up for a good time.  The fragrant the smell of gin hit you as you walk through the door subtly indicating that there were fun times ahead.

There was a time that anything really cool came from over the seas, and most likely Europe, but now we have very groovy stuff right on our doorstep.  The Knocklofty range of spirits is very cool and very tasty.  They have just launched a new vodka which has the crisp Asian influence that influences their gin.  The Blonde and I got stuck into the cocktails - in a sophisticated way of course.  I had G & T, Cosmo, White Lady and Negroni.  The White Lady was the best of these.  The Blonde highly recommended the Hot Gin Punch.

Jacked up on gin cocktails The Blonde and I gracefully left this classy event before we made drunken fools of ourselves and headed off to The Homestead for some FolkPunk musical action.

The Stragglers, a band from Victoria that has forgotten to go home, opened up the night's proceedings.  During their set I took the time to look around the room and there was not a frown in the place.  Their music is always fun.  As always I love their song "I Miss Your Dog More Than I Miss You."

Next up was a band out of Brisbane called Fox 'n' Firkin.  These guys were killer.  Real Celtic Punk.  Great originals with a foray into Cowpunk (whatever that is).  They interacted brilliantly with the audience and made you feel that they were playing in your lounge room for you and a bunch of your mates.  The highlight for me was Simon and Garfunkel done punk.  'I rather be a sparrow than a snail...'  In the break The Blonde and I went and purchased some merch - including cool stubby holders - and had a great chat with Andrew the guitarist.  What a great guy.  He was really friendly and had the skill of making you feel like you are one of his good mates even though you just met.  I hope I get to see these guys play again soon.

Last up, The Dead Maggies.  They were great as always.  By now the crowd was really hyped up by two great warm up bands and were really ready to cut loose.  This gig was drummer Bicket's last Hobart show and I think he lost the plot a little in all the excitement but it was hugely fun.  After the event The Blonde and I wondered how did we get so lucky to have such wonderful times.  Great people, great gin, great music, great life.  I wonder what adventures are next for "Patrons of the Arts".

    

  

Midweek Ben

Making space in your life for the arts and music can be challenging.  Working fulltime, volunteering to coach kids, keeping active and upkeeping a household can leave you with little energy and it is very tempting to just plonk yourself on the couch in front of the TV.  It takes determination and sheer will to overcome this tendency.

With this in mind I journeyed out on a school nigh to the T-Bone brewery to watch Ben Salter play.  I was sitting at the bar with a beer in hand wondering whether my time would be better spent at home preparing for work the next day when Ben started his first set.  Boy, that man can sing.  The minute he sang out the first note I knew the trip our was worth it.

Ben has a new album, "Back Yourself", coming out later in the year and he played a number of new songs that are going to feature.  From what I heard so far I believe that it is going to be his best album yet and can't wait to get my hands on it.

I feel fortunate that an artist like Ben has chosen to make Hobart his home and that I get to hear such quality music on a regular basis.  It is a bit like having my own real life CD.  Oops that is a little old fashioned - it's like my very own downloadable Ben.  With the T-Bone Brewey just 5 minutes from home, why wouldn't you make space in your life for such a fabulous musician.

Punkfest at The Brissy

It is always an adventure seeing anything at The Brisbane Hotel.  Hell, just going there for a beer is an experience.  Everyone should try it at least once.  It won't be most people's rum and coke but it will sure expand your horizons.  It was great trepidation and some enthusiasm that His Grumpiness and I ventured the to see a right royal punkfest.  Who knew that in my quest to become a 'Patron of the Arts' that I will become a regular at punk gig's at the Brissie with its sticky carpet and dingy atmosphere.

The first band were a little amateurish but this sort of worked in this venue.  I felt as though I may have been in a out of the way club in London in the 70's, with Thatcherism just around the corner, experiencing the first in a new wave of music .  Maybe if I waited long enough The Clash will make an appearance closely followed by Joy Division.

The next band featured was Nowyouref*cked.  Led by Sammy Samora of contortionist fame from The Pointy End of Something Different, these guys were a death metal band.  I really dislike death metal but these guys were fun, albeit pretty ordinary musically, and it was certainly different to what I usually listen to. 

Next was Cashman.  This was the band that we actually came to see.  A bunch of local lads with His Grumpiness's nephew featuring on bass guitar.  They were pretty good especially when their music tended more punk than metal.  I particularly liked their new original tune that had a real punk groove to it.

Next up were Night Birds from USA.  They were really good.  The singer had real charisma.  It was not really my type of music but you can't be a 'Patron of the Arts' without extending your boundaries.  I can't say that I really fit into this crowd.  Many of the other patrons sported dreadlocks and unusual piercings of parts of the body that do not usually have holes.  I can't say at I regularly wear my jeans below my buttcheeks but that seemed to be quite popular also.  How do they keep them up?  The punk metal crowd is not particularly accepting of people who they perceive to be not like them.  Anyone without jackboots is seen as part of the establishment and should stay in their little cottages.  However, possibly the most confusing event of the night was the appearance of foam bean bag balls on the floor of the toilet.  I still don't understand what that was about.

The final act of the night was Sydney band Clowns.  Heavy/death metal is not really my thing so based on the previous acts I wasn't expecting much.  I held out great hopes when The Clash's 'London Calling' was played on the PA system only to be confused by the subsequent playing of  Cher's 'Do you Believe in Love' whilst the band was being introduced.

The had a great first song that was more punk than metal but unfortunately it went downhill from there.  I had had enough of the heavy punk scene for one night so His Grumpiness snuck off home before finishing time.

But just when I thought that the night couldn't get any more confusing, on the way out I saw a girl in the foyer licking a huge all day sucker.  I don't think that I had any drugs other than alcohol but now I'm not sure.  Punk rock you do my head in!

Joseph and Dark Mofo

I love my city in winter.  Not only is winter in Hobart beautiful but the arts scene comes alive.  Dark Mofo is central to this.  If you have never been in Hobart during this festival then you are missing out and you should remedy this at your earliest opportunity.  The town is rocking.  The streets are filled with people and you never know what unusual happenings you will find around the next corner.  This year's Dark Mofo featured light and sound installations, a controversial if not  artistic slaughtering of a bull, a daily helicopter and siren song performance at dusk, a nude winter solstice swim and an Indonesian-style parade of ogoh-ogoh which finished in flames.  There is music both to challenge you and to sooth you.  There is fabulous food and great locally produced drinks. It is a real attack on the sense.

As part of Dark MoFo the first act I went to see was Buried Country.  This was a celebration of  the story of Aboriginal Country Music.  It was fantastic.  Warren H Williams gave us a great toe tapping start followed by a young man singing recetnly late grandmother Audry Andrew's songs before his father joined him.

Footage of Lionel Rose, Auriel Andrew and a slim Jimmy Little played in the background whilst, James Henry, Jimmy Little's grandson, performed.  L J Hill was next and he was magnificent.  He is the composer of a song called "Pretty Bird Tree"  that i most recently heard Paul Kelly cover.  It is an emotional song at the best of times but hearing such a sad song sung by the composer for whom the lyrics are true is heart rending.

Frances Little gave us a great version of "Brown Skinned Baby" which was chilling and poignant.  A young man called Luke Peacock gave us a more modern take on some classic songs.  The show was wrapped up by the ensemble cast giving a few numbers to send us on our way.  It was a fabulous night full of Australian storytelling but not the white man point of view that I'm used to hearing.

The highlight of the festival for me is the Mid-Winter Feast.  Amazing food and drink. But the best is all the entertainment.  There is usually three acts playing at any given time - something for everyone.

On my first visit to the feast I enjoyed Dewayne Everettsmith's artistry.  His version of Tracey Chapman's "Fast Car" was particularly good as was his Adele cover.  I then saw a trio of women lovely harmonies with a little fun doing a quirky version of Michael Jackson's "Beat It".




After enjoying these artists I moseyed on down to the Federation Concert Hall.  Here I stumbled upon a busker on what would have be Hunter Island in colonial times.  He was pretty good under the streetlights on the Hobart docks he belted out Oasis "Wonderwall" and a pretty decent version of  Leonard Cohen "Hallelujah".  It was nice just to sit on a park bench and be his audience of one on the clear and cool evening.

I was actually on my way to see the magnificent Paul Kelly play at the Federation Concert Hall (home of the Tasmania Symphony Orchestra).  His show, Ancient Rain featured Paul and Irish Singer Camille O'Sullivan performing songs inspired by one hundred years of Irish letters from Yeats and Heaney to Kavanagh. Joyce and more.  It was hauntingly beautiful.  The lighting was particularly atmospheric.  It was a bit like a super classy poetry night but with music. Compelling.

Over the next few evenings Of the festival I continually dropped in to the Mid-Winter Feast to grab a bite to eat and enjoy the music. There was a great Irish band, O Reely who did a fantastic version "Black Velvet Band" and The Pogues "Dirty old town.  The Blonde and I met Nigel and his wife from Burnie who were clearly intent on having a fabulous night and were supplying hugs all round.    I met the bass player from a famous eighties Australian band and a music industry photographer who were here to soak in the atmosphere.  It's that kind of festival.

I saw a couple of jazz bands one with a gypsy influence (I now know that gypsy jazz is a thing) I loved hearing something new and the musicians were so smooth.  Another jazz band played a popular tunes from the 1930s they were very good and got the crowd dancing around the open fires with mulled cider in hand.  It was really great to be so close to the artists and see the interplay between the musicians.  The Crooked Fiddle band played on the main stage and the crowd really got into the swing off it dancing and singing.

 

On my way home on the final night I wandered through St David's Park.  This park is a English style formal walled park that dates from the beginning of colonial Hobart Town in 1804.  It is the site of the first European burial ground in Hobart.  Most of the original 900 internees now lay peacefully under lush turf of the park including my ancestor, Joseph Castle.  Joseph, his wife, Edith and their four children came out from Somerset, England to start a new life in the colonies.  I often think about how brave this was and what motivated their adventurous spirit.  Joseph was injured by a spear in an altercation with the Indigenous population and was never the same and died a short time later after wasting away as a result of his wounds.  A victim of the Black War in Tasmania.  

As I walked through the park on that night I went and visited Joseph's headstone that is embedded in a wall in the park.  I stood there on that unseasonably warm winter night and wondered what he would make of all of this.  The fabulous indigenous storytelling, the bizarre siren song and helicopters in the sky, the slaughtering of a bull for art rather than sustenance.  I am quite sure that Joseph would have found it all very strange but I am also sure that it would have appealed to his sense of adventure.  I think that Dark Mofo is so good not only because of the insight of the organisers but because it is underpinned by the bleak but hopeful history that pervades Tasmanian life.  What I know for sure, though, is that I am very very glad that he and Edith decided to make this amazing place their home.  I will be forever grateful.

T- Bone Brewery & Willie Smith Cidery

Winter in Hobart is an amazing time.  Yes, we have miserable rainy days but mostly Winter is crisp and clear and a great time to rug up and celebrate.  This year's Winter arrived with cool but clear Friday evening and The Blonde and I took the opportunity to go along to North Hobart's T-Bone Brewery to see Ben Salter play. Having seen Ben play a few times already this year I was wondering whether seeing Ben again would be worth it but the minute he opened his mouth to sing I knew it was.  He is an extraordinary singer and his original songs are a fabulous.  He has a new song, Derwent River, which is in the running for my top ten of all time. The crowd was enthusiastic and the beer was good. It was a typical Hobart night where I seemed to know half the people in the bar and the beers went down a treat. I was sad when the night ended and it was time to go home.

On Sunday, to continue my the celebration of the arrival of winter, His Grumpiness and I headed to Grove to Willie Smith Appleshed for lunch and to enjoy some afternoon entertainment.

We met up with The Blonde, Drummer Kid and The Pink Thing we had great food and even better drinks. I stuck to my usual regular Willie Smith cider. His Grumpiness and The Blonde went for the hot mulled cider which they raved about. Well His Grumpiness said that he has had worse drinks which meant it was pretty good.

First up was The Stragglers joined periodically by other musicians on bass, trombone, mandolin and squeezebox.. Their set featured numbers by Paul Kelly and Bruce Springsteen and one of my favourites, Wagonwheel. I really love their original "I Miss Your Dog More than I Miss You".

Next up was The Dominic Francis Grief Ensemble whose music could best be described as Bluegrass Lithuanian Folk. They sand songs about the local folk and environment and a song about genocide in 1940s Baltic and somehow made it both poignant and jaunty at the same time. The highlight was the banjo ukulele.

A fine weekend with family, friends and music. What more could a girl ask for to kick off Winter in this beautiful southern city?