As you can probably guess, most musicians/bands don't make their way to New Zealand. If we're lucky, someone might make a stop in Auckland, but it's still an expensive 2-hour flight away. Chris and I love listening to our favorite musicians live, but alas, it's not something we do much of these days.
So, we make do. Since we've been here, we've been to the symphony a couple of times to see the Southern Sinfonia. It's a small, humble group of musicians that play quite beautiful music. At the University of Otago, there is a bi-monthly Lunchtime Concert - where students in the Music department perform their final performance for their degrees. That means that in the middle of my work day, I take a leisurely walk to the Uni campus and listen to some great Classical music while I eat lunch! In October, we plan to see David Helfgott ("Shine") play the piano on the opening night of the Otago Festival. We're quite excited to see him.
But when I've had my fill of Classical music, I can always rely on my favorite musician to sing almost anything for me. Who is that you say? Why, it's none other than Chris! One of his projects since we've arrived in New Zealand has been to learn how to play the ukulele. I'm surprised he hasn't blogged about it yet. He bought a middle-range ukulele off of ebay (not one of those souvenir ukuleles that you can buy at the local convenience store in Hawaii) where it went on a journey from California, to Arkansas, and finally to Dunedin, NZ.
Here in our home, I can hear ukulele renditions of "The Guns of Brixton" by The Clash, anything by Bob Dylan to a lovesong like "Nothing Matters When We're Dancing" by The Magnetic Fields and "Picture In a Frame" by Tom Waits (a favorite). I won't be surprised if Chris tries to play one of Julian Cope's newest songs on the ukulele. But what I like the most, as of late, is that our baby in utero is able to hear his dad sing and play the ukulele now. My favorite song that Chris likes to sing to our baby boy: "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)" by John Lennon.
This is music in our home. You can't beat it. (ETK)
So, we make do. Since we've been here, we've been to the symphony a couple of times to see the Southern Sinfonia. It's a small, humble group of musicians that play quite beautiful music. At the University of Otago, there is a bi-monthly Lunchtime Concert - where students in the Music department perform their final performance for their degrees. That means that in the middle of my work day, I take a leisurely walk to the Uni campus and listen to some great Classical music while I eat lunch! In October, we plan to see David Helfgott ("Shine") play the piano on the opening night of the Otago Festival. We're quite excited to see him.
But when I've had my fill of Classical music, I can always rely on my favorite musician to sing almost anything for me. Who is that you say? Why, it's none other than Chris! One of his projects since we've arrived in New Zealand has been to learn how to play the ukulele. I'm surprised he hasn't blogged about it yet. He bought a middle-range ukulele off of ebay (not one of those souvenir ukuleles that you can buy at the local convenience store in Hawaii) where it went on a journey from California, to Arkansas, and finally to Dunedin, NZ.
Here in our home, I can hear ukulele renditions of "The Guns of Brixton" by The Clash, anything by Bob Dylan to a lovesong like "Nothing Matters When We're Dancing" by The Magnetic Fields and "Picture In a Frame" by Tom Waits (a favorite). I won't be surprised if Chris tries to play one of Julian Cope's newest songs on the ukulele. But what I like the most, as of late, is that our baby in utero is able to hear his dad sing and play the ukulele now. My favorite song that Chris likes to sing to our baby boy: "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)" by John Lennon.
This is music in our home. You can't beat it. (ETK)
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