Sunday, July 25, 2010

Pass the Post


I've been posting all my blogs here on "Point & Shoot", whether they be about aspects of photography, previews of my classical music radio show, or whatever is fizzling through my brain at the time. And now it's time to give my followers of classical music a dedicated blog!

Each week I will be posting news and previews of "Roll Over Beethoven" on www.classical991.blogspot.com with write-ups of the composers being featured, and a heads-up on the Goon Show of the week.

You will be able to check out beforehand what will be happening on my Thursday evening radio show, and tune in to hear it from 9 pm to midnight only on Yarra Valley FM 99.1


The blog will also allow you to leave comments, click a 'quick tick' box, and even share it on your facebook page or twitter it to your friends.

Thanks too to my readers who encourage and support me in bringing some great classical music and news to them. Keep the comments coming and let me know what you are thinking.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Featured :)

It's nice to wake up to a pleasant surprise....


I cranked up the internet this morning, opened the usual pages (my blogs, my facebook and my photo sites) and found I had a ream of messages congratulating me on a photo that I took of an old railway carriage at Maldon Railway station. It had been featured on the front page of Red Bubble.


I've been a member of Red Bubble for a couple of years now, and like it because:
It's Australian, though it has a worldwide reputation for quality
It's easy to use
You can post large files of your images on it
You can market and sell your images in a host of different formats, from postcards to posters to t-shirts...
It's growing in popularity
It allows comments on your works


The recognition and exposure of being featured gives a nice 'warm fuzzy' feeling, and I'll take all of that that I can get!


So have a visit to my Red Bubble site, check out the photos, leave some comments, and remember - they make great gifts :)

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Live and Local

We have a very special program lined up for Thursday night on "Roll Over Beethoven".

During the week I was able to catch up with two musicians who will be holding a concert of Bach music soon (details at the end of this post).

Andrew Blackburn and Jean Penny live in the Dandenongs, and are both experienced classical musicians.

Andrew Blackburn is an organist, harpsichordist, music technologist, composer and conductor. His performances have included concertos with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, concerts and recordings for the ABC, the Victorian Arts Centre Trust and many concerts both in Australia and abroad (England, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Denmark). He is organist at Toorak Uniting Church and founding director of the Arts Centre.

In 2005, he released a critically acclaimed recording of Handel’s Op 6 Organ Concertos performed on the historic Fincham Organ in Richmond Uniting Church.
In December 2009, Andrew presented at CreateWorld09, and in January 2010, with Jean Penny presented a concert of music for organ - both with realtime dsp and acoustic organ works at the acclaimed Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields Festival.

Jean Penny’s career as flautist, researcher and educator stretches across a wide compendium of styles and arenas. Her work currently focuses on contemporary performance practices, specifically flute with electronics.

In 2009 she completed doctoral studies in music for flute and electronics at the Queensland Conservatorium – The Extended Flautist: Techniques, Technologies and Performer Perceptions in Music for Flute and Electronics.

As I was interviewing them, we covered a lot of ground, and the whole interview can be heard on Thursday night during the show. I will play some of their music during the interview breaks.

And remember, the Goon Show will be on at 10 pm - this week: 'Under Two Floorboards'.

Listen in on Yarra Valley FM 99.1 Thursday from 9 pm to midnight.

CONCERT
Andrew and Jean will be presenting 'Bach by Candlelight', music for flute and harpsichord, on Sunday August 1 from 5 pm at the Kennon Memorial Uniting Church, 6 Clarkmont Rd Sassafras.
Tickets are $30 & $20 concession. Enquiries phone 9754 6039

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Beat This


It was a time rich in exploring the unconscious thoughts of a nation. A time for poets, writers and wanderers to explore the psyche of a western world going through great change.

It was America, post WW11, post modernist philosophy, and with the wide open spaces ahead that new choices bring.

Change was all around. Europe was being reshaped, old political partners were becoming the new enemy, and the Left and Right were testing just how far each could go.

And to capture the new vistas that were opening up to the American people, a new generation of poets and visionaries threw away the rules of prose and paved the world with a new way with words.

They would become known as Beat Poets.

The likes of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S Burroughs and Hunter S Thompson became known as the nations new voice.

They were not working in isolation, influence came from earlier wordsmiths, such as Blake, Shelley, Thoreau, Emerson, Poe and Melville, as well as the artworld of Dadaism and Surrealism.

They in turn, influenced up-coming musicians. Among songwriters around the world, many have acknowledged the influence of the Beat Poets: The Beatles (McCartney even played on one of Ginsberg's albums), Dylan (Ginsberg toured with him in 1975), Jim Morrison (The Doors), The Grateful Dead, Mick Jagger, Patti Smith and Lou Reed. Tom Waits, The Clash, R.E.M., Kurt Cobain, Sonic Youth, Laurie Anderson and even Bono cite the Beat Poets as inspiration.

Tune in to Yarra Valley FM 99.1 on Monday night from 9 pm to catch the words and music of the Beat Era.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

What's the big deal about crucifying Christ?


Well, yeah, crucifixion is a horrible way to die.... first you would be beaten, whipped, kicked, punched and tortured by the prison screws (John 19:1-5), then you would have to carry the cross you were going to be executed on to the killing field (John 19:17), you would be in severe pain and dehydrated, weak, stumbling and distraught.

You would then be stripped, forced to lay on the cross on the ground and nailed to it. Then the cross would be hoisted up and dropped into a hole and fixed there. Now it was just a matter of time. Near impossible to keep breathing as you got weaker, previous trauma from the torture untreated, the lack of water would accelerate your demise, and help drive you into even greater despair. If time wasn't pressing, you would be left there to die over the next few days. If they wanted you dead quickly, your legs would be broken, and you would no longer be able to lift yourself up enough to take in more air.

So, not a pretty site, but the Romans crucified thousands. So what was so special about Jesus being killed in this way?

The unique point about the death of Jesus was not just the horrible way he was killed, but the way God put the sin of the world on him. This was the whole point of the death of the eternal Son of God. Jesus was the 'sin-bearer', and that aspect of his death sets him apart from any other sacrifice ever made.

We are told, "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for
righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed." (1 Peter 2:24)

Jesus went to the cross knowing that he would become the target for God's dealing with sin. Job describes it in this way, "God has shriveled me up... his anger has torn me and hunted me down... God hands me over.. and tosses me into the hands of the wicked... He shattered me... He has grasped me by the neck and shaken me to pieces... He has also set me up as His target... He breaks through me with breach after breach" (Job 16). While suffering on the cross Jesus cries out, "Why have you forsaken me?" Christ was bearing the due process of God's law against sin, SO THAT WE COULD ESCAPE AND BE SAFE.

The ultimate torture that Jesus suffered wasn't the whips, the thorns into his flesh, the vinegar for his thirst, the nails pinning him to the wood, the desertion by his followers, or the jeers of the crowd, but the sin and separation he went through for us. And that final battle against our fallen nature was when God won the war to bring us back into His realm.

Christ became sin so that we could become righteous.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Premier Poet/Songwriter


I'm guesting on Dom's radio show Monday night from 9 pm to midnight. We'll be looking at one of the world's most revered song writer / poets.

Leonard Cohen

You'll be able to hear his early songs, through to his current numbers. Along with him doing duets with the likes of Anjani Thomas, Julie Felix and Sharon Robinson.
Many of his songs have been covered by other artists (yes, Hallelujah is Cohen's, not Jeff Buckley's), so we'll be playing his songs sung by Rufus Wainwright, Tori Amos, Allison Crowe and John Cale.
Tune in to Yarra Valley FM 99.1, and you can also get it streamed live from the website.
Give us a call during the program and request a Cohen classic. 5961 5991