Cultured Views

Songs From Life

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Music, to me, is an extremely evocative thing. And it represents so many things to all of us, there would be very few people who did not have a particular tune or song that mean’t something to them. That reminded them of some aspect of their life or took them back to a ‘place’ in life that held significance for them. 

I grew up in a household of music so it has always been there in the background for me…my Dad was a violinist and Mum played the piano and sang in choirs. Dad had a huge collection of jazz records; Count Basie, Ella, Vic Damone (his favourite singer), Perry Como (his other favourite); you name it, Dad owned it.  And as long as I can remember I listened along with him. I worked out as soon as I could stand how to put a record on the player and lower the needle carefully onto the disc.  And I would sit on the floor with my ear against the speaker. Probably not good for the eardrum according to todays ‘experts’.

When I was about 2 I had my very first ‘favourite’…”John Gary Sings Christmas Songs” and I absolutely loved this mans voice. The song I particularly liked was “The Christmas Song”, you know, ‘chestnuts roasting on an open fire, jack frost nipping at your nose…’. I only have to hear this song nowadays and it takes me back to those early years. The first song that ever made me cry was also on that album…”Little Snow Girl” and it still puts a lump in my throat whenever I hear it.

Over the coming years many songs were to mark certain stages in my life. In the 1970’s it was Sherbert; Hush; I was mad keen on the musical ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’; and will put my hand up and admit to being a Bay City Roller fan ( I was convinced I was was going to marry Eric one day). Seeing them in concert in Sydney at the Hordern Pavilion in 1976 was a highlight for me, even though you couldn’t hear a thing over the screams!. Of course, like many ‘Roller’ fans I was a closet Abba fan as well. We just hated to admit it because Abba constantly kept our tartan sweethearts off the number one spot on the charts. In 1980 I indulged in my very last teen crush when I heard “Ant Music” by Adam and the Ants…but their Sydney concert in 1981 was absolute rubbish. So it was time to move on…

In the 80’s there were certain Elton John songs that will always stay with me. In 1982 two major happenings occurred to me; I joined the Army and my Dad was hit by an illness from which he never fully recovered.  Elton’s ‘Blue Eyes’ takes me back to Bardia Barracks in May ‘82 and Bertie Higgens ‘Key Largo’ takes me back to when I sat at my Dads bedside in Royal North Shore Hospital willing him to get well. As the 80’s took me through my twenties songs like Mondo Rock’s ‘Come said the Boy’, ‘The Boys of Summer’, John Farnham’s ‘You’re the Voice’, Toto’s ‘Africa’ all provided a backdrop to events in my life.

In the 90’s my tastes became more discerning. I became an opera buff after seeing The Three Tenors concert in 1990 (on video, not in Rome). Over the next few years classical music became both an obsession and a support for me, and it provided also a new direction in my life when I took up music studies in violin and viola and turned professional. Music often provided solace to me during those times when some aspects of life were quite difficult.

These days it is a treat to be able to sit, close my eyes and enjoy a CD, but that is what music should be…a treat. It’s good to know it is one thing that will always be there, just like good ol’ Elton so it seems.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Dressing for Summer

If you’re a Mum and happen to visit France one thing you will notice is how well, and abundantly, dressed the majority of children are in this country. From babies through to teens. Even now, getting into summer, I see babies lying in prams swathed in blankets with hats on, shoes, socks, complete outfits comprising of layers of clothing. I would imagine that it must be extremely uncomfortable for the baby/child. When I take my two youngest sons out to the shops in the warm weather they usually only wear a pair of shorts, and maybe a very light sleeveless top. Sandals on their feet occasionally…the French seem to regard footwear as compulsory in all weather. I have been seen to dash out to the local shops with my youngest in a nappy, and only a nappy. The looks we get!

They just do not seem to understand the concept, or pleasure, of going barefoot here.

As a child in Australia summer was the time to wear as little as possible, actually Aussie kids go almost the year round with light clothing and very often barefooted. I certainly did, and still do here in France!. It was not unusual to see people wandering around the local shopping centres in bare feet…do that here and you get asked to leave the shop. When I take my youngest son out in his stroller on warm days we leave the shoes off and I have had women walk up and ask me why are his feet bare!. Actually the funniest time was when I dashed out with him in a hurry and popped a pair of socks on his little feet - odd socks, no shoes - women and elderly ladies were nudging each other and pointing at my sons mismatched feet. Obviously I had committed a major fashion faux pas.

So instead I just leave all footwear off. It’s cooler for them, healthier and it’s great for their growing feet. Much better than having toes jammed into shoes all year round.

Try it sometime…free your feet!.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Scary Movies…what scares you?.

I sat and watched one of the latest ’spooky’ films on the weekend with my two eldest sons. They consider themselves connoisseurs of this particular art and assured me my blood would run cold. The film was ‘The Ring 2′ and ‘The Grudge’. Well, I have to admit, having already seen ‘The Ring 1′ and been considerably scared I was wary of the sequel. Yes, it was spooky, no I did not lose any sleep. As for ‘The Grudge’…a waste of my time. And for the record, I hate those ’slash and kill’ type films…they do nothing for me at all. I prefer the type that leaves your imagination to do the work, and I have a particularly vivid imagination.

Now I am a person who was, and still is to some extent, scared of the dark. I have always, in a morbid kind of way, liked a good scary movie, but when a really good one passes my way and I watch it, it still take ages for me to go to sleep at night. And actually, some of them were not really ’spook’ movies at all, just really eerie.

Here’s a list of films that have lost me plenty of sleep over the years:

‘Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?’ - Bette Davis in that chalky makeup; that budgie/rat on her sister’s plate.

‘Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte’ - This one really spooked me as a kid. Bruce Dern’s hand being cut off; the squirt of blood over the nearby statue as it was cut off; the meat cleaver in the air poised over the hand; the hand being revealed on the floor as a door opened; the head rolling down the stairs…it still gives me the creeps to this day.

‘The Blob’ (the original with Steve McQueen). Yes I know, this was pure schlock, but in all it’s black and white glory I still cannot look at a bowl of jelly…

‘The Birds’ - a classic. The scene where the school teacher (Suzanne Pleshette) is found dead on the floor.

‘Blackula’ - sorry, I was babysitting when I saw this and it scared the shit out of me.

‘When a Stranger Calls’ - every babysitters nightmare this one.  It is only scary though in the first 20 minutes…I stopped babysitting after I saw this one, too many of my clients had 2 storey houses.

‘The Spectre of Edgar Allen Poe’ - there was a scene in this where a woman in a white nightdress goes mad with an axe.

‘Premature Burial’ (with Ray Milland )- what more can I say?.

‘Pet Sematery’ - saw this just after my first child was born and I have been paranoid in the extreme ever since about small children near busy main roads. Especially semi-trailers. That scene where the little boy runs towards the road  sickened me.

And for the real humdinger, the one that totally freaked me out when I saw it at the age of fourteen…

”Trilogy of Terror’ - that one where the woman (Karen Black) buys an ugly little voodoo doll. She is told not to take it’s necklace off…it falls off while she is in the shower (if I remember correctly) and it goes on the rampage after her with a kitchen knife in her apartment.  That noise it makes…that final scene where she squats on the floor and repeatedly stabs it with a carving knife while waiting for her mother to knock on her door…I saw it once and that was enough for me. I did not sleep a full night for a good 2 years after that!.

Call me a big baby…but what does a scary movie do to you?.

Popularity: 17% [?]