For The Love of Travel

A group of us travelled through Bendigo to get to the 3 day Echuca Riverboat Music Festival. You have to stop off in Bendigo and check out what’s happening at the Gallery…as it happened Archibald prize winner, Ben Quilty, exhibiting some of his “Rorschachs”, depicting picture book landscapes scenes that belie their more sinister history. And Arthur Boyd’s Bride on a fridge!

Then some lunch at the Dispensary Enoteca in Chancery Lane (a tiny jewel that sparkles to the beat of global wines, boutique beers, coffee aromas and inspired food).

Took up a friend’s great idea and flew to Adelaide to see the concert, as I had missed it in Melbourne. Bev spirited me off for coffee at Joe’s cafe at Henley Beach (named in 19thC after the english town of Henley-on-Thames and promoted in 1860 as ” being free from all the noxious smells which have the cause of complaint elsewhere”!
New York’s Paul Simon and Newcastles’s Sting together at the front of a 15 piece band, shared the singing but not the harmonies! Sting, no Art Garfunkel-style foil (more a companion voice), was a more polished and energetic performer – at ease in chat; smooth in introduction. He did a very beguiling interpretation of Simon’s America! Simon was lively, especially in numbers like “Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes” and “You can call me Al”. Awesome in “Bridge over Troubled Water”!

Adelaide jazz singer Jo Lawry, who has been touring with Sting for five years, had as triumphant a homecoming as a backing singer can, cutting loose with a searing vocal solo on “The Hounds of Winter” and receiving a warm reception from the crowd and the stars of the show (she was introduced by Sting as “Jo Lawry from Willunga”). SHE WAS AWESOME! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=w0PSx_FL3ec

The latest show offering from Cirque is a “journey into the evolution of mankind”. Protozoan creatures spring from a giant turtle carapace; native american hoop dancing; life-like monkey japery; air-guitaring cavemen; unicyclists balancing bowls on their heads; performers who spin on a small drum while attached to each other around the neck. A Charles Darwin look-alike spins multi-coloured luminous balls in an enormous beaker. The Crystal ladies spin eight bejewelled fabric squares on their hands and feet while lying upside down on blue velvet chairs. And Valentino, an Italian (macho) tourist who appears regularly whispering Italian niceties, with accompanying hip grinding and eyebrow raising to females who catch his eye….CIAO BELLA !!!!!!

Fantastic spectacle, on a very hot and humid Melbourne night!