• About
  • Artists and Creatives
  • Cool Capitalists
  • Not-for-profits
  • Rody’s songs
    • DSS Blues
    • Mother Courage
    • Shadows in a Landscape
    • Sonnet 18
  • Social Pages

Universal Stranger

~ on Alienation, Being and Belonging

Universal Stranger

Category Archives: Local

River Notes 1

29 Sunday Jul 2018

Posted by Simon Jones in Local

≈ Comments Off on River Notes 1

hawkesbury-1

I’m facing downstream;

Upstream is for the Oedipal,

Those who are seeking answers to the mysteries of life:

Who am I? Why am I here? What’s it all about?

The answers are not at the source,

They are in the flow

And you must catch them as you drift;

And I have drifted far enough

To want to pause, to feel the current

Push against the tide, suspend my animation long enough

For me to think about

The answers I have learned,

Before the river pours me

One last time

Into the forgetful sea.

Celebrity Spotting in Berowra: Geoff Mack

19 Sunday Apr 2015

Posted by Rody in Local

≈ Comments Off on Celebrity Spotting in Berowra: Geoff Mack

So there we were, Saturday night, having a family meal at Ayothaya (excellent Thai restaurant on the Pacific Highway opposite Berowra Station) when who should arrive but Geoff Mack, Tabby Francis and their niece and her husband. Geoff and Tabby (who live locally) looked well though understandably frail (Geoff is 92). For those who don’t know, Geoff, in the late 1950s, wrote the perennial hit “I’ve Been Everywhere” which has been covered more than 130 times by artists including Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton and (after a fashion) Rhianna. I don’t know Geoff personally and recognised him only because I’d once seen him in the audience a couple of years ago at a Steve Passfield gig at the Berowra Tavern (Steve said hi to Geoff from the stage, then proceeded to do his own inimitable version of the song). Outside the restaurant, I struck up a conversation with Geoff’s nephew-in-law (if that’s the proper term). He mentioned that he and his wife had taken Geoff and Tabby to Tamworth in February (for non-Australians: that’s the nation’s biggest country music festival) and he described, touchingly, how Geoff and Tabby had “come alive” at the event, buoyed by the atmosphere, great memories and the recognition, affection and respect of everyone they met.

Two good lives, well lived.

geoffmac website

Geoff Mac in his heyday (source: Geoff Mack website)

 

 

Murray Hartin, bush poet extraordinaire

08 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by Rody in Local

≈ Comments Off on Murray Hartin, bush poet extraordinaire

One of the best nights out we’ve had in a while in downtown Berowra was seeing legendary Aussie bush poet Murray Hartin perform at the local pub on May 18. Muz has local connections: he’s from Moree in northern NSW but went to school in Hornsby, just down the road from here. Bush poetry is not terribly fashionable among Australia’s metropolitan literati, but what do they know? Bottom line: if you don’t understand Australia’s rural culture and traditions, you don’t fully understand the Anglo-Celtic experience in Australia; and, far from being parochial, these traditions are old, rich and diversified enough to say a lot about the human condition. Here’s Muz’s justly famous “Rain from Nowhere”:

The air began to wax and sweat

25 Sunday May 2014

Posted by Washtub Creek Arts Collective in Local

≈ Comments Off on The air began to wax and sweat

The air began to wax-page-001

Definitely a Margaret Preston moment…

11 Sunday May 2014

Posted by Rody in Local

≈ Comments Off on Definitely a Margaret Preston moment…

It’s a beautiful late autumn day here in the best suburb on earth, and it’s a Sunday, so there’s time (a little, at least) to appreciate the moment. Rather than try to capture it in my own inadequate words, I post here a locally-themed work by great Australian modernist artist Margaret Preston who lived here for a while from 1936. It’s called ‘I Lived at Berowra’ and belongs to the Art Gallery of NSW. Credits and link below. Enjoy your weekend!

M Preston Berowra.jpg.505x510_q85

© Margaret Rose Preston Estate

Notes from the Art Gallery of NSW web page: “In 1936, Margaret Preston moved with her husband to a new home at Berowra to live in a house surrounded by bushland a couple of kilometres from the Hawkesbury River, north of Sydney. ‘I lived at Berowra’ is among a number of works, including ‘The brown pot’ and ‘Grey day in the ranges’ that were painted within a three year period. They are characterized by a simplification of form, flattened perspectives and a reduced palette of earth-toned colours reminiscent of natural ochres found in the landscape, a visual expression of Preston’s increasing interest in Aboriginal art.”

© Australian Art Department, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2000

 

 

Spirit of Berowra

06 Sunday Apr 2014

Posted by Rody in Local

≈ Comments Off on Spirit of Berowra

Here’s a playlist of videos by Berowra residents that give a flavour of what it’s like to live in the best suburb on the planet.

Spirit of Berowra

Recent Posts

  • The Stranger cops it sweet
  • Lizard, somewhat bemused, replies to The Stranger…
  • The Resurrection and the Alienation Theory of History
  • Handel’s Messiah, a bird and the anti-climax of the Resurrection
  • Keats and Spontaneity: A Message for Our Times

Recent Comments

    Archives

    • June 2021
    • April 2021
    • February 2021
    • August 2020
    • March 2020
    • October 2019
    • August 2019
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • May 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017
    • March 2017
    • January 2017
    • October 2016
    • May 2016
    • December 2015
    • July 2015
    • May 2015
    • April 2015
    • January 2015
    • September 2014
    • August 2014
    • July 2014
    • June 2014
    • May 2014
    • April 2014
    • March 2014

    Categories

    • Correspondence
    • Deep and Meaningful
    • Festivals
    • He Ain't Heavy
    • Heritage
    • International
    • Local
    • Metro
    • Music
    • National
    • News
    • Saturday Sports Special

    Links

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • YouTube

    Proudly powered by WordPress Theme: Chateau by Ignacio Ricci.