Category: Music

  • This week’s Spotify playlist

    Each week a new playlist of music related to the blog contents and to world events is created. All the playlists in the series can be seen here and this week’s one can be heard via the player below or directly from the link. If you are a subscriber to Spotify you can hear all…

  • Men of the Trees

    Men of the Trees

    Trees feature heavily in this week’s blog. Perhaps it is because the first part of the week was spent planting new trees where the studio-on-the-hill is nearly complete, perhaps it is because of the less-than-judicious pruning and cutting out of invasive trees on the land, or perhaps it is just the zeitgeist. Whatever it is,…

  • Join a choir

    On Saturday 11th November at 2pm there will be a meeting about a new adult choir that I will be starting shortly. We will also be doing some singing so if you do not know if you would like to join a choir, come along to the Left Bank Art Gallery, Mawhera Greymouth at 2pm…

  • This week’s Spotify playlist

    Each week a curated set of music on Spotify accompanies the blog. The pieces relate to the blog contents and you can listen via the player below or by clicking the 3 … on the bottom right of the player and then clicking “Play on Spotify”. If you have a paid subscription to Spotify you…

  • Textiles of the Mbuti

    Over in the northeastern rainforest, the Ituri, of the Democratic Republic of the Congo live the Mbuti people who make unique barkcloth. Pounded out by men and decoratively planted by women, these cloths are worn or used to hang inside huts. If they are worn for ceremonial purposes they are called Pongo. This example in…

  • The Rugby

    South Africa’s Cape Town Camerata perform a song for the Rugby World Cup and the All Blacks perform their haka before The Big Game kicked off today. Now, who to support…

  • Hine e hine

    This week I was singing in a concert in Greymouth. The event is an annual affair by Centrestage, a women’s performing group, and they always invite others to take part. One of the pieces I chose to sing was Hine E Hine, written by Princess Te Rangi Pai/ Fanny Rose Porter in 1905. You can…

  • This week’s Spotify playlist

    Each week a selection of music is compiled into a playlist on Spotify, the music streaming app. The mix is related to items on the blog and to current events, and you can listen to it by clicking the play button on the Spotify app below. This week the music selection is based on songs…

  • This week’s Spotify playlist

    Each week a new playlist will be available for readers to listen to on Spotify. The music is selected because of its relevance to the blog or to the news. If you have a paid membership to the service you will hear the full length tracks and no advertisements. An unpaid membership plays advertisements every…

  • Appropriation or appreciation – who makes the decisions?

    The artist, Yinka Shonibare, has long employed art to explore and expose colonial attitudes, using cloth that originated in the Dutch colonies and that are now associated with Africa, to highlight the role of the textile industry in world trading relationships. It is a clear example of cultural appropriation. But sometimes the lines are blurry.…