Category: Music

  • The Spotify playlist

    Each week a playlist is curated on the Spotify platform for readers to listen to while browsing the blog. The tracks on the playlist have something to do with the blog entries, sometimes obviously and sometimes less so. To listen, click on the player above or head over to Spotify where you can search for…

  • Iceland and the poetry of weaving

    The Nordic nation of Iceland sits on the Mid Atlantic Ridge, midway between Europe and North America. Wild, windswept, beautiful, bleak and filled with fire and ice, the country is a romantic’s dream, an island of Vikings and sagas,… and art. While the music of Iceland is well-known, and it boasts a fine pedigree in…

  • Rise Kagona

    Back in the 1980s as the world awakened to what we now know as “world music” the sounds of the Bhundu Boys made centerstage. The band were Zimbabwe’s biggest export with a unique sound and energy, and one its founders passed away in September: Rise Kagona. In 1980, Rhodesia became Zimbabwe after the Independence War,…

  • This week’s Spotify playlist

    Each week a playlist of audio is compiled and curated to go with the articles in the blog. The tracks have something to do with the blog entries and you can read about the links in a separate article on the blog. To listen to the playlist click on the player above or head over…

  • Iris van Herpen

    Iris van Herpen, the Dutch fashion designer, has just completed a show in Brisbane: Sculpting the Senses. The original show in Paris in 2023 provided the inspiration for the Australian exhibition, which included film, visual art, sculpture, photography and installations as well as the designer’s interpretations of the surrounding worlds around her. Thanks to a…

  • This week’s Spotify playlist

    Each week the blog features a playlist that relates to its entries. The playlist is hosted on Spotify and you can listen to the audio on the player above or by heading over to Spotify on the Web or in the platform’s app. A search for “Music to read a blog by” will bring up…

  • Writing Cia-Cia… in Hangul

    Cia-Cia is a language spoken by 93,000 Indonesians on Buton Island but written in Hangul, the Korean alphabet. In 2008 this unusual pairing started with the arrival to Seoul National University of two teachers from the island, who came in to learn Hangul. One did not stay but the other, a Cia-Cia man, completed the…

  • An evolution for the blog

    Recently a reader asked about the links between the Spotify playlist and the articles on the blog. Each of the pieces that is on the playlist has something to do with the articles, but sometimes the links are not obvious and that led to this reader asking “What is the link?”. So, for those of…

  • The South Sea Islanders

    In 1863 a group of 67 labourers arrived in Brisbane, the first of 62,000 people from 80 Melanesian islands who endured forced migration to provide cheap labour to Australia’s cotton and sugar industries. This influx of people, which lasted until 1904, brought a new dynamic to the country, but many of the recent arrivals were…

  • The Spotify playlist

    Each week a playlist of audio is curated to go alongside the articles on the blog. There is always a link with the articles although sometimes it is less obvious than others. To listen click on the player above or go to Spotify and search for “Music to read a blog by”. Paying subscribers to…