bentenlaughing

Now that we are through the worst of the situation, for the moment, on the far south coast of New South Wales, Australia, we are safe. And the good news is that solid rain is forecast for the entire south eastern region of Australia in the coming days, which promises to finally put this crisis to and end, a crisis that began in September and has continued to ravage our lands, our lives and our lungs. So our attention now can safely turn to recovery and rebuilding our communities.  We are passionate gardeners and have planted a food forest of over 300 plant species at our home. This includes greens for daily eating, as well as tomatoes and pumpkins, but also fruit and nut trees and herbs such as All Spice, Cinnamon and Lemon Myrtle. What we are presently looking for is soil donations so we can collect plant cuttings to give to our friends who have thankfully saved their houses, but faced with the blackness every day of looking at scorched lands.  Many people in ...

A note on climate-change and music composition. This morning ash and charred leaves fell as I put shade cloth on my vegie patch (while wearing a mask).  I am living in a poorly insulated rental property which seems to heat up quickly and cool down slowly, and I have a chronic health condition (ME/CFS) which is exacerbated by the poor air quality. I don’t feel the need to ponder the intricacies of climate change and its causative impact on the current fire situation and impending heatwaves in my local area. This is not my area of expertise. But it appears (in addition to my somewhat disturbing subjective reality) that the science is in and there is no room for dispute. I will instead focus here on the relationship between music composition and climate change, as that is something rarely (if ever) considered. What is the relationship between climate change and our current way of “doing” the arts in general and music composition in particular? I would have to argue the ...