Art and Abart

Have you ever heard Nessun Dorma sung to the tune of Funiculì, Funiculà ? No? Well people who attended the Roberto Alagna concert at the S...

You wouldn't think that someone suffering from a high level of cerebral palsy would be able to play a music instrument would you? Nor wo...

Impassioned, fun, fabulous, mesmerizing. Yes, all of those things describe the Sequenza Italiana concert given by musicians of the Austr...

I had an experience today that I find very difficult to describe.  It was a drab old day in Sydney, not cold but with lowering clouds a...

In the 1970/80s I lived in Germany and suffered culture shock. I learned the language quickly but a culture is much more than its language a...

Sunset today Who can resist them, beautiful sunsets? The sunset this evening was a stunner, with the gods shining a red torch on the u...

Those with more education vote to stay (Guardian newspaper) The Scots have a very long tradition of respect for education, believing tha...

They Brexited and everyone seems to be in a state of shock, though I don't know why. It seems to me that the British people have been sk...

The woman in the seat next to me at the Australia Piano Quartet concert at the Sydney Opera House Utzon Room yesterday was reduced to tear...

Lang Lang at the Sydney Opera House last night (Photo by Christie Brewster from SSO Facebook page) I saw virtuoso pianist Lang Lang play...

"Don't throw it away before you need to, you just create more landfill," said the technician when I told him my heat pump was ...

I am a sucker for Ikea build-it-yourself furniture. My favorite toy as a child was a Meccano set and Ikea is Meccano for adults. I doubt I w...

The Australian Chamber Orchestra is a phenomenon. Last week I saw them play a concert of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven 's Grosse Fuge ...

When I was in Paris last year one of the few things I bought was some tea from the Dammann Tea shop.  It was labeled Earl Grey Yin  Zhen I ...

Back to things more prosaic -  in this case, guttering. The gutters on this old house were long past their replace-date and when they were r...

Kurtis: acrylic on canvas 100 x 70 cm My portrait of eleven year old Kurtis is finished. It is a large work (though not ginormous) but ...

Last week when I heard the Katie Noonen singing with the Brodsky Quartet (broadcast from Brisbane by ABC ClassicFM) I was sorry I hadn't...

When I saw that the Omega Ensemble had put Wagner's Tristan and Isolde Vorspiel and Lebenstod at the beginning of their concert program...

Captain Cook .  St Kilda Park, Melbourne. If you stand on a pedestal, sooner or later this is what will happen to you. You'd loo...

There are two ways to get to Melbourne airport from the city. You can take the speedy private Skybus for $18 or you can take public transpo...