First blog of the year! That's exciting. I actually wanted to write sooner, but things were crazy. As usual. Things always seem to be crazy for me. So I was home last time I wrote. Went for the nieces bat mitzvah. Did I tell you about that? In a nutshell, my nieces now live permanently in California and decided to have a bat mitzvah, even if it is a few years late. And before the bat mitzvah, they both underwent a formal conversion. I am, of course, super proud of them. It makes me kind of really emotional to think about how much better their life has become, and how a Jewish life and our family is what they've chosen. Kind of amazing. I'm a pretty proud uncle. So of course I had to be at the bat mitzvah. And spent a couple weeks home at the same time.
Then I flew back to Australia with my friend Mike. Mike has been promising to come visit me every year for the last 10 years. No exaggeration. And now he finally has! So that was exciting. We actually both took off late on Dec 24 and landed early on Dec 26, completely losing out on Christmas. Which, as Jews, neither of us care about, but I find it pretty funny. We spent the first few days of his trip in Sydney doing some touristy things. Although I did also work while he did touristy things. And he helped me buy lamps and hang a bunch of stuff around my apartment so that it finally feels like home. With his help, I actually finally feel like I have a home. There was one evening we were sitting at my place, and I looked around, and it was the first time I really felt like I like where I live. Which was a fantastic feeling. Some of the highlights of his stay were finding a new favorite restaurant (Bodega. It's 2 min from my apartment. I'll take you.), taking photos with koalas and kangaroos and wallabies and other animals, and finding a new favorite walk in Sydney (Hermitage Foreshore Walk. If you come and want to go to Bondi, I will take you here instead). So it was a great chance for me to start exploring Sydney, especially now that I feel like I don't have to spend all of my time just rushing to get settled.
Then on New Year's we went to New Zealand. Mike decided that if he was coming all the way to Australia, he also wanted to go to New Zealand. Which does not bother me at all because I love New Zealand. A lot. Like probably "Top 5" a lot. Although I have to say: Auckland - not so impressive. If you go to New Zealand, go to Wellington. But we spent a great New Year's eve, first with my friend Beth and her friends/friends' family eating a feast, and then outdoors on the waterfront at a music festival. Great way to ring in the new year! And on January 1st, we watched tennis. First time for me to actually watch tennis, and it was pretty fun. I always find that as much as I don't like sports, going to live sports is totally different, and actually enjoyable (or at least bearable). But yeah, this was great, and we got to see Venus Williams play. That was a treat. We also took a day trip over to Waiheke island for some wineries (go to Mudbrick. It is my new favorite place. I want to live there. And they make great wine). Then we went down to Rotorua to see some Redwoods and hot springs. Honestly that part was pretty disappointing, because I had it in my head to see amazing landscapes based on photos I'd seen online. But what I had in mind were the lava fields, I think, and that is not where we went. So it just didn't match my expectations, unfortunately. But still very nice, and I finally go to see the New Zealand Redwoods, which I've wanted to do for a long time.
Once the New Zealand trip ended, I came back to Sydney and got sick. So I spent a couple days just sitting at home watching TV and taking medicine. And then I went back to work. But also in there, my friend Jason and his wife Heather were passing through Sydney, so we go to hang out, which was fantastic. He's one of these old friends I see every 3 years or so and don't really talk to in between, but can just pick up where we left off. They're the best. And his wife is great. We did a bit of exploring (by water this time, on a harbour cruise) and then way out to the western suburbs of Sydney where a lot of foreigners will end up settling to try some Bangladeshi food. They were told by their driver that it's like Indian food but with more flavor. I don't know if that's true, but it is definitely like Indian food but also not. And it is also great. And I love food and new things and exploring. So that was great. And I also went to my first two concerts of the year (more on that later). And I had my first date since I got to Sydney. With a nice, Jewish girl who is also a doctor. Pretty good, right? Hopefully there will be another.
So 2019 is off to a strong start! So let's give you some strong music to start you off.
Well, to be honest, the first song is not super strong, but the artist is. The artist being D'Angelo. Who is one of the best artists. Period. He's amazing. And he's put out a track called Unshaken for the Red Dead Redemption 2 soundtrack. It is kind of country, which is kind of weird. At first, I didn't actually think it was him. He sings extremely low. Plus the whole country thing. But the video game is an old western. So it makes sense for that. And I guess he's emulating an old timey country singer, maybe? I'm not sure. It's kind of a weird song that does not sound like D'Angelo at all. But the fact that it exists is very exciting. And hopefully means more music will exist soon. Plus towards the end he goes into a bit of his crazy falsetto stuff. Anyway, worth noting.
The other song of note today is Cola, the debut single by 18 year-old Londoner Arlo Parks. She is impressive. There's a lot of these impressive London youth's lately (i.e. Nilufer Yanya, Georgia, I don't know who else right now but lots more). I read a really great one-liner about Arlo in an article, actually, which sums her up quite nicely.
By the time she reached 17, she shaved her head, figured out she was bisexual and produced/wrote an album’s worth of material.
Impressive, right? Also, she says she wants to write songs the way Haruki Murakami writes novels. What's not to love about that? So she is definitely one to watch, for many reasons. Far from least of which is Cola.
Then I flew back to Australia with my friend Mike. Mike has been promising to come visit me every year for the last 10 years. No exaggeration. And now he finally has! So that was exciting. We actually both took off late on Dec 24 and landed early on Dec 26, completely losing out on Christmas. Which, as Jews, neither of us care about, but I find it pretty funny. We spent the first few days of his trip in Sydney doing some touristy things. Although I did also work while he did touristy things. And he helped me buy lamps and hang a bunch of stuff around my apartment so that it finally feels like home. With his help, I actually finally feel like I have a home. There was one evening we were sitting at my place, and I looked around, and it was the first time I really felt like I like where I live. Which was a fantastic feeling. Some of the highlights of his stay were finding a new favorite restaurant (Bodega. It's 2 min from my apartment. I'll take you.), taking photos with koalas and kangaroos and wallabies and other animals, and finding a new favorite walk in Sydney (Hermitage Foreshore Walk. If you come and want to go to Bondi, I will take you here instead). So it was a great chance for me to start exploring Sydney, especially now that I feel like I don't have to spend all of my time just rushing to get settled.
Then on New Year's we went to New Zealand. Mike decided that if he was coming all the way to Australia, he also wanted to go to New Zealand. Which does not bother me at all because I love New Zealand. A lot. Like probably "Top 5" a lot. Although I have to say: Auckland - not so impressive. If you go to New Zealand, go to Wellington. But we spent a great New Year's eve, first with my friend Beth and her friends/friends' family eating a feast, and then outdoors on the waterfront at a music festival. Great way to ring in the new year! And on January 1st, we watched tennis. First time for me to actually watch tennis, and it was pretty fun. I always find that as much as I don't like sports, going to live sports is totally different, and actually enjoyable (or at least bearable). But yeah, this was great, and we got to see Venus Williams play. That was a treat. We also took a day trip over to Waiheke island for some wineries (go to Mudbrick. It is my new favorite place. I want to live there. And they make great wine). Then we went down to Rotorua to see some Redwoods and hot springs. Honestly that part was pretty disappointing, because I had it in my head to see amazing landscapes based on photos I'd seen online. But what I had in mind were the lava fields, I think, and that is not where we went. So it just didn't match my expectations, unfortunately. But still very nice, and I finally go to see the New Zealand Redwoods, which I've wanted to do for a long time.
Once the New Zealand trip ended, I came back to Sydney and got sick. So I spent a couple days just sitting at home watching TV and taking medicine. And then I went back to work. But also in there, my friend Jason and his wife Heather were passing through Sydney, so we go to hang out, which was fantastic. He's one of these old friends I see every 3 years or so and don't really talk to in between, but can just pick up where we left off. They're the best. And his wife is great. We did a bit of exploring (by water this time, on a harbour cruise) and then way out to the western suburbs of Sydney where a lot of foreigners will end up settling to try some Bangladeshi food. They were told by their driver that it's like Indian food but with more flavor. I don't know if that's true, but it is definitely like Indian food but also not. And it is also great. And I love food and new things and exploring. So that was great. And I also went to my first two concerts of the year (more on that later). And I had my first date since I got to Sydney. With a nice, Jewish girl who is also a doctor. Pretty good, right? Hopefully there will be another.
So 2019 is off to a strong start! So let's give you some strong music to start you off.
Well, to be honest, the first song is not super strong, but the artist is. The artist being D'Angelo. Who is one of the best artists. Period. He's amazing. And he's put out a track called Unshaken for the Red Dead Redemption 2 soundtrack. It is kind of country, which is kind of weird. At first, I didn't actually think it was him. He sings extremely low. Plus the whole country thing. But the video game is an old western. So it makes sense for that. And I guess he's emulating an old timey country singer, maybe? I'm not sure. It's kind of a weird song that does not sound like D'Angelo at all. But the fact that it exists is very exciting. And hopefully means more music will exist soon. Plus towards the end he goes into a bit of his crazy falsetto stuff. Anyway, worth noting.
The other song of note today is Cola, the debut single by 18 year-old Londoner Arlo Parks. She is impressive. There's a lot of these impressive London youth's lately (i.e. Nilufer Yanya, Georgia, I don't know who else right now but lots more). I read a really great one-liner about Arlo in an article, actually, which sums her up quite nicely.
By the time she reached 17, she shaved her head, figured out she was bisexual and produced/wrote an album’s worth of material.
Impressive, right? Also, she says she wants to write songs the way Haruki Murakami writes novels. What's not to love about that? So she is definitely one to watch, for many reasons. Far from least of which is Cola.
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