Shoe tossing – urban myths abound One evening while walking through our town, I spotted a pair of shoes flung over power lines. They were hanging by the laces, which had been tied together to form a loop. There they hung, like galahs waiting for the rain. My Dad’s voice entered stage left: ‘What wee bawheid* wasted a guid pair of shoes like that?” My sentiments entirely. The old man had five years in the…
One evening in April, a Kiwi songwriter friend living in London posted a YouTube video by the London Humanist Choir, performing a love song in Māori. The video of New Zealand’s unofficial anthem, Pokarekare Ana, was, as we are now accustomed, a multi-screen video with choir members recording their parts remotely. I shared this with a few Kiwi friends who live elsewhere, knowing it would tug at the tendrils of homesickness, which are almost always…
Most of my musician friends spend time on Facebook, so that’s why I probably saw so many of those ‘10 albums which influenced your musical tastes’ challenges. It is no surprise this diversion has become popular in the uncertain time of COVID-19 because it allowed us to yearn, just a little, for those carefree days when music helped shape our lives. You can tell how much the ‘challenge’ means, as so many participants cannot leave…
One Tuesday morning recently I tiptoed into an auditorium and onto the stage, threading my way through the U3A ukulele group to take the one vacant seat. I arrived at the Senior Citizens rooms at 10am but we were supposed to be there at 9.30am. The group was up to song three (Maggie) by then. So I calmly set up my music stand, took the baritone uke out of the bag and joined in at…