Love
Last night we went to see Arthur Lee & Love play the Gaelic Club. I’d never heard of these guys before last winter in NYC, although they’d been favourites of Meera’s for a long time. Our friend Pam took us with her partner Dan to a particularly hip Village music store (Fela boxset – I still want it, even though I’ve got plenty - on the wall, stacks of vinyl among the CDs) where we picked up a 2-CD set of the early recordings. This is some terrific pyschedelia, and it was immediately apparent in the recordings where the Doors got a fair bit of their aural schtick. I’ve been a fan ever since, and although we missed Mr. Lee at the Knitting Factory before we left town, I was pleased to see him making enough of a comeback to mount a world tour. Not everyone can (although the Violent Femmes were at the Metro recently, and who would’ve expected that? Still, no comparison for length-of-hiatus). The show was terrific, with an all-new line-up, of course, and Mr. Lee took some warming up it seemed to me. The crowd, as they so often are these days and in these venues, was enjoying socializing more than the performance in front of them, but that didn’t detract significantly from what was happening on stage. The Love sound was at its best when Mr. Lee added a third guitar to the mix, and although there wasn’t any new material, who went there expecting any? The godfathers of the Sydney music scene were also out in force, grooving to the tunes.

Moving in
We also “settled,” which is what one does to complete a real estate transaction here (rather than “close,” which is what we do in NYC), so our Reservoir Street home is ours now; we can move in whenever we like, and we like this weekend. Today is a public holiday (which distinguishes it from a regular holiday, which is what vacations are called here, something we distinguish in the US by giving it its own word), and we’ll spend the day packing what isn’t still in boxes from our last move. It’s a period of transition, so I’m not altogether certain when the phones will be up or the internet switched on (now that we’re permanently settled, we’re getting ADSL). We’re very excited.

Easter
This is the big one, the holiday that surpasses all others. Christmas in the US would be the comparable holiday. Those who know of holidays in the states might think Thanksgiving, but that’s a secular holiday. The distinction passes right by many people these days, but it’s still an important one. The Christmas tradition of decorating and exchanging gifts makes it obvious why this would have achieved the measure of cultural dominance it has elsewhere, but why Easter should be as important as it is in Australia seems mysterious, though from a Christian perspective it is altogether appropriate, as the ultimately more significant event in the theology.