Reviews I try to keep up, but most of the music reviews I read are disappointing in the end, so when I finally broke down and picked up the debut CD from Lorde I was not only greatly relieved to quite like the music but also very impressed. Now I don't know if the sophomore effort will match the excellence on display with "Pure Heroine" but I also don't think I care. This is an artist to follow for a while. It may be that, like many solo acts, Lorde doesn't immediately show the kind of growth that an ensemble act might, the various creatives push against each other to keep things fresh, and it may be the case that the second album is the stuff that didn't make the cut for the first blow-them-away effort, but I don't get that impression here. Lorde shows an independence and a creativity that shows just how deep her artistry goes, how far she'll push herself from the start. Her lyrics are insightful, honest, and poetic, but don't get sappy or shy away from the points she wants to make, without getting in your face. If you can't deal, that's your problem, and fair enough. I've got "Royals" stuck on replay in my head and I'm liking it. Bring it, kid; I'm in it for the long haul if you are. I've seen a lot of movies across a fair swath of genres, often in subtitles. One of my new favourites: The Great Beauty. This has to be one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen on film. It is often terribly funny, but then as often deeply touching, or disturbing, or sorrowful. How do you feel for someone like Jep Gambardella, whose talents have been so beautifully wasted, and who, at the same time, can both recognize this and completely miss it? Toni Servillo is a very expressive actor, his mobile face conveying so much that his words and his silences can belie. The film could be Fellini's but doesn't fail in its modernity. We are dealing with a contemporary, those of us of an age, that is, although I dare say there are many much younger who would do well to heed the message: don't deny beauty when you find it or you deny yourself.

Fun, Fun, Fun Every year I go to Vivid. There is always something worth going to. Last year, maybe I made the wrong choices, but not this year. Kraftwerk reprising their 8 iconic albums was not to be missed. The Sydney Opera House, however, should be ashamed. Look at the view from our seats: For this I had to go into a lottery, because the Opera House knew demand would be huge - and it was. Sold out on the floor immediately, and a secondary lottery set up for the balconies, including those so far off to the side that the tickets came marked: "No view; listening only." It was a little better than that, but only just. Lucky for us the people in the pair of seats in the very front row didn't show up. We moved up and got this much better: Still shameless, but we could use the 3D glasses for the animation on the screen behind them, and leaning forward could see them at work. Hilarious, really. I mean these are serious musicians, but aside from sometimes adding a bit of a live chant and twiddling dials and so forth they could have beamed it in over the internet. But I wouldn't have missed this for the world. They invented this stuff, and it's technically and artistically important, even for pop music. I think they had fun, too, but it was a little hard to tell. But on Sunday, the view we got from our walk across from Palm Beach was from the best seats in the house, even if it was a 60 degree slog to get there for the first kilometer or so. Nice weekend, all up.