Tagged: Germany

Season’s Greetings!

Glædelig jul! I had lots of travel this year with visits to the US, Japan, Thailand and Denmark, and many concerts, both at home and overseas. So let’s get into it …

The year started at home in Sydney with my regular swim mob, Wednesday night trivia at the Carlisle Castle in Newtown and a lot of travel planning. I also played barefoot bowls for the first time at nephew Ben’s 21st. Our subscription to the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s 2025 season started in February with some Brahms and Beethoven’s 7th symphony.

In March I had another couple of relaxed weeks in Hawaii, just on Oahu, swimming in the ocean and using a new camera. There I stayed in a great airbnb apartment with ocean views and again caught up with my US friend Jamie and some of her friends in Honolulu including the fun Pam and her hilarious partner Grover. A few of us went to a Hawaiian themed Cirque du Soleil performance that I really enjoyed and I attended three great Beethoven performances by the Hawaiian Symphony Orchestra: his 5th, 8th and 9th symphonies as they were playing a festival when I was there. By booking well ahead of my time in Hawaii I was for the first time able to visit Doris Duke’s Shangri-la (now the Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design) on the other side of Diamond Head.

I was at home again in April and Easter was with sister Mez, her husband Phil, Jan, Brian and Gregor came down from Newcastle. I think my highlight for the year was the ACO’s simply amazing concert with the wonderfully energetic cellist Abel Selaocoe. This was almost a life-changing experience. He is so talented. May was more of the same for me with my regular routine and another ACO concert

I spent about three weeks visiting Japan again in June because I found it so fascinating last year. This year I took the Shinkansen fast train to Kanazawa on the west coast and spent a week there. My time coincided with the Kanazawa festival, so I saw the Kaga Yuzen Lantern Floating on the river beside my airbnb and the spectacular Hyakumangoku Parade which is the festival highlight. Kanazawa has some great restaurants, a very cute old tea district, a big old castle as well as their historic old Samurai district and one of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan: Kenrokuen Garden. They also have a great MCA and the famous DT Suzuki Museum that is a brilliantly designed contemplative space. After a week there I took the Shinkansen back to Tokyo and had a spacious airbnb apartment just behind Ginza which is pretty convenient. I visited heaps of art and photography museums and saw a huge and brilliant Miro exhibition. I went to my first big baseball game at the Tokyo Dome and that was a pretty exciting experience. It is all so wonderful that I am heading back to Japan in 2026 to see more of Kyoto and Tokyo (this time in hotels with lap swimming pools!).

My longest trip this year was via a round-the-world ticket, taking in Bangkok, Copenhagen and New York. Bangkok was just a relaxing few days in a well situated hotel that has a beautiful 25m outdoor lap pool. Then it was on to Copenhagen via Helsinki (the Finnair stop). It was my second time in Copenhagen and I jagged a well situated, beautifully appointed airbnb in a traditional old apartment building. Once again I visited many museums, galleries and the Black Diamond Library but the highlight was a Banksy exhibition at MACA. I even spent some time over coffee with the exhibition curator! I took the train up to Louisiana MoMA to see it again and to see their huge Robert Longo exhibition, which was great. It was, however, really crowded. Before leaving for NYC, I walked down to the Copenhagen Ironman bike course (passing through the city) and photographed the race leaders. The canal water seemed too cold for swimming in Denmark, so I enjoyed staying in the luxurious Equinox hotel in Hudson Yards (NYC) that had an indoor lap pool that I used every day. Disappointingly, quite a few favourite museums were either closed, doing exhibition changeovers or had exhibitions of no interest to me, but I did enjoy my time in the Whitney, MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum and wandering around the 9/11 memorial area. Manhattan now has many new high rise buildings that I’d not see before, but I balanced the new with return visits to St Patrick’s cathedral, the Chrysler building and the Main Concourse in Grand Central Terminal.

Back home in Sydney I resumed my normal routine again, started planning a big trip to Sweden and Iceland in 2026 with Gregor of Newcastle and hosted a visit by Paulie of Canberra who was running the Sydney marathon. As well as our regular weekly trivia, the swim mob all went to drag trivia in Sydenham with Jackie Daniels. This year is my third year of regular Monday night rehearsals that started in October, with the 400-strong Radio Community Chest choir in St Stephen’s church in the city for our performance of Handel’s Messiah in the Sydney Town Hall on 13 and 14 December. We’ve had the last ACO concert that I enjoyed not a lot, but I am looking forward to another performance of Beethoven’s 9th in the Sydney Opera House and then a more intimate performance of Handel’s Messiah with the Pinchgut Opera in the City Recital Hall, Angel Place.

You can view a pictorial record of most of this in albums covering each trip/country here https://www.flickr.com/photos/malbooth/albums/ and I hope to provide separate updates about my Kindle reading and podcast listening on this blog as usual. Goodwill to you all!

Happy Holidays!

Wassail! Wassail Wassail! I began 2024 in Lorne, staying near Gary and swimming in the surf every day. I bought a fantastic big new painting at QDOS Fine Art and was able to photograph the famous Pier-to-Pub swim.

After driving back to Sydney via a night in Albury I got back into my regular grind of swimming with my gang at Victoria Park, regular ACO concerts with Gregor and Trivia nights at Carlisle Castle pub on Wednesday nights with the Olivia Newtown Johns team. There were also a few lunches with Gregor in Alexandria when he was down from Belmont volunteering at the ARHS. And some of the swim gang continued our semi-regular Friday night drinks, mostly when Roger was back in town. 

In March I had a couple of relaxed weeks in Hawaii, just on Oahu, swimming in the ocean and learning more about a new camera and lens. My long-time US friend Jamie was back there for most of it and once again she was really generous with her hosting. I have learnt a heap about Hawaiian culture thanks to her knowledge and guidance. I also was lucky enough to be there for the absolutely beautiful Nagaoka Fireworks which I photographed from Magic Island. I think these are the best I’ve seen.

Once again, Easter was with sister Mez, her husband Phil, Jan, Brian and Gregor came down from Newcastle.

I visited Japan for the first time in June and spent a couple of weeks there just in Tokyo and Kyoto, travelling between the cities on the Shinkansen fast train. I took a train to Nara for a day from Kyoto. I was amazed by just about everything that I saw and experienced and have already booked flights to go back in 2025. I didn’t manage to do any swimming but I did take a lot of photos and kept myself very busy seeing far too many temples and shrines and some fantastic exhibitions at various galleries and museums.

In July I made a quick trip to Bangkok, just for a week and this was my first visit for almost 40 years, the last time being for work. I was surprised by all the new high-rise and the modern transit systems, but the horrendous traffic has survived. I wandered around during the day with my camera and also did a fair bit of swimming as my hotel had a great and empty (of people) lap pool.  I also had a swim and a couple of pool-side lunches at the British Club (courtesy of my Tattersalls membership).

This year my major overseas trip was in September to Helsinki and Berlin (yes, again, I know). I had a full week by myself in Helsinki, where there are many museums and galleries and I also toured the historic and still well-used 1952 Olympic stadium. Once again I swam most days in the outdoor heated pool that floats in the Helsinki harbour. I then had two weeks racing around Berlin with Karen and Bruce. We went to a big concert and saw some great art and photography exhibitions. Bruce and I did some great photography excursions and it was great to catch up with their daughter Georgie and her boyfriend. I did manage to swim just about every day in the freezing Sommerbad Kreuzberg pool too. We also did a very enjoyable day trip by train to Potsdam. On my last full day I saw and photographed the Berlin Marathon, which basically shuts the city down, and I was amazed by the fast times.

Back in Sydney I tried to get back into my regular swimming routine and one of the highlights was a Coldplay concert out at Homebush with Mez and Phil that was very enjoyable. I also had regular Monday night rehearsals from October, with the 400-strong Radio Community Chest choir in St Stephen’s church in the city for our performance of Handel’s Messiah in the Sydney Town Hall on 21 and 22 December. This will be my second year of this.

My last trip away was in late November for just four days in Melbourne. I flew down for a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony by the MSO & Chorus. This was brilliant in the 200th anniversary year and the soloists were superb. I found a great airbnb apartment on the 66th floor of the Australia 108 building in Southbank and stayed there with Gary who came up from Lorne. The views were great and we took advantage of Melbourne’s art galleries, markets and restaurants.

You can view a pictorial record of most of this here www.flickr.com/photos/malbooth/ (highlights are in a previous post on this blog) and I hope to provide separate updates about my Kindle reading and podcast listening on this blog as usual. Goodwill to you all!

Andy Warhol: Velvet Rage and Beauty in Berlin

This post was taken down on Instagram because nudity (even in a globally significant art exhibition apparently) violates their “community guidelines”. Thanks so much for keeping us safe Meta. You have to be joking!

Anyway … while I was in Berlin in September 2024, I was fortunate to see Andy Warhol: Velvet Rage and Beauty at the Neue Nationalgalerie (one of my favourite museums and buildings). It is a huge exhibition including films, paintings, prints, records covers, photographs and drawings. I thought it was beautifully curated and very significant in terms of modern art.

So here are some photos that I took at the exhibition:

The Remarkable O’Riordans

For a couple of months now I’ve been digitising the magazines of Tattersall’s Club, Sydney (I’m a member). They let me take the scanner and a lot of magazines home during the Covid19 lockdown.

Recently, I’ve been working my way through the Second World War issues and on Friday 24 April 2020 I came across the February 1944 magazine that had a short article about the remarkable O’Riordan family from Sydney, two of whom were Tattersall’s Club members. I dug these details of their service mostly out of various online databases and archives from the Australian War Memorial.

Four members of the O’Riordan family served in both the First and Second World Wars. All are related to Tattersall’s Club member John O’Riordan :

John’s brother Dr Sydney Michael O’Riordan, MC served as a Captain and then Major with the Australian Army Medical Corps (AAMC) in the First World War. He was awarded his MC in 1918 for:

conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. During then later stages of an advance, when the infantry were under heavy fire, he established his aid post in an advanced position, and dealt very rapidly with the casualties. His initiative and coolness under heavy fire were an inspiration to all who came in contact with him.

He was serving as a Captain attached to the 13th Infantry Battalion in France. He again served as a Major with the AAMC in the Second World War between July 1941 and February 1942, attached to the 3rd Infantry Battalion. He died at Redfern in 1944.

Another brother of John, 403397 Flying Offr. Clifford Timothy O’Riordan was an Air Gunner with No 460 Squadron*, RAAF was killed in a flying battle over Germany on 30 July 1943. He is commemorated in the Becklingen War Cemetery, Luneburg, Germany and his name can be found on panel 108 of the Roll of Honour at the Australia War Memorial (AWM), Canberra. His name will be projected onto the exterior of the Hall of Memory on 12 May 2020 at 2:41am and on 3 August 2020 at 2:55am. He was a Tattersall’s Club member and had been admitted to the NSW Bar before enlisting in 1941. His own war diaries are held by the AWM and they’ve now been digitised. You can read a description of those diaries and also view or download them via this link: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C89812

One of John’s sons, NX113095 Sgt. John Michael O’Riordan served with the 1st Papuan Infantry Battalion, Australian Army. He was killed in action in New Guinea on 25 November 1943. John’s name is located on panel 76 of the Roll of Honour at the AWM. His name will be projected onto the exterior of the Hall of Memory on 2 June 2020 at 12:42am and on 2 August 2020 at 2:34am.

Another son was NX87133 Gunner James Clifford O’Riordan who served in the Army from February 1942 until December 1943, after which he transferred to the RAAF where he served as a 443862 Flight Sgt J.C. O’Riordan until October 1945.

I reckon that is very sad but also truly remarkable for the one family.

* Some hours after initially posting this I realised that 460 Squadron, RAAF was familiar to me. It was first formed as a heavy bomber unit in 1941 and is commemorated at the Australian War Memorial by the famous Avro Lancaster bomber “G for George”. 460 Squadron flew as part of RAF Bomber Command and was a multi-national unit with most of its personnel being Australian. It flew the most sorties of any Australian bomber squadron in the RAF bombing campaign against Germany and Italy, but lost 188 aircraft and suffered 1,018 combat deaths, 588 of whom were Australian. RAF Bomber Command represented only two percent of total Australian enlistments during the Second World War, but accounted for 4,136 fatalities (3,486 killed in action and 650 in training accidents of approximately 10,000 RAAF personnel who served with Bomber Command). RAF Bomber Command sustained Australia’s highest casualty rates in the Second World War.

Film Review: “In The Fade” #SydFilmFest 2017

In The Fade is a modern thriller set mostly in Germany, around Berlin I think. It is well worth seeing if you like this kind of thing. Diane Kruger plays a mother and wife who has her life torn apart when her husband and son are brutally murdered in a bomb attack. We witness her grief, the emotional ordeal of sitting through the trial of the suspected bombers, and her hunt for revenge following their acquittal.

I think Diane Kruger is brilliant. I’ve seen and enjoyed her performances in several other things, but she is again completely different in this: almost unrecognisable and convincingly German to my eyes and ears.

The story is well told and paced, but along the way we do see the director, Fatih Akin’s exploration of many things that are wrong with contemporary society: in particular the violence of radicalisation, the irrational fear of those who are different and the innocent lives lost as a result. We also observe a mother’s tragic unconditional love for her lost family. Entertaining with a strong message. 4/5