(no subject)
So, tonight we put the clocks back, and daylight savings comes to a finish. To me, in a way, this signifies the End of Summer. No more long sunny evenings and bbqs, no more scorching days and beach trips and thunderstorms. It's time for winter, the season of darkness and cold fronts... and of course, those beautiful high pressure systems that sit over us for days on end, with those crisp blue mornings and bright sun. Well, really, we're already experiencing that weather and, facing facts, we haven't had much of a summer to speak of this year anyway. Not that La Nina isn't a great thing for the crops and such, but I do prefer El Nino summers.
But still, Sydney has two seasons, Summer and Not-Summer, and tomorrow we begin the second. I remember, not too long ago, and in years past and such, I see Americans and other Northern-Hemisphere people complaining about the loss of an hour, wondering why it has to come so early in the year, bemoaning the very existence of daylight savings, and I always wonder... why? Every year, I await the coming of daylight savings with joyous anticipation, every year I am saddened by its end. If I had my way, it would be daylight savings all year round, really - I mean, who needs that extra light in the morning? But the darkness of the evenings, ah, it's a sad time.
Oh well, what's to do? Although, considering how they seem to extend it every year, there'll come a time when we'll spend more than half the year in daylight savings. And perhaps, eventually, this will become almost the norm, with three months of "daylight losings" in wintertime. Well, so far as we HAVE a winter. Hehe.
Still, farewell to another summer. For all your ambivalent weather, and the sad paucity of beach expeditions, it's been fun. And I'm going to be counting the months til you return.
On another note, last night I went to see the musical of Billy Elliot. It was really very good (so much better than Shout!, which I got free tickets to last week). The music didn't especially grab me, but the way the show was structured, and the acting, and the directing, and the choreography, and the staging! Oh, Capitol Theatre is a brilliant venue, I need to see more shows there. The children were astoundingly talented and, having been so long since I saw the movie that i barely remember it, I was very impressed by the plot. The way they interspersed the reality of the riots and the miner's strike of '84 with the ballet dancing was fantastic, particularly one scene where both events were happening simultaneously, in and between and around each other... it was truly brilliant. And, of course, watching it made me think of one of my very favourite movies, Brassed Off!, which is about the pit closures in '94, in the context of a colliery brass band. So I rewatched that this morning - the music, the acting, all superb, and the way it touches your heart... wow.
But between them, they make you think... coming from an upper-middle-class perspective, coal is a shocking industry, very harmful to both the environment AND the people who work there - look at them suffering and dying in the movie. It's a disgusting, thankless job, and to my perspective, they should be glad for the closure, glad for the excuse to up and leave and find some better employment. And yet... there they are, fighting to keep open the very things that are killing them, an industry which gives them no skills but to stay and die there. And yet, you almost begin to see how their lives, their communities, revolve around these mines; because, of course, we all know that when a mine closes, the town around it dies off sooner or later...
I dunno, it's just... kind of strange, realising how different a world we live in. And wondering how big an issue this still is, and things like it, which we in our happy suburban lives pay little attention to. In our fight for renewable energy, for reducing deforestation, for reducing oil, for all these things to help the environment which so desperately needs it... how many more people are we depriving of life and livelihood, of hope and purpose?
And when it comes down to it... I don't think we want to know.
But still, Sydney has two seasons, Summer and Not-Summer, and tomorrow we begin the second. I remember, not too long ago, and in years past and such, I see Americans and other Northern-Hemisphere people complaining about the loss of an hour, wondering why it has to come so early in the year, bemoaning the very existence of daylight savings, and I always wonder... why? Every year, I await the coming of daylight savings with joyous anticipation, every year I am saddened by its end. If I had my way, it would be daylight savings all year round, really - I mean, who needs that extra light in the morning? But the darkness of the evenings, ah, it's a sad time.
Oh well, what's to do? Although, considering how they seem to extend it every year, there'll come a time when we'll spend more than half the year in daylight savings. And perhaps, eventually, this will become almost the norm, with three months of "daylight losings" in wintertime. Well, so far as we HAVE a winter. Hehe.
Still, farewell to another summer. For all your ambivalent weather, and the sad paucity of beach expeditions, it's been fun. And I'm going to be counting the months til you return.
On another note, last night I went to see the musical of Billy Elliot. It was really very good (so much better than Shout!, which I got free tickets to last week). The music didn't especially grab me, but the way the show was structured, and the acting, and the directing, and the choreography, and the staging! Oh, Capitol Theatre is a brilliant venue, I need to see more shows there. The children were astoundingly talented and, having been so long since I saw the movie that i barely remember it, I was very impressed by the plot. The way they interspersed the reality of the riots and the miner's strike of '84 with the ballet dancing was fantastic, particularly one scene where both events were happening simultaneously, in and between and around each other... it was truly brilliant. And, of course, watching it made me think of one of my very favourite movies, Brassed Off!, which is about the pit closures in '94, in the context of a colliery brass band. So I rewatched that this morning - the music, the acting, all superb, and the way it touches your heart... wow.
But between them, they make you think... coming from an upper-middle-class perspective, coal is a shocking industry, very harmful to both the environment AND the people who work there - look at them suffering and dying in the movie. It's a disgusting, thankless job, and to my perspective, they should be glad for the closure, glad for the excuse to up and leave and find some better employment. And yet... there they are, fighting to keep open the very things that are killing them, an industry which gives them no skills but to stay and die there. And yet, you almost begin to see how their lives, their communities, revolve around these mines; because, of course, we all know that when a mine closes, the town around it dies off sooner or later...
I dunno, it's just... kind of strange, realising how different a world we live in. And wondering how big an issue this still is, and things like it, which we in our happy suburban lives pay little attention to. In our fight for renewable energy, for reducing deforestation, for reducing oil, for all these things to help the environment which so desperately needs it... how many more people are we depriving of life and livelihood, of hope and purpose?
And when it comes down to it... I don't think we want to know.