Archive for March, 2009
Cowboy Junkies
The stealth with which Margo Timmins’ voice envelopes the senses and emotions of her audience can be almost frightening, precisely because she’s so humble and unassuming. The hypnotic chanteuse and her brother Michael bring their Cowboy Junkies on a ‘Winter Waltz’ tour back to New York to promote their eighth album, ‘Rarities, B-Sides and Slow Sad Waltzes’. This album mixes up some driving folk-rock with some of the haunting etherea that made ‘Caution Horses’ and ‘The Trinity Sessions’ such compelling work. And if the audience is blessed, she’ll reprise such classics as ‘Misguided Angel’, ‘Sun Comes Up, It’s Tuesday Morning’ and the Cowboy Junkies’ otherworldly cover of ‘Sweet Jane’.
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Prague Spring Week III
The city’s hallmark classical fest this week features James Levine and the Met Orchestra, performing Mozart, Ives, Strauss and Dvorak. Incredibly, the Met is just one of the dozens of stellar concerts of the Prague Spring, the half-century-old celebration of an independent Czech state. Other events in various venues this week include violin virtuoso Catherine Mackintosh, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Kuhn Male Choir and the Emperor String Quartet.
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Australia
While the Outback grit and generosity pervade the country, other regions boast their own unique qualities. Sydney and Melbourne, beyond engaging in an incessant squabble about which city retains cultural supremacy, provide the backbone to the cosmopolitan center of the country. Graced by green parks, world-renowned theatres, and robust nightlife, these cities attract a diverse international community and spawn eclectic neighborhoods where Thai cuisine is as predominant as Australian meatpies and a Greek accent is as common as an Australian twang.
North of Sydney, the string of gorgeous beaches along the eastern seaboard lure an even longer line of barefoot, barely clad backpackers. Largely an international community sprinkled with a healthy dose of Aussies, these bands of tanned youth head north in search of the perfect wave and the craziest party. The young personalities with their Bali-made sarongs add color to the otherwise sleepy Queensland towns.
Just beyond the buzz of backpacker culture, one finds the genuine appeal of the tropical north. The Great Barrier Reef, with its colorful underwater landscapes and abundant marine life, continues to dazzle visitors and earn its reputation as a great natural wonder. In the turquoise waters of the South Pacific and the lush of Cape Tribulation, there is an inspiring beauty that is unique to Australia and almost unparalleled in the rest of the world.
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