Return to Oz

I landed in Sydney at five p.m. on Christmas Day. Deep within my bones, a hunger, which had lain dormant for months, was given unrelenting voice. My stare became a search as eyes drew in every possible ray of light- which seemed to fall brighter and bluer from the broad Australian sky. In the first quiet moments, standing in front of the unusually still, Eucalypt-ringed airport, winter was forgotten and I was welcomed home. There is a universal homecoming experience, and then, there is coming home for Australians- we who've lived long from our far-flung island home.

I like to jest that Aussie's need to recharge every year or so, returning to a land where life is lived in accord, prosperity and unrivaled natural quality- to reset our guides on what is important, replenish that which we have given or the world has taken from us, and finally get some decent asian food. And from this deep place within me, this place that I only let myself listen to when my feet are moments from my native soil, it is all utterly true. An important part of my psyche needs this return, this clarity and this space, and in the final days of 2008 this need was paramount.

 

2008 was a indeed blessing. Two months traveling across Argentina and Brazil, a beautiful relationship and a parting of ways, beginning with a new organisation and a new bar for learning, the opportunity and challenge of again leading a team of brilliant minds and now managing a studio. I experienced extremes of profound insight and reflection and acute dissatisfaction and entanglement that have left me indelibly marked and already set new directions in what has been made of 2009. And after this year, I knew I needed to take stock back in Australia, to genuinely reconnect with my family and friends, to again dwell long in places that had raised me, to step outside of life's waterfall for some moments and choose which river will next carry me forward. 

It was all of these things, and more. I surfed at Manly every second day, saw Test Cricket at the SCG, took beers by the Opera House, had meaningful discussions with truly wonderful people- relations old and new. But when I sat again on the long flights back to Amsterdam- what struck me most was the time I'd spent forging meaning relationships with my family; playing golf with Dad, seeing a Monet exhibition with Mum, and taking Tilly to a music festival on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon. It was these moments, and all the collective dinners and late evening discussions, that made the 34,000 kilometres unquestionably worthwhile- and made it easy to leave once again, upon this journey that knows no end. 

Days Like This

Tilly and I made the most of "Days Like This" festival, which coincided nicely with my trip back to Oz this January. Kicking off from a supremely sunny Sydney Sunday, ranging into a long, relaxed afternoon and well into one of those summer nights in which the warm breeze seems to hold you almost above the ground. The line up was unbelievable, so I've posted some great tracks below. Enjoy.

Atmosphere, from Minnesota, play Lovelife.


Brother Ali,from Minnesota, rhymes a cappella.


Fat Freddy's Drop, from New Zealand, perform "Dark Days"


Mr Scruff, from England, plays "Get a Move On"


Flying Lotus, from California, playing "Fly Lo's Like Wo"


DJ Vadim, from Russia, plays Milwaukee

A Thought for 2009

The mystery does not get clearer by repeating the question,

nor is it bought with going to amazing places.

Until you've kept your eyes

and your wanting still for fifty years,

you don't begin to cross over from confusion. 

- Rumi (مولانا جلال الدین محمد رومی)