Scan, Toss, Repeat

Once again I am attending a library conference that has little or nothing to do with books. This has been the case with annoying regularity in recent years; speakers that wax eloquent about "user experience" and "resource sharing" all while holding on to their precious smart phones. In fact, that is exactly what their audience is doing. I have attended two sessions this morning and inside the darkened lecture hall one can see the majority of the audience faces illuminated by the glow of their little toys while the speaker attempts to gain their limited attention.

This is particularly sad in the case of Lucy Bloom's presentation. Bloom is a former advertising agency owner who started a worldwide women's health charity, and her talk was filled with amusing anecdotes and insightful commentary. Pity most of the people around me felt the need to "tweet" her former sentences to somebody somewhere else instead of listening to what she had to say at that particular moment. No wonder our students can no longer read or compose coherent English essays; the example set by these "information professionals" is appalling. How can young people cherish the experience of deep reading when "librarians" embrace the idea that digital information makes print expendable?

The conference is here in Broadbeach, a collection of high rise hotels and apartment buildings on the Queensland coast south of Brisbane. Our apartment is absolutely luxurious because the company I had contracted with gave us a complimentary upgrade. The result is we are on the fifth floor of an apartment building enjoying a place which is larger than our house in Bozeman! A full kitchen, a laundry room, and a great dining area gives us more elbow room than we have experienced in a week.

Our next stop after the conference is Byron Bay, where I am sure the cabin I have rented would probably fit in the living room of this place. All the same, the town is charming and I look forward to it. In the meantime it is back to the library conference that has no books.

All Things Must Pass

What could be better than a Saturday night concert at the Sydney Opera House? How about a Saturday night concert at the Sydney Opera House performed by some of the top rock musicians of Australia as they ran their way through the Beatles White Album? Once again we found ourselves in a crowd of geriatric rock fans listening to electric music from decades ago, and we loved every minute of it. Our friends Ronald and Jane joined us for a night out, and we made our way to the Opera House early enough to enjoy a drink before the big show. The band was fantastic,

and their rendition of such tunes as "Oh-Blah-Dee" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" was flawless. The audience would not let them go when they finished, so they came back for an encore which included George Harrison's song which I used as the title for today's posting. I never realized how moving that song could be, and I was so grateful to share it with my wife and our friends. (In case you are wondering, I did not take the photograph; our seats were considerably farther back, I can assure you.)

Tomorrow we leave Sydney for the Gold Coast and the library conference in Broadbeach. It will a part of the country Jayne has never seen before, and one that I have only passed through.

Another Visit to the Lucky Land

Why are the Australians so lucky? Is it the beautiful beaches? The sensible gun laws? The growing environmental awareness that is encouraging the banning of plastic bags, straws and other crap so prevalent in the United States?

No, they are probably lucky because they do not have an orange skinned idiot as their president. We in the states can only dream of a society that has universal mandatory voting and other reforms that might prevent a fascist takeover in the future. But this is a travel blog and not a political argument, so on to business.

We arrived in Sydney on Wednesday morning and immediately used a combination of public transport options to get to our rental house. Our friends, Ronald and Jane met up with us on the first night and we had dinner at the Colloroy Beach Club; a delicious crab and prawn pasta dish for me and tumeric coconut prawns for Jayne.

A wedding party was right behind our table and we gave brief thought to stealing some of their wedding cake, but Jayne resisted temptation and ordered from the menu.

On Thursday we went for a five mile hike around Narrabeen Lake. It is a beautiful walking path that crosses two lagoons by means of brand new pedestrian bridges. It was a great experience, even though it probably contributed to the blisters I have today. We were joined by two librarians from Mosman, one of whom (another Jane) thanked me for my regular contributions to their website, Mosman Readers! Friday we went to the Vaucluse House, a historic property on the South Head of Port Jackson. Home of the man who first blazed the trail over the Blue Mountains, the place is decorated with period furniture and the grounds are beautiful.

The kitchen garden was particularly beautiful with lots of veggies growing happily in the Australian mid-winter. It does not get cold here, really. After the house tour we went to the Gap to look out on the harbor and the Pacific, and then took lunch at the fishmongers at Watson's Bay.

The State Library of New South Wales has a small collection of Sydney-published Wyatt Earp comic books that I must examine, but that will have to wait until after we go to the library conference in Queensland next Monday. As for today (Saturday) we are off to the Opera House to hear a concert of Beatles music from the White Album. I think hearing "Rocky Racoon" sung by an Aussie ought to be interesting!