The Bar at Buena Vista and Kung Fu Hustle

Firstly, I highly recommend Kung Fu Hustle, it's fantastic, go see it.

But, to the real reason for this post, went and saw the Bar at Buena Vista last night. I'm not sure how I can describe it or do justice to it. Suffice to say, that their Diva was a real Diva, talk about stage presence. Also, their dancers were unbelievable, I'm sure humans weren't meant to move like that. Finally, I want to age like a Cuban musician with a lifetime of music behind me.

It's one of the best shows I've ever seen, they are all true performers and had the crowd laughing, screaming and clapping constantly. The music was great, pity we couldn't understand what they were saying, but it was still brilliant. And the old musicians cracking jokes that I'm sure weren't translated...again one of the best performances I have ever seen.

Graduation

I never thought this day would come, its not something you really think about, at least I never did. I didn't take the idea of graduation very seriously until I actually went through it, and then it really did hit me so I thought I'd note down my random thoughts, as usual.

It's funny how you never realise exactly how crucial and pivotal this moment is for so many people. It's the end of the university career for many, I didn't expect it to affect me, but it did. Sitting there, in the hall with 300 odd other graduates you get kind of reflective. This moment in time, although just a moment like any other is a formal closing of one chapter of your life so to speak. Or, for some people maybe its almost like finishing a book and wondering where the next one in the series is. It actually feels quite bizaare.

The moment when you stride across the stage to accept your degree passes so quickly and then it is just sitting and reflecting whilst the eyes focus on the seemingly endless stream of other graduands crossing the stage. Questions float through, Where do I go from here? What do I do now? What is my goal now? It feels quite strange. Exciting in a way though, in that I guess your whole life is in front of you, and you have a degree behind you. I feel that I never realised that this is actually a big achievement, possibly a personal failing, I never feel like things I have accomplished are worth enough. I assume that is what makes us all continue to strive for more.

Anyway, I digress. Its a funny feeling, it has to be experienced. But I also wanted to pass comment on the speech made by the economist receiving an honorary doctorate. I think he made an excellent speech, especially after you worked out what he was talking about. Despite telling us all that he does not give advice he did actually give really good advice. Essentially what he said was that we are special people, lets not fool ourselves. We were born special and were pushed by other special people and our degrees essentially ensure us a successful economic life. However, what we need to be wary of is just hanging out with other people like ourselves, we need to talk to other people, to see the whole of Australian society. As well as this our degrees put us in the group of people who hold a disproportionate amount of power to their numbers. This gives us a real responsibility to be leaders in our community, to do more than just act in our own self interest. To make sure that we give back to the community and use our influence in a positive way, because we are lucky to have these degrees and opportunities. Something to think about and something that I really agree with, there is no point been too humble about it, this degree is very highly respected and does give us an amount of responsibility. So, I guess we keep striving.
Post comments of your thoughts as usual (but no-one ever does)

New Guitar

Just bought my first real guitar of my own. A Maton 'Joey'. Fantastic...I might even put a review and picture in later on. It's smaller than a regular guitar which suits me just fine and still sounds great.

Also a plug for anyone looking for a guitar, The Acoustic Centre in Fitzroy is really good.