Wednesday 25 September 2019

Belmont Music Centre

Belmont Music Centre is really awesome!  All primary and intermediate-aged children in the Takapuna to Devonport area should join.

Yep, this is an unpaid advertisement for our local non-profit music teaching centre.  (Which, by the way, turned 50 this year.)

Sadly, our previous manager had some health problems and had to suddenly resign.  The committee was down to one solitary person, and with no one to run the place we were looking at having to close permanently.

Gugu (my big sis), who was the sole surviving committee member, stepped in and did what was needed to keep things going.  For the past several weeks, for several hours per week, she has been doing the surprisingly many things that an organisation needs done, and all for no pay.

Things are now looking up, we are re-populating the committee, and new and exciting ideas are bouncing around.  Gugu is now Interim Manager and Committee Chairperson, while I have got the title of Treasurer.  We're still looking for more volunteers to help share the burdens and give back to our local kids.

So, here's what happens: We've got 11 brilliant teachers teaching a range of instruments and music knowledge on Saturday mornings during term-time.  They are paid (though far below the going rate for music teachers) directly by the Ministry of Education.  The very minimal tuition fees that each student pays then contributes to the general running expenses of the Music Centre.  Parents who think this is an awesome community service join the committee or volunteer their time in other ways to help keep things going.

Basically, this is an environment where music and community involvement are the driving forces.  We all think that kids learning music is great fun and hugely beneficial, and we get together to volunteer our time to make it happen.

We're looking forward to continuing next year, and we're hoping for more kids playing music and more parents volunteering behind the scenes to make it happen.

Monday 23 September 2019

Book review: Jeannette Ng

A great way to choose new books is to check out the awards speeches of authors.

Last year I discovered N K Jemisin after clicking a link to her Hugo Award acceptance speech.  She is now definitely up there amongst my all-time favourite authors.  I wrote about her books here.

A few weeks ago I discovered Jeannette Ng, thanks to her awesome speech (text version here) when accepting the John W Campbell Award for Best New Writer.  What she said was spot on.  Thanks to Ng, the award got a name-change; now it's the Astounding Award.  And rightly so.

So, I requested Ng's book, Under the Pendulum Sun, from the library, as well as the short story collection, Not So Stories, in which Ng has a contribution.

It was a great choice, and I thoroughly enjoyed both books.

Under the Pendulum Sun is a perfectly paced, incredibly creative, beautifully written novel with deep references to the Gothic novel tradition.  Ng's MA in Medieval and Renaissance Studies shows.

I won't say too much about the story, as each part builds and reveals layers of mystery.  But in brief the story is set in the Age of Discovery.  Captain Cook has discovered the Faelands -- you get there by becoming thoroughly lost for a sufficiently long period of time.  The novel opens with Catherine Helstone heading there, following her missionary brother who wishes to bring the word of God to the Fae.

The Faelands are definitely weird and wonderful.  The sun is, well, a pendulum -- a lamp set on a long string that swings back and forth.  Days and nights come and go according to where the pendulum sun is at in its swing.  The rest of the world is equally, um, different.  But in an incredibly beautiful way.

Several days ago, when I was part-way through the book, we were out and Mulan hadn't brought enough entertainment.  I passed the book to her and she sped through it, finishing it before I did.  She enjoyed it, although possibly some parts of the story are on the mature side for a 12-year-old.

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The short stories that make up the Not So Stories are often equally creative.  But this is a much more overtly political work.

Most people should recognise that the Not So Stories references Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories.  Kipling was a brilliant writer, and his stories are deservedly classics.

But Kipling was overly optimistic and positive about British colonialism.  In his storytelling, Kipling (just like C S Lewis, who I discussed here) often presents colonialism as a good, decent, civilising influence on the natives.  He ignores the evils and atrocities.

Not So Stories is intended explicitly as a corrective.  Each of the writers takes Kipling-ish ideas or styles but twists them to acknowledge colonial evils.

Jeannette Ng's story, How the Wishing Tree got its Carapace of Plastic, is perhaps only going to be understood and appreciated by those who have a bit of Chinese cultural background.  Here in our home in the children's toybox we have got a plastic orange, which we picked up from a wishing tree; Ng's story brought back plenty of memories and images, and in my opinion nicely captured the feeling.

Zina Hutton's Strays Like Us is a sweet cat story.  I've passed it to Miya to read, though she hasn't picked it up yet.

Raymond Gates' There is Such Thing as a Whizzy-Gang is, as far as I could see, the least appropriate story in the collection.  All I could see was a campfire scary story, with little to no political or Kipling-ish references.

But in my opinion the final story, Paul Krueger's How the Camel Got Her Paid Time Off, was the most brilliant reply to Kipling.  It is the most perfect response to Kipling's How the Camel got His Hump.  It is an absolute must-read.

A few days ago I played our story CD of Just So Stories, and I've passed Not So Stories to Mulan to read.

Sunday 22 September 2019

Recorder mass playing

After the gymnastics championships in the morning, we had a complete change of pace this afternoon.

Mulan and Miya's recorder teacher, Kevin Kim, suggested that they come along to a mass recorder playing event organised by the New Zealand Society of Recorder Players.

Once again, we had no idea what to expect, but we thought it would be fun to give it a go.

There were around a couple of dozen recorder players attending the three-hour session, playing a range of different sized recorders.  The girls were the only children, and most of the other players looked old enough to be their grandparents.  But the girls fitted in well -- Mulan immediately joined, while Miya watched for the first half before joining in.

The players were split into two groups -- one more advanced and one more junior.  The girls joined the junior group.  Mulan found it no challenge at all to keep up (in her words she found it very easy); to my non-expert eyes and ears it looked/sounded about Miya's level.

Mama and I relaxed on the sofa enjoying the beautiful music.

Apparently this event happens about once a year, but they are hoping to increase the frequency to once a term.  I'm sure we'll be there enjoying the next one.

Gymnastics club champs

Today, Mulan competed at the North Harbour Gymnastics club champs.

This is our first year doing club gymnastics, so we had no idea what to expect or what level the other girls would be at.  Mulan simply joined the competition for the fun of it.

We were all pleasantly surprised when, at the prize-giving immediately following the competition, Mulan's name was called out three times.  She got first in bars, third in vault, and fourth overall!

Monday 2 September 2019

Auckland Zoo

For Miya's 9th birthday (happy birthday Miya!!) she wanted to go to the zoo.

This was perfect because I had already planned, as a homeschooling focus this year, to get a one-year family zoo pass.

So, yesterday we went to the Auckland Zoo, and we bought ourselves an Annual Pass.  The pass is for two adults and three children, so we signed up cousin Maria as our third child.

We had a very relaxing and enjoyable day.  No more rushing around trying to fit everything in on the one day.  We wandered around just seeing the things we felt like seeing.  We didn't even bother with our camera.

At the moment there is a huge construction project happening at the zoo, where they are adding a new South East Asia section.  Seeing the area take shape will also be fascinating this year.

I expect over the next year to have thousands of new animal photos on our computer.  We'll probably post a small percentage of them here.