Our Lockdown Playlist

2020 will have a different soundtrack for each of us. Here is the Lockdown Playlist of some of my friends.

I’m a great Musical Comedy fan and Patty La Phon is THE best. Guaranteed to make you feel great. Heather L

I hadn’t played the piano for 40 years, but during the lockdown I decided to re- learn the first two movements of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.After much time(of which I had plenty) and many, many  mistakes, successfully learning to play  this beautiful piano piece again has been a joyful highlight of my lockdown experience. Libby M

My soundtrack to Lockdown since August 28th 2020 has been Brahms’ Lullaby. Our fifth grandson, Zac, was born on that date. As a mother of three daughters  I thought that I was quite the expert on girls , and having five grandsons has certainly put me on  a steep learning curve since grandson number one, Alex, was born in September 2002, eighteen years ago.Since that date,  almost every nappy change that I have made for Alex, Ben, Sam, Flynn and now for baby Zac , has been accompanied by an airborne stream which the baby boys seem to delight in firing anywhere and everywhere!  Boys, but you do have to love them, don’t you!! Hence, my choice of music , 24 hours of Brahms’ Lullaby to soothe us all! Philippa Q.

Ileana G.

Elizabeth D.

When it looked as if Lockdown was here to stay some of us worried about the upcoming footy season and how it might be affected. As a Tiger supporter I’d been looking forward to some happy afternoons and evenings cheering on our  premiership team. Well, we know how that story ended with teams relocating to far away places, welcome because they bought cash and life to the far West  and North whilst we here in Melbourne suffered the indignity of becoming pariahs of the game we invented ! Interest waned as stories of bad behaviour , sad tales of families torn apart as if by war and a general malaise set in as the months wore on. My only contact was The Coodabeen Champions on Saturday mornings with stories of past players, songs of bygone eras and the wonderful talk back callers like Peter from Peterborough, Nigel from North Fitzroy and Pearl from the Peninsula.

But then came the finals with two Victorian teams fighting it out in Brisbane. On Saturday lunchtime I took a walk down Swan Street and spotted Waleed Aly and his family heading for the ‘G’, past the street where Club President Peggy O’Neil lives and suddenly Footy was alive again. It really didn’t matter who won, we were back in town and this song by Paul Kelly says it all. Melbourne was, is, and always will be the home of Aussie Rules…..Go Tiges !  Jeanette F

Ileana G.

Melbourne singer Angie MacMahon wrote this last year, but it perfectly captures the ennui of Lockdown. 500,000+ hits tells you something. Kerry C

The wonderful tenor Andrea Bocelli singing Con Te Partirò never fails to lift my spirits. It’s one of those songs which lifts the dopamine levels – just what’s been needed during lockdown. This live performance in the Piazza Dei Cavalieri, Italy in 1997 also triggers memories of a Europe we cannot visit at the moment.   Annie G

Lizzie C

Ileana G

We’ve Got to Talk … about having Real Conversations

This Writer’s Life: The word of the day is SYNERGY.

Our book, The Sunday Story Club, which advocates deeper connections through face-to-face conversations, was found at the Melbourne Airport bookshop next to Maybe You Should Talk to Someone. (Below)

I’d call the synergy. The later book is a memoir of a therapist.

LISTEN

AMAZON

BOOKTOPIA

What constitutes a real memory?

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What we’re gonna do right here is go back, way back, back into time … After 40 years collecting dust, I stumbled on that line (from the 1972 hit song Troglodyte) in the cramped attic of my memories when I started to write this article. The association is obvious because today we’re going back in time to look at the influence of television programs on your memory.

I want you to rummage in your own dusty attic of curiosities to answer this question. Do not Google it. What is your favourite TV show of all time? Dada da-da-da dada – that’s thinking music. This show was your must-see show, the one you cancelled all appointments to watch. Now you would click record on your hard drive. Once you couldn’t miss the show. If anyone in the room had a heart attack during that show, they had to wait for your attention. Some things in life are sacred.

Read more @ The Canberra Times 3 APR 2013: What Constitutes a Real Memory?