15.9.67 - Not listening to good advice

Sydney 15.9.67 (Noon)

Pencil economy! Not really – just haven’t a pen. Hullo! Have recovered my usual buoyant sense of humour (probably as a result of enjoying Fiddler so much, and because it’s so warm, and because I’m going quite well with my German – if I can keep it up.)

It’s a funny sort of day. Sort of diffused – if you know what I mean – there’s a haze over the city, but the sun is filtering through – and my left arm is feeling, and looking, rather burnt. I’m sitting in one of about a dozen parks (small) in KC, just down the road from the Hotel. These parks (even the very smallest) seem to have fountains and trees and shrubs, and there are any number of seats – in fact there are seats all over the city, and parks!

[back in ink again]

LATER Got a letter from me mother! Hurray! I laughed at it all the way up in the lift (otherwise empty) and along the corridor and into my room. Looks like I’d better take my umbrella into town with me tonight – it’s been raining most of the afternoon – should be okay – the repair job seems to be all right.

MICHAEL CROWL – MUSICAL DIRECTOR, No, no. MUSICAL DIRECTOR ----! That’s totally funny – I’d probably be awfully inept at it. [Not sure what the reference here is; probably my mother trying to cheer me up. 2018: anyway, I’d done musical directing in various ways before I’d gone to Oz, so I’m not quite sure why I found it so funny.]

I’m going to ring the Trust in about half an hour and see if I can get some satisfaction. Hope that today I’ll know what the future will be. I haven’t gone anywhere much for the last couple of days; it’s been sort of frustrating to have to sit round and wait like this. Can’t even book me flight home. And I’ll have to go easy on the old pocketbook, too, if I’ve got to stay on a bit longer. Anyway, I’m determined to come home with something left over. I would have had a lot more if the Hotel bill had been what I expected. (Don’t be surprised if every now and then you find nouns with capital letters in the middle of a sentence. In German all nouns have capitals and the ones that I know in German I’m inclined to put down with a capital! Silly, isn’t it?)

I’ve spent most of this arvo in the little library round the road reading Tobias and the Angel, a comedy on the Bible story, by James Bridie. The Aussies don’t seem to be able to put books in order. It’s awfully hard trying to find anything in the 2 libraries I’ve so far been in. The Main one in town has only a vague order. Nothing is alphabetical as far as I can see, so how they ever find anything! [Still griping about libraries 25 years later.]

LATER I’m really beginning to think that I need a business manager or something – I, myself, must be handling things wrongly – or something! Just rang the Trust, again, and now we’ve got to wait till Mr Krug gets himself moving re the Ballet Co. He’s their conductor. (P. Schwartz apparently stayed in Sth America or somewhere obscure – how odd!) [Peter Schwartz was a chain-smoking Austrian conductor who’d made his home in NZ; he was involved in the Summer Schools in Dunedin where I met him, where he was very encouraging in terms of my accompanying. I hadn’t heard of him since for years until I became involved in the brass band movement, and there he was conducting a band as one of the many strings to his bow. 2018: I wonder if I intended the wordplay/pun?] So they were going to wait till Tuesday, but I said that my time was limited (so it is; I’m fed up with waiting around for them) and so I’ve got to ring them on Monday at lunchtime. Heavens, they do muck around, don’t they! They must surely know whether they’ve got room for an extra pianist, or not – their excuse, according to the (not so) charming Miss Swan is that they’ve got people dotted all over the country just now. Marvellous!

I don’t know what to do about Pikler, now. Doubt if he can do much at this stage, and anyway, the place he’s mainly concerned with is the Conservatorium, and I’ve been there! And that other fellow that Cecil introduced me to, John Hammond, reckoned if he were in my shoes he’d get a job, any job, just to be on the spot. [A sound piece of advice which I obviously wasn’t hearing.] I’m inclined to think I’ll get as much musical experience back home – (where I’m obviously appreciated – heh, heh) and where I won’t have to pa out exorbitant amounts for lodgings. Look out, I’m going to scream – [printed very large:] AAAAGH!

That feels a lot better.

Courtesy Creative Commons

Better go, got all me packing to do tonite – go to Anne’s tomorrow. Mary Williams, who was also in Fledermaus, a cellist (whose flat Claude and I went to for tea, remember?) is coming over for the afternoon, on Sunday, so we can have quite a chat. [Claude was a genuine Frenchman [2018 I’m not sure why I wrote ‘genuine’], a clarinettist. There was some relationship between him and Mary but I’ve no idea how serious it was. I seem to recall Claude mooning around after a fairly disinterested Mary. My one other great memory of Claude, who was an excellent clarinettist, is that he couldn’t get a single note out of a clarinet I owned, and which I took on tour with me round NZ, and could actually play!] My poor old left arm’s burnt nearly through, while the right is only red.

Oh, well, see ya, love Mike.

14.9.67 - Feeling sorry for myself

Sydney 14.9.67

Dear Mother, here follow the Trials and Tribulations of a poor County Youth who got snared by the Big City.

All right – it’s not as bad as it sounds, but it’s been a rather frustrating day – with nothing accomplished and little done. Rang S. Hall this afternoon, but he was in conference and so his secretary answered. She read out a letter that I should have received (and which subsequently turned out to be downstairs) which sez: ‘Dear lovable Mike – thanks for coming and playing this week. While we all liked your playing (!), I am unable to offer you anything at present. If you wish I’ll be happy to mention you to the Ballet (!) who might need someone for their forthcoming season.’

So I said I’d ring him back later!

Well, poor little old self-pitying Michael went down to Elizabeth Bay and threw himself in! Unfortunately, no one was watching so he clambered out again and spent the rest of the afternoon thinking (!) and talking to animals who either barked at him or ignored him entirely.

Finished up thinking that even the Ballet isn’t the bottom of the rung, so when I rang back to see if I could speak to Hall, he still wasn’t speaking to the likes of me and his charming secretary (who was the last person I felt like talking to – her name’s Miss Swan) told me that she’d see what was happening and contact me tomorrow, or if I didn’t hear from her, for me to contact her. AAAGH!

So – I said all sorts of funny things to cheer myself up and then went and paid the bill for the last week – which I’d got this morning. It was for 7 days – yes, one week - $61.65 (still with me?) which I managed to get reduced by 75c because they charged me Room Service, which I don’t recall having had! So - !

This plurry room is $8.40 a nite (with Brekfit) not the $5 or so I expected.

A lovely day!

However, rang Anne to see how she was and inform her about news and ask her if I could borrow her room from Sat morning on (over the weekend) (anyhow) and she finds that it fits in beautifully if I care not to go out on Sat. night – and stay home and babysit for her 9 year old boy. Well, as I see it, if she’s good enough to have (vaguely) offered the room, then I can do that?!

So! she reckons the Ballet could be quite good as they go on much longer than the Opera – they’re about to start another season here (the Ballet are) so -! We’ll see what eventuates and not raise our teeny hopes too high this time!

LATER

Was originally going to go to the pictures tonite, but eventually decided to go and see another musical, Fiddler on the Roof – there were no really good films on for the mood I was in, so I thought this might fit the bill. Anyway, I can probably catch upon the films later.

Her Majesty’s is the hardest theatre to find – I asked 4 people all told (on two different trips – I didn’t get there the first time) and it was only after much foot-slogging that I found it tonite. Of course, I would pick to walk all the way – from KC. It must be getting on for 3 or 4 miles! No kidding.

It was worth it.

FOTR. I wouldn’t have missed for worlds. Forgive me if I’m phrasing like a Jew, but you see, that’s all this show is about. The Jews in Russia before the Revolution. Like Oliver and Half a Sixpence it ends in hope, but not happily. But what a terrific show. The music is nearly all based on Jewish-type themes, and they’re terrifically hummable. And it’s so sad one minute, then so happy! Sniff! I loved it. All the way thru there’s a guy pretending to play a fiddle on stage (and very well done, too) and though as far as I recall, he only plays one tune, it fits all moods. And we get all those Jewish type foot-stomping, hand-clapping dances, with a bit of Russian thrown in at one part. I really wish you could have seen it – it’s one in a million.

Must go – that show was well over two and a half hours long and it’s after eleven.

See ya, love Mike

Hayes Gordon

[Fiddler on the Roof really was one in a million. This particular production outshone the London one I saw a few years later, by far. The London one was tired; this was vibrant. The stage effects, though no doubt not all that original, had a marvellous freshness – I can still remember the ghost of the Grandmother sailing onto the stage with horrifying effect, and though you knew it must be someone on stilts, there was something utterly fascinating about it. [2018: can’t have been stilts: she swept around the stage as though she was on rollerskates, as well as being about ten foot tall.] I think the lead was played by an American, surrounded by a mainly Australian cast, and he was far more right in the role than either Alfie Bass who played it in London, or Zero Mostel, who played it in the film. Perhaps it was just that it was all so fresh in every respect that made me appreciate it and remember it; perhaps it really was one out of the bag.] [2018: the lead was Hayes Gordon, an American musical comedy star who’d been in the original production of Oklahoma. Blacklisted in the 50s, he went to Australia to star in Kiss Me, Kate, and carried on living there, establishing a theatre school there.]

14.9.67 - Filling in another day

Sydney, 14.9.67 Morning.

Hi there! 

Spent an odd day yesterday not getting anything much done – Stephen Hall should have contacted me by last night, but there was nary a word. I’ll ring him this arvo if I don’t hear from him by then.

Had breakfast with a Mrs Notts (that’s right!) yesterday, and she and I chatted quite a bit. She comes from up country (near the Castlereagh River) and is down to see her daughter who’s been in hospital about a month with a baby that’ll have to arrive too soon. This morning had breakfast with a Melbourne man in Civil Aviation (he detests opera, but chatted about it) and he was very interested in the flight I had over here. (These two days are the first times I’ve had breakfast with anyone – generally the ‘woman who guides you to your seat’ plunks me down in some far corner where everyone (particularly the waitresses) ignores me!

Went outside after that (yesterday again) and did No 2 lesson in German – it’s not nearly as hard a yet! Then since I hadn’t heard from the Trust, I decided to go to Luna Park – it was shut until Friday; went to Manly on the Hydrofoil, but Manly was rather cold – there were still quite a few on the beach, though. If I thought it was cold, heaven knows how they felt! Didn’t stay there long, but it was about 2.30 when I finally had some lunch. Thought that I might go to Fiddler on the Roof, so I asked directions to get to Her Majesty’s, [as opposed to His Majesty’s Theatre which still went by that title in Dunedin] to see if I could get a seat. Still haven’t found H.M’s, but found about 3 secondhand bookshops! I don’t know what Customs will think – perhaps I’d better post some of them home! (There’s only nine including 2 I bought with me!)

language as I was led to believe –

Went back to K.C. via taxi after not finding H.M’s, and as usual arrived with me heart nearly popping out of me mouth. Sydney’s taxidrivers are probably the best in Australasia, but I wouldn’t bank on it! Back to town to see Barefoot in the Park which was quite a lot of fun, but not as funny as Mrs Notts had led me to believe. Had some tea in a place called the Poet and Peasant (I don’t know why) and then decided to be madly daring and go and see Guide for the Married Man (directed by Gene Kelly) which really was funny – Mrs Notts hadn’t liked it as much! [Not sure why I needed to be ‘madly daring’ to go and see this.] The theatre was apparently situated above the subway, as every now and then there’d be a terrific rumbling and the place would shake a little. GFTMM, which is all about a man trying to learn how to have an affair without letting his wife know about it (sounds a terrible subject, doesn’t it?) is actually a very moral film (!) because  not one of the characters is allowed to get away with any misdeed at any stage of the film. So it’s a Guide in more ways than one. [I think I was trying to reassure my mother that I wasn’t watching anything immoral.]

Back to me little room where I was too tired even to write to you – so I hope this catches the post and doesn’t break what must be an all-time record for me! See ya, love Mike.

(PS Thanks for the Peanuts – marvellous!)