|
April 07, 2007
I'm down at Victor Harbor for the Easter break. It's jumping with people, even if there is no blues and roots festival, as is happening in Bryon Bay. I'll be content to watch some blues DVD made under Martin Scorsese's direction. I missed it when it was shown on ABC television; probably the most extensive an television presentation of the blues on Australian television.
Gary Sauer-Thompson, Bowling green, Victor Harbor , 2007
Development is a big issue --lots of conflicts about proposed big new shopping centres, especially the one along the lines of Wal-Mart on the outskirts of the city proposed by the Makris Corporation. This has been given major major development status by the state government, and so bypasses local government planning processes.
Even those who say the Fleurieu Peninsulal is being held back by mealy-mouthed naysayers and councils that iareonly interested in constructing one string argument about why something shouldn't happen in the region are taken back and singing the blues. The Wal-Mart development would suck all the life, vitality and profits out the local business centre. So we have conflict within the development crowd who say Victor Harbor and should be prosperous, populous and progressive.
I watched Scoreses's own Feel Like Going Home last night, the first in the seven-part film series 'Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues'.This homage to the blues was more like a musical journey from the Mississippi Delta to Mali in West Africa with young bluesman Corey Harris. What is highlighted is the political and social conditions that the blues gives expression to and the common features between Malian music and the blues. Son House was a revelation: the right hand guitar technique was really flailing away, yet the resulting sound was crisp and precise.
However, it was a play around the Authentic Black Bluesman
|
