A recent rainy Sunday found us bundling up and training it out to Springwood, a small town in the Blue Mountains, to visit our dear friend Jon Rose. Jon is a violin player of virtuosic proportions, both in the classical sense and in the world of the avant-garde. We met Jon via High Zero 2010 when he came to Baltimore as one of the festival’s special performers. His work spans years and all sorts of projects (including a wildly fantastical one involving Jon and Hollis caravanning through the desertous regions of the outback to bow pieces of fences built to keep dingos, rabbits, toads, humans and all sorts of creatures from places they shouldn’t be), and I highly recommend that you give his website a thorough look-through. Anyway, as we already knew at that time that we’d be making this move, I spent (way too much) time picking his brain about this fair city.
Upon our arrival in Syd, we’ve been able to meet up with Jon and his (American born) wife, Hollis, who is currently doing her post doc work studying the song of the pied butcherbird. Jon and Hollis’ home in the Blue Mountains, as we found out that Sunday, was a virtual library of Australiana, and Jon’s knowledge of the local birds was quite astounding. We passed a few hours on his couch just talking, drinking wine, and watching the local feathers…
Sulfur-Crested Cockatoo
Satin Bowerbird
Crimson Rosella
Wonga Pigeon
Rainbow Lorikeet
Lewin’s Honeyeater
Jon has also granted us permission to share this short video clip he made for one of his daughters with all of you. The file’s too large to post directly to this site, so Mike is hosting it instead. Check it out here. (You may need QuickTime to play it, or may need to try a different internet browser if it doesn’t initially work.)
From Dec 4, 2011. Photos by Mike. Edits by Andrea. Video by Jon Rose.
