There’s this gorgeous scene in the Peter Bogdanovich’s 1985 film ‘Mask’ where Rocky (Eric Stoltz) explains what colour is to his blind friend Diana (Laura Dern). He heats some rocks in water and puts them in her hand, at first too hot to handle, then cooling down.”Ok, so this is red. But when it cools down, it will be pink.” “Rocky, I understand!” Here it is.
Boy, they sure don’t make ’em like that any more.
But what a moment of learning! Utilising other senses to understand key concepts. The teacher adapting to different learning styles.
So how do we experience UTS’ built heritage? Buildings we have inherited and inhabited along the way, samples from the past. Or those we built on our journey towards becoming a world leading university of technology?
Your author and first time blogger and long time musician, will boldly proceed with music! And share some tunes with you which you may remember or not know yet.
Much like an artist sending a recording off to a pressing plant, when an architect hits send on that final draft, it’s such a permanent thing. This will live on for generations. What will folks make of it? What does it say to the world? What music, trends and styles were around when the architects designed these buildings? And most importantly, how on earth did Frank Gehry come up with the UTS Business school ‘paper bag’ building?
Grab some popcorn!
I thought about what these buildings say to me. So I made a playlist. Over the weekend, hit play on the playlist below, grab some popcorn, sit comfortably and listen, look and read on below. Or just have it on in the background as you’re working on whatever. Skip through as you wish. Or click on each song title below to go straight to the song.
Or post a comment on what song does it for you for each building!
My UTS Built Heritage Playlist
If UTS buildings were songs. 2 songs each. Here we go!
Building 1 – The tower – It has to be Rammstein’s ‘Du Hast Mich’. Brutalist architecture. A sufficiently brutalist tune. But not everyone is as hard on the tower. A family of peregrine falcons saw fit to build their nest there in recent years. I couldn’t find any falcon songs, so Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Albatross’ will do nicely.
Building 2 – RIP. It is currently in Nena’s ’99 red balloons’ mode “in this dust that was a city”. But soon to be like Trans Am’s ‘Shining path’. Determined with cymbals chiming, confidently self perpetuating, new collaborative space designs and of course really shiny!
Building 3 – Bon Marche – ‘Out on the weekend’ Neil Young. That lived in feel. With harmonica. Or maybe ‘Changeling’ by the Doors. Deffo a 60’s/70’s vibe. The place even feels like an old recording studio.
Building 4 – Housing among other things, the gym and University Hall, where you can work out and watch back your lectures on Echo360 respectively, I’m going with ‘Physical’ by Olivia Newton John and ‘Echoes’ by Pink Floyd. “Overhead the albatross (him again!) hangs motionless upon the air…” Btw, the bit at 12.42 minutes is Gilmore’s finest hour on guitar. What a lick!
Building 5 – Housing both the UTS Library and UTS Law, I gotta go with a treble portion here. So there’s the gorgeous ‘Librarian’ from My morning jacket. Maybe staff and students could sing along to Dolly Parton’s ‘Working 9 to 5’, though it should be 8 to 10. Or failing this ‘You’ve seen the butcher’ from Deftones. A way to let off some exam stress perhaps.
Building 6 – UTS DAB – ‘We’ve only just begun’ by The Carpenters. This video works on so many levels. Firstly Karen Carpenter’s angelic vocal, and the harmonies, my goodness. But then there’s the 2 tambourine guys, who start playing at 1.03 even though the tambourine has been in since 0.57. I don’t know why it looks so hilarious! Also, a slightly corny optimistic vibe. Building 6 was probably the most modern thing seen in its time, but looking a little dated now, but still standing as pretty as a Carpenters song. Or maybe Kim Carnes’ ‘Betty Davis eyes’ a harkening to the past beauties while being modern facing. And wasn’t it on a 7Up ad back in the day?
Building 7 – UTS Science – I love this building. Something timeless. ‘Human nature’ by Michael Jackson. Watch the king of pop go in all his prime in Wembley 1985. That note he hits at 2.15, good heavens. And maybe David Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’. Another timeless feeling tune which beautifully shone a light on Aboriginal Australia for all the 80’s MTV world to see.
Building 8 – UTS Business school – Effortlessly iconic and stylish? Madonna, ‘Vogue’. Or looks like a crumpled up brown paper bag? A grunge song… ‘Them bones’ by Alice in Chains. 7/4 time, weird corners, not a right angle in sight and changes at every turn.
Building 10 – UTS Health and FASS – Ah building 10, me ould flower. The old stuff. Formerly the Fairfax building. I’m reminded of The Ink spots with Ella FitzGerald 1945 recording of ‘I’m beginning to see the light’. My uncle introduced me to the Ink Spots. A great treasure trove of old songs with that same intro every time. And the Hoppy Jones spoken word verse. They had a formula, it worked, why change? If you’ve never heard of them, you’re welcome! And for some pre-war sepia toned magic, why not Judy Garland’s ‘Somewhere over the rainbow’.
Building 11 – UTS FEIT – ‘Rio’ Duran Duran. Or maybe ‘Everywhere’ by Fleetwood Mac, just for the twinkles. This was the first song they played when I saw them last year in Sydney, what a tune! And reflecting building 11’s emerald lights by night, I gotta include my favourite Sydney band Knievel from their amazing record ‘Emerald City’ the beautiful ‘Through the rainbow dark’. When I think of Sydney, the ‘Emerald City’ I think of this building and this song.
Sports building, Moore park campus – So we already had Olivia Newton John ‘Physical’. For this we have a bit of NYC’s Helmet live playing ‘Rollo’. The kids are getting a good workout in the moshpit and drummer extraordinaire John Stanier combines incredible power with musicianship in the beats he pulls off. I also saw Helmet for the first time in Moore park some moons ago. Go see them in April! And for extra ‘fit as a fiddle’-ness, The Bothy Band! The great Kevin Burke on fiddle. Uilleann pipes, bouzouki, guitar, clavinet, flute, fiddle, live from 1976 a set of reels ‘Old hag you have killed me, Dinnie Delaney’s, Morrisson’s’.
Blackfriars – UTS CIC – I love the village hall feel to this building. You could imagine ‘Rain song’ Led Zeppelin being played into the old timbers. Jimmy Page’s guitar sounds so gorgeous in this live recording. Or alternatively ‘Open Spaces’ from Jonny Greenwood’s breathtaking score from ‘There will be blood’. I can imagine this building sitting in some frontier town back in the day. Hearing this guitarist take his musical ideas into the orchestral realm is fascinating and so original. The poise, timbres and emotions are exquisite.
UTS Hatchery / InSearch – For new ideas. And discussions. And yarning. The oral tradition. And to fit in 2 Australian songs that I will be taking with me wherever I go. The 1st is ‘The Diamantina drover’ by Redgum. I heard a group of musicians play this at a folk festival. The mention of ‘Old Cork station’ and I was hooked. It feels like a song from outside time. A real gem. It sits so easily into the folk tradition. This video is my performance of it with my old band at the Gaelic Club here in Sydney. An acknowledgement to Gadigal country and to UTS happens in the introduction.
And then, Kev Carmody. What a find! A poet, a graceful soul, a voice of warmth and originality, fearlessly beautiful. I saw Uncle Kev at the Yabun festival on survival day in Victoria Park. He spoke of the oral tradition, words to the effect of: “you gotta keep this going, take my words, my songs, you young kids, do your own thing with it, your dance music, put beats to it, keep it oral, make it your own, like we’ve done for thousands of years, keep it going.” So in that spirit, I share ‘Moonstruck’ with you now. The line about the “dingo’s pups” knocked me over. Gorgeous. Enjoy.
The great building in the sky – For all who have gone before. For elders past and present. Joe Cocker’s ‘I’ll get by with a little help from my friends’ (from Woodstock maan!) and The Doors ‘Riders on the storm’.
Thanks for listening/reading/watching. Did any tunes come to mind for you? Let us know in the comments section. Give us a tune!
Til next time,
Mark.