Pacific Magazine > Magazine > February 28, 2008

Stuff We Like

Stuff We Like

Music: Dancing To His Own Beat

Born to a Chinese/Motu mother and Jewish/Polish/Australian father, raised in Papua New Guinea, educated in Australia and living in New York, Aaron Choulai has merged his many homes and experiences in “We Don’t Dance For No Reason.”  The performance—delivered in Melbourne in late 2007—included Papua New Guinea’s Tatana Village Choir and the Melbourne jazz group “Vada,” the later improvising over choir set pieces or Peroveta Anedia (Prophet Songs). They were illuminated by video documenting the struggles of  PNG daily life—and the joy and relief song and dance plays in that life—and united by Choulai’s piano playing.

Choulai is considered one of Australia’s most dynamic jazz talents.  In January he did the musical arrangements for “Murundak” an “inspirational songbook of contemporary Aboriginal life” which was performed at the Sydney Opera House as part of the Festival of Sydney. This year he also has scheduled performances in Perth, and again as part of Murundak at the WOMAD Adelaide festival. Performances for later in 2008 are still to be confirmed, but you can get a taste for his music, influences and friends at his Myspace page: www.myspace.com/aaronchoulai

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Insiders Guides
To Fiji, Tahiti

Alas, traditional guidebooks to the  Pacific Islands are becoming something of a rarity these days. We suspect this is due, in part, to the islands becoming less competitive as destinations in the fast-growing international travel market, which is always on the lookout for the latest unusual place to visit.

Thankfully, David Stanley, the dean of Pacific Islands travel writers, is still going strong. His latest guides, the Moon Handbooks for Tahiti and Fiji, are reminders of the value of experience and straight-talk in travel journalism.  Both guides have the usual Stanley organization: good maps, concise descriptions and contact information, and extremely useful tables with information on everything from population and size of islands to maritime coordinates.

We particularly like a new feature of the Moon Handbooks series: an up-front “best of” section marked with blue tabs. In this section, Stanley gives you his top recommendations for a typical vacation in either French Polynesia or Fiji. All experienced travelers are asked by friends for top recommendations. These are Stanley’s, and given his experience, a visitor to either Fiji or French Polynesia could easily build a memorable vacation around just the “blue” section recommendations.

Moon Handbooks Fiji and Moon Handbooks Tahiti, David Stanley, Avalon Travel Publishing. Each guide is $19.95.