Back in 1990, I attended a performance of Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” at a planetarium in San Francisco. In the dark, I was tilted back in a seat so that I could view the stars projected onto the ceiling while the sounds of Pink Floyd flooded the room. Very cool! Even though I was suffering from a gastric complaint, and missed some of the performance, I thought it was a fantastic experience.
I recreated that experience last night to welcome in the new year. This time was much better, though. No gastric for a start, so I stayed in my seat the whole time (except to get another drink, of course). This time, the stars were real (unreal, actually), and I played “Dark Side of the Moon” twice through.
I slouched in my camp chair (maybe I should get a tilting model) and let the music wash over me. Early on, I counted four satellites moving across the sky. Later on, pretty much everything seemed to be moving, but surely there aren’t that many satellites up there?! Also early on, I thought I saw two shooting stars, but they turned out to be people with torches walking down the track. Later, though, I did see two shooting stars (honest!). I saw some constellations, too, including some you don’t hear much about. I’m sure I saw one that could be named “Playstation Controller”, and another that was certainly the Nike “Swoosh”. Is there some place to write to register those as accepted constellations?
I burned a couple of incense sticks while the music was playing. Last week, I burnt incense in the van, and propped the incense stick in my coffee cup. My coffee tasted strange for a couple of days, so last night I propped the sticks in a Woolies plastic cherry tomato container. I thought the incense stick was giving off a lot of smoke until I realised the plastic container was smouldering. I kept a closer eye on it after that.
Originally, I wasn’t going to stay up until midnight. Is midnight during daylight saving really midnight anyway? Auckland’s midnight had passed, and I knew I would be up for London’s in the morning, so was it that important to stay up until midnight at Mann River Nature Reserve? In the end, I decided to see out 2018. “Dark Side of the Moon” had finished for the second time, so I listened to random songs from my playlist. I felt sad when Aretha sang “You Make Me Feel …” because she’s not with us anymore. I felt a bit sentimental when Pet Shop Boys’ “West End Girls” played because that song reminds me of a great time of my life. But when Lee Ann Womack sang “I Hope You Dance”, I reckoned there couldn’t be a better message to take into the new year.
Happy New Year!
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