Or a super blue blood moon, to be more precise. For those of you that are not astrologically minded, have an aversion to news and hide away from social media, this means a few things came into play all on the same night (pull out your notepad, things are going to start to resemble a lecture series while we break this down). A super moon is when the moon is closer to the Earth than usual, so it appears bigger. A blue moon refers to the second full moon in a month, which as you can imagine doesn’t happen very often – about once in a blue moon (See? This is why you’ve got to love language and how it evolves). A blood moon is when the moon lives up to the description on the package and does look a bit reddish (and eerie) due to a total lunar eclipse. For all these to occur on one night is pretty exciting. For them to occur on rehearsal night? Uncanny.
While definitely a once in 150 year event if you live in North America (they last saw a total lunar eclipse during a blue moon on March 31, 1866), the last time this occurred in Australia on December 30, 1982 (if you hang around until 2037, you can catch the next one). Since it has been 36 years since this happened here in Western Australia, we had to sneak outside for a peak. Before we could do that though, we had to play through an arrangement of Blue Moon (we’re not joking when we say we have music for every occasion). It was then time to down tools (or instruments, rather) a bit earlier than usual and head outside to look up at the night sky. There was a bit of an excursion vibe as the organised ones amongst us passed around binoculars. Weather wise it was very pleasant, so we stood around with our cups of tea, chatting away, checking in on the progress of eclipse.
Taking the time to look up at the moon, you can’t help but notice the stars and everything else that is hiding up in the night sky. You also can’t help but notice how often you don’t do this. Day or night, how often do you just stop and look up at the sky? Take the time to do it. Throw down a blanket, grab some cushions and get comfy. It’s very calming and puts everything into perspective. Like anything though, it is best done in moderation. Done for too long or too often, you’ll end up in the middle of an existential crisis.
Break over, it was back inside to rehearse a few more pieces heading home with only a couple of hours left until the end of January (I know. Already!). With our free, introductory, trail month over, 2018 is off to a good start. It’s time to take out a year’s subscription and really get stuck in. There’s plenty to work towards and to look forward to. Best of all, we get to share it all with you!
Now let’s see if we can turn this blue moon of ours to gold.