writin till it hurts

hey ho, hey ho,

the sweetness of the holiday season is with us and i've been going nuts writing stuff. trouble is i want to write a novel but i lack the discapline, so the way out is to put all of my writings together into one tomb, and sent it off to some of the 40 independant publishers in melbourne (yes its a fact i heard from the mouth of one such publisher). i've also been doing some music which has turned out nicey, and working out the logistical obsticles to organizing gig and perfornaces peices. you may well call it interprative dance (even though the term has some shady conotations). of cause its interpative is'nt all dance boofheads?yes my china trilogy duet season. to maske up for the fact that my last thing was in 2005, i plan to do the trilogy all this year. bundles of fun, and logistics statistics and emothionsal fits.

reading matthew bannister of sneaky feelings (ooohhh yek) and driibbbling darts of love (ohh much worse) fame. he has a bbok about his history and that of the dunedin sound. its a bit sickly and overdone. the humour is forced but it does give an insight into one of the most vital music happenings of the eighties.

weatching alfred hitchcok presentsa and the day the earth stood still. alfreds introductions to the little plays are hillarious, its worth it for him alone, but some of the storeis are good too. as for day the earth stood still, it is one of the great sci fi movies of all time. its a masterwork and a beutiful critisism of the times. the robot is pretty god damn creepy too.

ohh crazee dayzee

its been ia bit of a roller coaster lately, however, i've got heaps done, including serveral writing projects, a f.t.s.m magazine, music and logistical planning for my year,which promises to be a busy one. hobart and old ways, plus a cold and eating poor diet, which now i've changed, have all knocked me off my axis, but it was a lazy one so i'm happy, its just that my sleeping patterns are still a bit all over the place.

plans are for this year. try to complete a performance trilogy based on china by october, launch a solo album and inevitable orbit e.p, then hopefully head off to chengdu via indonesia to teach english in szechuan province. i get so nostalgic for china that i thought i'd try and get a job there, which means i wont be in melbourne for a year or so. so crazee, but lots of fun is on the way.

i got sucked into the list thing, when i compiled my favourite list of australian bands. it goes sonthing like this in ranking order:

1.LAUGHING CLOWNS

2. THE EASYBEATS

3.SMALL WORLD EXPERIENCE

4. CLAG

5. TACTICS

6.CRABSTICK

7.LOST DOMAIN

8.THE REELS

9.NEW WAVER

10.THE TWILIGHTS

there you go. amybe you find it controvesial that ac dc are number 567 in my rankings, and midnight oil 412, as for wolfmother try ten thousand and somthing.

been watching, listening to and reading my xmas cache. alfred hitchcock presents is a hoot, the teardrop explodes are cute and a book about the dunedin soud is pleasurable. the photo above is from a 1970's british show called sky. i desparately want to see this, and its has just come out on dvd, so maybe i will.

the gravel back area

nice to sleep well and it was generally a good night for the hobat crowd that came to see my work at 6a gallery, north hobart last night. the gravel back area was full of expectant so and so's. i started with a guitar and voice, but the guitar wouldn't stay in tune so i abandoned that after 4 inevitable orbit songs.
i then moved onto the jw karioke part of the show, which had me singing along to my new album zhi zi dan ge (which will be out feb marchish). i took the main vocal off and it was a lot of fun to harmonize with myself. it was fun.
i dont know what i will do today, maybe go record shopping. maybe not. the guys from snawklor are about to hit town, so we will no doubt hang out.

hobart and cold things

yeaohh Hobart sparkles like a pre pubescent dingo. already been into town and my host me harper bumped into 12 people he knew, i only bumped into two, i guess that's pretty good going. i'm in town to do a show in north Hobart, i have to cope with lack of sleep (easy) and a throaty cold (a bit harder). im planning a split set. the first part will consist of inevitable orbit songs then i will do a karioke set of songs from my new album. it should be fun, and i will let you know how it goes.

i didnt think a thing about hobart until the car hit the highway from the airport. then i was met with rolling hills annd it all came back. i love the fact that its kie the 70's here 9with a lot of sixties buildings intact too) right down to the olde shoppe thing. yes its good and no bogans hacve crossed my path yet.
Christmas is almost here. all i want is for this stupid cold to go away, so i can fully enjoy the ambiance.snawklor are playing tomorrow and it might be good to get a bit of time with the boys, as theyre so busy inmelbourne, but i could make more of an effort too, ya ya ya!

a will leave you with one statement. i love bill fay's work.

the river of warburton

its been a busy week in my life. yesterday if you looked,you could find me walking the streets of warburton. i've never been to this locale, and i was keen to see what the fuss was all about, cute, cute and a special cute. my parents and myself took it all in, and it was good to get out of melbourne. we also went to the top of mt donna buang and climed the observation deck as it wobbled in the wind, but we got there safely and saw the rain coming in. a very pleasant way to spend the day.

also i've had clag business on a sticky wicket with my friend bek staying here amonsgt her very busy schedule. its been nice to catch up and try to get the clag compilation going, not that i have much to do with the thing, my contribution was a live four track recording, using two tracks at the epress hotel which has some great heckling by both band and audience.

and then theres been work and teeth crubling necesstating visits to the dentist, and other activities that must be shrouded in secrecy at this present juncture.

i shouldnt forget all the food i've consumed at different resteraunts.

i guess the x mass is coming hard up of the starboard side, so prepare ye i will.

my prepearatiopn will consist of several blind frogss rubbed together and seranaded with small music from my stereo.

until next time. comader straker will tell you.

on and an and on

the weeks travel on like a rolly poly franciscan monk with too much toilet paper. i guess working five days is good for the bank account. just been doing that and ransacking moreland libraries for their dvd collection. i think coburg is the winner in this respect. i use moreland because i find darabin librairies to be slightly lossy. i must admit i've missed coburg and its certain charm until i went there two weeks ago. i'm really not that far, just a trundle over the suspension bridge with merri creek underneath, pass a primary school, go past coburg tigers home ground and hey presto.

i bought a vinyl copy of the pretty things 's.f sorrow' and i must say again THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST PSYCADELIC POP RECORDS. its went under the radar, partly cause it wasn't released until the end of 1968, even though it was recorded in 67. its a concept album (probably the first) and now i know the story. our man sebastian sorrow is born,grows up a dreamy introverted fellow,falls in love with the girl next door, goes to war, then moves to america and his girl dies in a ballon accident while coming to meet her man. thats all side one. side two just gets strange . sorrow is visited by baron saturday, who takes him on a dreamscape, then sorrow is bitter and tormented and not happy for the rest of the album. great stuff. i'm developing a huge fondness for phil may, i can tell you

i will leave you with this one thought. might it be possible to fasten that which is unfastnable?

oggg oohh

i love the feeling you get when you wake up after sleeping through a hot steamy night. i feel like a cement truck has hit me, its only now that my faculties for livin are returning.its still early in the morning, but i like it, and i've got a day off which is filled with chores and maybe a bit of practcing for our movement show, whenever that be.
spent my whole day yesterday waiting for somthing to happen that didnt. my performance at al wunder in fitzroy was a menage of bad acting and even worse singing, still its too much fun, i'm going to have to cut back on the fun, well i dont think i will cut back on the fun, why should i?
i'm gearing up for a visiting frenzy in december (well 3 people, but they can create a frenzy if they want to) it will be good to play host, and hopefully they can bring some colder weather with them.thats all i have to say, dont know why i even said anything in the first place.
by bye

found the path to my flat

anyone hear of the tame omearas. i really like the two songs I've heard from them. just thought I'd pop that in hello followers. i stuffed up the like again. its just my way i don't like to spend too much time in front of the computer.now my lock has gone on my front door so i cant leave. the computer looks more inviting.
now theres a scattered order song on the stereo,the birds are chirping and the day gets hotter. its almost time for lunch. that's going to be a real good one.really don't have much to say, so i will say this, and this only, its time to go.

oh the chill

its like talking to the parents when the only thing you can talk about is the weather. buying a fan turned out to be a fine idea as my flat is a bit stinky in then hot days, but now i'm wearing a t shirt and i'm almost chilly, almost!

work has been a major acctivity, and keeping an eye on the temperature outside. last night i did the first class in my series of al wunder improvisational movement workshops. it was quite a lot of fun, and i realise how little exercise i've been doing lately. i put in a fine performance with hysterical laughing in there, and the best thing about it was there was no plans beforehand about what it was going to do. i was in real time and it felt real man.

the picture above comes from a recent stint at work but it must have still been cold because i was wearing a jumper. notice the twinkle in my eye. that was meant for the next day but i had saved up to much twinkle dust and had to use it up. i will stop now

over the fog i thee stand

its a nice wet foggy day as i ruminate on the ills of the thornbury area. i'm a bit surprised because last night, somewhere close there was a very loud duf party and i eventually slept through it. took me an hour or so, but igod to nod land.

on friday i performed at westpace with a very sweaty craig peade. we were improvising with marc cher gerrard and rosalind hall, two likely types of the younger set. it was a privallige to work with them. so we peformed our ode to nanjing while they did video and sound manipulation. it was lots of fun. my favourite bit was at the start, we were all in spearate rooms and i crawled around the whole skirting board of a 12 metre square room. i could only be seen by those who had just arrived or thoses buying alcohol. so it was perfect. its so nice too feel totalyy connected to what you are doing and in this first bit i was there, not that i lost it. it was somthing about being alone in my pajamas that did it.

i had a good time overall and i'm sure that the punters got a good show, full of fun and mirth. if anything we kinda rushed it a little bit, but that always happens, when you first perform somthing. onwards and upwards to the next showing which will now be early december as mr peade is a busy man.

as i said sf sorrow is born

just been on a walk down merri creek. i tell you it's great to be so close to its weedy flow.i sweat in appreciation of a job well done, by my legs and feet. theres not much going on in my world. i did have a practise last night of the performance were going to do on friday, complete with sax and video show.

sf sorrow by the pretty things ranks on the top pile of psycadellia pop. its a concept album i've said, but the concept is'nt plain to see. i just knowi'm in love with songs like 'baron saturday', 'trust' and 'sf sorrow is born'. iits a ceaker all the way through, isay,i say.

music fringe band play

busy weeked my followers,

having new widows in my flat is great, a boggy job never could be as good. the plasterer needs to come in to make up for the mess. that aside, after my castlemaine trip last weekend, i've been listening to a couple of albums that are great as great can be.

the first is bill fays self titled album from 1970-1 ish. its orchestral and overblown, but it matches the plaintive voice of mr fay brilliantly. they do say opposites attract. theres a english oddall thing going on thats different from all the other english oddballs. its an understated wit in subtle tones. there are so man great songs, plus you get his only single 'some good advice/ screams in my ears', which is apparently one of the rareist decca/ deram singles ever. i cant imagine the guys at the record company had'nt much hope of a hit here, but as mr fay says, deram had a policy of throwing anything and everthing at the wall and seeing what sticks. i'm sure bill dribbled away, and judging by his second album, 'time of the last persicution' he joined a obsure christian cult.

the other thing i've been listening to is the pretty things 's.f sorrow'. its again one of those 1967 albums that reach trough the gloom of time an into the now. its a cocept album, but dont let that stop you, its a gret peice of music. i will talk more about it.

shithouse september

i went up here. some nice chinese graffiti. it was in yellow mountain park, nanjing, zhongour, which is very beautiful and its the burial site of dr sun yat sen, the so called father of modern china.

so there you have it, downtown nanjing, and i'm sure my workmate will be annoyed, but i've walked down that dajie. ran into dr david nichols this morning and it added another to my theory that no one in the world had a good time in september. it was so shit poor, i couldnt explain it, and i had nothing to complain about, but i didnt enjoy myself that much. octobers noly one day old and a change is as good as a holiday, so they say.
the moden lovers are in precise order on my stereo, and its funny for a short time they were being chased by every record compan under the sun. the sun back then had shades of green in it.

sick of soup

yes i'm sick of seaweed soup,but its cooling when you have a feverlike mine. i'm on the improve anyway, just a bit battered and bruised. the great thing about a soup water diet is when you start eating solid food,it tastes amazing.
been spending my time writing like a pink nut under a tree in bed,maybe i can potter around the house today and get back to being a human being. itsnt sickness like a purge though, its like shedding a skin never to be returned. i did listen to my solo album zhi ze dan ge for the first time inges and its defenenly my best effort. the world deserves it, but i'm never gonna have the relenless ambition to push it to the top, but people will find it if the need to.

hate being sick

dont we all i guess. its easy to forget when youre not.i wont bore you with the horrid details.all i can say is ave been watching plently of sport at 5.30 in the morn and its boring and somewhat depressing.

wizzing between the ears

here iam still a new blog boy,but thats going to change. i have time to spare.lately ive been beutifully avoiding writing my music autobiography. i thought my diary would have helped but i neglect to put a lot of my musical activities in there. i guess i could do what i do best and partly make some of it up.
also been avioding thinking about my new album which is called zhu zi dan ge (i'm not going to tell you the english transllation. looking for someone to put it out, in the end i will probably do it myself. its sorta poppy in the way i sorta do pop. i like it but i've been living with it too long and i've already started a new one.
also avoiding the release of the first inevitable orbit e.p. amazingly its titled 'first'. it was done with jack farley in his northcote boudouire. i guess it will come out in its own time. needs mastering,and some photos of the band.
i havnt been avioding working on a new theatre performance. i'm planning a series of three duo performances with three different people. its based on my china experiences. the first part is called wu bu chi row and there will be a showing at westpace gallery on october the 30th and hopefully a weekend season at oki do centre in carlton in late november. so there you go i've got lots to keep me busy.