There's a few musical gods in Australia don't you know
-> there's this one - He plays around often in Melbourne, sometimes at Bar 303 on High Street Northcote (a place to see interesting stuff), he plays in Assumptions, an impro-thematic threesome of the best bloody quality that'll blow you away live ... a bimmin' must-see.
and mike nock - virtuosic piana playin' by a really nice bloke.
............................................. and this girl's work - the Green Septet : I'm biased since Jess Green's an acquaintance of mine, but then I heard her music and now I'm even more biased.
and stuff by this bloke - Chris Abrahams -> PHENOMENAL STUFF!!
......... .......... ....... and his other blokes - the necks .... one of the best things from Sydney
this collective little bunch of oddballs - Coda: again, I'm biased - but you'll not hear any music quite like it around, gypsy/electro/eighties/classical/bizarro camped up concerts with dancers and animals.
I'm sure I'll think of more ... and I'll put them here for you to peruse.
Wednesday, November 9
Sunday, October 30
Green and lizards
I got a postcard of green ... a nice deep green from halfway up the Queensland coast in a well-known rainforest. That's a colour I miss. Though the desert is green at the moment, but not that green, it's usually browned off a bit anyway.
The long-nosed water dragons are everywhere ... they are scooting around anywhere there's water and insects ... everywhere, that is ... they can give you a hell of a fright when their long whispery tails flick past you in the bushes ... bloody lizard.
I discovered a lovely spot by accident the other day ... literally by accident : - Some perenty decided to throw himself in the way of my landcruiser, Emily, the other day ... luckily we swerved and missed him, sending me over a beautiful red cliff-face with a wonderful view of the sunset, which I watched with rapture, and landed in a lovely permanent waterhole ... we swam in the beautifully cooling water until Emily and I had had enough and we dried off on the warm red rocks at the base of the gorgeous gorge ...
................. stupid lizard.
The long-nosed water dragons are everywhere ... they are scooting around anywhere there's water and insects ... everywhere, that is ... they can give you a hell of a fright when their long whispery tails flick past you in the bushes ... bloody lizard.
I discovered a lovely spot by accident the other day ... literally by accident : - Some perenty decided to throw himself in the way of my landcruiser, Emily, the other day ... luckily we swerved and missed him, sending me over a beautiful red cliff-face with a wonderful view of the sunset, which I watched with rapture, and landed in a lovely permanent waterhole ... we swam in the beautifully cooling water until Emily and I had had enough and we dried off on the warm red rocks at the base of the gorgeous gorge ...
................. stupid lizard.
Thursday, October 27
cycads
Ha haaaaaa.
There are places you wouldn't believe in the centre of Australia. I won't tell you, you'll just have to come and see for yourself.
except for this ->
You'll find ancient cycads that look a little out of place.
Apparently my computer is now functional too ... which means I can start to sift through musical bits and pieces from the last nine or ten months ... probably longer.
The weather is getting warmer. Topped 40 a couple of days ago. It's been a while since I felt cold. Last week the Todd flowed ... it rained for three days in the right spots and the river-bed became a river ... not one month after the Henley on Todd Regatta. Driving out after the rains the waterholes are all full as a goog. The waterways swell up like goon bags and the smell of wet dirt is everywhere.
Little kids line the causeways in the river and shout out as cars speed up to spray them ... every dog and his man is throwing sticks and fetching them. Sitting in a gigantic tree branch you can laze the day away. Lap it up, in a few days there'll only be sand again. The river flows out into the desert and evaporates, sinks down to the Artesian depths.
There are places you wouldn't believe in the centre of Australia. I won't tell you, you'll just have to come and see for yourself.
except for this ->
You'll find ancient cycads that look a little out of place.
Apparently my computer is now functional too ... which means I can start to sift through musical bits and pieces from the last nine or ten months ... probably longer.
The weather is getting warmer. Topped 40 a couple of days ago. It's been a while since I felt cold. Last week the Todd flowed ... it rained for three days in the right spots and the river-bed became a river ... not one month after the Henley on Todd Regatta. Driving out after the rains the waterholes are all full as a goog. The waterways swell up like goon bags and the smell of wet dirt is everywhere.
Little kids line the causeways in the river and shout out as cars speed up to spray them ... every dog and his man is throwing sticks and fetching them. Sitting in a gigantic tree branch you can laze the day away. Lap it up, in a few days there'll only be sand again. The river flows out into the desert and evaporates, sinks down to the Artesian depths.
Sunday, October 16
Ellery Creek Big Hole
Not far out of town ... there's Namatjira Drive ... probably named after Albert I imagine, though there's a few Namatjiras around ... down that road is the local swim-hole.
Thursday, October 13
werewolves
Maaaaaan,
rain is so ... wet.
it's p^%&ing down here at the moment and I'm stuck at work.
Usually when it rains here it only happens for about twenty minutes and the whole place has that glorious wet dirt smell ...
now it's been raining for about two hours ... I've never seen it rain for so long in Central Australia before (of course I've only been here for seven or eight months so what do I know).
If it rains for much longer, the river might flow ... I might be stuck on this side of the river ... have to curl up next to one of the patients for the night and stay here at the hospital ... bugger that - I'll have to tie a rope around my waist and tie the other end to the huge bull-bar of my four-wheel gorgeous hunk of white rain-glistened metal across the causeway. I'll have to rip my shirt off and scream like some human that's turning into a wolf
... just like in the movies
... oooooo. that sounds fun.
maybe I should do that
.... or I could just use the bridge further down.
Friday, October 7
Chinese Paper
Chinese paper is gorgeous ... there's a chinese shop on Pitt street not far from Central that everyone seems to walk past and, always, they seem to think - I should go in there one day ... but never set a foot in there ...
one day I did,
one day I did,
I can't remember the last time I went into a shop that I hadn't been in before ... Alice Springs is a large town ... but it's small as well.
I miss the anonymity of the city, so much to drown yourself in that you notice nothing and yet the smallest thing can become so exciting when it reveals itself between the largest of things.
A good friend of mine from Norway wants to know why I haven't written anything about her on this website ... I wouldn't know what to say other than the fact that she has owed me a coffee for a long time ... perhaps I'll end up in Melbourne at some point again to collect what is rightfully mine, then we can caff it up in a city spoiled for choice.
Wednesday, September 28
melaleuca
I used to take a bucket from the laundry cupboard and run up the street to Dub's house. Then we'd collect the cicada shells from the paperbarks up and down the street ... the days work was only complete when the bucket was at least ... well it was complete when we couldn't be arsed collecting any more ... I don't actually remember what we did with them afterward ...
I can only s'pose we just owned them ... hoarded them in a safe somewhere. Buried them in the ground and made a treasure map.
The tea trees were a bugger to get through to the trunks ... they're just too low to the ground. The cuts and scrapes I earned as I macheted my way through them branches to clutch my single cicada shell meant that I left those one's till last ... bloody tea trees. Used to hate playing cricket near those things ... ball'd invariably end up halfway up them in the crook of the trunk and a branch.
Dub lives in Brisbane with his girlfriend now ... haven't visited once in all these years. He came down to Melbourne a couple of times and told me off.
Should drop in on him sometime soon.
I can only s'pose we just owned them ... hoarded them in a safe somewhere. Buried them in the ground and made a treasure map.
The tea trees were a bugger to get through to the trunks ... they're just too low to the ground. The cuts and scrapes I earned as I macheted my way through them branches to clutch my single cicada shell meant that I left those one's till last ... bloody tea trees. Used to hate playing cricket near those things ... ball'd invariably end up halfway up them in the crook of the trunk and a branch.
Dub lives in Brisbane with his girlfriend now ... haven't visited once in all these years. He came down to Melbourne a couple of times and told me off.
Should drop in on him sometime soon.
Sunday, September 25
myrtaceae
The streets are in bloom with the callistemons ... the myrtaceae, however, there is no sign of them yet.
though
I know they are coming
Thursday, September 22
the camaldulensis
I come from Melbourne ... my favourite city in Australia to live in as far as I know of.
the music is rife, the people laid back, the weather is ... well is isn't boring ......, and there are trams.
I love trams ... except when you're late for work or class or a date ...
I used to catch the tram to school from the stop outside the old Camberwell town hall. The clock is always wrong and the timetable is also always wrong. I used to be somewhat amused when the tram coincided with the right time according to the town hall clock. At the stop there was a huge ancient old tree. A gum tree with thick arms with a shower of leaves just waiting to fly off. It had obviously been there a century or two. I don't know about before white people came ... it seemed to be a bit far from any other friends ... but what do I know.
it had a little plaque on it with its common name and latin name.
River Red Gum
Eucalyptus Camaldulensis
waiting for trams can sometimes be an eternity, one sometimes holds up another ... and then another. When they arrive, they might as well be a train. The first two pass right by you with the driver focusing on the road ahead as if he may have to swerve out of the way of a wayward pedestrian, leaving the third tram to stop for you as you wave your arm pathetically from the side of the wet road.
Even when it was miserable weather I stared up at the giant old man looking over his plaque hammered into his shins by some miniscule council gardner.
eucalyptus camaldulensis ...
... I've never forgotten it
the music is rife, the people laid back, the weather is ... well is isn't boring ......, and there are trams.
I love trams ... except when you're late for work or class or a date ...
I used to catch the tram to school from the stop outside the old Camberwell town hall. The clock is always wrong and the timetable is also always wrong. I used to be somewhat amused when the tram coincided with the right time according to the town hall clock. At the stop there was a huge ancient old tree. A gum tree with thick arms with a shower of leaves just waiting to fly off. It had obviously been there a century or two. I don't know about before white people came ... it seemed to be a bit far from any other friends ... but what do I know.
it had a little plaque on it with its common name and latin name.
River Red Gum
Eucalyptus Camaldulensis
waiting for trams can sometimes be an eternity, one sometimes holds up another ... and then another. When they arrive, they might as well be a train. The first two pass right by you with the driver focusing on the road ahead as if he may have to swerve out of the way of a wayward pedestrian, leaving the third tram to stop for you as you wave your arm pathetically from the side of the wet road.
Even when it was miserable weather I stared up at the giant old man looking over his plaque hammered into his shins by some miniscule council gardner.
eucalyptus camaldulensis ...
... I've never forgotten it
night shift
my goodness this is boring at times.
working in the psych ward is fun ... but not when you don't see no clients for the entire shift ... However, it does give one a few moments to gather one's thought and make a random website up for the helluvitt.
I have no intention of making this a site whereby I talk about myself all the time. I'm hoping for constant inspiration to make this site helluva lot more creative ... but since I haven't really been webbing for quite a long time and am a bit out of touch with what the F^%* goes on websites then it'll be some time before this inspiration comes.
At the moment I live in Alice Springs ... when you look at the big map of Australia on my wall, it would seem that Alice is in the middle of nowhere ... a GREAT place to dump nuclear waste when Canberra just won't do. I have lived here for eight months or so now and I have gotten used to the place names and the deceptiveness of the distances so much that I have forgotten that I used to think of the outback like that. I've even drawn in the little bits all over the place on one map which, I realise now, is boody useless ... there are thousands of communities and whatnot all over the joint ... though I think the Simpson desert is just a desert with not much to interupt it ... other than the random camel trek to Birdsville, Qld, via Poeppel's corner.
The Alice is nestled amongst the Macdonnell ranges ... so every day when I jump on me little bicicletta and tottle off to work, I'm greeted by the majesticly crumbling walls that surround the world ... the best is the morning when you come round the corner to face the ranges as the sun slowly slides down them.
It's September now and the weather is warming up slowly. The air is bone dry so it's actually quite pleasant still. Days of 32-35 degrees. You have to drink like a trooper because the air is so dry that the sweat doesn't even have time to feel moist on your skin before it is whisked off to become one with the occasional cloud in the sky ... if you don't drink, then you quickly feel quite tired.
Out the western road, Namatjira Drive, is the most beautiful stretch of road I think I know of ... though I consider my Australian education still in its infancy. Rolling hills, rocks, ridges, eucalypts and mulgas, grass and shrubs, gorges and waterholes, riverbeds and creekbeds ... Mt Sonder looking sombrely at your approach from the East.
Down the Ross Hwy to the East of Alice the road changes from quietly pretty to spectacularly stunning ... it'd a shame to be the driver, have to keep your eyes on the road maybe that's why there's so many rollovers here.
Down 4-wheel-only tracks, off the sealed ones, you'll find out-of-the-way waterholes with less tourists and solitude. If you find a rocky alcove you can sit there and just listen to nothing until the sun tips so far to the west that you shiver in your jocks.
Out the gap there are claypans which we lie in for our beauty treatment for weeks after a splash after a rain. For some reason the water likes it there and stays for a while, all chocolate thick and soothing.
come visit me, 'snot as empty as the map looks.
working in the psych ward is fun ... but not when you don't see no clients for the entire shift ... However, it does give one a few moments to gather one's thought and make a random website up for the helluvitt.
I have no intention of making this a site whereby I talk about myself all the time. I'm hoping for constant inspiration to make this site helluva lot more creative ... but since I haven't really been webbing for quite a long time and am a bit out of touch with what the F^%* goes on websites then it'll be some time before this inspiration comes.
At the moment I live in Alice Springs ... when you look at the big map of Australia on my wall, it would seem that Alice is in the middle of nowhere ... a GREAT place to dump nuclear waste when Canberra just won't do. I have lived here for eight months or so now and I have gotten used to the place names and the deceptiveness of the distances so much that I have forgotten that I used to think of the outback like that. I've even drawn in the little bits all over the place on one map which, I realise now, is boody useless ... there are thousands of communities and whatnot all over the joint ... though I think the Simpson desert is just a desert with not much to interupt it ... other than the random camel trek to Birdsville, Qld, via Poeppel's corner.
The Alice is nestled amongst the Macdonnell ranges ... so every day when I jump on me little bicicletta and tottle off to work, I'm greeted by the majesticly crumbling walls that surround the world ... the best is the morning when you come round the corner to face the ranges as the sun slowly slides down them.
It's September now and the weather is warming up slowly. The air is bone dry so it's actually quite pleasant still. Days of 32-35 degrees. You have to drink like a trooper because the air is so dry that the sweat doesn't even have time to feel moist on your skin before it is whisked off to become one with the occasional cloud in the sky ... if you don't drink, then you quickly feel quite tired.
Out the western road, Namatjira Drive, is the most beautiful stretch of road I think I know of ... though I consider my Australian education still in its infancy. Rolling hills, rocks, ridges, eucalypts and mulgas, grass and shrubs, gorges and waterholes, riverbeds and creekbeds ... Mt Sonder looking sombrely at your approach from the East.
Down the Ross Hwy to the East of Alice the road changes from quietly pretty to spectacularly stunning ... it'd a shame to be the driver, have to keep your eyes on the road maybe that's why there's so many rollovers here.
Down 4-wheel-only tracks, off the sealed ones, you'll find out-of-the-way waterholes with less tourists and solitude. If you find a rocky alcove you can sit there and just listen to nothing until the sun tips so far to the west that you shiver in your jocks.
Out the gap there are claypans which we lie in for our beauty treatment for weeks after a splash after a rain. For some reason the water likes it there and stays for a while, all chocolate thick and soothing.
come visit me, 'snot as empty as the map looks.
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