Mona Foma

DWT is going to be part of the Mona Foma 8-24 Jan 2010

It's bloody awesome to be part of this upcoming festival
in Hobart as it has some amazing people on the lineup.

Aussies - Cat Hope, Oren Ambarchi, Rod Cooper,
the Dirty Three, Robin Fox, Decoder Ring,

Internat's - JOHN CALE, Pavel Kahout.

tonnes more!!


Summer has come upon us all
in the Southern reaches of the world,
We daren't look into the skies for fear of burning.
What fun the sea, the green of trees
The lust of it all strengthened by Winter's yearning.

Kinda Creepy

A good mate just sent me a christmas card with a picture of Saint Niklaus on the front smiling in his belligerently annoying way with the words "Kind creepy" pixilated underneath.

too true.

the Australian Summer creeps down from the North way down here to the South. I used to live in Alice Springs ... I know that it's already topped 4000 degrees there the other day ... Hobart has cool mornings for a nice comfortable scoot to work on your bike along the train-track bike-path. They had an article in the mockery about making a light-rail tram thingo on those tracks to get from Hobart to past Claremont or something ... if it ever happens that'd make getting to Moorilla a lot easier. 18 view-filled minutes on a tram and then .... VIOLA!! Art-a-rama.

I don't know why Hobartians don't just ride bikes up the path ... and then ... VIOLA!! Art-a rama.

When the museum of a million dollars opens next year of course. At the moment it's still just riding along the bike track and then VIOLA!! Cadbury factory Choc-a-rama ... which doesn't make for a nice ride back into town.

In other news - we have a loganberry bush that produces LOGANS THE SIZE OF A BABY'S HEAD!! One berry fills a few jars ... of course the bush only grows two or three berries a season.

xo

recent events

DWT will be playing at the fun and strange Mona Foma festival in January - announced today - at their website ... how lovely.

Recent events have conspired against us ... we now are the surprised owners of a house in Moonah ... a place which's existence one year ago I was blissfully unaware of.

It has a raspberry patch, a loganberry bush (which we netted on the weekend) ... a lemon tree ... some feral silverbeet, some rampant potatoes ... completely rampant ... large airy rooms that required some airing ... some wallpaper that looks cool magool ... like the 70's and some from the 40's ... which is also cool magool ... and blue lagoon.


what else ... an ancient oven that works in fahrenheit ... not celcius ... imagine that!!

Exciting news October!!

Very soon - new CD - being mastered right now as I type!!

"A SHITLOAD LESS UNDERSTANDING THAN IS REQUIRED"
a bold improvised instrumental interpretation of the lessons that were pounded into me about humankind, misery, happiness, life and death whilst wandering the Central deserts of Australia and things that have been ticking in my head since I walked back South-East with my tail 'tween my legs. More information on my myspace page and the Collossal Adjective in the coming month or so.

I shall also have a track ("Anthropology") featured on the upcoming New Weird Australia Vol. 3 in mid-November. You can download the entire volume for free from their website - NWA has been an exciting addition to the Australian music landscape this year, and for all folks interested in innovative contemporary Aussie music I guarantee it's worth checking out.

I hereby decline

I hereby decline to write anything of value in this space.

I have noticed many silly silly things in the last few days and I find them reprehensible in the majority of cases ... ethically reprehensible! In Launceston they have a park with monkeys in it. Lots of Japanes Macaques (which sounds French, not Japanese ... all historically-inclined zoology students leave educated comments at the bottom of the page as to why this may be the case) ... lots of them running around engaging in Racquel-Welch-Rompy-Pompy with their disgusting red buttocks flailing around enticing their male counterparts into primitive acts of "sex" ... I might addextremely fast primitive acts, they appear to be finished before you recognise what it is that they are up to ... quite strange ... do they enjoy themselves? Is it just something they feel compelled to do? Is it a cultural quirk? Is "culture" a word that is easily applied to Macaques sent to Northern Tasmania from Japan?

So many damn questions. I am at a loss.

I would like to mention also that my dear brother Daniel has skipped his Salsa class in Darwin so that he might engage in the heinous act of "KITE-SURFING" ... how disgustingly fit must he be?

I am now back in Hobart-town ... a place that some know as "the town of the cherubs", as lesser L.A. if you will. We have no such frivolities here. Our parks are those of good mother-England, our walls are those made from good old fashioned slavery. Our streets are paved with concrete ... and in this place I feel a beautiful sense of 'the predictable', 'the controlled' and 'the ... (finish this sentence)
___________
incidentally - Last night I chucked the "stuck ferment" yeast into the pumpkin wine ... I also chucked some in my stuck ferment of the plum wine. I hope these two wines will join forces one day and create a super - Plumpkin wine.

Video of Drive West Today

Sydney - The Silent Hour XX December 2 2011

Hobart - Sept 30, 2011 as part of Sound Klub IV at Inflight Art's Transit Lounge

Hobart - August 2011 performance with Chris Downes at Sound to Light

Sydney - June 2011, at the Silent Hour

Other videos can be found at my Vimeo site

Tasmania - 2011 video to accompany Australian tour

Alice Springs May 2010 - Electric Ecology

Tasmania 2009



Brisbane - August 2008


Hobart - December 2008

where to from here

the surreal feeling appears to have disappeared ... what is left is an unusual sensation that I'm back to in the world of concrete decisions and that I'm much more in control ... hmm

how disappointing ...
or perhaps being in control is a 'thing' with a twist of "good"?

I'm unsure ...

perhaps I'll go and play a nice CD.

the old Soak

Drive West Today has a brand spanking new gig
at the SOAK Bar in North Hobart
with the ethereal Biddy Connor
(Tim Finn, Grand Salvo, Kes Band, Jen Cloher, Laura Jean)

FACEBOOK EVENT

Sunday 4th of October, 7:30pm!!
$5-
(and $10 roasts)

Poster - Nadine Kessler Design

some reviews -
"Composer-vocalist Biddy Connor gently inserted herself between the main works, presenting whimsical and yearning songs, self-accompanied on viola, which by means of simple technology turned into layered contrapuntal chants."
- The Age -

Kes Band review -
“Wordlessly stunning. Although the spectre of the Dirty Three hangs over the album (Biddy Connor’s violin is more elegant than ferocious), there is so much beauty on display, so much space and atmosphere, so much complexity and grace, that it is truly a record in its own class” - THE SUNDAY AGE **** four stars

A very succinct article about Australia's racist policies that I digged

Here's something that I reckon all you jokers should read and read-it-good!

READ THIS

Australia is a deceptive place, most Aussies are fooled by it.

Most of us reckon we're tolerant and kind blokes and sheilas with idiocyncracies to boot.

I'm not particularly into kicking Australia ... we've putting ourselves down for some time agreeing with ideas like "We ain't got no culture" or "We're just little England" and lots of other bits and bobs like the cultural cringe and things they write about a fair bit in Monthly magazine on a monthly basis.

But sometimes we just bloody ignore our past - not just our distant past, but even our recent past.

Did you know there is no Racial Vilification laws in the NT?

Weird!

One of Several Centres

Here's something fun I was involved in a year or two back that has reached the ethernet -

Alex Kershaw
Film here (may take a while to upload).

Photo still from the project - here.
and another one - here.

A youtube briefened version


And here's a review which likens my performance to Buster Keaton, then goes on to call me "self-conscious" and "actorly" ... hmmf, there was a camera pointed in my direction ... and a guy (Alex Davies) with a big fluffy tennis-ball microphone boomy thingo!! Good fun though.

Adjective clause

Have recently completed the first in my series of "History! Weird and Educational too!" A6-sized comics. The first in the series stars Danzan Rabjaa - the mysterious ... and drunk ... monk from the Gobi desert, set in 1847 a couple bring their dying son to him for help, strange and terrifying events unfold.

You can have a copy for $2- sent to you (postage free).
Just send me a coin in an envelope or see me in the street.
Josh
GPO Box 1272
Hobart, TASMANIA
Australia 7001

The long weekend

Have also begun rendering an essay by Craig San Roque "The long Weekend" into graphic novel form - it's an essay that was originally written for a collection of essays responding to CG Jung's concept of the cultural complex. Craig was living in Alice Springs at the time of writing so the essay describes what he sees, the surreal life of Alice, what is happening all around him during the weekend of football weekend when the people of the bush descend upon the town - who knows what might happen: some family business, some football, perhaps even a few fights.

The essay is divided loosely into three days - Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Friday sees Craig in his house trying to knuckle down with a theme for his essay, increasingly irritated at the guests sleeping in his backyard, until he realises that the cultural complexes are somehow best described by simply describing what occurs in such a town as Alice, where two (or more) cultures rub up against each other - revealing beliefs and behaviours to the other cultures that have their origins rooted in the mystical past.

Saturday Craig visits the hospital mental health unit to sees a young Aboriginal girl who has come in with a ganja-induced psychosis; petrol-sniffing etc. Craig writes about geographical sites, the meanings and stories that we imbue them with and their importance in our understanding of the worlds that we inhabit; this also goes for body parts. He visits the oft-referred to metaphor of the neural pathways for the song-lines of the Aboriginal people and their oral history and story-telling that they use to map out their world.

Sunday - Craig, his family, and friend Amos, inadvertently get dragged into going hunting with some of the women that have come to his backyard. Enters an extended discussion with Amos about how colonisation and its role in tearing people from their methods of understanding their worlds, their links to their mythology, eventually leading to their destruction.

Although the cultural complex is shown to be dynamic, repetitive and resurrective, Craig's observations perhaps lead one to believe that in central Australia the complex is somehow devolving and destructive.

It is a redolent essay, having lived in Alice Springs myself for three years, and struggled in my capacity as a mental health nurse with many of the strange and wonderful issues that face that particular hub of Australian cultures (which I strongly believe that no one person has many answers for) I found this essay to be somehow darkly comforting; if only for the its ability to impart in me the feeling that I am in no way alone in my confusion about what the hell was going on half the time. I also loved its ability to capture the surreality of every day life in that town and the region. Things just happen, you often can't force your own agenda upon the world there - it won't work - the spirit of the land have their own agenda, the complexes of human behaviour and understanding will move on with or without you.

I reckon this project may take at least one or two more years - I have roughly mapped out the story visually, soon to embark on the great unknown for me - typography. Luckily I have Nadine Kessler by my side - an expert in the field of letters and words ... and their place on the page. Hailing from Germany, and taught by the master Weingart in Basel, Switzerland, she will also hopefully agree to do the overall book design.

I hope to get some images of the work in progress up on this blog sometime in the near future - I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions for extended reading on these matters. The more the merrier.

also

Have once again in my life finished watching the entire Twin Peaks saga ... damn that was fun.

History!!

I have completed a new comic in time for Hobart+music=YEAH!

7 page A6 booklet for $2-BARGAIN!!

It is the beginning of a new series of comics that will be entitled 'History!: weird AND educational'

The first issue will be titles "Despair in the Desert" - it will be set in 1847 in the Gobi Desert and features a little known Lama by the name of Danzan Rabjaa who is having a bit of a revival in Mongolia in recent years - there's a new book out on him by the Lonely Planet writer - Michael Kohn ... who tends to live in Ulaan Bataar ...

AWESOME!!! I shall take some photos soonish and put them in this space so that you may sample the wonder!!!

ciao

xo

Charles du Cane's puppies

I had a smashing time playing at Charles du Cane's CD launch last night - and then watching the princess of dogs playing himself - highly engrossingly entertainingment.

here's a Vid I dedicated to him - join me on facebook if you dare!

Blue Valentines

What may be one's desire to rest on one's laurel bush turns out to be some inner want for poor sleep, perhaps that is when we have our best, most creative thoughts - staring at the ceiling with our brains-a-whir, on hyper-hippodrive.

To date the bluest song on record was recorded on a record by Tom Waits ...

the view of the nation

Go to this page which has a review and read the comments afterwards - fascinating how a film about Aboriginal realities can polarise our fair nation -

the Australian newspaper


jxo

## new youtube thingo on the bottom of this page!!
Fun music!!

I have returned from the desert to the far South of Australia ... just in time for the Hobart winter. You may have noticed Hobart is on the edge of the world ... so's the weather ... but I'll become accustomed to it.

A minority of sufferers get minimal or no result from Botox injections and have to find other treatments. For some, Botox diminishes in its effectiveness after many years of use. An observed side effect in a minority of patients is ptosis or eyelid droop. Attempts to inject in locations that minimise ptosis can result in diminished ability to control spasms.
Stress management and support groups can help sufferers deal with the disease and prevent social isolation.
WOOHOO! T'ank goodness.

On July the 10th Charles Du Cane shall be entering the Siren's ballroom for to make loverly music. He has akksed me too makes loverley mosaics with him toos. jxo

Blepharospasm

## new youtube thingo on the bottom of this page!! Fun music!!

I have returned from the desert to the far South of Australia ... just in time for the Hobart winter. You may have noticed Hobart is on the edge of the world ... so's the weather ... but I'll become accustomed to it.

A minority of sufferers get minimal or no result from Botox injections and have to find other treatments. For some, Botox diminishes in its effectiveness after many years of use. An observed side effect in a minority of patients is ptosis or eyelid droop. Attempts to inject in locations that minimise ptosis can result in diminished ability to control spasms.

Stress management and support groups can help sufferers deal with the disease and prevent social isolation. WOOHOO! T'ank goodness.

On July the 10th Charles Du Cane shall be entering the Siren's ballroom for to make loverly music. He has akksed me too makes loverley mosaics with him toos.

jxo

Amata

Am here in Amata for the last time ... pity, the locals are highly amusing.

So I was playing last weekend at the Lane in Alice Springs when all of a sudden, across the mall at the Town & Country, a huge bloody fight breaks out between two or three guys ... I look at J9 and we rush to our instruments and start playing some chase-music just as the cop-cars come vrooming into the mall ... some chicks throw themselves into the fray and then get plucked back out and into the paddy-wagons and off to the watch-house. Charming wenches that they were. And still the band played on ... the atmosphere was electric. Come to the Lane Restaurant for a fine relaxing atmosphere, fine food, wine to boot and a good old fashioned fisticuff face-slamming.

___

See you at Wide Open Spaces
I'm on 1:30pm with J9 yet again.

Fregon

I am sitting in the doctor's house in Fregon ... she's in Sydney - so she doesn't need to know about it at all.

She has internet connection which is nice.

It's funny trying to flap your way through cultural divide in mental health work. You're never quite certain whether what you see is what you're getting. Perhaps I'm getting bugger-all correct.

I wish the health-workers would turn up to work. They usually have a better idea about what people are talking about - partially because they come from the same culture ... and partially because they speak the same language.


But still, gotta say - playing with Anangu is kind of fun - they're a most interesting bunch of people. Highly dramatic. When they have an argument, they don't bother hiding it - in fact, they let the entire community know
... perhaps because in small communities you can't hide it

... or perhaps as an open invitation for anyone else to express their grievances
... a large group exercise to exorcise all negative feelings out of their souls and into the ether


... I don't know ... perhaps not.


There's a festival down the road from Alice in a couple of weeks -

Wide Open Space Festival
























I'll be seeing ya there.

Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia and is among the earliest known works of fiction.

In this ancient saga Gilgamesh destroys the bull of heaven with the help of Enkidu - his wild part-stone mate who was created as his equal. There's this other character called Utnapishtim, another called Humbaba (a demon-orge protecting the cedar forests) and a grumpy love-goddess called Ishtar.

I only bring these names up because I know lots of people my age are having babies and I reckon there needs to be a new baby-name rennaissance from the old days.

over and out.

AP lands

So I'm trundling around the North of South Australia ... tried to find the Surveyor General's corner today ... found some tinnies and a windmill ... nothing but scrub up around there ...Kalka, Pipayalatjara, Kanpi, Nyapari, Amata -> Lasseter, home.

Central Australia seems nice to me ... the buffel grass seems to feel at home here too. Horrible shit! Hope it burns in hell.

Have a gig on Tuesday in Alice - see you there ... I'm not even sure where that is.

Also will be playing at the "Wide Open Space" arts festival on the 2nd of May at the Ross River site. A bush doof music festival for Central Oz ... google it baby!! ooooh yeah.

jxo

Upcoming tour!!

OOOooo, DWT will be coming up to the mainland ... scooting through the big city of Melbourne and then running off in the buff to the big desert again to play in the dust.

gigs - Hobart, Melbourne, and Alice Springs.


Poster by Nadine Kessler design.

video down below of xmas gig at 6a ARI Hobart.

Fuggles

It has been a long time since I properly wrote something tangibly delusional on this website ... but I just discovered the desire to do so again ... I have been homebrewing, moving house, changing seasons for sometime now ... and as of today I no longer have to live out of a suitcase - which is terribly exciting.

I discovered there are varieties of Hops (for beer brewing) that are called fuggles. This automatically makes me think of a bad habit that youngsters nowadays and wayward adults have of conjoining the words "f#*&^#g" and "ugly" to come up with the word "fugly". Apart from the usual uproar such a rude title might bring about in civilised society, I believe that this derogatory name is wholly undeservingly bestowed upon the humble hop. The very hop that allows us to balance out the sweetness of a brewed beer with the more subtle bitterness that is intrinsic to the plant and has allowed us a more rounded, balanced and smooth flavouring in our cool and refreshing summer beverage .... our warming winter beverage ... and the other beverage that we drink in other seasons too ... namely the two others that I have not managed to mention as of yet - Spring and Autumn.

I do hope that with your help ... we can rectify the situation by OFFICIALLY changing the name. I hope to set up a facebook page and/or group ... not sure which way to go on that one just yet.

In the meantime - you can all just sign your names in the comments section at the bottom of this blog if you agree with me and when I get over three thousand names I shall present it to the Australian government. We will petition them to go to Oxford to have the name irrevocably revoked from their influential dictionary. Hopefully with this course of action, despite a significant lack of strict language-purity laws in the English speaking world, the influence of the Oxford dictionary will help to eradicate this ghastly name from our failing language and bestow our true gratitude upon this loveliest of plants, which will be remembered daily in the language of our day, henceforth.

amen

Drive West Today - on facebook

Drive West Today has a track on the Series Two compilation Vol 15



Available from the Series Two Store. Buy ... oooh

Musical Dissidents

My new radio show The Musical Dissidents is going fine ... I almost know how to slow down my talking to a reasonable pace and I have almost worked out how to not play the wrong song.

http://www.musicaldissidents.blogspot.com

  or

http://edgeradio.org.au

facebook group

Come join me - Sundays AUST EST 12-1pm on 99.3fm or stream it from the Edge website.

jxo