musings

two items to recommend. the first is an essay written by jackie fuchs, who was known as jackie fox when she was in the runaways. she compares two old pals, joan jett, her former bandmate from the runaways, and presidential candidate barack obama, whom she attended law school with. it’s an interesting read, go here.

the second is an older clip, but still timely with comedian andy dick as g.w. bush’s speechwriter.as they say, sometimes the jokes do indeed write themselves.

the rose has returned to adelaide. the financial realities of maintaining a roof over one’s head, not to mention anything resembling a lifestyle in a city as expensive as sydney took a while to hit home, but they did. cranky, messy and riddled with teen angst, I shall miss her nonetheless.

and happy b-day to annii.

was updating the myspace page and pondered the many various lists of “top friends” that I’ve seen in others. mine’s a collection of family, friends, artists that I know well and a few that I admire. so if you’re in need of some cool new music to get you thru the week, please allow me to introduce a few of my top faves to you:

david rodriguez. former texan singer-songwriter, now based in holland, david’d best-known song is ballad of the snow leopard and the tanqueray cowboy, famously covered by lyle lovett. I got a nice note from him the other day and have just ordered his new album, his first in over a decade (sounds familiar…). check out his daughter carrie, she’s very good as well.

kacy crowley. kacy’s an old buddy from the los angeles late 80’s circuit, even then I knew she had something special. she had a shot at the majors during the ascendancy of alanis, sheryl crowe, fiona apple etc, but somehow managed to slip thru the cracks. kacy’s tunes and vocal delivery are simply great, check out the video for badass.

peter case. I’d first discovered him when he was with his first band, the nerves in the late 70’s. been a fan all thru the plimsouls and his long solo career. he’s no nuevo folkie, he’s just a class act.

kevin welch. I’d been a fan since his 1991 debut and had gotten to know him when I lived in nashville. as much as I enjoy the work he’s been doing as part of the kane-welch-kaplan outfit, his solo work is still my fave. his version of john hiatt’s train to birmingham is sublime.

caitlin harnett. someone to watch, and I mean it. still in her teens, she’s got something magical growing very quickly in her writing and vocals.

paul norton. we were in hillbilly moon together, some of the best times of this phase of my career. his under a southern sky should be our alternate national anthem.

rebecca hancock. we’d almost been bandmates about ‘87 or so, with former saints’ ed kuepper’s band the yard goes on forever, but alas, I opted for the ill-fated solo deal. I’ve just helped bec put her myspace and website back online, she’s wrestling with a few legal issues over her latest album but is working on a brand new set.

duane jarvis. dj and I first met when he was in the odds and I was in sneakers, about ‘79 or so. he’s the guitar slinger to the cool cats, and a hell of a songwriter to boot. his co-writes with lucinda williams (still I long for your kiss) and joy lynn white (love sometimes) are classics.

kevin montgomery. his tune cherokee city is one of my faves. we’re talking with him about getting him to play the new cafe/venue early next year.

shane flew. I’ve known shane since the flood/feral swing cat days, when he was a drummer. he’s picked up guitar and is now performing his own tunes. very cool stuff, great pop sensibility.

morgana welch. not a musical artist as such, but the author of a very cool book called hollywood diaries, detailing her days as a teen rock n roll groupie in early 70’s l.a. great reading about a fascinating time.

so go discover some cool tunes, and tell your friends. music is good for your soul.

and yes, I’ve told my daughter that her profile still has her feb 2007 school pic from balmain high…..

we’ve signed off on the new cafe/residence in the blue mountains. food-related details are in my food blog. spent the night there awaiting electrics and gas to be connected. did I say it was cold here a few days ago? that was a milkbath compared to my weekend. you know things are mighty chilly when standing in front of the open fire at the pub across the road, I overheard many locals remarking on how chilly it was.

and it even snowed a little. reminded me of my childhood days in oregon, which I’d kind of hoped for. by the time we get moved ( three more weeks), the edge should have come off the winter. there’s a lot of cleaning and painting to do there, and it ain’t gonna happen in sub-zero temps.

got the tonedogs together again for saturday night at the baldy. drop by for some blues you can use. irish john’s doing the second set, we’ll pull out some of the old tunes we did when we had the band back in the late 80’s (was it that long ago?)

happy b-day to my lil sis terri. I’ll phone you sometime, I promise….

looking thru the new phone bill, I had a chuckle at the cliche-as-fact:

my sms text calls for the month: 89

the gypsy gal’s: 161

the rose’s: 297

sorting thru a minefield of problems, minor dramas and last-minute hiccups, so I’ve again kicked my player into random mode for soul-soothing toons. the last ten played:

jimmy lafave & ruthie foster / walk a mile in my shoes
alison krauss & robert plant / trampled rose
beth orton / feel to believe
iron & wine / innocent bones
counting crows / washington square
allman brothers band / melissa (live)
joni mitchell / how do you stop
john hammond / come on in my kitchen
sufjan stevens / thomas the one I love
patty griffin / heavenly day

I feel better.

I’d like to publicly state that prince’s “raspberry beret” is a great pop song. shoot me if ya dare try.

and I like sarah mclachlan too. so there.

and I still don’t get amy winehouse. or feist.

cool new band find of the week: red molly. what the dixie chicks should’ve been. what the waifs may have been had they been born in the appalachians.

happy b-day to laura from liverpool - cairns will never be the same after you two are finished with it.

my pal and occasional bandmate jim finn has taken a leaf from my newsletters and has been including jokes and other silly stuff in his weekly gig-mails. I rather liked today’s gag, so here ’tis:

Two Rednecks are out hunting, and as they are walking along they come upon a huge hole in the ground. They approach it and are amazed by the size of it.

The first hunter says ” Wow, that’s some hole, I can’t even see the bottom, I wonder how deep it is?”

The second hunter says” I don’t know, let’s throw something down and listen and see how long it takes to hit bottom.”

The first hunter says ” There’s this an old transmission here, give me a hand and we’ll throw it in and see”.

So they pick it up and carry it over, and count one, and two and three, and throw it in the hole. They are standing there listening and looking over the edge and they hear a rustling in the brush behind them. As they turn around they see a goat come crashing through the brush, run up to the hole, and with no hesitation, and jump in head first.

While they are standing there looking at each other, looking in the hole, and trying to figure out what that was all about, an old farmer walks up. “Say there”, says the farmer, “you fellers didn’t happen to see my goat around here anywhere, did you?”

The first hunter says ” Funny you should ask, but we were just standing here a minute ago and a goat came running out of the bushes doin’ about a hundert miles an hour and jumped headfirst into this hole here!”

And the old farmer said ” Why that’s impossible, I had him chained to an old transmission!

what a difference a week makes. I’ll try to make a long series of events concise for this post. we’ve passed on the house. too many hiccups, issues with things like zoning, fencing, mortgage insurers etc. it was dragging on for so long that my gut feeling was, it ’tweren’t to be.

so going back to square one, we discovered that the cafe/residence site we’d explored some months ago was still on the market - with a few minor changes to the lease options available. the past few days have been spent in submitting offers, discussions, property inspections, meetings with the owners, and now…… we have not only a home, but another opportunity to build a cafe/gallery/music venue.

we’ll be moving in the next couple of weeks, but there’s so much work to do in regards to cleaning, painting, repairs etc that we’re not looking at opening until december. those of you who remember our last two places will feel right at home - we’re running with a similar look and feel. no more nights though, day trade only and the live music program will resume on sunday arvos.

the residence is large enough for my recording gear as well, so I’m still on track with the new album plans. many of the things we wanted to do at the last restaurant (such as live recording) will now be feasible, so I’m feeling pretty inspired.

more details as things progress.

oh, and as we’ll have a back yard, the gypsy gal wants a dog.

anyone have a two-group espresso machine for sale cheapish?

was a whole five degrees when I got up today (that’s 41 in fahrenheit). not as chilly as most of the winter mornings growing up in the pac nw, but for here, bloody freezing. aussies seem to be in a state of constant denial about the cooler months, at least the ‘warmer’ states seem to be. looking at a few houses where I lived as a kid (with google street view) reminded me of how most, if not all, had central heating, insulation et al. not so here.

and it was even colder in the mountains, where I’m still planning on moving… someday. the house deal has stalled, we’re fast running out of patience and are exploring other options yet again. but by the time I get there, spring will have taken the edge off the cooler nights. perhaps.

the cafe gig has fallen thru, problems with neighbouring businesses I’m told. once again, another promising new music venue has gone by the wayside, probably so some putz can enjoy the reverse beeps from the semitrailers while perusing the sports pages.

I’m doing the merton again on thursday with the gringos, hope to see some of y’all there.

for those of you that have chasing me - this is the business ‘me’, by the way….  for some time for various jobs, tasks, artwork, favours, edits, co-ops, etc - I’ve been pretty overrun these past few weeks, my apologies.

but I’m in the office all day today and tomorrow with the goal of wrapping up all my ‘things to do’ lists. next week, I’ll be back in music retail hell with the amac shindig approaching. so get your calls and requests in now.

still recovering from the weekend, in a sense. had thursday & friday gigs, laid low on saturday to stay on top of a head cold, then the all-day charity marathon. crowds were good again this year, as expected, I haven’t toted up the $$ raised yet, but again I’m not expecting much. everyone I know is feeling the mortgage/interest rate/petrol pump squeeze.

had a cruisy birthday on monday, saw some friends, had a late dinner at a local bistro. nothing to post about really, just the way I like it. the gypsy gal has friends coming tomorrow, so it may be another social weekend approaching. I’d really like to stick around the house, but between gigs - the steve edmonds/gringos on thursday, the dust radio band’s friday, rob luckey’s saturday (his last at the baldy pub before they move to tassie), and the cavemen’s sunday residency, I don’t hold much hope for solitude.

google launched their new street view maps for australia today, and I’ve been having a ball. most of the images seem to be at least months, if not years out of date though, I really dunno what all the privacy nazis are so up in arms about.

and still nothing final on the house. somewhere in that mass of red tape is my future.