musings

it’s another semi-lazy sunday. the girls are hungover and have been bellyaching for comfort food. in a nostalgic moment of well, nostalgia, I made cheese n bacon fries and opened a couple of a&w root beer cans.

for some reason, you never see cheese fries on bar menus here in the antipodes. nachos abound, but that’s about as tex-mex as seems to exist. and nobody here ‘gets’ root beer. some seem to think it’s similar to sarsaparilla, but I’d disagree, although an extract is apparently used in commercial production (thanks, wiki).

so I’m following my fries and root beer with a corona, and here’s a nod to my pals at the longhorn on lyle street in nashville. have a prairie pepper for me, y’all.

“everybody knows how to raise children, except the people who have them.” - pj o’rourke.

more here.

while waiting for approvals, feedback etc from various clients during the part of the day where I pose as a graphic designer, I fill in the minutes checking out what my pals are up to on youtube.

here’s a few goodies from today’s search that i hope you’ll enjoy:

kacy crowley / badass. love the sk8r look, kc.

mark o’shea / look at you now. had the sneak the wifey in there, eh? well… I suppose I would too.

kathleen edwards - minidoco about her new album. catch her next time she’s in yer ‘hood.

peter case / live version of ‘crooked mile‘. pc, you make me wanna burn my friggin’ guitars….

simon bruce / live vers of richard clapton’s ‘stepping across the line‘. meatballs are awaiting you next visit, brother.

justin earle / live vers of gram parsons’ ‘a song for you‘. steve’s eldest, a real chip off the old block.

jon koonce / live vers of ‘good rockin tonight’. just realised it was thirty years ago the first time I saw you play.

gary louris / she only calls me on sundays. nice live-studio vers, the jayhawks were one of the all-american treasures.

welch, kane and kaplan / live vers of kevin’s something about you. class act.

greg brown / live vers of small dark movie. I’ve never met greg, but I really dig what he does.

tim easton / carry me, live in holland. my fave tune from one of the greats, pity that the drummer couldn’t understand tim’s cue to play double-time.

and now… back to work.

the rose is off to her first job interview here. the gypsy gal is off at her daygig du annus. I’m trying to pull myself up to work mode, still suffering from this malingering virus which seems to keep surfacing every few days. on top of that, I’ve pulled (or torn) a thigh muscle and limp around as if I’m in a bad monty python sketch.

work’s been slow of late, mainly due to the ‘economic downturn’ (why can’t they just step up to the plate and call it a recession?), rising interest rates, petrol prices etc. I’ve certainly noticed that the local fooderies and bars are decidedly quieter than usual. and I’m not helping them by hibernating at home either, I suppose.

after catching the rerun of enough rope’s interview with michael stipe, I’ve dug out r.e.m.’s fables of the reconstruction album. it instantly takes me back to 1985, a very intense year for me. I can still recall starting that year’s diary with the line “this is gonna be one hell of a year”. that was in portland, and I was sharing a bandhouse with a bunch of other rockers, models and misfits. I’d moved back from los angeles and had plans to bring a new band back with me.

somehow, from that point, the year descended into chaos with me drifting up and down the west coast, ambitious but aimless, ending up at year’s end in mexico seriously contemplating putting a bullet thru my head. somehow, I pulled myself together, got back to portland, plowed thru two very intense relationships in as many months and by easter ‘86 ended up on a plane to australia.

no wonder that one of my fave tunes on that fables album is called life and how to live it.

… I’m gonna release a cover version of john cale’s 4′33″

… or maybe texas:

Tuesday May 13, 02:35 PM
Seatbelt for beer slab, not 5-year-old

A driver who buckled up his slab of beer - but not the five-year-old boy sitting next to it - has shocked police who pulled him over near Alice Springs.

Const Burnett said there were five people in the car, including the child, along with the 30 pack of beer.

“There were four adults in the car, two in the front seat and two in the back seats and in between those adults there was the carton of beer strapped in with the belt,” he said.

“The child was sitting in the lump in the centre, unrestrained.”

full story here.

the rose is moving back in with us. I’m happy, I do miss her, angsty teen spirit and all. she was due to arrive today, but due to some budget airline screwup, she’s in tomorrow. that’ll give me some time to stock up the pantry…

otherwise, not much post-worthy. I spent a couple of fill-in days at the guitar store and last week’s cold morphed into a touch of flu.

I’ve signed on to be part of a neil young tribute show in july at the cat & fiddle. those are most likely the kind of live spots I’ll be opting for this season. oh, the fooderie/move thang is on hold, mainly due to the rose’s imminent arrival, but also due to minor details, such as finances. it’ll happen when its time is here. progress will be detailed in my food blog.

I read that laura bush is openly criticising the burmese government over its treatment of the recent disaster which is causing so much devastation there. she claims that the military government not only failed to warn its citizens of the impending cyclone but are now extremely slow in responding to the emergency needs of the people affected, particularly the impoverished.

sounds like nola/katrina ‘05, no?

the final sunday session gig went down very well. attendance was great, one of the best ever. which is kinda typical, being the final one and all.

no, I’m not being cynical, but it’s interesting how many people that I hadn’t seen at a gig in…. well, ever, for some… all came up and wished that I wasn’t winding things up. better late than never? or simply better late?

anyway, the guests for the eve included amanda easton, simon morel, mark lucas, lucy desoto, chris turner, theo kats and peter pik. thanks to all for an enjoyable evening. there’s a pic on my myspace page.

onwards and upwards, it would seem.

today’s my last sunday session gig for some time. a long break is what’s needed after years of constantly fighting for the right to showcase quality live music, and with the beancounters swirling like hungry buzzards, not much is expected to improve were I to persevere.

I’m sure that the proposed changes to the existing liquor laws will see a regrowth in small music venues, but that’ll realistically take years - at least five - to take hold.

strangely, I’m a little non-chalant about the whole thing. I suppose I see it as more of a relief now, an opportunity to put that energy into more productive pursuits, taking back sundays indeed.

this week, we’ll be awaiting the response to an offer that we’d tendered. yes, it involves another fooderie, and if it all comes thru, dovetails nicely with the local wrap-up. basic info I’ll post here, but the details will appear in my food blog.

there’s a very sad vibe hanging over our lil’ peninsula as more names of last week’s boat tragedy victims were released. I knew two who died and three of the survivors. balmain can be like a small town at times, slightly ironic considering we’re practically touching the harbour bridge and the cbd, but I haven’t run into anyone that didn’t know of at least one of them.