musings

congrats to karl,  my neighbour and publican of my local, and his wife tegan on the birth of their baby boy finn yesterday.

guess that means free drinks at happy hour, eh?

hello…..?

“Rosa sat so Martin could walk. Martin walked so Obama could run. Obama is running so our children can fly.”

not playing partisan here, but I haven’t heard the g.o.p. come up with anything quite as succinct and elegant.

between all the ups, downs, on and offs, I seemed to have missed it. but we’re back on schedule to open the new cafe first weekend of december. follow the progress on the cafe blog.

I need to look at the music calendar side, what we’re doing, who and how we’ll feature. to be honest, I haven’t given it a great deal of forethought, prefering to talk to locals, check out what else is happening and seeing what direction it needs to go.

two new local releases I’ve been digging: the woods themselves, silly band name but great tunes. and ange takats, whose demos I’ve enjoyed and finally has her debut out. it’s much better than I expected, and I was hoping for a lot.

eagerly awaiting caitlin harnett’s debut, hoping kim’s put it in the post friday.

the details of our cafe deal are pretty complex. it’s clearly been confusing others associated with it, as we’ve spent the better part of two weeks thinking, it’s all steam ahead one day, then brakes on, cancel the equipment, we’re not opening the next. the stress has been overwhelming, as we’re trying to find money to get the place ready and put the hours into the setup, while dropping income from having left our city jobs.

but as of this morning, it’s pre-biz as usual. I’m trying to get thru a day of client grafix stuff so I can return to the kitchen and get all up to speed there.

until the next phone call, that is…..

the rains set in early this morning, the new herb garden’s getting a helluva soak. it’s amazing to look out the window at all the lush, green forest and be reminded that most of this country’s been in severe drought for decades. it almost makes one feel guilty, as if there’s anything we can do to change that. a guilty helplessness, perhaps.

we’re settling in to the area nicely. I’ve gotta admit, I’m not missing the city at all, maybe that’ll change when the novelty wears off, maybe it simply won’t. we attended a meeting last night of the local business association, sitting off to one side quietly listening and trying to sort out who was who in this small village. overall, they seemed a good group of folks who genuinely want to see the area grow and prosper, which would make a nice change from my last experiences with small-town politics.

the new blog has begun, I’ve transplanted a few items from the old food blog and will delete that shortly. but for anyone interested in following the growth of the new cafe/venue, it’s there.

my kids went back to school, so I’ve started unpacking the studio gear. got a little work to do in the room, but it’s a good size with tall ceilings and a skylight, so it should sound okay. I’ll then need to re-record everything I did in town, but that’s cool. I’m hoping I can finally focus and get back to this long-mooted new album.

and I’m having a jam this week with a couple of local players, one whom I’d met a couple years ago. we’re going to try a three-piece, guitar/harmonica/bass format and stick with the delta blues meets jj cale catalog. it’ll be an enjoyable sideband for me.

my son, callum has taken to a new catchphrase of “‘ello there guv’nor” in a really bad cockney accent. pinny will love to hear it.

heard the new dylan album? npr is streaming it.

I heard some of the post-debate wrapup from the bbc. predictably, the repubs thought mccain wiped the floor with the “sophomoric amateur”, the dems thought obama outclassed and outmaneuvered the angry old man every step. kiddies, kiddies…. sheesh, it ain’t getting any more intelligent.

at least we have a new dylan album to ease the pain.

here’s a great quote from the online post-debate on politico.com:

Tom Korologos, Former ambassador, consultant and Republican strategist: “I’m bored. I miss Sarah and Biden.”

school holidays here, my kids have been with me, hanging around the new digs. there’s not a great deal to do for them, the place still isn’t fully unpacked etc. but I did coerce them into helping me clean in the front cafe section for a while…

I’ve decided to kill my existing food blog and replace it with a new one focused solely on the new cafe. it’ll make more sense. links to be posted here soon.

as the city was sweltering under 36c/97f heat on friday, I woke to a gorgeous 21c/70f morning. until I had to drive to the city for client work, followed by a rather bizarre blues pirates set at an rsl club. “returned service clubs” are a whole different planet. I’ll expand more on that later for my interstate/overseas readers.

speaking typing of overseas, I’m increasingly bewildered by the u.s. presidential race, and in particular, the GOP’s continued support of this alaskan hockeymom palin. the world is in an unprecedented financial crisis brought about by an unchecked american investor market, due largely to the aftereffects of reaganomics and deregulation, and the same political party, the incumbent government is trotting out oprah-style guests as serious contenders to fix this?

reading the american press, both commercial and blog/forum/private, again it amazes me how black and white (no pun intended at all), how 100% polarised the vast majority of people seem to be. even my favourite music industry forum, in the newly established ‘anything goes’ board demonstrates this to a chilling degree. here are people, many of whom I know, the majority I haven’t met but know who they are, what their jobs or former posts were in the biz. these are people whom I largely respect for being intelligent, thoughtful and compassionate. a few of them would make a suitable vice-president.

and yet, on the subject of who should be leading their country, they’re as chalk and cheese as apples and oranges, to mix metaphors. even the odd person who dares suggest anyone outside of the GOP/DNP pool, such as the poor gal who’s supporting ralph nader, get vilified and castigated ruthlessly by both sides. if this is what true democracy has become, what then do we call these so-called third world oligarchies?

I get the occasional email from an old friend, fan or reader along the lines of, “how can you possibly be in support of [insert party a here]? they’re the antichrist, and [insert party b here] is the only answer.” and vice-versa. the funny thing is, well, it’s not very funny to be honest - I do not align myself with either political party or candidate at all.

I see many good things about mccain as a potential leader. the GOP is about smaller government and more power to the states and individuals, which I believe is a good thing. however, he is tied to many aspects of the bush/cheney dictatorship administration, which is worrysome for foreign policy and peace in the middle east. and there’s that bizarre choice of “ms. gidget goes to washington” as veep.

on the other hand, I see many good things about obama as a potential leader. the dems have generally stood for better health care and educational opportunities, which is critical during tough economic times. however, he is relatively inexperienced in many key roles and seems to be a little unclear on policy, leaving one to feel uncertain what direction his administration would take.

whenever I dare mention one candidate/party of the other, someone drops a line to remind me that I’m backing the wrong horse. even english soccer hooligans aren’t this bombastic.

all that I - and a good chunk of the non-u.s. western world, I’m guessing - ask is that the u.s. political machinery pull their collective heads out of their think-tank arses, stop playing high school student election games, and treat this leadership transition as seriously as it demands to be treated. your powerbrokers got the rest of the world into this mess. your puppy has grown up and is now crapping in everyone’s front lawns. it’s time you fixed it.

or someone else will. two words. china. india.