musings

less than a week to go before the new cafe is open. I’m starting to panic, as the list of things-still-to-be-done seems to grow overnight. anyone wanting to get on the new email list, go to the website and sign up.

sat in with the house band on friday night at the pub across the road. it was an enjoyable evening, helped along by the unexpected arrival of a couple of friends up from the city.

do folks use c.b. radios anymore? they were probably put out of their misery by the advent of instant messaging, chat rooms and other interweb thingies.

anyone catch last week’s episode of the chopping block? there’s one glebe eatery that I certainly won’t be dining in.

is there anyone out there who is, or knows a telephone technician? we’ve got a lil job that needs urgent attention - like in the next couple of days - and our telco figures they could have a tech out here sometime in 2010.

I was saddened to learn of the death of drummer mike bannister. there’s some nice comments and shared memories over on peter case’s blog.

think I’m on this week’s episode of pop tarts tv, tuesday eve on channel 31 in sydney, not sure if it’s national. I can’t get it up here anyway, I’ll post a link if they have it available online somewhere.

and happy 50′th to michelle.

not as long as real music pervades the gloom. this week’s americana chart top ten:

1. todd snider

2. lucinda williams

3. rodney crowell

4. old crow medicine show

5. ryan adams & the cardinals

6. kasey chambers & shane nicholson

7. yarn

8. chris knight

9. the pretenders

10. susan tedeschi

I’m digging it.

two reasons:

a) this weekend, it snowed. in november. yesterday, we were in tee-shirts on the awning, painting in the hot sun. today, it’s freezing, overcast and windy.

2) jason donovan is releasing a new record.

c) a real musician won this year’s australian idol.

oh wait, that’s three.

spent my saturday filling in with the gang at guitar factory. got me to thinking about the proverbial “day job”.

jobs I’ve hated:

telephone sales for magazine subscriptions

scrap picker-upper for a construction site

dishwasher

jackhammer operator (lasted two days)

used car detailer

jobs I’ve enjoyed:

graphic artist

guitar salesman

concert production company rigger

radio promo guy

a&r and record producer

indie record label chief

record store clerk

chef/cook

can’t really include “singer-songwriter/musician/etc” as I wouldn’t consider that to be ‘job’ as such. more of a lifestyle.

jobs I haven’t had, but would love to give a try:

head of the international olympic committee

pool lifeguard at an all-girls’ school

writer on “family guy”

winemaker

recluse fiction author

extra in a seinfeld episode

tori amos’ piano bench

astronaut

mark twain of the 21st century

the head of the i.o.c. would be a great gig, no? you’d just fluff and swan your way around the globe, eventually narrowing things to three major cities where you’re wined, dined and generally ass-kissed half to death before finally standing at a podium in front of a world audience to proclaim, “seedennea” or somewhere.

“Thank you for your enquiry. Someone will be in contact with you soon.”

let’s see how long it takes for this ’someone’ to define ’soon’…..

it’s another day in the clouds, and I’ve got a stack o’ work that involves me sitting in front of my screens and not in front of my 1970’s waldorf four-burner-with-flattop (fellow foodies will understand that reference). in need of cool tunes, and my playlist this hour:

jay farrar / joe citizen blues

cassandra wilson / the weight

tim carroll / no escape from love

john hiatt / have a little faith in me

eddie vedder / guaranteed

geoff muldaur / poor boy blues

zen tricksters / china cat sunflower

garland jeffreys / streets of philadelphia

alison krauss / forget about it

ryan adams & the cardinals / evergreen

bob dylan / she belongs to me

ray lamontagne / let it be me

lucinda williams / righteously

there’s a lotta great music out there, sometimes you just gotta dig behind the tv ads for the new nickleback album….

I’m up early after a restless sleep. but I don’t mind, it’s another of those mornings with the fog level low making the village look like it’s floating inside of a cloud. it’s both surreal and calming.

work continues unabated on the cafe. the gypsy gal’s had a couple of days off from her ‘other’ job, so we’ve managed to get almost all the remaining painting finished. there’s still so much to do, anyway, check the cafe blog if you really wanna know.

ever woke up with a song stuck in your head? I used to get the worst ones, bad novelty tunes, tv themes, that kind of thing. but I’m actually channeling some good stuff of late. woke the other day with the glen campbell version of jimmy webb’s witchita lineman, which stayed in my head all morning. today, it’s peter case’s beautiful grind. at least my subconscious radio tuner’s working well.

I’ve got a couple of new tunes to finish too, but the cafe work has been taking precedence. hopefully once all becomes routine, I can set up the studio properly. the way the building is laid out, it wouldn’t be too hard to run lines to record live from the dining room. it’s an idea we’d discussed at the last place, here I have the gear and the wherewithall to actually do it. perhaps next winter we can do a “live at the mt vic cafe” cd. perhaps next winter, I’ll read back on this and wonder what I was thinking.

back to the monday morning ritual. bookwork, paying the relentless bills, trying to finish the cafe website, getting a start on christmas artwork for the pub clients and putting a dent into the ever-expanding things-to-do list. it’s a beautiful grind.

cranky teen you may be, I love you unconditionally for who you are. try to stay out of trouble, and don’t hop into a cab unless you’ve got cabfare, ok?

other things - I’ve changed the john cleese post to a link, as the embedded player does strange things in firefox.

happy b-day to darren, the much-loved and respected publican to the tankstream empire.

the new blues trio is coming together. we’re now looking at gigs and trying to come up with a band name that’s not too ridiculous. that in itself is often the hardest job.

mitch mitchell, legendary drummer of the jimi hendrix experience passed away today at the age of 62.

and this kid’s only eight.

I’ve had a nightmare week with my bank, and I’m hoping that their media monitors pick this up. it seems posting complaints on blogs is the only way to get any action, as evidenced on our cafe blog’s soft drink supplier dramas.

I’ll spare the details, suffice to say I’ve had two accounts simply disappear and now my entire “pay anyone” list, which I use for bills, rent, creditors, kids etc has also vanished. customer support is a complete joke, a handful of disinterested gen-y’ers with bad attitudes, even worse comprehension of the english language and absolutely no clue how to handle their jobs.

the bank is westpac, one of the oldest and most useless financial institutions in the western world. last year, they posted a record $3.5 billion - that’s billion dollar profit. with yours and my money. and fees for services “products” that fail to produce anything except headaches for us working stiffs who really don’t have enough time in our days to sit on the phone while their hold music tells us how wonderful they are and how valuable our calls are to them.

well, they’ve cost myself and the gypsy gal approximately six hours of our time so far this week. and it’s only wednesday. perhaps I should bill them. call it a “service fee”. after all, they’d charge me, no?

ever since gail kelly left st george bank to take over the reins (reigns?) at the former bank of nsw, their service, oops, products have gone sharply downhill.

it’s time to change banks. I’ve had a gutful.

any suggestions?

/end rant.