musings

as autumn slides into winter here in the mountains, again the apron strings of nostalgia are pulled. the chilly evenings, the fireplace and gas heaters aglow all remind me of my halcyon days in oregon, where I’d stay up until dawn writing song after song… just to - as the lester bangs character says in almost famous, “just to fuckin’ write, man”.

there’s still much to be decided and dealt with as far as the future of the cafe goes. I’m already feeling a sense of disconnect which is necessary to move forward, or in a manner of speaking, backwards into my former life. I’ve pretty much given up the idea of commercially releasing the footsteps compilation, I just don’t feel there’d be enough interest to justify the expense. I’ll most likely wait until the new album is ready, then make all the older tracks available as free downloads.

in the meantime, I’m touching base with pals, fellow musos and contacts in europe & north america, testing the water a bit to see if I can get a feel for what’s achievable.

got two shows with the trio tomorrow and friday. had to cut tonight’s rehearsals a bit short as I’m fighting off the flu bug and dearly hope it doesn’t take hold before the weekend. I may well contract swine flu from slicing the ham & bacon….

still recovering somewhat from the easter weekend. had some huge problems with the cafe which has led us to mucho discussion about what to do. there’s a few carrots that have been dangling, something should surface soon enough. but I think our experiment with trying to rebuild trade in the place is coming to a close.

news: the rose came, saw, bought the teeshirt and ran up the bar tab. thanks to kristalla and vlasta for bailing us out over the weekend, staff-wise. thanks to jake for turning up on monday in time to commiserate over happy hour. the sendoff for outgoing publican karl was a nice event, best of luck to andrew who now takes the reins at my local.

in the wake of pete case’s heart surgery and dj’s passing, I’m pretty upset to learn about my old pal mick cocks’ cancer battle. if there’s any positives to be found out of all this, it’s that these events seem to be propelling me in a direction where music is again the primary focus of my life. I seem to have been sidelined for far too long.

happy b-days to kirk l’orange, louise, braden and roger c.

with all the ‘new’ social networking sites up, I seem to be sadly neglecting this blog o’ mine, started back before the word ‘blog‘ itself was common. but alas, myspace, facebook and twitter alone command a fair bit of my online time. add to that the cafe’s website, blog, myspace and twitter accounts, and you’ll see what I mean.

but fear not, this blog shall endure, long after the trendy must-post sites of the day dwindle, fade &/or are bought up by murdoch. this is my own personal blog, and i shall continue to feed her until the day I shake off this mortal coil. for whomever actually reads it (my webstats say a lot of you do).

news: the rose has descended upon our fair household for a spell. mary & youngest daughter have been & gone. we’re recruiting staff from our balmain crew for easter weekend. the roof still leaks (more about that in the cafe blog). the gypsy gal took the rose shopping today with our few pennies from a busy sunday. bills will wait. happy girls are the priority, in my immediate world. the weather’s cooling and it feels like the mountains again. stunningly beautiful. I’m still loving living up here.

yes, the studio renovations are still not underway. yes, I therefore have no set schedule for tours in europe or north america. yes, we’re still beyond broke. yes, we still don’t have a doggie as we don’t have spare $$ to build a new fence. yes, the pub’s still directly across the road, which is both a blessing and a curse. yes, the gypsy gal’s still gorgeous even though she’s pushing fifty and is freaking out about it. yes, we have no bananas as we bake banana bread freshly.

and yes, this blog will not be made to feel left out. and neither will you, gentle reader.

people like duane jarvis just don’t die. or not in a just and fair world.

christ, I’m sad. and pissed off.