22 Dreams

Painkiller gig last Monday night, 22 Dec 2008, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. I went along to the gig with the same friend I first went to see the Church with in Dec 1987, exactly 21 years ago, when Under the Milky Way was first performed. What has happened to us in 21 years?? Well, he has two children and a business that keeps him mightily busy while I'm childless and footloose and work in a library and make music in my spare time. ...I really don't wish to give up my music. I attribute my latter-day confidence and sanity to music, and the relationship that music has had with me over all of these years. This was Steve Kilbey's 2nd Painkiller gig, the first gig having been at the same venue on 10 September this year. On 10 September I came in on my own at around 10pm and was upset because a close friend had been crying on the phone to me. Hearing those songs for the first time in the delicate state I was in had a seismic effect on me, I latched onto the sound and ...

harold pinter died today. i was saddened by the news as i am when any playwright dies. at work we always put up a display when a playwright passes away. we do the same with famous actors though i'm more intrigued by the playwrights. i often stare at the displayed dates of birth and death and think about their lives and feel how sad it is they have died after all the creative effort and work they've put into making theatre that is immensely satisfying to them and to their audience. i haven't seen a pinter play. there was 1 or 2 put on at drama school in my time but i didn't go for whatever reason. i read a recent pinter treatise on propaganda and the iraq war. i was impressed by the power of reason, the persuasive language and authority and passion the man poured through his pen onto paper (or keypad onto screen). i'd like to see a pinter play now the man has passed. all those classics with titles like the caretaker, or the birthday party. i like that, the ...

First time ever I saw the Church was back in December of 1987 21 years ago or so today at the Tivoli in Sydney I was 17 in October 1987 i finished my last exam for school and took to bed for a month when I awoke I tumbled out of bed i turned on the tv it was 1987 = MTV as I was rubbing my eyes onto a brave new world this song came on new scintillating captivating chords and lyrics i was hooked immediately it was from a band i liked very much a band i would in time grow to love and adore the film clip was shot in NYC and not the usual forests around canberra or unused lots around sydney the song opened up a whole new world for me and continues to do so for after having walked from the narrow confines of school life this song symbolised new dimensions new experiences and a totally new direction and it continues to do so to this very day at the Tivoli the church were resplendent in classic 80's format ploogy was on drums the band appeared young and freshfaced I stood near to the front...

(posted on myspace) I've posted a new song on MySpace...well, the song's not so new but it's a new addition for the 'space' anyway. Don Walker's Blues recorded by the band some five years ago. I play piano and sing lead vocal. Gav plays electric lead guitar, Mark w. plays bass and Pete Thompson's on drums. I've aped the style of Don Walker for this pithy dedication, Don being one of my biggest musical influences. The song came to my head one winter's night in 1993 as I was waiting for a connecting bus at Central. The song was completed soon after. I gave a copy to Don on tape after a Catfish concert. Don was also pleased by a very, very complimentary retrospective review I did of Cold Chisel's first album back in 1999. This is what he emailed to his publishers: ">Dear Jimi, Could you let Ross B_______ know that Bob Aird, the head of Rondor Music who publish my songs, sent me a copy of his retrospective review of the first CC album. It w...

Monday night, 8 Dec As a carry-on to last week’s spiritual spumante I am reminded of one spiritual precept that’s kind-of applicable to me right now. Any true spiritual precept or “rule” – there are rules but there are no rules – can only be true or real if it is the truth in one’s own experience, otherwise, it remains meaningless, and not true. This precept that I’m now about to dish out I believe to be relatively true, simply because it appears to be the truth in my experience . Here it is: Any spiritual insights that have been truly realised, ie, movements into the body and the purity of consciousness within, the further deepening of true consciousness or insight into the vastness of things, produces the after-effect of loosening up the stored, past energies in the body to create circumstances that appear to “test” the newfound discoveries into the inner-realms of being. “Tests” is sometimes said to be a misguided word, and is perhaps truer to suggest that the ‘past’ reveals i...

Tonight I walked over to the Living Essence Centre on Victoria Road in Bellevue Hill to attend a meeting with Bernie Prior . It was a lush early summer's night with warm air and healthy seabreeze. Here is a blurb on Bernie, and it very much worth checking out the website : "Bernie Prior is a self-realised contemporary Master who is widely recognised as a true spiritual seer and powerful transformer of evolutionary consciousness in humanity. He travels extensively urging audiences world-wide to “wake-up” to their true nature and purpose of evolving from the misperception of separation, toward an understanding and embodied experience of oneness and infinite expression." Bernie's teaching is comprehensive and takes in tantra, ie, divine love and union between the male and female principles on Earth. Bernie is pretty much what you'd call a Western Spiritual Master. He does not use Eastern terminology, he does not dress elaborately (quite casually in fact) and h...

This morning's journey took me through a different route to that which I'm normally accustomed. I attended a Library software users meeting in the southern suburb of Kogarah. The meeting commenced at 10am and I arrived in the door at 10:10 with the casually-dressed and not too time-stressed delegates all chinned-up and chatting amiably with each other about their libraries. I'd parked my car in the next suburb, only because that was the nearest parking spot I could find with no parking restriction signposts. I walked briskly to my destination, walking around in circles hoping to locate the venue, that it'll simply land in front of my feet. I'm not very good with maps, I usually just take a quick glance at them and hope for the best. I walk into a large bank to ask for directions. Finally as I raced into my meeting at 10:10 I darted immediately to the refreshment table where I replenished myself with cool water, following that with about about 3 or 4 ...