22 Dreams

Hiya! Here are some random photos of the Lower Campus @ the University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney Australia. The shots were taken during my lunch break, around 3pm, from drama school across the road on Anzac Parade. I decided on Wednesday I'd take my camera in the next day and shoot some afternoon cameos. The weather this week has been so sunny and yet delicately winter-soft in the afternoon. Needless to say I love lunch breaks on lovely days but hey, the rest of it, with district views, ain't too bad either! Enjoy!! Uni bar fence, trees, a stage and alfresco drinking! The walkway above leads onto Anzac Parade. Drama school is across the road from there. Notice the trees overhangin the walkway have shed all their leaves. 'Birds of Paradise' shrubs are profuse at this...

i bought a couple of albums on the weekend and they were serious purchases too one is Paul Weller's new album 22 dreams and the other.. Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue a remastered remixed repackaged rebookleted re theworks double CD pack for the new millennia with bonus tracks added for extra tantalisemint and a cd-rom pdf-file hidden somewhere in the swirly silver grooves the bonus cd included in the pacific ocean blue toolkit is of the unfinished Bambu album ...unfinished of course because Dennis was exhorting himself on gigantean amounts of coke & booze may he rest in peace his was a gifted soul a beach boy surfer and kick-arse rock'n'roll drummer and arguably as gifted a composer as big brother bri interestingly enough as i listen to these albums slowly carving rivers through my musical grey matter they're actually quite alike in performance and style Weller's album, 2008 Dennis Wilson's, 1977 it's very organic music full of soul and flavour ...

I've posted a new recording of a song of mine called 'Sea in June' on MySpace; it will play first as you enter the website www.myspace.com/rossmusician . 'Sea in June' has been recently re-recorded (its third incarnation!) featuring my dear friend Brigette on lead vocal. The song was recorded and engineered by Stewart Havill at his Sound Dog Recording Studios at Lane Cove in Sydney. I haven't written a 'proper' song in a long while - mainly because I've moved and evolved onto other things both musically and creatively; songwriting doesn't interest me anymore though that can always change. This song, 'Sea in June', is my personal favourite of the songs I've written and the one piece I'm genuinely proud of. I like the other songs too though ‘Sea in June’ holds special credence for me. It's a gentle piece that pretty much sums up everything I ever want or need to say in two verses and chorus. Here are the lyrics to 'Sea...

(to be published in the next 'Songsmith') On Saturday night 23 May Sydney hosted its third annual Mamapalooza event, the first being staged in May 2006. Mamapalooza is a worldwide event featured during the month of May and is the only cultural event of its kind featuring mom musicians, artists, authors, comics, dancers and filmmakers. The Mamapalooza Festival declares ‘May as Mothers Month’ creating positive, family friendly programming on stages throughout the world during the month of May annually. With an open door policy for mom performers and their families, these festivals celebrate creativity and diversity. The Sydney Mamapalooza concert event for 2008 and previous years was organised by singer-songwriter, filmmaker, scriptwriter & Society member Vee Malnar, and featured excellent artists; this year’s event was held at the Roxburgh Hotel in Glebe. This event was videotaped and will be sent to worldwide coordinator Joy Rose in New York for screening. Vee attended...

I've posted a new recording on myspace page; the song is called 'Song to Eva' and it can be heard first-up by clicking on www.myspace.com/rossmusician . This is a newly recorded version of the song featuring Brigette Ember on lead vocal. My original vocals on the track appearing on my 'Sea in June' album were, imo, diabolical; I may be being hard on myself but Brigette's are wonderful and somewhat fitting for the style and flavour of the song. The song was inspired by Alice Sebold's novel The Lovely Bones and is dedicated to the late, great Eva Cassidy (1963-1996). In short the novel is narrated in the first person by 14-year old Susie Salmon, who'd been raped and murdered in the cornfields near her family home, and is speaking from her new vantage point in 'heaven'. She visits her family often - dad, mum, sister, brother etc - and observes their trials and tribulations as they cope with Susie's loss and the events that unfold around that....

Dear ed. I'm sad to inform you and your readership that the Coogee Bay Hotel is forgoing its Monday night open mics as of 26 May. Apparently the cover duos on Tuesday and Wednesday nights are going too. The Coogee Bay Hotel for me has been an excellent stomping and training ground in developing my solo skills - it's not everyone's cup of tea...a lot of people don't like playing to drunk backpackers and the aggro eastie crowd but I enjoy putting myself up against brickheads, sometimes its been hard but it's a challenge I rise up to and the results have been well worth it. More importantly than that it's about giving good solo acts/artists a place to gig to an audience (albiet rowdy) for 30 minutes. I'm concerned that more pubs are letting this form of entertainment fall by the wayside - it seems to be the pattern with the 'Launch Squad' too. Jason Mannell (and more recently Simon) have grown and maintained this gig successfully for 4 ...