22 Dreams

Yesterday I signed up for the five-week Creative Writing Stage 1 course that's offered by the Sydney Writers' Centre in Rozelle. I'll be doing the course online which will save me having to travel to classes that I can't attend anyway because I work until 7pm everyday. The course starts on 6 April and finishes around mid-May, about the time when I commence long-service leave. Creative writing is not necessarily where I see myself going as a writer but I feel I need to stimulate or crack open some vestige of objective imagination within me if I wish to write the book that I'm hoping to get started by May. The book will likely be about myself really, vignettes of a life lived that hopefully I can coalesce into some quasi-meaningful tome, beat, scene. Until then I'll put myself through the levers of a five-week course and see what kind of fictional story I can concoct by horses-for-course's end. That said, I'm looking forward to doing this course a...

Here's a quote from Survival Acres' most recent update: "...exploitation, ownership and greed are root evils in humans that continue to plague mankind. We’ve wrongly exalted these qualities as being the earmarks of “success”, when it is really among the worst kind of human behavior there is. We’ve created a world based upon competition instead of sharing, exploitation instead of nurturing, and false ideas of ownership and possession as means and measurements to provide meaning in life. Effectively, we are all forced to “compete” for everything, even those things that should still be free (the right to life, liberty and security, which includes food, water, shelter, clothing and housing). We demean those that refuse these abominable lies, and exalt and praise those and even reward those who excel in it. Don’t believe it? Examine how we humans treat the “poor”, homeless, hungry, impoverished and needy. We are truly horrible when it comes to understanding what is really valua...

(To be published in the Songsmith) On Wednesday 11 March I attended a book talk at Gleebooks on Glebe Point Road in Glebe. Don Walker, former Cold Chisel keyboard player and songwriter, was interviewed by published author James Bradley on his inaugural new book, Shots. I was delighted to attend and listen to Don discuss his book and how it came to be written. Don also elucidated on his relationship with Cold Chisel and on the craft of songwriting in general. It is accepted without question that Don Walker is one of Australia’s greatest songwriters, and for me to see and hear my hero talk to James Bradley at Gleebooks that night was a marvellous and thrilling experience, doubly so for the fact that prose writing is of increasing interest to me, so much so that I plan to write a book during my time off in May - July. This talk has certainly been an inspiration as far as my propitious endeavour is concerned. Entry to the event was $10 and complimentary beer and wine was served. Unsurpris...

I've posted a new song up on my MySpace page . It's not a new song verily, it's just that it's yet to find itself on my myspace jukebox. So here it is, from my album 'sea in june', Diamicron Baby. I wish I'd called the album 'Diamicron Baby'. I just wished I'd stuck to my instincts and named it that. 'Sea in June' is too wimpy and is not quite indicative of the tone of the record. 'Diamicron Baby' is faraway a more powerful title than 'Sea in June' and I think a better statement to promote. I suppose the only problem I forsaw is that "Diamicron" is registered brand-name, for the sulponylurea family of drugs. Charming really. Of all my songs many people like this one the best. I can see their point. It's powerful, vicious, emotive and visceral, and it's well recorded. I think this is my finest recording actually, I'm very proud of every aspect of it. I love the mix, the guitars, the way the vocal is sl...

(written 2 Feb 09, and posted now...) sometimes you gotta let people go u let em pass find someone else to whinge'n'whine to to be a further pain to multi-anon sets of shredded ears fragility is brittle like glass and as cutting when mixed with pungeant, driving dominance and passive-ag demandingness sniffing of something beginning with m man-ipu-lation you ain't gonna ever win with people like that because they sniff out the weaknessess each'n'every worm post opportunity to dig love and sweetness you got in floppy petal spades that drip like overused perfume it comes at a price displays of grandeur and largesse expecting... demanding ...reciprocity finally for someone to roll out the chair and breathing machine when the mechanisms you uphold and project crumble like japanese leaf in mid-summer heat we, you, us, save the belladonna once again from the crush of the other's bruteness and sudden - inexplicable *shock* - bouts of patience-loss situations that repeat...

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 ...