22 Dreams

South of South, Bare Island, La Perouse Up until recently I hadn't taken notice of directional aspects, or positions.  I mean, I always knew about directions and their significance to heat and light; that north-facing equals premium sun, south-facing means no direct sunlight, east-facing welcomes the morning sun up to the midday hours, whilst west takes in the afternoon rays.  It's only because I've purchased my first bit of real-estate that I've come to obsess about directions and their significance to me. My unit faces south-west.  Most of it faces south with a slight easterly slant, whilst one room - the bedroom - faces west with a slight southerly slant.  I must say, I like it, and am very glad I bought into a west-facer.  In my instance I find that the southerly aspect works well because I'm facing a white building that reflects its light into my apartment.  So for the most part I tend to take in a lot of light even though most of my windows are...

La Perouse, Sydney, August 2010 I grew a beard during the winter months.  I tend to allow my facial-fur grow out during those cooler, grayer months of the year.  I figure it's too much of a drag to run cold shaving gel over my face every morning when I'd much rather be asleep in bed.  It's not that I necessarily have to get up early every morning, it's more that the winter vibe is not really all that conducive to daily rituals of cold blades and water and gel.  Besides, the fuzzy beard keeps me warm. The most interesting aspect of growing a beard is in witnessing other people's perceptions of me, of which I'm equally amazed, and appalled.  All of a sudden, as my beard becomes decisively furry and the whites become prominently pointed from my chin, I start to receive strange looks from people on the street.  As if my beard is a signal for some strange sort of attention.  There are a lot of sharp glances cast my way.  Sometimes there are subtle...

Oh dear.  I've signed myself off to the other side.  Perhaps this is why I've maintained a blog, to come to this very moment where I can say I'll be batting for the other team... What's happened is that I saw a Facebook advert for suite101.com.  It's an open site for writers of non-fiction articles, with revenue-making possibilities.  You need to submit samples of your own work to qualify when applying to become part of their team.  I decided to give it a go, mainly to see if, indeed, I'd pass the test and be accepted as a writer.  Well, they accepted me.  And after deliberating through the terms and conditions I've decided to join up.  So that's it.  I'm now a writer for suite101.com. I won't be able to post articles submitted to suite101 anywhere else until 12 months from the date of submission passes, at which the stipulation is that suite101 must be recognised as the original publishers of the work wherever the article appears. ...

(This review is to be published in a local magazine, the Songsmith. I hope it attracts attention to the album. Cheers, r.) When Cold Chisel disbanded in 1983, most of its members fashioned either solo careers or stints with other bands. It was only the band’s principal songwriter, keyboardist Don Walker , who retired from the scene completely. Walker was to spend those four or five years after Chisel’s demise travelling throughout Australia and Europe and taking care of other personal matters, in his own words, “detoxing” from the music industry. He finally came to back to music in 1988 to record a new album under the moniker Catfish . Chisel guitarist Ian Moss, producer/guitarist Peter Walker, harmonica player David Blight, and drummer Ricky Fataar were some of the album’s guest musicians. The album was titled Unlimited Address and was released in 1989. It seems an absurdity that one of Australia’s most gifted songwriters, responsible for penning those anthems such ...

Reincarnation theories seem to be widely accepted amongst the general populace these days, as far as I'm aware. The other day I read somewhere - I think it was in one of those pick-up freebies you find in health food shops (or was it on the net??) - the idea of the purpose of existence as it is now with six-billion plus people roaming the planet is so that all souls can have this one chance of "cracking it", ie, self-discovery and all that it entails. The article made the interesting point that the world today resembles a train-station at rush-hour; this I believe is true (and self-evident). I found myself disagreeing with the first statement, that all these souls are here now to have the chance to crack the code and go off to Nirvana. (The Earth is bleeding, corroding, dying, but never mind...). I started to ponder the idea that perhaps there are no souls, that there is really only one soul, that of life, or God, that resembles a gooey amoeba of sorts that glugs ou...

Here I am, at the computer that is seated on its little desk by the bedroom window, a window that looks out level onto a busy though pleasant road in the south-eastern suburbs of Sydney. I was lucky. This has been a good buy. It came to me serendipitously. There I was, on my birthday (the 40th one, mind you), a little bummed out over how things were transpiring for me. Two days later, when I'd all but given up hunting for property, I happen to find myself on Gmail whereby an automated property alert via email came up on the screen. And because the property was located in one of my designated areas and at an attractive price, I called the real estate guy immediately . He regretted to tell me that the listed property had actually sold prior to the alert going through, however, the neighbours were making noises about selling up. And as I was the first person to call I was the first on his list. To his credit, my agent gauged me as a suitable buyer for this particular property...

Frank Sultana hosting behind the desk of Radio Skidrow in Marrickville, 88.9FM, KOMPACTION show. A few weeks ago I was asked by Frank Sultana to come along and guest on live community radio. KOMPACTION is a program that features singer-songwriters. Frank - a brilliant songwriter and musician (he has an awesome feel for blues) and who plays both guitar and piano - booked me in for April 13. We played tracks from my album, and other tracks from more recent recordings. We kicked off with 'Ride' from the Sea in June album (I wish I called the album something else...), and then 'End of a Civilisationist' from my new batch of recordings. I then sang 'Alexandria' and 'Every Girl just wants to be my friend' live to air, after which we mistakingly played the newest version of 'Sea in June' featuring Brigette on lead vocal as we couldn't find the song I wanted, 'Secrets', on this recently mastered CD of relatively newly recorded tracks. I...