king ton

so where does this leave us?

2012-02-05T19:50:00.000+10:00

mangs,
It's Sunday night, it's a billowy-rain gale outside. That means the garden gets watered and everything stays a little cooler. -which is nice.
I've been reading Gary Snyder reader, and apart from that, I've started scribbling down little "prose" sections for WHAT??? -What is next? WHAT? -I know there is still a lot of word-poo I need to push out, but I'm really cautiously uncertain which toilet it'll all go down in. -Which sounds like it's a problem, but it isn't. 'Cause I'm writing, and once that writing's writ, it's done and that's that. -SO long as I'm putting down the WORDS and my MIND, I figure all's fine and I just gotta roll.
-I do admit to being a little disappointed in myself for not finishing reading "Tale of Two Cities" by Dickens, despite the fact that I promised/made a deal with Beautiful Rowan that I would, -sometimes I'm allowed to be wrong. Besides which, I still assume that I'll beat it this winder when I'm forced to stay warm in my chair near the wood fire, reading. -(my favourite reading scenario) -so just wait and see!
Just four weeks until Brisbane toon visit, I can't wait to see how much it makes me dig my Lonnie home even more! -also, Tash comes to visit this weekend, that oughta be nice. -so I guess all's pretty cool really.
Tomorrow seems to be a 50-50 chance of being a day off 'cause of the weather. If I do get the day off I'm gonna soak and scrub my snips. They're all caked up with chop-chop-muck.
Anyhow, I'm going to sit out on the front porch and have a look at this blow-y night. hello, it's me.

confuse

2012-01-23T20:31:00.001+10:00

balls.
now I'm thinking about making book DOUBLE. (as in double book) -as in, Book (current one) PLUS "Kickbook"(next book in waiting, begging to be written) all into one, thus, instead of being almost finished first draft, I'm merely half way through! -It's all worth consideration! -Then I could call the whole thing "KICKBOOK" -and that's making more and more sense to me! -Stay tuned for readings/recordings (and prints for some special mangs) soon! Wooty.

got a sore wrist mum!

2012-01-12T15:57:00.000+10:00

hallo.
Wrote a new (number 21) chapter on the weekend and I'm happy, but now (Thurs) I'm having a day (or two) off to nurse ligament damage in my wrist from all the bringing home of bacon. MY plan is to write another new and crazy chapter this weekend, and worst case scenario, be back at work for monday arooni.
-caught up with Donnie on Monday and we had drinks and dinner and he gave me the most amazing signed first edition Gary snyder book ("reader") and so, I'm freakin' STOKED! Gee he's good to me! Hello all you mangs, sure were! <---this is a link to amazing review of great book etc...--->

well that just about wraps up this year I guess...

2011-12-30T16:15:00.001+10:00

well weli well. that's pretty much it for 2011 I guess. and so here's me lying in the back yard on a sleeping bag with my laptop with d&b bass whomping out of the shed and the dog here and the rooster going bonkers. What a great year. Currently working at vineyard most of the time on the side of the amazing Tamar river, have almost (FOREVER ALMOST IT SEEMS) finished first draft of book that has taken me about seven years (I suppose) to get around to writing. I guess I had some living to do. -And now looking back on that seven or so years (from about 2005-until now 2011, I have done so many amazing and versitile things. Amazing jobs and friends (and also cut a few friends loose) moved house and state, -almost moved overseas really I guess. And now I'm living here is so much peace! -but but but but but! I gotta tell ya (meee) about this already NEXT book. -not the one I'm currently almost finished, 'though it MUST be finished because it's PART of it ALL, but the next one finally could just be exactly EXACTLY the book I've been trying to write since King Ton. A book purely about KICKS and living (I even have a play title for it "How to Get KICKS and Influence People") -However, I'm not sure about the influencing people bit yet... I suppose I will want everyone to read it, so it MIGHT be true... Yeah, this book I'm writing is all about getting rid of all the SHIT and all the Fat Cats and all the plastic disposable STUFF in my life, kind of like a soul-clean-out I guess. -The NEXT one'll be about how I now see and really for the first time since youth DIG everything everywhere. About my mind and my soul and the Earth and LIFE too! I know it sounds crazy, but I've been wanting to write a book like this since about 2000. I remember back then that I would "...some day retire to the country and write a novel about rural life..." and that's sort of the whole thing I guess. Only it goes DEEPER than just rural -as I'm sure you know. Anyhow I'm pretty pumped about it, and I'm maybe going to base it around my week long trip to Queensland in March (we'll see...) so, by then I hope to have fleshed out the NOW book quite a bit. -Just got to find the rime to write those last few chapters and then have a big crazy marathon re-read and edit flesh-out!

Then I also got to do readings with beats and music for internet and press package stuff and start peddaling around for publishing (or self publishing) and it's all crazy and busy and GO!

I bet this time next year I'll have really crazy stories to tell! -I hope so! I feel pretty good!

don't get me wrong...

2011-12-27T17:09:00.002+10:00

I love this time solo when the lovely wife goes off for a few days and I just hang out at the house eating vindaloos, drinking beers and bourbons and watch crazy films, but this time, the dog is sick and a bug went in my ear last night. Tomorrow I have to get up early and go to work, so I hope both me and the dog feel OK. Nothing else to report, the book remains incomplete and untouched as I wait for a nice big block of holiday to finish it off. Here comes the 1012, If it's as good as this year, well, that'd be just fine! 2011 has been another very long, very cool year. Hello everyone, it's me.

fuck ticky ticky...

2011-12-23T20:39:00.000+10:00

fuck. It's almost fucking christmas. Deadline for book looms fat. Four days off this weekend 'cause of fatso santa and baby jeez-mang and beer and food and sleeping. Surely I can belt out a fucking chapter? -The biggest set back has been when and how much WORK I've been getting. Taking up most of all TIME. Don was coming to visit this week, but cancelled. Fuck. And now it's christmas. The dog has a sore guts. I'm bloody tired. Can't wait to buy and read "The Sea is MY Brother" -gee. Next year'll be amazing. Again. Man. Look out brick wall, here comes toilet roll? Nah. That'll never work. Hit the beers y'all!

nothing sir!

2011-12-17T18:30:00.000+10:00

hey. it's the middle of Dec and I've done NOTHING. Nothing pertaining to any substance on new book anyhow. -Working a lot still. ONe more week and then holiday (at least a week or so) -surely then, I can get the fucker finished. -Tomorrow being Sunday (Sundee) I might dig is a chapeter, depends how these people here go (Joee's sisters plus niece here currently) so we see we see we seeeeeeeee! Man, and I gotta have some wine and hear some jazz! Mingus! Wow! Yeah!

fook

2011-12-08T19:33:00.001+10:00

I've got a couple'a weeks and I'm working full on again at the moment! Gotta finish this draft! Maybe 4000 more words this weekend! Yes!

pause pause pause...

2011-11-26T22:53:00.001+10:00

Sheesh! and then, just when it's all rollin' and the words are all tumblin' -phonecall, and I'm back at work. Just finished a week of hardcore vineyard work. So the rhythm has stopped. and now, as I type this, it's turning into my birthday. Maybe I can get some more chapters out next week, but it ain't gonna happen if I keep working all the time. I'm still gonna hold to my Christmas deadline though...

still no title, but here is a glimpse of the cover for my printed version of the first draft:

2011-11-20T15:56:00.001+10:00

better.

2011-11-19T12:45:00.001+10:00

so. That's better. 35,000 words, intro, new chapter, if I could do another 5,000 tomorrow (and I think I've got enough material now to mayhaps do just that) then I'll be well on the way to getting this first draft written and down before I turn 40. -Which'd be nice. Oh, and the last jam I just wrote down? Amazing. I re-read the previous chapter (15 or 16 or something) -and it rocked! Way better than I remembered, and then for the new chapter, found a great space/zone in my head to come on all prosey-like. Also some great (I think) childhood flash backs! -Don (whom I'm not sure ever reads my blog, but God bless!) will be pleased to see that not only have I mapped plot points (which is new to me) but i also am beginning to name some of the "grey area" things like location, dates etc. It's amazing watching is all grow. Still listening to heaps of Mingus (which also got mentioned in book today)All you mangs may like to dig this great film too! I declare it essential! CHIPS!

slight pause.

2011-11-18T14:56:00.001+10:00

fuck.
it all gets a bit mentally-crammy.
I've taken a few days off book 'cause I's now more than half down and it's time to step back and think. Structure, planning, stuff that is kind of new to me. Usually I just go where the writing takes me, this time however, it's a whole different game. -Looking for a 70,000+ word finished novel depth, philosophy and poetry. (most of the poetry'll be me fleshing out the second draft I suspect) and swearing. There'll be plenty of that of course kids! -Anyhow, must dash, I'm hoping for 5,000-10,000 words this weekend, then we should be starting to see the homeward stretch! Hello to all the mangs that are keeping abreast the first draft! Not long now!

Kicks?

2011-11-14T14:59:00.001+10:00

Well mangs, it's pretty much the middle of the month now and I'm nearly 30,000 words into the first draft. Feeling quite comfortable about where the story is going and am already anticipating much of the re-write process. Thinking about a lot of recorded medium pre-release stuff that I may do too. -Readings on audio and maybe video to pre-date the first print of the book. May well be my best chance to secure some sort of printing/publishing deal...
~~Early days anyhow. Right now I'm just relaxing at the house, got a few beers chilling down, some ambient music playing, it's grey and windy rain outside.~~
Nice to hear from Heath last night and chat at length about *just stuff really* -as usual, he sounds brilliant. Should get a go back to work phonecall this week. looking forward to stomping round in mud and remembering with the world feels like, hello it's me.

raw material.

2011-11-05T14:08:00.003+10:00

filmed at caravan circa Dec 2009, Saturday afternoon listening to Kerouac, hot in there, summer.

2011-11-04T14:05:00.004+10:00

YO! New book by your mang?

2011-11-04T08:19:00.001+10:00

That's the guff kiddies. I'm 10,000+ words in on the newest jive. It's the closest thing to a novel yet. I've written five chapters now and it's taken me that long to begin to feel it's rhythm and understand it's philosophy. As with XONNOX, for the most part I'm letting it write itself and the further in I get more more I see as sequel-ish parallel. Once more it seems to be the main antagonist in search for a reason for living. Clearly an important theme for me I guess. It's a lot looser than XONNOX, it's not tied in by that experimental prose structure I used last time and I'm using more dialogue in areas (perhaps pay-dirt for those routines I wrote last year). There's also a but of suburban boganish-grit in there which I think is a slight hang-over from Brilliant Future, but honestly, I think being a bit vulgar has just become a facet of my style now. I'd like to have the first draft complete by Christmas. That would make it not only the largest body of work I have written but also in the shortest amount of time (suggestive that as I get older, maybe this is the format I'll move into. ((books again))). I then intend to spend a couple of months doing an extensive re-write and edit. This is something completely new. In the past the only edit I've done to books has been in the typing phase (and fix up typos etc. later) However, some of the experiments I tinkered with last year showed me how I can blow up whole sections and expand at the editing stage. It's also very important that the book be "say-able" as I will almost certainly take it on the road and do some sort of readings/recordings etc as was done with XONNOX ten years ago. -TEN YEARS SINCE XONNOX! -wow. A fitting time perhaps for another. Anyhow, there's no title -or even working title for this new book at present, keep posted and this uncertain phase will soon be past. -a big thumbs up to those half a dozen mangs I've got reading through the draft as I write it. I doubt I would do this at all if I didn't have you looking over my shoulder! Today I have a day off, but will have another 4 or 5 thousand words by the end of the weekend! Hare Krsna!oh, and just as XONNOX was written to the tune of Layo & Bushacka's "Low Life" album,so this new jam is being put down to the new album by Thundercat (album is called "Golden age of the Apocalypse") I just can't stop grooving to it right now!

2011-10-27T10:34:00.002+10:00

well-e-well! Still having a nice holiday in this peaceful old place, been reading a lot of poetry by Jack and Allen, something Jack said about being honest and letting go keeps banging around my head. Maybe I've become too controlled in my approach to the WORD... -I may have to try something new -AGAIN!-
Mother-In-Law is here for two weeks creaking in silence around the house, tidying and shivering in the warm afternoons, I have been hiding as if from a giant troll, up in my shed with musics and movies...
...I owe myself a religious experience, maybe for lunch I'll watch some Marx Brothers today and get some of that Harpo-Krsna-Jesus ju-ju...HELLO!
One of our chickens is sitting on eggs, she fucked it up the first time and stuffed them all (letting them go cold/standing on them etc) -if she can stick it out another 5 or 6 days this second batch may still be a blazing success and we'll have some funny new little friends!
I'm still paused on the reading of "A Tale of Two Cities" -I gotta get it off my plate! I can't settle down to a more relaxed style of reading until I've polished it off.
The sun is staying up later and later, soon it'll be time for long after dinner walks...

2011-09-28T22:25:00.003+10:00

well, I've been on holidays for a week now. I still like it. Each day I've done something (dug a garden, bottled some beer etc) -and then had some soup for lunch and then an afternoon doze up in the shed.
Joee has been going great guns in the garden, planting, digging etc.
Tommy is coming for a visit, that'll be nice.
Pepsi got a big hunk of wood in his leg which had to be removed by the vet and get all stitched up. He's coming good now.
Just been listening t the new Ryan Adams album, it's real nice.
Everything is nice, life is beautiful.

2011-09-12T18:36:00.003+10:00

hi mangs.
It's Monday night and I'm beat! Two more weeks of work and then I oughta have a bit of peaceful chill holiday as is my want. Two more days until I try the brew which i did wrong a month or so back. A new Mexican brew is cookin' up, everything is doing fine!
I'm listening to lots of Spiritualized at the moment. Especially that live in Iceland album they did last year. HERE IS A LINK TO BOTH THE VIDEO AND a download link to THE ALBUM! --->http://eyeballkid77.blogspot.com/2011/04/blog-post.html
J. Spaceman, the main Spiritualized guy appeals to my sweet Syd Barrett angel side. It's all great.
I spent most of today (whilst working on the side of a beautiful mountain overlooking an enormous river and rolling hills etc) meditating upon a new book of poetry I'm considering putting together. Time passed effortlessly. Hare Krsna Harpo!

2011-09-11T21:46:00.002+10:00

NOTHING CAN STOP THEM!

2011-09-02T21:39:00.004+10:00

hello.
it's friday night and Joee and I just watched the always awesome "Event Horizon" movie.
haven't watched it for a couple of years.

Always a treat! And oh boy! Every time I see Sean Pertwee in anything, his EYES are his dads' eyes! It's beautiful! and speaking of his dad, tomorrow night the first episode of the new series of DOCTOR WHO is on!
"Let's Kill Hitler!"

...and so, now, it's the weekend ('cause as I mentioned, I'm back working hard once again for some crazy reason or other!) -Tomorrow I'm going to start a batch of Mexican-style beer, and Sunday I'm gonna sleep in and read.
-Everything is FINE!

2011-08-30T21:15:00.002+10:00

...and then, just when I'm on holidays, and John comes on down for a weekend and everything is FINE,
Just like that, -BAM! I land more work in a new vineyard. -WHich in fact is kinda cool 'cept I've got a bit of a flu type thing right here at the end of winter. Can't wait to get it out of the way and feel better.
Right now I'm going to tell Joee that it's time for cheescake (cause I feel like it is!) meeee

2011-08-12T17:42:00.002+10:00

ha. I'm on holiday again for a couple of months. How nice is that?
I'm gonna do a lot of reading. (firstly, this month I've gotta read Dicken's "Tale of Two Cities")
I've also got some music plans, but we'll just have to see which way the wind blows...
Anyhow, I'm cooking a curry, so I oughta go see how it's getting on, I just figured I oughta drop y'all a line...ALL GOOD!

2011-08-07T11:49:00.002+10:00

Fuck.
I think I just fucked up a brew.
I made the water too hot and now I suspect the next couple of weeks of love and care may be for nothing.
Lesson learned I guess. FUCK!
I went to put some ice in at the end, but there was only one fucking ice cube in the tray.
In two or three weeks time I'll be able to move on and start another one.
But I may not know until mid September if this one was any good or not.
Oh well.

2011-08-04T20:32:00.002+10:00

zing!
today at work
it rained.
most of the day it rained.
I ate sandwiches in the van, listening to Coltrane and reading RImbaud as I glanced out at the fields through the rain.
The hill surrounding shrouded in misty Zen-clouds.
All afternoon I raked up sticks and loved it.

2011-08-01T21:56:00.001+10:00

I'm thinking: Vocal songs WITHOUT words! -So that it sounds like a foreign language or like English which you can't quite understand... Kind of like "La-la-lom la-la-lee" type of stuff! My head is going crazy just thinking about it!

2011-07-31T17:01:00.002+10:00

SHEESH!
...and now I'm tired!
Two lots of visitors PLUS work in one week. I'd like another week just to reset now. -Oh well. Back to work a rooni tomorrow (unless it rains)
It'll be nice to get back to work just for pure reset reasons. I reckon only another two or three weeks until I get a break anyhow. Then I get a couple of meditative months.
It's being a beautiful cheerful, stress-less year, just like I wanted. Everything is fine. Hope all's well with all the mangs out there in the lah-lah!

2011-07-20T12:37:00.002+10:00

wang-chips.
Here come the visitors. Ming, Kurt, Tash, John, Tom. All coming in the next couple of winter months (oh, except Tom who's coming in OCT) -and here's me laid up with an infected gum, thankfully almost better now thanks to some antibiotics and good pain killers. But I've missed a couple of days off work which is a shame. OH well,
It doen't seem as cold here as it was last winter, but that seems due to out climate-tising, -DOn was here a couple of weeks ago crying tearfully in the cold, all bundled up in the lounge near the fire with his laptop. 'Says he had a nice time and still likes it here, so "mission accomplished?" We'll soon see mangs!
Really looking forward to being well and not having a throbbing gum-mouth. WOrk'll be great -hopefully tomorrow I can get back into it for a couple of days (then the weekend and 3 days off 'cause of the Ming/Kurt visit) -being poor is something we're good at now anyway. It's quite empowering knowing how little we need to be happy. The world is very beautiful! -Money is for angry people.
Give it all up to love.

2011-06-16T21:10:00.002+10:00

well, I just wanna say some stuff, or more to the point, I oughta' considering I've been quiet here for a week or two...
...it's work. I like having a job to go to.
This week I've been working in ICE. All the vines have been loaded with ICE and fog fills the valley and does not lift until the afternoon. It's beautiful. and the drive home each night is beautiful too.
Each afternoon as I drive home listening to fIREHOSE or Lee Morgan, the sun going down, me, happy and BEAT, and I see the beautiful Tamar river and fires being smokey chimneys lit dreamy-ness, and just before I get to Legana (which is about a third of the way home) I see snowcapped mountains up behind the direction of our house, backlit with blazing pink sky. Its a bloody nice thing to see on the way home, lemme tell ya!
I've begun drinking the fist batch of brew I made. It's ok for a first batch. I was aiming for an amber-ish broon-ish sort of brew, but instead, it's quite black. It's kind of like Carlton Black, -which could be worse I suppose.
The next batch is a pale ale heavily malted.
Man, I get so tired in these post dinner work nights here beside the fire...
Can't wait to have some lovely dreams. might go have some now.
wang.

2011-06-04T20:56:00.002+10:00

hallo mangs.
The news is THIS: I'm back at work on the vineyard, pruning, listening to fIREHOSE records on the drives to and fro, listening to jazz in my ploughman sandwich lunch breaks in my van, I'm coming home blissfully tired, having a beer, dinner and beautiful sleep. Also, of course, beat, post-work mega showers. The bacon is coming home, so I guess everything is pretty perfect. Everybody at work is mellow and cool, there is no stress. My whole life has been moving towards this. It's really nice.
Jase has gone bass crazy, or so it seems from txt msgs and facebook msgs etc, He's gone all religious about bass. It's really beautiful. In fact I'm envious, and I wish I could see him there, ripping out the bass-lines. -Makes me think again about getting a trumpet. I really gotta do it this year. Once I get on top of my finances etc, I've gotta get my trumpet promise to myself sorted out. I'm 40 this year. It's a good year to do this and fulfil a promise I made to myself about 13 years ago. I've been listening to a lot of Lee Morgan albums lately, Mostly I've only been listening to jazz. 60s and 70s jazz mostly. Almost finished reading the Miles Davis autobiography in the toilet, in fact I think I'll finish it tonight ot tomorrow. The I'll have to find another biography to read.
Inside the house, of an evening, after dinner, near the fire (as winter has just kicked in) I'm reading an H. E. Bates novel "The Sleepless Moon" at the moment. -I have to read Dickens' "Tale of Two Cities" with Rowan soon too. (he sent me a copy and we've promised to read them together!)
Our washing machine blew up, so hopefully in the next week, we'll have a new one. I think everything else is in order. Another week or so before I try my first batch of home brew, everything is fine.

2011-05-27T23:05:00.003+10:00

hallo mangs. What can I tell ya? Well, Next week I go back to work. I'm really looking forward to climbing into the earthy overalls of my new life, the drive to work listening to Mike Watt albums with the window open blowing icy air into my sleepy eyes and lungs, the work itself, the lunches in my van listening to jazz, arriving home to my lovely wife and dinner and home made beer, and that funny dog, weekends of home cooked breakfasts with fresh toast and eggs,
One of these days we'll buy a new stove with and oven that works, then we'll be able to cook all sorts of things. That'll be nice too.
Today we let the chickens wander out into the back yard beyond their pen, they liked it. We also went down to the park and picked a big bag full of apples there. Delicious red apples. We're thinking about planting six or eight fruit trees in our front yard. It'll turn into a lovely little grove in the next decade.
Radishes are beginning to grow in the back yard, though they failed in the front yard 'cause wallabies get in and eat 'em. I'm gonna have to fence the front garden off.
Almost finished reading the Miles Davis autobiography in the toilet, and began reading "Sleepless Moon" by HE Bates tonight right here in the lounge room with the fire going and an Alice Coltrane album playing nicely there. Also tonight watched "The Man With the X-Ray Eyes" (1963) -first time I've seen it since I first saw it in the mid 80s. It was a nice trip to watch it again. Here is the guff!

So tonight I'm looking forward to a nice deep sleep in the warm bed, the nights here have started getting cold now, so hot showers and doonas are heavenly! Tomorrow morning a great fresh toast breakfast and coffee and then we'll see!

2011-05-14T17:03:00.002+10:00

yup. It's the middle of May and it's getting cold. I've been back on holidays for a week, I've started my second batch of home made beer, Joee is away on a two week holiday and I don't go back to work for another two or three weeks. All I can do is go for walks and be happy all the time.
Tonight I'm making a spicy salami pasta and I'm gonna watch something like "Scanners II" or "Warlock" I think. something a bit 'out there'... Last night I chatted to wang on the phone and reminded myself in the process of how brilliant "Death Sentence" is, so I watched that last night and it's still great.
Tomorrow I'm getting up early (maybe) to make myself a sunrise breakfast with eggs laid by our chicken called Glossy and with bacon and thick toast and black pudding and some of Joee's new green tomato relish. -AND, I'm gonna play that "premier Performances" album which I got back in '96 and was right at the very beginning of my classical music kick. It was winter, I was working in a factory and I made these great breakfasts every morning and played that album as part of the morning ritual for quite a stage. -so, That oughta be nice. I may just leaf through a book of Shelleys' poetry too.
-It was around this time that I started going into the city to meet Miki for breakfasts too (or just before that time I guess. I think those winter city breakfasts at Cafe Mondial were around '97 or '98... -still, brilliant memories!

2011-04-30T20:30:00.001+10:00

whew. fooking tired.
I keep going to work every day.
Tonight I saw the new Doctor Who episode. That was good.
and now I gotta go to sleep 'cause my eyes are getting skinny.
Hello, It's me. Tired in a chair.
Better go wash some plates and then go to bed as soon as the bread is cooked,
yep, bye.

2011-04-22T22:28:00.002+10:00

so here is Good Friday. A very appropriate name. It's been a good day. Today I fixed some weird gaps under the kitchen sink to hopefully stop any night time visiting mouses, and pruned some trees in the front yard. Tomorrow, perhaps we'll go for a drive somewhere nice and then tomorrow night is Charlton Heston night 'cause it's 10 Commandments time! Looking forward to that one! -then it's Easter egg time after all that.
been listening to a lot of Lee Morgan lately, sheesh, I'm tired. I might go to bed now and listen to some more. Happy easter everyone!

2011-04-16T22:21:00.002+10:00

sheesh!
after three big days at the vineyard, beer sure tasted good! I got home, Joee had the fire cranking, had a shower and some great stew and another beer and then crashed out asleep. First time I've konked like that in years! That's what good hard honest work'll do to you!
Woke up this morning, had the big ol' cook up breakfast and coffee and newspaper out in the back yard, perfect blue sky and cool fresh air (as usual) happy with my spot in the world, great house, job, wife, dog, everything.
Today we went for a drive in the forest.
Just made more bread and a cup of tea, the fire going, outside is getting colder now, sleep will be a lovely boat drifting down the stream...

2011-04-13T20:51:00.002+10:00

hello mangs,
I just worked a job for the first time in FIFTEEN AND A HALF MONTHS. Fook!
A nine and a half day at a vineyard, elbow deep in cold wet grapes. Chardonnay grapes even. This could be the beginning of my newest phase.
Lunch breaks consisting of pastrami and mustard pickle sandwiches on last nights' home baked bread with thick slabs of cheese, sitting there with my legs crossed looking out the back door of my van at distant mountains shrouded in Zen-like wispy clouds...
Gotta get a thermos of tea too I suppose. or coffee when it gets colder.
At home time, van got bogged and had to be pulled out with tractor.
Amazing. I said I would like to work on a farm, and hey presto, now I am. So much fresh air out there and peace. I had plenty of thinking time too.
Nice. I'm happy.
...And now soon I can watch all those special Charles Bronson movies I have promised myself! This oughta be a swell year!

2011-04-04T20:39:00.002+10:00

Fuck. I still don't have a job. Last week I applied for a job picking grapes and the bastards didn't call. I wonder what'll be next? I've been doing some Bluestarairlines remixes of Fingerhed songs and I finished reading the Charlton Heston autobiography, now I'm re-reading Look Homeward Angel in the evenings, whilst reading a book about laughing clubs in India whilst on the bog.
I have also been working on a new writing project pertaining to the other side of the King Ton poem which is kind of simple quiet life living etc...

2011-03-24T14:25:00.003+10:00

Here is an image of where I suspect I first became obsessed with showers. This was filmed in 1970. They don't build 'em like that anymore...

fuck.
still don't have a job and it's raining.
More holiday. Any time now, I'll have a job.
In the meantime, I've just finished a 4-day project of pulling a fucking tree out of the ground.
Cut it down and then dug the fucker out. I think all this rain bog helped, 'cept for the fact that I've just been out there digging and chopping on my knees in the rain bog. There was a time when I thought that no matter what, it just won't come out, well, now it's out.
And, I just had a shower and I'm playing loud some old 60s jazz album. Lemme tell you about my shower. It was HOT, but that isn't the main story.
The story is this: I love my shower. It is one of the many great great things in my life. However, since about Christmas or my birthday, my shower cap has been all ripped and fucked up. Well, I had a disposable one that I think Lisa left here on her visit with Mr Chad last winter. So I used that one. But about a month or six weeks ago, that one became fucked too. So I reverted to my old fucked one. Well, since then I have been promising myself a new one, and thne forgetting each time I go to the shops. Well, finally, yesterday, I remembered. And they were all fucking sold out. So I went out today just to buy one. And now I have one. Making my shower experience once more perfect.
Now it's time for me to pick up the lovely wife from work and then bring her back home and have a doze... Hare Krsna.

2011-03-15T07:41:00.003+10:00

oh yeah, oh boy! Back from Sydney, Back from Don, Back from SWANS, Back home thank lord Krsna Harpo Jesus! Sure is nice to be back! -Oh, though, let me report that the weekend sojourn to Sydney toon was a GROOVY trip! Don and I had some BIG talks, -We had some time to try and tell EVERYTHING that was on my mind, walked around, went out to a farm and bought live chickens, walked around the city, caught trains and taxi, ate chinese, drank beer and good malt scotch, in the very small time that I was there, we in retrospect really did a LOT of things (taking into account that, that very same day that I arrived, Don himself had just arrived from a mad week-long business trip in Hong Kong! CHIPS! -So he was wrecked and had to do all his "I've been away-DAD duties etc", whilst still entertain (or at least try and listen to the babbling of) me.
SWANS of course, was just amazing power. Huge music, and yes, they played "Jim" (which was my song request, but I guess it was a pretty safe bet) Gira himself was gentle and fierce. The whole gig, Don and I just grooked around and patted each other on the back. 15 years or more later, we actually got to see them, brilliantly!
Sydney itself is of course a crazy crammed city with weird double-decker trains that dart about. I was in fact quite surprised to see how many big green swampy belts of vegetation grew up in between various suburbs or zones, but there was I saw, also a fair bit of garbage laden suburban GLOOM.
At this point Don is still very keen (and has half made plans) to get down here to Taz for the life of ice water fresh air, and we talked many times about our old man retirements in the country life of peaceful homesteads.
I am currently nursing reserving reservations pertaining to the state of poetry in Launceston, it seems to be loaded with older more serious (which is FINE of course, but not what I want/need) formal poets whom I suspect cannot provide me with the inspiring madness I require to re-boot a Speedpoets revolutionarooni down here, alas, I may just have to wait until something HAPPENS and stop trying to make it happen myself.
There is still a couple of musical projects that are popping around me, and Peter Christie (Keyboard player from my old band of the mid 90's "SUGARHED") have started an online band (something many of my friends have talked about for a long time, but have never been able to properly pull off) called "FINGERHED" -which is showing a little promise for future musics of some kind (I even intend to do some Bluestarairlines remixes, so that's all pretty groovy. have a check/see at:FINGERHED!

So that's the news from your far away mang up 'till now.
I'm baking bread nearly every day now and still listening constantly to mad old jazz from the 60s and 70s, I also came across a really great recording of Debussy piano works which I heard last week on the radio, -the best of their kind I have ever heard, and in fact EXACTLY the sound of coffee in our back garden on winter mornings, I'll even provide a link for all the mangs in case you are curious! Walter Gieseking - Debussy - The Complete Works for Piano (in particular disc 4 "Suite Bergamasque" -all 4 tracks, but in fact the whole thing and all 4 discs...)
In fact, this very instant, I think I will go make a cup and go out for a wander. Hope this blog finds all you mangs well, rest assured, everything is FINE here. I have been re-reading "Look Homeward Angel" by Thomas Wolfe for the first time in almost 20 years, and it fits into everything gorgeously. Sure were!

2011-03-09T12:16:00.003+10:00

SHUDDUP MEEEE!
My new job keeps gay-ly avoiding me, which is a drag, I'm listening to "Noema" by the David Orlowski Trio now, I sent a copy to Jason a couple of weeks ago and he never said a thing, so I guess it's no good. Oh well, I like it. This weekend I get on a plane and fly to Sydney to see SWANS with Don. That'll be ok. He tells me that it's unfortunate that I come on the same day that he comes back from Hong Kong and he needs family time, well that's fine, I will have on my person great music and things for reading and mayhaps even do some writing. So long as he has some drinks about and a bit of food etc, everything'll be FINE! -AND THEN i can come home and start my landscaping future!
Looking forward (of course) to seeing The Don, but after the disaster of visits to Qld etc and the GLOOM that I have now described in many ways, I wonder how the meeting will go. (most likely, as I have reservations, all will be great, as the Dec trip was full of expectations, -this time I don't have many) -Don, to his credit, has written the better of the letters over the last year, his facilities seem still to be firing effectively from what I have gathered, and besides, anyway, It's all most likely my own crazy expectant madness, just as it used to be in the 90s etc...
I miss the crazy past, but this present is BRILLIANT and it will be how I see what happens next!
F.

2011-03-06T11:16:00.002+10:00

hallo mangs again.
Just emailed five minutes of me just talking babble to Peter Christie (Sugarhed keyboard fame) to have some kind of funky mix-out with, Haven't recorded anything in the studio ("Nuthutch") for ages! MAYBE GETTING CLOSER, well in fact ALWAYS getting closer to wherever I'm going next I suppose.
FOr the first time in a year, I've begun to reconsider the idea for a novel that I had this time last year. -I don't know if it is the change of seasons or what it is, but I'm getting visions anyway. -Have to see. Things'll be more certain once I get into a new working groove. I hope that work'll start this week. I need to get into it! -I'm gonna have to find something else if this guy doen't call me this week. -I really wanna have a go at the landscaping/Gary Snyder-type gig! It it just one of those things set to try my world famous impatience I guess! It's always like this with things I want. I always have to wait deep down into the quagmire of thinking it'll never happen. (kind of the theme of XONNOX actually..) Also, next weekend I'm gonna go see SWANS with Don in Sydney. That'll be weird-great, it'll be interesting to see how he has weathered the last decade. -Haven't seen him for about 8 years I reckon.
Today I was playing Ravel collected piano works in the shed as I wandered and sat about in the autumn yard. The clarity of seasons here makes me dizzy with the thought that some people never see this at all! It's likely that we'll be having the wood fire ablaze in the next week. That'll be nice!
I've got a couple of special Charles Bronson movies lined up to dig latenight in the shed, but I've promised I'm not watching them (perhaps with a couple of glasses of earned and paid for red wine) until I've started working! Ah the pain of it! -one of them is "Donato & Daughter" -long been on my want List! the other is "Valachi Papers" -which will be awesome too! -And I have "WHite Buffalo" saved for a special nights viewing too! Sheesh! Also other things waiting in the wings! I sure is gonna be good when I start working! Maybe tomorrow? WANG

2011-02-24T15:36:00.002+10:00

the land of peaceful zeros. TIME. Enemy of the good and the hep, What to do with all the gloomy middle aged friend souls? Lane change I suppose. And gear change. New journey, no memories of the past, only images. Temporal inertia. Harmony is a cup of tea and the changing coming of autumn. The red blush in the trees. I see the peaceful smile of night skies and sunsets. The burble of morning chickens, let out to eat the seeds. The caw of the giant black cockatoos as the scrape the skies over the house. The yard full of peaceful little corners and rewarding little tasks. Food abundantly growing in various patches, So this is 2011. What a crazy groove. One day my new job will call me and I'll go to work to once more bring the bacon home, until then, there is only jazz and chinups and TIME, (the one thing we all know!
New life slowly rising from the lake, I can't wait to see who I'll be next!

2011-02-18T09:02:00.003+10:00

mangs-mangs-mangs.
Here we are again. It's friday, There's some Jazz playing in the kitchen, I just had some strong black coffee and wrote a poem that I had to write for this reading on Monday night. They do a "theme" competition where everyone donates a couple of bucks and the reads their poem based on said "theme" the winner (voted by the group) takes the money home. -So that's done. I think I oughta have a coffee before I go, as I have indicated in the past, coffee and poetry seem to go together real nice (although coffee at night is a crap idea where sleeping is involved.) -Not working yet, but the landscaping guy said he'd call me next week.
In the meantime, I guess it's my duty to cram in as many fine kicks as I can!
Oh yeah, I'm gonna send a submission to the Queensland Poetry fest in the next day or so too. -Even though they're gonna tell me to fuck off. -Which is fair enough I suppose- Funny how things turn out.
Today I bought two onions, we have a big black chicken called "Pig" -Pig keeps trying to be a rooster. Joee hopes that Pig isn't a rooster, but I don't mind. The other chickens are fine.
Today is the first cold day we've had in a while, -not shiver cold, but sleeves-cold. Soon it'll be winter and there will be ice on everything in the morning... What a groovy life I drive around in!

2011-02-02T21:56:00.004+10:00

so mangs, I just DUG "Farewell Friend" (warning! this is THE FINAL SCENE in the film and may be a "Spoiler" -otherwise, go right ahead!)-The great 1968 Charles Bronson film. Real nice. THE MAN was great. No new job yet, but I have begun poking around, I reckon I'll have something by the end of the week/beginning of next... -this world is FINE! -I hope everything is doing OK up there in North Queensland, Big love to my friend Sausage who is up in Port Douglas waiting for fireworks etc...
It's a year since we left Q. I sure am having a nice time in T. Everything is FINE!

2011-01-27T21:02:00.003+10:00

Well mangs, it's nearly the end of January and what can I tell ya?
This time last year we were making our final goodbyes to Brisbane-toon, and now, a year later of Tasmanian reinvention/isolation, I admit feeling a little bit disorientated after a solid five or six weeks of visiting/visits/guests/socialising/etc. And now, with Marc put on a plane this afternoon, finally, the Christmas/New Year madness is over, I'm really not sure what's next at all.
Gonna get a cruisy part time job in the next couple of weeks and begin to find out where this new year is gonna take me.
Went to a local poetry gig a week ago, that was all formal and weird. All the poets were serious and didn't seem crazy at all (not what I am used to with poets I must say) and then I met some other poets who claimed they had a thing going on down here called "Rude-Poets". Well, they told me they'd email me the address and I was gonna go along and read some of my limericks or something, but I never got the email, so I guess they really ARE rude.
Marc being here was good. We did lots of nice walking around and went to the seaside and to the hills and to a forest and we went to pubs and we TALKED. and you know, it's interesting, as people get older, I guess they really do change. We talked about all the people we know and the places we've been or seen, and about how life is just crazy and about how amazing that everything we had ever done in life had led up to that moment (at wherever/whatever point we were at wherever we were at any time when we were doing all that talking) and I did a lot of just reflecting in his grand/strange company too. Crazy. Him being a married dad, me being a Tasmanian garden skulking dog owner with my gal...
...ah! we went and got chickens too. Way up in a place on the North coast called "Forest" a little township with twenty houses or so, and all farms and a single general store. Bought five chickens. Three different sorts of black ones and an red one and a crazy speckled chicken whom I have called "Clownie" They are settling into their new house just nice. Getting chickens is pretty much all our original boxes ticked, now I guess we move onto new phases and see what happens next.
We're getting a lot of zucchinis now, and Pumpkins are beginning to take shape and size and soon potatoes will be ready and a tidal wave of tomatoes is about to hit us too. -So by my reckoning, our first phase of gardening has been everything we hoped plus maybe more.
It's kind of weird now, knowing that all the visitors are gone far away and it's back to just me here in this chair and Jazz and books and TIME and all this fresh air again... (dog-Pepsi is sulking on the couch with a bee-stung-foot, Joee is talking to her mum Mem on the phone...) I really like it here. Thank you very much to everyone who came down in the first year to visit and see what we went and did. Everything really is fine and the world really IS in good hands after all!
adios mangs!

2011-01-06T11:58:00.002+10:00

hallo mangs. There's no disputing it, it's the new year for certain. The dog has stopped being sick, I have gone to Brisbane for a weird week of sleeping on people's floors and wandering, come back again, and I guess that's that.
This year I'm having a punt at the old Speedpoets game. Something I haven't played for half a decade, so that has become my big old challenge. This month I'm going to my first poetry reading in about three years -maybe longer, so here comes the weird! -Gotta find some cardboard tubes from somewhere too I guess (it's MY prop!)
I'm hoping to kick off the first Speedpoets in the end of March. That oughta give me enough time to come up with something.
Also, in just a few weeks time now, I'm going to find myself a little money-earning casual/part time job so that the final puzzle piece (the one where I get money from somewhere to purchase odd things I want/ buy bits and pieces for projects etc...) is all sorted and gripped.
I've been writing some new poems and routines, some of which I have stuck in the "session" and some of which I still have scrawl/written on things like airplane sick-bags and roulette-casino-tickets etc... A little bit of transcripterooni ought've taken place shortly... -ah and there are the three I wrote the other day too... in that book... all in good time!
It's all I have left at the moment it seems. Good time.
Tonight Joee's da-da is arriving for a few days, next week Joee's friends are coming here and then taking her on a roadtrip which means me and the dog will have to bide our time watching Bronson movies and vintage Who. -whew!
and then it'll be time for a week of MANG. (at which time, my intention is to demonstrate the true slow life of peaceful Tas and big mellow afternoon chill sessions in the yard/shed/walking neighbourhood and finally Sheffield etc...
-So be good and keep you chin up. Everything is coming and it's going to be fucking good! meeee

2010-12-16T09:22:00.002+10:00

'd ya know what I find interesting?
The internet being what it is (including the destroyer of proper social relations) knower of all things and provider of most things, seems somehow disappointingly lacking in some areas.
These days when I put on the internet and wanna see a thing, I expect I can see ANY thing I want. Like a crystal ball only more like an apple. Instead I am left lacking. here is a short list of things off the top of my head that the internet has thusfar not been forthcoming with:
-Bigs chips (Angry Anderson did the TV ad for these circa '86)
-Yogi Bear chocolate bars (from the '70s with the crazy TV advert which said "Start at the knees please!")
-Good pictures of the "Coca Cola Easy Roller" which was our dream car at the end of the '70s when I was 7 or 8.
-Golden Nuggets AND Chocolate Nuggets: My favourite breakfast cereal from when I was a kid.
-Ice creams are suspiciously lacking too, things like Bigfoot (banana foot shape with chocolate sole), -even Choc Blok seems to have vanished.
-also there was an ad about the forests or environment in the '80s which used to have this old bugger and a little kid walking slowly down a dirt road and the kid says "...why can't I see the animals?" and he old guy says "...there used to be a thing called forests..." and the is a pan to wide shot so that you see they are walking in a wasteland sunset...

The collective consciousness has a great big hole in it.
the end.

2010-12-08T16:24:00.003+10:00

OK. Time for the dog to stop being sick now. It isn't fun for poor Pepsi. He just lies around all day being gloomy. He's been to the vet 3 times in the last week, yesterday they changed his drugs, so his fever has finally begun to recede. Hopefully he'll pick up in the next few days. Other than that, everything is fine.

2010-11-30T09:01:00.002+10:00

hey, it was my birthday just gone, like most things this year, it was the best birthday i've had for a long time.
Kurt flew down from Melb, so he, Joee and I just had fun. I can put up with a LOT of fun!
Then, the next day, we did a big ol' road trip loop up to the north coast and Pepsi ran in the sea, came home and watched "Death Hunt" on the telly (Bronson) and some wine. -Real nice weekend.
Currently eating toast in the new morning, listening to a great 1974 Carlos Garnett album "Journey To Enlightenment" -still digging all this "new" music! -most days at the moment I'm still stumbling over someone new!
2010 is absolutely/ has been one of THE (if not THE-THE) best years ever, -It's kind of sad seeing it begin to draw to a close, It's been such a long, good year! However, I believe that it is a whole new LEVEL of goodness that I've entered into and not in any way merely a PHASE, so everything is FINE!
Hare-Krsna, Harpo Marx to all of you etc, I wish you all beautiful wellness, tomorrow is December and Summer too! How great!
hoo!

2010-11-10T15:21:00.004+10:00

I'm THERE! -It's crazy and it's been going on for what seems like three ore more years, but I've found IT and I'm finally THERE!
All my dissatisfaction pertaining to music for the last decade, all my comments and babbling statements referring to how "going backwards" is the new "forwards" -I remember saying on a number of occasions that the only way to hear something "new" was to go back and discover something from pervious decades. Which, to a great degree I have always done, but especially in the last ten years and particularly in the last eighteen months!
My argument went on to say that you won't run out of music in your lifetime, no more than Kerouac did in his! -'cause all that music he had, -you can have -and SO MUCH MORE!
So excuse please my ranting digressions, as I try to COMMUNICATE to you that after all this time, they have been brewing, and yes, finally, I have found all the crazy MUSIC BLOGS which are out there, allowing me to proper discover all the crazy-great music which has been existing unbeknownst to me all this time! -Kind of like having an elder to go to who can put you onto something you (I) haven't heard, or maybe only heard of, but never come across etc...
...anyway, I've found them!
It's kind of exciting in the same way as back in the '80s I'd buy a ten-pack of blank cassettes and go to peoples' houses and copy whatever great stuff they had. -It fely like I had access to EVERYTHING! -If I heard that someone had something good, I could and would go there and get it (or maybe flow them a blank tape and then a week later, they'd come back to you with the tape all filled up with tunes -those tapes were precious! I couldn't wait to get back to my room and discover their contents!
And the beautiful thing is, that back then, I was pretty damn poor, had a few dollars here and there from odd jobs and milk run and working on farms on weekends etc, so it was like being rich, being able to just HAVE all that music. -Even though I only had three fifty to my name...
...and getting back to the present here, I'm not talking about Limewire or Demonoid or Pirate Bay, -sites where I can get whatever music has eluded me in searches over the years... -What a great find/resource they have/are been, but they couldn't turn me onto anything "new" 'cause I didn't know what I was looking for!
-Now, with these blogs -which have links to other blogs which have links to other blogs etc, there are presented all those albums which you knew must be out there, but didn't know what they were!
In two days, I think I have discovered several dozen great new albums exactly to my current tastes (which is mostly jazz and fusion stuff...) Hey presto!
An example is say, digging Miles Davis's Bitches Brew album and In a Silent way (and I really DO dig those albums!) -but then, there are just no other albums I could find that had that same kind of SOUND... 'y know, that Fender Rhodes kinda' electric Jazz thing with that early 70s or late 60's vibe... -albums that really didn't survive through time... -Some of them are out of print now and many were only ever on vinyl and have all but vanished... NOT! -I am finding them now, very quickly and oh boy, racing out to the shed and cranking the studio speakers up, sitting in the old rocking chair for hours, hearing exactly what I have been trying to hear for years!
-I imagine I will flow some of these discoveries on to some of my favourite mangs in the form of letterbox surprises in the near future, but in the meantime, here are a few lovely links to let you see where I'm at:

kingcakekrypt.blogspot.com/

jazzarchives.blogspot.com/

fusionjazzandsomethingelse.blogspot.com/

quimsy.blogspot.com/

what a treat! -here be King Ton, making another cup of coffee and digging some Pharoah Sanders ("Live at The East") on a rainy Tasmania Wednesday afternoon-a-rooni, hope you find this resource as fulfilling as I am! -signing off from the jungle! Hoo!

PS: other than that, everything is FINE, nearly finished converting the garage into a house for chickens (just waiting on chicken wire to go on special in a weeks time) and also, the pumpkins are sprouting and we have dug up and planted a potato patch and the silverbeet is doing great and the peas and tomatoes are starting to creep and Joee planted a bunch of strawberries and it's all just coming together as good as could possibly be hoped! The world is in good hands!

2010-10-27T13:53:00.002+10:00

updated from the place where everything always is fine:
Well, I was just before, dozing on the futon in the shed, I woke and looked up at the big blue sky peppered with white-grey cloudlets far off high in the altitudes. All the while, birds and the sound of "Strawberry Wine" by Ryan Adams playing there. real good. And Pepsi running around with a plastic peanut butter jar, chompin' and chewing.
Earlier, I had been mildly dismayed that a colony of ants had moved into the spine of my autobiography of Charlton Heston (living on floor in toilet) and hence, will revisit that book another time (once all the ants are gone) Meanwhile I have started reading Led Zeppelin biography (just finished reading Ginsberg biography you see) -so there you go. Bios at the moment seem to be good things for toilet reading. Also in the toilet at present is a brief illustrated bio of Miles Davis, a slim volume of love poems by Neruda and a translation of "Les Fleurs du Mal" by Baudelaire. -So everything seems pretty covered there. -also ordered a copy of "Collected Rimbaud" (my copy which I carried in my pocket all the time in the 90s has in the last few years vanished/been lent to someone etc...) for SEVEN CENTS off the internet. Hence, what pleasure once more childhood-like each day waiting for the post man!
It's a good day at the house. Joee is bopping around in her office and in the lounge couches reading, Pepsi is chasing flies and the cow across the way is going bonkers. -It woke me up this morning actually. -Then on put on "Habana" -as there is no better way to start a morning presently. Also just got a couple of albums by that crazy band called "Can" -haven't heard them for a decade mereckons. -Last time I think was when Don lived at my house, that was '98 I think...
-Almost caught myself writing today, It's nearly time again. Like lunar orbits these phases of the phrase come and drift off. Time has a way or reminding us that we are all getting older...
Joee and I have been doing our various tinkerings in the yard, many new little foody-plants have started to pop up tiny leafs out of their various gardens. good. also we have identified where we'll plant some potatoes too. Might do that soon! -Also, gotta come to some conclusion about how to get the materials for the chicken house! -Might make that a project for next week methinks. 'cause then I can start thinking about the turkeys and also GOAT! -Goat oughta also be soon!
Might watch a movie on out little $8 telly tonight with dinner I think. Hmmm. The world is in good hands!

2010-10-25T21:06:00.002+10:00

hi again mangs.
everything is really nice. Still listening to Roy Hargrove every day. Can't get enough of those two albums "Habana" and "Earfood" they are the soundtrack to this period of my life (where every morning I wake up to the sounds of roosters and cows, step out into the yard and breathe in cool sweet fresh air etc) -real nice days.
-Each day I go through a series of personal mantras and routines and remember where I have come from in regard to a world of constant and kind of awful working working working in order to live and buy a house etc...
-Daily now I remind myself of my obligatory life of working left behind and know that when next (soon soon soon) I work a job again, any and all money earned goes into LIFE rather than LOAN and thus, should feel no oppressive stressful domination by any mean forcefulness...
...er, that is to say, I know that a job can no longer hold my house and life and future like the Sword of Damocles above my head. It would merely be a job. I ought to be able to go work doing whatever it is, and just enjoy the beauty of life.
Indeed, sober on a monday night I sit here babbling, comfortable with my teacup, with, I guess, not really anything much to say at all, just happy.
Soon I will go to sleep with my lovely little wife and wake up tomorrow and everything will be great all over again (like today).

2010-10-16T08:59:00.002+10:00

Mangs? -Yep!
Cold iciness straight from the polar cap in this mid morning Saturday. Only Jazz and coffee for warmth. Today Joee is going to a promotion by a local milk company. She's hoping to get a t-shirt (i think.) apart from that, all's well. -My Mam was here for 5 days, but she's now back in her own safety-land. The weekend suggests blue skies and maybe a trip to the beach tomorrow for a picnic.
My whole life is awash with the continuous grooves of Roy Hargrove, Miles Davis and John Coltrane. I have been going for walks and also dozing on new futon in shed listening to great tunes.
As of next week I intend to continue my pursuit of new texts (my Session-dialogues) -as recent interruptions to the world have backboiled me for a couple of weeks. Hopefully the break has been good for the writing juices etc anyhow.
The air here is like drinking fresh ice water straight out of a cloud. I can't wait to go out and face the sky. Have a nice weekend 'yall.

2010-10-08T08:28:00.004+10:00

mangs mangs mangs.
It's all jazz again. IT's been Miles Davis arooni and Coltrane arooni and Diz, and new arooni too! Roy Hargrove arooni! -Great great stuff! This album has become the soundtrack to my peaceful beautiful southern life meditations. -You can currently hear this album playing before I get out of bed, later up in the shed, in the car driving and at night in the kitchen whilst I cook or wash dishes. I am not going to call it "one of the great albums YET, (but might do at some point. All the research I've done indicates that Roy is the same age as me -so unlike most of my heros, isn't dead or dying. -cool black mang with dreads. Anyhow. That's the report.
Also, jammed with new band yesterday called "Wolf Dog" -crazy funk-something. Taking forever to get this jam (band) going, so I don't expect anything special to happen, -but I also am WRONG most times about most things, so we'll have to just sit it out and see. -Wrote a couple of jams during the sesh yesterday. one called "Worst sandwich I ever had" and one called "Girl with a mouthful of bones" -so at least they're letting write the crazy way I like to (unlike the kind of restrictions I was tied to in Spank Sinatra) -anyhow, Gotta go into town now, to library and post office and shops. As usual, the world is in good hands and everything is FINE...
You sure were!

2010-09-21T20:00:00.002+10:00

MANGS!
Hullo! Soz about all the silence. I've been DOING. Well, I think so. Writing a bunch of crazy "dialogues" routines. (some mangs may already be privy to these...) -Crazy TALKING routines. Like a scene out of a bunch of different films. Or something (or NOTHING! Just a new thing I'm writing in any case.) (also sorry for saying "soz" -I was for my own fun really!)
So, that having been said, There's been a slew a nutso gardening been going on, garden building/preparing for the spring growing season. -And hey, In two weeks time we get daylight savings for SIX MONTHS! -That'll be nutso too.
So what has been happening?
Let's see.
I get up and make a crazy breakfast shake which goes: a banana, two apples, two eggs, a Weet-Bix, a spoon of peanut butter and milk. All whizzed up and then I'm ready for the world! THEN, I drive Joee to work, THEN I go home, drink coffee, listen to jazz and start writing THEN i do a bunch of weights and exercises. THEN eat lunch and watch some Doctor Who, THEN walk dog, THEN go get Joee from work, THEN go for another walk, THEN come home, cut some wood and THEN cook tea...
-something like that (for example on a Joee-work day)
So there's that, THEN there's me planning to build a platform mezzanine-level observation chill-out cafe'/lounge/siesta deck in the great enormous gaping doorway of my giant shed (so that I can sit/doze in the afternoons, looking out over the house and across the road ro the rolling cow-fields with sheep and goats etc...) -I'll be able to build it in two days once I get all the materials I need! -These I am on the lookout for!
AND ALSO, I have decided that I should get another trumpet! It's been ten years now since I made the dreadful MISTAKE! and sold my trumpet! I shoulda' stuck at it! I knew I'd regret it! It's one of the WORST things I ever did! -So now, with all this TIME etc and good air and just good everything, I've decided that I'll go to a pawnstore in town and lay-by a cheap student trumpet, so that I will be able to BLOW. (this has maybe all been brought to a head as I have been revisiting Kerouac and almost non-stop been playing Jazz -especially MILES.) -talking of which, I also am musing after getting an alto sax rather than trumpet, as I think that woodwind comes to me more naturally after childhood of clarinet etc, BUT I really dig trumpet. It'll come down to the day -and I'm pretty certain that trumpet will trump it (also I've done all my research into student trumpets and I'm ready to go!)
So what else? well, in fact ALSO, been borrowing all the jazz from the library and putting it into my I tunes etc. -so it's all coming along FINE.
Oh yeah! and I'm reading Don Juan by Lord Byron (which is turning out to be really brilliant -much to my surprise) and today in the mail I got a copy of "The Tale of Two Cities" -by Dickens from beautiful Rowan up there in Queensland-land. -So I guess that'll be next. Reading is real nice! Reading in mostly the evenings after dinner in my recliner chair next to the fire. Everything has tuned out fine.
-So that's what's happening with me. -Joee and Pepsi are fine and happy, I'm going to get some cookies and make a cup of tea.

2010-08-31T15:11:00.002+10:00

hrumph!
So that ya know,
It's cold blowy misty rainy after noon
and I spent all morning with coffee and writing sketch routines (TRUCKS* etc...)
Listened to Miles Davis and Brian Eno
Finished reading beautiful On The Road Scroll in my shed chair with big door open wide to see the weather outside, (whilst Joee gardened for hours around the corner making crazy multiple beds for herbs surrounded by big stones.
Also I rescued three little cyprus pines she dug up, planting two in front yard and one in big terracotta pot.
Then made toasted sandwiches and went had sleep laydown on carpet in shed with Pepsi-dog, still with big roller door opened wide to see dark wind mist sky and swaying treetops as I dozed listening to Workingmans' Dead (Grateful Dead)
Now time to go check post box in town and maybe go down dogpark for a bit of Pepsi-social time.
Looking forward to woodfire tonight all cosy with music here in chair away from night winter wind...

*yes Marc, having a bit of a tinker with a favourite of yours... Will post something on SESSION soon (maybe)

2010-08-27T21:04:00.002+10:00

hallo mangs
went for a drive in the country today,
there is SNOW atop the mountains and the mountains are everywhere around.
Went to a lake and let Pepsi sniff at the fresh tree air, -lovely air and clear sky day breezes.
Ate jelly snakes
bought a big wooden box and a little table on wheels for the lounge,
cut wood
made fire
now listening to Nigel Kennedy's "Inner Thoughts" -Must get a copy sent to Rowan! -So lovely!
Pepsi now snoozing on couch,
Joee out blitzing everyone at Trivia somewhere out in the night,
Tony just called drunk, -sounded sad (often sounds like that.)
It's the weekend and everything is peaceful and bathed in warm light.
New studio coming together real nice, Bought some sound BIG panels the other day for $2 each.
-New band? Maybe. -New texts? Maybe. -Been writing music which is pretty good (show soon)
Reading plenty. Showers are great here, just wait and see!
Been messing with a theme that goes something like "The whole world is crazy, every single part of it and I can prove it!..." -More on that soon too! Joyful stuff!
Happy weekend all you beautiful people!

2010-08-15T20:54:00.002+10:00

hallo again all you mangs!
So what happened?
My arse went mad. I spent the last three days with a stomach bug and now everything is erased and all patterns are GONE! alas! BUT, re-inspired and feeling better and better, I have suddenly found the SOUND again. -For the record, I found it on Sonic Youths' "Bad Moon Rising" album this afternoon during a drive in the country!
This evening, instead of eating I transfigured my studio in a brand new way and made some new sounds! (unfortunately, I also dragged half my studio out of the shed and down into the house, so tomorrow -or maybe even tonight I'll have to drag it all back up there again, but sometimes I've gotta do things BACKWARDS to get my head around them. QED.
So haven't done any writing in the last few days 'cause it woulda' been all sickness and gloom. -Not good gloom, just uninspired unhelpfulness.
So I might be able to flow something new in the way of SOUNDS this week (most likely on the myspace/bluestarairlines) -so keep sweet and look forward to that one!
Now, I think it's time to catch up on a SLEW of Nigel Kennedy recordings I scored from the library this week (and refused to listen to when I was sick 'cause I didn't want that lovely music to be tainted by said "gloom" etc...
-so now, yes, back on track and upwards to the Krsna!

2010-08-08T22:22:00.003+10:00

-*-interlude:
mmm-m! you should see me these last three nights now, each evening after dinner, sitting in reclining chair, reading real deep and slow the original "road-scroll". really taking my time and going back over phrases, re-reading, spotting differences and changes from original pblshd work. -Really, it it really nice. What a wonderful treat! Like a remix, only, more like the demo tapes, or remixed demo tapes, remastered etc... -and with 100+ page introduction with inside-out text talk words! The boys are back in town and it's all real nice! and there I am with my nightly cup of tea and two cookies... Fire blazing away and I'm listening in headphones to St Matthew's Passion (Bach) This is 2010, so great getting older finally happy and SAFE. The whole world is pretty easy now...
Joee watches movies or reads crazy technical manuals and the dog mutters and snores with his head draped off the chair. It's like a photo that I wish I could send back through time to say, when I was twenty with a note saying "don't worry. Everything'll be FINE!" (Just like what Neal Cassady might've said) -all the TIME is well and truly sorting itself out and there is no time to waste 'cause of course there is no time anyway! -Or something...
.. Reconnected my facebook purely because there are people (Like Miki in Europe and Martin Atkins etc.), who know no other way of contacting me... -But I still say that it is an ugly buck-toothed monkey with a F.T.W. face tattoo with garlic breath and cataracts!
Of course, in the conclusion of my meticulous perusal of said Road-scroll, I'm looking forward to "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" -and beyond that is a void I intend to keep until I get a bit closer. Who knows what other great books are moving towards me.
Oh yeah, and there's a whole lot of Nigel Kennedy coming my way in the next week (as well as Johann Sebastian Bach's "Mass in B Minor") -so much lovely music!
The world is in good hands, -but I wish all this political campaigning would finish. Both of them (Prime-Minister candidates) are drab, miserable and snide. -More reason than ever before no not care...
Hare Krsna!

2010-08-07T12:23:00.003+10:00

oh gee! Today is cold! It's noon and it's fooking freezing!
So to combat this I have re-arranged my set up here in the lounge.
When sitting in my chair, as I am at this moment, I can reach all the most important books, my amp, turntable and records. There is also a shelf for my tea and cookies. I sit here in chair and face directly outward towards front window of lounge and can see green paddock where "Frenchy" the worlds' dumbest chicken hangs out with the black cow. Every day. Other chickens have nothing to do with her any more.
My fingers are numb it's so cold here!
I'm playing a double album of "BLAME" which Don burnt me a copy of about a decade ago called "Two Revolutions" I wonder Don if you still have those discs... (recently he went on a midnight Blame re-ordering binge)
Pepsi dog sleeping under knitted wooly nanna-blanket on couch over near window. apparently it is 5degrees here, but it feels as cold as zero. Could be a perfect day for some afternoon Doctor Who viewing, or perhaps a little car trip...
Great cold day of peaceful futures past!

2010-08-05T20:45:00.002+10:00

Hey there all you lover-lee little mangs.
Well, you know of course how it goes, and we're all of us just treading water or walking down the pretty lane of life or living or working or dying or breathing, in any case having a life and broadcasting it to everybody you know or meet or see. Everything is a race and the finishing line is a cliff and we run as fast as we can with reluctance in our hearts! Boy! Imagine working our whole lives with no end in sight steamtrain! Bam! Is that what it is all about? Geez! and all the heartache and the schooling and fights and all the dreaming and it turns into standing in lines (the very similar lines you tried to avoid in school become lines in a supermarket or a payline or on the freeway in Brisbane where the cars never end... And then you get to the front of the line and everyone is angry for being in such long lines, but why? Why so angry all of their lives because there is someone in front? If it weren't for the old lady with the walking frame or the red Corolla or whatever-whoever, it'd just be you against the entire world. Nowhere to go and nobody to share it with. Maybe it's just because we never ever let ourselves stop. Even when resting, we are either thinking hard about the next line we'll have to get into and how to get to the front and be a winner, or else we're escaping into television and dreaming and each time you return from a journey of the mind, you come back to the world as if you've been on some great holiday away from your life and so, you come back and living is awful? Gee. and this is why we're going out to vote for the lady or the man? They never even come to my house or say hello to me when I'm out walking, they don't even drive past waving...-Maybe they're just made of play dough or rubber. Maybe they're made out of old gum boots or tires or recycled plastic milk bottles or something, well it makes no difference anyway 'cause I can remember when milc came in glass with a foil cap and the past is always getting better isn't it? -Old things get better every day and we sit and think about old things 'cause the new things haven't been invented yet, and when they do get invented they are made of plastic and they're lighter and they never last as long and you buy then in packets of eight and there're never enough room and there's polystyrene everywhere and packing boxes and there's never enough room in the bin and the rubbish tip charges just went up and living seems impossible and you're in a line again and you can feel your heart pulse racing. So go find some space. Only space and fresh air and breathing can fix all this business of lines. Letting everything go and letting everybody race out in front of you and crush each other to be the first one to the finishing line or cash register and letting all the urgency go. It elevates. Make everything more simple and stop wanting everything. Wanting is just part of the escapist television dreaming anyhow and who needs to come back to this real world all sad from a hollow dream where there is nothing tangible? My high point is no dream, it's a couple of gardens my wife and I just built whilst the dog rolled around on the hay bales. My high elevation was the walk I went on today and the beautiful sky I saw and I have no idea what I'll do tomorrow, but I can't wait to find out and everything I have ever done has led me up to this point of grace whereby I can go out the back door of the house, walk out into the yard and say "what else can there be than this?" and a million bright stars shine like raindrops in the far off cold air of winter... Some times I wonder if I'll ever write again and then, without expecting it, I blurt out a whole bunch of words which makes my mind breaths smooth. Sometimes in life we can get lost doing what we are expected to do when instead we ought've just been loving and experiencing and moving like a dance rather than in a line towards the finish. Nothing is over and everything is tangible! Freedom or harmony tonight is a warm cup of tea, two chocolate biscuits and eight LP records that I picked up in a thrift store today for a dollar each... We've all of us in this world stopped doing what we're told and now we are having a party by ourselves with each other in this great generous life of simple every experience? Thank you all you King Ton followers you! In jungle terms, I suppose I can say that the monkey is alive and well in the listening voice crystal music of waterfall splash! That is to say that on this old radio all broadcasts, be they swung in on vines or rather be thrust into the canvas pocket on the side of an elephant being ridden by a native, is in good time (cause ALL TIME IS GOOD) getting to you fresh and still sealed up in a can ready to spring out and nourish your soul-gut-mind with this absolute as always vision of non-television-screen news report ju-ju-goodness exercise from heart to heart to arse and foot! Gum-booted and thong-ed up with or without socks, the future is coming. Stop all this running towards is and let's all of us hang out here at the picnic mat of the soul and just see what happens in a minute?

2010-08-03T22:22:00.002+10:00

hallo mangs,
as many or some or one or maybe nobody at all has noticed,
I have switched off my facebook account because it was "MAKING ME STUPID"!
Being isolated in beautiful Taz, and also being spectacularly reclusive and socially
nutso etc, facebook was becoming my only contact with people. Which is TERRIBLE!
Every interesting report I post was becoming plain trivia. Unfortunately all of facebook
is (as you all know) full of polonky-plonk trivia. It's an excuse to keep up with pointless
gossip whilst having lost CONTACT!
Nobody calls or writes me letters or anything 'cause they can just "like" things on facebook
instead. It is just no good!
So for now, I shall be posting reports here on my trusty KingTon blog (and new experimental texts
on my secret new blog too!)
Somewhere down the track I will most likely reconnect my facebook, for a do understand that it can be useful
in some instances, but mostly, it is an ass.
I miss all of the beautiful mangs,
and to prove it, I'm going to go and have another cup of tea and settle down to enjoy finally
reading my beautiful copy of Kerouacs' "original scroll" -Which I've been saving for almost 2
years now!
Oh and we built two great vegie patches! (more to come too!) I'll post some pics here later (maybe) or else
the lovely Joee will still be posting pics on her facethang!
mwa!

2010-07-27T17:58:00.003+10:00

oh boy mangs!
Crazy things afoot! Dog-Pepsi-x-ray seemingly all's fine,
Wondering daily about world left behind, -was it real?
Now here in front of fire listening to Puccini (tune came to my driving head this afternooon and I HAD to play it! Have cup of tea here too! -Soon to continue my Crime and Dostoyevskyian re-read here,
Joee sleeping after big day of movies and lunch (myself full of pop corn and corn chips! So much -TOO MUCH CORN!)
Nice morning of wandering and coffees (waiting for dog x-rays to show that dog is fine)
Tomorrow a day of slowness (as yesterday was a crazy day of mountainous and rolling green hill country driving out to Sheffield etc in search of om and also desk. -desk found $40 found in Sheffield junk shop run by a bunch of long haired bikey-stoners, also found the crazy old flip toaster I've been looking for for a long time now! -very pleased!)
Have been getting into lots of tea and reading and lovely classical music -and opera too! -Just as dreamed a year ago now (a year ago we were just finishing off our first Tasmanian holiday and had decided that we had to sell up and move here etc, lots of non-stop talk and babble about how great it'll be and we'll do this and that etc...) So a kind of anniversary in a way I guess... A whole year since the start!
What a BIG BIG year! The greatest ever!
The little band that was taking an interest in me are apparently a bunch of disorganized stoners (which is fine and rock n roll etc... I just think that I'm done with that sort of society. In fact in most sorts of society at the moment. Everything so peaceful and nice. Nicer that I ever expected I'd get for myself (except in idealistic literary retirement daydreams of the country -most likely the daydreams are country Victoria or Toowoomba... pshaw!)
Joee and dog just arrived back from bedroom sleepy-land and now have big instructions to me on how to and how not to light a wood fire in lounge. Well I have everything fine here anyhow! and now, I eyes closed rest meditate on nice day!
adios.

2010-07-18T22:26:00.002+10:00

Booze is just no good anymore.
the world has turned and things have changed.
The fact is, booze hasn't been good for quite a while.
Not that it has been all bad either,
But all the roads it can lead me down, I now think
I have travelled.
Time for something new.
This week I did a check to see if booze
is in fact better than I was beginning to suspect,
and it isn't. In fact it's nearly awful.
Me in the middle of the night here
getting now and for all, clear and straight.
At this point in my weariness here
I cannot even see the benefit of the "visitor clause"
which I was talking to people about (whereby I can
have drinks for social reasons etc...) no,
I feel that for MYSELF, I must do this new thing
and see what comes of it
because it is well and truly time for something new!

2010-07-17T21:30:00.002+10:00

oh boy! That's my shower. It's one of the MANY great things in my life.
POH Day went off without a hitch. I'll do it next year I think.
So now, here's me in the recliner chair,
with my dog under the footrest bit (not sure why he's under there)
Listening to some Strauss after a nice big adventure day.
First thing I did of course, was put my pants on my head.
then I cooked bacon and sausage with toast.
after that I got in the van with puppy and we went to always lovely Scottsdale. A place I love 'cause it makes me feel like I'm in the place where Withnail and I was filmed. Very English countryside with cows. Or Scotland. Then we went to Bridport where we wandered along the beach and rocks and saw people flying kites. It's real nice to get to the seaside every so often. I miss it sometimes after living on the coastline for so long!
So then we drove home and I made dinner and used the new chilli powder I bought the other day, and now I think I have had my insides burned out. I won't do that again!
Not far off bed now,
Tomorrow I think I'll stay home and enjoy my great life. It's what it's for!
Hope all you mangs are well tonight!!

2010-07-16T02:49:00.002+10:00

hello.
sometimes i wonder why i keep doing this blog, sometimes there seems to be no point in it at all, other times, like now it seems very obvious. It's the middle of the night and I'm awake 'cause I've got "words" crashing round my head. Poem-songs. that sort of thing. Before I went to bed tonight I got a txt msg from a local band which said they are sniffing around my skirts. -I don't know that anything'll come of it, in fact I've been saying (to Chad etc) that maybe I'm done with doing vox in rock bands, and I guess that's the way it goes.
Also the dog has been sick and is finally on the mend. Joee is away in Cairns for a wedding and the dog is sleeping on my bed and snoring too! -at least he seems happy now. -He's been pretty gloomy these past days!
Hopefully tomorrow I'll write some more stuff... -feels good. Real.

2010-07-12T21:01:00.004+10:00

hey!
here's this thing!
make sure you join up!
-if all goes well, I'll do it again next year and make a bigger deal of it. -Maybe to t-shirts/coffee cups etc...
Can't wait to see what happens!

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=136705036353920&ref=mf

2010-07-03T23:18:00.002+10:00

I'm not sure how this will look in here,
but here are the phrase splices I did tonight!

Fakington Wilde Michael Carter: First Michael has to steal the bottle, while Fakie tries to steal the sausage. At the well Michael has to push the statue. While the statue is spiting water, Fakie has to fill the bottle (with cat urine). Then Fakie has to scare off the frog with the bottle. (easy to do) Take the stone. With the stone Fakie must use the spunk-hose-mechanism. Let Michael pull down the mechanism, while Fakie goes up. (bwah! that's so sus!)
16 minutes ago · Comment · Like · See Wall-to-Wall

Fakington Wilde see what happens when I don't drink???
16 minutes ago · Like ·

Fakington Wilde ha ha! I can't believe how sus that is!
the magic of words!
about a minute ago · Like ·

SHOW 3 SIMILAR POSTS

Fakington Wilde An ant when in a relationship becomes completely obsessed with the flea and it would even go that far and pretend everything is fine and make up bullshit lies. Also friends are nothing to it and as soon as it thought of a way to make things better for itself by turning on it's true friends it will. It only cares for itself and it would even go so far that it'd give a flea naked pics for fake coins on a damn game?
39 minutes ago · · Comment · Like

Fakington Wilde Tony Nobbs: After Tony Nobbs defeated the Orange Ogre, he finally became realized. However, this was not a good thing. His Uncle's killer broke out of jail, and attacked Tony Nobbs. Tony Nobbs defeated him, but that made him more mad. He built a laboratory and became Firestorm. Controlling fire, like Link, Firestorm attacked Tony Nobbs. Tony Nobbs was overpowered, but not outsmarted...
45 minutes ago · Comment · Like · See Wall-to-Wall

Fakington Wilde As the man goes to retrieve Fakie's feed, two boys hiding beside the counter throw eggs at the budgie just behind Fakie and run. Thinking Fakie threw the eggs, the budgie makes his way over angrily, then interrogates him...

2010-06-27T21:08:00.002+10:00

relaxing is good.
All the first phase renovations are complete,
we're now having a nice time with winter in Launceston.
Lots of reading and classical music on the couches with the roaring woodfire.
Chad and Lisa came to visit and seemed to love it! (they have since taken off in a camper van to check out the rest of the state, but'll be back here in a week and a half to hang out some more before they go home to Bris.
Tomorrow Joees' sister and niece are coming here, and so you see, it is now a settled and happy house operating on every level (which is nice!) -The new kitchen looks pretty cool (new meaning 'painted and new floored')
Pepsi is getting bigger every day, and is surprisingly well behaved. Everyone we meet likes him.
I've been writing poems again and have started working on some new literary projects, hopefully there will be something very soon for you all to check out,
In the meantime, I hope you are having fun and enjoying everything!

2010-06-16T06:25:00.002+10:00

World Cup is giving me great reasons to get up at 5. (Admittedly, I often go back to bed after the game)
But 5am, hot cups of tea, glancing out the early morning window at the frost and the mist...
-Wrote new material in a style (MODE) that I have been thinking about for quite a while now,
That was kind of exciting.
Also recorded some new ambient soundscapes after a crazy studio lock in on Sunday.
-I did one track, but I forgot to save it and then the machine crashed, my fault. It's been the best part of a year (amazing!) since I used the studio, so there's some rust! Then in irritation, I put another soundscape together in half the time -but gee, I really NAILED that first one!
Also the power supply on my synth seems to have died -or the synth has! -hope not!
Moral of the story is: Things are happening! In the next couple of days I want to write a few more jams in the same mode (text) as well as recording some more atmospheres in the next week.
I may even consider a second book of poetry (written by me) if everything keeps moving along like this. (I'm even considering "POX 2" -it's a wait and see thing anyhow.
On other news, hopefully the dudes are coming to the house today to install our new log fire-heater. That will enhance my 5am WOrld Cup time and enhance ALL the time during cold winter in our great new house! (Pepsi may never move again!)
Joee is twisting may arm hard about painting the kitchen, It's possible that we will be doing that this week! -WAH! I think we're putting down a new lino-tile floor too. -BWAH!
Then visitors from Queensland are booked for stays! First, Chad & Lisa, Then Jane and Sammi, Then Bec, after that, there are lots of people looking to get down here!
Might go make some toast now.
Have a good day mangs!

2010-06-12T21:44:00.002+10:00

Hello.
all is quite COLD here in Launceston tonight!
it's 2 degrees here right now and 2 is not all that hot. It's almost CHicago cold...
-Just came in from watching Deathwish (the first one) in the cold shed with dinner wrapped up beside me waiting in a flanno and a towel... -and I wore gloves too! - last watched it in July 2009 when I was on HOLIDAY in Launceston (because I told a travel agent that I just wanted to read a book... -two books in fact, "the island of dr moreau" by HG Wells and "Bronson's Loose!" -a book about the Deathwish movies... -So it was appropriate to be watching it on my holiday then.
-Anyhow, since then I have sold my house, moved into a caravan, quit my job, moved out of the caravan and taken off on an adventure down the East coast and all over Tasmania and now, eleven months later, we are in our great house here watching the world cup and feeling very content in our heated lounge with a cowskin on the floor and a funny dog on the chair over there on a cold Launceston night the following winter... -etc...
So what is the plan?
I have a new Idea (and let's be fair mangs, I have had a lot of ideas in the last 6 months or so...) it's a good one! I have this new thing I want to do. We oughta know in a week or so how it is going... -I think most of you'll like it... Looks like poetry is back on the menu. ( i know that opinions differ about that dreary topic)
Greece appear to be playing terrible football from what I can see here right now...
I have been listening to Ravel currently and reading snippets from Baudelaire and Neruda...
-watch this space...(or maybe it'll just be another aero-bar... -hope not!)

2010-06-05T20:10:00.002+10:00

modes modes modes
phrases strung together
routines scrambled together to
constitute the substance of a story...
...the energy of phrase,
...image words for the mind-fingers...
very close.
new texts...
very close.
maybe tomorrow.
I'll ask a cup of coffee,
maybe I'll ask a couple of cups?
I can explain what is wrong in the world
with IMPRESSIONS!
It was like this before I rote XONNOX and also before I wrote King Ton
AND I came close a month or two ago with a bunch of scribble-notes whilst we were living in the Transit van...
...it's coming like a storm of vowels
to clean out your mind of bowels...
-and it isn't limericks,
-or at least not JUST limericks anyway,
I actually think limericks ARE part of it somehow...
AND other mediums! (maybe visual, definitely audio((maybe)))
I will try to present something in the next week...

2010-06-03T17:39:00.002+10:00

hmmm.
started fiddling with text today.
Just when you think it'll never happen, that's when something new comes. Mucking about with some word-modes. -Does that make sense? -does to me. It's like cooking with words. Crazycakes.
Anyhow, there you have it. That phrase engines' a-whirrin. -Let's see if something doesn't come out of the noonger-machine this time round eh? (as in: Last time I wrote a whole bunch of inspired notes and then, just stopped etc...)
As for moving to Tasmania, It is done. House all bought, stuff has arrived. Renovations are well close to concluded, almost ready for all those lovely guests who wanna slide on down here and check out the mellowness and great food, beer etc...
Having had the house finally settled etc, It's now very comforting to reflect that we own the house (as with the House of Mang, where the house owned me!) All times of the day here are beautiful, breakfast on the front deck watching the fog drift through the paddock, lunch time sitting in the back garden with cups of tea and night time in the lounge having dinner and looking at the lovely polished floors and cowskin rug, leather couches and shelves of books! All good!
We are at our destination, we call it home and we like it! (so shall you!)
Now I think I will go get a beer...

2010-05-30T22:32:00.002+10:00

Hello from the world of things!
Firstly, note to self: -Miles Davis albums "Water Babies" and "Quiet Nights" urgently require my attention. I never realized how you can hear most albums in their entirety for FREE on myspace! I am currently digging "Water Babies." Gee, I now get to hear nearly EVERY album I ever wanted to! Got my laptop hooked up to big wazzo monitors in the kitchen and away I go! Also worthy of a mention, "The David Orlowsky Trio" -great stuff! I first heard of them when I was living in the Tingalpa caravan. It was a Wednesday afternoon on SBS they had some feature on them. Never forgot! Now I can dig them whenever I like! (I feel a real dill for discovering myspace as such a resource this late in the game, but there you go!) -keeping in mind I have had my own myspace/music site for a few years now!-
So how is everything? -Pretty darn good! All the stuff arrived last Friday in the rain, I've got my studio (partially) re-set-up and things are coming together (I'm sitting on one of my red plastic stools from The House of Mang, now here in the kitchen typing this...)
Pepsi cut his foot last Wednesday, but he's nearly better now. Last night he got his head stuck in the sleeve of my stripy blue polar fleece dressing gown and hurled himself hither and tither like some enraged blue elephant mole creature. That was funny. Also he fell off his chair backwards tonight mid-dream-sleep! THUMP! onto the shiny clean floor! Funny.
Hopefully we're getting a wood fire heater put into the lounge in the next two weeks, just in time for the coming of all the mangs (whom are finally getting with the program and realizing that they MUST come dig all this peace and mellowness!)
Yep. Pretty much everything is GREAT. Gonna go now have a great shower. Tomorrow will be great too! Goodnight!

2010-05-28T06:33:00.002+10:00

AH NO!
ALL the stuff from Queensland which has been in storage is coming here at 8:30 this morning!
aaaah!
Haven't seen that stuff since it went into storage last August!
I've been looking forward to getting the stuff, now, here it comes!
At last, My studio and bag of tricks'll be here!
and all my toys!
Plus my great couches and a whole bunch of things inherited from my sweet old dad who sadly passed away last November (which has been in storage since then in Victoria) all this stuff is coming here TODAY!
Very scary!
Better have some coffee and eats!
Good luck us here!
I'll report back when it's all happened!

2010-05-25T21:18:00.003+10:00

alllright mangs, so here we are together in the lounge, along with Pepsi-Cola the mad puppy sleeping in the chair beside me.
Also. I'm playing "Down Memory Lane" Disc 4 (of 10 vinyl LP readers digest set from 1965) -the whole set bought for six bucks, time machine mind space ship heaven etc...
And Just watched The Stone Killer for what must be the 4th time. Classic Bronson, can't be beat! I wonder if it'll ever be remastered and released proper... AND Telefon etc... things to look forward to I guess...
It seems that more and more, I'm beginning to lean towards things considered as 'old things'. Just as well I've just bought new slippers then I suppose...
hmmm. these old tunes are truly time machines, I can't believe its' taken me THIS long to finally buy a proper Vinyl player (albeit playing through my little i-cube player which lives on top of the fridge usually -any day now, maybe tomorrow, all my stuff will arrive from brisbane... It's been in Storage since August last year! Soon will come my couches and my studio gear etc!)
As many of you mangs will know, I have been posting you (through the mail to lucky mangs) LPs. Well what has happened is I have come across a few I couldn't part with! Hence, I have had to buy a turntable and suddenly, having done that, all the tunes of yesteryear are at my beck and call at $2 a pop!
-The down side of which is that some people may not have got LPs because I kept them! -If you send a request that you would like and LP, I'll still find something special for you!
Everything else seems to be on track etc, I'll keep you posted with news as it comes to hand!

2010-05-14T21:51:00.003+10:00

Howdy mangs,
It's the beginning of another beautiful weekend (however, after more than three months of not working, it's difficult to tell when the weekends are -except that the Launceston market is open on Sundays and there's Doctor Who in the same night...) Tomorrow is house painting day. We'll do the ceiling and the walls in the hallway. This week we oiled/stained all the floors in the house and next week we'll paint all the other rooms before our stuff arrives (I think all the stuff arrives mid next week).
THEN we'll have the house and it'll be set up with the great couches and I'll be listening to Satie there in the lounge with hot cup of tea in the late morning looking out at the green farm hills. Contemplating I suppose what'll be next.
Haven't joined a new rock band yet, I've just gotta wait and see what happens and where the pieces fall. I was just mentioning to Leif that I may have a go at making soundtracks for student films (something I've considered and wanted to do for quite a few years now) ...And then, of course, there's WRITING! I am very behind (and in NO way am I finished with that little beastie!) in all the poetry and prose and ROUTINES etc-etc-etc -as mentioned a couple of months ago, there was a NOVEL of sorts, a BOOK no less, that I spent quite a bit of time tinkering with... (although I'm not known for re-working things I've put down) So we'll just have to see. I'm sure there'll be poetry. I think, give this whole new world scene life that I've got here now, I'd like to do some TALKINGS again (I think...) so much stuff to consider and wait and see for/how...
so yes, happy. Good.

2010-05-09T21:16:00.002+10:00

Hallo all you mangs in the land of Wang,
Today I bought a "melodica". That means crazy squeaky tooting music which makes Pepsi the dog howl (which is pretty funny) I'm very pleased! Also today, Pepsi jumped into a lake and has his first swim whilst trying to capture sticks.
Tasmania being really cool, breakfasts have been great, we've been breakfasting in the "garden" which has a picnic table with trellis covered in creepers and surrounded in all kinds of crazy plants beneath ice-cold-blue streaky clouds crossed with lines from airplanes and the sounds or roosters cows and chickens are the music which mingles with Gershwin which plays from the kitchen window...
This new week, we'll continue this excellent journey, It's gonna be fun and great!
WHEE!

2010-05-02T21:21:00.002+10:00

Living in a house like PEOPLE!
That's new!
Living in a cool house with a big yard and a funny little dog!
Just watched the new Doctor Who. Weird daleks! Matt Smith is doing good!
Tomorrow we organize all our Brisbane stuff to come down here and it'll take 2 weeks. In that time we can paint and clean-up etc... THEN I will be reacquainted with my Death Wish movies and my acoustic guitar and my harmonium and all my books! Also with my couches! haven't seen those things since August last year. 's gonna be nice to have all that cool stuff back again!
REPORT: So, what's it like in the house? -well, it's real nice. We don't feel like weirdo squatters or campers anymore, We can walk into the kitchen and make a cup of coffee, have a big hot bath any time we like. I can make a big 'ol breakfast with locally made spicy sausage and black pudding on toast with chill baked beans and a pot of earl grey and take it all onto the front porch, have all that breakfast sitting there looking out at the big green paddock and watch kids in jumpers and beanies scoot to school down the hill.
Because the kitchen is WAY down the other end of the house to the lounge, soon we're gonna get a nice new telly and then I can put the other one in the kitchen so that I can see the SBS news whilst I'm chopping things up and enjoying a Boags. We got a new upside-down fridge too! Also, all our food now lives in cupboards instead of big black boxes under the bed in the van!
The waterpressure in the shower is a bit homo, but we're hoping to put that right this week and get a plumber in to fix whatever needs a tweak.
TOnight during Doctor Who, we gave Pepsi a PIGS TROTTER to eat. He didn't bother us at all whilst he sat beside us whilst we ate our dinner, and was still munching on that foot when the show was over. Seems to be one of the greatest dog-controls we've ever seen!
Hope everything is going well in YOU-GUYS land, Yes Tash, nearly ready for guests now, Rowan, the fridge is stocked...
-more news soon,
love the mang!

2010-04-28T20:46:00.003+10:00

well mangs,
we didn't get didn't the house keys today, (Sorry Heath!) BUT, we are told that we'll have 'em at 10:30 tomorrow morning, so we're pretty coo with that, and um,
WE GOT A PUPPY!!!!
..Introducing "Pepsi-Cola"! he is very good, but he keeps going to sleep in my armchair! He is very happy and can't wait to meet you all! Hoo!

2010-04-26T13:17:00.003+10:00

Not long now mangs!
Tomorrow they're (the wangs who have them) supposed to give us the house keys and then we can start pulling up carpet and getting plumbers in etc to tailor-make the groovy house which I just KNOW you mangs are gonna LOVE!
Bought a set top box for the telly, gee, what great pictures and CHANNELS etc, also able to record DOCTOR WHO straight into usb or hard drive! very impressed!
Yesterday found the new official butchers for our house, They even make their own smallgoods, which means that mangs, we shall have GREAT locally made black pudding ON TAP (as it were)...
... I suppose we'll get some great new things like big fridge nice retro shower something etc this week (or soon!) I even told the owner of the pub behind our house that I'd do a few hours there if he catches me before I snag myself something better etc! (Joee is right though, 30 hours is too much work. I really only want to do 20 hours a week in order to realize this great new lifestyle!)
Anyhow, tonight we're gonna stay somewhere a bit flash to celebrate the coming of the new place, then tomorrow we oughta have it in our hands and then tomorrow night, celebration dinner at THE NORTHERN CLUB! It's been a few weeks since we went there... er, actually, we ended up there for a couple of Wizard Smiths the other night with Booganhagen and his wife, but apart from that, we haven't been there in a while, not proper been there, with dinner and stuff...
...so it's all good mangs! Next post oughta be celebrations!
SURE WERE!

2010-04-23T16:47:00.002+10:00

ping ping ping ping ping!
here! Just walked into town and back. In the rain. It was cold. Like rain should be!
When I got there, I paid my solicitor a visit, he told me that we move in on Tuesday (good lord willin' and the creek don't rise!) I'm pretty happy about that.
Next week is all about organizing all the stuff in storage (my beautiful couches and Deathwish DVDs included!) to come here! It means we buy a nice new fridge and a gas cooker etc...
it means that soon we can buy chickens to have pecking around the yard (and to hang out with our two roosters "Goldilocks" and "Dudley") and it means we get good reception on our $8 telly 'cause we'll be able to hook it up to the ariel on the roof (and also maybe buy a much better telly...)
We'll be able to dig in the garden (and also fence it off from the paddymelons).
So you see, it's ALL GOOD!
Tonight we're gonna go out to tea and we're meeting up with some Spanish dude called "Boogenhagen" and his wife "Astrid" that we met in our travels in the last couple of months. I think we're gonna go to the cheap great Italian joint (we'll take you all there before you know it!) and then, when everything goes well on Tuesday (house settlement etc...) we'll go have a celebration at The Northern Club! Yes. You are all invited to come along if you would like!
Also, I have made two more breads. I am slowly discovering EVERYTHING about bread. (it may take quite a long time!) -I intend soon to be making great bread in our new gas oven. -Another thing all you mangs have to look forward to when you pop down!
Also bought one of those little orange electric crock pot cookers from the 70's and have fooked up a curry and a casserole now.(they were still edible and kinda good though) So a little more learning there too, but I'm sticking with it! Wazzo stews and soups for the cold Taz winter!
Stuck a number "5" on our letter box yesterday and it fell off last night in the rain. Gonna have to get a better number "5".
Can't wait for this tea tonight, I'm STARVING! Better go distract myself! Not long now for EVERYTHING! HOO!

2010-04-17T14:00:00.004+10:00

So mangs,
It's been 'buying antique furniture time' again.
We've bought a whole bunch of 1950's/40's stuff. Launceston and surrounding towns is real good for old things! (this has however not helped me in search for a wooden recorder or any books written by Richard Brautagen!) The shed life continues to improve with the purchase of more and more 'luxury' items. Today I bought a red toaster and a great 1940's-ish cupboard. I almost also bought a cocktail cabinet a grandfather clock and a piano, but I pulled up and I figure that now I know where this new (new as in, 60 or more years old etc) crazy stuff is, I can go back any time for the piano etc... -Oh yeah, I almost bought a portable wind up 1930's gramophone player for about $150, so yeah, definitely gotta keep that groovy place in mind...
...also? uh. We've borrowed the keys off the estate mob to have a bit of an explore in the house (Less than 2 weeks now!) and It seems we're gonna get gas put on for hot water and snag a wazzo gas stove too. That's gonna make the kitchen a real swell (although needing some new paint and a different sink somewhere down the track) place to be! I'm gonna set up a little portable telly inside one of the high cupboards in there so that I don't miss Global Village when I'm prepping up tea etc!
Oh yeah. Did some plumbing too! I changed the taps and washers and shower head in the crazy shower (however, now looking at it, I think we'll get a different set up when we get the plumber to come set up the gas stuff in a week or so... -Ideally, something a little like this...) ...but we'll just have to see.
We're also gonna pull up all the carpets 'cause there's a lot of nice wood under there and then put down cow-skins and also, there's windowsills and mantles etc, all of which we suspect have been painted to hide some very nice wood beneath... Slowly, slowly. FIRSTLY we gotta get in and finally get reunited with all the stuff in storage which we haven't seen for seven or eight months etc! Today I bought a pair of thongs with a picture of Jack Nicholson on them from when he did that film "The Shining". -The other thongs I bought on that rainy afternoon in January when I went and Visited Rowan are pretty much completely ruined now. Gee I wish I could convince that Rowan mang to come down here and examine the cold weather and music too! I've been listening to Gershwin this last week and it's real nice. I've come across a couple of others too which I'll report about in the near future! Anyhow, soon I imagine, a whole slew of mangs'll be here taking advantage of our Taz situation and enjoying the majesty of one of the truly important things this world has ever known. That is "WIZARD SMITH" - a RED ale. Up there in my mind with Broonale and the old Murphy's red that Parsons and I used to enjoy back in 2001...
There's also a croquet club here. I'd consider involving myself, 'cept it only seems to have old people and I don't wish to spend my leisure time with conversations constricted by the scope of the elderly mind (as charming as it may be from a great distance). I also have my very own bowls in storage waiting to come down in the next 2 or 3 weeks, but again, I wonder if I am somewhat under the age (at least in a baqbblingly stupid regard) to be part of that too... (my bowls have little white Bambi's on them. I bought 'em for 15 bucks in a thrift shop somewhere about a year ago.)
Did I mention that I have approached a band in regard to doing the singer thing? Well, I haven't heard yet, but my hunt has certainly started. I'm sure it won't be too long before I get back into THAT grind again.
Also played Chris Connelly's 'Blonde Exodus" last night whilst sitting on the floor of the unfurnished lounge room, it was real nice. Oh, and did I mention we went the other day we went to my childhood town of Robinvale in Victoria for my uncle Ians' funeral? Gee. All these nice people that have died in the last few months. Starts to make the world look really narrow. All these people who have been like walls or powerpoles along your road street life are suddenly pulled up and the cold air swirls and builds as winter begins to creep closer with the coming of almost 40 years of living... Quite sobering it is.
Caught up with Kurt and the rest of the lovely McGinniskin family. And THAT was very warm and nice! All the kids are grown ups! It's always like that they say. No more funerals for now. I told everybody that. Let's just have a cool time and have some fun again for a while now. Soon, we'll be in the house and Joee'll get a goat and we'll finally be well on our way into this next phase.
Kicks...

2010-04-12T13:34:00.002+10:00

two more weeks until we live IN A HOUSE! A HOUSE! Now that will be exciting! Also, I just discovered that they have connected WATER to the house! This means that now, despite living in a shed, we no longer have to drive down to the local park and fill up our 20 liter containers and we also now have a flushing toilet! All of this has sent us into a bit of a panic.
Also, last night I made bread in my $18 bread maker! (admittedly I made it too big and bread popped out through the top, but it was nice bread) and this morning I toasted it and had bacon and poached eggs on the front patio overlooking the sheep and cows across the road. Fresh bread each day.
I was hanging washing out in the back yard (overlooking house and distant cowhills etc) and it occurred to me that this is the future. This is what is normal now. Living this simple life in this nice place. I like it. It occurred to me that this was to become "normal" and soon I may not appreciate it as "special" -but that's life really isn't it? You want something, then you get it and life goes on. I guess. Did I mention that roosters live in your yard most of the time? It's true. They're there for most of the day, go away at night and then turn back up to crow madly (and sort of weirdly) in the morning. We've started feeding them scraps etc to ensure that they keep staying.
I guess a month from now I should be able to post pics of us lounging on the couches INSIDE the house. That's gonna be pretty good. And then after that all you mangs are going to start visiting and we're gonna have to show you how good everything is (Northern Club, Monkeys, fresh air, mountains etc...) yup. that's about the sum of it alright. Right now tho, might go get some lunch. Hare-Harpo!

2010-04-08T11:44:00.003+10:00

yep.
shedlife is a good thing compared with vanlife alright!
Been DIGGING the big old GINSBERG book finally after years of wishing to SEE! (THANKS to super-nude-guy MIchael who posted it to me from his GROOVESHOP in Capalaba!) (big coffee table hardback of old black and white photos taken by Allen Ginsberg from the 50-80s) I first saw it on telly back in about '96ish(?)) sitting back in crazy $35 armchair watching the great crummy telly. High living! Today we'll buy a little bar fridge and in 20 days or less, we'll actually have a HOUSE! (Through the windows the house looks real nice inside!) Joee has been trimming the hedges and things back and I have been re-filling the toilet cistern with big buckets of water from the tap in the park down the road.
Nice to have real milk again instead of powdered stuff.
Set up a red card table and folding chair on front landing so that I can observe mornings with breakfast and cups of hot tea and evening sunsets with a Boags.
Today is cloudy and cool. Yesterday and last night there was rain. I'm considering responding to an ad in the paper for a job delivering junk mail in the next few days. Then, once we move into the house and all our stuff has arrived from across the world, I'll definitely feel as though I'm settling into whatever is next... (gotta find a band soon I suppose...)

2010-04-05T12:36:00.002+10:00

Whoo! erp, alright, here we go mangs...
...just got back home from a week in the forest (and I do mean HOME and I mean FOREST too!) you see, we have decided, that since we've got the keys to the shed (but not yet the house -settlement in 25 or less days from now etc...) we figured that we oughta just MOVE INTO THE SHED. (keeping in mind of course that the shed is about 7x12meters -which is PRETTY BIG) so we have. We spent a week of forest easter just wandering around looking at possums and birds, then bang! we have mobile reception 24-7, can check our mail every day and start to get finally into a groove with our new Taz lives and DIG our whole new nighbourhood (FINALLY after weeks and weeks and weeks of zipping to every other awesome place!) So there you have it! We're home and stoked (and of course itchin' to get into that big ol' house and get on with THE REAL LIVING etc...)
What else? erm, my new book hit a snag, which is a drag, but i've just been busy being all so transitory that it's gonna have to wait (i think) till i've got time to UNTANGLE it!
oh, AND we bought an old 1981 telly for $8 at a junk shop in some crazy town and it has really fuzzy reception, but it feels like luxury sitting there on folded camp chair watching the sbs news and Global Village etc!
IN the morning when we wake up in the wazzo shed, we hear the first light roosters crowing IN OUR YARD ('cause the roosters LIVE, IN OUR YARD -apparently they are from further over the hill there, but hearing firstly them, then the grunting moos from the cows across the road and the honking "MACK-MACK" of the ducks there... Makes me want of cooked bacony-breakfast with frst eggs and classical music playing (Bach Brandenburg Concertos or something like that...) and a teapot of earl grey -(Today went sat on front steps of house with metal camping cup of same earl grey tea and saw EVERYTHING.)
Doing washing a laundrymats until the washing machine arrives in a few weeks (I hope!) or at least until we get water connected (water meter/water pipe-piece thingo has gone from property, waiting for replacement one -any day they say...)
Only half way through Crime and Punishent, but well entrenched now, I'll do it Rowan, just you wait, I'll TELL you so!
And so yes,
I reckon we're gonna be ready to receive the Queensland mangs mid May or then anytime after so that you'ze can all come on down and DIG for yourselves (just as warm coat winter tumbles in!) this groovy thing we have going down here! -Joee is looking destined to get the GOAT she wanted after a conversation with our neighbor "Grub" revealed he was considering getting one to keep the weeds down behind the back fence! oh well!
OK. So let that do for now, but rest assured, now that we are HOME, I will update more often with reports etc, so keep an eye on this SPACE!
YOU SURE WERE!

2010-03-22T11:55:00.002+10:00

Now what has happened?
Mangs, we spent a couple of days in a big forest (Saddleback Mountains -near Fingal) with a little creek bubbling past, -and herdswarmthousands of crazy little interested bug-eyed wasps who were worse than flies (though only bit you if you stood on 'em as Joee discovered)
then went to this great campsite at the beach near St Helens (which is East coast Taz) the place had turquoise water and schools of fish below the cliff mountain rocks of hour long sittings! and crazy rabbit warren Hansel and Gretel woods weaving along the coast of the GREAT surf there... ( -rolling wave after wave of calmness as I sat watching and listening to Strauss.. -Strauss! whilst this crazy daylight never ends (until 8 or 9pm) and crazy giant hawk-headed seagulls! -Also blind-eyed wallabys who come up to the camp hoping for salada (instead, leaving with mere pumpkinskins)
Been traveling for more than 50 days now, living in van and the hunger to have a house (which I have actually had since I moved into the Tingalpa caravan last September) is getting pretty out there now, Let me tell ya, so the only thing to do is lose yourself in all this scenery and keep reminding myself that It's all real and the air is fresh and getting cooler each day/night etc...
All the parks we're staying in (well mostly) are free and the food we're eating is cheap food and we're all Charles Dickens/not starving but trying to live it simple and cheap. Nice for me to just dig cheapness (as you know, I usually just buy whatever I feel like) Yesterday lunch was some cold chicken with mustard on it in a park in Derby (another GREAT place that I'll have to show you all when you pop down!) Oh, and all the writing I've been doing? Turkish coffee. Not perfect and not great either, but It's working! -Gotta get a big sketch-book for a bit of clustering and arranging whilst we're swinging through Launceston today (on our way down for a couple of days of lakes) Oh and some more pencil-leds for my mechanical pencil! Oh boy! I've sure been scribbling!
Had beer last night. Gee, that was nice. Sure like beer. Have been enjoying a beer once a week or so -even less a couple of times. Old friend beer, (soon enjoyed on the porch of house, whilst listening to Strauss? All the hits! Debussy and the whole gang!
Apart from that, the forest we stayed in in Sheffield (which is a place I would like to buy my FINAL retirement home doorway to heaven!) -We plan to stay in that great place for the week over Easter, then it's the few weeks left count down until move-into-house-arooni and hot showers every night (currently cold showers or bucket washing with wet towel has been the answer)
been reading Crime and Punishment -on Rowans' that I MUST read Dostoevsky as soon as possible (have had a jab at "The Idiot" in the past but never gave it a full read, so doesn't count!) -It's going fine. Much better than the biography of Rasbutan I'd been reading up 'till then!
Ya, so anyhow, we better go do some supplies shopping and eat something and get out of here again for another week, NO idea from day to day what we'll be doing, but our plans are to swing back to Launceston once a week and check the post box etc (today there was exactlt nothing at all of any kind whatsoever in there) Looking forward to seeing what is next!

2010-03-16T12:59:00.002+10:00

Survived.
Survived? hmph! Spent the night up in a mountain by a lake listening to birds and laughing about how good we've got it more like! -Now we're back in Launceston for a day-night-day sorting out the mail and putting some stuff into our storage shed at the house (finally got a key for THAT at least!) and then we're whooshing off again to dig some more groovy old countryside etc... more book reading (and yes, more scribble writing and coffee!)
Nice to have internet without scrounging it pirate-style off other people in campsites and weirdo towns, but I'm low on battery, so I oughta dash off!
I trust everything is ok out there in 'normal land'.
everything is fine here :)

2010-03-14T14:53:00.002+10:00

bloody hell!
here we are, still living in the van in Tazland.
once again we've found some shonky internet so that I can bring you this scattered report -straight from the jungle!
Well, well, we today did this MENTAL drive down more or less (bit inlandish) the west coast of Taz, (last night we slept at a surf beach right at the top right tip...)
THEN (darng!) we did the BIG 3-4 hour dirt road drive down the horrible corrugated jaws of the planet!
as a consequence of this harrowing drive, the brakes of the van are a little 'tainted' -for want of a better word, and everything (inside and out of the van) got coated in a fine layer (and sometimes/some places, not so fine layer) of grey powder-dust, finer than talcum powder. Here now, we sit under a picnic shelter out of the hot Taz sun, quite shaken by the crazy drive. We cannot recommend this drive. Tonight we're staying in a place called 'Waratah' which has freak mobile phone zones, as well as weird phantom moving wi-fi hotspots it would seem. (before there was good connection here, now it is gone... etc...)
The guy who runs the pub was strange, and the girl from the kitchen was VERY strange... Tomorrow we're getting out of here! However, there is a lovely waterfall down a gorge right in the middle of town.
ALSO (as well as very importantly, I have in the last 24/48 hours discovered and begun what seems to be a great angle/substance for a long awaited NEW BOOK!) It is better than I hoped! Currently, I'm only saying that it is a book based on space aliens and the economy (however I think that is selling it short, 'cause there is A LOT I need to write it has suddenly occurred to me! -It's EXACTLY where my headspace is AT!) I've even got a whole new way of approaching this new one! So far it's proven to be a lot of fun, (those interested parties'll have to wait until we've settled in the new house before I even BEGIN to pull all these crazy scribble-notes together! -ROWAN! I'd love a big sensible discussion with you over a few juicy pints!)
SO, I guess, as we wait for the crazy house settlement 60-day-a-thon, at least I'm out there breathing all this good air and creating the good new texts etc... (soon I shall make turkish coffee and then sit under tree, thoughts-out/meat-flesh-body-zero...)
Tomorrow, Joee wants to go for a drive about Cradle Mountain. The reports are all very good, (I once more imagine great cold-air meditations! J-Man, you would love all this!
My hair now looks like the bed of an ostrich, and my beard looks like some mad Ginsberg/Harry Butler... I never envisioned this future for myself, It's seems nicely funny when I think about it.
-Oh boy, I can't wait to tell you mangs all more about my new writing!
-Did I mention I've been writing new songs too? And poems! (Although, I'm not quite happy with where I'm at with a lot of the poems yet, but at least it's HERE!)
-ok. so, if you can't reach me/us by phone at the moment, it's just 'cause of the mumbo-jumbo receptionarooni, we'll be back in Launceston some time next week to check mail/ sort out emails/blogs etc, and so all is good!
-Speak to you wangs soon!

2010-03-09T12:40:00.001+10:00

so here we go...
this all typed up from campsite table in Scottsdale in early march 2010

King Ton Exodus one.1
silent echo
thousand Tasmanian cricket
twilight mass.

one.2
slowly
brainthoughts
patterns reawaken.

one.3
too much the mosquitos
days' closing mouth
sings kookaburras.

one.4
safely in heaven
sometimes
just forgotten

one.5a
feels great
listening to Animals (Pink Floyd)
old dirt road into dairy meadows
here and there dotted up towards distant mountains
cows grazing in sunshine
upon green fields
Mountains everywhere like a dream of this place,
Crazy cyclones of flying bugs
twist by,
The only cars are the utes of farmers.
Me in 'Origin Energy' shirt scribbling in little book
-locals likely thinking I'm doing a survey
-and I an actually!
Hedges of blackberry grow along roadside
holding back fern and pine.
My point is: This world still EXISTS
(photograph of me 7 or 8 years old something...)
Tiny pink flowers in thatchy grass,
bales of hay all piled up in enormous plane hanger-sheds
cow food.
sheep food.

one.5b
Out of nowhere a dip in the road
shady trees camouflage half buried, disused
rail tracks curling off
towards hazy mountains
to the left
and over hills and pines to the right.
old railway crossing sign pushed over
forever into the weeds.
Over seeing this farmland of all TIME,
soft whipped clouds curl above
the old sheds of 1940
-or 1840.
Reminds me sitting here of that camping trip with The Don and Ross,
(1997?)
where freight trains thundered above our microscopic campsite
and then in the morning I followed those tracks, trumpet in hand
blowing notes over the morning winter fields
in search of the elusive train tunnel of eternal reverb (cut
through the side of some hill somewhere...)
and now I LIVE here
and the air is sweet eucalypt with pine cones
and my house is brick and not so far from here!

one.5c
from this place, I wonder what the rest of the world is doing.
With its' plasma screens and its' fast food plastic bag
fashion consciousness.
When here
a wooly jumper and some good boots
have meant the same thing for a hundred years.
Bumble bee wings blow gentle vibration
against my knee for a moment,
then up and away enormous apricot -it flies away!
40 year old crows drift high
searching and reporting
to old black bull
lying beside fence
having dreams of goring Hemmingway
for being so flippant with his creed.
It's isn't a nature thing, it's agricultural I think.
Land of timeless dreaming.
(15 years ago I was adamant that I would retire and continue writing from the country, and now, see? I begin to do THAT VERY THING!)
Woodsmoke from yard incinerator harkens back
to days of early primary school,
the smell of gum tree waste
used like incense upon a Sunday afternoon.
Of course I'm telling myself that I want to feel every inch and second
and smell of this rest of my life here
in this timeless choir of scenes

one.5d
Back on the highway
walking in ditches
in sun
and sniffing-touching...
-those birds aren't crows, -they're black cockatoos!
drifting like a blur through the afternoon breeze.
Towards town I walk
past big sun-worn "WELCOME" sign
the town skirt in delicate cow paddocks
-a patchwork with pine lace and air...

one.5e
Big yellow-green locust
lands on the cuff of my shirt sleeve,
all we do is examine each other in our
mutual habitat...

(hoo! and now, since, back in Launceston for a couple of days of hot showers and ample food before another great escape to more foeresty-countryside etc... Maybe a bit of coast time is on its' way...)

2010-03-05T09:32:00.003+10:00

Let me tell ya,
I just wanna say this:
erm, righto.
Today we're on the road again FINALLY after more than two weeks of house buying and negotiations and paper work and signatures and solicitors, finally, GETTING THE FOOK out of toon!
The last couple of days were a bit leary, 2 days ago, I got a cold. it was all sore throat and snot. I don't like that when it happens. (doesn't happen very much tho) and then dinner two nights ago, whilst eating SOUP, one of my teeth EXPLODED. It was then I realized that I would/should/could/oughta anyhow, got finally to the dentist (haven't been for a decade) so there I was, snotty with dentist fear! Yesterday, went to the dentist, he fixed the tooth in 30 minutes, then told me all's fine!.
I MEAN HARE-HARE KRSNA! and happy, went out last night to little pizza joint with a cheap bottle of red and had a good night and even better? today the cold is in recession. The world I remember now, is in good -great hands!
I'd really like to get some more Grateful Dead albums for todays road trip, but I think I may have left that one a bit late!
oh, and next week we've gotta be back in Launceston 'cause we've gotta see this play that's plastered all over the toon here! HERE IS A LINK FOR THE CURIOUS and there you are mangs! All the news, live from this zoo here!
Someone said that Qld has been getting the rain? Good for them! Good for the lawn!

2010-03-01T16:44:00.002+10:00

Hullo wangs,
Todays report is about THE FOOKING COLD.
Last night was the final night of summer, it was cold sleeping in the van with two doonahs on and a beanie!
The lady in the shop said next weekend is the last warm weekend (according to some weird local know-how) and admitted that "it's already started getting chilly!"
Today we bought sleeping bags for $5 each (thrift store) to shock-cord to the roof of the van as insulation!

The up side of this, is that breakfast this morning was instant coffee, steaming, and hot porridge with fresh blackberries mashed into it (picked off the side of the highway yesterday afternoon) so THAT was brilliant (as in fact was just laying there in the warm doonahs there in the van all snug like a baby duckling...)
However, there is no doubt that we are looking forward to our HOUSE HOUSE HOUSE! and was once more at the doorstep of or nice real estate man, discussing the crazy paperworks and THANGS which had to be done PROCEDURES etc that must be followed in order to make it all happen. Thus, we did our slow drive by the house again today and one day, we'll be in there!
Also today, if we already had the house and were living there etc, we woulda bought a funny lookin' mixed up dog with huge ears and a real short tail today! It was perfectly strange and could've given Azz's dog George a run for it's money in the weirdo dog stakes! -oh well!
The prose novel is poised and waiting for the coffee to kick it off. (also for all this paperwork bizzo and daily meetings in the real estate office AND the attatching sleeping bags to the insides of the van walls to finish so that I can have a good stab at it!)
tomorrow morning is golden syrup porridge I think, and everything else, we'll have to wait and see about!
SURE WERE!

2010-02-24T13:10:00.002+10:00

Tasmanian first head says:
just wrote a thing
it was rubbish.
it was words all scribbled up.
Sitting on Wednesday afternoon
working plans out
thinking about how to do things.
too much thinking doesn't work with me,
i'm better just surprising myself.
Surprising everybody.
We've been living in a cabin for the last week or so,
been able to see television.
It's all just been skiing highlights.
Tonight and for the next couple of weeks,
it's gonna be all back in the van again,
which in many ways I prefer.
The bed in the ban is more comfortable.
And we own it.
The cooker gets hot enough.
and there's bright stars up there
and the crazy rabbits scampering about everywhere!
Take my dad's walking stick and go for a walk
in the cold there.
Each step is a little closer to moving into the
lovely new house of peaceful space!
Yesterday we went to Hobart,
but really, too many people there hurry
and there are too many people full stop
and the buildings are titans and there's a lack
of parks and trees
and too many houses
like a falling dream crashing through
the roof of a farm house
or like waking up on a traffic island.
bottom line being,
Hobart isn't right for me.
In no time at all, it'll be winter and we'll
be able to watch it through the window of our warm lounge room.
from the couch,
or maybe I'll be sipping that Mexican hot chocolate that Brentley
and Sun put me onto back in '06 or whenever it was.
WOnder how long before I write a new song
and I wonder how long before I work out
where all the bands are waiting for me to come along.
Kerouac would just write,
I know that's what he'd do.
Maybe it's time to concentrate
all proper
on my limericks.
flex the swearing muscle
so that regardless,
I'm not just sitting here
THINKING about what i can do...
"a thousand ways to swear" might be a good name for a new book.
gee imagine if I had a new book!
Something soon.

Tasmanian second head replies:
There may also be a new prose novel might start blurting out.
I don't know, gee. I think if I start writing THAT, I'm gonna have to letterbox post
bits to the mangs or something.
-a new prosebook would require varying degrees of secret development etc.
Then I'd do readings and reborn be the monster again?
Babbling and pulling it all together again? in a new town?
maybe like that.
And a new prosebook'd be a great way to back board the new poems
and re-open the wordbrain and language creep etc...
I think you could be right! (me)
I think PROSE BOOK is the new project.
I think it really just might be what is next!
-Which of course is perfect, 'cause I didn't expect it,
just like I didn't expect most of the best things that happen!
Good for you! (me!) -Now don't slip up!
Start getting into it VERY SOON (ME!)
Have the coffees and then make it!
-I will.

2010-02-20T12:48:00.012+10:00

Hullo there again!
What follows is some updated photos of the potential new house for all you mangs to dig!
One day they tell us it'll rain here in TAZ, in the meantime, it's all just lovely blue skies and sunshine.
Firstly, Dig the breakfast garden and SEE the big rehearsal shed (which has a sectioned off room which will ve the "Visitors quarters providing privacy and kicks!)
HOUSE REPORT AROONI!
Now please dig the view of the back yard taken from back fence! Plenty of room for gardenarooni PLUS already established fruit trees!
HOUSE REPORT AROONI!
and here is your mang digging all the wild blackberries and Taz bushland there behind the block!
and dig these little sweeties too!
and then there is the back door alcoves...

And here is the scene of countryside beyond the other side of the road, taken from lounge room side-window, big paddocks of cows and hills beyond that, then mountains...
And there is Beardo the Weirdo just grooking there out the front, seeing all this housey glory!

...and then once more across the road...
ok? Will post more news asap, now we must go rest 'cause the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra is playing a starlit show in the park tonight, and we've gotta have a doze!

2010-02-18T20:44:00.004+10:00

Hoo!
so here's me now, a couple of days later, settling into the nice happy, slow way that id Launceston life.
We're living in a little cabin at the moment, but we now have our sights set on a HOUSE! (All you mangs can check it out at HERE! and get you kicks for sure about this crazy place. (The photos on the link are a bit silly, I will post some of our own soon!) It's on a block about 6 times as big as my old house, Has an enormous shed for rehearsals and mad projects in the TAZ winter (and shelter for an army of visitors etc...). Got a garage and fruit trees and wild blackberrys growing against the back fence (house backs onto bushland) and from the little porch for cups of tea and french toast, house overlooks rolling farmland across the road and there is a goat in the paddock out front) -also a bus stop right out front of our house (for all you public transporters).
There's also great shady trees out back for sitting under and reading Kerouac and H.G. Wells books etc, and a picnic area and it's all kind of like some scene in THE COUNTRY! And that's REALLY why I think I like it most of all! -5mins from town and then, looking out the giant lounge windows, you're in a Thomas Wolfe novel written in the 1940s!
THAT is the sort of reason this whole move to Taz land was all about!
ahem, so, anyway, above and beyond all of THAT unorganized ranting,
all has been groovy!
Wandering in parks and feeling cool air all day long and hot sun (but cool shade and cold nights!)
This weekend we'll go to Hobart and get all of THOSE kicks,
AND we have a post box now! So all you mangs can send us wazzo gifts!
(I know this is all written out of order, but try and remember that nothing has been normal for almost 3 weeks now, constantly changing locations and hours and hours of ROAD!)

Off the track even more, I'm sitting beside 4 young army soldiers babbling constantly about every little technical thing to do with their lives as soldiers (and quite innocently and sweetly I must assure you!) but talking and giggling constantly! Bit distracting! Ok. so I'll leave y'all with that! -As you can see, all is going nicely, I'll do another report when I've got more news!
More photos too! (couldn't have done this without the Luverly Joee, she has made/makes everything a PLEASURE!
Nothing but a good time! Hope you're all well!
wang.

2010-02-16T07:40:00.002+10:00

That's it. We are now all gone.
Just now got into Devonport .
So far, nothing but sleepy morning sun and The big red boat sitting there in the harbor on the other side of the road there.
Thus, I witness the end (or mostly thereof) the big move-o to the Taz-o.
Last night on the 10 hour ship of dipping, rocking seas, I slept and dreamt of riding a bike in Taz with my mang Chad. (Chad says he's coming down here to hang out in June)
Feels strange to be here, Gotta now find a place to hole up 'till we buy our own in the next month or two. I am faithful that everything will fall into place at this point.
I'm tired and can't wait to get on the highway and get to our new toon and start getting a base house (for the first time in SO MANY MONTHS!) sorted out (hopefully!) -maybe tonight a cheap motel to get us started>?
I'll do a better report later once I'm less boat-lagged!

2010-02-11T10:49:00.002+10:00

Well, having left Newcastle, we drove pretty much straight to Dubbo. On the wat I bought a snazzy grey nanna wig for $10 from a funny little antique store in some one pub town on the highway. The nanna wig has now replaced my chef hat (which I brought from an op shop in Coffs Harbour) thus, is driving hat#3. (The first was a hat I bought at bribie from an op shop whilst having breakfast and then going for a swim with Marc and Rowan just before we left Qld.)
Dubbo seems a groovy little town, everybody just does their thing, it's got weird QLD undertones (which I don't quite understand, as Newcastle DIDN'T.) all fine, all the same. Went to the zoo today and saw a bunch of crazy Dubbo creatures including some crazy miming monkeys-turned bellowing monkeys called "Something-Mangs." and meer-cats and a wazzo pack of blotchy wild dogs which squeaked like rubber ducks when it was feeding time.
The park where we are staying has a GIANT inflatable balloon cushion arrangement the size of a house which you jump on for pure joy. A giant house-sized boinger!
Tomorrow afternoon we're gonna drive off to Orange (a town I have always liked the name of) and see what kicks we get there.
All going according to plan, we'll then go to Wagga, and then the following night (Saturday) camp with Beautiful Kurt on his amazing bush block just outside Bendigo. you got that so far?
Ok. Then sunday morning swing through Melboune and sort out a little business, hopefully seeing us on the sunday night ferry to Taz!
All going well, Monday will be the new new new adventure! THEN gotta find a place to hole up until we snatch ourselves our sweet little house (allow 2 months for us to be living in THAT groovy joint) then all our cool stuff will be shipped down within 10 days and it's all KICKS from there!
Also, The little wooden recorder I've been looking for in all the cheap junk-shops all the way down the east coast is still eluding me. I saw some brand new in music shops in Newcastle, and we're talkin' $50-$100. ew-ee!
I'm reading a chapter or three of Tristessa every night before bed, all this Kerouac is setting my head just right it seems!
And also, I've been setting aside a little snatch of time each day for pure contemplation and meditation and have thusfar returned to the great state of "Thank goodness for every time I start to have sadness or concerns in my head about myself or the world or ANYTHING, because, when the sadness comes, it allows me to apply the THOUGHTS -or no thoughts? which cleanse my troubles. Forces me to meditate and refind the center etc (which cats, mostly just means that I realize once and once again that the world is in good hands and that everything -as of course deep down I know it is-IS FINE! Air and flesh and everything is equal and heaven is just another word for contentment...)! I know you know this of course!

2010-02-08T21:19:00.001+10:00

AAAAND, Just because you mangs are being so good and patient etc,
here is another wazzo film!
This is another grand day or two on the exodus road...

2010-02-08T20:22:00.003+10:00

Hey Mangs!
here is the first movie-wang for you all to dig regarding and pertaining to the first bit of our "getting out of grumpy old brisbane, ripping off down the coast to retire in the luxurious surroundings of majestic Tasmania etc" movie...
Stephen Speilberg did the directing and editing.

2010-02-07T07:13:00.002+10:00

In Newcastle.
First (hungry and uninformed) impression was: "Hmph. Not much of a town! What a drag!"
Second impression (still hungry but now a bit taken aback) was: "Hmph! Oh. There's a view up here... ew. Actually a VERY BIG place..."
Then we went off to find a hotel to spend a couple of days recovering from all the rigors of the crazy photobrain road adventure. This is I suppose how it'd feel to be in a busy touring band. Every morning waking up somewhere different, trying to remember everything and everywhere is impossible. 5 days in and already I struggle to remember the places that we've been. (One day, one day...)
ahem, ah. Yes. The hotels? All booked out.
-Right across Newcastle. Booked-out-arooni! Eventually after walking here and there for several weary hours, we finally drove at sunset into a little caravan park near the industrial heartland, only to find that we were just in time to secure one of the 3 remaining unpowered camping plots. -Which, happy days, came with free wi-fi (which doesn't constantly bomb like the ones in McDonalds)...
...And thus, wearily, after nice big bowls of camp pasta and some drinkies, went for a night walk out the back of the park, which is a surf beach.
A SURF BEACH WHICH WAS RIGHT OUT OF 'DUNE' AND 'APOCALYPSE NOW'
Orange glowing sci-fi lights of the factories on the hallucination shores and the multitudes of distant ships in the black soup of night. A big and curving rock wall walk for what must be the best part of a kilometer, straight out into the sea, from which, you feel like your are in some incredible film. (me then realizing that I hadn't felt like /seen such a think since looking from the balcony of the lake palace in Udipur (India) at night time across the water to the ten thousand year old smoldering city of beggars and industrious blanket sellers with their fires and lamps... etc) Really took me back there. Didn't expect anything THAT special from what until very recently was just an uninteresting city in the middle of nowhere.
ALso the people here all look you in the eye. When they look at you, they look INTO you because they want to KNOW about you. It isn't the usual superficial retort. There seems to be less social paranoia (than in Bris for example) No fear of strangers of fear of opinion. Seems to have a very comfortable self opinion. AT peace with itself. I saw punk kids kicking around in the streets. Just being themselves. -Not merely painted up for public display like untouchable ornaments like many punks in Bris (since the late 90s anyhow) Slapping each other around and hugging and joking. Also all comfortable is a somehow stranger shabbiness. Very real.
Thus, from "Nowhere" (Joee keeps telling me to stop telling the locals that their city is a nowhere city in the center of nowhere -despite the fact that they all solemnly nod their heads in agreement) this place has already now, given me kicks, PLUS! we've decided to stay here an extra 2 days (so that I can do some serious unwind book reading and music listening and meditations) and DIG all of this crazy joint! (hopefully this morning Joee'll finally find the comfortable hotel which eluded us last afternoon!)
Oh yeah, and all over this caravan park, in between the cabins and in the lanes?
yep. Little hopping bunnys!