Friday, March 23, 2007

Insomnia is ticking me off.



Apologies to the Insearch crew, I'm off to do my bit for reconciliation.
Camping out with a whole bunch of Koori kids.
Footballs future greats and maybe a couple of good songwriters too.
It's a mens camp.
There will be secret mens business.
Should I tell them I'm not circumcised?
Better keep that to myself.
Do they read blogs?
Crikey this could be dangerous.
Have worked up a couple of songs with these guys.
Really nice tunes.
Will post them up when finished.
Did I mention that Kev Carmody's record is number three on the country music charts.
I mixed and engineered a track on that.
Did i also mention that the ABC are talking to me about another story?
Did I also mention that I am covered in tick bites?
I itch!
A couple of years ago i thought I had chicken pox , I had a week off work.
I thought I was contagious but i was just covered in these tiny poisonous little bastard ticks.
They come out when it's moist.
Note to self -get industrial strength aerogard and snake repellant on way to meet up this morning.
Note to self who wakes me up every morning at 3 oclock.
Please stop.

Friday, March 16, 2007

Gentleman charge your batteries


Was drafted on the radio the other day as an expert of blogging.
I guess some one has to pretend to be one.
I was fairly nervous coz it was scheduled right in the middle of a class i was teaching.
So conflict of interest.
The call comes at the agreed time.
I excuse myself and race out into the corridor
The topic was on political blogs.
Particularly this article from the Guardian on a Swedish minister who is getting some flack for his blogs which of course I hadn't read .Normally I read everything to do with blogging and podcasting of course but lately I have been so busy.
I didn't make any sense at first coz I was a bit nervous also I didn't immediately get the tone of the piece which was giggly sarcastic.
Any way just as I was starting to make sense my mobile started to make a noise like it was running out of charge.
So I race back into my class still pontificating and scramble around for a USB charge lead.
The class are looking at me a little strange.
I plug into a computer and sit down to relax a bit.
I'm actually making sense.
I tip a nod to Andrew Bartlett who is a democrat politician who keeps a reasonable blog.
I dis Peter Debnam ( The Budgie Smuggler) who gets someone else to write his and doesn't allow comments.
I'm making sense, my mouth is responding to the signals my brain is sending.
Suddenly the line goes dead.
I'd plugged into the wrong computer.
The one that died first thing on monday morning.
That sort of ruined my week twice
So that was the end of my brief stint as a radio talking head.
Thanks to all involved.

Friday, March 02, 2007

Connect to country


A mate of mine stayed over the other night.
We are working on a number of things chiefly a project with about 25 Koori kids from a local hostel.
They are recording songs and making a little film.
They are going into the Royal to see the sacred sites, whale carvings and shark people and to gather some bush tucker.
I am going along.
They are an incredible bunch full of energy although I know most of them are missing their family and some of them have had hard lives so far.
It is hard to imagine the lack of opportunities they have outback in some of the aboriginal communities.
I'm encouraging them all to be Prime ministers when they grow up especially the girls.
Predictably they like Rap, hip hop and RnB.
Whatever speaks to you I say.
Anyway next morning after a quick cup of tea I've got this mate out in the Bush regen project planting a rain forest tree beneath the foliage.
When you go to work this morning I say look at everyone in the city and I bet not one other person out of the whole city has planted a rain forest tree this morning.
This makes him feel very special.
I like getting people to plant stuff.
It's a very rooting thing.
Grounding even.
It seem to be different planting a tree on communal land than a rose bush in your front garden.
I guess with a bit of luck the tree will out live the planter and provide shade and beauty for an unknown number of future people.
I guess that could be a wishful metaphor for teaching.
Although weeding and fertilizing could also work!