Mum I'm on the Telly.

We have it all on Film

Hello World!!!!
Been so busy I have neglected all this blogging.
Nevermind.
I'm just another blogger now and dont have to do it for a living.
Just come back from Melbourne.
I traveled there to film the culmination of our documentary.
Mark is a dream subject an a wonderful human being.
He is also visually impaired and has AS.
Documentary making is full of ethical questions.
I was worried that Mark was going to die from the stress of going to Melbourne.
I am still worried that after all that excitement how will he ever come down to earth gently?
The trip was a huge success although we will remain tight lipped about actual events until after the program is aired.
Needless to say SBS is very interested in the film.
Now we have the enormous task of editing all the footage.
Will construct a trailer first up.
I feel that this will be a winner.
Ill keep you posted.

Blogschool is out forever

Yesterday I resigned from the staff at the city college where I was teaching the blogging and the podcastin' one day a week.
I really enjoyed teaching there and I think I inspired a few students in some small way.
The management was strangely non plussed by my announcement.
It is a strange institution, the bureaucrats seem to out number the teachers 3 to 1
I think they are even glad to see the back of me.
I don't think they actually even understood what i was doing.
Getting total neophytes to produce an hour and a half of radio magazine programs a semester was quite a feat esp on the antiquated equipment they had but I had to drop something in order to concentrate on more creative projects.
Teaching is really draining.
Sometimes it sucks the life out of you.
I was doing way too much and it was making me an real unhappy camper.
I've got a new film to make after all.
And I should finish that album that been kicking around.
Seeing our dear friend pass away recently has made me reevaluate some things.
Everything is temporary here on earth.
Every minute is precious.
You've got to choose what you put your energy into.
Talking of energy I dont think they quite realise what the price of oil will do to the international student trade.
Cheap flights will disappear in the next year.
So it's a good time to get out.
Probably the greatest achievement from this blogging thing was talking my dear brother into blogging.
He had the advantage of being himself where as I was always being careful not to go to far on this one.
Sometimes he returns the favour by knocking out a blog that is a great opener for the school of rock which is the other job I have.
I'll post here once a week or so don't tune out.
May you all find the courage to do what you will.

A word from the Don

Went to see Don Letts at the Manning bar on saturday.
He was the DJ who introduced reggae to the punk scene and vice versa.
Arguably their mightn't have been bands like the Police and latter day Clash if not for his influence.
He became a documentary maker and his Punk Attitude is a corker if you are interested in that sort of thing.
He was also in Big Audio Dynamite who I saw back in the day.
I bought his autobiography, he is one funny geezer.
He is a real inspiration, still fighting "The Man".
Well poking him in the ribs occasionally anyway.
He made this great doco on Parliament and Funkadelic which is one genre I'd kinda missed.
Now it all makes sense especially after watching The Mighty Boosh.
Old Greg has the Funk and milks it..... you have to see it I guess.
I went with a couple of students who were totally into this doco.
So I loaded my pod with Maggot Brain and will try and get the funk.
I know I have a funk deficiency.
Now where did I leave those funky silver boots?

Rainman goes to Rockwiz

I have some wonderful students this year.
One of them is a very interesting bloke who is visually impaired and also has Aspergers syndrome.
He has this amazing ability.
He can tell you the top 5 songs from any week from about 1970 to 1995.
He is really smart, positive and personable yet he has never really had a full time job.
The guy is 38 and has never had a real payday.
I believe this is a dreadful failure of our society.
Did I mention that although he has only 20 % vision he is a master of Illustrator and Photoshop?
He has applied for hundreds of jobs but no one will let him get a foot in the door.
Any way on a whim I sent an email to Rockwiz the SBS show. I think I used the words -The rain man of the Australian Music charts, and with in half an hour the main guy is on the phone saying he'd love to get him on the show.
Which poses me with the next problem.
Rockwiz is in Melbourne.
So we will have to raise a bit of money to send this guy down.
Everyone is excited about the prospect but it doesn't seem like anyone wants to front the cash to get him (and probably me) down there.
I'm thinking this might also be a cool little doco especially if he wins.
There isnt any prize but it would just be cool and maybe some one watching would give the guy a break.
Making a documentary is so much work and hassle.
I am still recovering from the last effort so I really want to be sure I want to commit to this.
What do you think?

The universe and you

I've been waiting for some good news and I guess this will do.
Watch this video for a greater understanding of the paradox of you and the universe.
You are both at the same time.
Cosmic isnt it?
I have a good friend in hospital who is dying.
So i am contemplating the big questions.
Like whether to love Mac or PC?
Ha!
I said to someone it's like these two guys have both stepped in shit, one cat shit the other dog shit, and they are both arguing over which smells worse.
Ever met someone attractive down the beach ,beautiful face and body lovely smile.
You talk to them and they are full of charm.
They light up a cigarette which normally you dont like but with them it seems natural like an old school hollywood actor.
Then they casually stub it out in the sand and flick it into the water.
The spell is broken, you see them for the shallow person they are.
Computers are like that too.
Computers are attractive but ultimately shallow and awful.
I understand this isn't what you want to hear from a self-proclaimed podcasting and blogging miester, but I'm dedicated to truth above all else.
So sorry to disappoint you.
The screen you are looking at is illusion.
The naked girl you desire is just a collection of pixels.
Your my space friends have never met you.
The money you made has disappeared in a swirl of binary.
Walk out in to the outside world.
Yes it is messy, full of trouble and suffering and in it you are no longer an avatar with super human powers but it's the one where you really live.

Getting Infected with Jack

Had one of those crazey nights recently.
A mate of mine put me on the door for this trance/bar mitzvah outfit Infected Mushroom.
This older guy came over and started chatting to us.
It was Jack Thompson one of Australia's great actors- you should see him as the bastard boss in The Assassination of Richard Nixon.
The guy is seventy and out at this gig.
he is really switched on and larger than life.
We shouted at each other for hours.
Infected Mushroom are good although most of it seems to be preprogramed.
It is quite like the stuff I was doing 15 years ago.
Actually the whole thing was a pale imitation of the sort of dance parties they used to have back then.
Which was probably an imitation of the great times they had back in the sixties.
And round and round it goes.
Also have the new Goldfrappe album on high rotation at the moment.
It's light and fluffy but it makes me feel good (and Alison is the bomb.)

Crazey Plant Lovers

Before
After




As you may have realised I am dedicated to changing the world in any small way I can.
My guide on the side at the moment is Bushcare Bob.
He is an interesting character, a botanist, ranger,shaman and teacher.
Extremely practical as well as quite fruity.
He is a quixotic optimist.
(Quixotic as in Don Quixoti chargin' windmills)
He will be a major character in my upcoming novel- the one I have yet to start.
Bob is a renegade gardener.
He will plant stuff anywhere he sees a space.
Bobs motto is it's easier to ask forgiveness than ask permission.
It's my motto too.
Recently we started an action at the local shops.
It's a sad little zone of empty dusty footpaths and cigarette butts.
The fair number of the shoppers seems down and out.
Little Aussie battlers.
Is the shopping centre like this because of the type of people who are there or are the people like this because it's so ugly?
Any way Saturday we took action.
We arrived with picks and shovels and a trailer load of plants.
At first I felt strange as though I was doing something wrong.
Pretty soon I relaxed.
Old ladies started praising our efforts.
Some people realised we weren't from the council, others just ignored us, other stopped to chat.
Will it survive the Saturday night drunken yobbos?
Or the clumsy feet of single mums and red faced plumbers?
I'm not sure.
So far so good.
You can see the before and after shots above.

Note the orchids in the tree.
Careful though renegade gardeners can strike anytime and any where!

New Curriculum

For me Xmas is like going to the dentist painful at the time but you soon get over it.
So I'm glad i didnt slag it off like I was going too.
Now it would just be churlish.
Tonight i'm off to see Can not buy my soul at the State Theatre.
It features the songs of one of Australia's great songwriters Kev Carmody.
The fact that he is aboriginal does have some bearing on his work.
I'm glad I got to go as I mixed and recorded on of the tracks on this record as well as working with Kev back in the day.
I have an embarrassing abundance of shows i'm off to including Byork and The Arcade Fire.
With out going to the Big day yob out.
Read Blind Faith Ben Eltons new book.
Mr Elton wrote Black adder one of the great British Comedies.
This book isnt that funny.
It's kind of put me off blogging and podcasting a bit.
It's set in a future world where privacy is forbidden.
Blogging and you tubing are compulsory.
London is nearly underwater and everyone is fat and seminaked.
It's a ridiculous nightmare dystopia.
And kind of close to the bone.
I might make it part of the curriculum.
Am taking the family to Tasmania next week.
I want to go there to see all the usual stuff- rainforests and wild rivers and also to check it out for a future escape plan.
I apologies to my students in advance.
This term has been a disaster as far as getting podcasts out on time.
Partly my fault , partly theirs, equipment dramas, overload, it hasn't been easy.
Hopefully I gave them something to think about in the maelstrom.
Note to self never teach two consecutive classes ever again.