Mike's Pith & Wind - Next
After months of equivocating, I’ve come to a decision. I really didn’t know a decision was required until I made it, which was at least half the problem. It’s the ’new’ album that’s been causing my disquiet. I announced some time ago that I saw its release as ‘completing the circle’, and it would possibly be ‘the last album ever made’, and these statements had become like portents and themselves begun to weigh down on me.
So, I’ve decided we’re not releasing an album at all – well, not initially anyway. We (and I have run this past Bill) are going to release a series of EPs under the Breathing Space banner and make them available for purchase exclusively through the website - and then, and only then, consider assembling the best tracks, (as voted by you), into the one album.
Just getting the stuff out that we’ve had recorded over the years - and some of the tracks have been languishing for three or more years - has become a priority. Their continuing non-release has become a real impediment to moving on and creating some new music, for which I think, and you no doubt think, we’re way overdue.
Having said that, these imperatives to a large extent exist only in my own mind. The world won’t stop because Spectrum hasn’t released an album lately. The world won’t stop if and when we do finally release an album.
I have often said that I’m glad in a way read more

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Dick's Toolbox - Great Railway Journeys
Wednesday dawned warm, the wind brisk, the air fresh with the first touch of spring. Exotics, tulips and freesias flowered amongst the herbs and vegetables of the garden. The roses showed the first tentative flowers of the season. But then, as I have done 3,500 times over the past seventeen years I drove the 15 minutes to the Eltham station to catch a train into the city.
The quarter of an hour spent on these winding roads is generally unmemorable unless there is mist over the Yarra river leaving the hills floating as small islands floating in a sea of cloud, or a harvest moon blood red through the bush fires’ smoke. But these are rare cinematic moments..
True, I have seen the remnants of infrequent accidents the most spectacular of which occurred outside our house at 1 am when a circus tent of Chinese students read more