The bits of stuff that fall in the cracks between Life, Music and outrageous fortune.		  
 
 
 
September
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Peter (with Jane) cheerfully head-butts the pic frame 		Greaggs back in town
29.9.07 - I shouldn't have been that surprised, 'cause it's an annual pilgrimage to the GF for the ACT Greaggs, but I was kind of surprised to find Jane on the other end of the phone on Thursday suggesting we should meet up for a meal on Friday night. I've become a bit of a hermit of late, so I thought I'd better whisk down to the Niagara Gallery and peruse the Rick Amor exhibition so I'd have something to talk about. And I did. I haven't been to look at art since Spectrum was in Canberra funnily enough - I'm not a regular gallery-goer at the best of times - and I was a little non-plussed by the experience. The paintings, (such as there were), were moody and, well, macho in a subdued way, and perhaps the subtle exaggeration of scale lent a sci-fi
feel to some of them that I wasn't expecting, but I the overall feeling I had was one of anti-climax. I purchased a brochure for Jane to have a look at in her capacity as Office Art Buyer anyway, and it did provide something to talk about, so I'm not complaining, but I obviously need more practice at the gallery thing.
In the event, we had a spiffing meal at the restaurant on the corner near the Greaggs' hotel, Scott told me of his train memorabilia purchases on eBay with considerable pride, and if we didn't solve all the world's problems on the night, we gave most of them a passing mention. The Greaggs will be safely back in the ACT by now - I'm already looking forward to being surprised again round about the time of the Boxing Day Test.
 

Real Guitars' Brenden Mason

One man's meat, another man's poisson..
26.9.07 - If I'd put my magnifiers on, I would've seen that the pic (left) of Real Guitars and Blackfeather's Brenden Mason was blurred, but you'll have to take what I took in this case. I popped in yesterday to see Bren and get his opinion on my lack of endurance with George (Martin). He suggested lighter strings (again), so I dropped in today with guitar in hand for him to have a look. In the event, I got the lighter gauge strings installed, and George got a major neck adjustment as well. Now it's as buttery as, so I should be able to make it through the night OK.
I'd been to Choclatté earlier and bumped into Trevor Leeden having a coffee with his daughter Aimée. They're off to Fiji tonight, (and as Aimée rejected me as her new elder brother, I guess I'm not going too), but Trevor mentioned that he'd been to the Steely Dan concert - and numbered it amongst the three worst concerts he's endured. Lots of reasons - passion and entertainment being just a couple - but it just goes to show, you really can't please everybody..
 

Self Portrait with a Postcard of Greco Roman Bust
* Reproduced here without permission		 The object continues to be elusive..
24.9.07 - On Saturday I picked up Chris and we popped down to Choclatté as is our predictable wont, and (I think) it was then that my reverie was interrupted by a rather fierce looking gentleman about my age who introduced himself as Rick somebody-beginning-with-A suggesting that he and I might have shared the same stage before he became a serious painter. He mentioned Stephen May - and bro' Dick - before melting away into the wilds of Camberwell. I checked with Dick and it seems he's one Rick Amor (pic) who is a Serious Painter indeed. If it transpires he frequents Choclatté I shall make a point of suggesting he could save on cheese and wine by employing me to sing at his next opening..
 

Ed Nimmervoll and Mike babble on endlessly at Babble		 Ed celebrates with too much caffeine
21.9.07 - Not too much caffeine for Ed, but for me! Two long machiattos had me sprinting when I usually amble, and positively supersonic when I actually needed to hurry. Ed hadn't realised it was his birthday when I proposed our occasional tryst for this morning - and being his sixtieth, quite an important one too - but, true to character, he didn't let it get out of proportion. In fact, he didn't even let it get into proportion, such is the self-effacing nature of the man. We had an animated discussion that fizzed along for over an hour, interrupted only by caffeine-induced peristalsis. (That's what coffee's good for). Ed went to see Steely Dan last night. Sigh! Ah well, at least I'm getting the T-shirt...
 
Synchronicity alive and well in Camberwell
20.9.07 - I nearly choked on my small dark chocolate (de rigueur now that my coffee consumption is strictly regulated) when I got to the back page of Choclatté's copy of today's Age. What a coincidence! Even more of a coincidence when you consider that I sent bro' Dick the pic (below) before I put it up on the ASR page, and he opined I should send it to none other than The Age Diary! I've pointed out this spooky state of affairs to the Diary's Lawrence Money, while taking the precaution of reminding him of who I am, or used to be. Afterall, I did mention him in my famous song..
I just got this response from LM himself: Spooky!! But thanks for the thought. Our readers are faster than a speeding bullet... I'll check out your website..
Cheers mate
LM
 

Still Chipping away at passing motorists' psyches		 A sign of the (other) times..
19.9.07 - I popped into Federation Lighting in Canterbury to visit my in-law type rels Kath and Geoff yesterday, and also to take a pic of a relatively ancient billboard just down the road, which seems to me to be the ultimate in poignancy. I expect there will be a number of voters at the upcoming election that may have never heard of the Democrats, much less of their late-lamented leader, crinkly Don Chipp. I met Don a couple of times, the last a few years ago after an aberrant appearance by the Pump and me at the Melbourne Club. He was struggling with his health even then, but made a honest attempt to appear interested and mentioned something about Berties and Sebastians possibly - I don't really remember. Anyway,
the weather has completely eradicated his features and partially eroded the sentiment, but that sentiment rings out still and reminds us of a time, not that long ago, when a crinkly man with rheumy eyes looked at his colleagues and thought, 'What a bunch of bastards'.
 

1) Nik defies me to disagree 2) Dick thinks he's trumped me 		Another week slips away..
17.9.07 - I had an e-mail from Nik at Audiophile last week, ordering a significant lump of our tantalising range of CDs, so I dropped in there on Thursday, or I think it was Thursday, to drop the order off. There's no such thing as just dropping an order off with Nik, (pic 1) so I followed him upstairs and we joined a couple of other blokes (and Marvin the Dog) and chewed the fat for half-an-hour or so over tea and bikkies. It transpired that Nik wanted to resume the Crudd & Pump playing-in-his-backyard-on-Cup-Day tradition that never quite got beyond the initial gig. This was a welcome development indeed, given our patchy
employment of late, and I left Audiophile quite, well, buoyed. (You should check out Audiophile's website for a neato display for the Part One CD).
By Saturday bro' Dick was showing signs of stir craziness up in Warrandyte on his own, so took the unusual step of arriving at my place and taking me for a slap-up lunch at Camberwell's Italy 1, from whence we retired to Choclatté for identical dark chocolates. I barely had time to pick up Chris and take him to Wattletree Park (where he glared at me for not having chocolate) before it was time to set off for Crudd & Pump's first gig at the Bell Tavern. Well, at least we were working, which made for a pleasant change..
 
MRI results
13.9.07 - I popped in to see my EN&T person on Wednesday morning to get the results of my MRI. I was handed an enormous envelope containing half-a-dozen sheets of film with maybe over a hundred views of various sections of my cranium. (detail left) Sherryl took one out and showed me that the lugholes (and that's what they actually look like) were free of nasty tumors, and I was given a provisional clean bill of health. I'm still prematurely deaf-ish with constant tinnitus, and that's all only going to get worse, but I'm free of terminal complications - in my head anyway. Thought you'd like to know..		  
 

Doug Brady gets as gay as with gloating Martin Pullan		 Gloating temporarily verboten at Edensound
7.9.07 - The third thing I was supposed to do on Wednesday was to pop down to Martin Pullan's Edensound mastering suite in Bank St South Melbourne, (where Metropolis Studios used to be), and master a children's song I've written for an innovative children's book project. I arrived a little ahead of time as it happened, but was startled to find Martin engrossed in a session from which it seemed there was no immediate escape. Indeed, Martin was wondering how he could've double-booked me - but he had - so we decided that the next day might do instead. And that's what transpired. Mind you, Martin had to be prodded to gloat, but gloat he did eventually, and everyone was happy..
 

1) Box Hill Hospital's stinky bit 2) Student Olly has a go on Matt Croke's Washburn 		Mike's world spins..
6.9.07 - It was a big day yesterday - well, potentially big anyway - but things didn't go quite to plan, as they tend not to. First up I was required down at the Ringwood Courts to be blessed in my designated role as Administrator for Chris' affairs by VCAT in a simpler but moving ceremony - minus the
ceremony. I'd prepared masses of evidence to prove that I was well-acquainted with the to-ing and fro-ing of his monies, but that wasn't even looked at in the event.
Next up was my date with the MRI machine at Box Hill Hospital, intended to allay fears that I might have a one-in-two hundred thousand chance tumor pressing somewhere important in my right ear that might account for my sudden loss of hearing - that is other than blasting the crap out of it mixing too loud and long with headphones on. I arrived in time to buy a cup of tea and a piece of fruitcake from the cafeteria, but the cafeteria was full so I had to go outside in the courtyard with the smelly smokers (pic 1) which took all the fun out of it.
I wandered down to the MRI section. The MRI procedure is free at Box Hill due to some strange shenanigans when Dr Wooldridge was the Federal Minister for Health and Aged Care back in the mid-nineties - I almost remember it. I was supplied with headphones with a Best Of Ella Fitzgerald CD (my choice) and rolled into the strangely familiar MRI machine - and for the next twenty five minutes or so I was subjected to noises that made me think I'd been inadvertently put into some sort of industrial pinball machine. Oddly enough I found it all rather relaxing and was quite drowsy when they rolled me out again.
I saw Matt Croke again over the weekend and he lent me one of his thirteen guitars (pic 2) so I could acclimatise to the shorter scale before our NZ odyssey. I gave my guitar student a try on it this week, which I think he enjoyed - hard to know with Gen Zedders.
 
 
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