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The bits
of stuff that fall in the cracks between Life, Music and outrageous
fortune. |
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| January |
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Close
this window to return to Mike Rudd & Bill Putt's Stop Press |
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Mike
bravely tries to keep smiling as his life unravels.. |
Another
one goes down at Choclatté
31.1.10 - When Chris and I called
in late after our Footscray adventure yesterday, Adam made a
point of asking me if I was going to be coming in today. I was
pretty confident I would be, 'cause there's hardly a day when
I'm not there, but Adam said I should make certain
to be there because it was Maddy's last day before she
moves on to a job at some St Kilda real estate joint.
So, I not only made sure that I turned up but that I brought
my camera. (pic) You can tell I'm not happy 'cause
my smile's a little wan - I'm going to miss little Maddy. She
says she'll be coming back from time to time, but I've been
around and I know how these things go.. Have a great life pretty
Maddy! |
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The good
doctor and Mike cop an earful of young Jess. |
Mike
and Wazzer go west..
30.1.10 - My old Art School mate, Dr Wazzer,
popped over last night and we ate Thai and talked the talk.
I mentioned that I had the weekend off and that I was interested
in checking out a Jess Cornelius gig, (my singing partner on
RocKwiz). The Wazz rang me this morning and said Jess' band
was performing at the Laneway Festival this arvo in Footscray
and we should check it out.
We got a park right behind the stage - and when we discovered
the tickets were $115.00 ea. that's where we listened to a good
part of Teeth & Tongue's set, (pic) only spoiled
by intermittent whiffs from the portaloos. It confirmed
my impression that she's a very thoughtful writer and passionate
performer. Or vice versa - but it's all good. |
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1)
Degraves St fairly bustles with lunchtime crowds 2) Dick and
Mick share a paella, drink a couple o' pinots and.. |
Dick
and Mick do lunch..
22.1.10
- But before I get onto that, the continuing saga of the re-striped
I'll Be Gone film clip. I rashly promised Asylum TV's
Peter Deske at Sunbury the other day, that I would furnish him
with the clip to include in the Asylum/Sunbury BackRoad Festival
promo, despite the nagging suspicion that I'd managed to lose
the last remaining disc that I'd had copied all those months/years
(?) ago. When I discovered that was indeed the case, I decided
to burn the file that I'd thoughtfully stored on my hard drive
onto a disc - but found that wasn't possible as the file was
too big and so I had to resort to cutting the file in half (!)
and burning two discs. Brenden Mason dropped over and
picked them up while I was doodling in the studio with Edwin
Mitchell, but then texted me that there was nothing at all on
one of the discs - at which point I rang Digital Pictures and
booked another copying session, but for six copies
this time. I picked them up this morning and delivered one to
Brenden at Real Guitars - and now I'm waiting for a call saying
that I've somehow managed to stuff it up again..
So, back to lunch with Dick. I arrived at Degraves St (pic
1) a few minutes early and had time to locate the spot
where I thought Lucifers used to be, (Spectrum's first ever
residency booked by the then schoolboy, Michael Gudinsky), before
finding a table at Lorca, a Spanish-style café
that Dick had been to before and thought that I'd enjoy. We
shared a fine paella and had a couple of pinots - then I did
something I haven't done for months - I ordered a coffee!!
Since I've banished Bonsoy from my daily regimen, (in theory)
the iodine has been abating in my system so I reckoned this
was a test with which my heart could cope - and anyway, it was
only a cappuccino for crap's sake!
Anyay, I survived and there were no palpitations etc. Hooray!
Mind you, I think I shall remain fairly circumspect about
future coffee consumption, but the good news is that I'm
back! |
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Remember
Hoadley's BOTS? |
A
tough assignment for an ocean going tug....
21.1.10 - The exotic Duane Zigliotto's obviously
been keen to see me and left a couple of messages on my phone(s)
to that effect, but we always seem to miss each other. I suggested
on one of my return messages last week that we get together
for lunch in Carlton this Wednesday (yesterday) and made that
my deadline for finishing the lyrics he'd commissioned, but
to my despair I'd still not come up with the barest outline
by the time I reached his office in Lygon St. (pic)
I was about fifteen minutes early and did manage to squeeze
out a couple of key lines to add to the wad of scribbled notes
I'd accumulated over the past couple of months, but I felt
that Duane would be quite entitled to sack me from the project,
given my lack of progress. On the contrary, Duane was very
understanding - and then gave me a CD with a couple more
tunes to have a go at! We had another chatty lunch - Duane
has accumulated enough interesting stories for a couple of
books - but as I waddled back to the van I was wondering just
what I'd got myself into.. |
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1)
Edwin Mitchell munches on a cut lunch 2) Ed Nimmervoll and I
chatted at Babble |
Life
goes on..
17.1.10 - Edwin Mitchell, (pic 1)
down from the Tweed Heads region, returned to my studio on Tuesday
and we collaborated on an instrumental in the studio. I explained
to him that I was grateful for the prompt to recommence exploring
the recording side of the equation - and I am. He's coming back
again this |
| Tuesday. On Thursday I met up with
Ed Nimmervoll (pic 2) continuing our tradition of occasional
chats over coffee in his case and tea in mine. The rumoured
death of former Spectrum drummer Ray Arnott was one subject
of discussion, but I have yet to substantiate the rumour. I
heard something about Ray's ill health a couple of weeks ago,
so it's quite possible, but Leo de Castro's happily remaining
extant despite repeated pronouncements of his sad demise illustrates
how careful one must be in these situations. |
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1) Chris
joins the Robbos in the Bay 2) Bill tells Chris about the work
he's done |
The
holidays so far
6.1.09 - The
McClatchys arrived home unexpectedly (for me anyway) last night,
thus bringing to an end my term of house (and doglet) sitting.
Chris and I have had fun and games at Heathmont, but the dogs
insistence on keeping 'their' family's hours (6.30am start)
was wearing a little thin and Chris and I thankfully slept our
full |
measure at my place last night.
On Monday we drove down to Blairgowrie and met up with the Robbos
(pic 1) at their beach shack. Robbo introduced me to
the seductive pleasures of Wii tennis, (I don't usually bother
with video games, but this was fun!), and then we strolled down
to the beach and waded out fifty metres from the shore in the
urine-temperatured water - and it was still only up to our knees.
Today we drove out to Strathewen and caught up with Bill in
his lair. (pic 2) Now that there's a lot less bush
and a lot more open land, Bill has been introduced to the suburban
pleasures of lawn mowing and he was anxious to get it finished
before Rosemary's return, so we had a bit of a rehearsal (!)
and a couple of cups of tea before heading back to the tranquility
of Camberwell, where I, inspired by Bill's example, mowed a
couple of lawns myself. |
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Happy
New Year everybody!
1)
Helen scoffs one of Diane's enormous prawns 2) Howard Freeman
lets it all hang out..
3) Tracey
and Julian put two and two together 4) The Girls in White, Chrissie
and Lena, study their handiwork |
5) Diane
puts up with Mike |
Mike
and Chris see in the New Year in Glen Iris (again*)
1.1.10 - It was at the Debonairs'
Christmas lunch that Diane Buettel (pic 5) extended
the invitation for Chris and me to come over to her place in
Glen Iris to see in the New Year, and with no gig in the offing
(thank goodness) we were only too happy to oblige. It was still
tropically humid when we arrived and Howard Freeman (pic
2) was already in the pool, but we were all looking forward
to the predicted cool change, which duly arrived half way throught
the night.
Diane made the mistake of opening a bottle of Moet & Chandon
in my presence and so I pestered her for the rest of the night
for nothing less to refill my thirsty flute. Chris was in a
fine mood and entertained anybody within earshot with his occasionally
pithy remarks, (a chip off the old block), and Lena Blomfield
(pic 4) succumbed to his telepathic manipulation and
catered to his every whim.
The Concert for Max DVD was followed by LRB and the
Andy Durant concert, which I'd not seen before. Everybody was
oohing and aahing at how young and |
hairy Glyn Mason looked, but it was
the young Brod Smith that caught me by surprise - I expect because
we've worked with him so recently.
I hadn't anticipated we'd still be there at midnight, but time
flies when you're shooting your mouth off and at ten minutes
to midnight we all gathered round the telly to see the Harbour
Bridge go up in flames.
At 12.30-ish Chris and I lurched brazenly into the cool, wet
night and back to the annoying doglets in Heathmont - thankfully
the plods had their hands full coping with the crowds in the
CBD and we weren't intercepted - it might've been touch and
go.. What the hey - 2010 rocks already!
*
The last Glen Iris NY's Eve was at Ross Ryan's place |
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