The bits of stuff that fall in the cracks between Life, Music and outrageous fortune.		  
 
 
 
June
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1) Janet scans the song while Steve Scanlon scans the monitor 2) Tim and his Gretsch The Appointment 2
28.6.10 - Peter Velasco rang today to invite me down to Steve Scanlon's Elsternwick studio to catch up with the recording of the song I wrote the lyrics for, The Appointment. It was an hour or so before I realised that the arranger, Jordan Murray, was working solely from my demo and hadn't actually heard the original version,
so there's more of 'me' in the song than I originally thought.
The layering process can be disconcerting, even to one who works with the recording process all the time, and I sometimes suspect that some of the group energy and creativity a live performance produces can be be lost in the process, but Jordan seems to know what he's doing and the players are more than technically proficient - Tim's guitar lines sounded real fine. (pic 2) I'm going to try and be in the studio tomorrow when Janet puts down the vocal track..
 

ABC radio's Penny Terry		 Early morning blues
25.6.10 - Well, let's face it, I'd forgotten that I had an early morning call from Penny Terry (pic) on Northern Tasmania ABC radio at 7.20, so when the phone stared ringing, my first thought was that it must be my father, (which art in Rotorua), but what on earth was he ringing me for at 4 o'clock in the morning? The confusion was compounded by the phone in the bedroom remaining mute - I must've inadvertently disconnected it the last time I tripped over the cord - and by the time I got to the cordless version in the lounge, the show's producer was leaving me a message on the answering machine. Thank goodness, I've got enough time to have a piss, I thought, but of course the phone immediately started ringing again, and the producer was chirping in my ear making sure I was conscious and ready to take the call. Luckily I'll Be Gone was still playing and I had just enough time to evacuate my bladder before Penny's too-cheerful voice was interrogating me about how I felt after the tumultuous events in Canberra and how relevant the lyrics of
IBG were etc. I kept my responses brief in keeping with the galloping pace of yer typical morning radio show, so hopefully it didn't show that I was barely awake. I cheekily slipped in the name of the Tassie Devils Restaurant at the end of interview, so I hope that registers with the odd person that might've been listening on the way to work and we see them at the gig.
I went out last night to help celebrate Martyn Sullivan's 60th birthday, which may have contributed to my forgetfulness. I haven't seen his three sons, Tom, Ben and James, since they were just little fellers, so it was good to catch up with them. It was a very pleasant night altogether with Baz and Pam notable for, respectively, barbecuing the steaks and baking the spectacular Black Forest cake - with the birthday inscription appropriately in Welsh.
 

Janet's manager Peter Velasco (left) oversees the rehearsal of The Appointment 		The Appointment
22.6.10 - After my last harp lesson last night I drove over to The Lighting Lab rehearsal studios in Box Hill to sit in on a rehearsal with Janet Ross-Fahy and her band Absolute. (pic) They were rehearsing (amongst other things) an arrangement of The Appointment, the song you might remember I wrote the lyrics for some months ago. I didn't realise what a novelty it is to have someone other than
myself perform a song I've written until they started to play it, and I found myself grinning like the proverbial Cheshire Cat. The in-demand arranger, Jordan Murray, is responsible for the ten-piece Absolute's arrangements, and I'm confident The Appointment will sound terrific when they get around to recording it in the next few weeks. Another dimension to the otherwise predictable career path?
 


1) The Portello Rosso in Warburton Lane off Little Bourke St 2) Bro' Dick looks well pleased with himself
More birthday fun and some good news
17.6.10 - Not content with just the one day's birthday revelry, I accepted the invitation issued by young Dick and took the No. 70 tram into the city, having escaped the worst of a squall that raced through Camberwell with just a little dampness on the new Fletcher Jones' corduroys, and arrived at a lane that I might've passed dozens of times without noticing, but where, I was assured by bro' Dick, lurked a Spanish-style restaurant worthy of a celebratory lunch. The name of the restaurant was promising enough, Portello Rosso , which I imagine translates as 'red door', and indeed it does have a red door, so it lives up to the hype at the most basic level at least.
I was early, but chose to go in anyway as it was quite parky out, and of course, I was the first customer there. I idly looked through the menu, but I didn't really absorb anything because most of the crucial information was in Spanish - and then Dick and Mary arrived.
What ensued was a most pleasant repast, with Mary trying out her Spanish all over the place and thoroughly disagreeing with my assessment of the Robin Hood movie. It transpired it was the chef's birthday, (we'd told our waiter we were celebrating my birthday), and so we got a delightful chocolate dessert as a gift from him. How nice!
Dick is taking long service leave in a couple of weeks and they're planning to drop in to London to visit their daughter Elizabeth as well as visit Spain and France. I wish them bon voyage (or perhaps ¡buen viaje!).
I almost forgot. A week ago I returned to the Box Hill Hospital - and got a clean bill of health! They said my heart looked fine and that I could immediately go off all the medications. It's all working fine so far. Hooray!
 

Mike holds up his 'You Oughta Know By Now' pressie		 Mike turns 65 and announces retirement
15.6.10 - Well, I did turn 65 today, but of course I didn't announce my retirement, or even announce plans for my future retirement. It was just a journalistic device to suck you in, i.e a lie, a falsehood and a palpable untruth. I'm not above such things as long as they cause no harm to any living thing, including inert objects. Anyway, by way of a modest celebration I joined the Drs Sellers for lunch at the Latrobe University's Bundoora Campus, where I ordered the offal, (which was rather splendid, in fact), and Central Otago's best pinot noir, seen flooding to my cheeks in the accompanying photo. I'm holding the book given to me by the Sellers', extracts of which were read at unspecified intervals. In short, I can recommend 65th birthdays..
 

1) Annita checks the list of artists at the RMIT Gallery 2) A cry for help from an exhibit
 An Arty Wednesday
10.6.10 - Annita (pic 1) had suggested that she'd like to take in some local drawing exhibitions this week, so yesterday we braved the wintery conditions and popped down to Collingwood to see the Godwin Bradbeer show at the James Makin Gallery. I'm not familiar with Mr Bradbeer's work or reputation, but I was quite impressed with the collection on the whole. The squally weather had abated somewhat by the time we re-emerged and Annita was keen to press on, so we had a look at the Bruce Latimer show at Australian Galleries Works on Paper in Smith St, which was as playful as the Bradbeer show was sleekly indulgent.
We just had time to take our chances closer to the city, so we found a park near the city baths and visited the collection of Contemporary Australian Drawings at Spectrum's old stomping ground at RMIT's Storey Hall. Here was quite a diverse collection of artists, (including Bradbeer), most of whom Annita was familiar with, but all three shows were stimulating and worthy of discussion - and Annita's just the knowledgeable companion for such a discussion.
As we were leaving I advised the guy at the desk that one of the projector's was demanding attention (pic 2) and there was a satisfying flurry of concerned activity as we stepped out onto Swanston St and headed back to the van.
 

1) The un-hyperbole series of T-shirts - the first inspired by My Life As A Dog and 2) stating the bleeding obvious
 The Crudd / Pump Summit of Sorts at Rosewood
4.6.10 - After a three week gig hiatus Mike and Bill were wondering if they could remember anything, so Mike popped up to see Bill in his lair in Strathewen yesterday .for a Summit of Sorts. The idea was to initiate two or three 'new' (blues) tunes to perhaps debut at St Andrews on Sunday, and then for Mike put down a few harp licks on a song Bill and Byron have recorded. Bill made some mushroom soup for lunch (after a misunderstanding that saw Mike bring up some of his own vegie soup), and then guitars were extricated from their cases, the three songs rehearsed and harp licks laid down in Bill's resurrected studio temporarily located in the bedroom.
The property looks wonderful now, although Bill's fully occupied still disposing of dead trees. Georgina and Wes have bought a new property down the road so will be building and eventually moving out - and then the pre-fires status quo will (nearly) be restored. Good to see.
 
 
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