The bits of stuff that fall in the cracks between Life, Music and outrageous fortune.         October   Close this window to return to Mike Rudd & Bill Putt's Stop Press   Nearly all the Burns' clan in my lounge (you know who you are..) A de facto house warming party 18.10.10 - Although I've been in my new digs since the end of July (!) I'm still nowhere near ready to invite people over for the traditional house warming party, but on Saturday night it was visited upon me anyway when the Burns' clan (pic) popped over for a congratulatory poke around. The get together was really in honour of Margaret and Syl being in town, and after saying hullo to a bemused Chris on Skype we all trekked down to a restaurant in Glen Waverley and had a lovely time, despite our orders taking over ninety minutes to arrive at our table!   1) John Cox, Kathleen Maltzahn and Anne O'Rourke 2) Quincy McLean and former Tote owner, Bruce Milne The Music Victoria launch 6.10.10 - I was modestly surprised to receive an invitation to the launch of Music Victoria, which describes itself as the 'peak body' representing Victorian musicians' interests. It was held at the Cherry Bar, (in ACDC Lane off Flinders Lane in the CBD), which I think might've been the venue for an APRA Xmas party one year, and which boasts the stickiest carpet I've ever encountered - and I've stuck to a few. I was pleased to bang into Anne O'Rourke (pic 1) almost immediately and coerced her into nabbing a seat I espied over her shoulder, for which we were both thankful after nearly the first hour had passed with effectively nothing happening. Patrick Donovan, (formerly chief music writer of the Sticky Carpet column in the Age's EG) opened the speeches in his capacity as CEO of the fledgling organisation, and Anne was cited a couple of times as one of a posse of 'academics' that provided the legal savvy that transformed the objectives of the various disparate organisations, alliances and individual musicians into concrete proposals, most of which, if not all, the government has acknowledged and promised to act upon. Speaking of the government, Patrick was followed by Peter Batchelor, the minister for Energy and Resources and the Arts, who essentially claimed credit for everything, who in turn was followed by the perennially husky-voiced Michael Gudinski, who spoke about something or other that I couldn't quite catch. Then someone who looked like a junior version of Deborah Conway said something else for quite some time, but nobody heard a thing she said beyond the first row. The boisterous conversations of the smokers outside in the lane were becoming intrusive when the speeches apparently ended. The piped music came on abruptly and at such a volume that Anne and I scuttled for the exit - into the cold and rain accompanied by the occasional flash of llightning. I thought to myself that the appearance of an actual launch might've been quite appropriate at this point..   1) Chris Kay makes himself comfortable 2) A No Thinking T-shirt appears in the desert Another visitor or two.. 1.10.10 - We were recording Robbo's drum part onto the Max track* last night when Chris Kay (pic 1) rang to say he was going to be in the area today. Duly round midday I ushered him in and gave him a guided tour of the new digs before we settled down for a chat over a cuppa. Last time I saw him he gently chided me for not publishing his entrants in the No Thinking T-shirt round the world contest and the fact is that I'd not even opened his pic files in the first place and had to go searching my old e-mails (Feb. 2008) for the desert shot seen here. (pic 2) Chris wrote then: I'm back from far flung travels and in need of a new NT T-shirt. I swapped the last one for an original mud cloth design from my new friend Ibrahim. The music festival was great except for the pissed Austrian accordian player. The Dept. of Foreign Affairs issue warnings about not travelling to Timbuktu and Essakane because of the risk of kidnapping and robberies by Tuareg bandits and terrorist activities from the local Al-Qaeda (Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat) an interesting combination, but they don't warn you about the nastiest thing to be encounted there - the obnoxious American tourist. Some things never change apparently. Later on in the afternoon I had a visit from Anne O'Rourke, who updated me on the SLAM versus the government - and it appears the previously intractable licensing situation at the Railway Hotel maybe close to a positive resolution. Call me a cynic, and not to forget all the hard work and lobbying that Anne and her team have been conducting on the musicians' behalf, but the imminent State elections might have had something to do with that.. *There'll be more about the Max track soon       back to the top