return to proven education values

From The Sydney Morning Herald:
"The Catholic Education Office is investigating claims a group of Wollongong primary school children were told to tape their mouths shut during a musical rehearsal.
The 11-year-olds, from St Francis Xavier's Catholic Primary School, were rehearsing for regional heats of the Wakakirri performing arts festival yesterday when their noisiness allegedly got out of hand, Wollongong Police Chief Inspector Mark Lavers said.
"Basically yesterday a number of children were inside a hall practising for a concert, they were making a lot of noise, [someone] at the school got upset about that, asked them to quieten down, they didn't. As a result he's cut up a number of strips of masking tape and said 'stick them on your mouth'," Chief Inspector Lavers said.

Meanwhile, Mr Whitby said, rehearsals would continue and Friday's performance would go ahead as planned."

As readers will be aware I have a network of schools all over Australia, and worldwide, named after me and administered by my various holding companies. I wish to ensure investors that the brand continues to go from strength to strength and should increase in value after we re-introduce washing children's mouths out with Solvol late next month.

a quick whip around the blogs

Possibly emboldened by getting hold of some family heirlooms on e-bay it looks like Gummo has returned to rantwittering. Grab his unique and wholesome fare before he nicks off again.

I was going to mention Andrew Ford's new series Music and Fashion on RN but Nic Gruen on Troppo has beaten me to it.

Don't forget Ford's Music Show on Saturday mornings and his recent book on Van Morrison, Speaking In Tongues which focuses on the artist and the music, not the gossip or the personality. The book even manages to open up this old Van tragic to some new angles and thoughts on the Van canon.

I'm looking forward to the next installment on Australian Plastic, a site by More Australian Ramblings that promises ".... to review and rate every Single or EP that made it to the top position on the Australian Charts since their inception in 1956. In addition, I will review any song that was the highest selling single in it's year of release if it didn't make it to number one on the weekly chart."

Currency Lad has written an enticing introduction to seminal guitarist Davy Graham who pioneered the DADGAD tuning.

Gary Sauer-Thompson over at Junk For Code continues his Grateful Dead series with a bit on authenticity and some pictures of their light show, amongst other things, and a bit on Pete Townsend's Lifehouse.

french kiss pattie smith

Horses: a post-Beat poet "dancing around to the simple rock & roll song."

US punk rock star Patti Smith has received one of France's top cultural honours in recognition of her influence on rock music.

Smith, 58, was presented with the Commander of the Order of the Arts and Letters by Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres.

Her appreciation of 19th Century French poet Arthur Rimbaud was also noted in the citation.

Smith said she accepted the award "from the most spiritual side of me". She was given the award at an Aids benefit concert in Paris on Sunday.

"I have vowed to live up to this honour in my work and my conduct," she said. "I can't explain what I feel like. It has uplifted me, and I will work very hard to earn it."

The French ministry of culture called her "one of the most influential artists in women's rock 'n' roll". Smith said she is planning a new album of covers from artists including Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead and Edith Piaf.

The singer was one of the most acclaimed performers on the New York rock scene, and was friends with artist Andy Warhol, beat poet Allen Ginsberg and author William Burroughs.

Smith's debut 1975 album, Horses, was seen as a seminal release and is still regarded by many as one of the most influential rock albums. Her 1978 Easter album included her biggest commercial hit, Because the Night, which she co-wrote with Bruce Springsteen.

From BBC NEWS

luther van dross dead

b. Luther Ronzoni Vandross, 20th April 1951, New York City, New York, U.S.A.
d. 1st July 2005, JFK Medical Centre, New Jersey, U.S.A.

Although this artist is considered by some soul purists to be too mainstream, Luther Vandross had one of the finest voices in soul music. Luther was born into a family with deep gospel roots and constructed his own group whilst still at school. He also worked with the musical theatre workshop 'Listen My Brother' and also performed at Harlem's Apollo Theatre. In the mid seventies, Luther was invited to join David Bowie's entourage for his 'Young American's' album project. The collaboration became so, mutually, successful when Bowie's U.S. tour was underway, Luther was the opening act.

Following on from this success he sang alongside Chaka Khan, Ringo Starr, Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer. This let to the Cotillion label taking the singer on and he recorded a debut album with a band he formed, simply called Luther.

The albums 'Luther' and 'This Close To You' are today considered highly by todays soul purists, with the latter reaching high prices.
Luther then reverted to session recording. He contributed to many recording sessions ranging from the likes of Quincy Jones, Patti Austin, Gwen Guthrie, Chic and Sister Sledge.There was the opportunity on the table for a deal with Quincy, however, that never transpired.Luther was reported to have been devastated. He continued, however, to subsidize his recordings, at the time, by producing music for various network television advertisements, including Coca Cola.

One of Luthers most successful session recordings came with the group Change on the 1980 album 'Glow Of Love' earning the band two UK Top 20 hits in 'The Glow Of Love' and 'Searchin'. Luther then began performing as a solo artist with Epic / CBS Records.
'Never Too Much' earned him an R & B number 1. The subsequent album reached number 20 in the U.S. R & B charts.
'Never Too Much' then made the the UK Top 20 at a lter date. His follow up releases included duets with Cheryl Lynn ('If This World Was Mine') and Dionne Warwick ('How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye'). Luther followed up with two further R & B number 1 hits with 'Stop To Love' (1986) and a duet with Gregory Hines, 'There's Nothing Better Than Love' (1987). He has won countless awards and his reputation as a producer has been enhanced by his work with Dionne Warwick and Aretha Franklin. If, at any time, you are looking around your local record store, keep an eye out for an album entitled 'See You In L.A.' by the group Mascara. The front cover depicts two models one of whom is the late Paula Yates. Luther's vocal talents are to be found on his cover of The Tymes track 'It's Cool'. An undiscovered gem. An album 'Luther Vandross' was released in 2001 after a label move to J Records. The set was the biggest selling of all of Luthers albums and was seen as a real return to form. Vandross lost 9 stones in weight prior to the albums release!

In 2003, he completed an album entitled 'Dance With My Father' for the same label when disaster struck and Luther had a stroke.
There were reports of him never singing and even of his death.

Luther developed pneumonia and underwent a trachioctomy, at the Weill Cornell Medical Center, New York, an operation which doctors reported would not affect his vocal chords.

Unfortunately, Luther Vandross died 1st July 2005 at the JFK Medical Centre, New Jersey, U.S.A. He was 54.

another nigerian scam uncovered

Next to Chairman Kaga, and perhaps Pauly from Fat Pizza, Benny Hinn is my favourite TV star.

Pastor Hinn in Nigerian money row BBC News/June 27, 2005 , By Sola Odunfa



In late April, scores of giant billboards and thousands of wall posters all over Lagos proclaimed the first of three days of divine miracles and healing for at least six million Nigerians - but at the end of the third day, there was more bickering over money than praise to God for mercy received.

The vehicle of the expected wonders of the Holy Spirit was American evangelist Benny Hinn, who flew into Nigeria in a Gulfstream private jet with a large retinue that included his bodyguards. He was received at Lagos airport in a motorcade of Hummer jeeps and other expensive cars. The deaf would hear, the blind would see, the lame would jump and walk, barren women would conceive, the jobless would gain employment, and the enemy - both seen and unseen - would be vanquished. Mention any problem - physical, spiritual, economic - Hinn had come with the instant solution.

But things did not go well.

About 300,000 people attended the event each night - a modest congregation by Nigerian crusade standards. It is estimated that about 1 million worshippers attend the monthly Holy Ghost Congress service organised by The Redeemed Christian Church God (RCCG) at the same venue. Whatever disappointment he felt on the first and second days of the miracle crusade, Hinn kept to himself - but he opened up with anger on the final day.

"Four million dollars down the drain," he shouted into the microphone from the huge rostrum.

He said that he had been assured by the local organising committee that at least six million people would attend the crusade - but the total turnout was only around one million. As a result, he realised that all the mega public address equipment he had flown in from the US was not needed. He also complained about some claimed expenditures, the charges imposed on pastors who attended his day-time seminar, and journalists who sought to cover the crusade. He then announced publicly that he would not provide any more funds, and that the local organisers should pay all outstanding bills from the collections they made on the first two days.

The Nigerian head of the local organising committee, Bishop Joseph Olanrewaju Obembe, accused other Nigerian Pentecostal preachers of sabotaging the crusade and pedalling false information to Hinn and his aides out of envy, and to discredit him. The Pentecostal faith in Nigeria is a veritable goldmine, judging by the opulence of most of its pastors. It is made even more attractive because incomes of churches are tax-exempt. Nearly all the churches are the private property of their pastors or founders and their immediate families.

doctor please, one whisky, one bourbon, one beer

POSTED ON THE CITY HALL MESSAGE BOARD, FRIDAY, MAY 28, 2004.
AGENDA
NORMANDY CITY COUNCIL MEETING
TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 2004, 7:30 P.M

The Mayor and City Council may also hold a Closed Meeting, with a closed vote and record, as authorized by Section 610.021 Revised Statutes of Missouri, relating to legal issues, real estate and/or personnel.

Bill #04-04: An Ordinance granting a Special Use Permit to Jayant Patel to operate a convenience store d/b/a S&D Quick Mart at 7201 Natural Bridge Road.

Review and recommendation on the application submitted for a package liquor license and Sunday liquor license submitted Jayant Patel for S&D Quick Mart at 7201 Natural Bridge Road.

With thanks to Amos Milburn and His Aladdin Chickenshackers The real title is 'One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer'. Here's a Real Audio of the song. Milburn was a wonderful marriage of Nat King Cole voice and Louis Jordan Jump R&B.

adorno, miles, grateful dead, sauer-thompson

Gary Sauer-Thompson over at junk for code has been doing a bit of good thinking, writing and linking to other sources of thinking, writing and linking about music.

Miles Davis and Grateful Dead.
Miles electric.
Miles and Adorno.
Adorno, rock music, language.
Adorno: aesthetics of rock music
Grateful Dead Winterland Album
Music Industry Digital ..more...
Rock criticism, The Band, Dylan, Basement Tapes
The Basement Tapes

the singer not the song

Along with Senator Bartlett and a fair smattering of other Australians I watched the Nick Cave doco on the ABC TV On The Southbank Show the other night. I had a few relatives over and one of them was reminiscing of the "good old days" at the Seaview Ballroom when it seemed to be a competition between Blixa, Nick, and the band vs the punters to see who could be the most wasted at the beginning of the night.

The program had enough live performances from different eras and Cave gave the camera a reasonable amount of warmth and was respectful in his acknowledgement of Johnny Cash and Nina Simone. It was worth seeing the whole program just for the show stopper, a performance by Dr Nina Simone, probably from the Berkeley Live session, in 1977.

It was a riveting performance with Nina thumping the piano into shape and delivering an engrossing song which took me a while to recognise. After a while the song registered. It's two songs. It was Ain't Got No / I Got Life. From the musical HAIR. Now apart from the Fifth Dimension doing Age of Aquarius /Let The Sunshine In, there is nothing to recommend the songs from Hair. In fact I don't think there is any acting, narrative, dancing, the book or anything else to recommend from Hair.

Dr Simone takes this bland tune with bland lyrics and manages to make it into a jazz influenced rhythm and blues gospel song of resistance, pride and independence. What an amazing feat.

It is also available as a live version on her Black Gold album recorded at Philarmonic Hall, New York City, October 26, 1969.

Mostly the song is more important than the singer. It is almost impossible not to see that September Song is a great song no matter who is singing it. The same with Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah . I often use the song to judge the singer, especially a singer I am not familiar with. For jazz it's often My Funny Valentine, for Cajun / Zydeco it's Jole Blon.

Nina Simone singing Aint Got No / I Got Life shows that sometimes the singer is much, much more important than the song.

Late Breaking News Update:
In a hard hitting op ed piece boynton defends HAIR, The Musical.

meme music look at me me me

I have been passed on the Music Meme. I don't much like these things. I see them closer to chain letters than memes but it was passed on to me by Flop Eared Lucinda Amanda and no man can refuse her. I don't think there's much interesting about my list but I do love peeping at others lists.

Total volume of music files on my computer.
This one surprised me. I don't have an iPod and am unlikely to ever get one. I don't listen to MP3s and I don't listen to music on (off?) my computer. When working I usually listen to talk radio, ABC local or Radio National if I listen to anything. I can't really listen to music and work. If I do listen to music in the office its on my unforgiving but accurate Yamaha NS10's, driven by my suitcase sized but much loved Luxman R-1040. I only tend to have music on my Hard Drive if I'm copying it or converting to Shorten or flac or back to ordinary audio files for burning to CD.
So I expected to have about zero. Imagine my astonishment to find I have 15GIGs - if you count the Dylan film "Eat the Document".

It's mostly stuff I haven't removed after burning or converting. I'm currently converting from flac the Merle Haggard 3 disc set "Tulare Dust Live" Fillmore Auditorium, SF 1995 - partly 2 discs of tributes to Merle from the likes of Tom Russell, Marshall Crenshaw, Billy Joe Shaver, with the last disc by Merle Haggard with the Strangers. I have listened to a bit of it on headphones to check, especially a few times "Sing Me Back Home"

I noticed I have also downloaded a bunch of film and video clips from Captain Beefheart, available legally here, which will stay on the HD. Also I have a failed download of Scott Walker Rare Tracks which doesn't play. The only MP3s I have are one of Van singing "Wild Side of Life" which I couldn't find anywhere else and a bunch of MP3s of my brother's son's songs, which I don't listen to ever much. My brother lives in Scotland and occasionally plays in a Pogues tribute band. I notice I also have an MP3 of that famous phone call between Jeff Kennett and Andrew Peacock in which they do a lot of naughty serious swearing about John Howard. I'll never scrub that.

The last CD I bought. [Two sets at the same time]
Lucinda Williams Live at the Fillmore 2 CD set $24.95 at JB

Madeleine Peyroux, Careless Love 1 CD. I got this because I thought the version of Careless Love swung like very few songs do. I only listened once or twice and gave it away as a birthday present. I think it's a good album but apparently going on local reviews and this report she isn't too confident live.

Song playing right now
ABC Radio News theme to be truthful right now. Or what ever crap talk radio throws up. I did listen to Merle Haggard doing Sing Me Back Home live earlier. I had to listen to Slipknot yesterday as part of a request to understand what my son's jazz / death / skate punk / Hendrix / Dylan/ jam band is about. My young niece played me some Beatles, Oasis, Jet the other day as a favour.

Five Songs I Listen to A lot
I tend to listen to whole albums. But I often just plop on the odd single track.

Those Three Days - Lucinda Williams - all versions
Just Out Of Reach of These Two Empty Arms - Solomon Burke - Country Soul
Shoppin' For Clothes - The Coasters - I love it especially for the King Curtis sax bits.
Mona Lisa - Aaron Neville and then switch to Nat King Cole's version
Elvis - bootleg and outtakes from the comeback TV show
Heartbreak Hotel - Mary Coughlan
Hey Joe and (She's a) Mixed Up Shook Up Girl - Willy De Ville LIVE

I dunno. Really - I play albums, Western Swing anything, Bob Wills, Milton Brown. I play Tom Waits, Van, Miles, Thelonious Monk, Nasrat Fateh Ali Khan, Sex Mob especially Diaspora Soul live, Bob, Neil, Frank Sinatra, lots of sung Requiem Masses, Opera, Gospel, Blind Boys, Sam Cooke, Zydeco , Cajun, Charlie Christian, Astrid Gilberto, Django and Stephane, Jonathan Richman, Johnny Cash - I dunno - anything etc etc etc . I often listen to Guy Clark "Old No 1" all the way through. It might be my favourite. As I've mentioned before I have 967 favourite albums at least. Same with James Talley's "Got No Bread, No Milk, No Money, But We Sure Got A Lot of Love."

[Last night I remembered I do in fact play single songs a bit.] A few more:

Somewhere Over The Rainbow / Wonderful World - Israel 'Iz' Kamakawiwo'ole. A seamless melding of two familiar songs into one. In this case the whole is much more than the sum of the parts. Brother Iz had one of the sweetest voices on the planet. You have to order in this stuff from Hawaii, but its fast and reliable.
September Song - by Sinatra, Lou Reed, almost anyone. Thanks Kurt Weill.
Pressure Drop - Toots & The Maytals. One of those songs to dance to, be uplifted, transported and understand the meaning of life. I'm sure it means something but a glance at the lyrics will only confuse you. Mysterious magic.
Oh and of course, Fairytale Of New York. But doesn't everyone.

Is that nearly 5?

I think I'm supposed to pass this on. I can't think who to. It occurred to me I'd like to see the whole Troppo Crew do a list each. I would really look foward to a long argument between Kath & Kel, Martha & George, Jen & Ken and how each others list annoys them. I also wonder about what Geoff Honnor listens to, Don Arthur, Nic Gruen and all the rest. They are a funny old bunch but lovable.

I sometimes wonder what Gummo might be listening to.

killer hairdo or hair today gone tomorrow

Music producer Phil Spector shown above in Superior Court Monday, May 23, 2005, in Los Angeles. A judge said he will allow four of 10 incidents of evidence in Spector's murder trial that prosecutors say illustrate the music producer's history of pulling guns on women. Spector is on trial for the Feb. 23, 2003, fatal shooting of B-movie actress Lana Clarkson.

In 1969 The Beach Boys' released their last album with Capitol records called 20/20
Not their worst – not their best.

It a was / is a pastiche containing a few covers.

It’s the covers that may make it famous.

If Phil Spector is convicted of murder it will be the first, and possibly only, album to have cover versions of songs written by 3 separate convicted murderers. Not only that, the songs were released on 7 inch singles at the time to help promote the album. [This might be a goldmine for trivia buff’s quiz questions]

The songs:
I Can Hear Music – written by Phil Spector – released as an A side single
Cottonfields - written by Leadbelly– released as an A side single
Never Learn Not To Love - written by Charles Manson – released as a b side of the single "Bluebirds Over The Mountain".

Important late breaking news:
The, increasingly remarkable, album 20/20 also has another claim to fame. Supposedly on the track 'All I Want to Do,' a female is recorded having sexual horticulture with the drummer in the studio. This 'sound effect' is layered onto the fade-out of the song's final mix, and is just about audible on the released version.
Snaffled from Snopes Urban Legends who gives it an Undetermined rating.

It sounds unbelievable to me. I mean, having sex with a drummer! uuurgh.

pontifficating

Continuing on the mystical musical theme I snaffled this bit from the Rock Snob site:

Begin extract from RockSnob:
His Holiness John Paul II was the closest a pontiff could come to being a Rock Snob: he met with Bono and Bob Dylan, attended a Rome benefit concert at which Lou Reed performed, and waved his arms encouragingly at some breakdancers who were spinnin' and poppin' on the floor of the Vatican. His successor, however, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger --who, as of today, goes by the vaguely hip-hoppish tag of Benedict XVI--is defiantly anti-rockist. In a small volume published in 2000 called The Spirit of the Liturgy, itself an expansion of an essay Ratzinger wrote in 1986, the future pope argued,

" 'Rock'... is the expression of elemental passions, and at rock festivals, it assumes a cultic character, a form of worship, in fact, in opposition to Christian worship. People are, so to speak, released from themselves by the experience of being part of a crowd and by the emotional shock of rhythm, noise, and special lighting effects. However, in the ecstasy of having all their defenses torn down, the participants sink, as it were, beneath the elemental force of the universe.

"Well, before we dismiss the new pope as an out-of-it fuddy-duddy, let's parse his words. He only seems to be talking about rock "festivals" with "special lighting effects," which, generally, are as dreadful as he says. And one of his pet peeves, the implementation of quasi-rock music into the liturgy at some churches, is indeed an abomination, as anyone who's ever sat through a Rockin' Mass with amplified guitars can attest. (Tony Hendra, the Benedictine monk turned gonzo humorist, and the guy who played Ian Faith in This Is Spinal Tap, wrote a brilliant essay on this subject for GQ some years back.)

Nevertheless, Pope Benedict's blanket condemnation of rock as a whole is tin-eared and unfair. We expect Bono to "open a dialogue" and rectify this situation ASAP.

Meanwhile, over here at Rock Snob HQ, the conclave we're puzzling over is the one at Roger Taylor's Surrey mansion at which it was determined that Paul Rodgers should fill Freddie Mercury's tights in the 2005 touring version of Queen.
End extract from Rock Snob

FXH says: "Amen to that bit about "rock masses" and that last paragraph about Rodgers and Queen"

hymns, love, nick cave, van, god

In the comments on the post below this one , about Van Morrison books, boynton, mentions that, along with many others, Martin Buzacott, co-author of the new book, Speaking In Tongues, dismisses Have I Told You Lately That I love You as "soppy" and not a great song.

I disagree and have always primarily seen it as a hymn. I mentioned that Nick Cave agreed with me and I finally found the quote. [This does however bring up another issue. That is how did Rod Stewart descend from being a rock interpreter par excellence to being the sad old schlock hack he is today. It's Stewart's version of HITYLTILY that cannot raise above terrestial lerve sop and colours listeners views of the song]


Extract from Salon:
Over the last few years, Cave has written a number of love songs in which it is ambiguous whether the figure being addressed is a woman, or God, where there appears to be a deliberate conflation of earthly and divine love. On "No More Shall We Part," the song "Love Letter," among the most memorable he has written, seems like a classic love song until near the end, when he sings:

Rain your kisses down upon me
Rain your kisses down in storms
And for all who'll come before me
In your slowly fading forms.

"Breathless," from "The Lyre of Orpheus," is ambiguous throughout:

The red-breasted robin beats his wings
His throat it trembles when his sings
For he is helpless before you
Still your hands, And still your heart
For still your face comes shining through
And all the morning glows anew
Still your mind, Still your soul
For still the fire of love is true
And I am breathless without you.

These songs remind me most of poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins and Emily Dickinson, in which religious ecstasy sometimes sounds decidedly romantic in nature. Cave agreed with me that there was a link to those poets, and pointed out that Van Morrison's "Have I Told You Lately" does something similar. He also told me that there's never any ambiguity in his mind about who is being addressed in his songs -- but declined to be any more specific than that.

End Salon extract.

I rest my case.

glossy geeks grok glossolalia

Three new books on Van.

Speaking In Tongues:The Songs Of Van Morrison by Andrew Ford and Martin Buzacott . An all Australian effort. Out now. In ABC bookshops. Here's an extract.

Johnny Rogan's Van Morrison: No Surrender will be on my buy list if it's half as good as Rogan's other writings on Neil Young and his earlier biography of Van. Actually it will be on my buy list whatever its quality.

As a Van tragic I will also be ordering Van Morrison Them and the Bang Era, 1945-1968 by Howard Dewitt

apollo bay music quick roundup

The Apollo Bay Music Festival will now be held on the 4th weekend in April, avoiding Easter holidays and being squashed too close to Port Fairy Folk Festival. Hopefully this will also slow down the migration of the folding chairs in shoulder bags, wholemeal knitted jumpers, full beard and "shushing" types who drift up the Great Ocean Road from Port Fairy. To that end I see there seems to be more emphasis on rock music for the younger persons. All we need now is more jazz and classic / avant-garde. The weather last weekend was balmy almost up in the mid 20Cs most days and only slightly cooler at night.

THE RED HOT POKER DOTS [pic above] are on my list to follow up at a decent venue. No ironic pretend country here but a barrel of full on country honky tonkin' rockin' with Johnny Cash twanging guitar as needed plus verve, swing and engaging stage flash. I can't work out why I hadn't heard or seen them before. Maybe its because they spend lots of time touring in USA. Anyway they are up at Katherine now and heading to Darwin and then QLD and NSW and back to USA. Catch them.

ASH GRUNWALD is highly recommended. One guy with his guitars and thumping beat box with modern high energy blues rooted in skills from deep soil. CLAYMORE (Scottish folk and pub rock?) I can take or leave most of their set but their final version of Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock And Roll) is one of the best I've heard - fully sick - bagpipes and all. DAVE HOGAN'S MELTDOWN was the best of too many blues combos. COSMIC PSYCHOS did a few gigs - I guess it would have helped to be a fan first time around. DAVID BRIDIE as himself and also with MY FRIEND THE CHOCOLATE CAKE played well attended satisfying sets but hampered, like almost everyone, by bad sound, of which more later. DIRTY LUCY, two young women to watch for musical growth and bigger things in the near future (country neo grunge?). DEBORAH CONWAY competent and professional.

MIA DYSON suffered from the bad sound mixes too but showed enough of her licks and Lucinda type approach to make me want to follow her up.

THE YEARLINGS in the small wooden Anglican Church were truly moving. [My pic below] Lo-Fi completely acoustic, no amps, no pickups, no mikes on vocals or instruments. Infused with John Fahey like yearnings, high mountain imprints and perhaps even some wild mercury (wink). Their bond as a couple charmed and disarmed.

Worth the money? Yes. But. And it's a big but. Why does a festival such as this put up with bad sound mixes / mixers. Why do bands and performers not check the sound from a punters' point of view. Many, if not most gigs at Apollo Bay, had a dreadful mix, muddy with over screaching top end, no middle and loose sloppy muddy bottom end of drums and bass. Are all sound men (and as far as I could see they were all men) deaf old drug soaked hippies? In one pub the sound guy wandered off into the second song of one band and the lead vocal mike dropped out completely - for the whole song! The foldback was apparently still working ok as no one in the band seemed to twig. What the hell is going on? Don't bands and performers these days have any friends who care about how they sound? After the second song the sound hippy wandered back with a plate of steak and chips in his hand and a bemused look, as if to say, " What are you whingeing about - its my show - I'm the sound dude".

Now I'm sure that the organisers will get a lot of complaints - but the complaints will be that "the music was too loud". Now this is what it sounds like to the average punter when the mix is stuffed like it was. But a good mix can be loud and not painful. A good mix doesn't need to be loud. No doubt the organisers will dismiss the "too loud" comments as from old farts who can't appreciate the focus on younger bands. Wrong. Good sound isn't too difficult - even in a tent.

where the dingoes & crows won't molest me

Following the Schaivo schemozzle myself and other family and friends have been working out how to make very clear our wishes in an Advanced Healthcare Directive (AHD). Whilst looking at the current state of play for NFR I came across this AHD by Michael Mackay, a senior doctor in an Australian Emergency Department.

"Should I have my cardiac arrest while going about my duties in the emergency department — immediate defibrillation please! And maybe a whiff of oxygen. (If I don’t survive, I will be quite surprised.)

Should I arrest in the hospital dining room, forgo the mouth- to-mouth (I am squeamish about these things). I may (grudgingly) accept some chest compression, until the defibrillator arrives. But if you have not got me back after three shocks — call off the circus. Go back and finish your lunch.

If I arrest in the street, you will do what you will. But I won’t be happy. I doubt you will be able to get a defibrillator to me quickly enough. If I arrest at home, I know it will be very difficult for you to do nothing. But it will be 15 minutes before the ambulance arrives. And to end up brain damaged on a ventilator is something I do not want. (But if you are clever enough to call the ambulance so that I arrest after it arrives, by all means use the defibrillator.) When I am in a bed in a hospital ward “old and grey and full of sleep”, do not use your hands to commit violence upon me — use them to comfort me."

The above was taken from a complete article on A Time To Die by Mackay in the eMJA .

Discussion on the Schiavo case, occasionally the broader Not For Resuscitation and (sometimes) related palliative care issues at Troppo, Mark Bahnisch's new blog Larvatus Prodeo plus Currency Lad and Saint.

Another eMJA article on the Victorian Supreme Court ruling on tube feeding.

A variety of Advanced Healthcare Directives (AHD) (Advance Directives, Living Wills) templates and information from the Voluntary Euthanasia Society of Victoria. Forms and information about an enduring power of attorney (medical treatment) from The Public Advocate Office Victoria

lean on me

Sometimes things fall apart. At the centre. Other times everything comes together.

Tonight at 2 am I flicked on RAGE ABC TV. First up was Bill Withers doing USE ME live. It reminded me how great this guy was.

Then at his peak he just retired. No drugs. No gambling. No marriage or money problems. He lives happily in the suburbs - not performing.

He's one part folk, one part R&B, one part blues, a lot of jazz and a whole lot of funk and soul. It's seamless. No one else seems to be able to do this combination so effortlessly. No one else even does it with effort.

One of the greatest live albums is Bill Withers LIVE at Carnegie Hall. [There are few lasting live albums. Bob Marley is one, Van's Too Late To Stop Now is another]

The Bill Withers USE ME clip was engrossing, encompassing all the elements of his style.

Next there was a clip of Chuck Berry live doing Johnny B Goode. His striped trousers reminded me of Hendrix. His duckwalk reminded me of Hendrix. His bit of free forming guitar solos slung low and between his legs reminded me of Jimi. I did think that whilst Chuck's backing band was clearly not important and much lesser than him Jimi's was integral.

The RAGE logo / theme clip with Iggy Pop always reminds me of how I like Iggy and then reminds me of Molly Meldrum. I like Molly too.

Then a clip of Johnny Cash singing HURT.

Then Radiohead doing CREEP. I understood them then. Great song. Only song I can remember where the word fuck worked.

Yesterday I walked into the local library vaguely looking for a Wiggles, or something, DVD to assist uncle type babysitting duties that night. Not much around that I recognised but I did grab the DVD of Rust Never Sleeps - Neil Young. Had a quick flick through for 30 minutes. Crazy Horse makes old Shakey work at his best. Teetering on the edge of chaos they propel forward each song forcing Neil to pour everything into the tune to hold it together in whatever shape he vaguely imagined it. Just like they did at the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne last year.

Sometimes I think Powderfinger is my favourite song. [I have about 900 favourite songs]. Every time I hear "Look Out Mamma There's White Boat comin' Down the Riv - arrgh…", I tense up in anticipation and then relax into the song thinking that perhaps it's the best opening salvo, lyrics & riff, of any song. I like Neil very loud and noisy. The DVD is highly recommended. There's a great version of Tonight's The Night at the end. And I can, if I choose, start with Welfare Mothers (make better lovers) and then run Powderfinger into Cinnamon Girl and Hey Hey My My or Hurricane or any combination I like.

Took me back to Greenwich Village NYC 1979 when I went to the premier of the Rust film. It was as exciting as any live concert. You could smoke and drink in USA cinemas then and there were joints and beers floating freely through the seats. Well my seats anyway. I still have those cardboard and paper "Rust -O-Vision" glasses handed out.

I'll probably still be listening to them all in 10 years time. Johnny Cash the most. More than likely Bill Withers is the best.

Late note. Food for Thought:
I've only just noticed that beginning with his article on Plunderphonics on March 8, Gary Sauer-Thompson has written 4 or 5 blog pieces on music, ranging from the piece on Plunderphonics through to Jacques Attali's Noise: The Political Economy of Music, and then a bit on Aesthetics & Rock Criticism.

cigarettes, whisky, catholics, words, funny

Dave Allen is dead.

A small note to those who can't remember or weren't there.

There was a time, when it was possible to have a successful, and popular, television show that consisted of not much more than an intelligent, articulate, neatly dressed person sitting on a stool, smoking a cigarette, whilst drinking a whisky, talking to you but not at you, and being funny.

Requiescat in pace you funny nine and a half fingered bastard.

macquarie fields riots and societies spongers

There has been much discussion and attempts to tease out the causes of the recent riots at Macquarie Fields in the southwestern suburbs of Sydney.

There are substantial threads and ideas, to stimulate even the most reluctant commentators, running at Troppo Armadillo and Catallaxy. Well worth reading and jumping in to comment.

We are all familiar with the idea that the bulk of the welfare burden, child abuse cases, single teenage mums and prison population in Tasmania can be traced back to just 30 families. Many solutions have been suggested from just giving each of these families a house of their own for life and a stipend of about $2,000 a week for life. All of which would be cheaper than the existing bill for the current Welfare Dependency. In addition a few hundred welfare public servant bludgers could be made redundant thus ensuring a sizable profit on the whole deal.

These sort of "problem families" do not exist only in Tasmania. Melbourne has its own problems.

I can reveal one family in particular, whose husband shot through owing money, and refused to pay child support, now they are bludging off welfare, there is terrible family violence involving knives, legal squabbles, grandfather who allegedly died in the arms of a woman other than his wife whilst still married, one of the children driving whilst drunk and attacking police in public, once or twice, and using dodgy accounting to keep getting the pension.

Let get rid of these types who set a bad example, don't respect our laws, attack police, clog our law courts and can't get a proper job.

loathing rolling stone

I first came across Hunter S Thompson in Rolling Stone. I guess in the late 60's. It wasn't all that easy to regularly find copies of Rolling Stone in those days. It was great to read his take on USA politics "live" as it were. Then in 1971 (or was it 72) he wrote some articles on Nixon's campaign also "live". He careered through the campaign like a rocket fuel powered 360 degree video camera and recording machine. It was surreal but somehow more real than anything else around. Many a time since then I have dreamed of having my own Samoan Attorney.

During the last Australian election campaign I would have liked to lend my Samoan attorney to Nabakov, put up a Paypal button to collect money for drugs and send Nabs on Latham's Bus, or perhaps an orange or yellow Datsun 180B with a cloth top, to write a daily blog about it. It's now one of my great regrets in life that I didn't do it.

I was going to have a rant about the current state of Rolling Stone. But I've lost all passion. I don't care. It seems Rolling Stone doesn't care either.

I went to their web site expecting to see the front page at least dedicated to Hunter S. Nothing. Not a bloody thing. Not even a link. This is what we have come to. UPDATE: It took them about 48 hours but finally there is a link up. Weak as.

UPDATE: I didn't think I'd ever say this but Professor Bunyip has written something on Hunter S I can largely agree with.

fear & loathing writer shoots through

The guy who started the whole blogger style, Hunter S. Thompson, 'Gonzo' Journalist Who Wrote 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,' Kills Himself
By CATHERINE TSAI Associated Press Writer [..full article here..]
DENVER Feb 21, 2005 — Hunter S. Thompson, the acerbic counterculture writer who popularized a new form of fictional journalism in books like "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," fatally shot himself Sunday night at his Aspen-area home, his son said. He was 67.

Besides the 1972 drug-hazed classic about Thompson's visit to Las Vegas, he also wrote "Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72." The central character in those wild, sprawling satires was "Dr. Thompson," a snarling, drug- and alcohol-crazed observer and participant.

Thompson is credited with pioneering New Journalism or, as he dubbed it, "gonzo journalism" in which the writer made himself an essential component of the story. Much of his earliest work appeared in Rolling Stone magazine.

"Fiction is based on reality unless you're a fairy-tale artist," Thompson told the AP in 2003. "You have to get your knowledge of life from somewhere. You have to know the material you're writing about before you alter it."

Thompson was a counterculture icon at the height of the Watergate era, and Richard Nixon once said he represented "that dark, venal, and incurably violent side of the American character."

His compound in Woody Creek, not far from Aspen, was almost as legendary as Thompson. He prized peacocks and weapons; in 2000, he accidentally shot and slightly wounded his assistant, Deborah Fuller, trying to chase a bear off his property.