death and taxes but not in that order

...unfortunately because after a day spent trying to get my taxes in order I really start to feel that there is an upside to feeling nothing and knowing nothing ever again. I h-a-t-e doing my taxes, I know, so unusual but going over the previous year is so sad and pathetic and you are trying to piece together the things you did and why, and you're like... well I'm like... did I get reimbursed for that? Should I have? (remember I am not someone who ever really goes on holiday - or if I am on holiday - I can't stop working, so you see there is a downside to being a person who enjoys their job, you're always finding ways to make your spare time more like your job, it's gruesome). So I don't seek reimbursement for things I shouldn't, and in fact I think more commonly I pay for things out of my own pocket that I could probably be reimbursed for... 

Anyway, with luck it's all done and I don't have to worry about it for another year. I am pleased btw that these days you have a record of everything, basically, that you did so it's just syncing up the accounts and stuff, and that works fairly well. It also means you have irrefutable proof you spent what you say you did rather than those dockets that slowly fade (or quickly if they're out in the open). And you're kind of holding them up to the light and squinting and trying to tell if they're from 2019 or 2009, and whether they're for $238.99 or... you know, $000.09. 

Just a couple more things to say: I am so lucky and so glad I went to Europe last September/October when I did, for obvious reasons. Another thing: I can't seem to type properly right now. Also: I didn't leave the house once today or did I perhaps bring the bins in but that's all. 

That's basically my story of today although here is a picture of huge Helmi and tiny Nancy, and

Here's a picture of Helmi being philosophical, and

Here's a picture of Nancy licking her tail, which apparently is very enjoyable, yes yes I know the joke

'go ahead, she's your cat', it's not funny. 

supremes monday

So as of Saturday (when it came in the mail, a little package from Germany if you know what I mean) in-between my copy of Super Sounds of Happening '71 and the Sweet Whirl album on the shelf generally exists* a really grody copy of The Supremes Produced and Arranged by Jimmy Webb, in a sleeve that doesn't just look like but actually was shat on by a bird, and it's so scratched particularly around the perimeter i.e. track 1 of each side that I think it's possible the record was used as the wheel on a go-kart. Look, if I'm dumb enough to spend up on vinyl at a time when its price generally speaking is overinflated and its value as a medium has been overtaken long ago by digital formats, then I'm dumb enough to enjoy this shitified version of a beautiful pop record. I've long loved the work of Jimmy Webb (put aside the bit in Sally Field's book where he has sex with her in a situation where she cannot say with certainty that consent was sought or granted - that's not the kind of work I'm talking about anyway) and I want to have more experience of the Supremes after Diana R. Diana R. is amazing, I love Diana R., but she wasn't the Supremes. Maybe, even though she replaced Diana R., Jean Terrell was really the heart and soul of the Supremes (this was her last album with them). Maybe the Supremes in the 70s is going to be my jam for the last few weeks/months/years of lockdown! Hey, maybe! I gather that they got more disco after this record and, well, I love disco and I love the Supremes so that would probably be peaches and cream/cheerleaders and team/kettle and steam/torch and beam/Willy Wonka and meme - level greatness. 

The Webb songs on this album are wonderful (nothing tremendously famous to me except the totally fucking superb 'I Keep it Hid' which was on his demos album from the 60s)** but there's also a sensational version of Joni Mitchell's 'All I Want' that pins it to a whole different rhythm/sensibility. The song 'Beyond Myself' could have fit on that wonderful, Webberific Fifth Dimension Magic Garden album which remains a frequent fave. Look, everyone's working at their peak. Apparently it wasn't much of a hit, which just goes to show, this just in, people can be dicks. 

*Not as I am writing this, it's out and on the turntable baby

** Which is really great, regardless of what is conveyed by the wikipedia entry about it. 

 

apropos

I hadn't thought about Willo Papers for a long time, and it seems like that marks me out from the general population who have never thought about it and never will. Apparently there are nine issues at the National Library, and I know it was then absorbed into another magazine as an insert, so it lasted a little longer. I wonder if I should go and look at those issues one day. I had material in most of them, I used to send heaps of things it was always a surprise what was and wasn't used. There were some excellent artists putting material in there. Jim Stratman was one of them. Michael Kneebone, who was the editor, was a great cartoonist too, as I already said. I'm straining to remember others. Mainly men, except me I was a boy. I wonder if I have any copies in storage. It's not entirely impossible. 

This is the only online evidence I was able to find of any of the Willo Papers art: it's a small press publication cover that includes some of MK's work, and there was an article about him too. I found this here. 

what goes around comes around

In the late 70s-early 80s I started to get into the mainstream media in minor ways. My uncle Paul got me to write a book review for the Sun, which he worked for at that time, of Leo Baxendale's Willie The Kid Book which by the way I still have enormous fondness for (and Baxendale himself, what a wonderful generous man and an extraordinary artist). (One of those people whose influence is far and wide and a billion people don't even realise the genesis of the humour-aesthetic that infuses their life, though mind you, he was in part at least relaying I suppose The Goons and related zany radio shows). (But they weren't so visual). 

Then somehow, but no-one knows how, I started drawing comics for Willo Papers, which was a really terrific comic book that was coming out of Adelaide (not exactly mainstream, but it took me to the mainstream after a fashion). Michael Kneebone ran it and his own drawings proliferated in it. From that, oddly enough, in 1983 I had a strip included in Phil Pinder's Penguin Book of Down Underground Comix. Honestly, it wasn't one of my best and I think it was probably chosen for all the wrong reasons, and it was called The Brady Bunch Kill Each Other. Looking back on that (not literally looking at it, though I might have a copy of the book somewhere because I was gifted one, I think by my mother, a few years ago) the strip was the kind of thing I would come to resent not long after as so unsubtle, but what can I say, I was 16 or whatever when I did it and 18 when it came out and didn't give much of a shit either way I suppose. I did not see drawing comics as my future (I was easily the least skilled artist in the whole book, yet ironically almost certainly the only one still producing comic work in 2020 with perhaps the exception of Fred Negro). 

Anyway, it was a long way into my work on the graphic novel before I realised that what I was doing, in working up a super-long narrative about sitcoms/soap operas and their impact on 'real life' of both viewer and creator, was a kind of long-car-crash version of The Brady Bunch Kill Each Other. Hence the obscure, but not out of place, reference above. 

I'm still on track, I would say, to finish this thing in time, cleaning up and shading pages in photoshop is taking time but I am more or less succeeding in doing about 10 pages a day. I am keeping the main figures, largely, black and white and giving various shades of grey to the backgrounds (the above people are not black and white but grey, because they are in a darkened lecture theatre watching a film). I think there's a limit to how much greying I can do anyway because the pages are going to be reproduced quite small, a saving grace really. 

everybody's got it

Not the coronavirus but the ennui that attends being forced to stay indoors and do work things via zoom. I know, I know, I KNOW one day people will be SENTIMENTAL about this time, but right now, fuck it's nasty. I seriously had three hours of zooming today (others have much more) and for real, it has messed with my head something shocking. No, not my head, or maybe my head, but also just my temperament. I feel tired and lethargic. Maybe it's not zoom maybe it's that I haven't left the house, etc etc (and nor will I, today) but it's just such a drag. 

Helmi has had a more exciting week than most. As you know, her general habit has been to stay under the bedclothes all day - usually going to bed around 10am and getting up around 7pm. Well, things have really changed. On Monday during the day I don't know what she did, but she was nowhere to be found. On Tuesday, she was in a cupboard, as I later discovered when I opened a cupboard door that I had closed earlier in the day and she leapt out. Today she did get under the bedclothes but it's clearly not agreeing with her - I saw her emerge at least once, then she returned, but she was out in public by 5pm which is unusual. So I suppose on some level she is growing up or coming out or blossoming or getting bored or something, something, so I'm glad something is happening. 

i see dead people

A ‘same’-tery game

 

The goal is to walk through the cemetery, preferably as a group of two to five (if a larger group wishes to play, it is preferable to split into teams). One team member records the points, but may still play. This team member may also choose to randomise the directions the group takes, using a randomising app (for instance) or coin toss. The winner will get to ten points first.

 

1 point for a tombstone containing the same first and last name as a famous person 

This must be the same name and same spelling.

If members of the party do not accept that the name is that of a famous person, google will be the judge – if the person’s name does not come up in the first five google hits, they are not adequately famous for the purposes of this game.

Middle names do not count unless a middle name is a significant element of the famous name. For instance, a grave signifying ‘Jennifer Ada Leigh’ is not the same as ‘Jennifer Jason Leigh’; but a grave signifying ‘Shannen Ada Doherty’ is acceptable for ‘Shannen Doherty’; Shannen Doherty’s middle name is Maria, but this is not the name she goes by in public life. 

 

‘Real’ names of famous people – for instance, Archibald Leach (the real name of Carey Grant) or Shawn Carter (the real name of Jay-Z) – are acceptable provided anyone claiming points for this is in a position to prove their claim. Once starting the game, they must not research prior to making the claim. 

 

1 point for a tombstone containing the same first and last name as one of the participants in the game

Once again, the spelling of both names must be the same. The middle name need not (although double points are awarded if it is). If participants have married and birth names (i.e. two names) or have changed their names for other reasons, all names are valid, as long as all members of the party are aware of the names that apply in this category. 

 

2 points for a tombstone featuring a significant date 

‘Significant date’ means that the day, month and year must correspond with a date in history known to the nominee. ‘My birthday’ is not a significant date unless the person putting this forward is so famous they are one of the first five hits on google. Christmas day of any year is not in itself significant, although 25 December 1974 – when Cyclone Tracey devastated Darwin – is an example of a significant date. 

 

1-2 points for the grave of an actual famous person

If text on the grave explains why the person is famous, one point only is awarded. If it does not, investigation into the fame of the person can go deeper into google and Wikipedia, however, the player claiming the points must be prepared to lose two points if it is decreed that the grave is not of a famous person. If the grave is not of a famous person, but the name is that of a famous person, the player will receive one point. As in all categories above, it is against the rules of the game to research a person online before declaring them famous. 

 

½ a point for names of fictional characters

These can be names of characters in fiction, films, even songs. However, once again players must be able to prove the validity of their claim, if challenged.