i've just been picking up dog shit in the back yard by torchlight

I saw Samuel Johnson so upful on Monday night after the bad stuff that's gone down in his life over the last few years, and he was saying, when I die and my life passes before my eyes, being a part of this short filmmaking project will take a considerable chunk of it. For me it will be the little things like picking up dog shit. I think Gandhi did that too, didn't he? While he was talking to Kruschev. It's great to do such humbling things because it reminds you how simply brilliant you are. I use the hand in a bag method, what'll I do when there are no more plastic bags?

stamp it out

For some reason I can't put titles in my posts if I post at work* (I've decided to stamp out that ugly word 'blog' - at least in this region - what an ugly word, who thought of it?).
Just a general update on my lively mind, made more lively by the enormous amount of bicycle riding I've been doing lately. I am way into it. I hope it's not just another fad. Timing my journey so I can listen to PM in its entirety helps. Fortunately however much PM I miss on RN, I can pick up on 774 between 6 and 7. So it's all good. Eurovision was yet another debacle as the foul russian anthem that was not a patch on Greece and Armenia (two other strong contenders) or for that matter France or Bosnia and Herzegovina which weren't really strong contenders to the end but were very great (Bos/Herz's entry reminded me of one of my favourite films, Starstruck). If you didn't see it, here is Sebastian Tellier from France: This is most definitely the first time I have seen someone on Eurovision and thought 'I would like to hear more of that person's records'; though I did also like Turkey a lot and I think maybe Turkish rock and I have a lot in common. I hate comparing musicians to musicians, but these guys reminded me quite a bit of Magazine. Well the Eurovision excitement never palls. I wish you could get old contests though, I'd like to see the 1971 Eurovision or whatever. Or the 1990 one or, you know, olden days. Anyway now I am thinking of Starstruck. Here is a fabulous bit from Starstruck, all squashed up but the choreography AND the framing/camera work on this is sublime. And that reminds me, 'Starstruck' by The Kinks is just a fantastic song and not a million miles removed in some respects from the French entry in Eurovision you saw and heard above. By the way I mentioned Chris Smith a short time ago, but not the Chris Smith, but then I saw the Chris Smith on Saturday night, he seemed well, it was odd to have seen him on the evening of a day when in the afternoon I had been talking with Simon Grounds about Taralgon, and saying to Simon do you know Chris Smith he's from Rosedale, and we talked about Rosedale. Simon didn't know Chris but had seen him play guitar in a performance situation. The Saturday night was St Helens/ Love of Diagrams at the Tote. Well done everyone. On Sunday Mia and I did not answer the question: what is sumac?

*By the way I don't often post at work whatever you may have heard but I have been spending so much time there lately...

a bit of winter sun in town

some things I remember

In the early 90s a woman I worked with told me that the man downstairs from her was having a sexual relationship with a soap star (who she named but I won't). This story was in part about how she could hear everything that was being said in the immediate vicinity of her home. So the soap star was at the house and the man told him about a friend who had no teeth, and the soap star said, 'Christ, how does the poor cunt eat?' We had a laugh about this story when she told it and she said the line many times over the next few days in imitation of the soap star's hoarse, coarse voice.

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For a few years I went out with a woman who was prone to chucking berkos at the drop of a hat. Once we were driving to Newcastle and I found that a cassette I had got off the front of a music magazine - you know, Select or Vox or something - was in the glovebox divested of its shrink wrap. I had no interest in the tape in question and would not have expected anyone else to have any interest in it, as it was just the usual major record company puff material that you would have expected on that kind of artefact; I would probably have never taken the shrinkwrap off it, myself. So I asked her if she had removed the plastic. She went ballistic at the accusation and the rant lasted well over an hour (while she continued to drive) - the worst I recall though I could probably think of others if I had to. I think this might have been the time she had to pull the car over to vomit, she was so angry at this accusation. A few weeks later she told me she had thought I had left the tape there for her as a present, and so she had taken the shrink wrap off. And I'm not kidding.

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Once I was walking along Lennox St, Newtown with a small amount of shopping including some Coco Pops. Two itinerants, man and woman, came up and insisted I give them some money, but I refused. The woman tried to grab my Coco Pops but could not wrest them from me. They moved on and I heard her say to him, 'I almost got his Coco Pops'.

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The song 'Reminiscing' by Little River Band (LRB) has been played on the radio over four million times. Not all the group wanted to record it at the time but later came to see it was actually a successful hit song.

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The Swedish Chef from the Muppets was in LRB, not many people realise this because in LRB he didn't wear his hat.

just felt like saying hi

Hi, I'm doing some laundry. It may or may not rain tomorrow but the bureau says it won't. We are having pastizzis and a weird salad for dinner. Today I missed the last train to get me to the city before 7 but it was OK because the validator wasn't working. Also I found an almost full up free coffee card and I got to Pascoe Vale Station tonight just as it started raining very heavily, then got off at my station just as it stopped. There were some downsides to the day but they were just worky things you don't need to know of. See ya later!

today's rainbow

It did join up completely, I just couldn't fit it all in one picture.

gig of the night

sadie's party