it's just one of those thursday mornings

You know those days when you go to sleep sometime between 11 and 12 and wake up around 3? One of those. I blame the evil weather we're having, Nancy and her strong interest in coming in and going out, some idiot who caused a noise like a tree cracking in half in the street outside, and work shit.

blah

An early morning and it’s a public holiday except for people who work at or attend universities who are not the public but a special non-holidayed elite (but we all get half the year off right? I am seriously going to hurt the next person who says that, possibly by saying ‘fuck off’). I was in at work half the day yesterday and got just enough done to be able to get the first three hours of today out of the way with a minimum of pain. That’s two lectures in three hours, which might not seem like much but you know, I give it a lot so fuck off. Also I admit I had a lot of help with the second lecture from the redoubtable Victoria but still.

This morning in Johnston Street or whatever it’s called there was virtually no-one around and the sun was so bright you could not look east down the street and I’m pretty much of the opinion that February is still the worst month but only because in February you have to anticipate the really awful relentless and grueling March which is kind of Summer’s refusal to leave. Things will be massively improved in a couple of weeks because firstly it won’t really be March anymore, almost April, it won’t be so fucking hot, it will be 1/3 of the way into the semester not 1/6 as it is at present and 1/3 is 1/6 away from ½. Of course that reminds me sadly of how long 1/6 can be, considering the last two weeks were 1/6 of the semester and they seem to have taken a couple of years. Maybe stuff will speed up a little. 

music

So I'm about to walk to work, to get a whole bunch of 'shit' done before the teaching week begins tomorrow morning. I can already feel my blood pressure rise in anticipation of this. So it's best to have a few things out of the way before beginning in earnest.

I had an almost completely non-day yesterday - the biggest thing I did was go and record my fortnightly podcast with Elizabeth Taylor (which I guess she hasn't put up yet, so this link is to the last one) I more or less walked to Coburg to do it, and more or less walked back (a little bit of public transport action when it presented itself). Otherwise, I saw no-one aside from Nancy. 

This morning I wrote another tune on the guitar, which was an interesting exercise on a number of fronts. The first front was that the verse seemed massively too simple to work (just a slight difference between a chord which I think is a genuine chord, and something that required a one-string change), but it did seem to work. Then when I listened back to the recording I was like, 'uh-oh, this is kind of terrible'. The second front was that once I had the recording (to some garageband drums) I tried to play the sequence again and it came out synchronised very differently and I'm sure much better. But also kind of dictated by my whim. I need to play with others obviously, that has to be the next step, but lining it up is really hard. 

I haven't written words yet. 

Bye

early start

I'm going on Radio National this morning at 4:20 (40 mins from when I am writing this) to talk about housing through Australian history. I am quite looking forward to it - I've found also that talkback, which I can't bear to listen to as a passive consumer, is pretty fun to be a part of as a broadcaster. I have my mother's car at the moment (she's in Adelaide) so I'm able to get down there in style, so to speak (last time, I went on my bike, which was kind of stylish because it's a stylish bike but...). Second coffee, anyway. Wish me luck.