Go to extremes and retreat to a useful position

Brian Eno

So, i'm sitting on my friends couch this morning trawling through all the crap on face book and i came to a post from one of my favourite Dj's King Unique

Amongst all the stuff posted on face book, there's always going to be something enlightening, so i clicked on the following video and watched it on the iPad while washing the dishes from last night (god bless you Mr iPad, you are a god, but not my god...thank god! )

Introducing Brian Eno


Now, i'm not a fan of Brian Eno, i don't know much about the guy or his music, but it was interesting to listen to the guy talk, you can always learn something from everybody and everybody is your superior in some way, here's what i learnt, iPad in hand.

Some of the interesting things he said were:

'You go to extremes and retreat to a useful position'

His example was:

'It's nice knowing that you can go to the Antarctic, but i'd rather be here in my studio, but i could go there too'

 I don't think i want to go there?

 It reminded me of ´Dialectic´ method for reasoning

Thesis + Antithesis = Synthesis (A+B=C)
Capitalist + Communist = Socialist

Maybe it's like for good to exist, bad must also exist? Love and Hate, you need to see bad movies to know what a good movie is, you need to have had a crap relationship to know when you are in a great relationship, bad house mate... do i need to continue?

I am reminded of the Liverpool Buddhist monk i met in India (that talked like Ringo Starr) i remember thinking, there is hope for me yet, maybe one day i will be a monk? He used to tell stories of how he used to trip on LSD in his commission flat in Liverpool and look at a picture tripping for hours, he couldn't open his door at night, it was way too dangerous to do that. The jury is still out on me being a monk, but i will continue with Brian Eno...

Trippy

So when Brian Eno is composing, he hears birds outside his window and also includes them, how interesting?

Introducing William

I remember reading about William S Burroughs, when he was teaching he told his students when they write they should also include the person walking past their window in their stories, of course Mr Burroughs's students thought they were going crazy when they tried this?

 As Seal would say...

 'But we're never going to survive unless we go a little bit crazy'

Maybe you need of include a little bit of crazy in your life to be sane? After all, crazy is a social term, not a medical term.

Social science is not an actual science, mental disorders are pretty much invented anyways, they medically cannot be proven.

Just ask Richard P. Feynman!

Someone was telling me a few weeks ago about how you can use your capacity for being crazy as a sort of defencive mechanism, to keep you sane and maybe safe? Basically if people think you could open a whole can of whoop ass on them, they will leave you alone and not fu*k with you.

It's not the size of the dog, it's the fight that's in the dog.

Maybe it comes down to the laws of the jungle where animals wont risk fighting with another animal where they think they will get injured? If they get injured in a conflict they wont be able to be predators and they will starve?

The point is you have to be willing to go there to be safe and if you've been there, you can more than likely go back there and come back to your useful position?

Humans obviously aren't animals, we are talking animals and some with iPads, with nothing better to do, than think about this stuff on a couch at 7am

Monkey see, monkey do. Me at 7am

Brian was talking about instruments for recording, he said instead of having a keyboard with 100's of effects which do so many things, some effects and sounds are not much different form each other it's much better to have 7 really good distinct different sounds, like an electric guitar, interesting point!

What he is referring to here is 'Thin slicing', which is basically editing information for a prospective.

The idea is you don't need to know everything to make a decision, to make certain decisions, you take all the data and edit it.

This editing is called 'Thin Slicing', edit the data to get the Information, which is the input to form a perspective.

It's the difference between knowing the important and un-important, data and information to determine the correct information to make a decision, from a list of possible options.

Another book i was reading called the Mathematics of life talked about John Gottman, a mathematician, he's able to thin slice 4 key criteria to determine the probability of how long a relationship will last, or not.

The 4 criteria (the 4 horsemen) he determined for relationships were Defensiveness, stonewalling, criticism and (the most important) is contempt

Do you like horses, with men on them?

He said when you can measure contempt, you don't need to know anything else, all the other data is pretty much irrelevant and my impression from Brian Eno is doing the same, but in a musical way, maybe he doesn't even realise it.

My pause button , here's the story of the Pause button

And that's what i was thinking, watching this documentary this morning, it's funny, i seem to have spent quite a few years being extreme, now the most useful position is the one i call moderation, or 'Just press pause!' it can be quite a tricky thing to get a hold of, sometimes i have it, but not for long and let it slip again.

I need to remind myself, hence the tattoo.

p.s.
One last thing he said was

Anybody that believes in the after life possibly prone to being mad in this life

Too true Brian! 

Be careful of what you choose...that goes to you too Mr Soul!

Meet Anthony

I was reading Anthony Kiedis book 'Scar tissue' a few weeks ago.

Towards the start (cant find the reference) of his book he stated that, when you are born, your soul chooses your parents, because they will be the best people to teach you what you need to know.

Interesting, most people would be scratching their heads, thinking, 'Why would i do that?'

Now, lets continue, from what i know about the Dali Lama, he choose his reincarnation, the previous Dali Lama left clues as to where he would be reincarnated and as to how he could be found.

The Dali Lama

The Dali Lama has decided he will not be reincarnated in accordance with tradition, due to the Chinese who would rather he would disappear altogether

By the Himalayan tradition, phowa (Tibetan) is the discipline that transfers the mind stream to the intended body. Upon the death of the Dalai Lama and consultation with the Nechung Oracle, a search for the Lama's reincarnation, or yangsi (yang srid), is conducted. Traditionally it has been the responsibility of the High Lamas of the Gelugpa Tradition and the Tibetan government to find his reincarnation. The process can take around two or three years to identify the Dalai Lama, and for the 14th, Tenzin Gyatso it was four years before he was found. The search for the Dalai Lama has usually been limited historically to Tibet, although the third tulku was born in Mongolia. Tenzin Gyatso, though, has stated that he will not be reborn in the People's Republic of China.^[28] In his autobiography, Freedom In Exile, he states that if Tibet is not free, he will reincarnate elsewhere.

And, that got me thinking, i wonder would this little bit of information help you re frame your entire life and put things in context? It certainly has me thinking.

What Anthony Keidis says sounds a bit far fetched, but the Dali Lama did this and can remember his past lives, so maybe this isn't as crazy as you'd think, there is something to it if the Dali Lama is saying this and he's way smarter than me!

Especially if you have had any experience with the spirit world, i have had a bit, i've seen enough to know, so i know enough to not laugh at this idea.

Soul, the other kind

So, the scenario for me would look like, Mr soul man, soon to be the person we know (and some love as Kieran) is floating around over Cork and says, the best people to teach me all the things i need to know in life are those 2 people, my mother and father, tea totaller's, never drank, smoke or partied, drugs? You get a perscription from the doctor for that, and not a Doctor called Dr Dre!

Dr Dre

Wouldn't have a clue who the 'Rolling stones' are.

I think i've done enough partying so far, for everyone in my family, to make up for this inconsistency?
 
Funnily enough, the black and white dragon (previous post), after getting the tattoo, i learnt that a black and white dragon symbolises that, 'Your parents are very wise', maybe the light is shining in after all Mr Leonard Cohen, it only took about 35 years? Better late than never i suppose?

Hey, Mr Perfect, let the light in!!!

So, the other night I'm watching Leonard Cohen's DVD, live somewhere? I've been a bit of a fan ever since i was hanging out with my shaman Tulassi in Bolivia.

A fan, that doesn't know much, but i know enough to know he's important and if i payed attention, something would ring a bell with me

My Shaman, Tulassi had a book of Leonard Cohen's poems, now I'm not much of a fan of poems, i never have, they just don't mean that much to me, they don't talk to me, not like stories anyway, but Mr Cohen's poems did, this it why he interests me, how does he interest me when no one else does? That was the beginning anyways.

Now one of the songs is called Anthem

Forget your perfect, there is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in

Now, that day i was at one of many festivals in Melbourne, many cool tattoos were on display, attached to the bodies of the people that commissioned the tattoo's, some of the people waited months, i just walked in off the street in Lima and basically commenced a week of pain and hey presto, walked away with a whole sleeve.

My black and white Dragon (cut below his ear)

So, one of the things i like about my dragon tattoo on my forearm is, believe it or not the scar. I remember getting it, i was couch surfing in South Australia, my couch surfing hosts came and picked me up, they drove an hour to the train station and i stayed for a week, got drunk, went fishing, drank snake bite because my friend Janet's face book update said she was hung over from snake bite.

You have to slay a few dragons to get the princess, i scarred my Dragon on the corner of the bread board, believe it or not, and now it's part of the Dragon, i wouldn't want to change it, i remember clearly thinking 'Oh, fuck!'

After hearing Leonard Cohen's song i thought, the scar could represent the light coming in. The Dragon, if i got a big name artist in Melbourne (with attitude) could have been perfect, but things can always be more perfect, but i like the stories around my designs, perfection is not the point!

Good man Leonard Cohen, i will have to listen more more wisdom in your well thought out songs!

It don't matter if he's black or white

Dear food thief...

An Asylum by another name wouldn't smell so sweet

People it's not what happens to you in life, it's how you deal with it, i saw this from Sean in a hostel called Asylum, in Cairns, and from what i could see when i stayed there, they knew a thing or 2 about dealing with things, in fact to them, anything goes and it does!

On the fridges in the hostel kitchen, there reads a sign.... 

"Dear Food Thief, Let's play a game. 

Epsom Salt is an amazing laxative. In other words if you drink what we've put in the fridges, you will be pissing out of your arse. We have also put other foods in the fridges and sprayed them with insecticide. Maybe we're lying; Maybe we're not but if you're still game then try us out. 

One more thing. We have a rough idea who you are

Roberto Bolaño, on writing.

Roberto Bolaño

So, i'm in St Kilda, at the St Kilda festival, watching a band, standing next to a book shop in Acland st, and you know it's the kind of bookshop where everyone that works there is 'inspired' by the world and all the wonderful things and ideas, the kind of place you like to go and hang out and soak it up?
Books with love, where selecting is an art, it's an experience, the book finds you, you don't find it.


Yes, no? Well, outside this shop there was a chalk board, i could see that someone spent a long time writing something, about half of the following excerpt was on this board, which led me to believe the following and i stood closer to have a read

• The person that wrote it thought it was worth their time to write it out for strangers
• What ever was written was worth knowing and would do something for the world
• That additional Karma would be appended to the world, in a hope that it would touch someone

That is what got my attention, so i went over to read what was written
After reading that chalkboard, i knew that this Roberto Bolaño guy is fantastic and i had to read more


This is what i read...

The truth is, I don’t believe all that much in writing. Starting with my own. Being a writer is pleasant—no, pleasant isn’t the word—it’s an activity that has its share of amusing moments, but I know of other things that are even more amusing, amusing in the same way that literature is for me. Holding up banks, for example. Or directing movies. Or being a gigolo. Or being a child again and playing on a more or less apocalyptic soccer team. Unfortunately, the child grows up, the bank robber is killed, the director runs out of money, the gigolo gets sick and then there’s no other choice but to write. 

For me, the word writing is the exact opposite of the word waiting. Instead of waiting, there is writing. Well, I’m probably wrong—it’s possible that writing is another form of waiting, of delaying things. I’d like to think otherwise.  

But, as I said, I’m probably wrong. As to my idea of a canon, I don’t know, it’s like everyone else’s—I’m almost embarrassed to tell you, it’s so obvious: Francisco de Aldana, Jorge Manrique, Cervantes, the chroniclers of the Indies, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Fray Servando Teresa de Mier, Pedro Henríquez Ureña, Rubén Darío, Alfonso Reyes, Borges, just to name a few and without going beyond the realm of the Spanish language.  

Of course, I’d love to claim a literary past, a tradition, a very brief one, made up of only two or three writers (and maybe one single book), a dazzling tradition prone to amnesia, but on the one hand, I’m much too modest about my work and on the other, I’ve read too much (and too many books have made me happy) to indulge in such a ridiculous notion.

From that chalk board, you get this post and now i have ordered one of his books and maybe that will be there start of something for both of us? Maybe not, but i cant wait to find out!  

I dont mind if it rains or freezes, as long as i got my plastic Jesus...

Kieran in a convent

Well, with the weather we have been having in Melbourne, i wouldn't be surprised if it did freeze, we have had just about every other kind of weather, and today it will be 30 something, hip hip hurrah, burn all the warm clothes!!!

So, the other day i was walking around the Abbotsford convent and i was thinking how a religion could be based on:

• A guy with long hair?
• He never had a job
• He was an outcast
• No girlfriend
• Liked hanging out with his mates all the time
• And was Jewish?

What comes to mind is John Safron, i watched his excellent series 'Race relations', in this series he did do a bit of a stint to try to see what life was like for the man they call Jesus

John, getting nailed!

I thought, if Jesus came back (no one's seen much from him in about 2000 years) 

• Would he go to Balaclava? (Balaclava, being a big Jewish area in Melbourne)
• What would he look like? Maybe he's have a new hair style, dress sense, shoes and maybe man bag?
• Would he laugh at the whole religion thing and say he was going through a bit of a 'phase' at the time?
• What would he make of Scientology, Tom Cruise or Tom Cruise in his Mission Impossible movie?

If he did go to Balaclava, would all the Christians go there and worship some Jewish hippy, throwing themselves at his feet saying...

'We will do anything you say, save us!! We're sorry about the last time, we wont do it again'

I know what your thinking, me too in fact. Would Jesus like the band Slayer?

I'd ask John Safron! If anybody would know he would. In his series race relations he:

• Got nailed to the cross
• Married Bin Laden's cousin (in front of his strict Jewish relatives)
• Donated sperm in a Palestinian sperm bank 
• Got his sound man to donate sperm for him in an Israel sperm bank (class!!)
• Dressed up as an Asian chick in Thailand, went on a date with a guy and got drunk, while bitching about John Safran

In fact John lives in Balaclava, he has a flat up the road there!
What would Jesus say or do? I'm beginning to think, if there was a Jesus that was coming back, how do we know John is the man? Some people love him, some hate him? He seems to fit the bill?

'Oh fu$k off, not you lot again? Fu@k off!'

I think he would, after the way he was treated and he might want to have a begal, with cream cheese and he would be in the right area for it too!

First things first...

Would he even understand us, or Latin for that matter? All church mass used to be in Latin, it was the language of god, this is why no one understood it, least of all the people that were in church.

Which didn't really matter if they understood, if the priest was speaking Latin, obviously he was closer to god, and this meant that if God was on his break, having a bagel (or what ever the equivalent is?) he would know what was on, maybe like how you might sit down with your dinner and watch the Simpson's?

Or, maybe not? To anybody else that never had much schooling, to the common man it could have been bingo, in Latin, without the Bingo!

Bingo!!

People in Bible camps seem to think that they speak ancient languages, but what they dont realise is that they are being manipulated and worked up in a frenzy, since they cant even speak english too good, and since most haven't been outside their post code, been it might sound like another language?

Would Jesus understand this?

Some they think they are speaking some dialect Jesus spoke, why couldn't Jesus speak American?

Question is would Jesus understand, people who's brain is being starved of oxygen and were hyper ventilating?  Of course, he would.

And then i thought of Steve Mc Queen, an actor i loved on screen, (apparently he was a real ass h*le  off screen)

'I dont mind if it rains or freezes, as long as i got my plastic Jesus'

Maybe i need to connect with my inner Jesus? Before someone nails me to a cross and starts worshipping me?

And thats what i was thinking, walking around the gardens of the Abotsford convent, the other day

Perfect sense...

 My friend Dario is quite the poet, i like his stuff.

The other night he told me he was up all night watching a movie called 'Perfect sense' and then he wrote a poem about the movie, quite a good idea and awesome poem.

I introduce to you, Darrio's poem...

Overwhelmed With Grief...People are Hit with all that they Lost...
"Smell"...
Life Go's On...
The Food becomes Spicier... Saltier... More Sweet... More sour...
The Greater Loss is The Memories Not Being Triggered By Smell...
Smell & Memory Was Connected in the Brain...
Without Smell... An Ocean of Memories' Disappear...
Is This the Day...
First the Terror...
& Then a Moment of Chaotic Hunger...
This is How the Sense of Taste Disappears From Our World...
Smell & Taste Are Related...
There the 2 Chemical Sense's...
Slowly... Thing's Go Back to Normal... Life Go's On...
In a Short Time... Taste Becomes a Distant Memory... & Different Sensation's Take there Place...
Sight's... Sound's... Feeling... Sensation's...
Rage... Anger... Hatred... & Then the Loss of Another Sense...
"Hearing"...
There's No Sound...
Can you Hear Me...???...
There are 2 Movement's Now...
There are People Who Grab All they Can...
People who Don't Believe in Anything...
Then There's the Other Movement...
Those who Believe that Life Go's On...
A culture of Sight & Feel...
People Are Prepared for the Worst...
People Hope for the Best...
People Seek what's Important to Them...
A Blanket of Cold...
That's How the Darkness Descends on the World...
"Sight"
But First...
The Shinning Moment's...
A Knowing of What it Mean's To Be Alive... Joy...
But Most Of All...
An Urge to Reach out to one-Another...
To Offer Warmth... Understanding... Acceptance... Forgiveness... Love...
It's Dark Now...
But they Feel Each other's Breath...
& they know All there is to Know...
"Feeling's"...
They Kiss...
& they Feel Each other's Tear's on their Cheek's...
If God Could See them...
They would Look like Normal Love's...
Caressing Each other's Face's...
Body's Close Together...
Eye's Closed...
Oblivious To the World Around Them...
That's How Life Go's On...
People Oblivious to the World...

Perfect sense trailer

The thing i like about...skaters

First, watch this


The thing i link about skaters/skate boarders, besides that i did a bit of long boarding, briefly last year in Queensland, or to be more accurate, my stint in the Gold coast is:

• They don't seem troubled by the things the other people seem focused with
• A career isn't important, if you have the time to skate and drink beer and get stoned, you have it all
• They don't seem to perturbed by what's going to happen tomorrow, it's all about the now
• They seem to be willing to give it a go and take the fall, if it happens
• They just look cool and they don't give a sh*t what you think

Your a beginner?


The skater magazines don't have:

1. Agony aunt sections with questions like, 'I'm worries about my weight...'
2. They dont have tips on how to shed pounds for that 360 degree trick
3. They dont have skaters caught cheating on who, who fu*kin cares?
4. They dont seem too worried about the financial crisis and the invasion of China and India
5. Also the magazines dont have advice on how to repair tile damage from skating, my guess that would be someone else's problem?

Life in the fast lane?

When i started again, it was like the inner kid in me was doing something he always wanted to do, but my mother did everything to stop me doing and as soon as my ribs are normal from the crash (skater term is 'stack') i had last week, i will be skating.

It makes me so jealous, i have to do it!

Saxaphone, i love it, some hate it, what does that tell you?

So i lying in the sun (argh, the sun!!) at the Abbotsford convent yesterday and there was a Jazz group playing, there's always a group of some sort playing in front of 'Lental as Anything' in the evening, the saxophone player was hitting all the right notes, i was beginning to like my ears more and more, ears are pretty cool, you know?

The music that soothes my soul


And then i thought of something i read last week of how some people hate Saxophone, they hate it so much they have a facebook group called 'I hate the sound of the saxaphone', i think there is a word for these people, besides any of the obvious words that might come to mind, but Google doesn't know it, so maybe there isn't a word, that or google doesn't know as much as i thought?

As much as i dont agree, the comments expressed are pretty entertaining, like...

THEY SOUND LIKE DYING CATS!

I just think it sounds like a whining child.... no matter who plays it.

Wow, I'm glad to find I'm not alone. I hate the sound of this instrument. I have also thought is sounds only a little better than the sound of raking your fingers across a chalkboard.

This woman has the same expression as my auntie had when i played the best of Beethoven one morning

I pointed out to my auntie after here 'little episode'

When we are amongst great music, we have a duty to act noble 

She didn't agree and seemed to favour 'The morning show', and watch a bunch of women her own age talk about the same stuff they were talking about yesterday.

But i  digress...
Seems to me, like this anti-Sax group are torturing themselves in their pet hate, like eating ham sandwiches, when you really hate ham sandwiches, make yourself another kind of sandwich, dammit!!!

Lisa knows it!

Maybe they think that one day that ham sandwiches will taste good, possibly listening to a bit of John Coltrane? Now, Coltrane is one of my Jazz heroes.


One mans trash...(god, i would kill of one now!)

One of my favourite books is On the road, by Jack Kerouac, it's a trip, it inspired people to travel back in teh 60's, to me it's the best book ever written, Jazz music was an evolving form of music at the time and here's part of a review of the book

What the Beats understood and identified with in jazz, was protest against the white middle-class world. As Sal Paradise observes in part one of the novel, "Every single one of us was blushing. This is the story of America. Everybody's doing what they think they're supposed to do." Kerouac intuitively understood that you can't have jazz without protest, and along with his Beat friends regarded jazz musicians like Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk as true American geniuses, heroes, and rebels. Just as Sal later thinks Dean "look(s) like God," while high on marijuana bumping along the back roads of Mexico, those jazz musicians who can really "blow" are the "prophets" and "shepherds" come to lead the straying but faithful back to "the golden world that Jesus came from." It is therefore not surprising that many of the freshest and most startling descriptive passages in On the Road are of roadhouse juke-joints and wild late-night jam sessions in urban jazz clubs filled with all the vagaries of nightlife one could imagine. In these scenes positioned throughout the novel to punctuate the emotional ups and downs of the road-weary heroes, one encounters Kerouac's most successful rendering of the simultaneity of antithetical images and meanings of both "down-and-out" and "beatific."

In some ways, i kinda of get it how some can hate a particular music or sound, when i was in South America i hated Reggathon music, everyone else seemed to think it constituted 'good music' for a night out, i would run away like someone set me on fire.

Reggathon 


I met a German guy that told me how he hated 'Pan pipes', he told me if he heard Pan Pipes, he would jump off the balcony we were on, it was about 100 feet down too, he seemed to know what he was talking about

Hmm, I'm hungry, hand made ham sandwiches! What, you made them yourself? I hope you don't mind me having one? You don't, Do you have mustard? Yes, there is a god!

An artist impression of me eating a ham sandwitch

Tell you what buddy, "I'll do you a favour, I'll eat all your sandwiches for you'

How what are you going to do for me?

Going from someone that knew to someone that would do.

Interesting title for today's blog post, well that's what i think anyways, let's freestyle this and see where we end up at the end, shall we?

I heard it in a documentary i watched last week called 'Fat sick and nearly dead', here's a review

Watch the trailer here


Among some of the amazing things that were presented in the movie, Joe pointed out how his transition was going...

"From someone that knew, to someone that would do"

How interesting that he would say it that way? So i wrote it down, only because it struck a chord with me, maybe a D minor chord?

D minor chord

One of the many other books i'm currently reading, '59 Seconds' by Richard Wiseman or 'Blink' by Malcom Gladwell, take your pick, but leave your nose alone!

I read the following...

Damage in the ventromedial area causes a disconnect between what you know and what you do

Bingo, it makes sense, it was like that for the overweight people in the documentary and it's the same for people with drug addictions, in fact it would seem

Junk food addict = Cocaine addict 

At least in their head anyway's, as the Cranberries said 'Whats in your head'?

The Cranberries, a musical interlude


In an article entitled, Personal moral judgement i read the following

However, our results on patients with focal lesion in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex clearly reinforce the proposal, advanced by Greene et al. (2001), that this brain region is crucial to oppose personal moral violations. In line with this, several studies have linked criminal behavior to medial prefrontal dysfunction

Oh oh, does this mean that some criminals, being locked up have in fact a medical problem, that became a legal one?

It seems to me, the easiest answer to all of this, besides opening someone's head, scooping out the contents out (are you thinking of ice cream?) and giving them a good scrub with a wiry brush, putting it back in again.

One is too big, one is too small and the middle one is just perfect, now where's your brain again?

 Still with me? The answer could be found in Vipassana meditation.

Insight meditation gradually purifies the mind, eliminating all forms of attachment. As attachment is cut away, desire and delusion are gradually diluted.

To me the key lies in people's attachment's and aversions and doing a Vipassana course would enable people to resolve the issues in themselves.

I did one in India and i can say i learn more about myself in 10 days than i would have in 10 years, i've probably forgotten most of it, maybe i need to be reminded why i'm here, what i was about, it's interesting in Anthony Kiedis book 'Scar tissue'

The man that should not be alive, in his own words

He said, he knew so many guys that got in to music, that knew what they were about, were really driven, starting out, then they forgot who they are, and got side tracked and ended up over dosing, game over.

Last year at a festival called Rainbow Serpent, one of the work shops, one woman was singing songs, we were singing songs, chanting in fact.

One of the chants was

'I remember who i am, i remember who i am...', over and over.

And just then, i remembered and it was a truly amazing experience and it's funny how you could forget something like that? But i did, i think everybody does?

You just need ways to remind yourself and keep yourself on course

It works for me!

This post was made possible by one of my favourite DJ's Derrick May, have a listen!

Febfast is off to a flying start, literally!!

Where is the pause button again?

So, February is here, and as is my habit in the last few years, i'm off the alcohol or alcohol is off me and defiantly not in me!

I went off the beer for November, and then back on December, only in moderation of course swearing i learnt some valuable life lessons, but after some social drinks over Christmas and a little bit of partying on the weekends, it's time to do it again in February!

So, the day before February i went to a bit of a party, after midnight someone said it was February, time for Febfast, but i didn't want to believe it, you cant when your having fun!

January turned into February over night, it's almost as mad as that loaves into fishes story from the bible, i wasn't having any of it, call me a non believer if you want!

So i re-defined February to commence when i woke up, in February and had a few more beverages, including a beer at home.

After all, if your going to have one for the road, you'd better be sure you know the road, being at home is perfect, in summer, you can sleep next to the cat, and all is well in the world, except the cat trying to get vomit out of it's fur?

It's not a cats life folks, not anytime!

So, after opening my eyelids for business on the 1st of Feb, i didn't exactly feel like running, it was the day of change, i was doing a mini triathlon that day, running would have to wait until the evening, the planning was everything and the plan was nothing, so myself and Ryan AKA 'Pretty' went for a cycle.

We got as far as Clifton hill when a momentary lapse on my part, introduced me into another form of travel, a kind of space travel called 'Arse over tits', and planted me on the back of a barrier on the side of the foot path.

My flight path caught by a passing photographer

What's funny is, i'm fine, a few bruised ribs and i feel very luck not to do serious damage, to myself or the bike, i've been down that path before and i've wondered, about if someone fell of their bike there, Ryan was wondering it too, and i found out.

Before long, we went off again, and because of my space travel, i ended up meeting a cyclist that showed us a bike path that (Follow the A's)

Yarra trail, to the Anniversary trail, to Gardiner's creek, back to the Yarra trail

It was one of the best bike trails i have seen in Melbourne, albeit in much pain, but not too much pain, i am told by many that i have a high tolerance to pain.

Ryan told me a story how he broke his ribs and i have to say, i cheered me up a little, in fact i nearly took a lung full of water while swimming later

Ryan said: 

Ryan: One time when i was out in the Gold coast, i met these guys in a bar and i went on a bit of a pub crawl with them and you know the everyone up there goes out to look for fights?
Me: No, no one's ever picked a fight with me

Ryan: Well all the bogans go out to do that and we were walking past some guys on the other side of the street and one of the guys shouts over 'Hey you have a small cock!' and they came over and started fighting, i'm lying on the ground, i wasn't even fighting and some guy is kicking me. Anyways i spent 9 hours in the ER 

In that light, what was wrong with me? To be fair, it was a learning experience, Ryan did tell me if you cant breathe properly and you piss blood, get to a hospital, good to know. We continued another 50kms.

That was a week ago, and i'm still feeling it, pain that is and now i feel February could have came a bit sooner

Postcards are the new internet

Dear post card people, listen up!!

Do you know when you give out the love to the universe? Sometimes, just sometimes, it comes back and it did, i want to tell you all about it.

So, when i was gallivanting about the country last year, i remember being in Perth train station, talking to someone about Chapel St, i said to myself

'I know someone that lives near Chapel st, I'll send her a post card'

Well, writing that post card was so much fun, i decided to write a few more, since i hadn't been blogging in quite, it became a bit of a release for me, i quite enjoyed it you see, each post card, took a bit of time in the selection process, each one was unique in its own way, no copy and pasting going on folks, i could not accuse myself of any plagiarism in any way!

Do you know of post secret  dear reader?

And after all, when you enjoy doing something, it's not that hard!

Who sends post cards anymore? Dammit, post cards are the new Internet!!

When people get post cards now, it's pretty special and unique, people will come around to stare and wonder at your fridge, not because it has Internet capability's, makes ice, re orders everything automatically and does not forget the beer order, the reason some will always be single and the wondrous fridge has a post card like a badge of honor!

From postsecret

Every post card was 100% original in every way and then i sent them the old fashioned way, everyone that wanted one, got one, all they had to do was send me their home address and i would do the rest, and i did.

Now, was reading the paper on the weekend and i saw there is yet another reason to get a smart phone, there is a post card app, where you take the picture, submit the text and they mail it out.

My friend Jen sent me a message a few weeks ago, saying she was posting me a post card, so i wait and wait and wait some more.

From Postsecret

Last Monday i look up at the sky and said

'Fuckit Shockley, where's my card!' 

Last Monday night i get home from a bit of a party, and it's there.

Hallelujah, hurray for everything!


Jen from Florida sent me a post card

Whats particularly interesting is she calls me 'K-Dawg'.
Jen, she's the only one and then again she's not the only one :)

Beethoven and me...

So i after looking online yesterday to see what there is to do in this wonderful city, that city being Melbourne. I spotted that the Brunswick Beethoven festival is on, the first performance was to be Anthony Halliday

1, Variations on the Ruin of Athens Op. 76

What is interesting is he wrote this piece in the style of Turkish music, sort or exotic, you can imagine a parade of Elephants, giraffes on the street, carnival coming to town? Pretty out there stuff for the time he lived in

2, Sonata op. 31 no. 2 'Tempest'

Largo - allegro
Adagio
Allegretto


Shakespeare and Beethoven? 

I'm not the jealous type, i swear i'm not, but Beethoven was a huge fan of Shakespeare, i'm a fan of  Shakespeare in the park, with plenty of wine and snacks.

What is interesting about Beethoven's the Tempest, is you need to read Shakespeare and his Tempest to understand what it's about, well that's according to a student of Beethoven.

This student had had a record for telling little 'white lies', but Beethoven was a huge Shakespeare fan after they were translated into German of course, so the Tempest story could be true

Beethoven's favourite Shakespeare play was "The Merchant of Venice". Beethoven also read Hamlet, The Tempest, Othello, Much Ado About Nothing, All's Well That Ends Well and The Winter's Tale and he died before he had the chance to see Romeo and Juliet

Sonata op. 31 no. 2 'Tempest'

3, Sonatta op. 111
Maestoso - allegro con brio ed appassionato
Arietta, adagio molto smplice e cantabil

Last but not least, one of the most amazing things i have ever heard, now Anthony Halliday described how Beethoven wrote this piece while he was ENTIRELY deaf, he couldn't even hear the dinner bell or his iphone ringing off, how did he ever survive?

He must of drove his neighbour down stairs absolutely mad, his neighbour was constantly banging on his ceiling. He could drive me mad any time he liked, in fact sometimes i feel like i'm on Auto pilot, take me to crazy town Beethoven! And i would go too!

Part 1


Now, Anthony described a part of it where it felt like 'stars falling' i would have said explosions then glittery confetti and glitter falling and how he created new effects for this piece that had never been done before.
  

Once i heard the piece he was referring to i thought

Bang on the money, that's it! 

And he should know, he was playing it after all and the piece reminded me of a scene from  Emile Zolas book 'Doctor Pascal', the last book in the Rougon-Macquart series


The scene i'm thinking about is where the grandmother that has  a type of locked in syndrome from a stroke and she watched her grandson go into convulsions and she then realises that he is dying and she dies herself watching it all happen, when the family in the next room come back, both grand mother and grandson are dead.

Part 2


A scene like that from a Emile Zola might not seem worth relating here, but for me it was one of the best things i have ever read, in fact, i read the book again just to get that scene in it's entirety, it was unbelievable.

One of the things Anthony said was

'If composers could say what they wanted to say with words, they wouldn't use music'

One wonders if Emile Zola aspired to play music? I think he should of.

Part 3


A few weeks ago i watched a movie called 'A room with a view' 

Here are some Beethoven related excerpts:
Lucy Honeychurch: Mother doesn't like me playing Beethoven. She says I'm always peevish afterwards.
Revered Beebe: I can see how one might be... stirred up.

Whatever's the matter with dear Miss Lucy?
I put it down to too much Beethoven.
I heard her beautiful playing.

I have a pet theory about Miss Honeychurch.
Is it not odd that she should play Beethoven
with such passion and live so quietly?
I suspect that one day...
...music and life will mingle. 

Mind you marry her next January.
Her music, the style of her...
how she kept to Schubert when,
like an idiot, I wanted Beethoven.
Schubert was right for this evening. 

A scene from the movie 'A room with a view'


p.s.
 Those that don't hear the music think the dance is crazy, god bless you Beethoven, where ever you are!

A note from my friend Olaf

I sometimes get an email from my friend Olaf from Germany and the thing i love about them are how it's a bit lost in translation, sometime's you gain something and by reading them, it somehow tells a different story?

I'd hate to lose any of them, this is why it's here, this blog will be here for ever, most Germans i have met will not say something if they think the grammar will be incorrect, but Olaf speaks his mind, fantastic!

Just write your mind!

Olaf says:

hello friends,
here is the germanyguy olaf.
after long time a sign of my life.
yes i still life.
mabay no everbody can remember my,i met all the peopel here anywhere on the world,from last year antill the last 12 years.
and my english is still bad,sorry about this!!!!!!
how are you and what is happed the last time?
who is travel?
you have same news?
i hop everbody is okay and you enjoy life.
i wish you merry xrismas and happy new year!!
i am fine,since 3 months i travel agian.
this year i diceide to travel on afrika.
first madagascar and after this to the continet,johannesburg and direction nord.
i have time antill next year mai and i think antill to kenia is possibel.
a lot off grettings from far a way,good lucky and i hop i get same answer.
olaf or also franko