the church at the enmore

i missed the soundcheck, not sure what happened but from the street it sounded amazing, and then i sat down in my seat, front row, and watched the lights go down, the band walk on and start playing immediately, and here we are, someone's waved a magick wand, maybe i'm in an extra dimensional shift, an alternative earth, a place where the church just played their oldest songs and it felt like you hear them for the first time, so mutated from the originals, enhanced and pulled through a .........................hypnoguage?

these are songs i have heard so many times, on record and often live, old faves, classics from the first four albums. i know these songs intimately, every note and now they have been changed so dramatically sometimes i feel like i'm listening to hawkwind, teadrop explodes, echo and the bunnymen, it's like all my fave bands blended up and channeled through this new band, the church playing old songs but sounding new. it's joyous, it's audacious and intelligent. i have a new fave band, it's the church. i really love this new sound. i really love the way they are playing now, it's no disrespect to previous members or gigs, they all had their time and the music was magnificent and brilliant but right now, right now, it's just new.

   

last weekend

the weekend is over, dead and buried. want to hear about it? read on.
as usual i'm exhausted from hard work, it appears everyone else is on a go slow or work avoidance regime and because they are not accountable to anyone everything is left to me. so after a long, long saturday i drive home feeling like i need 12 weeks in a health spa and a new skinsuit. my face haggard and weary like an old sailor my bones like lead and my fat head just pounding and throbbing like they are demolishing a city somewhere inside. i make it to bed around 9pm and am about to fall asleep. my telephone has had a flat battery all day and it's on the charger near my bed. suddenly it rings.

it's my brother, he's upset i can tell by his voice, he says very slowly and seriously, 'i've got to tell you something.'

my first thought is 'mums dead.'

he says, 'my flats been ransacked. it's been broken into.'

how this is possible i don't really know, it's in a very wealthy established part of london and has security and double locks. it's almost an impossible place to break in to. but whomever did this were professionals. old 'two tier' comrade starmer has just let out a bunch of rapists, sex offenders, robbers and murderers from over crowded prisons in the uk to make room for people who tweet and write anti establishment things online. consequently crime is at an all time high.

anyways they took some stuff that my dad had left us. 

it's not the money or value i was annoyed about but the fact this was my dads passion and joy, something he left for us. i didn't even see it, it was locked away in my brothers apartment, in his attic.

anyways i deal with him, i mean it's just good no one was hurt and the goods they stole are just things, so i help my brother try to get perspective. the forensics arrive and we say goodbye.

i'm missing my dad a lot this week. it's been strange as normally i don't really miss him like this, i want to speak with him, to have a conversation but he's not here. that's hard for me. i just want him to listen. it's frustrating.

sunday i manage to get up at 5am after about 3 hours sleep and drive down to north sydney for a market where i sell some of my books. i make about $50 but meet some nice people. 

a young girl about 16 and her mum. the girl bought my tolkien copies and i gave her some other books as a bonus. we chat a bit about 'the dark materials,' she tells me she's about to leave to join the coast guard in their air division patrolling australia's coasts, i like this girl, she's really nerdy and mature, she's intelligent and has a interesting librarian type of voice. then an old couple come along, very dark skinned the man has weird alien like teeth as if two sets deformed within one another. he's soft spoken in a fractured english but has good language skills just accented, as we discuss good science books and i sell him two books on quantum physics. i discover he is from sri lanka, in the north so i tell him about my trips there, how much i loved it. he said he was a hindu who was exploring buddhism, whereas i said i was more buddhist exploring hinduism when i was there. later a man came along to look at some thrillers and i recommended 'three envelopes' which he bought. it was a beautiful day, i was set up underneath a tree and all these weird flowers fell down upon me and the books, covering the whole spread in a strange surreal layer of blossom. later a japanese lady came to have a look, she offered me a snow pea from a bag of them and i like raw snow peas so i started telling her about my fave xmas lunch which we had once after a night clubbing, a fresh snow pea from my friend james garden. she found it funny that i only had a snow pea for xmas dinner that year. as we spoke i discovered she was a stall holder who made and sold cakes, she was just wandering around having a look at other stalls. we had a chat about baking, i explained how i can't bake very well at all and that i have a fave cake called 'lumberjack cake' which no one has ever heard of but i attempt to bake it and it always comes out different. she looked at me and smiled and said she sells 'lumberjack cake' so i went over and had some off her cake. it was perfect. we discussed the science of baking and art of cooking, obviously i am no scientist, i never measure ingredients and think in ratios, whereas baking requires that mathematical approach unlike cooking which i am good at. i tell her i will choose a book for her and return to my stall. somewhere around me a fight breaks out, i intervene and assist a young japanese family from being attacked by a north shore lawyer type with barbarian tendencies, the family are very grateful and come and shake my hand. 

later the japanese cake lady brings me a cucumber. i offer her ursula le guin's two volume collection of short stories, 'keep them,' i say. and strangely enough she has read and loved le guin's 'left hand of darkness' so we have a chat about that. how weird.

later she brings me a box of lumberjack cake as a gift.

this weekend

the threat of a train strike hangs over me this weekend. i have taken two days leave from work as friday evening the the are playing the opera house and saturday 'the church' are at 'the enmore.'

i am in avoca visiting a friends bakery, he notices the anguish in my face, it's a real possibility i may have to miss both gigs. i've considered driving in, but parking is impossible, plus accommodation is super expensive as the demand is so high.

and then at the final moment i hear the good news.

the the is incredible, matt johnson and his band are a tight outfit, the sound is crisp and clear and they are filming the gig. matt is super talkative something new, last time i saw him he was very introverted. i'm very close to the front, the first half of the gig is the new album 'ensoulment' which is as close to lenord cohen as i;ll see, matt just seems to possess that same gravatas, in a new wave type of sound.

the second set is all the old faves, starting with infected, it's everything you wanna hear, infected, armageddon days, sinking feeling, love is stronger than death, august and september, slow emotion replay, this is the day, heartland, dogs of lust, sweet bird of truth and lonely planet concluding with 'uncertain smile' and 'giant.'

the opera house was packed and everyone was up, dancing and grooving. 

 

 

i finished reading 'everything must go,' by dorian lynskey, a pretty interesting read especially if you're a sci fi nut like me. it catalogues various fears about armageddon from revelation, through to artificial intelligence, and looks at the ideas roots and the journey it has taken to current times. i learnt quite a lot actually reading this book as it was written in a very accessible style and hugely engaging. ironically a hopeful book when you look at human history and all the near misses we have had. there are various left wing tropes that pop up which is fair enough, without them the book would never have found a big publisher so all forgiven and it's certainly nothing major but it does make me wonder how a book about the end has a weird lean to the left. in the same way a review of the christopher nolan batman's films were savaged by the guardian for being...wait for it, to right wing and pro capitalist. sometimes people just need to enjoy a film about a man who dresses like a bat and catches criminals without over thinking. anyways, this is a great book if you consider science fiction as predictive literature, for it all starts in sci fi.

the day fades out, it's a spooky moon, a few ambient clouds huant the dark skies above. i'm heading down the freeway north, back home chatting to my guardian angel, she always guides me in, like a beacon as i ramble on, sometimes i wonder how she tolerates me. anyways when i arrive home my cyberpunk books are awaiting me. i'm happy i managed to get these half price as they are usually quite expensive, you know how it is for book addicts, books before food and all that. well it certainly has been books before bills, i still have telstra on my back for an overdue unpaid phone bill. telstra, the one company i loathe and hold in contempt in australia, apart from political parties and their institutions. actually they all just freaking suck and should be broken up into much smaller, more personable entities. i may be a capitalist but it's gotta have limits. no human should have any more than $5 million in cash, and a further $5 million in assets. any excess needs to be put into cleaning up the oceans, preserving nature and generally being constructive in the arts. i love elon musk and if you're a visionary in your field then they get exemptions, but government bodies do not. if you are a writer or musician that produces a quality result, you get funded to keep going. 'the church' would be funded every year to record albums, play gigs. christopher nolan, denis villeneuve and tarantino can be funded for their movies ect but generally they still only receive as a personal income up to $5 million. 

the problem with the millionaire types these days is they have no imagination, it's the same old boring stuff, day in day out. we all need something to change, some kind of new society. 

i gave my talk, it was okay, i remained polite and did not swear, i didn't want to upset anyone, i figured my presence there probably offended them anyway, 'who is this freak talking about energy fields and pattern recognition, about mind viruses.' anyways i was very mediocre compared to the lady who spoke after me. 

she was excellent, really 'cosmic' almost took over where i left off and sent the audience into deep space with her information about mk ultra, aliens, underground arctic bases, alternative timelines and how to navigate the dimensional shift. also she swore like a trouper. i really enjoyed her stuff, it was engaging, well presented and she's a familiar face from my avalon years. inspired! 

what a strange olde day for a geezer like me. i was exhausted last night, got home around midnight, couldn't sleep o i did some pottering around, at 4am i went to bed and slept 4 hours, then in the morning i took some plants out to catch the rain and sent some e mails, after which i went to the post office to pick up a package. then it was sitting at the computer to finish a lecture i'm doing tonight. it came out of the blue really, apparently they did flyers for it and i'm the last person to know. ha! you gotta laugh.

anyways, i am just going to wing it, i'll extrapolate my third part by throwing in some group work and audience participation, that should keep everyone on their toes while i have a snooze. 

anyways i did a little bit of writing and attempted to tidy up a few piles of books. it really is getting nuts with all these books everywhere.

anyways the stunningly intelligent and beautiful natasha was on a podcast i like 'heretics' which is fascinating and educational although it won't change any jew haters mind at all. i mean you can show someone a circle and they can repeat endlessly no matter what evidence they are presented with, 'it's a square.'

later i watched a documentary about a guy who returned to london after 10 years and couldn't believe what a dump it had become since his absence. i felt like telling him i left in 1988 and could see the signs and everytime i return it just gets worse and worse and no longer even resembles the city i was born into. that's okay sydney is home for me until i win the lottery.

ever since about the age of 20 i never liked the left wing side of the argument, it always stunk of some sort of intellectual elitism, the smug lies and distortions, the incredible hypocrisy, the way they hate the working class. i hate their stupid ideas, their ridiculous spokespeople and their stupid idiot drones who just repeat lies they have heard in their bubble where they cannot tolerate anyone with a different perspective. this little video actually gave me a lot of pleasure, it encapsulates my own argument very well as brendon o'neil one of my fave political commentators and writers hits the nail on the head over and over.

i'm happy trump won, it really gives me hope that the people of america voted for him, kennedy, musk and gabbord. very great individuals and a strong team, endorsed by megyn kelly, joe rogan and a host of podcasters who interviewed them. it was indeed a clever move to get alternative media to access the public because we know the mainstream media is a sham, it's a lie.

anyways watch and learn. 

perfect morning, dawn surfing with waves that reflect all i love about life. i wanted to stay in the water all day but commitments pulled me out. each wave came in at approximately 7 minites from the last but they were the right size and right force, i was lifted up and propelled forwards at speed, my solar plexus radiating yellow light. my mind clear and sharp in crystal lenses, base chakra crimson. the universe was bright, alive and sounding vital as though a terrible darkness and oppressiveness had been lifted.  after about 2 hours i emerged, had coffee with my fellow sons and daughters of neptune and heard a disturbing piece of information.

now i am an open minded guy, i believe in prophecy, i don't believe in prophets, but some guy was claiming today or tomorrow some terrible event will occur in sydney. he showed me a clip of the simpsons, homer tosses a prawn up and it lands on a telephone line. he squirts some cooking oil at it and accidentally falls into an open drain that connects to the gas pipe. suddenly a series of houses blow, then the opera house, then some skyscrapers, then the opera house and then we see australia break off into small islands. my friend claims that certain 'decoders' have translated this to mean that some catastrophic event will happen in sydney today or tomorrow. now i know a few schizophrenics that put together similar random information into some weird coherent pattern so i walk a fine line between what i believe to be true. to me it's bullshit but apparently several other people say the same thing. i will say i am very skeptical. for starters i don't get information from television shows. i love the simpsons, it's gotta be the best thing about tv but the writers are not seeing the actual future, they are very clever and funny but no more psychic than anyone else. what they can do is look at current events, trace patterns and make assumptions based on pattern recognition. this is what they have done in the past. what a lot of people don't know is the writers of the simpsons are mathematicians, scientists and philosophers. which makes them masters of logic, critical thinking and satire.

anyways, in 48 hours we will know but i am putting my $ on things remaining perfect in the emerald city. if you wanna get angry then there's always albo's insane cyber bill which was passed in the early hours of the morning. yeah, the one where if you post anything the govt. say is disinformation it's jail time. all well and good but the biggest source of disinformation is the govt. itself.

listening to the new mix of 'dream harder' which so far is actually much better than the official release, unfortunately it's not on hard copy but that may change as mike scott does tend to put out exceptional boxed sets so there is hope. 'good news' sounds amazing.

today i am out for breakfast with a new friend, i normally never bother with breakfast, coffee my only requirement but maybe i should have something fruity with lots of fibre. these are the strange and crazy things occupying my brain at the crack of dawn. i scrub my teeth, have a shower, get some clean clothes on, ready to roll.

i did notice steve is playing up the coast next year so i better grab a ticket this week, plus invite my new local posse whom i know would dig the experience. it's weird having friends. i'm not used to it. people call me up to check how i am travelling, people smile when i come along, i get invited for xmas dinners, bbq's and other things that i usually never do except alone. anyways that's kinda nice in me olde age to have good people around me. 

chat with jake for a while, he's getting ready to take the leap of faith, brave guy, it would be so easy to hang out doing the same easy thing day in day out but he's making a huge change and moving into the light. it's hard to believe he's 36 years old. fuck that makes me ancient really.

friday- i'm up early, like super early 5am, i potter around, do some reading, writing, watch some you-tube stuff, play some roxy music, then head off in search of a futon mattress to no avail. it rained heavy last night and i'm not certain what the day will become.  the mattress mission is a big fail, i have to give up around 11am and head over to ettalong beach where the ferry brings a friend over. we have a wander around the strange italian complex, do some business and then i drive back home for a little nap. at around 1pm i blast more roxy music, it gets me motivated. after putting something away i sit down for a reading session, which lasts a few more hours than i thought, but the time is 6pm so i have a bath and fall into a luxurious deep delta sleep.

sat- i wake up early again, answer some texts, then smoke a spliff and instantly fall back asleep. when i awaked i grab a water and my pills, and wash them down with some weed oil which then knocks me into the deepest deep sleep i have ever had, it's so deep imagine a black hole being swallowed by another. and in that black hole i discovered the whole off reality is a simulation, possibly within a simulation within a simulation ect. 

yes, and that's all before breakfast. 

for breakfast i actually cook scrambled eggs with a plunger coffee to accompany. it's actually quite satisfying. tasted great anyways. i listen to two podcasts that are political and capture the political simulated reality we have to live in at the moment, precarious. but we have been here many times and if you take that cosmic view (not a simulation)  we have been here longer than history itself. my hope is the normal people of the planet just wake up and see what's going down, i don't think starmer will last, i think he will cave in, the public hate him, he's fucked up, he's failed after a few months. 

anyways in the usa, anything could happen, i hope trump makes it past that line. i want him to, a lot of people will be able to breath out a lot of anxiety. my thoughts are the nazis, the real fucking ones, will stop at nothing to get him out the picture. i think it's very cool rfk and elon are attached to him, not to mention tulsi gabbard who is a very smart cookie herself.

in australia - ah one day it's fine the next it's not. i like the sun, the beach and a nice wave. that's when i am in my happy spot everything else complicates things!

i once met a girl in a club whom tried to convince me 'tool' were the most important band ever. my girlfriend marie and her were in deep conversation and they suggested we go outside to her car to smoke a joint and listen to a cd of tool. i was off my chops on an e so i was quite happy to tag along, although i knew tool were not really my kinda band.  in those days the city was safe, it had a friendly vibe and everyone had their defences down, you could talk to strangers, it was a good period. live music flourished, sydney was like a 24 hour city and at 1am the streets were crowded and pulsing with people. as we walked up oxford street about seven people stopped to chat with us, i looked good in those days, slim, healthy, kinda kooky and wild. i guess youth has it's advantages, the women seemed to like me.

in the car i skinned up while marie and her friend were in some sort of deep conversation, marie attempting to engage me in discussion as we were explained about tools lyrics, everything from dmt to child abuse. well in theory they sounded interesting but when she slipped a cd into the tray and hit play a horrible noise interrupted my peace. fuck me, what an awful noise, that wretched heavy metal treated guitar with an awful screeching vocals i could never understand without a lyric sheet. awful, my whole body tensed up, meanwhile the girls seemed to be getting along very well. 

i don't know, this type of music does not work for me. i mean in theory i dig it, yeah an out there kinda band doing risque tunes about heavy duty issues. it's all culture but i guess when i hear this type of music it makes me appreciate the music i like even more. 

anyways i smoked my spliff, on an eccy high with two stunning girls who were getting on in an intimate way at the back of the car and i stared out the window (occasionally in the rearview mirror) and although the music grated my nerves i felt okay, you know, it was a different time period, people wandered by on the street, lots of strange sydney siders at 3am either on their way home or looking for the next thrill. everything was good, except that awful racket 'tool' made.