Wednesday, October 15, 2008

TOP TEN THINGS THAT MAKE IT WORTHWHILE

Yeah, it has been a while between lists – not because there’s been nothing good, just because somehow I’ve kept myself busy doing nothing… huh? yeah, I don’t understand it either.

BIG BLOOD – husband & wife duo that I discovered via grown so ugly blog… ex Cerberus Shoal band who I’d briefly discovered via Ptolemaic Telescope… this is a mess o’ psych folk madness with a keening voice that reminds me a little of Kate Bush on some really good mushrooms or perhaps even Julie Dahlia if she went down that path… great stuff anyways and they seem quite happy to share their work – I’ve downloaded four or five of their cd-r’s via grown so ugly and they are all damn good. I mean how many bands do you know who can cover a Can song and make it sound like their own? They’re on my friends list – check them out.

BUFFALO WINGS – another discovery via grown so ugly (well actually via a comment on the site). A young French-Anglo boychild with a style all his own. This is fucked up folk music filtering charles manson thru syd barrett’s ghost, creepy, crazy but definitely original. Again, you’ll find him on my friend’s page. His albums are available fer free as well and well worth the download.

BP JR #2 the last of the print editions (and even then very ltd) with Nicola’s (oops Sophie’s) long legs on the cover, PJ Harvey, Steve Kirby, Howard The Duck… Dann’s usual obsessions and pervy pix. Go to www.bettypaginated.blogspot.com for yr fix.

BIZARRISM #10 while in Newcastle for the writers fest it was great to catch up with old friends like Chris Mikul and to pick up the latest issue of his great zine Bizarrism. With Idi Amin, the birdman of kings cross, compulsive hoarders, book reviews and other madness it always makes for a good read. I’m gonna have to get the back issues I missed. Email him for details on getting yr fix. cathob@zip.com.au

COLLATERAL DAMAGE – MARK MANNING Picked this book up at Polyester in Melbourne. I guess you’d call it a journal/pocket book/chapbook maybe? Notebook size, even though its 190 pages its still a short, sharp and dark look at Amerikkka post 9/11 by Manning’s rock star alter ego Zodiac Mindwarp as we follow the band on tour across the great nation with lots of masturbation, drinking and bumming. A strange but funny journey with Zodiac’s sarcastic and vicious eye for detail showing us a seedy, dirty yankee land that we probably didn’t want to know about. No one is spared including himself. I laughed outloud on more than one occasion and that don’t happen much anymore. Twisted, fucked up and very very funny.

BOXING DAY
– Aussie film filmed here in Adelaide covering one afternoon in one man’s life as he tries to get his life back on line only for the shit to come down around him. Real time, direct to digital video this is an experiment in form but it works beautifully. Look, my review is on DVD Holocaust, its all there, I won’t repeat it. Check it out and watch this film.

MU MESON ARCHIVES – Jamie and Aspasia hosted the Paroxysm Press Sydney launch of Ten Years and they were great. We didn’t get a big crowd but we had a good time and they didn’t seem to mind and it looks like we’ve found a base for ourselves in Sydney now and a good time was had by all. And the place just rocks. Check them out – they know how to have a good time.
www.mumeson.org

TEN YEARS OF THINGS THAT DIDN’T KILL US – did I mention the new anthology that Paroxysm Press put out? J its been keeping us all busy for the last few months but we managed to launch it in Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle and Adelaide and damn but we’re tired. Being an old man, I’m totally rooted but hell, it was worth it. this is the best thing book Paroxysm has ever put together and I’m proud to have been involved let alone to have actually got some words in there as well. 49 authors Australia and worldwide – poems, short fiction, shotgun stories and the beauty of life in all its madness.
www.paroxysmpress.com for where to get it and trust me you won’t read anything better this year!

HEROIN LOVE SONGS
– I got a mess o’ pomes in the latest issue of HLS. Also got a story in a book called HERDING KITES (Affirm Press) … and won a poetry slam in Pt Augusta (pissed the prize money away that night) and came second in the Friendly Street Slam a month or so back. Also was runner up in the Unhinged Single Poet competition last month so I guess something is going right/write. But I still gotta get a paying job cos the goodwife is getting tired of funding my lifestyle. (especially since she paid for my interstate trips!)

NEWCASTLE YOUNG WRITERS FESTIVAL – okay I don’t know how I got to go to a ‘young’ writers fest but paroxysm press did their thing – we kicked arse, drank far too much, insulted some people, sold a few books, proved we are the best and I got to run a REDNECK LOUNGE! That was the highlight for me, standing in the festival club courtyard playing Roger Miller and Dixie Chicks to a bunch of hippies and kids while we drank, wrote Beer-kus (like Haikus only not so rigid) and chilled out after a hard morning sitting on a publishing panel drinking VIRGIN BOURBON. I kid you not, what a name for a drink!
We launched the book that night and the next day someone liked my work so much they bought me a beer. That to me makes it all worthwhile!

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