It rains and rains...

The aforementioned 'Bob' night happened in great style at the Tea Club cafe in Nowra Nov 28th last year. It was a packed out night both onstage and off! Heaps of fun. Surely all who attended would agree that The Mighty Mighty A.S.H was the highlight!

There's been a bit of art [Project Gallery in Wollongong show 'Bouquet of Cactus' and '6x6' Cambewarra Xmas show] but more music lately.

Some new tunes to hear on www.myspace.com/vennsquidink and also on www.wtfmusic.org.

Some photos on their way...

cloud but still no rain

The spring has slowed to a trickle - not enough to keep the tank filled. In an area that is renowned for its green dampness it's somewhat weird to be rationing water.

Some walks to Gosang's Tunnel near Currarong and to Drawing Room Rocks just up the hill have been fantastic lately. Gosang's is pretty spectacular - it really is a tunnel and you end up on a cliff above the wide blue sea! Scary and wonderful.

Paintings for group show at Project Gallery in Wollongong in early Oct are coming along ... phew !

A 'Play a Bob Dylan song' night is planned for November and should be highly disorganised and fun. Possible another Crickadero night happening which will be fun if we can used the Berry S of A.

misty southerly change

Getting close to that crazy, excessive time of year when we celebrate the birth of hangovers.

The last couple of months have seen Mick finish his meganormous jobs at Frasers motorcycle showrooms and Steel restaurant, both in Sydney. They look wonderful of course!

I sang a little bit on Andy Gordon's album and this meant that we had a warble at the Sando in Newtown, which was a delightful blast from the past. Check out Andy's beautiful songs over in the Clever Friends section on the right ...

I've been working, sporadically (perhaps spasmodically is a better description) on Cheryl Scowen's Red Cross film, the printer tray project with Lea Hawkins, the ABC music commission (it's about bees! And some birds), and some of my songs (with help from Suzi and Peg). All these projects are coming along nicely in their own funny, square-wheeled way.

Other interesting sidelines have been our annual pre-Xmas 6x6 show at Cambewarra Hall just last weekend, the 'Attachments' group show (with Sue Bessell, Suzi Krawczyk, Joni Braham, Janine Hilder, Cheryl Scowen, Kathryn Orton) at Project Art Space in Wollongong in April and a little show of my own called 'Strange Attractors' at The Chocolate Shop in Berry in February. I'll put some pics of these up eventually.

Keep safe over mad season dudes!

firewood collected

PHOTO by AMY MOTHERSDILL, 2008

Readers may wonder why my post titles are about the weather - I am a bit obsessed with weather and temperatures, etc. It's just the way I categorise days and the way I remember things. If I'm not taking notice of what's happening outside my own head then it's time I went for a walk!

I've added some clever friends as I want to talk about some more projects that are simmering ... Suzi Krawczyk and Peg Ryan from the world music big band 'Ecobeat' are going to add their talents to a piece of music I made on Garageband and I want to admit right now (because blogs are a kind of confessional aren't they?) that it began as a mistake in the way I lined up the drum track with the bass track. However I thought it was so groovy that they should have a crack at it with their particular weird funky 13/8 type talents! It will go up here some time in the future.

Another project is using Cheryl Scowen's project (!!) as an experiment in digital storytelling. Cheryl is making some paintings and sculptural wall pieces based on the Red Cross op shop in Nowra. She's going to exhibit them at the Shoalhaven Arts Centre in 2009 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Red Cross in Nowra and I'm going to make her submit to being interviewed and having photos taken of her (it could test our friendship!).

Yet another thing to get excited about is a plan Chris Mansell and I have for putting on a showing of multimedia works in a kind of installation/sculptural type way (sorry - can't be more specific but I'll put up pics when it's a happening thang) in Nik and Poppy's beautiful shop in Berry - the Chocolate Shop. That's going to be heaps of fun!

cold and rainy afternoon

In this area (south coast New South Wales, Australia) many of us arty types are getting restless. It's the tail-end of winter and occasional warm afternoons, that give us hope, turn into cold southern fronts again and make us go back to hibernation.

Amongst all the drizzle and grizzle however there are events and projects on the simmer...

Lea Hawkins (illustrator, graphic artist and photographer extraordinaire) and I are conspiring to make a book of photos, working title "The Printer's Tray", which will show various particpants' take on creating a mini-installation using, you guessed it, a printer's tray as their frame.

Nik Broadbridge and I have been comparing notes on animations created in Photoshop and/or Imageready. Nik has more to show for our note comparing than I do however so I'll include links.

I'm spending more time on a piece of music/soundscape I've been commissioned to create for ABC Radio National's 'The Night Air' show. It's to do with bees but that's all I can be sure of so far!

Have a listen to the piece that won 'The Night Air' award in the 'Orpheus Remix' competition in April 2008, just paste this address into your browser:

http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/classic/australianmusic/orpheus83_m1522564.mp3