FiftyFive ~ # 55

This curiously checkered picture is the view from my hotel room in Sydney, taken through the blind. And having spent a couple of days taking in the 17th Biennale of Sydney (patchy but wonderful - Cockatoo Island, best trip if not the best art) I realised my "way of looking" at life had changed. My trip to Australia has to be counted as life affirming. Twenty Eight - thirty hours of travel and then being in a country sharing a common language with a vast collision of "other" cultures - remarkable place. Blogs full of pictures are boring travelogues so I intend streaming what I have. But going back to the start, I attach this, as my first real view of Canberra, taken from the Telstra Tower on a freezing cold day. Such a fantastic view and here, its own shadow pointing at Canberra the parliament town where history was beginning to take place. You see when I was there the very first red-head was voted in as Australia's new Prime Minister - not only that, he is a she (and if that phrase sounds sexist - hey, its Australia and relevant I can assure you). Which is to say Australia has its first female Prime Minister. In between writing the paper I was giving, and reading stuff, I was watching Australian history unfolding - remarkable and curious, for in Canberra you really do feel as though you are in the middle of government taking place. Julia Gillard is the new Australian red-headed PM - here is another, singing Something to Talk About - which I though appropriate from one of my favourite guitar players:

FiftyFive ~ # 55

...clowns to the left of me

jokers to the right

here I am stuck in the middle with a ... didgeridoo

(with apologies to Stealers Wheel)

FiftyFive ~ # 55

Seek and find, ok its not a translation but its a snippet and more than I had, "Salif Keita suggests that his choice to revive Folon a song he first made to mark the end of dictatorship in Mali (and much of West Africa) in the early 1990s, contains a subtle political message for today. “ ‘Folon’ is about democracy,’’ he says. “In the past, we didn’t select our leaders. They would come into power and people wouldn’t even know who or how. We paid a heavy price for democracy. We can’t forget that.’’
Many countries of Africa (and elsewhere) are nominally democratic today but still highly unstable. Is Keita suggesting they are slipping? Direct as he may have become on some topics, now he answers with a proverb. “The horse is trotting ahead,’’ he says. “But you still have to drive it.’’ See here from the Boston globe, yay: http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2010/06/13/malinese_singer_salif_keita_takes_up_the_plight_of_african_albinos/ Love it - but look at this clip - his Takamine guitar is just like mine - ooh, I could never have planned that one, though I bet his top of the range - still:

FiftyFive ~ # 55

This picture takes me back to the start of this blog because I am back writing what I was writing then - and its a blessed relief I can tell you. What a year it has been for writing other things like articles and stuff but I am now back on course to write The Ghost which is good. Though on Saturday I am off to Australia and that is a scary prospect for have never flown south of the equator before. And also because I seem to be travelling with an academic reputation, for what I don't know - Modesty forbids me to speculate. Nevertheless, I hope I can acquit myself with the proper shade of gravitas and all that jazz. Of course the biggest problem is knowing what to pack - it is going to be cold there and since we are in the middle of summer I need to think ahead. Jumpers and jackets and thick socks seem to be in order - though Boots of Spanish Leather is playing on the CD at the moment and they seem to be a good idea too. But books to travel with for much reading will be needed and music to take too and oh - such a quandary. I hope they will get the world cup there too. Would be a shame to miss it - though not the vuvuzelas, thought I had tintinitus at first - zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. When I write I tend to overdose on a particular artist and writing Fear of Flying, Falling and Laughter led me to Nanci Griffith and Speed of the Sound of Loneliness is one of her best (written and dueted here with John Prine - and a neat video too) - you come home straight and you come home curly... your out there running just to be on the run... and here's one for you, I just found out that Nanci is a couple of months older than me, which I guess is relevant to nothing.

FiftyFive ~ # 55

Some days just come together by themselves and there is much pleasure to be had from them, even if they have been hard work. Two major things happened in the past twenty-four hours, last night I scored the winning goal in a six aside match - hey, OK its not the world cup but at my age you take all the goals (and blue roses) you can get! And today I wrote Fear of Flying, Falling and Laughter - creative intervention and critical intercession for my Cranberry trip (did I say I was off to Australia - yay). Forty years in gestation and a day or so to write - ending with: "...the fear of flying, falling and laughter is the death of the author!" I will probably beat myself up over it tomorrow but tonight I will drink a glass of wine in celebration. And I will dance to this tune to celebrate the opening of the World Cup:

FiftyFive ~ # 55

Cameras are odd things - and this idea that they never lie is a lie, for surely the Lilliputian proportions of this picture are all wrong and I am a gulliver here. Still, this is the desk I write at and am writing at now, taking a break from The Fear of Flying paper I am to write for my visit to Cranberry. Made a decision to get my affairs in order today - like insurance and pensions and bank details, I have stuff all over the place and now that I have tidied my books off the floor this must be the next logical move - which is all a bit worrying. Where is this new logic coming from? Am I facing up to the responsibility of ageing or am I just kidding myself and will never get it done - time will tell, I guess. Thus, I am posting Ryan Adams singing Come Pick Me Up - cos he is the person I see inside my head and this was my kind of band when I was twenty, which suggests he is going to look like me when he is older. But I am in the process of writing and recording the acoustic CD which is fun to do. I am thinking of calling it Grey or The BOFs (work it out). Finally got to the end of Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo. Its not that I found it tough going, it was just never to hand when I wanted to read. Though have just begun Brooklyn by Colm Toibin and that is becoming hard to put down. Jeez, so many books so little time and I am researching another paper too, for publication, working title, Barack Obama, Harry Potter and the Mudbloods: race is still a four letter word It is to coincide with the release of the new Potter film but time, can I buy time, has anyone any for sale?