So much to say, so little to talk about

A lot has been happening around the place lately. If anything, there hasn't been time to rest, or blog for that matter. However, I decided to update my small but significant readership (read: fans) with some updates of what's doin'.

Today I went to a friends son birthday party. His 1st one of his life. The strong little guy was born 3 months premature and my friend and his wife spent just about that period of time waiting for the little guy to reach a certain weight before being allowed to leave the hospital.

My friend sent me update photos every now and then. Images of the little mans hand wrapped around my friends finger nail. He was about as small as the palm of your hand. It was amazing how tiny he was and such a survivor, such a trooper.

In other news, the other day I got a call from a real estate agent who I saw about a place for my music school, and we negotiated a rental agreement. However, he went to the owners of the premises and came back to me with the original offer he gave me. In other words, they aren't interested in negotiating.

The thing is, I want to try and get it as cheap as possible. But at the same time, it's pretty reasonably priced to begin with. So I might try to offer another term on the lease of the place and see if they budge.

Better news; I have two more guitar students who have started lessons with me, and one of my existing students has just passed Stage 1 of his tuition. 6 more stages to go with his junior level, then 4 senior levels and he can get a Diploma in Music.

I was approached by a local council to put in an offer for an event that will promote the Fair they plan on holding in a local park, and wanted me out the front with a drum circle to promote peoples interest to the Fair, ask the on-lookers to participate and then head into the Fair to see what other people are showcasing.

I sent them a quote, offering my drum circle at a highly reduced price, in the vein that I will be heavily promoting the music school and making a tremendous amount of contacts.

They contacted me the following day saying YES! and then asked me if there was anything I needed to help with the drum circle. So I asked how many chairs they think I need to bring. They said they'll provide the chairs. I asked if I can set up a marque? They said one will be provided.

In fact the only thing I need to do is turn up, bring my drums, djembes and cajones and make sure I have a ton of business cards, pamphlets and a sign that says who I am so people are aware of Revolution Guitars.

A brilliant opportunity that I can't pass up. Hopefully the discount I offered help get the job, and even more hopeful that it pays off with clientele. Fingers crossed.

On the gig front, Craig and I have played a few more gigs, and we had a chat the other day about really starting to get paid for the gigs we play. That would be nice. The reception we're getting from the gigs we play has been good. So hopefully we can start organising some paid work there. Craig and I enjoy playing music together, so it would be great if we start getting some money for the hard work we've done to make this happen. I'm working on a MySpace page that has nothing on it at the moment. So bare with the sparcity of the site right now, but we will have some more videos and music up on it soon that I think you'll like.

Well, that's pretty much it. Nothing philosophical to say this time around. Nothing special, just life updates and happenings.

Drum Circle developments

I finally got word back from the local council regarding facilitating free community drum circles.

The short answer is, they're really not interested.

The long answer is, they can allow me to do it but in light of the girl getting shut down with her lemonade stand, I have discovered that I need two things for a free drum circle.

1. Money - The council wants me to pay them to use the public park I already pay for with my taxes.
2. Public Liability - I need to be insured in case someone drops a drum on their foot and sues me.

This has made trying to get a drum circle up and running a lot more difficult that it really needs to be.

In totally opposite news, I have a good friend who works for Hurstville council and has told me about an up and coming Fair the council is putting on to showcase what they have to offer and allow the community to join together.... hey! A council that encourages community and bringing people together, not discouraging it with insurance and fees, etc.

So I've been asked to provide 10 drums, start playing and encouraging passer by'ers to sit and play some rhythms hopefully to encourage them to take part in getting into the Fair. I'm apparently setting up out the front somewhere.

I'm planning on buying some more djembes and also getting one of those roll out signs made up that you see at conventions and stuff. The ones that you roll open and then stick a pole behind it to stay open. Then take the pole out when you're done to allow the poster to contract back into the roller shutter thingy.

I'll also probably get a small marque. Something big enough for ten people to sit around in a circle. Just to keep the sun off. Though if it's under cover, I won't bother with that expense until I get big enough to bother with that sort of expense.

I've found a place that I'm going to see on Tuesday and try to negotiate with the agent for a couple of months free rent which will allow me to get started without much outlay of funds. I'll have to paint the place and as I get more students I'll start building more rooms.

A fresh coat of paint and some signage is all it needs for now. Stay tuned (pun intended).

I'm riled up

I love sticking it to the man. Any chance I get, there's nothing more fun than sticking it to the man.

But when the man sticks it to a person, and that person is harmless, I get riled up. I get pissed off. I feel like giving the man what the man deserves. A punch in the face.

This article pretty much sums up why I feel this way.

If you can't be bothered reading it, I'll summerise:

A little girl decides to open a lemonade stand. Her mother helps her do it.

While we were young we did this sort of thing, but we did it in front of our house. This girl did it at a Fair.

Inspectors come by, completely by chance and shut her down or she'll get a $500 fine for not having a license to sell food products.

Now, I can see the issue here. What if someone chokes on a pip from the lemon, or someone cuts themselves or falls in front of the lemonade stand, or lightening strikes the stand, with the shock running through the dispenser, into the cup and out to the customer. I can see how this could be an issue.

However, things are very different. There's no glass, there's no pips, there is no lightening. Just a cute little girl trying to be an entrepreneur. Then getting shut down by the man.

Why couldn't they have just turned the blind eye, seen a kid trying to do something positive, and go and shut down the local pizza joint who probably clears all the roaches from the cardboard boxes every evening before opening up the restaurant?

Because they're arseholes.

Point Plomer Photos

As promised, here are photos from Point Plomer.

Kookaburra resting on a tree trunk.

Lorikeet enjoying nectar from the bottle brush tree.

Me, rising out of a pile of turds.

Me, performing on guitar with my Cajon sitting in the background where a drum kit was set up moments before hand.

One of the hidden caves on our walk along the beach.

Alone, midday on the beach.

The tide going out.

Storm coming in from the West.

Nothing like seeing your foot prints on the beach and no one else's first thing in the morning.

I hope you enjoy all the photos from Point Plomer. I'll have more later in the year when I head back in November.

What do you want?

I'm not sure what will be written over the next few paragraphs, so bare with me.

There are things in life one likes and there are things in life one dislikes. It's often seen that in actual fact, we do things and have things we like, and perhaps there are some things in our life that we dislike. That sounds like I am repeating myself, but think about it.

Really think about it. You have stuff, do things, have friends, possessions, work, etc that we may enjoy, but there's always a part of it you don't. With more than enough self-help books out there, with people looking for the ultimate answer on how to put their life back on the straight, why is it that our lives are more complicated than ever?

There always seems to be a fix for something. Is it because there's always a problem?

Why is there always a problem? After all, we are in charge of our own lives. So why do we put ourselves into a position where we do things we dislike? We get into awkward situations that we don't want or like. But how does this happen when we are in control?

Is is society? Is it peer pressure? Is it just that things come and go unnoticed?

How do you find the situation you're in? Are you happy or content?

Point Plomer

I've briefly mentioned a place I go camping every now and then to get away from it all. This is not the usual camping trip I take every year to Sofala.

Point Plomer is a place I discovered through a friend over 15 years ago. Sadly, my friend died in a terrible car accident that is a story on its own. Point Plomer is a secret 60's surf spot. Today it's still a bit of a secret. Mainly because the road into the place is shit at best.

I put my little girly sized car through a lot to get there, and return. But she's a good car, and makes it there and back with never a complaint.

This time around was a bit different. I didn't exactly camp at Plomer. I stayed there in a house about 100 metres from where I usually camp. Funny part is, I've never seen that side of Point Plomer in the 15 years I've been going there.

Because of that, I had issues finding the place when I got there on Sunday night. Doing about 20 minutes of driving up to the point where the road had a sign that says "4WD Only".

Turning back around, I found some small houses lined up and then I found the bigger place thanks to my wife jumping out and asking for "The Plomer House"

Arriving there, we unpacked and made friends with some people we didn't know and caught up with friends with did know.

Since most of us are musicians, we had all brought our gear. The friend who organised the whole thing brought in a PA, so we had mics and proper sound. Then this guy rocked up, known in the local area as "Happy Days". A large hippy who lives 30 minutes away in a community share property, however the vague details suggest everyone there lives for themselves rather than communally. Not sure. But what I am sure of is Happy Days is a brilliant musician.

He turned up, set up his drum kit, and while people were a bit "strummed" out with their guitar playing and singing, Happy Days brought in a new breath of life and while he set up his drum kit, I played my bass, providing some tasty low end. He turned his skins and we were off, a bit of drum and bass to get the others warmed up and back into the rhythm of things.

We jammed together for a good 30 minutes before giving up because no one showed up. They were too busy eating, drinking and smoking.

Happy Days played the drums really well. Some of the rhythms he brought out were really technical, but not over done. They were simple, yet intricate.

Later than night he played my bass while I played along to the guys who finally got up to jam. I had jumped on my cajon, which I took up on the trip with my acoustic guitar and bass.

Man, Happy Days played bass really good too.

Later than night Happy Days had a few drinks and got on the guitar, played, started singing and everyone stopped what they were doing to have a listen to him. He was great. What a talented musician.

I won't lie. I was jealous. But my wife told me I was like him too. I just needed to stand in the lime light some more, instead of always trying to take a back seat. She's right. So, I've made myself a promise that I'm going to perform more of my stuff and get it out there rather than kick back and just play along.

The following day was sunny, so my wife and I went on a nice walk on the beach, though there were some areas that we couldn't walk around on the beach because the rocks reached out to the water, and the tide was coming in fast. So we said we'd try again the next day, but leave much earlier. The other side of the beach had some caves and stuff, so we headed back and ate lunch, enjoyed the rest of the day in the sun and played some more music.

Unfortunately Happy Days had to leave. I would have loved to have had more time to jam with him and also talk about the lifestyle he lives, off the land and off the grid.

The following day was much the same. Breakfast, music, walk on the beach, lunch, music. We watched some DVD's of concerts of famous musicians. Eat dinner and then had some nice cake that one of the visitors also staying at the house brought with them, running their own cake distribution business. This was perfect, as it was my wife's birthday. And while the trip away was mostly about getting away and forcing my wife to get away from her job for a short period of time, it was after all a good birthday present. Well, I thought so. The trip was all about relaxing and taking time to clear the mind, regather and head back into town a week later, ready to clear up some mess.

I think the trip worked out great in that regard.

I saw a side of Point Plomer I had never seen. I met some interesting people I'd like to see again. I gave my wife a good present. I had a break and caught up with friends I hadn't seen in a while.

I'll post photos over the next few days.

Gig last night with Craig

I haven't kept too many people in the loop on my cajon playing. There's a tonne of stuff about them on my website. And I have been playing a lot of gigs lately with the cajon. But last night was something else.

Craig, the legend from St.George Shire (hahahah), has a bucket load of good old fashioned Australian folk songs he recorded just as good old vinyl was being phased out, and CD's were the latest fashion. Sadly, he spent $4,000 on the record when it would have cost $40,000 to produce the same thing on CD back then.

When he got all the copies to distribute, people were buying CD players and throwing out their old record players on the street.

He later put his songs on CD, but the spark had fizzled, and people were listening to other stuff by then.

If you were to ask me "What's Craig's music about?" It's Australian folk. Good, honest songs about Australia's past and present.

I'm not in this video, but here's a sample of Craig's stuff.



Last night we played a couple of songs at Allawah Pub, which holds an open mic night courtesy of a good friend of mine in a neighbouring music school, Village Guitar. Which you might remember I spoke about when looking for a new career about 8 month or so ago.

Well, Craig and I were up there and we played two songs. We played them well. We played them so well than we won People's Choice award. And we were called up for not just one encore, but we did two more songs, finished up, and we were encored again.

People couldn't get enough of us. I wish someone got a recording of the night, but no one did.

What they did do however was sing along to the songs during the encores. There are two things a performer loves to hear the most. Applause and the crowd singing along. Amazing stuff.

Ah well. The night was enjoyable, and that's an understatement. Everyone was pumped up.

I love it when a gig goes that well.