just when you thought i'd be updating once a month, here's a quick update from sydney, where i am being hosted by my new friend and great musician kate carr and her partner tanya.
i had to leave the house in castlemaine around 7am on 10th to drop off the keys to the i.c.u. and then catch the train to melbourne, then got the bus to the airport and printed off my boarding pass. then just checking with one of the virgin australia staff found out there was something up with my flight, as i was booked to fly at 12pm and the pass said 3pm! on complainingi found my flight had been cancelledand although put onstandby for the 2pm flight, had to take the 3pm, which got to me brisbane around 5:15pm. a frantic taxi ride got me to the venue i was performing in at around 6pm. thankfully the excellent sound engineer was ready and we got soundchecked super quick. so th show kicked off at 7 and i played at around 7:10, tentatively at first and then hitting my stride and giving the merzbow fans some melody mixed with more gritty textures and tones! i hope they liked it, although i didn't have too many adoring fans worshipping me afterwards...cured pink followed me, with motors affixed to industrial ducts moving around the audience, and then settling into a gently throbbing spacerock section - nice. a short break and then the man himself (merzbow) proceeded to blast everyone with a caustic set of white noise that was actually a processing of a self-made tin pan instrument played most of the time with a pasta scoop! i sat on the floor to soak up the low frequencies, and made sure my earplugs were rammed in, but even with that precaution my left ear was ringing for a while afterwards!
following the show lawrence english, who kindly added me to the bill, masami and i went to eat dinner - salt and pepper tofu, a mushroom hotpot and steamed greens - delicious! we were then joined by andrew, the driving force behind cured pink, and as masami and lawrence are not drinkers, when they decided to call it a night, i headed to 'the brunswick' with andrew and a couple of friends. it seems this is the place to go on a thursday night, and once again karaoke was on the menu. some great performances, including a rendition of ac/dc's 'back in black' from a guy who looked like thursday night karaoke might be the only time he left the house, and amazingly men at work's 'down under'! seemingly without too much irony!! what a night!
i stayed in a lovely room at the judith wright centre, where the event was hosted, so the following day headed into the city centre to have a wander around. i actually ended up at goma museum of modern art and spent quite a bit of time there.
later on i met with lawrence once again for food (mexican, which was pretty good) and then hung around to see the concert he had arranged. a very nice night and met loadsof very nice people, including greg hooper,who i met the following day for a japanese gyoza lunch. yep, talking great food again!!
we then parted company and i headed to the train station to catch my overnight train (which turned out to be a 3 hour bus ride and then a 12 hour train ride) to sydney.
i must have got more sleep than i thought i had, because all yesterday i actually felt quite fresh! kate had her mum visiting so i killed 4 hours by walking around sydney, stumbling over the opera house within the first hour of being there! after a bit more meandering and a spot of breakfast (the most expensive bacon and eggs i think i have ever had) i met up with kate and tanya, had a spot of lunch and headed back down to the harbour to visit the art museum in sydney, mainly as they had marclay's 'the clock' playing. some really great work there, but only catching 15 minutes of the clock i realised i need to go back and see it for a longer period....
amazing thai food (crispy basil pork belly - mmmm...) and then a couple of beers and not surprisingly i slept really well!!
today instead of going back tothe museum, i headed to chinatown for lunch, darwin harbour for a coffee and people watch, and a walk back through an area of outdoor supplies stores looking for a replacement soft shell and not finding anything under $200 australian. i think i'll stick with the one i have...
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