We were eating again at the Grand. No big group of people, so Josh was able to get his calimari, which had run out last time because of that big group. I went with a simple carbonara, which the hotel chef insisted on including mushrooms in. I spooned away the mushies and dug in. Josh’s sister and her family have been down staying at his place. It went okay, he had to tidy up a bit, and slept on his convertible couch. Even so, the sister complained that the place was getting ‘run down’. Josh also mentioned he now has plans on going to India early next year to stay at an Ashram with friends. It’s apparently the site of a well-respected mystic he’s read about. Good for him, but it’s not a place I ever want to go to.
Back at his place, I peeked into some of the rooms that had been opened up due to his sister’s stay. The front room was full of boxes containing mysterious papers and other items. On the veranda, Asahi’s in hand, I asked Josh about them. They were mostly relics of his father’s and Josh had never had the time or bothered to look into them. He said they’d found a strange briefcase that had a combination lock. Some of his friends were able to open it, and it contained an old photo of a very young Josh with his mother who, as I mentioned in the previous Conversation entry, died when he was about one. Who knows what else is in there? As a library worker, the challenge and fun of sorting through that ‘archive’ would be irresistible to me. There would definitely be his dad’s thesis on political cartoonists in there, for one. Josh mentioned his mother also wrote a thesis paper. It was on Virginia Woolf. That is so typical of Josh’s family. No wonder he turned out so interesting. I wonder if the thesis is in there too.
Today was the Australia Day holiday. A lot of us, me included, call it Invasion Day instead – for obvious reasons. It was heartening to see one of my neighbours sporting a flag on his front gate; and instead of the Australian flag, it was the Aboriginal flag. Good stuff. I actually had work today at the library in Ringwood. It worked out well, because I had planned to watch the Dylan film A Complete Unknown and it was showing at the cinema in the shopping centre adjacent to it. I saw it with my mate Lui, who is a big Dylan fan.
Lui and I chatted about the film at his place afterwards. Damn, it was good. I gave it four and half stars on my Letterboxd. Timothy Chalomet totally inhabits Dylan. The other support actors were good too, especially Edward Norton as Pete Seeger. I liked the way they used the music narratively. That is, for example, Dylan visits Woody Guthrie at the hospital for the first time, and he plays his own Song For Woody to him. Later, during the ‘64 Newport concert, he performs It Ain’t Me Babe with Joan Baez, a song that speaks to the end of their relationship.
Lui and I noted one strange thing about the film. Dylan’s old girlfriend, Suze Rotolo (played by Elle Fanning), the lady who appears with him on the Freewheelin’ cover, is referred to as ‘Sylvie’ in the film. I haven’t read up about it, but I speculated it’s because Suze’s family or estate did not give permission to use her name. Something similar to this happened with the film The Runaways, when bassist Jackie Fox refused to have her name and character used, so they had to invent a new character for that role, which was a bummer.
There were so many good scenes. One of my favourites was the scene where a drunken Johnny Cash tries to get his caddy out of a car park and constantly crashes it – right in front of a nonchalant Dylan. Boyd Holbrook, the actor who plays him was stellar. Of course, the Director, James Mangold, was the one who directed the earlier Cash biopic, I Walk the Line, with Joachim Phoenix playing the role. This version of Johnny, as some have noted, is sexier. There are also cheeky nods to many Dylan myths and legends, like Al Kooper showing up for the Like a Rolling Stone session and squeezing himself in to the recording by playing keyboard. And, during the legendary ‘65 Newport performance, we get a brief glimpse of Pete Seeger contemplating heaving one of those axes to cut the power. But my favourite thing about the film was the amazing recreation of the Times. It’s really like you’re back in 1961 with Dylan rocking up to Greenwich Village as a peek-capped lad. Later, he shows up at the Chelsea Hotel (a place I’ve been to) to visit Joan Baez, and everything in that hallway, the light fittings, the door handles, the carpet, is vintage. A terrific film. It’s early days yet, and the film is probably listed as a ‘24 film, but so far my film of the year.
On this same day I found out that Garth Hudson, last living member of The Band, died on the 21st. He was the oldest member but last to go. In his career he seemed to work with everyone, including our very own Broderick Smith. I love the story about him requiring the other Band members to pay him for ‘music lessons’ so his parents wouldn’t think he was playing in a rock n roll band. So that’s it: they’re all gone. Will we ever see the likes of The Band again? I doubt it. Sleep well Garth, my man.
A fantastic little book came across my desk at work today. It was Deezify’s Epic Workout Handbook by Fil Ruberto. Basically a fitness manual, but with illustrations (by the author) of a cast of ‘epic, creative and hilarious characters – including vikings, historical figures and mythological creatures’. As Fil – or Deezify – explains in the introduction, he was a shy, skinny kid who loved comic books and drawing, but got the fitness bug when he saw a friend transform himself through working out. It gave him confidence. His useful and funny drawings transform this book into something unique, and I love it. I actually work out a little bit too, so I’ve found this practical as well as entertaining. Get swole!
There’s a book display in a library I work at, and one book in particular that’s always there (they often get rotated, or patrons take them off the shelves). The book is Do This For You by Krissy Cela, a fitness book, It features a very appealing photo of the author on the cover. With her cheeky grin and movie star looks she reminds me of Scarlett Johansson, which is a high compliment. I do lots of shelving near her in the Health section. We often make eye contact. I swear she winks at me sometimes. Clearly, she wants me.
Marianne Faithfull died today. One of my colleagues, Robin, and I reminisced about her before knockoff, when I got the news. We agreed her Broken English album was a fantastic record. We also remembered the time she had that drug overdose in Melbourne while Mick Jagger was here to film Ned Kelly. I also liked her early stuff, like Come and Stay With Me, and she did a great version of Scarborough Fair. I had an uncut version of Broken English, the one that includes the ‘scurrilous’ song Why’d Ya Do It. But I always thought it was a pretty gimmicky song, mainly getting attention because of the lyrics. Anyway, RIP Marianne, you definitely made your mark.
Rage, the late night music video program here, are doing their Retro Month starting with a night of segments about the rock festivals of the late Sixties and Seventies, and I recorded some of it on my PVR. Of course, Woodstock was heavily featured. I was impressed with the interview with Michael Wadleigh, the guy who made the documentary film of Woodstock. He cut right through the interviewer’s bullshit about fears of Communism and misbehaviour. It’s interesting how Woodstock’s success (and the potential success of other festivals) clearly scared the shit out of the Establishment, stoking their fears of Communism.
In almost all the clips featured there was clearly a lot of agenda-setting going on with the interviewers representing the conservative mainstream media of the time. A clip from Weekend Magazine featured a ‘Report on Long Hair’ that was a case in point. Besides many shots of hirsute men there was an interview with a university psychologist. He made the obvious comment that many young men wear their hair long to attract the girls. When the interviewer tried to suggest that this ‘new trend’ to long hair could encourage criminal behaviour the university guy shot her down quick smart. He also made the point that, historically, long hair on men has been much more common than short hair. A guy interviewed about the Nimbin festival talked positively about the future of such festivals, whilst in the background a newspaper billboard ludicrously proclaimed ‘Hygiene Fears’ for the festival. Revealingly, the same magazine later had a segment on ‘The Decline of Festivals’ (from 1971). Going by various responses to the stupid interviewer questions, it came down to a combination of promoter greed and cluelessness (good festivals required people who were specialists and loved the music, said one wise interviewee), police harassment and conservative fears of Communism within the hippy movement. Even poor old Mick Jagger got asked the inevitable questions about his old drug busts when he arrived with the Stones in Melbourne in 1973. Yes, you let a bunch of young people get together you could have a revolution. We wouldn’t want that, would we? Together the clips made for a great little lesson in sociology. In many ways things still haven’t changed. The mainstream media is still conservative.
I’m back into reading Andy Partridge’s Complicated Game book. The interim was necessitated by my patron Michael borrowing the book, which he returned to me yesterday during my job van run. He told me a few things about what’s in the book, but I’m looking forward to discovering them for myself. I read the chapter on the song Beatown, from the Go 2 album by XTC. My plan with these interviews about Andy’s many songs with XTC is to have a listen to each song and read the lyrics, and then read the interview. Then I’ll listen to the song again to catch the nuances mentioned in the interviews. Andy said this song was mainly about his group’s manager of the time, who was seemingly frustrated he couldn’t get him on the phone. Andy explained this was because, at this time (about 1978), he and his partner/future wife couldn’t afford a phone and he always had to go to the phone box up the road. I still don’t think it’s one of their better songs, from probably my least favourite album of theirs.
Later, I read the interview about Roads Girdle the Globe, one of my fave XTC songs. Andy said he’d done some research because the song had been inspired by a film. Turned out it was a Finnish film called Gas In the Veins. It’s basically an anti-car anti-road song. Andy seems to have a thing about this. There’s also the later song, River of Orchids, which imagines a post apocalypse future where roads are overgrown and reclaimed by nature – as a good thing. This song always reminds me of a short story by Robert Heinlein called The Roads Must Roll. But Heinlein’s story is not about cars or normal roads but about movable walkways that people ride. Thematically it’s a bit similar, but it’s mainly that ‘Vernon Yard Male Voice Choir’ bit (basically XTC roped in anyone around to do the group shouts), the shouty singalong that makes it sound like a road construction Union song, like the one referenced in the story. There’s a nice hammer-on/off guitar part in the song that I love. And, as mentioned in the interview, its big sound that anticipates the sound of the next album, Black Sea. A great, great song.
We had the Australian of the Year awards today. Yes, very boring, but it was made a bit livelier thanks to Grace Tame, a former winner. She showed up wearing a t-shirt that had the words Fuck Murdoch emblazoned on it. Thing is, she was standing next to our Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese while wearing it. Not a good look for a Prime Minister, I should think, but Albo seemed to take it in his stride. It was a bit disappointing when, later, he made a comment to the press criticising the t-shirt. I guess he had to to keep up appearances.
Grabbed a couple of cheap animes from a book sale we had at Mooroolbark library, where I was working. They were Stein’s Gate, second half of season, and first season half of Black Clover. These things are gold to me, so at a dollar a piece, I will snap them up – even though now I’ll have to chase down the first half of Stein’s Gate.
Discovered on Youtube that Twice Sana visited Melbourne the other day to check out the Australian Open. She was there as a representative of Prada. At least someone knew, because they trained their camera on her to catch all the expressions she made during the match she watched. Man, I wish I’d have known she was going to be there. I would’ve gone!
Also on Youtube, with another Twice reference, we finally got to see the final episode of Twice’s baseball series, Tdoong Baseball Team Final. Boy, they are so bad at sports, but that’s half the fun. It’s crazy how some of the members cross-armed the bats while at plate. Why didn’t any of the staff show them how to hold a bat? And Jeongyeon seemed confused about which way to hold her bat – was she a lefty or a righty? Maybe she’s a switch-hitter! There was a nicely constructed ending where they made it look like a Once was playing and got hit by the ball. The girls gathered around this Once lying on the ground, trying to wake them up. I’m not sure if this baseball theme worked for their ninth anniversary celebration, but it was corny fun. How will they celebrate their tenth?
Read some more about the Major Arcana from my Tarot Introduction book. This time I read about the Temperance card and the Devil card. Temperance is one of the four moral lessons symbolized in the Major Arcana, along with Strength, Justice and the Hermit. Ultimately, it’s about finding balance, as represented by the water that flows from the gold to the silver cup. The Devil card represents the wild and uncivilized aspects of our psyche that we often suppress. As Jung might say, it’s our Shadow, our darker side, whatever that may be. Recognising it within ourselves is important in owning up to who we are and not projecting bad feelings onto others. A good, if somewhat scary card.
Had the day off, which was perfect timing to make delivery of my cd/dvd book shelf. Spent the day rearranging the furniture in the lounge and in my bedroom, and even my brother’s bedroom. It also helps that we have the hard rubbish collection coming up as well. I eventually got everything where I wanted it and busily assembled the kit. It wasn’t easy (especially because I mis-laid the instructions at first), but I got there. Then the real fun began – putting my cds away on the shelves. My organising principle went something like this. Separate shelves for group albums according to decades. Thus, a Sixties shelf, some Seventies and Eighties shelves, some Nineties and Beyond shelves. Then shelves for Solo Male and Solo Female. A section for my Kpop albums and Jpop albums. Separate sections dedicated to my Stereolab albums, Kinks albums, Bob Dylans and Emmylou Harris. Also a special section for my SACDs and DVD Audios. And one section dedicated to ‘Oldies’, which includes The Carter Family, Chuck Berry, Hank Williams and so forth. But the shelves did not hold everything. I still have a separate bookshelf for my Australian and Heavy Metal albums. And another unit has, on one side, my ‘black’ collection of Soul, Reggae, Jazz, Hip Hop and Funk, and on the other my ‘white’ collection of Lounge, Classical and Crooners. Mind you, there is some cross-over going on here with these two. The ‘black’ hip hop section includes my Beastie Boys albums, while the ‘white’ section has a bunch of Shirley Bassey albums, and a Billie Holiday. But their music’s (arguably) very white. It feels so good to have my cds organised like this!
Did the van run for my job today, which took me to Warburton to distribute some new promotional flyers for the Millgrove stop. There are some good op shops in Warby and at one of them I made some poichases. One was a Beach Boys dvd called The Lost Concert, recorded in 1964. The other was a compilation cd by that swinging bachelor pad music guy, Juan Garcia Esquivel.
I also went into a second hand bookstore, and boy, what a mess! It made Black Books look like Tiffany’s. The old guy who ran the little shop had books scattered all over the place, sprawled over shelves, on the floor, dust everywhere. I asked if he had any science fiction and he held up a cloth covering over a table revealing his meagre collection of dusty and dirty old scifis underneath. He acted liked he’d just revealed some treasure to me when all I could see were cobwebs. I wanted to believe the guy had only just set up shop and hadn’t got it ready for punters, but I think this is the way it’s been for a while. Some people just shouldn’t go into retail.
But, weirdly, this makeshift vibe kind of fits in with the overall funky vibe of Warburton. You definitely couldn’t imagine this sort of shop anywhere else. It’s an old country town. Used to have its own train line coming from Lilydale, which is now the popular Warby Trail for bikes and hikers. I have fond memories of coming here on holidays in the Eighties when my sister lived in nearby Millgrove. And there was a good second hand book store back then. I remember walking the fields from Millgrove to Warburton on a sunny day, crossing over the Yarra river and buying some books from that book store. I remember I got Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick, and The Iron Dream by Norman Spinrad. Two ‘dream’ titles. It’s a dream of a town. Very nostalgic.
There was an article on Allkpop today about something called the MBC Entertainment Awards. It was apparently an awards show for the best variety TV shows. Some of the awards were Best Couple, Best Teamwork, Hot Issue, and Excellence Award. Clearly they were just making some of these up to keep everyone happy. A big winner seemed to be the show Hangout With Yoo. I couldn’t help but think there were other shows more deserving of these awards, and better award titles to give. Like Cutest Bunny Award, which must go to Twice Nayeon for Trick Kode. And Best Pookie Award, which must go to Twice Jeongyeon for Inspector. Then there’s Most Extra Cutie Pie Award which must go to Nmixx Haewon for Workdol (ably supported by Nmixx Bae – Best Sidekick Patootie Award).
On Twitter/X someone has come up with a nice idea for Twice Chaeyoung’s first Solo album. Titled Young, it’s a whimsical stab at what might be in store for us Onces this year. Most of the comments were a bit critical at this nice creative effort, which is a pity. Have to admit I’d rather a Dubchaeng album (Chaeyoung and Dahyun combined), or a Jeongyeon solo. I’m pretty sure we’ll get another Jihyo solo, and (finally) a full Twice Korean album, along with another tour. Big question is, where will they tour this year? Will they come back to Australia? And if so, where? My guess is it won’t be Marvell Stadium for Melbourne, since they didn’t manage to fill it last time. I’ll be happy to see them again at the Rod Laver. Just thinking out loud. (Update from the future. Chae’s album was called Lil’ Fantasy Vol One and was fantastic. No Jihyo solo project, but there was a full Twice Korean album called This Is For which was also fantastic. They did tour Melbourne, this time back at the Rod Laver. I saw it and had a good time, of course!)
It was Twice Jihyo’s birthday today. Happy Birthday our amazing Twice leader! I watched a Youtube of her holidaying in Hawaii called Jihyo Log in Hawaii. Loved the shots of her chilling on some cooled lava on Big Island and swimming in the sea at Waikiki, the water shimmering around her. There was a lot of Mukbang to be had, as usual. I noted, with interest, she seemed to tire of the Hawaiian food, saying at one point she found it a bit too strong. One of her last meals was at a Korean restaurant, which she took to enthusiastically. On her last night she lamented with a friend that she would soon be out of her twenties and would seemingly only have hard work to show for it – the time when ‘she was young’. Gee, what do you say to that? The ‘hard work’ is her most productive years with Twice, the years all we Onces cherish for her amazing input. She was beautiful and engaging throughout, but it was really one for the fans, like me. I’m glad our God Jihyo got some down time in Hawaii before the inevitable busy Twice (and possibly solo?) schedules for this year. Even Gods need a day off or two.
On Twitter/X I saw this fabulous post from Pulp Librarian about the Love Rug. This is such a Seventies vibe. You really had to be there, like I was. Is that porn star John Holme?
Donald Trump looks incredibly Oompa Loompaish at the moment during his live to air explaining how that plane and helicopter crash in the US was all down to ‘diversity’. He even mentioned ‘drawfism’, as if that was the problem. Seem to recall the Oompas were played by a dwarf, were they not? We are living in fucking crazy times…And I saw a report on Twitter/X that some US envoy has visited Venezuela and had some friendly relations with Nicholas Maduro. Is this the beginnings of some thaw in the relationship? What’s going on here?
