Thursday, October 23, 2008

The Night Air

Recently I’ve been introduced to John Jacobs and have been enjoying his late-night program on Radio National called The Night Air. It’s a wonderful, weird fusion of sound. Check it out. I love it. Here is a link to the stuff he captured and beautifully mixed up from TiNA 08 in Newcastle… featuring snippets from Michael Farrell, Astrid Lorange, Nick Keys and the funniest man on this earth with a guitar, Justin Heazlewood aka The Bedroom Philosopher.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/nightair/stories/2008/2358094.htm#transcript

or check out The Night Air website

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/nightair/

More news coming soon about Sean Whelan’s launch on the 6th Nov at Bar Open in Melbourne, and the launch of the unstoppable Page Seventeen.

Oh and you gotta check out Justin’s link… that famous bedspread…

http://www.bedroomphilosopher.com/

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

OzCo news & buy my house

Well the embargo is lifted and I can finally tell you that I’ve been awarded a Developing Writer's Grant from the Literature Board of the Australia Council. This means I am heading back to Port Arthur this year and writing a new play inspired by the stories of the Eaglehawk Neck Dog Chain. And I can’t begin to tell you what this means in terms of financial stability… it couldn’t have come at a better time!

Also check out my 'poem of the week' at the Australian Poetry Centre’s website… up until Monday.

http://www.australianpoetrycentre.org.au/?page_id=2

And if you want to buy my house, check it out here…

http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?a=o&id=105271790&f=10&p=10&t=res&ty=&fmt=&header=&cc=&c=23084802&s=vic&tm=1224107950

More news coming soon on Ballarat Grammar’s production of my Cable Car of Death and Benalla Tafe’s production of Mystery in a Blimp.

Monday, October 6, 2008

TiNA & Sean M Whelan

What can I say about TiNA 08?

I read poetry to Tara Moss, went head to head with the Serial Pest and then finished up the day performing to over one hundred people at the late-night reading of my Ghost Poetry at the old Lock Up.

Big thanks to Newcastle poet, Chris Brown, who helped me out with a call-and-response poem at the start of the ‘haunting’. He was hiding in a nearby cell and delivered his lines like a long-time performer. We totally freaked em out! Good job bro (and thanks for letting me crash at your pad).

Then, later in the reading, we heard footsteps on the tin roof above our heads. It totally threw me and by then people thought it was part of the show… but I didn’t know what was going on. I found out later that people were climbing onto the roof because they couldn’t get in… they wanted to look down through the ceiling.

Needless to say… that kind of attention blew my mind!

The other thing that I’m stoked about is Sean M Whelan’s new book of poetry Tattooing the Surface of the Moon, published by Small Change Press and launched up at TiNA. Sean is a master, and poems like Dear Elliot and In The Places Where We Stood are two of my favourites. Stay tune for details of the Melbourne launch soon. It'll be an event you can confidently invite your friends, cousins, extended extendeds to, being sure that it won't suck. He knocks us dead everytime!

This from In the Places Where We Stood

In a luck filled future, loss is highly collectible
and a valuable jewel in any trophy cabinet.
And in the places where once we stood,
nobody knew how to lose,
like we did.