The year’s got a shape to it, but I’ve spent the first few days confined to barracks. I’m waiting on a friend from out of town to get his social engagements (prelude to moving to Korea) out of the way so we can go tramping. It’s one of those incredible shrinking tramping trips that keeps getting pushed back. So far it’s shrunk from a mission up to Te Urewera National Park with three days tramping down to an overnighter in the Wairarapa. Still better than nothing and I can’t wait to get away. I really hope it doesn’t turn into Waiting for Godot.
I have to be back by the ninth, as everything starts up then: Ascension Band press material due, proofreading job starting on the 10th etc. So up til then’s holiday and I want to be away by yesterday. But I’ve been under house arrest – everything shut, my bike broken down, most people away, and bad weather. Instead I’ve been trying to make the most of being at home. There’s an embarrassingly bountiful supply of good food in the kitchen, my flatmate sometimes goes overboard with the shopping. Plenty of good fruits & veges – the challenge is to eat it before it goes off. I’ve been going to the pool for exercise, and I’ve got books to read, guitars to play, internet access, good music to listen to. Stranded in paradise as it were. I even got a new short story started. Training for when I’m a political prisoner and have to keep myself occupied by writing a novel.
My favourite new recording is the finale by The Winter – we overcome the jinx for a day and I got us together once more. Mike’s moving to Melbourne so we knew it would be our swansong. It was a good feeling, playing music that was both familiar and new. We had a definite style as a band, and there’s 56 minutes of new material. If The Winter had a concept it was to be a free trio who could break into grooves as well as be completely abstract, so there’s a mixture of stuff with and without beats. And the cello is such a great instrument, unusual enough to make us distinctive. Also nice to play in a trio, possibly the perfect number of people for improvisation (solo is a monologue, duo is intense call-and-response all the way, four or more and you start interacting with an overall sound rather than sparking off individuals). Made a change from the heavy artillery truck-rolling-down-a-hill Ascension Band. It’s still a crying shame we didn’t play together more often, but it was something.
There’s also the whole poetic subtext layer that I’m quite keen on, eg having our last get-together in midsummer. And it hopefully lays to rest some ghosts from 2003 and makes a satisfactory conclusion to the year. 2004 had some good parts but was frustrating and inconclusive, what with the diploma still unfinished and bad shit happening around the world. 2005 looks promising though – I’ve got a job to start, 15 hours a week of boredom but a job is a job and maybe I can move up to a better one from there. It’ll provide some income while I do the Fringe show, and as it starts on January 10th it also means I can take the first week of the new year as a holiday with a clear conscience. Now if only I can get out into the bush for a couple of days…