Schrodinger's Cat

Would you give me $5485?

Aargh! All this coursework coming down on me - and my mind's completely elsewhere. My big project at the moment is getting my Creative NZ application handed in on Friday, it's the equivalent of that big essay but with budgeting and liason work added. I still need to get a couple of venues confirmed - anyone know good gallery spaces or small halls in Hamilton and Napier to put on a show?

I'm asking for funding to make a CD and do a tour of the North Island with The Winter. I showed my proposal to Biddy Grant at Standing Ovation and she said I wasn't asking for enough money for CNZ to take it seriously. So I added in a food allowance for everyone (since people like to eat) and hireage for a van (since Auckland & back's probably too far to walk carrying gear). Currently the spreadsheets tell me to ask for $5485 all up. The theory is that if they offer less we can cut corners and it'll still be doable. $5485 is alot of money to me, but would be chicken feed for a filmmaker.

After a slow start to the year the last couple of months have been good for my live playing. There was the visit to Auckland, the Bomb the Space and Word Festivals, and I should be playing again on Sunday at Thistle Hall (The Winter's first anniversary gig!). I've got something good brewing for Meatwaters in September but overall I'm going to have to cut down on my extra-curricular activities to concentrate on my coursework - either that or fail the course, & being an old man of 25 now failure's not really an option. Also I should get some new material together for future live stuff - to regurgitate the albums would be death by nostalgia.

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In other news, this week's the film festival. I haven't seen anything yet. I'm actually tempted to see nothing at all in it, so I can say I've boycotted it. I got shat on by the film industry, and the major regret I have over the last six or so years was wanting to have anything to do with it in the first place. There's a local film in the programme that I helped out with - it was filmed at the flat where I was living, I even have a cameo role and one of my songs used in the soundtrack. The free ticket I was promised to the premiere never arrived.

The making of that film was an intense time. I was completely broke, bills coming down, working unpaid on the film. I'd recently finished the Mantis Shaped and Worrying album which used up all my creative energy, and was working on the short story 'Overgrowth'. My relationship with Elisa was in its final stages of collapse - I'd developed a bald patch on the back of my head from the stress (though it was initially misidentified as ringworm, which didn't endear me to her). The soundtrack to the time was Bob Dylan's amazing Live 1975 album which had just come out. The irony of that album is that just as Dylan is creatively firing on all cylinders, having written great new songs and giving his best live performances, and being loved by the audience, his marriage is collapsing. The album climaxes with a version of 'Sara', with his wife Sara in the audience. "Sara, Sara, don't ever leave me, don't ever go".

Here's a self-portrait I drew on the computer from that time.

Something had to give - I got dumped. I shaved my head the next day, hence my bald appearance in the film, gave the film a couple more days then pulled out. Then I went and got a series of builder's labourer jobs, some cash and so fairly well paid, but after a while that dried up and I went to work for Quin Workforce for $9/hr before tax. My psyche was in tatters. The flatmates I got on well with moved out and the replacements turned out to be an unpleasant couple who filled up the walls with cut-outs from Women's Magazines and drank opium tea all day. Poisonous mushrooms appeared in the compost heap (not making this up).

The next short story I wrote was 'Whin the Autumn Wain Sex Begain to Fall'. I did a couple of performances of it this year, at Photospace in May (ask Fi) and at Happy in the Bomb the Space festival. It made people laugh, and Jeff Henderson told me it was my best performance he'd seen. So that's all good. Remember the William Wordsworth formula for poetry - intense emotion recalled in tranquility...

out of masterton

At the Wairarapa Times Age office wrapping things up & waiting for the others so we can go back to Wgtn. I feel more at ease with Wellington this year than last, mainly because my life's less chaotic but also because I've had time away. This year I'm gradually winding up my affairs & preparing to move on. Wellington's kind of a default option town to live in - Auckland's too expensive and everywhere else is too small-townish. Dunedin would be alright.

The Wairarapa's the place where I have the strongest family connections - but I've never lived here, it's not my home. I grew up in New Plymouth, but now I have no family there and no connection to it any more. When I visited last year it had changed, the waterfront was all smoothed out and there were cafes everywhere. The wind-wand is pretty cool though. I was born in Wellington so I guess that's home, I've spent maybe a fifth of my life there now.

I'm not hugely keen on Masterton, it feels weird being away from the sea. I go to work for the Kapiti Observer the week after next, so the sunsets over the Tasman remind me of Taranaki. The staff there are a bit younger than here too.

Highlight of the trip was possibly visiting my half-sister Megan and her husband Olivier in Carterton. They sold their small house in Wellington before last Christmas and bought a huge place in Carterton with a big section & fruit trees. Olivier's been making feijoa wine - 200 litres of the stuff. It's got a good flavour...

The Times Age experience has been kind of frustrating, the first two days were stressful & very long, the next two were alright, and today I just want to sleep. I feel flabby from the long hours in a swivel chair and need a bit of exercise. I'm only just seeing stuff I've written in the paper today - and it was the short pieces with no bylines. Half my stories are council-related, and I'm doing my weekly work experience from here on at the Regional Council - I could well end up working somewhere like that rather than a newspaper. The environmental side of things I find really interesting, I'm keen on the idea of people living as part of the natural environment rather than an intrusion into it. I don't seem to have much of an affinity for social issues or politics that my fellow students are into, and sport just mystifies me (as in, why do people bother watching it?). I also don't like doing things by clock time. One great thing about the public sector is glide time - you have x amount of work to do by y date, but there's flexibility as to how it's achieved. Turning up a little late in the morning is ok if you stay on late in the evening, which I'm fine with. A couple of days this week I've turned up at 8am and had nothing to do because noone I need to contact is at work yet.

One problem with being away is that last week I met a really nice girl who I went out and had a great time with, but Tuesday she sent an email saying she doesn't want to take it any further. Dumped by remote, pity. I need to really focus to pull through the rest of the course (I've done the easy half, the next half is solid work til October) and all this being single gets distracting.

Oh, and the Parataxes album got an online review.

http://fiffdimension.tripod.com

Wairarapa Times

I'm spending the week in Masterton to work at the Wairarapa Times Age, haven't finished any stories yet but have a bunch of starting points. Someone dumped 100kg(!) of dogshit next to a river, could have been a health hazard if it rained and washed downstream but it was reported to the council in time. Also the council are worried about smog from wood fires in winter, most of the firewood being sold isn't dried properly.

I'm also keeping busy with my CD making & Creative NZ application. My budget says the proposed North Island art gallery tour is going to lose $990 so that's the amount of funding I should ask for. A lot of the figures are just guesses though, but the spreadsheet's kind of fun to play with. If you alter a number somewhere the numbers further down change. Another budget I drew up says that in total from 1998-present my making albums has netted me a grand total loss of approximately $650.

The good news is that if I can sell another 80 or so discs I'll break even. I've been getting into emailing people on the net recently, trying to 'offload product'. I had an order for one copy of each album from the university of Waikato, and five copies of each from Eclipse Records in America, so that's 30 discs. That's progress...

http://fiffdimension.tripod.com

PS I know, I still haven't written about the latter part of my visit to Auckland. I'm just building up the suspense. And the week after next I've got a temporary job at the Kapiti Observer. All this travel is good, I was feeling cramped in Wellington for a while there. And I like the fact that we're starting to get some daylight again.

Wellington Word Festival this week

Back into classes yesterday - cold water deadlines in face - busy from here on. This week's the Word Festival at Thistle Hall though. I'm playing on Wednesday with a kind of mutant cousin of The Winter, the name The Mungbeans was floated but not sure if it will stick. It's all acoustic strings - guitars, cello, autoharp etc. Then on Saturday I'm playing solo.

Word Festival should be good fun, and it's all koha entry.

I know, I'm starting to get behind on things that have happened. I'll get around to it. Hopefully see you in person this week - the net being after all a mere surrogate for human contact. I doubt I'll be quite as musically active after this week when the coursework load really hits (and I'll be out of town for six weeks total working on regional newspapers!) so this is a good time...

gig this friday

Hiya,

Just to let you know I'm playing at the Bomb the Space festival at Happy this Friday, 8pm - be great if you want to come along. I'm playing solo doing a short story, various instrumental goodies and some new material. It also doubles as the release of my fifth album (time flies!), Loose Autumn Moans. I would say this of course but it's possibly my best yet. Features awesome cello & violin accompaniment from the San/Sam string duo and a couple of tracks with The Winter...

There's a bunch of stuff on Friday - the programme sez
"Friday 9th July
8pm | BOMB THE SPACE featuring David Edwards, Bridgett Kelly, Anthony Pateras, Andy Sugg, Greg Malcolm, Chris O'Connor, Dan Poynton, Kris Wanders w/ The Ecstasy Trio"

If you can't make it there's always the Word Festival next week. Busy time for the arts in Wellington...

Dave

For further information visit http://fiffdimension.tripod.com

Here are the Loose Autumn Moans credits:

OK so I'm behind on the blogging, doing self-promo instead. I'll write a decent entry about Auckland & after in the weekend...

auckland found text

(on computer in internet cafe)

Dear Sharon Baker:
>
>I read the advertisement in the newspaper and i found it really
>interesting. I am from Argentina, with 3 years of
>hospitality experience and administration support in a winary back
>in Argentina. I have a work visa for two years. I have a Bachelor degree in Business Management Administratiob.
> Iam looking for something much more challenging. I am hard worker, easygoing and a quick learner
. So please if you are interested, do not hesitate to contact me.
>
>
>Best Regards
>Laura Rossi