The Time Being | Steve Kilbey

but lets not think about…the passing time….
i fly to melbourne, victoria
a city of nearly 4 million on the banks of the yarra river
always my spiritual home in australia…..
i spend sunday in the company of martin kennedy
and then a bit of time with sam sejavka at his gig
i realize as i write this that the 2 men are like polar opposites
mk is ultra calm rational and logical
he doesnt drink smoke or take drugs
he thinks things out thoroughly
he looks before he leaps
ss is the opposite of all that……
mk and i have a very creative day
his music fits my words like a hand in glove
he has a modus operandi which allows him to generate endless variations
of his gorgeous instrumental tracks
at the heart of all of em a soft sadness
he puts it all together like a scientist
manipulating the elements within his system
kennedys stuff is precise and poignant
he plays me a new track and i immediately start to sing on it
we get halfway through a second track too
a guy comes from the age and we do an interview
over soy lattes and vegan muffins
(oh how civilized!)
and a photographer turns up n snaps us in the rainy back yard
mk n his wife n i go for a walk in the then sunny but cold melbourne sunday
i keep brainstorming ideas about k/k until my brain hurts
we want our show in melbourne to be ultra-special
its at the toff in town thursday 10th of september, melbourne
i urge you overseas people with the $ to come and see us
we will be performing our entire first album (in its entirety…ha ha)
we will have michael evans-barker from album on percussion
we will have the incredible (evil) graham lee on pedal steel guitar
we will be crooning n looning in the gloaming
so get foaming combing and roaming
cos it will be a good show
think bel-frank sinatra
think dean martin kennedy
think a dry martini ,kennedy
think roger suave with the best cocktail tunes ever
anyhow
i turned up at the ss gig
not knowing what to expect
greeted at the door by ss himself
who looks like a cross between the thin white duke
and some eastern european ambassador
hes always been one of the handsomest guys ive ever met
im madly jealous of his good looks…ok?
his hair is turning silver so subtly
it sits in a man who fell to earth cut perfectly
he is tall and slim
with a body most 25 year olds would envy
yet he does no real exercise
his face is smooth and relatively unlined
he is like a cheetah or a fox
he is graceful and also grateful
hes in a spot of bother with the law
and this gig is a benefit to raise money for his legal funds
i mean
you cant put a guy like ss in jail for growing a bit of pot
hes a fucking national treasure
like australias mervyn peake
his use of language is extraordinary
his plays are dark and convoluted and brilliantly strange
anyway he was also the singer in a new wave band called the ears
who are reforming for tonite
1st gig since 1981
backstage i joke around with greg fleet the comedian n mc
he thinks he n i should fly to alice springs
do a gig there n then get our teeth fixed up
(alice springs is a town in the centre of australia…kinda)
why alice springs?
uh…not sure…but he thought it would be a good idea
his teeth looked worse than mine
but then again
he’d pull more people to the show, i guess
you see we get our choppers fixed from proceeds of show
then lie around in the outback
convalescing or waiting for our crowns to be hammered in
backstage also a member of a now defunct famousish band
looks at me sheepishly n apologizes
for what ? i say
uh…such n such festival in 03 or 04
oh….god i remember now…
good god man!…i exclaim..what were you on…angel dust??!!
nah …just too much whisky …sighs the remorseful rocker
ok ok i say…no offence taken… i say…
wow! the last time i saw him
he was swearin’ n cussin’ n throwin’ punches at everyone….
there was some argy bargy with you n your wife ..he says sadly
no problem at all …i say doubtfully…hey thats rocknroll..i say
hugo race is backstage …another extraordinarily well preserved rocker
he looks much better now than 20 years ago
very chiselled n slim…like a young max von sydow or something..
howcome all the wild guys are so well preserved…?
huh?
it should be the opposite
anyway
i have good gig
i do the usual old suspects that i always do
i should learn some newies
i play with confidence and an assured intensity
i’m good and the audients like me
good!
sejavka n his band come on
some of the stuff is obviously dated
sam is ridiculously hammy n theatrical
hes like a melburnian new wave vampyre or something
some of the songs are pretty good
good lyrics which is what you’d expect from him
he certainly has the moves
and/but he gets puffed out pretty quick which is kinda funny
(running round n singing requires a certain match fitness!!)
i stand in the audients with the little lord
who is also an old friend of sams
we gasp and giggle n chortle n cheer at his antics
he disappears from sight
because hes too knackered to get up off the floor
simon polinski pulls a great sound
and cathy mcquade looks like a youngish sophia loren
as she sings away beside sam
the band is good n tight
and the whole spectacle is very entertaining
theres quite a few people there so hopefully theres a few $
for his legal fleas
you can check out michael hutchence playing sam in dogs in space
seeing sams moves
one wonders if hutch and even nicky cave were influenced
by sams extravagant onstage malarkey
had a great time
prominent fiends present : amanda princey n mary
john whatsisname who looks like a hasidic jew
and melissa m
who i didnt see
but who passed on 2 very lovely pre birthday gifts
melissa….thank you…i know i will enjoy them…
i stayed the night at the little lords castle in prahran
she served up roast veggies
i chatted with her dog, piper the staffy
and danny her boyfriend
and i got on a plane early n was back in the emerald city by 10 am
i just seen (get it?)the eye quack today
he says bad news is eye will always = blurry
good news is other eye will eventually be the same
as old father times fingers
undo this conglomerate of material
you know
and love
as steve kilbey
the time being

music by david neil (from the forthcoming “the wilderness years”

sorry if you cant watch it
sorry if you can
sk

a guy called richard sent me some music a while ago
and i sang some stuff n sent it back
it wasnt quite my cup of tea
but it had a certain joie de vivre that i liked
it seemed very eighties
but i didnt understand that that was its trip, did i?
i was listening to it at my daughters place in sweden
when their ears
pricked up
“daddy,THIS is really cooo-oool” they said
this is…? i say
(you see sometimes i dont know what i’m doing or
what anybody else is either)
listening to it thru a new set of ears
its a perky poppy feelgood little thing
its still got words like “inevitably ” in it
so its not a total pop out
but you know
its catchy n singalong-y
if you like that kinda thing
sometimes we all do, dont we?
so richard gets all these weird mixes down n stuff
and he asks me to help do a vid
oh the wonders of the modern age
casting my mind back twenty years
the pain n drudgery and yes
the outrageous expense
of making a video
if richard had suggested this twenty years ago
i would have to have found a camera man
a lighting man
someone to synch it up
a caterer and blah blah blah
then have to shoot it
process it
edit blah blah blah
get it over to the u.s.
blah blah blah
but wow
i did my bit last night
richard did his thing while i slept n went out for a walk
come home its already up on you tube
pocket featuring steve kilbey “hear in noiseville”
go n take a look
(warning: if you hated anchorage from th’other day
you may not like this!)
but lighten up
hey richard
i think you did a marvellous job!
the song and the vid are a real gas!
good on you, my man!
stealing a feeling a feeling
revealing a feeling i felt!
oh ha ha
the eighties live on forever
thats rocknroll, children
and everythings possible

been having one of those days
minor irritants
silly emails
annoying conversations
my blender packs it in
in a spectacular display of soymilk all over the place
the dvd player is dead thanks to scarlet forcing it open n closed
ive lost my glasses…you know the old crooked ones
the ones i wear now are blurred
i had an eye exam
i need blah blah blah lenses at twice the cost
a massive electricity bill arrives
i have things to do but i cant get em done
i look at my unfinished painting ruefully
got no mojo to start
and i need to start….
my ears ring
my right eye like fuzz
ive become very attracted to watching larry davids show
curb your enthusiasm
i know its been out a while
but im a philistine when it comes to comedy i guess
i just accidentally watched some in sweden n i got hooked
he reminds me of me
all those molehills turning into mountains
everything getting harder cos you wanted easier
white lies turn into black holes
a chance stupid remark gets amplified
ridiculous unlikely combinations of events seem to frame you
you bang yer head
you stub yer toes
people misunderstanding when you trying to be funny
and you trying to be funny to much too hard
and nobody understands ya
and you dont understand nobody else
everybody ready to blame ya or get angry
good old larry david
his young wife even has a vague resemblance to nk
larry should be happy but everything kinda goes predictably wrong
im even starting to talk like larry
i mean do ya think i’m a schmuck, c’mon!
and yet
theres gotta be a moral
theres gotta be an answer
where is that smooth life larry should have…?
why cant everything just work out…..it should do…?
theres a reason this show is so incredibly funny
theres a deep lesson of life to be learned here…
for us larry david types
the ones always ruffling feathers and getting embarrassed
the ones who dont know where to draw the line…
the ones who act like a real goose even tho theyre ostensibly “clever”
surely the answer is close at hand if not already apparent…
in the meantime i watch larry negotiate every hurdle
with his usual bad luck n bad timing
he resists the universe at every turn even if only subtly
his life should be a breeze
but hes so caught up in it all
he cant see the fucking wood for the trees
we spend all our life fussing n fighting my friend
wow its hard to count your blessings
many a guy says to me
wow! they voted your song the best of all time n space…
how you feel now, maaan?
i say
its like an icon i’m dragging into my i-tunes or something
and the icon just refuses to be there
just flies back to its original spot
thats how stuff like that is to me
i cant appreciate it
i can see but cant count all my blessings
some of which are blessings in disguise..
yeah i really love watching curb yer enthusiasm
watch it and think of me
only a bit more hair
not so jewish
a beard
with aussie accent
not nearly as wealthy
and with kids
other than that you got a kilb-ish thing
go!