sydney lashed by black storms
the rain falls all night long
and it whispers to me from outside
i hear it ratta tatta tatta on the roof
i hear it tap at the window
i hear it hit the shiny black streets
i remember being up before the dawn on other mornings
saying goodbye to elli n minna in stockholm
when they were small kids
my plane left at 6 in the morning
i started to cry a little and elli ran n hid
she was too scared of my crying to say goodbye
down onto the snowy frozen streets
man a stockholm street at 4 am on a winters day
wow that can knock the hope outta ya!
probably jonesing for junk to boot
struggle along in the street with my cases
looking for a taxi
another time when they were about 14
they came out to arlanda airport with me
it was such a comfort
god for a brief time before they became full on teenagers
it seems for a little while we could communicate
not so much anymore i guess
i s’pose i;m waiting for em to “come good”
you know when they get over being rebellious
n start understanding why you aint so bad
meanwhile the temp in sydney aint so cold
but the rain is whipping all the palm trees to a frenzy
its bloody bucketting down
i put my san pedro cactus out for a drink
hope he aint drowning in it
been working yessaday with jorden b
5 th member of the church n lovely geezer
been recording the spoken word bits for my exhibition
little bits of music n stuff
one piece we record in front of an open window
with the rain n the traffic n everything blending
(the water meters , the fire escapes)
other pieces we record with me holding a hand held mike
sitting on his settee
other pieces are recorded
me standing in a stairwell
to get some natural reverb
i guess when you enter the exhibition
you get given a discman cd player n a disc
n you walk around
stand in front of a painting called
“blah blah blah”
and you hit the cd
and you listen to the words n music
n you look at the freakin’ painting
thats what we hope
and we gonna give away a cd if you buy a painting
and we gonna make all twenty pieces of prose/music available eventually
and we hope you gonna buy something
prints or cards or an original
and we hope other galleries wanna have me along…
and soon my art career will flourish
and i can buy some company who makes tvs….
meanwhile
people are continuing to love the new church lp
with nae a bad word being schpoken about it
it is pretty good i guess
but thats the church :
pumping out undiscovered gems since year dot
like that song the time being off somewhere else
yeah my namesake
yeah my theme song
so many lovely changes in it
or some of the songs on back with 2 breasts
or besides yerself
or songs like unsubstantiated
or leverage
masterpieces we just casually chuck out
we’re not precious coz we can come up with another one anytime
the new church album is a tip of an ice berg
of all the actual recording done for this project
we’ll be releasing things from these sessions for years
we are hyper creative
we/i never run outta steam
why is that?
well the fact we really never became that big i guess
keeps us “lean n hungry”
my yoga and swimming
i cant emphasise these things enough
if you wanna be the best guitarist in the world
DO YOGA!
i dunno how it works but it works
whatever ya wanna be better at
DO YOGA!
its 7 oclock in the morning n still dark
the storm is dumping inches of rain on bondi
the city disappears into the fog n clouds
god glad im not on a plane this morning
i remember being in a taxi alone
or maybe with ploog
driving thru the early morning sydney rain
to jump on a plane somewhere
searching for another place to play
we should be on by now…
we smoked dope at the airport
climbed on bombed
and slept all the way to wherever it was
or sitting on a finn air flight
and one of our roadies crying up in business class
cos he was so fucking exhausted
(more from partying than work!)
i remember him sitting there bawling his eyes out
between 2 silent finnish businessmen
trying to hide his tears with his long hair
what a fucking sight!
eventually the tears subsided into great gulps as he sobbed
and then mercifully fell asleep snoring
(just as we landed in copenhagen…ha ha)
ready to start his snivelling all over again
listen i aint judging the guy
voice in another room: not much!!
an early morning flight
a lot of tiredness
a lot of alcohol
a lot of saying goodbye to people you just met
a lot of stuff to pack n remember
a lot of variables to keep in mind
the life on the road can be overwhelming n take you down quick
i seen guys just fucking go under cos they couldnt keep up the pace
we all had/have our mechanisms for coping
power naps
dope
booze
yoga
meditation
pills
sex
big noting yerself
hiding
being a real prick
being a real sweetie
keeping to yerself
lending a helping hand
etc
everybody tries everything once….right?
well maybe not lending a hand or being a sweetie…
any way
my next tour is in june in the us…hopefully
there will be little flying
and hopefully just driving around in the summer daylight
listening to our ipods
and character assassinating whoevers not in our car that day
nice work if you can get it i guess
then check in
find vegan food or as close as i can get
(note to smart ass from other day
i only ate the dal not the palak paneer..that was nks)
then DO YOGA!
then turn into a rocknroll moofo
then relax disperse n proceed to bed
ready to begin again begin again begin again
as the raspberries sang
play on
while the lights shine around your head
play on
every night in a different bed
and the nights go on n on…

ok i’m gonna stop now n
DO YOGA!
bye….