Anti War Posters

The Hippies Dream

In the hills of California
Where the Hippies once did rave,
Five eights of the way to accomplishment
Lies a godforsaken grave.

Hippies have never flowered the tomb
Though the tombstone’s said to gleam,
For the fools that dug the hole never mentioned to a soul
Where they buried the Hippies dream?

Anon

Colours of my past

I love tie dye.

King of Kitsch

I love Tretchikoff's work. I fleeting loved his grand daughter. I own some of his old vinyl LP's. And I teased his beloved dogs. He was a grumpy old shit and never acknowledged my presence. Yet there is something about his kitsch that I find intriguing. The man was born in Borat's country - doesn't that explain all? RIP.

Bombers and butterflies

I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, where are you going
And this he told me
Im going on down to Yasgur's farm
Im going to join in a rock n roll band
Im going to camp out on the land
Im going to try an get my soul free
We are stardust
We are golden
And weve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

Then can I walk beside you
I have come here to lose the smog
And I feel to be a cog in something turning
Well maybe it is just the time of year
Or maybe its the time of man
I dont know who l am
But you know life is for learning
We are stardust
We are golden
And weve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

By the time we got to Woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere there was song and celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
And they were turning into butterflies
Above our nation
We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devils bargain
And weve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

"Woodstock - Joni Mitchell"

Zappa plays the bicycle

Probably one of Frank's earliest musical adventures on tape. He went on to play the electric bedsprings on Apostrophe.

Happy Australia Day

We could have a great Australian day if:

Our troops were pulled out of Iraq & Afganistan.
We released all refugees into the community with social security.
The US government released David Hicks.
We ratified the Kyoto Protocol.
Japan & Co stopped killing whales.
There was hippie revival.
Mainstream religions focussed all their energy on spreading love.

Peace, love & butterflies

Marcia Hathaway - in remembrance

I used to fish in a secret spot on the Middle harbour. I always felt uneasy there. Something dark and sinister was lurking. I wasn't suprised to find out why. Here's an article from the Sydney Morning Herald:

Forty three years ago today, on a sultry Monday of the Australia Day long weekend, Marcia Hathaway and her fiance Frederick Knight were wading in the shallows off Sugarloaf Bay in Middle Harbour. On the beach, two friends were gathering oysters while 20 metres away, three other companions were aboard the cabin cruiser Valeeta.

The very day they had set out on their boating picnic the front page of The Sydney Morning Herald carried a cautionary tale under the headline: Australia Day holiday surfers warned of sharks.

The Herald reported that on the day before, beach patrol aircraft had sighted 66 sharks off the Northern Beaches, shark alarms were sounded at eight beaches and Narrabeen was closed for two-and-a-half hours.

A former shark net contractor was quoted as saying that 95 per cent of shark attacks around Sydney occurred between December and February. "Surfers and harbour swimmers should take particular care for the next few days," he warned - prophetically, as it turned out.

As a journalist, you would have expected that Knight, a 38-year-old from Double Bay, might have been aware of the warnings. Maybe he thought that sharks weren't a threat in water that was less then a metre deep.

Who knows? But approximately five minutes after the couple entered the water, Hathaway, a 32-year-old actress from Milsons Point, was attacked by a shark. Although her fiance bravely fought off the creature, her injuries were so severe that she bled to death shortly after - the last person to die as a result of a shark attack in Sydney waters.

There are a couple of curious footnotes to this tragedy:

The floodlights that illuminate the sandstone facade of St Stephen's church in Macquarie Street were donated in memory of Marcia Hathaway. A plaque inside carries the following inscription: "The floodlights of this church were donated by members of the performing arts to the glory of God and in memory of Marcia N. Hathaway, actress and devout Christian, victim of shark attack in Middle Harbour 28/1/63." Apparently Hathaway, was one of thousands of Australian who "made a decision for Christ" during a visit to Australia in 1959 by the US evangelist, Billy Graham. She and her mother became regulars at the Presbyterian church opposite State Parliament.

- Stephen Hutcheon SMH

1 Giant Leap Part 2

What I consider to be one of the most beautiful collaboratives of music and culture, 1 Giant Leap (the brainchild of Jamie Catto and Duncan Bridgeman), is gearing up for the launch of it's second phase. It features many familiar faces and voices from the first Leap as well as some new friends, Noam Chomsky, Tim Robbins, KD Lang, Zap Mama, Susan Sarandon, Courtney Love, Daniel Lanois, Alanis Morrisette, Oumou Sangare, Rokia Traore, Lila Downs, Deepak Chopra, Stephen Fry, Douglas Coupland, John Cusack, and brain surgeons, drug smugglers, belly-dancers and preachers filmed and recorded in 50 new global locations.

www.1giantleap.tv

Check out the Teaser for phase two below.

Is it safe to go into the water this long weekend?

A sad story of the Australia day weekend forty three years ago. Watch this space.

Bohemian comes out

Today was the day in 1972 that David Bowie 'came out' as bisexual during an interview in the British music weekly Melody Maker.

Flower children

I have been blessed with two amazing children. First a girl, Jane, a flower child and then seven years later a boy, Sebastian, a free spirit. Jane loves computer art and here are some of her self portaits.



TOP: Barbiefied 2005
RIGHT: Sad fairy 2006

Ghetto Blaster

Kwaito.


Art imitates life. Summarising the state of the kwaito industry is like trying to condense the history of American hip hop music into a few pages. Some broad brushstrokes will serve as an introduction, but to fully appreciate kwaito, you’ve got to hear it for yourself.

Like hip hop in the United States, kwaito is not just music. It is an expression and a validation of a way of life - the way South Africans dress, talk and dance. It is a street style as lifestyle, where the music reflects life in the townships, much the same way hip hop mimics life in the American ghetto.

Just as many of the influences on hip hop come from the streets of New York and California, kwaito is known as the musical voice of young, black, urban South Africa.

Kwaito did not originally aim to show a South Africa happy in its new urbanity, especially because urban life has been exploited by foreign commerce. For these reasons, kwaito’s best moments become those that deliver a chorus of black voices opposing a legacy of bureaucracy and racism, and anticipating a new identity and mobility on its own terms.

Kwaito was touted as part of a South African renaissance, but it’s also part of a South African revolution - one that does not suffer misinterpretation lightly.

Major proponent of the movement is Mandoza, whose music clip is featured below.
Source: www.mentalfloss.com

Folk hero

Nick Drake. Essentially folk. Such a groovy voice. The music speaks for itself

Bohemian Evangelist

Whilst researching bohemian movement of Carmel-by-the-Sea, I came across an interesting article about Aimee McPherson. She was also known as "Sister Aimee", an evangelist and media sensation in the 1920s and 1930s; she was also the founder of the Foursquare Church. After the birth of her son, McPherson suffered from depression and several serious health issues. After this near-death experience in 1913, she promised God she would carry his Word and embarked upon a preaching career in Canada and the U.S.

People began coming in ever-increasing numbers to hear this remarkable female evangelist. When not in a tent, she would need to find the largest auditorium in town in order to hold the record number of people that would come to her meetings. Once in San Diego, the National Guard had to be brought in to control the crowd of over 30,000 people.

In 1916 she made a tour through the southern U.S. in her "Gospel Car", a 1912 Packard touring car; standing in the back seat of the convertible, she would give sermons through a bullhorn.

Aimee was famous both inside and outside of religious circles. Her use of unconventional methods was disparaged, even earning criticism for "her unashamed use of low-key sex appeal to attract converts". Aimee would, at many times, appear before parishioners in a white gown, carrying a bouquet of flowers.

McPherson made the most of the show-business atmosphere of Los Angeles to incorporate entertainment into her religious meetings, using stage props, contemporary music, and morality plays (which she called "illustrations"), with elaborate costumes and scenery, to their best advantage to draw listeners. She even wrote and produced a couple of operas, and at one meeting made a dramatic entrance riding a motorcycle down the aisle of Angelus Temple.

On May 18, 1926, McPherson went to Ocean Park Beach, California, north of Venice Beach with her secretary, to go swimming. Soon after arrival, McPherson disappeared. It was generally assumed at the time that she had drowned; mourners crowded Venice Beach. A futile search for the body resulted in one parishioner drowning, and another diver dying from exposure. About a month after the disappearance, McPherson's mother, Minnie Kennedy, received a ransom note, signed by "The Avengers", which demanded a half million dollars to ensure kidnappers would not sell McPherson into "white slavery". Kennedy later said she tossed the letter away, believing her daughter to be dead.

After 35 days McPherson stumbled out of the desert in Agua Prieta, a Mexican town just across the border from Douglas, Arizona. She claimed that she had been kidnapped, drugged, tortured, and held for ransom in a shack in Mexico, then had escaped and walked through the desert for about 13 hours to freedom. Several problems were found with McPherson's story. Her shoes showed no evidence of a 13-hour walk; indeed, they had grass stains on them after a supposed walk through the desert. The shack could not be found. McPherson showed up fully dressed while having disappeared wearing a bathing suit, and was wearing a watch given to her by her mother, which she had not taken on her swimming trip.

A grand jury convened on July 8 to investigate the matter, but adjourned 12 days later citing lack of evidence to proceed. However, several witnesses then came forward stating that they had seen McPherson at various hotels over the 32-day period. McPherson steadfastly stuck to her story that she was approached by a young couple at the beach who had asked her to come over and pray for their sick child, and that she was then shoved into a car and drugged with chloroform. Theories and innuendo abounded: she had run off with a lover; she had had an abortion; she was recovering from plastic surgery; she had staged the whole thing as a publicity stunt. No satisfactory answer, though, was ever reached.

McPherson suffered a nervous breakdown in August 1930 and later she married again, this time to an actor and musician, David Hutton.

However on September 27, 1944, shortly after giving a sermon, she was found dead in her hotel room in Oakland, California of an overdose of prescription barbiturates. Once again, rumors flew, this time conjecturing suicide. However, is generally agreed that the overdose was accidental, as stated on the coroner's report.
Source: Wikipedia

Bring back Karmann

On my journey back into Bohemia I have to acknowledge that infamous car of the sixties, the VW Karmann Ghia. Touted as the "plaything of Hollywood starlets", no bohemian worth their weight in psychodelic polka dots can rightfully claim membership to this exclusive club without once having owned one of these superb goddesses. Mine was a 1969 two tone like the one shown. It was naturally quite battered and spewed smoke. Young Jane, my daughter, would loving refer to her as Puff the magic dragon. Puff had "nostril" chrome grilles, indicator lights that looked like cats eyes and UFO hub caps. A jump-seat at the back comfortably seated the five year old Jane and two shopping bags. My Ghia period was like a rennaissance. It's wonderful to see so many on the roads in Sydney, just such a pity that the majority driven by suburbanites.

PS: Did you know there's an asteroid called 371 Bohemia?

Cocorosie

I was listening to Mark aka Bob on 702 the other night and heard this remarkable sound coming from my little wireless box. It was of two sisters who make up the duo cocorosie. Mark's guest on his music segment was Lee Tulloch who was playing some of her summer music collection. What an amazing woman. What eclectic sounds. Lee is apparently a well known Australian journo and writer but being an immigrant I had not heard of her. There are rare times in one's lives when one's soul connects with another and this was one of those connections. I believe people connect via music. Raised in Africa I was always connecting with the drummers playing their huge wooden and hide drums across the plains in Botswana. And this was one of those experiences. Thank you Lee, for cocorosie. Enjoy "Hairnet Paradise" and have a listen to their most recent compostions on a CD called "Noah's Ark"
www.cocorosieland.com

Vinegar - Miracle liquid

Japan is on a new wave of drinking rice vinegar as a health drink. Vinegar is a wonderful "cure-all". I remember my grandmother bathing my head in water and vinegar to bring down my temperature. Besides its medicinal uses, it's a natural substance that doesn't damage the earth. The Chinese believe its the secret to longevity, tranquility, balance & strength.

Apple Cider Vinegar.
It's also suggested that apple cider vinegar has such curative abilities because it causes one's pH levels to become more alkaline. Dr. D.C. Jarvis, MD who wrote "Folk Medicine, A Vermont Doctor's Guide to Good Health" and "Arthritis and Folk Medicine”, is completely convinced that apple cider vinegar could make any living thing healthier. He believes, Potassium, which is found in just the right amounts in natural apple cider vinegar "is so essential to the life of every living thing and that with out it there would be no life. Potassium is the most important of all minerals that are necessary for good health." Potassium's main function is to promote cell, tissue and organism growth. It is necessary to replace dead cells and tissue. There is no better source of potassium than vinegar---particularly natural apple cider vinegar.



Why apple cider vinegar? Because it can be used medicinally, gets rid of poisons in the body, has disinfecting and cleaning properties and is a natural, nontoxic, biodegradable substance. That is, vinegar is an unadulterated food, a powerful cleansing agent and healing elixir---a naturally occurring antibiotic and antiseptic that fights germs and bacteria. We would be smart to make use of vinegar in our own lives and in our avian nurseries and breeding facilities. --- For a healthier, stronger, longer life for our animals and ourselves - www.earthclinic.com/Remedies/acvinegar.html

Good morning people.

"Good morning." Reminds me of that famous line from Woodstock '69 when the MC (did they call them MC's? or a rag tag line of stoned people wondering about on a majectic stage that would change the world) announced to the crowd that "what we had in mind is breakfast in bed for 400 000 people". Don't know about you but I battle to sink 2 Weetbix, a glass of juice laced with glucosamine powder and various vitamin tablets. I forgot, I start the day with a glass lemon water (cold) with Celtic Salt. I'm on this mission to try and eat alkaline foods. As you can see the only alkaline thing about brekkie is the lemon water...yes I hear all 2 of you shout, lemon is acid, well apparently after it enters the body, it converts to alkaline. But I digress. The pic is of the Woodstock site today, the destination of my next pilgrimage, and no it's not a gravestone just a simple plaque to mark the site of the greatest event that occured in my life. I recently watched the director's cut of the event and still yearn for those days to return. What happened to the protest movement? Where are the restless youth challenging the leadership of the world? Where have all the flowers gone?

Spiritual fighter

Burning Spear the undoubted king alongside Robert Nestor Marley. Irie. Praise to be to Jah and to the men who still play real instruments.

A precious find

Yma historica

End of day one.

It's been a crap day back at work. I just can't get my head back into this whole fickle world of advertisng. But it's all I can do. I'm so tired of of the same old same old. As they say in the meetings I attend to stay sober..."I was sick and tired of being sick and tired". I have to look at doing something more meaningful with my life. Maybe I should get back into ceramics again. But I need something more substantial to sustain my life here in big mortgage land. I love my home here in the bush in the middle of the city. Our secret hideaway. I'm scared people will find it and flock here and develop. It's so nice waking up to the sounds of the bush. It's almost surreal to leave this serene place and be in the busy city ten minutes later. I'm blessed. But I still hate my work. Trouble is I get paid so much money its obscene. I want to escape back to my youth.

Another day, another sausage...

Musings again from Mr Zappa. Ok, I declare today "Official Day of FZ".
To our children:
"If you want to get laid go to uni.
If you want an education go to the library."

After my first period of unemployment (it lasted for 8 months in 2006), I vowed I'd never buy another book again. Much as I hate reading a book read by countless others, I have found my compulsive urge to collect books is nothing more than a statement, to the few people who visit my home, on how well read I am. I have decided to give these orphan books (bar the few that I re-read peroidically) to Elsie. Elsie is a wonderful woman who must be in her eighties, lives in Northbridge,Sydney, and whose front door never closes. She distributes all the local's handouts to the poor. So if you have "stuff" that you haven't worn or used in the last 6 months, chances are you'll never use it, pass it on to Elsie. (I'll post her address if anyone ever reads this blog)

Music

"Music is my desire it sets my heart on fire" - Pablo Moses - Music is my desire
"One good thing about music, when it hits you feel no pain" - Bob Marley - Trenchtown rock
"Jazz isn't dead it just smells funny" - Frank Zappa

I love cover art. And in particular this one by FZ. (doesn't the man look so much like James Packer?)

Welcome

Hello. Rantings of a self confessed bohemian trapped in the Sydney corporate world. A musician who can't play. A writer who can't write. An artist who can't draw. Where do I go from here? Follow me on my journey of discovery as I find my way back to the roots of Bohemia where I once lived before marriage, children and a mortgage. Will I ever get there again?