Southern Solstice Break

The seed has grown into a sapling. And it will be left alone for a couple of weeks, after what has been an amazing time of creativity. Ideas, Ideas, Ideas. This development of this project has been unique to all the artists involved, it's methods, experiences, insights and shared common ground... the town, the region. The region with it's final bypass stage put through only the other week. The Highway Home can take you on down to the coast - you don't even have to make a choice, until you reach the insta-warehouse shopping cul-de-sac at the end. "Furniture galore" makes itself clear at the end of this bypass highway. The beauty of the hills is showcased with this new road, a view once owned by Andrew Loyd-Webber, until he gave up his Von Guerrard painting of the Barabools for a million dollars or so. The painting is in the Geelong gallery, but does not include the bypass cutting through.. This is what the people wanted, for as long as I can remember. There will be less trucks going through the town, but we will still want our cheap chinese clothes from Big W. This town is now sculpted around by the bypass.

Finding money

I had a dream that I was picking up money on the street. I mean a lot. We were walking and I was finding these wet notes, under rocks and in little spaces that nobody else would see, but were really obvious to me. After the walk, I was really happy, we were amazed at how little effort had been put in to discovery these notes. Not a fortune, but enough to make tomorrow seem easy. I went on website to see what it means.... here is the quote. "To see or win money in your dream, indicates that success and prosperity is within your reach. Money may represent confidence, self-worth, success, or values. You have much belief in yourself. Alternatively, dreaming about money, refers to your attitudes about love and matters of the heart. It is frequently a symbol for sexuality and power." Okay. So... That's ah... Fine. I should add - I did wake up.

Space and time and action

The time spent away from a project can either invigorate or destroy it. Objectivity is everything to the development of a work.

Right now we are spending five or six days away from the project and then on the seventh - which happens to be the Thursdays we are meeting and constructing. The discipline of time out of the room is interesting.

Both Stephen and I are eager to get back in there. We have ideas during the week and we have notions to explore, but the limitations of hours in any given Thursday means that we have to focus quite in order make anything that is beautiful and quick. (long sentence).

The point is - this process - it's good.

It means that the making of the work is methodical, special and worthwhile. Which natuarlly brings me to using football as an analogy.

During the season - our football teams play once a week. We enjoy this because we can focus on the game completely. It becomes a special time. In Europe football teams play in a variety of competitions at once and so they play several times a week. The great thing is that you can see the games regularly and more frequently, but the thrill can never be the same. It's a routine, rather than a ritual. What HWY has right now is a ritual. Our process is thinking - meeting and creating. Listening back and re-constructing or re-thinking. This routine, this ritual - this is the right way to make this piece. And if it's not well - what can I say? It feels like it is right for us, right now. Space and time and action. This is what theatre should be.

the ocean doesn't want me today

winter skies in the winter city.

Go Away to Fall in Love

How terrifying. Walking the streets with a recording device. I thought this was going to be easy. Twenty years ago, this was easy. But yesterday Stephen and I found the whole experience quite confronting.

It was eleven am and you could have shot a cannon down the middle of the city. People were absent and the whole place looked like a set design. Wind and slurpies on the foot path. We second guessed everyone we saw, making up excuses as to why not to ask anybody any questions. "He looks to busy" - "They look too angry" - "She doesn't want two men asking her questions."

We decided shops were the best place to start. A quieter environment. If the place was empty then maybe they would be happy to have us in the joint.?Our question - "Have you ever been in love in this town?" was received with a mixture of bemusement, concern and interest.

One or two people didn't want to reply at all. But one girl came up with a great answer -
"Never in this town... You've got to go away to fall in love."

She laughed.

She was great.

We took our raw stuff back to the Alcoa studio space.

On the way back I realised how much we were asking of people. They had no obligation to us and for us to be asking about love in a public place was really more confronting for them than it could possibly be for us. The gift of participation had been granted to us today. We spent an hour and a half cutting the stuff together into a song with piano, trumpet and some beautiful loops. I sang a simple duet with her sample and we loved the result. Happy, giggly and sad.

Stephen and I will take the copy of this recording back to the girl next week. It was a great day.
It was full of tension, ambition and a miraculous conclusion. This was truly a love - experience.

the age

Shameless self promotion or just informing your mates of your life?

I was in the age newspaper on the weekend. I think it's silly to tell people, but then when you don't and your friends find out that you were, then they say you were silly not to tell them. Either way - it was in black and white and now in cyberspace.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainment/arts/in-an-unscripted-moment-the-seen-is-set/2009/05/21/1242498866789.html

Music, words and whispers

I heard the garbage trucks today. A satisfying sound, the rubbish needs to be taken away, we need to recycle and re-use. Today we are going onto the streets to interview people. It reminds me thisis how I started a hundred years ago in community radio. I think this project is quite similar in many ways, it is taking a pulse and broadcasting. Music, words and whispers.