This Sickness - debut performance

What is it that compels a grown man to put on a sparkly pink cowboy hat on stage in front of friends, colleagues and his own parents? Ah poetry, my twisted mistress.

Anyway, Carmen and I debuted our performance piece 'This Sickness' at Glitch Bar in North Fitzroy on Sunday night, to a generally positive response from some people I respect immensely. My favourite comment so far came from Anna Fern, the MC for the night, who described us as corruption (me) and luminosity (Carmen), which I'm so absolutely using on the next press release. The 70's porn sample on the soundtrack, featuring the line "Eat me, come on. Taste that trucker's cum, taste it you bitch" may actually have gotten a better response than the poems themselves. And certain audience members are apparently still in shock after my post-rock Celine Dion remix. I am proud yes. Weirdest moment was the brief disappointment afterwards that I hadn't taken all my clothes off. Who'd have thought? Maybe next time. Maybe not.

Given our almost total lack of rehearsal, I was pretty happy with our performance and with some work to beat it into shape I think it could be a fine one to flog around the slightly edgier festival circuit. I feel that Carmen and I have found a good balance between the personal and the profane and the hmm that's a bit of both isn't it.

I like that there's still a place for this kind of mischief in the Overload Poetry Festival.

A chapbook of the poems is available from the green Safeway bag beside my bed.

The gig has also sparked off a bit of debate over at the Overland blog - http://web.overland.org.au/?p=1648

Harmony

Perhaps the world is dived into two kinds of people. People who like Harmony Korine, find him challenging and inspiring and funny, and the people don't like him even a little bit.

So I'm sitting here, as I do, and I'm watching interviews with Harmony Korine on youtube, which I've never done and feeling this amazing connection somehow. This idea that there are all these amazing pictures in his head that come out when he makes films, but maybe when he does interviews he has a hard time getting those images across and people think he's just a kook.

I'm a word person, not a visual person so much, but I understand how difficult it can be to explain the process of creating your art. And I love that he doesn't censor his vision to make it prettier or more obviously accessible. His characters get to be weird and fucked up without having to be . . . washed. People can be handicapped without being cute, sad without being tragic, people can be awful and wonderful and not make any sense, and that's fine.

Apparently his last film had flying nuns too - and a castle full of celebrity impersonators. So of course I have to see it now. 'Mr Wonderful' it's called. I saw the trailer, looks amazing. But where to find it? I don't want to download it, I'd rather he got the money. I'll order it if no video shops around here have it.

And so I think this divided world of ours needs more Harmony Korine, I think he makes it a nicer place for us all.

"I'd do the sequel to Titanic. I'd use a rowboat. I don't know if it'd sink."
Harmony Korine on Letterman

Or maybe

Fuck it, I'm going to use this blog to write down recipes, which I never do. Rarely read them, never keep record of what I've cooked so I can remember next time.

Half a punnet of chopped strawberries, one tablespoon sour cream, handful of crushed brazil nuts, handful of chopped dried apricots, as much golden syrup as you like and a pinch of cinnamon - mix in a bowl.

Roll in a sheet of filo pastry.

Place in 200 degree oven for 20 minutes or until brown.

Eat.

use as excuse to procrastinate on a blog at 5am.

Easy as.

Tomorrow we'll do main course.

Reality, my idiot friend and I

I like the idea that almost no one is reading this. I could say anything at all. But then I've said so much over the years on stages and in print and CD, online and all the rest of it that sometimes by the time I get to this blog, I'm just worn out of words. This twisted on compulsive need to communicate all the time.

I should be memorising lines for these shows, or sleeping, or doing something other than this.

I'm fucking nervous and edgy and the idea of sleep seems foreign right now. There's too much to do, I can't get my head around it all.

I have to look for a house.

I need to prioritise.

I leave this for tonight with an odd sense of deja vu and a random poem from the archive.


Reality Whore Manifesto

I am a reality whore
I don’t need money
don’t you know that artists
eat air, breathe words
the slash of paint on canvas
the lull of a guitar the screech of a trumpet?
Invoke the name ---- ----- to
locate other reality whores in your vicinity
I’ll sell myself any day of the week
for some small truth

Truth in advertising?
Truth in fiction
truth in the days you can’t tell
if you’re dreaming or you’re
actually waiting for a tram
the line becomes blurred
it’s why we crave the visceral
the nights too close to madness
the unavoidable slap of next mornings
is a small price to pay to know you’re alive!

We do not come in peace
we come with lists of demands
that can never be met
we’ll find the hole in the sand
you’ve buried your head in
wrench it out crying
Look! It’s all around don’t deny it
don’t deny this one small thing we have
the knowledge that we exist
that some things are solid
can be both touched and tasted

We will fight for this knowledge
to keep it safe from those
who would take it from us
take hallucinogens to prove that reality
not only exists but has many layers
we will explore the possibilities
as far as they stretch
want you to understand
and may lose sleep if you don’t

In reality we are no more or less
significant than any other speck of star-trash
the universe might swallow us whole
without the slightest shudder
we are not so important
still we have been given the gift of reason
the ability to search for truth and beauty -
created angels because we understood
that we are not perfect

‘Each to their own’ the prophet said
each to the world they see around them
we simply ask that you accept
there is much more than what you’ve seen
said the sun turned around the earth and you were
wrong, we did not drop off the edge
there was no edge to find
we continue to learn