City return - time for the photos.

I love Melbourne, but having over a month away has been a tonic. It's as if the dust that had settled on everything has been blown away and there's a new light on everything. I'm feeling reinvigorated and ambitious for the year ahead.

Cowgirl
© divacultura 2014

My time away was spent outside Toowoomba in Queensland, in country NSW, Tamworth and Lennox Head. Some of the time was spent hanging out with various family members, some of it was spent at Summersong music camp and some of it overlapped with the Tamworth Country Music Festival. When I've attended a gig there before I couldn't see for the hats, so this year I wore one too!


On my flight home yesterday, I was reading a physical book called Difficult Men. It's about television covering both the characters (Tony Soprano) and the creators (David Chase). It is absorbing reading and I barely noticed anyone else around me. After we'd landed and everyone was standing quietly in the aisle waiting to deplane, the bloke who had been sitting next to me said in a booming voice: "That book you're reading...Do you have one? Do you want one? Did you get rid of one?"

I laughed and responded: "Well, this morning I finished a book about psychopaths*, so draw your own conclusions!"

That hit the mark. I'd never thought about the potential for stand-up comedy in this context. I'd also forgotten about the privacy afforded by reading e-books.

While away, I took some photos that I really like and will share them from time to time. Hope you like them.

© divacultura 2014

This little wallaby is a regular visitor.
© divacultura 2014

In the shadow of the windmill.
© divacultura 2014

* The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson - another absorbing read.

Re-entry

It's been a week since I returned from my annual visit to Summersong music camp. As usual, that week has really refuelled and refreshed my creative drive. Living in a creative community for a week with nothing to do but soak up music, laughter, ideas and the company of kindred spirits is a fantastic opportunity that I cherish. Re-entry to the world can be an odd ride. I stayed in Lennox Head on the night camp finished and wrote this while I was waiting for my meal to arrive.


The shock of re-entry into the world hits me. I knew that after a whole week of being nurtured in a loving bubble of creativity there would be a jolt at this moment. Having experienced it so often before I know that ordinary activities like talking to strangers, making menu choices and counting money will be harder than usual. It took me an age to choose a drink; then to decide on food to accompany it. I read the menu thoroughly, forensically and eventually decided. It has been more than a week since my brain had to read and process another person's written words without a musical accompaniment. Apart from lyrics to songs I'm singing, the only words I've read this week have been words I've written - they week have been mine. Even when receiving a friend's new work, I hear it, rather than read it. I wonder at this gift.

At a nearby table a family sits - standard model: mum, dad, girl, boy. The boy looks to be about six years old and sleeps in his chair; legs dangle, relaxed, hands lie limply by his side. On the table before him sits a black rubber spider the size of his forearm. His sister is more animated but it is the boy, sweet in sleep, who draws my attention. He wears the ensemble of a small boy these days: blue checked shorts, cream and white striped t-shirt. His thongs lie discarded under the table.

A ham and pineapple pizza is delivered for him and still he sleeps. The pizza is removed from the table and returned in a box when the boy fails to stir. The black rubber spider guards the contents as it sits upon the box.

It is the very old and the very young who are allowed to sleep in public. The vulnerability of this simple act is humbling. I recall the man I saw in a shopping centre in Tamworth before camp. He was literally asleep on his feet. My father commented that he looked like a horse. I am tired and would love to join this sweet sleeping boy (easily could) but I fear I'd be charged with vagrancy, looked upon as weird. Or robbed.

Do you sleep in public?

Christmas wishes - with a twist

I'm switching off for Christmas holidays. I'll be spending time with family, heading off to music camp to write my annual song and generally lying around with a book (well, my e-reader actually).

Thank you to you, my readers; you add a very special dimension to divacultura. Knowing you're out there means a lot.

I wish you peace, joy and love - whatever your beliefs.

Or in "Spanish":

For lease navidad!
© divacultura 2013

NB I did not deface this sign, just noticed it in the street and laughed out loud. Now try getting the song out of your head!

Last week of the summer holidays.

Here's how I spent the last week of my summer holidays...

Swimming in a bush lake.

Walking on the beach in the morning.

Singing a capella with other wonderful people.

Making harmonies - planned and impromptu.

Exploring rhythm - body percussion, playing the bush and being silly and playful with a variety of percussion instruments.

Sharing secrets in the dark from a bunk bed in a dorm.

Accepting love and appreciation for my work.

Connecting with old friends and making new ones.

Writing songs.

Finishing and performing one of these songs (that I really like!)

Appreciating the beauty of the world.

Laughing.

Dancing.

Making music.

Writing.  A lot.

Listening to music live - every night.

Being humbled by the talent of people around me.

Being blessed by their generosity in helping to create.

Reconnecting with good creative habits (morning pages).


On the drive home, I was amazed to find the artist at a the Barking Dog ceramics gallery in Uralla (between Armidale and Tamworth) had posters in her work room for concerts performed by Kristina Olsen who is one of the long standing teachers at Summersong.

I then stopped to see the Cash Only show at the Tamworth Country Music Festival on the way home on the spur of the moment - one of my favourite ways to experience music.  It was at the Longyard Hotel which I think is the greatest pub name in the world.

Summersong is where I was, and have been every year since 2005 (except for 2012).  How's that for a great way to finish holidays!

© divacultura 2013

© divacultura 2013

Jellyfish.
© divacultura 2013

© divacultura 2013

© divacultura 2013

Leaving my mark.
© divacultura 2013

Jostling for power.  Impressed by the cabin mate
who packed a power board!
© divacultura 2013

Back in the bush. View from the back verandah.
© divacultura 2013

My normal daily publication schedule will recommence shortly.

Summer holidays - second leg completed.

I'm off to Summersong tomorrow.  Summersong is an adult music camp that pretty much changed my life.  I'll come back inspired and ready to tackle a very busy and promising 2013.

While I'm away, I'll be "unplugged" from the digital world.

See you on the other side!

In the meantime here's a few photos I've taken in the last few days.

Coal miners' memorial - Gunnedah, NSW
(c) divacultura 2013

Night tree
(c) divacultura 2013

Tim Burton landscape
(c) divacultura 2013

Sunset reflections on a wet deck
(c) divacultura 2013

Question Time - Who are Nerds & Music

This week's Question Time guest is my favourite Newcastle-based-folk-comedy-duo - Nerds & Music.  I'll let you know who the other ones are later.  I met these fine fellows, Wayne Thompson and Clark Gormley, at Summersong Music Camp a few years back and have been enjoying their company ever since.  

In restless moments where the members of the band needed to explore other projects, they've turned to me - separately - as a fellow musician and writer.  Clark and I co-wrote the hit song "Synaesthesia Blues".  It became apparent quickly that our audience was very boutique and limited to people who know what synaesthesia is without the need to check a dictionary.  Wayne and I co-wrote the marginally more successful song "Felafel (W)rap".  Both songs premiered at Summersong.  It's a privilege to share a by-line with each of them.  

Clark has a habit of calling me just before his room service dinner arrives.  (Perhaps I could market myself as a charming, remote dinner companion...)  Wayne and I talk about typography and design and stuff.

They're witty and clever and I highly recommend that you go to a gig if they're playing nearby.  There's a gig listing at the end of the post.  If not, here's an opportunity to spend some time with Nerds & Music.

(Wayne's responses are first because he answered first.)

1. Who are Nerds and Music? Which one is which?

Wayne: Obviously Clark is the Nerd and I am the Music, although I guess that depends on which one of us responds first to these questions. Clark's profession is actually much nerdier than mine, he's an engineer see? I'm a Type Designer, which is MUCH more mainstream...

Wayne Thompson & Clark Gormley are Nerds & Music.

Clark: Wayne’s the Nerd and I’m the ampersand in the middle.  (BTW you misspelt our band name Tanya. I’m also a pedant.)  As for the Music, we’re still looking.

2. Where do you get inspiration for your music?

Wayne: Use of the word 'inspiration' suggests my music is actually 'inspired' in some way. It's not. It just comes to me. Often in response to some stimuli in my environment, such as the smell of freshly cut grass (as in the song 'Geez I Like Your Grass'). It's like a bolt from the blue, I mean, I see or hear something and 'bang', there's a lyric or tune in my head. But "inspiration"? C'mon! I think you better look it up in the dictionary!

Clark: Shamington Theelswaite, Ergatomics, Aratcothinswit.  You probably don’t recognise the names because they’re in an alternate universe.

3. What's your writing routine?

Wayne: Get up. Eat. Avoid writing. Go to bed.

No, seriously, it's actually more complicated than that. Sometimes I spend the day on Facebook.

Oh, allRIGHT... ACTUAL answer: I don't have a routine. I always carry a notebook, because ideas have a habit of occurring at inopportune moments. Except in the shower, I don't take my notebook there, that would be absurd. Ironically, the fact that ideas often occur to me in the shower inspired the song 'Bugger Bum', about the cursing that occurs when you forget an inspirational idea because it occurred to you in the shower, and then you forgot it due to the lack of opportunity to write it down.

Clark: Two writers walk into a bar.  They sit at either end of the bar, and take out their laptops and start writing jokes about the sort of people who walk into bars.  After a while of listening to the rattle of their fingers against the plastic keys, the barman screams “Get out of here!”

The writers ask “Why?”

The barman says “I can’t stand this stereotyping!”

4. What's your favourite word?

Wayne: Transmogrify. I've always wanted to be able to use it in conversation.


Clark: Nerd is the word.

5. If you could script your dying words, what would they be?

Wayne: Please take your knee out of my groin (with a nod to Mel Brooks).

Clark: Aaaaarrrrrrghrhhhhggghhhhrrrhhshhhhhaaaaarrrrrrhhhhh

6. What gets your hanky in a twist?

Wayne: The washing machine. And poor punctuat.ion

Clark: The ready availability of tissues.

7. What's your ambition for Nerds and Music.

Wayne: Where's the question mark? Man, I hate sloppy grammar... that really gets my hanky in a ... erm... sorry. Where was I? My ambition for Nerds & Music would be to transmogrify (ha! I did it!) from a folk duo into an electric blues band. Full drum kit, screaming guitar solos, and lots of tattoos. Some say this might be ambitious. I say reach for the sky. But don't tell Clark, I don't think he'd like it. (Ed: I think he's going to find out...)

Clark: To make it through to the end of the day. 

And maybe to get a drummer.

To play the theme tune to the next series of Big Bang Theory.

8. What blogs do you read? What else are you reading?

Wayne: I can only wish I had the time to read blogs! In between Facebooking, Ipodding and cat-feeding, who's got time for blogs? .... What?... um.. er yes, and work, of course.

Clark: Tanya’s fabulous blog Divacultura.  (Ed: Actually, it's written divacultura - with a lower case "d". Not that I'm a pedant...)

Links on Facebook to Tanya’s fabulous blog Divacultura.

Actually, I really am reading “How I became a Famous Novelist” by Steve Hely.  A very funny book.  It was recommended to me by Tanya, who has a fabulous blog called Divacultura.

9. Finish this sentence, "If we weren't making music we'd be...."

Wayne: "If we weren't making music we'd be playing other people's music."

Clark: Making license plates.  Nerds & Music saved us from a life of white collar crime.  I’d already started stealing white collars. 


Find Nerds & Music on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NerdsAndMusic

To discover Wayne's typographical design work: www.atf.com.au

As for upcoming gigs, we’re very busy over the next month:

Nerds Storm The Terrace!

Friday, July 27, 2012.8:00pm. The Terrace Bar, 529 Hunter St Newcastle

Nerds & Music make their Terrace Bar debut at Newcastle's newest live music venue.

Nerds & Music will play all their hit to an adoring audient. Why not come along and make it two?

And what better location to play our homage to Hunter Street, the Milk Crate song (with apologies to Bob Hudson and Dave & The Deros).

Nerds are sharing the bill with veteran Australian country performer Daisy Burr, who is visiting Newcastle to buy a new set of venetians for her 72 XY Ford Falcon Station Wagon. 

Next Fairlight Folk Sat August 11th 7:30pm.

3 William St, Fairlight (the old Baptist Church just down from Sydney Rd).

Mick Conway and Robbie Long, Nerds & Music (Clark Gormley & Wayne Thompson) and Rebecca Moore. www.fairlightfolk.com

Nerds are also regulars at Club Sandwich Cabaret (first Friday of the month in Newcastle).  Clark will be solo MC for the next CSC as Wayne has soccer commitments.  

Club Sandwich for August will be celebrating National Science Week

Friday August 3, 8pm

$20 admission

It’s all in the Science…

And what exactly does that mean? Poor old science has been taking a beating recently – alternately blamed, held up as irrefutable, used or abused, mostly by those who haven’t had to present an abstract, method, results and conclusion in their entire life.

At the run in to National Science Week, Club Sandwich is going to employ rigorous scientific method to examine many of the issues that affect us in everyday life, from our upcoming bumper crop of atmospheric CO2 to why we have to choose cheque or savings when paying by eftpos.

Science has made our lives infinitely better and brought vast practical understanding to so many things including health, the environment, technology and now even God via the Higgs boson (who’d a though it!?). Pop on a knitted vest and some warm socks to wear with your Dunlop volleys as we uncover the odd, the eccentric and the almost unbelievable people and events that have shaped this mind expanding odyssey.

Appropriately, MC for the evening is that nerd Clark Gormley.

Royal Exchange

32-34 Bolton Street Newcastle 2300 (02) 4929 4969

www.royalexchangenewcastle.com.au
http://www.clubsandwichcabaret.com/

Question time - Who is Rose Wintergreen?

Today's guest is fellow Melbourne-based blogger Rose Wintergreen.  Rose and I met a few years ago at Summersong, a music camp for adults.  We discovered we shared a sense of the silly and enjoyed some serious sessions of laughing and music making together.


One of the things I admire about Rose is the way she thinks about what she's doing.  Her blog is thoughtful and purposeful and she's a whizz on the latest technology and web tools.  Top Tool Tuesday is on my must-read list each week.  I love Rose's innate curiosity about people and the world.  A fellow traveller!


I hope you enjoy meeting her and discovering her blog.

1. Who is Rose Wintergreen?

Singer-songwriter, writer, crafty type and social media and marketing coach.

2. Where do you get your inspiration for your blog?

My inspiration comes from all sorts of places. My blog is something I use as a reminder to prioritise spending some time in my life to feeding my creativity. 

My creativity is a funny little creature. I imagine it as a pet. It behaves a bit like a cat. It can be unpredictable. It's electric blue, with acrylic faux fur. She has lime green, all-knowing eyes. When I don't feed her or pat her in the way she likes (by reading something new, going somewhere different, or trying out new perspectives or activities) she slumps quietly in the corner, growing thin and wan, occasionally hissing angrily at me to make sure I don't forget she's still there, waiting. When I make room in my life to spend with her, all sorts of exciting things happen. Everything seems more colourful.

I try to write my blog posts about things that have excited my creativity, the ways I've made more room for creativity in my life, and what I've been creating. I really love the idea that I might excite and help other people to be creative. I try to focus on things that are relevant to people who are making art, music, craft or writing, or who are wanting to start doing those things soon but don't have the confidence or know where to start.

3. What's your writing routine?

If I didn't have a blog, my writing wouldn't be so routine. I know writing is important for me (when I don't, I feel more stressed) but setting deadlines for myself isn't enough sometimes. Writing my blog makes me more accountable. I have a responsibility to write - not just for myself, but also for my readers. 

I find it easier to write when I'm not at home, sitting alone in a corner of a cafe of up the back of a tram, scribbling away in my journals or some scrap paper. Coffee makes a huge difference. If I'm sipping on a real coffee or I've had one in the last couple of hours, I feel more confident, and get things done faster as a result. The most magical writing combination for me is heading out for a walk in the morning, going to a yoga class, then sitting at a cafe with a coffee. Within an hour or so I'll manage to draft a blog post or do some creative writing, do some fun brainstorming, and plan my priorities for the rest of the day.  

Ideas come at all times of day and in all sorts of inconvenient places, so I always carry my phone or a digital recording device with me, as well as several pens and a journal or scrap paper. I get a lot of my best ideas in the car when I'm driving alone, so I try to leave the radio and stereo off to let the ideas come at me. If I'm planning on having a proper writing session, I'll always take two notebooks - one for the creative, fun, journaling style of writing, and one for work-related, strategising and planning. I didn't used to do this, and discovered that if I didn't, I would spend all my writing time working on the worky stuff instead.

   

4. What's your favourite word?

I'm sorry, but I can't just pick one. I love the word "velvet" because it sounds lush, just like the texture. I love the word "salacious" because it sounds so naughty and seductive. I generally have a thing for words that sound interesting and like the thing they describe (especially food-related ones, textures, and colours). 

5. If you could script your dying words, what would they be?

"So long, and thanks for all the fish." Just kidding. I've ripped that off from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I have no idea. It would depend on who was with me and whether they were listening! I guess it would be an expression of gratitude for all the opportunities and experiences I've had, and a plea to others saying something like: 

"You are enough. Don't wait for permission. You know the road you need to take. Surround yourself with the people who make you feel the most at peace with yourself and who encourage you. Be open, loving and trusting. Explore! Life is one big sampling platter! Taste what you want to. Do things for as long as they feel right to you."

Oh, and my favourite line from a recent movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel:

"Everything is alright in the end. If it's not alright, it's not the end."

6. What gets your hanky in a twist?

I'm doing my best to not let people get my hanky in a twist. Yoga helps a lot. Ultimately, people will do what they want. All I can control is how I react to what happens around me.

But there are a couple of specific things that push my buttons...

People who say they aren't creative. We all are. We're born creative. We're just creative in different ways, and some of us spend more time breathing life into our creativity than other people do.

People who do amazing things that have taken a lot of work (like recording an album, or writing a book), who hope that people will love it and it will get some sort of attention, but who don't do anything to make it easy for people to find out about it and share it with the world. I don't know if they realise it, but what it says to the world is "I spent a long time making this piece of work, but I'm not going to tell people about it because it's not good enough."      

7. What's your ambition for your blog, your business, you? 

These are all very closely intertwined for me. My goals are to keep being creative, to keep learning about what works for other creative people, and to share this with people. I want to show people that it's possible for them to do creative things too, and to promote themselves effectively with social media, if they want to. There's no secret club, no secret password. 

I really enjoy helping people with their social media and online marketing strategy, so I'll definitely keep doing that! 

I'm also working on songs for a new recording, and writing a book of conversations with professional singer-songwriters about how they stay creative and prevent burnout. I also have a couple of other top secret book ideas in the pipelines. 

8. What blogs do you read? 

I read a lot of blogs! I used to use Google Reader to keep track of them all, but it's more usual for me now to keep up-to-date by following people on Twitter and reading their posts as they tweet about them. 

Some of my favourites are divacultura, The Rachel Papers (writing), Brain Pickings (creativity and lots of other things), The Lazy Civil Servant (personal), Anna Spargo-Ryan (personal), Puttylike ("lifestyle design" for people with lots of different interests), Everyday Adventure (writing and personal), Handmade Love (art), The Seamstress (art),  Timber and Steel (music), and Fearful Adventurer (travel). 

9. Finish this sentence, "If I wasn't blogging I'd be...."

If I wasn't blogging I'd be crazy. Crazier than I am now. And lonely. I'd probably still be creative, but I'd be feeling pretty constipated creatively, and very alone with it. I've made some great friends through blogging, and many sources of inspiration and encouragement. 

----

1800 SARONG

For the first time in about eight years, I will not be attending Summersong, an adult music camp located at Lennox Head on the NSW north coast.  A lot of people look at me like I'm weird when I first tell them that every January I go and spend time sleeping in a bunk bed in a dorm with shared toilet and shower facilities and strangers in the same room.  And that I do this willingly.  And pay for the privilege.

Summersong is one of the greatest gifts of creative, supportive music making that I have been fortunate to receive in my adult life.  It sounds corny, but it's true.  A fantastic community of musicians and writers has grown and there are people whom I only see there once a year but I count them as important friends.  I even found work through the Summersong network.

It's not just music making, rehearsing, creating, practising and doing homework!  There's also party celebration night.  The women dress gloriously - think tropical beach adorned with flowers - and the men, well the men wear no pants. Instead they wear sarongs (or any variation).  Some of the fellas go all out and frock up in a way to rival the women.  They look great!

The sarong is not without its dangers for people who have never worn them before.  One year I was in a cabin with a woman from Scotland.  She wasn't really up on the whole sarong thing, so I lent her one of mine. She went very quiet for about 15 minutes and I asked her whether she was ready to go.  She was still standing there examining the sarong.  The sarong is hardly a staple of the average Scottish woman's wardrobe, especially if she usually lives in Scotland.  I swooped in, wound her around, tucked a bit here, folded a bit there and tied it all together.  Voila!

She looked nervous.

"What wrong?"  I asked her.

"How will it stay on?"

"Oh it will stay on."

"But how will it stay on?  How do you know it will stay on?"

"Ok.  Listen to me.  At the fresher toga party at university I tied my best friend so securely into her toga she was still wearing it three days later."

The Scottish woman breathed out and decided to trust me.  She was fine.  Although I have been suddenly abandoned by a succession of men on the dance floor clutching the only thing between them and complete freedom as they dash to find privacy.

Getting ready for the party reminds me of the frantic crowding around mirrors and fighting for showers that used to happen at boarding school.  The fresh dimension at Summersong is semi clad blokes wandering around trying to find a frock or get help with their sarongs.  (This usually only happens in the first year - after that they're packing a frock and certainly are well versed in the liberation of sarong wearing.)

One year I heard one calling out for help with his sarong.  I called back "1800 SARONG.  Hello, how may I direct your call?" It's become a running joke.

I just received an enquiry via the facebook page worrying that the 1800 SARONG helpline had been disconnected as I would not be attending this year.

Of course it hasn't closed!

"I appreciate your concern.  1800 SARONG has not been disconnected.  Your call is important to us.  Our operators are busy helping other people with their sarongs.  You'll appreciate the difficulty of providing this guidance by telephone.  There will therefore be a longer wait than usual.  Please hold the line. Or for only 3 tiny monthly instalments of $99 you can receive our printed help guide.  As a bonus we'll throw in the DVD which shows not one, not 2, not 10, but 25 different ways to wear your sarong.  For a tiny extra  amount you can receive the extended mix with 400 ways to wear and tie your sarong.  That's right, for only $150 per month over 3 months, you'll be able to wear a sarong all summer long.  If you take up this offer today we'll even throw in the sarong.  And some glue. And maybe a staple gun."

Apparently the staple gun is enough to convince clients to put their fears of being recruited to Scientology aside.

And that's the other wonderful thing about places like Summersong - you get to play and be silly!  When was the last time you got down in the sand pit and allowed yourself to be playful? And laughed your head off?