Making kids smile in aisles

I had a wonderful moment walking to work, under umbrellas behind this mother and this little 3 or 4 year old girl. Like a beautiful JD Salinger moment, I was grumpy, wet, cold and she was being held in her mum's arms, looking back over her shoulders at me. This pure soul with sparkling blue eys and this almost smile. The smile that she was so madly fascinated with the sky today, but wasn't sure if smiling was allowed on such a dreary day. I smiled at her, and she just lit up. I then stuck my tongue out at her, and she laughed and did the same. It was a pretty cool moment. Made my day til I actually got to work.

At First Sight

For Amanda, to cheer her up

a romantic ramble

At First Sight

As a pop lover, the idea of falling in love (or whatever) at first sight comes up often. And of all the millions of gals who've etched an initial or two on me over the years only a handful have been at first sight. You know, the lightning in the head. The bucket of water to the face. The punch in the gut. In fact only twice has this happened to me.

1) 17 and at a party. I never go to parties. It wasn't even a party for kids from my high school. I was a complete tag along, in a suburb I've never been to ever (or since). I remember getting lost and walking around and asking a member of the Whitlams for directions (another stories). And there she was, talking to two other boys, in a badly lit room, full of drunken teenagers hoping to score. And it hit. And I remember thinking "I have to know your name."

2) Years later and heartbroken and back from being away, bumping into a friend at a venue. And just telling them about another ending and just every so often looking at her friend. Then again. Then again. And she was beautiful. And even though there were other people to talk to that night I just wanted to talk to her. She kinda smiled at me as I was just going on and on to my friend about some romantic garbage. And it all just lifted. And I did manage to talk to her, in between asking everyone else about her. Maybe it was rebound, but the months that followed proved that to be untrue. I didn't see her for a while but I thought about her every day since that night til we met again.

And I guess neither worked cos I was a bit too knocked out by both of them. You know, that's the advice girls give me all the time. Play it cool. But I've never forgotten the way these two girls looked on those nights, and when I'm lonely old man who has no future to speak of so lives in the past (ie. tomorrow), that memory will help we sleep with a smile on my face.

Fuck you Roberta Flack for making me aware of this feeling.

Let me tell you all about her

Sitting here with the hollow men
Discussing the finer points of things agains
Various lasses over copious glasses
Wearing bewilderment of failed mountain climbers

My poor friends have been through this before
The garish windows, the big red doors
Every sentence has her name
I open my mouth and it's like torrential rain

but...

Let me tell you all about her
And her blue smile
Let me tell you all about her
As you roll your eyes

Dear Old Crush, I (used to) love you

Dear girl that used to catch the 413 to Campsie with me back in the end of Primary school, I had such a crush on you.

I was like 10, and in love. You would get on the bus a couple of stops before me, every day with a different book. How did you ever read so fast? And we would get off at the same stop, and after a few weeks we used to look at eachother when our stop came up to see who would get to the buzzer first.

And after that we became friends of a sort, and I would walk you home then walk to mine. I met your mum and your sister, and then primary school finished and that was that. I bumped into you a few times after that.

There was one time when I was working at the local record store at the mall, Christmas Eve, and you were my last customer. You just came in, asking for a CD, and I didn't know what to say. It was a nice little end to a good year.

And you looked great, and I ended up being taller than you which I took as a major victory on my part.

anyway, I love(d) you.

would you?

Tim Rogers

Would you settle for a mobile home,
A good record store and a public phone?














(yes, I think I would)

I just can't see

I'm not holding on
To something that I know is gone
I just can't see you with anybody else

I don't want your time
Girl that's not what's on my mind
I just can't see you with anybody else

Something worth waiting for

Pete Wilson

Jesus, he don't return my calls
He don't mean much to me anymore

Catch Up

Good of you to call
You know I wish I could
But that's the way I was

So don't wait up
Or hold on
Just move on
And maybe someday who knows I might even catch up.

Illiterate!

Build a building by the bay
Climb a cliff of coloured caves
Dare to die in damp decay
Fall in fancy footed fate
Grapple with goners green and grey
Hope to heavens to help hold hate
Just a jewel in jester's jade
Keep a in king kit a kiss okay
Lose a level left of lonely
Make money on Mexican merchants
Now nearer to never notwithstanding
Place passing people in pictures
Queue the queen for questioning
Roast a rabbit in ruins
Signal the soldiers something simple
Teach the timid to tackle terror
Visit various visual vectors
Work well in winter with warriors
Yes to yesterday's year
Zip the zeigeist at zero zenith

Maybe it's all maybes

Trembling along like an cup in a quake
I steady myself wth a smile that's a fake
I'm spinning around like planets in space
Grabbing onto a passing phase

The foundations seem to shudder
No foreman would pass this muster
Seems all I say is filibuster
And my actions lackluster

Shoes seem to be falling off my feet
And made off with what's left of peace
Light bulbs glow but I can't see
Anything I can believe

And maybe it's all maybes
Nothing's written down and nothing's as it seems

Sorry

And I'm sorry
Your dreams did not come true

Imaginary interview

Imaginary interview with myself

Q: so why don't you drink?

Short answer: Just sort of never had, and just kept with it

Long answer: That's such an odd question to me. I ask you...why drink? Or, what are the reasons people drink? Because I've never understood any reason to ring true.

Q: To socialise?

WM: I socialise. And why do you need a chemical to socialise?

Q: It helps. It facilitates. It relaxes you.

WM: Shouldn't you learn those skills anyway? If you have a problem talking to people without alcohol, you still have a problem.

Q: It helps to get rid of inhibitions.

WM: well, again. Same deal. Should alcohol really be solving your personality problems? Maybe problems is not the right word...

Q: It helps people witha self esteem boost?

WM: Are those the people who need a war to feel better about themselves? Try eating more carrots. That also applies to people who use alcohol to help their confidence.

Q: To land a root?

WM: That's true. You can also pay directly for that and not drink.

Q: It'd be a strange world. It'd be one big year 9 dance. Everyone would be awkward and untalkative.

WM: It's a funny thought but I don't think that's true. Also, it's not for everybody.

Q: You're not against alcohol?

WM: I'm not against any drug. Or at least, anyone's choice to use any drug. That's up to them. But I do find it saddening to see drug dependency. And drugs being used on a regular basis to make a person feel a certain way that they could get to without drugs.

Q: So how do you feel about drinkers?

WM: I treat them the same as anyone I know. In fact it's almost everyone I know anyway. I've only met one person who doesn't drink, for similar political (little "p") reasons.

Q: you don't look down on them?

WM: No. I smoke. To tell someone not to take drugs is hypocritical. I've never in my life told anyone they should stop drinking. Ever. Not once. But people think that because I don't drink, that I judge them. It's threatening.

Q: Is being casually threatening deliberate?

WM: No. That's not the reason I'm open about it. The reason I'm open about it is, maybe, one day, like a friend of mine's kid might feel like not getting smashed and his friends are doing it every night or every week, and he might ask his dad about it, and he might go, well I know this guy who never drank and he still managed to go out and have fun times and things. It's not that important.

Q: Do you? Do you go out and have fun?

WM: I'm not the happiest person in the world, but I can easily let myself go and be all giddy and silly on a night out. It's a bit frustrating when people then say I'm drunk. Having fun just equals being drunk in this day and age. But people will always want to knock you down and make you seem not that different to them.

Q: Do people knock you down?

WM: Yes. People are always trying to get me to drink. My usual response now is "only if you suck my cock." But I expect it. I am trying to be different, in a time and age where that's frowned upon.

Q: Not really. Lots of people don't drink.

WM: No, I don't think that's true. And not all for political reasons. It's like being a vegetarian. It's a lifestyle choice. How many people do you know who've done that? I've only ever met one other person, like I said. I imagine it's one in ten thousand at least. Maybe more. That sounds arrogant, to say I'm different to so many people. People think that means I'm saying I'm better, or more elite, than the average Joe. Well, I'm not. We're all different. But I understand it's threatening

Q: What do you say to someone who says they are not going to drink anymore?

WM: It's up to them. I hope they are making the right choice for them. I don't encourage people to follow my lead at all. Don't stop drinking cos you're my friend or girlfriend, just to get my approval or something. Cos you'll turn around and one day when you drink again, your actions will be tied to someone you once knew. "I didn't drink cos I had this boyfriend who didn't drink." That belittles it. Do it if it's right for you. If not, then don't.

Q: but you just went on and on about why people shouldn't drink.

WM: Did I? Well, those are the reasons I don't drink. I don't think I'm going to change the world on this one, but I feel it's important to hold my ground.

Q: I need a drink after all this.

WM: I need a smoke.

Linklater (again)

I think Linklater said it best
That movie went straight to my chest

Dress up when you're feeling down

Old Roald

thanks to Keegan

Old Roald
You are gold
Or so I'm told
Your books fold
At night it's cold

he wasn't always bald
but the pattern was in the mould.

he had no toupé to hold,
but a newspaper he rolled
which he bought (i'm told)
with the money from the books that he sold.

with sales to behold
and people we polled
loved the stories retold
by old Roald

no home
no job
no love
no ties that bind
nothing to pay off
no gigs left unplayed


that's it then.

Airports

I just want to go home
Please hurry up the plane
And hurry up these people
And hurry up the baggage
And shrink down this walkway
And kill the people ahead of me in the line
And get that taxi here already
I just want to go home

Sam And Linklater

One day we should record our conversation
Hours and hours of human insight
So I can listen back to it when I'm not in town
And not have to rely on memory and imaginings
Of how you might cut me down
Or how I might cut you back
And how we can smoke by the Yarra
Have coffees til midnight
And discuss the deepest darkest subjects
At the top of our lungs at a dumpling resturaunt
As others look at us wondering if we're really
Talking about the nature of criticism
Or my theory of boys and girls
Or depression, death and deathly,
And how you have a crush on me
And we can cast two really good looking people
(one choice each of course)
And we can send the tape to Richard Linklater
And show him how it's really done
Because for four hours we barely took a breath
And you were so right so often
And we truly listened to eachothers points
And everything is perfect the way it is
And everything is where it should be.

Public Holiday

There is no one on the streets
They are digging the trams out of the trenches
And there isn't a car anywhere
So it's amazing to discover
How quiet a city can be

Brushed off

You know that time when you said to me
"If you need someone to talk to..."
And I brushed you off because I didn't know you
I'm sorry

Cos maybe I could be there for you now
Maybe it's not too late.
We'll talk when I see ya.
If I see ya.
We can talk about death and loneliness

Saturday 11/06/2005

Cup of tea
And Simon and Garfunkel
On a rainy day
I pretend that my apartment is in New York
Where the men in checked pants
And moustaches older than me
Sit and play chess
Old Italians with accents
A trendy couple on holiday
Are getting blown away
By movie references on every corner
Uni kids reading poetry
Discussing Frank Lloyd Wright
Using ideas as their maps
And I am of the intellegensia
Of the young minds out to change the world
Through perception of generations
Cos the ideas come from the young

I woke up from a dream where you died
And I saw you on TV
But not your face
And I couln't get to you
I didn't even have a number
Or a language

Ignorance is bliss

Is ignorance bliss
Help me please miss
I'm not on the list

terminal

I've got to better with money
I spend like a terminal patient

Snap

All of the sudden
It snaps
Like a breadstick
And I'm over it
At least for now

Gene Hackman

If Gene Hackman and Hugh Jackman
were starring in a film
Wit Greta Schacci and Christina Ricci
Your dreans would come true
Maybe Charlie Chaplin or Woody Allen
Would be in the director's chair

But if I
Was in a movie
I think you'd love me too

The Body (complete)

The Body

The body just laid there, cold as a stone
I start staring at my shoes and pretend that I’m alone
As she's explaining to her children who are too young to know
How a body can just lay there without it's soul

I wonder where I can buy some funeral clothes
As I'm sitting on the train and I am crying on my own
Cos I don’t believe in heaven so there’s no place to go
For a body that is lying there without it’s soul

Bad news came from a number that wasn’t on my phone
How his heart just wasn’t in it and how it couldn’t hold
Now the things that prop me up are falling down like dominos
Around a body that is lying there without it’s soul

A grand Jewish funeral on cool day by the coast
As the rain threatens to piss down on all the gathered folks
Who have no common ground but the ground has a hole
That is shaped like a body without it’s soul

On Monday we’ll go into town and clear out his office
And you’ll see what a life look likes when it’s all packed up in boxes
I try to crack some jokes because I think that’s what he wanted
But this room seems so empty without a soul there to haunt it

Girl could you come over now, cos I’m feeling so low
I wanna be inside your body, I want to swallow up your soul
Because one day we’ll be used up and worn down to the bone
And we’re nothing but bodies without their souls

This world is mainly horrible, all we can do is cope
So it’s hard to lose one of the few things that helps us hope
And I still don’t get the science of how someone I know
Can turn into a body without a soul

Chaplin

Mister Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Oh how I need you now

And your movies
Silent movies
No talking on the sound

There's no words I want to hear anyhow

Mister Allen
Woody Allen
Oh how I need you now

And your insight
Witty insights

Astrology

Astrology suggests
That one twelth of the world
Feels the same way as I do
And is going through what I am going through

No one's gonna miss you when you go

No one's gonna miss you when you go
You'll inconvenience no one when you blow
this popcicle stand and long term plans
like a dandelion in your hand

No one's gonna miss you when you're gone
They wont sit around talk about your songs
They'll think of you as little as you
Think about them too

No one's gonna miss you when you leave
So there's nobody to think of when you're free
They're always going to be something new
Don't say good bye just do what you wanna do