the ’sham

This is a “key episode” in the sham: in which I depart the neighbourhood for the day. Plenty of ruminations here about the nature of my experience due to having to be blindfolded the entire time.

Listen in here [26 min, 13mb mp3].

Read the original episode here.

This is the entry (posted one day before Easter 2006) in which I announce to the readership of the ’sham that I am considering breaking my self-imposed Petersham lockdown to visit my uncle Michael’s Darling Point house for Easter lunch. (The reason being that my dad was in town, and not in too great shape emotionally, and he’d especially asked me to come.)

Thus ensued, in the comments section, a debate on “fam versus sham” or “life versus art”, including comparisons with Joseph Beuys’ work “I love america and america loves me” (where, so the legend goes, he was blindfolded and refused to touch American soil).

Listen in here. [16min, 6mb, mp3]
…or you can hear the reading of this same episode as broadcast from Mystery Bay, down the NSW coast, where I have just travelled in a campervan. TRUE! Listen here. [8mb]

Original post is here.

With a slight shudder, I carried my body across the intersection of Livingstone and Frazer, and into Marrickville. I looked up and saw one of those white stripes left in the sky by an aeroplane. There was a stillness in the air, and the light seemed sharply focussed. The day was warm, I was out of the house by ten. I hate to say it, but it felt good to leave Petersham.
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Bec offered to drive me, if I’d look up the address. I went out to her car to grab the directory. Marie and Chris were across the way, still fixing up Barbara’s flat. They waved me over.

“Hey, where are YOU going?” Marie asked. “We-e-ell”… I began. How could I do this? They were onto me.

The only thing for it was to come clean. I explained my dilemma, the importance of spending the day with my Dad, the idea of the blindfold as a “legal loophole” in my own rules. They thought about it. Chris felt it could work. “It’s true, family comes first, you should definitely go. But you HAVE to keep on the blindfold the WHOLE time.” Marie was less sure: “If you ask me, leaving is leaving, no matter whether you cover your eyes or not.” They were still debating it between themselves as I sat in the passenger seat putting one of Bec’s silk scarves over my eyes. I waved to them blindly as we drove off.
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