the ’sham

In a shower of serendipity, Heather showed up at the Big Brekkie this morning. I’ve been wanting to do a recording of the episode in which I met her and Tully outside Sweet Belem, and was hoping to meet up with Tully to do it. Heather’s moved to Canberra, so I didn’t have much hope for her coming along. Heather and her FIANCE’(!) Dave came over and we recorded the episode which features us playing frisbee in the park and turning cartwheels at the bowling club. I also go and visit Lucy from north Petersham in this one.

Listen in here [11mb, 24min, mp3]
Read the original here.

AM
I call up Tully. For some reason he didn’t make it to the Jelly Wrestling on Wednesday night. I’d sent him a teasing text message from the pub, saying:

I can’t believe
you are missing
this…You of all
people

to which he replied:

What are you
kidding? I’ve got
jelly and a lack
of clothes at
home!

But given how it all panned out, I do wish he could have made it along. And now I want to debrief. We meet at Sweet Belem for coffee and chess, and I tell him the whole story. Phew, he sighs. Wow. I do wish I was there.

He has to scoot: more essays to procrastinate over. As we part at the lights, we make a tentative arrangement to meet again, to drive around Petersham scoping out photogenic sites. He’s a keen photographer, you see…

PM
After we visit Geoff at the church, Vanessa and I go for a coffee at Papa Cafe on Crystal Street. This place is famous for being a mecca for soccer fans around World Cup time. Apparently, hundreds of people come, they block off the whole street. And this year is no exception. Posters and news articles plastered all over the walls. A TV set pipes in an Italian talk show on cable, the topic is “New Haircut, New Man?”

We talk about our relationships with our parents. Vanessa has a book to show me, all about maps. One map, my favourite, shows the layout of the territory of the path to hell, including the Creek of Gambling, the Tributory of Sloth, and the Falls of Final Damnation. Another good one is the Map of a Woman’s Heart. I walk her home and she gives me some home made biscuits. “I can’t stop baking at the moment!” she says…

On Wednesday night Bec came home late from work. We watched a bit of TV together. On Lateline, there was a report about the booming price of petrol. It’s now pushing $1.40 a litre, and there was the treasurer, looking somewhat amazed that the hike in transport costs hasn’t really resulted (yet) in a general lift in inflation. “So far, so good,” he said to the camera.
Bec: “We really are going to run those oil supplies down to nothing before we start thinking about different energy sources, aren’t we?”
Me: “Well, it’s just human nature. For instance, in theory it should not be difficult for us to predict when we are going to run out of toilet paper or washing powder at home. But we always do, we run em down to nothing and then there’s a minor crisis before we get around to doing anything about it. The oil issue is more or less the same thing on a larger scale…”

Sure enough, yesterday, my dirty clothes were piled high in the basket, and my stubble was moving from “designer” to “vagrant”. There was nothing for it. It was time for a visit to the chemist. I got washing powder and shaving cream. To show how highly evolved I am, I even splashed out on toilet paper, although we still have a roll and a half to go.
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Wednesday:
Things are returning to a more manageable pace. I had coffee with Anna from the council, down at Sweet Belem. She hurt her back at the Cook’s River Festival last week, and is only just beginning to recover. The most exciting news Anna had for me was that a pair of Filipino artists is heading for the ’sham! They arrive in early May, here to set up an installation for the Sydney Biennale. As part of their residency here - above the Petersham Town Hall - they are required to do some kind of public presentation. This is great news. I suggested we join forces and do a slideshow down at the bowling club, with drinks and Fiona’s catering and music and all. I reckon the Filipinos will have some amazing tales to tell. And for me it’s a good chance to answer that curly perennial question: “So, what kind of art do you do?”

[Speaking of the Bowling Club, this Sunday will be a good time to check out how the noble game actually works, how many folks are needed for teams etc, in preparation for our big North versus South 'sham bowl-off. After this research, I will set a time and date and we can start training in earnest... Do get in touch if you'd like to join in the tournament. I reiterate, no prior experience required...]
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[This post was written on Sunday, and "the afternoon" to which it refers is last Saturday arvo. My poor image manipulation skills have delayed the launch of this one - it took me a few days to put together the maps which appear below. Cheerio! - Lucas]

In the afternoon, the Cake Lady came to visit, bearing natas fresh from Sweet Belem. I made us coffee and we sat in the kitchen chatting away. She’s staying at the Regent’s Court Hotel in the Cross, its a kind of artist-in-residence where the hotel puts you up in exchange for watering the plants in their beautiful rooftop garden. Not a bad exchange. The Cake Lady’s working on some new animated films, which generally channel her rich vault of memories growing up in North Queensland. Recently she’s been running art workshops with the kids who travel around with circuses. But the conversation meandered wildly and I forgot to interrogate her about that. Which is a pity, cos I reckon it’d be an interesting story.

The Cake Lady had suggested an assignment to be carried out in the ’sham:

You and a friend/partner arrange to arrive in a foreign city on the same day. Take different forms of transport to get there. Do not make a place to meet. Try and find your friend/partner.

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