the ’sham

Recorded with Vanessa, Tim, Ben, Fiona.

Listen in here.

Read the original posting here.

This whole business of reading stories from one year ago sometimes forces my lazy arse to meet up again with people I haven’t seen in ages.

The other day I bumped into Rohan on the street. “You’re not around much any more!” he complained. He was in the process of chucking out a bunch of things from his house onto the kerb. He has one of my typewriters to return to me.

The same complaint (that I’m not around so much) has been said by Gail at the Bowlo, Sam at Charlie’s Deli, and Rachelle next door. Sarah Sauce I bumped into on the street - she says she rides past my balcony almost every day and I’m never there. Sigh.

I guess one of the hazards of “hanging around so much” for a particular period, as I was in April-May 2006, is that it creates a sense of disappointment when you partially “disengage”. This ’sham project was set up so that it might continue (in a low key way) after its official finishing date - unlike a classic artist-in-residence, in which the artist leaves never to return.

Sure, I still live here. I am still around! But my life has, to a certain extent, “returned to normal” after the ’sham experiment. Racing around like crazy here and there and all over the place, not to mention trips to Melbourne, etc. And now, with a hot new girlfriend who lives in Bondi, I suppose my ’sham-attention is less undivided.

Anyway, what I was getting at was that the process of reading-podcasting makes me remember folks I haven’t seen for a while. One of those folks is Lucy, in North Petersham. One year ago, on Mothers’ Day, Luciana, Lisa and I took Lucy to lunch at the Bowlo. So this year, on Mothers’ Day, we once again called in with flowers to wish our adopted auntie well. She was very pleased to see us. And her children had returned from their overseas adventures, so her big family house didn’t seem so empty this time. Lucy gave us big bouquets of basil and chili from her garden.

As we were walking away, I thought about other people’s lives. They carry on quite happily and independently without you. For a whole year, we didn’t see Lucy. Then we call her up and slot right back in.

Listen to the episode here [mp3, 3.5min, 1mb].

Read the original entry here.

Having just returned from a trip to Melbourne, I’m catching up on my recordings. The latest development (which emerged from reading aloud together with Lizzie during the trip) is that the recordings are a bit more interesting when they have a live audience. Lizzie was a good audience because she had never read the original stories before.

Today, sitting with Vanessa and Tim in my loungeroom, I recorded “The Lost Vignettes” which was posted last year on the 19th of April. Both V and T are familiar with the stories, so there is some reflection and chatting about the events and places depicted. We share the reading of comments contributed by blog readers - Vanessa does the female voices, and Tim does Alex Bruen, which is kind of fun.

In “The Lost Vignettes” we hear about Marie and Chris, punks, “tag” graffiti, the Palace Pantry, and we sit in the sun with Bruce watching the dogs in Petersham Park.

Listen in to the story here [15min, 15mb, mp3]
Read the original posting here.

In lieu of spending time with our own mothers (who are in Perth and Milan) Luciana and I decide to take Lucy out to brunch at the Big Bowl. Lucy’s become our Petersham Auntie. On Thursday, I swing past her place to leave a note in her letterbox. On Friday she rings me back, very excited: “Are you SURE you want to do that? Because, you know… no pressure!” But of course we want to, we wouldn’t have suggested it otherwise…
(more…)