2023: "Hold my Beer"

 The general populace: "2016 has been a shit year for music lovers."

2023: "Hold my beer."

Yeah. Sigh. Over the past ten days or so we have lost:

1. Jeff Beck. Hi-ho, Silver lining and away you go, Jeff. You will be missed.

2. Rob Bachman of Bachman Turner Overdrive. Everyone automatically associates him with Takin' Care of Business (and I'm one of those clowns who sings 'Baking carrot biscuit') and You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet, but I am particularly fond of Hey You (Sha Na Na Na) and Let it Roll (Down the Highway). I'm the baby sibling of Seventies teenagers who played their music ad nauseum, so it's a good thing I grew to like it. 

3 Renee Geyer. The Gods, what an amazing voice and stage presence. Shit, it sucks she's gone. 

4. David Crosby - prolific singer/songwriter from The Byrds and Crosy, Stills, Nash & Young To be honest, I'm surprised he lived as long as he did, but it doesn't make his passing any less sad. 

Righteous Brothers, or remaining Brother, it is time to do a reimagining of Rock and Roll Heaven, methinks. You know they got a hell of a band (at least Pell - who burned his receptors last week - isn't in the audience). 

So, what's good lately? Well, last week I travelled with my eighteen-year-old to Newcastle so he could get orientated with the TAFE campus where he is to commence a Certificate II in Music Studies next month. He chooses not to drive because of epilepsy, and he's not au fait with the layout of Newcastle, so this jaunt was pretty important. It was a great day out and he's very excited about this next stage in this life, and as his mum, so am I. He's limited for public transport from Muswellbrook to Hamilton, and it's going to be an ordeal for him to become acclimatised to getting the early train, but it is what it is. 

A young man I tutored, and for whom I edited university applications in my capacity as a freelance editor/copywriter, was accepted into several institutions to study a medical degree. This pleases me greatly and makes me feel worthwhile. 

Anyway, I haven't much to say at the moment. Just wanted to touch base. Chat soon. 

It Rhymes with Hell

 I'm of a generation that was raised to believe one should not speak ill of the dead. Only say good things about the dead. So therefore: 'He's dead. Good.' To borrow from Clarence Darrow (and not Mark Twain, as is often apocryphally stated): 'I've never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.' 

You all know whom I'm talking about. Normally, when I hear someone's died, I feel a pang, even if I disliked the person. When I heard about Cardinal Pell's death, I felt nothing. Oh, I did have a fleeting thought that went something like: Disgusting creature who reckoned abortion was a greater moral crime than the abuse of children by men of God in houses dedicated to His name and who covered up this sickening behaviour, thus allowing it to continue. 

Honestly, I cannot understand why he is being lauded. Check former Liberal MP Joe Hockey's nauseating smoke-blowing: 

Note my reply. My fingers were typing the moment I saw that fatuous tweet, my face twisted into a rictus of shocked disbelief that someone could tweet something so totally tone-deaf, it makes a constipated camel sound like Pavarotti. Maybe I'm a hard-hearted harridan, but I'm saving my thoughts and sympathy for the survivors of the abuse, especially those who DIDN'T survive and succumbed to the inner demons arising from this abuse.

Why don't I think about something good? I've been watching Wednesday on Netflix, and must say, I'm loving it! I am enjoying this noir reimagination of the characters in The Addams Family and the script is deliciously diabolical. It would appear the scene at the dance has gone viral and my eighteen-year-old son has suggested we add Goo Goo Muck to our playlist. Wednesday's po-faced (or 'Poe'-faced, given the themes of the show) dance moves will be no doubt replicated dancefloors all over, consigning Thriller to long overdue obsolescence. It occurred to me that the song was out when I was the age Wednesday and her school colleagues are. I don't recall funking out to it at my school dances. I do recall dancing to Gotta Pull Myself Together by The Nolans (blech!). 

I had best return to my study now. Chat soon.