Perfect lines and well timed questions.

My favourite line of 2013 (to date)..."We strolled silently down the sidewalk, listening to porch swings creaking under the weight of the neighbourhood". To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee.
Something about that line opened my ears, eyes and skin to the deeper goings-on around me. If you are yet to read this book, you have a treasure ahead.
I found lines in songs that I had written that also seemed to pass me by at the time of writing, recording and singing 1000 times, that have returned to delight me. "Did I really write you?""How did I never leer, sweat, push, cajole, groan or gesticulate enough to emphasise you in the past?""Did anyone else shiver when they heard you long before I noticed you were there?"
The agony of time. The joy of reflection. The wonder of understanding yourself at a later date.
Thank you song lines for coming back to meet me. As all song lines should, they eventually converge.

The process of creation is not meant to be understood; but acknowledged. Too much acknowledgement, it's academia. Not enough, a hobby.
However my delight at this point overcame me this year as I toured my 'Suitcase' show through regional Tasmania. Thanks to the efforts of Jeremy and Yum Williams of the touring band, people came out in flood to greet them and thank them for the joy they have brought their communities over the years by way of a touring camerata or string camps. The locals were deep in hobby; their communities allowed them no more than this. But they showed more passion for music than a rabid Beatles fan. My thanks to all above for reminding me how good music is when people are listening. (It's better than when they're not).

And thanks Harper Lee. You caught the sound of people listening.

Atmospheres

Sometimes emails come with great news.
Sometimes you have to read them twice to be sure.
A few months back such an email arrived for an opportunity to travel from a small apple to a big one, with a song and a band in hand.

It was a great opportunity to bite off more than I could chew and then chew like crazy.

Read some of the story and hear the song at http://monablog.net/2013/09/06/atmosphere/

the unSUITable CASE of me

A taster of the recent show I toured throughout regional Tasmania. What a great experience! 

More Mona!

More memories are coming back to me now about the show that flew past my ears on the night like bats in the dark. (I wonder where those memories were hiding until now?)
Faces in the front rows, to bodies in bean bags, to musicians looking to me for musical cues that I apparently knew and must have transmitted well...judging by the outcome.
This show has taken more pre and post work than anything else...ever!...but WOW, wasn't it worth it?!
Enjoy the media as it trickles on out of the files. First photographs, then sound, then...aah yes...the film crew. What did they see?

Wow. We did it!
We raised the Arco Set to a new height of spectacle.
For those who weren't there, or would just like to re-live the event, see these...

10 boxes in my kitchen

...and all of them full of goodness to share.

The new album has arrived, looking and sounding just like we'd planned.

What a relief!

With the show this weekend, I hope we can deliver on the promise we've made you all. That being a new sound with a new presentation, in a new space on old instruments.

Sound good yes?

I will be.

Thanks so much to all the people who have been a part of this wonderful journey with Al and myself to this pointy point. We treasure your enthusiasm, advice critical appraisal and damnation all with the same intensity that we would take a kiss from a lover on the neck. That is to say, we have cared about what we have made and we care about what you feel.

Thank you so much.

Dean.

On to MONA. How busy are you?

Wow.
Time gets away doesn't it?
You know that.
The best greeting I've heard yet is someone saying first "So, how busy are you?"
Cuts to the chase.
We're all busy, some more than others. Either the world has sped up and we're all busier, or we've ac-rewed poor time management skills which means we're not getting as much done any more due to...distractions?!?!?!
You bet!

But here, I have mislaid my best intentions of spewing forth my workings to this page. A long time has passed and now I see the difference in my work since the last entry.
Tonight, I await the mail tomorrow which should bring with it CD's bearing my name and that of the Arco Set. It's release time! The show for release is this Saturday in the belly of MONA.
It's the most ambitious solo thing to date for me and my family. The scale of it is awesome and frightening. 17 people in a world class room with a camera crew, a live audience and the absolute need to sell as many of these CD's as god made flies to pay it off.

It will work.

It's dangerous.

So it can't fail.

Only the brave get ahead. Or the squeaky wheels.

This is bravery and my crew are awesome for following me into the darkness.