There’s an Elliott Smith song I’ve been trying to learn for a while now, called Son of Sam. The studio version which opens Elliott’s figure 8 album has a nice video directed by Autumn de Wilde (there is a funny story somewhere about how hard it was to control the red balloon) and it captures … Read more
After my India trip I had the idea that what the world needs is more quiet places, like Ramanasramam, and that I could turn the farm into a big contemplative garden. I had a fanciful idea of some kind of meditation or temple complex at the heart of it, which could also be at the … Read more
I have so many disconnected thoughts right now. One is that our path through life is just like that of a quantum particle – we subtly interact with the other versions of our self that ‘might have been’. Reading Nagarjuna i suddenly get an insight into emptiness as the space between things. but we are … Read more
For a long time whenever i meditate i have wandered in my mind back to Arunachala, the holy mountain in Tamil Nadu, India, which i visited when i was 19. The mountain, and the Ramana Ashram at its foot, have stayed with me through all the subsequent years, a touchstone of silence like no other … Read more
Watched the eclipse of the moon the other night, the ‘blood moon’. Mel took a photo through the telescope (below) as ‘Brain Damage’ played and I thought about whether i should buy that Moog synthesiser I’d seen on ebay that morning. So far i have resisted the temptation but it’s hard to. So many disasters … Read more
I began writing my memories in this post, and i think i’ll put down some more though it is a very messy state right now. my first three years were at Farrer Primary, a small public (government) school in the newish suburb of Farrer, in Canberra’s south. My grandparents had lived there and mum in … Read more
My life in the last few weeks has passed over a crucible of some kind, a big reset, and perhaps the world has too, another junction like the ‘singlularity‘ which i imagined that i noticed a few years ago, at the start of 2017 (probably end 2016 is closer the mark in retrospect – everyone … Read more
At the hour of midnight on 1 January 2000 I was up a tree outside the Tate Modern, watching the fireworks shot from a barge in the Thames bursting through the smoke and London fog. I had become separated from my friends in jumping over a barrier to escape the crush of the crowds. Sadly, … Read more
I am sitting at home, Rose on the bed beside me, listening to covers of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Avalanche’ on soundcloud. I think the best one i like is by someone called Dalanie Taylor who seems to be from Arkansas – she is playing in a different key to the original, which makes the chords a … Read more
One of my favourite times in London was circa 2000 when I lived in West Hampstead, at 13 Ravenshaw street, with Jula the bellydancer and her many cats and dogs. The window of my little first floor bedroom looked out over the garden onto a patch of wilderness and a railway line beyond, the metropolitan … Read more
After consulting the Canberra labyrinth map I decided to visit the 5 senses labyrinth on the flanks of Mt Ainslie. On the way I accidentally drive through a school zone too fast and get caught by one of those camera vans so I am not feeling all that relaxed as I park and begin to … Read more