Random Reasons Why 2008 Was Great In No Particular Order:
Randomly running into old Seattle friends Casey Wescott AND Jherek Bischoff and Nick Tamburro on a Melbourne rooftop on New Year's Eve. To see beautiful familiar NW faces right before the clock struck 12 strikes me as an especially good omen for 2009.
Townes. My boy is awesome, I hope non-Australian friends all get a chance to meet him soon because he is completely amazing and beautiful and after a whole year with him I can't fathom anymore without.
Mel. Mel is one of those secret headspin psychedelic moments from Sizzlement or Fuck Yr Heart, a secret weapon, a dragon mother (and dragons are the best mothers), a subharmonic sandwich island, an infinitely expanding universe, a walking library of sandbooks, a dacha on the shore of an invisible lake...
Getting to see Nas and Kanye. I really wanted to go to this show but it was way too many $. Luckily the night before the show two people from the tour came in and I traded them a book for two guest list spots! Nas played everything you'd wanna hear and I'm not a huge Kanye fan but he was intense!
Romy. Romy is a genius and is going to take over the world.
Rohan. The fluttering fills give me chills.
Fabulous Diamonds. Best band in Australia.
Finally getting to see Rowland S Howard play and also the forthcoming record!
Joker @ Laundry. This 19 year old kid from Bristol completely broke my brain and I think the bass rearranged my DNA.
Polyester Books. While I will never be able to stomach perhaps 1/20th of the store's content, I still admire Paul's efforts to provide a working space for freedom of speech (in a country that while tolerant of freedom of speech does not officially recognize it) and expression. And to enjoy the freedom to create my own space within that to share ideas I believe in or feel should be available to the public. Look for books on anarchism, gender, music, fiction, etc. that you won't find anywhere else in Australia!
Nikolai Kluyev, a poet who makes me forget that I hate poetry. And Osip Mandestam as well.
Tasmanian Devil Park in Tasmania. These animals are a trip to Trippersville if you ever get to see them in the flesh, and they're going extinct. They give new meaning to the word "beast".
Simon's theory on the true identity of the Comte de Lautreamont.
Visitors from abroad. You're like carbon sinks, I could drinks the space you allow for oxygens, friends.
Pulp Intensives at the Jesse Jackson Shepherd Household.
La. See above.
Weird local live music in general, there's a lot more than I'd think or see.
Beach house, the house. And the beach. And making peace with shark fear.
Republicans down in flames, tho I predict Obama will be another Clinton, for Dems are forever wolves in sheep's clothing.
Books: Nikolai Kluyev Poems, Australian Pubs (photohistory), the Fatal Shore, the Five Percenters, the Shock Doctrine, the Enchanted Wanderer, Blackwater, Ezra Pound: the Last Rower, and a bunch of others I can't remember.
That weird grunge party where they were playing techno or something.
Mustaches in November.
Some other things!
Cheers to everyone in 2009, may you be safe, creative and puzzle solving.
