Archive for the ‘My Story’ Category

Last year in November, I made an appearance with my guitar on a national radio show called ‘Get This’, hosted by a famous Australian comedian named Tony Martin. It made for one heck of a birthday, and I guess that means that one of my songs, technically, has been heard all around Australia, doesn’t it?

The song is about Richard Marsland (the panel operator on ‘Get This’) and was played while a support rally for the show was on the streets outside the studios.

So please enjoy this bit of self indulgence, which has nothing to do with anything Nightlight except it’s me.

 

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It occurs to me that New Year’s resolutions tend to be a mixed bag of things that you never got to during the course of the year. I entered 2007 with a sparkle in my eye, confidence in the future, and intentions so good that if they were a movie, Pepsi would be scrambling to get some product placement. I won’t bore you with the entire list, but hey, here’s some highlights.

1. Finish the Tierra de los Muertos book
4. Pay more attention to Nightlight
5. Lose weight
7. Sleep naked in a hammock
9. Promote world peace

Three of those, I’m glad to say (or slightly worried to say, in the case of sleeping naked in a hammock) I can safely cross off. Promoting world peace wasn’t all that successful, and as for Nightlight… poor, neglected Nightlight.

So this year, I have three resolutions. You ready? I’m determined to keep these.

1. Tierra de los Muertos gets published (Might not be able to keep, but sure, I’m going to do everything I can)
2. Nightlight is no longer going to be neglected
3. Worry less, and be happy

I don’t know entirely how the second one is going to be fulfilled yet - at times, the progress of Nightlight (notably Beneath Monkey Island, presently) is a little out of my hands, plus living in Melbourne puts me pretty much out of the support zone as far as getting new material recorded easily. But it occurs to me that where there’s a will, there’s a way, even if it means booking myself into a recording studio for an hour or so down here and recording a new, original series by myself. Might be limited in the characters and voices, but I’m sure it’s workable.

So the light isn’t going out. And hopefully, I’m gonna let it shine…

Well Christmas has come and gone uneventfully in my corner of the globe. The year is closing, and really, as I look back on it, Nightlight has become unfortunately neglected in my attempt to finish (successfully) and publish (working on it) a book I’ve been working on for too many years.

And so I spent the majority of Christmas day sitting in front of the television watching Magnum P.I. in a Hawaiian shirt. I’d long since resigned to the fact that I was too poor to fly to my family for the holiday, and somehow had worked myself up to actually look forward to the bizarre method of celebration. Tom Sellick is definitely a quieter, less stressful person to spend Christmas with than anything else I’d ever experienced.

After a while, text messages started trickling through to my phone. I was out of credit and unable to reply, but I appreciated it all the same. So to those dropped me a line, my love to all five of you, if you read this. Heck, I’ll even extend it to the two people who are not in my phone, who I have no idea to the identity of, but still thought enough of me to send these:

“Merry christmas honey.. And have a safe and happy new year..! XOX”

Bit of a mystery, because ‘honey’ would indicate I’m familiar with her in some way shape or form. I’m assuming it’s a ‘her’. I’m hoping. Then there’s the second one, who should maybe seek some psychiatric help. But hey, the sentiments are appreciated.

“Merry christmas boys! Happy anti-muslim day! May baby Jesus smite his enemies on his bday! I like to think as jesus as a ninja fighting off evil samarai”

Any weird text message contents do not reflect the opinions of myself or anyone who considers themselves amongst the Nightlight crew. I’d better make that point clear before the website ends up at war with another country. Really, one is enough.

Christmas love to all. Yes, even to you, China. Be well.

It’s no secret that Nightlight and China have never seen eye to eye. While I’ve been content to make funny radio shows, they seem to limit their activity to building great walls and banning innocent websites. Now I know, I know, this article is going to stray into ‘me no rikey’ territory. There’s a chance of that. Get your gongs ready, people.

China, as I’m sure that many of you are aware, has a one child policy. Recently they’ve come up with slogans to try and help people see the good side of this policy, and those slogans… well… they haven’t exactly been popular. The light hearted nature of ‘raise fewer babies, but more piggies’ has been lost on the Chinese. And can you blame them? They’re not used to their government being light hearted. They’re accustomed to their government banning innocent comedy websites.

So in an effort to maybe repair some of the bridges I’ve burnt, I’m willing to help China out. China, here’s some slogans you may want to try to help promote this ‘one-child’ malarky.

‘Hey, you on the bike, stop breeding!’
‘I wouldn’t have any more kids… for all the tea round here!’
‘More kids equal less rice for everyone concerned!’
‘1.32 billion people. A fifth of the world. That should do it, we’ve got it covered now!’

You don’t have to thank me right away!

I’ve bid Sydney adios. It occurs to me that before I pack up my computer and put it into storage, I should maybe do one final post on Nightlight. So here it is.

Nothing much is going to change on Nightlight. There’ll be updates still, there’ll be fun, there’ll be podcasts. So from your perspective, little will change. Although for me… I’ll be living on the other side of the country, backpacker style. I have what I need - clothes, a macbook, and a guitar. And I couldn’t be looking forward to it any more than I am.

So for those who talk to me on messenger, I might be a bit scarce for quite a while. But hey, you all have facebook, don’t you? If not, why not? I’m on there. There’s a Nightlight Productions group on there as well. Go and join the fun and catch up on my escapades. Facebook is a wonderful thing for that, as well as other things. Incidentally, happy birthday, Limpy. All my love, in a totally manly way, in your general direction!

Hi there, Tim. You might remember me, a bit. You bumped into me with my girlfriend in Pitt Street mall in Sydney on Wednesday night and asked me for directions to the monorail station. I gave you a puzzled look for a moment before I worked out who you were, and proceeded to give you completely wrong directions. You should have continued along Pitt St, across Market St, and it would have been there on your right. I haven’t caught the monorail in years, and hope you weren’t lost for too long. It’s apparently a very male thing to do, give directions even though you aren’t certain. I think I should rely on that defense. I hope things are going well for you, I always kinda liked ‘Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush’.

Oh, my girlfriend says hi. She had no idea who you were, but then again, she’s Belgian and can be forgiven for that. And the reason she acted so shocked when you said we make a lovely couple and should have lots of babies right away… is because we’ve been together for six weeks. Not cool, amigo!

For those of you who don’t know who Tim Ferguson is (and really, to be fair, that’d be most people, Tim), he is a former member of the comedic Australian band “Doug Anthony All Stars” and occassionally crops up in media related places. He’s in the middle of the picture above. I’ve been heckled before by his buddy, Paul McDermott (he’s the guy on the left, he called me Seal Boy for some reason). If I buy a taco off Richard Fidler one day does that make my life complete?