January, 2009

Behind, beside and in front of us all is chaos. Hurtling at over 100 km/h down a steep, narrow and windy road through the Adelaide Hills. In front is a car with half-a-man’s body poking through the sun-roof – his arms are waving wildly and he is yelling into a hand-radio.

Martin has the bad back that I should have from too many years of carrying black boxes around.
Martin being back in Geelong reminds me of the last time we were there together – it was sometime in the summer of 1981-82 and we were doing a gig with the Laughing Clowns (he) and The Birthday Party (me) at the Eureka Hotel.

If you jump on a plane RIGHT NOW and get yourself to Mali in west Africa and somehow find your way out to Timbuktu and then get to the small town of Essakane and then hitch a lift to the gig, you just might make this year’s Festival Au Desert.

The Luurn (Red-backed Kingfisher) Tjukurrpa is of prime importance to the groups of the western deserts region, since it represents one expression of a major initiation cycle, Tingarri, a Law bequeathed to them by Luurn and other ancestral beings.