When my beloved Stetson Open Road is all worn-out and consigned to the hat-rack it is time to return to the source for a new model, so it is off to Arizona Hatters in Tucson, Arizona for a visit.

It is a long way from being a naked, dusty three year old thrown from a car wreck on a lonely Northern Territory outback road to starring on the silver screen at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013. But Australian actress Lillie Claire needs a hand – and a few bucks – to help her get there.

A day in the American south-west with Owls that burrow and stand around in the daylight and an Ibis of remarkable beauty.

A look at the work of Madhaviah Krishnan, an Indian journalist and photographer who for 46 years wrote the “Country Notebook” column for The Statesman of Calcutta that ranks among the finest nature writing out of the sub-continent.

One man, six Miura “bulls of death” – a day of triumph for Javier Castaño, cutting five ears from six bulls and two ovations. An historic corrida during the 2012 Feria de Pentecote at Nimes.

All I had to do was walk on stage and open my mouth and let the curse of God roar through me. Floods, fire and frogs leapt out of my throat. Though I had no notion of that then, God was talking not just to me but through me, and his breath stank.

I was freelancing for rock’n'roll magazines and having the lazy time of my life. A visit from half a dozen traditional Aboriginal men from Australia’s Top End was well into the realms of the unpredictable, but they were rock’n'roll and so was I and that seemed enough to seal the occasion. Nonetheless I began battening down the hatches and warned all my friends that I had some pretty unusual visitors coming to stay. This is how it happened according to my diary at the time.

The Sunrize Band played extensively throughout the Northern Territory, Western Australia and Queensland and toured with Carlos Santana, Jimmy Barnes, Hunters & Collectors, Painters and Dockers, Paul Kelly, Spy v Spy, Bob Geldof and many more. One highlight was a tour to New Guinea, where, in Ngarritj’s words “Those crazy blackfellas in the audience threw coconuts and bananas at us as a sign of their appreciation.”

There are certain moments on the River that shine more brightly than others. When they happen, they’re sharp like dreams. It’s like the energy of the earth surges, rises from its core, and lights up something very small. Ditches, low fogs, rocks, and other unremarkable things become geysers of this glow.

For mine we need more Little Pricks puncturing the speech bubbles, cant and spin of politicians and to provide some much needed levity into political debates that are all too often almost impossibly obscure and removed from our blunted daily realities.