111 Catalpa St, Clarksdale, Mississippi

With the $AUS getting close to parity against the $US this must be one of the bargains of the year – if not the decade.

Clarksdale is one of those small towns that was always going to be on its uppers when the Mississippi River decided to wander on it relentless course away from the town and it then lost a whole lot more when the railway closed down a few years ago.

When I was there earlier this year the town felt just a little bit like one of those “cultural museums” in that much of what was going on now was related to people and events from the past.

But there was also a very real sense of cultural, economic and community re-creation – the downtown area had some new storefronts, new business and ventures are finding their way into town and there is a very busy roster of blues music and literary events and festivals in and around this part of the Delta.

Plus you can all kinds of fun just cruising around the bayous and backroads and dropping into great jook joints like Po’ Monkey’s down the road at Merigold for a cooling ale and some of the raunchiest R & B you won’t hear on any radio – anywhere.

Roger Stolle and Cathead Music – among others – have led the rejuvenation of Clarksdale.

Today, Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art, Inc. is a 6-day-a-week store that features a full selection of blues CDs, DVDs, books, magazines T-shirts, artwork and collectibles. It’s kind of like shopping in a juke joint, I like to say. It’s the kind of store I always dreamed of finding but never did. It has become a base of operations for other blues projects and a clearing house of information about area musicians, juke joints and festivals

The cool thing is that Clarksdale, Mississippi, has a lot to offer. Great blues music four or five nights a week, every week — plus killer festivals a few times a year. Wonderful musicians, artists and characters live and work here. Since I moved here, I’m sure at least a dozen others have as well — from the Netherlands and all over the United States. Clarksdale is lucky also because in addition to its rich cultural history, it’s an hour or less from Memphis, Cleveland, Helena and Tunica. Because we’re part of the “roots music corridor” that runs from Memphis to Chicago, we get tourists from all over the U.S., Europe and Asia every single week. They come in search of the “land where blues began” and when they finally reach the blues mecca of Clarksdale for the first time, and they drop by Cat Head, I know they’re hooked!

And if you like the idea of cruising on the Sunflower or Mississippi Rivers on a canoe then John Ruskey and the folks at the Quapaw Canoe Company will look after you in the finest way.

One of Quapaw’s specialities is making hand-carved replicas (and modern versions) of the wooden canoes that local first nations peoples used on the rivers for hunting and travel – they are truly magnificent creations.

Launching the Wanbli Eagle

Quapaw’s website says that:

More blues musicians come from Clarksdale & surrounding Delta region than any other single place on earth. The main channel of the Mississippi River used to flow adjacent downtown Clarksdale, and it was once the center of a thriving Native American community of 2 – 3,000 known as Quiz-Quiz. There is evidence that Hernando de Soto and his conquistadors passed through this area during their 1540-42 ravage of the Southeast (and became the first Europeans to view the Mighty Mississippi River, which they called “The Rio Grande”). Jolliette & Marquette (1673), LaSalle (1681) and John James Audubon (1820) traveled this section of river.

…

Quapaw Canoe Company provides custom-guided canoe & kayak expeditions, day floats and other paddling adventures along the Lower Mississippi River from Cairo Illinois to St. Francisville, Louisiana. Spectacular reaches include the Kentucky Bluffs, Bessie’s Bend (20 mile bend of the river to go one mile), the 4 Chickasaw Bluffs, Memphis to Vicksburg (300 miles of remote river, only 2 bridges, only one town), Confluence of the Arkansas River & surrounding wilderness areas (rich habitat for the Louisiana Black Bear), Vicksburg to Natchez-Under-the-Hill, Natchez to St. Francisville. Long stretches of river, almost no industry or point-source polluters, few towns, few bridges, big islands, big forests, most varied inland fishery in North America, 60% of America’s songbirds, 40% of its migrating waterfowl. Longest free-flowing River (1160 miles). No dams. No schedule: we go whenever our clients are ready.

Sitting in one of Quapaw’s big canoes, doing not very much but watching that big river slide by under you with a soundtrack of the world’s finest blues and the American outback’s songbirds surrounded by the vast wildness of the Mississippi River – couldn’t hope for much better that.

And the house?  By Australian standards it is pretty well fitted out – and at this price…you’d be laughing!

And I just love this pitch from Roger for his house for its frankness and humour:

The front porch really is pretty big and cool. When you walk into the house, you find spacious, connected living and dining room areas that are loosely separated by built-in bookcases (that also work for blues CDs). There’s a long hallway with plenty of wall space to hang cool stuff, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a back office/sunroom, main floor washer/dryer, kitchen and butler’s pantry. There are decent closets throughout. The kitchen has a walk-in pantry and includes the built-in stove, dishwasher (sold to me by one of bluesman Big George Brock’s 42 kids) and garbage disposal; the two small fridges and the deep freeze are negotiable. (By the way, a full-size fridge fits/works fine; I just didn’t own one when I originally moved in.) The attic is unfinished but very very large and could be finished out, frankly, as an office or guest room. The basement is mostly crawl space; like most in the Delta, it’s fairly useless… except for housing the hot water heater, pipes, ductwork, etc. The house has modern, forced-air central heating and air conditioning, by the way; I like to stay comfortable. The yard is pretty nice sized and includes holly bushes, magnolia tree, etc. There’s a tool shed in the backyard that’s nothing special but holds plenty of junk. The backyard is mostly fenced in. The house is wired for cable/internet and has two ornamental fireplaces with mantles. A long driveway runs along side the house, conveniently linking Catalpa Street with Maple Street (nice for parties/visitors — though at least one visiting bluesman with the alias ‘T-Model’ has parked in the front yard, anyway, to my dismay!). In short, 111 Catalpa is a cool house located just across the Sunflower River from a neat little Delta downtown, and priced well below $100,000 — now at just $79,900 — it could easily be your next home or home-away-from-home! By the way, I’m only moving into a different house because my sweetie and I want to buy one together that is truly ‘ours’ if you know what I mean.

You can see the flyer for Roger Stolle’s house here.

Got a tip on a bargain-basement house of the week – anywhere?

Got some thoughts about what you’ve read here?

Marie’s first book, Every Secret Thing, was published in September 2009 by the University of Queensland Press.

The publishers blurb says that in Every Secret Thing:

When culture and faith collide…nothing is sacred. In the Aboriginal missions of far northern Australia, it was a battle between saving souls and saving traditional culture. Every Secret Thing is a rough, tough, hilarious portrayal of the Bush Mob and the Mission Mob, and the hapless clergy trying to convert them. In these tales, everyone is fair game. At once playful and sharp, Marie Munkara’s wonderfully original stories cast a taunting new light on the mission era in Australia.

Told with biting wit and riotous humour’ – Judges’ comments, Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards (2008)

For mine Every Secret Thing is one of the best books written about life in the Northern Territory since Xavier Herbert’s Capricornia – that’s a pretty big call but I reckon this book is just as funny, brave and deadly serious as that grumpy old curmudgeon’s masterpiece.

And I’m more than happy for you to disagree – but first read what Marie has to say here – and then go and buy her book.

In this first part of the interview we talk about how she came to write Every Secret Thing, her thoughts about what for me is the fine line of humour that runs through the book and her thoughts on the process of writing.

The Northern Myth – You were born in Arnhem Land but grew up on the Tiwi islands?

Marie Munkara – Yes, I was born on the banks of the Mainoru River in central Arnhem Land and then went to Nguiu on the Tiwi islands when I was about 18 months old. I was sent down south when I was 3 years old and went back to Tiwi when I was 28.

TNM – In September 2008 you won the David Unaipon Award for best unpublished manuscript by an Aboriginal writer person.

MM – Yes and “Every Secret Thing” was published by the University of Queensland Press in early September 2009 and was first launched in Brisbane, where UQP is based, and the Darwin launch was held in early October.

TNM – This is your first book? Are there any more coming? From reading it seems like you’ve got a lot more stories to tell.

MM - Oh, yeah!. There are a few more stories and books coming, don’t you worry about that!

TNM – How does it feel to have that book in your hands after all this time and effort?

MM – It was really amazing (laughs)…it was like giving birth to a child. There it is!

TNM – When people talk to you about it how do you feel?

MM – I’m quite pleased with myself and I’m quite intrigued. Everyone has different impressions about the book. I thought everyone would react the same to the same passages – you know, “That was funny” etc and there are some parts that I didn’t even think twice about. But people come up and say “Oh, that was my favourite part of the book”.

TNM – Do you re-read it or just put it out there and say – its gone now…

MM – No, it is out there, it is done. There are always things you would change – but you just have to put those things to rest and be happy with what you’ve done and move on to the next one.

TNM – When did you start writing and what did you write about when you started?

MM – Well, I’ve always written stories since I was a kid. This was just going to be a short story entry – based on the first chapter of the book – for the NT Literary Awards and it didn’t make it – it wasn’t shortlisted. So I just thought I could add a bit because it didn’t really say all that I wanted to say. Every Secret Thing took me 12 months to write and it was just a fantastic thing – I enjoyed every moment of it.

TNM – What do you do when you write – block out a few hours at a time or just bang away on the keys when you find time?

MM – For me it just becomes a routine – my daughters would go off to school, I’d do a bit of cleaning for half an hour and then sit down and off I go until they come home. Sometimes a bit of an idea would come into my head in the middle of the night but I’m lucky in that I can wake up in the morning and get into it – I don’t forget those ideas.

TNM – Do you show work to other people? Do you talk to other writers about what you are writing?

MM – No, mostly I just go off and do it. Occasionally I’ll get a good friend to read a chapter so that I can get a good idea of where it is going. No-one has ever been negative about it so that has been one good thing. I just get into it.

TNM – What about countrymen and family? You write about some fairly sensitive issues here, have people talked to you about that side of things?

MM – No, no-one in my family has read it yet! I’m just waiting for the responses to the book from them. Initially the material in Every Secret Thing came from things I would hear my family talk about while we were sitting around yarning. We would be laughing about what so and so did and remember when this or that happened. That is where it all started from and those ideas get a life of their own.

TNM – Someone said to me that you were very brave to talk about the personal and sexual issues in Every Secret Thing the way that you do. Do you feel brave?

MM – No, not really. It wasn’t even planned that way. If I had sat down and said “I’ve got to write a story about this business” I wouldn’t be able to do it. I really only wanted to write down some of the funny stuff so that one day my daughters would be able to know what happened and how things were for their mother, grandmother and other people. I didn’t write Every Secret Thing to be brave or funny. It is just something that came out of my head and I had a great lot of fun doing it!

TNM – You take no prisoners with your humour – everyone is up for it. Where does that deep funny side come from?

MM – Well, some of it is probably genetic! (laughs) I didn’t actually set out to make it funny – I just wanted to be sarcastic. Someone said to me recently “It is so hard to write humour, how do you do it?” and I could only respond that “I’m not actually writing to be funny, I’m just writing what is in my head and to be sarcastic.”

TNM – When you write about the anthropologist, for example, and the piss-taking that you have people inflicting on him, that is certainly sarcastic!

MM – That was actually based upon a true set of events. I won’t mention the anthropologist’s name but I’m sure if people put two and five together they will be able to work it out. My grandfather told me that story – and he is one of the characters in there of course.

TNM – Tell me about the writing process. Did you ever feel blocked?

MM – No, never! It just…it was almost like someone else was writing it through me. I never felt blocked and every moment was a joy – it was a really, really wonderful thing. And when I wrote the last sentence I knew that it was the last sentence.

In the next part of the Interview Marie and I will talk about her take on the sexual politics – and related issues – that she writes about in her book. Stay tuned for that because what she has to say about those issues is as interesting as her words and thoughts in Every Secret Thing.

Have you read Every Secret Thing? Have any thoughts or comments you’d like to make about Marie’s words or her book?

Register here and leave a comment!

Attif. Warmun, WA September 2009

This is Attif, who I ran into at the roadhouse in the small township of Warmun in the wonderful Kimberley region of WA a week or two ago.

Attif is riding his pushie from Darwin to Broome.

At night.

Attif is of German nationality and Tunisian descent and has spent the last year or so in Australia and one each of a wet and dry season in Darwin.

He escaped southwestward before the full effects of the notorious build-up descended upon the Top End.

We had a chat later in the day on the verandah of the Warmun Arts Centre – which I’ve written about here when I was there earlier in the year.

The Northern Myth: Here we are in Warmun in the heart of the Kimberley. It is hot and it is humid – what are you doing here?

Attif: I’m having a rest and waiting for the night to come – I started in Darwin and last night I came from the Dunham River north of Warmun. I’m going to Broome – I hope I make it to Broome and I’ll decide when I get there where I go next.

TNM: Are you religious? Do you observe Ramadan?

A: No. I’m not religious. My parents are Muslim but I’m not a religious person. Ramadan just ended two days ago – the crescent moon is up.

I like to enjoy myself, I think everybody does. I was working up in Darwin. I was traveling, left Germany – got to Darwin and didn’t plan to stay that long and got stuck in a good way…you either love it or you leave.

For the last two years I went to Garma Festival in north-eastern Arnhem Land.

TNM: Did you enjoy that?

A: Yes, absolutely. I was pretty new in Australian in 2008 and I had no certain idea about indigenous people and their culture. I had the opportunity to get out there, to the Garma Festival, and I met really traditional Aboriginal people – not the “westernised” Australian Aboriginal people that are totally involved in western culture.

There were some kids that I met at Garma who didn’t know what a cookie was, and had no concept of money and didn’t speak English – that was pretty interesting. At the same time I met young kids that listen to 2-Pac and all the stuff that other kids do as well. But just to see the range that…from the really traditional people to what I’d call the bi-cultural people was really interesting.

And no, I didn’t try to learn the didgeridoo! We had some dancing lessons from a family that was staying on-site at Garma. That was pretty funny. It started up with random moves and just jumping around on the sand. I looked pretty funny I believe, the Mum in the family had a good laugh.

But later when they explained to me what the dances meant and why they are having these dances and celebrating these dances it was really interesting. They told me that their dances and songs and ceremonies are always connected to hunting and their land, the animals, the country and their culture. For me it was a really good experience.

I think that is really special up here…or down here. It is interesting to realise and understand what it means.

You can read or hear about how people are really connected to their land and all that sort of story but you don’t understand it unless you interact and see what people mean and see how people live and that is just great.

TNM: You’ve ridden across from Darwin – how long did it take you to get here?

A: Is it Wednesday today? Yes? I think it is three weeks – exactly to the day. If I find somewhere nice to stay, I’ll stay a while. Sometimes I just ride. I spent two days in Katherine at the Gorge and two days at Victoria River.

I only wanted to fill up my water bottles but it was so beautiful that I stayed for two days just by the River. And I went to Kununurra and got a lift in a comfortable 4-wheeldrive vehicle and went along the Gibb River road- and now I’m back on the pushie!

TNM: You like to ride at night? But there is only a crescent moon right now – what is it like to ride at night?

A: First thing it is much cooler than during the day, there is less traffic.

People ask me about road trains and whether I get scared, but actually they usually give me enough space. There have been one or two so far that were a bit close but they don’t really worry me.

You can feel the first part of the truck push you and like at the end you have to be careful as they could suck you in. If you feel a strong push it means that the road train is really close and then you just pull over – but if it is not strong you don’t have to worry.

TNM: Is it scary – having 50 tonnes plus that is 50 metres length of truck right there, next to you on the road, and at night? How do you get used to that?

A: Absolutely! What choice do I have?

TNM: What do you see at night? How do you ride in the dark? Do your eyes get used to the dark?

A: Generally I try not to rely on electric light. Just on the the moon and starlight. Most of the time it is enough to see what you are doing. And it depends how you organise yourself at night…you get used to it.

TNM: What about on cloudy nights?

A: Like yesterday? It is very hard then – I really appreciate the lines on the road so that you can get your orientation.

Particularly when there are cars coming in the other direction – you are blinded. Last night I had to pull over twice.

I didn’t know if I was in the middle of the road – or on their side or on my side.

TNM: It takes a while to get your night vision back after a car goes past.

A: That is alright. I just keep looking down so I don’t have to look into the light from the cars. Andno, none of the cars stop- they just go past me.

TNM: What about animals?

A: Yes! I have had some very interesting encounters with animals! That is actually my biggest fear, that is the only thing that really scares me.

The headlight on my bike is just so that others can see me, rather than to actually see things on the road. I’m totally aware of wildife moving at night.

One time I nearly hit a cow, it was like really close and think I was looking up at the sky to see shooting stars or something, the things you do when you cycle along by yourself – a little bit bored.

All of a sudden I saw this something standing in the middle of the highway and just had the chance to brake to stop. I think I scared the cow.

And then there were cows on the road all of sudden they started running and I could see two more on the side of the road but I couldn’t tell if there was a bull or not and you you don’t want to get charged by a one tonne bull with horns!

Especially if I’m in the middle, with the bull on one side and cows and calves on the other!

You don’t always know how they will react. They wouldn’t normally harm you but in that situation you wouldn’t know how they would react.

TNM: What about horses?

A: I saw some some running along side the road one time. They started to run along as I passed them and they kept going for a while. I don’t know if they were scared or excited. No wild camels so far. I saw one guy walking along with two camels – that was interesting. And one time a wallaby ran into my back pannier…you get pretty pumped up with adrenalin and pretty excited.

TNM: Tell me about dead cows on the side of the road? There are a lot in this part of the country

A: It depends on the wind direction – if I have a headwind I can smell them much earlier. If it is a tailwind you might not notice it you do but it is not really annoying.

And I think by now I can distinguish dead cow, dead kangaroo, dead bird – by the smell (laughs). That is interesting.

It is not a very pleasant smell – but you get used to it. I went past some dead cows that were really smelly and the wind might make it worse…it get’s stuck in your nose. I see a lot of birds on the road – not many at night but in the morning they always wake me up.

TNM: Thanks for your time and stories about your travels.

A: Thanks to you and I’m looking forward to Broome.

I said “Don’t tell me, there’s good light in Broome”

Good light in Broome, well I’ll be there soon

I know exactly what I’m a gonna do

Sit on the beach, stare at the moon

Haven’t you heard? there’s good light in Broome

Good Light in Broome, Neil Murray.

As my old boss Neil Murray says, there is some bloody good light in Broome, as there is in Derby, a couple of hundred k’s to the north-west.

11.30 am - Broome

After spending a long time in the desert’s too-harsh-between-10am-and-3pm light it is a relief on the eyes to get into some comparatively soft northern lights, though of course the heat and humidity of a September build-up does take some getting used to.

My armpits get a bit sweaty & crusty after a couple of days up here and my phone went on the fritz about two days after I got back to the humidity that hugs the coastal fringe up here like a warm blanket.

Just a little desperate, I went to the local phone store where a more than disinterested shop assistant told me that “Oh, those Nokia E51’s always go weird in the humidity.”

And so do I – and that is one of the reasons I moved away from Darwin and the NT’s north coast after living there for almost twenty years.

An hour and three shops later I sat down with a new phone and my old SIM card and worked my way through a few days of messages and missed calls.

Anyway, back to the light up here.

Last Saturday morning I was up before dawn to go to the wonderful Derby Wetlands – aka the Derby Waste Management facility aka the local shit-pits.

The local pits in Derby are great – they even have a 5 metre tower with a view over the pits and the adjacent wetland.

Not only do you get a good view from the tower but for flight photography that extra height makes life a lot easier – you see the birds a lot more easily than when you are at ground level, but it also gives a better background – sky, rather than trees and power lines.

Here are a couple of shots from the Derby shit-pits…

Torresian Crow, Derby

Crows are notoriously hard to photograph with any detail in the plumage – usually they just render as a black blob.

This one obligingly turned away from the sun at the right moment…and the sun being low in the sky helped as well.

Royal Spoonbill, Derby

And I do love a good spoonbill in the morning…they just look so…improbable.

Australian White Ibis, Derby

And this White Ibis, which in many southern cities has a bit of a reputation as a pest bird, gave me a good look at the bare patches of skin under it’s wings as it glided past.

1st year Brown Goshawk, Broome Bird Observatory

After Derby I drove down to the Broome Bird Observatory, on the shores of Roebuck Bay just south of Broome town.

This 1st year Brown Goshawk flew into the birdbath area near one of the bird hides not far from the camp and obligingly sat still for a few minutes so I could get a few portrait shots.

Not only is the Broome Bird Observatory a good place to stay if you want to avoid the tourist traps of Broome, but it is also a great place to catch some fantastic birds all up close and very personal.

And every evening just before the evening meal you can sit in on the “call of the birds” where twitchers and anyone else present gets to call out what birds they saw that day.

Peaceful Dove

Peaceful Doves are cute but extremely nervous little birds.

And, with their larger cousins the Bar-shouldered Doves, there were lots hanging around at the watering point at the Observatory.

Little Friarbird

This slightly bedraggled and soggy Little Friarbird was also there. Friarbirds are just about my favourite Honeyeaters – aggressive, noisy and with a face that could scare horses – at least the Little Friarbird doesn’t have the bald leathery head and nose-bump of some of its cousins

As I said – there WAS good light in Broome. Hopefully there will be more that I can catch tomorrow.

There is a lot more to the Broome Bird Observatory than the few landbirds that I’ve shown here – especially at this time of year when, as I’ve noted here before, several hundred thousand migratory shorebirds wend their way down from Siberia and beyond to spend a while on the beaches of Roebuck Bay.

But while I was at the Broome Bird Observatory the neap tides were on, so, with only a small variation in the rise and fall of the tide, most of the birds were well offshore on the vast expase of mudflats that line the bay.

But – if you can get there on one of the king or high tides you will see things that will make your time and efforts well worthwhile – not only the great variety of land birds but a bewildering array of migratory waders.

Rrrright now you can get a rabble of the master’s songs starting with “R” if you go to Paul’s homeage and follow the links to A to Z.

Over the last few years, Paul Kelly has performed a series of unique shows under the banner ‘A to Z’, whereby he sings 100 songs from his catalogue in alphabetical order over 4 nights. He is mainly alone on stage, joined occasionally by guests. These shows have sold out consistently in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, and Adelaide.

Every month, for FREE download one letter’s worth of songs will be available here at his website.

At the end of two years, over 100 songs will have been available for free downloads.

Some months will be fat, others skinny but rest assured, throughout, you will hear Paul Kelly’s characters portrayed in his lyrics as they love, marry, give birth, die, and speak.

And soon there will be, as Paul so succinctly says, A to Z – “S”

A shitload, a swarm, a sibilance, a storm, a (t)sunami of “S”s for all you sweethearts this month. Dan Kelly helps me out on a few, Sian Prior plays clarinet on Summer Rain and Trev Warner from Adelaide plays mandolin on Stumbling Block.

Surely God Was A Lover is based on a poem by John Shaw Neilson written around a hundred years ago. Sydney From A 747 dips the hat to the elusive Texan band The Flatlanders, and their song Dallas From A DC9.

Suck ‘em and see. Shake the sauce bottle and all that. There’s a ton of Ts coming so make some room on those hard drives.

SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING
SMOKE UNDER THE BRIDGE
SOMEWHERE IN THE CITY
SONGS OF THE OLD RAKE
SOUTH OF GERMANY
STANDING ON THE STREET OF EARLY SORROWS
STORIES OF ME
STUMBLING BLOCK
SUMMER RAIN
SURELY GOD WAS A LOVER
SWEET GUY
SYDNEY FROM A 747

Also on the website are some loving tributes to Maurice Frawley, with whom I spent some time working while he was in various versions of Paul’s bands in the early eighties – and of course the music scene in Melbourne was so tight (in more than the cohesive sense!) that you couldn’t avoid such a lovely guy as Maurice.

My pick of the tributes is this from Bill Miller, ex (I think) of the short-lived Melbourne pop group The Ferrets.

In the Australian rock music scene, there aren’t many fully fledged, over 50, gypsy musicians, who live for their music, and live hard, yet are loved by all they meet. Maurice was one. Yarn with him, and the topic would very quickly be ‘music’, and his face would light up with the sheer joy of being a part of that world. He genuinely encouraged every muso he came in contact with. Young or old. A circle was completed last year when Maurice taught guitar at Rochester High School.
He was one of the old style Aussie rockers who loved nothing more than jamming with his many mates. This habit of jamming, which was like eating or breathing to Maurice and his ilk, has all but died out in today’s music world of samples, computers and keyboards.
I ran into him at the end of one of his country tours, and asked him how he was going. His black jeans had obviously been on him for a few weeks (par for the course for gypsy musicians), and he looked a little dishevelled, but that glint was in his eye as he smiled: “I’m good, I’ve just got a little bit of Tourbum.” Like nearly every line he came out with, that line sounded like the opening to yet another Frawley gem of a song.

After his stint in ‘The Japanese Comix’ (1979-80), he co-wrote classic pop songs, including “Look So Fine, Feel So Low,” during his time as a guitarist with Paul Kelly and the Dots (1980-84). ‘The Olympic Sideburns’ (1983-86), producing an EP for ‘The Romeos’ (1989) and ‘Maurice Frawley’s Big City Burnout’ (1990) followed, before Maurice penned a string of top shelf cds which he performed with his band “The Working Class Ringos” (1993-2006). From 2006 he wrote, recorded and performed with ‘Maurice Frawley and The Yard Hands’.

Moon and roadtrain - west of Kununurra, WA

I was camped beside the road en-route to Warmun in Western Australia earlier this week and thought that the rising moon and passing roadtrains might provide some images of interest…

Moonrise, Kununurra, WA

I’ll go out again tonight and see if I can find some cooperative stars….

Any thoughts

Fittingly the dead marsupial on the cover is a…you’ve got it, a Red Kangaroo, Macropus rufus.

Roadkill is a modest book by Len Zell, an Honorary Associate of the School of Environmental Sciences and Resource Management at the University of New England. Roadkill runs to 102 pages but is packed with interesting stuff – particularly for the newbie roadkiller.

Dealing with dead animals always contains a degree of risk, and I love Zell’s disclaimer at the front of Roadkill. Zell says that he:

…accepts no responsibility for any loss, inconvenience, injury, or feeling of angst, disgust or nausea sustained by any person using this book. All recipes are tongue-in-cheek and anyone considering using them should only use meat obtained from safe sources, as roadkill is likely to be infested with parasites and other not-so-clean aspects.

Okay, it seems that Len Zell has found that rarest of creatures – a lawyer who can write a funny legal disclaimer!

But more seriously, this little book is packed with all sorts of useful (and some irreverent and funny) suggestions.

These include a definition and scope of the roadkill problem, how to avoid killing things as much as possible and, perhaps most importantly, and wise advice about what to do with roadkill and being aware of the worst case scenarios:

If an animal comes clean through the windscreen, e.g. a kangaroo, they can kill you or your passenger should you be going fast enough. Once inside the car the frightened animal may be still able to try to get out and in the process destroy or damage the occupants or a car’s interior. There is very little you can do in this circumstance other than stopping the car, opening the doors and hoping.

…

To swerve or not to swerve – the answer is simple: DO NOT SWERVE unless you are going slowly enough to be able to maintain complete control of the car.

…If you see or hit an animal on the road, ensure that it is dead before moving on.

All good advice. The rest of the book is a sort of taxonomy of roadkill – the ’spineless’, the ‘wet and dry’, the ’scaly’, the ‘big flying feathered’, the ‘hairy warm’ and the ‘feral’ roadkill. Then follows a useful list of contacts and websites, a Bibliography and, what is a sad rarity in too much of Australian non-fiction, an index for handy cross referencing.

If you work in animal rehabilitation, spend long hours behind the wheel driving across the wide open roads of this wonderful country or are just interested in roadkill I can highly recommend this book for your bookshelf or glovebox.

Roadkill will come in handy when next you run into a Black Kite as it lifts, engorged with rotting flesh and on struggling wings, off a carcass on the roadside – or when you run into a wombat, a snake, a horse…you get the drift.

You should be able to find the book at most good booksellers – but please take the time to buy it, and all of your books, from an independent bookstore.

Or you can try the publisher, Wild Discovery Guides here.

Shellie Morris & Lynette Lewis

Catherine Lewis, Insight Publications & Andrew McMillan

Jennifer Mills & Mary Ann Butler

Kate Grenville reading from The Lieutenant

Sandra Thibodeaux, Festival Director

Wendy Price & Linda Jaivin

Andrew McMillan & Barry Nicholls, ABC Alice Springs

Andy Ewing, NT Writers' Centre & Steve Gumerungi Hodder

Tjulpi Band - mosh pit

Tjulpi Band - audience

Tjulpi Band - take a photo of us mob!

Tjulpi Band drummer and best friend

Tjulpi Band - Guitar and Bass

Tjulpi Band - Keyboards

Andrew McMillan & Sammy Japanangka Butcher - desert surf guitar hero!

Po' Monkey's Lounge rules

Poor Monkey’s Lounge (known to everyone as Po’ Monkey’s) is a jook joint surrounded by cotton fields on a dirt road outside of the small town of Merigold in the central Mississippi Delta – a part of the United States that is all but invisible to the rest of the country.

Merigold is in Bolivar County, which is one of the poorest counties in Mississippi, which has the lowest per capita income of all the United States. The average income in Bolivar County for 2005 was just over $12,000 per annum.

Po' Monkey's Lounge

While Bolivar County may be poor financially, it, and the rest of the Delta, has all manner of other riches. It sits on some of the deepest and most fertile topsoil on the planet and it has deep veins of musical and literary history that still flow and surface at places like Po’ Monkeys and dozens of other small bars scattered across the delta.

You can get a short glimpse of what goes on inside Po’ Monkey’s in this footage of “Cadillac” John Nolden & Bill Abel at Po’ Monkey’s in May 2007.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Po’ Monkeys has been providing quality entertainment and cold beer to locals and all manner of visitors for about 50 years.

Willie Seaberry aka Po' Monkey. Photo Luther Brown

Po’ Monkeys is owned by the wonderful Willie Seaberry (aka Po’ Monkey) who keeps a kindly but firm eye on his clientele, who he regards more as friends than billfold fodder.

By day Po’ Monkey works the nearby fields with tractors and other machinery – two nights a week he runs Po’ Monkeys Lounge.

By day he wears working clothes  – but by night he’ll dress up just fine – sometimes changing his outfits six times during the course of a night depending on his mood or whim.

From the outside, apart from the lurid and idiosycratic signage, Po’ Monkeys looks like many of the ramshackle sharecroppers shacks scattered around the delta – but the signs outside let you know that something else altogether is happening here.

$5 entry, $3 beer – no fire or liquor licenses or other permits or authorities – and Po’ Monkey vigorously enforces his own strict set of rules – no baseball caps, no guns, no baggy-ass pants – this effectively excludes young teenage gangsters from the lounge – no fighting, no beer bought in and no dope smoking.

Inside, Po’ Monkeys is a darkly colourful and glorious mess. 3 small rooms crammed with thrift store reject furniture, a kitty-corner dancefloor, the obligatory pool table, a floor that is challenging when sober but just fine after a few drinks and a low ceiling from which hang dozens, if not hundreds of stuffed soft-toy monkeys.

Inside Po' Monkeys. Photo Luther Brown

The walls are a moving feast of reflective silver plastic sheets, photos and found images, texture and clutter – here a collection of antique tractor photos, there a giant beer sign hung upside down, posters from past occasional live shows and all manner of stuff that might take some considerable time to work out the what, why, where and who of.

Welcome to Po' Monkeys

Po’ Monkeys is open two nights a week – on Mondays he gets a crew of, err, what we might call ‘working girls’ down from some small town over near Memphis, Tennessee who provide entertainment of the strictly non-family kind. Thursdays is called ‘family night’ but you wouldn’t want to bring your rug rats and you might want to leave the more sensitive members of your family behind. The music is well loud and DJ’s Candy and Doctor Tissue (don’t ask) play only genuine old-school soul-blues of the definitely risque variety – which goes down a treat with the clientele.

Po’ Monkey’s has been the subject of quite a bit of press attention over the years. The New York Times came to visit a few years ago. Good Morning America on the ABC broadcast a story on Po’ Monkey’s last year – it has some great pictures but ignore the advertisements at the start of the piece and the predictions of the imminent demise of Po’ Monkeys and other informal drinking and party houses across the south – Po’ Monkeys isn’t going anywhere too fast.

Luther Brown of Delta State University just up the road at Cleveland Mississippi has been visiting and writing about Po’ Monkeys for years and presents perhaps the best overview of Po’ Monkeys at Southern Spaces, an interdisciplinary web-based journal about the regions, places and cultures of the American south in general and the Mississippi Delta in particular. Southern Spaces is an online journal exploring the real and imagined places of the American South and their connections with the wider world and provides some interesting insights into life down here.

I loved my all-too-short time in the Delta – and I’ll be back next year to spend a couple more nights sittin’ and sippin’ at Po’ Monkeys.