Goldfish Bottle Blues

This isn't really relevant to anything much, but I had some fun on Friday doing a guest spot at a friend's gig. Here's a YouTube link.

CLICK ME =>  Goldfish Bottle Blues

A short diversion

A short piece of guitar music I wrote for one of the places I visited on a hike some time ago and which I mean to get back to at some stage soonish.

Follow this link =>  FAINTERS SOUTH

The North and South Fainters are a couple of peaks in the Victorian Alps, not far from Falls Creek.

... and relax

Distress or de-stress? Here is a quick pointer to some of my psychological de-tox programs.

Hiking – as described in my other blog http://ian-folly.blogspot.com/. It is always wonderful to just walk through the bush with the wind in your hair and the rain soaking through your clothes. My wife doesn’t like camping but I love waking up in a small tent miles from anywhere; preferably miles from others as well.

Music – My guitar is one of my favourite companions. I started as a teenager and have never stopped. Sadly I can’t sing – well, not in tune anyway – but I’m learning to not let that get in the way. Every Tuesday night I will be strumming my guitar or mandolin or ukulele (damn ukes are breeding like rabbits these days) with few like-minded folk – and singing, accidently hitting the right note from time to time. There is a saying that you should sing like no-one is listening, so I do.  Not being able to sing led me to instrumental guitar music and I like to strum and pick and compose. Here is a sample of a short piece I wrote some years ago now but still like to play.

Photography – Back in year nine at high school we were entrusted with a Pentax SLR and a role of black and white film. The proviso was that we try to do something a bit different. We were then allowed to roam the school and the nearby streets.  Maybe not the streets, but we did anyway, small gangs of local youth armed with cameras. We experimented with the cameras and in the dark room, trying various effects. I have loved it ever since

Here is a link to a YouTube clip of a hike – photos and music by me. I took over a hundred photos on that hike but there are only two or three that I find really worthwhile, the rest filler for the clip, others now sitting on a hard disk but deserving nothing more than deletion.

It is vital to detox your brain from the stresses that we face.  Forget who is listening or watching or what they are thinking. If they have a problem, well, it is their problem, not yours.

Episode 4: Death and music

My father-in-law passed away last month. He was 90, had a failing heart, diabetes and a range of other health issues. He didn’t want to die, or, more correctly, he wanted to go on living. He had his children and grandchildren that he didn’t want to leave. His was still writing jazz tunes and playing music and there was still more music to be written and played. There were books to be read. There were things to do. 

We don’t think about death that much when we are young or even when we are older. My father-in-law didn’t seem to. He hadn’t put any arrangements in place for his funeral, had left no indication of what kind of service he wanted. It is amazing how many little things needed to be decided – headstones, caskets, plots to be selected, music to be played. And all the time we were wondering ‘What would he like?”

Like her father, my wife is also a musician. She hasn’t felt much like playing music or singing since his death, such is her sadness.

I too am sad. Although I have never lost a parent or a child or a sibling and so I guess can only imagine the pain she is feeling, I also feel pain at his passing.

My disease puts a focus on death. Cancer sufferers talk about survival rates and try to forget that death is always one of the possible outcomes. Like my father-in-law, I also haven’t made any arrangements apart from a Will, which was put together long before I was diagnosed.  My wife and I have discussed funerals but the reality of dying isn’t there deep enough for us to do anything about it. So, we haven’t bought a plot or designed headstones or selected the music to be played or anything like that.

I think the avoidance comes from an innate optimism that we can work through all the ‘stuff’ life throws up and come out the other side, maybe with a few bruises but otherwise okay.  At least, most of the time I feel optimistic. There are still times when the whole thing seems too much and the dog is scratching at the door – little scenarios fill my mind and it becomes hard to put the kettle on and start another day.

My father-in-law’s band mates played at his funeral – his music; songs he had penned over the years. People listened and smiled. As I listened I remembered him at our place, working on some melody at the piano or sitting at the kitchen table discussing augmented fifths or writing out chord diagrams or bass runs for me to try. 

I want to be like him. I want to keep playing music, writing songs, being with my family, being out in the world, living.


Here's a link to me jamming on my father-in-law's double bass and a classical guitar.