Well, last night saw the Australian Songwriters Association – Tasmania‘s final gig at Irish Murphy’s in Salamanca Place. It was a raw night to be out and about – the weather here in Hobart has been typically Winter (with a capital W) since last month’s plunge into single digit temperatures. However, kudos to all the brave folks who came out on such a night to support and perform – you are all diamonds!
It bears noting that the opening act was emerging songwriter, Cassie O’Keefe, who has really improved as a performer – so much so that I let her use my Seagull guitar last night!
Cassie has really come into her own in the last year or so, thanks in part to the amazing support of her wonderful family and friends – and shows like the ASA, which provide a wonderful avenue for new writer/performers to share the stage with proven hands like Tony Brennan, myself and the consummate professional, Ian Paulin.
I’m therefore very pleased to tell you all that I’m taking Cassie down to Belfry Studio next month, where she’ll be recording with my favourite engineer in all the planet, Malcolm Battersby. It’s an incredibly gratifying experience to see someone grow from an uncertain child into a powerful young woman, who can turn a pub crowd on a Monday night into a listening audience, and hold them in the palm of her hand. It’s every teacher/mentor’s dream and inspires me to keep doing what I do 😀
Also, I must mention the fine work by the ASA Tasmania coordinator, Matt Sertori. His job has been so difficult over the last few months, with people pulling out at the last minute or turning up late for their set. Seriously, organising musicians is like herding cats, and not for the faint hearted – we are a difficult mob! Matt has kept his temper and his outrageous sense of humour well intact and I thank him for all his support and unwavering friendship over more than ten years of ASA shows.
I’m not sure where the ASA will be heading next, there isn’t a venue lined up at the time of writing – but that in itself is kind of exciting and makes me wonder what we can do next!
Watch this space and stay safe and well, wherever you are on this beautiful planet ❤
I feel like I’ve lost a couple of months somewhere, it’s been so hectic and now I realise that spring is here and I haven’t done half the things I meant to this calendar year. But I have managed a few that I wasn’t expecting!
The university experience has been wonderful so far although I won’t pretend I’ve enjoyed every unit. At the moment, I’m preparing papers on two of my favourite things – Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds and the personal still camera. And I’ve had to watch classic films such as Rear Window and Citizen Kane. Yes, I’m loving my units this semester!
But today I’ve been distracted from study. Tomorrow night I’m playing at a House Concert in Hobart with wonderful Queensland singer/songwriter Francesca de Valence and Hobart duo Butterscotch Pony in one of their all-too-rare live shows. However, instead of doing a solo set or playing with the wonderful girls in Straddlepuss (more on that next time!) I’m doing a special set with dear friend (and half of Butterscotch Pony), Matt Sertori.
We’ve been friends for a long time and decided early in the year that we wanted to do a music project together that included a documentary about our personal process and the creative world that we inhabit. We’ve done some filming already but will be adding to it at this gig. Meanwhile, our trusty doco guru, Josh Troy put this little gem together to promote this event. I hope it makes you laugh as much as it did all of us!
Please note, there’s some bad language at the end 😉
And we really did decide to call it ‘All at Sea’. The moral of the story is Matt has the attention span of a flea………… ❤
I’m feeling quite gutted about the shenanigans in the Senate today, where Australia became the first country in the world to repeal measures to put a price on carbon. In my opinion, this is akin to environmental vandalism and I feel like I need to apologise to my son and any children he may have in the future for the stupidity and short-sightedness of Tony Abbott and co. There’s a great piece by Lenore Taylor in the Guardian Australia. Frankly, I feel ashamed to be an Australian today.
Good news however, is multiple 🙂
I just shared a glorious roast dinner with my adult son (and it didn’t cost $100 Barnaby Joyce/Tony Abbott) and we celebrate the fact that we can do this. It’s so nice to have him living close by. He’s halfway through a History/Sociology degree at University of Tasmania and just got mid-year exam results back. Credits across the board and HeWhoMustNotBeListenedTo had a Distinctions and High D’s. I had confirmation of a HD on my last unit a couple of weeks ago, so a lot to celebrate at my house tonight!
Meanwhile, I’m up to date (kinda) with my uni work. I’m doing a fully online Communications degree with (hopefully) double majors in Screen Studies and Creative Writing through Griffith University. This study period I’ve taken on two units instead of just one at a time, and the workload’s been pretty fierce. I watch at a minimum three movies a week, mostly westerns, and I’ve been learning a new language – semiotics. I have to say, while I can see the benefits of semiotic analysis of cultural texts, I’m not convinced it’s the best approach. But I’m grateful that I live in a country where (as a mature age woman) I have the opportunity to study at all, let alone again!
Tomorrow, I go out to Oak Industries and my job is to create music with awesome people, and Saturday I’ve got Straddlepuss rehearsal
So, despite the horror show that is the current Australian government, there are so many good things to celebrate.
It’s been way too long since I posted anything, but life habitually gets in the way of blogging!
Meanwhile, a quick post to hopefully make you all think about supporting something really worthwhile…….
A musician friend and fellow singing teacher, Rachel Taylor has put up a Pozible crowd funing campaign for her project, The Green Album
The incredibly talented Rachel Taylor
In itself, this is a pretty big deal, as Rachel is a performer and writer I’ve known and admired for many years and this is her first solo recording. But I think the really big deal here is that she wants to make a sustainable album. I’ve known Rachel since she was a young girl, I actually met her through her parents. Her father Alan is also a fabulous musician and gifted poet – in fact her whole family are pretty wonderful!
Rachel performing with her father Alan
Wherever you are on the planet have a look at her proposal and if you like the idea as much as I do, please get behind it. There’s a Facebook event page ‘Make “The Green” Album Pozible‘ with news and updates. Also, I highly recommend having a listen to her previous work on SoundCloud. She is a very talented performer worthy of notice – Tasmania has so many – and I’m so pleased she’s doing this!
After six months with just my trusty mobile phone, I’m extremely happy to announce that I’ve got a home broadband connection again. Despite having the WordPress app on my phone, it’s just not the same as this interface on my laptop.
It’s good to be back – but now the big job of catching up begins! So much has been happening this southern summer, and as always, some of it’s been good and some of it’s been really bad.
On the “utterly brilliant” end of the spectrum, I’ve finished my first fully online unit through Griffith University. Despite only having my mobile for connection, I managed a surprising high distinction and I have to thank some beautiful friends in Hobart for letting me leach their net regularly to stay on top of things. Thank you Lauren and Patsi ❤ you two are wonderful! I’m well into my second unit now and starting to really enjoy the challenge of study again.
In the next few weeks, I’ll be finalising digital stuff for my most recent recording and playing catch up with getting cd’s out and about. And for those of you in southern Tasmania, I’m playing at the next ASA show on Wednesday, 9th April. Once again, we’re at The Night Owl in Liverpool Street, Hobart.
I’ll also have details to reveal soon about a new songwriting/recording/documentary project, plus a live, all-girl punk band I’m playing with called Straddlepuss.
And finally, being back online with a fibre connection means I can at long last offer Skype music lessons to you all. I can’t believe it was October last year when I first wrote about this and it’s taken until now to get it off the ground! If you’re interested, fill out the contact form – and the first lesson is free 😉
There’s been sadness too but I’m not dwelling on that today.
To begin with, irrespective of what you believe (or don’t believe) I wish you all a peaceful, relaxed holiday season. I’ve been having a great time, taking some time off with family and friends. But I’ve been pretty lax with keeping up with my blog – sorry!
Probably one of the best presents I’ve ever had was dumped in my lap recently. As a mentor and music teacher, you always wish the best for your charges but this is just outstanding 🙂
For those of you outside of Australia, this is something to truly celebrate, I really can’t begin to describe how proud I am of this up and coming artist! The song she’s uploaded “Swallow” is a really excellent pop song with quite a mature, dark lyric. This young woman is an inspiration to us all, to stick at it and follow your dreams!
I encourage you all to go to the site and have a listen – “Swallow” is available for free download.
Meanwhile, play nicely, stay safe and have a great end to 2013!
It’s been an exciting year for me but I’m really looking forward to 2014.
For starters, I’m on track to have The Lucky Six ready for release as a digital download early in the new year. If there’s enough interest, I’ll consider a CD release later in the year 😉
And, my previous digital release,The Woman on the Edge of the World has been so warmly received, that plans are well underway for a limited CD version. Each copy will contain full liner notes, my original artwork and photography and will be numbered and signed by me.
We’re planning this to be 100 copies only available through me. So if you’re interested, get in touch to pre-order!
Also, next year I’ll still be teaching privately in Hobart and taking some distance students via Skype. Plus, I have a wonderful session I run each week, writing and making music with a group of disabled people.
This post is inspired by a Facebook friend who’s also a gardener. She often asks in a group we belong to “what’s on the menu tonight at your place?” and follows with gorgeous meals she’s prepared for her family. I thought it’d be lovely to share our family celebration with you all tonight.
Uni exam results came out today and my crew both got outstanding marks – my household has plenty to celebrate! So tonight we decided on a favourite simple, healthy meal.
I picked wild rocket, endives, young silverbeet, spring onions, tender new kale and some surprise new lettuce that self-seeded from last year.
A little grated carrot (mine aren’t ready yet), some chopped young mushrooms and cubed Danish Fetta cheese completed the combo. I don’t like a lot of dressing on my salads, and use just a drizzle of sesame oil and a sprinkle of rice wine vinegar.
The end result was just scrumptious – and we had it with oven fries and barbecue steak.
As usual, the guys handled the meat and chips – and overloaded my plate! But it was fabulous and a great way to celebrate their tremendous achievements ♡
I’ve been complaining – no, let’s give it the proper title – whining for weeks about the weather.
After gorgeous sunshine yesterday, and nearly a full day weeding, I woke up to leaden skies and my buck rabbit Barabas, thumping the ground to let me know a thunderstorm was on the way. I love a good thunderstorm, though the rabbits and chickens probably wouldn’t agree but the rain is back. And frankly, we’re all sick of it!
The only positive things are the water tanks are still full and the amount of green feed we’re getting for the chickens and large growth of treats for the rabbits – chicory, nasturtiums, thistles and blackberry leaves especially.
To give you some idea of what I’m facing, this is a picture of a garden bed – not a weed patch.
This was last weeded and mulched six short weeks ago. Underneath all this is a lovely small-growing bottlebrush that brings native birds into the garden, garlic, potatoes, cauliflower and silverbeet. I made a start yesterday but after the storm passed this morning, I couldn’t quite face mud-filled boots, so I switched to weeding the raspberry bed.
This has been another of my ongoing experiments. Last year I tried planting bare-rooted canes along my north facing wall but some very inventive starlings and a ridiculously hot summer saw all casualties and no survivors.
This winter, I tried again with a few bare-rooted canes in a raised bed in front of the greenhouse – with ample bird-netting! And again, nothing! But I did get a brilliant crop of mushrooms, so no real complaints.
In desperation, I bought a pot of sprouting Chilcotin canes from the local hardware centre a few weeks ago and literally emptied the pot into the bed alongside the canes that didn’t take. Finally, raspberries are growing and forming beautifully in my garden. Imagine my surprise then, as I was about to pull out what I thought was a dead cane today and spotted new growth from the base of two seemingly dead canes!
After all that whining, finally a win!
As you’ve probably gathered, the weather in southern Tasmania has been pretty awful, with unseasonal rain and colder weather. As we come to the end of November, it’s starting to feel like spring – about three months later than expected!
This morning I couldn’t sleep, so was up and out in the yard before 7am. It was damp and cool, but lovely. Undoubtedly my favourite time of the day and the chickens and rabbits were happy to see me – and get an early breakfast!
All the wet weather has played havoc with some of the plants. The few tomatoes I have outside are struggling, as are the corn and zucchini plants. Berries are the hardest hit, but my Chilcotin raspberries are in a raised bed and covered with bird netting so I think there’ll be a few sweet treats by Christmas. The boysenberry (a new addition) has set a few fruit so now the big issue will be keeping the birds off.
After the disastrous heat of last summer, I lost all but one of my strawberries. So in winter, I potted up the last little survivor and put it in the greenhouse for safe keeping, waiting for runners so I could propagate more plants.
Imagine my delight when I went in to water this morning and found not runners but a clump of perfect fruit – and some ripe enough for breakfast. Let’s hope that spring is finally here 😀
Debra Manskey 