Urban Dwellings On The Day
Foraging around my storage life in Redfern, some boxes of papers and letters and books. An amplifier here, some old journals there. As Talking Heads wrote, “What good are notebooks, they won’t help me survive.” That song reminds me of New York City. The Song is “Life During Wartime”.
David Byrne said he wrote the lyrics down in Alphabet City. We were both in our 20s then and the streets were a tad dystopian but they were also alive. People were not hunkered down at home, glued to the screen, or afraid to go out for whatever phobia lurked in their souls.
Prowling around new music I found these dudes pictured above and below. They could have been residents of the East Village or The Bowery. They could have been characters in William Kotzwinkle’s book The Fan Man (1974). The picture of this duo may look like drug-fuelled hijinks, but I am sensing a deeper meaning in this folk/psychedelic ceremonial desert trance music.
How does it hit you?
I believe this mysterious outfit resides in Texas. You can do some deeper digging if you like.
Ak’Chamel, The Giver OF Illness is their name. Their most recent release is “A Mournful Kingdom Of Sand”. Drop into their lengthy track Sheltering Inside A Camel and see where it takes you.
Definitely go to their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/giverofillness
You can also find them on Bandcamp, Spotify, and Insta.
Now I stroll around the Redfern and Waterloo hood. It certainly reminds me of NYC in 1978. People are on the streets, looking for a deal, a party, a dollar. It all happens here. From homelessness to the downtrodden and urbanized First Nation folks who congregate downstairs from the local public housing towers.
Will they be torn down for the gentrification of this area? According to plans released over 5 years ago, that is what will happen. Over 700 apartments will disappear to make this a more liveable environment for the folks with the money to buy into the land.
Where will the present residents be deposited? Protest signs are starting to appear. I believe they may be a bit too late.
These towers were once known as the ‘suicide towers’. They were built and opened in 1977 by the Queen and are named after Captain Cook and places he had been and people who were on his ships and the like.
How is that for freaking irony?
So although Cook Tower and the others will someday be ground to dust and returned to the land, this new development is colonization continuing.
Decades change and the fight for land and country remains. You know as well as I do that the land is sacred no matter what part of the planet you are on.
The city is tiring me out. Especially where I am deep in the heart of the urban jungle. The early morning pounding of the jackhammers and the constant hum of concrete mixers running down the road.
I am also in the midst of my mate ripping his apartment apart and cleansing his life of many belongings. Minimalism is a good thing.
As Grandpa said in Neil Young’s Falling From Above:
"how can all these people
Afford so many things?
When I was young
People wore what they had on”
I await the news on what my mechanic has to say about my VW-EOS and whether it is the transmission and if it is worth it to get it fixed.
Vehicular problems are commonplace.
They arise when you least expect it or you have ignored the knocking under the hood thinking the car gods would take care of it for you.
What do I know about cars?
Yeah, not much!
But I do know I like the car but it is 13 years old and maybe it is time to change horses?
Wherever you are today I send you love and blessings and hope to get back to some regular stories as we head into the autumn of 2023.
Meanwhile….check out Ak’Chamel……
But Grandpa just kept starin'
He was lost in some distant thought
Then he turned and he said
To that young girl...
"A little love and affection
In everything you do,
Will make the world a better place
With or without you."
That one touched my soul, Paul. And……best wishes with EOS