Something went pear shaped in the plan for this weeks The Ghost of Electricity #40 with my birthday post while Simon Sweetman is away so here it is.... 40 When I turned 40 everything changed. I’d had these weird birthdays all my life – stuck between Xmas and New Year – the high hat and the low brow. I don’t actually remember most of them – even my 21st went by in a bell shaped flower blur. In Australia on my19th I nearly drowned trying to rescue Mac between mushrooms and reason and a severed hand. On my 24th I remember the Spines had a 28th, 29th, 30th December stint at the Terminus and word got out it was my birthday and Peter Gilkinson (bless his heart) arranged for a roast meal and a surprise party for me after the Friday gig - my first ever birthday party. I turned 30 at Ocean Beach in the Hawkes Bay – sober family years all through the 90’s. A couple of years before the new millennium I had my 40th. We were living in a big warehouse space on Wigan St right in the middle of Wellington. Ang, Jess and Michelle were all away and I picked up a book about lucid dreaming and thought about my mortality. I’d always been very secular and non-spiritual although I had embraced Carlos Castaneda’s writing and enjoyed its humour and ideas since the 70’s but really didn’t believe in anything much apart from art, energy, and love. On that same day I received in the mail a book about the Runes from my cousin Mark who was living in England and into shamanism. I was carving Strange Angels at the time and so I tried carving some sets of Runes and then I went looking… I read up on a lot of forms of religion and tried to call them up through my art – to see which one was real as much as anything. It was by pure chance that I found what was right for me. When I turned to 50 I was in good at the Bodega and the Spines played a gig there – all my friends were there and it was a magic night but we lost our then drummer. The following year we did it again and lost another drummer - and the year after that. These days I’m stuck back at home – a few friends and drinks and stories. Thank you all so much and special thanks to Simon. See you in two weeks
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 06:41:00 +0000
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