Each day, another bit of independence falls away. His piano accordion, once his faithful daily companion, is silent. Dad can barely lift it.
Although he was from Sydney he wasn’t from my part of town. He was wealthy, connected, lived in a suburb where people had tennis courts, and he wore fashionable corduroy, high-waisted flares.
We write to each other. About writing, mostly. Its place in our lives. Its ups and downs. Its twists and turns.
I listened as Kirk opened up about his former bandmate and my namesake, Michael: a man who, much like me, was a shy kid yet, much unlike me, became a global rock star.
As we made our way north through Rajasthan to Delhi the song was everywhere. There was no escape. Sometimes I would shudder to consciousness late at night, sweat drenched and hysterical, as Disco Deewane played endlessly in my head.
After Stevo so kindly triggered my discharge from Riverside, I settled in happily with a foster family and went back to school. I told no one about my summer, but I played And She Was nonstop.
Roadtrip, folks. Pub gig. We're getting ready for a show at The Commercial Hotel, Terang, in south-west Victoria on Saturday night, 5 March.
Stella slips into half light/silently, beckoning/her twin fussing/on my chest, first, as always
If I wasn’t listening to the cassettes via my Walkman, then I was insisting we play them in the car. I didn’t know much about Elvis at this point. I hadn’t seen any of his iconic moves until a kid impersonated him during a segment of Red Faces on Hey Hey It’s Saturday. I figured if that kid could do it, then so could I.
Well, we got there, folks. Amidst a myriad of uncertainties, such are the times we live in, we performed at MEMO Music Hall, St Kilda, on Sunday afternoon. 9 January.