Writer
A little rural drama as related to a friend. It’s a good time to sit down and write to you. We had a leaking Flickmixer in the kitchen for more than three years and no plumber wanted to travel out that far, and the plumbing qualified dairy farmer genuinely had no time because they’re like …
It’s fantastic that someone has finally had the courage and the tenacity to write a novel addressing the Mother of all elephants in the room: Human ecological overshoot – a combination of out-of-control human numbers and out-of-control consumption that are rapidly wiping out the biosphere and turning this small blue planet into a toxic dump. …
A small reflection to start, on living in this universe. Albany to Perth via Lake Towerrinning, Darkan, Williams When you get out of the car to take pictures of rural countryside, there is another recurring theme – litter. Wherever Homo colossus goes, a trail of pollution is left behind. You’d think it would be a …
A song to start with. Albany to Perth via Lake Towerrinning, Darkan, Williams At the end of the last instalment, we were visiting an inland lake ecosystem degraded by our culture’s activities both at the lake and in its catchment. We noted that the destruction we can clearly see from a biocentric perspective is mostly …
I’m an Australian biologist, conservationist, educator, writer and “doomer” who would like to take decent people on a journey. If you’re a “doomer” you will already understand and none of what I’m going to say will especially surprise you. You will already have seen all this in your own part of the world and you …
This letter to you all has become somewhat longer than intended, so I have inserted topical music clips to listen to if you’d like a break or for related contemplations anytime. You will need your favourite beverage and a comfortable place to read. (*not including Sam Mitchell and his acolytes) In the 12 years since …
Letter written on behalf of GetUp to various government ministers regarding fracking in the Betaloo. The middle bullet-point section is the standard material suggested by GetUp, the rest is my own. Please write and add your voices. As usual, they will mostly ignore and “know better” – but they don’t deserve to do that without …
This serves as a second instalment for our off-grid article in The Owner Builder 209 (October 2018). I might put the jpgs of this article in here next time I’m at the desktop computer… Glossary of acronyms:FFs = fossil fuelsBAU = business as usual We’re in rural Western Australia and live off-grid on solar panels. …
This week we got a sneak preview of the upcoming Cure album when the band gave two new songs an airing in their first gig back since the pandemic began. This is courtesy of phone footage posted on YouTube – not generally something I watch, but I will make an exception for this occasion (and …
Continue reading “Songs Of A Lost World – Two Grief Songs for End Times”
I finally got around to listening to this album 40 years after its release. Just saying that gives me the bends. It was the year I arrived in Australia and within 12 months pre-teen me was hearing Boys Don’t Cry, and Let’s Go To Bed on 96fm in its 1980s relatively independent phase before it was sold to a mainstream entertainment company. Those were the days, say I in a mock creaky voice, because 96fm was a unique station staffed by music buffs who actively educated listeners on music history and kept their playlist both broad and deep, playing 60s, 70s and what was then contemporary 80s music, album cuts as well as singles, and regular live concerts – all of which was relevant in a pre-Internet world, where you were at the mercy of radio stations, your friends, and your own puny budget in what you would end up accessing.