Writing: Blog

Cate and I got a bus, the 160 that used to run from Catford to Sidcup, we got off the bus near where I used to live, on the south circular, which was near where it used to go, but slightly off route. We got off the bus and all the shops were exactly as I remembered, as we walked down the road (which was a major street for traffic) we came across a fruit orchard, trees of apples, plums, gooseberries and more, I kept trying to take photos of the fruit and Cate kept getting in the way saying 'stop that! Take a picture of me!î As we wandered through the forest we came across a normal looking house, although there was no indication of being so, we instantly knew it was a tourist attraction and went inside.

Megalomaniac had death at the press of a button, he'd declared war on the rest of the world and he wasn't backing down now. The world hadn't taken him seriously, hadn't met his demands, he'd have to show the world fear and harm.

Fancied damaged boy any box or coy Cox kiss lips as they lisp.

_Phone on table, centre stage. Phone rings._

Tell me what the matter is, I really want to know.

The prester quest is a story of two men's present day retracing of a journey from Italy to Ethiopia made by a Papal Emissary in 1177. His mission to deliver a letter to a supposedly (and widely believed to be) real King of a fantastical Christian land in the heart of Islamic lands. I read a similar 'retracing the steps' book (Victoria Clarks, The Wayfarers) about a year ago, which was an amazing read, so this book had a lot to live up to. It starts slowly and doesn't really get going until about a quarter of a way through the book, the author's slightly facetious tone initially rather annoying and patronizing. However once the plot and journey kicks in the book is a gripping read full of interesting facts, observations and experiences from History and their eventful journey across several countries, continents and cultures.

Let down the wall, try not to use a piano, you'll amaze yourself.

An image man does what his image can

I have a recently rediscovered passion and interest for History, absorbing many tomes over the past few months, my favourite being brief surmises of 'all of History'.

When you feel like the odd one out, like a fish whose water's run out.

Isn't it funny how people's legs move in harmony with each other when they walk together,

Firstly I wanted to share with you a recent experience of editing...

Landing the opening slot is a daunting and unenviable task for any band, doubly so when you're an acoustic act at a rock gig, you have to work extremely hard to even get the audience to acknowledge your existence, let alone actually listen to you. Sacha Ion's unique voice with its equal measures of vibrato, warble, screech and heart-felt gentility performs a good job of gaining the interests of at least some of the small crowd slowly building at Ding Dong tonight; she earns respect and hopefully some fans.For a debut gig, Nights at the Abattoir are brimming with confidence, ability and great songs, their peculiar blend of Gothic Glam rapidly winning over the hearts and feet of the audience. Aside from the incredibly bubbly (and possibly drunk) keyboard player and the dapper vocalist, the bands guitarist seems to be in a world of his own, the stage lighting even marking him out differently. Discordantly soloing over everything or indulgently descending into messy sonic pools of layered effects, most of the time it doesn't really work or sit well over the good fun and straight forward gutsy stomp of the rest of the band, but at times he finds his own moments of genius, pulling out a solo or lick that compliments the song beautifully.Schvendes take to the stage ably assisted by a sound man who seems to accompany just about every medium sized WA band, and short of a few early technical problems work together to produce a set where you hear every breath, every cello string bowed, every delicate bass note and ringing guitar chord. A mesmerising set ensues, Schvendes are a band that doesn't have to do or say a lot between songs, and in fact they're best staying silent to savour the adoring silence of the audience as they are absorbed in the show. Perhaps an occasional change of pace would be welcome; emotional lifts are needed at some points in the set as the dour melancholic material can sometimes be a little too much. However the set ends on a high note, so just as it's time to leave the audience and send them home, the band ensure that your memory of the night is generally a happy one.

God knows when I last posted a personal post here, no reason why, just been stupidly busy, haven't been enough hours in the day...

Second interview with local zine dignitaries...

Tuesday was World Environment Day, I took part in a protest on excess logging, see some photos here <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrischinchilla/sets/72157600322402682" target="_blank">www.flickr.com/photos/chrischinchilla/sets/72157600322402682</a>

I Went to my first Footie game... Quite exciting!

Had a great weekend, went to some gigs on Friday night, though one of those nights when you try to do too much and end up doing next to nothing and staying in one place, Cate got very merry, she was a happy drunk... :-)

When I was younger I did a lot of acting at school and at some youth drama groups, but that was nigh on 7 or 8 years ago...

I've just returned from Attending the Melbourne Atheists society (<a href="https://home.vicnet.net.au/~atheist" target="_blank">home.vicnet.net.au/~atheist</a>), I was intrigued to see what the topics of conversation might be, and tonight was the turn of agnosticism, hard work for the speaker, preaching to the (un)converted as it were. The first thing that struck me aside from the wonky OHPís and prevalence of socks and sandals, was the age of the audience; does Atheism hold the same appeal to the elderly as religion? Does the steadfast belief in Science and practicalism hold the same appeal as faith in the older echelons of society? <br><br>As far as I could ascertain from the talk being an agnostic is being open minded about supernatural entities and the superiority of Science, whereas Atheists discount supernatural entities altogether, although the lengthy discussion that ensued after the talk gave the impression that perhaps the definitions are not as clear cut as that, and as usual with these things a battle of semantics raged. It reminded me of a passage (as many things do) from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy were the philosophers of a particular planet build a machine to tell them the answer to "Life, the universe and everything", when they get an unexpected answer it is made clear to them that they never really knew what the question was. If everyone has a differing opinion on what Atheism and Agnosticism mean then how can you have a balanced discussion on it? It's these sorts of arguments and discrepancies that have plagued the spiritual community for many years. If retaining an open mind on the origins of the world is Agnosticism, then I guess that's what I am, I wouldn't discount anyone's beliefs if I couldn't wholeheartedly disproved them myself. My final question is this, if we take Atheism as a negative, slightly pessimistic belief in nothing beyond the material world, and Agnosticism as a more optimistic, non-dismissive way of life, would Atheists still refuse to believe in a 'God' or a supernatural entity if it were proved without a shadow of a doubt by science that one existed?

Been a while, now seems a natural point to update you all on what I've been up to...<br><br>As now I have a home, and not only a home, but my first permanent address for nearly a year, which I was quite excited about, but now I also feel a little down as I have commitments again for the first time in nearly a year, it feels like the end of the Holiday.<br><br>This is compounded by the fact that I need a little more work, whilst the journo work I have is paying, and it covers rent and bills, it covers little else, I need some part time work, maybe 2 - 3 days a week, so I'm very paranoid about money...<br><br>All that sort of negative stuff aside, everything else has been going pretty well, things with 'Australian Lady' (don't know if they want to be named in my public outpourings to the world, yet...) have been strangely easy, all things considered.<br><br>I am enjoying Melbourne, it's a very vibrant city, full of life, variety, character, multiculturalism and culture. The size is still confusing me, one of the things getting me down about London was the nepotistic cliques I kept encountering, to be fair, they were nothing in comparison to here, everyone pretty much knows everyone else on the \Rock\" circuit, or knows someone who knows someone else (if that makes sense), the degrees of separation are slight, I'm unsure yet as to whether that's a good thing or not.<br><br>I'm attempting to cause a few crossovers of 'scenes', attending gigs and getting involved in quite a lot of social groups and alternative political activities.<br><br>Likewise, I don't know if the move was necessarily the best to further my musical career, whilst it may be easier to be noticed, breaking out of that may be harder, we shall see. On that note I have now started forming a new band and have some solo shows in the pipeline, people are interested in hearing and helping me which is refreshing.<br><br>After some technical hitches I have now nearly finished mixing the Macaca Mulatta demos, if anyone cares remains to be seen, but they're sounding good so far and that makes me happy.<br><br>So, I miss people and things, but now the story really starts... Watch this space, will be a little more regular from now on.<br><br>Chinch xx<br><br>PS... My (now) multinational promotions and label has an event coming up...<br><br>Here we go, PR is below<br><br>Antescene Present a night of :<br>Sick Country gypsy blues and perverts<br>The Cuban Bar, Camden on 28/03/07<br>Stables Market, Chalk Farm Road, NW1 8AH, 0207 424 0692<br>Featuring : The Urban Voodoo Machine, Captain Blood Blood & The Sea Dogs, Lil lost Lou, Congregation<br><br>Antescene promotes promising artists with something new to offer, artists who may not or donít want to belong to any particular genre or scene. From weird outsiders to promising ego maniacs, the decadent, the many and the few, all out there doing their own thing, making music for the sake of it, for the love of it. The event is in association with the ëNational Studentí newspaper, a free and independent newspaper for the UK student body, one of very few surviving in an increasingly commercial Student world (www.national-student.co.uk).<br><br>Antescene believe that music can help raise awareness of real world issues so the event will be helping promote Friendís of The Earthís ëBig Askí Campaign (www.thebigask.com), the campaign was launched to lobby for new Climate Change laws, Following huge public support, the majority of UK MPs supported the campaign, and the Government announced it would introduce a Climate Change Bill. The challenge for 2007 is to ensure that this Bill is strong enough, including annual targets for the reduction of carbon-dioxide emissions, and enforcing these targets so they are actually met. Meet with Friends of the Earth on the night, and find out how you can put pressure on your MP to ensure the UK takes a lead in addressing the greatest challenge of our times.<br><br>This is Antesceneís second event after a riotous squat party late in 2006 attended by hundreds of people with more events planned for the future as well as forthcoming releases. For March the 28th Antescene is promoting a night of bourbon soaked gypsy blues led by The Urban Voodoo Machine, a band becoming increasingly notorious for their bizarre audience - often including fire breathing dwarves and transvestites, as much as for their dark hypnotic and stomping rhythms played by an ever increasing number of band members. The Urban Voodoo Machine are suave and dress to impress, so get your glad rags on and bring enough money to buy some absinthe.

Went to a most inspiring talk last night entitled "Holy War, Religion and Violence" given by Keith Ward at Gresham College. I hope to get a copy of the transcript to post here but I learnt a lot and had a lot of thoughts implanted in my head including : <br>The Byzantine Empire was a remnant of the Roman Empire (which I knew) but far from being the glorious, free civilised image it liked to portray, the empire was in fact a dictatorship and when the Turks (Muslims) attacked they were seen by many as liberators and welcomed.The supposed 'Dark Ages' were only really in the West; the Muslim world was full of advances and enlightenment at the time.<br><br>The Arab world continued and kept alive the Greek traditions of philosophy and discovery, presumably from their Byzantine conquest, the west relearnt them from the Arab world.<br><br>When the West had caught up after the Dark Ages it commenced a 'colonisation' (Christianisation?) of most of the world, the Europeans were seen as Barbarians by the Muslim world, but we ignored most of that and just drained and destroyed them, turning them into the 'Third World' they are now.<br><br>The Qur'an is a set of principles or rules; there are no 'Clergy' in Islam, but a set of 'lawyers' if you like, who interpret the rules and pass those interpretations on to local followers, these 'rules' were written a long time ago for a nomadic society, so their interpretations have changed over the years. There is no supreme head of the Islamic Faith (The last Kalif was deposed in the 14th Century by Muslims) and there is only one Islamic State (Iran), compare that to Christianity. Mohammed was a political leader, so has influence on Politics, but Christianity was and still is tied in with politics.Most phrases taken from the Qur'an and used against it are taken out of context or presented in an edited form. The same applies with extremists; they even use elements of Lenin's teachings on Violent Revolution being the only solution against what they don't consider 'real' Islam, i.e. Democratic politicians in Islamic Countries.<br><br>Islam is an inclusive religion, all prophets from all faiths are considered valid, as are all paths to Heaven, however Muslims do consider Islam the best route, two quotes that sum this attitude nicely :

Bah, my heads all of a muddle at the moment, trying to write songs, but busy sorting all sorts out and can&#39;t quite get anything out, lots of bits and pieces of ideas...

Here are my old shoes...

Will be doing a proper tour diary at some point when I get back but in the meantime just checking in, saying hi...

By the way, going to have a few last minute drinks tonight for those who couldn't make the party... 7.30pm at the Green Man in Berwick st...