Well I have decided to start a blog on this site, actually it's more of a record of what has been happening. I'm not really a 'blogging' type of person but I would like to make things a bit more personal, as well as provide some updates, and support those people that support me...
If you would like to receive updates on anything new please enter your email address below;
In addition, I will be updating new work at this blogspot. Please click on the link below;
envelopewindows.blogspot.com
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Climate Talks?
December 2009
Climate, climate, climate... that seems to be the buzzword of the moment. Actually they've been talking about it for many years for those who've had the time to listen. I believe we are basically totally f...ed if the schoolyard circus continues too much longer. C'mon people get it together! If we can afford 12 Christmas presents for the average kid and a cold can of Coke every time our overheated brow gets a little sweaty then we should be able to afford a solution to this world predicament we've blatantly created for ourselves. Get with it! More trees in the ground, solar panels on every roof, a more effective public transport and cycling strategy and a 5% environmental tax on every consumer product that anybody buys, from bottles of spring water to new Range Rovers would go some way to restoring the balance and should not be as difficult to bring about as they would have us believe. We need some govt. initiative! Oh and by the way, stop encouraging over-consumption and over-population of the planet for the sad sake of economic gain. If we have to drink desalinated water from the oceans all around the country then that just may be a hint that we have reached our population popping point. Or is that too logical, yes I know, to actually take note of the clear signals that nature is sending us. Get with the freaking program once and for all before its too late.
On a more pleasant note (well, not really for me), my new project step &repeat is close to being completed but for the sake of finding one of those old clicker style tape labelers that used to be everywhere (and I know my mum used to have one in her house inside a little box), but I can't find it anywhere! Because although we are living in the computer age and everything is supposed to be done artificially and digitally, I still like to add a bit of old school tinge to the artwork here and there. So as soon as I can locate the said labeling device, I will be that much closer to publishing my next project and one step closer to regaining my sanity. Bare with me.
Back from the world
November 2009
Welcome back – to me that is... I've just returned from two months in the wilderness of extended travel through Europe and Morocco. It was brilliant, thanks for asking – the only problem with holidays is they have to end sooner or later (normally sooner). But it is highly recommended to step out of your normal life for at least a couple months every so often – only then can you take a look back and see things from a distance and see how you can possibly break your normal routines that are basically getting you nowhere. This is a good thing, if only in theory. If you think about it too much you may want to change everything, which may not be entirely feasible or possible, so as with anything you have to look for a balance, and, as humans do, restrain yourself to averageness. In any case it was good to get out of the suburbs for a few minutes – God was that good...these spinifex pigeon breeding grounds where freedom is measured in colorbond fences and people drive from their front door to their letterbox and back again and don't know the name of the person two houses up... okay I'm rambling but at least I'm being honest.
My first port of call was London; my first visit there and as far as cities go, nearly everything afterwards is really a letdown. Well, that's being a little harsh but the city of London is the one true metropolis of Europe, the rest are really big provincial cities with their various carbon dated relics of charm... gee I'm angry today, I really shouldn't write when I'm angry, its amazing what one week of lack of sleep and a sudden returning to Earth can do for the spirit. Anyway, while in London, which has an arts scene that makes Sydney still look like a colonial outpost (there's that anger again – and did I mention that everyone drives everywhere in Sydney), I delivered a copy of my first book (which can curently be purchased through this website for the special price of just $10.95!) to the National Poetry Library in Southbank. So if anyone is in London, you can drop in and pick up my book and even take it home, which is new for me, can't say I've ever been borrowed before. Just bring me back in unsoiled condition please.
By now I am almost getting excited about the iminent on-line publishing of my next big project step &repeat. I hope to have it done and dusted by mid-December so please watch this space. It is a collection of new poetry but it will be presented in a format not quite as we know it. In fact I am optimistically comfortable that poetry has never been presented this way before on-line or in print so beware, what you are about to witness may very well be a world first. At least in my world... Be kind and tread light.
Coming soon — 'The next step'
August 2009
Well it's almost summer again here in Sydney, a time where not much else gets done besides lazing around in the sun and sand and quenching a dry choking thirst with endless supplies of cold beer and soft drink. I can almost smell the smoking sizzle of sausage and onion on the barbie now. As such it seems fitting that I publish a sample of my new project, step &repeat, the first poem being called Ice-cream truck. Click the link to see. The full project is still taking shape, but is going to be 26 poems and images in two parts published online probably around December. The theme is basically an observation of our working lives, why we run to offices and factories week in week out and what do we really hope to accomplish by doing this. Between now and then I will be away making the most of these fleeting moments we've been given. Please be patient if trying to contact and don't be shy to leave your comments.
Part II — White House
July 2009
I am happy to present part two of Envelope Windows — White House. This is basically a short story (or a long poem) that goes hand in hand with the verse of my book and helps to define another facet of the theme I am hoping to explore with my work thus far, that of the suburban ideal. Please have a look by clicking the above link or going into the Gallery section.
I have also been busy working on my next project, the second installment to this website, which will contain 30 new poems and images. This will cross the border between print and web, and be much more visually orientated than Envelope Windows. I am hoping to have it out by end of year. In the meantime I will be in Europe between August and October, and looking to talk to any publishers in the UK and beyond...
What's it all about?
May 2009
So you think you know what Envelope Windows is really all about. A collection of strange but mildly entertaining musings crammed into a book that one of the millions of try-hard modern day literati (read:"bloggers") is trying to flog online to keep himself amused and vaguely sane at the same time. Well, you're right...in a way. But it's more than that. Envelope Windows is an ongoing project, as it has been for many years, and the train doesn't stop here I'm afraid. (And it's no express service either, I can tell you). What it is, and what it should be, is a cross-platform cross-culture cross-medium intention that is always evolving, requiring input and feeback from you; the book was the first conclusion, but it is by no means the end. The website is the means by which to forward the vehicle, and the blog the means to forward the website. None of this is final and will innevitably not turn out the way it was planned in the first place, but rather tack and change direction like an Opera on the Ocean.
If you've been here and skipped through the website and think you've seen it all, think twice. And then come back, because I will be updating regularly and the best is yet to come. I have a new improved site in the planning but for now pay a visit to my Blogspot where I will be posting brand new stuff from now on. Forthcoming will be a series of poems very current and topical of the world as we know it now, a really messed up place where sanity has maybe been lost in the ridiculous confusion and ignorant self-indulgence in the consumer marketing-led race to become the first to own the latest flat screen colour TV. Is it any wonder the world economy crashed through the floor when the entire structure of the building was being held and prodded up by the over-zealous self-righteous termite-ridden framework of unchecked capitalist greed?... Or for something lighter turn here. And you can also check out the Gallery where some of my image poems will be up on display. And make sure you read Father's Return, a three-part journey through a complex and trying but ultimately loving relationship between father and son. And now that you're a little more familiar with where I'm heading with this, you can pick up the book online for a bargain price of AUD$10.95, which is what you'd spend at a cafe for bacon and eggs right...? Okay, they may throw in a bit of toast with that but still, we should lay off the carbs anyway. So buy the book and if you don't like it eat that.
State Library Book Shop censorship (an angry blog)
April 2009
After recently speaking with someone at the NSW State Library Book Shop I was happy to know they accept Australian themed books on consignment, but after further investigation, received an email back from the manager stating "Sorry but we cannot accept poetry even on consignment – all the best with your poems...". What a shame... For a brief moment I had the impression we lived in a civilized society where at least a literary institution as broad as this might recognize that all forms of writing have a place in the national psyche, rather than imposing a blanket ban on this unwanted, this black tarnished, this leper of the literary gamut dismissed as poetry. Anyone trying to write verse in 21st century Australia must feel like an unwanted immigrant, someone who has embarked on a self-prophesying, endeavourous journey who feels he has something to add to the great fabric of his chosen place of arrival, only to find that no-one really cares. If the State Library is flatly uninterested, then who else could be? Maybe they only feel the need to bring up poetry when quoting Dorothy Mackeller or Banjo Patterson or Henry Lawson; figureheads that have made massive indents to our national conscience, but had they written today, may not have been published, heard, or seen.
News from the pressroom
March 2009
I have been canvassing a few book shops around Sydney without much luck, but I would like to send a big thank you to Karen of 'Better Read Than Dead' bookshop of Newtown who graciously accepted my title to stock under the 'Local Authors' section. This is the best bookshop in Sydney by far and they still believe that there is room for independent writing unlike others who can't seem to find a spare shelf between the endless supply of oversized and overpriced Tuscan holiday picture guides and Harry Potter wannabe's... Thanks also to Gleebooks for stocking me.
I was pleasantly surprised to receive an invitation from David Barnes of Numbat Poetry Journal online who asked me to submit a few poems to his excellent website. They are doing fantastic work in WA and there are some great and highly accomplished poets on this site. Reading their bios I feel like an amateur in their midst with much to learn. Oh well, there is time. The website is well worth a look at www.aceonline.com.au/~db/numbat/
During my German studies at the Goethe Institute last week I had the pleasure of attending a book reading by a young Serbian author Sasa Stanisic. Here I also had the opportunity to chat with Dr. Jeremy Fisher, the Director of the Australian Society of Authors, who turned out to be a nice guy with some helpful advice on publishing – now, if only he handed over the magic bullet on how to actually sell books, we'd both be in business. Anyway good to meet Jeremy and Sasa.
Print vs. Web —Web wins...
Feb 2009
2008 was a busy year for me. I accomplished the two goals I had set; one was to restore my beloved 1979 VW kombi, the other was to get my first book into print, and, as it evolved, onto the web. It's been a sharp learning curve, but highly satisfying never the less. Coming from a printing/prepress background has given me inside information on the trade, and the main thing I have learned and can quite clearly see is that the print medium is a dying object. The internet is a far more powerful weapon and in my opinion will all but bury what we now see as print within a matter of years... So is this a good thing or a bad thing? There is and will always be something nostalgic about the printed article, from the time Gutenberg reproduced his first Bible – there is a tradition there, a history of paper and ink and hot molten lead punching out lines of type for the compositor to knock up into pages. There is something about holding a book in the hand, or a crisp folded newspaper that you know has been running on a massive web press all through the night. This tangible feeling can't be replaced by the web.
...But the practicality can. There is nothing that I can think of (apart from maybe a 7-11 store across the road from your workplace) that is more versatile, more efficient, more diverse, more universal, more convenient than logging on to the web, whether it be news, sport, or art. The newspaper has been trying to be this for many years, indeed as has television, but they both have their limitations – cost, space, and time; these are obstacles that can't be easily overcome by the printed medium. The web, now, can do all of this and more. And for a publisher, there is no broader tool than the internet to get your message to the largest possible survey. But what I really like about the web is that it can bring a voice to the smaller people – the independents, the self-promoters, the bloggers, the poets, all now have a vehicle by which they can show their wares. And that is liberating.
Many people will hold on to their affinity for the book. Indeed I still hope to have people read me on the printed page rather than just browse a few lines from a mis-hit website. I believe and trust there will always be a place for printed works of quality. But without the web, as I have realized talking to publishers, distributors, and book stores, independents like myself would have little chance of sharing anything of the written word. I could produce a thousand books, but have no hope of getting them out on the shelves for people to find. If it doesn't look like it's going to walk off the book shelf, they simply won't stock it, which brings me back to the web... ahh the web, free from all these physical constraints, these costs, these tiring and consuming limitations, well almost... In my brief time here I've noticed that many poets and journals and so-called e-zines have now set up on line, foregoing the traditional step of print publishing, and nowadays it seems to make sense. It is inevitable that many sources, many springs will flow this way in the future, and I can see this for my own work as the critical link in the equation. I am committed to still producing my own books for as long as I am able to. It's in my mentality I guess. When I am designing or writing something, what's always at the forefront of my mind is how it will work on the printed page. I'm sure the younger generations will think differently.