I promise I’ll get better at grammar and my tangents will make more sense as this goes on.
2023 Hey, where do I start? Meeting Dave Chappelle, getting roasted on stage by Theee Roast Master General, attending more Funerals than Festivals, Playing at one of my favourite venues in Our Universe, running another fun party at The One that Should Be; being asked to help run a new venue’s ventuure, putting your life on the line for it all to be told to go home after night one ; the amazing hospitality of those in Our Sunny State; trying to beat a game that only a select few candso to survive; being dedicated and passionate about what seem to be the ‘wrong causes’.
Twenty-Twenty Three was a wild one in the opposite aspect of the much more ‘wilder’ standards precedented by the previous decades worth of fun, or as would attail as ‘wild’ from the perspective of modern society, but for I; the lifestyle adjustment and the change effect of the product of ones environment is immeasurable
Dave Chappelle. I basically sacrificed my rent and livelihood to see this man again live in back-to-back nights, row two the first night & row two the second,, because to appreciate true stand up comedy one needs to be in the aura of seeing all mannerisms, facial and body language on the delivery to get the precise detail of the context.
The first time I saw Dave Chappelle was at the Palais Theatre, when I thought I was going to be the running back of Bendigo’s newest sporting club, and attending along with who was supposed to be our quarterback. That’s a different memoir for another time, but knowing the cycles of the Universe it’s fitting than an event that launched my passion to live and work in Melbourne and St Kilda, now a decade + on would be a catalyst for my departure from the city that sent dreams and Ultimate Fantasy’s into reality. But not letting it be a bookend.
Peter Sheahan lived life to the fullest, the epitomy of the Universal balance, for what he took he returned ten-fold in love and kindness to his community. Getting married in mid-century 1900’s Australia wasn’t an easy time, especially for a man who never knew his exact true Birthday. We celebrate on New Year’s Eve each year, with thrawls of Country Music superstars and local valued members of our community popping by to celebrate Pete.
Speedway, Country Music and Goldmines. That’s what we were raised on. Although the latter were bare by the time any of my living relatives were brought to bear.
Techno, Basketball and Bushdoofs, changed our lives for the better, although I was the only one physically attending; my family Duop Reaped the benefits.
More hugs, more kisses, more phone calls from afar, more attention and insightful, engaging questions to Aunty’s and Uncles at Christmas, a bi-product of gradually removing myself from my home town and into the most loving, fun and respect for one another than another I’ve experienced festival or event scene
“Bendigo Bill” & Olive Bice OAM (nee Milne), my paternal Grandparent’s, wisdom, poetry, entertainment and care. All of which I aim to share
Ollie, born 6th of the 9th, William, the ninth of the sixth, a Universal Ying-Yang of Love and Solidarity that the DTF-GTL-ONS-Swipe left-swipe right youth of today may struggle to fathom
Bill, bee-keeper, removalist, amongst many more he’ll tell you about, Olive, a seamstress born in a bathtub at the top of Lightning Hill that became the yodelling voice of our region.
So of course, Their third boisterous lighting bolt of magic had to stumble across Peter’s middle crash of Thunder, the ROSEMary between to amazingly shining and generous thorns, the Mother of your Jesus protected by two amazing angles, elder William-stable, stern but loving and his younger days worked the DJ scene and had an attractive flair for the felines just like his Father.
Younger Norman, who despises this name and goes more commonly as “Uncle Jack”, a nod to his maternal Grandfather John Gordon, whose daughter Nancy Lorraine was the prize keeper of these precious children throughout their creation
Nipples, buttholes, belly-buttons and penises, just but a few of the creative surfaces “kids” in Melbourne would inhale international substances off one another for the sake of status and a not-so-cheap thrill.
Pawn & Co Melbourne was a special place for winter Sunday’s in 2018, having just moved from its longtime haunt which is now a construction site for new apartments near the Temperance Hotel, to it’s now home in Greville St, surrounded by record and book stores, art studios, nail salons and barber shops. To be pretty fly in the Naughties Teens meant shopping between Dandenong and Commercial Road by day, wining and dining between Peel St & High by evening, but then launching between Chapel & Malvern by night and into the early hours of two days later (start time depeneding).
Sex, Drugs & Alcohol is too cliche, but this is exactly what this bookshop was selling to keep you warm through winter and if you weren’t buying it someone was offering it to you. A true sense of not just family but a community, one that radiated from the depths of the underground of King St by night and the lofts of Chapel by day, connecting the far reaching landscape of Victoria’s rainbow skied bushes and glistening mountainscapes. For the pursuit of pureness, freedom, love and acceptance without judgement, all in the name of a goodtime with the most magical of soundtracks permeating around our short term homes, luring us in to not only celebrate and congratulate, but congregate with one another whilst we would internally interrogate our minds for a sense of purpose and balance when we would return to the ‘real world’.
Should we get in to the doof scene now¿or the Chapel St life of a different theme party every week, getting amazing outfits from Chapel’s st fascinating Op Shops; (for which I began volunteering and then worked at whilst pursuing my University studies -more stories about both of the above if you want them) ; or as the RoastMaster Jeff Ross tried to willingly belittle me on stage with, in front of 14,000 people at Rod Laver Arena, “You look like you got your outfit at the Thrift Shop”. “Yeah JRunt, I live in Melbourne, everyone does” to recauss applause would’ve been the retort and reaction lf only he’d let me grab the mic from his full length burgundy with matching beret wearing outfit.
“Elton John’s fentanyl dealer” quipped Carr, who didnt appear the previous night but was a delightful injection and extra sprinkle on the ice cream that was the weekend of my Chappelle experience. May I add at the time of this writing I am in the Chappelle hoodie I bought that day, with money I shouldn't have been spending but have lived in it since, some eleven months past the event. Similarly lived In Philadelphia 76ers shorts (both a black and white pair) and a Lamar Jackson Baltimore Ravens jersey, cause Dyson rocked one and I didnt want to jinx the Vikings this weekend in their battle with Green Bay.
But that still doesnt get us any close to actually meeting Mr Chappelle, who along with Gervais are my two stand up comedy idols and are the guys I would have at my dinner table along with Larry David, and the two Bills, Simmons & Walton, a combo of comedy and hoops. Actually then I leave out AI, so screw the dinner table, let’s make it the dream ‘friendly poker’ table, after all thats what we sat around to eat dinner before basketball training each night in Golden Square from the age of 17-23.
Not that you asked but here is my other eight ‘friendly poker’ guests, in order they’d be seated to the left of the dealer Dave, Ricky, Larry, Simmons, Walton, Rasheed Wallace, AI and saving the final spare seat to my left for a yet-to-be named friend. Boris Brejcha and Kanye are on the tunes, showing one another their new ideas and concepts as the soundtrack to our game that is more about the conversation than the chips. Trent Seacy is our dealer with James Austin on drinks. Actually, let’s give James that empty seat, he’d appreciate it more than any I know and we can get Forbesy on drinks. For James, is too honest and prideful, yet like your author here, a glutten for fun and with the addictive-in-the-smart-way gene than was one half of the brain child that creates much of the aforementioned debaucherous fun at the old Pawn store on Chapel St. Thats where you really want this story to go right. Buttpluggs, dildos, fire and euphoric screams of gleeful pleasure thats serenaded by the magic of the music and the passion of the people. Or should we jump back to ol Poppy Pete and his siblings navigating their way from Broken Hill to Bendigo, stopping at one point on the way with the only food a “wild pig we killed…. We just put a bit of salt on for taste, that was our dinner”. If only the vultures that rang King Sts latest sex bars had that previous life experience perhaps they wouldnt prey on impressionable young females wanting to have a good time and share their positivity energy in a refurbished old pawn store.
But that wasnt 2023. That is, Where five years earlier I thought I’d be thriving and free, but again, that ‘more funerals than festivals’ tag has stuck and made me appreciate even more the life of the Great Naughtie Teens.
What would you like to read about next; musical freedom and the magic of the bushdoof? Europe 2016, the Oceans of Croatia, the Lakes of Portugal, Olympic Champion Kevin Durant, or bellyful pulsating walls of the inner of Berlin’s Berghain and most infamous clubs? The rise and fall of Peace, Love & Happiness as we thought we knew it, the intricacies of sound engineering, movie audio production and developing a psytrance ep whilst having the highest-rated show on Melbourne's most-popular dance music station; or how love, naivety, greed and selflessness all confused one another in disrupting ones dreams. Lessons to be learned or just plain old fun stories to be told. I’ll be guided by you readers; as Jalen sings “We got to give the people, give the people what they waaaant… Gotta give em what they need, hey!!!” Well, tell me and I’ll return the favour. Happy 2024
Do this with me but full in your own affirmative aspirations:
In 2024 I will:
Be living and working with like-minded artists and musical creatives
Complete my Master’s Degree
Release the album you’ve all been waiting for
Witness one of the best basketball games of the year in person
Help others through love, support and kindness
Free myself and my friends from financial shackles
Be there for others
Create entertainment for you again
Listen to Moses techno and psytrance
Make money doing what I love
Keep being the best me I can be, because as AI says “you can only be your best you, cause all the others taken”, we don't have any other choice
Oh, and attend more festivals than funerals, hopefully the one we have this first week of January is our only one