Join The Dots finished several weeks ago. And as someone who’s always liked bars called Phoenix (in Canberra and Sydney) I’ve found another spot on the FBI program to call home. Sunday mornings from 10 until noon with a show called Canvas.

First week up, Sydney Writers Festival director and CEO Wendy Were came in to discuss this year’s program. Last week, UWS grad Graham Skimin came in to talk about his show at Mori Gallery, and former Clan Analogue/Zonar musician and artist John Aslanidis was in to talk about his show at Gallery 9.

(John with Canvas producer Jesse Cox)

Which Way to Go – Eddy Current Suppression Ring
On the Roof of the World – Purdy
Twee Twee Dee – Adam Green
Keeping It Clean – Songs
Black Eyes – Amy Meredith
Double Dealings – Radioactive Man
A Punk – Vampire Weekend
Enchanted – Patrick Wolf
Dead Roads – Derwent River Star
Don’t Call the Bird You Used to Go Around With – Zxspecky
The King is Dead – The Herd
Quiet Before the Storm (Quarion remix)- Foster
Magnum on Crack – Braintax
Gujo Ondo – Setsubun Bean Unit
Gangstaz – Pinch
Can You Blame the Sky? – Alela Diane
Inner City Pressure – Flight of the Conchords
Help – The Apartments

This Sunday, Peter Newman’s in to talk about his paint, video and sound show at Institute of Contemporary Art Newtown. My other guest’s Bree van Reyk, who’s been has been (seriously under-) described as a crossover percussionist, she plays with Charge Group, Holly Throsby, Darren Hanlon, Rand + Holland, Coda, the Rebel Astronauts and Josh Pyke, as well as Synergy Percussion, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra.

Isn’t there something odd about paying thirty dollars to learn about making zines?

Second in my series of recent but not so recent things that have inspired me is this one.

I saw Le Ballon Rouge (the red balloon) at this year’s Sydney French Film Festival. The charming children’s film is more than 50 years old, and amazing.

I was trying to think of a reason to send Vanessa Berry a proper letter pretty much the whole way through her book Strawberry Hills Forever (published by Local Consumption).

(from Vanessa Berry’s flickr account)

The world in Vanessa’s writing is so familiar, and as I read I kept wondering how many degrees of separation between us. Who knows. It is so autobiographical that searching online felt like stalking – there’s more detail than most diaries, at times I found it a little voyeuristic – a zine doyen, a self-publishing magnate, she’s made 100 and something zines (so far), several blogs, flickr pages.

It’s shocking and strangely comforting to read memoir – seriously – of such recent past. Each chapter is infused with a perpetual sense of wonder at the small things: goth make-up, that milk bar on Parramatta Road (Olympia), walking around all weekend in a rabbit outfit, nights out seeing ’90s bands – it’s all details – op shops and second hand record discoveries, do it yourself zines, train trips across Sydney, personal obsessions, furtive moments, tapes, handwritten addresses. It’s like a mixed anthology of her writing to date given many chapters previously published in zines such as Laughter and the Sound of Teacups, in which she documented the 23rd of every month in exhaustive, sharply observed detail.

Vanessa first discovered zines outside Waterfront records in Sydney. Like so many great pop songs, every now and again she observes something you would have thought unremarkable, but in the telling it’s suddenly so much more.

I always mean to record mixes. It just doesn’t happen that often, things get in the way. Magazines to be printed, radio shows to be broadcast, jobs, etc. Here’s a Sunday afternoon mix. Relaxed grooves, light-hearted and optimistic hip-hop, jazz and beats.

[Apres] (128kbps MP3)

01. J.Dilla feat. Dwele ‘Think Twice’ from The Beat Generation [BBE LP, 2004]
02. Pharaoh Sanders ‘You’ve Got to Have Freedom’ from Journey to Find the One [Theresa LP, 1980]
03. SK Radicals ‘I’m Reachin For the Farside’ [People 12", 1999]
04. Joanna Law ‘First Time Ever (Mellow Groove Mix)’ [Beggars Banquet 12", 1990]
05. De La Soul ‘The Mack Daddy On the Left’ [Tommy Boy 12", 1989]
06. Astronomy Class ‘A Bright Tomorrow’ from Exit Strategy [Elefant Traks LP, 2006]
07. Secondo ‘Watch What You’re Saying’ [Dreck 12", 2003]
08. Prefuse 73 and Tommy Guerrero ‘Storm Returns’ [Warp 12", 2003]
09. Cesaria Evora ‘Angola (Get Down Dub by Pepe Braddock)’ [BMG 12", 2003]
10. Common ‘Come Close to Me (Blackbeard’s Summer Madness Vocal)’ [white label 12", 2003]
11. El Diez ‘El Diezco’ [white label 12", ??]
12. Slum Village ‘Do U Re Edit’ [white label 12", ??]

I’m crossing my fingers very tightly I’ll get however many boxes of Cyclics back from the printers before the launch on Thursday night. I’m quietly confident.

Pretty post rock (Underlapper) and classic ’90s electronic sounds (Robert Luke). Check. Glitchy/dusty techno/IDM (Aluf). Check. And new demos and other sounds (me). All bases covered. It’s $12 from 8 ’til 11:30pm at the Sound Lounge (downstairs at the Seymour Centre in Chippendale).