bentenlaughing

…..STORIES. (Dedicated to Pearlie and to Gyalsey Tulku Rinpoche). PROLOGUE NAGA One day, as if out of nowhere, in the spacious waters of Blue Bay a great creature emerged from the deep. A Naga with scales of turquoise and gold, with flaming horns and two pointy fangs.   A Naga with claws like the talons of an eagle, and with radiant dark eyes.  It could see very far and was steadily sailing across the bay towards her… She concentrated her mind while fishing objects from the deep and was yet to notice anything outside of what she was attending to. She set the objects she'd retrieved from the sea out in front of her. A crumpled horn of a sheep.   A lucky Rabbit's paw.   An old fob watch.   A silver shoe horn. She was delighted to find objects she'd not found before.   Then every now and then she would toss something up into the air and catch it, but those were just sea sponges. The Naga stopped and stared at Fisher-Friend.   She was just about to catch a...

  THE KINGDOM (from South-West) It was just an old stump... until one enlightened day I saw it as 'The Kingdom'.  Come with me to Boulder Fort and I'll show you where Tobin held off the Garths at Crooked Step.  Climb the path to Shepherds Echo and we'll call in the blackbirds and watch them wheel above our heads in the torn sky.  Descend the ladders – and hang on tight my friend – down, all the way down to Moss Forest where we will sit quietly in the green. Make not a sound... but listen, listen.  You will hear them... for they will come to meet you... the little people, they, who live in every garden once we open our eyes. Nigel Foote

  THE SPHINX AT YOUR DOOR   at this pebbled frontier   steps a lame man   singing heads I win   tails I win   free of the leaping herd's   nostalgia for the precipice   lost   in the dusty interval   between the bubble sun   and bubble moon   (those liars)   all that is outside   him torrents in him   but he sings   I am a porous man   heads I win   tails I win Lake George near Canberra MUST IT BE SO?   it must be so   as the gathering storm impartial   holds its breath   each raindrop mirrors earth, ocean, mountains   trembles lovingly   and begins its fall   this is the law   allow only joy John Ellison Davies https://sites.google.com/site/johnellisondavies/home https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/archive/2006/author/1946-johnellisondavies

Janice: What is fascinating is your family’s allegiance to drawing on Medieval Music.    What are the connections, Gary? Gary:  As young children growing up in the 1950’s, my elder brother Brian and I listened to quite a wide range of music and the earliest musical influences came from what we heard on the BBC Light Programme.  The radio was on from the time we got up in the morning, so we’d get used to hearing anything that was being broadcast.  Mum & Dad also let us have an old radio in our bedroom and we’d lay in bed listening to Radio Luxembourg, who broadcast Pop programmes in the evenings.   Our Grandmother, Milly Thatcher, who lived with the family, loved to sing Music Hall songs, so we learned all the words to ‘Boiled Beef & Carrots’ and ‘I Like Piccalilli’ (among many others) from her.  We were never shy of joining in and think that we gained a lot of confidence from doing that.  Everyone in the family sang along to the radio...

Janice: Dave we finally met up in person a few years ago after  conversing via social media.  You have a history that shares the same era as myself along with a fellow musician who was in one of the earlier bands that I sang in 'The In People', none other than guitarist, Chris Brown.....how did you first meet up? Dave: We first met when my family moved to Engadine in the Southern part of Sydney. We were 8 years of age.   We became good friends and a few years later we started playing music and singing.  Our very first public performance was in our high school auditorium during a lunch break. Chris played piano and I played guitar and sang in a rendition of I Wanna Be Your Man by the Rolling Stones.   Phil Jones and The Unknown Blues 1967 Vaughan Bros - keyboards, Phil Jones - vocals, Dave Rowlands - drums, Chris Brown - guitar, Bill Hodgkisson - bass and Ian Sullivan - backing vocals/sax/flute Janice: Dave tell us about the reformation of the Unknown Blues for t...

          Janice:   Maggie, you have just released a new single, Holding Me.  I believe this song had interesting beginnings and a lovely collaboration.  Can you share with us how it came into being?  Maggie: I’d made friends with a Scots gal Yvonne Jay who now lives in Texas, USA. Yvonne sent me an unreleased demo of a song she’d been working on, a duo with a friend of her husband. I then re-wrote it as a solo and at the suggestion of the wonderful Sydney, Australian Saxophone player Andrew Oh I recreated the melody and lyrics keeping a couple of Yvonne’s original hook lines. Yvonne sent me what she had retained of the bed tracks, I don’t know who played. The next step was Scott French, Engineer/Producer at Lovestreet Studios on the Gold Coast created new Drum, Guitar and String tracks.    Janice:  Who are the musicians on the track Maggie and where was it produced? Holding Me is an international collaboration thanks...