Saturday, August 29, 2009

AIREYS FESTIVAL OF WORDS

The hardest working man at Hip & Shoulder Books has put together a short clip from the Aireys Festival of Words and uploaded it to You Tube.

Friday, August 21, 2009

ME AND MINE ONLINE

I’ve stepped beyond my blog and made Billy Bragg’s great leap forwards, across cyberspace, and… onto other people’s blogs!

Well, that’s not completely correct. Three Thousand isn’t a blog. It’s a weekly online guide to all things good in Melbourne, like film, music, design, books and art. Deep Water was the featured “read” in issue #218 and Max Olijnyk’s review was one of the best yet, describing Deep Water as “good with a whisky in the bath”:

“In anything worth doing, there are the godlike people who were simply born to do it. These are the poster boys, the winners, the ones girls have a crush on. Bless 'em. Then there are dudes like Brendan McAloon…”

The Three Thousand review also coincided with an appearance at the Aireys Festival of Words alongside fellow travel writer Patrick O’Neil, author of Sideways: Travels with Kafka, Hunter S & Kerouac. There was quite a crowd and it all went relatively smoothly… Patrick and I waxed lyrical on travel, read some passages from our respective publications, answered a couple of curly questions from the assembled throng, and signed some books. While I didn’t exactly shine in the spotlight, I didn’t completely butcher my first real foray into public speaking. So I was surprised when I bobbed up on Lady Chameleon’s fashion blog, and she said she was “impressed”, describing yours truly as “barefoot, weathered, determined and intelligent”, which caused my wife much mirth. “You weren’t barefoot,” she guffawed. “It was cold and raining.” I tried to explain that I had been barefoot at various stages during the day, somewhere between bed and the bathroom, and for a few miserable hours groveling in the shorebreak at Fairhaven…. Yes, I’d definitely been barefoot. However I thought I looked more disheveled than weathered, while the jury remains out on determined and intelligent.

But back to Lady C, who found Deep Water “fantastic” and “exciting”:

“In true surfer style it relaxingly introduces you to surfing, leads you through its history and takes you out the back... The perfect gift to inspire your man to follow his dreams.”

Thanks to Mr Olijynk and Lady C, and stay tuned for a web clip from the Aireys Festival of Words (and many thanks to the organisers of said festival, particularly Nicole and Marty Maher).

Monday, August 10, 2009

WHO LISTENS TO THE RADIO?

...that's what Jon von Goes wants to know.

Over the past six months I have been spending some time with local surfboard shaper Maurice Cole, whittling away at an in-depth feature article for Surfing World magazine. Maurice is one of Australian surfing's great characters. While I don't want to give too much away (you'll have to wait for the finished product), he has an amazing life story and has added a few colourful chapters in the past 12 months, including a "miracle" recovery from prostate cancer. We were talking yesterday about his website. Fresh from California, Maurice had posted an interview he did in the States with Down The Line digital radio. So I thought it high time I uploaded some audio of my own (the earth moves slowly but the ox is patient).

Over the past few weeks Deep Water has hit the radio airwaves. Firstly via a glowing review on ABC Radio by award-winning Melbourne writer Paddy O'Reilly:
Really well written…an enjoyable read. I don’t know anything about surf, I’m not particularly interested in surf, I’ve never stood up on a surfboard but I was still fascinated by this journey that he takes. He’s a natural writer and he does weave into every chapter some history, either of surfing or of the place that he has gone to."
Listen to the full review here.

Then last Sunday afternoon I made a guest appearance on Melbourne independent radio station Triple R, joining Jon von Goes (pictured above) on his popular JVG Radio Method show. As fate would have it, my appearance coincided with an incredible day of waves on the Surf Coast. While I was reading extracts from Deep Water amid JVG's fine selection of surf music, my old mate Mick Ray was firmly slotted at Winki Pop.