NO PRESSURE

As the first cyclone to hit the South-East Queensland coast in half a century bears down on family homes, I'm somewhat on edge - scheduled to fly further south by Friday, due to a long-term plan to attend Golden Plains festival, while fairly weakened from a lurgy that nailed the kids & I too.

The one person who has somehow evaded sickness thus far, despite doing mammoth amounts of labour caring for crook kin, is my phenomenal partner Liz Ham. A vastly accomplished photographer herself, tomorrow she launches the first exhibition she has ever curated of the work of others, The Lipstick Effect, a group effort via the Agender collective.

It is part of the amazing annual All About Women festival at Sydney Opera House and images such as that above (Untitled, from The Quarry 2024, by Tajette O'Halloran) and below (Mnemosyne IV by Petrina Hicks) can be viewed on the Western Boardwalk from now until March 9. There is also a parallel show, The Side Effect, also curated by Liz, on display at the Opera Bar until the 10th.


Wednesday March the 5th ~

Two gratis performances occur before we bail. First,
Palmer & Co in the city, between 10 and about 2.


Thursday March the 6th ~

Thence, as the storm peaks, it's a less formal fiasco at Be A Little Cooler, from 10 til late.


Saturday March the 8th ~

Jack Off will be in the strong and steady hands of Jonny Seymour this weekend. They've been hatching plans and are super-excited to be knitting love and support into our local airwaves again. I'll call in along the way with my standard mangled mentions of the magic and madness manifesting live at Plains.

If you want a massive treat in the interim please feast yr ears on this! Typically I neglected to mention in our last edition that something I'd been working on for nigh-on two decades was imminently about to bear fruit. 

The stars aligned at last and Kristin Hersh, stunning solo artist and member of Throwing Muses and 50 Foot Wave, joined me on the program, one of her four sons in tow. We talked of some harrowing family fare past, a long path for diagnosis of serious mental health issues, near drownings, the necessity of feminism, the cost of integrity and the beauty of the gutters we choose.

Hear all of that and two profoundly powerful live songs anytime you care to here. My deepest respect and gratitude goes out to Kristin for her dedication, humility, transparency, ethics and acumen. Now I've gotta start on her books!

Wishing you all safety in these sickening times of endless escalation and idiocy.

See you on the other side!