Matt's Journal #108
26/8/2003
I got up late, found myself shouting to no one down corridors, defending myself from the wind. Nothing out of the ordinary for me, I've been alone and isolated for so long. My dreams are much more interesting than Earth, but I guess that's why I'm a writer.
The writer's festival is going on in Melbourne at the moment. I heard them on the radio and they are so full of crap. All upper class with plummy accents and designer outfits. They just make bland photocopies of their lives and call it fiction. If I wanted to know about life, I'd go live one! Reading is a drug for me, a gateway into tripped out stuff and research, that's all. It's got nothing to do with peoples lives or emotions, or how the words fit together or anything like that. I'd prefer LSD to reading really, but LSD is illegal and it does terrible things to the brain. Just look at Syd Barrett, poor man...
So here I am today, growing a beard I don't want, living in a world I don't want. And I've lost my damn wallet! Everyone assumes I'll be okay. I wish they wouldn't. I'm like an old man. A malnourished old man.
Dairy Fairy - Poem of the Week
25/8/2003
(C) Matt Quarterstein 2003
Fairy, fairy
Ordinary
Milks the cows in holy dairy
She gathers up the cream
And running out of steam
She feeds it to the otters
Who are paddling upstream
Falling fairy
Rather scary
Into waters thick and airy
The crocodiles
Falsetto smiles
Have punctured ice-wings
With their wiles
And thrown poor fairy to the tiles
Garbage bin
You never win
Mop her up
And chuck her in
Poor fairy!
Matt's Journal #107
19/08/2003
What was Syd Barrett on when he recorded the Madcap Laughs? Whatever it is, I want some. Yes, I bought his album. They didn't have a single thing I'd gone in to get, it was so frustrating. And nothing really was on sale. Syd Barrett or Radiohead, my poor brain said. I got Mr Barrett, cause I'm not a sad sheep right now. It is a mad album, better than all the anthemic crap these days. A lot of bands are making anthems. No wonder there are so many wars in the world, there are too many anthems, people don't know which country they support anymore.
There should be more "self-indulgent" music I think. Stuff that leads nowhere, is highly imaginative, emotionless and leaves you with a feeling of what. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you automatically disagree. I don't see what's so wrong with self indulgent. At least the self indulgent people are happy with what they do, and will always do their best, even if you don't see how it is their best.
I played the delivery boy today, sending books here and there. I think my next book's going to be all silly poetry. Call me self indulgent, but I think there's a lot of stuff in my vaults and rabbit holes that the people out there might like. It'll be cheap and surprisingly easy to read, that's the goal. I'd make it an announcement in Flurph News, but I've made so many announcements about books I haven't finished yet.
Editor to the Letters - Poem of the Week
18/8/2003
(C) Matt Quarterstein 2003
Scissors sharpened
Painted green
You cut through tough
You cut through mean
You slice crosswords
And split the news
With paste and haste
The interviews
Are rearranged
To suit my views
Celebrities
in collage blues
The chunks of Clag
Smeared over gloss
Mashed into lawn
And dental floss
I read my hacked up magazine
My scissors cut out the obscene
And threw it into my latrine
My scissors sharpened painted green.
Round Chartie
13/8/2003
You wouldn't believe it. My (MQ's) song "Roundie" has broken the top 1000 on the MP3.com.au charts this week, reaching #631. On the Dance MP3 charts (even though it isn't your standard dance song) it has jumped up several hundred places to #213. It's a modest effort so far, but I'm a modest guy. :p. In the past two weeks it has jumped 5000 places, and that IS a fair effort. With your help, maybe we could break the top #100, and all ya have to do is listen to the track. Click here. You can even download it and listen to it over and over. It's groovy, I assure you.
Matt's Journal #105
I'm really into anagrams at the moment. Rearranging words while I rearrange my life, it makes sense, it makes sense. Did you know an anagram of "All annoy me" is "A lonely man". I found that out and I feel really clever. I've also been listening to a lot of progressive rock and krautrock from the 1970s. Why doesn't music today sound like this, instead of all this formulaic "punk" or "pop" junk that clogs the radio. People think it's weird, that's why. They are scared of being alienated. I love being alienated, next to love its got to be one of the biggest highs of living. Knowing that you have no clue how the universe works, being baffled and knowing that anythings possible.
People become famous because other people envy their lives. They wish they had such an interesting life, or had as much attention. It's got nothing to do with how talented they are, or whther what they've got to say is interesting or not. If you have an life more varied than your average, and you have access to a camera or a microphone, you're there. There are no famous, regular accountants, but there are tons of drug taking, arty people who have had a million relationships and have stacks of possesions who are well known.
All things to think about.
