<-- back to friends of artists
This page is really just an excuse to make links to some of my friends.
because that's what friends do, they tell their other friends how good you
are, and they say "you should play a gig with him", and "get her to design
your website", and "have you seen their new site?"
so.
SJD is an electronic artist from New Zealand. he's not really my friend, i suppose, but lots of my friends are his friends, and i've got all his albums including an unreleased one. He's got the finest groove of any white intellectual hard disk musician i know...
Cazzbo Johns, principle tuba player in the Australian Opera, and principle Souzaphone player in Mic Conway's National Junk Band. I'd learn one of those instruments myself, except I think there's only room in this town for one Cazzbo, and i wouldn't want to have to leave. But she's good at everything, and lots of fun to run into on the street, and she'll remember your name and be nice to your mum.
John Clack is an artist of the old
school: paintings in oil that take a year to finish. Paintings he
cares about, paintings you can see his heart in. Decades of
work dedicated to love, to salvation, to joy. John is a great friend, and very generous.
Hopefully we'll get his story on video soon, and more people will know him.
--> I bought a really big painting from John.
Deepchild , he's practically my bestest friend. i say practically because we live together, so we talk and walk and eat and drink together every day, and we help each other make art and do projects, and we all decide together what we'll do on friday night and where we're going for the long weekend. And i never think that i don't feel like hanging out with rick today. And i always like his work, and we've learnt a lot together about life and grace and peace.
Spike Mason plays the saxophone. He lets me play in his band, Oximetric, even though i'm one of the worst trumpet players in australia and Phil, who is also in the band, is officially the best. spiker is my nearest-living friend, although i'm not his. he also invented free for all, which is one of the most profound things to have happened to me in the last few years. He's a profound guy, spike, and he knows the truth when he sees it.
Michael Meem is a soft beautiful guy, always pleased to greet you with a generous smile. and he pumps out the most bangin' electro funk i know.
Barney Wakeford is a bit like antarctica, i think, or the tasmanian wilderness. Everybody loves him. everyone lives better lives just knowing that barney is going along, just the same as ever, touching the keys lightly and singing his own song. timeless and untroubled by the problems of the big city. but nobody wants to go there...
Bruno, Maria, and and Louisa Maloberti are artisans from the school of tradition. They help me make the best coffee i ever drink. Organic, Australian, family owned, roasted on demand and delivered from the plantation to me in an overnight bag. The fairest trade there is.
Liz Frencham is a girl who sings and plays the double bass. solo. just about the sexiest thing in the world, a female double bass player with an angel's voice. her recording and touring decisions are as pure as they could be - she makes beautiful things and tours the whole country without recourse to a record label... and makes money. i built her website. i'm very proud of it and her. but sometimes i think it would have been more honest to make a fan site...
Greg Egan is an author of hard sci-fi. I started talking to him during the painful years of Australia's immigration crisis/scandal. Greg is a hero to me. working, making art, helping people - the perfect balance (if only it always worked out perfectly). he writes the most complex mathematical science fiction, but it's all about people, humanity, ethics. here's a quote from his website: “It might not be long before people are seriously trying to "evolve" artificial intelligence in their computers. Now, it's one thing to use genetic algorithms to come up with various specialised programs that perform simple tasks, but to "breed", assess, and kill millions of sentient programs would be an abomination. If the first AI was created that way, it would have every right to despise its creators”
Paul Garcia is not an artist, but he's the exception that proves why i value these others so much. Once upon a time Paul could have become a restauranteur - he knows and loves food and wine, he understands service and quality, he can be fixing a dozen disasters and still have a generous smile and a moment of conversation. Then he could have been a filmmaker, and i believe he could have made great films. He understands the languages of film, of image and sound, of cultural resonance and the movement of the soul. At the moment though, he's got a powerful job in a Very Large Company. I know it's really hard most of the time. Possibly as hard as running a restaurant or making a film...
of course there are more, many more. more very good friends
with great websites. but you have to write slowly to write honestly, and it's
dinner time now.
I'd put links to my friends who are gardeners too,
but they mostly don't have websites...
--> i read books, too
and sometimes make my own art