GLENN CARDIER-The Essential Collection (2002-2012)

GLENN CARDIER

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GLENN CARDIER

The Essential Collection (2002-2012)

Released 1 March 2014

Fantastique Productions

Written by Nicholas Nedelkopoulos 

20th November 2018

The first time I had heard Glenn Cardier was back in the late 1960’s or early 1970’s and then I bought his first album Days of Wilderness (1972 Infinity) and another 2 albums were released Only When I Laugh (1973 Infinity) and then Glen Cardier (1976 EMI). He was one of those fine singer songwriters often referred to as a troubadour, we had a small number of those in Australia, Doug Ashdown, Ross Ryan and Mike McClellan just a few that come to mind.

It was only until I received a copy of Kerryn Tolhurst & Chris Blanchflower’s 2016 tribute album to Greg Quill, Some Lonesome Picker that I came across Glenn Cardier again. It had been 4 decades since Cardier’s last album Only When I Laugh so I Googled Glenn Cardier to find after a period in England performing and writing songs he eventually came back to Australia and hung up his guitar for about 25 years.

In 2002 Cardier started playing live and recorded a batch of new songs, which lead to his self produced album, Rattle The Cage. And then followed another 4 albums, Exiles From Eden (2002), House Of Mirrors (2004), Stranger Than Fiction (2012) and Cool Under Fire (2016).

While one wonders what Cardier was doing in that 25 year hiatus I was busy wondering how I could have overlooked Cardie’s 21st Century Recordings, that is 16 years of recording and performing that had slipped under my radar, a terrible sin, for someone who considers himself to be a music fan.

The Essential Collection (2002-2012) was a good way to catch up and I was instantly won over. Cardier’s voice was much raspier and spiced with a glimpse of madness, a lived in voice unlike that of the sweet voice of the young Cardier.

Signs and Wonders is an allegory of hope, wonder and longing. Cardier makes a commitment to love (“I’ll be there for you. I promise”) from a grim town where "the same old windows broken, and all of town has tumbled down, same old mess on the ground" this could be the description of many dying country towns. No jobs, no cash, no savings or tradesmen to fix anything that’s broken down or a resident with the spirit or pride to keep things tidy. The young have nothing to do except to drive around the block and rebel by crossing against the lights then eventually they move on and take a chance with the city life, a life of chasing dreams.

While our cities are congested and over populated and the infrastructures are breaking down nothing seems to work properly and yet we are pressured economically by being overcharged and getting less for it. Public transport doesn’t run on time or just doesn’t run at all and when it does you just cannot get on it and if you can you are cramped in like a sardine in a tin can. The young must wonder whether they really made the right decision as they live within the pressure and demands of the big city. But they have the energy to cope with it.

The Best of It

Cardier has written and woven many an inspirational line "Sometimes that’s all you need, just sleep and nothing more, with no added complications, like dreams and creaking doors, and it falls into place and it’s good as it can get, Sometimes it all works out, Every piece a perfect fit, sometimes we just get by, and make the best of it". They are the sentiments that I grew up with, Glenn Cardier has managed to get into a song. There was a generation like my parents one, who knew how to make the best of the little they had. And never let things get them down or stop them from having happy productive lives.

She Flew Away

A song about a woman who set fire to her kitchenette then turned on the TV as loud as it could get and then got up and left. She left the casserole on the wall and could see all dreams scattered around. She took her biscuit tin of secrets and she sang a song about a girl who never had a worry in the world. I can’t help think 'She Flew Away' might be a song about a woman who committed suicide or at least tried too.

Cold Out There

When I first heard this it was an icy cold Melbourne Winter day. I had been stuck indoors with a cold and just started to feel a bit better but still hadn’t been able do very much at all. But this evening is a warm Spring Melbourne day. I have finally started writing my thoughts on Glenn Cardier's album. What a great album, what great songs. 'Cold Out There' is the sort of song you can play and play until there’s nothing left of the CD. What fitting lyrics for Melbourne Winters. Well it cheered me up on what had been a dreary ice cold Melbourne winter.

Cardier’s ‘The Essential Collection (2002-2012)’ is a terrific way to acquaint or reacquaint yourself with one of Australia’s finest singer-songwriters. The album offers 20 tracks described to be the most powerful, enchanting songs by an Australian singer-songwriter Glenn Cardier and I would agree with that, in fact there are far too many great tracks that I could do justice in writing about. An album collection should never be without at least a couple of Glenn Cardier albums.

Peter Tammer Retrospective 1 & 2

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Peter Tammer
Retrospective 1 &2
Written by Nicholas Nedelkopoulos 24 April 2018

It was Friday, traditionally the last day of the working week. The pubs would swell with patrons who over the Friday afternoon drinking sessions would get increasingly drunk and rowdy to the point that arguments would eventually turn into fights. The newly arrived migrants would be at least superficially welcomed to assimilate into the frame like the Italian migrant character bemused and confused Nino Culotta in John O’Grady’s book They’re a Weird Mob and in the same Michael Powell’s 1966 film adaptation. He (Culotta) after work would be dragged into the local watering hole to be initiated into his new Australian life with his new Australian mates. 

Through the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies there seemed to be a lot of drinking, fighting, spitting, pissing in public and vomiting and there was always a special occasion to welcome more of the same debauched activities. And when you think about it there was a good reason for the tiled floors and walls in the old public bars of the pubs of that time. And that was for the publicans to be able to hose them down clean which tells us that they expected uncouth behavior to be part of the ritual of drinking in a venue like a pub (the watering hole). And there was the ‘no spitting’ signs like the ones that were in the pedestrian under paths coming out of Flinders Street Station were to enforce the type of society Melbourne was. It has gone from ‘no spitting’ to ‘no splitting the bill’ and from ‘MSG’ to ‘GST’ now that is Advance Australia Fair.

It was a sunny Friday afternoon April 20th 2018 and I was sitting on a public bench facing the Windsor Station and reflecting on the Peter Tammer Retrospective. On the right side of me (Chapel Street) was a power pole but I quickly realized that it was a dreadful piece of public art. And while on my mobile phone was a friend sharing his observations of the Sydney Biennale saying it had been criticized for being ‘for the select’. In front of me was an endless stream of private secondary school students heading down the ramp to the station. When it appeared that there were no students left to be seen another flow of secondary students appeared and this was repeated a number of times. It really was a endless sea of students (It was like being stopped at the railway gates watching live stock being freighted on train carriages passing endlessly by). A glimpse of the future was in front of me, these young people were our future and I wondered what was on their minds when they got on those congested trains, would they manage the country better then those in power now or were they going to play their part in it’s demise. There was one thing that I was sure of, I was not going to catch that train. 

It was a simple, crude and an isolating place (the Post Second World War Australia). It was this that Peter Tammer was able to capture in his early films. Take Struttin’ the Mutton in which we see three men sitting on the footpath of an inner Melbourne suburban street, drinking Fosters longneck beers. One in a floral shirt (Mark Gillespie) with a soft complexion and the other with a rough exterior (Danny Kramer), who was a man who could never be lost for words as he blabbed on and on. The third man a blander, quieter man who eventually disappeared in the house. The more alcohol poured down the throat of Kramer the coarser his conversation and behavior became and the further away Gillespie moved from him so that eventually he (Gillespie) was almost back in the safety of his home. At one point Kramer walked over to the gutter and relieved himself resulting in older female neighbors to retreat in disgust into their homes. Kramer was not a character in Tammer’s film - he was the subject. No script, no improvisation this was Kramer being himself. (An early form of reality TV with the reality kept, and on film unlike todays Reality TV programs, which are contrived and without any touch of reality or beneficial purpose.)

What was apparent (to me) was that Kramer was courting Gillespie. Kramer was parading his masculinity in front of Gillespie in the hope that he would win over Gillespie into having sex with him. Like a peacock instead of feathers Kramer was struttin’ his mutton. The sexual relationships between men in post war Australia were based in and on physical violence, which was commonly practiced in prisons. The lack of women in early settlement Australia had a profound effect on how women and men relate to each other for many years to come. They were generally segregated to spend most of their time with their own gender. We see this in an understated way in Tammer’s Struttin’ the Mutton as all the main characters are men while in the background the neighbors are women. 

Tammer (on the night of the screening) described Kramer to be a ‘free spirit’

(a man without boundaries) and admitted to be scared of him. He had good reason to be, in Michael Harden’s book Lygon Street it mentions a rumour that Kramer had knifed someone at the front bar of the Albion Hotel while Phil Motherwell (b. 30 December, 1946 – d. 9 November 2014) recalls, “I never forget the night Danny Kramer attacked me. It was after the show had opened and I was feeling a bit funny about playing the woman. I’d sort of made the decision really quickly and I wasn’t really mentally prepared for being a female in public. So there I was about to go on and suddenly there’s this guy attacking me for doing it - right before the show - so I got the baseball bat out and when he saw me coming, this thing in a feather boa, eye patch and lipstick-! he took off”.

Kramer was not a fictional character but a homeless alcoholic who drifted around Carlton scabbing beer money from the intelligentie. If there wasn’t a day I didn’t see Kramer I would hear about him. Recently I confused the names of Kramer & Spooner both sharing the same Christian name (Danny) because both were often talked about in Carlton circles in the 70s. I don’t how I could have done that maybe it’s time and old age. Danny Spooner (b. 16 December 1936 – d. 3 March 2017) was a folk singer (and a historian) arrived in Australia in 1962 and often performed at Frank Traynor’s and was involved with the revival of the Melbourne folk scene. He lived in Daylesford and performed leading up to the week before his death. He was 80 when he died. 

Mark Gillespie was to become a highly regarded and well-respected musician/ songwriter who was to release 4 albums Only Human (1980) Sweet Nothing (1981) Ring of Truth (1983) Flame (1992) He would have notable musicians perform on his recordings and his live performances, just to name a few: Joe Creighton, the late Ross Hannaford, Mark Meyer, Rex Bullen, Liza Bade, Tim Partridge, Trevor Caintney, Andrew Thompson, Grey Lyon, Nicky Nicholls, Renee Geyer, Venetta Fields, Geoff Bridgeford. I note that, for the Photography on the album Only Human, was taken by Jacqueline Mitelman. I first met Mitelman in the early 70s at Prahran College of Advanced Education. She was a photography student and I remember being in the darkroom when her first colour print was printed she was upset that the colour wasn’t right but it was fabulous print for it’s fantasy dream like quality, a lovely print. 

Mark Gillespie had written short stories and co-founded Outback Press. He completed a six-year architecture degree at the University of Melbourne. He left behind the music scene decades ago to work in a orphanage in Bangladesh and continues to write songs and has written a text-message novel titled No Hope.

All of Tammer’s films on this first night of the retrospective where projected from 16mm film prints. The projector was operated by Richard Tuohy and his partner Dianna was more then likely rewinding the films by hand reel. The sound system had distortion and made it a little difficult to hear and concentrate on what we were seeing. On the second night all the films were on file and were projected through a data projector. The venue is an old workshop with a concrete floor and a roller door with chairs and a lounge suite, casually scattered around facing a white wall that was used as the screen. Arena magazine’s project space has been used for art exhibitions and the warehousing of the magazine. 

Peter Tammer’s enthusiastic (near bursting) and informative presentation was a delight. He is 75 years old and has no dull tendencies. He is great communicator as not only did we get an Australian history lesson through his films but also a master class in early independent (low budget) filmmaking. As he said on the first night he was learning as he was making them. Every film owed a lot to the ones he made before from wild soundtracks to lip-sync. There is so much more one can write about Tammer’s films and about Tammer. I have only focused on one film. Chris Luscri did a good job as the mediator. The A & Q was intelligent and lively and it was good to see so many filmmakers. Of those I could recognize are listed here. Nigel Buesst, Michael Lee, John Cumming, Dirk de Bruyn, Heinz Boeck, Maggie Fooke, John Hughes, David King, Kim Miles, Bill Mousoulis and Richard Tuohy.

Written by Nicholas Nedelkopoulos 24 April 2018

Artist Film Workshop
Tuesday 17th April 2018
Thursday 19th April 2018
At Arena Project Space
2 Kerr Street, Fitzroy 

TUE 17 APR - 8 PM
PETER TAMMER - THE 70s
A Woman of Our Time (1972, 26min, 16mm)
Struttin' the Mutton (1975, 17min, 16mm)
Flux (1970, 37min, 16mm)
Total = 80 min + Q&A 

THU 19 APR - 8 PM
PETER TAMMER - THE 80s
Fear of the Dark (1985, 56min, digital)
Plus
Triptych (new version):
My Belle (1983, 18min, digital)
Hey Marcel... (1984, 17min, digital)
Queen of the Night (1985, 19min, digital)
Total = 110 min + Q&A
Films courtesy the filmmaker and prints NFSA

The Square (2017) dir. Ruben Ostlund

The Square (2017) 2h 31min 
Directed by Ruben Ostlund


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The Square (2017) 2h 31min 

Director: Ruben Ostlund (born 13 April 1974 Sweden)

Producer: Kalle Boman

Writer: Ruben Ostlund  

Stars: Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss, Dominic West and Terry Notary 

Language spoken: 

Some English, Swedish & Danish with English Subtitles

Ruben Ostlund’s THE SQUARE is a satire drama that followers a likeable Museum curator Christian, who’s personal life has taken his focus away from his job, which then allows for a number of embarrassing events to happen, this eventually leads to him resigning from the Stockholm X-Royal Museum.

The SQUARE is a long film (2 hours 31 minutes) but unlike many other films it doesn’t drag on (even though I managed to fall asleep on my first viewing, but I think that it says more about my condition that night, then the ability for the film to hold my attention).  I have since seen it a number of times, the first was to allow myself to enjoy it. The fact that it was a long film and full of richly crafted scenes (which could have been because of their fully resolved nature, released as a number of short films. This isn’t to say that those scenes weren’t well-woven into one feature film) I needed to view the film a number of times as there was a lot to digest.

Ostlund says of THE SQUARE “it’s about taking responsibility especially in public spaces”. He makes this point effectively through out the film. It is also about the taking of things to an absurd point.  We see it in the intense dramatic ape performance and that’s just to mention one scene.        

It is a well-balanced film of satire and intense drama.  He satires the museum world with some moderation which in infect only highlights the absurdities of that world, a world that Ostlund knew very little about until he started researching it for his film’s script.  

Ostlund was a ski champion and wanted to make ski movies and did so and got into film school with a folio of ski films.  His previous film Force Majeure (2014) is about a family on holidays on a ski resort. Marital tension resulting from an avalanche has left the wife believing that her husband had prioritized his own escape over the safety of his family.  Ostlund likes to write dilemmas and awkward moments that his characters have to deal with.

The Square originated from conversations between Ostlund and producer Erik Hemmendorff about social responsibility in public spaces. The result of these conversations resulted in the creation of an installation titled ‘The Square’.  The installation was exhibited on the request of an art gallery. The concept is that a square area of a public space is coordinated and reserved for those people who are facing some personal difficulty. They would have to stand in The Square where they would be safe.  Pass-byers would have to then take it upon themselves with the responsibility of resolving that person’s problem. 

The film opens with Christian lying on a couch, he looks beaten.  Take away food wrapping littered on the floor amongst his shoes, a glass and a magazine.  This is a man who looks emotionally worn out, but he has to soldier on, and get up and face another interviewer. 

(Please Note: The following dialogue is not word-by-word as spoken on the film but at times comes close.  It is how I recall it after seeing the film a number of times, it is here to give the reader the flavor and types of exchanges the main character Christian has through the film.)

Journalist - Ann(Elisabeth Moss) “So is everything all right”

Curator - Christian(Claes Bang) “Sure”

They are sitting facing each other; there is a neon artwork on the wall that spells out ‘You have nothing’ Set in a gallery space with hills of dirt reminiscent of an Anish Kapoor installation. 

Excited by the sight of Christian, Ann fumbles and drops her paper work.  

Christian  “Are you ready”

Ann“My first question is a broad one. What are the biggest challenges of running a museum like this?” 

Christian“I hate to say it, it probably is money.  That is obtaining art that is cutting edge, it’s expensive, and the competition is fierce, etc. etc. etc.

Ann“I agree”

Ann“I read this on your website” 

Ann reads out what she saw on the website. Exhibition non-exhibition. etc. etc. 

Ann- “I don’t understand it, I wanted you to explain this.”

Christian asks to look at Ann’s notes and then pauses to think.

Christian“If you place an object like your hand bag in a museum, does that make it art?”

Ann looks a little puzzled. 

Ann“That is all we have”

In this interview scene Ostlund asks you the viewer to question what is being passed off as art by museums and art galleries, and to question the support text and artist statements that accompany such objects, performances and exhibitions.  

A statue of man on a horse is hulled off its base only to fall and break off the head from its body. Workmen are busy capturing the fall and breakage on their iPhones. The statue is being replaced by the installation ‘The Square’. The cutting into the paving to place The Square, which is a flexible clear conduit installed with a light tube within it, it is placed in the shape of a square along side a plaque embedded into a coble stone exterior entrance to the museum. 

Is this about? Out with the old and in with the new.  Contemporary art replacing an old museum statue.  Or is this about the ridicules’ lengths Museums and Galleries go to, too appear that they (the institution and it’s curators) are showing work that is not only new but also at the cutting edge. 

The noun ‘cutting edge’ is often misused in the arts to validate and elevate an object or a performance’s importance onto the general public.  The real home for that term is with technology and used as an adjective for a highly advanced, innovative or pioneering technology. ‘Cutting-edge technology.’  Or as a noun, for the latest or most advanced stage in the development of something. ‘Researchers at the cutting edge of molecular biology.’  As you can read I’m no fan of the term when speaking about art. 

The damage to the statue and the cutting into the stone paving could only be described as sheer vandalism.   The workmen showed no effort or care in making sure that the statue was lured down safely.  (In other words they didn’t do their job) The workmen where concentrating on capturing the dismantling of the statue on their mobile phones.  Another example of workers faltering with their responsibilities, for the sake of staying connected to social media. 

Ostlund put his crew through a grueling with 70 shooting days and up to a 100 takes (and says the second last take was usually the best one).  His actors’ and crew say of the long duration of the shoot and the many takes was not only exhausting but also beneficial as both actors and crew could spend more time trying out things with the view of making a fully resolved film. This is what they seemed to me, to have achieved. 

Ostlund’s observations of people (that are made in ‘The Square’) are that they are generally bullies who just go too far for their own good to get what they want.  And this can be seen when Ann (the reporter) allures and seduces Christian (the curator) and then decides to confront Christian with the news she wants to have a relationship with him. When he responds with “that wasn’t possible” she berates him and bullies him.  She takes no responsibility for her instigation of the seduction.  

There’s the beggar who wants money from Christian and isn’t happy when she hears he has no cash on him.  She berates him and bullies him until he offers to buy her a roll with his credit card. The beggar eventually concedes to a roll without onion. When he gives her the roll and tells her that she will have to take out the onions herself she curses him. 

On the opening night dinner for the installation ‘The Square’ a performance artist (played by Terry Notary) performs the features of an ape.  He walks on the dinner tables and bullies the dinner guests until he goes just that little to far and then finds his fate is in the hands of the dinner guests. 

The performance artist is based on the Ukrainian born Russian artist Oleg Borisovich Kulik (b.1961) and his performance where he inhabits in the persona of a dog. Kulik in 1996 performed in a Stockholm gallery chained next to a sign labeled ‘dangerous’. He attacked the public who ignored the sign and bit a man.

Ostlund’s other inspiration was the completely anarchistic punk artist GG Allin (born 29 August 1956 – died 28 June 1993) known for Transgressive stage acts featuring Coprophagia (the consumption of feces)   

When casting for the performance artist, Ostlund googled actors imitating monkeys and came up with Terry Notary’s name. After reading Notary’s CV Ostlund Skyped Notary and after a long conversation Notary agreed to play the part.    

Terry Notary (b. 14 August 1968) is an American actor and movement coach and stunt performer and mainly portrays animals for films like Avatar, Planet of the Apes and The Hobbit film Trilogy to mention a few.

Thanks to Tony Mighell for mentioning ‘The Square’ and his response to it on his Facebook post.

Written by Nicholas Nedelkopoulos 8 April 2018

DAVE DOBBYN HARMONY HOUSE

DAVE DOBBYN
HARMONY HOUSE

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DAVE DOBBYN

HARMONY HOUSE (Red Trolley Records)

Produced by Sam Scott & Luke Buda of The Phoenix Foundation 

Harmony House is one of the best albums I've heard in years. Every track worthy of being a hit single, what else could a music fan ask for?
I felt like I was being blessed while being dragged by my ears into a beautiful part of the aural landscape known as Harmony House. These well crafted songs will affect the hearts of all age groups but the mature nature of the lyrics will mean more to us seniors. And there’s fun I can hear it. There is so much about this album that is uplifting (I'm never alone when I got Harmony House playing to me) 

By Nicholas Nedelkopoulos

Dave Dobbyn - Wikipedia    

HARMONY HOUSE — Dave Dobbyn

Dave Dobbyn: Harmony House

Suzannah Espie - Mother's Not Feeling Herself Today

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Link: suzannah espie - Bandcamp

Link: Suzannah Espie: Home

MARK KOSTABI

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Con Artist (2009)

Directed by Michael Sladek 

84 min

A docu-comedy feature film about a once-famous millionaire "business artist" forced to confront his own legendary obnoxious behavior, while trying to find love through fame. IMDb

Link: Con Artist Trailer

Mark Kostabi - Wikipedia

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Name That Painting

TV SHOW

Link: Name That Painting  

I Am Free - Mark Kostabi
Music Clip
Featuring Mark Kostabi and Lady Alchemy. Music by Mark Kostabi. Directed by Leonardo Cestari.
Link: I Am Free, Mark Kostabi

Company Caine

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A Product of a Broken Reality (1971/2015)

Company Caine 

CD release 2015 on Aztec Music (expanded and remixed by Gil Mathews)

Originaly released 1971 on Generation GELP 004

Re-released 1975 as Real Records R319 (remixed by Gus McNeil) 

Track Listing

1. Symptoms
2. Trixie Stonewallʼs Wayward Home For Young Women
3. The Cell
4. Theme For Vishdungarius
5. Woman With Reason
6. Simple Song Of Spring
7. The Day Superman Got Busted
8. Itʼs Up To You
9. Go See The Gypsy
10. The Last Scene
    Bonus Tracks - Single (1972)
11. Dear Carolyn
12. Now Iʼm Together
    Bonus Tracks - Live Sessions (1971)
13. 1967
14. Flip, Flop And Fly
15. The Cell
16. The Day Superman Got Busted                   

Gulliver Smith - vocals, lyrics and babbling insanities
Jerry Noone - acoustic and electric saxophone, piano, Hammond organ, celeste and boyish enthusiasm
Russsel Smith - acoustic and electric guitars, vocals and nervous itch
Ian Mawson - Fender piano, hammond organ and plastic straw
Arthur Eizenburg - bass and how much is that?
John McInernery - drums, conga and charm

Special thanks to:
Danny Robinson on "The Cell", "Woman With Reason", "Trixie" and "Symptoms"
Steve Dunstan for the computer music and laughter
John Lee for bass clarinet on "The Cell"
The Winlaton Girls Choir on "Trixie"
Roger The Roadie

Front cover art and album design - Ian McCausland
Photography - David Porter
Producer - Gus McNeil
Engineer - John French 
Studios: TCS Melbourne July 1971