Write on!

I've got writer's blog. Sorry about that punishment; I couldn't resist.

I have recently self-published a novel Iraqi Icicle, set in and around Brisbane, Australia, from 1986 to 1992. Like my play, Tosh: the Musical (visit www.toshthemusical.com ) it has popular music history central to the fiction.

In the play Tosh: the Musical, I look at Peter Tosh, Bob Marley and the Wailers, and the Jamaican reggae scene from its beginnings with ska in the 1960s until Tosh's murder in the 1980s.

In Iraqi Icicle, I am, in part, into the history of Brisbane alternative guitar pop rockers The Go-Betweens which formed in 1977 and broke up in 1990.
The band reformed a few years back with its songwriting nucleus of bassist/lyricist Grant McLennan and guitarist/music writer Robert Forster.

McLennan was born in 1958 and died in autumn, 2006. If you do the maths, he did fulfil the hope of dying before he got old, as the Who's Pete Townshend wrote in My Generation.

I am a few years older than McLennan but the novel is not about my generation. It might strike a chord with any fans of indie rock music between the 70s and 90s. Or those interested in the place of popular culture in the world. Or anybody who has ever pondered the relativity of good and evil. Or someone chasing a bit of black humour to light up our dark times.

I am a journalist by profession or trade or job or whatever. As well as doing general reporting, I write a couple of columns a week and they usually have a bit of a giggle in them. I find it hard to resist and both Tosh the Musical and Iraqi Icicle have humour.

I've an idea the novel Iraqi Icicle might appeal to the present generation of alternative music lovers throughout the world. I wrote both Tosh the Musical and Iraqi Icicle, in part, to give hope to (or at least entertain) teenagers and 20-somethings of today. They have got the rough end of the pineapple, as we like to say in Australia, living in the most despicable of times.

That's probably enough of an introduction, except to say you can buy Iragi Icicle in soft cover from from www.lulu.com or www.lulu.com.uk or, as an ebook, it is serialised in four parts at www.lulu.com

It is published by Bent Banana Books which is my own publishing house, but do not tell anyone that, as they might think Iraqi Icicle is less than a professional publication.


Spread the news,
Bernie

Voters might mention the war

WITHIN the next 12 months or so, voters elect governments in the US, Britain and Australia.

The three incumbent governments are in (Basil) faulty towers and are exhorting people not to mention the war.In the instance of the comic John Cleese creation, Basil Fawlty, the conflict not to mention was the World War of the II persuasion.

For President George W. Bush and former Prime Minister Tony Blair and Prime Minister John Howard it is the Iraqi War MkII.

It seems the world's people are in a mood to change governments at the moment.A few years back, Spain elected a left-wing government because its citizens did not like the consequences of the Iraqi invasion. Just recently, France elected a right-wing President, despite its citizens not liking the consequences of the Iraqi Invasion.

All this must put Bush, Blair and Howard on edge.

Bush should be the calmest because he is going anyway and he can take solace he is not the Republican who will be whipped at the polls. It is the first time, in my memory, that the next US President will be voted in through the Democratic Primaries, because after that it is a formality.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair also will not lead his (New Labor) Party at the next polls, but he will likely be upset if the voters mention the war and savage Gordon Brown led Labor. Blair strikes me as someone who wants everyone to like him, a supremely difficult task, if you have had a hand in the slaughter of tens of thousands of Iraqis.

In my country, Australia, the Labor Opposition clearly leads the opinion polls over the Government of John Howard, a few months out from an election. Labor has not mentioned the war much yet and may never mention it very loudly, seeing they brought up little opposition to Australia being part of the coalition of the swilling which invaded Iraq.

The voters, on the other hand, may mention the war. Before the unmentionable, Australians were opposed to an invasion without US sanction, though some swung around when they realised the invasion was inevitable. Some of these people might be angry at being duped.

Spread the Word,
Bernie