Hello, My Name Is...

Bombed Village.

There is very little i remember about my absence. I do recall an old man with no teeth. It was late. I was new. I remember another old man half naked sweeping the footpath. It was early. I was late. I saw him twice. After the second time I saw him I knew that I would then see another man lifting a crate out of the boot of his car. I saw him after I saw the old man half naked sweeping the footpath the first time. Needless to say I saw him again. There was silence.

On Sunday a man told me that he knew that he would see me. He said that he had already seen two Villages that day. He laughed with the second Village commenting on how he had just seen one Village. He couldn't believe it. Two Villages! The second Village then told the man that he'd see a third Village. A Bombed Village. He saw. I saw. The man stopped laughing.

But I am no longer Silent.

Eggs Tidy

For four days there has been a cloud hanging around. A dark rain cloud. It's followed me wherever I go. I awoke on Monday morning and there it was above me threatening to release it's contents upon me in my bed. But it didnt. That's not the point though. It threatened too and it's trailed me wherever ive been. I havent seen that pesky cloud for years and without rhyme or reason it just shows up.

So I stayed quiet, kept my head down and continued on with my cloud hovering above my every move.

But today I cannot figure out where it has gone. Im slightly anxious as to its whereabouts, yet like a child whose mother has left the room and the contents of the biscuit jar unguarded I feel like opportunity may strike. Or rather, that I may strike opportunity. smileymcslidey rarely feels like this. Rarely....

How long will it stay, where has the cloud gone and what will happen to me when I wake tomorrow?

Look, I found Bombed Village. You know the old man with no teeth that I told of you about? Yeh well it seems he and Bombed Village kinda hit it off. Now Bombed Village is his helper. The old man with no teeth isnt so good with electronic devices so whenever he encounters one he whistles and Bombed Village obliges. ATM's, eftpos, mobile phones and the like...Bombed Village is there for him. So that explains his absence. There's also been cats. Heaps of them. Sick skinny cats making quite a nuisance of themselves in droves. So look, you will hear from BV...He deals at night. Keep your eyes peeled and your eggs tidy.

It's all about rituals isnt it? Waking up to find a cloud above your bed, old men whistling and us obliging, stray cats at night spraying our cars and us having to smell said spray... Then occasionally something happens to break with our ritual and we seek cautiously to find where said interruption springs from. One of these days we're gunna make the most of that opportunity instead of seeking its source. One of these days....

I like this song 'Ritual'. It's ritual right down to it's core. It's by Tic Toc Tokyo and they came up with the name way before all these other bands decided on putting Tokyo into their bandname. There are those who lead and those who follow....

Old man with no teeth

Oh my god....We're awake. Where have we been? What's been happening? Anything?

Listen; all I know is that there was an earthquake on Friday night. I ran out of the house to stand under a doorframe as my instincts told me that would be safest and then....Bam!

Im here sitting at my computer. I remember something about a festival...But that's all and it's very shady.

Where Bombed Village is I cant tell you. Last seen he was chewing the fat with an old man who had no teeth under a streetlight early one morning in the northern suburbs of Melbourne...

My God. Anyhow I found this. Someone put a note in my pocket that had this link scribbled on it. Thank God they did. It's helped, not so much with memory recovery, but with recovery itself. They are called The Tantrums and they make great broken pop music; emotive, strange, yet hauntingly familiar. They say they play live in Melbourne at The Curtin Bandroom in Carlton Friday March 20th. Id like to go but since last Fridays earthquake nothing is certain anymore.

Nothing....

Bombed Village, where are yoooooouuuuuuuu?

earthquake

At 9pm tonight an earthquake hit our city. It didn't do any damage....

Stars

Still trying to remain positive here. But it's hard. Our collective stars for two weeks running have both concluded that we were in for some money and career opportunities beyond our wildest dreams. The stars said to expect an opportunity from whence they dont normally come...That's code for your mum is going to bring you over some cake. It's suddenly turned to winter after the summer from hell, no one and I mean no one is returning our emails or phone calls, work is either shit or non existent and blogging is all we have. Listen to this. They are called Transformer and their song Nobody almost makes us feel better about ourselves. No tricks, no ponies and we are all the better for it.

Thinking of you if you are in the same boat, also hoping that we get out of the boat before you manage to. Sorry.

Alpha

We at smiley mcslidey would like to make our first blog a positive one. Listen to Jim Patterson. In particular, listen to the tune Pictou. Wait for the piano part to kick in. It takes us to a place mid winter 1995, Mornington Peninsula, taking blurred photos of seagulls mid flight on our medium format camera. The photos were shit, but the music is not.