This is the first time I have ever named a blog after a burger...but OH MY is it worthy. It could quite possibly have been the best burger in the world. I found this place on Charles street here in Launceston. I started coming to this area as one of the cafe's had internet (and of course...little strong cups of coffee) and then my eye began a wonderin', glazingly to the burger place across the road. I could stand it no longer...I wasn't exactly hungry but...I could certainly eat. If somebody asked me to go out for meal and i've just eaten, I will. I say i'll eat a little something and end up eating a full meal. Anyway... I LOVE food, which is a very good thing as most of us need to consume it or we die (I say most, as I've heard, not convincingly at all, that there is a woman on this planet somewhere who has trained herself not to eat....she claims she doesn't need food at all...WHY would you choose do that?). It took me about 10 minutes of looking gormless at the menu board before I could decide. In the end I asked the waitress which one between the 2 equal first choices. She said...the Soul Mama. As it was a nice day (everyday here has been) and I perched on one of the tables outside. Anyway...in short, it arrived I sank my teeth into it and my heart followed. This was yesterday. I've just done it again. I have been thinking about it all day. I got some good work done as I promised myself, I wasn't allowed to leave for the burger until I'd sorted out the verse melody.
I went round a ton and eventually settled on exactly the melody I had in the first place. Sometimes...most times, it's the initial idea that pops into your head that stays. At least with me. Which is why I never try to listen to things for the first time with an aim to writing for it unless I have a microphone infront of me. It's like you 'feel" where the opening note wants to be against it's harmony and where in the rhythm it wants to sit....then you just follow it down the lane. It must be the subconscious...throwing all the things you've learnt in and out of the pot before you've even felt as If you've thought about it. I read Malcom Gladwell's 'Blink' and it started ringing bells with me.
I really like this street. Lots of nice big dogs pid padding around, taking their healthy owners out for an evening stroll. You don't see many big dogs where I live because it's all built up and people live on top of each other, more than side by side.
It's almost dark now. The sky's the colour of the bedroom walls I postered Dali prints and Michael Jackson pics on as a kid. My mum could tell you exactly what colour It was but to me it's a pinking lilac bleeding like wet ink up into the night.
Sooooooooooooo.....the picture you can see here is where I've been staying for the past couple of weeks. Launceston council have an artist's in residence program which you can apply for, which I did, crossed my fingers and got. People go there to paint and be inspired by the Gorge. I must have been...as even last night, the last night there, I almost wrote an entire song. Working title is "Jelly Legs". You remember I said that I was going to record some sounds of the Gorge and of the pedestrian crossings, possums etc? Well..I did.
1st sound - Recorded from that spot at the Gorge I'd adopted, sampled, spliced up and looped
2nd sound - that's the signal to wait for the green man, each blip taken from different points so you get various cars going by.
3rd Sound -Is the crossing letting you know you're reasonably safe from being run over. This is at 128bpm and it's around the C above middle C.
Everything after that is a mixture of possums rattling around above the kitchen ceiling, my mouth and hands on knees.
listen, let me explain
It's gone on quite a way from here now (most austrailian's will be glad to hear I imagine!) but you'll have to wait for that recording ;)
The lyric for this song is inspired very much by the actual cottage itself. People I guess had figured out or heard where I was staying. I got many hand written letters at my door, in the gate and even woke up to a bicycle leaning up against the inside of the fence left for me to use while I was there. So thank you everyone for your lovely notes and invites for coffee, tea, beer and nights out. All this did come as quite a shock to me. I wasn't expecting it at all. I've had people smiling at me on the street and buying me drinks and coming to say hello and things, which I love but I've never had people know where I live before. Now I know...that all intentions were only good but my head threw things all out of proportion and me and my duvet had one terrifying sleepless night at the cottage!! Possums squealing, rattling noises outside the bedroom window. The house is quite old and makes many sounds of it's own accord. My mind played many tricks on me and i actually for that night, was really scared! STUPID or what?! Just because the cottage (as you can see) is out on a limb there I guess. If I was in a hotel the notes wouldn't have got me thinking like that. Please don't feel bad if you're reading this. It's just my overactive imagination, which, I welcome most of the time, especially for those "holes" in songwriting. All turned out well in the end as....
When I was humming along to the bare bones track I'd made from these recorded noises that night came to mind. I also grew up in a creaky old house (which I adored). The verse is basically about seeing things in the shadows, monsters under the bed, that type of thing. It's really quite frantic sounding. The chorus is me humming to myself things you'd say to yourself like...you know there's nothing there...all in your head...it's fine, la de da de da...mm mm mm... Hopefully the m8 will put a twist on it. I'm thinking some kind lullaby-esque idea that gradually gets more and more twisted and out of tune. So there we go! Jelly Legs, from pedestrian crossings, possums and little notes.
So there we go. Thank you Launceston and your beautiful big tumbling water garden, for your hospitality. I'm going to celebrate being nearly 6 songs in while cuddling up to a movie and a glass of wine now.
Tuesday morning I'm off to Tokyo. What a change of pace that will be! My brain is going to be turned inside out again by Japan and I can't wait.
Love, fluv
Immi
xxx
p.s. I wrote down the ingredients to the burger incase you're feeling like cooking
Soul Mama @ Burger got soul
100% lean beef patty, Roasted capsicum, dill pickle, tasty (that's very important) cheese, tzaziki, salad, chilli relish, harisa paste all happily married inside a wholewheat bun.
MM mmmm!!!! I want another one....
