It's been a heck of a time, both inside and outside.
We watch the news, we close our windows and buy cheap ineffective smoke masks from the chemist while the city is surrounded by a curtain of flame.
If you live in the country or the bush, it's drought or fire or both.
As 2020 beckons, the 21st century reminds us that History does not stand still.
There's no escaping the occasional thoughts of end times and apocalypse as we watch swathes of the landscape burn and learn that 41c is the new black.
It's early AM here and the smoke has lifted from town. It's that dark quiet time of the night when the outside world has retreated. Even the hoons in the street are quiet tonight.
It might bring on a moment of reflection, as again, the years in the stormcellar roll on and pass like nothing at all.
Doing the tour planning is a task at the moment. You, dear cellar dweller, by now know the Australian Rules of Blogging.
Well, my rules anyway. Some of the process and the things we do to get organised are fairly mundane, involving spreadsheets and google docs.
There's also a lot of ups and downs. But that's our business and we tend to keep that to ourselves, as seems reasonable.
Winding up heading to Memphis in 2020, is...well...random.
Perhaps 'chaotic' is a better term. These weather patterns change, and it's part of our ethos to understand that and act accordingly.
It shifted our other planning considerably. By now we'd normally be in the studio. There's a backup of songs, more songs that need a test, more stuff to make.
Finally with a little clear air, both metaphorically and literally, I had a chance to get back into making some video stuff tonight and I realised how much I have missed it.
Yeah I know it hasn't been that long, the Crossfire video was only a few months ago; but it feels like it was a long time ago.
I had a chance to review some of our clips and I notice the years of their releases and for the first time I was struck by the passage of years.
We've been focused on making stuff for a while now, and without saying it's all been one happy blur, it does possess the constancy of 'now'.
We've been, I have been, fortunate to make the stuff we have made, with the people we have made it with.
As I started more work again tonight I experienced the continued sense of satisfaction of the doing of the work.
We're living right now, in the world as it is. Perhaps with less regard for the ideas of the past, and I'm fairly certain that's a damn good thing.
I also realise this is a long way for me to say I'm stoked to be making another video.
If I express a little gratitude to you too, dear cellar dweller, and hope that you keep yourself sane and safe in these tumultuous times.
We're going to keep doing what we do, as best we can, as long as we're able. I hope every time you get a moment's respite from the weather and conditions out there that it strengthens you, so you can deal with where we are all at right now.
It's people who live here, in the sense of now, that create the future.
It's seen looking forward, it's understood by looking back, and experienced now, when you realise you are here, alive.
I hope music is the fireman for your soul, as it is for us.
I look forward to your continued company, when you feel like it, here in the stormcellar.
PS: yes I am making a vid or two.
PPS: Ok lets get some retrospective action going here