We all like to think we are in the know.

We know important things.

Things that those not in the know don’t even know they don’t know.

A few code words and we know from their reaction, or lack of it, if others are in the know or not.

We soon know if they know.

We know whether or not they merit entry into the In Crowd.

If it’s square, brother we ain’t there!

In music, especially, there are communities of In Crowds.

I know some of these communities very well.

The Bluegrass buffs who can list, alphabetically, chronologically or by instrument every member of every incarnation of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys.

The Jazzbos who can do the same for Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers.

The walkin’ talkin’, don’t interrupt me, Beatles completists who tell you solemnly that if you weren’t at their Port Sunlight show on 18 August 1962…

Matt Ferro

Matt Ferro has announced three new feature film projects set to be shot throughout various locations in Australia.

Based on international properties from Byron Bay, Paris and Istanbul, Ferro (The Matrix, Titanic) says, “each new production will have, that Hollywood flair, production value and vibe that connects with a global audience.”

The three new films in development are Studs Up based on a true Australian story about a Byron Bay football team who will become pregnant at the same time, Interference based on the Amelie Antoine’s psychological thriller of the same name and Red Reign, an epic love triangle set against an equally epic battle for the Mediterranean and Europe during the High Renaissance.

A native New Yorker, Ferro produced a string of indie films such as Vampire’s Kiss with Nicolas Cage before moving to Hollywood where he produced the visual effects for high-end motion pictures including Titanic, Face/Off, Alien:…

‘There are guides and spirits all along the way who will befriend us’

Guides and Spirits. We all need them.

Pilgrims all, we need Way Markers reassuring us that there is indeed a Way and that we are not the first to have set off in this direction.

Guides and Spirits are all around.

You find those with whom you feel a certain sympathetic kinship.

You think, ‘Here’s someone who speaks to me.

Here’s someone who knows what they’re talking about.

Someone worth attending to’.

So, for me; Thomas Merton, Erich Fromm, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Seamus Heaney, Emily Dickinson, Anton Chekhov, Samuel Beckett, Russell Hoban and Buster Keaton.

In music Hank Williams, Howling Wolf, Nina Simone, Bob Dylan and .. Van Morrison.

One of Van’s ‘lesser songs’ but one which has always spoken to me.

Get into it like a meditation.

Taking it further.

Taking it further.

Further.

Van…

A few favourite skyscapes of recent months…