Alone Again Or AndMoreAgain

‘Where would you be if it were not for me’, she said with scorn­

He thought deeply

& lost himself

among the Matto Grosso indians & Mayan temples.

She repeated her question­

spat out with venom, more like a command or a demand.

This time he had to shake himself free, from the Billy Liarland of the imagination­

lost in the Himalayan foothills in a rickety wooden bus.

‘Yes dear’, he replied, from around the corner of the globe ­’I owe it all to you’.

Once again he floated off­

gracing galxies with his silent footsteps­

one has to learn to walk Apache , without sound or breath.

Her rising threats stir him once again­

‘Your dinner is cold’, she cries from somewhere far off in his imagination….

Distance travelled

Its not where you came from its where you’re at that counts. How did we get here from there?

We expected so much & thought the world revolved around us. What was so hard about peace, love & understanding? We were going to change the world & we were sure we would. There was enough of us trying to do so,  but were we just naïve? There was a hidden agenda & we were allowed a very limited amount of freedom. All the while it was like a controlled experiment. Mush.

Rough Guide to the 60s & 70s

 

Folk boom #1, blues boom, psychedelic boom #1, progrock, punk. New romantics, synth bands, guitar bands………

 

Lonely Planet Guide to the 60s & 70s

Dead friends who didn’t make it: bobby cummings, jimmy Robertson, lennie muir……….

 

 

Think Out of the Box or as the late Tim Leary would repeat ad infinitum, even from the far reaches of space, ‘Think for Yourself’

 

Babylon by Bus.

 

 

10 Items or Less: Lists:

Free jazz esp spiritual black jazz: sun ra, pharaoh, don cherry john & alice coltrane,

DJs: Gilles Peterson/pat forge/resonance fm

British jazz/jazzrock/Polish jazz & psychedelia

Psychedelia: red crayola, 13^th floor elevators, wild man fisher,  pearls before swine, joe byrd & field hippies, hapshash & coloured coat, united states of America, tom rapp, judy henske & jerry yester, love, dead & british psychedelia: edgar broughton band, early tyrannosaurus rex, comus, isb, c.o.b., bread, love & dreams, piblokto, bridget st john, bonzos, Canterbury scene- caravan, softs

American/finnish free folk: animal collective, no neck blues band, 6 organs of admittance, pelt, tower recordings, double leopards, sunburned hand of the man, Joanna newsome, comets on fire, charalambides, devendra banhart,

Italian soundtracks e.g. porn/horror/easy tempo

Krautrock: can, faust, amon duul..etc

Industrial bands that pushed the envelope: hafler trio, nww, zoviet france, rapoon, legendary pink dots, throbbing gristle, psychic tv, nocturnal emissions, cabaret Voltaire, momus,

Re-discovered? British/American folk: vashti bunyan, Linda perhacs,

Exciting new outsiders: coco rosie, sufjan stevens

Exotica: les Baxter, Arthur lyman, martin denny…..

Films:

‘El topo’, pasolini. Fellini, Dario Argento, Antonioni, ‘More’, Polanski,

Books

Baba Ram Das (Richard Alpert) – Be Here Now

Timothy Leary

Allen Ginsberg

Jack Kerouac

Ken Kesey

JRR Tolkein

I’m in heaven when you smile:

Starting Points

After school I ran over the hill listening to the sounds of the lapwings & skylarks as I reached the stream. It was rich with pondlife, tadpoles, frogspawn, frogs & newts. The latter were so beautiful & numerous. There were tough rock climbs that I revisited a couple of weeks ago & it was all so relative then & now. This was my edgeland as  rob cowen would call it or robert macfarlane’s wild place. It was indeed the start of an adventure an exploration fed by the copies of ‘wide world’? left for my dad by his brother william.

Each day I would travel further afield externally & internally. I had a taste for discovery that would never leave me.

The Canadians

Bus Passengers

17 NOVEMBER 1973

Driver (A) GEORGE OUGHTON
Driver (B) LES OUGHTON
       
Assistant: RAJ VERMA

01.    MISS M FINKELSTEIN
02.    MR T PEARSON
03.    MRS M PLAYFORD
04.    MR P PLAYFORD
05.    MRS R HAWES
06.    MR P HAWES
07.    MR P MAY
08.    MISS R MACLAUCHLAN
09.    MISS F MARTINE
10.    MR R POTTER
11.    MISS S SHERLOCK
12.    MISS J JONES
13.    MR T WATKINS
14.    MISS E CEBALLOS
15.    MISS S EDGAR
16.    MR I WHITEHEAD
17.    MR J STAPLEHURST
18.    MR K CREAN
19.    MISS M KENT
20.    MR A KING
21.    MR N BALDWIN
22.    MISS D PATTON
23.    MR W KNAPP
24.    MR B OSBOURNE
25.    MR J SINGER
26.    MISS K HANSON
27.    MR M BIRD
28.    MR K BYRNE
29.    MR H BEATTIE
30.    MR T HARA
31.    MR R HASSON
32.    MR G FRY
33.    MR A AMINTINAT
34.    MR T FULTON
35.    MR R GRIGSON
36.    MR A TRICKER
37.    MR J HARRIS
38.    MR J BROWN
39.    MISS I SPICER
40.    MR R MACLURE
41.    MISS A TOWENSON
42.    MR P BAIKIE
43.    MR M BENTLEY
44.    MRS C DELOUP
45.    MR D DELOUP
46.    MR G COX
47.    MR JOHNSON

Route Map

My Guide to the East

budget-bus-brochure (click for pdf)

Life is a Beach

…The Canadians, plus Sue, who was now sleeping with one of the Canadians, and of course Gabe, who was sleeping even when awake, all camped about fifty yards from our spot on the beach. One could say that we were close neighbours.

The number of bodies meant that we could live cheaply, sharing the cost of food, etc., but it also meant that we could share the load, i.e. the chores, e.g. fetching water from the sunken well, lighting fires and gathering wood for the fire, shopping, feeding and caring for Gabe, who was now well and truly helpless, etc.

Both camps were easily visible from one another, but the fact, that they were separate was merely a convenience, as most of our time was spent at the Canadian camp. Matthew was also a nearby neighbour, but he preferred to enjoy a modicum of independence. by this time Gabe’s servant had run off, stealing all he could in the process, (what a surprise?) and leaving us to care for Gabe.

Other ex-bus people were scattered nearer the town end of the beach, e.g. the Clacton gang, Mike who was always borrowing, (but never paying back) and his young girlfriend,  who was quite friendly with Wes, and began at Colva by living near Wes, but soon he moved into our neighbourhood.

My initial impressions of this part of the world, led me to question my sanity, for indeed here was a paradise right on earth. The struggle to get here after all those weeks was well rewarded. All the problems we had had, all the difficulties slipped with ease from my memory.

The warm Arabian Sea washed onto expansive, empty sandy beaches, that burned into one’s feet, unless one took care and wore shoes or sandals. Coconut-bearing, palm trees towered overhead, the natives were extra-ordinarily friendly towards us, food was almost free, one could survive indefinitely on next to nothing, no hotels, tourists, etc…

Panjim

…We left the boat at Panjim and boarded a bus bound for Margao, where we were to catch a further bus for Colva beach.

This beach, unlike many of the alternative beaches, was almost deserted, that is, except for the Budget bus passengers, who all seemed to converge on this beach, like the swarms of insects that followed us everywhere. Well, I suppose the family that plays together stays together.

As I tagged along with Kevin, we walked along the beach together, far enough to get a safe distance between the others and us helped him to pitch his tent and he kindly allowed me to store my burdensome, rucksack inside. One had to be extremely careful with some of one’s more valuable possessions. I would never part important items, e.g. my passport, student cards and money and I carried them on my person at all times.

I became more suspicious of thieves after speaking to an Irish girl on the boat. She thought she was very smart and buried her passport on the beach, so that no one would be tempted to steal it. Unfortunately, she was on her way home as she had forgotten where she had buried it.
Kevin and I kept the sleeping bags in the tent during the day and brought them out at night, not to sleep in, as the heat, even through the night, was stifling. They were used merely to sleep on top of, to keep us out of the path of hungry insects or whatever. This was a long way from sleeping out in Vondelpark, Amsterdam and getting soaked to the skin as a result. Now one could predict the weather with great accuracy each day and always be absolutely correct….

Colva Beach

…I woke up with the sunrise, a practice I was beginning to master at this stage, and spoke to Gabe, who, by this time, was way out on a limb. (he had been working at his craft since leaving Dover, all those weeks before. Gabe had hired an Indian servant, who was doing all his fetching and carrying, and, in addition, was obviously ripping Gabe off, right, left and centre. Gabe, naturally, was unaware of these discrepancies and believed his servant was obtaining the best deals around and he was keeping his master and his habit alive and healthy. His naivety must have been solely due to the fog from which he viewed the world. To him it was already a world gone mad. A world he bad left behind a long time ago.

By now I was part of a small cohesive group and relationships began to blossom. I have already mentioned Kevin, who hailed from Hampshire and owned a two-man tent. There was also a brave girl called Sue from Middlesex and three inseparable Canadians, Joe, Ken and Steve. The last member of our little tight-knit community was Matthew, an interesting and quiet American. Along with Gabe, who we kept miraculously alive, we formed a mini-colony on Colva beach, Goa…..