A new recording and youtube video by Seamus Anthony (err, as in, me)

I wrote “Creatures from the Bog” while driving in the country one day. My car radio wasn’t working so I just jammed the song up sans-axe, and then grabbed a guitar later and the chords were just there a-waitin’.

This actual version was recorded when I was visiting my birth town of Adelaide, Australia (I live in Melbourne). I popped in to catch up with my mate Barry “Spindickle” Cree at Nigel Koop’s flat. Nigel and Spinner are both really well known musicians in rAdelaide and before too long we were kickin’ out the jams, white-boys-with-beards style, me on the twanger, with Spinner smashing out some choc-ice rockin’ beats.

Nigel recorded it on his 4 track cassette recorder and later added some electric guitar sounds. Then he posted it to me with a hand drawing of George Lucas for good measure. I asked him if we could remix it (the song not the drawing) but he recorded over the cassette or at least that’s what he told me (truth is he probably used it in some kind of weird sex act which left it playing all funny).

By Seamus Anthony

Yesterday, walking down our driveway, I came face to face to with a fox!

The fuzzy-tailed fellow paused for but a moment, shocked at my sudden appearance, before bolting across the road and through the garden of my neighbour. Thankfully there was no car coming, and he got away clean.

I got a good look at him, although not for long. I’d have liked to assure him I meant no harm so I could have checked him out for a minute and taken a photo for my daughter who would have been thrilled, but I guess it’s not in a fox’s nature to dilly-dally when it sees “a farmer”!

Unusual to see a fox in broad daylight; I had to wonder why he was up and about (I say “he” because he looked pretty big for a fox).

Partially inclined as I am to the woo-woo, I of course later looked up some keywords like “fox energy” and “fox power animal” to see what an appearance from one of our foxy brothers might be interpreted as.

By Seamus Anthony

Yes, it’s a cliche, but regardless, it is very important to realise that Life is all a game: if you play by the rules and play well, you score points and win prizes.

The other day I was emailing my partner to tell her I had deposited some money into our shared account. Being a freelancer the money income is irregular, and some weeks are better than others. As I sent the email this week I felt a little flush of triumph because it had been a good week and I’d paid us more than usual. Inwardly at least, I punched the air and did a little victory dance.

Then, suddenly I got a very strong “outsiders impression” (think “alien who has never been to earth or seen our way of life before”) as to how odd this whole money palaver is. Basically it is like a game in that we just need to score points to win prizes (things we can buy). If I don’t win enough points we can’t buy food. If we win enough points we can eat like Kings. If we really win enough points we can buy more than we can ever use, or *gasp* help other people who do not have enough points to get “ahead of the game”, as the saying goes.

By Seamus Anthony
We’ve all heard the cliché “it’s all about results”. But is it?

It’s easy to have a passion for results. Bank robbers have a passion for results, so do suicide bombers. But results don’t really last long. If you need to rob your way to wealth, then you probably don’t understand life or money well enough to hold on to your cash for very long. And some results, let’s face it, are probably fiction.

You can dream up the result for your business in a moment and put this into a detailed plan in as little as an hour. Then what stands between yourself and the end result? Process.

Process is going to account for countless hours whereas results are fleeting (a glance at your bank balance, a thank you speech, an article about yourself in the newspaper). So if you’re doing it all because of a love of results, which in and of itself is not bad (probably necessary), but you don’t enjoy the process, well you’re either a rare bird who can work relentlessly with only the thought of the dangling carrot to motivate you, or you’re never going to stick with the process long enough to succeed in achieving any results (let alone the rewards of this result).

By Seamus Anthony

Things run in cycles – what was will cease to be, before coming around again into its time, back into existence. But we must learn to prepare for these times of opportune conditions so that we are prepared to capitalise on them while the going is good, before the season changes and the window of opportunity closes again (until next time). This is magic: working with the elements of nature, the stuff of life, the swirling fields of potential.

The cycle of life is represented by the seasons of nature – we sow the seed in spring, tend the garden in summer, harvest our produce in autumn and this sustains us through the fallow ground of winter. By seeing in advance that winter will come, we know to work hard in spring, summer and autumn.

This applies not only to the macro-version of this that plays out in our lives (working hard in our youth to prepare for our old age) but also in many micro-aspects. For example an artist may experience inspiration and energy in her youth, followed by a time of success where the world opens their arms to her endeavours. This may be then succeeded by a (seemingly) long winter where neither does she feel inspired nor does the world pay her and her art much attention.

Note: This is a guest post by Maria Rainier, enjoy!

Personal Development for Musicians: Developing Plans for Success

As a musician, I often find that I’m struggling to remain a well-rounded person. I’m a classical pianist, and for the most part, that translates to a large number of hours spent in the practice room. While that’s great for my technique and musicianship, it’s not so wonderful when I start to think about other aspects of my life. Because I’ve focused so much on practice, it’s easy to feel that I’m underdeveloped in other areas – and that has led me to spend some time and energy on personal development. Although it got me far outside of my comfort zone, I identified several areas of my life that seemed lacking in attention and proficiency. It wasn’t easy to start developing these areas, but it’s been well worth the investment for me. Here are some of the areas of my life that I’ve been working on (besides being a musician, of course) – and I’ve found that development in these areas has helped me to feel well-rounded again.

Written Communication

Christians are fond of little bumper stickers that state “God is Love” and I believe this to be true, God actually is Love, it’s not an abstract idea, it’s literal.

But, having decided that I believe this (belief is a choice remember?), I cannot then stray off into beliefs that contradict this.

Therefore I do not believe that all the Christians (or Jews, or Muslims) will get to go to Heaven (if one even exists) at the expense of the other two and also of the Buddhists, Hindus and all the rest. If He is Love, then why would he send perfectly decent humans off to the eternal deep-fryer just because they were born over here instead of over there?

What I do believe is that legitimate spiritual growth and connection to God is available via all the great religions and many of the lesser known and, yes, downright kooky, ideas and practices that exist. Basically, to me, if it’s all about love, compassion, forgiveness, joy, peace and unity then it’s all about God. Different names and practices are just the logical extension of the human race’s former inability to travel with any great efficiency. The race as a whole is still struggling to play catch up with the rapid advance of technology, which has rendered previous limited worldviews obsolete.

I’m sorry, but you have to draw the line somewhere and frankly I just do not believe that He is going to condemn those who don’t join the Blue Team or the Red Team because He only digs the Green Team. I just don’t think He is that small minded and silly.

I don’t think he wants you to wear a particular kind of hat or go to church on a particular day of the week or call him by a certain name or even call Him a He at all – you can call Him a Her and that’s ok too.

I believe He gives us choice and I don’t think he will condemn you for making the “wrong” arbitrary choice. In fact I am unconvinced that there is any condemnation at all; fire and brimstone just reeks too badly of manipulative medieval, fundamentalist clap-trap to me.

Maybe there’s bad Karma – but who’s to say God’s dishing that out? Maybe it’s actually beyond His control?

In the old days, before our time, before mass communication and ever-increasing ubiquity of access to information, people were mostly presented with a single form of spirituality – it was the same form as everyone else in the village and we were informed that this was the only way. People could either choose to ignore it or go with it, but were told often told emphatically that they ignored or defied it at their own mortal peril.

These days we can choose. Well, we always could, and everyone has always been called to make a spiritual choice, but these days we are presented with a spiritual supermarket – a pick n’ mix of religions, philosophies and belief options. Traditional religionists probably don’t like this, but I do. I think it’s a very, very good thing.

And I believe God agrees with me.

It’s Always Been A Matter Of Choice

While my Pick n Mix idea might sound like some cutting-edge shit to say, in fact it’s nothing new. People have always been faced with spiritual choices:

• should I go with what my village’s local church says is gospel or shall I run off and join the slightly different Church down the road?