March 5, 2015. A Tinker's Cuss – Koh Samui, Thailand

I am having a break in Koh Samui, Thailand, from running a fifty to sixty person business that is arts-centred. New Zealand is a small population and success there means becoming a household name and having your dole cut.

Government subsidies go to hacks who know someone. The best artists struggle, are never on TV and get no grants.

My most satisfying memories are of driving the Kilmog road to Dunedin gigs, of the Hotel Ashburton door with thirty drunk farm boys and glass jugs flying. Of Standard Vanguard and Bedford vans with pantyhose fan belts, and of Eddie Chin's club where we played for cigarette money.

My best mates died. They couldn't get liver replacements. They were buried with their Fenders.

Thailand is governed by the military for the monarchy.

The Russian tourists here are extraordinary. The men are 55 to 65 years old with 25-inch wide heads, greying crewcuts and psychopathic blue eyes. They wear speedos and gold chains. The women are overweight with flowery bikinis, blonde ponytails and gold jewelry.

I saw a Russian couple drag a three-year-old child across the floor for spilling orange juice. Spetnaz conditioning, I think.

A B-2 bomber costs $810 million and $135,000 an hour to fly. Culture affects children. Arts, love and genuineness are the best armaments.

Keep the Faith,
Jim Wilson

August 30, 2013 A Tinker's Cuss – Brother Colin.

My brother Colin died at the age of fourteen in a tractor accident on a ridge near Ranfurly. He was driving the tractor. My dad was a tractor driver and farm labourer. My mum cooked for the single men who worked on Shag Valley Station near Ranfurly, Middlemarch and Dunback.

My Uncle Les was shell-shocked from his service in World War Two – El Alamein, Mount Olympus in Greece. He had been in the merchant navy and had been in every prison in the world for drunkenness. After the war he worked as a boilerman at Kempthorne Prosser. He bought us our first television set. He drove Ford V8s and Morris 8s.

Colin drove fast. He was like Jerry Lee Lewis. My dad liked Hank Williams and William Faulkner and Erskine Caldwell.

Today is Janet Frame's birthday. The international date line always causes confusion about the exact date. Janet Frame healed more than any drug I ever took. She healed me more than the Interferon I took for Hepatitis C.

I think of the Palmerston train station, Carroll Street in Dunedin, Seacliff, the Occidental Hotel in Christchurch, Cherry Farm and Sunnyside mental hospitals. The 1970s and a junk habit.

Bridgette Bardot, Jerry Salinger, Thomas Pynchon – they were all shy and couldn't stand the palaver. I once drove up Salinger's driveway in Cornish, New Hampshire. His wife scowled at me.

Putting up posters is like shaking your fist at the sky. It's not El Alamein. As my Uncle Les used to say: worse things happen at sea.

Keep the Faith,
Jim Wilson

August 15, 2013 – A Tinker's Cuss

I was driving the Toyota Prius up I-95 when a thunderstorm hit. I pulled into a truck stop and sat it out. Black Sabbath thunder. It reminded me of playing in the bush in the rain as a kid in Russell Street, Dunedin.

I was on my way to do a run in Trenton, about twenty miles from Princeton. The mayor had been indicted, the police chief was fighting with the city council, and Chris Christie wouldn't give them more cops. Kids were wearing bullet-proof vests because their parents were afraid to let them outside. Obesity from fear of going outside.

Heroin was five dollars a bag on the street and it was called 'Permanent Vacation.'

Princeton, twenty miles away, was full of wealthy, self-absorbed people driving Mercedes SUVs and eating forty pounds of cheese a year (the American average).

I have a strategy for talking to people in Princeton. I bring up Dan Carter, Mehrtens and Jonny Wilkinson. This usually gets a conversation going. And Zinzan's drop goal. That always works.

I have a rule about Facebook: after 4pm I don't look at it. The world gets worse after 4pm on Facebook.

I went to a dentist in Flemington who wanted to cap two teeth or I'd need 'total hip and knee replacement surgery.' I insisted on one filling only.

Keep the Faith,
Jim Wilson