Mothers and death and musicians and birthdays

Sarah Watt died yesterday. She made Look Both Ways and My Year Without Sex, two films that I love. Reading a transcript of Australian Story here and a final interview in The Age, I was even sadder. Her gift was her ability to observe and turn the day to day into a story with depths and meaning, an essayist who told stories with visuals, a great writer. It was sad to hear that there had already been tragedy in her life-that she and her husband experienced a still birth. And I laughed at her stories of her husband as a young struggling artist, her brief yearnings to go out with someone who could "add a video recorder to my tv"... Great woman, lot of integrity and a sad loss. 

 I also went and saw Autoluminescent last night, which was the documentary on Rowland S Howard. I was have blogged here a while back, about last summer's obsession with reading biographies and piecing together the late 70s/80s Australian scene, which seems to have been dependent on inner city Melbourne and heroin for it's muse. Everything reaches out from there, even musicians and bands originating from Adelaide and resting in Kings Cross, it still has Melbourne as the dark city at the creative centre. It was sad-it was clear, like Sarah Watts, that Rowland S Howard was greatful to be alive, with the health he did have, and he wanted to keep being creative and he was good, he worked hard to create albums and write songs and play with people and keep producing. And he died in December 2009, 2 months after releasing his last solo album. At the end of life, he'd overcome his regrets about the years 'ruined' by drug abuse and the health concerns that had caused; he'd cleaned up and had made new relationships with a younger generation of musicians that respected his talent. He'd also met a new love, a young 'fangirl' as she called herself and they were just smitten, that from such a surprising start, they were so happy to be spending days together. Living in the now. 

Today I hosted the kids 1st birthday party. It was a nice day. There were aspects I didn't like about it-the catering approach of my husband was different to mine, and so forth, but in the end everyone that I wanted to be there, was,  it was good to be in the park, playing. My nephews were delightful-they browsed the second hand books at the Lions Mart; and played pass the parcel and pin the tail on the donkey. They also briefly looked very shirty at being banned from playing in the wading pool (by their granny), Ned provided an uncharacteristic body gesture and noise, expressing what he thought of that decision. Kids are still so much fun. My son seemed to enjoy the day, was definitely wanting to play in the water (which he didn't get a shot at, because he fell asleep) and with his cousins, who had wrapped up their own presents, in addition to their Mums, to give to him. Love that.