Michael Hurley Postcard

 Picked this one up on eBay.

The year of guitar and Taoism? A-sort-of-recap, from a blogless year.

In Christ There Is No East Or West, as played and taught by John Fahey.

This is the video that made me sell my banjo and buy a guitar. One day I will be able to play Fahey's version of this beautiful hymn.

(Written 29.12.25)

May I start by saying hello to any new visitors at The Main Stem. We are officially out of dormancy, for better or for worse. The calendar year is coming to a close, and by the natural turning of the day we will soon be back at January 1st again. It’s been a good year, in the end. There have been plenty of times where I felt uninspired or out of hope or directionless; but on the back end of these I am happy with where the year has finished up. I decided to write this post, not because I felt I had anything compelling to write about but instead to try and trim the old branches of the blog to make way for fruitful new growth. It's a new year after all, and this thing doesn’t grow unless you take care of it.

Click below for the rest of the post! Poetry, music, lots of my favourite things.
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Christmas Wishes

From Fyn, to all

 

'Tree Art', w/ Jake in Clausberg

(This post looks a lot better on a computer.)

 

Pietro's 'Moment of Crystallisation' - and - My Playlist, Your Radio Show.

Cover Photograph from Thomas Berry's 'The Dream of the Earth' (1988)

Writing is like any other skill, you’re bad at it without practice. And like any other skill, I do not practice enough. The banjo stands in its dusty case, the sewing machine sits idly in the loft and the thoughts running in my head rarely make it to the page. Or, when they do, they do an alarmingly underwhelming job at articulating whatever the magic was when it was an idea being conceived on the cold bathroom floor of my head. It’s safe to say, I am a bad writer. Many hours of writing are sat in my drafts, where I fumble over and over with a few ideas like a child trying not to drop a ball. Like any other skill, failure is essential for improvement. And like with any other skill, I do not want to fail.

This post was supposed to be about poetry and radio shows. That’s at least what I thought I wanted to write about when a few different ideas were cohabiting yesterday, in my brain. I was thinking about my interest in poetry and literature, and in nature and humankind’s relationship to it, and I thought oh blamo-whamo, here we go baby, there’s something here worth writing about. Now that I start trying to write, these tired, stiff writing muscles do not want to perform how I want them to. Thoughts become sentences, one after another. That’s me doing my best in order to articulate what was happening yesterday, behind the curtain. Against my own instinct, and likely yours too, I am going to try and stick this one out in pursuit of doing something instead of nothing. When it comes to my blog, when it comes to my day, when it comes to my life. So, bare with me if you can.

Click to get to the juice.

2024: A Recap In Books

It's no damn news that I like books! 

Here's a phone dump of my year as it was in literature, excluding anything not worth a recommendation! List at the bottom.

Click for full list.

Notetaking, and an accidental Moon Viewing manifesto?

Monday, 8th July, 2024

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Can’t seem to finish a blogpost. Can’t seem to find a voice. Can’t seem to articulate complicated ideas. Just think I am not so literate and articulate. Both with writing and spoken word. Hope to get a lot better at this. 

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Reading a lot, and thinking a lot, but struggling to know what to do with it all. 

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Planning moon viewing for this year’s harvest moon; inspired by tsukimi. I see a need for a grass roots environment where deep ecology, theology and spiritualism can be explored through literature and the arts. A moment of actual togetherness. A space to use our intellectual and creative assets to help us to build a positive relationship to all life, a sense of deep ecology. A place to read aloud, to write, to find freedom in poetry, creativity and self expression. A moment to feel a part of the bigger picture. A break from the city and from society and from the constructs of today’s world. A return to something primal; of what are we, and what we have always been. A moment not to be locked into our tracks, but to move freely from them. A place without work and phones and to-do lists. A place of togetherness. A place to be truly human again. To feel, and to feel safe to feel. A place to feel encouraged to explore how you feel and what you think. A relationship to nature; and a relationship to the wander of nature. Spirituality, and the human condition. Something that can be found in the written and oral expressions of the ancient cultures that came before us; from earliest civilisations of humankind, through the eons and eras of cultural development; from Bashō, to Nanao Sakaki. Something that can be found today in the voices of this fractured, industrialised world, a world crippled in it’s place. In the voices of Thomas Berry, Gary Snyder, Jaime de Angulo, Susan Griffin, Joanne Kyger; of Alan Watts, Kenneth Rexroth, Rachel Carson, Philip Whalen. Of Michael Corr’s woodcuts and the ragas of Robbie Basho. Of all expressions of intensity of existence. Of transcendence. Of transportation back to the self. A space to eat and drink the miracles of the earth. The fruit and greenery. The rice, the grape, the soybean. The results of our working with nature and not against her. The richness of this. A moment in time to dedicate to the moon; to the harvest moon, to the might of the moon. To it’s mystic grace. To its caretaking of us and the Earth. A moment to dedicate to one another. To our togetherness. A moment to dedicate to ourselves; our oneness and uniqueness and the purity of our value; of our place in this big picture. As the only group of atoms that can understand a group of atoms. To share all of these moments, these dedications, with one another. To realise in our aloneness, that we are not at all alone. 

Harvest moon - September 17, 2024.

Viewing location to come.

Moonshock, and a Brief Look At The Moon In Poetry & Song

          Moonshock

I walk across a huge courtyard

two or three nights a week

to take out some rubbish-

and the night sky shocks me

with its bright moon and stars

(Copenhagen, 2024)

Click through below for plenty more poems, a brief look at the moon across some different cultures and a playlist I put together for this years Autumnal Equinox Moon Viewing.

The Straw That Broke The Camel's Back: 2023 at Themainstem.blogspot

Jake and I, crossing by foot from Germany, over the Rhine, and into France.
Jake's 27th Birthday.

 

2023 has been the slowest year on themainstem and consequently as I return to writing here on the blog it is on the back of a hard-learned lesson. It’s a lesson on losing yourself and the questions of what does finding yourself look like, and what to look for when you don’t know what you’re looking for anymore. 

- I was lost and there’s just no other way to say it. 

Change knocked me out and robbed me, and when I woke up I was on a street I didn’t recognise, in a part of town I had never been to before. Needless to say, the move to Denmark was packed full of difficulties. The kinds of challenges and discomforts and absences that I had experienced before and knew to expect with a change of this size, and it ended up being a great reminder of how it feels to be right in the middle of a difficult situation; pretty difficult. 

It’s only fitting that a trip to Germany to see Jake, (Howdy, partner) was the straw that broke the camel's back. - click me ⤦

Don Gregorio and His Straw Hat

Below I share with you a short story titled 'Don Gregorio and His Straw Hat' by one of my favourite writers. Jaime de Angulo; poet, linguist, novelist, ethnomusicologist, doctor, psychologist, cowboy, friend of many and fundamental figure to some of Berkeley and wider-California’s greatest artists, writers and craftspeople of the 20th century...

Click below to read! ⇣↓⇣

Sometime in 06/2023.

It’s warm out but there’s cold beer in a big bottle, poured into two small plastic cups. The beer and some caponata sit on top of a plastic tablecloth held down to the table with masking tape. A cigarette and the beer help to put things at ease despite the chaos of the neighbouring streets. Stallholders yap at passers-by behind in the market and loud cracks and splutters come from the engines of motorbikes and scooters. Sometimes a driver stops outside the trattoria and exchanges packets of bottled water or coca cola for some cash. Driving or walking, stopping or passing, everyone is greeting everyone. Aubergine is done two ways with bread to wipe the plate and a portion of pasta which is given with a little pot of powdery cheese. There’s some residue of anchovies in the pasta that aren’t supposed to be there but the food is good and honest and the host is the same in a brazen way. The table and chairs are made of plastic and even the little cup that is full of cheese is also made of plastic, like the cups for the beer and the tablecloth that they’re resting on. A few days ago, an orange moon was lying low over the sea, where what is now plastic furniture and tableware was tiled, wooden or made from fabric or clay. Cold beer was shared then too and packets of cigarettes circled around freely without any ownership. It’s warm out, but there’s cold beer in a big bottle, poured into two small plastic cups.

U. Utah Phillips, Loafers Glory / A Hobo Jungle of the Mind, KVMR Radio Station, 1997-2001

Well aligned with all things The Main Stem, is Utah Phillips' radio show 'Loafers Glory / A Hobo Jungle of the Mind'. Dialogue, tales, field recordings, music, poetry and general ramblings that help to paint a picture of the iconic times in American labour history.

You know where to click... ↙

God's Country

Below is some of my favourite short quotes on the topic of migratory workers and life on the road...

All you're doin' here's eatin'... You can git that anywhere. A stray cat gits that. Besides, you're learnin' somethin' on the road. What the devil kin you learn here?

- A one-eyed youth on his way through, from California. As quoted in Kenneth Allsopp's 'Hard Travellin'; A History of the Hobo', 1967. Original source to be clarified.

Click below for more.

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England to Denmark Multi-Post-Trip-Report

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This is a multi-post coverage of our England to Denmark Trip on bicycles. The posts include:

• Some Sort of Overview (You are HERE)

• Some Sort of Day by Day Report

• Some Sort of Gallery

You will find these links again at the bottom of the page.

Jake and I cycled from Brighton to Denmark. I think we did the most part of 1200 kilometres in 14 days, minus a couple of minor, and necessary, uses of public transport. After the first week I was looking forward to it ending and naturally now (three weeks later, at time of writing) I am in full time work again and starting to develop the feeling of missing being out there. So, time to start writing. (10.08.22)

(05.10.2022, day of publishing.) I'm not sure what has been more painful. Cycling to Denmark, or writing about it. I have been circling around and around as to what relevance there is for this to be out there in the world. It wasn't even an impressive feat. There's no grand story to tell. I am lost between telling this story properly or not telling it at all and neither option is leaving me feeling satisfied, so instead, in honour of the blog as a format and in the hopes that what I am putting together in this space may at some time serve as a tool or resource for someone, I have put together a few things. Some writing about the trip, some daily documentation  and some photographs. Proof that it happened? A reminder to myself that it wasn't all bad, or all that good? Maybe just something to look back on, for the sake of it. What we had was life on the road. Really the same as life in the city or life in the fields. Getting through, working it out, finding joy where you can find it and being thankful for any company at all. Below I outline a bit about the trip, from the planning stages, through to reflections after the trip was finished. You won't find funny moments here, but you can get an idea for that stuff in the other parts of the post. See the links at the top or bottom of the page.

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The Painter In The Cave

Be the world’s best painter and live in a cave.

Paint all the time, fill the whole cave with amazing, wondrous artworks.

Be too self-conscious, too self-critical or just too selfish to ever share the paintings with the big world outside. 

The cave is by the sea shore somewhere. 

You die an old man, just room among the paintings for to lie down on your final canvas as the last cavelight leaves your eyes. 

Water comes in some time later and ruins what is left of the paintings, returning paint pigments to the sea. 

Some small pieces of the wooden frames wash up on shore somewhere, where they sit undisturbed again for another lifetime or two.

Racktop Blues

Four days since my last post... I guess I'm back-to-back-bloggin'.

I've been lucky enough to have a Saturday at a friend-of-a-friend's big fabrication studio over the weekend passed, to tinker with an idea of making a detachable platform to increase the surface area on top of my rear Tubus Fly Evo rack. I chose the world's most narrow rack, to keep things light (on the world's heaviest bike) okay for lashing a cylindrical dry bag to, but relatively impractical for carrying anything else. 

Overdue Afternoon ogBlay Session / and Another Trip Report

Hello Webbers,

I have returned, scathed, from a strange period. If you read my previous post, about a failed trip to Brighton, then you will know about my descending into a work-consumed life. I descended for a long period, and am still descending into a situation with certain demands and certain set of comforts, and pleasures. Although it's all still positive in the peanut factory, I am ready for a change.

Work (with his cigarette and briefcase), sits on one shoulder, while Play (wearing sandals),  sits on the other shoulder; they feed two opposing ideas through the canals of the ears and into the central operating room where a little version of me (without features) is listening and making decisions, for the rest of me to act upon.

A Life Update and Another Failed Trip Report.

It has been three months since I have written on here and it's sad to say, it's because not much has happened that was overly bloggable. I finished buying all the parts I need for a bicycle, and have been riding that a little. Besides that, I have had a significant shift to my work-life balance and as consequence, have lost my way a little with making good decisions for myself. 

My advencha bike. First iteration, need to replace some parts, but at least she's movin'.

'Time-famine' is a term that emerged in scientific literature right at the turn of the 21st century, and refers to the feeling of having too much to do and not enough time to do it or that old expression "There's not enough hours in the day...". Sadly when I think about my life six months ago, filled with yoga, running, blogging, spending quality time with Julie, having new experiences, (fail-hiking the Dales Way for example) and having a healthy and balanced social and work life, I feel desperate for time.

Ultralight Cookset - How To Do Some Heavy Eating, Lightly!

 Weighing in at 132g on my scales; Jake and I have put together a fully integrated (packs down inside of the mug) solo cookset for backpacking, bikepacking and all-round-cooking-on-the-go...

The system we have created is not revolutionary in the backpacking world, especially in the ultralight backpacking community where weight and packability are carefully considered. If you’re not already versed on the principles of lightweight backpacking, I haven’t particularly the energy to explain it in it’s depths here, but many sources I have listed on my resources page will be helpful in exploring the topic further (Notably see Ray Jardine’s Guide to Lightweight Backpacking). As it goes, the lighter one’s gear and the weight one is carrying, the less energy expended to carry that gear a certain distance. The less energy one is using correlates (in theory) with the amount of enjoyment one might have whilst out walking. 

The Dales (Cursed) Way in Photographs, First Day

The Dales Way, May 2021, First Day.

Roll 01, exposures 15-36/36

Ilford Delta 3200, Konica Hexar AF

Developed and Scanned by Analogue Films

 

The Dales (Cursed) Way - in Photographs, Second Day

The Dales Way, May 2021, Second Day.

Roll 02, exposures 1-14/14

Ilford Delta 3200, Konica Hexar AF

Developed by Chan and scanned by Labyrinth

The Dales (Cursed) Way - Trip Report

Jake, the author and Pietro at the start of the trail.

The Dales Way is a National trail in Yorkshire in England, spanning eighty miles (or around one-hundred and twenty-eight kilometres) of an area referred to as the Dales. It is essentially a large area of river-valleys and hills, made up of agricultural land and national parklands, with many dissecting trails. The Dales Way is a trail that winds it's way westward from North Yorkshire, throughout these river valleys and hills, leading out of Yorkshire and into the Lake District to finish at the shores of Lake Windermere. 

For Jake and Pietro it was there second attempt at the trail, with me tagging along for my first... It is with a minor element of shame that I write the word 'attempt' in the same sentence as 'The Dales Way', but there is shamefully no other word to describe the process of trying-and-failing.

Current Goals - 23 / 03 / 21

 23/03/21

• Run a marathon
• Hike from Paris to London
• Hike from England to Denmark, via Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany
• Hike NOBO across Sicily, over Mount Etna
• Speed-hike from London to Brighton with Jake
• Complete an ultralight cooking system with Jake
• Complete an ultralight single-shoulder sling bag with Jake
• Run a multi-day hiking trail
• Run the GR20 in Corsica
• Run SOBO down the West Coast of Denmark to Germany
• Learn to sew on a machine
• Visit Greenland, Iceland, Svelbard, Norway, Finland, Moldova, Antarctica, Revisit Japan
• Travel around Australia - see the Kimberley in the west, Tasmania, the GDR, the GBR, the Daintree and more. Hike a few trails in Aus - Maybe a Tasmanian Traverse thru hike with Tim
• Hike with Tom in Europe
• Start a family with Julie
• Continue to learn about our collective efforts to preserve our wonderful planet, our species and life as it is in general (won't be able to cross this off, but seeing it again will serve as a good reminder)

Reflections on Running

In 2018 I started running. I had returned home to Australia after almost three years in London and received a bundle of books from a new-friend I had left behind in London. In that bundle was a copy of Born To Run, by Christopher McDougall. The sender of that parcel was a new friend of mine, Pietro Fareri. Our friendship was young when I left London. Before I would return to live there again, much time would pass and we would see each other very little. We managed to maintain our new friendship despite the distance, via phone and video calling. We had met only a few months before I left London, thanks to acknowledging some shared interests over social media. Pietro is a formative figure in my life and it is to his generosity and inclusivity that I owe a lot; for they helped me to start to prioritise my interests in nature, in personal growth, in new experiences, in science and where these can overlap with the fields of design. 

 

- Pietro's bundle and letter, and Pietro himself. Thumbs up is our way of saying 'things are good'.

Corsica, GR20 photos.

Some photos from my phone mostly.

       

     A map of the trail by my friends at RayonVert. 

Trip Report -- GR20 Corsica

 I wrote a very long and laborious trip report for hiking the GR20 in 2019 with some Milanese friends, it can be found here on the RayonVert website. RayonVert are a Milanese studio for design innovation within the overarching realm of outdoor-gear.

See below some photos from my iPhone and some photographs taken by Teo Poggi, who is a friend, a RayonVert ambassador and can be found on social media.

My First Post

 Wow, what a time to be alive...

I thought blogging was slipping further away from the relevance of today's world being taken up by the instantaneous and ever-replacing-flow of social media; like Instagram. Instagram is a river and not the kind of river I am interested in. It is a gushing, momentous, living entity, not capable of being waded through without loosing one's footing. The river, like it stands as a symbol in Buddhism, is in a constant state of change and impermanence. Blogging is contrastingly calm and consistent, able to be revisited time and time again. It functions as a dam. Tirelessly labored into existence to serve for a long time as a resource. Time goes into the dam, and time is required to take from it.