Sit still for any length of time in America and the full extent of how lucky we are in Australia hits you in the face. We have been in the beautiful heritage listed Great Union Train Station in Portland for 2 hours now and have seen the full menagerie of mainstream American life come past.

After catching the bus into the CBD only 700m from the station, the bus driver strongly suggested going slightly backwards to the light rail for the remainder of the journey due to that part of the trip being a bit “prickly”. Not sure what he meant until we caught the aforementioned light rail and cruised past the most confronting skid row I’ve ever seen. I’m not intimidated easily but there was no way we could have walked through there without losing our bags and the shirts off our backs. Their behaviour was out of control and it was only 8am.

I’ve never seen so many people fall through the cracks apart from our indigenous brothers and sisters back home of course. What we’ve seen here is so many people left behind that are just talking to either themselves or an imaginary friend. I’m choking up now just thinking about it. There is a gentleman in his 60s/70s sitting across from me in the grand hall who has not stopped having a full-blown rigorous debate with someone who sadly doesn’t exist. There is another old black women in her 60s/70s wandering around pretending she lost something in order to find some money or food or both. Incredibly she moves exactly like my late Mum who dedicated her life to helping people just like this lady. How bizarre to be listening to Exile on Main St full bore on the Ipod and weeping at the same time but the thought of these people not having anyone truly gets to me.

We are so lucky to have some form of safety net back home. These people are thrown to the wolves and eventually, they end up behaving like wolves. We met someone at the festival the other day who hurt her knee whilst travelling in Australia and paid a couple of hundred dollars for an MRI. The same in the US was $1100 so that was the end of that. Mental health affordability in Australia is costly enough. Can you imagine what it would be in the US? You would have no hope. Anyway I clearly needed to get that off my chest and I can’t believe I just cried in public let alone cried period! Been a long time. Looking forward to the trip to Seattle.


Seattle 6th July 2017

The train system in the US has a rich history that was recently highlighted in an album by wonderful singer/songwriters Billy Bragg and Joe Henry who traveled on the “California Zephyr” route from Chicago to LA and played and recorded a collection of traditional blues standards from the early 1900s to the 1940s. It’s a fantastic album and the 2 of them toured on the back of it and played in Melbourne this year which we were lucky enough to see with friends Tails and Jill. The album is called Shine a Light.

The reason that came to mind is because we were on the train for 5 hours today, an hour late but it didn’t matter. Our trip was a section of the “Coastal Starlight” route. The essence of the album is to focus on the amazing history of the trains and their place in history. Of course, the decline is there to be seen today. The décor inside the trains is dated and there were plenty of spare seats. We could have flown from Portland to Seattle in 45 mins but we would have missed so much. It was just fascinating to see the changes in the landscape and take an outsiders view on middle America. There were towns that looked like an atomic bomb had hit them, plenty of trailer parks then gigantic masses of water with seals playing and eagles flying overhead with snow-capped mountains framing it all up! All that whilst sitting in old withered leather seats that were as comfortable as an old recliner at your grandad’s house! Magnificent.

I was listening on the Ipod to Joe Henry’s Civilians album from 10 years ago. My favourite song is “Our Song”. In this song, Joe puts himself into the voice of a battler who bumps into baseball legend Willy Mayes and his wife in a hardware store. Willy Mayes played from the 50s through to the 70s and is very much of Leigh Matthews reverence. It’s a song of disappointment with America losing its strength of character and it rings true now as you train your way through the countryside. These are the lyrics and a link to the song.

I saw Willie Mays
At a Scottsdale Home Depot
Looking at Garage Door Springs
At the far end of the 14th row

His wife stood there beside him
She was quiet and they both were proud
I gave them room but was close enough
That I heard him when he said out loud

This was my country
This was my song
Somewhere in the middle there
Though it started badly and it’s ending wrong

This was my country
This frightful and this angry land
But it’s my right if the worst of it might
Still somehow make me a better man

The sun is unforgiving and
There’s nobody who would choose this town
But we’ve squandered so much of our good will
That there’s nowhere else will have us now

We push in line at the picture show
For cool air and a chance to see
A vision of ourselves portrayed as
Younger and braver and humble and free.

This was our country
This was our song
Somewhere in the middle there
Though it started badly and it’s ending wrong

This was our country
This frightful and this angry land
But it’s my right if the worst of it might
Still somehow make me a better man

I’ve started something I can’t finish
And I barely leave the house it’s true
I keep her out on my sores and joints
But I’ve guess I’ve had my blessings too

I’ve got my mother’s pretty feet
And a factory keeps my house in shade
My children they’ve both been paroled
And we get back all the peace we’ve made

I feel safe so far from heaven
From towers and their ocean views
From here I see the future coming
Across what soon will be beaches too

But that was him I’m almost sure
The greatest center-fielder of all time
Stooped by the burden of endless dreams
His and yours and mine

He hooked each spring beneath his feet
He leaned over then he stood upright
Testing each against his weight
For one that had some play and some fight

He’s just like us I want to tell him
And our needs are small enough
Something to slow our heavy door
Something to help us raise one up

This was my country
This was my song
Somewhere in the middle there
Though it started badly and it’s ending wrong

This was God’s country
This frightful and this angry land
But if it’s his will the worst of it might
Still somehow make me a better man

If it’s his will the worst of it might
Still somehow make me a better man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cflReZ1nZDA

Seattle is very attractive, a little like Hobart but bigger. We are staying at an AirBnB on the west side which is a bit like driving over the Derwent Bridge to the Eastern Shore of Hobart except this area is hillier and full of very expensive houses. The owners live adjacent to us and they are a lovely couple in their mid-30s who are working their way up no doubt. We are in an attic-like space but very roomy. I’m sitting at a desk looking out across trees to ocean and it’s extremely serene. We went for a walk and had the perfect Vietnamese then walked to a lookout and got a shot of the city. Marijuana is legal here too so the lookout was a meeting place for “choofers”. We were discussing over dinner if Kurt Cobain, being a native of Seattle had been around these days smoking legal dope as opposed to shooting heroin, perhaps he may have reached for his pistol and grabbed a banana instead, held it to his head, realized the futility of his actions and ate the banana out of necessity! One less Rock God perished.

Anyway , t’s been a bit of a cathartic day so I might pull the pin. Tomorrow is the space needle to get our bearings and museums I think. We have tickets for a Mariners baseball game on Sunday but nothing else planned. The 2 main sports stadiums for baseball and NFL (Seahawks) are about 100m from each other in the CBD! Quite amazing. Goodnight.