Show Notes
The turntable is my alarm clock, it has this thing where you can program it, but it will only play one side of course, and it doesn’t switch off after, so I wake up to a few lines by Tears For Fears, or a guitar solo by Lindsey Buckingham, but then I doze again and wake up to the train-rhythm of the needle just butting against the end groove and locked in a loop. I’ve named the rat Ben. After the song. And because there’s just the two of us here, if you must know. Anyway, Ben has been quite useful in one way. He gets me out of bed. I’m up and off, always hopeful to not actually see Ben. I have the alarm set, and so does this mean I have routine? I mean it’s the beginnings, right? It’s dangerously close, right? It’s a pretty good day to be alive too, we are using my car to get as much discounted beer as we can. The student rag posted some special offer, $5 off a dozen, but they forgot to do the limit per customer, or one coupon only or any of that fine print. So my mate Will has done a break-in on the office of the student magazine and got home down the hill with hundreds of copies; when they realised the mistake, they pulled them from circulation, but the store has to honour what they get. We’ve used a few between us over the last week or so, but today is the final day of the promotion and that fucking bottle store is not going to know what has hit it. We are going to pack beer so deep into the car we will be swimming in it. Will hands the vouchers out in the carpark and one by one, all eight of us go in with a trolley and come out with our arms out in front, boxes of beer heaving. I dialled up some student loan before we got down here for the 10am opening. It’s gone straight in, and I’m all set to buy a dozen dozens. That seems the right amount. Should last me several days, at least. It makes each dozen only $10 instead of $15, that’s a third off, so it’s highly educational too. Packing the wagon is like a game of Tetris. And the guys are all gonna walk back home with me in charge of the precious cargo. I find a park near the town party-flat, and we carry up as many of the bricks of beer as we can in one go. We were gonna head back to finish the job, but just the first run up those stairs proves thirsty work, and besides, we’ve got enough piss up here now to last a week at least, so what’s the harm in cracking a can or two, and anyway it’s nearly lunchtime. Well one or two turns into eight or nine before too long, because Jase has this amazing idea for us to do 100 nips of beer in 100 minutes; basically you all get a shot glass and you set up a timer, or just watch the second-hand on the clock, and every 60 seconds you take a shot. A shot of beer is nothing, right? But you can keep drinking in-between times, so you’ve got a can or two on the go all the time, then you top up your shot every 45 or 50 seconds in anticipation. Tell you what, it fucking comes around quick after the first few. By 20 or 30 shots, we were all starting to feel it. Jase implemented this rule that you were not allowed to leave the room, so you have to hold your piss in and no spewing or anything. Just be a man basically. So we’re sitting around this table in the kitchen pouring these shots and downing them and fuck me it starts to hit hard pretty quick. The game is over in less than two hours, and you get a mighty buzz on, all amber glow and lazily in love with what’s left of the day. Daz has been visiting the whorehouse up the road. He’s quite proud of it. We’re all a bit blown away really, that it’s even a thing. I mean, we know it’s a thing, but you know, we didn’t know we’d know someone who frequents the establishment. After his hundred shots, Daz is loose as fuck, and he just lifts his wallet out of his pocket and holds up this card. It says ‘Frequent Flyer: 50% Discount’ — and underneath, on the all-pink card, it says, embossed, in italics in a slightly darker pink, The Pink Palace. I am thinking it’s some cheap dessert restaurant, but Daz conf
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Welcome to episode three of my new podcast series — Object/ive Permanence — where in one take, no edits, I chat with someone, the conversation is captured, and you can watch and/or listen to it. The podcast is here on Substack but will go out on all the other usual Podcast channels as past of the “Sweetman Podcast” RSS. This is a new experiment. I’m talking to people about an object they bring, and from there we go wherever the conversation takes us. Of course I’ll let them talk about who they are, what they do, and current or past work, but it’s less the focus than the original Sweetman Podcast, which was audio only. For this pod, each guest is asked to bring an object, something to talk about. We get going from there. Emily Writes is an author, newsletter writer, public speaker and MC, a community fosterer and leader, an activist, and she also sometimes writes filthy, horny film reviews too. A broad range! She’s also a friend. As she says here, I’ve known her since back before she was “Emily Writes”. We met as two writers, sharing ideas and seeking advice, from there we grew our families around the same time. Emily had been on my previous podcast — the episodes are still around for you to listen to — and it’s always a good chat. So she was someone I immediately wanted on the new format. We had such a great chat, about writing, and community, and the difficulties in being public; we talked about Palestine, and fundraising, and activism and charity. We talked about family and the arc of our friendship. We talked about that pesky, necessary social media too. All up, a beautiful conversation to share. We had a lot of laughs and we might have even worked a few things out. You can subscribe to Emily’s newsletter and follow her writing here.
Welcome to episode two of my new podcast series — Object/ive Permanence — where in one take, no edits, I chat with someone, the conversation is captured, and you can watch and/or listen to it. The podcast is here on Substack but will go out on all the other usual Podcast channels as past of the “Sweetman Podcast” RSS. This is a new experiment. I’m talking to people about an object they bring, and from there we go wherever the conversation takes us. Of course I’ll let them talk about who they are, what they do, and current or past work, but it’s less the focus than the original Sweetman Podcast, which was audio only. For this pod, each guest is asked to bring an object, something to talk about. We get going from there. Dr Chris Bowden, an academic from Victoria University of Wellington, was high on my original list of potential guests, one of the first people I reached out to when rebooting my podcast. We met for the first time in the slightly awkward introduction to this conversation and interview. Chris’ PhD focused on understanding young men’s experience of losing a close male friend to suicide. Aware of his work with Mates in Construction, and as an educational psychologist, I was interested to talk with Chris and I’m so glad I did. You’ll hear us talk about Joy Division and Metallica, and we will talk about Chris’ life and work. It is a heavy conversation, but there is so much heart and humility from Dr Bowden that I would hope there’s enough light at the end of the tunnel. But absolutely take care if and when watching or listening to this pod episode. Sounds Good! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Each month I host an open mic called ‘Say The Thing’. Poems, stories, anything people want to read or speak, provided the wrote it. I usually read a poem or two, or some short prose to kick off, so that no one else feels they have to be the ‘first reader’. This month I read two new/ish Harry Nilsson poems, since that’s my current writing obsession. I read two that I’d only just written and shared, Harry Lied: And Bojanglin’ — ostensibly about the song, ‘Mr. Bojangles’ So you can read along or read the poems instead, or check the text after. But I like sharing the odd audio recording and preserving them for the archive. So this was last week at Say The Thing. We have two more events (Oct/Nov) for 2026. Sounds Good! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Welcome to episode one of my new podcast series — Object/ive Permanence — where in one take, no edits, I chat with someone, the conversation is captured, and you can watch and/or listen to it. The podcast is here on Substack but will go out on all the other usual Podcast channels as past of the “Sweetman Podcast” RSS. This is a new experiment. I’m talking to people about an object they bring, and from there we go wherever the conversation takes us. Of course I’ll let them talk about who they are, what they do, and current or past work, but it’s less the focus than the original Sweetman Podcast, which was audio only. For this pod, each guest is asked to bring an object, something to talk about. We get going from there. Duncan Sarkies very kindly agreed to be my first guest. And I don’t even introduce him on camera (how rude!) Duncan’s a writer of films and TV, also novels, plays, and a book of short stories. He is fresh off a spoken word show at the TAHI Festival which I reviewed: That show featured him reading stories from his most recent novel, Stargazers. We also talk a bit about the project, Uncle Bertie’s Botanarium. But beyond that this is a free-flowing conversation that isn’t about any one thing, isn’t pre-planned at all, and isn’t edited. Which is exactly what I want to do with this series of podcasts. It is very much about creativity and connecting and conversation. Which is also what I want. Less of an interview, with some questions arriving about as naturally as possible (hopefully). So, my apologies that the sound isn’t quite how I want it, but this is a work in progress. So audio-quality is on the ‘To Fix’ list. But this is listenable. And watchable. And I hope you like it.
Here’s a reading of a couple of pieces from The Richard Poems, and four new pieces, three of my Harry Nilsson poems, and a poem I wrote just two days before reading. I was the opening for A Party of Poets at The Cabana, in Napier. A terrific event, an incredible lineup to be part of — what I loved was we were all different. The seven poets reading all had different themes, content, and delivery. It’s not my right to record and share the others — but here’s my set. Thanks for reading Sounds Good! ! This post is public so feel free to share it.