It's been two years now since I connected up to this incredible Internet. A week before that, I still thought that my home page would be stored on my computer, at home, and that somehow the World would come down the line and check it out. I assumed I'd have to leave my computer on all the time, and that I'd have an astronomical long distance phone bill. That's how ignorant I was. Little did I know then that a couple of years later I'd be dubbed a "cyber-guru" by the press, designing web sites for fellow musicians (check: http://yourmusicontheweb.com), advising and consulting, selling mp3 albums and sending out several copies of my book PlaneTalk a day to all corners of the English speaking world. It truly has changed my life. Many thanks to all of you on this list, to Neil from GNW and Jason from Guitarsite.com, and to the thousands of others who I'll never meet, whose sites and services make it all possible.

In stark contrast to my Easter weekend (another story), the next was very satisfying.

Friday night I went down to a place called Sanctuary Cove, a resort on the Australian Gold Coast. An old friend runs the Sanctuary Cove Theatre, a very cozy place to see the latest films. He also puts on nights of music and comedy.

On Friday, I played four tunes on my Strat, all alone, through a wonderful sound system to a dead quiet room. A mini concert. You could have heard a pin drop. The rest of the night was comedy. We laughed.

Saturday I had off :-) and Sunday was BiG FEST 2000 day in Brisbane. The first Brisbane International Guitar Festival was a great success. Held at The Waterloo Hotel in Newstead, it ran from morning 'til midnight and it was a pleasure to be a part of it. The best part for me was being able to hear such good players all at the one place. When you play in bands yourself, it's sometimes hard to get out and hear other players. Either you're gigging yourself, or the nights home, away from smoky rooms (I'm still a non smoker), are too good to pass up.

The afternoon was dedicated to workshops -- I did my 45 minutes between 4 and 5. I talked about slide, demonstrated it all, played some tunes and spoke about my book PlaneTalk, naturally. The evening was for playing and we all got to do 5 or 6 tunes. If you're from Australia, you will have heard of Kevin Borich, Michael Fix, Phil Manning, Izzy from The Screaming Jets, Simon Patterson from Hey Hey! Julia Parker, who I've known for a while now, blew the boys' minds with some incredible playing. There were a couple of players I hadn't heard of and whose names I still don't know, but all great players, all so different.

Five Brisbane music shops took part in the event and all had their gear on display -- there were guitars everywhere during the afternoon session. There were luthiers and CDs for sale, I sold some PlaneTalks.

The sound system was superb. Michael, the guy driving it had great ears, and all in all it was a fantastic day of guitaring. Thank you Greg Dodge for coming up with the idea. This will be a yearly event, and from the turn out and vibe on Sunday, it's going to be a big one.

The day reconfirmed to me that there are as many ways of expressing yourself on guitar as there are players. I stood in awe watching Simon Patterson's hands as he played some tunes off his new instrumental album. Mind boggling speed and accuracy. Even Joe and Steve would have been been slack jawed.

Izzy has energy to burn and is an extremely clean player, covering everything from the blues to country to pop.

Michael Fix, a true gentleman, can make an acoustic guitar ring like no other.

My fellow Tamborine Mountaineer, Phil Manning, played like a demon.

Julia Parker and her rhythm section played some fantastic feels and she had total control of her Strat.

Kevin Borich is still the consummate bluesman he's always been. Fantastic, authentic, soulful player. (Rolling Stone Magazine voted Kevin and I Australia's top guitarists in 1976, just after I arrived here from Canada. Many riffs ago.)

My set with MumboGumbo felt great. Thanks Dirk and John.

It sure was heartening to see all the cars and people milling around when I arrived. It just goes to show -- there is a huge interest in the guitar out there. I also notice that certain genres (love that word) of popular music are moving back towards people playing their instruments, usually guitars, and playing them well. I can see a renewed interest in live music emerging in this part of the world, more TV shows with live bands playing, more pubs getting back into having bands playing. It's looking rosy.

Long live Brisbane Guitar Festival! All of you Northern Hemispherers should plan a trip to Australia next year. If the Festival were to be staged the weekend after Easter, like it was this year, you could also take in the Byron Bay Blues Festival, which takes place a couple of hours south of here. A huge festival now. (There's a thought, Greg.)

If you can be bothered, you can vote for my site on the Top 100 Guitar Sites by clicking on the following link http://www.top100guitarsites.com/countin.php3?id=149 then one more link on the next page. Only if you think it deserves it, of course.

Everyone should download "Come a long way" for free at: http://mp3.com/KirkLorange. I have written the TAB for the acoustic slide intro and posted it as a lesson in Drop D tuning.

The lesson itself can be accessed from http://www.onthenet.com.au/~kirkclan/Slide_Lesson.htm.

Oh, and if you're still wondering what the trick is to knowing where the music is on the fretboard, order my book PlaneTalk. I had the pleasure of being told by a dozen or so PlaneTalkers at BiG FEST that my book turned the lights on for them. The Aussie Dollar is worth a measly 58 US cents these days. For 26 bucks US, postage paid, you could be covering the whole fretboard like an old pro long before you're an old pro.

All the best from Tamborine

Kirk }c:
http://www.lorange.kirk.net
http://yourmusicontheweb.com
http://mp3.com/KirkLorange