The View From Bondi

 

The world's first book with a pop music soundtrack!

The View From Bondi is actually two stand alone products:

• a book of short stories &
• a pop music album

...that I "created" a few years ago. The book (and subsequently, the album) came about when my Suddenly Single dating disaster stories started accumulating and one of my friends, prize-winning photographer Vince Lovecchio said in a very off-hand way, "You should write a book." 

Well, I did! However, The View From Bondi is no ordinary book. Yes, it's a book of:

• short stories
• surreal reminiscences
• verse
• beatnik be-bop

...but it's really the story of an outraged near-comedian participating in...and having to come to philosophical conclusions, about Life, Fatherhood and Love, while desperately trying to get laid! Oh, there are a number of naughty stories:

• Babe And The Art Of Recreational Fishing
• Lady Fatima & The Gasping Groupie Meet A Galaxy Of Hollywood Stars
• The Queen Of The Winds
• Vanity  

...but there's also a lot more and The View From Bondi emerges, very much as a sophisticated self-portrait:

N.B. This is where I intend to place some glowing review snippets, like: "...Even better than sliced bread..." Breadmakers Today Feb. 2008 "...Almost turned me straight..." Julian Clary, UK "...Crapped myself laughing..." Osama Bin Laden, Pakistan "...I bags making the movie..." Stephen Spielberg, USA

The View From Bondi is also a tour de force of modern writing (if I say so, myself), effortlessly weaving several main themes into a much larger essay on Love, Lust &  Romance.

Stop Press: I've posted the original publicity blub at my blog.

Of course, the flavour is uniquely cosmopolitan Bondi. The stories make it easy to visualise the tanned healthy bodies sipping cappucinos, chatting as the Pacific dusk edges nearer and nearer and the musky smell of L'amour slowly permeates the salty night air.

However, The View From Bondi is no Sex In The City, simply because it has far grander ambitions. It uses language not to make you identify with the writer but to actually place you in that situation:

• almost hallucinating from tequila poisoning at a yuppie party
• a food fight with a female flatmate as a prelude to ill-advised sex
• a chance meeting with The Girl Of Your Dreams
• a spontaneous beatnik poem about Love     

"...It sneaks in, slinking, sinewed on gondola grooves.

Synchronous samba, The Happy Heart Strut..." 

N.B. This is where I intend to place more glowing review snippets, like: "...Taught me a thing or two about how to string words together, I can tell you!..." William Shakespeare, UK "...Made Dubliners seem bloody boring. I knew I should have lightened up..." James Joyce, Ireland "...I thought it was great but where were the bulls?..." Ernest Hemingway, Spain "Way hotter than The Kinsey Report" Alfred Kinsey, USA

Counterpointing all of this, though, is:

• the tender love that the writer has for his two young children and how that inevitably influences the mating game &
• the practical applications an almost  life-long study of the mechanics of human psychology

I was quickly signed by a publisher who talked the project up big and with his enthusiasm, went ahead with making the pop music soundtrack, which I recorded with the best session musicians in Sydney. The music was never intended as an album, as such, I had no intentions of being a pop star, it was created to bring publicity to the book.

N.B. This is where I intend to place even more glowing review snippets from credible musicians, like: "...The album totally blew my mind. Goo goo goo joob..." John Lennon "...Better than any Beatles album..." George Harrison "...Weird..." Jim Morrison "...This guy can really sing..." Elvis Presley

However, the album's real value is that it adds another dimension to The View From Bondi. The songs are meant to recreate the music mania that was my youth, zooming up and down any radio dial to hear the latest sounds, the balm to happy hormones on manic overdrive. 

The secondary and more serious aspect, though, is that it was Pop Music* that kept me sane when my world seemed to be falling down around me.

I've created a couple of videos that work as a mini-documentary about The View From Bondi, which highlight the songs, in particular, and are, like the original publicity blurb, housed at my blog: 

The View From Bondi Part 1 (6.57) 

The View From Bondi Part 2 (5.25)

If you've seen the videos, you'll understand that Time has given me a slightly different perspective on what was then happening in my life. Though barely mentioned in the book The Party Girl**, who features at the beginning of the video, now becomes pivotal. The fact is, I left her...and in doing so, damaged myself badly. A few years later, the resultant chaos was The View From Bondi.   

However, as a piece of Art, The View From Bondi is unique...and I use that word with great reservation. It's trippy, it's funny, it's philosophical, it's M-rated lusty and sometimes it's dumb...but it's always, very much, one-of-a-kind. I honestly believe it to be pretty damn good and I hope you do, too.

Andrew Goulding    

 1   You may purchase*** the book VFB 001 for

$U.S. 12.50

Warning: some parts of the book are M-rated

You will need Adobe Reader to open the PDF file (FREE download) 

2   You may purchase*** the soundtrack album VFB 002 for

$U.S. 12.50

3   You may purchase*** the book & soundtrack album VFB 003 for

You will need Adobe Reader to open the PDF file (FREE download)  

4   Memorabilia, Apparel, Caps, Posters & more are available from:

  The View From Bondi Cafepress Store

...with most product descriptions providing a cheap laugh, gently sending up the marketing process. Go on, visit, I know you want to. 

*there are numerous reviews of those albums on this site in Pop Music. 

**there's even an update at the end of the book on our present "connection".

If you have purchased the book and/or the album and there've been download problems, please contact me and I'll personally send you replacements via email.