The Lovestone's Destiny...

Some time ago, I watched this YouTube video. The song is written by a well known musician who was hit with a spark of inspiration after seeing the busker in the video at the Portobello Markets in London. Both Marvel and the Jonesteens are fictional.

After I watched it, the inspiration seemed to be paid forward. To me. I suddenly had the urge to write a biography/ background story for Marvel Jonesteen and his band. I felt the band was made up of Marvel, his two brothers and his sister. They were a quirky family, each with their own set of issues and challenges.

The story of Marvel and the Jonesteens began in Bali some twenty years ago. Like many stories of inspiration and triumph, it is steeped in a volcanic eruption of challenges, tragedies and melancholy. The three Jonesteen brothers and their younger sister Destiny were drawn to music from very early on when their father managed a bar and nightclub in Ubud, Bali for several years. Marvel remembers fondly the Indonesian and Balinese bands his father had playing in the bar, and was also fascinated by a street busker in town who called himself ‘Tutti’. Tutti would sit cross legged with his front teeth missing, playing his bamboo xylophone ‘rindik’, creating percussion with a rainstick, and sing all day, every day. All the Jonesteen children stopped to watch and give him money regularly.

But it wasn’t until the Jonesteen family relocated back to Sydney Australia, that their musical talents would show themselves. A troubled thirteen year old Marvel soon picked up a guitar and began to write songs that were often somewhat conflicted in content. Marvel would frequently say that “Frank” wrote them, which both baffled and concerned his family. Three years later, Marvel was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, and the song “I don’t want to die this way” was born. Marvel can proudly recall when “Frank” was upset with him for taking medication for his illness and wrote the song out of desperation. Apparently “Frank” had no intention of dying this way, and eventually Marvel discontinued the medication. Marvel and Frank still live side by side, in a somewhat volatile existence. Nevertheless, they make a great musical team.

Marvel’s traumatic story isn’t the only story in the Jonesteen family which is extraordinary. The youngest of the siblings, Destiny, was a keen pianist like brother Jacquin, until, at age 15, she had a nasty run-in with the in-sink-erator and lost her right hand. Sadly after a long fight with infection , gangrene set in and there was no choice but to amputate. Devastated, Destiny sunk into deep depression until one day her father brought home a drum kit. It was then that she took matters into her own hands.. well actually, hand. With her one hand, she attacked those drums with fiery valour. The drummer from Def Leopard may have only one hand, but so does Destiny Jonesteen...so watch out!

The story of Jacquin Jonesteen, is no less extraordinary! Jacquin, nicknamed “Froggy” was born with a congenital defect that left his arms deformed so that his hands were nothing more than stubs. Life has always been a major challenge for him, but the determined lad never let anything get him down. Jacquin would spend hours of his youth stretching his toes apart with paddle pop sticks and clothes pegs to acquire the necessary flexibility to carry out everyday tasks. It was his widespread toes that quickly gained him the nickname Froggy. This unbelievable keyboardist plays only with his toes, a feat not even Destiny could manage after her accident! With his naturally stretchy and flexible toes, Jacquin Jonesteen can do anything! Except climb Mount Everest! Although this is a sad fact for Froggy, he openly admits that climbing Everest is not worth the risk of getting frostbite to his toes and being left totally helpless. He prides himself on the fact that he can open a stubby with his toes.. a skill worth hanging on to!

The eldest Jonesteen brother has had a somewhat less eventful life. Prior to joining the band, Xenos (otherwise simply known as Xen) was a painter by trade. Sadly Xen lost his job for excessively sniffing paint stripper and mineral turps on the job and still battles this addiction today. But every cloud has a silver lining, just as every sniff of paint stripper burns a few hairs out of one’s nostrils. Xen picked up the bass guitar for the first time in two years and chipped away at it, rediscovering his undeniable passion for music. Xen insists that the inhalation of toxic liquids has enhanced his musical vision and gives him a head start over his brothers and sister, creatively. Marvel and Frank fully disagree.

Marvel and the Jonesteens have been on a strange and tragic, yet epic journey, and they invite you to join them. From Bali, to Sydney, to the planet Mars, this is a ride through some wild unpredictable terrain, but one you will not forget. With musical sounds combining the mellowed out Indonesian vibes from their humble beginnings in Bali, and an obvious influence of greats such as Led Zeppelin, The Doors and The Beatles, this is one band that will leave you salivating for more.

I pondered and dreamt up many other background facts about the Jonesteen family, all of which are very silly and over the top. For obvious reasons, I will never be able to use the name Marvel, or Jonesteen if I ever write the story and I will have to streamline the ideas and make sure that I write about any disabilities or mental health problems in a sensitive way. I envisaged a mock up of a memoir mixed with rock and roll autobiography written from Destiny’s perspective. I also think the subject would be better targeted to teenagers, which means the content would need to be toned down.

It has evolved a little since the original spark of inspiration, but I wanted to share it because I think it is a story I would one day really like to write. I am playing with changing the family’s name to Lovestone. Marvel will be Merlin. Yep, Merlin! I imagine his given name will be Neil after his mother’s love of Neil Diamond. Destiny will be the only one who goes by her actual name, as all three of her brothers have chosen to give themselves silly names. Merlin, Xenos and Titan (which titan are you then, douchebag? “Beeros of course! God of the almighty golden ale!”). The characters will be a little younger than I originally dreamed up, probably teenagers except for the eldest, Xen. Destiny, despite being the youngest, will be the “responsible” one. I imagine arguments over the name of their band, which is going to be born one day in the family garage. Merlin would like it to be Merlin’s Apprentices, Titan votes for Titan’s Warriors even though he plays keyboard and doesn’t sing. And Destiny and Xen both vote for The Lovestone’s Destiny with Destiny up front on lead vocals.
The winning name, and working title for the book, since it’s an interesting play on words is The Lovestone’s Destiny.

Now all I have to do is go on tour with a band and hang out with them to see what happens for research!! So what do you all think???

Self Help Book... could I write one?

So, I visited the counsellor/psychologists office at my university the other day for a brief session on the recommendation of my Honours program coordinator due to the fact that I was having difficulty finding the momentum and motivation to write my thesis. I was being clouded by a hundred thoughts about all kinds of things every time I tried to concentrate. Thankfully, since the session I have begun writing again and am feeling positive. For the time being anyway!!

But anyway, I came home afterward thinking that I really had a lot to learn about controlling my own chaotic thoughts,or rather, just being okay with them and letting them go. And I got to thinking that if I mastered this control, maybe I could tell my own story in a self help book. I love self help books after all haha. And so I started to write... and this is the excerpt that found itself in my page. Tell me what you think...


Leaves on a Stream
Paddling your way through life’s challenging thoughts...


I’d never seen a counsellor or psychologist before. I saw myself as invincible and strong enough to get by on my own terms, and I wasn’t convinced that a perfect stranger would have anything really useful to offer me. Or maybe I just felt I didn’t deserve help. What reason did I really have to feel the way I did about myself? My poor self concept was a reflection of my own weakness as a human being, right? My life was okay, and I should have been okay too. Yet I felt somehow out of balance. Like something had become distorted inside. My view of the world didn’t seem as clear as it once was.

I sat in the consultation room at my university and tried to breathe deeply as the counsellor carried out a meditation exercise called Leaves on a Stream. I had to imagine I was sitting by a stream listening to the water trickle peacefully and concentrate entirely on my breathing and feel every part of my body. My toes, my fingertips, the backs of my legs, my nostrils, my lips... everything. I had to think about that stream and the water bubbling over the rocks and imagine leaves and any other debris I could visualise, floating by. Those leaves would be the vessels which would carry away my negative thoughts. I put all my thoughts, both negative and positive onto those leaves and flowers and twigs and bits of algae and watched them float away downstream. They looked so graceful, swirling and moving along effortlessly. And then they all backed up against a large fallen over tree and got stuck. I watched them in my mind’s eye turn into a gluggy mass of pulp against that tree trunk like a clogged up pool filter. I didn’t tell the counsellor. I just told her they floated away.

Then I was to focus on my body. Feel every part. Did any part feel different to the rest? Did it feel tense? Was it tingling? Did it feel warm or cold? My mind was still at that stream and I was busy listening to the birds and watching a blue tongue lizard crawl across the rock I was perched on. I was wriggling around thinking my bottom was itchy because I’d been sitting in one place for too long. And then I felt a bite. On my right bottom cheek, in the bit where it meets your leg. I stood up, and wiped it over, dislodging a green ant. Great, I thought, still in the moment at my imaginary oasis, green ants. Glancing down at the rock I’d been sitting on, I saw about twenty other green ants all marching their way up the slippery moss coated side to the now vacant spot I’d been sitting. Suddenly there were green ants crawling up my leg inside my shorts, and I was impatiently trying to brush them away, cursing and jumping around on the spot...

Here I was, sitting in a chair listening to a psychologist talk me through a relaxation technique, apparently becoming acutely aware of my thoughts and my body and everything in my present space... but deep in my imaginary world I was doing a green ant dance and scratching my butt til I just about tore the skin off, all the while distracted by birds, a lizard and a fascination with floating debris sticking like papier mache to a rotten old log. That was when I realised. I definitely had ADD. But more importantly, my head was a jungle and my thoughts were like a wild stampede, constantly threatening to knock me down and steam roll me into oblivion. I had to somehow learn to tame those thoughts. I had to learn to focus on one task at a time, right here and right now in the present. It may have been all well and good to blame it on having a high tendency toward inattentive ADD, or my mother for giving me that genetic tendency, but I couldn’t live that way forever. I had to rein that stampede of thoughts in. And the time to make that change was now.

Tis All I Ask...

I wrote this one in August last year. It is about staying postive and hopeful. And patient...




Tis all I ask
That I become rich, not in wealth
But in love, in spirit and in fulfilment
Tis all I ask
That I may be shown the way
To the light of tomorrow
And leave the darkness behind me
Tis all I ask
That your smile continue to shine
And your heart lift me up to the greatest height
So that I may hang from the stars
And find strength I never knew I had
Tis all I ask
That the sweet melody shall never stop
And that the flowers continue to bloom
That I shall find the endurance and the stamina
To persevere
To radiate sunshine
To find the spirit and joy in every day
And to make every day momentous
Tis all I ask
To not just hear, but listen
And to always have someone to listen to me
To not just be loved, but to love eternally
To give
To trust
To hope
To believe
For it is you I continue to believe in
Just as I believe that a new day will always come
Tis all I ask
To hang on, even if shall it be by a thread
To feel, even if shall it be pain, fear, loss or abandonment
To be embraced always
By your warmth and promise that everything will be okay
Tis all I ask
To share your joy and laughter, your sorrow and your tears
To share this beautiful gift...
Of love