This is a photo of one of the members of A Broken Sail when they played at The Lansdowne last week supporting June of 44. I hadn’t shot at The Lansdowne before and so, being unfamiliar with the room and the lighting, ended up with a lot of photos such as the below.
It’s moody and it’s in colour, and I know little else what to say. I think the person was firmly in the moment here, but the photo makes it seem far more dramatic than it was.
I hope you enjoy.
Here’s a recent sunset photo.
I think it was a warm day. Can’t quite remember, but I think it was.
The colour mostly came through in processing as the sky didn’t quite look this rusty on the day. In a sense this is more stylised than how it “should” look, but I’m fine with it here.
I hope you enjoy.
I took this photo shortly before heading into Manning to photograph MONO on the ninth inst. I wanted to capture some of the building and this was the best of the few photos I took. There were some others that showed a smaller portion of the building which I liked, but overall they didn’t turn out well.
This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s “Monochrome Madness” for this week. Participating is pretty straightforward and something I recommend. If you do, then include the tag “monochrome-madness” in your post.
If not participating, then at the least check out Leanne’s photography as well as what other people submit.
A lot of what people are submitting will likely end up here.
I hope you enjoy.
Alright, so there’s a possibility that I wrote about this at the time, but I haven’t been able to locate it, though admittedly my titling is pretty crap most of the time and I’m no feeling like diving into every post I did around that time, though admittedly there aren’t too many and it’d take me a few minutes at most, but I’m lazy, so I won’t.
2015 was a good and a bad year in a few ways, and I might end up writing about it a bit as I think doing so would benefit from the distance. Today’s writing is about something that happened in 2015 so I should probably stop procrastinating and get right into this tidbit.
Actually one more thing; Whilst this story involves them, I am neither for nor against drugs. I believe that people should be allowed to make informed decisions about what they put in their body and I think that decriminalsation is important. Through this there’d likely be more care available for people who overdose or have an addiction. Furthermore, we need to stop pretending that alcohol is safe as it’s not. Just because one is more openly socially acceptable than another, doesn’t mean it’s harmless.
Anyway this happened in 2015; the year I went to Japan, the year where I was working between ninety and one-hundred-and-twenty hours a fortnight up until that trip to Japan and the year where, after said trip, I started working on taking photography much more seriously than I was. It was the year I read Finnegans Wake, and the year someone and I went our separate ways a second time in a manner that I could’ve handled in a much more mature fashion. It was the year where I started full-time study, and the year I was made redundant from a place I worked for seven-and-a-half years to the day.
Including all the small stuff, it was a pretty packed year.
We were going to have an end of financial year work party, but as we were being made redundant at the end of the year we were thinking of it as Christmas in July, or at least I was. I’m pretty certain we’d had mid-year parties before, or at least parties before Christmas, but right now I can’t quite remember and it’s not important anyway.
A lot of us were looking forward to the party and a lot of us were looking forward to redundancy. Me not so much as at that point I was in my late twenties and had been working since I was sixteen. I didn’t have much money and so the possibility of not having an income left me pretty worried. It didn’t get in the way of my looking forward to the party, however.
The plan was to head home and relax for a bit, then walk over to Darling Harbour as the party was focused on drinks and bowling there. As I lived in Glebe the walk was going to be an easy one so I had plenty of time to stuff around.
A few weeks prior to the day of the party I’d spoken to one of my coworkers – Macy – about having some pot cookies made. He had to think about it, but ultimately was fine with making them and so on the party day he came into work with a batch. Not having made them before (or, at least not having made them in a long time) he was uncertain of how effective they were and so he gave them to me for free. Macy also told me that he’d used an ounce, fairy dust, a bit of used stuff and threw in a fifty for good measure.
We each had a cookie shortly before leaving work and figured that, what with edibles taking a bit of time to kick in, we’d be fine, which we were. Macy gave me a lift home, we talked a bit about whether we were feeling anything and we kind of were but it may have been the aftertaste, and when I was getting out of the car we discussed getting to Darling Harbour at around the same time.
I headed on inside and I think I relaxed for a bit. Probably listened to music or did a bit of gaming. Not sure and whatever I did is immaterial to this recounting anyway. Life happened; I experienced life.
Eventually I started getting ready and I think the cookie properly started kicking in a little before. Of course it started slow and gradually increased in its intensity, as is the way with edibles. I was worried about going out with my eyes being bloodshot, which they were becoming and so I looked for eye drops. I couldn’t see any and so I called my housemate Jer as he was out, and he thought he may have had some but they would have expired.
The high kept on increasing and I kept on hoping my eyes would become less bloodshot and I kept trying to muster the courage to go out my front door. I messaged some coworkers to see when they’d be heading on out and kept going through the cycle.
It’s probably a good time to mention that this wasn’t my first time with edibles. I’d had them before and that was an intense time which I might write about down the track. I’d also tried making some butter myself once and that was a fair bit weaker than I thought it’d be, which was fine, but I knew that the high being strong wasn’t unexpected. The cookie I had seemed to keep on going. I’m sure it did eventually, but it was as though there was no peak to the high.
I’m not sure how late it was; it might’ve been around nine, but I messaged one of my coworkers, told them I was on my way. I did a bit more pacing, left my room, did a bit more hesitating in the hallway, then told myself I was going to do it and I was going to go. I walked to the front door and when I got there I turned into my bedroom and went to sleep.
The following day I woke up and felt pretty good. Had a decent sleep which was good as I had to go to work. Got ready, all that stuff. Headed off to the bus stop, resumed where I left off with Finnegans Wake. I’m not sure if it was on the first or second bus, but after a bit of time reading I realised that I’d read the same paragraph for a few minutes. I then realised I was still high so I put Finnegans Wake away and I can’t remember what I spent the rest of the time on the bus doing. Probably looking out a window.
The high didn’t wear off until a few hours into work, which is not what I wanted but had to deal with. I think I got some things done whilst still high, but probably not enough.
It was either that day or a few days after that I got to hear about what happened at the party, or at least a few details. My coworkers weren’t surprised that I didn’t make it, but they also were laughing about it as I kept saying that I was going to be there. The bowling went well and Macy, who if I remember correctly hadn’t been bowling before had a good time.
He got a strike after someone told him that the bowling ball was a cookie and I was the pins.
Over time the remained of the cookies were eaten and they were all intense. They were mostly good times and I’m glad they’re in the past.
I was walking around Sydney Olympic Park when I saw this cicada and decided to take a picture. I was a bit worried bout it but it flew off so maybe it was resting. Not sure.
Not the best photo in terms of focus but at least the cicada isn’t blurry.
I hope you enjoy.
I thought I’d shared this before but it would seem I am incorrect.
Anyway, here’s a path near La Perouse that looks like it is disappearing into the dune but I can confirm it isn’t… or is it?
This is my submission into the two hundred-and-forty-first Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. The theme for this one is “Spring“.
This was taken in spring and it looks like spring as seen in some parts of Australia, so I feel it fits.
The host of the Lens-Artists challenges cycles weekly between the following people:
Week 1 – Tina
Week 2 – Patti
Week 3 – Ann-Christine aka Leya
Week 4 – Amy
Week 5 – John Steiner
Week 6 – Sofia Alves
Week 7 – Anne Sandler
Week 8 – Donna
Week 9 – Guest host
Sofia is curating this one. The next one is curated by Anne.
I recommend participating in the challenges. They’re open enough to allow for a fair bit of thinking about approach and closed enough to keep focus on meeting the theme of each one. If you don’t participate, you should still check out what others of the Lens-Artists community are submitting.
I hope you enjoy.
One listen for this one.
I queued up the song a while ago and then went through a bit of a cycle of remembering and forgetting that it was in my playlist. Recently I reorganised the playlist in part due to it needing some things removed as it’s a playlist I made for music I’m reviewing, and in part to get the songs I want to do this kind of writing about all grouped together rather than scattered throughout.
I went in without worrying too much about approach and I think it worked. This mostly came from the feel of the song more so than the sound, though the sound is in there, and I think it paid off. Not the best writing, but I think it captures the feel well.
Alberich’s “Valkyrie” is from A Second Is A Year.
I hope you enjoy.
—
Long draws a sound as eternal as it is not. It stretches through past, present and future, but remains only in the present and it slowly changes whilst remaining eternally static. Something else appears in brief moments whilst the drone continues its grows and this is a bleak and worn down space.
Dust is carried across ruin and wreckage and a pallid light barely penetrates the thick air. Something pounds in a distance, and it is massive and seems to signal something ominous and worrying. For a few moments it gains a response and something seems to rise on up and seems about to gain some clarity before disappearing.
Something else suddenly appears and stops before it too gains some clarity. That slight response returns and disappears again, and all is desolate and hopeless.
Twisting sounds, perhaps a memory of something that once was. Perhaps as all that is noticed as something is happening. It could be anything; it could be nothing, and the drone lowers and the pounding gains a moment of clarity with its brief response before moving into the distance once more. Sound rises and stops and the pounding disappears, and it is as though there is nothing left, or at least nothing as it was, and the sounds fade out as the song ends.
I’m sitting here waiting for another evening shift to end and I find myself thinking back to my previous call centre job and the times I worked evening shifts there.
Sometimes I think back to that job and remember as to how it was, but – and I think I written about this before – there are times when I miss it, though it’d be more accurate to say that I miss the people.
Well, in a way I miss the environment, but it’s more the space than the environment generated by management, but anyway.
I remember times when I’d be writing in the last ten minutes of the shift and I’d be trying to get the writing done as quickly as possible due to when trains left the station at St. Leonards, or when I was cycling due to not wanting to be home a few minutes later if I could avoid it, as the place wasn’t the most pleasant.
I remember a lot of stuffing about and… well, that hasn’t changed much, but I do remember it happening and I remember a lot of aimless conversations that probably helped us get through working at that place a lot more than we may have thought at the time.
I remember looking out windows and wondering about workers in other buildings, though not all the time of course. I thought about the landscape and it would all disappear when it was time to head on home.
There were plenty of times when the cycle was easy but I never stuck to it enough to get as fit as I needed to make sure it was a continuous occurrence rather than something that happened here and there. I remember listening to a lot of emotionally heavy music on that cycle too, and I remember how when crossing The Sydney Harbour Bridge the temperature felt like it dropped more often than not due to various factors. I’m pretty sure it was mostly due to wind and being above a large body of water, but there’s probably more to it than those two things.
Sometimes I miss that place and I miss the people, even though there are some that I’m glad I don’t have to speak to anymore. It was a place where I felt I belonged which is not something I feel is something I should feel, but at the very least I felt I belonged there more than I do here, even though there are people here that are just as friendly.
Maybe it has to do with the transient nature of call centres. Sometimes you end up being someone who stays for a while, which I was at the last one and am at this one, but I think there were more people there who stayed than here.
I don’t necessarily miss those days. They had a time and a place and I got through them and there was some fun, but I have no desire to relive them as they already happened. I wonder as to what has happened to those I no longer talk to, and I wonder if we’ll ever cross paths again, and maybe we will, but only as faces among a crowd.
This is a photo of one of the members of We Lost the Sea, one of the bands who were supporting MONO last week on Thursday. This photo wasn’t part of the gallery on Culture Eater, and that is due to trying to keep galleries at twenty photos so supports have less photos than the main band.
Not really much reason to mention that, but anyway…
So I like this photo as it’s a bit of an odd angle and it feels – at least to me – somewhat non-traditional for a gig photo.
I hope you enjoy.
Two listens for this one.
Once more just trying to capture the song. Don’t think I did the best job. I think this would’ve worked better had I allowed more listens and not rushed, but that’s not the aim here.
Hitoshi Sakimoto’s (崎元 仁) “Kind Friends” (“やさしい友だち”) is from Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter‘s soundtrack, Breath Of Fire V – Dragon Quarter: Original Soundtrack. The soundtrack was also released as part of Breath of Fire Original Soundtrack Special Box a soundtrack collection of the soundtracks for Breath of Fire I through to V.
I hope you enjoy.
—
Strings rhythmically pulse, a quick fluttering of woodwind and more strings come in, crest and descend. Soon muted horn follows and a sadness comes through, as does a resolve to rise and overcome.
It all loops back and once that fluttering returns, and upon the drift a heaviness comes forward, and perhaps a remembering of a sense of innocence. Maybe thoughts turn inward, and there’s reflection. There’s a firmness in the belief that the right thing was done, and there are no regrets, and it all fades out as the song ends.
Stupidity Hole 