Rolling The Earth

The artist for this sculpture is Tae-Guen Yang. It was shown at Sculpture by the Sea in 2018. When I took this photo I was trying to frame it in a particular way to express something, though I can’t remember what that something was.

I’m fairly certain this doesn’t show the whole artwork. In terms of how the photo turned out I think I did alright, but I wonder if I would’ve done better showing the whole thing.

This is my submission into the two hundred-and-forty-ninth Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. The theme for this one is “Art in the Park (and other places)“.

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

John is curating this one. Amy curates the next one.

The challenges are fun to engage with. The themes are specific enough to keep some focus whilst loose enough to allow room for interpretation. I recommend participating as it’s a fun community to be engaged with and it’s a good way to focus on subject. If you don’t participate, you should still check out what others of the Lens-Artists community are submitting.

I hope you enjoy.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1251: Rambling About Sound

So here we are with the sound of buzzing at some distance. Someone is doing some work and that’s okay. That is fine. Wish it would stop but it’s not mine to control… at least, not yet anyway.

Trying to think of something that I can say that has some sort of profound statement contained within a completely non-profound statement, but I’ve got nothing. I’ve got no one thing to provide that would cover that, but maybe if I try hard enough I will.

Assuming there is enough time in the universe, of course.

The sounds of people outside can be heard and they seem happy, and if they are I wonder as to how much of that happiness is a moment in time that will be forgotten soon. I wonder how long they will carry that happiness with them, or even if they are feeling anything remotely close to a sense of happiness. I could be misinterpreting what I am hearing. I need to bear that in mind.

Sometimes we hear things and we interpret them in some way and that could be shaped by many things, of course, but I wonder as to how much we think about how we interpret things and how likely they are to represent the actual going on of whatever it is that that sound is coming from. There are some things that have an obviousness to them and there are some things that don’t, and with that said that obviousness could throw us off by far more than I’d ever want to admit.

It’s interesting that sound can make us think about certain things in certain ways and also how it can make us summon imagery into our minds. In a way it helps to provide an idea about reality but of course there need to be assumptions in place in order to have said idea or ideas.

Sound is interesting in a lot of ways.

I feel like I’ve run out of things to say about sound because what else can I say about it being interesting? Other than quite a lot of things, of course.

I could talk about how it creates imagery and how it fills our ears with various moods and all that stuff, but really all I’m doing is saying things I’ve said multiple times. I mean, sure, there’s a deep dig that I could go on, but sound is best experienced heard more than it is read about idf you have to pick one way to experience it. Of course it is best experienced both ways and it all depends on how you want to experience sound.

Personally I don’t want to experience it, or maybe I do. No wait; how I want to experience sound is by hearing and reading about it both at the same time and at different times and all that stuff.

Anyway, sound is a thing that exists and it helps us understand and assume things, and that’s a good thing.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 07:44:59

I struggled with this one. I think I got too into the idea of writing about sound and how it makes us assume things but instead of properly expanding on it I just kind of went “Well, I can’t say much about this” and then waffled on.

Written at home.

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Veiled in Clouds

Narrow Neck, but unlike these photos it’s a little more mysterious here.

It’s interesting how a thick layer of cloud can alter familiarity.

I hope you enjoy.

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Nubya Garcia: Before Us: In Demerara & Caura

I wrote this last night, then took a brief break before posting. Fatigue caught up to me.
Anyway, I think this bit of writing is really uneven. There’s a bit where I was in the moment and it doesn’t read well, but it feels less stunted, I think. But overall an uneven bit of writing.

Nubya Garcia’s “Before Us: In Demerara & Caura” is from SOURCE. It features Ms MAURICE on Trumpet

I hope you enjoy..

Percussion gently rolls in until it finds its low, firm beat. Keys come in, almost awkward and bass arrives smoothly. Once there the keys lock into the groove and play almost in an angular manner. Saxophone soon follows and plays smooth over it all, as does trumpet.

All have their place and flow along with a little bit of, perhaps danger and excitement among it all, but it’s quite low-key.

For a few moments it seems that there’s a build to something far bigger. The sounds fill but after one more calling from the brass things pull back. In this quiet moment the saxophone moves more freely and the sounds start to push outward, growing and seemingly striking, but they hold the main melody in mind and so they change whilst remaining firm.

The saxophone keeps on rising and the keys, bass and percussion follow just behind. An intensity builds and rises and swings low and smooth, but it keeps building, frothing and bubbling and rising and rising until it meets with the other brass for a moment and calls once more.

Lowness again and trumpet plays out, moving here and there. There’s a seeming increase in pace in the instrumentation whilst the trumpet calls and steps and stops, but the speed remains the same.

The trumpet swings low and echoes whilst the keys, bass and percussion get riled up and all find themselves within this grand moment. They travel and move and soon the trumpet calls out once more and once more it is with the saxophone.

Lowness again and the keys roll on out as the bass and percussion play precise and gentle. The trumpet and saxophone move together, slow, seemingly swaying in brief moments. The sounds build, or seemingly build once more and the brass keeps on moving together and all builds and the brass calls out one last time, leaving the remaining instrumentation to fade out as the song ends.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1250: Too Much Coffee

So I’ve had far too much coffee for myself today and now I’m starting to space out. Trying to write this is a bit like trying to force something to move when it doesn’t want to move but I am going to persist as I want to get this done. I want to write. I don’t want to have another day where I’m not doing anything due to procrastination and not due to needing rest.

However, I’m spacing out more and more and it’s not great. I can get there; I can get through this but I’m having trouble due to too much caffeine. I’m not a caffiend and so I’m not resistant to its effects. One coffee is fine; two is pushing it and here I am, spacing out after having had two cups of coffee.

If I space out too much I’m going to float off into space. I’ll still be close to our little home planet but I’m gonna be drifting off up there somewhere, held in orbit, floating and floating and not really going anywhere.

I guess I’d be going around the earth, but you know. I’d be moving around in space and time but I wouldn’t be going anywhere with my life and that’s something I’d prefer to avoid. I want to go somewhere but being up there, stuck due to the amount of caffeine in my system wouldn’t be a great situation.

I need to get myself a tether so as to keep myself attached to the ground. That way I won’t float away. However, what if I’m so spaced out that I start dragging Earth with me? What if this then leads to taking the planet out of orbit and we end up on some weird space journey that lasts a really long time? What then?

I think I’ve consumed too much coffee and I think that I’ve now doomed the planet to some sort of weird adventure that’s incredibly boring and entirely dangerous. This is not good. Why didn’t I think before I drank? Why did I have to have that second coffee?

Of course I could not tether myself and maybe that’s what I’ll have to do. I just have to accept my fate. If I do that then perhaps things will be alright. Maybe things will be okay. I don’t know if they will, but maybe that will be the case.

It is possible that once the caffeine has passed through things will be okay. I need to keep that in mind. I could end up return back to the ground after I’ve stopped spacing out and if that happens, then it’s all good, but then I need to take a parachute with me as I’ll end up falling once I’ve entered the… lower atmosphere? Not sure which level of atmosphere but there will be a point where I start falling so a parachute is a good thing for me to take with me.

Why did I have two coffees?

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:29:00

This is a bit more in the spirit of some of the intention I had when I started this blog. It’s also more in the spirit of stuff I wrote before I started this blog. Also a bit attached to reality due to having too much coffee today; not sure on the floating off into orbit bit.

Not yet, anyway.

Written at home.

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Face Between Plants

Just a photo of a cliff face… between plants.

I may have pushed the shadows a bit too much on this one. Initially the photo was a bit dull so I tried to adjust for that so as to better capture how this appeared on the day I took the photo. Didn’t quite work but I still like the scene.

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.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1249: The Ideas Aren’t Flowing Forward

When I woke up this morning I had a moment similar to the one yesterday. Realised it was Wednesday, realised it was only Wednesday, but then I got on with whatever it was that I had to get on with as I didn’t have the time to sit down and go over that. There were other things at hand that I needed to take care of and so take care of them I did and all that other junk.

Now I am here and the day is over but it continues on as the day is not really over. There still is the evening and soon I will sail through the night, and by “sail” I mean “drive” and by “drive” I mean “drive”.

I don’t know where I’m going with this, but I can tell you that I’m not going right now as this is being written and all that other stuff that makes me sound fancy but really is a way for me to cover for my dearth of ideas flowing forward, almost as though they are refusing to be used for they have become aware of their own temporary existence and would rather seek out another way to have meaning in existence. They no longer want to exist as something that comes out on the odd occasion and would much rather seek loftier ambition that allows them to survive and experience and grow from there.

What would these ideas become if they were allowed this freedom? I do not know so I keep on trying to force them out but they remain out of reach. They are sly and crafty and therefore able to avoid my grabbing and so I know not what to do other than keep on stretching things to a state beyond what should be allowable and hope that no one realises that there is nothing other than complete and utter emptiness in the words that I keep throwing out into this space.

Maybe I just need to accept that I’ve failed here and get on with my life. Maybe I need to accept that there are no ideas within me as they all escaped a while ago and have slowly grown into something else. Of course I can’t accept this as the bastards are still in there bouncing and rattling about. They seem as though they are in a state of being elsewhere, so to speak, but the moment they are called upon they show their cleverness through their continued success in dodging and avoiding all attempts of use.

Perhaps I just need to learn to live with them as they are and then get on with other things, but soon I need to go for a “drive” in the “dark” time known as “night”. That will give me time for thought but it won’t be a long drive anyway, and then I’ll be home and I’ll be back to where I was with this whole conundrum. Then it’s all of this again.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:49:61

This was a bit of a struggle at first. Once I got to personifying ideas it became much easier. I think this is merely okay, but it’s also an improvement over some recent stuff.

Written at home.

 

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A Poem About not Writing An Idea Down

Earlier on I had the idea to write about a race. It came from a few brief fragments I thought of that would connect so long as I worked on them. I didn’t and instead wrote the below, but I still have a rough idea of what those fragments were so maybe I’ll make use of them in a few days.

The below is alright as the start of a draft. That said I like how it flows in parts and I think some of the imagery works nicely.

I hope you enjoy.

I had some words about a race
They were fragments I could connect
So long as I found the right words

I thought to write them down
However, there was no writing
And so the words drifted away from me

Where do I look for them?
I’m not sure where to start searching
As the sky is so vast and endless

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1248: It’s Definitely Tuesday

So a few minutes ago I remembered that today is Tuesday and that’s throwing me off a bit and I don’t know why. It could be due to being a little more productive than usual putting me in a state where I think the week is a bit further along in its cycling of days. Maybe.

Anyway, today is Tuesday and I am choosing to be a part of it as I don’t have much say in the matter. Soon it will be over, but for now it is not and so I need to be here and I need to deal with the fact that I can’t make it Wednesday whenever I want. No, I have to bear the burden of being in Tuesday.

What I do from here is probably not going to be much, but I can confirm that it will not be much. Maybe I’ll find a way to speed time up a bit in the hopes that I get to tomorrow sooner and thus feel more comfortable with the amount of effort I’ve funneled into the week thus far, but then it will be at that point. I also need to bear in mind that if I do that I could end up with more done and then what do I do? I could end up surprised that it’s Wednesday and that will catch me in a state of surprise and confusion and I don’t want to be doing that anymore. Well, I don’t want to be doing that again, but you know.

I think I should just try and forget this sudden ordeal and do something else. Try and find the time in there to move on and move away from the whole thing. Of course it could end up following me wherever I go and if it does, what then? Do I dare challenge its assertions? Do I dare face off against the inevitable?

I don’t know what I dare and I dare not find out. I think there are more important things I need to focus on at this particular juncture in time. I also don’t want to be accepting the fact that this error in understanding what day it is will follow me until the end of time. Maybe we will become fast friends and go on an adventure of sorts where we discover all sorts of things and the like.

Maybe that won’t happen but sometimes it’s good to pretend that that is what will happen. Sometimes it’s good to try to keep that in mind and be optimistic and all that stuff, but that’s not something for now. That’s something for later. Right now I need to work out how I get myself out of this mess, assuming there is a way out of course. I could just accept what happened and move on but I’m displaced in time and so I’d just rather not. I’d much rather head back to where I was and pretend it never happened.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 05:58:17

I felt I was writing too slow throughout all of this. It turned out that I wasn’t, but that’s not how it felt.

Anyway, this could be much better. Could be worse, but could be much better. I think there’s a bit too much stretching.

Written at home.

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Reaching Over

This photo was the first time I’d seen The Phantom Falls, or at least the first time I am aware of seeing them. It’s not a great photo in that it obscures the falls too much. I do like that it feels like a stop to a better vantage point, however.

I hope you enjoy.

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