Popular Bastard

I’m leaving the office in a sec so this is a good time to rush out a bunch of words I’ll probably never read again. Why won’t I read them again? I don’t know and I don’t care; I’m just writing. I’m maximizing my writing.

It is a long day and a short day and everything in between. It has been an absolutely miserable time and I am miserable, but I am happy. I am overjoyed. I am under the moon and over the sun and I’m sitting here, crapping a lot of words in quick succession. I guess that’s a good thing.

There’s a cool tune playing in my ears and I am here to bear witness to the tune. I am here to bear witness to what I am hearing, and let me tell ya, hearing it is good. This is a good time to be alive. This is a good time to be able to sit here and decide that this is a good time to be alive. Absolutely fantastic, let me tell you. Few people in the office; few people doing much of anything and soon I will leave because I have places to be. I’m a popular bastard at the moment, and I am kicking none of the goals. Or all of them.

Maybe the goals are kicking me.

Just realised that I didn’t set a time, but it doesn’t matter. Going to keep going. Going to squeeze in a few more minutes. Going to think about life and think about how we should treat others with respect. Think about how we treat the marginalised terribly, and far too often I think. Think about that and discuss it later when I go to address my adoring friends. Of course I adore them, too, but right now I need to pretend I have a massive ego for no reason whatsoever. And so pretending is what I will do. I will keep on pretending.

Maybe my ego is massive. Yet to be determined.

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Quruli: Sea Silent

One listen.

To be honest, I was thinking this would be something a bit different to what it is. Don’t know why, but I was. I think misplaced expectation helped, however. I’m not quite able to switch off at the moment so I was conscious of what I was writing. That misplaced expectation meant I had to think more about what was going in on the song.

Quruli’s (くるり) Sea Silent (“静かの海”) is from The World is Mine.

I hope you enjoy.

What feels like a looping arc comes into view with an increasingly distorting sound alongside. It fades away and something else comes in, and suddenly the commencement of clarity. Peace, almost.

Low sounds, low percussion, things coming forward slowly. These sounds play quiet and perhaps nostalgic, too. They play with melancholy; with heaviness. A voice, distorted comes in and speaks in specific moments whilst distorted, booming percussion marks a steady rhythm.

A slight bit of other sounds here and there, and soon new voices. They add melody and are met with words, and then they disappear and everything is just a few lines of sound. Something akin to a voice says some things, then percussion returns with more distorted instrumentation. Hi-hat rises above with some striking clarity, though still distorted, and melody is repeated. Shrunken voice meets with regular; distortion dominates a slow procession.

That melancholy pushes harder and creates something more obviously weightier, dripping with thickness. The melodic line changes, perhaps as a form of questioning before returning to the main form, albeit in a slower manner than before.

There seems to be a slight stumble, like everything could slide out and away from everything else, and soon noise shrinks into a few lines, leaving a humming drone. Perhaps there is some percussion behind it still; there definitely is a sense of something trying to speak out, or someone trying to speak out.

The hums grow louder, then suddenly stop in a moment of clarity that stops at the song’s end.

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From the Bottom

So this is not a good photo, but I like it anyway. Or rather, I like what it could be. This was taken solely to see if I could do it. I had to bend backward to get the photo, got it, it worked. At the very least, this is a springboard for something better.

I’m not sure if this says anything about anything, but I still find the result interesting in terms of form and perception.

I hope you enjoy.

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Skylight Frame

I took this photo a few weeks ago as I thought the view from this skylight was interesting. Nothing more to it. When it came to submitting a photo to this challenge I tried retaking the shot from a better vantage point, but it didn’t work out.

This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s “Monochrome Madness” for this week. This one is hosted by Dawn of The Day After, and she has chosen the theme “Symmetry”. This isn’t the best example, but it works well enough, I think.

This challenge is open to all, and I recommend joining in. If want to, check out more information about it here, and include the tag “monochrome-madness” when you share your photo. If you’d prefer not to join in, then at the least check out Leanne’s photography, and what other people submit.

I hope you enjoy.

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The Goslings: Windowpane

One listen.

Went in, did it, got out. Bit loose, bit uncertain, but I think I did well here.

The Goslings’ “Windowpane” is from Grandeur of Hair. Heads up: if you decide to listen to it, it’s an intense listen.

I hope you enjoy.

A sheet of noise blankets like rain. It rises and falls, or maybe thickens and thins. Other sounds come in; one hums low, another strums away. A new hum comes in. Everything continues on, and there’s a peace to it, but there’s also a foreboding intensity.

Everything feels off. Peaceful, but violent. Overwhelming, destructive. It feels like the power of inevitability, but it also feels so mundane. And the sounds continue on, and the noise picks up, and things fade away but the noise remains.

The noise continues on forever, and maybe there’s traffic somewhere in the distance, and maybe a chair rocking, but it could be anything. It could be everything compressed and crushed into a moment, and it could be completely empty.

Eventually, however, what lingers suddenly stops and the song ends.

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Quruli: Army

One listen.

This is a song I’d describe as being highly emotive, and it is. I tried to get some of that out but I feel I was unwilling to go far enough.

Quruli’s (くるり) “Army” is from The World is Mine.

I hope you enjoy.

Guitar stepping forward to a steady, spaced, beat. Looped, it seems. Another joins as a counter-step of sorts and adds more drama. The percussion picks up, more guitar joins, and a soft beep in the background. The beep gives way to vocals that drift, float along with everything.

A sound rises in a vocal pause, then the voice comes back for a moment, but becomes so much more of a sound. There’s a journey here, and a weight. A sadness of sorts.

As the sounds proceed they move to more downbeat melodies, and seem to be looking to pull something full and expansive from where they’re going. They go on with their steady slowness, interweave, create tapestry. They tell a tale that continues ever onward.

A point where the percussion picks up and many of the other sounds pull away. They then start building again into a brief pause that brings everything back to where it was. Form and shape grows within it all as everything keeps moving forward. A coldness is here, but so is a warmth. The sadness remains, as does the attention to what sound is doing, and atmosphere spreads thick. It keeps spreading as the sounds settle into insects, a car passing by and a voice before the song ends.

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Spread Wings

I was taking some reference photos for a thing I might end up doing with a friend. They turned out better than I thought; there are issues with noise and sharpness, but there’s an expressiveness to them that I wasn’t quite expecting.

I don’t know what I was expecting, really.

Anyway, here’s one of them.

I hope you enjoy.

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Sunset From a Window

I took this photo a number of weeks ago whilst at work. There was a dramatic sunset out my window, so I felt I just had to capture it. So I did.

This is my submission into the three hundred-and-sixty-fifth Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. The theme for this one is “Longing“.

I feel this photo counts due to containing something people often like the look of, but in a space that, whilst advantageous, might not necessarily be as desirable as seeing the same thing from a more open location.

The host of the Lens-Artists challenges cycles weekly between the following people:

Tina

Patti

Ann-Christine aka Leya

John Steiner

Sofia Alves

Anne Sandler

Egídio

Ritva

Beth

This one is curated by Egídio. The next one is curated by Tina.

I recommend joining the community and participating in the challenges. They’re pretty straightforward, allow room for interpretation, and provide a good way to think about photography in general. If not, however, then at the very least you should check out what others submit to the challenges.

I hope you enjoy.

 

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Directing Signs

Some signs. Directing. Providing times. And so on.

I hope you enjoy.

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Somewhere, Over There

Another photo of one of Imperial Triumphant’s members. This one I like due to how deliberate the moment feels. Not necessarily posed, but very intentional. I also like how this person appears to be trying to take attention away. Provide direction. I don’t think either was the case; it’s just how their form comes off.

I hope you enjoy.

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