Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1141: Just Lose

There was a thing that I was banging out yesterday but I could not finish it before I had to head out due to shooting a gig and so it was scrapped, which is a shame as it was truly bad writing. Maybe it was for the best but I’m not here to work that out right now. I’m here to continue on forward.

I want to get a bit of pep into my step and then go gliding along through valleys and over crests and I want to see where this all leads. I want to see if there is anything at all that could provide something more than nothing and I will follow it all and go somewhere and see some wondrous sights. However, before all of that I need to find a way to get from the start of this to the end of this and I need to make sure that I take that into consideration.

I think that as I think about this I find myself moving away from this, though I am not moving out of my own volition. How I am moving is through the power of drifting away. My thoughts are carrying me elsewhere and I am powerless to resist, so resist I shall not do as there are other things to worry about anyway and so I will worry about those things. I won’t worry about this right now.

Now here’s an issue because this is what I am currently doing and so this is what I should be worrying about. I shouldn’t be thinking about what else there is out there and what else may happen later on, but I just can’t help myself in this particular instance and so… something something and so on and so forth and so you get the idea of how it all travels.

Then again, perhaps you don’t, but perhaps you do and I don’t and really I’ve believed that I know all this time which has really just been my tricking myself into believing that I do when I clearly do not, and so I’m not sure as to how to go about things from here because my whole world is shattering before me as I realise the depths of my ignorance know far less bounds than I originally thought and so now I must face off against my greatest foe: myself.

So from here I need to do a lot of training and get really buff and agile so I can do the fight and in that fight I will learn that I should be focusing on this and not that, but if I focus on this I may just lose, but perhaps I need to lose in order to win, or maybe I need to win in order to win.

You know, I’m just not sure as to where I’m going with this so I think the best solution is to just get to the last word and wrap this up.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 05:07:91

I shot a gig last night and am a bit more fatigued than usual. Kind of alright with my being able to throw this silliness together, but I wonder if I could’ve done better with more sleep.

Written at home.

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Buildings Behind Trees

And some road too.

This is a bit darker than perhaps it should be, but I like the way it captures a sense of the sunset being nearly over. I think.

I hope you enjoy.

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Rock on the Edge

I was hoping to get more done here today but it has been a busier day than I had anticipated. Anyway, here’s a photo of a rock on an edge. Looking upon it now and it looks very much like it is sitting among the plants, which I guess it is, what with being a rock and rocks not standing.

Maybe the visible underside is also part of the rock. I’m not sure, but I do think that this photo is dramatic when attaching certain meaning to the rock.

I hope you enjoy.

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Melt-Banana: Zero+

This one was tough.

I was listening to the album “Zero+” is from. Decided to write about the song when it played which was fine, but what made it tough was trying to switch off enough to write about it as I was concentrating perhaps a bit too hard on what I was hearing.

It’s almost as though the song has two distinct halves but I think there is a strong argument to make about it being continuous despite having some pretty differing sounds at the start and end.

I tried to describe the song as best as I could and I think I did an alright job, but I also said very little.

Melt-Banana’s “Zero+” is from Fetch.

I hope you enjoy.

Guitar seems to squeal and bounce back and forth, moving up and down and looping upon itself. A vocal blip, or at least what could be a vocal comes in for a moment before disappearing and subtle changes seem to occur. A bit of guitar starts to stretch underneath, then all suddenly stops.

The sound of water moving and croaks move into the silence. Soon chirping comes forward and a settling occurs. There is a harmony and rhythm that emerges in the space and it is a perceived calmness, but it is peaceful and it moves in a stillness, and fades out at the song’s end.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1140: Trundling Along

You know when you hurt yourself in your sleep and you’re not sure how and it takes days to get better and you’re not sure why but you have to deal with it and just wait for everything to rest and go back to a sense of normal, or at least what you think is normal so you can go back to doing the things that you were doing?

Yeah, that.

So anyway I’m sitting here and I’m pretty sure but I’m dealing with it as there are other things that I need to take care of and get through and so I am doing that, but it’s just really annoying. It kind of hampers things, but it is not the worst thing to deal with and really, it’s not even a big deal. It’s just a thing that will pass with time and so I spend my time waiting for it to pass so that I can get on with getting on, as it were.

Maybe it is.

So I’m sitting here and slowly trundling along through things and it’s just routine as per usual but at least routine is a little more interesting, though maybe it is not and I’m just deceiving myself into believing that it is. Hard to tell but there is a tell and so in telling with the tell I feel I can do something such as try and scramble my way through this bit of writing in a slow and lethargic manner and hope that something comes out of this.

I think today’s issue is that I’m already thinking about other things to write about when I should be focusing on this, or at the very least not thinking about other things that I want to write about as it is causing an issue where this is lagging in a way that creates a heavy drag. This is collecting a bit of debris that should not be there. This should be riding the air currents with a grace and ease that belies the silliness, but that is not happening. It is a day of lumbering and I’m allowing the lumbering to occur. Therefore I shall loudly complain about things but I won’t put my focus here. I’ll just let things keep on happening and the keeping on with happening is what will occur.

So from here (or there) where should I go? What should I do? I could keep on letting this drag out or I could just nip this in the bud and move on. There are options and I am considering them, but perhaps that is part of the problem. I’m not moving on from the mess and so I’m just adding more mess until it all piles up and no longer is recognisable as something that could be recognised as something, though that too is something and so really I’m just getting stuck on a bit of a loop.

I should break the loop but I don’t have enough space.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 05:15:72

I think this would be best described as a whole lot of words thrown into a void and expecting something that reads well returned. Then again, I wasn’t expecting anything, so… yeah.

Written at home.

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Coastal Landscape

I think the clouds are a bit too bright but otherwise I like how this photo turned out.

The landscape underneath feels expansive and small, hilly and flat, and there’s a nice blend of vegetation and rock. It also displays coastal scenery well without the ocean being visible. It also doesn’t feel removed from the ocean, I feel.

I hope you enjoy.

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Kurushimi: Chaos Remains

I’m not sure as to when I started this one.
I’m fairly certain it was within the last few months.
Likely the last few weeks. Anyway, I spent a bit of today doing the editing which was really easy. A bit of re-writing and rephrasing, some additions but nothing too heavy.

I’m not sure as to what I was trying to say here. I think the album is worth hearing, but at the same time I think it’s a weaker work, but also a stronger one. It sits in an odd place but I do think it’s good outweighs its bad.

Most of my interview and review work now appears on Culture Eater.
My colleague and I set up a Patreon to further develop Culture Eater as a source of good quality arts coverage from both ourselves and our contributors.

We’re looking at what we can give to supporters as we don’t want to set up a one way relationship, so suggestions are welcome. Podcast Eater is one of the things we’ve got going and (aside from the next few weeks) new episodes are available through there first.

Please consider supporting, or at least sharing the Patreon page with others. Please also check out what our wonderful contributors are contributing.

I hope you enjoy.

Finally, Kurushimi state that Music Remains.

Wait, hang on.

Finally, Kurushimi state that Chaos Remains.

Kurushimi’s Chaos Remains sounds variable, but it also feels really controlled and linear. Maybe the performance is tighter. Maybe the conductor kept a really tight grip on how things proceeded. It’s possible that the performers use a specific set of reactions to what others are doing. It’s hard to tell. In any event, there’s less of a sense of spontaneity.

Extremities and exploration remain, however, and it is in these where a lot of the juiciness lies. “The Omen” drags and crawls with menace, “Black” heaves and pummels through repetition, and “Necrosis” takes on a stabbing aggression that fully unfurls near the end and only for a brief period. Outside of these three there is a lot of heaviness, cacophonous noise and blasting, much of it interwoven in a few forms.

One of the lengthier tracks, “The Mysteries of Chaos”, remains relatively understated for most of its run. There’s so much behind it that suggests something looking to just tear out and attack and eventually it does. However, Kurushimi don’t spend most of the song building but rather moving through a journey of sorts. They travel and search for the right place and right moment. When they eventually let loose they become menacing and almost frenzied.

Perhaps Chaos Remains‘s strength lies in these particular sections, but to say so risks labeling too much of the album as one-dimensional, which it often is. That said, there’s a bit of digging in terms of mood and atmosphere, of which the songs are more willing to suggest on the surface.

I think the main issue with Chaos Remains is that it often feels like a sampler of sorts. A fair portion of the work feels like a series of rough sketches. However, some songs such as “The Mysteries of Chaos”, “Chaos Dub” and “Wormhole” feel more complete in intent and performance. Maybe the pieces couldn’t come to fruition but were seen as worth releasing. If so, then fair enough; there are strong ideas here. There is a sense of unity in the performance, the whole thing gets in and out whilst packing in quite a lot, and overall it’s just solid work throughout.

Maybe I’m missing the whole point of Chaos Remains. Maybe it gives glimpses of things passing by and lets us fill out blanks, regardless of their being suggested or imagined.

Anyway, Chaos Remains is a decent listen overall and another worthwhile inclusion in Kurushimi’s discography.

Chaos Remains is available here.

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Leaking Words

More graffiti of which I’m not sure of the meaning of in this particular context, but then again I never am; I just find some of it interesting.

I like the sort of the sterile dirtiness of this particular scene. The light is pretty bright but it reveals a wall that needs cleaning and a few words.

This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s “Monochrome Madness” for this week.
I suggest checking out Leanne’s photography, as well as checking out 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 1139: Shattering Windows

Something something it is time to wake up. Writing with a sore shoulder but I think I’ll be fine. Might not be fine but I might be fine. We’ll just have to see how it all pans out, but maybe there is no pan and so it’s all just out. How does one proceed without a pan?

Well, they make a plan.

Anyway, there is no plan. There is no direction. There is no purpose. It’s all just randomly throwing things in a specific and predetermined order in order to see what sticks. The problem is that all I have are stones.

I think I should just pocket the stones. Don’t want to be shattering windows as if I shatter the windows then how can I see through them? How will I know if there is indeed an outside world when the window no longer is whole? It will just show some suggestions of something beyond these walls rather than something whole and therefore I will not know if there really is a point in going outside for there is no view of the outside that is whole. For all I know there could no longer be an outside and all there is is what is within these walls.

Perhaps there is a risk that lies ahead and so therefore I should throw myself toward the risk. I should open the front door and step through the gateway and then be in another place at another time. I don’t know if this is something that I want to do, however, as I don’t know what is offered out there. I don’t know if there is anything worth viewing in that offer. There is every chance that I will open the front door and then find myself falling upward and because I don’t have enough twine I might get too far and be unable to return. Then again, maybe I will return but I’ll return with my socks on my ears. I don’t know if I want to do this.

Then again, there is always some sort of virtue with acting with courage in the face of uncertainty. There also is some sort of virtue in thinking about things and trying to work out risk and how to best mitigate it before stepping into situations of uncertainty. It all depends on many things and I’m not the one to work out what those things are for there is far more time needing to be spent fixing the windows so I can appreciate the small, yet detailed view that is outside.

Then again, what if I fix the window and the view has left? What if it moves away and toward some other far off location? Then what? What do I do then? Do I try and appreciate the eternal nothingness that would stretch beyond, or do I try and coerce the original view to return?

I think that there’s much to consider here, but I’m going to think about something else.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:04:36

Silly stuff but it was fun to write.

Written at home.

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A Small Group Leans In

Sometimes the city feels really crowded and like it has no space.

I like the way the buildings sit here. It almost feels like a space with one way out, but that way out may not be available soon as the buildings stand upright yet seemingly lean over, looking down, almost like they will cover everything.

I hope you enjoy.

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