Junya Nakano: Signs

Posted on February 10, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

This was written over one listen.

I was trying to express the beauty of this song but I don’t think I pulled it off.
I feel I focused too much on getting to certain words rather than write something that felt more whole and cohesive.

Junya Nakano’s (仲野 順也) “Signs” is from Phantasm.

I hope you enjoy.

—

Piano carefully walks a specific melody that builds on other sounds moving around. A wide and fantastic atmosphere spreads out, gentle and ornate. Soon more instruments come in and create a fuller melody and a steady motion forward becomes clear.

An air of mystery permeates and fills out more before the sounds fall back. Others come forward a little more, a roll of percussion builds and the sounds return to full. There is a smoothness and grace in how the sounds proceed; the air of mystery remains and it helps to cast all with a sense of the fantastic.

More sounds come in and further build whilst remaining slow. Soon a shift into something more pretty in sound and a stringed instrument plays on top of the sounds as they shimmer and flow like calm water. A beat remains steady and seems to lead to a conclusion, looking for something grand and majestic.

Eventually the beat drops away and moments shimmer onward as they fade out of view. Layers peel and drop away, returning to a sense of the quiet as the song ends.

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Remember: 私を愛して Love Me

Posted on February 10, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

One listen for this one.

I’m not sure as to why I wrote what I wrote. Some idea of narrative came forward and I ran with it, but I don’t know why, though I imagine the answer is something along the lines of “That’s what was coming out of me”.

I think that some of this is rough. I don’t think it gives a good impression of how the song sounds. Still, I’m partially content with the writing.

Remember’s “私を愛して Love Me” is from ルートバックホーム .

I hope you enjoy.

—

It starts off small and slowly grows, shimmering among something that almost suggests rain. A slight hint of traffic under a deep gray sky fades in and disappears as the shimmering, soft, continues on. It is a moment stretched out and continuous, seemingly growing and yet never increasing, and only existing as a singular point in the present at all times.

Other muted sounds come in, carefully moving above the drone. They remain soft and gentle, as do the sounds of what could be something dripping. More traffic, though of course with space. There is a coldness, though a relation that comes on through and through this there is space to walk.

It is early in the morning and the sky remains dulled. The idea of the sun is suggested by the increasing amount of light, but all remains gray and damp and dreary. A sense of the melancholy comes on through during the walk as more sounds come in and fill more space, almost cluttering with thoughts and emotions and it no longer is the morning, but rather night.

Walking continues and realisations come to a head, and a sadness comes forward, though with said sadness, so does  a conviction to see things through. Many thoughts come and go and lights flash on by. All flashes on by and fades as it comes into view and is moved past as a continuous blur of imagery, for the mind wanders elsewhere and sounds continue to build and rise and fall and alter the sensations.

Ambience builds to create something holding attention and sounds swirl around the main drone, slowly pulsing as other seem to reach upward but never quite get to where they should.

The sounds fade away quickly, almost suggesting that what was heard was a fleeting glimpse, and the song ends.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1077: Swift and Easy

Posted on February 9, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

A long day of warmth and ice pick headaches keep on coming, but that is the way of the day and it will soon be over in some manner, whether that be of the obvious and straightforward, or the gradual and indirect. Who knows, really?

So I sit here and I think about whatever it is that I think about and as I think about it I think about how I need some rest tonight. I will try and give myself that rest, or allow myself that rest, but before all of that I will surely cram too much into too little and then stress myself out some more. That’s just the way that I operate sometimes and it’s not necessarily a good way to go about things.

In saying all of that, how I am operating right now is in a state of relaxation as I want to feel relaxed and one needs to work hard to feel relaxed, unless they don’t need to work at all in order to feel relaxed, in which case, awesome. However, I’m working at it right now as I need to relax so that I can feel relaxed as it is time to relax, so why am I writing right now?

Well, I’m doing it now as I wanted to earlier but I didn’t. Therefore, the time to write is right now as opposed to earlier. I also want to write right now as I haven’t done as much as I would have liked over the past few weeks and… yeah.

So now I don’t know as to where I can go with this, but I do know that I’m doing what I can and in doing that I am making some sort of progress toward a thing that cannot necessarily be measured except in retrospect when it no longer matters, though it doesn’t matter right now so I don’t know as to why I’m mentioning it now. Guess I’m just looking to write the words that I’m writing.

Anyway, now that I am here and it is dark and the day shall soon end (as in the whole day and not just the time of day that is the daytime), I guess I should look at another swift and easy wrapping up of the words and their combinations to form sentences. However, I’m not sure as to what I should be doing to make this all look clever and swift and deft and all of those other things, so really what is going to happen is I’m going to be clunky and in my being clunky I’m going to find a way to end this awkwardly. However, that may not happen and the final sentence may make the sense that it needs to make and then I’ll be stuck here, scratching my head about this whole happening and I won’t know as to where I shall go or what I shall do, but at least I may feel some sort of relaxation.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 05:32:30

Not great. I really feel that had I written something earlier, it would not have been this.

Written at home.

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Mitsuto Suzuki: The Divine Dream

Posted on February 8, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

One listen for this, but there was a restart as I paused the song in order to get distracted.

Just more writing about what was happening and I think it kind of worked out. Not great, not bad; somewhere in the middle.

Mitsuto Suzuki’s (鈴木 光人) The Divine Dream (“神の視た夢”) is from Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII‘s soundtrack, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack.

I hope you enjoy.

—

Vocals fade into view and disappear quickly as other sounds move slowly and smoothly, almost as though they are unending. A low rumble, then keys scatter about whilst vocals appear and disappear once more. There is an otherworldliness filled with space and it is almost as though the space is rippling when sounds create a disturbance.

More keys appear, low, disjointed, and soon they are replaced by something akin to an idea of static. Vocals appear, as do more keys, though this time shimmering rather than scattering.

More sounds fade in and out when suddenly something massive stirs, almost having its entrance heralded. Suddenly it rumbles and shudders, keys race and a firm statement is made just before the song ends.

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Margins: Things Fall Apart

Posted on February 7, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

One listen for this one.

I tried writing about this song a few hours ago and I couldn’t get it to work. I was stuck on the start and I was finding difficulty in getting the first words out.

Came back and jumped right in and the start came out quite easily. Then the whole thing seemed to flow outward.

Margin’s “Things Fall Apart” is from Divide.

I hope you enjoy.

—

Snare rolls on in before switching to a steady kick thump. Guitar plays gingerly over the beat and bass emphasises the connection by forming a bridge. There’s a tenderness and a fragility, and a sense of sadness. Maybe it is grief.

Another guitar plays something a little faster and slowly comes into view as the sounds keep moving forward. Some more percussion appears at specific points, quiet and distant. Then, a pause and silence.

Suddenly all the instruments come back into view and into focus. Louder, though still with space and still quiet in a sense they play onward, weaving a sombre state though choosing not to wallow and instead continuing on.

Instruments pull away and stretch out whilst one guitar continues onward. Then percussion comes back in and both the bass and other guitar play around. Soon the one continuing onward slows and finds more space within itself as it becomes quieter. Soon the other instruments settle, leaving the bass.

The percussion strikes out at points, keeping the idea of a frame in mind, but more as a suggestion than anything else. Guitars appear at the edges, looking in and onward as the bass continues playing its melody. The mood remains as was before, though perhaps drier and a little more bitter. Perhaps there is a lament for what was.

Soon the bass shifts and becomes a little thicker. The instruments return for one final moment, quiet, and soon fade out as the song ends.

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Margins: Open

Posted on February 6, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

One listen for this song.

I felt a bit of a struggle in writing this, but it came pretty quickly.
This one I’m kind of content with. I feel I could’ve gone into much more detail, but then it would have been more than one listen.

Margins’ “Open” is from Divide.

I hope you enjoy.

—

A reverberant thud suddenly appears. Soon a curling of guitar follows. It plays carefully and tenderly, and is answered by a piano. They meet and carefully move around and follow each other.

A brief pause before more notes are added and they continue their motion together. One cradles the other and the dryness that comes through from their sounds creates a still atmosphere.

Along with other sounds they soon start descending, carefully picking their movements as they repeatedly lower in an expression of mood and tone, then find another brief pause.

The piano flickers a little more before disappearing, leaving background sounds to illuminate a dark space as the song ends.

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Rock Eroded by Wind

Posted on February 5, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

This was taken at the same location as this photo, and I’m not sure as to why I didn’t share it then.

I like how the colours have come through in this one. I think they work really well with the rock’s face, as well as its texture.

I think that this feels old, but not quite worn out even though it is eroded.

This is my submission into the one hundred-and-eighty-fourth Lens-Artists Photo Challenge.

The theme for this one is “Travel Has Taught Me“.

I was only able to get this photo thanks to traveling, something of which I’ve learned many a thing. However, probably the biggest thing I’ve learned from what little travel I’ve done is that it is something more often than not out of reach. Its costs can often outstrip the desire to do any of it, even if it is domestic, and as such, travel can become more of an idea or a dream than it can a reality.

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

Week 1 – Patti

Week 2 – Ann-Christine aka Leya

Week 3 – Amy

Week 4 – Tina

This year three people are joining the Lens-Artists team:

Sofia Alves of  Photographias

Anne Sandler of Slow Shutter Speed

John Steiner of Journeys with Johnbo

As such the above hosting order is likely to change.

This one is curated by Amy. The next one is curated by John. The theme for John’s has been announced and said theme will be “Change”.

I recommend participating in the challenges. They’re enjoyable and allow room for interpretation of the theme without straying too far. If you don’t participate, then I recommend that you at least check out what others of the Lens-Artists community are submitting.

I hope you enjoy.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1076: Training

Posted on February 5, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

Day, blah, all of that stuff.

It is a morning and it is a morning where there will be more things that involve throwing myself at walls so as to be able to knock down those walls.

Gotta be tough. Gotta be solid. Gotta be able to knock down the walls and in knocking down the walls need to be able to get back up again. This involves a strong training regiment that involves getting stronger and training rigorously and vigorously so as to be able to get stronger. Therefore there needs to be training of the strength and in that training of the strength there need to be tests of endurance.

Here’s how it will all work: I’ll start doing the training. Whilst I am doing the training, I will keep on training and whilst I keep on training I will train some more. I will get the training done and whilst I am getting the training done I will do more training, thus compounding upon the training with more training. There will be a lot of training and in all of that training the true heart of strength and endurance will be discovered.

Whilst this is all going on I will be facing many walls and I will be knocking them all down. I will be looking to break barriers with my rugged and muscular exterior and I will keep pushing onward like a greased god of power, and I will slide around like a fish out of water.

there will be no thrashing about, for there will be no time to thrash. There might be the facing of trash and taking that to the bin of disposing trash, but beyond that there will be no facing of trash.

Anyway, the training will commence and it will have a lengthy period, with that period of length being whatever it takes, and then after the training there will be the knocking down of the walls. Through this knocking down of the walls there will be barriers that are removed. They will be removed as they will be knocked down and then there will be more training, for the need to build on one’s endurance and strength is needed so as to be able to keep on knocking down walls and breaking barriers. There will be larger ones and in their morass borne from their existence and sheer, nigh-overwhelming numbers, they will invite the taking down so that there may be less barriers and walls.

Therefore, once that is all done, there can be rest, unless there are more walls that appear, for if more walls appear, then more must be knocked down. Therefore, as there could be more required, that can only mean one thing and therefore that one thing must be done.

There will be more training as there will be a continuing need to build up on the strength and the endurance that is required to take on a task so arduous, intense and heroic in nature.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:15:47

I wrote this earlier today.
It became pretty silly early on and so I decided to work with that as I wanted to see if I could make it work. It probably doesn’t, but I enjoyed writing what I wrote.

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Where Trains Arrive and Depart

Posted on February 4, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

Another photo of Albury Station.
Another photo that feels quiet.

I like the differing textures and details as they all fit pretty neatly together, I think.

It not only feels quiet, but it almost feels abandoned.

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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Gore Tech: Part I: Vibex Divide

Posted on February 3, 2022 by Stupidity Hole

This was written over one listen.

I restarted the opening seconds a few times to work out what the opening sound was, but other than that this was mostly pretty straightforward to write. I don’t think I switched off enough, but I captured an idea of how the song proceeds.

Gore Tech’s “Part I – Vibex Divide” is from Pulse Tundra.

I hope you enjoy.

—

A high plink rings out and alongside a rhythm forms. It compresses and rings and repeats.

Something underneath forms and stretches out as a drone. It is almost an expanse approaching and somewhere between these two sounds the first beat appears. Vocals flow in after and alongside the beats and slowly things fill out.

Keys come forward as some sounds mute and others stretch. The keys are delicate and careful, almost as though they are a glimpse of something. Vocals detach and the rhythm continues onward.

Distorted sounds come in through as brief  flashes and the atmosphere remains… not tense, but it carries an undercurrent of foreboding. Perhaps some sort of stark situation, or bleakness.

The lower sounds drop out and all that is left mainly is the opening sound and the piano. Something warps in for a moment and takes what is left, and one final key briefly rings out at the song’s end.

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