A few weeks ago I took a quick photo of the moon with my phone. The colour and lighting was wonderful and so I felt I had to capture it.
The photo made it look like the clouds were cradling the moon and I decided to try and adapt that, as seen below.
I hope you enjoy.
This took far longer than I anticipated, and it got to a point where I had to just stop.
Doing butterfree took the most time which was expected. I started on the background and I had ideas in mind. Realised I’m yet to have strong enough skill to do what I wanted well; realised it was taking far too long to do what I wanted poorly and so scrapped the idea and left the background as a featureless field area.
I hope you enjoy.
A crosswalk, soundless, framed by dark.
I hope you enjoy.
Yesterday I did nothing, and it was glorious. However, really, I worked from home and that was the glorious bit. I still did stuff. As such, my saying that I did nothing is a lie, and this is the truth.
I want to talk about the weather and this is how I’m starting things off. Fantastic.
My life slips into the realm of the banal, or perhaps I’m just more firmly cognizant of it having always been in the banal, and that’s okay. I’m at Duoly Rob once more and it’s raining outside. This could be worse, and it likely will be worse later, the weather that is. This place is fine. It’s pleasant in all the right ways. Nice to sit and rest, and take it easy here.
But outside it is raining, and I’m more aware of being close to the rain. Yesterday it also rained and it was a bit vicious, and not really at the same time. Yesterday the rain fell and the wind blew, and the winds were strong. I saw branches bend in ways that perhaps they shouldn’t, or rather I saw them bend in ways that I wasn’t comfortable with, mainly due to my not knowing enough about trees, really.
No branches dropped so I was lucky. So were many others, and a good few weren’t.
We have a habit of taking bad weather for granted. A lot of loss and devastation can come with it, and we don’t do much in the way of reacting to it. We might not see it happen, so we are indifferent. And sometimes that’s a difficult thing to deal with. Sometimes it’s difficult to reckon with how uncaring we can be because something didn’t happen to us.
You try. You try to improve and get better with these things, but you also have to recognise how much is not enough and how much is too much.
It’s raining and it’s windy, and some people are worried and I’m comfortable, and people shouldn’t have to be worried. I’m not advocating for removing trees here, just to be clear. We need more of them in a lot of areas. What I’m trying to think of is how we can develop in ways that are ecologically sustainable whilst maintaining safety and comfort with shelter. I don’t have the answers. I don’t know the best ways to go about these things, but it’s something to think about. It’s something to consider. Not enough people do, I think. Or maybe enough people actually do.
I will soon be outside again and dealing with the weather, and I’ll deal with it however I can, which will be in a minimal manner, I think. I don’t know. I’m not sure yet. There’s still time before I’m out there. But for some they’ll be dealing with it all day, and I most certainly won’t be. I’m just going from one safe place to another. In a sense, I’m fortunate. Too many people are not.
The time it took to write five-hundred words: 07:59:93
I wrote this yesterday, and it got a bit more serious than I’d hoped. I was hoping for serious, but a relaxed seriousness. This is what came forward though, and it’s fine.
Written at Dirty Red.
I was going to go for another photo, but I realised that I need to save it for something else. Instead, here’s something minimal, moody and suggestive of form. Or maybe not suggestive at all.
A few weekends ago I photographed my first gig in five months. Was quite rusty, but some photos turned out well. This one is one of them, but it didn’t go into the Culture Eater gallery as I couldn’t justify it over others.
This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s “Monochrome Madness” for this week. The next one is hosted by Sarah of Travel with Me, and she has chosen “The Letter H” as her theme.
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.
On the way home a few weeks ago I saw this scene. Took the opportunity to get a photo and did the best I could to isolate the tree and light.
This is my submission into the three hundred-and-fifty-fifth Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. The theme for this one is “Looking back to #42 – Creativity“. As a comparative to this photo, here’s what I did for #42. That one and this one are different in a good few ways, I think, with this one being more about “subject” and feeling more stark, and the prior one being more about “scene” and feeling far less minimal.
The host of the Lens-Artists challenges cycles weekly between the following people:
This one is curated by Leya. Next week the hosts are taking a breather. On the 12th, it’s me hosting as a guest! Exciting times. Happy and a little sad, but exciting nonetheless.
At the moment Patti is sitting out the challenges whilst she recovers from wrist injuries. Go send her some love.
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.
One listen.
I wrote this in part for similar reasons as to why I wrote about Retro Remix Revue’s cover of “Secret of the Forest”: I thought it’d be interesting to do so after writing about the original.
This one is similar and different to the original at the same time, which is to be expected. I think I did better in my writing about this one. Not exactly sure why; it might be due to having an easier time from being familiar with the source. I don’t know.
Retro Remix Revue’s “Donkey Kong – Aquatic Ambience” is from Retro Remix Revue, Vol. 2. It’s an album of covers from various game soundtracks.
I hope you enjoy.
—
Sounds flow in, flow connected, not stopping. They drift, pause (at least some of them) then percussion comes in, brushing past, brushing alongside as everything else moves through its pressing melody.
There’s a quiet here now. Percussion pulses, urges, as do other sounds as they follow in their moving up and down before fading. Soon a rise and once more percussion fills out more. Steady, and woodwind comes in now, asking questions and exploring a deep quiet.
The woodwind disappears and the quieter sounds draw out, draw forward. Keys shimmer in the dark, in the impenetrability of the deep. Percussion becomes livelier, and synth now clearly carries the main line.
Here the sounds are stronger, more confident. They flow with a push and a thrust, and they play smooth, coming forward and pulling back where required. The drama of the melody is emphasised, and the heaviness is there.
Synth comes more forward, extends and compresses notes. It plays slow and fast, moving as required, not being too busy but putting forward an energy. Putting forward more drama, rising and falling, seemingly gliding, flowing. Flowing along, cutting its own current through.
When the synth ends, the other sounds lower. They move more toward a peace, but they keep that pressure. It’s not a heavy pressure. It’s not pressing down. It seems to urge, seems to reveal a calm among it all, and there’s prettiness to it, and focus and direction, and it suddenly stops at the song’s end.
It has been a highly fatiguing period, and that probably has a lot to do with getting back on the bike and riding the bike and cycling and using my legs in ways they haven’t been used in a while, due to them being used in the act of cycling. On a bike.
Bike.
Last week I tried write something in under five minutes and I dropped it as it wasn’t going anywhere. Now I’m just trying to write. There are ideas floating around and I need to pluck them out of the air. I need to grab onto them and put them into a form where they are used. That said, sometimes it’s good to just let an idea float away.
Sometimes you just need to let an idea float on away, disappear. Maybe it will come back after some adventuring. Who knows. I do know that it’s not good to hold tightly onto everything. That can be a good way to see some things not get the space they need, and if they don’t they might be worse off for it. You want things to be better and not worse, unless you do want things to be worse, in which case… not sure what you’re after, to be honest.
But anyway, I’m sitting and I’m getting through my work. Soon I will be on lunch, lunching away as one does. I will be doing the thing and in doing the thing I will be feeling the land. I will be in the moment as I become one with my surroundings and turn into furniture of the most unusable variety, but that’s okay. Some furniture is ornamental. I’m sure I’ll survive, so long as no one tries to pick me up and carry me off.
But I will be in the zone, drawing as that’s what I must do at the moment. I must draw; I am compelled. I must rehearse; I am compelled. I need to keep forcing myself to write, because I need to keep on writing. I feel that if I don’t then I am allowing myself to wither away in some form. I don’t want that to happen. But sometimes these things get away from you. Sometimes you find things become a struggle, and then what? Do you give up?
I remember Henry Rollins gave up music because he didn’t have it in him anymore, and maybe that’s what I’m facing. But I still have that desire. I don’t have the drive, but I desire to write. There is so much I am yet to say, and so I need to find ways to say it, even if that means I need to struggle against the lack of drive. I need to let some ideas flourish and I need to grow some by my hand, and I need to work out which is which. I’m sure I will get there at some point. Maybe one day it’ll happen. I don’t know. These things take time.
The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:05:76
Not my best work, but if I need to force myself, I need to force myself.
Written at work.
I decided to be a bit more loose with my lines with this one, as well as try and replicate the shading that the art I was tracing used. I’ve wanted to make use of more shading but haven’t gotten around to doing so. Laziness reigns supreme at the best of times.
I think this one turned out okay. Would make a few changes if I were better at drawing, maybe. Don’t know.
I hope you enjoy.
One listen.
With this I put fragments down without trying to expand upon them. I feel like what I wrote feels like things going past quickly, but it’s not quite that. Anyway.
David Wise’s “Aquatic Ambience” is from Donkey Kong Country‘s soundtrack, DK Jamz: The Original Donkey Kong Country Soundtrack. It is also featured on Super Donkey Kong Original Sound Version as “WATER MUSIC”.
I hope you enjoy.
—
Sounds move slow, moving, moving along, drifting under pressure, peaceful, urging in a way. Urging peacefully. Floating in and out of range, pulsing. Muffled and clear.
A change, though the melody remains the same. More beeps, more pulses, more moments held within a small frame of time.
Percussion is light, gentle. It’s just enough to push things forward. More sound along with it, adding layers of melody. Questions, wondering, answers. Majesty of a grand space unable to be appreciated. Fragments of the slowness of underwater, and how quick it is.
Seemingly the sounds become more urging, more pressing and pushing along. A weight to them, a rushed beauty. A peace in darkness until they all fade and the song ends.
Stupidity Hole 