Five-Hundred Word Challenge 689: The Ladder

Downpours abound and the only way out is up, so it’s time to start building a ladder to ascend. How high? Well, as high as it needs to be. There is no other answer. There is no other option. The floods are coming and they need to be risen above.

And so the building starts and it starts off small. At first it is only a few steps, but they are wide as there needs to be space to sit down just in case one gets tired during the climbing. Many materials are used to make sure that the foundation is solid. The first few steps are placed and it appears as though it would get someone to a roof of a small house. Not a bad start, but there needs to be faster action as rain does not wait and as such the building needs to move quickly, lest people get caught in the rainfall and become soaked.

Soon the ladder takes more shape. Well, more shape than it had already taken on, that is. It seems to grow and become bigger and a little wider and soon it reaches a point where it appears as though the area below is quite far away, though it only is about thirty or forty metres. It’s a good amount of work and effort, but of course there needs to be more as there is little time to spare. This is not the time to take solace in the effort thus far.

So then more building into the ladder goes and this leads to the ladder being far, far greater in size. At the same time it appears as though it has some form of stairs at points and becomes less of a ladder and more of a path. Soon the ground is as small as it is massive and people are rather difficult to see when it comes to details. You can kind of make out who they are, but only by recognising clothes and not facial features. From this point the clouds can be seen. They are moving rather fast into the area. Not long before it starts bucketing down. The building needs to continue on and it needs to be faster and more efficient.

More development, more reinforcing structure and at this point the ladder is now a towering colossus, ready to climb for many, though it still needs to grow as it is yet to reach over the clouds. It is yet to get close to the underside of the clouds. There is little time, though time may no longer be an affordable thing. An alcove at the current top of the ladder exists which works as a makeshift shelter, but few make it as it starts raining.

It rains heavily for what feels like an eternity crammed into a few minutes, then the clouds continue on their path, leaving no flood and no damage. Having been revealed as pointless, the ladder is swiftly dismantled for its materials.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 07:52:59

It started raining just before I started this. Decided to write about the rain and instead wrote about a ladder… kind of.

Written at home.

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Gymnorhina tibicen tibicen

One of the Australian magpie subspecies.

I had to crop this image a fair bit which helps show some of the magpie’s details more clearly. However, it makes me want to get closer next time I’ve this opportunity as I want to see this looking sharper with less noise.

I feel as though this image does a decent job of showing the magpie watching me in case I got too close; at the same time it almost seems as though it is looking elsewhere.

This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s TPM photo challenge for this week.

The theme for this challenge is “Your Local Area”.

I suggest checking out Leanne’s photography, as well as checking out what other people submit into the challenge.

You can find the challenges here.

I hope you enjoy.

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A Minor Part

Taken in the same area as this photo.
The different shooting point shows a different part of The Western Distributor.

This scene feels a bit cold, I think. It doesn’t have much direct sunlight falling on the visible area, which might be why.

The ute moving from the road underneath the building is interesting, I think. It doesn’t get much focus in the image but it stands out.

This is my submission into the one hundredth Lens-Artists Photo Challenge.

The theme for this one is “The Long and Winding Road“.

The Western Distributor isn’t the longest or most winding road, but it does link up with a few lengthy ones. At certain times, however, it can feel longer than usual. it also has a few bits that are winding.

Obviously this photo doesn’t show that, but it does show that the road splits in at least one place whilst allowing the imagination to fill in the blanks.

The challenge is hosted by four people and cycles weekly:

Week 1 – Patti

Week 2 – Ann-Christine aka Leya

Week 3 – Amy

Week 4 – Tina

This one is hosted by Tina. Next week is guest-hosted by Cee.

I recommend giving the challenges a go and seeing how you interpret each theme. I also recommend checking out what other people are doing to meet the challenges.

I hope you enjoy.

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Canna indica

From what I understand, this one specifically is Canna indica var. flava.

I saw this last year during one of the stops Fe and I made whilst we were driving around places south of Sydney.

I think the lighting and the focus turned out quite well. I like that the flower is not centered and not fully visible. It allows more of the mind to fill in the blanks.

I also think that it’s a pretty flower overall.

It makes me wonder as to whether someone just left a bunch of seeds where this was growing as, as far as I’m aware, the plant is not endemic to the region in which it was growing.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

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One Thousand Word Challenge 50: Finding Topics

So I probably should have started this earlier as it’s a bit late and very soon I will be going to bed, but you win some and some you lose and in this instance I have done neither, but we’ll see how this all turns out, assuming it turns out at all of course. Sitting here, banging away on the keyboard once more and who knows how the results will turn out? Not me, though I am sure that they will be “readable”, for any given value of what is and is not readable, of course.

Well, now that I have that out of the way, we have to see where this is now leading, assuming that it is leading anywhere at all. This is the much-vaunted second paragraph and I have no idea as to how I can follow on from my first paragraph, which really was an exercise in brilliance in that I exercised all the brilliance out of it and am now stuck with trying to find a way to make sure that the attention of the reading is held. This is of course assuming that I am able to hold attention at all as there is a good chance that at least more than no people have turned out at this point and stopped reading. If that is indeed the case, then perhaps there was nothing to get out of this, or perhaps I’m just that good at hiding the better stuff later on. This is all a slow burn, of course, but when I say that I mean a slow burn of everyone’s patience.

Now that that is out of the way I need to think about what I will include in this section, but I really don’t know. I’m pushing myself a bit, I will admit, but sometimes you need to do so in order to get things done, or something like that, as they say. Whoever they are I do not know, but I know that once this is done I will be taking a bit of a rest as I want to read my book and thing about other things. I want to forget about the day of work at the moment as the day of work was not one that I’d normally recommend people engage within. It wasn’t a meat grinder as it usually is, but it was still pretty bad in places. Customers preventing me from doing things and customers not preventing me from doing things; it was almost all there. Still, didn’t get abused which was good.

I think that if I don’t talk about my day, then I need to think of something else to talk about but I really don’t know at this stage. What I do know is that I am really stretching. Perhaps I could’ve started off by talking about chickens. I do know that there are plans to write more about them that I keep on putting off, so perhaps instead of putting that off I should spend more time writing about chickens so that they are no longer things I need to write about in some capacity until I once more get to a point where I am writing about them, for they always return and are never truly gone.

Perhaps instead of that I should just writer some bad poetry or about a dream I;’ve been meaning to write about as it was a bit of an odd dream and a lot of it remains in my memory. It was not a bad dream; just an odd one. A bit intense in places, but sometimes dreams are intense in places more than they are intense the whole way through and quite frankly I don’t think that that is a bad thing… unless it is, in which case it is a bad thing and quite possibly of the very variety.

I guess instead of all of that I should just write about how my hair keeps on growing out and spreading away from its source so as to consume more space and I should probably cut it, but I don’t mind that it’s getting long and messy, though that doesn’t really allow itself for the sort of exploration that I am currently seeking, so I guess instead of all of those things and instead of something else I’m just going to put this down and go down to the ocean and stare out over the glorious body of water that is the ocean and think about  things and maybe think about myself and try to put myself outside of myself for a while as that may be a better thing to do.

It might provide some catharsis and realisation as I finally feel a whole lot of hurt and relief and work out how to best proceed forward in my life in order to be a better version of me, for only looking at something as overwhelmingly powerful as the ocean would be able to allow me to think of myself outside of myself in that manner, and that can only be a good thing, though sometimes it might be a bad thing and I’d rather it be good… actually, I’d rather it just be whatever it needs to be and then deal with it from there, but this is of course assuming that I feel like getting out of my chair.

I don’t feel like getting out of my chair. I am quite happy sitting here and as such instead of doing all those things I’m just going to wrap this up and then do a few things that involve dishes and then find a way to go to sleep and then wake up in the morning and then get on with my life in a way that shows that I am doing things, though perhaps that will not happen and instead I’ll just rest well for a few more days as that way I can feel well-rested in a well-rested way.

The time it took to write one thousand words: 09:58:44

As an exercise I feel this has merit.
Not sure as to how much makes sense as I don’t want to read over what I wrote.
I probably should, but I won’t.

Written at home.

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Cirrus Forms

I think these are Cirrus fibratus. Not sure.

This is a vague and somewhat minimal image.
I think it’s very much about form and mood rather than detail.

I hope you enjoy.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 688: Ripples Rippling

Ripples rippling half of the way to where they must head only come to a stop for some reason, but then interrupting their being in thought the water starts flowing uphill rather than down at a speed that suggests that it should not be able to do what it is doing at all. Bit of an oddity, but of course many things are. As such, the ripples keep on rippling and cross over themselves and create a noise in visible form.

It’s a mesh that spreads out and over everything and follows the water as it continues to flow up and away from a larger mass of water. It keeps spreading out and disturbs the surface of all the rivers and lakes without any signs of abating. The water shakes and appears to vibrate, but all it is showing is a mass of ripples moving outward from a source and crossing over each other and continuing on whichever direction they were heading as though they were unable to be stopped by other interruptions out there.

Of course the land remains in the way and thus the ripples are contained, but the water still keeps on moving up and the ripples keep on moving out. It all seems contained for a while, but then the land starts exhibiting strange forms of behaviour. Slowly, yet surely the ripples find their way under the soils and sands and rocks and slowly the ripples begin to spread forth from the water. Well, slowly at first. Eventually it picks up some pace.

It appears noticeable but seems to have no effect. Perhaps there is an effect, but whatever it is is not observable by those who notice. It keeps on spreading and moving forward and soon the land is possessed by the image of noise in a more physical form; or, at least the implication, for the ripples bring no noise with them. They just are there and they keep on spreading out and further away from their source and keep on crossing with other ripples until the land is engulfed by them.

It just seems to keep on spreading outward and gaining traction, and the water keeps on moving up and building mass at peaks and points of origin. The ocean seems lower than usual, and it is not just due to the tide. Eventually this phenomena becomes ignored as, whilst it was ominous at first, in the eyes of many it doesn’t appear to be changing much and is producing no visible harm, so everyone just goes back on with doing what they were doing beforehand.

Then eventually the ripples reach the other sides of themselves and suddenly they halt. They stop. They quite suddenly and rapidly retreat back to their own sources and, just as suddenly the built-up water that had moved upward releases itself and returns back to how it was before the shift. It is a sudden violence; an extravagant display with no explanation and a reason unknowable to all.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 10:08:16

Slow and not great. I do like the imagery but I’m not sure as to what I was trying to express. I’m not sure I was looking to express anything.

Written at home.

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Brent DeBoer

Of The Dandy Warhols.

I think I like this photo more for how the colour sits in the photo rather than for what Brent DeBoer is doing, though that still is something I find interesting. It appears as though he’s just sitting there and singing rather than drumming, which he also was doing at the time this photo was taken. Just doesn’t appear that way.

I hope you enjoy.

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Colours of a Sunset

I think this photo feels impressionistic. Not in the sense of impressionism, but more that, due to how the photo was taken, it gives an impression of a sunset. Maybe it’s that it suggests the sunset. I don’t know.

It clearly is a sunset, but it’s rendered in a way that blurs the details. It makes the colour and light, and their placement more important to the image.

The colour shifts between hard and soft whilst the light spreads outs in lines.

On a side note, I tried cropping the photo but the cropping had a detrimental impact.

I hope you enjoy.

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Chelsea Wolfe: Birth of Violence Review

This mostly came together in the last few hours and I think it shows.
I didn’t struggle so much with writing this review but I feel as though I should’ve given it more time and waited for things to come forward.

I feel that at the moment I’m unable to say more about the album, which is a shame as I think there’s quite a bit more to it than my review implies.

Along with most of my review and interview work, this is also 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. We should soon have a few more things for supporters going.

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.

A “howling” sound reaches out, then Chelsea Wolfe’s vocals and clean guitar enter. A simple repetition plays whilst lyrics float over the sound. Eventually the song becomes something less quiet. It remains calm, but more expansive and evocative. As “The Mother Road” indicates, Birth of Violence is more subdued than some of Chelsea Wolfe’s prior albums.

That said, there still is a strong sense of the dramatic. Without distorted guitar and loud drums being holding prominence it’s more able to come forward in a less abrasive manner. It’s less forceful, allowing the mood and drama to come forward with a bit more of a gentle touch. The album remains heavy, though not through sounding as overt and as direct as possible.

There’s also a sense of fullness to sound. Some moments are sparse, but more often than not there is more than just vocals, guitar and drums. “American Darkness” involves soft sounds that seem to pulse somewhere in the background; The strings on “Be All Things” draw out the melody quite a lot; “Little Grave” makes effective use of building mass to give the song a stronger sense of weight. There are others that work well, but overall throughout the album anything additional to a song’s base goes a long way in enhancing atmosphere and mood.

Chelsea Wolfe’s voice is as strong as ever. Among passion, introspection and examination she brings forth a sense of tenderness throughout all of Birth of Violence. There’s something rather welcoming about the way she expresses and allows her voice to flow that feels like quite at home here; even when the conjured imagery is rather stark.

Where Birth of Violence shines most is however everything comes together. Rather than go for something big and full on, the album goes for the cleaner approach, though it remains rather full-sounding. It works in a way that leads to the whole thing having at times a dreamy feel; at others something more ominous and weighted. It does falter a bit by sounding rather compressed in places, as well as perhaps a little too much reverb spread throughout, but the songs stand strong. These were songs that required a quieter performance to work, and work well they do. They carry a lot more with a bit less, and do so effectively.

Birth of Violence is available here.

 

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