Fun with processing.
This was mostly me seeing what would happen if I pushed a few different things farther than I normally would.
I think the shading impresses a sense of depth and distance on the scene. It was raining somewhere in the distance when I took this photo and I think that also helps enhance the depth.
I like the sense of quiet in the scene. It’s raining but the area still feels silent.
Silent and massive, and stretching far beyond the horizon.
I hope you enjoy.
Time to start. Time to begin. Time to find the words and sort them into an order that makes sense.
My hands do not seem to be functioning right now. That’s okay. They’ve had a strong burning sensation for ove3r twelve hours, but that has mostly faded. The follies of tearing apart peppers without gloves. Was not the best of ideas, but I survived and I’m here and I’m writing and that’s the main thing right now.
So once more the week has moved along toward its end and I sit here trying to work out what it is that I should write about. It’s a fine day for writing though. The sun is out. Some plants have had soil added to the area in which they inhabit and I’ve gone for a walk. There are an increasing amount of people out and about it seems and that is something I’d prefer not to happen, but they too need to get out of their abodes so it would be unfair for me to proclaim the area outside of the inside as my own.
For now I can proclaim the little space in which I’m sitting as my own and that’s probably a good thing. Or just a thing. I don’t think it matters, really.
I can proclaim a lot of things, but it does not mean that those proclamations hold weight to anyone outside of myself.
Where am I going with this?
Anyway, so I’m sitting here, doing the thinking thing and of course due to my actively thinking about trying to think of something to write about there is little that is coming to my mind and that of course becomes its own subject to discuss, but I want to avoid that as there are far too many of these about the very subject of trying to come up with something to write about and that is not something I want to specialise in, though it may just be that I have no choice but to do so as that is often what comes to mind. Of course I should just try and stop thinking so actively… or something.
Maybe I really should shift gears, come up with a topic for every single one of these and then go with that topic. Maybe it would make things a bit easier for me. I don’t know. All I want to do is just write and paint scenes with my words, share my photography and work on music. I don’t want to something something and so on and so forth.
However, if I continue at this rate then I’m sure that there will be some sort of esoteric explanation of what is and what is not and it will make sense to no being who reads this; not even me, as it will be far too meandering and haphazard to make any sense whatsoever.
I’ll probably have hit my peak by then and quite quickly be rolling down the other side.
The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:23:31
I’d probably feel as though this had some merit if I hadn’t already covered the same thing more times than I can think of right now.
Still, the flow is alright. Doesn’t seem to be awkward. Well, aside from the last sentence that is.
Written at home.
A long exposure taken a couple of days ago.
I really like how the train lights contrast with the light level of the surrounding area. I think it helps to draw focus to the train.
What was visible of the sunset was behind me which I think this shot kind of implies and kind of doesn’t.
The scene seems like it was quiet until the train appeared. As it cuts through the quiet, the train seems to be alone in its journey. Aside from those required for its operation, perhaps there were passengers on the train.
Either way, this photo shows a temporary, though prominent disturbance to the area.
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.
The coffee was good and now it is time to get into the meat of it all, but that keeps on moving away and so I must chase after it and see where it leads me.
I head on over the obstacles in the house and step outside, chasing after the meat of it all. I turn and go down the street and away from my home and I keep on following and trying to catch up, but of course it constantly remains out of reach, but I must keep on trying to catch it and grapple with what it presents and what it is so that I can dive deeper and go further than before, or something to similar effect.
And so I leave the confines of the suburb and keep on following and try to catch up, and keep on going and eventually reach the boundaries of the city known as Sydney. I keep on moving and keep on trying to get closer but it still remains out of reach. The endeavor seems hopeless, but I have to keep on going and have to keep on trying.
The view changes and shifts and gradually the buildings fall away and reveal more vegetation. Up into the hills and the mountains I keep on going and following. There still remains the idea of suburbia, but at this point it is severely diminished when compared to what there was prior to the leaving of the confines of the city.
The sound of traffic is near, but it too soon drops away as I am led along a path leading away from the veins of vehicular traversal. Away from anything resembling suburbia I go and further and further into the bush I move. No longer are the buildings part of the confinement, but now the trees and the earth and the sky have become more prominent, and rather than confining they feel more freeing, but still I must keep on going and I keep on trying to get into the meat of it all, but of course it still stays ahead.
Soon it leaves the solidarity of gravity and floats away and I to do the same. I lift off and begin to float along and be carried away. Farther and farther off the ground until the area I was in appears small, but the area surrounding it remains massive and nigh-overwhelming.
I float along and try to catch up to that which is ahead of me. I try to catch up to the meat of it all, but of course it remains ahead until it finally stops.
I have returned to near where I started and finally I have caught up to that which I was chasing. I don’t have the time to prepare and I don’t need it. There is a city underneath me and it appears both large and small. I dive into the meat of it all, and in my return to earth I end up back home.
The time it took to write five-hundred words: 07:01:94
This feels kind of light.
I imagine that if I spent a lot of time on writing this thing out and extended it beyond five-hundred words, there would be a lot more detail and it would be more clearly about missing the things whilst chasing something that need not be chased, or something to similar effect. Maybe.
Written at home.
This kind of took long and kind of didn’t.
It took longer than I hoped, but most of it came together over a few lazy hours.
I knocked out a whole lot of notes one day last week, then scrapped most of them when I was re-writing the notes today.
I think the review is a bit on the short side. Perhaps it’s a bit too much of a summary, if that makes sense.
Along with most of my review and interview work, this review 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’ve recently switch to weekly releases and soon will be giving the patrons a bit more.
Please consider supporting, or at least sharing the Patreon page with others. Please also check out what our wonderful contributors are contributing.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
—
”It’s Nothing New / Hungry Cats / Getting fatter minds and thinner ideas” Colin Newman rigidly states on Mind Hive‘s opener “Be Like Them”. Much like the rest of the album’s lyrics, both these and the following lines come off as quite serious, critical and occasionally bleak. It also matches the music’s robotic sound quite well.
Some of the other songs sound more “pop”, some are more relaxed, and some go for a hard edge. There’s a bit of a mix, but overall Mind Hive is textually familiar in the way that makes it feel like it belongs to the past few Wire albums. In a way this one carries a strong sense of familiarity, but it still has its own identity.
The lyrics do kind of also move around a bit, though they often sound overtly serious more than they don’t. Either way there’s a lot of critical, heavy stuff that feels like it’s about now as well as the future. A lot of it comes off as pretty downbeat, though not all of it is obvious at first. Sometimes it takes a bit for the conjured imagery to become apparent, but it’s still appreciable that way; The direct stuff works, but the stuff that takes longer to dawn often becomes more striking.
As far as Mind Hive‘s flow goes… well, it flows pretty well. The first few songs are pretty punchy, “Primed and Ready” shifts into the bouncy “Off the Beach” quite well despite the two sounding rather different. The album then relaxes a bit for the slower and more laid-back “Unrepentant” and “Shadows”. From here it seems the relaxing will continue. Instead the obliquely-worded, overtly dark-sounding “Oklahoma” brings the album back to a less relaxed pace.
The following “Hung” is one of the more traditionally grand songs Wire have done, It’s big, wide and ominous, and like many of the other songs on Mind Hive has a dark undertone. It’s a song that starts off pretty small and seems to keep on growing for a while. Its sound development and steady,
“Hung” almost connects with the closing organ-driven “Humming”, which might just be the album’s most effective song.
Mind Hive is overall generally pretty solid. Aside from it belonging a little too much to the past few albums and the production not doing the songs justice, Wire still put in a good effort. There’s a sense of impact that comes through the album that doesn’t become overbearing; it’s just enough. However “Hung” is where the band deliver the album’s emotional gut punch. The vocals draw out most of the words just enough to make them felt. The imagery comes through much more clearly and the music carries a sense of mourning. It’s a song that, more so than the rest of the album, is wholly and utterly the sum of its parts.
Maybe Wire were in mourning when they made this album. Maybe not. It’s clear though that they still want to make sure their music works; They want to still get what they want to say across in an effective manner. Mind Hive might have a few issues, but it’s an effective album.
Mind Hive is available here.
This came out a lot darker than it actually was at the time. To be honest I don’t mind. There’s a fair bit of clarity in the photo, but I feel as though the darkness makes the photo more suggestive. I find that interesting.
I like the ambiguity as it makes the seen feel more moody and atmospheric, I think.
To me, the sky has this kind of washed out and saturated look. I think it might have to do with the light contrast.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
I’m looking upon some of this and it makes me think of some of the stuff I wrote in 2006 and 2007.
That’s stuff that I should look over sooner rather than later, but I’m pretty sure there were live reviews I wrote than that were a bit less list-like than this.
Still, I think this is an alright draft. I really should have expanded some of this stuff and made it less robotic. Probably would’ve made the bit about the person in the audience reacting a bit more interesting.
Other than some spelling errors fixed, this is as it was when it went up on Cool Try.
Along with most of my review and interview work, this review 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’ve recently switch to weekly releases and soon will be giving the patrons a bit more.
Please consider supporting, or at least sharing the Patreon page with others. Please also check out what our wonderful contributors are contributing.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
—
Sparrows was the first performer of the night.
She had a strong voice and her sounds were a mix of pop and found sound.
It worked well, but at the same time it sounded as though she wasn’t sure if she wanted to go weirder or more poppy.
With that being said, her performance was good.
Ross Henry came up next. Whilst somewhat interesting, his sound was a little too close to homogeneity without refinement and his performance came off as a bit forced.
However, he had one of the most amazing microphones I’ve ever seen in action. He would waver quite a lot around it, sing facing partially away from it whilst at a distance and it always picked up his voice at the same volume.
Being the main act, Owen Rabbit was the last performer. He put in a solid effort and delivered his vocals with a fair bit of confidence. They sat a bit above his rather full, melodic songs.
Despite being static, seeing his songs performed gave a livelier feel than on record.
There’s not much to say about the performances beyond that as there was a problem with discerning how each artist was which mostly had to do how inappropriately loud everyone was.
I’m not sure if it had to do with the artists or the sound engineer, but everything was being mixed for a room that was much bigger (and possibly a bit less dark) than the one at The Record Crate. I found it to be quite detrimental to the experience.
In a small room you don’t want to be at a performance where almost everything sounds like crap because it’s too loud for the space.
Ultimately what helped me judge the performances was someone wearing a cap and sunglasses at the front of the crowd. I’m not sure as to what state they were in (it was clear that they were on something), but based on their slow, minute “grooving”, they unwittingly became the (probably biased) barometer used to measure the performance of each artist beyond what I could see and hear.
During Sparrows, the person had their head down and were bopping up and down, as well as a slight bit from side-to-side.
When Ross Henry was on, other than some jocular banter, the person became much more static. There was motion, but it had become reduced in frequency.
Once Owen Rabbit was performing, the person became a bit more animated than during Sparrows. Their head lowered. There was more bopping. An arm stretched outward from the side of their body and, leaving the pointer finger pointing outward, slowly moved back and forth almost as though it was stuck on part of the circumference of a circle that went around the person.
That might be a bad way to judge the strength of a performance.
Ultimately, despite some issues, the whole thing was fun which is what this person showed.
With that being said, it will be interesting to see these artists down the track.
I just spent far, far too long whittling down twenty-something hours of music to somewhere fifteen minutes shy of seven hours to create a playlist of calm(ish) music in order to write to this morning. I think it can be best said that it was not worth the time or effort that it took. I think I was working on this for close to an hour. That was rough, but now I am ready to write, but the issue now that I have is that all that I have running through my mind is all the music I just spent listening to a few seconds of in order to create this playlist, thus invading my ability to think about other things and thus causing issues as all I want to do is write about other things but I can only think about the music, but it still is nice music but I want it to fade into the background but I guess I should just let it happen rather than keep on talking about it as all that talking about it is doing is causing me to think about it more and so if I stop talking about the music that I took out of this playlist to make it calmer on average, then I’ll be able to get on with talking about other things.
Well, now that that is out of the way I guess I should get on with talking about other things. Maybe. I’ve been awake for too long this morning though, so maybe there won’t be the talking about other things. Maybe this will once more be one of those things that I write that expresses absolutely nothing other than I want to write.
I don’t think that is going to happen. I think I’m a little to far drawn into the music. Oh well. It happens. Still, this is rather sweet music. Well, not all of it is sweet, but certainly some of it is. Some of it is more pretty, but a lot of it is calm. Still, it is a little too attention grabbing and that is what I was hoping to avoid. I guess that is my own issue to deal with.
There’s a bit of bounce in some of what I’m hearing and that too is nice. It’s not too much bounce. It’s just enough to give a bit of an energy to a track without making it all about the energy. It’s still relaxed; just a little more assertive, I guess.
Hmm. Maybe I should just spend the time writing about what I’m listening to rather than try to write about anything else. Maybe. There probably are other things that I could write about, but right now it’s about the music. It’s about the expression. The music is expressive and this one has a slight inflection in some of its notes; a slight flick and ever-so-slight feeling of a pause. It’s still nice. It’s rather pleasant still. This is enjoyable music. This is music that can be enjoyed. Well, maybe some wouldn’t enjoy it, but I am and right now that’s what matters. I need to listen to something a bit more relaxing as the stress of the paid job is still stressful and I need a bit more relaxing in my life. I probably should read more books at the moment. Don’t know. We’ll see what happens.
Still, I do like my reading almost as much as I like music.
Another track with a bit more energy to it. Okay. I don’t know why I left this one on. Maybe it’s due to its upbeat feel. Maybe. Maybe it’s just that I like this one a little too much and thus couldn’t remove it from the playlist.
Now that I think about it, I think there are others that are coming up that are the same. We’ll have to see what happens. Wait. There definitely are more coming up.
I think there’s some that are piano-driven and energetic, and some that aren’t piano-driven and energetic. I think the playlist is already failing in what I hoped it would achieve. Oh well. The onus is on me for that one. Still remains enjoyable. As far as I’m aware, most of it is instrumental in nature and often not having vocals is better, I think.
Well, more not having anything recognisable as clear words is often better when it comes to having stuff fade into the background. Hard to pull off clear words and keep it in the background. Some artists do it well, but most don’t. That’s fine.
Ah, now we’re up to something that says “adventure” a little too much. It’s all upbeat and energetic. There’s the nice use of horns and strings, and the percussion maintains a steady sense of swing. This is the wonderful stuff, though not calm at all.
Now I don’t care about it not being too calm. Maybe I really should have just gone for energy rather than calm. Energy would be better. It would get me moving and grooving, as the kids say. I think they say anyway. Maybe they do not say. Maybe they stay silent and make playlists that are more calm than energetic far better than I do. Something to not ruminate upon, but something I will ruminate upon nonetheless. Or I won’t. Don’t know yet. Remains to be seen.
Anyway, this little ditty that’s now playing is more calm and seems a bit jazzier in the “smooth” sense. Has a nice sense of direction, some relaxed beat and those strings keep bouncing a little, stopping and starting, shortening and extending if that all makes sense.
And of course it too disappears far too fast and now we get to something a bit more expansive, but I think now is the time to stop writing about what I’m hearing. I think it now finally is out of my mind. Or maybe it’s not.
Definitely not, though that’s fine with me.
The time it took to write one thousand words: 14:07:89
I don’t think this bit of writing is good, but it had to come out and of course that meant I had to share it.
Still, it feels grounded and real and for that I’m satisfied. Just need to work on not actively thinking so much.
Written at home.
And so soon the thundering will begin and all that is and all that will be will all occur once more, but that is for another day, but for now at least I know that there is a little something that I must reach for, but how long that little something takes to reach is yet to be seen as there is still youth in the day and as the day remains youthful and is yet to reach some sort of old adolescence, there still is plenty to do and little time in which to do it all, or something like that.
That might be a bit too long of a sentence, but it now remains written and I am not going back, for right now the only way is forward and forward-facing is what I am currently facing… in the direction of forward.
Now that I’ve got that off my hands, I guess I can move to the next part, but that part that is next remains to be seen as the scene of its existence is yet to be painted, and right now I have no paint except for the one that exists on this device that I use to express words in an order of sorts. However, the paint that is on this device is yet to be touched on this very fine morning of mornings as there is little reason to do so other than the act of progressing in a skill that involves drawing and techniques related to drawing, and those are things that right now I just don’t feel like exploring as the conjuration of the text still remains at the forefront of my cerebral processing unit that sits nicely within me skull, and the hands are the mediator that I was not expecting them to be, which I guess is a good thing rather than a bad thing, so there you go.
Now that I also have that out of the way, I guess I should get onto expressing other things, but there is little else and I guess I should move toward wrapping this up in a little blanket that this text can fit into so it can stay nice and warm so that it does not get cold like the temperature outside of its being, as staying warm will be beneficial as winter approaches through feeling its way trough autumn until it can once more rise from where it was hibernating and so verily force us to think of new approaches to the day, even though they are usually the same approaches as the year prior to the one currently existing within you just so happen to be.
So those will come in place and there will be more moving forward and the time will continue to shift and the day will eventually grow long in the tooth, but of course a new one will be born in its wake and it too shall be spritely and youthful until it isn’t.
The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:01:96
Wrote this in the morning and only getting to upload it now. As such the day is out of its youth and now experiencing the wonders of fully-fledged adulthood.
Anyway, this text… I think it’s okay. Maybe a bit too loose. Not sure.
Written at home.
Stupidity Hole 