I walked from Coogee to Bondi yesterday which of course meant that there were many a photo taken.
Here’s a photo of Bronte Beach.
I like the way that the light in this photo has a strong effect on the details and colour.
I also like that you can make out the waves as they’re rising, and the way the water sits with the sand.
I hope you enjoy.
I was on a bus and it was stopped at what I think was the start of the steep incline of Foveaux Street in Surry Hills. I’m fairly certain that that was the street the street in my dream was at the very least based off of.
There was a neon sign above a door that could be seen from the front door of the bus. It said something about Frenzal Rhomb buying a jellyfish. I think it was so they could throw it at people. The bit about buying a jellyfish wasn’t necessarily written in a language that could be understood, although it might have been that parts of the sign were not working as intended.
Anyway, Jay Whalley was walking by when he said something, then decided to hop on and commandeer the bus. There was a bus behind the bus that I was on and the driver of my bus was talking with the driver of the other bus which was why Jay Whalley was able to commandeer the bus I was on. Jay Whalley was pretty jovial about the situation.
Jay Whalley drove it away for a couple of blocks and the street remained on its steep incline. He then stopped at the curb and said something about tilting the bus. He then adjusted the hydraulics of the bus so it was leaning toward building fronts at a 45 degree angle.
People got off the bus and someone started having a bit of a go at Jay Whalley, so he moved them off the bus. They had a bit of a dummy spit at each other, although at the same time it didn’t really happen.
I rolled off the bus and they stopped and Jay Whalley asked if I was okay. I said I was. I said something about them fighting and then the one who wasn’t Jay Whalley said something about if it mattered due to them being brothers.
I’m not entirely sure as to what happened next, but I think I was going to ask Jay Whalley about the jellyfish, but instead of doing so I woke up.
Here is a “Place in the World” that I have been frequently visiting recently due to it being easy to access rather than out of any form of love for the place.
Darling Harbour being part of Sydney puts it firmly within my neck of the woods.
This photo could have feature more people, but the effects of long exposure have erased them, so to speak.
I like the different textures and surfaces in this photo, as well as how, due to the amount of lights, the idea of the night sky feels more like a suggestion than something that is present.
This is my submission into The Daily Post‘s photo challenge for this week.
I hope you enjoy.
This review can be read on Cool Try. If you decide to read the review here, then please go and check out some of the content on Cool Try.
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Primitive Calculators were a band. Then they weren’t a band. Then they released an album. Then they were once more a band. Then they released a new album. Then they released a new album that supplanted the previous album’s held status of “new”. I’ve probably missed a few things, but that should cover their history. Anyway, the new album is called ON DRUGS and it does not come in that format.
This time around there’s a lot less screaming. Stuart Grant croons, hisses and spits his lyrics but seldom reaches anything close to screaming. Throughout he brings forth mournful melancholic, angry, frustrated and bitter feelings as required whilst carrying across a kind of menace that compliments the nature of the music as well as its inherent aggression. Guest vocals are sparsely used and fit well whenever they’re featured.
Much of the lyrical content seems to be about the current state of society. Seemingly exploring the human condition, futility, the pursuit of something different among a slew of other things, the picture painted isn’t pretty. Rather than wax poetic, the words used aim more for clear message. It would be easy for these to devolve into cheese and thus not be taken seriously, but instead of drowning you or floating by the lyrics get through clearly and effectively.
There also seems to be some use of humour through irony and other means which does provide moments of levity before the weight of the lyrics really sets in. It’s interesting as to how it works (if it is indeed there), as the lyrics themselves aren’t subtle by a long shot, and yet some of the lyrical moments that could be perceived as more humorous in nature seem to soften the blow whilst making you think.
The music itself still follows strongly in the sounds of Primitive Calculator’s prior releases, but instead of following the template they’ve set out for themselves, they’ve co-opted their sounds into something else. The songs are more heavy on melody, boogie and funk elements. There’s less overt force and attack which leaves more room to dance.
The bass remains full and direct, but goes more for something more rhythmic and brooding. The percussion remains simple, being predominantly kick-focused, but at times there’s use of noise as an additional percussive element that adds a bit more of a sway to the beat.
However, the noisier elements work best at building atmosphere and giving the songs more impact. Whilst the guitars seem to stab, the noisier elements seem to bubble, throb and scrape. They aren’t necessarily expansive, but they do a lot to shape the songs by building on the inherent menace and dread of the songs.
Overall, ON DRUGS is an album that functions as a critique of parts of humanity and where it currently stands. It’s less in your face than previous releases, but has just as much impact. Primitive Calculators are still creating abrasive music, but it’s a different shade. Here they sound far less concerned with beating you over the head and more concerned with expressing their message in a way that gets through. A good way to hear this is by comparing the original version of “I Can’t Stop It” with the version heard here. The original was abrasive and almost amelodic. It came crashing into you. The new version still does, but it has a bit more going on. It does more to allow you to think about the content.
ON DRUGS is unmistakably a Primitive Calculators album. A lot of work went into it and it has paid off. ON DRUGS might be less overt, but it still expresses everything I t needs to and does so far more effectively than on previous releases.
ON DRUGS can be heard and bought here.
Recently I was walking through Marrickville and decided to walk past where my previous job was situated.
It’s a bit different an area at the current moment due to a developing expansion of the rail network.
Anyway, here’s a photo of the pumping station behind where my previous job was situated.
I’ve seen it dry before, but that was many a moon ago.
Sans the small amount of water, here it appears to be mostly desolate.
Still, there’s something that I find appealing about this scene, but I’m not sure as to what.
This is my entry into Leanne Cole‘s Monochrome Madness for this week.
I recommend checking out Monochrome Madness, as well as Leanne Cole’s work.
I also recommend that you consider participating. It’s been going for a few years and it’s a good way to be involved with a small, fun community.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
Upon the rolling ocean lies the forest for which we cannot perceive unless it is one that we immerse ourselves first in immersion oil in order to increase our magnification, as that is the only way to see the forest from the ocean.
It is there, out there, floating about and waiting for the time to be right so then it can do the thing that it needs to do, which something more than nothing.
That is the way that it appears, and appear that way it will.
Sometimes its the small things such as this situation.
It’s not that there’s any particular importance to this forest. It is fairly unassuming. It is that people want to see and access the forest without knowing why, and when they realise that they cannot do such as thing without some sort of difficulty, they get angry as they want everything handed to them on a platter, as apparently the idea of working hard and actually earning something has become a foreign concept and its much better to kick up a tantrum instead of actually getting on with it, but I digress.
Suffice to say, there is some sort of desire even though there is little reason to desire access to a thing.
Some people have gotten access and then expressed disappointment. What did they expect? It’s just a forest out there. It’s a forest of little importance.
You’d think that they would be happy that they accessed a pocket of nature that they had to work toward getting access to,m but instead they aren’t. They aren’t happy as the reward was not what they wanted. They were expecting something and didn’t get what they wanted and instead of being happy about the situation, complained to no end.
I imagine that if there was a café hidden away in this forest in the ocean, they[‘d probably be much happier, but then they might complain that the coffee wasn’t the temperature they wanted.
They’d miss the whole point, which there was no point, but you’d be seeing a part of the world that was away from the whole idea of instant gratification that we call cannot let go of, for we’re all a bunch of schmucks.
But perhaps there is a forest out there, floating on the ocean and it is not one that we can see, not hear, nor feel, but it is always there, sitting somewhere out there, waiting and watching and waiting for the moment for which we could only perceive in the right conditions.
We’d all look past it as it would not be worth our time and effort, we’d probably reason. That is the way things go sometimes.
Perhaps that is too cynical a view, but the view from the forest would be nice. There is no purpose to visit it and there is no reason out there that we’d need to have in order to go, but some would desire and some would most likely end up disappointed.
The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:24:70
I’m not sure as to how I feel about this.
I think I carried on a bit.
Oh well.
Written at work.
This is kind of a retake of this photo.
I still like the two reflections of the city providing different perspective, but I also like how the reflections are slightly blurry, as though they were a vague memory.
I also like how the photo contains a lot of blues and yet doesn’t appear as such (I think).
Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
It was a bright day.
Perhaps it could have been brighter.
People walking through Darling Harbour, their shadows stretching out.
I thought they’d turn out darker than this.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
This review has been published on Cool Try.
If you do read it here, please also check it out there as there are some photos of the gig and you’d be supporting Cool Try.
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First up was Wartime Sweethearts.
The performance was started with vocal experimentation and some minor crowd participation; everyone to the artist’s left was asked to hum in one key, and everyone to her right in another key. It was a nice way to warm the audience to the show.
A few songs in and a drummer came on to add more shape to the songs. The percussion was mostly kept quiet and tastefully served to compliment the melodies. There were times when it increased in volume and intensity; these were kept to match any swelling volume and power of the melodies.
The vocals were excellent. A lot of passion and energy came through and they sounded effortless as well as powerful.
For the last two songs three backup vocalists came to the stage. They added a lot of depth and richness to the songs they sung on, helping to end a strong set on a strong note.
Despite a few issues with some noise at the start, the set flowed without a hitch. There was subtlety and at times restraint, and overall it worked well.
Lack The Low was soon after. Being there in order to conduct what is known as an album launch, she took all the physical copies of the album One Eye Closed, attached it to a rocket that she had developed over many a year and thus it went careening into the vastness of space.
Lack The Low were launching their debut album One Eye Closed, thus playing it from beginning to end. There was restraint and release, and plenty of subtlety along with more overt moments that carried the songs and the audience along a nice, enjoyable set.
However, these were songs that were begging to be played with a larger ensemble.
Obviously I can’t speak for the intentions of Lack The Low, but I can only hope that if this does lead to a larger tour, that it is with a group that can really bring forth the dynamic, textured nature of her music.
However, that’s not to say that these songs lacked dynamics with only two people performing them. Both knew how to get the most out of what they were doing. Layers built upon each other leading to lush, growing sounds that moved and flowed and it sounded as though there was a real cohesion and flow. The songs remained sounding full and really grabbed your attention.
The vocals held a lot of passion and power in them, even during quieter moments. Throughout there was a kind of richness to them that worked really well in a textural and melodic sense. This is someone who has good command of their voice and knows how to use it to best effect.
Not every song utilised percussion, but when it was used it was used very effectively. There was a balance between more atmospheric and direct playing. Regardless of how it was utilised in any section, the percussion was consistent in execution, sound and feel.
Both Wartime Sweethearts and Lack The Low put on a good performance. It was a small, quieter gig delivered the right amount of energy and felt as though all of the performers put a lot of themselves into the show. If either of them are playing soon, I can only recommend that you check them out.
This is the garden temple in the Chinese Garden of Friendship in Darling Harbour in Sydney.
So small, and yet so much bigger than the large, towering buildings that are behind.
This likely has to do with the temple having a fair bit going on with its structure, making it more interesting than the tall, rigid design of most of the other buildings in this photo.
Once more, there is a contrast between the trees and the temple, and the other structures in the photo. To me it feels that there’s a kind of push and pull, with the trees and temple being more pleasant to look upon than the other structures.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
Stupidity Hole 