Head Holding

Posted on August 1, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

Recently I took a bunch of practise photos. This is one of them.

This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s “Monochrome Madness” for this week. The next one is hosted by Brian of Bushboy’s World, and he has chosen “Any Subject Backlit” as the 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.

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Underworld: 11 Hundred Hz

Posted on July 31, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

One listen.

Felt I had to rush and try to stay where the song was up to. Not a good way to be about this, I think. The writing suffered a bit for it.

Underworld’s “11 Hundred Hz” is from I’m a Big Sister, and I’m a Girl, and I’m a Princess, and This Is My Horse, a release that is part of their Riverrun project.

I hope you enjoy.

—

Keys play a collection of notes as they descend. They carry something in them that seems to look to touch on something deep. They reach a surface and move along it, low, seemingly adding in some unpleasantness.

Maybe it’s not unpleasant, but rather an offness. Something to challenge the notion of a peace.

Other sound comes in and follows the keys, and when the keys reach the surface once more a low sound throbs. The keys play their pattern once more, in the distance, and something seems ominous, foreboding. This seems to look further at challenging the notion of peace, and it feels unsettling in a way. But it’s all just there and part of a space as the more familiar sounds are heard before everything fades and the song ends.

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Underworld: Peach Tree

Posted on July 30, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

One listen.

I didn’t go in with any particular aims, but I feel I should have. May not have been within the spirit of what I try to do with this series of writing, but I feel it may have helped. Still, I covered the song quite well, I think.

Underworld’s “Peach Tree” is from I’m a Big Sister, and I’m a Girl, and I’m a Princess, and This Is My Horse. The release is part of their Riverrun project which, as far as my understanding goes, was an experiment in releasing music in non-traditional ways that ran from 2005 to 2006. “Peach Tree” was also included in the single releases for their songs “Crocodile” and “Boy, Boy, Boy”.

I hope you enjoy.

—

Calm, peaceful. Inner, wide, and electronic vocals crackle like static. They hum and say something distorted, something present and beyond. Murmur in the cracks, and the sound they run alongside remains calm.

More voice comes in, and it remains indistinct. These are words, and these words are said carefully. They are said with precision, and they can almost be made out. Their meaning can almost be found. Through them comes an idea of motion; an idea of moving forward, toward somewhere, toward something.

The sound that started it all finds itself joined by others more prominently as it itself comes into more prominence. Shifts in the melody, shifts in the spread as it comes more and more forward, and some voice becomes clearer, yet still seems indistinct. There’s that clarity; there’s that vagueness. They disappear. They return.

Sound pulses and pulses in patterns and carry all that peace, and there seems to be something complete and broken coming forward. An intensity is rising, but it is not pressure, and the vocals continue as though a rhythmic pattern at this stage, and percussion appears and rises and reaffirms shape strongly suggested.

There’s a driving energy here, but there’s still that calm, and it seems looking out and over a landscape as moving through it, moving past everything, and one thing anchors it all. One thing remains constant, and voices make comments, disconnected, fragmentary. Everything shifts and pushes out with more force, and more detail comes to view. More grounding, more in the moment.

More voice harmonising with the main melody, more mutterings. More murmurings. More moving forward, taking everything in, rushing past it all, rushing calmly. More in the moment and letting it guide and lead to wherever everything goes. And it goes.

The sound of everything remains something washing over, covering, not smothering. It holds and lets release, but it keeps control. It lets it all flow out, but it lets it all flow out as realisation, or perhaps it doesn’t at all. And it lowers the moment as percussion fades away, and voices calmly lapping at the moment, echoing, rising off of the peace. Rising and disappearing, and the song suddenly ends.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1523: Café Writer

Posted on July 30, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

There’s an audible stillness in the air, or at least there was. Music has just started. But what do I mean by audible stillness?

Other than there being no music playing, the sound of rain falling, the hum of kitchen machinery, the occasional car. I’m in Duoly Rob so I’m only getting a small slice, but it seems as though there’s a stillness today. A stillness in the rain. And until the music started, it was audibly still in here.

It almost seemed gloomy, and then it seemed peaceful. It was time held within a moment, but everything progressed as is. Everything actually seemed to resume. It was a moment. It was a time.

There’s now music playing and I’m sitting here, writing. I’m becoming a café writer, it seems. Didn’t think I’d ever go this way, but if it works it works and if it works it fits… and yeah. You get the idea.

So what now? The ambience has changed. The atmosphere is different. I can sit here, crap on about this, or I can get on with my life. I can find where everything leads. I can find the spaces and the gaps. I can dig into the holes. I can do what must be done and I can get on with life.

Glebe outside looks so miserable right now. It looks old. It looks as in a state of decay. It is falling apart, but it maintains structure. It pretend to hold an air of integrity, but it’s just another location bulldozed and rebuilt and torn apart and rebuilt, forcing people out and away in order to replace them with other people who are eventually forced out and away. It continues on, and the city spreads outward into something else entirely. It becomes all-encompassing and there is no escape, and Glebe is here, falling apart.

Falling apart and being rebuilt, continuing on forever until forever ends.

Perhaps that’s a little too dramatic right now, but this weather is pulling something out of me. The weather and the lack of sleep, and I’m still going, pushing on to tomorrow, but needing to get through today, and all I am saying is vague gesturing at nothing. I am creating nothing and it’s that nothing which I spin and use, and do my best to make my own, here in this café. Here in this space, where I am writing about nothing and everything whilst enjoying a coffee. It’s a brief moment where, in all the banal chaos of the city, I have a bit of peace. I have a lot less pressure on my shoulders and so I can just relax. It’s nice. It’s easy. It’s a good time.

So perhaps I should do more to embrace what I’m doing right now, and I guess I am. I am compelled to embrace it, and perhaps that’s a good thing. So long as I don’t bring harm to others, I’m ding fine. I’m good. I am a café writer.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 08:18:59

Written this morning, uploaded now. A long day between.

Probably too heavy, or not heavy enough. Don’t know.

Written at Dirty Red.

 

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Underworld: Cuddle Bunny vs The Celtic Villages

Posted on July 29, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

One listen.

Just went for it, wasn’t sure what would come forward. Probably could’ve touched more on the mood, but still happy with the result.

Underworld’s “Cuddle Bunny vs The Celtic Villages” is from Oblivion with Bells.

I hope you enjoy.

—

Vocally, some words. Distorted. “Five. Seventeen”. A strike and something lurks, vibrating, humming. Low, and somewhere from near it a long stretch forms. The lurking seems to try and harmonise, but this stretch is doing its own thing.

It is quiet, seemingly disappearing, seemingly prominent, struggling, but it’s ever-present, seemingly growing, ever-linear, small, an constantly expansive. The lurking continues, continues scraping, seemingly violent, vibrating, seemingly not violent at all.

The lurking stops, and a light percussive repetition comes in. The stretch grows, and this is what remains, and what remains fades out at the song’s end.

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Underworld: Glam Bucket

Posted on July 29, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

One listen.

This song does tension well. Seems like it doesn’t at first, but as it progresses it becomes more obvious. Not sure I got that across, but I got a lot of words that cover the song well out, so I think I did well.

Underworld’s “Glam Bucket” is from Oblivion with Bells.

I hope you enjoy.

—

Percussion ringing and looping, ringing into itself. Harmonious, almost. Kind of. Other beeps and boops here and there, ringing out. A bassy sound comes in, forming melody, and a sort of warping soon forms and rises around the sounds.

More and more sound comes in, filling space, filling the gaps, but it feels spacious. This doesn’t feel crowded, and it might be due to how low-key the percussion is. Other forms appear here and there, bringing in their own take on the main melody, building on it, becoming subsumed.

There’s a gentle tension here, and it seems the idea is alternations of a theme. And it stays gentle until some more prominent sounds come into play. These pulsing sounds – among others – come in, keep an idea of the melody feeling more like a vague memory whilst keeping it there, throbbing, brightening, becoming more intense. They grip and one in particular keeps becoming more so itself before going back to almost nothing, then rising again once more.

This sound rises and rises whilst others disappear from view. It keeps building, and the space becomes less gentle and more intense once more. It keeps going, then suddenly disappears and the main frame is more obvious once more, with broken sounds following it, and what is left fades out and the song ends.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1522: Rough Sleep

Posted on July 28, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

Somehow fucked my wrist up during my sleep. The bad wist. This isn’t notable, and it’s especially not notable considering that I’m still typing without issue, but it hurts. It hurts horribly.

Rough sleep. Anxiety peaked whilst trying to sleep. It’s the way things go. Now I’m hearing an acoustic Coldplay cover, and can things be more on the nose? Of course. Of course they can. But it’s the way things go, I suppose.

Yesterday I saw my ex. Had to get some of my stuff she took by mistake back. Looking for my citizenship certificate (for those who haven’t been reading this blog for a little over ten years, it’s an annoying story). So I went to see her, she gave me my stuff, we went and got coffee.

She didn’t have to agree to get coffee, she didn’t have to agree to see me. I figured it’d be a nice gesture, and partially I wanted to see if there was anything there, still. Not going to get into the details about it, but there were no arguments, which was nice. That’s always desired. I’m also feeling better about not having her in my life than I was before.

Essentially I left it feeling good. I thought I’d feel anxious. I thought I’d feel stressed. Came out feeling fine and more reaffirmed about feeling good with her not in my life. That’s a nice thing, for me. But the anxiety spiked and I couldn’t sleep, and subsequently I’m really tired.

So I’m sitting here in Duoly Rob, and I’m thinking about yesterday and how I feel now, and maybe I’m not doing as well as I’d like to think I am. Maybe I’m doing well, but I’m still missing her, despite everything. Despite the problems between us, and despite my further realising how unhealthy that relationship was for me, maybe I’m feeling like my life isn’t as good without her in it, and if there is eventual comfort in another person’s arms, it’s not her arms. It’s not her I can tell about the small victories, and the annoyances, and all the things that I want to talk to someone about. And maybe that’s why I had trouble sleeping last night.

Right now that matters. I don’t want it to, but it does, and maybe that’s part of what makes things difficult, because a relationship that wasn’t good for me matters because the person still matters. This is all obvious stuff, but… what can I say? What can I do? Just keep going as there’s not much room for anything else at the end of the day. I can recognise that I’m doing better right now. I can recognise that I might be doing the best I’ve ever done, but it doesn’t feel as good as it should, and it sucks that part of that is due to not being able to tell my ex. But I’ll keep going. All things pass, and so do these emotions I hold.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 09:06:25

Slower than I’d hoped, faster than ten minutes. Far more serous than I’d like, but it’s what’s present.

Written at Dirty Red

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Guiding Traffic

Posted on July 27, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

Just traffic lights photographed in a way that I like. Not sure why I like doing this (probably the space), and I like the result.

I hope you enjoy.

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A View From the Path

Posted on July 26, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

The other week I decided to take a few photos of this particular road. It was in part prep for my hosting of the Lens-Artists photo challenge. This one didn’t get what I wanted, but I liked the result, so here you go.

I hope you enjoy.

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Cloud-Capped

Posted on July 25, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

This photo was taken earlier this year during a trip to the Blue Mountains with one of my siblings and her partner. It was nice to see some big clouds lying low, and it was overall just a pleasant time to be there, but it often is.

This is my submission into the three hundred-and-fifty-seventh Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. The theme for this one is “In the Woods“. This isn’t quite the woods, but it’s bush, so I feel it counts.

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

Tina

Patti

Ann-Christine aka Leya

John Steiner

Sofia Alves

Anne Sandler

Egídio

Ritva

Beth

This one is curated by Egídio. The next one will be hosted by Tina.

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.

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