Akari Kaida and Yoshino Aoki: Falling Green

One listen.

This one was a bit of a struggle. Threw myself into it, got it done, but I felt very unable to say anything.

Akira Kaida (海田 明里) and Yoshino Aoki’s (青木佳乃) “Falling Green” is from Breath of Fire III Sound Collection, the soundtrack for Breath of Fire III. However, I believe that before the release of that soundtrack, it was first included on Breath of Fire Original Soundtrack Special Box, a collection of all the music (as far as I’m aware) of the Breath of Fire Series. There is a soundtrack album called Breath of Fire III: Original Soundtrack that was released at some point around the time of Breath of Fire III‘s release but it was a selection of songs from the game rather than the whole soundtrack.

I hope you enjoy.

A thin sound rises and rises in repeats. A gentle percussion comes in, thumps and plays light whilst other sounds push hard on moments and others flow gently.

There’s something kind of languid here, and also energetic. A bit empty and a bit peaceful. It’s as though playing to an emptying space, or a cleared space, and it plays with careful precision to fill the space, or try to, despite being unable to.

The sounds seem to ask questions. They seem to ask to examine and think, and they eventually fade into nothingness at the song’s end.

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Akari Kaida and Yoshino Aoki: Country Living

One listen.

I had to kill some time earlier today which is what led to the below. Just knocked it out, kind of happy with the result. Feels a bit guided, a bit aimless.

Akira Kaida (海田 明里) and Yoshino Aoki’s (青木佳乃) “Country Living” (“いなかぐらし”) is from Breath of Fire III Sound Collection, the soundtrack for Breath of Fire III. However, I believe that before the release of that soundtrack, it was first included on Breath of Fire Original Soundtrack Special Box, a collection of all the music (as far as I’m aware) of the Breath of Fire Series. There is a soundtrack album called Breath of Fire III: Original Soundtrack that was released at some point around the time of Breath of Fire III‘s release but it was a selection of songs from the game rather than the whole soundtrack.

I hope you enjoy.

A little drum roll before a nice little sway in the sounds. Bass underscores and guides, and keys play light. Woodwind comes on and over, keeps it all small and relaxed. Soon it’s strings descending and there’s a firm work in this. It’s a bit of hard work, and it keeps steady. It stays relaxed still, in a sense. Keys come back and reflect the woodwind, then strings again, and then the keys return and start following their own path, and the woodwind sort of compliments and contrasts.

The sounds start going elsewhere, moving away from the main melody more and more, and asking a question of sorts, or maybe just wondering about the rest of the day. There could be many questions, and there could be no questions at all. It doesn’t matter too much; it’s back to work, back to appreciating the smallness of it all. Knowing there’s something else out there, bigger, but it’s here in this small, semi-isolated space that’s not isolated at all that’s the heart and centre of everything. It’s a slow life, a hard life, and that’s the ideal life, and it carries upon the sounds as they flo0at along, or rather chug along, relaxed but hard working, and they eventually fade as the song ends.

 

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A Poem About Looking for the Right Words

Long day again. Going to be a few long days coming up, really. Anyway, decided to try and get something out that involved writing and it’s the below. It says what I feel I need to say at this point, but it could be better.

I hope you enjoy.

I look for words that fit together
As always they elude me
What is right and what is true
Is not necessarily the same

If I keep on searching
I might never find them
Sometimes it is necessary
To use the rough ones

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Akari Kaida and Yoshino Aoki: Sanctuary

One listen.

Don’t know what I was going for here. Was trying to think too much, and it didn’t help.

Akira Kaida (海田 明里) and Yoshino Aoki’s (青木佳乃) “Sanctuary” is from Breath of Fire III Sound Collection, the soundtrack for Breath of Fire III. However, I believe that before the release of that soundtrack, it was first included on Breath of Fire Original Soundtrack Special Box, a collection of all the music (as far as I’m aware) of the Breath of Fire Series. There is a soundtrack album called Breath of Fire III: Original Soundtrack that was released at some point around the time of Breath of Fire III‘s release but it was a selection of songs from the game rather than the whole soundtrack.

I hope you enjoy.

A peaceful sound draws long, feeling unnerving, off with all the bubbling underneath. This is a protected space, but it’s almost illusory. Gentle, fragile notes met with a sudden heaviness; a cold thud, and unnerving percussion.

This is protection, but it’s also clear that it’s not. It’s, in a sense, restriction. It’s a joke, a twist an undesirable one, but it does offer that protection. But it’s not desired. It’s undesirable, it’s cold and it seems to menace. It seems to force and press itself upon, and it fades out, leaving lingering negativity at the song’s end.

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Rear lights

This photo I’m not a fan of, but the lights from the car passing turned out well enough.

I hope you enjoy.

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Heavy Sunrise

I look at this image, and I’m reminded of bushfires. I’m reminded of how intense they can be, and I look at this image and feel like the bare branches are arms, reaching out from being smothered and dragged under.

This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s “Monochrome Madness” for this week. This one is hosted by Leanne and she has chosen “Woods, Rainforests and Bushland” 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.

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Smearing Utility

I took this photo yesterday morning. I was trying to get a good zoom by hand, which sometimes has interesting results. Not so much in this case, but I’m going to justify the photo.

The image questions how we perceive things through the dichotomy between zoom and shake. The image is smeared and duplicated, showing multiple realities layered into one shot, and none are more or less real than the others.

But really I like the smearing in this one. This photo could be so much better with a tripod. A great thing about zooming in a long exposure is creating ghost imagery of sorts. Creating a sense of alternative perspective on scene and the real. This doesn’t quite get there, but it has a feel to it that I like.

This is my submission into the three hundred-and-fiftieth Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. The theme for this one is “Zooming“.

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 Anne. The next one is curated by Ritva.

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.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1506: Sitting in Duoly Rob

Once more Badde Manors is not open. I’m sitting in Duoly Rob, listening to easy music, pretending I’m cool. The sky is sunny and the temperature is cold. This is not ideal, but for someone it is. One person (probably more) might consider this ideal. I consider this ideal for wearing gloves and a poncho.

But it’s peaceful and still, and a pleasant day, and after a night of low sleep a pleasant day is a good way to start the… day…

Yeah.

So it was a rough sleep. Awake for a few hours for no reason, trying to get back to sleep. Probably due to the chocolate mousse I had last night. Don’t know, don’t care at this particular junction in time. Just know that it happened. Tried to get back to sleep[ for a while and of course it didn’t work, but now I’m working on this bit of writing. But last night I was working on sleeping and sleep was what was not there.

Got those intense trying to sleep thoughts, as one tends to when they are awake for no reason in the middle of the night and desiring to return to the land of dreams. I can’t remember most of it, but I do remember being visited by the music video of You Am I’s “Berlin Chair” – specifically the Australian music video – and I wondered what they were doing now, other than being on tour (I think they’re still on tour), and then my mind went elsewhere. That’s what came out of the thick miasma of tangled thoughts and chaotic rumblings.And eventually I fell back asleep and it was not enough, but it was something and that’s better than nothing. But of course I had to get back up at some pint and so the alarm went off and I was back to being conscious of my surroundings, and it was not fun.

I’m tired and I’m having a decent time, and that’s a good thing, I think. Not so much the being tired, but the having a decent time. Things are stabilising and life seems to be getting a little clearer, and I have things to jot down on paper. I have to get things written so I can edit them and make them read well, and I hope they read well once I’m done. I won’t know until they are, but I hope and hope is good to have. I’ve said it before, but action needed, but hope feels good right now. It feels like a nice poncho that’s keeping me all warm and cosy, and I don’t have to worry about too much. I have to worry about everything, but I also have a bit of an easy run over the next few days. Things are making sense and that’s good, and now I’ve a clear path through the next few weeks.

So maybe this cool scenery in Duoly Rob isn’t too bad. Maybe it is ideal, because it’s nice and happy.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 07:22:81

Bit of a stretch, this one.

Written at Dirty Red.

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Savoyard Sweep Boy

I was going to write today, but was unable to, so here’s a photo of a sculpture that I took a few months ago. This one is in The Royal Botanic Gardens.

I hope you enjoy.

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One Thousand Word Challenge 218: In a Slump

Right now I just want to write. I want to create those worlds spun from words and I want to paint images I cannot capture in any other way I know, or at least not as well in any other way I know. I cannot, and I’m in a bit of a ditch and that’s the main reason as to why, but I want to.

I want to sit here and write and not have to worry about money because I’m earning it from my writing, and that doesn’t happen, and perhaps it wouldn’t work right now anyway. I have far, far too many things to take care of and I’m in a slump. I’m stuck on a loop and that loop continues on and for evermore, and I need to come at it with as much as I can. I need to take to it with a blunt instrument and force myself out of it, perhaps. I can, and I can wait for it to happen naturally, but maybe that won’t work. Maybe that won’t happen at all.

Sometimes you need to force yourself through something, and it can always suck when you do. I feel I need to at the moment, and I feel that if I don’t I won’t get much of anything else done. I’m still unpacking – it will, of course, take a while – but I have time to do other things and I’m not. I’m just looping around on what I’ve already written in roughly the same way that I’ve written it, and it doesn’t stop. It keeps on and on, and I go around and around and I’ve already said this in this bit of writing, but far more efficiently.

So I sit here and I think to myself. I wonder as to how I can get away from this rut I’ve so firmly entrenched myself within. Can I just force it? I know I can, but can I? If I don’t try, I won’t find out so I do need to try, or rather I should try, but do I even want to? Familiarity breeds comfort and sometimes it breeds stagnation, and maybe I want to stagnate. I don’t know.

I know I listen to dramatic music and that makes me question myself even more, and do I even want to be doing that? I don’t want to dig into myself right now, but I feel I must in some ways. I feel I need to keep getting into it all and digging and pulling apart, and perhaps I need to stop. But I don’t know. There’s so much I don’t know and I probably won’t ever know, and that’s okay. But this doesn’t have much to do with the issues of writing that I’m experiencing.

So I’m getting away from myself and I don’t have much time left for lunch, and that’s an issue but that’s also okay. I could work on other things but I really wanted to make sure I was writing because I wanted to write about this. If I wanted to write about this, that means that this is something I can work on. At the least I know I don’t want to remain in familiar territory, and there is some comfort in that, I guess. I know that I want to keep growing and exploring, and refining rather than repeating. Of course there is repetition in refining, but this is a different kind of refining, I think. I’m not just looking to re-write the same thing over and over, eternally until there is nothing left, and then write the same thing some more.

I know what I want to write and how I want to go about writing it, but then I wonder as to how I go about writing it. Or perhaps it is I wonder as to how I put what I don’t want to write to the side and write what I want to… you get the idea.

There’s so much to explore and I need to step foot and walk that path. I need to dig and go through and around, and perhaps both above and under, too. I remember the last time Iw as dumped, I started looking inward, and I’ve done a lot of that over the years, but maybe I need to be more frank and uncomfortable about it. Maybe I need to find out where it all lies and where the damage has been done and what needs to be fixed and replaced, and through that I can spin narrative. Perhaps through that I can weave my web of scenery and mood, and it will be in that form of discomfort that I find where all of what I want to do lies. I don’t know. I don’t want to profess to know. I know that I want to get there, and it will take time, but so long as I work on it I will get there… maybe.

It’s all that uncertainty that keeps on rising up. It’s all of that that I keep letting rule my desire to create, and I need to shake it off. I need to let go and step forward, scared and naked, but still willing. I need to understand that I can create change in how I’m writing and write what I want to write, and I need to stop adding these caveats to knowing that I can do it.

You know, I feel like shit, and I am a little scared. I don’t feel safe right now, though I feel I can relax. But writing… writing is tough at any given moment. Well, more the editing than the writing itself, but you know. It takes time and energy, and recognising what needs to be cut and what needs to stay, or at least thinking I know. But I’ll keep doing it and keep working at it, so I can improve.

So it’s time for me to let go of that uncertainty.

The time it took to write one thousand words: 12:07:05

Decent speed, I think. The writing itself isn’t great. Started letting go a bit toward the end though, which was nice.

Written at work.

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