I took this photo when I was photographing toe, or rather shortly before they came onto the stage. Thought it’d make for an interesting photo.
This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s Monochrome Madness for this week.
Participating is pretty straightforward and something I recommend. If you do, then include the tag “monochrome-madness” in your post. If not participating, then at the least check out Leanne’s photography as well as what other people submit.
I hope you enjoy.
Another coastal photo, and one that I’d like to retake. I like the framing, but I think I can do it a good deal better.
Sort of a peaceful photo, even though some strong wave action can be seen. I like that.
This is my submission into the three hundred-and-twenty-seventh Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. The theme for this one is “5 Elements“.
Here we’ve water and earth.
The host of the Lens-Artists challenges cycles weekly between the following people:
Sofia is curating this one. The next one is curated by John.
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.
One listen.
I think I’ve thought about doing this one before and didn’t. Decided to give it a go a few days ago, and now have done it, and I’m not sure what to make of what I wrote. Could be better, could be worse, that kind of thing.
I think I could’ve tapped more into the scenery of where this song is used, but I’m not sure I could’ve pulled that off.
Hitoshi Sakimoto’s (崎元 仁) “The Dalmasca Estersand” (“東ダルマスカ砂漠”) is from the soundtrack for Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy XII Original Soundtrack.
I hope you enjoy.
—
Strings push lightly as horn calls on out, and sounds stir and rise. Sudden shift upward and back to a slight lightness for a moment, as though a pause before the sounds take off and race along.
Adventure is at hand and everything pushes and urges, and keeps it all light and fun at the same time. Keeps it excited. Suddenly the sounds go wide once more, and explore across a landscape, then find themselves racing off once more.
It is, of course, only for a moment before a slight implied pause again, and then the landscape reveals itself in its grandeur, and it’s all massive and wonderful. A slight pause, perhaps of hesitation before exploring once again, and looking further.
Looking and exploring as all the sounds sit alongside each other comfortably, keeping the pace and the shifts and the moods, and the changes keep on coming and moving between the large and the small, but it all remains suitably dramatic. It all continues on and keeps going, and wonder and excitement keep coming forward as the sounds herald and usher in the next moment.
And it continues on as everything fades and the song ends.
There was this person I knew in 2014 and 2015. May have met him in 2013. Can’t remember. Anyway, our friendship didn’t take off much until 2014, after I the breakup that got me writing again. Two people in some sort of similar pain and all that, and it was an intense friendship. Lots of laughs, lots of pain sharing.
This isn’t so much about the friendship as it is about its ending, because there were a few things that built up that led to my being done with it.
If I remember the order correctly, the first thing was either in late 2014 or early 2015. Can’t remember. Anyway, Ili and I had plans to go to the beach with some of his friends, and I was getting ready. Had everything, but I couldn’t find my hat. Cannot see it. kept looking, kept looking around, nothing. Nowhere. Was running out of time before I needed to leave, kept looking, no idea where it is. Looked in places it shouldn’t be, or would not be, and lo and behold, not in those locations.
At that point I was spiraling. For a good while at that point I’d felt pretty overwhelmed and tense and on edge, and like I was barely holding it together.
Wait.
I think a good chunk of those feelings had faded and I was doing somewhat okay at the time, but I’d had panic attacks prior so I knew well enough what they were and, even though it took some time to realise (I think; I may have been a few minutes in), I was having one then.
I messaged Ili, told him I couldn’t make it. Told him roughly what was going on and he started trying to pressure me to come along. In a friendly way, of course. I told him I couldn’t, and I’m pretty sure I apologised, and he said he was disappointed in me, or words to that effect. He tried to keep it light after though, but it wasn’t great.
It was really fucked up, because I was staring at a ceiling whilst on futon frame slats for somewhere around two hours, all because I couldn’t find my hat. Obviously a buildup of stuff that culminated to a release at that time, but it was the being unable to find my hat that set it off, and here was this friend who decided the best course of action was to express disappointment.
I did find the hat. Was somewhere obvious, but by that point it was too late for me to get up and go. Didn’t feel great about it all after either.
The next thing was formed from Ili being friends with my ex. I can’t remember if I had an issue with him being friends with her or not, but what happened is they ran into each other at some point, talked a little, then he asked if it was cool if they were friends. I think I said it was fine, because even though it wasn’t my choice and I can’t remember how I felt about it, I know I didn’t think it good or healthy to say no. If they got along, then they got along.
When Ili was asking this, he also asked if I wanted him to find out what was going on in my ex’s life, what she thought of me, those kinds of things. I said no. There was a period where my ex and I got back together and it didn’t work out, and this stuff happened after that, when we were trying just being friends which also didn’t work out. But during the friendship period was when Ili asked, and I said no. Yeah, I did want to know, but it wasn’t my business and I didn’t feel it right for me to know unless my ex told me. Beyond that, I already was conflicted with my feelings and I didn’t want to be dragging myself into it further.
At one point Ili gave me details about how my ex felt about me when I was asking about a thing he had done, and I’m guessing my wording wasn’t clear because I didn’t want to know, and then I did, and it was all normal stuff but it just hurt. Somewhere around that time, Ili had prompted me about finding out stuff again (likely before this), and I said that, yeah, I did want to know but it wasn’t my place. He then went off at me, in this calm, yet also what I felt was a shitty way, and told me that her life was none of my business. Which I knew.
Eventually this led to the third thing which was about lying. I won’t get into the details, but I’m not a fan of it for a number of reasons. Ili didn’t see issues with it. Told me I was naive for not wanting to be lied to. This eventually continued as an argument in person and I should’ve calmed down a bit, and I didn’t. This eventually led to Ili having the final word on it, but what he believed was beneath him was not something I felt was, and by that point the damage was done.
I spoke to him regularly after that for a while, but over the rest of 2015 I started withdrawing from the friendship and eventually it petered out.
I wasn’t perfect in the friendship. I’ll happily admit that. I was pretty fucked up at the time, and I can be intense enough on a calm day. At the end of it, however, I didn’t go off at him and express disappointment.
But, you know, at the time Ili mattered and in a way he still does because he was important to me back then. Like a good few people, he helped me get through a rough time, and even though it ended, I’m still grateful for his being there.
One listen.
Heard this song for the first time in a while a few days ago. Onto the list of things I wanted to write about very soon after. Threw myself in and I think I got a little stuck, but overall what I wrote works fine enough. Could be better; could be much better, actually, as what I wrote relies a bit on knowing the visuals of the area in which the song plays, I think.
Hitoshi Sakimoto’s (崎元 仁) “Eruyt Village” (“エルトの里”) is from the soundtrack for Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy XII Original Soundtrack.
I hope you enjoy.
—
A ring out as strings rise and fall in a dry space. Woodwind floats on in, and it is a peaceful space, though perhaps at the edges tension lurks. It’s peaceful and dry, but there’s sadness, though maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s focus.
The sounds rise and the woodwind flutters upon a still breeze, dancing. It pulls away and strings come forward and pull back, and they stir with a relentless calm. They give way to greater percussion, playing out a steady beat that echoes lightly, and that too disappears and the strings return, falling and rising, and stirring once more, and the percussion returns and plays out a few more moments before it all cycles back to the start.
And that dryness returns, and the space flows upon the woodwind as it flutters and floats, and some sadness comes in, but from whose perspective is the sadness coming from? It might not be there at all from the inside, and just an outside thing.
Sounds flow along, steady and moods and words float on by, and upon it all action seems to stir, or at least direction before it is time to move on, and the sounds fade out and the song ends.
One listen.
Wanted to write about this song for a few days and had concerns that I already had, but apparently I hadn’t, unless I did, in which case I can’t find what I wrote, so… yeah.
I think I did well here, though there are parts that I’d definitely tighten and expand upon here and there if I were to edit. I think I covered the song well enough. Part of that is that I had some ideas going in, though I didn’t quite use them as I figured I may have, and also due to the song sort of drifting. Maybe also due to having enough sleep or something. Don’t know.
Nobuo Uematsu’s (植松 伸夫) “Opening Theme” (“オープニング”) is from Final Fantasy V Original Sound Version, the soundtrack for Final Fantasy V.
—
A stirring dawn on what are meant to be strings and some sort of choral voice – I think, and soon woodwind, and there’s something lightly melancholic here. It’s a waking up, and it’s gentle, and perhaps pointing toward an optimism, but within it is that melancholy, and within that builds something more tangible.
Sadness and departures, and ill portent. Concern, and with the strike of keys it becomes overtly heavy. Menacing, dread, and it pushes on down. It presses on down, and it keeps the pressure on with ease. Something is changing and the sounds keep their space here, but they still engulf all.
Strings stir once more as the menace expands and presses down more to reveal some sort of disaster. But it soon stops, and the stirring of the dawn once more. Lower, more gentle than before, but also more optimistic. There is hope in a journey ahead, and there is change, but that melancholy remains. Still, it settles, and it is part of what will come, and even though the heaviness remains, it doesn’t take over, and the future remains open as the song ends.
Another toe photo, and I can’t remember if this one made it to the Culture Eater gallery. Sure, I could check, but I’m not going to. Might later.
Anyway, this, I feel, has a slight expressive feel. Could feel more expressive, but it’s fine as it is.
I hope you enjoy.
This is a photo of Fiona Gavino’s The Meditation – Inhale Exhale which was featured at Sculpture by the Sea this year. I was interested in parts of it rather than the whole, but now I see why it was called what it was called.
I hope you enjoy.
Closer than they appear, though also beneath enough to not be a worry… at least, not at the time of day that this was taken.
Anyway, this is sort of a peaceful image with a bit of danger to it too.
I hope you enjoy.
Stupidity Hole 