Ken Nakagawa: Corridors of the Sky

Posted on January 16, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

Alright so this one was written over one listen, but with a few restarts and some rewinds. I kept on getting interrupted in some manner when I started, mostly because I paid attention to the interruptions. Then I had to rewind for a moment and I decided to just sort of break away a little.

Tried to not spend time thinking about what I was writing and just write it, but there was some overthinking. Not sure how well I captured the song either. On a surface level, yeah. I did. Beyond that, however, just not sure.

After I wrote this I thought about it and decided to scrap it and start again. However, I changed my mind again and decided to stick with what I initially wrote. I could probably do a better job, but I feel that in this instance I’d be losing something by trying again.

Ken Nakagawa’s (中河健) “Corridors of the Sky” (“空の回廊”) is from the soundtrack for Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny (also known as Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana 2), Atelier Iris 2꞉ The Azoth of Destiny Original Soundtrack (aka Atelier Iris – Eternal Mana 2 – Original Soundtrack).

I hope you enjoy.

—

Guitar’s notes gently float whilst another, brighter sound follows. Something more percussive joins and something builds, and then suddenly the guitar is left with keys. The keys keep space, meeting some of the notes and finding their own.

There’s an openness, and perhaps some sort of sadness and dreaming, and soon more keys meet and expand on the melody slightly echoing through the space. It’s getting busy, and that build comes back and then something akin to woodwind flies on in.

The sounds draw long and a steady percussion finds its way in. The move toward a melody that seems to pull and tug at the heart in this expanse, and it pushes the drama, not quite soaring, but perhaps marveling.

The woodwind flies high and then the guitar and keys return. It seems like a return to the start, but soon percussion comes in, steady, keeping the beat, and some shimmers too. The keys continue on as the flow shifts once more to something akin to that earlier drama, and the keys dance and float along, and carry a dream.

Most come to a stop, leaving one sound to shimmer and shine in a still space. Something builds, then a shattering, and the sounds fade and the song ends.

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Stick Shadows on the Sand

Posted on January 15, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

More dune stuff.

I wanted to get an overhead photo of this, but it was not the easiest thing to do and, based on the time of day, it would’ve been inevitable that my shadow would’ve been in the photo, which I definitely did not want. The shadows here work on their own as they long enough and give a distorted sense of size, I think.

This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s “Monochrome Madness” for this week.

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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Pat Metheny Group: Last Train Home

Posted on January 15, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

One listen.

Queued this one up a few weeks ago, only got around to writing about it now. Laziness, maybe. Anyway, I knew that going into this I wanted to try and touch more on the imagery, and I kind of did that but the sounds led me elsewhere, kind of. This is a bit of a mix and I’m not sure it is in the best way, but I do think I captured some of the song’s essence quite well.

Pat Metheny Group’s “Last Train Home” is from Still Life (Talking).

I hope you enjoy.

—

Deft percussion, sounding much like the tracks under a train as it glides through the countryside. Guitar and keys come in and strings underscore, and there’s something sentimental here. Something about greetings and farewells.

There’s space and simplicity, and keys take over for a moment as everything keeps on moving toward a destination. A grandness comes forward, but it all feels small, simple. Smooth. Gentle. Somehow exciting and adventurous too.

Up and down and the percussion remains steady, and it’s all a series of snapshots with motion between. It asks questions without necessarily looking for answers, and the keys and guitar keep moving around each other, and eventually they build and emphasise more than before. They rise, and the strings seem to fill out a bit more, but they remain in the background.

As much as there is looking at the scenery and seemingly implying some sort of reflection of the journey, there’s looking inward as well, and the sentimentality rises a bit more when the guitar pulls away and voice rises up and calls outward in the sensation of the breeze.

Sentimental and perhaps a little sad, but it’s only one part of a longer journey in a featureless expanse of many things. Open, and sometimes closed off, and the guitar curls around and bends, and the sound of a train can be faintly heard as the keys keep touching specific moments, and the percussion remains steady and moving ever onward as everything fades out and the song ends.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1444: Plum Stone

Posted on January 14, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

Lot of pain right now, let me tell you.

So I was eating, as one does. I was eating a plum. Didn’t make an attempt and it was still covered in a bit of flesh, but somehow swallowed the stone and for the last few hours I’ve been able to feel it moving through me, and it hurts quite a lot.

This is not something I recommend. Again, I have no idea how I swallowed it. I didn’t attempt to swallow it and I’m fairly certain I haven’t swallowed a plum stone before. It just got to the back of my mouth and went down, and that was that and now I’m here, and I want it to pass gently and quickly but that’s not going to happen and so I need to be really careful now. Need to take it easy and rest and all those things, but I can’t rest and I can’t take it easy, and so stubbornly I am pushing through this pain to do stuff that doesn’t need doing at this particular junction in time. Story of my life, or something.

But it really isn’t pleasant, and I can probably state that enough, but this experience really isn’t pleasant. The feeling of something moving around inside and it’s just causing a good deal of pain… it’s not something I’d recommend going through, ever.

So what do I do from here? I’ve gotten the thing across and now I go to rest… so I guess I go to rest. But it feels like a good afternoon lost for no real reason, and I know I can’t do much about that, but I will probably be kicking myself over it for a good three minutes. Maybe four, if I feel like indulging myself. But after that and before rest, I’ll probably finish this off and keep dealing with the pain, waiting for the stone to settle and hopefully that will be the end of it for a while. Of course, I don’t know. This could go south pretty fast, but I don’t want it to.

Rather be able to go to work tomorrow and get through the day, and not worry about whatever it is that’s inside of me, causing issues. Rather get on with the day and all that stuff. Rather not be incapacitated due to unintentional swallowing of a stone.

When I  saw that it was accidental, what happened was the stone covered in flesh ended up at the back of my mouth as I was swallowing. Didn’t force it there; it just kind of happened, and that’s why it sucks, but I’ll go rest and I’ll take it easy. I’ll get through the evening and see how I am in the morning. Might be worse; might be better. Might be neither.

But yeah; the pain is really not great, like most pain. How surprising. But I’ll get to the end of it and I’ll come out okay, I hope. Just need to get rest.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 07:22:25

Not as fast as I’d hoped and that’s probably due to the pain.

Written at home.

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Finding Balance

Posted on January 13, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

A photo of this corella… finding balance. Made for a good opportunity to get some photos such as the below one. Made for a consideration of form too.

I hope you enjoy.

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Trails Across Space

Posted on January 12, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

There are going to be a good few dune photos spread through these early weeks, and maybe into the coming months.

So here we have a photo of part of a sand dune system, and like many of these types of dramatic, kind of minimal photos, this carries a sense of isolation and sparseness. Ideas of a sense of journey, perhaps without knowing direction. Trapped in openness. There’s some vegetation and their shadows draw long, but the space still feels empty.

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

Dune systems are usually pretty resilient, and they need to be. The plants that form on dunes need to withstand sand abrasion, and normally they will also capture that sand. As they do, they’ll spread and more vegetation will appear. The more sand that is captured, the faster a dune system can be replenished after a storm. The less sand gets washed away, and the more stable the dune becomes. Sand is also prevented from blowing inland as the vegetation captures it, which allows different kinds of habitats to form, and also makes for habitable space.

There’s a lot of life on sand dunes and it too needs to be resilient to an extent, or at least adaptable. Sand dunes are pretty important, and so we need to do more to protect them.

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

This one is curated by Anne. The next one is curated by Ritva.

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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Car Beach Day

Posted on January 11, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

A day where these cars were able to go to the beach and meet up and hang out.
Pretty sure I’ve shared a photo of this beach a while ago. Might link to it at some point. Not sure.

I hope you enjoy.

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A Mass Floating in the Sky

Posted on January 10, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

Another long day and so here’s a photo of clouds coloured by the setting sun as they sit above vegetation and terrain and all sorts of things.

I hope you enjoy.

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Church Spire

Posted on January 9, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

A church spire made to look… churchy? Grim? Ominous? I don’t know.

When processing this I tried to get something going with contrast. Didn’t work, but I like the sort of shaded texturing I got instead.

This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s “Monochrome Madness” for this week.
This one is hosted by Dawn of The Day After, and she has chosen the theme of  “Places of Worship“.

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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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1443: Where’s my Silliness?

Posted on January 9, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

There’s a banana to the left of me, and to the right is a mouse. On this desk sits a laptop upon which I use to type these words.

Okay, this is absolutely brilliant writing right here. Couldn’t get any better.

I’m trying to work out where all my silliness went. Trying to find where all the ridiculousness flew off too. What is and is not absurd and how I lost it all. Where did my flippancy go off to. It has been lost along the way, and maybe that says I’ve been doing too much of this. I don’t know.

I do know that I’m sitting here and I’m tired, but that’s the norm, really, so not much to say there. I do also know that, by the end of today I’m going to be feeling even more tired as it’s going to be a bit of a blasting day, of sorts. Charging through the work and the drudgery, but it’s a nice drudgery to have. Having the boredom of stability is nice. But I also want my flair for silliness back.

Not saying I’m a good writer; just that I’m good at being silly.

I don’t think I lost it from moving toward the boredom of stability, mind, but rather I lost it along the way. Something happened and I guess I grew out of it, though rather in this instance I feel it was more that I kind of forgot how to be, or something. I don’t know; I’m just trying to work things out here.

But something has been lost and I feel I know what that something is, but I should be able to get back to it, right? I should just be able to work on it and pick it back up, without issue. Except, maybe I’m spending too much time thinking about how I’m writing and what I’m writing, and that gets in the way and I should stop, but sometimes things are better left behind, even if you miss them. There’s no point in trying to force something. There is a point in trying to work toward it, but forcing it to be, unless doing so is necessary, is not something worth doing.

Well, there are times when it is worth doing, but I don’t think so in this case. There are other things I want to work on anyway, and maybe I’ve changed enough that trying to pull that silliness back to here isn’t going to work, unless it too has changed and we’re in alignment. Who knows.

What I do know is that, perhaps there still remains a little spark inside somewhere, and maybe it’s waiting to turn into a nice warm fire once more. A fire of all these ideas and bits and pieces that make little sense, or make whole sense but aren’t considered serious enough. However, they might just have their day of return, but until then there is no silliness, and a spark shall remain silent.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 07:46:88

I went in just wanting to write and I got a little introspective.
Doing a little introspection this morning. Business as usual.

Written at work.

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