Masami Ueda: A Monster’s Presence

Posted on February 5, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

Three listens.

I didn’t draw out much from the song, though that could have to do with where my mind is at the moment. I think I still expressed its atmosphere, or at least part of its atmosphere quite well.

Masami Ueda’s (上田 雅美) “A Monster’s Presence” (“物の怪の気配”) is from Ōkami Original Soundtrack, the soundtrack for Clover Studios’ Ōkami, a lovingly-crafted game. The soundtrack was composed by a few different people and the aim was (as far as I am aware) to create something that fit the setting quite well. If so then it was successful.

I hope you enjoy.

—

A heavy wind of silence presses in, ominous, lowering, whilst chimes ring hollow. Something presses in. Something lurks at the edges and looks to move in and move closer.

The wind picks up and the chimes continue. They haunt as they ring outward, into the wind, their sound being carried away into nothingness, and the space weighs down. There’s perhaps a harshness that comes through, and then suddenly it all fades away and the song ends.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1340: It Isn’t a Good Day

Posted on February 5, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

The easiest way to put pen to paper is to just put pen to paper, and I’ve been trying to write something for the last… four, five hours, and only now I am able to push through.

I am trying to collate and organise my thoughts. Today isn’t a good day. Today is a day I have a meeting that I believe is a pretext for my being fired. I don’t know what I will do from here.  have been looking for a new job for years, my getting money from photography is sporadic, and I’m sitting here. I have been distressed for the past three days. I still am distressed. I cannot afford to be unemployed.

I don’t want to get into the details of what has happened and I’m trying to not make this some sort of dramatic thing, but it’s hard. It’s hard to not put everything out. It’s hard to not say much, but for now I have to hold off because I’ve no idea what’s going to happen from here.

I also don’t like doing this kind of vague remarking as it doesn’t help, but as said, for now I have to hold off.

So I’m sitting here, trying to remain calm and write out what I feel I need to say for this meeting, but being that I’ve been in a constant state of distress it’s hard. It’s hard to organise my thoughts and it’s hard to make sure I’ll be writing things as I remember them.

I don’t understand why an organisation would tell me no when I was prepared to discuss the issues at hand on the day I was advised of them. I don’t understand why an organisation would tell me that it has to wait multiple days and then ask me to do this on my day off. I don’t know if it’s something they should do, considering they’ve noted the kind of distress this thing causes.

So I sit here and it’s a hot day and I’m sweating, and soon I need to get ready for a meeting I don’t know should happen. Soon the weather will cool, but I’ll still be here. I’ll still be waiting to see what happens and I’ll remain distressed. The best I can do is put forward my case…

This all sounds so dramatic but it isn’t. It’s incredibly low stakes and the issues aren’t the worst, but I have spent too much time at my job hearing about my tone and that I’ve said things that people have taken issue with, but I don’t get given examples. I have to try and guess what it is that I need to improve on. I ask for examples, but I don’t get given them. I don’t have faith that this needed to be a formal investigation, and I don’t have faith that I needed to do a meeting on my day off. And I can’t afford to be unemployed.

It isn’t a good day.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 08:38:51

I don’t know if I’ll be comfortable with this later, but it’s probably the best bit of writing I could do given the situation.

Written at home.

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A Trig Station in The Bush

Posted on February 4, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

One of the last photos I took last year.
I just liked the scenery. Not much else to say about it beyond that.

This is my submission into the two hundred-and-eighty-fifth Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. The theme for this one is “Warm Colors“.

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

Donna

Egídio

Ritva

Egídio is curating this one. Next week Anne is curating.

I recommend participating in the challenges as they provide a fun way to interpret theme. If not participating, then at least you should still check out what others of the Lens-Artists community are submitting.

I hope you enjoy.

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Talk Talk: April 5th

Posted on February 4, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

This one wasn’t written in one go. I wrote part of it a few days ago and struggles so I put it aside. I know I wanted to keep what I wrote and so I resumed from there.

During the second go I did a bit of pausing and rewinding. Overall what I did isn’t in the spirit of these challenges and I’m not entirely sure it helped. However, I was able to flesh this out a bit more than had I hadn’t, so… yeah.

Talk Talk’s “April 5th” is from The Colour of Spring.

I hope you enjoy.

—

Percussion shuffles and shakes, and some other sounds seem to float in just before vocals and keys sit upon that float. The atmosphere feels dark in a sense, but it does not feel claustrophobic. It feels, perhaps, dry.

The vocals, spaced and sparse give way for one of the other sounds to raise high and then slower, and then drift and linger on a note. Piano returns, marking melody and the vocals seem to layer on into the sounds. Something akin to strings starts filling out space, rising and building to something intense before releasing into a plane of peace and stillness. A moment, perhaps, of relief, expressing small beauties. The sounds are gentle and minimal, and the vocals only mark brief moments before returning to the opening verse.

The familiar melody now has other sounds hovering and buzzing, and flickering here and there, and it holds space in its hands, and it continues to do so when it moves to that linger through to the sound of strings rising before falling away, and that calm joyousness. It feels emotional, and it feels like a release of sorts, and the vocals become more prominent as a sound, as does bass, and in this moment there perhaps is a sadness, but it doesn’t feel sad. It feels expressive, and warm, and in the moment. It feels firmly in the moment, still within time, still within its surroundings, and it gradually all fades away, fading into silence and the song ends.

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Lubo Mikle: A.I.B.

Posted on February 3, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

I don’t have much to say about this sculpture. It reminds me of the cover of Stomp 442.

Maybe this sculpture has to do with some sort of expression about waste. Maybe it’s not, and to get a better idea this is something that needs to be seen at differing times of the day.

I hope you enjoy.

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Chee Kiong Yeo: Monumental #01 – Triumph

Posted on February 2, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

 

Another sculpture seen at Sculpture by the Sea.

When I took this photo I was mainly interested in what was at the top, which is what you see here. However, in hindsight I think I may have missed too much of it as the sculpture isn’t just the top, and now I wonder if framing it this way removes too much context.

I hope you enjoy.

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Yuko Takahashi: Dignity

Posted on February 1, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

This was one of the sculptures at last year’s Sculpture by the Sea.

I had an opportunity to get a photo that isolated the sculpture in a sense, so I did.
I’m sure what it means, though I do know that equine animals are often considered dignified.

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.

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Long Wing, Short Wing

Posted on January 31, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

Perspective really can be fun.

I wasn’t thinking too much about using this photo due to how the wings appear, but I think it’s worth sharing anyway. It’s a pretty standard photo, but I really like how the perspective affects ibis’ appearance. Makes me think a bit about stuff.

I hope you enjoy.

 

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Cleft Through the Valley

Posted on January 30, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

When I took this photo I just wanted to capture the scene, When I look at it now I can see that I captured the breadth of the space quite well.

Perhaps there’s a bit of drama in this photo, what with the clouds covering the sky, and some of them seemingly preparing to rain, but it’s not overbearing. I think the “softness” int eh valley helps prevent the drama from being the main focus.

I hope you enjoy.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1339: A Spraying of Words

Posted on January 29, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

Still ill, but improving quickly. That’s a good thing.

I have some slight time before I need to get into what constitutes the gritty and the nitty so I’m just trying to mash something out. Doesn’t work too well most of the time and I’m sure today will be no different. However, maybe today will be different.

Slept, got some things done, now here, not there, getting through my thoughts as they swirl around. Slowly picking them up and placing them in an order. Improving. Feeling less shit, as they say.

I’m even listening to happy music!

Now the day stretches out and the sun sits upon it, and there are few clouds. I wonder if it actually rained last night, or if I think it rained due to the grass being damp this morning. I’ve no idea. I could check. but I won’t as that would mean finding out and I don’t entirely want to find out, to be honest.

Writing faster than I have in a while. At least, I think I am. That too is a good thing, I think. I’ve been getting worse at writing. I’d like to think that we are always improving in our writing, but maybe we aren’t. Maybe we do get worse over time if we do not keep working on getting better.

Then again, maybe it’s just stagnation. Anyway…

So this music is nice and I’m sitting here, and maybe I’m, not feeling so bad about today. Maybe I’m not feeling so bad about the future at the moment, but there is work to do. I can feel optimistic but I need to do something that helps to warrant that optimism. I need to take action where I can and drive forward into wherever the road takes me.

Maybe it takes me back to this chair, but I don’t want to know right now. I just want to keep on going.

Today is a busy day but it’s a nice day in that it’s not nice at all and what am I even saying? I’m still ill and maybe I’ve become delirious at this stage. Maybe I need to lie down with a big bowl of ice cream and have it fed to me by a series of robot-powered marmosets that know which way to where when you don’t do but always. Maybe that is the key to my getting better and all this is just some sort of dream that I’m having whilst awake.

An “awake dream”, if you will.

Still, that’s much better than the alternative, which is something that I don’t know so I won’t go there. Instead I’ll just go over here and and see where this takes me.

It’s not taking me anywhere.

Where am I going with this?

I’m not.

I think that perhaps that is enough taking up space for no good reason, and so I will now end this thing, whatever it is, other than a series of words forming a few sentences.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 05:40:70

Just kind of wanted to spray words and I think I succeeded there.
As for the quality of the writing, well it does a good argument for where that lies.

Written at home.

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