Yipee!!

I feel like this has been a lifetime of printing but last night, as I took a step back and saw the mass of prints before me, it all felt quite worthwhile.

The Good and The Bad (But The Bad Is Actually Good)

The bird in the image above later flew over my head and left me with a little something. Which is meant to be lucky right? So I'd like to thank the little darling because the issue that was causing me so much grief finally has a resolution - and I think its all because of the lucky lorrikeet leftovers.

After having a vision of wanting to sew my books to bind them but then realising that I cannot even sew a button I have found the ultimate solution to binding my books! This is perhaps the most exciting discovery of my week and I am itching to get cracking.

The bad thing is that I have found at least another ten images which I want to include. Which is good sure, but bad because it means many more hours squirrelled away and a bit of a delay on the ETA.

The other good news is that my new binding technique is so easy that I can just bam out books oh so easily. Expect a flood my friends...

Its all good.

The Power of the Camera...

Darn sickness to hell. I'm quite over it. I've had 8 large vials of blood taken today so my head is floating ten feet above my body. Not the best day to blog but the results might be interesting.

The sickness is compounded by the fact that I'm letting people down. I've had two great offers to take photographs for people I really respect lately but I haven't had the energy to go. I'm letting them down and I'm letting myself down. But another date with nurse Helen and her needle will hopefully sort this shit out.

The photo above illustrates the exact opposite of how I'm feeling.

A big thanks to all that checked out my updated Spiked Punch website. The colour images are kinda average I'll be the first to say but I'm finding my feet after so many years away. The reaction to my buying a digital camera though has been interesting to say the least. Did I make that big a deal about not wanting to go digital? Anyway, scroll down the page to see the moment of illumination when I finally realised that I could get something out of it. I stand by my convictions...

Two thoughts for this blog. One is that cable television is bad. Yes, yes, you all know this. It's bad on many levels however the worst crime is that it steers me away from great channels such as SBS and I end up missing out on so much. Thankfully, I managed to switch on SBS at the right time last night to watch a 2004 documentary called Born Into Brothels.

Which leads me to my second thought. And I could possibly be settled in for a rant here so get comfortable, have a bathroom break or get a drink...

This documentary was funded by a project called Kids with Cameras - a New York non-profit organisation formed to teach photography and the passion behind it to marginalised children around the world. They've got programs going in Calcutta, Cairo, Haiti and Jerusalem but the documentary last night was on Calcutta and specifically the children of prostitutes. It won the Oscar for best documentary a few years ago so I'm way behind the times, however given a few years have passed it could be good to bring a tiny bit of attention back its way.

It was quite overwhelming to be truthful, and no words I can say will do it justice. These kids are obviously from a background of great hardship, they face challenges every day that you or I could possibly never imagine, they hardly know what beauty is given the dirt and the deceit around them. But the images they took - no matter how painful the subject matter - were some of the most beautiful images I've seen. Take a step back and not know the background of the photographer and they are some of the most beautiful images I have seen.

The ultimate message of the camera as a tool for hope and change was the driving force of this documentary. I mean, it was and it wasn't. The KWC representative was trying so hard to get them in to a proper school (which was impossible for most and the parents of the remainder would not let them) and trying so hard to make grand changes which could reshape their lives, however this small change of bringing a camera into their lives was a larger change than displacing them from their way of life (however terrible we might view it, this was all they knew and all their families were). The camera gave them hope, allowed them to show their lives as it was (to promote change) and ultimately gave them validity.

My background is obviously nothing like the kids from Calcutta however the importance of the camera is clearly universal.

Visit Kids With Cameras

From the Kids Gallery... Please visit the website and view all the images.

Can you feel the love

One Should Never Feel Bad About...

...doing what they love. And this was what I was doing whilst procrasting from doing the "work" things I was meant to be doing. I feel okay about that. So I continue this theme with another fine means of procrastion - blogging about what they love.


If I've ever invited you around for dinner and followed it quickly with "I'll get Ad to cook something" please don't think I'm palming off the chores. Fact is, he's an amazing cook. This was my dinner last night.


Everything around us is dead because of lack of water. The only flourishing is my bamboo and this beautiful tree sitting out on a main road.

And these have been just some of the beautiful things of my last 24 hours.

Bit Blurred

Dignified and Old

So I know that I touted this as a music blog and you are getting way too many non-music posts (well, they have some music but its not as I intended).

This episode of my after-work ramblings goes out to the M-Rocket. Though it will do his ego none-too-good to see this. However since he is perhaps my only regular reader he should not expect my praise of him to spread throughout the community.

M-Rocket has several major events happening in the latter part of the year - one which may perhaps overshadow the other. So, to prempt the larger event and give the other event its fair dues, I have decided to celebrate his birthday early. And in a non-physical object type way. By devoting a bit of blog to him. Clearly he should no longer expect a present...

So what is the best thing about this guy? Well, a series of traits which I identify as being good character. Plus a series of traits that I identify as being similar to mine (thus of questionable character but familiar). But there's one thing that he has bought into my world that's rather larger than this.

When you are a child your best friend is the person living next door or the kid that you sit next to at school. Your tastes are yet to be developed to some extent. "You like kitties? Wow, I like kitties too - we should be best friends!" (I should mention that my friends in the early 80s (when I was a youngan) were two sisters called Tia and Maria who lived in the townhouse next door. We listened (and perhaps danced) to Thriller together. We moved on to "The Girl Is Mine" duet and I sang the Paul Mcartney bit - cannot tell still if that was a good or bad move. But I never got their name thing until I got older. Now I'm just painfully ashamed for their parents. That's rather wrong really).

You move into high school and it becomes more about styles or genres. Its the very definition of a clique. The sporty types, the outsiders, the smart kids - all united by something. Me, I was a music nerd and gravitated towards kids that had heard of The Pixies. It didn't *particularly* matter if they entirely upheld your value system because... well, they'd heard of The Pixies and the other 6000 kids at your school hadn't! You didn't really discuss the morality of issues because we were still finding our feet on that one.

Adulthood onsets and you take this mentality of common ground but push it a little further to include values and place slightly less (but still a great deal) on the common bonds. My best friend in the world and I got together because of a similar passion for photography. She had much more to offer but that's where we started. If she liked to drown kittens in her spare time then I wouldn't have gone near her but she liked photography and she liked similar music (score card starting at two points) and we were in a similar location of doing the same course at university (thus combining the location aspect of a child with the genre of a teen).

These days I make friends through association more than anything else. Nadia introduced me to Susie - she's 20, makes great music, is a good person - she is my friend. Adam introduced me to Tim - he's my age, plays in bands but comes from a completely different sort of background than me - he's my friend. I met Lorraine at work - we love cameras and animals, she is one of the greatest people I've ever met, we have a HUGE gap in a lot of tastes - she is my friend. These are all GREAT FRIENDS. But there's always a common link on something we are passionate about.

So at this point in the story my theory gets blown away.

M-Rocket comes along. I would like to say his musical taste is questionable but I'll get branded as being a snob. He gave me a book to read and I couldn't make it past the first chapter. He wears nice collared shirts to work and I wear dirty sneakers. He is committed to his career but I'm just there because I have to be. He's a finance nerd and I'm into art. We have nothing of style and genre in common. He is completely foreign to me.

He's stripped back all the style and genre commonailty. We have none. I couldn't have a conversation with him about a Converge record if I tried. And I'm completely passionate about my Converge records. In fact, I know for sure if I ever played it for him he'd pull the same blurgh face he does when stirring coffee. But that's just not what its about.

M-Rocket is a great person. It's the person.

Splaying it out like this I feel lame for coming across as shallow or closed minded but I think the commonality of interests is something which has always presented itself to me and so I've come to expect it. Sometimes you are best not to expect and strip down everything to its core layer and appreciate. Because thats where the true surprises lie.

If I was a teenager I'd never go near him. He'd never go near me. We certainly would not be friends.

A good reason to embrace getting older.

So a pre-birthday homage to the birthday boy who will officially be "old" this year. Congratulations on getting another year older. Its actually a good thing.

BUT MOST OF ALL - Congratulations on getting through today.

My love to you and the J-Rocket.

PS. My first choice in songs should be "Hate To Say I Told You So" however I won't rub into the wound that I am supreme, can predict the future and clearly am older and wiser. So on to second choice.

PPS. Yr old, don't know about dignified.

Buy Modern Lovers at Missing Link
Listen to Modern Lovers Dignified and Old

PPPS. Happy early 30th.

Damage

So today is all about new music. I've gone a bit bizerko in the past week with purchases of really exciting music - all brand new to my ears, be it recommendations, other bands pointing me in the right direction or the wonderful Hype Machine.

Firstly, I should say congratulations to I Heart Hiroshima for an amazing instore appearance on Saturday. Interruptions asides, it was a great show. I can't wait to do some promo pics for you kids.

Far out, I know that you are better than your interruptions (and perhaps you'd rather I didn't discuss this) but I was just a little bemused by what happened. Half way through the IHH set (which was going flawlessly) a guy pushed his way through and started slam dancing the younger set down the front. Fine - they moved. Then he started shouting over the top of the band about how we should not support this capitalisim, that music was about the DIY culture, that he hated to have to say this to us but we were all capitalists. It was a rant better suited to the routunda of the Queen Street Mall where people *do* play just to sell billions of records. Okay, he was truly utterly devoted to his convictions -which is admirable, I mean, truly admirable to be that devoted (perhaps a little less violently in future might be good) HOWEVER a little thought behind the forum he was crashing would see that:

1) it was an independent band playing
2) it was an independent record store
3) it was a free event
4) it was all ages
5) it was in the afternoon

It doesn't come much more capitalist minded than that ladies and gentlemen! Right...

I think IHH took it on the chin - they were incredibly poised and didn't let it get to them (even though half their audience fled) but I'm just incredibly sad about the whole event. I admire people who question, who educate, but this was nothing of that ilk. This was a sad dogma. I hate, HATE, that punk has become this regime where people discontinue to see things stripped back - on whatever musical level that they form - and just decide to rant their shit over the top without even standing back to see the driver, the motivation!

Still, it was quite an amazing moment. IHH beating their hearts out and this ageing punk spouting retarded words which had no meaning in the context of the afternoon. I wanted to film it but was truely aware that he'd probably beat me up (he had resorted to violence already).

Sorry IHH from taking away from your show by focusing on that. But I'm sure you feel my frustration.

I'll move on.

Secondly, thanks go to Adam for a great record shopping experience on Saturday - its been a while and its been a while since we've been on the same musical track (since uniting many years ago over Polvo, Pavement and Sebadoh)!

Adam is truly a great person. Tired as hell as he was, he made a commitment to some people and he stuck by it (even though it took him 4 hours out of his way). He's pretty good like that. And nice as they were, they rewarded him with a voucher for a record store to say thanks for going out of his way - and we had great fun spending on Sat.

So this is a combined effort of things I have discovered recently, things that Adam and I bought on Saturday, other records by artists we love.

CONVERGE

Ultimate props must go out to Mr Ian Iron-On for lending us "You Fail Me" and a rumbling went across camp Alderley... Perhaps no other band has led both Adam and I to go weak at the knees, to sit there in stunned silence whilst the record is playing. I've lost sight of what my top five bands would be - that's impossible to pin down - however Converge will be in there.

From Petitioning The Empty Sky

Visit Converge at their website

Buy Converge at Missing Link

Listen to Converge Albatross

400 Blows

Yeah so I'm a big fan of The Bronx. They happen to quote fellow LA band 400 Blows a fair bit. I had an incredibly hard time getting the album in Australia but finally...

From Angel's Trumpets and Devils Trombones

Visit 400 Blows at their Website

Buy 400 Blows at Missing Link

Listen to 400 Blows The Beauty of Internal Darkness

Just come over incredibly tired - Daughters, Doomrider, Melt Banana, Cursive, Boris and Erase Errata later in the week.