Saturday, December 18, 2010

One Road, Three Perspectives (Part 1)

I've started walking a new (and ever so slightly quicker) way to work this past week, and one particular street has come to my attention on three occasions. The first, was on my way home after a MASSIVE storm. The storm was so massive, that I had to stay in the building an hour after my shift finished, waiting for umbrella appropriate weather. Of course, by the time most of it cleared, I didn't even need an umbrella. The walk was just beautiful! Everything was so different and wonderful. It reminded me of that feeling you get when you're pushing through something, and then it finally finishes. Like when someone stops tickling you, or you finish sneezing, or when you've had a really long, stressful day on your feet and you finally lay down to go to sleep; that feeling of relief and relaxation.

Have you ever noticed how people behave differently in the rain? They take more notice of their surroundings, because it all looks different. They're forced to stop and take a moment to breath. People are more chatty and excitable in storms. Strangers speak to each other, because they're sharing a common, out of the ordinary experience. Everyone's fascinated by lightning, and they watch it in awe. In a couple of houses I walked past, there were small groups of three or so people standing and sitting in their front doorways with a cup of tea or a cigarette, just silently looking at the after affects.



Anyway, the street. I walked down it like it was completely unfamiliar to me, it was just so beautiful. Because I was walking up hill, the water was flowing down the overflowing drains so fast, and it sounded like a real river. In contrast to the masses of still water gathering in people's driveways, it looked extraordinary. It took me so long to get home because I kept stopping to take photographs. They can't possibly be an accurate depiction though, without the scent, sound and movement of the water.

The photograph's are still inside my camera, so above is one of Nirrimi's, and below is Patrick Self's.



x

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Walk Me Through the Clover.

As I was drinking my tea this morning, something very unexpected happened. In the room next door, my brother was watching a music show (the kind where they play music videos of Rihanna singing about rude boys, etc.), and I heard something kick ass. Kieran and I nodded knowingly to each other, it was clear that what we were hearing was worth remembering. Stonefield.



Influenced by the rawness of the 60s and 70s, these guys have something really special. And this bit I didn't believe- one of the members is only 12 years old! The sisters are all between 12 and 20, and are Australian of course. They won the Triple J Unearthed High competition this year, and shiver me timbers did they deserve it. This is the sweet clip that goes with their awesomeness:



x

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Self Pitty is a State of Mind.



Last Sunday night, I was lucky enough to witness a wonderful concert. The Jezabels put on quite a show!! I wasn't too familiar with their music before the concert, I was accompanying my dear friend, who unfortunately got sick that day and couldn't come :( Of course, I was instead accompanied by another fantastic human being.

Not being a massive fan, I wasn't expecting amazingness. Don't get me wrong, I was definitely looking forward to a pleasant night of live Australian music (which has come to be, over the past couple of years, one of my most favourite, treasured things to exist), in the extremely hot but unquestionably charming venue, the zoo. I knew not what I was in for. This concert was devine.

At first, I was punched in the face by the powerful vocals of Miss Haley Mary. That woman has a voice box in her that could enchant the worst of Grinches of the music world. After the punch wounds began to heal, I started to notice the other talents that were casually sharing a stage with this voice. The drummer with the great shirt, who made rhythms so perfect for subtly dancing, that it seemed almost involuntary. The keys player and the guitarist, who sung sweet harmonies, while constantly filling the songs with perfectly placed chords. The four of them together had so much energy and momentum. Their enjoyment was contagious.





Not only were the band members extremely talented and passionate, but the music they were playing was sublime. It made me feel like I was in a quiet, homey coffee shop in a small cold town. I like being in quiet, homey coffee shops in small cold towns. It reminds me of road trips; driving through beautiful towns, thinking time, a break from normal life. There's a sense of serenity that comes with road trips, and somehow it was brought back to me through this music.



So if anyone ever says to you, "Hey, would you like to see The Jezabels?", I would recommend you answer them with a big fat "YES".

x

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Withdrawals.







I really miss my uncut, super long hair. I know it's all healthy and shiny and whatever now, but that's not stopping me from doing everything in my power to find a quick hair growing potion or spell in order to bring it back to it's former glory. Its former glory of thinness and knots and mega length. Does anyone know one?

In other news, I'm really enjoying Julia Stone's solo album! It's pretty fantastic, and the album art is super cool, she did it herself! Check it out, even if you're not generally too much of a Julia fan, she really raises her level of greatness with this album. My favourite track is 'Catastrophe', but I can't find it anywhere on the Internet, my apologies. 'My Baby' is also quite cool, so have a listen. It's not one of my favourite from the album, but it's just so hard to find any of it online! I had to revert to MySpace music. Desperate times people..


x

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Inspiration Explosion.

My mind has just been exploding with inspiration these past couple of days! I mean, it's pretty pointless stuff popping up in there (I may or may not have drawn a picture of a cat chasing a gnome), but entertaining none the less :)


I used this cat in the drawing. It's always sun baking when I walk past on my way home from the train. It kind of looks like it's running here, even though it's chilling.

I had this lovely patriotic moment yesterday afternoon! And no, I don't mean war-cry's and green and gold jersey's. I was standing by the sink, washing my hands of the first mango of the season (Kieran bought the mother of all mango's), and the most beautiful breeze was blowing through the window. I was listening to Josh Pyke singing about the sea with that strong Australian accent of his, and there was a Kookaburra on the clothes line. Summer started at that precise moment, I think.



The evening began with the surprise of a room filled with candles, watching my favourite movie with the Joseph and the Zooey AND eating my favourite ice cream with the cookies and the cream. Nick is actually the cat's pajamas and the bee's knees all in one.



And today, although this may not seem particularly exciting to some, I had the fantastic pleasure of spending quality time with a cup of tea and a fresh book. Scrubs even came on TV.

Between these times of pure loveliness, there has been much creating. And a little cleaning on the side, but even that isn't so bad with the company of Ben Folds and Belle and Sebastian. On that note, Ben Folds and Nick Hornby's current collaboration = genius. I had my doubts. Majorly. Being a dedicated Ben fan (especially when it comes to Ben Folds Five), I was a little concerned when I heard 'From Above' on the radio over and over. It seemed a little bit like some of Ben Folds stuff that lacks.. I don't know. Just, the majority of his music is so incredible, but some of it is a less incredible version of the good stuff. As in, it has the same kind of qualities, but it just doesn't have 'it'. Obviously that's impossible to avoid, I can't believe the number of different songs I've heard of his. He's a song writing machine. Anyway, I felt like this song was a bit like that. THEN, I heard 'Levi Johnson's Blues', which is just freaking great.

In the CD book thing, Nick Hornby has written a little about the stories behind the songs, which I definitely appreciate! And it's kind of cool all the collaborations that are involved. Like 'Things You Think' with Pomplamoose, Kate Miller-Heidke singin' in 'From Above', and this video with the blogger Charlie is so cool like for 'Saskia Hamilton', which Kate also sings in. All of these collaborations (and so many more great people that I'm not familiar with) bring so much freshness and fantasticness to his already fantabulous musical mind. I decided to embrace it. Needless to say there's been more dancing than cleaning. Also, it makes me want to make some sweet collaborations with people. I've had some pretty successful jam sessions with various talented friends over the year, definitely keen for more now that free time is among us.



That Ben Folds rant wasn't actually planned, so this post has kind of gone off topic a little, but hey, let's just go with it.

x

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Hair.

We took a risk. We did something crazy. My best friend and I went to the hairdressers and got our hair dyed. We thought it would be best to get it done at the hairdressers, even if it cost a lot of money that doesn't exist in the bank account, as we didn't want it to look ridiculous and stuff it up from a box.


I asked for something a little like this:


And this is what my friend was going for:


If you saw us, there is zero chance of you noticing any change whatsoever.

That's right, we look exactly the same. A trillion dollars later, our hair is still the same colour. Now I am 100% positive that the lady actually put colour in our hair, I saw it with my own eyes! We selected a colour, and an hour later she washed it out, and reassured us that it would become more noticeable in a couple of days. Yeah, well, we both still have dark brown hair. In fact, mine is actually darker! You see, when she dyed it the brownyreddy colour (that I told her I thought was too dark), the natural highlights of my dark brown hair went away, resulting in this blackybrowny colour that lacks in niceness. Just what I wanted!

This could only have happened to us. As non-risk takers, we should have only expected that when we did try, it would result in a hilarious situation of no result. Most people, when getting their hair dyed, would walk out with a new hair colour. Jacinta and Nikki, walk out looking exactly the same. It's the way of the universe.

x

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Wearing All of Your Clothes at the Same Time.



I keep writing really long posts and not posting them. It's quite time consuming. So because I'm not satisfied with any of these previous posts, I'm going to write a simple ramble about some music. I always like doing that :)

Alright, so ever since I've acquired it, I've been obsessed with Wincing the Night Away by The Shins. I realise it's not particularly new (released early 2007), I meant to buy it for ages, and boy was I glad when I did. It's actually all I listened to for months. I brought another album on the same day, which I'm sure is fantastic..

Although I was familiar with a few of their songs before seeing it, the movie Garden State really sold them to me in the end. Being a MASSIVE fan of both Zac Braff (who directed and stared in the movie) and Natalie Portman, I was bound to love it. I must admit, the story line did depress me a little, but something about the watered down chaos and bizarre turn of events appealed to me. The best thing about it, hands down, was the soundtrack. Although it's not from Wincing the Night Away, New Slang is one of my all time favourite Shins songs, and a significant song in the movie.





Back to the album. There's actually not one song on it that I don't love, definitely give it a listen :)



x

Friday, October 29, 2010

Perspective.

I've always had an interest in thinking about perspective. That sounds strange, right! How could I possibly more interested in something like perspective than anybody else is? I don't know, maybe everybody else is just as interested in it as I am, we just don't speak about it.

The idea that you have of something you create is so different from other peoples idea of it. Like the lyrics of a song. When you sing or hear lyrics you've written yourself, you don't just hear the words, you experience all of the other things in between. A friend of mine asked me a while back what I thought of when I sing my songs. I told him that I completely return to my state of mind from when I wrote the song, and this worried him a little bit. "That can't be healthy!", he said. But writing helps me gain perspective, so returning to that state of mind is surley a good thing. It's kind of like a musical photograph. When you look at a photo that means something to you, you return to that moment, right? Well it's kind of the next level up from that. You return to the moment when you returned to the moment, now with some perspective on it. Read that sentence over a few times and it will make sense.

On the note of photos, it's the same deal. When you see a picture you've taken or one taken of you, you have a completely different perspective of that photo to someone who's disconnected from it. They see it as a visual image, but you see it as a vivid still of a past moment. I often try to disconnect myself from photos I've taken, to see it from an outsiders perspective. Then I notice all the visual stuff as well. For example..


This is one of my favourite pictures. To you, it's a pretty picture of a cute little Japanese kid holding a leaf. Because of it's cute factor, it's appealing to you. But to me, the kid is Anna, and she's collecting leafs for me as a gift, because her Grandma told her we don't have yellow ones where I live, and she felt very sorry for me. The yellow ones are her favourite. Kids don't tend to like me very much, but Anna did. Now you have my perspective on the picture, it makes more sense why I love it so much, and why I took it. It's no longer just a visual. That's what this blog was originally about; telling the story behind pictures I've taken. But my pictures are few (and terrible quality!), which is why that died. Maybe I'll do it more often though.

It's also relevant in everyday life situations. I love those situations when you realise that if anyone else could see what you were doing, they would believe you to be insane. If you can share one of these situations with someone, it really shows how comfortable you are with them. That you're confident they will share your perspective, or at least accept it.


I love that add on TV for a brand of bread (I can't remember which brand), with the line that goes something like, "character is what we are unobserved". We are the most like ourselves when we are not perceived by anyone, because we're not thinking about how they will perceive us, and therefore not attempting to create the ideal image of ourselves. How annoying! It's so difficult not to think about how we're being perceived by others, as we're always so conscious of it. I think it's important to try not to think about it, even though it's impossible to always succeed.

You probably won't want to read the word 'perspective' for a very long time now, so I'll make it stop.

x

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Sleep Anywhere, Anytime.

My Sleep Diary:

MONDAY
12:30am-6:30am- in bed, in my room
9am-9:30am- on desk, in library

TUESDAY
1am-6:30am- in bed, in my room
11:15am-11:17am- on books, in lecture
4:40pm-5pm- on bed, in my room

WEDNESDAY
1am-6:30am- in bed, in my room
12pm until school excursion lunch occurred beside me- on grass, near uni

Sleep deprived and on a mission.


Photograph by Jacob Lambert

x

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Silver White Winters That Melt Into Spring.

I know it's very childish of me, but I'm scared of thunder storms. Ever since I was a little tyke. I think it was year 2, when we learned about lightening at school, that my fear really started. I've never been a fan of sudden loud noises (fireworks are not my favourite thing in the world. Nor are snare players in marching bands), but once I learned about the damage that lightening can cause, that was it for me. I'm getting better though! I used to just lay there in bed blocking my ears until it stopped, which is not a particularly practical thing to do when you live in Queensland with all the storms and stuff. I didn't get much sleep in the summertime.

This house is very tall and lightning keeps striking really close and I'm freaking out a little right now! Where is Julie Andrews when you need her..




In other news; my feet are dead, my eyes are barley staying open and my shoulders hurt like a bitch. Yes, that's right, I'm a wee bit tired. But you know what? It was utterly and completely worth it. I had the most fantastic weekend!! It included fresh cookies, a wonderfully dozy picnic (with a freakishly cloudless sky and a freakishly lovely picnic partner), park exploration, ducks (and surprise turtles!), being re-untied with goon punch (and the CHAC uniform), chats at Charlie's with nothing but the finest collection of beings AND Bohemian Rhapsody.

This is following the AMAZING performance from none other than Tame Impala that I witnessed last weekend, in the company of two very cool cats. I can not find a picture to successfully illustrate my recent weekend adventures, so instead I'm going to include a song by one of the support acts of Tame Impala, The John Steel Singers. Very impressive live performance on their behalf!! Especially the keys/trumpet/back up singer guy, who looked like he was having the time of his life. That's really what you want to see in live music. Apologies for terrible video quality.



For now, however, I best return to the world of craziness and seriousness I was lucky enough to escape for 48 hours-ish. Not long now until two and a half moths of escapism :)

x

Thursday, October 21, 2010

You can pull linked sausages out of me if you want.

So I was moping around the house, doing absolutely nothing when there are a million things to be done, and I decided to watch Gilmore Girls, as it is always the medicine to my moping. Of course, every time I use it for this medicine purpose, it turns out to be a depressing episode, having the opposite effect from the usual Gilmore dose.



But in the end, it pulled through. After a long bout of hopelessness, in fact appearing to worsen my moping, the last line made me happy. For possibly less than five seconds at the very very end, it managed to turn my mood around completely, with the simple line of, "You can pull linked sausages out of me if you want".





I was actually Rory in my dream the other night. It was so bizarre, I'm always myself in my dreams! Occasionally I may be wearing a costume or acting like somebody else, but I was utterly and completely Rory Gilmore. I looked like her, talked like her, people called me 'Rory'. I was roaming the streets in this strange emotionless state, and then I came across a group of people I knew, having a street party of some kind. So, of course, I joined them, still in the emotionless state, and started babbling on about how I realised I was in love with Logan (Rory's boyfriend in the show, as pictured above). Then I laid on a trampoline and stared at the stars, expressionless, for ages before waking up and returning to the real world where I am myself. My subconcious takes me on some strange adventures in the night.

x

Monday, October 18, 2010

Hungry Kids.



These guys are the Hungry Kids of Hungry, and they're a pretty alright foursome of talent from Brisbane.

In the following clip of awesomeness, I'm sure you'll notice that the song is great. I'm also sure you'll notice that the rock percussion is great, that they look like they're having SO much fun, and that the guy with his head covered is kind of irritating. However, what I really really want you to notice, is the impeccable choice of guitar. Yep, that's right, it's exactly the same as mine. Definitely an underrated tool, the mini acoustic.



x

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Assignment Writing Entertainment.

I want to sleep for days, do something reckless, sing outdoors, eat chocolate cake, drink a bucket full of tea, watch a movie I've never seen before and work on my creative projects all at once. But alas, I must continue to write this assignment.

While I write assignments and study, I like to listen to music that I wouldn't usually listen to whilst doing things I usually do when listening to music (such as train catching, walking and doing the dishes). Miles Davis, Beethoven, Debussy and Chet Baker are my favourites for study related occasions. I'm currently going through a bit of a jazz phase, so I've been listening to Miles on the train as well :)



Anyway, on my assignment writing youtube travels, I came across this magnificent Chet Baker rendition of "My Funny Valentine". I have a lovely recording of him singing it, but this is completely different and completely wonderful. From the instability of his vocals, I'm going to assume it's from his later years. Just wow. Enjoy!



x

p.s. Thank you to everyone who has ever taken the time to read/browse my blog! I now, somehow, have over 1000 views :) (over half of which occurred between September and now!!). It's really nice to know that my points of view and ramblings are read, and maybe even considered :) so thanks, love and peace to you.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Danger Tunes.

"I think that music has to have danger, you have to be right on the precipice to really be interested, not gliding along playing something you know. If you never get on the brink you're never going to learn what excitement you can rise to. You can only rise to great heights by danger and no great man has ever been safe."

I read this just now in the book "Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond" while researching for an assignment, and it was exactly what I needed to read. Only slightly relevant to the assignment, but 100% relevant to my state of mind. Thanks Michael Nyman!

x

Friday, October 8, 2010

Remind Me.

Don't you just love it when people are just lovely? It makes things like walking home barefoot in the wind and dark and rain with a trumpet case that little bit less horrible. Being complemented by a stranger (not a creepy stranger, a nice one!), coming home to find a hand written letter in the mail, and a message from a ye old friend concerned for my health. It really restores my faith in humanity :)

This is one of my favourite Lisa Mitchell songs. It slipped under my radar for a little bit, but it was just perfect when I heard it today!



x

Friday, October 1, 2010

How To, With Cinta.

How to eat the perfect chocolate combination:
1. Purchase both a block of dark chocolate and hazelnut dairy milk.
2. Break off a strip of each block.
3. Bite half of a square of the dark chocolate, do not chew.
4. Bite half of a square of the hazelnut dairy milk, chew together.
5. Smile, and continue process until feelings of sickness begin.

How to study for Music Theory exam:
1. Stare at notes
(to be continued)



x

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Delta Sparks Thought.

Over my breakfast tea and fruit toast this morning (definitely my favourite part of the day), I was reading an issue of Cream Magazine from 2008 that I scored when the news agent next door was throwing it away. I like that they do this. Anyway, I was reading an interview with Delta Goodrem (I know, lame. She was a pop goddess of my younger years, what can I say) which sparked some thought about popular culture and technology.



If you think babble about popular culture is pretentious, please stop reading now.

I warned you.

So the interviewer was asking her about her thoughts on technology, and weather she was a "technophile or a technophobe". She answered that she was a fan of the iTunes, but she loved putting CD's in her stereo, having a tangible collection and looking at the artwork, etc. I am definitely in the same boat, in fact, I pretty much said the exact same thing in a similar conversation just yesterday!

This got me thinking about why exactly Delta and I feel the need to own CD's, when the mp3 alternative is clearly more accessible and convenient. I think it's definitely got to do with the tangible thing. I love to make things. And what's the most fulfilling thing about making something? The finished product. Seeing it, feeling it, smelling it, hearing it. Whichever of those apply to said thing, but the more the merrier, right? Because I feel this satisfaction with my own creations, I like to do the same with the creations of others, so I can understand it better maybe, I don't know.

Obviously, technology hasn't only had this effect on music. It's had a considerable effect on visual art as well. It has allowed for, in recorded music and computerised visual art, this new level of perfection. Even in photography cinematography. A level not possible for humans to achieve without the ever improving technology.

At the moment I'm studying 20th century music in one of my classes, and something I found particularly interesting was the connections between the different genres that developed. One of the most interesting; Minimalism as a reaction to Serialism and Expressionism. Serialism and Expressionism were definitely music for a superior musical mind. Difficult/impossible to understand by the general public. Minimalism saw music back to simplicity. It rejected the strict forms and complexities that were considered acceptable at the time (1960s). Defiantly well loved by the high hippies of popular culture, and eventually also respected by the high classes of these previous genres. Terry Riley is a bit of a minimalist legend, you can tell just by looking at him.



That's enough of the history lesson, it's time to connect my ramble. In popular culture at the moment, things seem to have gone back to basics. The love of handmade, hand drawn visual art. Natural sounding music, HUMAN voices with imperfections in music. Things with character, human imperfection and a dash of chaos. I know I'm a sucker for it. It's kind of like going back to basics again. A reaction to the perfection which is too easily achieved. A new version of minimalism.

So auto tune and co can go screw themselves, they're not wanted here. Not in this part of popular culture anyway. I realise that I'm only focusing on one strand here, the reaction obviously has to come from something. Things like "Glee" and "High School Musical" are there to remind us of this. No disrespect to the fans of technological perfection, it's a matter of personal taste. It would be hypocritical of me to say that I don't love some things to come out of it. There are plenty of bands I love that use it, just for some reason it doesn't bother me in specific cases, such as "Vampire Weekend". Who knows why. If I didn't love the endless possibilites of technology, I wouldn't have a blog, would I? :)

This, is a long piece of babble. Sorry if you were in the middle of something and didn't expect it to drag on for quite so long. You can now go back to that thing you were doing, I'm done.

x

Saturday, September 25, 2010

I Got Rhythm!

I danced a lot last night. A lot. And although I think it was probably the worst I've ever danced, I had the most wonderful time. There was much smiling, my jaw was aching.

These videos are of my oldest and newest favourite dance scenes from movies. When I was a yougin, I loved nothing more than "Singing in The Rain". Apparently I would sing "Good Morning" every single morning without fail. If somebody did that to me they probably wouldn't still be alive now, so I'm thankful that my parents become quickly immune to my music related crazes. I don't think 'craze' is really an appropriate term for my relationship with that movie though, I still adore it.



YouTube is being lame and won't let me embed the videos, but here's the link for "Moses Supposes" and "Dream of You". Please watch them, they're fantastic!

And I don't really think it's necessary for me to re-declare my love for "500 Days Of Summer", you get the picture. I love how this scene captures the situation so so perfectly!



x

p.s. On my YouTube travels I found this, which excited me quite considerably :)

Monday, September 20, 2010

Sing to Me.

The human voice is a beautiful, enchanting thing. I was just having a stress moment until somebody downstairs started singing. It completely relaxed me. Thank you, whoever you are.

(I'm not hearing voices in my house, there's a group of people here and I don't know their voices to differentiate between them!)























x

Friday, September 17, 2010

Victory Corn.



New film!! :)

I took this picture of my bro Kieran on a road trip in the mid semester break. Kieran is a big fan of corn on the cob, however he had not been able to eat it while he had his braces on. He just had them off a couple of days before we left for the trip, and so he was quite excited when we found this indoor food market with a corn stall. He ate the hell out of that corn.

x

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Smile For The Camera Hat!

I'm feeling overly creative today. A persistent flow of ideas. Not good on what was supposed to be a study day! But hey, I couldn't possibly ignore them, could I?

So I heard this song on the radio at work, and it kind of stuck with me. But not like the usual way that a song sticks with you from the radio when you want to strangle the person who put it on the radio because it's taking over your brain. The good kind. The rare kind. And so I youtubed it, and noticed a rather genius contraption towards the end which excited me considerably. So now I want a hipster camera hat.

(Please click on the vidio before you watch it so that it's not missing bits)


x

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Spot the Difference.




Marilyn Monroe vs Kate Hallahan.
:O

x

Monday, September 6, 2010

Lady Sing The Blues So Well.

Before I begin on my main subject for this blog, I'll tell you what made it spring to mind. You see, I've made a decision. I've decided that having a fringe over my face in summer in Queensland is just not going to happen. Spring has barley sprung and already it's giving me grief, making me wish I was bauld. BUT DON'T WORRY, I'm not shaving my head. No, I'm just growing out my fringe until the weather cools again to fringe appropriate weather. But enough about me, let's talk about somebody much more interesting, like REGINA SPEKTOR.



But how oh how do these two subjects link? Well, I don't know if you've ever seen Regina live, but if you haven't, you've missed out on observing one of the most interesting people that exist in all the land. There are so many conversations that she had with the crowd which I wish I could re-tell, but I couldn't possibly, because nobody can communicate quite like Regina. But I'll at least give you one (my favourite) example, not only to satisfy your curiosity, but to explain to you the link between my seemingly irrelevant introductory story and babble about Regina Spektor's crowd conversations.

Okay, so picture this: Mrs Spektor is presenting the audience with a performance far beyond their expectations. You can tell because nobody is talking, barley anyone is even singing along. No, everyone is just staring at the stage in awe of this magical musical masterpiece being created right before their eyes. Suddenly, there is a small spitting noise. A little strange, but nobody really takes notice. Then, the music stops. Regina spits her hair out of her mouth, angrily tosses it behind her back and says in her almost-whisper-American-with-slight-Russian-accent speaking voice, "Sometimes I just want to cut off all of my fucking hair". Then she returns to the piece.



I love Regina a lot.

x

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Patrick The Photo Taker.

This,


is a photo taking friend of mine named Patrick Self. He's a bit of a legend.

Patrick is an intriguing, philosophical character with a side of incredible photographer. For example,

















And something you may not know, he's also a fantastic dancer.
These are just some of my absolute favourites, please see for yourself at his website and/or blog .

Lately, Patrick has had the privilege of shooting some pretty decent bands such as "The Bedroom Philosopher", "Boy and Bear" and "The Boat People" to name a few. Or should I say, they had the privilege of being shot by him. He also has an exhibition coming up in November, which I believe will feature some of these music-related photographs (such as the last one above).

And of course, I have to include one that he's taken of me! This was taken mid Bob Marley sing along at a gathering last summer. What a lovely period of time to remember.



x