ANZAC Day

Captain John Foulkes Richardson was the first of my father's family to be born in Australia and both my Grandad and Dad share his name

Today I reflect that my great-grandfather was wounded leading a charge at Gallipoli and then, after recovering, was sent to the Somme. 

The latter was one of bloodiest and most futile battles, as Australia lost over 23,000 men and gained very little ground against German troops in muddy trenches.

He enlisted on 28 Sep 1914 for AIF WW1, as Captain of the 15th Infantry Battalion, Brisbane, Queensland. 

This photo shows him in the centre prior to embarkation on 22 Dec 1914.

Wounded on 27 Apr 1915. Promoted on 29 May 1915 to rank of Major, 15th Infantry Battalion, then discharged on 10 Nov 1915.

He enlisted again on 1 Jan 1918, which led to his role in France during WWI, then signed up again for WWII on 28 Dec 1939. 

He didn't fight in WWII -- presumably because he was 55 years old. 

Locked up

It blows my mind that a padlock is a romantic symbol

If there were an image that gave an impression of coercive control, then this would be an obvious choice.

Katzensymphonie

Moritz von Schwind’s 'Katzensymphonie' (1868) 

Pretty sure if this showed sheep jumping over the staves, then one would fall asleep listening to it!

When you get a raise

 

Innuendo

Lately I've been playing with machine-learning services again and it turns out that they're great for quickly scaffolding lyrics

As a result I've been singing and playing ukulele a lot more, but that might also have to do with six weeks of teaching primary school kids to strum that instrument.

Yesterday the surf was too rough to do much on the beach, so I began playing with ideas.

It's my 23rd anniversary and I have been joking about romantic tropes, such as the role of cupids.

Since my partner likes joking about innuendo sounding like an innuendo, I made her a song and then recorded it.

However, as I only have the microphone on my camera for audio, I got carried away trying to make the recording work and it really doesn't have the quality -- in either performance or fidelity.

P.S. A few days later and I had a different idea for this chord progression.

Please look

Love these lines

Reminds me of Anatole, a most honourable mouse.

Now I want cheese!

Little Ned

I wasn’t sure how to feel about seeing Ned Kelly in kids book

Part of me recognises that one can't judge history with contemporary standards, but another part wonders if he was a thug. 

The moral of the story seemed to be how helmets distance people from those who love them, so maybe things might've been different if Ned had this book when he was young!

Pandora's cake tin

My partner has this container that looks like a prop from a horror movie

She says her cake tin belonged to some sheila named Pandora.

Celebrity portraits

In coming weeks my art class will be drawing portraits

It brought to mind this wonderful tribute by Marshall Mathers, better known as Eminem.

Tupac was a remarkable musician and actor, as well as being a provocative thinker politically.

I love the idea of sending portrait as an acknowledgment of an influence.

It's also cool to see the musicians make sketches and another example is this sketch of Brian Eno by David Bowie.

At the first Art Deco Festival

Back in 2011 I mixed a new soundtrack for the classic film Metropolis

This pic from the local newspaper was in my Facebook Memories.

Plans for the weekend

 

Caravan's history and Mingus settling a score while recording a cover with Ellington

Caravan remains one of the defining jazz standards and has a remarkable history

First recorded in 1936 and becoming one of the best-known songs by Duke Ellington’s band, it originated with the trombonist Juan Tizol.

Among his contributions to the band was a role copying parts from scores, as well as composing.

Tizol often played a valve trombone and, as a Puerto Rican, brought some of that Latin American influence which can be heard in 20th Century jazz.

Mercer Ellington said the melody to ‘Caravan’ was suggested to Tizol through a technique called “inverting” that re-interpreted scores by reading the sheet music upside-down.

It remains one of the most-covered songs in history with over 500 versions published.

My favourite is possibly one of the most controversial.

  

The bassist Charles Mingus was also a member of the Ellington band and unleashed a version of the song during the fiery recordings for the “Money Jungle” album.

Mingus plays a rhythm part high up the neck that seems to force Ellington into the position of playing the melody in lower octaves.

It’s wild how the conventions of the standard ‘Caravan’ are thrown by Mingus taking the lead.

When I first heard it my mind was blown.

Then recently I read Mingus’ autobiography and gained a new appreciation for his bold playing.

It turns out that Mingus left Ellington’s band after Tizol lunged at him with a knife for the bassist’s playing of ‘Caravan’:

“…this is the band you don’t quit, but this time you’re asked to leave because of an incident with a trombone player and arranger named Juan Tizol. Tizol wants you to play a solo he’s written where bowing is required. You raise the solo an octave, where the bass isn’t too muddy. He doesn’t like that and he comes to the room under the stage where you’re practising at intermission and comments that you’re like the rest of the n****** in the band, you can’t read. You ask Juan how he’s different from the other n****** and he states that one of the ways he’s different is that HE IS WHITE. So you run his ass upstairs. You leave the rehearsal room, proceed toward the stage with your bass and take your place and at the moment Duke Ellington brings down the baton for ‘A-Train’ and the curtain of the Apollo Theatre goes up, a yelling, whooping Tizol rushes out and lunges at you with a bolo knife.”

The following passage where Mingus describes how Ellington asks for his resignation has been seen as documenting his considerable charm.