In coming weeks my art class will be drawing portraits
Tupac was a remarkable musician and actor, as well as being a provocative thinker politically.
It's also cool to see the musicians make sketches and another example is this sketch of Brian Eno by David Bowie.
This pic from the local newspaper was in my Facebook Memories.
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.
“…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.
Yesterday was a good day as I joined two art classes in my role at a primary school
One of those was the "special education" class, which brings together neurodivergent students.
It was a question that I thought about briefly, before remembering to say "yes."
Maybe it was because my role at the time was "paraprofessional," which is vague and I mostly follow the teacher's directions in art classes.
At other times I've described myself as an evangelist for creativity, as I think more people need to recognise the diverse benefits from having a creative practise or three.
This morning I was pondering my reluctance to accept the title of "artist" yesterday, reminding myself that I've had exhibitions and won prizes.
It really is important to raise the profile of the arts and validate the activity for others, I think.
As the art lesson progressed this student shared that her mother was an artist who sometimes made collages and other assembled artworks.
Then, nearer the end of the lesson, she said quietly "I'm a bit of an artist" and it was the conversion that I realised one should be working toward.
Looking through the card from a camera and realised this memory wasn't mine
Then I wondered why it surprised me as much as it did?
There's an intimacy in a selfie and looking in on a scene, a kind of voyeurism that I don't think about enough to feel guilty for it.
The thing I liked most, I decided after sifting through a mess of emotions, is the lighting of the eye.
Jo's irises were one of the first things I remember about her and still give me a thrill to read their grey-blue intentions.
Some days it's like looking at the sea and seeing something leap from the sparkle.
Taking aim at bad deals
The teacher was talking about Van Gogh and drifted from talking about him painting sunflowers as a gift to cutting off his ear, which I seem to remember was also gifted?
In a tutorial we read this paper that listed the Country it was written about as an author
I'm still collecting my thoughts, so at this point I'm probably simultaneously excited and not relevant.
Another thing that was interesting about the tutorial was the Acknowledgment of Country was done in Irish and reflected on that connection with the landscape.
It reminded me that the closest I feel to a sense of co-becoming is asking the Country if I can proceed.
I imagine that is like my Celtic forebears reciting ancient words to stir yeast when cooking or brewing with the belief the bread or beer will be flat if I don't.
Monday morning and I feel strangely refreshed
There’s been a lot of sleep over the weekend, as well as exercise and good meals.
It’s when I begin reflecting on watching a couple of films that I realise.
This weekend is the first this year that all of my children have been at home.
That weird sense of ease and everything being where it’s meant to be?
Yeah, totally.
As much as I love seeing my children becoming their own adults living on campus in Canberra, it really soothed an itch that I hadn’t identified by having them in their own bedrooms for a few nights.
I can see where the ideological lines became drawn like a generation gap, as well as the sense that they had in some ways left home before they moved out.
I also get to breathe in the culture they breathe in another place, by consuming the music and movies and ick as it sounds — breathing in their beautiful young biomes.
That sense of balance is an exchange and I am grateful for it.
I like how the photo of her looking at the camera plays with John Berger's observations about the presentation of women in art.
When these signs appeared at my pool this season, I thought it would only be a matter of time before someone realised the letters peel off.
So far the GIRLS sign is largely intact.
Yet the BOYS sign outside the female toilets and showers has clearly benefited from the stronger fingernails of the fairer sex.
Judging by comments from mothers, this vandalism can be seen as a deliberate message for council.
Many women have observed that their six-year old boy would struggle to get out of swimmers on his own, or would take ages and necessitate the mother yelling instructions outside for the duration.
One of my favourite prayers resurfaced in my Facebook Memories today and I thought I'd publish it here with attribution, so that I don't lose track of it.
[Claimed to be] A Traditional Náhuatl Prayer.
"I release my parents from the feeling that they have failed with me.
I release my children from the need to make me proud, so that they can write their own ways, according to their hearts.
I release my partner from the obligation to make me feel complete. I lack nothing in myself.
I learn with all the beings that surround me through all time.
I thank my grandparents and ancestors who met so that today I breathe life. And I release them from the faults of the past and from the wishes they did not fulfill, aware that they did the best they could to resolve their situations, within the consciousness they had at that moment. I honor them, I love them, and I recognize their innocence.
I bare my soul before their eyes and that is why they know that I do not hide or owe anything, more than being faithful to myself and my own existence walking with the wisdom of the heart.
I am aware that I am fulfilling my life project, free of visible and invisible family loyalties that may disturb my peace and my happiness, which are my greatest responsibilities.
I renounce the role of savior, of being the one who unites or who fulfills the expectations of others. And learning through love, I bless my essence and my way of expressing, although there may be someone who cannot understand me.
I understand myself, because only I lived and experienced my story; because I know myself, I know who I am, what I feel, what I do and why I do it.
I respect and approve.
I honor the Divinity in me and in you... We are free.”(This ancient blessing was created in the Náhuatl language in the central region of Mexico, which deals with forgiveness, affection, detachment and liberation.)
[note from Wild Open: we have not been able to verify of the claims about culture of origin are true.]
Photo by Miguel Bruna
After years of enjoying Bond movies it looks like the brand has been undermined from within
It is sad to see that in real life the billionaires win, given that Amazon Prime is owned by an increasingly villainous-appearing member of the megarich who has undermined journalistic integrity and pointlessly flown rockets at great environmental cost.
I'm surprised more hasn't been made of this outcome, particularly after Bond was killed off in the last movie.
The one thing that might persuade me otherwise is if they now develop a decent series that explores how Bond was recruited by MI6, possibly drawing on the long history of spies being drawn from elite British universities to reveal how blindsided that country is to recognising merit outside of socioeconomic demography.
It's been years since I picked up a paintbrush
This was done in my role at a primary school, where I'm based in a class called Stingrays.
It's interesting to me how quickly the discussion of AI shifts
As a teaching student I have seen big changes within less than a year.
Then
last year the NSW Department of Education brought in an AI service to
help teachers draft comments about students for their reports.
I
began to wonder how the uni could continue to warn teaching students
from using AI, seeing as they need to train people to take roles in a
profession that has moved toward this technology.
This term the
lecturers started saying we could use AI, but only as a tool to clarify
thinking and structure ideas. At this rate I’ll be able to hand in an
AI-written assignment by the end of my degree!
Not so fast, Jason.
A recent report found that AI worked best when “finding and summarising information, generating meeting minutes, knowledge management and drafting content.” This report for the Department of the Treasury describes those as “basic administrative tasks.”
It's still early in my degree so I expect to be writing assignments for a while yet, but clearly this tool will become more important in what remains of my working career.
Seriously, the fact there's an NBA player with my name has hidden a number of things online that should be forgotten.
One of the most profound observations from my training in teaching children came from the art teacher who starts classes with Just Dance videos
Her words were something along the lines, "this is one of a few scientifically-proven ways to create social cohesion."
You see the kids go from being rowdy, to joyous, to concentrating on art-making within the space of an hour and it's like a secret power that I wonder why more organisations aren't using this technique.
Can't help thinking that 'dance like no one is watching' has led to no one seeing the potential for dancing to change our lives.
I've been trying not to smirk when I see it.
Saw this online yesterday and shared it on Facebook
I have been surprised at the number of friends who liked the post and some went on to share it.
It reminded me when my oldest started school and said he couldn't talk with other students.
My fatherly advice was to compliment them on something as an opening gambit and to this day he will often start a conversation by telling me that I have a great shirt or something.
We're working on an international collaboration later in 2025 and you're invited to get involved
The Stay Cool exhibition is looking for photography, poetry and music inspired by the landscape.
"We're asking people to share the locations where they feel a connection," said Curator Jason Richardson.
"It would be great if you have a photograph of the site to bring it along to one of the online workshops planned for March and April."
Details will be added here on this page, so please bookmark it in your browser and visit again in early March.
A series of tutors from different parts of the world will share their tips for creating short, three-line poems that encompass insights into responses to the places identified by participants.
"These will draw on the hundreds of years of tradition that inform haiku to prompt observations of seasonal change and a connection to place," said Mr Richardson.
A selection of these poems will be distributed by Naviar Records, whose online community have been creating music and soundscapes from these creative prompts for over a decade.
"This project builds on a collaboration with Naviar that created the Crossing Streams exhibition in Narrandera during 2017, where dozens of poems were contributed by locals aged between eight and eighty."
The resulting installation at the Narrandera Arts and Community Centre included nearly six hours of music, as well as performances and workshops.
"We're looking forward to bringing together textual, visual and musical elements in a collaboration with like-minded creatives from around the world," said Mr Richardson.
This project is supported by the NSW Government through Western Riverina Arts and Create NSW.
Red Earth Ecology will return to Fivebough Wetlands in 2025
This location was the focus of an art installation at the Leeton Community Op Shop in 2020 that resulted in the design of a banner that's displayed at the Wetlands, as well as stickers that use the same design which are sold in the Leeton Visitor Information Centre.
Red Earth Ecology is supported with a Country Art Support Program grant administered by Western Riverina Arts and Create NSW through funding from the NSW Government.
There's something magic for me about this stand of kurrajongs
This photo appeared in my Memories today and it prompted me to consider how times have changed
One of the things about working for councils has been they handed me phones that belonged to departed staff members, so you end up getting a lot of their "friends" contacting you.
It was kinda sad and seemed to reflect the lack of interest the former staff had with people, I guess.
Admittedly, most people don't use a provocative slur like this one but I heard this particular general manager described as "antagonistic" — so maybe it reflects the language he used?
This message would've arrived more than 18 months after that person left the role, but maybe it shows a closer relationship than I first thought.
If anyone called me a "gay lord" it would have been a provocation, unless I was wearing something fabulous.
I expect my kids will school me for sharing this image, as they have corrected less and I appreciate their efforts to assist minorities but I also couldn't help but write this reflection and hope it won't offend anyone.
This morning I was accused of making impulse purchases from the Marketplace
I won't name names as it was very hurtful because this description likely contains some factual basis.
It is true that I often struggle with being an opportunist and Facebook puts an incredible variety of secondhand items in front of me.
For example, on Monday I bought this Orthoceras fossil.
Before last weekend I never knew an Orthoceras and now I own the remains of a family.
This Middle Ordovician-aged marine limestone must originate from the Baltic States or Sweden, which is the known extent of the nautiloid cephalopod sometimes called Orthoceratites.
Their temporal range was the Dapingian to Darriwilian eras, around 470-458 million years ago.
It is possible these fossils are another of the Michelinocerida genus.
They are characterised by long, slender, nearly cylindrical orthocones with a circular cross section.
The long body chambers have a central tubular siphuncle free of organic deposits.
I find it interesting that tiny teeth have been found in one species along with ten arms, two of which formed longer tentacles.
They died out during the Devonian period, which is still a mystery but fossil records show it led to the evolution of plants during levels of greenhouse gases to rival today.
At that time sea levels were around 200 metres higher than present oceans and Australia was part of Gondawanland.
The greening of the continents acted as a carbon sink and a cooling climate may have led to the late Devonian extinction.
Wind organs are a simple instrument that struggle in a noisy world
I learned how to make them from the website of Didier Ferment, which seems to be no longer online.
His experiments included describing the results of variations, such as:
A slit of 8 cm by 10 mm produces a deep sound except when the wind picks-up and brings the sound one octave higher.The idea of repurposing a plastic vessel to make a spooky sound was one of those wonderful discoveries of the early internet.
A slit of 11 cm by 9 mm gives a medium sound, relatively clear within a wide wind range as well in speed as in angle of attack.
A slit of 20 cm by 6 mm gives a shrill whistle but requires a very precise angle of attack of the wind.
A slit of 16 cm by 17 mm will deliver a hoarse sound.
It might've been 2008, as that's when I published my first recording (although it's a short and rough one, so be warned there's a lot of noise).
In 2020 I remembered the idea and thought it was worth sharing, so I made this instructional video.
One of the great things about sharing one's enthusiasms is getting that enthusiasm back again.
In recent weeks I've had a couple of comments on my instructional video from Ronald and have enjoyed seeing his creations.
Recently I put a Chase Bliss sticker on my vacuum cleaner
While that adhesive message came with a guitar effects pedal, it captures something of my recent experience undertaking domestic duties.
My vacuum cleaner has been providing many weirdly joyful moments.
Last year I made the decision to stop buying paper bags for the Miele model that had been cleaning my homes for nearly 30 years.
It had seen my transition from being a university student living in government housing through to my third or fifth career and then co-owning my own home.
One thing I admired about it was the long steel tube that gave resonances to the particles being drawn into the bag.
There was a sense of satisfaction in feeling the work it was doing.
This is close to the pleasure that is even more pronounced when emptying a bagless vacuum cleaner.
Being able to observe the debris fill the clear plastic catcher is a strange form of positive reinforcement.
It has spurred me on to finding new areas of the house to clean.
First I was vacuuming mattresses, then couches.
Before long I found the brush attachment was good for taking the dust off the blinds that line our windows.
I'm now beginning to wonder if the vacuum might provide an equivalent amount of bliss as my guitar playing, although Chase Bliss Audio have been a part of that enthusiasm recently.
It's been said that nature abhors a vacuum, but I am really into mine.
Pronouns never interested me and now they make my conversations stumble
Perhaps this is a statement that reflects my age, but I'm prompted by seeing another friend declaring they are now them.
It brings to mind a funny exchange with my partner when the high school sent a letter home about one of my children.
My partner exclaimed that our offspring must have changed their pronouns as it referred to they and them.
There was a laugh when I realised the school had a letter template that moved beyond the unwieldy s/he and, with it, any reference to the concept of biological sex.
Anyway, I am happy for anyone to promote the language that best suits their identity.
It's one of those aspects of contemporary life that is so fascinating and warrants deeper reflection.
For example, recently I read this observation in an interview with poet Forrest Gander and it's given me a new appreciation for taking a non-binary label:
As people are choosing the pronoun “they” to represent themselves, it has occurred to me that beyond the specifically gendered notion of what that means… I think that we have to admit how much we’re composed of others and how much that “I” is changing constantly.
In our lives we assume many roles and very few of them have anything to do with gender.
Just as feminists rejected the idea of being defined by their marital status, I think there's an opportunity to embrace pluralism.
The identity that I hold as a parent often collides with the immature posturing that I adopt in social situations.
Increasingly that model of authority I have as an older human conflicts with the carefree attitudes I have been disinterested in maturing.
These have been strained by the role that I am learning to fill as a teacher, particularly if it involves keeping a straight face while disciplining colourful language.
Being they/them seems an authentic reflection of feeling that the roles assigned at birth don't capture the person you grow to be.
We each contain so many identities, possibly wearing different masks to do so, which means it's a great step for society to embrace this kind of pluralism.
If that's "woke" then I'm happy to be awake!
There is a further dimension to recognising plurality and it goes beyond our roles or even the binaries with which they are usually framed.
In his book Entangled Life the author Merlin Sheldrake describes human as composite beings:
...we all inhabit bodies that we share with a multitude of microbes without which we could not grow, behave and reproduce as we do. [...] A growing number of studies have made a link between animal behaviour and the millions of bacteria and fungi that live in their guts, many of which produce chemicals that influence animal nervous systems.Maybe, in addition to redefining the notion of the individual, we also need to reconsider freewill?
If there's one thing that I like about Donald Trump it has to be his enthusiasm for The Village People
The sight of him dancing to their gay disco music something that I find myself enjoying about the recently re-elected US President.
I am of the option that it takes cultural forces like the Village People to raise a child and will share my own here.
When The Empire Strikes Back arrived at cinemas in 1980 (or maybe 1981 in Australia), I was seven years old.
That film doesn't remain in my memory for reasons that I'll explain, but it was impossible to avoid the impact of George Lucas' franchise through my childhood.
Many, many hours were played with figurines in the likeness of characters from the Star Wars universe.
In fact, I recall getting my first lesson about sex from watching my cousin acting it out with a Princess Leia figurine.
Before getting to the disco, I remember the triumphant feeling of leaving the first Star Wars movie about three years earlier.
While I would've been four I remember ascending the stairs from Canberra's Civic cinema with a feeling of excitement.
It was the same screen where I saw the original James Bond movie Dr No around the same time.
Maybe I'd had a birthday, because I came into possession of a Han Solo hand-blaster that I put into my little orange lunchbox and remember pretending to be the famed British spy while being babysat.
So when the sequel to Star Wars arrived a few years later I was enthusiastic to see it.
However, I wasn't alone.
The first opportunity to watch the Empire film came while I was being babysat by my aunt, who lived in Sydney.
All through my youth the movies released would be staggered and it wasn't something I really understood until I was writing film reviews while at university.
There was a limit on how many screens could show a new release film that was determined by the number of physical copies of the movie.
So films would arrive in Australia and screen in the state capitals, like Sydney, before moving on to the regional centres, like my hometown of Canberra.
The new Star Wars movie was hugely anticipated and, when my aunt asked about seeing a film, quickly became the focus of our plans.
I think we might've gone to the cinemas in George Street and joined the queue leading toward the box office.
At the point of buying tickets where we learned there was only one available and three of us needed seats.
The next screening was going to be too late for a seven- or eight-year old.
Since we had travelled into the city and didn't want the trip to be wasted, my aunt and her friend asked what else was showing.
While in New York, Morali attended a costume ball at "Les Mouches", a gay disco in Greenwich Village. Seeing the types of costumes and some common ensembles worn by the party guests, the idea came to him to put together a group of singers and dancers, each one playing a different gay fantasy figure.
Can't Stop The Music is a musical biopic that reflects a version of history through the lens of what was considered palatable for a mainstream audience at the time it was produced.
This is to describe that the film fails to capture accuracy, but as a musical shows the kind of fantasy where characters burst into song and sets change to show desires beyond the scope of reality.
It's the kind of energy and representation that offers relief for those who are unhappy and reflects a kind of delirious enthusiasm totally in line with the crowds I see surrounding Trump.
Even though there's a dissonance between the increasingly overt homosexuality that a contemporary audience recognises in The Village People and the conservative Christian ideology that's defined the US Republican movement since around the time that the film was released.
It's that dissonance which defines our post-truth and "fake news" era, where so much doesn't make sense while explosions of colour (or colourful rhetoric) provide distractions.
Just as the film Can't Stop The Music glossed over the details that defined its origins to sell more records for The Village People, we're seeing their music continuing to be used by businessmen to dazzle audiences.
Still amazes me that half a spud is considered a serve of vegetables.
Late last year I was pulling up the grass that grows around the house and thinking that I should be wearing gloves
