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.


 

The role of an artist

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.

I had sketched my submarine when the girl next to me said "Wow, are you an artist?"

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.

As an artist it is my responsibility to help others see the artist in their activities.

Stealing beauty

Looking through the card from a camera and realised this memory wasn't mine

After recognising the subject and setting, my mind ran through observations about the time of year based on the angle of light and then confirming the layers of clothing suggested it would be winter or early spring.

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.

An assault on assault rifles

Taking aim at bad deals

In 1990 Eugene Stoner (left, with his M16) met Mikhail Kalashnikov (right, with his AK-47). They traveled together and became friends. In many of the world’s wars since 1965, the two guns were on opposite sides.

The US-made M16 had a reputation through the Vietnam conflict for jamming, while the AK-47 had a cartridge so solid that it was used by soldiers as a hammer.

The M16 routinely left the rifleman defenseless. In May 1967, one Marine wrote to his family: "We left with 250 men in our company and came back with 107. We left with 72 men in our platoon and came back with 19. Believe it or not, you know what killed most of us? Our own rifle. We were all issued this new rifle, the M16. Practically every one of our dead was found with his rifle torn down next to him where he had been trying to fix it.”

If you’ve paid any attention to Australia’s purchase of F35 fighter jets, then you’ll likely recognise how the MI6 overcame technical shortcomings to flood the battlefield with such uselessness through marketing and tradeshows.

According to former US Marine officer C.J. Chivers, author of The Gun, “The M16’s journey was marked by salesmanship, sham science, cover-ups, chicanery, incompetence, and no small amount of dishonesty by a gun manufacturer and senior American military officers.” 

As the Trump government are reshaping the New World Order, it's a good time to reconsider Australia's desire to be a Deputy to the US' Sherriff.

Jonfun

Spotted a burner in the wild

Ear to eternity

Working with pastels in art class this week

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?

Co-becoming

In a tutorial we read this paper that listed the Country it was written about as an author

It's one of those ideas that's exciting to an academic (definition: scholarship), yet seems a bit academic to a broader audience (definition: not of practical relevance). 

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.

Hey Google

Google has started giving general feedback

Ducks in a row

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.

Self-portrait

Art classes are one of my favourite parts of going back to school
 

Meet Jo Roberts

Western Riverina Arts have a profile of my significant other 

Read it here

I like how the photo of her looking at the camera plays with John Berger's observations about the presentation of women in art.

Is this a test?

I've a flare for this sort of writing
 

Sometimes you've got to be a man

It seems like gender schema is getting stronger each day

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. 

And, while thinking about being a man, this gem reappeared in my Facebook Memories this week.

Thoughts and prayers

The phrase "thoughts and prayers" has become a punchline but increasingly I have faith in their potential

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


 

Word is Bond

After years of enjoying Bond movies it looks like the brand has been undermined from within

That's the key news in the resolution of the squabble between the Broccoli family, whose production deal oversaw all those great films, and Amazon Prime, who thought they bought ownership of the franchise with the MGM catalogue.

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.

Image by S4RK

Glimpse of a beta view

It's often interesting to see those placeholder websites that are like a glimpse into the backrooms of the internet

Stingray

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.


Writing with AI

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.

When I started studying the uni warned me from using AI for any assignments. They said I'd be caught and get a big word like plagiarism thrown at me. So I couldn't help but cheekily use screenshots from Google in my essay that showed their AI-based summaries of relevant definitions.

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.

Memory loss

I have no memory of this happening!

Seriously, the fact there's an NBA player with my name has hidden a number of things online that should be forgotten.
 

Archimedes

One of the fun things about sitting in classrooms has been the occassional prompt to draw
 

Younger lovers

Sometimes one doesn't recognise the significance of an event until much later

As a sometime historian I know this is true, but this morning I was prompted to reflect on the statement above.

This photo shows my partner and I in the courtship phase of our relationship.

We'd been together for maybe six months and this might've been our first road trip together.

Jo wanted to visit her friend Rosie and it was little more than a stop for a cup of tea in my mind.

Yet, when she talks about this visit now, Jo says it was a test for me and our blossoming relationship.

She says it was the opportunity for her to get her best friend's perspective of me.

I'm not sure if I accepted the cup of tea or didn't put my feet on the table, but Jo and I are still together after about 23 years.

 

Gulfse


 

Just Dance

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.

W.I.L.F.

This acronym wasn't what I expected to see in the classroom!

I've been trying not to smirk when I see it.

Fatherly advice

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.

As much as I'd like to share that I heard it first from my father, that lesson was one taught to me by Lunarbaboon and I think it's worth sharing.
 

Are you cool?

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. 

New beaks for activity sheets

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.

That Fivebough At The Heart of Leeton project was recommended to NSW Parliament in an address last year by local MP Helen Dalton that was recorded in Hansard.

This year our aim will be to develop an activity sheet for schoolchildren that educates about waterbirds ahead of an excursion to the Wetland.

"The significance of Fivebough as a destination for migratory birds from as far away as Siberia is one that attracts twitchers but is not as well known to Leeton locals," said Jason Richardson.

We will detail a handful of birds, although Fivebough's role as a jewel of the Riverina stems from being habitat for the highest number of waterbird species and it ranked second within the Murray-Darling Basin for the total number of species recorded in a single survey.

"Our aim is to help kids identify the significance of different beak shapes among those feathered residents in an extension of our Beak Technique Activity Sheets," said Mr Richardson.

In recent years Red Earth Ecology has been running workshops for children that use their interest in birds as a way to understand the significance of habitat.

Those activity sheets were most recently part of the 2024 Action Day event at Griffith Pioneer Park Museum and they had a good response from all ages.

This year REE will be continuing with both those projects by developing an activity sheet that focuses on the beaks of waterbirds to be part of an excursion being planned for students at Parkview Primary.

"We are planning to share a draft of the waterbird activity sheet with the Murrumbidgee Field Naturalists in coming months," said Mr Richardson.

"It will be wonderful to draw on the experiences of members, whose assistance has been greatly appreciated over the years — particularly in the development of the first Beak Technique sheets and the delivery of the Fivebough At The Heart of Leeton project." 

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.

Everyday magic

There's something magic for me about this stand of kurrajongs

I like to imagine it's a portal, as I squeeze through it. 

Hi gay lord

This photo appeared in my Memories today and it prompted me to consider how times have changed

It was in 2011 that I was working in local government and given a mobile phone that had previously belonged to a manager.

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.

My Orthoceras family

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.

While molluscs continue to be found in the seas and on land, my little Orthoceras family and their descendents did not survive the changes that gave rise to the Earth we now share.

The Birth Of Suburbia

By photographer Rosaleen Ryan

Winding around the world

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.
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.
The idea of repurposing a plastic vessel to make a spooky sound was one of those wonderful discoveries of the early internet.

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.

Heatwave

It's been years since I heard the term being used, but I am calling it.

Snap!


 

Chase bliss where you find it

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.

They/them

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?

It takes The Village People to raise a child

If there's one thing that I like about Donald Trump it has to be his enthusiasm for The Village People

I expect he also responds to the upbeat energy in their music which, aside from tempo, often uses composition tricks like minor key verses to make those major key choruses really pop.

It reminds me how 'Gloria' by Laura Branigan was used by Alan Jones, the conservative radio "personality" who opened his show with the song but defined himself as a disgrace for agitating for violence in the lead up to the Cronulla race riot of 2005.

Anyway, before we get into that sort of ugliness behind the tunes, who can't help but be moved by the Village People's well-crafted hits? 

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.

I don't know what the options were but they bought tickets for Can't Stop The Music.

Although I've seen the film a number of times now, I still remember how quickly my disappointment shifted as Steve Guttenberg roller-skated through New York streets singing along to 'The Sound of the City'.

It would be a couple of years later that I gravitated toward the Police Academy movies from that familiarity with Guttenberg, but it's interesting now to see his resemblance to Jacques Morali.

Morali was the producer who developed The Village People concept and shaped their material:
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.
The film somehow manages to make the story quite wholesome and Americanising the role of Morali by making him Jack Morell, as well as heteronormative with the addition of a love interest played by Valerie Perrine, who I recognised from Superman.

While Princess Leia might've acted out those early lessons in sex education, it was the pneumatic way Perrine's breasts appeared to float in a hot tub in The Village People movie that might have been the moment that I knew I was straight.

It seems ironic in hindsight that a camp movie celebrating gay subculture gave me this personal insight.

Now that I read about Perrine I can appreciate her figure has played an influential role in the representation of American sexuality.

She is credited as the first actress to appear nude on American network television by intentionally exposing her breasts during a PBS broadcast in 1973.

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.
 

Love my spuds

If eating potato was an olympic sport I'd have eaten them in record time

Still amazes me that half a spud is considered a serve of vegetables. 

Making it by faking it

AI is coming for music videos and I'm here for it

Giving the finger

Late last year I was pulling up the grass that grows around the house and thinking that I should be wearing gloves

The next day it started, an ache around the end of my left index finger.

I thought it must be one of those spider bites that I've had from pulling up the grass.

Then it continued.

The feeling was more of a burning sensation and within the finger.

It seemed inconsistent though, like not always aching and there was no visible sign on the skin of a bite or redness.

Recently I consulted Dr Google and, while I don't put too much faith in getting the conclusive answer, the results suggested my ache might be early arthritis.

I am surprised it's in my left hand, although I did switch to using that finger for mouse-clicking after getting a raised bump on the tendon that runs along the back of my right hand.

This is the finger I also rely on for fingering the deep notes on my bass guitars.

At present it aches when I bend the finger so the first joint comes down past the second, which means it's mostly noticeable as I make a fist.

However, it's a little reminder that I'm getting old and joins a knee in triggering a kind of "go slow" response.

These are things that I find more confronting than spending time around small children at school.

It might make me reflect on my behaviour though, and stop the tendency I have to join in their games and activities.

Feels like getting old, I guess.

An incomplete known

The popularity of the biopic can be traced back to the first feature-length film, The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906). It feels as though in recent years this genre has gained pace and I suspect that it is the format through which an increasing audience engages with historical narratives, which make sense of contemporary times.

When I was at university my interest in studying history came from the film studies major that carried me through my first undergraduate degree. The unit called History On Film forced me to sit through Forrest Gump (1994) and allowed me to write an essay on The Elephant Man (1980), which was an early David Lynch movie that impacted me as a child. That latter film was analysed through the lens of narrative to show how it referenced Mary Shelley's Frankenstein story, for example.

Storytelling has always drawn on the significance of other narratives to give meaning and resonances and there are so many ways, from explicit acknowledgment through to allusions or Shakespeare's famous plays within plays. Soundtracks are also employed to great effect and there are songs that have become cliches in movie trailers from overuse in creating meaning. The musical biopic uses these techniques with the added benefit of blurring diegetic and nondiegetic songs, through having music performed by characters transformed into overtures.

An aspect of storytelling in contemporary films, particularly those influenced by Hollywood, has been a preoccupation with structure and, I think, biopics often suffer from feeling like they've put a lifetime of experiences into a mold like a biscuit-cutter to give them a certain shape from the pacing of emotional beats. Academy Award-winning screenwriter Michael Arndt has discussed a structure that is widely used beyond biopics to create a satisfying ending through linking character and contextual arcs —although, I'm not going to elaborate too much on that here.

All of this leads me to reflect on A Complete Unknown (2024), which I watched last night at the request of my youngest. Elsewhere I've mentioned his interest in Bob Dylan and my own, so it was fun to share the film. 
 
It does a good job of explaining the outrage that accompanied Dylan's move to electric instruments at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, although I get the impression from reading reviews from younger viewers that this is possibly not as remarkable these days. In the film you already see Johnny Cash performing with accompaniment from an electric guitar.

In some ways I think the film's focus on concluding with Newport fails to achieve those arcs mentioned earlier for character and their context. Maybe this is part of what led one reviewer to write that the film "lacks purpose," which surprised me as I found it gave me a new appreciation for what Brian Eno calls the "scenius" -- where the milieu of an artist becomes a focus, rather than the individual. 

In the cinematic version of Dylan's origins a good deal of the events shown include those roles played by Joan Baez and a Sylvie Russo, who is largely based on Suze Rotolo and she was significant for politicising the folk singer. It's hard to imagine that a song like 'Blowin' In The Wind' could've pushed his career along without either of these women. It's their place in the film that prompted me to write, as I think the equivalent of the Frankenstein moment in The Elephant Man is a bit early on where Dylan and Russo/Rotolo discuss Picasso. The film could have shown that Dylan made his own visual art in the 1960s, but I feel the brief reference to the famous Spaniard is highlighting how we view that painter's career through the influence of his muses.

A Complete Unknown is a fun film and I found the music particularly good. It left me feeling like clapping throughout! In particular I thought Ed Norton brought a great dad-like energy in his role as Pete Seeger. There weren't many people at the screening I attended, so go see it soon if you want the cinema experience.

Worlds within worlds

Some years ago my partner made a prediction that, as the natural world declines, people would retreat into virtual worlds

At the time I had an image that would involve wearing goggles and living among pixels.

These days those virtual worlds are on hand everywhere you want to go.

For example, recently I was in a public library working on an assignment and it amazed me how many times people would have a conversation on their phone.

Right there in the middle of the area where a librarian would glare and even silence people with a finger to their lips or utter "Shush!"

Yet there I was listening to personal details, at least that's what I could discern from those speaking English.

It's something that came to mind as I pondered an article about Spotify recently:
Given the importance that I place on having moments of silence in my day and, of course, sleeping as close to eight hours a night as I can land, it's initially surprising that companies would be trying to undermine these aspects of consumers' lives.

Then again, there are many companies claiming to sell food that has been demonstrated as hazardous to health.

A doctor once told me there was more nutritional value in the packaging of a popular fast food brand.

We've always lived in a world where other humans are threatening, but it's diabolical to see the difficulty in promoting health habits when the marketing budgets for products that could harm you far exceed the investments in nutritious alternatives.

Ideas are like fishes

Clothes peg

Yesterday I was bringing in the washing and dropped a clothes peg

It was usually insignificant but for some reason at that time I realised this was an uncommon event.

Over the years I've gotten a lot better at throwing the pegs into their container as I bring in the clothes.

In so many backyards I have honed my skill at landing these items within various repurposed containers.

I remembered when I was younger a scattering of clothes pegs around the ice-cream bucket used to hold them between washes.

There used to be a handful of them that missed when I collected the washing at my Father's home.

I recall that the washing lines of shared houses was where I began to hone my skills.

Sometimes the ice-cream buckets were bigger, then my in-laws had a metal container that was narrow -- so maybe that helped in my development too.

However, yesterday I realised how long it'd been since I dropped a peg outside their container.

It struck me how, even without trying, the repetition had contributed to developing this somewhat useful skill.

Then I began to wonder what I might be able to achieve if I consciously applied myself to practicing something each week.

Or even if I took moments during the day to chuck pegs at a small target.

Obviously I could be a bit more ambitious but that seems like a place to start.