New year new

Made this poem from my senryu/microjournal habit

The creative prompt shared by Naviar Records led me to revisit a process from previous years.

I sampled my daily writing practise, then quickly recorded a reading to go with a piece of music.

The words are below, since you can't really hear them:

Clear a space for truth

put demons on the table 

we all have monsters
The familiar

our lived experiences 

we never escape
Preoccupation

knowing unmentionables 

hiding maligned forms
In these descriptions

old paraphernalia 

wrestling for new life
Anchored ideas

peppered onto bathroom walls 

I read the comments
My steps unbalanced

finding a new way forward 

these steep learning curves
Personal essays

images that resonate 

using metaphors
It leaves me beaten

along branches of wisdom 

stick with what I know
Dulled by the moment

anything is possible 

love profound boredom
Title on the door

master procrastinator 

holds me to account
I don’t play tennis  

when the ball is in my court 

I’m hitting it back
The role I’ve taken

allowed to fully occupy 

where I’m meant to be
Sometimes giving up

letting loose parts of myself 

and it’s positive
I’ve backed myself in

wet paint around the corners 

I’ll spend some time here
A love of the thing

not really a career 

expert of nothing
Enjoy the journey 

it’s different for everyone
like so much guidance



interpretations vary 

so I guess words will travel
Robust narratives

explaining our lives away 

it’s not magical
Without little words

sensibly made into thoughts 

would I know myself
Finding small spaces

unused outlooks on the day 

to make a window
My opacity

hiding in the everyday 

beliefs are porous
We can save those gifts

people don't want those insights

lies are easier
We hold opinions

underestimate vastly 

how truths destroy us
That crushing feeling

to hold a sensitive heart

wishing it weren’t mine
Something in my chest
resonates with emotion
reciting your words 
It’s the easy thing

seeing only what I know 

can you really blame me?
A slippery slope
I can go down a wormhole
lose myself a while 
These are summaries
so when revisiting them
I'll find my own words 
Thinking of my poems
as conversation partners
go let them mingle 
We sometimes struggle
as our own brand of magic
fails to charm ourselves 
Sometimes I’ll look back

some will say I’m different 

but it’s just I’ve grown
Through a world of sound

the only filter I have 

my discerning ear
Scanning the dial

your radio call signal 

I’m the antenna 

It seems obvious

that lozenge rhymes with orange 

but maybe that’s me

Collaborations

Music has always been the key requirement for membership of an online colony, along with English for me

The earliest was the Ninja Tune forum that introduced so many remixing techniques, which continues in the Shinobi Cuts Remix Chain albums.

In the last month I've had a couple of collaborations with my online communities, particularly the Disquiet Junto. The prompt to compose with a 29/16 time signature arose from a conversation with Oscar about the Mother 3 video game.

That led to two tracks and the second became a soundtrack for a walk-through the Marea Bright exhibition at the Museum of the Riverina.

 

 

Naviar Records shared my senryu this week and it led me to filter the noise from a South Coast video.

Birdlife at the Museum

One of the things that surprises me most about working in Griffith is the variety of birds

As someone who grew up among the Brindabellas, there's a deep sense of satisfaction about seeing the hills rise around me on the drive to work.

It starts with three gentle crests along Irrigation Way after one turns north past Whitton.

Scenic Hill is another of these increasing landmarks and from there I can see they become mountains like Binya, Bingar and Brogden in the nearby Cocoparra National Park.

Griffith Pioneer Park Museum's grounds on the Hill feature a mix of older grey box trees and younger cypress pines, which provide shade for the gardens maintained by a group of volunteers.

On these branches and among the flower beds I get glimpses of communities of birds.

There's a family of magpies and over recent months I've watched as they teach an offspring to be wary of me.

Mallee ringneck parrots have also been breeding and they used a hollow in the grey box near the Goolgowi Train Station for a while.

Earlier this year I observed a parent showing their bird where to find a meal from a succulent, which might've been a pigface.

In previous years a college of noisy apostle birds could be heard making a mess by tearing off plant limbs.

This season might be the first that the Museum has been visited by white-browed babblers.

My manager Jenny reckons she'd never seen them at Pioneer Park before and it was good to have assistance from Jo and her bird books to identify them.

These babblers seem to share their call with the grey-crowned variety, which Wikipedia notes has earned them names like dog-bird, barker and barking-bird.

They will share a cute "ruff" sound excitedly with each other, so I found myself describing it as a canine-esque noise.

You can hear it in this short video I made when a babbler got lost in the Wine & Irrigation Museum building 

 

Another recent observation was a trio of tawny frogmouths sitting in a cypress pine near the Griffith Hospital building.

It's great to see such a variety of birds and so different to those at home in Leeton, although I'm often frustrated by my inability to get a good photo using the mobile phone supplied by Council.

However, this iphone has been great for recording my duets with pied butcherbirds.

 

You can see more of my photos at https://shotwildlife.blogspot.com/

 

Hilltop holiday

One of the highlights of Christmas for me is spending time with my outlaws and seeing the landscape outside of Wagga

I've photographed sunrises and sunsets, as well as many blossoming plants. The Kurrajong trees, for example, were flowering like I've never seen before.

I was also surprised to hear a Grey Butcherbird among the more familiar birdsong, such as willy wagtail and magpie and crow.

I also saw this brown eagle, which was hanging around the chicken carcasses from Christmas lunch.

As I wandered about the land I saw lots of lizards and wondered whether they were, like the blossoming plants, having a good year for breeding.

I'd grabbed my camera to try and get a picture of this big skink, when I heard a rustle in the bushes and realised I wasn't the only spectator as the lizard basked in the afternoon light.

There was a brown snake -- which was a thrill to say the least!

You can see more pictures of wildlife that I've encountered on my Shotwildlife blog.

Grey Butcherbird melody

One of the recent Disquiet Junto activities was to recreate a favourite sound from memory



I chose the song of the Grey Butcherbird because it reminds me of waking up at Burning Seed.

This morning, Christmas 2017, I awoke to peachy colours and arose to collect my camera to photograph the sunrise.

It was nice to hear the Grey Butcherbird's taunt among the morning birdsong.



Hope you're enjoying the festive season.

Postscript: I've learned the bird is actually a gerygone.

Flood waters recede

This haiku by Julie Briggs is the second in the series of poems about Narrandera that are being shared by Naviar Records:

Flood waters recede
Narrandera eucalypts reflected
Which way is up?

I've written on my Bassling blog that for me it captures a sense of the turmoil that's created when your town is isolated by the rising Murrumbidgee River.



Below are the contributed recordings responding to this haiku.

Random haiku

About a week ago I posted a haiku on Twitter. It was one that I wrote as part of my plan to write a haiku each day this year.

Then I was surprised when this reply came back within a day or so, which incorporates my middle line into a haiku apparently composed from others on Twitter.

It prompted me to think about the scripts and bots that populate Twitter and where one draws a line with collaboration and begins to call it plagiarism.

Then I remembered something about recent poetry controversies concerning lifting lines from other works in the guise of quotation.

A haiku a day

This year I've resolved to write even more haiku.

Last year I challenged myself to write a 17-syllable poem each week and this year I'm aiming for one each day.

Mostly I like the challenge of phrasing an observation within the syllable constraint. It's a kind of journal, although it seems the small audience for my haiku are more interested in my grog reviews.

Last week I mentioned this haiku project in one of the online communities that I frequent and got this reply from Dennis Flax.

You can find my haiku here.

March into the archives : YouTube - 1

According to my oldest YouTube account, today marks my tenth anniversary as a member of the service.

I'm not totally convinced that today is the actual day but it'll do. Dates do change in online accounts, for example my Blogger account says I started in 2007 when I know it was for a university assignment in 2005.

Above is the first video that I can recall watching online, the short film They're Made of Meat. Interestingly, it's since been removed from YouTube but you can find it has since been uploaded again and again -- just click here.

I remember I was studying Television Production at Charles Sturt University and immediately grasped the opportunity presented with a service offering to host video. The reason I was studying this course was a realisation that video would become a persuasive form of marketing. I was working at that time in the Marketing Communications section of the uni and also saw that students of the course had a very high level of satisfaction according to graduate surveys.

YouTube has since become an repository for around 200 videos that I've produced in the last decade, so I'm looking to share ten over the next ten days that reflect on various personal and professional developments.

Young praying mantis on tansy

Originally posted one of these pics on my wildlife blog, then thought I'd go back and look over them again.

Cicadas

Visitors to Australia during summer will often ask the origin of the drone heard in bushland. Cicadas make a buzzing drone to attract a mate, after sometimes spending years buried as grubs.

Here's what a mature adult cicada looks like and here's the exoskeleton they leave behind during metamorphosis.

Earlier this year I offered my haiku poetry to Marco at Naviar Records and he selected a poem about cicadas.



I was stoked to hear musical interpretations, such as Lee Rosevere's, as well as improvising my own piece about the soundtrack to an Australian summer.

Haiku over screen door

My interests in music and poetry come together in different ways. Sometimes I write haiku and sometimes I write music responding to haiku and sometimes I write lyrics for songs, which I consider a form of poetry.

Last week I had an idea to write lyrics in the form of a haiku for a Junto project. It followed from a week where I'd written a haiku most days and my partner sang the verse for me, accompanying a melody played on the bass.

The Junto version (below) ended being a bit of a mess, but the remix (above) turned out good. Both use an old and previously unused recording of a screen door from another Junto.

Vale Joe Cocker

Sad to see Joe go.

Here's a pic of his show in Canberra last century, from my live music blog First Three Songs, No Flash.

It appeared in BMA Magazine.

Music around my suburb

Last year I had an idea to focus on my suburb of Willimbong in Leeton NSW. I think I managed one other post, which was about the sounds of a fence.

Anyway, that fence features in a new track I've recorded using material in Willimbong as a springboard for a composition that was inspired by the Naviar project. Their State Of Origin compilation looks like a great idea and has generated a lot of good music.

Below you can hear the final draft, which drew on an instrument made from a slippery slide and the aforementioned fence, as well as gallahs, some drumming recorded at home and a remix of Waipukurau Park for the For 100 Years project.

Bassling's AND

My new album AND is a collection of tracks recorded in 2013-14, including a number inspired by Disquiet Junto projects and also a couple that resulted from Naviar haikus. (Coincidentally, Naviar have a track of mine on their new compilation.)

There was a lot of material to choose from, with tracks made from storytime at the library, a boiling kettle as well as a playground and then an assortment of instruments.

You'll hear that there's a lot of variety, from funky instrumentals to electropunk with cut-up lyrics and a few songs featuring the voice of Jo. 

I've started writing a little about each track on my music blog.

Disquiet Junto

I've written before about the Disquiet Junto and it continues to inspire me to create music and experiment with audio. Below is a playlist of all my contributions to the Disquiet Junto community on Soundcloud.

May I share Mark Saddler

Here's some of my work for Western Riverina Arts, where I am helping to raise the profile of local artists.

Wiradjuri artist Mark Saddler has joined the growing display of talent at the Leeton Visitor Information Centre.

His work ranges from the traditional to the inventive, from handcrafted didgeridoos to clocks made from recycled materials, yet indigenous culture remains central.

"I'm in the process of using different mediums and different styles to tell a story in my artwork," says Mr Saddler. "Like my clocks which show different types of flowers that are used by Wiradjuri people. One is based on a kurrajong tree. Kurrajong trees are a great source of food. Much of the tree can be used for food, such as the seedpods which can be ground and used like coffee."

"In Aboriginal art we tell a story that's a story within a story within a story. I'm trying to keep my art very basic, working with different materials to tell a story that's relevant to our mobs here."

"My art aims to get people's attention so I can lead them back to our culture. To get people thinking about Aboriginal people."

Mark Saddler is active in promoting Wiradjuri culture and has developed school and workplace cultural programs that he travels all over New South Wales and Victoria. These programs explore indigenous culture and the personal benefits to be gained through making art.

His art is his passion and one that allows him to communicate culture. "I'm moving to give art a greater role in all our lives," he says. "Art's a thing where everyone can have a crack at it."

Saddler’s work with students at Wagga Wagga's Willans Hill Special School and inmates at Junee Correctional Centre are two examples. "Every time I visit a school I learn something. There are questions that lead me to research. One student asked how did we boil water so as to have a hot drink. I learned we used possum skins to hold the water and brought it to boil with stones that were heated in fire. Learning should never stop, as with sharing knowledge, it must continue."

"Wiradjuri people were known for possum skin cloaks and we traded with other groups up and down the Murrumbidgee River. Didgeridoos were brought to our region through trade. It wasn't a traditional tool but my great-uncles made them, so it is part of my culture" says Mr Saddler. "We tend to be an adaptive people."

"Language and art is one to us," he explains. "Our art comes from the red dirt, our land. It comes from what we know, see and share. Our art and culture comes from thousands of years of being here."

Mark Saddler collects materials from the landscape to create and each artwork tells a story. "Every piece is completely different, a one-off that's unique and when it's purchased my story goes with every artwork."

Leeton Visitor Information Centre has information sheets that accompany Saddler's artworks. When his art is bought, the story of how it was created or the culture represented goes with it.

Through his artwork Mark Saddler is helping to keep Wiradjuri culture alive.

May I share Marissa Lico

Here's some of my work for Western Riverina Arts, where I am helping to raise the profile of local artists.

Selections from Griffith-based photographer Marissa Lico's 'Familiar Strangers' series are currently on display in Western Riverina Arts' windows.

The 2012 series of photographs capture scenes of people using mobile devices in public. "My intention was to capture and document a common contemporary gesture with mobile phones in public spaces," Lico said.

"While a few of the general public were fairly attentive and anxious when they realised they were captured in a photograph, the majority were so engrossed and preoccupied with their devices that they were entirely unaware of their gesture being the prime focus."

Art reflects society and documentary photography is one medium where this role is central, particularly when identifying a trend. Marissa Lico has a passion for documenting gesture and body language among aspects of ordinary life.

"What I admire most about photography is the beauty of irreplaceable time, where unique moments are captured and will never occur again. That spontaneous connection that transpires then and there, between the eye, lens and subject, is a gift I don't take for granted."

Lico developed her photographic practise through studies at the Australian National University School of Art. She cites the work of a number of photographers as inspiring 'Familiar Strangers', including Anne Zahalka, Martyn Jolly, Beat Streuli and Henry Cartier Bresson.

May I share Jo Roberts

Here's some of my work for Western Riverina Arts, where I am helping to raise the profile of local artists.

The windows of Western Riverina Arts currently feature a colourful collage by Leeton-based artist Jo Roberts.

"The phoenix represents transformation and willing submission to change. A symbol of the idea that in every end there lies a new beginning, which ties into the theme of Burning Seed this year 'Re:Creation'," said Ms Roberts.

"My collage focuses on the principle of de-commodification, so it has a strong anti- consumerist theme. Burning Seed is not just another form of recreation that you consume but an experience that requires participation to fully enjoy.”

Burning Seed, inspired by the US Burning Man festival, returns to Matong State Forest this October. The event draws an eclectic audience around principles including radical self-expression, inclusion, participation, and gifting.

"The event creates a temporary village in the bush where everyone brings everything they need to survive, something to share, and money is not exchanged," said Ms Roberts.

"Last year was my first 'burn' and I found a community that was welcoming, inspiring and supportive. The event is a radical experiment where revelry takes equal billing with environmental and social consciousness."

"The Burning Seed principles provide a framework that remove many of those artificial barriers which can inhibit people from genuine expression and allow for authentic, non-manufactured experiences between participants," she said.

Also displayed in the Western Riverina Arts windows are photographs from the 2012 event, including the displays of fire and art that are essential features of the Burn.

Local artists are invited to come and discuss displaying their work in our windows.

May I share Lee Blacker-Noble

Here's some of my work for Western Riverina Arts, where I am helping to raise the profile of local artists.

Leeton-based artist Lee Blacker-Noble will hold a retrospective at The Roxy Gallery from 26 September to 4 October.

This exhibition will present works from a career that spans nearly 60 years.

"You'll see a difference in styles because I've been painting so long," said Mrs Black-Noble.

Her mother introduced her to painting in 1955. "She gave me a set of oil paints because she thought I was running around too much after the birth of my child."

In 1956 Lee Noble-Blacker started a painting group in Leeton and an early work watercolour of The Roxy Theatre will feature. "In it you can see the window where the exhibition will take place, which is a nice link across time."

Works from her final year studies at Southern Cross University will be included, as well as designs for her first commission. "I was funded to paint a mural of the history of Casino for the Australian bicentenary in 1988 that is still in the main street today,” she said.

It is worth mentioning that Lee Blacker-Noble's experience in murals includes the history of the region presented on the walls of the bar room at the Historic Hydro Inn.

Her time in Casino from 1974 to 1991 included set designs for musical productions and she also directed three musicals.

"Half of me is music," explains Mrs Blacker-Noble and she sang for many years in the Lismore and Casino choral societies as well as the Murrumbidgee choral group.

A self-described "Tolkien tragic," she has included characters from the Lord of the Rings stories in many of her paintings. Her garden also features on many recent canvasses and, at times, her yard serves as a setting for imaginings of scenes from Tolkien's works.

Since returning to Leeton in 1991 to be closer to her grandchildren, Mrs Blacker-Noble has focused on landscapes and foregone the requirements on oil painting. "I've gone back to my first love, watercolours."

The retrospective is a chance to see the scope and breadth of this artist's career through many mediums and styles, from abstract to expressive to realistic representations.

Lee Blacker-Noble is a polymath and, while painting will be central, she will also share her poetry, etchings, prints, ceramic and felt-based works. 
A number of her artworks will also be available for sale.