I anticipate it'll be cloudy, as it often seems to be cloudy when there's an astronomical feature to see.
Unboxing
When I went the uni for the first time, they still had a Classics department
Anyway, seems someone doesn't know the story of Pandora's box!
Advance Australia unfairly
A recent Disquiet Junto project gave me an idea to use the cut-up technique on the national anthem
My oldest, Oscar, sings in the choir at school, so I knew he'd provide the raw material for this edit.
I think it was William S. Burroughs who thought the Cut-up technique revealed hidden meanings in text, and it seems to me the Australian national anthem has language which seems to 'dog-whistle' the white Australia policies of earlier eras.
Anyway, my result is unmusical and I tried singing the new arrangement to the existing melody, which improved it but seemed at odds with the Junto directions.
Major issue with gendering music
While helping my son with his music assignment, I came across some interesting sexist language
I mean, yes, one could go on to argue that seventh chords show there are more than two genders.
What got under my skin is the idea that one gender would be major and another minor, as it infers one is superior somehow.
I know the differences between them depend on where you start and that G major is E minor, so there isn't much difference really.
But I don't find thinking of chords as genders helpful, since it adds a level of complex associations that ultimately raise increasing numbers of questions.
Oscar's bossa nova
My son got a music assignment to write a pop song, but they didn't specify genre or era
This was our second attempt, after an electronic track didn't develop a satisfactory melody.
I suggested that it might be easier to start with a melody and then work out the chords.
Oscar said he'd been listening to lounge music and wanted to write a bossa nova tune.
Luckily I found a suitable preset on my Omnichord, then we worked out the chords and structure then recorded this over the last couple of days.
Below is a version with a clarinet playing the melody.
Goodbye Facebook
Earlier this month I got blocked from using Facebook
In the past I've lost access for things that I've posted, which has often been frustrating as they were sometimes posted years earlier -- so it felt like I'd been punished for guidelines applied retrospectively.
This time it's less interesting because I was blocked for not using multi-factor authentication (MFA).
I had enough warning to let friends know I was leaving and it was nice that some took my offer of email.
Some friends tried to explain the value of MFA, but I don't have a mobile phone and couldn't see an alternative.
(I don't doubt the value of MFA, by the way.)
So far it's been painless to live without access to the popular social network, although I feel as though I'm missing out on stuff.
However, I'm also missing all the pointless time I spent on Facebook and the stuff I didn't need that I bought on Marketplace.
I think it's a win.
About the Junto
One of my favourite weekly activities is the Disquiet Junto
Recently I contributed a few observations about the creative prompts and the online community it inspires.
Those recordings now appear in the video embedded above.
Gender agenda
Federal parliament is sitting this week amid protests from various groups
The Morrison government is deeply unpopular and the personal apology heard yesterday from the Prime Minister to Brittany Higgins shows how badly he needs to repair his image with female voters.
There's been a perception that Morrison doesn't take personal responsibility for many things, so the messaging seems clear when he identifies oversight of a workplace where Ms Higgins was allegedly assaulted.
Last year Higgins spoke at a large protest by women outside Parliament House and today she'll be addressing the Press Club.
Morrison was so obviously trying to appeal to women with his hair-washing stunt.
So gender will be the topic on many agendas this week.
The debate in parliament of religious freedoms will have a similar focus, particularly the question whether religious schools should have the right to expel trans students.
This subject is interesting to me because it highlights a looming division among voters and it is one as stark as the presentation of gender differences.
Let me recall a local scene around the time of the last election.
I was chairing a public meeting that was attended by representatives of all three levels of government.
There were a group of candidates for an upcoming election and it surprised me that one challenger quipped that on the subject of gender fluidity they "didn't want any gender fluid in high schools."
This simple gag substitutes sex and gender and, while it's a kind of dogwhistle in politics, it also reveals a fundamental misunderstanding about issues including trans students.
I think shows a generation gap.
One of my majors at university was cultural studies, so I've researched differences of sex and gender in various departments.
Yet I often feel how difficult it is to navigate gender fluidity, particularly in conversations with my children.
Kids today are so much more capable when it comes to recognising this terrain.
Mine seem to have many more trans friends than I do.
So this gender gap that I've observed will be interesting to watch as it plays out in conversations at Parliament House ahead of an election.
Australian voters are on the cusp of an interesting shift, possibly as soon as the next election.
It's simple demographics that the ageing Baby Boomers are losing their grasp on Australian public life and Australian voters will soon be dominated by the upcoming echo of the baby boom they are named after.
Politics is often a series of wedge topics designed to identify divisions and I think the religious discrimination bill has further alienated the Coalition government.
Recommended meeting meeting
Infocouncil is the software used by local government to compile reports into business papers
It's these weird little literal messages that keep the job interesting for me!
Least favourite
Not all places where I've worked do offer morning tea for staff and one place asked for a financial contribution to cover this civility.
Usually I don't pay attention, because I bring almonds and dates to snack on during the day and find that combination is more appealing than chocolate or cake or most things on offer.
(That's a row of them on the left of the plastic tray.)
It led me to research Arnotts and I was surprised this biscuit went on sale in 1908 but I expect palm oil has changed their recipe.
Then I discovered that Kingstons have been around since the 1920s.
I'd always assumed they were a bastardisation of an Anzac biscuit, but it turns out they were around before parliament passed legislation about what can be called an Anzac.
(And Kingstons don't have oats, so I've learned something today.)
The chocolate one doesn't compare to an Oreo, although the look very similar.
If I had to pick one, it might be the Monte Carlo.
Their dry biscuit and addition of a jam-like flavour with the cream gives it more complexity, I think.
Now I think about it, the cream is what makes all of these taste terrible and the biscuits are no good for dipping in a cuppa as they leave a weird oily residue and usually fall apart after two dunks.
Blewin'
It seems appropriate to discuss it on Australia Day as the expression of "having a blue" is slang for having a fight.
I guess the decision to write it as "blewin'" avoided misunderstanding if it were "bluein'" or "bluin'" but it did make me think the mediators might be blow-ins, an expression for people who have only recently arrived.
So, "having a blue" seems to have originated in the late Nineteenth Century, possibly gaining popularity based on an observation that Irish were often fighting.
Redheaded people were referred to as "blue" as an ironic joke, which might've started in the mid-Nineteenth Century with migration as part of the Gold Rush.
Given the unions in Australia started around that time and the Eureka flag has a blue background, I wonder if that might've also played a role.
Anyway, there seems to be a semiosis in the flier that draws on multiple layers of meaning across successive waves of migration.
The slang is a substitute for the word "mediation" which originates in Latin during the Fourteenth Century.
Yet the flier is aimed at a group with a much older claim to this land.
And it was printed in 2009, so likely out of date!
Elephant crushes Triple J
Woke to the news The Wiggles have won Triple J's Hottest 100 with their cover of Elephant
It's not surprising to me, as the song seemed to be the only contender that I saw being discussed in the lead-up to the event.
The original track is cynical about a particular kind of corporate character that seems straight out of the stories about Sony's Australian operations.
This kid-friendly rendition brings light to the image and beautifully segues into The Wiggles own material as a kind of bridge or medley.
However, I feel like we're witnessing the moment when Triple J finally disappears up it's own arse.
For years the need for the station to appeal to youth has meant they increasingly mimic the overblown hype of commercial radio.
The idea that the Triple J competition is won by a song they produced themselves is a kind of vertical-integration, as the promote and also sell the result.
Maybe I should file a complaint with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission?
Reflection on listening to the radio
This year I've been trying to keep a journal and my reflection today seems innocuous enough that it hopefully won't embarrass me later
Driving to work today and I observed a surprising shift in myself.
In hindsight it seems kinda obvious but it was also very subtle.
I was listening to the news across three ABC stations.
They were discussing the events of the week in politics, the tsunami in Tonga and COVID-19, as well as commentary.
As I pressed for the radio to tune to a different station, it started searching and then went past the one I wanted to start scanning up from the bottom of the spectrum.
It arrived at the ABC Classical broadcast and, hearing the soft symphonic music, I felt a lightness.
There was a kind of shift in the weight of my head and also it was like my focus moved.
This reminded me of the way I can feel relief from no longer trying to read small print (because I'm long-sighted), but I could feel a different sort of mental focus.
The feeling deepened as a soprano brought a sophisticated vibrato to the performance.
I marvelled at the emphasis she brought to passags but wavering notes slowly and fast.
It reminded me how much I enjoy music but also how little of it I've been listening to recently.
Bravery
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