In praise of girlfriends

When I saw this comment earlier in the week it seemed like outrageous clickbait fodder

Today I think I gained an understanding of how it's an insidious message. 

Young men might think their freedom comes from being single, but their opportunities to mature are severely curtailed by not having a relationship. 

When you have a significant other you gain someone outside of your family who will observe and comment on where you have opportunities to grow. 

It's not always easy to have a person you love who will call out your shortcomings, particularly if you respect them enough to listen and care. 

Too often people feel empowered to end a relationship when it's not serving them and, while I can't comment on all of those experiences nor the hurts that might be stirred, sometimes these are experiences where emotional growth can occur. 

Obviously not all our relationships are good ones, otherwise so many wouldn't seek ways to escape or move past trauma. 

However, it is through reflection that we can learn things not able to be seen from our own limited view of the world or learn about the patterns of behaviours that lie below the initial flush of anger, embarrassment and shame. 

I learn a lot about myself from those around me, particularly those who have known me and trust me as I can trust them. 

Some of the best lessons have come from girlfriends, which is why this hateful human is disdainful and wants men to look to other men for a limited reflection of human experience.

Metaphor in my driveway

More pics here
 

Giddy gigging

What if part of the thrill of a live concert is lightheadedness?

Interested to see that somebody measured CO2 concentration at a gig. 

The reading for healthy fresh air is 450-500.

Maybe I should put on an album and put a bag over my head?!

Just joking, don't put a bag on your head.

However, now I wonder if there's a playlist for putting a bag on one's head?

Since Covid, many famous musicians take significant precautions at their gigs and others are suffering from mystery illnesses that prevent performing.

Yet public health is bad for their business model, since you can only fit so many people into a space and they need more if they want breathing room.

 

It sucks being a boy

I was walking through dark streets one time and a drunk approached to ask a question, like "do you know the time?" 

I flinched and they noticed, touched my arm and said something like "it's alright mate, I'm not here to hurt you." 

I remember brushing it off at the time, like 'nah, I wouldn't be scared of you' but, afterwards, I realised how frightened my body had been. 

It was like when I touch a hurt and mentally tell myself to heal, since I have been assaulted on the street and at the time no one cared.

That flinch made me appreciate the trauma of being assaulted.

Apparently young men are the most common victims of assault and, because they're usually hit by other men, there's often an attitude that it's boys being boys or something.

I remember the police laughed at the idea they would find my assailant and a journalist dismissed my story, saying "it happens all the time." 

Well, let me say, it sucks being hit and finding that no one considers it seriously.

 

Jest like me

For around 25 years it has taunted me from the bookshelf

I read about Infinite Jest and had been intrigued enough to order a copy, only to discover the size intimidated me.

As someone who likes to read in bed, the idea of holding up this slab was also discouraging.

Recently I thought again about reading it, but there are piles of more easily digestible texts and I tend to go for non-fiction a lot of the time.

I had been prompted by Ted Goia's discussion of David Foster Wallace's prescience, and it's a great article that I recommend reading.

It was while reading the article aloud to my partner that my son heard about the book and, like me so many years ago, became intrigued.

Last night he asked for it, but it took a while for us to figure out which book he was talking about.

"It's got something about forever in the title," he said unhelpfully.

"The book described changes in technology and how it will impact people in the future."

Anyway, we eventually remembered Goia's analysis and the discussions that followed.

Now I'm wondering if the "jest" will continue as I hear my son describe the book's contents, or if it'll sit like so many books by his bedside.

Or if I'll end up buying another copy as my youngest son joins his siblings in leaving home for university.

'69 White Boomers

Mark Davis wrote a book titled Gangland that argued Baby Boomers were holding the reigns of Australian culture

It was published in 1997 and, as Generation X gave way to Y and Millennials, it seems like nothing has changed.

While it might be unfair to compare Woodstock to Glastonbury, since one defined a generation by not collecting tickets from attendees and the other aims to make a profit, this chart tells a similar story.

In fact, when I hear what my kids are listening to I find myself wondering if the music industry invests any money in cultivating new talent?

Socks to be you

An uncle once advised me to keep a sock in my desk drawer to discourage managers from allocating stressful tasks 

My friend Ted has a good bit of advice to add to this: 

It's even better if you take off both socks and hand them over one at a time. For an encore you can get another sock worn the previous week out of your pocket and hand them that as well. Nobody knows what to do with that third sock.

No memories

Maybe it's liberating?

For a couple of days now I've been feeling like Leonard Shelby, without the need to avenge something.  

If I have no past, then my future becomes a lot more open with possibilities.

Then again, one now wonders if I'm going to have to pay someone to see them again.

Quincy Jones argues for a Ministry of Culture

Australia “…does not have a Ministry of Culture. It’s reflective of a poisonous societal mindset that history and culture are irrelevant. Well, I’m telling you, culture is anything but irrelevant. You’ve got to know where you came from in order to get where you want to go. Without that foundation, you won’t know who you are, and you sure can’t expect to create truthfully without knowing the truth.”

Great Art Explained

These videos by James Payne keep getting better

I like the way it gives historical context, as well as multiple interpretations of the meaning of the artwork and how that changes over time.

1000

On the weekend I uploaded my 1000th video to Youtube

Nearly 20 years ago my first video showed mountain-biking outside Wagga with a track I made in Cubase.

Yesterday it was a piece on tenor guitar responding to a poem.

 

It's remarkable to consider how my experience of Youtube has changed in 20 years, given I wrote about that encounter and now endure the indignity of watching advertising to view my own work.

Anyway, another number just now: 

2222

Total for posts on this blog and I'm on the way to the most in almost a decade.

Giving a glance to arts in regional NSW

Today is the "national giving day to arts", according to Creative Australia

One of the things that stands out is that funding for the arts in this country is changing, such as the promotion of this official donation website and the appearance within it of a peak organisation for regional arts in my state that used to be funded by government.

Regional Arts NSW has a role uniting the arts boards that help communities make sense of the complex and ever-changing environment for creative industries, yet their funding was withdrawn by the state government who have since also withdrawn funding for one of those regional arts boards.

So it's clear the network that existed for regional artists is broken and there doesn't seem to be any discussion in the small amount of media covering the arts to know what is likely to replace it.

Brand inconsistencies

One of the fundamental aspects to building a brand is the opportunity to convince consumers to pay more or buy more often

Brand loyalty is a relationship where the consumer sees value over time, even if that means something as simple as saving their mental bandwidth from having to research other options.

However, some brands are fractured through diverse market offerings, which might explain my disappointment with the current Reese's ice-cream.

Now chocolate brands reinterpreted as ice-confections is an area that fascinates me, as there's a weird thing where their primary appeal behaves differently.

Chocolate is one experience at room temperature that differs markedly when it is cold, although that also serves as a way to disguise bad quality.

The Reese's ice-creams have been a very mixed bag in their various iterations, but there are some key components that can be successful and it has been my greatest pleasure during previous summers.

Currently the brand is being sold in the "sandwich" form, which is probably my least-liked style because this tries to make a virtue of eating a soggy biscuit.

The new Reese's version lacks caramel and I'm not convinced there is any peanut in there either, although there was a lump that I couldn't identify.

 

Then I wondered -- are they having a laugh?

My conclusion is that brand loyalty has not delivered a product that rewards my consumption and I advise caution when approaching this confection.

There's no caramel and no chocolate and probably not enough peanut to trigger an allergy (but please don't test this if you have a reaction to those, in fact just don't buy this icecream)!

App lied learning

Nothing much holds my youngest back

Eden was already reading when he became one of the youngest kids in his year at school.

Now that he's starting his final year of high school, it means he's 16 years old while some of his cohort are already legally adults.

I used to worry about access to alcohol, given how enticing it can be while a child's brain is still growing.

However, a story Eden shared the other day illustrates that many parents have other concerns.

A group of kids were driving home from Griffith when there was a wave of phone calls across the back seat.

An app on the kids' phones had alerted parents the car was travelling over the speed limit.

My son described how each conversation concluded with parents telling their kids that they wouldn't be driven in that car again.

It surprises me that helicopter-parenting is now akin to a drone swooping in on a child from an app on their digital device.

While I am concerned that my son was driving in a speeding car by a relatively inexperienced driver, my response is a sense that privacy has been intruded on.

I mean, my son will be an adult in less than two years, there are many lessons he will need to learn to promote his own safety before then.

My mind replays the many ways I snuck out of home or planned crimes as a child, yet ultimately I had to take steps to be an adult that involved responsibility for my actions.

I wonder whether kids will be losing an opportunity to develop a skill, a bit like how satellite navigation has impacted on the abilities of people to develop geo-spatial awareness.

How do kids learn to grow up in this new panopticon?

Grant-writing workshop

 

Shared tips to apply for the Country Art Support Program

Bad day at work?

 

School days

Recently I read about an experiment with adjusting the time high school starts

Looks like the results needed more schools to trial this idea before drawing too many conclusions, see https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6626292/

However, as a parent and former teenager, I know the struggle to get to school on time.

Currently it frustrates me that my son needs assistance when I'm at my mental peak for the day, but I'm probably just looking at the internet anyway. 

This week I was observing that his older brother got himself to school, then his sister started asking for lifts when there was an early start. 

Now he, as the youngest, is now asking for a lift every day and is late more often than not.

As a firstborn I can't think of many occasions when I got a lift to high school and I've seen stories that (in the US admittedly) a kid making their own way to school is reason to question their welfare.

So I'm grateful that he's only got one more year to go before finishing high school (although I might be working in schools myself by that time).

Mix to remix

Recently I started experimenting with open-tunings and it has opened new musical ideas

In the past I found that replacing the low E string on the guitar with a D string from a bass held pitch better, and also that DADGAD was a lot of fun for riffing.

One time I settled on DDAE tuning, which was interesting as it switched around notes when picking arpeggios.

Anyway, this time I've gone for DGDGBD and really like the way it sits sorta between a guitar and a bass.

It was using that tuning that I started writing the song in the video at the top.

However, a recent Junto project asked for a remix and I thought it would be a good opportunity to revisit the song.

I knew there would be vocal performances that were close enough to layer together for the thick sound one gets through doubling.

The remix below worked from those pieces and added a 909 beat and a wubby bass part.

Wisdom from Uncle Iroh

My Facebook Memories offered this gem today

Uncle Iroh is a wonderful character in an excellent couple of TV shows, that I've written about here (Netflix remake) and here (original Nickelodeon animation).

See more wisdom here

Nettles

Some years ago I became interested in nettle

I'd read about the amount of iron it offered and noticed it was growing on the property where I was living, under kurrajong trees in the leaf litter.

When I was young, my mother would bake filo pies with layers of spinach.

For many years I'd eat the filo and try to avoid the spinach but, when I left home, I found myself cooking it and enjoying the sentimental connection to this dish.

That's where I began with nettle, adding it to spinach and realising that I couldn't taste much difference.

Cooking removes the sting, but a quick blanch will too.

Then I tried nettle tea and found the zing of the iron a nice complement for the green flavour.

However, when I brewed nettle beer, I began to wonder why this weed hasn't been embraced more widely.

So I began letting it go to seed where it grew in my garden.

This year the conditions have been ideal, late winter rain has brought up patches of nettle and mallow.

It's an ideal crop, self-seeding and filling a gap between winter and spring vegetables.

While there are a couple of spinach plants that have survived, the nettle has offered enough leafy goodness for a few pies and now I'm wondering if I should brew a batch of beer.