Given those that saw Robocop in the cinemas are approaching an age that should be entitled to a pension, this meme hits closer to home than the satire of the original!
Robo kettle
Capcha culture
If I didn't watch TV shows from North America, would I know how to answer this question?
Magpie stencil
Beginning to think I should cut a series of songbird stencils.
I cut a second stencil and painted a couple of birds onto a guitar body after giving it a wash with diluted paint leftover after doing the sides.
Anyway, a day later I didn't like the top bird and decided to cut another stencil.
Outsiders
Watching ABC's Insiders this week and their panel discussed the local Farrer by-election
Retiring
Liberal Sussan Ley was one of the few remaining moderates within her
party and clearly made a statement by leaving when she lost the
leadership to Angus Taylor, particularly by forgoing any form of speech
to Parliament.
Ley gained the seat after the retirement of Nationals' leader Tim Fischer, another considered a moderate within his party.
So
it was surprising that a collection of esteemed political commentators
from the city all agreed that Taylor's recent proposals to limit
migration were aimed at the Farrer electorate.
When
you consider that a city like Griffith has the most culturally and
linguistically diverse population west of Western Sydney, you realise
how little metropolitan journalists understand regional Australia.
Given how little faith I have in polling results, it's disheartening to see journalists with such limited understanding of an issue important to me.
Bigger Fish
Jo observed that within a few guitars I moved from solid colour to painting a scene this week
After writing a list of possible subject matter I remembered the murray cod exhibition drafts were among the pile of laminated rubbish I've been cutting into stencils, so I worked with those images.
It's also wonderful to observe how the paint layers blend when the oil soaks into the wood.
The guitar bodies are cheap from China and, although described as maple or sycamore, commentators described it as paulownia.
This wood is very light and, while not traditional material for telecasters, is resonant when playing unplugged.
Share a cuppa!
A season of cool
A new exhibition in Griffith explores creativity as it moves between mediums and around the world
The
Stay Cool project encompasses writing workshops, Japanese-style
short-form poetry and contemporary music composition, as well as
photography.
"I
encourage everyone to see how a picture and a few lines of text can
lead to so many wonderful things, and feel what it's like to hear those
observations interpreted as movements of air."
It's
the latest event from the group who developed community art in Griffith
like 2024's Night At The Museum and Action Day Photography Competition,
as well as the landmark Ngurambang exhibtion in 2023.
This collaboration between the
Riverina's Red Earth Ecology and Italian record label Naviar builds on
previous exhibitions, particularly the 'Crossing Streams' exhibition in
Narrandera during 2017.
Curator Jason
Richardson has been a contributor to Naviar Records' weekly haiku
challenges for over a decade and recorded nearly 300 compositions as a
result, while also writing his own haiku and publishing the book Earthwords in 2019.
"Ekphrasis
is a Greek term for art inspired by other mediums and it describes a
process of synthesis that's at the heart of realising new ideas," said
Mr Richardson.
"Some say necessity is the
mother of invention, but I am inspired by the idea that art builds
empathy as it offers the opportunity to see the world through the eyes
of others.
"It's the way each of us can not
help but bring our own experiences to an activity that infuses
creativity with meaning and spirit, which is what Jennifer Yane
identifies in their wonderful observation that 'Art is spirituality in
drag.'"
The Stay Cool exhibition at the
Artspace in the Griffith Regional Theatre includes six poems that were distributed with the
Naviar Records community of musicians, where each inspired dozens of
pieces of music linked via QR code, as well as sharing over a dozen
other haiku contributed by writers attending the online workshops
supported by Western Riverina Arts earlier this year.
"This
collection of words, pictures and music brings together many creative
people from around the world, so many that it might be the biggest group
exhibition you'll see this year," said Mr Richardson.
Stay Cool will exhibit from 25 April to 31 May at Artspace at the Griffith Regional Theatre
This
project has been supported by Griffith Regional Art Gallery, as well as financial assistance from the NSW
Government through Western Riverina Arts and Create NSW.
Late night shopping
That orange hue was the lighting for late night shopping, since the skylight looked brighter during the day.
Around
the time this photograph was taken I would be led around this location
as a small child. In fact my parents had a little harness that I wore to
stop me from running away.
I don't remember
Tandy in that spot, as it had moved by the time I started shopping for
electronics, but next door to that shop in this photo there was a place
called Hansel and Gretel.
It was while walking
past there that I first smelled coffee. A path was seared into my
neurons and I distinctly remember asking my mother what the shop sold.
Mum
doesn't drink much coffee and seemed disdainful in her answer, which
didn't make sense to me at the time anyway as I was sure she was lying and the smell was
chocolate!
Wooden whale
My partner reminded me that I'd been considering the possibility of using my chisels for something other than guitar cavities.
Compiling
Every week I record something, but it'd been nearly five years since I last published an album
So it was cool to find so much material, like this electric ukulele -- which, coincidentally, I fixed the wiring in this guitar this week and it still sounds good.
(Actually, now that I think about it, this was surprising how simple the soldering seemed after putting off doing that for years but my soldering has gotten better recently.)
Anyway, if anyone asked me to write a Bond theme then it might sound like this if 007 was going to Hawaii.
This track is going on my next album, I think, because it's a more straight-forward rock instrumental and those can be collected together.
However, there was a track with a reversed ukulele part which seemed too similar to sit alongside this track, which is why it's on the album that I published just now.
Automaton
The capcha requires so many ticks that it feels like a trick and, sure enough, I had to do another.
Speak up!
It was something that confronted me while working in a school last year, when I was reminded that I had a duty to actively engage in establishing acceptable behaviour among students.
That aspect of becoming a teacher and being a nagging voice isn't comfortable for me, but I am learning to fit that role as well as being a better ally.
Composition assignment
One of the things about having kids is recognising patterns everywhere
I see aspects of myself and also how they vary. So it's been interesting working with my second son on the same musical assignment that my first son had a few years ago.
Both boys asked for keyboards to write on, then observed the performance of moving from one chord to another could be challenging. It's at this point that I reiterate how a great product like Suzuki's Omnichord addresses this for non-performing musicians. Nah, they say while visibly recoiling, let me try programming beats in Ableton Live.
After happily programming beats for a while, they lose interest and time passes until the deadline is drawing closer. I draw their attention to how time-consuming it is to pick drum samples after programming one loop, then they realise how the Omnichord exports half a dozen parts as soon as you press a button.
It's at this point that the experience of supporting their songwriting diverges, as my first son took a whimsical "what if it were Bossanova" idea toward improvising a melody. Meanwhile, this week my youngest took a couple of lessons toward writing a song.
We looked at the photo and I told him to plot an intro, a verse, a chorus, a middle-eight and a double chorus before concluding. After a couple of attempts he recorded a full take playing an arrangement from start to finish, with a bit where he got lost adding a build-up.
A day went past and he picked instruments from Ableton Live, as well as exploring the MIDI functions.
The night before the assignment is due and he returns to the project, agreeing that it needs something. We consider improvising a vocal that can be turned to MIDI and made into a solo instrument.
Then I mention my idea that it could be a protest song pointing out the problems with his high school's toilets. My second son has been listening to Bob Dylan and considers the idea, how would it go? I wrote some lyrics weeks earlier based on the Dr John song he likes.
My son had his phone out and starts drafting ideas, which are tested against the existing arrangement to identify lengths for verses and lyrics. After singing it through one time, we record it and mix the result.
Wulf in paperback
So it was a thrill to find she'd signed this copy.
Tone up
You're not like the others
On a residency another artist told me that it'd taken a therapist to explain to their significant other how important having a creative practise was for their sanity.
As a result they moved to part-time work and are now winning prizes for innovative art.
Looking at Facebook
I keep pondering the semiotics of the images when I visit Facebook
Having
been through the process while working on marketing documents for
institutions, I feel that I have an understanding of some of those
decisions.
There are a disproportionate number of people of colour, above the statistical average, which signifies diversity.
The
heart and smiley icons are significant symbols within the Facebook
ecosystem, but here signify passions and humour -- rather than the
angry-looking emoji that also plays a role in these responses.
Significantly
for a platform that has been shown to promote negative emotions to
drive engagement for advertisers, the site promotes itself as a happy
place for friendship.
It seems ironic given how much of the newsfeed is now occupied by pages we didn't choose to follow.
The
timestamp is where the darker aspects of Facebook's surveillance are
acknowledged, but it is as much something that users engage in as we can
see when our messages are seen by recipients as well as getting a sense
of what they're doing and with whom.
Of all the roles that Facebook now plays in users' lives, it's the image of the knotted blue rope that prompted my reflection.
Why would a twisted thread be significant enough to go on the homepage of Facebook's website?
It looks sorta like a germ photographed under an electron microscope!
Yet the connotation must be that we are tied together through the website.
Although,
now that I think about it, maybe I am the germ within their clean
user-interface and attempting to infect your experience with some
skepticism.
Facebook has been central within
our societies and the suppression of journalism in favour of knee-jerk
emotions and rage-baiting shows how dangerous it continues to be for
democracies.
Journalism used to be known as the
fourth pillar of democracy and we're still getting a sense of how
communities can operate without a sense of the facts that profession
would establish and interrogate.
So the deeper significance of the knot is that we're tied together by a US-based corporation as it dismantles democracies.
Lessons
Semester begins again next week and I'll be sent to practice teaching in a school during May
Yesterday I noticed the uni had given me three days to complete the checklist, which seemed strange since that deadline is ahead of the course starting and many students wouldn't be looking at emails yet.
One of the items on that list was information on the clothing that would be appropriate for a student attending a school, which surprised me to learn that denim is discouraged.
Most teachers I see dress in a smart casual way, except for special days like excursions when I feel prudish for pondering whether their pants aren't underwear.
Stay Cool with Marco Sebastiano Alessi
In a thoughtful and generous talk, Marco Sebastiano Alessi offered more than practical advice on writing poetry — he shared a philosophy of creative practice shaped by fourteen years of experimentation, collaboration, and attentive listening.
The project began with a simple moment of curiosity: reading a book of poetry while listening to music.
From that quiet overlap grew Naviar’s Haiku Challenge, now more than a decade old.
What started as an idea has evolved into an international online community, exhibitions, and public events — a reminder that creative ecosystems often emerge from small, personal impulses.
A Practice of Staying Cool
Alessi’s advice to writers was grounded and refreshingly honest. Creativity, he suggested, thrives not on pressure but on steadiness.
First, block time for yourself. Poetry requires space — not only physical time but mental permission. Protecting that space signals that writing matters.
At the same time, be receptive. Ideas rarely arrive on command. They surface while walking, listening, waiting. The task is twofold: to remain open to them and to develop a reliable way of capturing them for later. A notebook, a voice memo, a fragment saved in a phone — these small habits make inspiration practical.
He emphasized refining one’s process. Writing improves through repetition and reflection. Notice what works. Notice what doesn’t. Adjust. Over time, process becomes personal craft.
Community also plays a vital role. Sharing work with like-minded people creates encouragement and dialogue. Poetry may be written alone, but it does not have to exist in isolation.
Equally important is rest. Taking breaks is not laziness but incubation. When we step away, another mental process continues quietly in the background. Returning with fresh eyes often reveals what effort alone could not.
Perhaps most crucially, Alessi encouraged writers to do it for themselves. Second-guessing what others might want leads to self-consciousness and dilution. Authenticity carries further than calculation.
Learning from others — even borrowing techniques — is part of growth. Influence is not imitation; it is conversation across time and style. Over time, writing should become part of who you are, not something external you occasionally perform.
And if the process becomes stressful? Pause and ask why. Stress can signal misalignment — with expectations, with habits, or with purpose.
What Makes a Haiku Sing
When turning specifically to haiku submissions for Naviar Records, Alessi described what draws attention.
A strong first line matters. In such a compressed form, the opening must immediately ground the reader — offering an image, a tone, or a moment that feels alive.
Juxtaposition is central. “The fact there is a gap between concepts is where the reader is drawn,” he explained. Haiku often places two elements side by side — image and image, perception and observation — and meaning emerges in the space between them. That gap invites participation.
A successful haiku feels like a snapshot of life: self-contained, yet open. It offers enough detail to anchor the reader, but enough restraint to allow interpretation.
Above all, simplicity. Not simplicity as lack, but as refinement. The language should feel economical and elegant. Each word must justify its presence. The aesthetic lies in precision — in saying exactly enough, and no more.
The Long View
What emerged from the talk was not a formula but a mindset. To “stay cool” is to approach writing with steadiness, curiosity, and self-trust. Build habits. Stay open. Share. Rest. Refine.
From a fleeting moment of poetry and music grew an enduring creative community. The lesson is reassuring: small, sincere acts of attention can expand far beyond their beginnings — especially when nurtured with patience and care.
The workshops are supported by Western Riverina Arts and Create NSW through financial assistance from the NSW Government
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