Looking forward to hearing a new album from The Avalanches
There are so many happy and meaningful memories that I have associated with their music.
How Alain de Botton can change your life
My partner is often frustrated when I mention a book that I’ve read
This will happen when she’s explaining her thoughts and I’ll chip in with an author or thinker that wrote something similar.
She’ll protest that she arrived at the conclusion with her own reasoning and of course, me being university-educated, can’t see the issue with providing a reference as a kind of handle.
So I’m reluctant to share this excellent video with her.
I’ve followed Alain de Botton for nearly half my life and still recall buying his book about Proust when it was recommended by Barry Jones.
In particular I've been impressed by Alain’s ideas about the role of art and wish more people would realise the important place it can occupy in developing their happiness.
This video about relationships contains a number of lessons that my partner has arrived at through her own thought processes, but since I want to keep her to myself I’ll share Alain’s insights.
In particular he notes how attachment styles vary and this was something my partner observed long ago, that we have similar experiences in our childhoods.
It also describes how being honest with emotions is fundamental to unpacking our personalities and developing new strategies to recognise shortcomings as well as potential.
Too often we pursue relationships with a view they’re meant to be easy, when the really important thing is that they can accommodate and support our growth.
While the whole video works to build an argument, you can skip to the last few minutes and he does a recap of the key takeaway points but if you ask my partner she'll probably say that it's obvious.
Was feeling nervous might delete later
It is one of only four in the world and the exhibit was estimated to be worth $1 million about a decade ago.
Two medical students spent 1,500 hours dissecting an entire human nervous system in 1925.
They began at the brain's base and worked their way down, managing to keep the system in one piece.
The identity of the person whose nervous system is on display is unknown, but Museum Director Jason Haxton has said that the body likely came from a poor house or a prison.
Writers create networks
When I came home I told my son how surprising it was to be the only male in the room.
"Good on you," he deadpanned. "Showing up for your culture."
One of the writing exercises was based on the famous six-word story written by Ernest Hemingway: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."
I enjoyed writing a series of short stories, with these being my favourites:
- The bookstore sold only loose pages.
- His voice broke records and cassettes.
- Their cat brought home stray velociraptors.
Matter of perspective
My mother is fond of saying that looking at exhibition allows one to see the world through someone else's eyes.
In that way I think art builds empathy.
There's a similar potential in travel, but it seems as though many people copy a product or buy one.
Here Proust reminds me of an observation in Alan Alda's book, where he talked about learning how to engage in conversation.
His conclusion was that one doesn't wait for an opportunity to speak, but has to be willing to be changed by what they hear.
Cooking with gas
For me there have been experiences where it's less about gaslighting and more about my whim of steel, after I feel strongly about something until I find an alternate perspective and can see a broader view.
That process is an internal one and not easily seen by those who would hold me to a previously held position.
Increasingly I'm learning to bite my tongue until that arrives, but it's taken years to give myself time to consider opinions.
Having kids to reflect those experiences has been a useful part of this learning.
Monoculture myth
One of the Australian political debates in recent weeks has been around returning the country to a monoculture
This has been of of those pointed remarks that stupidly aims at the country’s longterm view of being multicultural because, after all, we’re largely a population of migrants.
In some ways the Australian fear of being swamped by a foreign culture is a response to our unease about the history of the nation, which formed from colonisation of the oldest continuous human cultures in the First Nations.
It’s a potent raw nerve for conservative politicians and has been exploited in fears of “boat people” and most recently been espoused as the desire for a monoculture that was expressed by Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.
Given my parents were both born overseas, you can likely guess where I sit in this debate.
Wherever you look in the history of Australia (or the continent before that name) it was never a monoculture -- even the centuries of rivalry between the Angilican and Catholic churches points to the conflict between English and Irish migrants from the day soldiers escorted convicts onto a sandy beach.
However, I was watching a Rick Beato discussion just now and realised the notion of a monoculture is another of the “Golden Age” type arguments that somehow propose returning to an earlier time that will never be within reach because technology now prevents it.
There’s this thing that we call the monoculture that were, where hit songs back in 2005 if you had a hit song, everyone knew the song.
It was played at the stores, grocery stores, everywhere you went. It was on the radio, right?
And then the age of algorithms started happening, right?
…And there’s very little shared music because of that.
Magic Mountain's Mr Magic
Leeton's Mr Magic seems worthy of a mention
I remember he entertained a birthday party for one of my kids soon after we arrived in town.
A
few years later and David Boyd was the sole remaining member of a
writing group and asked Western Riverina Arts to help with a
workshop to acquit funds.
There weren't many people at the event, aside from the Regional Arts Development Officer and myself.
David
was a bit critical about the content and the outcome, which I think
might explain how it was he ended up being the sole remaining member.
Later in my role as Communications Officer at WRA I wrote about Mr Magic's workshops, which were a wonderful initiative that aimed to help neurodivergent kids.
The
book details his childhood experiences of WWII and was interesting for
the somewhat dubious deals he made to support himself during those
chaotic years.
I'd need to re-read it to remind myself of the details, but the blurb on the back cover notes:
His childhood experiences gave him the ability of spotting a good business deal when one presented itself. Or to use his favorite [sic] term "A great little earner". But unlike his child hood earners, [sic?] these would all be legit.
After I read the book I
pestered David when I saw him with his dog at the local park, hoping
he'd let me proofread the second volume detailing his life after moving
to Australia.
Another funny detail to share is
that his home used to have a sign out front saying "The Boyd Nest" and
you couldn't help but read it with his English accent!
Lexical gaps
English is such a weird mash of languages that I expect some of the gaps are explained by their origins.
Giant duck?
Went for a walk at Narrandera's wetland this morning
I guess it must be a wood duck!
Now Stop
I was inspired by the idea the signage outside the Leeton Rice Mill could be a creative prompt.
It then surprised me to discover my idea coincided with my 500th video response to these Disquiet Junto projects.
Season of Cool
Great news to learn that our innovative international collaboration has been extended until 24 July
This project evolved from writing workshops into contemporary music composition and is illustrated with stellar photography.
The collaboration between Red Earth Ecology and Italian record label Naviar builds on previous projects led by Curator Jason Richardson, particularly the 'Crossing Streams' exhibition in Narrandera during 2017.
This group exhibition includes 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.
Many of the
contributors are exhibiting for the first time and some, such as Wagga
Wagga's Anne Carpenter, are new to writing haiku poetry.
"I am now so aware of Haiku that my walks with my dog now consist of me
tapping my fingers against my leg or in the air as I count out the
syllables to describe the ever changing morning sky," said Ms Carpenter.
"It must look rather
funny to others out for their early morning walk. It has given me a new
perspective on what I see, hear and feel."
A
selection of poems were distributed by Naviar Records to a community of
musicians from around the world, who interpreted the words sonically.
"It was really emotional listening to the sound tracks
created in response to my haiku," said Capertee Valley-based artist Leanne Wicks.
"I knew it would be cool to participate
but there's something a whole lot deeper going on with this
cross-creative collaboration."
An album of music from the Stay Cool project is available to download at https://naviarrecords.
"It is wonderful to be part of an exhibition in Griffith," said Marco Sebastiano Alessi from Treviso in Italy.
"I
hear the city is known for its multiculturalism, so an exhibition of
Japanese-style poetry that brings together people from around the world
should be right at home."
Stay Cool will exhibit from 25 April to 24 July at Artspace at the Griffith Regional Theatre,
The
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
Capcha snap
One of the things that I don't miss is completing these tasks every time I logged in.
Let's go algae
Obviously there's a political context for North Americans, but I really like the idea of celebrating microorganisms.
Currently I'm back into milk kefir, for example, and previously I've been keen to celebrate the local cryptogamic crust.
Dreams are wild
Been a while since I wrote about a dream and my partner thought this one was significant
I was at some sort of a corroboree, where First Nations men were
bringing food from a shipwreck in a river nestled in a lush, tree-filled valley and that included hot pizza.
When we
sat down to eat in a big venue, it was clear that I was attending with
people I knew from work and saw Ray from the gallery while I was eating prawns.
An older man sat down, seemed to be my manager and he said he was sorry
about the death of my father and how they didn't know what killed him.
I
still had a mouth full of food and he said he'd come back later to talk
about something important.
Later I realised this manager figure looked a lot like my paternal grandfather.
Jo saw this as a
healing dream, where I was supported by male ancestors in a process that
was still occurring through the nourishing quality of eating.
She asked
me to reflect on the role of prawns and, since they were being served
by Ray, and I assume it is a symbol for my creative practices.
I have been thinking lately on how few men engage with the arts and how my guitar-building project could be a way to interest more of a male audience.
The location
of the river with the shipwreck seemed to be the wilder landscape in a
section of the dream from the night before, which was a journey between Sydney and Bega.
Interesting to me is that my grandfather's coast house, where I spent time through my childhood, is in that stretch of the landscape.
Potato
Half a potato is a serve of vegetables
Easy to cook in a microwave but obviously sublime when roasted.
Cheap too, only $6 for 2.5kg at my local supermarket.
ChatGPT knows me
I found a fair bit about Jason Richardson — he appears to be a multidisciplinary regional artist from Leeton, NSW, working across sound art, electronic music, photography, writing, curation, and community arts projects.
A few key things about him:
* He’s known musically under the alias **Bassling**, creating experimental/electronic music and sound art heavily influenced by field recordings and regional landscapes. ([RealTime Australia][1])
* His work often focuses on the Riverina environment, especially sound, memory, local history, and community identity. ([RealTime Australia][2])
* He has collaborated with regional arts organisations including Western Riverina Arts, The CAD Factory, and Leeton Art Society Inc. ([Leeton Art Society Inc][3])
* He’s also worked as a curator and arts facilitator in the Riverina region. ([Leeton Art Society Inc][3])
Some notable projects and themes:
### Playground sound recordings
One of his better-known projects involved recording the sounds of playground equipment around Leeton using contact microphones, then transforming those recordings into ambient/electronic compositions and audiovisual installations. ([RealTime Australia][1])
### Environmental and wetlands work
He created community/environmental art around Fivebough Wetlands to raise awareness of the site’s ecological importance, including installations featuring local and migratory birds. ([NSW Landcare Gateway][4])
### Haiku, poetry and sound
He’s also active as a poet and collaborated internationally with sound-art and haiku communities through The Haiku Foundation and Naviar Records. ([The Haiku Foundation][5])
### Regional arts advocacy
Several profiles describe him as someone deeply engaged with regional Australian creative culture — especially how geography and local environments shape artistic practice. ([RealTime Australia][1])
One profile from [RealTime Australia](https://www.realtime.org.au/regional-profile-jason-richardson/?utm_source=chatgpt.com) describes how he became interested in transforming everyday regional sounds into music after exposure to experimental sound artists in Wagga Wagga and the Riverina.
You can also browse some official or arts-related pages here:
* [Leeton Art Society – About / Our Riverina project](https://lasi.com.au/about/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
* [Regional Profile: Jason Richardson (RealTime Australia)](https://www.realtime.org.au/regional-profile-jason-richardson/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
* [Cities and Memory artist spotlight](https://citiesandmemory.com/2025/06/artist-spotlight-jason-richardson/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
* [Orana Arts creatives profile](https://www.oranaarts.com/creatives?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
If you want, I can also dig deeper into:
* his music releases and where to hear them,
* exhibitions/projects timeline,
* whether he still performs under Bassling,
* interviews or videos,
* or connections with the Riverina experimental arts scene.
[1]: https://www.realtime.org.au/regional-profile-jason-richardson/?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Regional Profile: Jason Richardson | RealTime — Australia"
[2]: https://www.realtime.org.au/a-common-magic/?utm_source=chatgpt.com "A common magic | RealTime — Australia"
[3]: https://lasi.com.au/about/?utm_source=chatgpt.com "About - Leeton Art Society Inc"
[4]: https://landcare.nsw.gov.au/groups/murrumbidgee-landcare-inc/birds-of-a-feather-flock-together?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Birds of a feather flock together — NSW Landcare Gateway"
[5]: https://thehaikufoundation.org/haiku-music-challenge-18/?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Haiku Music Challenge 18 - The Haiku Foundation"
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