If a "God" created we humans he sure made a

If a "God" created we humans he sure made a

Put your sign higher, plsz.

Notes from the far side of town

On going through some old books today, I found this:

This collection (published for the 'Help A Child to See' charity) contains limericks by British celebrities of the day including Spike Milligan, Michael Palin, Judi Dench and the Arsenal Football Club as well as some limericks by children.

On flipping through the book this morning, it was Tom Baker's contribution that jumped out at me. Here:

In the introduction, Baker asserts 'Never mind what the title means!' but I think this is to throw the reader off the scent of a deeper meaning in his limerick and perhaps this book in general.

Consider: the limerick is about growing up, and Baker reflects this in his introduction suggesting that we're always being told to 'Grow up' but we shouldn't take this (or growing up itself) too seriously. Personally I think Baker's limerick is written about the human race and our linear perspective of time.

The 'Boy' who forgets to grow down is us - caught in an irreversible progression of life, growth and time. It's no mistake that he inverts 'growing up' into 'forgetting to grow down' as this suggests that somewhere within us we have the ability - an ability we've forgotten as a species -  to grow down, or experience time in the reverse or in an alternate direction. Also, think about 'Grew up on the far side of town' - the aforementioned 'boy' is from another place, a place that isn't here. Baker is seeing us from the perspective of an alien. 'By the time he was seven/He was six-foot-eleven' - the 'Boy' is trapped, unable to escape a process that will (if followed to its logical conclusion) leave him ungainly and enormous and it's all happening fast. I believe this reflects the species' innate programming to perpetuate itself as a collective - regardless of the consequences - while each individual member remains essentially alone. It could also be talking about the oft quoted feeling people have of 'time flying'. The final line 'A figure of highest renown' references our desire to be successful, to be recognised as beneficial for the species - again regardless of the consequences - while gently mocking this idea of the quest for recognition through the double-meaning of the word 'highest'.

On the cover of the compilation, Baker is wearing a top hat and having a tea-party, obviously referencing the Hatter and tea-party in Alice in Wonderland. In Alice in Wonderland the Hatter - an enigmatic riddler - tells a story of trying to sing for the Queen of Hearts when:

'Well, I'd hardly finished the first verse,' said the Hatter, 'when the Queen jumped up and bawled out, "He's murdering the time! Off with his head!"'

He's murdering the time.

The Hatter also carries a pocket-watch which he doesn't really seem to comprehend. Additionally, he tells Alice that his watch tells him 'what year it is' (*COUGH* time-traveller *COUGH*). He doesn't 'get' our perception of time which suggests he's experiencing his own different and unique sense of time.

Baker is depicted telling stories from a blank-covered book to a some human children, his finger pointing up (maybe..?) He's trying to teach them something but alas, like Alice's inability at the tea-party to decode the Hatter, his knowledge will be interpreted as a bunch of nonsense rhymes. Or limericks.

My current feeling about this book is that it actually isn't a book but an ancient forgotten codex disguised as a mid-eighties limerick compilation. It is in fact a talisman designed to protect the owner against time's perpetuity. I would hold it aloft on a stormy night and scream into the swirling vortex: 'TIME, THOU SINGLE-DIRECTIONAL JUGGERNAUT! YOUR REIGN OF TYRANNY IS AT AN END - HAVE AT THEE! HAVE AT THEEEEE!' but I fear I may wake in the morning a swaddling infant, ignorant of all I've learned.



[DISCLAIMER: Tom Baker is my favourite incarnation of Doctor Who]

Media Watch for the LOLs

Perhaps it's a sad state of affairs, but I don't LOL in the purest sense of a L.O.L. as much at the TV I used to. This could be attributed to a number of factors - getting older, the slow-creep of cynicism, the fact that my sense of humour is getting more oblique. Perhaps. In regards to the last point, one thing that I find hilarious (and makes me LOL) is errors in broadcast media. I wait for these zen-like moments like an astronomer watching the sky for shooting stars. I've even caught and documented some in the past.

Recently broadcast media had to scramble for the latest significant event (The Ridding of The Rudd) and mistakes were made. Fortunately, ABCs Media Watch collated these and the result was (for me at least) hilarity as well as an interesting peek behind the curtain of current media. You can stream/watch the episode here (serious LOLs start around 07:47).

My favourites:

And now, the news... In Kyrgyzstan (better in context)

Laurie Oakes caught off guard (as a looping animated gif):

David Stratton gets glitched

David Stratton gets glitched (detail). Reminds me of something ...

A still image, which lasted for one and a half minutes.

Take note: this isn't so much taking pleasure in the mistakes of others - I work with screen-based media and am very familiar with its peccadilloes and there is an element of schadenfreude - rather these moments offer a moment of unexpected beauty honesty and hilarity which seems in stark contrast to the highly polished smug un-funniness of most contemporary TV.

As technology gets more baroque, more room for errors occurs. However, the errors spotted by Media Watch even persisted in Radio, which would be a more straight-forward medium than digital TV. While producers of said media would prefer that these mistakes get swept under the carpet or are eventually banished altogether I believe they are important part of where we are technologically and conceptually. In a way, the upheaval of getting a PM ousted was reflected in the media itself - the state of the country reflected in the state of the broadcast.

Sydney (the sequel)

1st of all, this:

And this:

Once agian (see here for a previous visit) the pilgrimage to Sydney. This time to see Lou Reed's 'Metal Machine Trio', 'Noise Night' featuring Boris, Melt Banana and others, as well as aspects of the Sydney Biennale.

Image courtesy of SpaceySpace

The Metal Machine Trio were good - the performance began with an audible hum, bleeding out into the reception-area while you're still waiting to enter. Discussion about this actually being part of the performance was had. I really like the idea of something priming the audience like this, even making the audience question what constitutes a performance (music for waiting for music, anyone?) Once we got in and sat down we fortuitously swapped seats with a trio of "fans" who wanted to be able to leave easily if it was too loud. They lasted under two minutes (It wasn't that loud either). The actual sit-down part of the performance was enjoyable - the first third was phenomenal, but then it seemed to settle a bit with Lou Reed looking uninspired and grump with levels etc while the other two members of the trio went about their business. From where we were sitting it seemed that about 7% of the audience left. What did they expect? The tickets clearly expressed 'No songs no vocals', so there was no pretence of any Velevet Underground/Solo Lou Reed material.

Image courtesy of SpaceySpace

The Noise Night was an absolute treat. The performance was running late (which in retrospect was understandable given its complexity) and while we waited there were some sounds coming from within the venue that helped build anticipation/give us a shred of sound to listen to. At the entrance to the stage area ear-plugs were offered - lollies-in-a-bowl style. Unfortunately we only caught half of the whole thing (mistaking the intermission as the end, a mistake I think a number of patrons made) but it was still well worth it. The absolute highlight (making for also an up-there highlight in my concert-going history) was when Boris' gear was being bumped in and Lou Reed (unannounced and hitherto hanging out at the back of the stage) started making some slide guitar-based sounds - which sounded incredible - and (also unannounced) Laurie Anderson started jamming with him across the stage using a custom electronic viola. They seemed to be enjoying just playing together without any pretence or concept needing to be met. In the above image you can see both of them at the left and right-hand side of the image.

Avian aggression - Cockatoo Island.

The Sydney Biennale was also an excellent experience. The whole thing seemed to have a thread through a diverse and large amount of works, suggesting a subtle and intelligent curatorial structure. We only saw work at The MCA and Cockatoo island. I didn't take many photos at The MCA save this one:

Work by Gunnel Wahlstrand

Some of the work at Cockatoo Island:

"Kasbah" by Kader Attia

"Inopportune: Stage One" (Detail) by CaiGuo-Qiang - arguably the 'blockbuster' of the Biennale

"Everyone No.53" by Rodney Glick

The old industrial and convict areas reeked of history, but most of the work was so strong it was never overwhelmed. It's tricky to get this right when work is taken out of a gallery context when the work was not built to be site-specific. I hope they use it as a venue for future projects.

Stripped-back bathroom, Cockatoo Island

Tunnel through a hill, Cockatoo Island

Doors, Cockatoo Island

There's a certain something about travelling to see new works, and this was added to by having to travel by air, then road, then over water to reach the work. I like the rare occasions when I use all forms of public transport (train, tram, bus) for some reason - it seems to make the journey and destination more...significant. This is not intended to lessen/disclaim any positivity/significance regarding Sydney in this post.

Cockatoo Island seen from above by Google, terrain on/off

Update x ∞ (+ 1)

Now go forth and liveth thine lives.

Morphsuit update

You, your room, your house, your street, your town, your city, your state, your country, your hemisphere, your earth, your galaxy, your universe, ETC.

For the second time the targeted ads on my Facebook page have been about Morphsuits, in this case  location-based Morphsuits. This has led me to attempt to have as much of my targeted Facebook advertising to be Morphsuit-related.

celebrity got hit by a vehicle (v0.3)

this iphone app review reinstated my faith in the human race. at first i was all like we are fucked until i was looking for apps and I found this review. this is an excellent review and I think we're all going to be OK. this review helped me and is the reason im blogging today. when i was looking for  app im glad i found this review beacuse i usually don't look at reviews because they maybe not clear to help me know if i should download, . i was looking at my screen and stuff was there but it never seemd as relevant to my life as this review when i found it i said to myself OMG relevant. i never even read this review this review made me think about things and my place in the universe and nature... maybe, i don't understand. this review isnt so great and didnt really make sense for me and made me write things that were maybe redundant and irrelevant and basically were staring into the howling chasm of meaninglessness and nature is laughing at our human eattempts at dominance LOL at us. holy crap were all doomed :/

Emptiness must be perfect

'Nietzsche's Mirror'

'Axiomatic Re-draw: Silence'

'Slight Delay on the Journey Home'

'Progress Through Reduction'

'The Dandy'

'The Isometricity of Loss'

'Axiomatic Re-draw: Silence (Redux)'

'The Fuzzy Cog Gets the Blog'

'Greater Definition Through Tools'

'The Illusion of the Illusion of Depth'

Selected from a compendium of in-between iPhone screens, 2009-2010, 320 x 480 px. Digital.

This! Just! In!

I turn my back for half-a-freaking second and it's the future.

Wikipedia:

Zentai (from the Japanese ゼンタイ) is a common term for skin-tight garments that cover the entire body. The word is a contraction of zenshin taitsu (全身タイツ) ("full-body tights"). Zentai is most commonly made using nylon/spandex blends, but other materials such as cotton and wool are used as well.
Some companies have tried to create mainstream brands of the suits, by dropping the traditional name; in particular, examples include RootSuit in the United States and Morphsuit in the United Kingdom.

"You either get it or you don't" Department

And don't forget the Joker

So I had my first experience of Karaoke on Tuesday night and it was some kind of revelation.

Initially being disappointed with the available song-list (no Talking Heads, Ramones or Iggy Pop) and having some reservations, I found 'Ace of Spades' by Motörhead and from then on everything worked out just fine. The venue - Karaoke Box - catered for booze with the most economical choice being a $6 bottle of decent (but not amazing) sake as well as offering complimentary mic sanitation ...uh... sleeves? In the reception you could hear a melange of songs bleeding through the doors of the front rooms making for an interesting ambient mix formed from these karaoke-strained song fragments (you could hear the vocals significantly over the background tracks).

I did not sing, nor do I endorse this particular song.

You choose your songs from a hefty plastic-wrapped-paged book and enter the song code into a DVD player-esque system. This had a couple of nice dirty-disk type glitches over the course of the evening which I saw as a charming bonus. The songs are played and the vocals are highlighted over a seemingly irrelevant music video composed of a wide array stock footage - I only noticed same footage appear twice. Vocals were effected by quite a bit of reverb which was nice as dry, uneffected vocals probably would have been too raw.

And in the meantime, this:

Barry Leitch (The Jackal) - Ace of Spades (Motörhead cover, SID version) [4.8MB .mp3 file]
[website]

Remedial of Wolpertingers of yore

Empty iPhone SMS speech balloon, 2010.

Does not exist

The Wolpertinger does not exist.

The Wolpertinger does not exist.

Uroboros is a close personal friend of mine

And thus, my mind cracked open like an egg, The World following shortly after. My computer screen spewed forward tree-falling-in-the-woods moment, contained in the bordered context on a window. What is a window, really - A view, or a view-point?

TWO WEEKS HENCE

Inevitably, my band THE OBJECTS are playing in two weeks.

For your consideration:
THE OBJECTS
Luke Caleo on electronics, Chordmaster, backing vocals
Alex Fricke on bass, slide guitar, ebow
Scott Matthews on drums, DS, iPhone, guimbarde and vocals

The Sporting Club Hotel (27 Weston Street, Brunswick)
24th February CE 2010
9:00 PM
NO CHARGE!