PICK OF THE WEEK x 2

Matt Duke. Matty Matt Matt. I want to squeeze your face like your Grandma would. Whats not to love here? He's got the whole "sensitive nice guy" thing down pat. Just makes you want to break the kid. Distracted much? Back on track. There is something else aside from Matt's distinctly commercially viable sound. Hes the kind of guy you want to root for. He just sounds like he's cracked the musical code and has got it together. I am looking forward in anticipation to seeing how he "dirty's up" in the big bold world of rock n roll.

PICK OF THE WEEK x 1

Tyler Ramsey's toe-tappin' Ryan Adams-esque tunes are making me move my feet a little. Admittedly they are moving in a slow fashion, more like a sideways shuffle. But Tyler's got big things coming his way. Stay tuned.

LADY LUCK... OR LUCKY LADY

Am I. I have the extreme privilege of being on the recieving end of contact from wonderfully talented people from all over the world on a daily basis to show off thier amazing work. A recent email from UK based illustrator Hennie Haworth led me to her site - and array of beautiful drawings.

Check out her stuff at:

http://www.henniehaworth.co.uk/

I'm inspired and off to buy a pack of texta's.

TIMELINESS, EFFICIENCY, EFFICACY.

A story about the maths that I do know.

No amount of preparation can prepare one for the unexpected.

Timeliness can be described as circumstancial. .A lesson learned is a sum of situation, expectation and appreciation minus anticipation.

Efficiency equals the total sum of energy input minus energy output. If it remains in the positive then it equals efficiency. If it depletes to the negative then it equals time wasted.

Efficacy is the total sum of all parts less energy output (Situation + expectation + appreciation + anticipation + energy input - energy output).

Maths just seems like an easier way to understand things at the moment.

SAY CHEESE

Once upon a time photos were the way to capture memories and beautiful moments to keep and cherish, and look over in times to come to reminisce and regress upon things that you saw, did, felt or imagined.

But nowadays with the digital revolution, photos are being wasted. I actually feel like people are abusing the cameras they are taking shots on. Perfecting images with photoshop and other like tools, cropping and blurring and having the opportunity to hit the delete button whenever takes fancy.

Don’t get me wrong – we have come leaps and bounds in the fields of photography, and I really appreciate some of these tools that we can use to manipulate and be creative with our images. But I almost feel a sense of empathy for the poor camera. Its hard to explain. But one look at other peoples facebooks and myspaces show the same image taken over and over again – from different angles and in different lights trying to capture the photographers ideal image.

It almost feels like more than half of the worlds images exist as self photos, group party shots, and overly made up images of teen girls at different social soirees. Its boring. I am not into seeing 1200 photos of you, you and mate one, you and mate two, you and mate one and mate two smiling, you and mate one and mate two laughing, you and mate one and mate two falling down drunk.

What I do like to see if one photo of you having a good time, looking perfect or imperfect – whatever the moment encapsulates. One photo of you sharing a special moment with family or friends. One beautiful landscape. One obscure object that when lit from the right angle stirred emotion inside you. Get my drift?

And when I talk about you here. I am talking to the vast majority of you who spend time taking photos for other peoples enjoyment (which seems the driving motivation of the photo albums on places like myspace and facebook). If you are going to share your moments with the world at large, be creative, be individual. Cherish the you that you are, and be proud to share it in all its glory. After all, individuality is what makes you who you are. Don’t be afraid to step outside the boundaries. Don’t feel like you cant break the rules. Do feel like you have something to offer. Do feel proud of your strengths and weaknesses. Do believe that one photo is enough!

I may have traveled way off topic here. But my feelings on the matter are strong. And rightfully so. I bought a new camera recently (the sixth in my growing collection) and I really only take it out when it is warranted. I don’t feel I need to document every single second of my life. I cherish the images that I capture during those rare moments because I believe that I cant get those moments back again.

That’s where the real beauty lies.

VIOLATE OR BE VIOLATED

Got this hilarious email from a friend this week. Apparently he can no longer access my blog due to filtering restrictions. This is the warning page he received.

Not only am I slightly alarmed at this revelation, but I am more than slightly devastated that access to my blog has now been limited to some folks, and that some apparent “god of internet” has deemed my content explicit.

If someone can please point out where on my blog one can find “nudity and risqué” I would very much appreciate this enlightenment.

Meanwhile I am off to compose an email to Fortiguard… whomever they might be to ask them to re-evaluate their concern for the content of my blog.

Standby for further updates

IN CASE YOU'VE BEEN WONDERING WHERE I HAVE BEEN

I have been busy bringing these ideas to life

I HAVENT HAD A GREAT DEAL TO SAY RECENTLY

No harm in that. Its nice going quiet for a while and indulging in fantasy less publicly consuming.

The problem is when you give more, you create more work for yourself in keeping up the momentum. It’s a pendulum like effect. The more it swings, the faster it goes. The fixed point always stays the same – its constant, always there, guaranteed. When you stop it, its not so easy to find the rhythm again.

THINK ABOUT HONKING IF YOU LOVE CONCEPTUAL ART

Art of Humour featuring

Karl De Waal (Qld)

Kim Guthrie (Qld)

Jess Johnson (Vic)

The Long Way Round (UK)

Alasdair Macintyre (Qld)

Jordan Marani (Vic)

Sebastian Moody (Qld)

Takeru Toyokura (Japan)

Martin Wilson (NSW)

Ryan Renshaw Gallery

May 14 – May 31, 2008

IMAGE ABOVE: KIM GUTHRIE ‘Squash the Arts’ (2007)

THE FORMER OR THE LATTER


Patience
-noun

1. the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain without complaint, loss of temper, irritation or the like

2. an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay

3. quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care; dilligence

Impatient
-adjective

1. not patient; not accepting delay, opposition, pain etc., with calm or patience

2. indicating lack of patience

3. restless in desire or expectation; eagerly desirous

Today I am officially struggling with the concept of patience. On the one hand, patience (as described above on dictionary.com) seems to convey that one is calm, even tempered, diligent and acting without complaint. I can confidently state that I am this right now.

On the other hand, impatience is described as restless in desire or expectation and eagerly desirous (note these positive statements that endeavor to describe a negative connotation). I also seem to display these characteristics at the moment.

So what am I?

Patient or Impatient?

WORKDAY WORRIES

Seemingly unimportant but nontheless unanswered questions I come across on a daily basis.

Does ANYONE ever actually use the ever-present half jug of lukewarm pre-frothed milk that a colleague has thoughtfully left behind after making their last brew? (disclaimer: only relevant for those sophisticated workplaces with a milk frothing facility on their coffee machine)

Why is it that when you copy and paste a colleagues EXACT email signature into your own outlook signature editing tool to use as a template, the formatting always messes up and you get double spaced lines that cannot even be rectified by using the “advanced” editing tool?

Why do people seem to use the important/urgent red flag tool in outlook to mark emails with subject lines like “What are you doing for lunch?”

Why is it that you can ask all day for something to happen but it simply never will. But as soon as you want to delay something, it suddenly becomes a priority to everyone else?

NOTHING THAT MEANS THAT MUCH TO ME

Now I cant really say that I love Razorlight all that much... but I'm all for a good lyric and melody, and this has been stuck in my head recently.