Great Southern Land - Icehouse - Australia Day Live Concert / Canberra (Tue 25 Jan 2005)

Great Southern Land - Icehouse - Australia Day Live 2005 / Canberra (Tue 25 Jan 2005)
City on a rainy day, down in the harbor
Watching as the gray clouds shadow the bay

Great Southern Land - Icehouse


A pretty random post, but it has put a smile on my face and was fun to put together.

Heard this song on the radio on the way to training yesterday evening. It's a song you will often hear on the radio on a stormy afternoon or evening.

The storm clouds were looming as we got closer to Bank Street and it had started to lightly rain. The wind came up and the air became colder, and in combination with the songs haunting lyrics, driving beat of the bass and drums, and the memories it evoked, it made me tingle and I was covered in goose bumps.

The music and lyrics seem to capture the feelings and mental images that I carry with me, to be and feel Australian.

Australian Parliament House - Canberra - eight years ago today (Sun 17 Mar 2002)
I guess that's all reasonably vague, but feelings for me are difficult to describe - much in the same way Dennis Denuto demonstrates so passionately, yet unconvincingly, in the classic Australian Movie The Castle:

It's the vibe of the thing, your Honour.

The vibe or the gist are terms I use a lot to cover for my inability to express my feelings or what I am thinking :-) Dennis is my hero. Here he is at his definitive best:

The Castle - in the Federal and High Courts (youtube)
Some random memories. The song goes back to 1982, which would have been my last year of full-time uni. I did see The Flowers (Iva Davies predecessor to Icehouse) at the University Union in the 2nd Term of 1980 and then a few weeks later back in Wagga Wagga for the University Holidays. Was excited to have some friends, from my school days in Wagga Wagga, to be the local supporting act. For some reason I asked Jenny whether we could have the song played at our Wedding Reception. She liked it and it was played during the night and as a filler as we said our farewells at the end of the evening. It was put on repeat as I we took a lot longer than we had planned.

Great Southern Land Lyrics

Standing at the limit of an endless ocean
Stranded like a runaway, lost at sea
City on a rainy day, down in the harbor
Watching as the gray clouds shadow the bay

Looking everywhere 'cause I had to find you
This is not the way that I remember it here
Anyone will tell you, it's a prisoner island
Hidden in the summer for a million years

Great southern land
Burned you black

So you look into the land and it will tell you a story
Story 'bout a journey ended long ago
If you listen to the motion of the wind in the mountains
Maybe you can hear them talking like I do
"They're gonna betray you, they're gonna forget you
Are you gonna let them take you over that way"

Great southern land, great southern land
You walk alone like a primitive man
And they make it work with sticks and bones
See their hungry eyes, it's a hungry home

I hear the sound of the stranger's voices
I see their hungry eyes, their hungry eyes
Great southern land, great southern land
They burned you black, black against the ground

Standing at the limit of an endless ocean
Stranded like a runaway, lost at sea
City on a rainy day, down in the harbor
Watching as the gray clouds shadow the bay

Looking everywhere 'cause I had to find you
This is not the way that I remember it here
Anyone will tell you, it's a prisoner island
Hidden in the summer for a million years

Great southern land, in the sleeping sun
You walk alone with the ghost of time
They then burned you black, black against the ground
And they make it work with rocks and sand

I hear the sound of the stranger's voices
I see their hungry eyes, their hungry eyes
Great southern land, great southern land
You walk alone, like a primitive man

You walk alone with the ghost of time
And they burned you black
Yeah, they burned you black
Great southern land
Great southern land
Great southern land
Great southern land

You might be able to guess why I picked this particular youtube clip of Great Southern Land. Two weeks to Nationals. Canberra here we come .. really looking forward to the racing with my team mates and catching up with all our friends from right across Australia.

Lake Burley Griffin Sunset - Black - Canberra (02 Aug 2002 *)

On Imagination - Trent Parke / The Black Rose (Mon 23 Mar 2015)

Imagination - Barcelona (Tue 06 Aug 2013)
Trent Parke (*) writes on Imagination (*):

Symbolically the Balck Rose represents death, or the overcoming of a long journey. It is the search for absolute perfection as the Black Rose does not truly exist. It is also referred to as Black Magic.

Imagination is the key to the whole Black Rose. It is the most important thing. Imagination is always so important to me. And Dreams allow you to get to those places you can't get to in your normal day to day working. They up open things up you could never possibly think of.

via TRENT PARKE: THE BLACK ROSE (*).

On Black and White - Daido Moriyama

Hazelhurst Passageway - Monochrome - Gymea (Sat 08 Dec 2012)
Daido Moriyama (*) on Black and White:

Monochrome has stronger elements of abstraction or symbolism.

There is perhaps an element of taking you to another place.

Thats just the way I respond to things.

Black and white has that physical effect on me.

On Colour, he explains:

Colour is something more vulgar because the colour is making the decisions, it feels vulgar, and that seems to me to be the difference.

via Is Colour Vulgar? (Wed 05 Dec 2012) (*).

Hazelhurst Passageway - Colour - Gymea (Sat 08 Dec 2012)
Not exactly sure what he means by vulgar, but I think the above photos might help understand what he is trying to say, particularly about Black and White / Monochrome. I think colour creates different relationships in the photos where it is used effectively.

Margaret - Exhibition Tour Guide - The Black Rose / Trent Parke (Mon 23Mar 2015

Margaret P - The Black Rose Exhibition Guide / Art Gallery of South Australia (Mon 23 Mar 2015)

James Brickwood on Portrait Photography:

I like to keep it quite close and intimate and I like to highlight the subject, that's why I have a clean background.

via Spectrum Now: photographer James Brickwood captures Ed Sheeran's softer side by Sophia Phan.

Margaret you are a champion: a fantastic tour - I loved your enthusiasm and I learnt so much more about Trent's work. Keep doing what you are doing. Thanks for allowing me to take these photos - I think your enthusiasm for what you do, shines through strongly in these photos. Again, with thanks for the Tour and Photos.

PS - What I took from Trent's Black Rose Exhibition: The Circle of Life: Conception, Birth, Living, Dying, Death and what follows - Fate and Destiny - Luck, Chance and Serendipity (my own Trent Parke Serendipity Story).

Lady in Red with Black Cat (3 and 4 of 4) - Bruno Dutot - Edgecliff (Fri 23 Mar 2012)

Lady in Red with Black Cat (3 of 4) - Bruno Dutot - Edgecliff (Fri 23 Mar 2012)
Lady in Red with Black Cat (4 of 4) - Detail - Bruno Dutot - Edgecliff (Fri 23 Mar 2012)
My Mother bought a copy of one of Bruno's Ladies that was painted on a long thin piece of box cardboard. It hangs in her living room. She has had it a long time and bought it from him at a Paddington Street Market.

I like the way the shadows works in these photos as well as the detail in the rather abstract photo of #4.

Pavement Stencil - Houston St / SoHo / New York (Thu 18 Aug 2011)

Pavement Stencil - Houston St / SoHo / New York (Thu 18 Aug 2011)
The decayed black bubble gum markings above his head (and elsewhere) become part of the black spray paint, while the cigarette butt makes us realise the photo is colour and not black and white (which we would otherwise think).

Lady in Red with Black Cat (1 and 2 of 4) - Bruno Dutot - Edgecliff (Fri 23 Mar 2012)

Lady in Red with Black Cat (1 of 4) - Bruno Dutot - Edgecliff (Fri 23 Mar 2012)
Lady in Red with Black Cat (2 of 4) - Bruno Dutot - Edgecliff (Fri 23 Mar 2012)
Had to go to Double Bay recently. Caught the train to Edgecliff and walked down to Double Bay. Took a detour on the way there and back to photograph this well known piece of Street Art by Bruno Duto. Got lucky with random pedestrians, one in a red blouse and the other in a blue shirt, both colours which fit nicely with the subject.

Wendy Matthews typifies much of what people think of this Sydney Landmark ..

"Every time I come to the city I drive past her, see if she's changed. Sometimes she'll have a cat or be standing in snow. Though you never see her face, she's come to symbolise Sydney for me."

The man in the blue shirt in the second photo stopped to talk to me after he realized what I was doing. He told me that me that he had lived in the area all his life and that as far as he can remember, Bruno Dutot, comes back on the 1st Jan each year to touch the piece up for another year.

More to come soon ..

Follow Your Own Path - David Brooks / NYT (Wed 27 Jun 2012)

"Black Abstraction" Abstraction - Georgia O'Keefe - The Met / New York (Mon 15 Aug 2012)
David Brooks makes some interesting observations (*) about growing up, locality and following your own path:

Don't try to be everyman. Don't pretend you're a member of every community you visit. Don't try to be citizens of some artificial globalized community. Go deeper into your own tradition. Call more upon the geography of your own past. Be distinct and credible. People will come.

On Black Abstraction (*) - I had known of Georgia O'Keefe through her relationship with Alfred_Stieglitz (*) (I have a book on his life, but can't remember it's title or where it is now). When I walked into the Gallery Hall with her paintings, I knew I would spend some time there. There were many colourful paintings of abstract views of flowers, desert scenes and buffalo skulls. Black Abstraction caught my gaze and I just stood in front of it and thought of many things. Maybe I thought the dark painting reflected how I felt after recent experiences.

Becoming a little abstract and self absorbed (as i do this time of the year). The path through the painting represented my journey since Jenny left us and I had become stuck (*) in this place (I had known this for some time). The little bright white dot gave me hope that there was something still inside me and all it would take was a small sign to get me on my way again. Funnily enough, it would come two days later on a Subway Train. It was such a tiny gesture (*) by a complete stranger.

Maybe the importance to me of such a tiny and simple gesture, indicated how low I had sunk in my journey in life without Jenny there beside me. I don't know really, like most things. Anyway I did like the painting and I am glad this post gave me the opportunity to put the photo here and to research it's background a little more.

To finish, I love this quote by Georgia O'Keefe on Abstraction:

Abstraction is often the most definite form for the intangible thing in myself that I can only clarify in paint.

Maybe I could say the same thing except apply it to photography, as my words seem totally inadequate to describe where I have been, what I have felt and where I think I am heading.

On Black and White Photography - Mike Johnston (Sun 14 Mar 2014)

Rainbows everywhere - Alexandria (Sat 29 Mr 2014)
Mike Johnston (*) writes Black and White (*) and Colour (*):

doesn't everyone take it for granted that black and white is far richer, more communicative, and more nuanced as a medium for expressive photography than color is?

via What a Great Comment! (*) by Mike Johnston (*).

I Gotta Feeling - The Black Eyed Peas - Venaccio remix (RPM 46 Track 2)

I Gotta Feeling - Black Eyed Peas - Venaccio remix (youtube)

A great Track 2 song to get ready for the Mountains in Track 3. Just a really nice beat to ride a bike.

RPM 46 (Quarter 1 / 2010)

01. Cosmic Girl – Jamiroquai
02. I Gotta Feeling – TransNoise
03. My Life Would Suck Without You (Bass Force Remix) – Kelly Clarkson
04. Home – Paul van Dyk feat. Johnny McDaid
05. The Pretender – InTheWind
06. Sincere For You feat. Kirsty Hawkshaw (Radio Mix) – Lange
07. Evacuate The Dancefloor (DJ KTW Remix) - Studio88
08. Don’t Know What To Do – Dane Rumble
09. No Air duet with Chris Brown – Jordin Sparks featuring Chris Brown

I Gotta Feeling - Black Eyed Peas - Venaccio remix

I gotta feeling that tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good, good night

A feeling that tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good, good night

A feeling, woohoo, that tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good, good night

A feeling, woohoo, that tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good, good night

Tonight's the night, let's live it up
I got my money, let's spend it up
Go out and smash it like oh my God
Jump off that sofa, let's get, get off

I know that we'll have a ball
If we get down and go out and just lose it all
I feel stressed out, I wanna let it go
Let's go way out spaced out and losing all control

Fill up my cup, mazel tov
Look at her dancing, just take it off
Let's paint the town, we'll shut it down
Let's burn the roof, and then we'll do it again

Let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it
And do it and do it, let's live it up
And do it and do it and do it, do it, do it
Let's do it, let's do it, let's do it

'Cause I gotta feeling, woohoo, that tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good, good night

A feeling, woohoo, that tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good, good night

Tonight's the night
(Hey!)
Let's live it up
(Let's live it up)
I got my money
(My pay)
Let's spend it up
(Let's spend it up)

Go out and smash it
(Smash it)
Like oh my God
(Like oh my God)
Jump off that sofa
(Come on!)
Let's get, get off

Fill up my cup
(Drink)
Mazel tov
(Le heim)
Look at her dancing
(Move it, move it)
Just take it off

Let's paint the town
(Paint the town)
We'll shut it down
(Let's shut it down)
Let's burn the roof
And then we'll do it again

Let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it
And do it and do it, let's live it up
And do it and do it and do it, do it, do it
Let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, do it, do it, do it

Here we come, here we go, we gotta rock
(Rock rock rock rock rock)
Easy come, easy go, now we on top
(Top top top top top)
Feel the shot, body rock, rock it, don't stop
(Stop stop stop stop stop)
Round and round, up and down, around the clock
(Rock rock rock rock rock)

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
(Do it!)
Friday, Saturday, Saturday to Sunday
(Do it!)
Get, get, get, get, get with us, you know what we say, say
Party every day, p-p-p-party every day

And I'm feelin', woohoo, that tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good, good night

I gotta feeling, woohoo, that tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good, good night
Woohoo

A Story About a Camera - 2015 Inspire Award Reflections (Fri 27 Aug 2015)

Memories of Jenny - The Time of Your Life (youtube)

This is my 2000th post here at eljeiffel.

I always try to write something for the Annual Presentation of the Inspire Award. Most times it is just for me, but sometimes I share it with a few people. So here it is, unedited from the time it was written on the evening of Fri 27 Aug 2015. I think it is a pretty good way to mark the milestone.

As many will know, I have another obsession in my life - Photography.

I started out buying a small digital camera for our Dec 2000 trip to the Cook Islands to visit Jenny and Jo's Meditation teacher, Barbara, who had moved there to help setup a refuge for women . We didn’t know a thing about paddling back then.

I had bought the camera hoping I would be able to capture our memories. It was a tiny digital camera by today’s standards, 1 Mega Pixel and it cost $1600 duty free and a 64 MB compact flash memory cost more than $300.

I did not flinch and I thought it was all worth it, as my credit card was swiped at Ted’s Camera Store the day before we flew out. 15 years later I can tell you here that it was one of the best things I ever did.

My motivation for the camera came from that fact that Jenny had 11 tumours in her lungs and I did not really know how long we would have together. In the end we had just over 9 years of married life. Given Jenny’s condition, a miracle really ..

We were married on 30th April of that Sydney Olympic year and we honeymooned on Lord Howe Island for 10 glorious days in May 2000. Jenny had a film camera and she took many photos.

On our return flight to Sydney, I remember a conversation we had at the Departure Terminal with an older couple from Whyalla who congratulated us on our marriage. We had briefly met them at dinner at one of the small restaurants on the Island.

They told us they had been married for many years and the trip to Lord Howe Island was a way of creating another experience in life and expanding their memories. Better than [running a busy business or] sitting at home and watching the Telly, they said.

This conversation and piece of simple worldly wisdom has stuck with me and I remind myself of it constantly. It was my main motivation to buy that small expensive digital camera for our December 2000 trip to the Cook Islands.

I took many photos that trip to Cook Islands, even of the Outrigger Canoes in the lagoon at Aitutaka, we had no idea what they were – who would guess our future.

Shortly after our return, Jenny and Jo found Dragon Boating. And over the ensuing years many experiences and memories were created, dutifully captured by our cameras.

I documented the many dragon boat campaigns here and abroad, and ensuing holidays that followed each event.

In the process of this documenting I came to realise the power of photography, not only its visual power, but its ability to record our experiences and remind us of things we have done and who we were. We were doing selfies before the term was even invented. We called them “Holdouts” and I think this might be the main cause of Jo’s shoulder injury.

In those last few weeks at St George Hospital in Jun 2009, I captured the last moments of our lives together. They are the best I ever made.

After Jenny’s passing, It took me a while to pick up a camera again. I had lost my purpose and will. I was hurting and numb all at once but paddled through for a year or two – it helped a lot to be busy and in the company of friends. New experiences were created and I even smiled [for] a little [while].

Lost in the enormity of what had happened so quickly, though it was not a surprise, I found my first moments of comfort and hope, when I decided to start looking at some of the photos from our lives together. It made me cry, but it also made me smile. I was so happy that I had this archive of bits and bytes to remind me of Jenny, Joanne, myself and who we were.

It was only after Jo told me to organise my photos and my Mum said I should start making photos again, that I started to move forward. I was completely broken but I took up their advice and kept myself busy again, organising and photographing again. I am still broken but I live with it better now, it is part of me and who I will always be, but I am happy, optimistic, naïve and creating more experiences.

So I guess what I am trying to say is that we have to go out there and make our memories through the experiences we create for ourselves. And this is what I love about PD’s, we are always out there doing something. This time last year we were in Bologna on our way to Ravena, this year we are heading to Hawaii in the next week and month, next year Adelaide and who knows where after that.

Finally, in our lives we have loss, grief and bereavement. It is a part of living. You make a choice when it knocks on your door. And we have chosen to live in the Afterglow of our loss of Jenny – to remember and honour and be guided and inspired. Accept it and live with it and make the most of it, even let it inspire and motivate you. And that is what Jo and I have done, I would like to think.

“Believe in Hope” as the graffiti’ed wall in Cleveland Street said for a few weeks in July 2015.

Believe in Hope - Cleveland Street / Chippendale (Wed 29 Jul 2015)

With this post it is time to let go of a lot things, including the photos of another time and life. I have shed my life here (and Facebook more recently) like a snake sheds it skin and there is nothing left but to start over again. Time to move on, but it is hard to let go .. but I will.

Trying to make a new start here (arotlt.com) with photos from this point onwards. There will be the occasional post at eljeiffel to mark the odd moment in our lives that are relevant, but for now thanks for coming along for the ride these last, almost, 7 years.

symbolically the black rose suggests death, or the completion of a long journey (Trent Parke’s moving Black Rose photo exhibition at Art Gallery of SA ) - Black Rose / Fitzroy Street / Newtown (Sun 29 Nov 2015)

29 - Black, Blue and Red - Mong Kok / Hong Kong (Mon 09 Jul 2012)

29 - Black, Blue and Red - Mong Kok / Hong Kong (Mon 09 Jul 2012)
The tiles and her shoes and bag were made for each other.

Truck - Black / Red / Yellow - Mong Kok / Hong Kong (Mon 09 Jul 2012)

Truck - Black / Red / Yellow - Mong Kok / Hong Kong (Mon 09 Jul 2012)
This was the recycling district. The was bits and pieces being brought in by trolleys, trucks and bikes.

Black - George Street / Sydney (Thu 21 Mar 2013)

Black - George Street / Sydney (Thu 21 Mar 2013)
All these are about light and colour. The Autumn light seems clearer and offers a bit more contrast. It is really noticeable now and I think the last few photos show it.

On Looking - Jennifer L. Roberts / RoughType (Sun 03 Nov 2013)

Yellow - Amsterdam (Tue 20 Aug 2013)Orange - Tokyo (Fri 21 Sep 2012) Green - Seoul (Tue 11 Sep 2012) Green - Lisbon (Wed 14 Aug 2013)Blue - Tokyo (Fri 21 Sep 2012)Blue / Black - Tokyo (Thu 20 Sep 2012) Water (3 of 3) - Nyhavn / Copenhagen (Thu 22 Aug 2013) Black - Sydney (Thu 24 Mar 2011)
Jennifer L. Roberts (*) writes On Patience (*):

just because you have looked at something doesn’t mean that you have seen it. Just because something is available instantly to vision (*) does not mean that it is available instantly to consciousness. Or, in slightly more general terms: access is not synonymous with learning. What turns access into learning is time and strategic patience (*).

via A lesson in strategic patience (*) by Nicholas Carr' (*).

The Met - Black - New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)

The Met - Black - New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)

Black Eyes - Casp / Barcelona (Mon 05 Aug 2013)

Black Eyes - Casp / Barcelona (Mon 05 Aug 2013)
A little bit similar to this (*).

Black Sofa / Red Wall - ICU Waiting Area / St George Private Hospital (Thu 30 Jun 2011)

Black Sofa / Red Wall - ICU Waiting Area / St George Private Hospital (Thu 30 Jun 2011)

My Mirrors are Black by CabGodot (11 Dec 2010)

My Mirrors are Black by CabGodot (11 Dec 2010)

Loch Etive Black (Water) - Connel Bridge / Connel / Scotland (Sun 04 Sep 2005)

Loch Etive Black (Water) - Connel Bridge / Connel / Scotland (Sun 04 Sep 2005)