It's been a while ...

... so long in fact, that I thought the LJ blog was the current one? Oopsie.

Anyways, another thing written that I don't want to lose, so I have to post it here. I suppose after writing I now have a sense of what I wanted to say ... something mixed up between having wanted to be a music journalist, but now realising it's not as special, privileged or creative as actually being a musician, and the beauty and badness inherent in that statement. Especially seeing as I want to write about art now, but I'll be up against exactly the same argument. Perhaps being a curator is the ultimate step between the two? Who knows...

Brighton Concorde 2 review in The Independent

As much as I love Simon Price - he's never swayed from his constant desire to bring exciting new "pop" movements to the masses - I really do feel that he is the one missing out when reading his critique of The Horrors' Brighton show. More to say shortly, but here's the article ...

The Independent

OK, here goes ...

I too love a band that have a sense of style as well as musicality. Even more so, I love individuals that have an ethos or manifesto of types to sum up their passions and desires. But most of all, I love it when people evolve and transcend all these things to become something more organic and "real"; a truer depiction of a whole. Such things take time though, and when an artist adapts and incorporates their varied experiences and influences as collected over the course of touring, promotion or everyday life, their art will invariably change.

I think it's probably easier for a journalist, for Price, to assume that he is staying true to his manifesto and beliefs, yet all the while denying artists are staying true to theirs. After all, his "look" hasn't changed in all the years he's been writing, as far as I know? Price's work will always be the same though; his writing can be affecting, but it will never transcend being a bunch of words that serve perhaps only to inspire someone to pick up an old record, read a great novel or check out an incredible director. His words are important, don't get me wrong, they're just not as important as the art he is critiquing. His perceptions are incisive, but probably not life-changing. Not that Price has ever claimed they should be, just that in critiquing something that can change lives, by writing about art, his words assume a powerful position, which can sometimes be misconstrued as more-than-just opinion.

But then, I suppose all I'm saying is that I disagree with Price's opinion, really? I think the fact that The Horrors have evolved - and from what they've publicly said, it's been a very natural evolution for them - is a great thing for music and those who believe in the power of music to inspire and touch and affect people's lives. And that their visual transformation is a natural part of that progression, and not a loss at all. That their performance has changed, it apparently (for I haven't seen the band play live at any point of their career thus far) has no less impact upon the people witnessing the spectacle than before. Yes, it's different, and the affect may have moved more from the visual to the sonic, but isn't that the point of music, to inspire and affect more so aurally than visually?

Just my two bobs worth, however, and welcome all such comment ...

I'm able to write again!

I just said to a friend on the phone how nice it was to finally have the brain space to be able to write again, after the past seemingly endless yet probably only six weeks of chaos and craziness. Yesterday I feel I finally had the freedom and clarity of thought that allows me to actually properly think and comprehend without that nervous twitching that has been all-pervasive recently. I feel somewhat calm and at peace with my mind. It's a very nice feeling. I know I still have a bucketful of things to do, one which shan't be mentioned but is very much likely to affect "the 2008 plan" quite adversely. Hopefully I will get around to it later on tonight.

In the meantime, I've found three articles I wanted to blog on, but I just remembered another thing I've been pondering today so I will address that first ...

I realised that I cooked for FUN for the first time in months! I had my first creative cooking thought yesterday whilst in IGA - Scotch baps, anyone fancy a fried egg and tatty scone roll? - and today I acted on it; yet berry & choc-chip muffins were the result. And bloody nice they are too. These people who don't like berries because they are too tart are just plain stupid if you ask me.

Leading on from the food thing, I experienced an interesting thought process today when Mum told me about the cuttlefish she saw in the pool this afternoon. I'm sure it was a cuttlefish that Stephen and I were communicating with at some aquarium we went to in 2003, I think it was Singapore, but could very well have been Melbourne or Sydney or even Perth perhaps? I now recall how incredibly intelligent this creature was, waving back at us and swimming up and down in its tank. If cuttlefish aren't terribly different to squid, which I don't think they are, then how can I truly accept eating squid? And I already know how intelligent octupi are, yet the fact that they scare me to buggery is enough for me to consider eating them. Don't know if I could truly bring myself to kill one though. Removing it from the water is easy, but giving it a good bash is probably that step too far.

If you're having trouble following this train of thought, my semi-vegetarianism/vegaquarianism/pescaterianism stems from the motto that "I wouldn't eat anything I'm not prepared to kill". So, all animals and birds are off-menu, yet many sea creatures - fish, crabs, prawns, squid, shark etc. - are all allowable as they either "don't have brains" (an old quote from a probably-not-anymore friend who was justifying his cooking fish whilst he claimed vegetarianism) or I would quite happily remove them from their habitat, which in effect kills them, in order to consume them. Silly I suppose, but it has sustained me being both semi-vegetarian and (mostly) healthy for the last eight-and-a-half years (exactly, today!), so I've been sticking with it. Except I've now had four encounters that have started me thinking otherwise, that cutting out the aqua-life might be necessary too? The cuttlefish story from before is the third. Last week there was lamb (I just wrote meat but even that looks disgusting, such is my persuasion at present) defrosting on the side all bloody and revolting, made my stomach turn. Then I was having a conversation with Dad last night about fishing - which despite saying I would be happy to do, I have not done since I became this vegaquarian hybrid thingo - and I accepted I would have a lot of problems with bashing the fish in order to kill it after I'd reeled it in. Then we have the cuttlefish and as I went into the kitchen just before there was red meat being cut up to be stuffed inside pasties. Again, it turned my stomach. I'm not sure how to progress on this one, like I said to Mum, it seems that there's something encouraging me to step further away from consuming animal products. So, I have just decided to say no to shark and squid for now. Crusteaceans and fish are still fair game, not sure where that places an eel? Surely that's got to be more fish than anything else? Not that I eat eel anyway, but Dan's recommendation the other week made me curious. I wonder how long it will take for this position to be revised again? Probably not another 8+ years, I'm sure. I always thought I'd never make the move towards veganism, I'm sure I will never end up vegan, but I can certainly imagine being a proper practising vegetarian and mostly eschewing dairy & eggs too. One day. Maybe that's all part of the philosophical pursuit, as Plato termed it?

Flip, you'd think I hadn't written for months! Funny that ... Quickly on to those articles as Cynthia has arrived and I must surely become sociable.

Firstly, IMF finally knocks on Uncle Sam's door

Actually, I'm not going to get a chance to expand on these now, will have to do so later instead ...

Dearest Geraldine

I am in a night of hell in Brisbane - Cutters afterparty gone wrong, so many bogans! - and we have to do it all over again tomorrow night in Sydney... That'll be better though, I hope. Gah.

I didn't see Ben in the end, I was all waiting for his call and he never turned up at the party. Turns out a good friend of his' brother died suddenly that night and he was caught up in that. So I was all waiting for my date to turn up, dancing with my friends and just chatting to people I knew. It was fun, I was super tired - had caught the red eye over that AM - but I ended up talking to this boy for a long time who I kinda know. He's - surprise surprise - in a band and I've always thought he was gorgeous, but he was taken. Except he's not anymore, so I did the last thing I expected to do that night and ended up going back to his, where he couldn't have been sweeter or more lovely. So I fall for him - of course - and then when I try and make arrangements to see him later in the week, he's all busy. And I come back to Perth all sad cos I thought he was lovely and I decide I'm going back to Melb for another week during my holidays. So, I email to tell him that, and 48hours later still nothing :( It was a nice confidence boost, but I would never have gone back to his - usually - if I thought it was just a one night thing. Sorry to dump all that on you! I was too busy to call Ben again, I probably was quite silly in not messaging him to say goodbye. I owe him an email I suppose.

I've decided that I really have to try and move back to Melb at the end of this semester. I can't ever have the type of life I want in Perth, I don't know enough people to go out with, everyone is taken. I was out in Melbourne for three hours and I'd talked to a bunch of handsome single guys. So miserable!

Right, I gotta go make sure that Dan + Ben are actually DJing still and not off chasing girlies. Single boys, who'd look after 'em!

Miss you, have a fabulous rest of your trip and I look forward to seeing you when we're both "home" in Perth.