Saturday, 76/366
Stop Driving, such a West End thing. In my case though it is Stop 366.
This photo marks the end of my attempt at 366 in 2008. I was going to try to hold at out to 100/366 but I am throwing my lens cap into the ring now.
I have taken some photos I would never have taken before in the last 76 days, photos that I like but I have also taken photos which I don’t really like and were only taken because I needed a photo for the day.
The last couple of weeks it has seemed that taking a photo for the day has been the only thing on my mind. What will I take for the photo for today etc etc. I have better, more productive things to do with my time than sit there thinking, what in my room have I not taken a photo of.
And perhaps I might even shock horror post here more as I won’t be spending time, thinking what oh what can I take a photo of today.
I was walking home from the bus stop today for the first time in weeks (I have been getting picked up since I did my ankle), as I was walking past one house I looked up over the tiled roof to the blue sky and though to myself it really is a prefect day. I am walking home from the bus stop, the cake box under my arm is empty, my hair is down, I walked out of work at 4pm and my desk was clear, the sky is blue after it was washed this morning and the temperature is just right. Oh and I was also listening/singing along to This Year. That last bit might have had a slightly bigger impact on me realising that today is a perfect day than say the empty cake box.
It also wasn’t just any This Year that I was listening to either it was from the show at Bottom of the Hill in San Fran last week. One thing I have noticed from listening to the recent shows on archive.org and reading blog reviews is that the shows are becoming more and more a big singalong. Am I complaining? No. Incidentally the Mountain Goats are one of two artists who I have never felt uncomfortable singing along to at gigs, the other is Peter Combe, he is/was a children’s artist, that is expected. A ‘Goats show is really just one big family reunion or perhaps it is the growth of a cult, we all look at this man on stage (JD) and his disciples and we say those words along with them. Saying those words from the bottom of our heart. Where it is ok to say those words, not those gigs where people around you look at you and start “bumping” into you if you start singing along at any level above a whisper. Saying those words like they are going to deliver you from salvation. mmmm perhaps I should just put The Mountain Goats in the religion box on facebook.
Which leads me to the The ‘Goats and their upcoming tour. In just about a month exactly I am going to flex off early from work on Friday and fly down to Newcastle see them play and then go to Sydney for the Saturday night show before coming back to Brisbane on Sunday, catching their Tuesday show at the Zoo before going up to the Sunny Coast on Thursday for the last show. Crazy perhaps but as Mum tells me I am footloose, fancy free and working the 8-4. I haven’t bought my plane tickets or show tickets yet but I will be doing that in the next few days.
This is a photo I took on the way home today. A little lost shoe.
Monday.
I set my alarm for 6:15 this morning. When it went off I was in the middle of a dream. I turned my alarm off and dozed back to sleep in an attempt to finish my dream. I didn’t finish my dream. Mum woke me up at 6:30. Really wish I had finished my dream.
Bus. Work. Bus. Dinner. Iron
Tuesday.
I set my alarm for 6:00. When it went off the first thing I thought as I reached for my phone to turn off the alarm was my name is Helen Palsson. Still thinking about that one.
Wednesday
I set my alarm for 6:00. When it went off my first thought was I wonder how the casserole I had in the oven went over night.
Bus. Work. Bus. Dinner. Laundry.
The Breeders new album, Mountain Battles leaked (how many albums these days don’t leak? I am not instantly in love with it. Which surprises me. I was meant to love it from the very first note I heard. This is The Breeders in terms of shaping musical tastes, they were the first “modern/current” band that I fell in love with. I am going to listen to it for the next couple of days and see how it grows on me. I am on the second run through now and bits are starting to grow on me but it is very much not how I thought it would be.
Yesterday the Cathedral across the street from where I work stepped one step closer to completion with the spires lifted into place. Each spire weighs a whopping 9 tonne and they were lifted into place by a 350 tonne crane on the back of a truck.
I had read in Friday’s paper that the spires were going up on Saturday but there was no mention of the time. When I woke up I rang the paper, the radio station, the tv station and the cathedral and I couldn’t get any answers either due to the phone not been answered or people not knowing. I then rang work and was told that one spire was up already. I packed a camera bag, jumped in the car and rushed into work. When I got to my level at work, I saw that they were still working on the first spire and there was a sizeable crowd in the square below. I figured that I would wait in the air-con, doing some loose ends at work till there was some movement on the ground with the second spire. When I saw things moving into place for the second spire, I raced to the elevator and willed it to descend faster. Oh it was a sight to see. The spires are almost as tall as the building itself. There were lots and lots of cameras and video cameras of all shapes and sizes. From Kodak disposables to a Leica to compact digitals and DSLRs, everyone wanted a photo.
If you mouse over the photos, you should get the titles, otherwise you can click through as always to the larger photo.
Then it was over, I went back up stairs (well up elevator) to say bye to the people at work, who were still shaking their head at how I found the event exciting, then it was back to the car and home again.
Yet another post condensing most of a weeks activity into one blog post. I am so behind. I have dreams of posting a blog sooner after an event but I just get sidetracked. I have a whole week where I actually did things to blog about/process photos. Sunday I was at two concerts, Tuesday I baked, Wednesday Andrea and I went to the movies, Thursday I went to photograph Clap Your Hands Say Yeah at the Zoo, Friday I went out to dinner with Andrea and some of her friends, this morning I went into the city to watch the spires lifted into place at St John’s Cathedral. This arvo I went to the movies. Quite a week and now I am busy catching up.
I probably should start off with Sunday.
I had one goal for the arvo and that was to see Yeo and The Fresh Goods at Rics and that I did. Right next door at Kaliber, Nightillion were doing there Sunday afternoon sessions/jam thing. Fusing all sorts of musical goodness together, it was nice. Meanwhile at Rics, Mr Laneous (pron. similar to miscellaneous) were taking care of getting the arvo started. A wander round The Valley and then it was time for Yeo and Co to fill the stage at Rics and play to a bar full of Shiny Happy People. I was fancy free and relatively footloose or really it was a Sunday where we weren’t’ going to The Farm as Mum had taken Grandad road tripping and left us all at home. It is a catch 22 of sorts. I would love to go more of the Sunday arvo session at Rics/Powerhouse/etc but Sunday arvos/night is the time we spend with Grandad and I am smart enough to know that those days are a whole lot more numbered than Sunday arvo sessions at Rics. It was so great to see Yeo play live. Tom and Tiana were outside and asked me what sort of music Yeo plays, I described as sort of electro reggae, I much prefer the three myspace genres; French pop / Punk / Reggae. Much better.
Yeo, (click image for the gig gallery).
Random Valley Shot. 56/366
Sunday evening it was the Creative Vibes shindig at The Troubie, not much of a turnout but it was still good, the couches were “pulled” from the walls and arranged in a few more social friendly rows near the stage, made it feel even more like a lounge room than it normally does. The bill for the night was Tess Henderson (what a voice), Tom Woodward (see x previous posts on Tom) and Justin Grounds (technically interesting but I was too tired to appreciate it). The light seemed to be at half strength to what it normally is at the Troubie which was a bit bleh for me.
Tess’s piano player, (click image for the gig gallery).
Random Desk Shot.
Monday. 57/366.
Yep Christmas Cards are still up, it is only February (when this photo was taken) after all.
Tuesday. 58/366.
I was really tempted not to take a photo on Tuesday, was just so tempted to chucking this whole project in but I took a photo of my saeng cover, I love those flowers dearly. Yay for Ikea.
Wednesday night. 59/366.
Andrea and I went for fish (Barramundi-Andrea, Calamari-Me) and chips and a movie at Portside (Hamilton). We had 1hr 45mins between when the fish and chip shop closed and when our movie started. Granted we probably didn’t leave the fish and chip shop till a good 25mins after it closed, it meant we had quite a bit of time to laze around by the river talking, laughing, chatting and playing. The movie we went to see was Charlie Wilson’s War, which was not as funny as I thought it would be.
Thursday night I went to photograph Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Manchester Orchestra at the Zoo. I met Alain Bouvier, that was a laugh. I started talking to one of the other photographers, he said he was French etc etc, I asked if he knew Ange Takats, he said of course and we laughed, we knew of each other through Ange, that was a laugh. Music wise I preferred Manchester Orchestra over CYHSY, I left shortly after our three songs were up for CYHSY. I think that explains it.
Manchester Orchestra, (click image for the gig gallery).
Drinking Receptacles. 60/366
Friday was a hell of a day at work, just never seemed like I was going to get my work done. I got it all done though.
Friday night I went out to dinner at Sitar with Andrea and some of her high school friends who I had met round her parties before.
80% of us had the deluxe banquet. I was glad I wore a dress as I wasn’t unbuckling a top button like the others. Oh it was good, of the four curries we picked, the only one which we all disliked was the Bengal Prawn Masala most likely because the prawns were like rubber. The Lamb Korma was oh my and don’t get me started on the Peshwari Naan. I could eat that for breakfast, lunch and tea for the rest of my life.
That brings us to today, Saturday which will very much be another blog post as that has photos, photos, photos of the spires going on St John’s.
Yesterday, I went to Campos and didn’t get a coffee. I got a iced chocolate instead. It was a spur of the moment trip. One girl, five guys (they all had coffee). Where are all the girls with cameras?
I went to Rics, for a Sunday arvo session. It was quite comfortably filled, and every single person had this smile on their face.
I sat round the dimly lit Troubie whilst it was bright sunshine outside. That was weird. Waiting for people to turn up.
I watched a group of people turn the Troubie into a lounge room and listened to a few songs.
I shook my head at boy who has hair like an Icelandic sheep and smirked with a girl who I should always be sitting down when talking to.
Today though.
I set the alarm for an extra 15 minutes.
My lunch was two matching containers of tupperware, one with a chopped up mango (honey gold thank you) and the other with grapes (green please).
I am reading Kabul in Winter. Which must be the fifth, I think, book on Afghanistan post 2001 that I have read in the past few weeks. It is really good to see how a lot of the main people and history are written in the different books.
I have numerous photos that I could illustrate this post with but strangely I have no desire to put photos with these words.
I watched the last episode of Alias season 1. I had forgotten there were only five seasons, I kept on thinking there were seven and I had the timeline stretched out a lot longer in my mind.
I just found out that one of the girls from high school who I have probably kept the most contact with works in a building across the street from where I work. We catch the bus from the same stop each afternoon. weird.
I haven’t taken my photo for today yet.
Tomorrow.
I have a bunch of kids enlisting. That means I get to wrap med docs in brown paper (it was that, not the view that cinched me taking the job). Every week or so it is like Christmas. Wrapping all those “presents”.
I will make biscuits when I get home.
I will wake up at 6am and get out of bed at 6:03am.
I will watch an hour of something trashy on TV and shake my head the entire time at myself for watching it.
I well who knows what else I will do because tomorrow is tomorrow.
