Tuesday (Texting not driving)

Text # 1
"Scarey surf by myself yesterday at W Head. Tiny wave on The Point"

Text # 2
"A good question. I don't think you would like the answer"

Text # 3
"Accident on O St gridlock. We are stuck near R. Start walking. We have not moved for 10 minutes"

Text # 4
"Gave K the mat. She says thanks and chucks ya a couple of shuckers!"

Monochrome Monday Monarch

Mono MOnday

Mono Monday x Kurungabaa

I wasn't going to try and land any words on this page today but while waiting for the coffee thing to percolate on the stove at dawn today I found these evocative words sent from Rebecca Olive of Kurungabaa following my Arc Poetry post last week and thought that I should share them. BIG thanks Rebecca,

'Lines of flight'

Despite our feelings,
and our needs,
The way of things
never really flow
in one direction.

They arc
north and south,
bending and curving in on themselves.

(In)consistent,
twisting,
bent,
warped,
clean,
curved,
divine.

Time and light
have
smooth curves
and
clean lines of flight.

We mould these
curves and lines
into our lives:
aesthetic
moving.
They hold us still and shift us
through the world,
earthly and oceanic.

The way of things

never really flow 

in one direction.

by Rebecca Olive Winter 2011

Guitar Amp and Vintage

It's back to brighten the dark nights and short days of winter - the 2011 Guitar Amp and Vintage Show See guitar stuff, hear guitar stuff, buy guitar stuff. Reignite your passion with the pentatonic scale or just buy some bargain strings to replace those 12 rusty disgustings on your little sister's hand me down steel string.

For the fret fanatics, there will be plenty of workshops and live performances including the legend  Tim Gaze whose guitar magic with band Taman Shud on the Morning of the Earth soundtrack still inspires. Stick it to the global financial circus and keep the economy going by buying a hand made instrument of sonic delight from one of Brinetopia's local luthiers.

Twin x Machina

Attend or else Winston will summon the pigeons!

How cold is it? And not even winter yet. Reminds me of Jefferson Airplane.

"The summer had inhaled and held its breath too long

The winter looked the same, as if it never had gone

And through an open window where no curtain hung

I saw you, I saw you, comin' back to me

One begins to read between the pages of a look

The shape of sleepy music, and suddenly you're hooked

Through the rain upon the trees, that kisses on the run

I saw you, I saw you, comin' back to me"

from Comin' Back To Me by Jefferson Airplane

One for the shelves - Prof Anne Marsh looks at Oz Photography.

Time Fades Away

Old Mate

I have never lived in Noosa for more than three weeks but I've gazed at it's beaches and bays probably a couple of thousand times since first camping there in 1970. The place is like an old mate who's known me since I was a kid and has been there through many of my adventures. It's seen my transition from single fins to twin fins to thrusters; from fins that were glassed to fins that were removable; from snapped rubbery looking leg ropes to polyurethane ding savers. My old mate has seen me log slide on small days I wouldn't have touched in my youth.

Film cameras. Digital cameras. Super 8, video, HDV. Homemade underwater housings and "real" pro ones too. Learning to handle a sailing boat on my own in the river.

Sitting out the back at Tea Tree or Granite, I look around and it seems to be much the same as I always remember - no houses or skyscrapers, just a vista of bush and sand hills and sky.

And even if the surf is tiny or flat and empty or bigger and mega-crowded, it's always nice to reconnect with old mates, like Noosa.

Calling it

This is the type of surf we usually get in summer when we get crazy rain and overcast days. But some are calling it the flattest they have ever seen it.
Always good for shooting monochrome.

Snap, Crackle and Bop

Reaquainting myself with the tune "Beasley Street" - spoken word angst of hip post-punk poet John Cooper-Clark, who I shot on film with a lens I should have kept. There are more images somewhere in the Brinecave. His Mancurian eloquence captured the social disintegration of the British north during the Thatcher era in. (Think early Joy Division, or even Pink Floyd Animals)

Eyes dead as viscous fish

Look around for laughs

If I could have just one wish

I would be a photograph

on a permanent Monday morning

Get lost or fall asleep

When the yellow cats are yawning

Around the back of Beasley Street "

from the album Snap, Crackle and Bop 1980

The song is the antithesis of the sunny joy of rolling around the brine on a board in the sun, but an occasional listen reminds me just how good life is in Brinetopia. Today's shout out goes to all those dedicated volunteers doing their bit for their sick, thirsty, hungry and socially marginalised brothers and sisters. A couple of groups spring to mind:

Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, WaterAid. I love my whales and dolphins, but I love my fellow humans more.

Road Rage

A crowd of fellow wage slaves and I were crossing a busy inner city intersection last night after a long day working for The Man when some demented demon came crashing through the throng parting it like Moses and the fleeing Israelites. For a moment, I didn't know whether to jump left, right, go forward or back and ended up blocking his way. So he and his fancy black car came to a stop and proceeded to hurl abuse at me using language unfit for a blog such as this. Luckily I kept walking - maybe he was a hitman running late for an assignment. So today's entry is dedicated to impatient drivers around the world.

Tip One     Manage your time - you won't have to speed.
Tip Two    The red light means you have to stop.
Tip Three   The green walking man light means pedestrians will be crossing the road.

Follow the tips and calm commuting will prevail in the Festive Season

Bleak vs Colour

Summer = Bleak. No, it should equal colour, but a monster monsoon bleak out has descended on Brinetopia, bringing all day and all night cloud and rain and squally surf chop. But we have ways of bringing back colour to our grey universe - Round One goes to Colour.

No Cars on Grass

The sign on the tree at the now defunct Noosa Camping Grounds was a tad ambitious.

Deus x boogie

Bike above from a Deus tee.

I have been enjoying the Kiwi surf magazine called SLIDE lately. It seems to have images and stories about places I haven't seen a thousand times already. A recent issue had an article on a motorbike company - in a surf mag? Well, why not, I say. The crew from Deus ex Machina make beautiful machines and they surf. Their design aesthetic links with legendary surfwear larrikins Mambo, which was started by one of the Deus crew. So here's my tribute to motorbikes, the Oz bush, heat and waves. And film. Peddle to the metal!

Granite Bay shrubbery meets Noosa Woods campground in a1936 camera.

Clap Your Hands

Everybody who is glad it's Friday, put your hands up in the air.

Rolleicord x Velvia x PShop

Post Modern interpretation:
Big Wednesday via a 1936 German camera, Japanese slide film, Australian E6 processing, a scanner in a shop, Photoshop in an American computer on a recycled wooden table in a kitchen with a modem connected to wires that go outside and across the universe.

Analogue Interpretation:
Weird lookin waves at The Pot.
Autumn 2001