Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Christmas Bike
This lovely bike from Tokyo Bikes is the new addition to the family in 2011. Their website states,"more about slow, than fast, Tokyo Bike believes that speed is not always the aim, destination is only part of the story, and losing yourself in a city’s small back lanes and expansive parks and gardens, is one way of switching off and escaping it all..." Hurrah!
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Love is...
"Love is not merely a warmth to bask in, like the boatloads of honeymooners who basked on the warmth of coral beach, but a grave, fierce yearning and reaching out for paradise itself, a losing and finding of the self in the paradise of another."
- Frederich Buechner
- Frederich Buechner
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Frederich Buechner Drops a 85 minute Truth Bomb
"I want to be a leader. I want to do my bit, you know. I want to do my bit to change the world, in whatever small way that I can."
These words, offered rather nonchalantly to me over a beer and some pork dumplings in a small restaurant in Kings Cross, have remained with me since they were first spoken to me, now over a month ago. In the quiet moments of my day, when all the noise stops briefly, they come back to me. Or perhaps they have always been there and I just choose to listen.
"I want to change the world" is a phrase that people throw around regularly. It's a simple edict. I suspect it is often dismissed as being meaningless for that very reason. However, it is the "in whatever way that I can" in the words that were spoken to me that continues to haunts me. I can't shake them for their simplicity, because as simple as they are, I can't deny that they are entirely attainable. I can't dismiss them for the niggling questions they raise in me. Am I doing what I can? Am I even a leader? And if not, why not? What have I become? What can I do to change the world? What if we all were to wake with this one simple mandate? And what if we were to hold ourselves vigilantly to it?
I have been listening to the 1981 lectures of Frederich Buechner. I have blogged about them previously. In these lectures, Buechner comes across as a writer/theologian at the height of his powers, effortlessly constructing and deconstructing life's deepest and trickiest questions over three 85 minutes lectures. I truly believe that if these lectures were in another art-form, a painting, a book or a song, we'd be holding them up as classics. The quote at the end of this is just a snippet from the 2nd 85 minute truth bomb that Buechner drops, a lecture so perfectly and consistently woven with wisdom that I can only listen to it in small morcels, for listening to the lecture in full, the undiluted power of Buechner's words become almost too much to bear. Like a man staring into the sun, I have to look away, or be blinded by the dazzling light.
One of Buechner's talents is his ability to speak, as Rilke says, in questions that become answers rather than the other way around. So often today, in so many aspects of our lives, we are given boiled-down-easy-to-use answers to our problems. "The ten things that make us tick", "The 5 keys to financial success", "50 ways to know if your boyfriend is cheating" - each give the impression that there are a finite amount of ways to succeed, to be happy, to know yourself and that beyond these finite ways there is no use searching further. Slogans like "Stopping the boats" are held up to us as the very essence of Australian immigration policy. Stopping them is good. Not stopping them is bad. No other option is available to us, not even an "all of the above". And while such messages are easy to consume, not to mention politically expedient, they fail to acknowledge the full gambit of interlocking issues that affect, determine, manipulate, or cause the nature of immigration in Australia.
Buechner's beauty lies in his complete and fearless recognition (and celebration!) of the uncertain, the unknown, the uncontrollable, the unexplainable - the mystery of life. For Buechner, it is this very mystery that makes life beautiful. In accepting the existence of mystery, Buechner accepts much more: ie. that there are many possible explanations for its existence; that it is very probably that none of the explanations explain the mystery entirely; and that there is room for this unknown, for the inexplicable, in our lives - we need not have all the answers.
I can't help but want to send the lecture to you all, but instead I must be content with another small snippet. Below, Buechner boils down the idea of faith and the idea that once we have found what we think we have been looking for, we find ourselves with a niggling inner yearning for more.
"One way or another the journey of time starts for us all... what it is primarily is a journey of search. Each must say of himself what he searches for, and there will be as many answers as there are searchers. We search for a self to be, I think. We search for other selves to love. We search for work to do. And since even when to one degree or another we find all those things, we find also that there is something crucial missing which we have not found and we search for that too, even though we don't know it's name, or where it is to be found, or even if it is to be found at all."
These words, offered rather nonchalantly to me over a beer and some pork dumplings in a small restaurant in Kings Cross, have remained with me since they were first spoken to me, now over a month ago. In the quiet moments of my day, when all the noise stops briefly, they come back to me. Or perhaps they have always been there and I just choose to listen.
"I want to change the world" is a phrase that people throw around regularly. It's a simple edict. I suspect it is often dismissed as being meaningless for that very reason. However, it is the "in whatever way that I can" in the words that were spoken to me that continues to haunts me. I can't shake them for their simplicity, because as simple as they are, I can't deny that they are entirely attainable. I can't dismiss them for the niggling questions they raise in me. Am I doing what I can? Am I even a leader? And if not, why not? What have I become? What can I do to change the world? What if we all were to wake with this one simple mandate? And what if we were to hold ourselves vigilantly to it?
I have been listening to the 1981 lectures of Frederich Buechner. I have blogged about them previously. In these lectures, Buechner comes across as a writer/theologian at the height of his powers, effortlessly constructing and deconstructing life's deepest and trickiest questions over three 85 minutes lectures. I truly believe that if these lectures were in another art-form, a painting, a book or a song, we'd be holding them up as classics. The quote at the end of this is just a snippet from the 2nd 85 minute truth bomb that Buechner drops, a lecture so perfectly and consistently woven with wisdom that I can only listen to it in small morcels, for listening to the lecture in full, the undiluted power of Buechner's words become almost too much to bear. Like a man staring into the sun, I have to look away, or be blinded by the dazzling light.
One of Buechner's talents is his ability to speak, as Rilke says, in questions that become answers rather than the other way around. So often today, in so many aspects of our lives, we are given boiled-down-easy-to-use answers to our problems. "The ten things that make us tick", "The 5 keys to financial success", "50 ways to know if your boyfriend is cheating" - each give the impression that there are a finite amount of ways to succeed, to be happy, to know yourself and that beyond these finite ways there is no use searching further. Slogans like "Stopping the boats" are held up to us as the very essence of Australian immigration policy. Stopping them is good. Not stopping them is bad. No other option is available to us, not even an "all of the above". And while such messages are easy to consume, not to mention politically expedient, they fail to acknowledge the full gambit of interlocking issues that affect, determine, manipulate, or cause the nature of immigration in Australia.
Buechner's beauty lies in his complete and fearless recognition (and celebration!) of the uncertain, the unknown, the uncontrollable, the unexplainable - the mystery of life. For Buechner, it is this very mystery that makes life beautiful. In accepting the existence of mystery, Buechner accepts much more: ie. that there are many possible explanations for its existence; that it is very probably that none of the explanations explain the mystery entirely; and that there is room for this unknown, for the inexplicable, in our lives - we need not have all the answers.
I can't help but want to send the lecture to you all, but instead I must be content with another small snippet. Below, Buechner boils down the idea of faith and the idea that once we have found what we think we have been looking for, we find ourselves with a niggling inner yearning for more.
"One way or another the journey of time starts for us all... what it is primarily is a journey of search. Each must say of himself what he searches for, and there will be as many answers as there are searchers. We search for a self to be, I think. We search for other selves to love. We search for work to do. And since even when to one degree or another we find all those things, we find also that there is something crucial missing which we have not found and we search for that too, even though we don't know it's name, or where it is to be found, or even if it is to be found at all."
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
A Yongman BBQ
Tess and I went down to Canberra this weekend to visit the Canberra crew. Andrew and Clare are off to Malaysia for three years with the foreign service and they were hosting a farewell BBQ. Andrew's culinary talents were once again on show - a giant paella and sweet pork ribs - both of which were delicious and not your typical aussie BBQ fare. As the afternoon sun sank lower in the sky, the day drifted into a session of backyard cricket, followed by another couple of hours of lawn bowls. Thanks Canberra.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
This one's for Darren Cormack
As perhaps the only person in the world who regularly checks this blog, this post is specifically for Darren. I know you hate the fact that this blog has become about songs I like rather than about observations on life... so consider this the last music-related post. I promise that as of today I'll get back to more general commenting, life updating and photo blogging.
But first, one more song from the most underrated band in the world. Kashmir.... I love you.
And to you, the Biggest Fella, keep up the good work.
But first, one more song from the most underrated band in the world. Kashmir.... I love you.
And to you, the Biggest Fella, keep up the good work.
Monday, November 15, 2010
The National write music in time with world population growth
Sometimes, some things are so coincidental that you can't help but think they were meticulously planned.
Well, I want you to do something for me.
Have a listen to the piano part in the below song by American band, The National. Now click on the following link for the World Population clock and listen to the song again. Is the repetitive piano part not exactly in time with the current rate of world population growth?!
Perhaps it's coincidence. Or perhaps it's incredibly apt for a song that contains the lyric, "We're half awake in a fake empire". Who knows the exact extent of The National's genius.
Now. Back to work.
Well, I want you to do something for me.
Have a listen to the piano part in the below song by American band, The National. Now click on the following link for the World Population clock and listen to the song again. Is the repetitive piano part not exactly in time with the current rate of world population growth?!
Perhaps it's coincidence. Or perhaps it's incredibly apt for a song that contains the lyric, "We're half awake in a fake empire". Who knows the exact extent of The National's genius.
Now. Back to work.
The Boat People
Australian indie-pop band The Boat People are playing this Friday night at the Sandringham, launching their third album Dear Darkly. This is the opening track. Love it.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Arcade Fire - Suburban War
This band are doing it like no other at the moment. This song is off their latest album - Suburbs. Listen to the light in that guitar riff. And then try not to bob your head when those drums come in. Arcade Fire. They be smashin it.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Silver Cinder in Triple J's Unearthed Competition
Title says it all really. Go visit us on their website and vote "yay! now let them become famous":
http://www.triplejunearthed.com/Artists/View.aspx?artistid=40302
http://www.triplejunearthed.com/Artists/View.aspx?artistid=40302
Monday, October 11, 2010
Thursday, October 07, 2010
New beginnings in the last of the melting snow
Well, a bit of stuff has been going down recently. I find myself listening to this song on repeat.
Slow. But crushing.
"In no doubt
As I leave this town
I will not return
For I haven't got the room in my head
For these things"
Thanks again to Guy Garvey for the heads up.
Slow. But crushing.
"In no doubt
As I leave this town
I will not return
For I haven't got the room in my head
For these things"
Thanks again to Guy Garvey for the heads up.
Monday, October 04, 2010
The Whitest Boy Alive - 1517
GAAAAAAR!!!
Have NOT been able to get this song out of my head... and luvin' it.
The Whitest Boy Alive started as an electronic dance music project in 2003 based around Norweigen DJ and Kings of Convenience member Erlend Øye (also of DJ Kicks fame!). Check out their website... great design.
Turn it up.
Have NOT been able to get this song out of my head... and luvin' it.
The Whitest Boy Alive started as an electronic dance music project in 2003 based around Norweigen DJ and Kings of Convenience member Erlend Øye (also of DJ Kicks fame!). Check out their website... great design.
Turn it up.
Whales
I spent the weekend down with my sister in Berry. Whilst on a bushwalk in Booderee National Park, we were fortunate enough to witness a pod of whales playing off the coast. I managed to get a couple of snaps (which don't really do the experience justice). Such magnificent beasts.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Silver Cinder on Myspace!
Tam and I have been in the studio over the last couple of weekends, trying to get a bunch of tracks together to send out to venues, radio stations etc. Well, the tracks are now finished, mastered and ready for listening.
Check them out on our myspace page:
www.myspace.com/silvercinder
Friday, September 24, 2010
Holy Cash
I went to see Griffin Theatre's Quack last night, an Australian play which is on at the moment at The Stables Theatre in Darlinghurst. It was an amazing ride. Zombies, blood, onstage surgery and more. Captivating performances and a beautifully crafted script. One part of the play included one of the characters singing a section of the below song. It was spellbinding.
Originally a Nine Inch Nails song (newfound respect!), it was then covered by the late and great Johnny Cash. Lights down, red wine in hand, music turned up. Go for it.
Originally a Nine Inch Nails song (newfound respect!), it was then covered by the late and great Johnny Cash. Lights down, red wine in hand, music turned up. Go for it.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Frederick Beuchner and Beyond Time
I have been listening to a series of lectures called "Beyond Time" given by American author/theologian Frederick Beuchner in 1981. My Dad has it on cd. In the lectures, Beuchner talks about his own lifelong quest to "understand it all" and his growing awareness, albeit unconscious, of some greater plot. In particular, he scrutinizes the changing moments in his life, most of them random, moments when, as he puts it, "from beyond time, something too precious to tell has glintered in the dust, always just out of reach, like fireflies."
Beuchner was one of my Dad's theological mentors, a teacher, writer and raconteur first, and a minister second. In fact, the lectures aren't theological, even though he touches on his own beliefs and the journey it took to come to them. His exposition of the passing of time, his celebration of mystery, of ambiguity and of contradiction resonated with me strongly. Beuchner says he was once told, 'you have a way with words'. He has an ability to craft words into beautiful, telling, deep and thoughtful images. It's a very powerful gift. Some of his observations are, to borrow one of his own expressions,"like going away presents from beyond time, to carry with us through time, to lighten our step as we go".
While nothing can substitute listening to the lectures in full, the following passages are ones that spoke to me most directly:
"Listen. Listen. Your life is happening, You are happening... A journey years long has brought each of you through thick and thin to this moment in time... think back on that journey. Listen back to the sounds and sweet airs of your journey that give delight and hurt not, and to those that give no delight and hurt like hell: Be not afeared. The music of your life is subtle and illusive, and like no other, not a song with words, but a song without words, a singing chattering, hammering music, to gladden the heart or bring tears to the eyes, to haunt you perhaps with echoes of a vaster farther music of which it is part... Sometimes you avoid listening for fear of what you may hear, sometimes for fear that you may hear nothing at all but the empty rattle of your feet on the pavement. But be not afeared... Be not afraid."
Beuchner ends the lecture with the following paragraph:
"The way we have to go is full of perils from without and from within. And who can say for sure what we will find at the end of our journey... Faith, Hope and Love, those three, our going away presents from beyond time, to carry with us through time, to lighten our step as we go...
Never question the truth of what you fail to understand, for the world is filled with wonders... In the long run, nothing, not even a world, not even ourselves, can separate us from that last, and deepest love that glimmers in our dark... like a pearl... like a face."
Spectacular insights. The skillful delivery of a brutal truth that raps at the shell of our existence, threatening to break in and cause havoc.
Beuchner was one of my Dad's theological mentors, a teacher, writer and raconteur first, and a minister second. In fact, the lectures aren't theological, even though he touches on his own beliefs and the journey it took to come to them. His exposition of the passing of time, his celebration of mystery, of ambiguity and of contradiction resonated with me strongly. Beuchner says he was once told, 'you have a way with words'. He has an ability to craft words into beautiful, telling, deep and thoughtful images. It's a very powerful gift. Some of his observations are, to borrow one of his own expressions,"like going away presents from beyond time, to carry with us through time, to lighten our step as we go".
While nothing can substitute listening to the lectures in full, the following passages are ones that spoke to me most directly:
"Listen. Listen. Your life is happening, You are happening... A journey years long has brought each of you through thick and thin to this moment in time... think back on that journey. Listen back to the sounds and sweet airs of your journey that give delight and hurt not, and to those that give no delight and hurt like hell: Be not afeared. The music of your life is subtle and illusive, and like no other, not a song with words, but a song without words, a singing chattering, hammering music, to gladden the heart or bring tears to the eyes, to haunt you perhaps with echoes of a vaster farther music of which it is part... Sometimes you avoid listening for fear of what you may hear, sometimes for fear that you may hear nothing at all but the empty rattle of your feet on the pavement. But be not afeared... Be not afraid."
Beuchner ends the lecture with the following paragraph:
"The way we have to go is full of perils from without and from within. And who can say for sure what we will find at the end of our journey... Faith, Hope and Love, those three, our going away presents from beyond time, to carry with us through time, to lighten our step as we go...
Never question the truth of what you fail to understand, for the world is filled with wonders... In the long run, nothing, not even a world, not even ourselves, can separate us from that last, and deepest love that glimmers in our dark... like a pearl... like a face."
Spectacular insights. The skillful delivery of a brutal truth that raps at the shell of our existence, threatening to break in and cause havoc.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Nothing quite like crying whilst reading your four-year-old niece a bed-time story.
There's nothing like crying whilst reading your niece a bed-time story. I came home from work the other day - a day full of urgent tasks, immutable deadlines and pressure situations. My niece was staying over, and when I got home, she was already in bed awaiting a bedtime story. I read her one about a baby rabbit that wanted to run away from his mother. "I will become a boat and I will sail away from you on the sea" he said. To which the mother replied, "well I will become the wind, and I will blow you back to me". *Insert unsuccessful attempt not to cry in front of a four year old* Goddammit!
I have no idea what the below book is about, but if it's half as good as the cover, I can't wait to read it. Deadset best facial expression on a dinosaur ever? Probably. I don't think the dinosaur was actually aware of what the book was going to be about when he agreed to do the cover.
Publisher: So, we'd love you to be on the cover of one of our books.
Dinosaur: Really? That's great.
Publisher: Yeah, we really love your work.
Dinosaur: Oh really?
Publisher: Yeah, huge fans.
Dinosaur: Well, thank you very much. You know, I do take my work seriously.
Publisher: Well, it shows. You should be very proud.
Dinosaur: So what's the book going to be called?
Publisher: The book is going to be called, "All my friends are dead."
At which point the Dinosaur made the below face, they took the picture, and put it on the cover.
Big ups to Chris Toole for sending me the image.
I have no idea what the below book is about, but if it's half as good as the cover, I can't wait to read it. Deadset best facial expression on a dinosaur ever? Probably. I don't think the dinosaur was actually aware of what the book was going to be about when he agreed to do the cover.
Publisher: So, we'd love you to be on the cover of one of our books.
Dinosaur: Really? That's great.
Publisher: Yeah, we really love your work.
Dinosaur: Oh really?
Publisher: Yeah, huge fans.
Dinosaur: Well, thank you very much. You know, I do take my work seriously.
Publisher: Well, it shows. You should be very proud.
Dinosaur: So what's the book going to be called?
Publisher: The book is going to be called, "All my friends are dead."
At which point the Dinosaur made the below face, they took the picture, and put it on the cover.
Big ups to Chris Toole for sending me the image.
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