A small reflection to start, on living in this universe. Albany to Perth via Lake Towerrinning, Darkan, Williams When you get out of the car to take pictures of rural countryside, there is another recurring theme – litter. Wherever Homo colossus goes, a trail of pollution is left behind. You’d think it would be a …
Nowhereland (Part 2)
A song to start with. Albany to Perth via Lake Towerrinning, Darkan, Williams At the end of the last instalment, we were visiting an inland lake ecosystem degraded by our culture’s activities both at the lake and in its catchment. We noted that the destruction we can clearly see from a biocentric perspective is mostly …
Nowhereland
I’m an Australian biologist, conservationist, educator, writer and doomer who would like to take decent people on a journey. If you’re a doomer you will already understand and none of what I’m going to say will especially surprise you. You will already have seen all this in your own part of the world and you …
Love Letter to the Doomers
This letter to you all has become somewhat longer than intended, so I have inserted topical music clips to listen to if you’d like a break or for related contemplations anytime. You will need your favourite beverage and a comfortable place to read. Feedback is very welcome; I’m always looking to make things better. In …
Same Old, Same Old
Letter written on behalf of GetUp to various government ministers regarding fracking in the Betaloo. The middle bullet-point section is the standard material suggested by GetUp, the rest is my own. Please write and add your voices. As usual, they will mostly ignore and “know better” – but they don’t deserve to do that without …
Off-Grid Thoughts
This serves as a second instalment for our off-grid article in The Owner Builder 209 (October 2018). I might put the jpgs of this article in here next time I’m at the desktop computer… Glossary of acronyms:FFs = fossil fuelsBAU = business as usual We’re in rural Western Australia and live off-grid on solar panels. …
Songs Of A Lost World – Two Grief Songs for End Times
This week we got a sneak preview of the upcoming Cure album when the band gave two new songs an airing in their first gig back since the pandemic began. This is courtesy of phone footage posted on YouTube – not generally something I watch, but I will make an exception for this occasion (and …
Continue reading “Songs Of A Lost World – Two Grief Songs for End Times”
Exploring the Back Catalogue: Pornography – First Impressions & Associations
I finally got around to listening to this album 40 years after its release. Just saying that gives me the bends. It was the year I arrived in Australia and within 12 months pre-teen me was hearing Boys Don’t Cry, and Let’s Go To Bed on 96fm in its 1980s relatively independent phase before it was sold to a mainstream entertainment company. Those were the days, say I in a mock creaky voice, because 96fm was a unique station staffed by music buffs who actively educated listeners on music history and kept their playlist both broad and deep, playing 60s, 70s and what was then contemporary 80s music, album cuts as well as singles, and regular live concerts – all of which was relevant in a pre-Internet world, where you were at the mercy of radio stations, your friends, and your own puny budget in what you would end up accessing.
Exploring the Back Catalogue: Hiatus Reflection
Welcome back to my open music journal. It’s about to get underway again after a hiatus, and here’s why it’s been a year since I wrote anything new.
Last year I took a break from it to move the material from a forum onto my own space. You’d think that the best place to write this stuff would be a public forum specifically for the audience of the band whose back catalogue I am exploring. After all, my husband has a thing for writing recreational essays on the Cyberman episodes of Dr Who audio dramas, and duly places them on Gallifrey Base…
Your Cow Pats Are On Fire
Ever heard of mansplaining? The most outstanding example I’ve personally experienced in recent years was when I called up our local volunteer fire chief because we had a peat fire, and requested the fire truck to put it out. We both volunteer at the bushfire brigade, but the chief has to sign off on equipment …