When did I first hear this song? I’d bought the CD in Singapore and listened to it on this train trip to Kuala Lumpur in early 2004, in very different weather to this wintry morning:

I learnt so much on that trip, and saw so many things:

As we get older, it’s harder and harder to fight the pull of nostalgia. What would I have done differently? Plenty of things, but also nothing.

#music #memories #Malaysia

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My wife found it odd. I couldn't really explain how songs seep into your bones over time, but it related to how I needed to experience a more random nature of Tokyo beyond other people's top-N lists.

We could've seen anything at all here, and it would've helped a few more connections form somewhere in my brain. That's what I'm looking for – the joy of less-conscious discoveries. After all, it's up to you what the image means.

#music #travel #japan #tokyo #photography #film #digital #memories

[ photo notes: the first one's on film from my Olympus XA2, the other two are from my Leica M Typ-240 with an old Canon 35mm M39/LTM lens ]

This was a post from Cos.

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An influential friend gave me a mixtape in the last year of high school containing a single from a local band we all liked (and whose guitarist would, in a strange mixing of worlds much later on, become my manager for a year or so). The b-side of that single was a cover of Little Johnny Jewel which lodged itself squarely in my mind, even after I bought the impossibly good Marquee Moon later on.

Somewhere among the waves, I enjoyed reading Lucy Sante mention how every gig sounded different – it almost makes me miss going along to more live music in the hope of those transcendental moments (who am I kidding? I feel too old for all that standing up).

While I still love the insectoid spikiness of LJJ, another song feels closer to me in my middle age, and it feels like every time we're on the road on a warm afternoon, headed for nowhere. One might say this case is closed, eh?

#music #memories #TomVerlaine #Television

This was a post from Cos.

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I took a few film shots this morning, and only one phone shot:

What have I got from prior years, around this time? Five years ago I was in #Thailand:

Ten years ago, I was in #Fitzroy looking at somebody's photography exhibition, in the middle of a haze of confusion around the new life I was trying to settle into:

Fifteen years ago, I'd flown to #Adelaide to help setup someone's WAN connection in their new office, and unexpectedly needing to stay overnight:

Twenty years ago I was watching Grand Salvo play:

#FilmPhotography #street #memories #music

[ This is a #NowAndThen post, where I try to dig through my #photography archives ]

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I’ve reached out to my old peers – most of us relentless journallers & bloggers back in the early ’00s – to ask not just “are you still using anything on this server?” but also “how are you going?” I’ve been pretty awful at actively keeping up with folk, instead relying on the passive nature of seeing updates floating past in the mix of news from the doom-scrolling apps that vacuum our time. Many of us moved away from Melbourne. One or two I never met in person, even. Some folk I’m almost too frightened to reach out to, but I’ll find a way. I’ll see how we go for responses, and hopefully one or two of them might write something we can publish for the archive, as it were.

What did I get out of running that host for all those years? Mostly I just wanted to feel useful, and I felt useful helping folk out, helping them say something no matter how small, and helping them connect with others in those earlier, potential-rich days of the Internet. In return, I received plenty of system admin practice that fed my day job (and vice-versa). I’m curious to hear from the others now – what did they get from it?

More soon, I hope.

#history #hosting #internet #memories #friends

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Walking nearly everywhere, I revelled in the experience of being in an unfamiliar place, and also being able to leave a lot of unknown behind for a future visit.

Indonesia never felt closer, and of course I regret not giving into the temptation to book a quick flight there – instead, I spent the rest of my leave at home, which turned out to be excellent preparation for what the rest of 2020 had in store for us.

I’m glad I went somewhere before things went crazy – I wonder if I’ll be able to return?

#darwin #travel #memories #photography

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Our world is full of signs.

Signs well-placed to demand our attention.

“Look at me! Over here!”

Leaving a space empty can feel like a quiet act of noncompliance...

...or perhaps an awkward pause.

Sometimes they're not completely blank...

...but hold memories from the past.

Why are some of these spaces still blank?

and what do they want from us?

#photography #memories #blank #signs #travel

This was a post from Cos.

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I was so fortunate to have a really good friend with a cool older sister who was well-tuned-in to 3RRR (thank you!) and, through her, we learnt about all sorts of great bands I might have otherwise missed at the time. The incongruous nature of an English band singing about driving didn't escape me, but they nailed the sound and the chaos so well that it just didn't matter. I'll never forget the 3RRR rooftop gig they did when they toured Melbourne in 1998.

I still have the mix tapes my friend gave me, in a box in the garage (not far from a walkman or two). I'm scared to revisit them, as they shaped so much of my musical leanings, and I know I'll be so intimately familiar with the order of the songs. Years later I discovered that Adam Franklin continued to make music on his own, plenty of it great! The new Swervedriver stuff isn't bad, either – I'm particularly keen on Dub Wound for reasons unknown.

#music #90s #swervedriver #shoegaze #memories

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Do I suddenly have more to say? Not in particular, but in the process of cleaning up lots of old things and old memories, I realised that I missed feeling part of a world of words. Like everyone, I fell into the world of short status updates and private messaging (the latter not so different to the 90s, except that this time we don't have a single app pulling all the chat protocols together). My ability to self-host never went away, but convenience trumped continuing to maintain my own software stack as my day job moved away from hands-on tech, and also as my life changed in various unexpected ways.

For various reasons, now feels like a time that I'm able to consider revisiting this world. I wonder how many old friends are still out there?

Now playing: Pure X by Pure X.

#introduction #why #hello #memories

This was a post from Cos.

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