incomplete disarray.

Find The Thing You're Most Passionate About, Then Do It On Nights And Weekends For The Rest Of Your Life

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 20:49:30 +1100

Find The Thing You're Most Passionate About, Then Do It On Nights And Weekends For The Rest Of Your Life:

It could be anything—music, writing, drawing, acting, teaching—it really doesn’t matter. All that matters is that once you know what you want to do, you dive in a full 10 percent and spend the other 90 torturing yourself because you know damn well that it’s far too late to make a drastic career change, and that you’re stuck on this mind-numbing path for the rest of your life.

Is there any other way to live?

The Onion nails it.

Reblogging this as a reminder to a friend, who is me.

“Exit Music (For A Film)” - Informal quintet...

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 12:31:00 +1100

“Exit Music (For A Film)” - Informal quintet comprised of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra musicians, March 19th, 2013

(originally by Radiohead, of course)

You know how you were wondering how it might sound if 5 talented guys from the MSO played Radiohead songs on two violins, a viola, a cello and a double bass in a tent one night in front of 300 very appreciative fans, but as recorded through the low-fi Voice Memos app on an iPhone? Wonder no more! It sounds like this.

Yes, the low fidelity recording gives this an AM radio feel (I didn’t think to record this as an audio-only ‘video’ until it was too late), but it’s incredible anyway. If you don’t listen to all of it, please at least start from the 2:00 mark.

I could listen to this all day.

I might.

Turns out that when the MSO puts on a free “Secret...

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 12:30:29 +1100

Turns out that when the MSO puts on a free “Secret Symphony” at the Spiegeltent, there’s a chance you’ll get to hear them ~~play~~ destroy (but in the good way!) 8 of your favourite Radiohead songs on violin, viola, cello and bass.

I may have to go to every other “Secret Symphony” just in case it’s Radiohead again.

Incredible.

(and if you were asking, they played I Might Be Wrong, Creep, The National Anthem, Exit Music, (which I’ll post), , Karma Police, No Surprises, A Wolf At The Door and Paranoid Android. Did I mention it was incredible?)

Melly put this together and hung it on the wall to encourage the...

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 21:16:00 +1100

Melly put this together and hung it on the wall to encourage the kids. (At least I don’t *think* it was for me). Either way, it’s pretty great.

5:15 AM (!) Sunday, Flinders Street Station, Melbourne. Eagle...

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 12:41:16 +1100

5:15 AM (!) Sunday, Flinders Street Station, Melbourne.

Eagle and The Worm rockin’ the White Night Melbourne festival.

merlin: For Mom I helped with winding the ivy and stuck in...

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 19:34:03 +1100

merlin:

For Mom

I helped with winding the ivy and stuck in maybe three flowers, and E did everything else.

Cool little kid.

[previously]

Photo

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 18:09:21 +1100

Dear Local Graffiti Artists, Please try harder. Brainstorm. ...

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 06:17:23 +1100

Dear Local Graffiti Artists,

Please try harder. Brainstorm. The cool tags can’t all be taken.

"Fix one thing every day."

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 04:36:13 +1100

“Fix one thing every day.”

- My old store manager, Ken, lived by his ‘philosophies’ - ”A man’s gotta have philosophies, Matt. What are your philosophies?” - and when I would arrive for the evening duty manager shift at 4pm, he’d always take 30 minutes to walk me around the store, ostensibly to handover the store and highlight any issues for the night, but really to pass down another piece of his collected wisdom as we made our way out the Receiving dock roller-door for his 4:15 smoke break.

“Look after your good people”, he’d say, squinting one eye as he drew back on his cigarette, before explaining that spending time on the ‘bad’ people was always futile and would inevitably cause the good people to suffer through neglect. Or, “If you can’t find the time to do something properly now, when you will find the time to re-do it later?”. Or, “When you have to deliver criticism, sure, use the sandwich technique [say something positive, then the criticism, then something positive to close] but make sure the meat is always thicker than the bread!”

Anyway, his biggest personal mantra was this; that you must fix one thing every day. One. Every. It didn’t matter what, it didn’t matter how big or small, it just mattered that something was measurably better at the end of the day than it was at the start. Fix that headlight, organise those files, sand that door that’s always sticking, apologise to that friend, rotate the tyres on your wife’s car, make that embarrassing doctor’s appointment, etc etc etc.

It’s the simplest advice. It’s too simple and totally obvious. It’s not even worth saying, right? Derrrrr - who doesn’t always try to fix one thing every day? Well, me actually. I’m always busy at work, but that’s not the same. I’m ~~always~~ usually productive at work, but that’s not quite it, either. I forget this “obvious” principle all the time. But the days when I decide to deliberately fix/correct/improve one thing are the days that… I do. And they’re - sure enough - the days I tend to feel best. And when I do remember to be mindful enough to identify that one, potentially-small thing that I can correct each day, pretty soon I’m surrounded by 7 fixed things, then 30, then 365. Provided the kids haven’t un-fixed them again. I need to get this tattooed somewhere.

(Full disclosure: He’d also routinely steal part of a rotisserie chicken - usually the parson’s nose - as he’d pass by the deli counter, and would once per week walk straight from his car in the morning, through the front door, out the back to freezer room where he’d sit silently and motionless for half an hour nursing a massive VB hangover…so I guess you take the good life advice with the bad.)

So proud. So many questions. Jessica couldn’t sleep last...

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 04:24:14 +1100

So proud. So many questions.

Jessica couldn’t sleep last night, so crept out of bed, grabbed paper and a pencil from my study, and went back to write. She presented this poem - hidden under her bed - as we were getting ready for bedtime tonight.

Uncorrected Transcript (published with permission):

A tounge-twister poem

Superheroes, pooperheros

by Jessica Andra Lowe

Superheros, pooperheroes. What can we do?

Superheros save and pooperheros poo!

Sally the Superhero once saved a girl,

Penny the pooperhero once pooed a perl!

Smack them hard and send them to bed,

or hit them in the elbow and punch them in the head!

the End

At this point, I kind of assume these wonderful people have...

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 04:12:17 +1100

At this point, I kind of assume these wonderful people have just dropped in, temporarily, from some catalogue or life insurance commercial.

Pretty sure they can’t really be mine.

beclo: Sunset and Ocean Beach.

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 11:05:44 +1100

beclo:

Sunset and Ocean Beach.

beclo: My Neighbourhood With any luck my little sister - who...

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 10:59:35 +1100

beclo:

My Neighbourhood

With any luck my little sister - who is living in San Francisco for the next 6 months - will never buy a DSLR; the photos she takes with her little point-and-shoot Canon iXus already put me to shame.

helms-deep: I love everything about this.

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 16:49:36 +1100

helms-deep:

I love everything about this.

Nine years at this site and today it finally happened. I have -...

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 07:56:00 +1100

Nine years at this site and today it finally happened. I have - for the first time in about 2200 workdays - a window! Natural light is bathing my beige desk, my grey plastic laptop is basking in the summery glow, and vitamin D is trickling through my veins.

In fact, as of this week, I actually have an office. It’s got a door and a lock and seats for three visitors and everything. The flickering, flourescent lights flicker just that little bit brighter and the instant coffee in the polystyrene cups tastes just that little ~~less toxic~~ sweeter, too.

I’ve finally achieved the zenith of my personal and professional potential* and I will begin my Draper-esque, punctuate-every-discussion-with-a-whiskey-then-take-a-nap-on-the-couch office shenanigans post haste.

“You keep using that word…”

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 19:31:06 +1100

“You keep using that word…”

Two weeks ago I was here for Radiohead. Today it’s The...

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 16:29:55 +1100

Two weeks ago I was here for Radiohead. Today it’s The Wiggles. Reasonably hard act to follow, Dorothy: better bring your A game.

(Hoping for an “Airbag”/”Big Red Car” mashup. “In a big, re-ed caa-ar, I’m amazed that I survi-iived…”)

daveshumka: Graham Clark: Wilderness Man Check out Graham...

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 09:25:37 +1100

daveshumka:

Graham Clark: Wilderness Man

Check out Graham mixin’ it up, makin’ it happen.

Amazing? Incredible? Mesmerising? Sublime. Rather than listing...

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 11:49:22 +1100

~~Amazing?~~ ~~Incredible?~~ ~~Mesmerising?~~ Sublime.

Rather than listing off adjectives and superlatives like some random Apple Keynote generator, I’ll choose just one for this ‘review’.

I went to see Radiohead over the weekend.

It was sublime.

The End.

"The Big Bore lurks inside us all. It’s dying to be set loose to lecture on Quentin Tarantino or..."

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 11:38:18 +1100

“The Big Bore lurks inside us all. It’s dying to be set loose to lecture on Quentin Tarantino or what makes good ice cream. Fight it! Fight the urge to speak without listening, to tell a bad story, to stay inside your comfortable nest of back-patting pals.”

- Scott Simpson, “You Are Boring” (The Magazine)