Stop: Artist at Work

Stop! Here is an artist at work with simple raw talent and she works it well.

I first heard Priscilla Ahn one day probably about five months ago searching through YouTube or possible just video surfing recommended videos and such. It was either that or my brother sent me the link to one of her songs. However I found it really doesn't matter. What does is that I discovered and added to my list of music I love, another amazing voice.

Her voice has something of an etheral quality to me. Pure but with something of a raw edge that brings it back down to earth just a touch. I love it. And her lyrics are also beautiful. But the best part of it is she is a true musician. She isn't relying on flashy backing bands to make the music and make her song stand out she is doing it all herself. She plays the guitar and I barely notice it there because her voice is the instrument that carries the song.

She is not alone in these talents. Other artists for me hold the same talent; Laura Marling, Clare Bowditch, Lenka, Ben Harper, Emiliana Torrini, Jack Johnson, Missy Higgins, and George(Katie Noonan and Tyrone Noonan being the vocalists of this band are both stunning) just to name a few.

With all these artists I can sit there and listen to their albums on repeat and just zone out to a place where nothing can bother me and the lyrics speak to my soul(okay maybe that is a little cheesy sounding but it really is true!).

This is not to disparage other artists either who do have backing bands and such to help make the music because I love those bands and artists as well in no shortage but I have to say my favourite music is always that which goes back to the acoustic where you can just turn on and zone out to another place- if you haven't yet you should try it. Nothing is more relaxing than just listening for the nuances in the voice and the music itself and how they work together to create what can only be described as beautiful music.

So sit back and relax to the pure tones of Priscilla Ahn or whoever else it is that takes you away to amazing musical happy zone and just feel.


~~Random Logic~~

My Country- A Land of Sweeping Plains.

I wrote this one a few days ago on new years day... with pen and paper. Just got around to posting it.

~~~

If there is one poem I adore unreservedly it would be My Country by Dorothea Mackellar. It is a poem that epitomises Australia at its best and worst and my love for it. Many people only know one verse of this poem but it has become probably the best known piece of Australian poetry apart from The Man From Snowy River by A.B.Patterson also known as Banjo Patterson.

And as I travel on this train from Sydney to Wagga Wagga on the first day of 2011 I am reminded about what makes Australia what it is.

The fields flash past rolling over the hills. They are green and golden all at once. Scrubby brush and grasses cover some whilst trees dot others. Bales of hay are rolled and spread over fields- waiting to be covered perhaps and taken to a shed. Sheep and cows graze in the fields. The sheep run awat from the train line across the field as the train passes. A foreign entity in their existance.

Some trees are little more than skeletons of a former life. Bare branches and trunks. Perhaps they were victim to fire or simply ceased as they were with their bare branches reaching out and up like gnarled fingers.

I look a bit closer out the window and I see the wire fence which withstands nature though with the help of the farmer and marks the edge of a field. Closer still and yellow wildflowers, small and bright grow across the ground and along edges of tracks in bunches.

The bank rises away from the tracks the earth a bright shade of something akin to the colour yellow or orange made so by the sandstone and clay whilst other areas are bright ochre.

A stand of trees all vibrant shades of green gives way to more fields. Dams created by those who farm the land stand full of water given by recent rains.

Telegraph poles with wires swooping between them mark the path of the railway.

A rail crossing barrier, arm down and bells sounding flashes by in the blink of an eye; and as this passes me by I see what makes Australia. And I feel insignificant.


 ~~Random Logic~~

Girls like Sci-Fi too!

There are a few thing I have been told or heard many times in my thus far short lifespan...

Girls don't like Sci-Fi.

Star Wars is for boys.

You like science fiction? Awesome!

And everytime I hear these I am reminded of the fact that I am percieved as being part of a female minority. I'm a geek. And proud to be one! I love Star Wars and Stargate. Farscape and Firefly. I can out-trivia most male friends on the finer points of certain movies *cough cough* Star Wars *cough cough*

What I don't love however is being told that I'm strange for liking these movies and TV shows and that I am a minority. I simply don't believe it!

I recently attended a sci-fi event in Sydney called Gate to the Sanctuary. The main drawcard was Amanda Tapping- better known as Samantha Carter on Stargate or more recently as Helen Magnus on Sanctuary on which she is also an executive producer. She is the most successful sci-fi actress around at the moment. She starred in all ten seasons of Stargate: SG-1 as well as appearing in a season of Stargate:Atlantis and now two full seasons of Sanctuary plus the third season which is currently airing. And she loves it. The talk she gave and the questions she answered were enlightening. I could tell she is a geek herself. But enough of who she is...

Despite the fact that the person I went to the event with was female, I thought that with Amanda Tapping as the drawcard that the majority of the audience would be male. Or a large portion of it at least. I know my brother loves her and I'm sure there are countless male Stargate fans out there who have had dreams of her, but this wasn't the case. The overwhelming majority of the audience was female! I loved it. To me it proved that females who do love science fiction ARE NOT a minority. 

Then it made me think.

Why is it seemingly so hard to find females in everyday life who like sci-fi. What makes guys believe we are a minority. Is it that many females suppress this part of their personality because they believe it will make them unpopular? Do they do it so they won't get teased? It is well known that females can be the harshest critics of those around them, and often present a false facade to the world.

To me this is a shame. 

The greatest example of this is a young girl in the US recently who became the focus of thousands of messages of support from fellow sci-fi fans both male and female. She was getting teased and bullied at school for carrying a Star Wars water bottle because it was for boys.

Why should we have to hide who we are. I have never felt the need to hide what I am. Maybe that's because I grew up in a family where we are who we are. In fact it was my father who got me into science fiction in the first place. As a kid growing up my sister had a stuffed Ewok toy which I always envied. I started reading Star Wars and other science fiction novels before I left primary school. I was borrowing them from the 'Adult Fiction' section of the library. My biggest gripe in highschool was the severe under-representation of science fiction amongst the novels in the school library. And I did my best to read all that I could find. I also managed to make friends with girls who love science fiction. Sure we'd gossip and talk about make-up and such, but we would also sit there and watch Stargate, Star Wars or Star Trek just because we could. Not to mention earning myself the nickname Darth Vader as a joke from a fellow student.

And then I went to Finland. And managed to addict one of my best friends from there to Farscape. She was already a sci-fi fan so it wasn't very hard but she sat there and lost sleep watching Farscape episodes online at 2am in the morning. Even yesterday I managed to get another friend to watch the first episode of Farscape and become a bit of a fan from that single episode. 

I see no shame in showing what I am. If anything the moments I spend with my friends are made that much more entertaining in moments where we let loose on our inner geek and revel in jokes which to many would make no sense.

To me there is no shame in being female and a fan of sci-fi. To me the greatest shame is in those that feel like they should hide who they are, and what they are and present a false facade to the world. 

To all the the ladies out there- Robyn, Shelann, Jemma, Joey, Priscilla, Sylvia, Sarah, Beth, Tiffany, Kailyn, Amy, Niamh, Sophie, Annette, Ashley, Courtney, Cassie and the dozens of others I know and haven't listed:

We are who we are chicas! Show it! Be proud! Scream it to the world! 

 

WE ARE NOT A MINORITY. 

WE EXIST. 

WE ARE FEMALE AND WE ARE GEEKS!

~~ Random Logic ~~

To Be Me

I will not be
More than I am
And I will not be less
For to be more is impossible
To be less is to lie
For I am who I am
And I can only be me
But to be me is to be fallible
And so I will be more
And so I will be less
And there will be one
Who will know me
When I am more
And when I am less
And to them
I will simply be
Me
And the fallacy
Becomes truth
And the impossible
Becomes possible
For they have seen all sides
And will know all of me
So that nothing
Is impossible
And nothing is a lie


~~Random Logic~~

Friends Make the Moments

There are moments in life where you go places, do things and meet people that have an incredible and lasting impact on your life. These moments are the moments that make life worth living. If you ever need to question the validity of life these are the moments that provide the answer.

My exchange year was the combination of all of these factors into amazing moments which put together created a single year long amazing moment. And the friends I made there are friends I will keep for life.

I may not get to see these friends often or at all. Or even get to speak to them often but when I do it never fails to brighten my day. To hear their voices as we laugh over things we remember from when we were together and make new moments to remember. And when we do get to see each other even if it is for the briefest period of time it's like we were never apart. And in half an hour it can feel like we have been talking for a year. Through shared experiences we have forged a bond that isn't broken despite the fact that we are all over the world. Whether it be Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France, Finland, or any other country we are all connected by ties that bind.

As for friends from high school, while it is true many people lose contact with the people they went to school with. But for a lucky few they manage to keep in contact with their friends. And if you manage to keep in contact beyond high school you can guarantee what you have is more than just a playground friendship and that you have loyal friends who will be there for you when you need them.

There are other friends I have made as well over the years. Some in the most unlikely of places. I have made friends on the opposite side of the world or country that I have never met or only met a few times by using the internet but these friendships are just as important. You never know when you will get the opportunity to meet one of these people and find they are like a twin but born and raised on the other side of the world.

The other place I have forged friendships that have lasted beyond the bounds of their original locality is in cadets. Common interest, common activity's and a growing of ones self in ways that challenge you to do the best and be the best you can be. Again friends that last and defy convention despite location.

So this is for you my friends. Wherever you are and however we have met. THANK YOU, for making my life worth living and creating the moments in time that give me the answer to the question when it isn't the number 42.

Sylvia, Sanni, Henna, Svenja, Veera, Salla, Mim, Joey, Jem, Natz, Elly, Martyn, Ellen, Robyn, Brandon, Courtney, Ashley, Travis, Beth, Amy, Niamh, Koit and the many many others I have undoubtedly forgotten. You make life worth living. And I thank you for it.

Sentries of the Land

New poem from me. I wrote it walking home the other day. Was looking at the trees and just thinking about nature and remembering when we used to drive down to Wollongong. Sometimes at night and it was foggy the gum trees at the sides of the road would take on a etheral quality.

~~~

The wind whispers

through the leaves,

rustling natures bell.

The eerie glow

of the moon

shines through the fog

on the trunks of the ghost gum

Staid soldiers

tall and proud they stand

Ever present sentries

of the land

~~~

Hope you enjoy!

--Random Logic--

Insomnia Inspiration

So this is what happens when it's about 2am in the morning and I can't sleep. I start writing random things. Last night I wrote this poem.

Enjoy!

~~~

Running.
Down streets
and through fields.
From what was
to what will be.
Bright lights
at the end of the tunnel
reveal the consequences
Of chances take
and choices made
To become what we are
Of what we were

~~~

--Random Logic--