Some of My Earliest Musical Memories

1. The house I grew up in was an old Queenslander. The underside housed Dad's shed, full of his tools and the work benches he built himself. The laundry was concreted behind timber slats, and the dark green paint curled and chipped. Redback spiders built their webs in the gaps between the slats, and an unseen insect made cone-shaped holes in the sandy soil. Glass pyramids refracted light in Mum's studio; one red, one dark blue. There was a box of old records and, somewhere in the memory, a record player projecting 'Here Comes the Sun' by the Beatles.
2. Dad brought home 'Mule Variations' by Tom Waits. We sat around together and listened gleefully to 'What's He Building In There?'. It was characteristic of much of my later fields of interest. When a performance of my poetry I gave a few years ago was compared to Tom Waits, I strove to find someone who would appreciate the significance of the comparison, but was found wanting. Controversially, I still prefer the album to 'Blue Valentine'.
3. Dad would unwind in the evenings with 'No More Shall We Part' by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, 'Grace' by Jeff Buckley or 'Sweet Nothing' by Tex Perkins and the Dark Horses. These albums bring up complex emotions for me, both because they are of themselves emotionally complex and because of the strange feeling of nostalgia and longing they bring. I listen to these albums with by boyfriend, forming new associations while hoping not to lose the old. 'Sweet Nothing' is that rare thing: a perfect album.
4. There were, of course, children's tapes, 'Teddy Bears' Picnic' on cassette and 'Surfing With the Seagulls' forever on the stereo. When Mum was out of the house we'd listen to 'Mr. Boombastic' by Shaggy, an album that is, in retrospect, perhaps not the most suitable for children, but my brother and didn't understand what any of it meant. The first album I ever owned was Aqua's 'Bubble Party Mix', given to me at my fifth birthday party. While very particular in my taste growing up I was certainly not very original, but I still have what my parents gave me, and I like to have a soundtrack for the important moments.

Practical Magic

I watched The Craft for the first time last night, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Now I want to blow all my money on crystals and candles and books on the magical properties of plants, which is probably unwise as I have at least two bills to pay in the next couple of weeks.

I went through a bit of a 'pagan phase' in school as part of my whole goth/ emo thing. I'm now very much an atheist, but I still really like paganism/ wicca. I like the aesthetic and I like the sense of being connected to everything. I never progressed beyond a superficial interest in the practice, but as I've gotten older I've developed a greater sense of connection with the universe. While I'm not religious, I do think of my self as a spiritual person. 

There is no inherent meaning to the world; we just exist in it, as a part of it, and surrendering to that and accepting it as my truth has been incredibly freeing for me. It means I can focus on what is important to me, and not feel overwhelmed by the future and how significant I will be to the world, because the answer is that it doesn't matter. 

Self-absorbed and selfish are not the same thing.

When I get down, as I have been lately, is when I think that feeling of connectedness becomes lost somehow and the balance goes out of things. It is comforting to think of the concepts of karma and of the universe keeping itself in check, and sometimes when bad things happen I tell myself it all balances out, but the last couple of weeks have made it difficult to maintain that optimism. 

I've been wanting to blog more but it's been hard to think of anything to write about that isn't just how depressed I've been feeling. I think I'm on the up now, but I have to drag myself through a few more feet of hormones before I can be back to my usual, optimistic self. 

I have several job applications to do this week. Hopefully something will come of them and I can support myself a little better. I also need to make more time for art, while also getting my assessment for uni done. 

Mum told me I have too much time on my hands yesterday because I took the time to vote below the line. I'm pretty sure I don't have enough. Or I don't make enough? I would probably benefit from intensely scheduling my whole week, and not just having my uni timetable, but then social things and other stuff come up and I don't know when to start a schedule.

I turn 21 in a few weeks. I haven't decided what that means.

The world shall maintain balance. Something positive will come soon. Tony Abbott will badly stub his toe in public. It will all be ok.

Gif from: https://weheartit.com/entry/73550714

The Craft cap from: http://www.graffitiwithpunctuation.net/2013/06/03/five-star-films-52-the-craft-1996/

Artwork from my etsy: https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/157890486/square-mixed-media-collage-original?ref=shop_home_active

Last picture from my instagram: http://instagram.com/grandmastattoo/

Sunhead Bowed

In a melancholic pre-menstrual mood and craving closeness to stave off thoughts about someone who doesn't belong to me. In the position where I could fall in love if I let myself but that isn't allowed and I've got one one those already. It's so hard to be specific when they know you on all your corners of the internet but they'll only let you operate in the universe in one way so that's the end of that.

Falling is love is terrifying and I don't recommend it.

I would like to spend a great deal of time learning to make collages and analysing David Lynch films.

Everything is feeling too much for me. I hate the way the hormones make me feel, pulling a blanket of pressure down to press upon my chest and making slipping into death seem like an easy solution. I know it's only a cyclical reaction to the ministrations of my womb but I still fear the day when I am without tethers to the world and there is nothing holding me back. But will I still want to slip down with nothing to latch onto? I barely notice the melancholy when I am otherwise distracted and happy and there is no niggling trouble to be supernova-ed in the back of my mind. 

I should be sleeping but I still haven't put together a handout for my presentation on Blue Velvet at 11am. Norman Rockwell meets Hieronymous Bosch, but I can't help but feel like Andy Warhol's electric chairs are a more fitting image of pre-fab completeness. 

The beauty in the world is today covered by the rotting underneath. It's deep pink lines across the wrists of a girl who is beautiful from the inside out and it's finding stalkers in romance. It's all still beautiful but it eats away at me tonight like sunlight glinting off maggot-flesh.

I'll be back together again in the morning but tonight there is a layer of damp lace between my skin and the underneath and in the darkness it grows mould.

Young Hearts Run Free: Melbourne Rookie Meet Up

A quick snap with Tavi

We few who missed out on tickets to Rookie Day

Getting everyone in on the spirit

My haul from Retrostar Vintage, Polyester Records and the Sticky Institute

Hoe can I express the event that was my Saturday?

Through word of mouth and links and my gift-bag-giving, Tavi found out about our Rookie meet-up. At a little after ten, as a group of Rookies stood together under the clocks at Flinders Street Station wondering aloud whether or not she would actually show, Tavi suddenly emerged from the crowd at the crosswalk and came smiling towards us. She was tiny and utterly human and coming right towards us. Composure was maintained as we made space for her in our circle as we had for each other, but I, for one, was inwardly jumping up and down and making inhuman noises. 

As other Rookies joined us there were beautiful moments of the sudden realisation of Tavi's presence and the hurried reinstatement of a casual expression. 

We all went shopping with Tavi Gevinson.

The most gratifying part of the day was being able to in some way facilitate a beautiful group of people meeting Tavi and being able to chill with her in a non-official-event capacity. It was a wonderful joy to see her conversing with my fellow Rookies and have them be able to achieve goals of having her compliment their craft or to take her portrait. And for those who couldn't join us for that portion of the day, it was still wonderful to be able to hand out gift bags and talk about Rookie and Tavi and meet wonderful new people. It was magically, serenely surreal to walk up Swanston Street with the group and see Tavi having a conversation with one of my new friends. I cannot express just how happy the whole thing made me feel.

At Polyester I tried something my boyfriend does and bought a bunch of cheap CDs I'd never heard of. They are 'Mycorrhizae Realm' by Fursaxa, 'Young' by Summer Camp and 'Where the Messengers Meet' by Mt St Helens Vietnam Band. I haven't had the chance to listen to them all yet, but 'Where the Messengers Meet' is beautiful and atmospheric and I recommend it (although the band's name borders on the ridiculous). We also visited Lady Petrova and Alice Euphemia.

I met so many wonderful people on Friday and Saturday, and I really hope we stay in touch. I've spent the whole weekend not buzzed or on a high but bathed in a soft, warm glow which comes from within and makes the world seem beautiful. I got to fangirl and shop and talk about things I don't usually get to talk about. I got to go on a picnic. I got to wear flower crowns and hang out with people who are ten times more amazing than I am and on average at least two years younger and I got to meet one of my heroes. 

We had a mini show-and-tell at the picnic and I brought Just Kids by Patti Smith. I reminded everyone that we don't need to be Tavi at Tavi's age; some people are amazing, beautiful human beings but don't receive recognition until they are a good deal older than we are now. I feel it's important to remind myself of that sometimes.

To all the people who were kind enough to join me, thank you. You are all beautiful.

Tavi's World: People Care, Things Matter, There Are Good Days

I got back from seeing Tavi Gevinson at the Athenaeum Theater. Her talk was basically a complete affirmation of the philosophy I have developed and my attitude towards the world. 

She spoke about the value and importance of being a fangirl. It was wonderful because I've gotten to the point where even though there's still a lot of frustrating, depressing, infuriating stuff in the world, I still love it and I love people and I get really bouncy and excited about small, seemingly trivial things. Like, I still freak out when a band I haven't listened to for years release new music (TWO NEW AFI SINGLES OHMIGOSH) and I get really excited about pugs and flowers and shiny things and I spend lots of money on glitter and food because they make me happy. And sometimes people tease me about that or give me a hard time, but it doesn't really matter because it won't make me love those things any less or make me less in love with the world.

Tavi signed my copy of The Virgin Suicides, which she'd been talking about in her speech so that was cool. It's a book I only read recently and one I sort-of wish I'd discovered earlier when I had more time for reading so I could devour it all in one sitting. I fell in love with the language and feel of the book in a way I haven't for a while, which was really wonderful. She told me it was brilliant when I handed it to her. 

She's probably the best famous person I have met, from the combination of sincerity, enthusiasm, and also being someone I really idolise. It was also much easier talking to her than to some of the other people I've been lucky enough to meet. She's younger than me by a couple of years (she's the same age as my brother, which is terrifying, in a way) and still figuring herself out, but is still hugely successful, which is enormously validating to me. 

Meeting Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer was incredible, and they were all really fantastic experiences, but also quite intimidating. They have experience gained from years of practice and a solid understanding of the world, which is great once you're there but can also be nerve-wracking for people still figuring things out and haven't aligned their experiences with their beliefs and may yet grow to disagree with the people they now idolise (and by 'they' I of course mean 'I'). With Tavi I can both be in awe of her and feel like we are actually peers and might actually have something to say to each other which will be interesting and not just annoying and/ or one-sided, which is sort-of my fear with some of the older people I idolise. 

I am actually terrified of the concept of going to dinner or something with one of my heroes because I'm pretty sure I would either blather on like a idiot about incredibly banal things, or just make a series of mildly alarming choking noises while covering myself in soup. With Tavi, I feel like we could have a conversation. It may just be wishful thinking, but hey, so is most of my thinking, and that doesn't mean it's inherently impossible.

She told us about her new mantra, taken from a Rookie commenter, which is kind of a summary of how I view the world and the sort of thing I remind myself of when things get bad: people care, things matter, there are good days.

I think it's really important for everyone to remember that and to make it their mantra.

People care.

Things matter.

There are good days.

I would just like to establish...

... that I bought my Birkenstocks in January or February, because I am a fashion visionary. That is all.

Things Occurring in My Life

Next weekend, I'm organising a meet-up for Melbourne Rookie fans. If you are one of the zero people who reads my blog, and want to come along, the facebook page is here: https://www.facebook.com/events/563765947016391/?fref=ts

Uni has started back again. Today is the end of week three. Week three! Time goes too fast. My subjects are really interesting. I get to read obscene novels and be a pretentious wanker, which is all I want from life, really.

I have an etsy shop! http://www.etsy.com/au/shop/GrandmasTattoo It is very productive I swear. (mostly I just need to be able to take photos in decent lighting, which is apparently difficult). 

Was I going anywhere with this post? I don't know. I think mostly I am putting off housework.

I have to do my application for Masters sometime in the next week. That's in addition to my Dad and my brother visiting this weekend, plus organising the meet-up, plus making flower crowns and gift bags, plus going to a Fannibal meet-up, plus going to Tavi Gevinson's keynote, plus writing articles for Gay Geek, plus uni work, plus maybe actually completing a job application, minus all of the browsing tumblr and procrastinating which is what I will probably actually be doing. My greatest achievement last week was doing four loads of washing on one day - including things which probably haven't been clean since April. Hopefully this week I can do better.

In other news, my face looks awesome today. My hair magically reached a nice-ish length a couple of days ago and I'm just feeling really happy and optimistic about everything, despite how much I have to do. Yay positivity!