Two fragments

Art is not difficult because it wishes to be difficult, but because it wishes to be art. However much the writer might long to be, in his work, simple, honest, and straightforward, these virtues are no longer available to him. He discovers that in being simple, honest, and straightforward, nothing much happens: he speaks the speakable, whereas what we are looking for is the as-yet unspeakable, the as-yet unspoken.

* * *

... the writer ... taken to be the work's way of getting itself written, a sort of lightning rod for an accumulation of atmospheric disturbances ...

Both from a Barthelme essay called "Not-Knowing" that Lachlan T sent through. In that second one, DB's not necessarily endorsing that view of the relationship between writer and work ... he brings it up in the course of discussing the essential mystery of how the parts of any work of art come to combine; and the link attached to that evocative phrase 'atmospheric disturbances' is mine - an after-the-fact recognition of the source of the title to Rivka Galchen's elegantly elusive novel from a few years back.

The not-knowing is crucial to art, is what permits art to be made. Without the scanning process engendered by not-knowing, without the possibility of having the mind move in unanticipated directions, there would be no invention.

Amaya Laucirica @ Fed Square (Saturday 29 March)

The '24 hour festival' that this was part of seemed pretty poorly publicised, which might have contributed to the intimacy of this free show in the outdoor astroturf space facing on to Flinders St - only about 20 people loosely scattered watching Laucirica, 11pm Sat night, plugged in but without band, murmuring through perhaps nine or ten of her dreamy songs, maybe half from Early Summer and half new (I think). Intermittent light drizzle, very low-key, nice.

(w/ David, Trang, Tamara)

"Frankenstein" (Malthouse - The Rabble)

Warning: Recommended for people 18 years and over. Some audience members may find the content confronting. Frankenstein contains nudity, graphic imagery (particularly related to pregnancy), sexual content, violence, adult themes, horror themes, coarse language, loud noises, strobe effects and smoke effects. But remember, fortune favours the brave.

In other words, a perfect show for which to find oneself in the front row, dead centre no less. It was certainly visceral, and it asked questions; overall, though, I wasn't convinced that there was a huge amount to it - it seemed a bit one-note to me in its feminised (I hesitate to call it 'feminist' as such) rendition of the Frankenstein story.

(w/ Trang and Tamara)

Sally Seltmann - Hey Daydreamer

Well yes this is very sweet and also good. First as New Buffalo and then under her own name, and taking in Seeker Lover Keeper, Seltmann has been part of the soundtrack to my last decade or so and this is a nice addition.

* * *

"About Last Night" ep
The Last Beautiful Day
"New Buffalo ep"
live @ St Kilda Festival (Feb 2005)
live @ St Jerome's Laneway Festival (Feb 2006)
Somewhere, Anywhere
Heart That's Pounding
Seeker Lover Keeper
live w/ Seeker Lover Keeper @ St Michael's (Nov 2011)

Shostakovich violin concerto #1 & Prokofiev violin concerto #2 (Vadim Repin, Kent Nagano, Halle Orchestra)

According to Jarrod, who passed on this cd to me some time back, essentially the two best violin concertos of the 20th century - and he'd probably know. Anyway, these are both very exciting! Best when listened to loud. Each fits together as a whole but the drama and fire of the 3rd movement of the Shostakovich and the 2nd of the Prokofiev stand out.

Cass Sunstein - Simpler: The Future of Government

I must admit that I tend to flit a bit from book to book about these kinds of subjects; as interesting as I find them, I read parts of many more than I actually finish (case in point: Thinking, Fast and Slow, which is fascinating but which I've been stalled halfway through for months - despite the additional nudge of it being selected as a work book club text partway through!).

I raced through this one, though, probably in equal parts because its ideas are: (1) intuitively appealing; (2) familiar to me; and (3) at least potentially applicable in my work. There's also some interesting colour at the margins in relation to the tortuous process of Sunstein's appointment by Barack Obama as the administrator of OIRA and the massively controversial nature of some of the regulation that he and his office considered - most notably associated with the Affordable Care Act and a suite of environmental regulation - but for me, much of the appeal of these nudge-informed approaches to government action and regulation is their potential to bridge the partisan 'big government'/'small government' debate. More substantially, of course, the foundational assumptions about how people actually make decisions (informed by behavioural economics), the implications for how governments should engage with citizens in shaping 'choice architectures', and the possibilities for huge positive impacts all strike me as very plausible (and normatively defensible, in terms of the concerns about paternalism and lack of transparency).

Not everyone's fully on board, though - pieces like this are a useful additional perspective, and there are plenty of far more strident outright rejections to be found (some knee-jerk and ill-informed, some much more thoughtful).

The Wind Rises

There's such an artistry to Miyazaki's work - most noticeably on the visual level, but he has the ability to engage on the level of story, too. I've seen a few, though by no means all, of his films before and liked them - Spirited Away, Porco Rosso, Ponyo and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (as a double feature), and Princess Mononoke, those last two being particular favourites. The Wind Rises is interesting - it has the same gentle poignancy of those others, but without the fantastic elements and overall a fairly muted feel.

There are some problematic aspects - the unquestioned way that the (dying) girl's needs are subordinated to Jiro's work, the romanticisation of the life's work of an aeronautical engineer whose efforts culminate in the building of the fighter planes ultimately used by Japan in WWII - although it may be possible to make sense of them in terms of Miyazaki's concern with the way that beauty and the natural can be tainted or corrupted by other forces ... overall, the film does work better as a mood piece than a particularly thematically consistent one.

(w/ Jade)

Idol XIII top 10

So three down since the live finals started - the first two to go were two of the least interesting (Kristen O'Connor and Emily Piriz), and then last night Ben Briley, who I quite liked but despite that, overall so far so good.

I saw this season described somewhere on the internet as 'Indie Idol', which is obviously a heck of an overstatement but also not completely off the mark - compared to last season, at least, there's a noticeably higher level of individuality to the styles of the singers, along with less in the way of generic polish to their singing (also, a lot fewer ballads). Nor are there really obvious frontrunners, at least so far as I can tell - only a couple of them have displayed any real consistency across the four times I've now seen them sing on the show.

That inconsistency has also meant that I've fluctuated a bit in terms of my favourites, but just now it'd go like this (in terms of how much I like them, not how likely I think they are to win) and actually all but the last have at least something substantial going for them:

1. MK Nobilette. Been a bit up and down, but still my favourite, in equal parts due to that first time I came across her with "All of Me" and to the lovely something in the tone of her voice and the feeling that she's at times able to convey.
2. Jena Irene. Something of a sleeper for me. At first I thought her voice was on the weak side and perhaps a bit strained in its unusual timbre - but over these four weeks, she's emerged as a powerful and interesting singer and this week's "Decode" (a Paramore song) was her best yet.
3. CJ Harris. I've been pulling for CJ despite a couple of pretty average performances, because I like his voice a lot and the way he uses it - gravelly, bluesy, soulful. He seems a bit raw to me, but lots of potential.
4. Majesty Rose. Maybe not the strongest singer in the field but definitely the most adorable, big eyes, gap between the front teeth and all, and with the ability to make a song zing when she gets it right.
5. Malaya Watson. Cool, and a powerful voice to go with. I've gone a tiny bit off her because of the lack of control at times, but I wouldn't be at all unhappy if she can go deep into the season.
6. Alex Preston. Sensitive actually-indie-seeming type who I quite like in the context of Idol and who has real talent, though I suspect I'd dismiss him without a second listen if I heard him on the radio. Still, there may be more to him than he's yet shown.
7. Jessica Meuse. I wasn't a fan at first - she seemed to just be belting songs out without much nuance, and not even always fully in tune - but ok, I now get it a bit, especially from her "White Flag". And actually, with the right songs, someone who I can imagine listening to outside the format.
8. Caleb Johnson. Actually I reckon this guy's really good, especially after seeing his most recent one, "Skyfall", and he has been consistent. But this kind of classic rock-ish vibe just isn't my thing. Another who may have more up his sleeve, in which case I could really get behind him.
9. Sam Woolf. Nice voice, a bit bland. Probably a good shot at winning the thing seeing as he's young, nice-looking and inoffensively pleasant-sounding.
10. Dexter Roberts. Just doesn't give me anything - perfectly okay singer, but I find him boring.

To be honest, that list does reflect my own biases a bit, in terms of the singers operating in the territories that I tend to favour outside the Idol context generally appearing relatively higher up.

... and this is how the Vegas odds line them up for the time being (exactly transposing my favourite and least favourite and putting poor MK very far at the back of the pack, which I'm sure is in no small part because of her apparent lack of stage comfort):

	Dexter Roberts	4.25
	Alex Preston	5.00
	Caleb Johnson	5.00
	Jena Irene	6.50
	Sam Woolf	8.00
	CJ Harris	9.00
	Majesty Rose	10.00
	Jessica Meuse	11.00
	Malaya Watson	21.00
	MK Nobilette	51.00

(a few weeks back)

Straight to You: Triple J's Tribute to Nick Cave

Uneven, with the good ones outweighed by the less impressive or memorable. Still, the power and drama of Cave's songs has a way of coming through, even if only in traces - Adalita's "Straight to You", for example, conveys this strongly. Lisa Mitchell takes on not one but both of the big Cave ballads which have soundtracked so much for me in the past - "The Ship Song" and "Into My Arms" - and gives them fracturedly fragile readings that've taken a few listens for me to take to but which turn out to be pretty nice (the underlying quality of the songs and melodies doesn't hurt); Alex Burnett does a nice, lightly soulful pop take on the deathless "Shivers", acknowledging before doing so (these are live recordings) that it was actually penned by Rowland S Howard; Paul Kelly is as graceful as ever with his "Nobody's Baby Now".

Pretty much all of the other really totemic songs get a guernsey, though many of these do come off as askew, weaker versions of the indelible original takes - "Deanna", "From Her To Eternity", "Red Right Hand", "The Mercy Seat", "Do You Love Me", "Where The Wild Roses Grow" (this one works quite well - Alex Burnett in a much lower register than for "Shivers" and Lanie Lane), even "Nick The Stripper".

Anyway, I wouldn't say I've ever been a particularly huge Nick Cave fan, but there've been times when I've taken his music quite to heart, and to greater or lesser extents it's always been there somewhere in the background - he certainly deserves a tribute of this kind.

The Government Inspector (Malthouse)

Theatre seasons off and running for the year, and a good one to start - to be expected with Simon Stone at the helm. The premise for its 'The Government Inspector' could all too easily have devolved into unattractively self-contemplative meta-for-its-own-sakeness, and indeed the first few minutes threaten just that. But there's a sure hand at work with this production, from scripting to production and direction and carried through by the performances,[*] and it takes off in richly comic - and, indeed, farcical - vein, and proves thoroughly enjoyable, with much to say about and with the language of theatre, among other things. It all comes together, and would have been a success even without the ultimate (musical) staging of 'The Government Inspector' itself  - but that final play within the play (within the play) is the cherry on top as well as being the (almost) ending that was needed to complete it. Very good.

(w/ Cass, Erandathie & Cass's mum)

---

[*] Good across the board, with some familiar faces, including Zahra Newman (who I was pretty sure I recognised from Stone's Cherry Orchard, and it turns out was also in Blood Wedding, Simon Phillips' Richard III from a few years back, and Joanna Murray-Smith's Rockabye), Robert Menzies and Gareth Davies.

Just Tell Me That You Want Me: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac

Maybe Fleetwood Mac's one of those bands that you need to grow into, 'cause these days it's pretty obvious to me that they're basically awesome and yet the history of me talking about them on extemporanea, in 2007 and then again in 2011, is basically one of non-committally vague liking.

Anyway this is a decent compilation, with some good moments and some average ones. On the particularly good side of the ledger line up the Lee Ranaldo Band feat J Mascis with "Albatross", Antony doing "Landslide" (admittedly merely pretty rather than the revelatory version that it had the potential to be), Washed Out's "Straight Back", Gardens & Villas' "Gypsy" (two dreamily synthy tunes by bands that I hadn't heard before - somewhere in the terrain of Beach House and Wild Nothing) and an extremely simple and straight-up - but charming - "Rhiannon" by Best Coast. The New Pornographers and Lykke Li turn in some nice numbers too, both sounding v much like themselves. Also, turns out that "Dreams" did not need a slowed-down, garage-y take (no thank you, the Kills).

Melbourne Now once more

This time with Kai, in town from Perth. We were in the NGV International, and the ones I liked were pretty much those that I enjoyed last time (somewhat surprisingly, the room that blares sound and lights when activated by motion doesn't get old - Marco Fusinato’s Aetheric Plexus (Broken X)).

Also came across a section that I missed last time, including the 'Zoom' project which included cards that we could take away with ideas about how to maintain Melbourne's liveability - the three that I chose read "If all roads lead to Melbourne, start from the beginning" (probably the most poetic of the offerings), "Communities work alongside government to plan and program public places" and "Allow citizens direct access to decision making forums" (the latter two having more of a work flavour, I guess) - it was striking how consistent, and mutually aligned, most of the ideas were.

More generally, just another reminder of how wonderful it is to have a good public art gallery so easily accessible, open to all - and how important the NGV in particular has been, and continues to be, to me.

(NGVA - not visited this time)

Game of Thrones season 3

This show is really exciting, even when you more or less know what's coming. Which is actually quite a trick, especially given that the sheer number of pieces (characters) in motion means that you rarely get to spend more than a few minutes with any one or group of them at a time, and often only the once per episode at that. And yet it's gripping, even stirring - blessed with any number of narrative punches with which it can punctuate its events (often, to great effect, with the closing scene of an episode - like the loss of Jaime's hand) and an array of memorable characters who do spring to life on screen even if some, like Beric Dondarrion or the Unsullied this season, aren't exactly as I'd imagined them from the books, and also effective in its use of the possibilities and limitations of the tv medium to get the most out of all of that...and while the tv series is fast catching up to the books, there's still a lot to come and at least one great major character to arrive in season 4 - assuming that the Dornish make their appearance.

(season 1 + rewatch; season 2)

James J Heckman - Giving Kids a Fair Chance

I've developed an interest in early childhood development over the last year and a bit (*), in which field Nobel laureate Heckman's work has been very influential. This book has a pithy statement of his argument about the value - including from an economic efficiency perspective, and not neglecting the favourable equity implications - of early interventions aimed at both cognitive and socio-emotional skills; the piece itself isn't explicit, but I take it that the focus is from ages 0 to 5 years. And (this is what got me to buy it) it then follows up with a series of short responses from a range of other perspectives, most broadly supportive but a few dissenting or at least questioning key elements of Heckman's claims.

(The whole thing was originally part of a Boston Review forum, also available online.)

"So what I said is what I said and what you said is what you meant": Washington - I Believe You Liar

There's a fine line with this kind of music, moving in that interface between out and out pop and something a little edgier - the need to strike a balance between the pleasures of a simple pop song and the desire to create something maybe a little more interesting, a little different - and Megan Washington gets it right here, nearly all of I Believe You Liar's 13 tracks hitting the mark. I like the faster, peppier ones more - especially those with a bit of a brassier swing to them ... "Navy Blues", "Cement" (my favourite), "Plastic Bag" ... I recognised "The Hardest Part" too.

Damon Young - How to Think About Exercise

An enjoyable little book, which I've read - twice through, in fact - as part of my current focus on improving my lifestyle, energy levels and all-round wellbeing, part of which has involved both doing and thinking about exercise a fair bit more than any time recently prior to this burst.

Organised into short chapters dealing with various values and potentially valuable elements associated with exercise (reverie, pride, sacrifice, beauty, humility, pain, consistency, the sublime, oneness) and drawing on a range of philosophical, cultural-theory, literary and other perspectives, it emphasises the benefits that can come from a holistic, integrated approach to body and mind, physical activity and thought - very much in line with what triggered my own current reorientation towards exercise, while also providing me with some good new ways of looking at and making the most of it.

Firefox AK - Color the Trees

Reminds me of Wounded Rhymes a fair bit and the similarities don't end with the sound - Color the Trees was from the same year (2011) and its creator likewise hails from Sweden. I quite like it, but while most of the songs have a nice enough melody to them, I think my favourite of hers is still the beguiling "Cardiac Arrest", which brought her to my attention a few years back.