Missing Moffs Moments 2

HUGE APOLOGIES to my regular readers and Moffatts mates wondering where their photos got to. (Email me at: brinetimes@gmail.com )

Within an hour of downloading 1000+ shots of Moffatt the other morning, my laptop emitted a burnt wiring odour and decided to retire after 7 or 10 years of loyal service, which is like 100 human years.
I'm not sure how long it's been, but it was the white Macbook 13".
We went everywhere.
Governments came and went.
Despots fell.
Heros died.

The little white lappie just kept on digesting all manner of images - shots of weddings on the beach at Noosa, Maldivian moments, Morocco, WA, the NSW Central Coast and a trillion old analogue film scans from last century.

Thank you little white darkroom-in-a-box.

The Clutter

I was smiling the other morning. 

The Spring sun was poking through the industrial jaggness that is the horizon here in the burbs as a huge garbage truck pulls up outside, grabs our rubbish bin with an evil mechanical claw, hurls it into the air and slams it back onto the footpath.

I'm smiling at the surreal nature of this weekly ritual.

I'm smiling at the fact that I go to work to earn money so I can pay somebody to take away clutter that I paid for with money I earned. 

I'm smiling because I'm stupid and I know it.

If I bought less clutter, I could spend less time working and more time surfing or shooting surfing or writing about shooting and surfing and clutter.

Simple.

Not.

My clutter habit is deep seated, beginning with a childhood where money was spare and luxuries non-existent. Add to that a lifetime of exposure to advertising with luscious photography promising an illusory life of wonder.

And so The Clutter creeps back. A shirt, a lens, a fin on sale. A DVD, a CD an MP3 here and there. Some new wine glasses. A bottle of red. A bottle of white. A bottle of authentic Canadian maple syrup for those pancakes only eaten once because I'm trying to get healthier and fittier. A bunch of film in the refrigerator past it's use by date for a variety of cameras busted out once in a while.

Clutter.

And so I do the Spring Clean again.

Until next year.

Monochrome Monday (is back)

Constructivism

Let me say at the outset that I am not a Pearl Jam zealot. Somewhere in the 600+ CD's stacked like plastic skyscrapers in the Brinecave there are five studio and live PJ albums, which I never tire of.

Conversely, how many musicians can keep churning out albums and continue to stimulate the earbuds of us cash strapped punters? The late Zappa, maybe. Even the mighty Lou Reed, the Stones and Mr Young put out some clunkers.

With this in mind, I tentatively ventured to the local music shoppe and handed over $30 to the friendly part time musician, who recognised an old roadie in my hearing loss. What if Lightning Bolt was a dud? This is album #quite-a-few after all. But the reviewer gave it 5 out of 5.

I rationalised my expenditure by convincing myself that spending money locally is good for the local economy and keeping some young person in a job (after all somebody - presumably jobless - tried to break into my neighbours' yesterday). And let's face it, at this time of the year, you're flat out getting three cans of decent beer at the local golf club for $30. And I'm pretty sure the sonic pleasure will last longer than the hangover. At worst, I can regift it to somebody for Xmas . . .

And so we come to the packaging aRt, either a copy of the theme used by Led Zepellin last Xmas or a nod to Russian Constructivism of 100 years ago. I'm guessing the latter. Either way the artwork is the only disappointing part of Thunderbolt. There's nothing revolutionary about this album. It's great sonically, but with songs like Thunderbolt (about girl), not exactly harvesting new terrain or encouraging the proletariat to take over the Czar's riches. There' fast songs, slow songs and sections with amazing percussion and awesome guitar. Eddie would go, Eddie did go. Keeper.

Use The Force

Maybe it's because I observe too closely or the fact that I keep hearing that tune from Star Wars.
Nonetheless, I think the extinct iMac Fruity resembles Mr Vader.
Tony Stewart half the force behind the rebirth of the iconic Woosleys Surfboards using his powers to harness joy at Happy Valley, Sunshine Coast.

Mix Tape

Most Heroes Are Anonymous

 "Most Heroes Are Anonymous" the shoe slogan read, back in the day when I actually ran (as opposed to this morning's uncoordinated puffing shuffle).
Clever. Had me hooked. Still like it.
As a concept anyway, but not as a sneaky advertising gimmick designed to vacuum more debt out of one's "credit" card.

In the greater scheme of things, most of us would be lucky to know a couple of hundred other souls traversing Life.
To the rest of the planet, we are anonymous. Randoms. Faceless. Without a story.

But heroes no less to those we care for, to those we inspire, to those we love.
And that's enough.

Salty Pixels

This one's for The Troika.   You are legends!

Lino

The old wooden house I grew up in had this really loud, multi-coloured, checkered lino in the kitchen.
Years later I discovered lino printing.
Easy to carve. Hard to carve something worth showing the world. (My fine motor skills were never quite developed.)

Winter is Ova

Couple of winter snaps.
Summer is early.
Pack away the wettie.

Game Changer

The photo above was taken with a Nikonos 35mm film camera.

A lot of people get excited about film.

But not me.

It costs money and time waiting to see if you got the shot. And the camera above is manual focusing, manual film wind on.

Film does have it's time and places, depending on the light, the emulsion (affordable digital still can't replicate infra red mono film for my money) and the intended final use. 

I still use four film cameras including a 1936 6x6 and a 1980s Nikonos with two different lenses to shoot out in the water with. However, I mainly shoot water surf using a bulky DSLR in a robust professional housing.

But today, one can now buy a digital version of the legendary underwater Nikonos, complete with interchangeable lenses, small size, large resolution and 10+ frames per second. It's a game changer.