Stravinsky Bordello (Dream Blog 1)

I recently read a piece in Wired about how to experience Lucid Dreams. They say that one of the ways to help you experience these is to write about your dreams. I thought I'd give it a go since, whilst a lot of my dreams are very strange, I almost never remember them. Last night's was a cracker though.

It starts with me in an orchestra pit with Johnny Depp and another man I don't know. The man I don't know tells me that Depp is actually Igor Stravinsky, and that I either have to write an opera with him, or make a film? I'm not sure if anyone can tell if it's the real Stravinsky or if that we're making a film about him. I guess the man I don't know is either a film director or the owner of the Ballet Russes. Either way, he gets us both in a big friendly headlock and tells us that whilst we don't get along, we should be able to produce a great *****. I don't remember what that last word was.

Cut to myself and Johnny/Igor with the members of Gogol Bordello. We're all sent to some tropical location to produce this unknown project. Instead of flying there on a plane, we all fly there superhero style. I'm flying along with the bassist from the band, endlessly complimenting him on his bass tone. The music playing in the background is this: 

We get bored with being superhuman after a while and end up falling to the ground, ending up in a rainforest somewhere. The rest of the band is there, along with Johnny/Igor, and someone looking a lot like Professor McGonagall. We all need to stop and eat something apparently. All there is to eat here though is some kind of weird insect that's trying to eat me alive.

After that we're inexplicably on The Orient Express. I forget what we were talking about here, but after a while I wake up. I never did find out if it was a film or an opera!

Things I Like/Dislike About Australia

Hey! I'm back from Australia now. I ran out of money so I came home early. Good to be home actually; a bit disappointed I couldn't stay in Australia for longer but my trip has definitely taught me a few things. I've got a list of things that I like and dislike about the country I spent almost five weeks in.

Three Weeks in New South Wales

Today I've got a summary of my first three weeks in Australia.

Sydney is a city you could spend a seemingly endless amount of time exploring. I spent my first week walking around the centre of the city and I still feel like I haven't seen all of it. I've done my best though! My second week was spent in a Hostel in The Rocks. I had a great time there, and met some great people!

I'd been dying to come back to Sydney since the first time I visited, in 2005. My first day here I tried to retrace my steps from that first trip. I visited Darling Harbour, The Rocks, Circular Quay, and the Royal Botanic Gardens. I remember all of these places vividly from my first visit and I'm just as fond of them now. Darling Harbour and Circular Quay are still (annoyingly I think) very touristy, but they do also have a very cool atmosphere, and amazing views! If I lived in Sydney I don't think I would ever tire of seeing the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House; two of my favourite pieces of architecture anywhere in the world. The Botanic Gardens have some really interesting views of the city's skyline; you get a very different perspective when you're surrounded by nature. (I know that makes me sound like a massive hippy.)

The first week was rounded off with a gig in Paddington with a friend of my relatives. Australian musicians and bands get almost no press in the UK so it was refreshing to go to a gig knowing that I would hear some new music. The gig was in Paddington United Church and was a great experience. The guy playing was called Whitely, he had some great acoustic tunes which seemed to fit the venue really well. Most of the pews had been removed and people sat on the floor to watch the show. It was excellent; it felt like everyone was mates at a house party, swapping jokes with the bands.

The Rocks are great as well. I spent an evening with some friends from the hostel in The Lord Nelson, the oldest hotel in Sydney. The hotel was established in 1842, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, is very (VERY) English. The interior is covered with naval flags and various Admiral Nelson related paintings, posters etc.
They also have their own brewery on site. I sampled three of the six beers on offer: Three Flags, Quayle Ale and Nelson's Blood. The favourite of the three is Nelson's Blood; a delicious, quite chocolately stout. There were also (amusingly) pork pies and several different cheeses on offer. My friend thought that The Lord Nelson is "more English than England". I'd have to agree!


Sydney is currently holding the Vivid Festival, and also its 17th Biennale. The Vivid Festival is a winter festival held every year in Sydney, and the Biennale's 2010 theme is "The Beauty of Distance: Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age". I've tried to enjoy as much of this as I could on my very limited budget; luckily there's plenty of free events and art to enjoy. The Museum of Contemporary Art has a free exhibition for the Biennale. For the Vivid Festival, the curators (Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson) have continued Brian Eno's "Lighting the Sails" from 2009. Every night throughout the festival, artwork is projected onto the Sydney Opera House. I loved this: one of my favourite buildings in the world, and some really interesting art. There's also a poem that is projected across the house. Other buildings in Circular Quay are also bathed in coloured light. I felt like I was in a massive piece of art.

To round off the sightseeing (and retreading my five year-old steps), I went to Bondi Beach, and travelled up the Parramatta River to Parramatta. Bondi is a pretty nice place, but the part I enjoyed most was staring out into the Pacific, and the company I was with. I went with a couple of people I met in the hostel, and we had some fascinating conversations.
Parramatta, on the other hand, is a complete nothing place. I went for the river trip (I love travelling by boat; it's very relaxing), but it could have been anywhere. There were a few (literally a few) old buildings, such as the old Government House, but the rest of the town seemed to be incredibly bland and depressing strips of shops. Finding cheap food was hard too. $12.50 for a bowl of soup?

The first few weeks of my trip have been great. I've met some great people, and done and seen things I didn't think I would ever see (eating kangaroo hot dogs and seeing a leopard-skin Opera House, for example.) Melbourne is next on the agenda; I'm looking forward to seeing some more states!

'Til next time,

Phil.

City of London

Massive gap between posts again, apologies! Mix of busyness and laziness. First time I've had to revise for anything since GCSE; I am not enjoying it.

But! The other day I went to the City of London to meet my dad for coffee. I took my camera and got a few shots. Below are a couple:

Too Much Coffee and Irn-Bru

The inevitable has happened. The blog's turning into a diary! I think it's mostly because I don't have the time at the moment to go out and look for interesting photos. I don't have so much uni work now (two of the three deadlines I mentioned in the last post have passed now), but this third one is a whopper: a 2,500 word essay on how I would give a presentation on Postmodernism.

Ok, so 2,500 words isn't that much, but I don't know squat about Postmodernism! So the research portion of the assignment is pretty epic at the moment. I've got some good quotes, and a rough idea of what I'm going to write, but I think there's going to be a lot of guessing/covering up my lack of knowledge! I'll be glad when this is handed in. All I have then is a composition (still a lot of work, but hopefully more enjoyable), and revision. FUN TIMES. But! I'll have time to actually try and plan what I want to do when I go on vacation in May.

I'm going to Australia for three months. I'm staying in Sydney with some relatives, but beyond that I have no idea what I'm going to do or where I'm going to go. I'm not exactly going to be loaded on this trip, so lots of cliché(d?) student shoestring-type activities will be on the cards I reckon. I know I definitely want to go to Melbourne. It looks like such a beautiful city, and I hear it has one of the best qualities of life anywhere in the world, so I want to check that out. The architecture looks very interesting too, so hopefully that will mean some good photo opportunities.

I'll be glad when my classes finish. This first year at uni has flown by, but there have been plenty of down points. I've felt homesick at times (which never happens to me), out of my depth (my music theory knowledge is pretty poor, though not for lack of trying!), and some of the classes here have been less than stellar. However! I really do think it's been good for me. There have been some really great and interesting classes, I've learnt some really cool things about music, been to some very interesting arts nights, and been able to experiment with some more outlandish ideas.

I'm really getting fond of living away from home as well. Uxbridge isn't the most exciting part of the world, but it feels more like home than where my parents live in Sussex. I've got my own way of doing things now, and generally feel more comfortable than when I go and stay with my folks. 

I'm also more pro-active than I ever was. I've had a lot of difficulties academically this year, and because these things never go away, I've had to sort them out of my own accord.

I'm growing up, basically.

St. Pancras

So I didn't get the time for a second post before the end of February like I wanted to. But! I do have an excuse. Most of my deadlines are in the next three weeks, then comes exam period! So I have actually been busy for once in my life.

I went home last weekend to do some work, which ended up as a pretty unsuccessful pursuit. On the way back to uni though, I had a wander around St. Pancras International station. I'd had a brief look round on the way home a couple of days before, but I hadn't ventured to the upper levels where the Eurostar leaves from. It's a pretty amazing place; a really cool mix of modern and Victorian architecture. I'm a big fan of architecture and this place was right up my street.

I got a few snaps of the place on my phone (I didn't have my camera with me). Here's a couple I've uploaded:

































The first photo is a sculpture next to the platform, and the second is the shopping area on the lower level.

Trees and Snow and Things

Aloha! Things are pretty busy here at the moment, so I haven't had as much time to work on this blog as I thought. I'm still thinking of some topics for posts, so for now I'll just post a few of my photos that I like. Today's photo is one I took in January of this year.

This is the street that my parents live on. They live in a rural area of Sussex, so there are some nice photo opportunities I don't get living on the outskirts of London.

I don't like the original of this photo too much. The sun is a bit intrusive, and the whole photo looks a little too yellow. I tweaked the exposure and contrast a little, and the definition to highlight the clouds some more, and I changed the colour filters to boost the blue. As a result, the photo looks a lot colder, which is how I think it should look (y'know, cause it's snow).


That's all I have for now. Hopefully my next post will be a little sooner!