In Ghost Colours

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Capote

“Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself”

Truman Capote is my favourite writer.

I'm doing a radio course at the moment, at SYN in Melbourne. While print media will always be my favourite medium and I can see myself writing for print and online my entire career, I'm also keen to try a bit of radio and maybe some television too. Anyone who knows me knows how crazy I am about music, so I love the idea of having my own radio show. I get to play the tunes I like and force them on listeners, hopefully they will like what I play too, and maybe discover a new band to love in the process.

I'm not very confident about speaking on air yet, but I hope that practice will help me overcome that and I can pretend that I'm not shy.

At the end of our four-week course, we're encouraged to put together a demo as an audition to have our own radio show for ten weeks. I already have an idea about what kind of music I want to play and what topics I want to discuss, but I don't have a name for it and I think I need a catchy sign-off too. All my favourite journalists have one. I need a signature phrase, or maybe I'll have a theme and do something like having the last song from my show always being from a certain year, or country. Or maybe I could just end it by saying my name over and over again, in various vocoder tones. Yeah, that'd be real cool.

Walter Cronkite "And that's the way it is."

Edward R. Murrow (As portrayed by David Strathairn in Good night and Good Luck) "Good night, and good luck."

Ron Burgundy, "You stay classy San Diego."

I'm currently listening to Tame Impala's live set on Triple J. It sounds lovely, I can't wait to see them in October! I love the way they're blending their songs into one another, going from Forty-One Mosquitoes Flying in Formation directly into Half Glass Full of Wine. It's like one long jam sesh. I'm sure there is a technical term for it, but clearly, I know nothing about music.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Sweet Disposition

"Stay there /// Cause I'll be coming over"

I had been hearing this song on Triple J for a while now but rather infuriatingly, each time it was played the DJs never back announced what the song was. The other day, thanks to the new AFL ads on TV at the moment (yeah, go figure), I found that this song is Sweet Disposition by a Melbourne band called the Temper Trap. Try listening to it by yourself at night time, with the lights turned off. There's something about the building tension in this song that sends shivers down my spine. I love it. I'm sure everybody knows the giddy feeling of starting a new relationship, with a person you're absolutely head-over-heels for. I've listened to this song about 20 times in the last 24 hours and I'm not sick of it yet. Their album Collisions is definitely at the top of my list of albums to buy. The band moved to London a few months ago, but I have a sneaking suspicion they played in Geelong before they left. Just my luck.

Falling in love with a stranger.

I was gobbling down my muesli when I first noticed you. As you sat down at the table in front of mine, you turned your head and smiled. Was there something in my hair? I suddenly felt self-conscious, on this hungover Sunday morning when I wasn't looking or feeling my best. The cute girl sitting across from you could have been your girlfriend, so I stopped admiring your hair and your sense of style and concentrated on the Sunday papers instead. I remember reading the social pages. Gossip and muesli always cures a foggy head. The next time I glanced up I recognised the relationship between you and the girl as that of brother and sister and I imagined what it would be like to hold your hand. When she went to the bathroom, you remained, looking around the room. I saw you glance coyly at me again. I finished my muesli and went to pay. I had better things to do with my day than fall in love with a stranger. As I was leaving you smiled at me. I smiled too, knowing that in this city of four million strangers I wouldn't see you again.

Sometimes it is all too easy to fall in love with a cute stranger we see. It's fun to imagine where we would go on a date, what movie we would watch on the couch together and even what we would put on the mix CDs to each other. All from that one moment of eye contact. I sometimes wish I had more confidence to do something about that spark, but I also like hiding behind my imagination and having faith in fate. If it's meant to be, it'll happen. But then, what if, while I'm waiting for fate to work in my favour, I miss out on the chance to meet someone awesome?

Do you ever fall in love with a stranger? I do, most days.