mootPointer :

More of what you've missed

andrew@mootpointer.com (Andrew) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 03:15:00 +1000

Here’s 25 more shots from my flickr profile that you may have missed if you’re not keeping a track of it. Click on any one of them to get a bigger view. The majority of these are from my outreach phase from the Troubadour DTS that I completed in September. Enjoy.

Musical treats: Brooke Waggoner

andrew@mootpointer.com (Andrew) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 02:15:20 +1000

I’ve had a bit of time to trawl the internet this last couple of weeks, which is a significant change the last couple of months of my life. One thing that I’ve missed has been picking up new, obscure music. Not sure how obscure this one is, but it was kind of interesting to listen to. Brooke Waggoner was one such discovery for me. She’s been getting smatterings of press with the release of her new album. Now I haven’t yet reached home, or earned any money with which to purchase this album, but she released an EP, Fresh Pair of Eyes for free download.

It’s an intriguing collection of songs really. I was trying to put it somewhere in the musical genre spectrum, I suppose she’d fit somewhere between pop, folk, roots and something else. She describes herself as indie/pop on her myspace, but I’d guess she’d be as stumped as to where to put herself as well.

The piano-driven, string accompanied, vocally-layered affair, which makes up this EP is a fascinating thing for me. It seems to be quite the in-thing at the moment, and really seems to work for this particular set of songs. Brooke totes her very own Bachelors in musical complication, and I suppose that shows. The songs are nicely structured, contrasting between laid-back sections running into frenetic high-points, with a tasty hook in there too.

I quite like the arrangement of the whole thing, with layered vocals, piano, acoustic guitar, along with that already mentioned string section, even an organ at one point which I quite enjoyed (although I have a sneaking suspicion that it’s a rather convincing sampled organ). The production is quite cool, all these cliché indie/pop/folk instruments can border on becoming rather trite, but they’ve been kept rather fresh to my ears. Of course, that could be because I’ve been working in a country in which the kids, on being asked about different musical styles can come up with “Hip-hop”, “RnB” and “Gospel”, maybe even stretching to “Rock” if you push really hard.

Who is this for? An interesting question. If you like that laid back, acoustic sound, then you’re probably going to like this. It’s not the most stunning example of song-writing, I have to say that now, but it’s definitely on the right road. Out of all the similar artists last.fm suggested, there where only a few I could actually recognise (am I that out of touch?). Apparently she bears similarities to Regina Spektor and Feist, as well as Cat Power. My suggestion, if you want something laid-back, fairly well written, and pretty light, this is something for you. A couple of additional bonuses: I don’t think she’ll be overplayed on commercial radio too soon, and you get to bring out some musical snobbery as you talk about another indie/pop/folk artist.

The EP, Fresh Pair of Eyes is available for download from Brooke’s website, after signing up for her mailing list, which you can promptly unsubscribe from if necessary. Also, “Live for the Sounds”, a song from her album Heal for the Honey is available for download, no strings attached here

Consumption.

andrew@mootpointer.com (Andrew) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:28:00 +1000

I read a lot of news. Actually, that’s not true. I filter a lot of news. Actually, calling it “news” might be pushing it a bit. I read a lot of article based information. It doesn’t actually consume that much of my time to do so, either. Going through the actual filtering process takes me about three seconds per article. Actually consuming things that I’m interested in takes up a bit of time, but it’s time well spent if you ask me.

Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!

So yeah, you get the idea. I get the feeling that the majority of people could count the sites which they regularly consume on their hands, some might be pushed so far as their toes. This perhaps gives an impression of how much I trawl through to get to the good bits. If you’re interested in exactly what I’m reading, that will have to come later.

Harrison.

andrew@mootpointer.com (Andrew) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 22:52:00 +1000

Here’s something for you to check out: Harrison. It’s a musical collaboration between two of my very good friends. I love the track they’ve posted there, but even more I like the website that they put together for it. It’s a nice little javascript side-scroller, which really tickles me. I hope you like it too.

Dopplr.

andrew@mootpointer.com (Andrew) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 03:13:00 +1000

Dopplr. It’s the goods. I’ve kept mine updated throughout my travels, and I’ve realised how handy it would be if my fellow travellers used it as well… So what are you waiting for?

If you’re not really a traveller, then just look at my pretty profile

I actually like the site as an example of good, clean and clever web design.

Swimming lessons.

andrew@mootpointer.com (Andrew) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 07:41:00 +1000

This is continued from the previous article.

Romark was part of the children’s camp I was helping with. He and 19 other boys would come to a farm a little way out of town each day and there we had our camp. I was Romark’s small group leader. That meant throughout the day, whether we were playing soccer, doing work duties, discussing the lesson, just hanging out or swimming, Romark was with me. It was that last one, swimming, which bonded us together the most.

Swimming was a big drawcard for the boys. The town swimming pool was a fair walk from the community in which they lived, and I’m not sure they could always afford the entry fee and the pool at the farm we were at was always a hit. At the mention of swimming, the boys in my group quickly got changed, showered of and ran to the pool gate where they would wait for me. I guess Romark did the same, I didn’t notice. What I did notice is once we reached the pool and I allowed the boys to jump in (and boy did they jump in), Romark was left standing by the side, possibly shivering.

Now at this point, I have to admit, I had jumped in and was already playing with the other boys by the time I noticed. Romark seemed to be shivering, as I mentioned, and that didn’t add up – it was a barmy thirty-something (that’s mid-to-high eighties for those of you stuck in Fahrenheit) and despite his slight physique, I was sure that Romark could not be cold. I asked one of the kids that was helping us with translation to ask what was wrong. She said that Romark couldn’t swim – in fact he was afraid of water.

That threw me. I live in a land of swimming pools and coastal cities. You learn to swim around about the time you learn to walk. I honestly cannot remember a time when I could not swim, so the idea that a seven year old boy couldn’t swim was definitely something I had to get my head around. Having done that, I decided that I wanted to fix that. I didn’t really know how. I had no recollection of learning how to swim, so I couldn’t rely on that. I decided getting him in the water was a start. I told him that if he wanted, he could hold onto me and we would go in the pool, and that he would be safe with me. Romark, after some convincing, agreed.

Romark

The result was comical indeed. A tiny coloured kid clinging to the neck of a lanky, very white, Sydney kid wading through a pool whilst several other splashed and played around them. He was shaking, even as he clung to me and as I walked through the pool, I kept repeating to him “I’ve got you, you’re okay, I’ve got you.” I’m not sure how much he understood, or how much it changed things, but at least it seemed to help. From there, over the next weeks, I managed to get Romark to loosen his grip a little, then to let me hold him while he kicked and even to jump and splash his way over to me a couple of times. By the end of our time, Romark would happily enter the pool on his own. He wasn’t swimming much, and stuck mostly to the shallow end, but it was a victory for me.

Now I didn’t write this story to blow my own trumpet. I’m not a swimming instructor. I’m sure plenty of people could have done a much better job than I in getting Romark comfortable in the water. The reason I’m writing is because the moment impacted me. This kid, who has been through a lot, there’s no question of that, decided that I was trustworthy enough that he would cling to me in an environment which he saw as hostile. I had the chance to do something for this kid that most fathers do for their children. To me that’s something special.

People give Christianity a lot of flack as a religion. I know, I just spent two and a half months on outreach, trying to effectively get across the message of my faith. People label the Christian faith as a lot of things, and I’m not about to deal with all of them here. What I do say however, is that my understanding of the Christian faith is that it is based around a loving father. I’m not going to quote scripture at you, or even say any more than that, but I believe when I carried Romark around that pool, I had a chance to show him a little slice of God’s love for him.

Introducing Romark.

andrew@mootpointer.com (Andrew) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 07:06:00 +1000

This is something of a test post, I’m interested in the reaction I get from attaching a story to a photo like this. I anticipate I’ll do something on Flickr as well, but just to say that this post has bigger implications than just filling space on the blog.

Romark was fascinating. At seven years old, might have been the youngest of the eco warriors, I’m not sure, but he was definitely the smallest. He barely passed my hip when standing next to me (although in fairness, my hips are a fair way up). I’m not sure what to attribute his small stature to. I’m not very good at associating size and age, but he did seem a little below the average. Perhaps it was just genetics, perhaps malnutrition, perhaps exposure to drugs at an early age. Whatever the case, his small stature was easily made up for by his brain.

Romark

It’s funny to judge a child’s intellect when you don’t really speak each others’ language. While Romark’s English was much better than my Afrikaans, our direct communication mostly consisted of him speaking in Afrikaans and I in English – our bodies spoke more than our words I think. Despite these communication issues, Romark had that certain something, that spark which conveys – more than words ever could – the fact that this boy had smarts.

I had heard stories of Romark’s exploits. One story detailed him masterminding a copper heist, planning the theft of copper wire from somewhere or other. I’m not sure if he was involved in the execution, but as the story was told, Romark came up with the plan and had other older boys do the dirty work. Remember, this is a seven year-old. To me, he stood out as a leader. Not because he was bossy, or because he had a lot to say, but because he didn’t need to say a lot. Romark would say something, (most of the time, I didn’t know what he was saying) and the other eco warriors would follow his lead.

Alas, because of the language barrier and because of the position I had over Romark as a camp leader, I never got to see the full extent of his craftiness or his leadership. My story is much more about my contact with Romark. That story comes tomorrow.

So, what happened to all the money?

andrew@mootpointer.com (Andrew) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:41:00 +1000

I’m heading back home soon, and I need to get a job, so suddenly after 5 months when the only financial thing that I cared about was how the Australian dollar compared to the South African Rand, I care about the global financial markets. Why? The state of the market defines how much capital there is around to invest in projects. My last job was with Mark. who are a marketing firm. The first thing that goes in a recession? Advertising. Other players in the market are holding their money closer to their chests and in essence, there is less money to put into new projects, there is less money to pay me.

Anyhow, I recently listened to the best reporting, the most comprehensive, understandable run-down of the pile of trouble which has come down on us over the last months. NPR teamed up with This American Life and put together a report entitled The Giant Pool of Money, which is all you need to know about why you keep hearing about banks closing, and stock markets crashing, and multi-billion dollar (that still trips me out) government bail-outs.

You can listen to it here, but it’s an hour long, there’s a shorter version here, which gives you plenty of info.

Via BoingBoing

We grew up watching this...

andrew@mootpointer.com (Andrew) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:15:00 +1000

Somehow it doesn’t surprise me that our generation is quite so messed up now.

Ah Seasame St..

Ten reasons I still take photos

andrew@mootpointer.com (Andrew) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:33:00 +1000

Click on the image to see the original.

One.

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Nine

Ten.