Currents by Tame Impala

Every once in a while I found an album I can listen to in order and on repeat. Sometimes it seems in the landscape of digitisation, we have somewhat lost the art of appreciating the album as unit of music, as opposed to a playlist.

I have very fond memories of one particular morning (after a night of revelry) that was spent listening to Lonerism on a record player, and drinking cab sav in a friend’s garden.

For me Tame Impala’s music conjures up this slightly delirious, carefree, youthfully nostalgic mood where conversations are deep, and the issues between people seem to matter little.

I remember there being complete silence when we listened to Feels like we only go backwards, tapping my finger on the knee of my then lover who lay dozing on my lap.

I remember exchanging a look of understanding with his friend whom I never got the impression was my biggest fan, but in that moment we shared one of those rare illuminating moments of connection that can only be facilitated by music which possesses a rare magical quality.

southcoast exploring

Being a West Australian I have always been of the opinion that the best coast is the west coast, however exploring the south coast of Australia in the last few days has invited me to question this assumption and has given me a greater appreciation of the south’s answer to our wild and barren yet beautiful western side of the vast nation i call home.

First stop along the coast was the Royal National Park, located just outside of Sydney, this bush was reminiscent of my grandparent’s farm where march flies and muddy creeks are commonplace. The type of country you imagine when someone tells you they have ‘gone bush’ for a bit.

We continued further south, to a place which more closely resembles something from the teletubbies than from a nation renowned for it’s rainless days, Kiama where we met with some old family friends, sharing red wine and walking their dog Misty in the great outdoors, while keeping an eye out for migrating whales. The view from the balcony of their home shows just how varied this magical place is, where the palm trees remind us that where we stand today there once was a rainforrest, and the mountains on the horizon means that night comes quicker and is colder than in the mountainless West.

The next stop was a small place in whoopwhoop called Duras, a beachside town with trees as tall as the giants you were told about as a smallchild. Located just outside of a national park life is slow and simple here and water is collected in tin rain tanks. The beauty of the ocean reminds me that this land is collected to the land i call home, the same water kisses the shores of my home break. It feels familiar, yet worlds away from rugged WA. As always, standing on the beach looking out into the enormity of the ocean serves as a reminder that although my life’s burdens might seem like the ocean, they are just one a few minuscule water particles in a vast expanse of sea.

snap happy in sydney

there is some kind of magic in our ability to take a snapshot in time, and store a moment by collecting light. Photographs are magic, as they look like reality and over time they remind us of what it was to see what we once saw in real life. something that is lost when we examine the final product in real time, what our face looks like if we raise one eye brow or smile slightly wider while facing the selfie camera on the iphone… there is something rawer, realer, more honest and innocent when we just click the ‘capture’ button without the ability to review how we want to remember the moment with the lens.. i like leaving it up somewhat up to chance, letting the candid and unmediated subject speak for itself, instead of starting the editing process before the press of a button. this is what i like about my go pro hero 2. Here are three favourites from my adventures around sydney today the photographs are closer to the golden age of analogue photography, where the amateurs who now wield selfie sticks and capture 2003893839kb of images reminding them of the continuance of their mundane existence were weeded out covering the lens with their sticky fingers, or not understanding white balance or how the shadows and sun translate into a photograph. I like the results. They make me happy, and more inclined to ditch the selfie and let the camera itself choose the filter for how i choose to impart my existence to the world visually by capturing memories the snap happy way!

Bondi to Bronte

It may have been an overcast day when I first cast eyes on Bondi beach, however the natural beauty of Australia’s most well known beach was breathtaking  all the same.

Mainly populated by tourists with selfie sticks (lord help us!) and enthusiastic surfers on account of the swell, this is a place where you feel truly blessed to be alive and able to experience the enormity of nature and the ocean.

why i made a new facebook account

Hey facebook friends,
Just a notice to let anyone who may be interested know I’ll be deleting this account in the next week or so…
Why? You may ask,  as you may have noticed I am not exactly a stranger to sharing photos, rants and music links to the newsfeed….
See here’s the thing… after nearly 10 years of being on social networks, and 5 years of studying media at University i’ve decided it is time for Mariko facebook 2.0, and one final long winded status before i close this account..
Although our in-person identity shifts, changes and evolves from day to day, haircut to haircut and birthday to birthday our internet identity remains an archive of all our past selves.

It reminds us, for better or worse of how we got to where we are today and all the people we met along the way.
In a way, clicking the ‘delete account’ button is a betrayal to past marikos, but it is more than that, it is freedom.

Freedom to be a 22 year old unburdened with reminders of the defunct music genres and misguided sentiments I have since outgrown.

Virtual ghosts lurking from a time where we were blissfully unaware of the role social media would one day play in shaping our personal, social and collegiate lives…
As one may expect from a media/communications student, i can appreciate online communication is incredibly useful and beneficial..

But what does concern me is the manifestation of narcissism and voyeurism which has been collateral to the ease and speed of social interaction facilitated by new media technologies.

What does scare me is what is lost in our hours of tagging our mates in hilarious memes, looking at the holiday photos of someone we may not even talk to in the street, clicking on the profile of the girl who our ex-boyfriend from five years ago is dating and stressing over the ‘seen’ button..

Developmental psychologists have concerns that our generation’s use of cyber technologies such as facebook have aversely impacted young people’s interpersonal skills. They are concerned that overuse of these technologies may ultimately result in the complexity and messiness of human communications getting shortchanged and lead to an inability for people to decode other’s emotions in real life. These concerns seem to be well founded…
Maybe this makes me sound like a massive hypocrite and someone who has been studying Arts for far too long but, I guess i just want a chance to figure out who I am without a timeline displaying every party i’ve been to, person i met and photo i’ve been tagged with since I was 16 years old to those around me (and to myself, every personal message i’ve sent and online argument i’ve had since MSN). And I wanted to explain that to anyone who was sick enough of buzzfeed to click the read more on this status.

“Who we are online is only ever this small, untouchable part of ourselves. It’s not us. Not really. But whoever we are has become lost – becomes a little bit more lost with every log in, every opened app.” – Spook Magazine

Travelling alone – why do it?

Travelling alone – why do it?

I like the freedom to drift and float. The freedom from  an itinerary. The freedom from someone else’s travel experience expectations. Sometimes what you want out of travel is merely the chance to go about your life some place else for a little while, to break away from the places and people that you associate with every day to allow yourself to reflect on where you are and where you want to be.

10000 mile girl runs (not quite 10000 miles)

What has possessed me to sign up for my first half marathon? (I am wondering myself!)

So as some people may know, about a year or so ago I was hospitalised due to a severe asthma attack. It all started innocently enough, with a common cold and difficulty breathing which was usually alleviated by a puff or two of my inhaler.

It had stretched on for two weeks or so, and the side-effects of the ventolin were starting to take it’s toll.

I was feeling a bit weak and jumpy, on edge and was irritable and anxious about things which would not usually bother me, but I kept on doing all the things i usually do, asthma wasn’t going to win this time, it couldn’t stop me from having my usual “wobbly wednesday” night out with my friends, I had a secret weapon which allowed me to keep calm and carry on – my inhaler.

My inhaler served me well, i went out, had a few vodka lime sodas, busted out some (probs embarrassing) dance moves and got a kebab, almost forgetting I even had asthma.

When I came home I was talking on the phone to a boy I was seeing and realised that it was becoming harder to talk, I wasn’t able to be my usual chatty self.

I sought the relief of my inhaler, breathing in deeply I waited for it to help me breathe. But the relief never came. My inhaler had stopped working.

It was like the feeling when you are a kid in a swimming pool and someone ‘dunks’ you, holding you under the water away from the air, and all you want is to take a breath but you can’t, your lungs are useless.

South Cottesloe

Hidden just around the cove from the popular tourist stop Cottesloe beach, South Cottesloe beach provides a slice of serenity amongst Perth’s leafy Western suburbs.

Skyscanner, Singapore Slings and Surprise Stopovers

Imagine my surprise when I touched down in Singapore in July last year and realised my connecting flight to Istanbul was not at 1:45pm that day, but 1:45am the next (read about sleeping in airports here).

Slightly blearily on account over over indulgence on the delicious complimentary Singapore slings   (anything with gin and/or grenadine, yes please!) I decided it was time to go exploring.

With a few Singaporean dollars, a metro pass and a sense of adventure I roamed around this oriental delight of a city for the best part of a day.

If you have a couple of hours to kill in Singapore, i can recommend purchasing a sweet crepe from the Bugis street markets (and doing a spot of shopping of course!), marvelling at the stupendous Marina Bay sands mall and the accompanying Gardens by the Bay where the canopy of super-trees will really have you feeling like a ladybird in a field of grass.

The floating baby sculpture at Gardens by the Bay also had me wondering whether those Singaporean slings had been incredibly potent or I had simply lost the plot from delirium due to my hasty flight booking.

Here are a selection of snaps I took on my (surprise!) stopoever.

Mac DeMarco

Mac DeMarco is kind of like vegemite, you start off either loving or hating him but after a period of forced exposure most learn to respect, if not appreciate the quirky taste..

Friends have scalded my appreciation for his album Salad Days on the grounds that every song sounds the same, but i digress and suggest that it is the perfect soundtrack to lazy sundays spent sleeping off that hangover or those in depth conversations with friends which lead to in depth discussions about the meaning of life, a Game of Thrones and the key internet memes of our generation.

With Mac, you don’t just get the music served to you on a pretty platter with a few festival pics and words about how he loves all his fans. You get some weird stuff. For example, last month he sold an old pair of his Vans on eBay for twenty one thousand dollars.

Mac DeMarco is kind of like that soulful stoner/skateboarder/musician you dated sometime in your late teenage years. Looking back now you can’t really explain what it was that drew you to him, but you still have fond memories and will always have a soft spot for him.