Amarantine

Darn it, I discovered Enya first.

I first heard her music in probably 1986, on 2JJJ's Ambience with Arnold Frollows - tracks from 'The Frog Prince'. Her first track I remember hearing was 'Aldebaran' from 'The Celts' on the evening show with Tim Richie, back when 'The Sex Pistols' could be followed immediately by some guy called 'Mozart'. That was in 1987. I liked the song so much I phoned up to ask what it was, and where I could get the album. Import. It cost me $45 (a lot at the time) and I am glad I have it, as the vinyl is so different to the CDs of today. The 20-something Enya on the front was also pretty cute.

Her next album (everyone called it her 'first'. heathens.) was rather good featuring 'Orinoco Flow', her first big hit. I had that album (another import) by Christmas 1988, though the album is listed as 1989. In 2JJJ's Hot 100 of 1989, Enya came in at #48 with Orinoco Flow. (Other notables were the B52s at #14 with Rock Lobster and #2 H&C's Throw Your Arms Around Me; which should be one of the songs Australians should sing at football matches. I laugh at the 'alternative' 2JJJ of today)

By the end of 1989 I was at uni and had an email address: uXXXXXXX@arch.unsw.oz.au, and discovered newsgroups - What We Did Before The Web. (By the way, check the wierd email - yep, pre .edu.au, and the .au was only recent. We were .oz before that). The following is one of the rare newsgroup listings from 1992 still in existence:

Date: Mon, 4 May 92
From: uXXXXXXX@arch.unsw.oz.au (name deleted)

I agree about the water/air/fire.. sequence in Enya`s albums- Shepherd Moons is very much an `air` album, just as Watermark was `water`.

The question is, will the next album be `fire`? And does anyone think the The Celts is the `earth` album? I always get images of stone circles and foggy moors when listening to that album...

The page this was from is notable for having intelligent dicussion with no spam. Two impossibilities these days. For further enjoyment the other two surviving emails are here and here. Wow, what an embarrassing sig file! The second message is amusing given the subject and sender!

YES! Anyway, I have always loved Enya's music, but sometimes I don't quite connect with it as much as I would like. 'The Memory of Trees' was an album of hers I didn't quite enjoy as much as the previous ones. I absolutely loved 'A Day Without Rain'; I thought it was brilliant. I missed 'Paint The Sky With Stars' and the LoTR albums, as I either had all the songs on them, or didn't care much for the new songs. Does this make me a bad fan? I also dislike the videos, partly because film of Enya singing is a bit meaningless - she is three people for a start, and filming someone layering 400 tracks is not interesting to some people.

Her new album is taking a while to grow on me. The Celts, Watermark, A Day Without Rain - all of these albums I loved on first listen. Maybe I haven't been in the mood for Amarantine yet. My mood around this time of year tends towards Charlie Chan's 'Adventures of...' and 'Songs of Distant Earth' by *cringe* Mike Oldfield *cringe*. Lately, Kate Bush's new album was one of those first-time favourites. Miles Davis and Bill Evans also get a playing, as does k.d. lang. 'A Day Without Rain' got hijacked and played to death after certain events of 2001, so I don't listen to it as much as I used to.

I can't work out Amarantine. I love the concept of Enya doing some Japanese songs, but it sounds like an ad; the song was made for an ad originally. For me this is like Van Gogh painting ads for Nike. (OK, let's not mention Salvador Dali and Chupa Chups. Anyway, they're Spanish and hardly an evil globalist child-slavery supporter. I hope) It's just wrong. Like when a soap company butchered Clannad's "Harry's Game"; performing the musical equivalent of spray-painting Coke logos on the Sistene Chappel ceiling. (Note to advertisers - I said 'soap company', not the advertising fuckwits who actually did it. I remember the soap company though, and will never buy their products. There is such a thing as anti-advertising you know.)

The track about rain is ok, and there is a dancey sort of track (though not as good as 'Flora's Secret' from ADWR). I can't remember the last couple of tracks - I have fallen asleep during them. Not actually a good sign, though it may be. Hard to tell.

I feel like I am being unfaithful, and am confused as to whether being critical counts as unfaithful. I want to like this album... but I am neutral towards it.

Do some more Japanese songs, Enya; but no more ads.

I tried to get a link to the album cover, but you can't link to the images; so, no images of my favourite singer. Welcome to the Future(tm). >:-( (angry frowny)

FISH!

Fish indeed.

I made steamed fish last night; blue-eye cod, steamed with garlic, ginger, coriander, chilli spring onion and lime. I had steamed bokchoy with it. Yum.

So it was only natural that I had dreams last night & this morning.

We were in a war. Us. Yeah, like that.

Australia was at war with... well... everyone. The USA held a lot, with France fighting hard against them. Both sides were pretty keen on eliminating all Australians. My surname meant I could pass as French though, which helped. John Howard was on radio telling all Australians to surrender to the Americans - to "honour the Agreement" and we would be treated fairly. That meant being shot on the spot. The Government survived though, and you could also be kept alive if you dobbed in at least 5 other people. Children were worth 2 adults.

This sounds like a nightmare, but wasn't; everyone had voted for it. Most parents were turning in their own children. My mum & dad had got away - I don't know where to. My brother was really angry at our betrayal by the Government "after all the work I did for you".

I got together with a few others - Bear, Syn, Bear's borther & family, my brother, and our friend from Canberra and his family. We all decided we could survive if we went bush for a bit. Out near Yass we got caught behind French tanks in a fairly big battle. The tanks were like the ones in Tron. They were getting hammered by US artillery though. The odd thing was each tank had hundreds of SAM and anti-helicopter micro-missiles, so thankfully we weren't being slaughtered by helicopter gunships.

Then the tanks went away, and I was on my own beside a concrete highway barrier. I was playing dead as The American General was searching bodies. He noticed I was alive, but worthless, so left me as a hindrance to the enemy. There was a young girl (maybe 12?) I was trying to protect her, as she had a broken leg. The General said she was useless, so he told her that he wanted to rape her, but she wouldn't be any fun. So he shot her in the head, but it didn't kill her as his gun malfunctioned. He fixed it with rubber bands (I watched this - it was important), then shot her again, killing her this time. I managed to then escape back behind French lines.

Then we (yep, multiple again) were on a wide plane that was also a forest, but with no trees. There was a massive air battle going on way overhead - hundreds of contrails. Pieces of aircraft were falling all around. B-52s were being used as fighters; in other words there was little sense to the battle, it was just destruction for destruction's sake. Then the Americans used an airburst nuke. I said "Oh, great, now everyone will use them" and they did. They used it because they couldn't win, but wanted to make sure no-one else would.

We hid; somewhere like Tamworth, maybe Coonabarrabran.

We hid in a carpark that was also in Hornsby - the old Westfield one before they knocked it down.

We all survived, due to the rubber band trick, and actually lived pretty well. Everyone else was dead; those that survived didn't bother each other. We hid when others came by, and made sure our house looked un-lived-in. There was a woman there who liked me. I don't know her - she had longish hair and freckles. I am pretty sure she was the one I was trying to protect earlier, but older now, and less murdered.

Despite all the battles and death, this actually wasn't a nightmare. It wasn't good as such (bits were) but it wasn't nasty.

Strange one. Other than the continuing collapse of Australian culture (hah!) and civilisation (hah!) at the hands of a democratically elected neo-nazi dictator, opposed by a bunch of spineless jerks who should be the first, er, second against the wall when the Revolution comes, I have no idea what caused this dream.

More news as it comes to hand.

Gataca here we come!

Yay! Australia leads the world again!

In yet another bold move towards Our Glorius Leader Howard's grand vision of an Australian Fourth Reich, the ABC runs a story about genetic discrimination. Wonderful!

Through technology unavailable to previous regimes, the Australian Authorities can now use your genome against you. Genetic predisposition to: terrorism? Voting labour? Supporting Kyoto? It's all just a matter of time...

Oh, and since Friday, it is probably now a crime for me to write this; and a crime for you to read it! Seeing as Australia is a good little Echelon lap-dog, we should all be expecting a visit from the anti-throughtcrime State Terrorism Anti-Sedition Investigators. Or maybe the Government Executive Surveillance Taskforce Against Possible Offenders. Either way, we now have a legislated STASI or GESTAPO.

Aussie-aussie-aussie! Heil-heil-heil!

Yay! Australia! Yay! Howard! Making the world safer for rich white people!

Strange dreams of different worlds

The weather has been distinctly summerish, and I have a cold. It's hot and humid overnight. Last night, I made myself one of my favourite chicken/chilli/garlic curries-stir-fry-thingy, guaranteed to scare the hell out of any known virus. And then I couldn't sleep, so I put on Brian Eno's Ambient 2: The Plateau of Mirrors.
Suffice to say, I had dreams last night; an unusual event in recent times. These ones weren't too bad, maybe a little nasty in places, but WILD.

I've been trying to assimilate the dreams since about 7:30am, and this is a very complex set. There are *lots* of images, of course in full 7.1 DTS, 3D-digital colour, smell-o-vision that all the experts say we don't dream in. There was also readable text - something very rare! that stayed readable for more than one glance. I also saw my hands, which is a sign of ... something?

Anyway, to start with I was on the corner of Elizabeth and William Streets in the city. Vicki Shaw / Snowdon walked by, and noticed me and tried to start a friendly conversation. She now had 3 childen, Laura would be 11 by now (but was still in a stroller) and the other two were 7 and 4, but were walking. Yes, 7 years old, I noticed that. A boy and a girl. Vicki was trying to be friendly, but the conversation went the way I have always imagined this conversation would go - nasty. She still wouldn't tell me why - outright refused. She could not understand why I would be angry with her. I retorted that as a major factor in severe depression she had little right to assume anything about me. Three times biten was enough for me, thanks. I told her to rack off, and never speak to me again. I felt sad doing it, but also this overwhelming desire to wipe her memory from my mind. She was wearing silver and black, and had her hair cut short, and was skinny like in 1990. Damn.

So I woke up after that bit, about 5am. Went and had a drink of water and went back to bed, listening to the kookaburras and the odd rooster starting to call. Yes, there are roosters living near my place. I like that.

The dream I fell back into made a major turn into the realm of wierd. How it relates to part 1 I have no idea. Maybe some link with women with dark hair? Yikes.



To start with, I was a woman. OK, before we go anywhere, there was nothing sexual in this, I just was a woman, like you play a female character. Right? Whatever. Anyway, I was a cross between Liv Tyler as Arwen Undomiel, Jennifer Connely as... as... anyone, and Aeon Flux (not Charlie Theron, thanks very much, the original). Um, women I admire? No, Xena wasn't there. Cute dark-haired women? Well, Jacqueline Pearce wasn't there either. And I have been wierder things - dolphin, trees, even sand. I was wearing a rather nice antique black silk kimono I saw in a 2nd hand shop in Katoomba on the weekend. The comment with this image was "Almost all gaijin end up looking like clowns in kimono.", by the way.

ANYWAY, I was in a city that was still Sydney, but Sydney in the time of Bladerunner or Serenity, which gives you a wide range, by the way. An intelligent holographic advertisment for the NRMA (might be a nightmare - they are still around?) accosts me, be gives me two million credits. This is not a bad thing, as I currently had zero in my credit account, and was living in state-supplied housing. But it was a nice house and I had a cat, a fluffy black-and-white one. I didn't see the cat, only knew I had it. I went to a bank-booth to check my account, it took them a while to search it, and I could see the 'reverse' side of the holograms the bank teller was using, and could read the numbers as she searched for my account. It was under my current pseudonym, Corinoco. The bank teller was the cute stewardess from 'Fifth Element'. The numbers were 'old' (our present day, present time, hahahaha) IP addresses, and I 'knew' that in the future, also knowing the real me. The numbers then jumped to 'modern' addresses, with 6 x 4 digit numbers. When she found my bank account, the teller said, yes, I had two million credits, but would now have to give up my house and cat! I said try again, so she started searching (or something) and this time the numbers '-6278' came up in big 100mm high holographic letters. The teller was startled, saying both that I had -6278 credits, and that it was an error. She then shut down the booth, and metal shutters came down. Alarms sounded and I heard the teller saying 'the criminal is outside'. I sat down thinking, 'be calm, you haven't done anything wrong, I'll just go back to my ship' Ship? Cool! Anyway, four security officers show up, heavily armed, firing stun darts. They hit about 7 bystanders before they realise I am the 'criminal'. I am screaming 'It's me!' at them, but they just keep shooting people. I lie face down on the floor, and the all point their guns at my head. One says 'Australian Security' (OH SHIT), while the other two use guns like Aeon Flux's needle gun to put black zip-locks on my wrists very hard. I see my hands here. They check their holographic PDAs to find I am a code '-6278' (shit, I have now seen that number clearly three times) and that I am to be taken to the 'Spire' in London. They drag me there. Fortunately London seems to be just outside the mall we are in. (Sydney? A mall? Makes sense...) They drag me along the smooth floor, and I am told to kneel 'like a dog' and be dragged. I offer to get up and walk, but they insist I be dragged.

Following this?

By the way, the entire second part of the dream had a soundtrack by Sarah Brightman. Which may make some people cringe.

Then we go up some escalators, that look a lot like the ones in a small arcade in Sussex St Chinatown in Sydney (present day, present time, hahahaha). There is even an old lady coming down who drops her sack of potatoes, blocking the stairs. The guards now say I can get up and walk, but I have to step on the potatoes. I feel sorry for the old woman.

Okaaaayyyyy....
Right, now we are up in the street, it is indeed London, with the 'Spire' being the Citadel from Half-Life 2. Makes sense. Sure. Not a place I would like to visit though. Parked to our left on a bridge is 'Serenity', which I know is my ship. (which is so darn cool!)

An aside here: it's not totally Serenity from the film, it's a mix of Serenity, the Liberator, a PatCon from 'Edge of Chaos', and what I think was a 'Daedalus' from those Galactic Starship books of the late 70s. It is nevertheless mostly the Serenity, with some slightly different engines underneath.

Anyway, while walking past it and admiring it, I notice I am free and the guards are walking on without noticing, still holding the zip-locks. Neat. I become the ship at that point, and fly away. I become a bird and fly between stars and nebulas, but at the same time I know that I am also being tortured in the Spire.

And then I woke up.

I haven't had intense imagery like that for quite a while. It's also nearly 2pm, and I know that I have forgotten over three quarters of the dream, I didn't get a chance to write anything till lunch.

Where that one came from and where it was going, I have no idea. Geomagnetic disturbances? I have leftovers of that chicken for dinner tonight, I think I may have some goat's cheese with biscuits for supper too!

I am a leaf on the wind...