Sometimes silence is golden, I have been spinning some records at home when the silence needs a break. I went to a concert Friday night. It was at the Factory Theatre in Marrickville. It was a celebration of 30 years of Stone Throws records. They have a big catalog of genres and artists. Some of their artists I only found out about a few months back. I had heard some of their music but it didn’t register. A friend invited me to the gig and then when I did some research put some of the names to the record company. At least I learned something, I missed some of the US music in the early 00s as I got deep into UK music.

UK music that I like is a little darker and edgier than the Soul, R&B, and Hip Hop coming out of the US. The friend I went with makes music and knows a lot about break beats and sampling. So before the concert I got some introductions to famous samples and artists who have been sampled, some that I knew nothing of. Bob James being the main name I had never heard yet I knew his music from Hip Hop samples from a young age. So I went to the record store, I got bored because of my poor attention span and also I didn’t know where to look. My exes son by complete accident pulled out a Bob James record and I was so happy.

I bought two records and they were not the Bob James classics but they were great studio sessions, ‘one on one’ a deep dive studio session and ‘obsession’ a more electronic foray that has Bob James smooth jazz feel that he is famous for.

When I was young I was so inspired by Gerhardt Richter the visual artist, he is such an unpredictable and skilled artist. I was right into German art in the 90s, it seems to have stuck with me. I guess when you are young you get inspired and the 90s were full of inspiration. A lot of what I do even now is coming from those times. I sometimes feel lucky to be able to follow the path of interest that motivates me. Lately I have been doing a harder qigong move I tend to ignore. I ignore it because I get lazy and don’t want to get sweaty. It was a move I did every day for a year and a half when I first came back to training after a long break. I won’t mention the name because you will never find it. There are a hundred moves with the same name.

It is on Youtube being done by a 99 year old master who I believe is still alive now and well over one hundred years old. Although it doesn’t mention the move and goes through a few qigong moves. Some of the moves are well known. The only reason I saw the video was because someone shared it on a WeChat group, it’s all in Chinese and there were two videos in total that I saved. The move stretches tendons and opens up the lower back in a way I have never known possible. It also massages your internal organs. What gets me is whoever invented the move some thousands of years ago really understood the human body. Because I know the feeling of doing the move long term and everyday I was like I have to stop doing this move for a while. So I avoided it and only did it every few months. At the moment though I feel like I really need it again. I feel like I am falling apart. I need some work.

This Sunday I am having a gathering to reminisce about my Mum. I saw Kate the painter the other day and we had a good talk about grief. Also about the lot women had in the 60s with marriage and the old school mentality that shaped those times. Kate the painter knows only too well being close in age to my Mum. I can feel Kate’s grief, it is deep, we had a little hug and I felt it raw and heartfelt. Kate has stories and I know she has seen more trouble than I have ever known. She has never told me but I felt it. I was kind of surprised how deep those wounds are. She keeps making her art and that’s her livelihood at the markets. She has had a tough life and in a lot of ways continues to pursue her passions rain hail or shine.