TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

Wednesday, November 05, 2003

9:43 PM
Posted by jodi rose

Backed a winner on the melbourne cup, won enough to cover my bets. Only gamble what you can afford to lose, Lisa's dad always tells me. Absolutely fine and sensible advice in regards to money, but what about adventure and freedom? Sometimes you need to be prepared to lose quite a lot to get anywhere in life. Just finished reading 'the bride stripped bare' (typed that as 'bridge' which could be a whole other story) and found it mostly tedious, the narrator was such a self-involved spineless character, I didn't much care about her decisions or experiences. Had an occasional flicker or interest and empathy, but never really got her cruelty and manipulation. Sure it's about a woman reclaiming her right to be judgemental and selfish and behave badly, but maybe those things don't have to be learned or used on other people, just because you've had a hard time. It bothered me that she never gave in to love, not with her husband or her lover, she was always distant and self-conscious.
OK, enough of the ranting. It's good to be reading fiction again, I worry that I will use reading as an escape and never emerge from back into the world, once I pick up a book. It used to be like that when I was a kid, that was the only way to switch the world off and retreat into my own space.
Now, well there are all kinds of withdrawing, and I aspire to be someone who says YES to life. Not maybe, or later, or I can't be bothered. YES, Bring it on!!!
Went out last week to a friends birthday drinks at this bar on smith st which happened to also have an art opening of political street protest art - fantastic crowd, young, subversive and friendly. It felt like I was travelling in another country, such a different world to the usual crowd I mix with. Decided I liked living as though travelling, it's a good way to stay open and keep having adventures and experiencing life, not getting stuck in the smallness of your routine. Not that I have a routine. But if I did, I'd be stuck. As it is I'm stuck in an amorphous, fluid vacuum, kind of like anti-matter persian fairy floss. Not quite sticky enough to bind me anywhere, but strangely light and difficult to get out of. Ephemeral, that's how I feel. Making an attempt to be solid and grounded and focused right now, but keep drifting off into the world of possibility and where is my life going. It gets exhausting, I tell you. Maybe one just needs to let go, stop trying and follow the path as it unfolds. Reading technology as symptom and dream, mind filled with the language of bridges. The nights are warm and sweet, filled with promise.

Not sure if I've mentioned this already, but go check out the new 'documentation' page on the website. Thanks to the wonderful Jonathon, lots of photos and stories about my trip to record bridges, and even a few images.
Also while I'm blowing my own bridge..... this months LIMELIGHT magazine - Your monthly arts and entertainment - features a lovely 2 page article on the bridges project and my upcoming residency at ABC Radio. Sadly this will no longer be with The Listening Room, due to its sad and untimely demise, however I am assured that the residency will go ahead, somewhere in the ABC. So that's where life is going next year.
And for now, keep on reading, sending out CDs, getting that remix album together, writing chapters for thesis, going out and getting involved in the world.