TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

Tuesday, June 6, 2006

4:34 PM
Posted by jodi rose

finding wisdom in strange places.
susan sarandon's daughters valedictorian speech on 'the banger sisters', friday night (yes getting out of the house still a challenge) 'I'd rather fail doing what I want to do, than succeed doing what someone else wants me to.' Resonated in light of recent experiences. Failing at two things in fact.

Judith Lucy posters up around town advertising her latest comedy show, called 'I failed!" with a big happy smiling picture of her surrounded by cartoon hearts, flowers and animals always cheers me up.

Writing to mum on her disappointment with cancelled festival; sometimes it's not important what you actually do. Just being there allows something new to happen. Which would not have been possible without you.

(a little frank capra-esque I know - was having an 'it's a wonderful life' moment the other day, thinking of who would be my clarence, the unlikely bridge angel)

Regained a little confidence after choosing six sections that were almost working and polishing them up a little, but the radio career still feels like it's in tatters. Moving on to experimental global bridge theatre. Did I mention Glasgow in oh two weeks now? Lordy.

Also, David from the consulting firm said they really liked my test recordings from the last Green Bridge trip, good to be doing something right. Spoke to the lovely Joel this afternoon, who invited me on Audiopollen tomorrow night - the excellent and iconic 4ZZZ - and has a bunch of snappy contact mikes from the US he's keen to come and play on the bridge with. Sometimes you just have to ask.

Had a really inspiring session with Michael B in the surround studio the other week, not sure if I mentioned it already, but wonderful to have a composer with such a finely attuned ear who can point out things in the sounds that I don't notice. Teaching me to hear differently, and discussing mythology, the underworld, transcendence in the composition. Yes, this is why I'm doing it. I remember now.

New dreams, new life.
Sherre tells me after interviewing lots of neuro-scientists about brain plasticity, that the fantasties you have (winning lotto, holidays on the beach, buying houses all over the world..) help regulate emotions.
Makes sense, whatever makes you feel good.

Listening to some fascinating conversations with writers on the ABC, recorded at the recent sydney writers festival. 'I hear the word psychological applied to the novel - I reach for my revolver' said John Banville, Booker Prize winner. He kept coming back to the idea that art is all about surfaces (and noted that apparently, all the depth is in the surface, according to Nietzche) trying to capture the strangeness of the world, describe the surface of things. And essentially it's a series of technical problems, how am I going to express this and do it beautifully and with some structure? The world is round, but language is square - forcing language to fit the world is very difficult indeed. How all of literary art is a struggle with language, trying to make it express what we want to express... and somehow, what we produce speaks to people directly, and in magical ways - is capable of ravishing the reader.

I loved that.

Remember something Rachel Griffith was quoted as saying after her marriage to Andrew Taylor, when she was going off to the US to film another series of six feet under, and wondering why being so far away from all her family (post 9/11). He said 'make it count' and she decided to create a space for something to happen between them.

So, make it count.