back to basics & aaaarg is dead. long live aaaarg

I'm taking a break from SM (social media) for a while. to enjoy some "slow media" again - my blog, my email and most importantly, my notebook. people can contact me on aliak77 AT gmail if they want to. though in saying this already I've had to go back to twitter to contact someone who found a problem with my site so I could say thanks, when email wasn't working. so SM still has it's place, but I'm taking a break from checking it regularly - it was getting out of control. I felt I was getting addicted to checking the pages. I haven't had time during past few months during the day, but at nights or on weekends I'd check it often. I think I need some time to collect my thoughts again. slowly. breathe in. breathe out. much has happened in the past couple of months, emotionally. though outwardly it probably appears that not much has happened at all apart from busy-ness (as usual) at work. facebook sends me emails when someone sends me a message so I'll just use that as a notification method. I also need to cull a LOT of the mail lists I'm on to lower the number of emails that arrive.

anyway, back to reality, today the Arthur Cantrill - Chromatic Mysteries: soundtracks 1963-2009 CD arrived from Shame File Music. I'd asked Clinton if there would be any of the Cantrill's films being released also, but he didn't seem to think it was likely. one can only hope. I think they're Australia's answer to Len Lye (even though Lye spent time in Australia also). I've only seen a live performance in Brisbane at the Other Film Festival a few years ago. it was amazing - Arthur Cantrill did some expanded cinema works - he painted on the film, screened some of his work and generally entertained the audience. I have a copy of one of the Cantrill's "Film Notes" also - an amazing film zine (magazine?? / newsletter) published for many years. it would be cool to get more copies. one day. I should check if the library here has some. the cd is a collection of his sound works. it's great to read the introduction by Warren Burt, and notes from Arthur Cantrill also. there's a few images of the film stills too. I liked reading about how he'd attended La Monte Young performances in London in the 1960s. what a time to be in London! there are also paragraphs for each song, explaining how they were made and some background on them. I love reading these things, though not all artists include them. the sounds are quite varied - some found sounds, some tape loops, even an Irish sounding ballad being whistled over the sounds of trains and the city. it's a beautiful collage.

see, I think back to basics is working already - I've now updated my blog, written more than 140 characters :) and let some thoughts out of my head. maybe I will actually get round to trying to make some music before October and having to show it / share it with Dave & Murray.

I've started a new uni class PHI130 via Macquarie University "Mind, Meaning and Metaphysics" via OUA - this is another reason I need to cut back on SM. so I can do the readings and discussions for class and actually hand in assignments. I was looking at the reading list and found tonight that aaaarg.org has been taken down!! if you haven't used the site, it's an amazing collection of academic books - pdf & txt files - the napster of books in a way. now I understand why they'd added the 'please add external link" to the pages - I should have read more about it last time I visited a couple of weeks ago. apparently “macmillan” mark taylor has forced them to close the site - also mentioned here & here. what a shame. they had **the best** collection of quality pdfs/books on the site (a drupal site too). I hope they come back - it would have been really handy for uni. this must have happened recently as the aaaarg twitter feed's last message was for some Requests on 27th May, last week.. the site is now showing "AAAARG.ORG DOESN’T EXIST." and links to itself / nowhere.