Star Wars: An Unexpected Voice

The other day I put on one of the later episodes of the second season of Andor as background sound while I cleaned the kitchen. I had seen it a couple of times already so my eyes didn’t need to be glued to the screen. I just wanted some noise to keep me company. After a few minutes an unexpected voice jumped out at me – wait, could it really be them?

I abandoned the mess in the kitchen and watched again. Having seen the face I was 95 per cent sure it was who I thought it was, but the image was so different I had to check the cast list to be sure. And it was them! To think I’d watched the episode twice already but had not recognised someone I’ve seen and heard almost every week for the last year maybe. I think it was because I was just swept up in the story and the hugely different image led me not to realise who it was.

I don’t want to give it away, but if you’re a fan of British comedy, why not play this game: Put on episode 11 of Andor’s second season, close your eyes and listen to the first five minutes. Did a voice jump out at you?

Yes? No? Maybe? Find out the owner of the mystery voice!

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Pedestrian Unfriendly

Walking to the bus after a great Goolugatup Sounds event at Goolugatup Heathcote in Applecross I was struck by how pedestrian unfriendly this part of the neighbourhood is — huge expanses of verge and grass but not a footpath in sight. What the heck?




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Einstürzende Neubauten – Blume

I wonder if I really enjoyed Einstürzende Neubauten’s Tabula Rasa as much as I thought I did back in the day. I know I was definitely capable of talking myself into “liking” things that I thought I should so who knows. I have no doubt, though, that I did and do love “Blume” – Japanese version, of course.

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Lime Garden – Love Song

So stoked that the video for Lime Garden’s “Love Song” is way more unhinged than I had any reason to expect. If only I could remember their name when searing on YouTube or trying to ask Siri to play them when I’m driving. Today my guess was Green Patio.

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Aritist and Fan-centric Music Streaming

I don’t care about the framing of this video, which is how Apple can beat Spotify, but I like the suggestion of how a more artist-friendly streaming service could run, which is basically that the company takes 10% of what I pay and the remainder is split up among the artists I listen to in a particular month, not the artists everyone listens to. Seems way fairer than the current setup, where I am paying infinitesimal fractions of a cent to people whose music I hate but even more minuscule amounts to those I love.

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Tuesday, 20 May 2025

Came home from a slog of a day at work determined to do something substantial with the few hours of free time I have during our busy periods — read a chapter of a book, watch an episode of a show or even a whole movie — anything except aimlessly flitting about the internet.

Instead I flitted about the internet and came across an absolutely wonderful article about a bird in a scene in Charlie’s Angels. Although I’ve seen the movie, I remember absolutely nothing about it — certainly not a bird in one scene. Apparently the bird in question was misnamed and given a completely different birdcall. This it seems has vexed bird lovers for decades. This wonderful, pun-heavy article reveals what went on to cause this terrible “mistake”.


Hilariously, I seem to have rebroke the toe I broke back in January that was just now beginning to feel normalish. Maybe I need to become a shoes-on-indoors guy. The horror!

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Commute

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Paruna Walk

Last Saturday I went on walk through Paruna Wildlife Sanctuary. It was a good exercise, but I don’t think I’d recommend it for forest bathing just yet — needs some rain to fill the creeks and streams.

Happily, I escaped death twice. I did not get sucked into the earth after walking out onto an apparently, but very much not, dry lake bed that acted way more like quicksand than I was comfortable with. Clambered to safety with my sneakers caked in mud but not needing to have been thrown a rope like in some old timey cowboy show.

And I did not have a heart attack halfway through my walk after finishing a particularly gruelling uphill portion — I’m not a scientist, but how can a walk consist of eighty per cent uphill portions? I had no chest pain, but was suddenly aware that my mid-fifties sedentary body could give out on me at any time. And despite realising halfway that I had not brought enough water, I made it to the end.

Perhaps I’ll visit again when it’s cooler and has had some rain, but maybe it’d be better to head somewhere else. I think I’d rather feel enveloped by greenery rather than looking at it from a distance.

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The Forgotten Space Invader War Of 1978

Spaceinvaders 2.

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Gumnuts

Kpflowers 3.

Kpflowers 2.

Kpflowers 4.

We’re finally starting to get a bit of rain so looking forward to park walks getting a bit greener with a bit more colour popping up here and there. My favourite of these is the one with the gumnuts that look like little tarts.

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Guildford Photowalk

Guildford 2.

Guildford 3.

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This Will Destroy You

Destroyyou 2.

I stumbled on a listing for This Will Destroy You a couple of weeks ago. Hadn’t heard of them in the twenty years they’ve been around but they seemed right up my alley. Post rock? Atmospheric guitar soundscapes? Sign me up.

Having listened to just three songs from their self-titled album, which they’d be playing in full, I knew this was extremely my jam and bought a ticket.

Fantastic show! I’d listened to the album they played a bunch of times but with this kind of band it’s hard to tell one song from another. Usually that’s a criticism, but if you just want to be buried in beautiful guitars and synthesisers it absolutely is not. I was swept away from start to end.

One down-but-up-side of the evening was me messing up my camera settings so it ended up leaving the lens open for sometimes ten seconds — not a good thing unless you’re taking a picture of a very still piece of fruit using a tripod in a room with all the windows and doors closed. Most of my pics were just a blur of light, but a couple kinda picked up the vibe of the music better than if they’d been sharp and in focus.

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Out Walking

Perthwalk 2.

Perthwalk 3.

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A Night Out

Anightout 2.

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A Sausage Roll In The Park Is A Good Way To Start The Day

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Sunday Morning

Breakfast in the park. The Philly cheesesteak had me worried a bit when I opened the box, but it had enough structural integrity to be okay for pick-up-and-bite eating. Each bite left me with cheese sauce covering half my face, but I guess that’s part of the charm.

Was joined by a chittering little friend, who fluttered and hopped around the whole time I was there.

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Visitors

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Queens Park

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A Typical Severance Episode

One thing I love about Severance is that there’s no such thing, especially in this second season, as a “typical” Severance episode. Love and also kinda hate. Because after last week’s emotional rollercoaster revelations about Gemma Scout aka Ms Casey, I just sat through Harmony Cobel digging through her and the Eagan’s family history – an aspect of this whole story that I have next to no interest in. Currently writing a hundred times:

I’m sure they know what they’re doing and this will be time well spent.
I’m sure they know what they’re doing and this will be time well spent.
I’m sure they know what they’re doing and this will be time well spent.

PS: Mixed up my Harmonys – almost posted this with Korine instead of Cobel.

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Range Life: A Pavement Story

Fun times ahead. This, by the way, is not a trailer or teaser for the upcoming movie Pavements. It’s for Range Life, the fake biopic within that movie. Confused? Yeah, that’s probably the idea.

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