Part of becoming an adult is learning impulse control. As we mature, we learn to fully consider the consequences of our actions. Over time we realise that what might feel good right now may not actually be in our best interest in the longer term, and that by spitting the dummy we may well be cutting off our nose to spite our face. Some of us learn this more readily than others, and some of us are better at defending against moments of weakness than others – but by and large, most of the time most of us are reasonably good at thinking things through a bit before we act.
With that said, there is something cathartic about giving in to impulse. The immediate payoff of immediate action, and the thrill of the risk associated with taking action in the heat of the moment are both pretty compelling, even if not always for the right reasons. This pleasure was reinforced recently during a series of arguments I had with a small kitchen appliance. Everyone has a breaking point.
Despite the rise of social media, there really is no substitute for face to face engagement with friends and family. As mentioned in a few recent podcast episode writeups, the tyranny of distance is a recurring theme for all of us with our hearts in more than one part of the world. As we are not yet blessed with the clear calendars and fat wallets needed to see our friends and family for more than what seem to be very fleeting moments, when the stars align and friends from far away are in town, little incentive is needed to drop everything else and bring forth a celebration, however brief it may be.
Spring has finally arrived here in Melbourne. In fact, with temperatures forecast to rise above 35C in the coming days you could say that we have bypassed spring entirely and headed straight into summer. With the warmer weather comes the inclination to head out to the beach, and spend less time indoors.
It’s the fading hours of the Labour Day long weekend in Canada as I write this, and while it wasn’t a three day weekend here in Melbourne, I still had plenty of reason to recall the Canadian holiday. As the last long weekend of the northern summer, Labour Day has a lot of special memories – for me and doubtlessly for many of you. Ten years ago I was a new uni graduate working behind the counter in a record store, putting every spare dollar I had towards vinyl. One of my jobs was to take the new shipments each week and record samples of their best bits for uploading on to the store website, and one of the side effects of this job was being tapped into the mainline of quality tunes as they came out each week. Alongside colleagues Marsh, Meg and Jules we spent hours listening, recording, and swapping back and forth.
For three and a half years I lived in Calgary, Canada. Tucked into the foothills of the sunny side of the Rocky Mountains, its a city full of lovely people, and a city with a buzzing dance music scene. Returning for a visit a few weeks ago I was honoured to be given the opportunity to play a two hour set on a Saturday night at my favourite place in town. With an incredible sound system, positive bar staff and a clued up clientele, Habitat Living Sound has for years been a centrepoint of the Western Canadian progressive house scene. It was a real buzz to play a proper set there again, and even better to see so many familiar faces. The evening was rounded out by Pallares and Isis Graham, and despite the jetlag it was a sensational evening.
There is something uniquely interesting about preparing to embark on international travel. The combination of project planning, packing, social arrangements, and general getting-in-order-of-things prior to departure provides a structured timeframe and sense of urgency that is sometimes missing from every day life. We may be OK being late for work now and then, but no one wants to miss a flight.
My good friend Kevin once explained that one of the secrets to success is having smart friends. Along similar lines, the secret to good podcasts is having friends with excellent taste in music. This mix contains more than a few gems that have found their way to me via the collections of others. From suggestions made during social get-togethers and mixes exchanged through to emailed promo links and folders left on my desktop, I am blessed with a pipeline full of amazing music.
From early 2012 to early 2015, I lived by myself in a tiny-but-beautiful apartment high above the South Yarra railway station. Nineteen stories up and facing straight west across Port Phillip Bay, it offered panoramic views of the city and a regular rotation of the sort of slow-motion sunsets you read about in photography books.