Bobbing up from Down Under

My user name tells my location.

I have been "into" music for as long as I can remember. I used to play a mean piano, but these days my music appreciation consists mostly of listening. Main love is progressive rock of the "symphonic" variety, but i also like lots of other musical styles: certain classical, folk-rock, reggae, some electronica... not easy to summarise.

Favourite band of all time: Genesis
Favourite current band (though they appear to be on hiatus): Porcupine Tree.
Favourite solo artists:
Male: Bob Lind
Female: Joni Mitchell

bob32116! Oh no! You've got me for your first response.
I'd be out there on my bicycle, riding to Lake Erie for an all day bike-hike, but it's too windy.

I have to ask. Alex Christoff, Adelaide, was an Olympic round track bicycle racer,
having a kidney burst two weeks before the Olympics. He moved to Welland and bought a car off me,
and we got to be friends. He had a direct drive bike but could do tricks and take off like a rocket.
He'd be over sixty by now.

I get bobbing up and down a lot in the summer, snorkelling as much as I can.
If you go to Port Colborne to a point, and float with the current along the shore,
you can snorkel for hours and walk back on the beach, head down most of the time.

If you used to play a mean piano, why stop? Piano is so nice just to play by yourself,
and pianists get the nicest solo gigs.

Genesis: "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway", just the song, a favorite, the band being okay.
It surprised me that Phil Collins stepped up as the singer sounding the same as Peter Gabriel,
and when Phil Collins went motown r'n'b he surprised me even more.
They say he's touring the United States with his collection of civil war stuff, maybe the biggest privately owned.
Others say he's touring again just singing. I know he can't play drums any more.

Joni Mitchell used to be local for me, not coming back very often.
I'm still trying to hear some hissing of summer lawns myself.
You say down under to me and sometimes I think New Zealand.

As a professional musician playing a lefty guitar I put together, same with my amp system,
I'm not easy to summarize.

Geologists say Australia was the second land to emerge from primal seas, Scotland being first.
I'm only of Scottish descent, and I can look you convincingly in the eye and say that
no ancestor of mine was ever shipped to Australia.
The Emperor Hadrian built a wall to keep us away, and that's where I like to stay,
coming at you from Welland, Ontario, Canada, close to Niagara Falls.
And that's a digereedo to you too, from the top of the highest stone.

Hello bob and welcome to the forum. Glad to see Joni is one of your favourites.

teddy

Welcome to the forums. Look foward to your input.

Did my fully fontal fontburst fontle him out?
I've got to come down from my high Fonthill,
and that's okay, a neighbouring township,
because the black cherries aren't ripe yet.
And no, just because it's late Friday night,
I'm not going to make any kame delta jokes.

You fontin do da :crazy:............

John Watt said:

Did my fully fontal fontburst fontle him out?
I've got to come down from my high Fonthill,
and that's okay, a neighbouring township,
because the black cherries aren't ripe yet.
And no, just because it's late Friday night,
I'm not going to make any kame delta jokes.

Click to expand...

Thank heavens! Kame deltas are things not to be mocked.

bob32116! I appreciate your reply, but why did you stop playing piano?
Did you have a bad experience trying to carry one to the top of Ayers Rock for a too hard rock video?
Or did you watch the movie "Australia" so much it altered your reality?
Maybe you were a stuntman for the last Ned Kelly movie and got hit in the head too much.

A favorite Australia bit of trivia:
What do Kylie Minogue, Natalie Imbruglia and Nicole Simpson all have in common?
They say Lennie Kravitz sexed them up and turned them into adult entertainers.
And that's just Australia.
He's known for unexpectedly visiting schools and sitting in with bands during the day, in L.A.,
usually playing drums, helping to funk them up.
Yeah, Hollywood marching bands really aren't marching any more, dancing all over.

^^^ In ansewr to your question, there was nothing sinister about my "stopping" plaing the piano. I had a second-hand piano that I took around with me for years, through many changes of address, but a time came when money problems forced me to shift to Sydney to take a job, and carrying or storing the piano wasn't an option.

They are not cheap - I will never again get a bargain like that one. Someday maybe I'll obtain another.

I should think seeing the video to "Somewhere Only We Know" by Keane would turn even the most hardened piaist off the idea of transporting the thing to the wilderness.

And as for Kylie... of course I hope she recovers from breast cancer, but that doesn't mean I have to like her or her "music". Natalie's not too bad. I dare say Chris Martin sometimes wishes he had hung on to her instead of trying his luck with Gwyneth.

The review I saw of the newest Coldplay album describes it as a Chris Martin breakup album,
so you might be right.
I might be an older man, a single older man, but I like to think I'm hip to today's scene.
And that's not a broken hip replacement.
When I heard about Angelina Jolie having both breasts removed just as a preventative measure,
and seeing Kylie Minogue getting into it down under,
I started saying to women that if they want to get serious with me they should have both breasts removed.
I'm still single. I hope Kylie Minogue recovers.
She appeared on a late night talk show in America with her dancers and was the best thing I saw that year.
After that she was looking very thin and stressed out, but I didn't see it as cancer.
Her one concert video is hot with a lot of women around here, a sexual celebration.

Here, in the Niagara Peninsula, every day, there is always a couple of free pianos somewhere,
the cost of moving them, or moving to a smaller apartment, is the reason.
If you look at St. Catharines Kijiji you'll see the effects of having the first commercial electricity in the world.
It's cheaper to buy new printers, with fax, phone and photocopier, than get more toner, for example.
Local Mohawks describe white society here as a world turned upside-down.

Wow! I'm back already.
First, I never heard of Keane before.
On Youtube, as soon as I typed Keane the named popped up with "Somewhere Only We Know",
impressive.
And then I had to sit through a full twenty-five second advertisement to watch the video,
equally impressive.
And while I watched the video, at least five sliders pushing other bands popped in, even Jack White,
more impressive.
Better than that, I actually laughed out loud seeing the drummer for the first time,
with all the leaves and branches on his drums.
And I wouldn't hesitate to describe them as Coldplay style, just more boyish looking and sounding.
This video could have been made in the Niagara Peninsula, the forests and the stream.
The water conduit looks just like an original city of Niagara Falls drainage outlet,
the kind that comes out into the river gorge, after it's been raining with a pond.

I hope a piano comes into your life again.

bob32116 said:

^^^

would turn even the most hardened piaist off the idea of transporting the thing to the wilderness.

Click to expand...

There are a lot of piaists in Aussie and even if it is a wildernesss we wont mention it very often

Let me clarify one thing: both Keane and Coldplay are bands who I think have done some excellent songs, as well as some rubbish. Coldplay's latest album left me... ummm... cold. Viva la Vida on the other hand is a terrific album, almost worthy of the "progressive" tag.

Seeing another member here from NZ, I cannot help thinking about that piano sitting there on the beach in the film of the same name.

bob32116 said:

Seeing another member here from NZ, I cannot help thinking ...................

Click to expand...

GDay mate, practice makes perfect :grin:

Are you ready for a tour of a cave in northern climes?
1:52 minutes long, an electronic tour of my bedroom.
FOREWARNING! A dose of active Teslage is seen live.
Turn it up loud, it has a beautiful soundtrack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbqt...ature=youtu.be

What a room ?? I had a look at your Highland bike ride that was exceptional ... not much oncoming traffic ...lucky for you.

It's still hard for me to see that I'm doing business online with artwork,
even if I've been typing and sending photos of lettering for a new business,
someone from Welland is starting out in British Columbia,
even if I've been doing this for over three hours, now two in the morning.

I can't imagine what you mean by my Highland bike ride without much oncoming traffic.
The only outdoors video I put up, a long time ago, is walking through the seagull sanctuary.
There's a lot of John Watt stuff on Youtube, just not me.
The Watt on my birth certificate is that Watt a Welland street is named for,
not clan with me.
This is serious. What and where are you looking at?

The economy is so bad around here,
twice last year, during long distance bike-hikes,
not even one car passed me on the Niagara Parkway between Niagara Falls and Fort Erie,
what would have been Americans from Buffalo going to Niagara Falls,
maybe four hours travel time for me, lots of park benches,
the moving water and cut grass meaning not a lot of bugs at night,
but I've never made a video of that, usually in the dark.
And to be British about it,
Sir Winston Churchill said it was the most beautiful drive in the world,
only he was sitting down in a car, stuck on the road,
scaring everything away as they approached, not much in daylight.

It is still a major continental migration route for big species,
strange for what stops to stand there, resting in the moonlight.
If it's misty or foggy, I can find myself coming up to and moving around
large birds like people standing there, quiet and still,
happening more along the Lake Erie shore, just around the river bend.
I live for moments like that, what defines that bike-hike,
more than what I drink and eat.

John Watt bike-hike photos



Here are some photos taken by me during bike-hikes.
I hope I'm not using up my limit, wanting to get into my inventive guitar.

This willow tree is one of my earliest memories, of family picnics along the Niagara River.
This split branch always made spooky sounds with a little wind. Last year it finally broke away.

The second tree is along the point where the Point Abino lighthouse is.
No matter what the direction the lake wind is, winter or summer,
I can stand inside this tree to take a break in the midst of it.
And no bike-hike along Lake Erie is complete without Point Abino,
what has to be a place of power for me.

The old lock, and there's miles of them, is something to go through or around.
I picked this photo because it shows the only remaining wooden gate still showing.

Sunrise on the Niagara River, coming up over Buffalo.

The last two are night lightings Buffalo does for the Peace Bridge.
I'm going to push it and do some more.

More John Watt bike-hike photos



This Peace Bridge photo shows another light pattern, alternating and moving back and forth with colours and patterns designed by a Buffalo artist.

The second photo is my bike parked on the fence. Despite the new security as co-operating with Americans, as found along the Welland canal, there is still this one place where I can hold my hand out to feel the boat as it goes by, always a thrill.

The photo of a laker in a lock shows the northern lights behind it.

The grey shape in this photo, moving horizontally, was more defined to my eye, watching it as it disappeared into the distance. Everyone talks about the lights in the water, along Lake Erie, but it's unusual for me to see one during the day. Niagara-on-the-Lake is famous for lights out on Lake Ontario, just not lately.

I'm on an overpass outside of Welland, watching this fog flow like water, fingers moving up, looking like they're feeling around. That's the mist from Niagara Falls in the distance.

This Datsun looks so nice.

I have to admit, considering my excess bandwidth use,
these photos are something I would delete after you saw them,
not something I'd save just to see them disappear into endless pages.

Yeh I can see my mistake now its in the good old US of Arizona I must admit as I watched it (thinking it was you as you are a keen cyclist) I was amazed at your fitness and it has to be said the fitness of some of the young ladies :grin: as you can see these cyclists use more than their fair share of the road.
Like your pics.