Wednesday 19 September 2012

Train


Train

         anonymous aisles
    bruised briefcases
                calmed commuters
                daylight dozers
       edgy evaders
fading fittings
           gangly grips
                       hunky handbags
                     intertwined ipods
      junction joiners
   krackling kommunikations
                 links lurches
             multiplex magazines
              negligent newspapers
     outside observers
                  paperback ploughers
    quiescent quiets
                     rattling rhythms
stations' sidings
                        time talk
       unbadged upholstery
    vicinity vistas
                              wide windows
(e)xpress X-ing
                              yon youths
            zephyrous zing

Town


Town


                    araldited antiques
blunt burnoff
         cemetery countryside
       deserted diner
                          eucalyptus everywhere
  flagless flagpole
                        gallery garden
           historic hotel
                        invading insects
        jokester jackaroos
     kookaburra korroborees
                                       lazy lanes
                  military memorial
new neighbourhood
     overtaken orchard
   provincial powernap
                                quartz quarry
      roadsigns roundabout
                       store specials
  tea-time tennis
  unregistered utilities
                   viridian verandas
wonderful wattles
                     ex-army extras
     yes yabbies
                     zinnia zone

Road


Road

ancient axle
black branches
colossal contours
dark depth
eyes eyes
forgotten farm
gorgeous greyness
halogen highway
invisible illusions
jewelled junctions
known koan
lonely lights
murky melaleucas
numberless niches
overshadowed orbit
powerlit petrolpumps
quadruple quink
reddy reflectors
starstruck sea
tender-tough trees
unwinding u-turns
valued vehicles
white wavelets
ex-ed-out exits
you-need-verse-all yawn
zebraed zones




Plaza


Plaza


  athletic arcades
                       blank bank
       cinema corridors
                        do-nut drive-in
   electric edifices
                             flimsy fashions
                                 greedy games
  highpitched hiphop
industrial indulgence
                                   japanese joints
                    keycut kubicals
lookalike longing
     multicultural malls
          newest no-frills
overpopulated outlets
        parallelogram parking
                                   quick queues
     relentless registers
           supermarket shuffling
           toppled trolleys
    unattractive u-turns 
                                   vim vendors
            wideawake windows
    exits exhibits
                         years yours
zhuzhu zombies


Philip Harvey

Neighbourhood


Neighbourhood


                    asteroid alleys
biggest black
                crestfallen comets
                          depth-charge debris
   endless eclipses
                          faint flames
             galileo galleons
humungous haloes
                          interstellar icebergs
         juggernaut jupiter
   kosmonaut kastoffs
                       lunar lights
        many moons
                          nightienight neptune
        original orbits
            paleolithic plastics
                                       quantum quirks
        rothko room
                        saturn sheets
                 tidal transits
 unseeable uranus
 visible venus
                   wiggly worlds
               onyx nox
  yearlong yellows
                         zodiac zigzags

Magazine


Magazine


        adolescent ambition
blah-blah blurbs
                    catwalk celebrities
         ditty divas
     effusive editorials
                          flattering fame
        gimmick giveaways
    half-hearted humour
             idle interviews
  juvenile jackanapes
                          kids’ korner
    laughable lies
         marketing maybes
  neverending news
ordinary opinions
    purposeless parties
                 quick quiz
          reader raves
stapled starlets
            top tens
untold untruths
                      vacuous vamps
        winning words
  x-factor x-words
                yummy yuck
   zizzy zeitgeist


Philip Harvey

Hurstbridge


Hurstbridge


        alphington avenues
booms bridges
                    corrugated collingwood
         darebin damp
     eaglemont embankments
                          fairfield fennel
        greensborough graffiti
    heidelberg hospitals
             ivanhoe impressions
  jolimont junctures
                          kave klan
    lighted lengths
         memory macleod
  noteworthy next
overheads overpasses
                 quickening quantities
          rosanna railings
sleepers streams
tunnels trees
undergrowth underpasses
                      vanity villas
        westgarth walkover
exits expresses
                yarra yards
   zürich zimmers


Philip Harvey

Fab


Fab

                 adolescent adulation
        brilliant b-sides
cavern crescendos
                          drug dreams
        electric etudes
                     fab four
     george's gifts
hamburg hell
                   indian instrumentals
     jealous john
                       king kite
lysergic london
                       mister moonlight
       nowhere now
           ob-la-di ob-la-da
     paul's pathos
                       queen's question
     ringo's revolutions
stadium screaming
                 television twist
    unrehearsed universe
                              varied volumes
           worried walrus
   deluxe tax
                   yoko yeah
  z-cars zoetrope

Car


Car

                                         acting accelerator
                          bumper brakes
                                    clutchless contraption
                                                     dusty dashboard
                            everywhere engine
                 faulty fuelgauge
                                           glutted glovebox
                                           happy horn
               itsy indicator
                                 jet junk
                                           kubist keys
           lengthy lights
                                   mangled melways
                         non-personalised numberplate
                                                     overdrive off
                  palavering passengers
                                                    quick queues
                                                    rust ribbons
                           slipshut seatbelts
                                   transitive transmission
           utility umbrella
                                   ventilator vicissitudes
                                   working wheels
                       (e)xuding (e)xhaust
                                                    yellowing years
               zoomorphic zoom

Backyard


BACKYARD

                                         amazing ants
bouncing ball
                     chuckling cherrytree
dancing daisies                                               
           excited easels
                                                         flying fishsocks
    greeny grass
heavenly herbs
                        imaginary igloos
joyous jacarandas
kicking kiwifruit
                                                 luminous lemontree
muting moths
(k)notty nest
                                         ornate orchids
pumpkin pathway
                                      queer quoits
round rocks
sleepy shed
                                                  tumbledown tables
                                                  unstable umbrellas
various vegetables
                                  wonderful wattlebirds
x-ray xylophones
yesterday’s yuck
                                                        zero zebras


Autumn


Autumn


                    arachnid arthritis
believing birdlife
                condensation clouds
                          doorway draught
   evanescent edges
                          frayed foliations                        
        gorgeous grapes
                    huge hugs
                          impending ice
         judicious jacket
   kind kisses
                       leaves left
        mashed mounds
                          niggling nose
        oozing outpour
            pellucid puddle
                                       quilted quiet
        rainy rooftops
                        sunset southerlies
                 tinkled teacups
 unexpected upset
 virulent viruses
                   windscreen wiper
               existential extravagance
  yawing yachts
                         zucca zucchini

Philip Harvey




Dot


Computer nerds are instantly recognisable for their dog's breakfast
English, yet they prove again the sense of that cardinal rule, never use
a longer word when a shorter one does the job. Period com period eh-you,
or full-stop com full-stop eh-you simply won't stand against dot. Sweet,
cute, sharp, short and arguably the word with the greatest resurgent
usage, dot enjoys an elliptical history.

Shakespeare would have known it as a word for lump, clot, boil or other
blemish, but not as the roundish mark made with a pen, a meaning that
enters the language in the eighteenth century. No one ever told
Shakespeare to dot his i's. It was his contemporary, Galileo who altered
forever our sense of largeness. The star charts of the seventeenth
century initiated the perspective that we are a dot in the universe,
rather than its bounteous centre. Or, just a dot, as some remark
dolefully. Learning our place in the scheme of things might have been
hard, but for many today the view each night of a million Earths in
adjacent galaxies can be strangely soothing. Especially marvellous too
when we consider that they can only be contemplated. Entities that
cannot be exploited and about which there is no full-stop. More than a
few have gone dotty in the effort, of course, though dotty in this sense
does not mean seeing stars before one's eyes, but comes from a Scots
word meaning unbalanced. It is easier to imagine ourselves out there in
space than in here where we actually live and suffer.

It was a group of Greek philosophers called atomists who painted a
pointillist picture of the universe as long ago as whenever, but though
they maintained that all dots were created equal, did not see that some
dots have more gravity than other dots. This dot matrix theory of matter
depended on the idea that the smallest particles in the universe are
unbreakable and unchangeable, a confidence that we cannot share with
them, sadly. Atoms shift about in massive order, ready to be split
without a thought. The Californian computerates have rewritten the
addresses of the world, in the process rewriting Sellar and Yeatman's
oracular conclusion, ‘America was thus clearly top nation, and History
came to .' Not though that that could ever be the end of it.

The dot as monument to minimalism would mean nothing to the artists of
the Balgo Hills, the Western Desert and other parts of this continent.
Tentative study of Australian native mythic expression has revised our
definition of ‘dot' entirely, being it would seem the foundation of the
creative act and the activity of creation itself. In Cape York, the dot
means the effect of light on clear water, necessary means for new life.
Warlpiri painters use the dot for walking and movement, each colour
significant of dreaming stories and ritual. The potency of these
markings, both singularly and in sometimes superabundant plurality,
speak the language of the group and elude outside definition. But even
fringe observers of this art, not a party to its restricted information,
sense the representation of William Blake's grain of sand, a new world
coming out of ceremonial culture, its point of departure right where we
stand.