Aesthetics, Nature, Cyberpunk
Jun. 13th, 2021 05:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tcpipIn an act of pure self-indulgence, I went to visit Louisa G., at Lu La Belle Studio next to Toorak Station (dahling). A haircut is not what would normally constitute an item for a journal entry, but yours truly has not been a professional hairdresser since 2002. Since then it's been a case of either having a ponytail, snipping off the tail, or having ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
caseopaya apply her reasonable skills at snipping, all with the exception of the 2020 mohawk, which was self-created. Most visits to such establishments I suspect are at least partially an opportunity for banter, and I took the opportunity to make it a bit of a Friday night special as we shut the doors and enjoyed a fine bottle of old shiraz together. As it was Louisa decided to kinda-sorta keep the mohawk and give a more layered approach and tidied it up a bit. Something between punk and new romantic, I guess; We'll fade to grey in Vienna with the wild boys.
As another weekend journey that crosses the aesthetic and the natural, I caught up with a new friend, Natasha, for what became a very long walk from Northcote along Merri Creek and then the Yarra to Abbotsford, and back again. I think we must have put about 15km on that glorious riverside and forested trek that is possibly the best slice of nature in inner-urban Melbourne. Natasha is a Russian actress and linguist, has lived in St Petersburg (back when it was Leningrad), New York, Los Angeles, and speaks five languages; you know those European artist types. Anyway, we meandered some charming spots including Labyrinth and The Wishing Tree, Dight's Falls, and the Abbotsford Convent, which is a bit of a second home to me. The Wishing Tree was full of stories from children young and adults bearing what they want for a better world and a better life. Maybe I should leave a message there myself.
Today was the final session of Tim's Cyberpunk 2020 campaign, which started last year (again, those aesthetic reasons), running for about a year of fortnightly play. With the story title, "The Manifold Decomposition", there is stark suggestion of a breakdown and manipulation of perceived reality through malicious manipulation of information networks with biological agents. It was rather like Marshal McLuhan met Rudy Rucker, and David Cronenberg at a roadside picnic, and in any case, we see plenty of this sort of manipulation in our own world (Cambridge Analytica, anyone?). For me personally, the end of the campaign was also a nice sugue from cyberpunk to solarpunk, but also another moment of an ongoing fade-out of my own involvement in the hobby. Maybe I'll take it up again in earnest if and when I retire.
caseopaya apply her reasonable skills at snipping, all with the exception of the 2020 mohawk, which was self-created. Most visits to such establishments I suspect are at least partially an opportunity for banter, and I took the opportunity to make it a bit of a Friday night special as we shut the doors and enjoyed a fine bottle of old shiraz together. As it was Louisa decided to kinda-sorta keep the mohawk and give a more layered approach and tidied it up a bit. Something between punk and new romantic, I guess; We'll fade to grey in Vienna with the wild boys.As another weekend journey that crosses the aesthetic and the natural, I caught up with a new friend, Natasha, for what became a very long walk from Northcote along Merri Creek and then the Yarra to Abbotsford, and back again. I think we must have put about 15km on that glorious riverside and forested trek that is possibly the best slice of nature in inner-urban Melbourne. Natasha is a Russian actress and linguist, has lived in St Petersburg (back when it was Leningrad), New York, Los Angeles, and speaks five languages; you know those European artist types. Anyway, we meandered some charming spots including Labyrinth and The Wishing Tree, Dight's Falls, and the Abbotsford Convent, which is a bit of a second home to me. The Wishing Tree was full of stories from children young and adults bearing what they want for a better world and a better life. Maybe I should leave a message there myself.
Today was the final session of Tim's Cyberpunk 2020 campaign, which started last year (again, those aesthetic reasons), running for about a year of fortnightly play. With the story title, "The Manifold Decomposition", there is stark suggestion of a breakdown and manipulation of perceived reality through malicious manipulation of information networks with biological agents. It was rather like Marshal McLuhan met Rudy Rucker, and David Cronenberg at a roadside picnic, and in any case, we see plenty of this sort of manipulation in our own world (Cambridge Analytica, anyone?). For me personally, the end of the campaign was also a nice sugue from cyberpunk to solarpunk, but also another moment of an ongoing fade-out of my own involvement in the hobby. Maybe I'll take it up again in earnest if and when I retire.