Grant profile picture

Grant

granite76

About Me

I am an Aussie who came to London for reasons of the heart and stayed for a different love. 17 years later I am looking for a way to transport love to a better place, but in the meantime, I do my best for those around me. London gets more frantic and a little harder to survive but galleries, museums and music venues make life worthwhile. Music runs through my head as an accompaniment to all that goes on around me. My "I-Pod" is my mental back-catalogue rattling around in my mind, going back to songs I first heard when I was less than a year old. It is my time machine. Friends, smells, love, and embarrassing moments are escorted back to me with the first single note of a song from the past.

My Interests

Fleeting interests in all things to do with a changing life and the world. From the sea to the sky and everything between the two. To capture a moment with a camera or a mental smile, with musical accompaniment, is to make life the best movie of all. People figure in the beauty of life but in small, intimate circles. To be lost among strangers is the saddest plight but to be embraced by the ones you love, is as near to heaven as you can hope for.

I'd like to meet:

Whoever wrote the lyrics, " Barefoot girls sittin' on the hood of a Dodge, drinkin' warm beer in the soft summer rain " Anyone who can evoke like that, has my attention and my undying admiration.

Music:

Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt, Michael Franks, Steely Dan, Carly Simon, Rufus Wainwright, Elton John, Dixie Chicks, Dean Martin, Gene Kelly, David Jordan, Stevie Wonder, Fred Astaire.

Movies:

Casablanca, Somewhere in Time, African Queen, Clockwork Orange, My Father's House, Beau James, The Enchanted Cottage, Cabaret, The Blues Brothers, The Gods Must Be Crazy, The Castle, Allegro Non Troppo, The Producers, All About Eve, A Letter To Three Wives, Silent Running,Too Many Crooks, The Lavender Hill Mob, Shakespeare In Love, Get Shorty, LA Story, Wah-Wah, Tell No-One, Moulin Rouge, Best In Show, Blades Of Glory, The Science Of Sleep, La vie en Rose.

Television:

Anything bad; Green Acres, I Dream Of Jeannie, The Munsters, The Addams Family, Bewitched, I Love Lucy, Gilligan's Island, McHales Navy. Anything good; Frasier, Friends, Cheers, The Larry Sanders Show, Extras, Deal Or No Deal.

Books:

Ages In Chaos, Earth In Upheaval, Worlds In Collision, Dress Your Family In Corduroy And Denim, Me Talk Pretty One Day, A Very Rude Awakening, Operators And Other Things, The Romeo Error, Einstein: His Life and Universe.

Heroes:

Immanuel Velikovsky, Carl Jung, Einstein, Shami Chakrabati ( from Liberty ) and anyone who quietly stands up in support of others.

My Blog

Fractals

So what is the difference between a jigsaw and a mosaic? Both fractured, both make a scene. Which is destruction and which is construction? Maybe it is distance that determines the answer, like an imp...
Posted by Grant on Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:59:00 PST

The Blue thread

When an important dream materialises in my astral world, it appears to me three times, in three distinct sections. If I have to build something, it comes in three stages ; the feeling, the meaning&nbs...
Posted by Grant on Thu, 27 Mar 2008 09:11:00 PST

French rain in Paris

We are in Paris for a few days to see our French business chum. We are on the outskirts of the city in Montrouge, the former market gardens of Paris. It is now just another part of a city with th...
Posted by Grant on Sun, 23 Mar 2008 12:09:00 PST

Shake - up

Lying in bed, waiting for the Piscean drug of sleep to arrive, an earthquake rolled me around in bed. It was 1am and I was ruminating on my birthday that day, where I've been and where I'm going, the ...
Posted by Grant on Wed, 27 Feb 2008 01:37:00 PST

Lost in the fog

Life is quiet, too quiet,  and the world is shrouded in fog. So hard to see where I'm going. I've been asked to do some photos in Kensal Green Cemetery today, which is not  the most cheerful...
Posted by Grant on Wed, 20 Feb 2008 12:53:00 PST

Ginger Bread House

I was asked to give a friend a lift to his son-in-law’s house, just off Laurel Canyon, to pick up the family car. A lovely house, even in the rain. All the doorways were cut into an Arabic shape...
Posted by Grant on Sun, 27 Jan 2008 07:57:00 PST

Single Celled Orgasm

Having been tipped off about a music store on Sunset Boulevarde by David Sedaris, we set off in search of "Amoeba" at 6400 Sunset There is the best, the most, the ******* music shop I've ever seen. I ...
Posted by Grant on Tue, 22 Jan 2008 11:35:00 PST

Room For Reading

We discovered by chance that my favourite author, David Sedaris, was giving a reading / workshop of his, as yet unreleased, book. It is a chance for him to try out chapters and see what works and what...
Posted by Grant on Tue, 22 Jan 2008 11:14:00 PST

Humming along to Culture

We had a lovely brunch at a friend's house in Topanga Canyon with stories about Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan and loads of other musicians who are part of our friends' lives. A lovely interlude in li...
Posted by Grant on Sun, 20 Jan 2008 01:07:00 PST

California on my mind

Just like any Californian, I have fallen into the lazy ways. I waited for the pool lady to finish cleaning the pool before I went out to lie in the sun. I didn't want to engage, for some reason. I can...
Posted by Grant on Sat, 19 Jan 2008 09:53:00 PST