Eric/Gerry

There's something special about artists who say so much with so little. For me these people are the home base, the foundation, the place we all run to when we need to be reminded what it's all about.

I remember being a kid sitting with my ear up to the speaker of our record player listening to Eric Clapton playing in Cream, pushing hard against the speaker listening for the last notes of a fade out. It's a pure sound; one guitar, one amp and buckets of emotion. There's been a myriad of technically better guitarists over the last century but it's the ability to simply and beautifully convey an emotion that to me makes a great artist.

On a parallel to Clapton is legendary '70's surfer Gerry Lopez. Gerry lived and surfed at Pipeline on the North Shore of Hawaii. Mastering the wave like no other before or since. Gerry made extremely difficult and life threatening situations look simple and beautiful. So much so that the term "walk in the park" was used to describe the way Gerry surfed the Pipeline. Just like Clapton, Lopez captured and transfixed people with his style, simplicity and emotion.

To me this is what it's all about.

Youth/Cougars

It was sometime ago now but I still remember it clearly. I had been spending a bit of time going back and forth between NYC and Sydney, on this particular trip I happened upon Lenny Kravitz playing a week long residency at the hallowed Fillmore East.

Seeing as I was in NYC courtesy of the Tax Office (I'm a muso, it was research), I thought it my duty to go to the gig. So off I went to the Fillmore East down in Irving Plaza, and made my way up to the mezzanine level to wait for Lenny to do his thing. I was milling around by myself taking some shots when I noticed that the majority of the audience were women who probably had hit their prime in the 90's.

 Upon reflection I realised that Lenny also hit his prime in the 90's so this probably makes sense. This proliferation of women of a certain age didn't bother me, but rather intrigued me, so I found myself catching little pieces of their conversations. It was at some stage during these observations that I heard the tail end of a conversation, it went like this, "Yes, there is a lot to be said for young sperm".......  I think it stands as  an enduring statement about New York "women of a certain age".