Gary Dean - Posts


My Current Media Reading & Listening
note
Gary Dean |

My Current Media Reading & Listening

 – books|audiobooks|videos|podcasts|images that I consider worthy of my time

This is a list of media I am consuming at the moment, and over the past years. Most are audiobooks. The subject matter for all the media displayed I consider to be important in some manner, and cover areas including biology, ethics, group theory, evolutionary theory, among others. The titles appear in the order that I last read/heard them, not in the order than I first read/heard them. So the first book on the list is probably the one I am reading/hearing at this moment. I have given each book a crude rating: 5* means highly recommended, 4* recommended, 3* worth reading, 2* possibly prolematic, 1* save your time and money. If a book appears here at all, then it is generally a 3* or higher. The 'blurbs' on each book are taken directly from the audible.com site; they are not my words. .book-panel { background: #eee; color: #333; padding: 0.75em; margin-bottom:

2017: a return to kyoto
video
Gary Dean |

2017: a return to kyoto

this is a video from a point-of-view perspective that i took while walking around the kyoto imperial palace grounds. it was during a solo visit to japan at the end of 2017. it was cold and snowing. i had visited japan in the [northern hemisphere] spring of 2013; during the cherry blossom season. though i was not solo at that time. my supposed purpose in going to kyoto in 2017 was to undertake the rakuyo 33 pilgrimage route. to this end, before i went, i roughed up a little web site to help guide me around the densely packed city of kyoto (rakuyo33.info if you are interested). i completed this pilgrimage, on foot, and often in snowy conditions, over a period of six days. however, my actual reason for going to kyoto was a bit different. i wanted -- or perhaps, needed -- to revisit the grounds of the kyoto imperial palace. in search of someone. i guess. thi

I was 14
essay
Gary Dean |

I was 14

 – A nothing story

I was 14. A quiet boy, living in an outer suburb of a small and isolated city called Perth[1], in a large and remote state called Western Australia. The Perth of that time considered itself a bastion of the British Empire. In theatres, before the movie started, people stood for the playing of God Save The Queen. Except for those few ratbag proto republicans in the back who remained seated. Every year hoards of English migrants arrived by ship to settle in Perth, mainly in the new dormitory suburbs like the one I lived in. A large proportion of students in the schools comprised these recent arrivals. As a consequence, local born students — like myself — developed accents with a distinct English affectation. A year earlier, in 1970, the city was connected to the Eastern States by

Gary Dean
article
Gary Dean |

Gary Dean

 – From the West, Northward to the East

I was born and raised in Perth, Western Australia, in the pre-Sputnik era, and brought up in a mono-cultural English/British suburban environment. I am a Gemini and a Rooster. My MBTI is INFJ, my blood type B-, and I’m an Aspie. Here’s a snapshot of my genome. My life has largely unfolded across South East Asia, culminating in my migration to Indonesia in 1996. I am an Indonesian citizen. I have a reasonably diverse set of role models: Robert Sapolsky, Gotama, Germaine Greer, and

Meet Gary Dean
article
Gary Dean |

Meet Gary Dean

 – A Jakarta Expat interview with Gary Dean

Parts of this interview were published in Jakarta Expat, March 2013 Jakarta Expat: So Gary, where do you come from, where did you grow up? Gary Dean: I was born in Perth, Western Australia in the pre-Sputnik era. I grew up in the northern suburbs of Perth. JE: How long have you been living in Indonesia and what brought you here in the first place? GD: I've lived in Indonesia continuously since 1996. Why did I come to Indonesia? Firstly and principally, because it was not Australia. Psychologically, Australia was choking me; it is an orderly, over-regulated, self-satisfied country that is in love with its own image. I desperately needed some disorder in my life; and Indonesia delivers this in truckloads! In Indonesia, absolutely nothing can be taken for granted. JE: So how did you get from studying Animal Husbandry to becoming the director and senior consultant for Ok

An Ungrateful Australian
essay
Gary Dean |

An Ungrateful Australian

On Tuesday, 17 December 2002 BM wrote: I think, on balance, that if I am to be ruled, I would much rather be ruled by complete fucking moron civilians than by clever army generals, or religious fanatics for that matter. A friend, who had been a lifelong marxist until the collapse of the Soviet Union, in a moment of possibly alcohol-induced candour, said to me once that to him a slightly corrupt, partially inept 'liberal democracy' is far preferable to a ruthlessly efficient and thoroughly honest socialist dictatorship. Oh shit, I think I feel a polemic coming on ... Or maybe it's that dodgy rendang I ate for lunch ... I quite agree, living under a liberal democracy is probably preferable to living under a socialist dictatorship. However your statements are loaded with some highly contentious and suspect presumptions concerning the alleged relative super

dikotomi
music
Gary Dean |

dikotomi

 – digital music experiments from 2002

dikotomi is a collection of atmospheric midi music, best experienced whilst sailing through the open air in a solar-powered airship, at moderate altitude, under a clear, high sky, and with no particular destination. synthesized over a period of months a long, long time ago, these are essentially my experimentation with fully computerised and notated compositions. absolute uncertainty sky cruising

Madu Tri
article
Gary Dean |

Madu Tri

 – suatu kisah asmara

Alkisah beberapa masa yang lalu hiduplah seorang laki-laki dan seorang perempuan.  Nama dari si laki-laki itu adalah Ari. Pada waktu cerita ini mulai dia merupakan seorang pemimpin dari suatu perusahaan yang sangat berhasil di suatu kota di bagian selatan di suatu negara.  Namun demikian, Ari tidak begitu puas dengan pekerjaannya itu. Dan dibalik keberhasilan dan harta kekayaannya, dia tidaklah bahagia. Nama perempuan itu adalah Tri. Sesungguhnya, Tri membenci nama ini. Hal ini membuat dia merasa sebagai orang awam yang kurang gengsi. Dalam kenyataannya, setiap orang yang mengenal Tri memanggilnya Madu Tri. Dia juga sungguh-sungguh tidak menyukai nama ini, tetapi paling tidak nama ini bukanlah nama kebanyakan. Selama hidupnya, Madu Tri suka sekali minum madu. Tanpa madu, hidup tidaklah punya arti baginya. Madu adalah hakikat dari eksistensinya. Suatu hal yang tidak bisa d

Airship Over Occussi
music
Gary Dean |

Airship Over Occussi

 – Songs from 1983

Songs recorded "live" on a cheap cassette recorder at various locations in Fremantle, Western Australia during 1983 (or was it 1984?).  The recording quality in all cases is extremely poor, but the spirit remains audible.  These recordings marked the end of my creative musical life; not long after I gave it away, deciding deliberately and consciously that I had nothing to say. Whilst all the compositions below are original creations, I feel that all creation is a synthesis of past and present experience.  For an individual to take credit for any creation is a silly notion, notwithstanding copyright notices!  Whilst my compositions may be unique, they nevertheless represent syntheses of my experiences and interactions with a particular set of people, circumstances and social environments at a particular time and place.  I have l