Either you decide to stay in the shallow end of the pool or you go out in the ocean.

Christopher Reeve

On my last day in Australia, I ventured down to Cottesloe beach, camera in hand, to shoot what I hoped would be a beautiful sunset. As it turned out, a surf boat race was taking place that afternoon between a bunch of Perth’s Surf Life Saving clubs. It’s something I’ve always wanted to capture on camera.

Reflecting Australia’s predominately coastal population, Surf Life Saving Clubs have played a significant cultural role for over a century. There are few more iconic Australian symbols than that of the bronzed Aussie lifeguard, clad in speedos and a red and yellow skull cap. Steeped in tradition, Surf Life Saving is one of the few cultural institutions to escape significant visual or social change in the 104 years since the first club (Bondi Beach) was formed. Whether it’s the old guys marching in formation, or the beer soaked BBQs back at the clubhouse after a competition, its an enduring hark back to an earlier era of Australian history.

Inflatable skiffs and jet skis have replaced surf boats for modern rescues, but surf boats remain a major part of surf life saving culture during competitions like the one I was about to witness.

In preparation for the races, crews carried their boats down to the shoreline, while some of the clubs just rowed up the coast to Cott. One by one, surf boats came into view and pulled up onshore. To an international visitor it must be a strikingly foreign scene, with large groups of grown men standing around decked out in coordinated speedos and cotton skull caps. In one of the more unusual traditions (albeit one with a practical purpose) surf boat rowers shove their speedos up their ass cracks before a race. It’s done to prevent the rowers butt cheeks chaffing on the boat’s seats during a race, but the visual impact is hard to miss. Thankfully, most clubbies tend to be in extremely good shape, which might explain the lack of public indecency outcries. It’s just an accepted part of surf boat culture, a tacit demonstration of the arbitrary nature of social mores.

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I used to be a member of the North Cottesloe Surf Life Saving Club. North Cott (as it’s known by locals) is a calm stretch of beach about three minutes walk up the coast from Cott. There’s a a longstanding friendly(ish) rivalry between the two clubs. Cott has a more egalitarian reputation than North Cott, perhaps stemming from the fact that it is the only beach in Perth publicly accessible by train. On a hot summer’s day, thousands of people from across the city flock to Cott, crowding the beach. North Cott, being that extra few minutes walk, stays relatively quiet, mostly populated by locals.

My Mum, a Cott girl since childhood, thinks I’m elitist for choosing to join the more well heeled North Cott club, but my decision was more about convenience than social hierarchy. During college, I worked in the cafe directly above the North Cott clubrooms and I wanted to use their gym after work, so I joined up. Their famously wild parties might’ve also swayed me a little.

Perth’s beachside lifestyle is idyllic, with fresh coastal air, a vibrant outdoors-driven lifestyle and near perfect ocean and weather conditions. Throw in some of the most spectacular sunsets you’ve ever seen and its not surprising that Perth is considered (by Economist magazine’s 2010 Livable Cities Survey) as one of the most livable cities on earth. These factors really made it tough for me to leave Perth for a new life in Los Angeles.

The first thing I do upon returning to Perth is head to North Cott for a quick workout in the gym (where you can train in boardies and flip flops!), then it’s a few steps down to the beach for a swim in the crystal clear waters of the Indian Ocean. The ultimate jet lag cure!

As the sun set over Cottesloe and the boaties rowed back to their clubs or loaded their gear onto trailers, I went across the road with my Mum for an order of fish and chips. We sat on the beach in the dark amber of dusk, eating out of our butcher’s paper package while seagulls circled hoping for scraps. May everyone have such good fortune.

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.

Ellen Parr

The sun was setting on my last day in Barcelona and I’d been walking since breakfast, savoring every last drop of my time in this amazing city. Two weeks of minimal sleep and maximum eating, drinking and merriment were catching up with me though, and I felt myself hitting a big wall of tiredness.

Heading back to my hotel, I stumbled upon a group of musicians warming up for a street set. All seven spread out in a long line with their eclectic instruments and I was curious to see if the music measured up to their impressive visual impact. Within a few bars, I had my answer in the affirmative. During their five song set, you could literally feel and see the energy lift all around them, and they pulled a large crowd who were all jumping and dancing along.

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A Barcelona based musical collective, Microguagua perform their lively reggae/jazz infused music to appreciative crowds throughout Spain. With members hailing mainly from South America, the group’s size has continued to grow up to its current seven members.

My camera battery died right after their first song, so you’ll just have to take it from me that their sound and energy continued through the entire set. Their infectiously joyful music brought me back to life (Barcelona has a habit of doing that) and I walked away elated and fired up for one last night of Barcelona magic.

I wish every human life be pure transparent freedom.

Simone de Beauvoir

I’m an innately private individual. I also know the heavy personal weight of a secret. How it holds you down and blocks the powerful depths of your true self from seeing daylight. So my personal resolution for 2010 is for a more transparent life. It’s also my wish for the world.

Almost half my life ago, I told my mother my biggest secret – that I’m gay. For my first 23 years, I had carried a dark, seemingly immovable rock of shame inside myself. Yet, with one brief moment of transparency, it dissolved. I felt light and unencumbered, and the now fine particles of my former secret slid effortlessly from my being. Almost instantly though, habit reconnected me to fear of judgement. I looked at my mother and nervously asked, “So…what are you thinking?” She gave me a look of unconditional love. “I’m thinking that I finally know my son.”

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We all wear masks to cover parts of ourself we feel uncomfortable with. It’s just that in LA, the masks are harder to spot, and very difficult to remove when you do. So the search for genuine souls is a more difficult one here, but ultimately so much more rewarding. A few years ago, I worried I would never meet enough good people to constitute a solid circle of friends. I complained about this to my best friend back in Australia. “Lew, there are millions of people living in LA.” she said. “You’re down to earth, open and honest. And you live in LA. If you live there, then other genuine people with your values live there too. Just be yourself, be patient and let some kindred spirits find you.”

She was right. It took a while, but we found each other. And continue to find each other. I’ve noticed that lasting friendships only ever arrive when I’m being authentic, when my masks are down. Like attracts like.

Being transparent doesn’t require a nakedly confessional level of personal exposition. And this blog isn’t about that anyway. For me, some things are best left for a trusted friend, a therapist’s office or a diary entry. I created Lewis Likes It with the sole intention of sharing things I love with as many people as possible. At the same time, it’s also become an exercise in personal transparency. I find myself wanting to share memories, experiences, wishes and desires I’ve until now largely kept to myself. In doing so, I’m finding I connect with others (from within and without my life) through shared experiences. It’s as simple as that. Set the intention for your life, and let your actions create a tone that honestly reflects who you really are. And it all flows from there.

This year, I want to see real change. I want to see every political hypocrisy, social misdeed and act of corporate corruption exposed, leaving a cleaner slate and a more even playing field for humanity to build upon. And I want the builders of our new foundations to be people with noble intentions and a generous spirit. In 2010, let it be selfless acts rather than selfish spectacle that is celebrated in the world. That’d be a good start.

Why not open the doors and windows of your life and let in some air and light? Share something weighing you down with someone you trust. Start a blog. Blow the whistle on someone or something that isn’t serving you, or us all, well. Or simply sit honestly with yourself and set the intention for your year. Or your day. Or this moment. Because it all starts today.

All the pathos and irony of leaving one’s youth behind is thus implicit in every joyous moment of travel: one knows that the first joy can never be recovered, and the wise traveler learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time.

Paul Fussell

Image - Mandy Wood © 2009

I’m sitting on the top floor of the B hotel, on a sun lounge, overlooking an infinity pool, with views of the Placa D’Espanya eight stories below me. The sun is setting and I can’t quite believe I’ve found myself in such a spectacular location (and for such a great price – 45 Euros per person – more on that in a future post).

I had planned, somewhat ambitiously, to post regularly while I was in Spain. I’m keeping pretty busy shooting images and videos during the day here, but to be honest, I’m not really in the mood to sit in front of my laptop at night, when I could be out soaking up the lush, vibrant beauty of Barcelona. I haven’t been to Europe for ten years, and I’d forgotten how easy it is to fall in love with a city here.

There’s much to love about Spanish culture, not the least being the slower pace of urban life here. A work oriented culture like the US has many advantages – you can get a shitload more done when your colleagues come to work before 10 and don’t take two hour lunch breaks before leaving at four. But the Spanish have lifestyle down pat. When you’re here, you eat, drink and party well. And you do it surrounded by breathtaking architectural and cultural beauty.

When I was growing up in the ‘80s, flights overseas from Australia were incredibly expensive and the common wisdom was that if you were going to leave our shores, you’d better not come home until you’d seen and experienced everything you wanted to. When I, at 19, bid my family a teary airport goodbye, I wondered when I’d be back (it was almost three years later). It’s a common rite of passage for many young Australians to head out and explore the world we’re so far from geographically.

I spent about five years of my teens and 20s backpacking through Europe, among other places. With some bizarrely mature foresight, I decided back then to save a couple of the best European cities for later in my life (in the same way my best friend Raquel saves the best mouthful on her plate for last). For me, those cities were Rome and Barcelona.

Three and a half days in, I’m a happy camper indeed. And I’m pretty sure I’ll be talking about moving here once I fly home. I always do. Los Angeles has been a small miracle – the one city that’s managed to keep me in its clutches for more than a year. I’m nomadic by nature, but I think I know why I’m still in LA after six years (apart from the great weather, career, friends etc.) – it’s a great jumping off point for travel. Look at a map and LA is close-ish to everywhere. If I can just remember not be so work oriented and get on a plane to somewhere new now and then, I think I’ll be set.

A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.

Maya Angelou

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I met Audra Mae about five and a half years ago. A recent LA transplant from Oklahoma, she was working at a Hollywood tea store I loved. Audra made an instant impression with her warmth and lively personality and it turned out she was here to pursue a singing and songwriting career. But when, as I was leaving, she handed me a demo CD, I took it with polite dread. I’d been in this situation before, and started imagining how awful it might be and how awkward that would make future tea buying visits.

I played the track, Ruby Shoes when I got home. As soon as I heard the first note out of her mouth, I stopped in my tracks – there was a depth and soulfulness to her voice and lyrics that utterly belied her then 21 years of age. The song is a riff on The Wizard of Oz, and the difficulties of being so far from home and the ones you love (needless to say it tends to strike a chord with LA audiences). When the song finished, I just stood there, spellbound, and then I turned and saw my assistant’s face was covered in tears.

Fast forward five years and Audra Mae has just signed a record deal with SideOne Dummy records. “They’ve given me the kind of creative freedom that you just don’t get from most labels these days. The experience so far has been very, very supportive,” she says. “After years of meeting with labels who told me exactly how much I had to change my sound in order to be successful, it’s a relief to be able to be myself and have someone genuinely appreciate that.”

The five tracks on her new EP Haunt live up to the title. Most of the songs are haunting ballads with a strong narrative drive. The EP includes a cover of One Silver Dollar, a Marilyn Monroe song from the film River of No Return. “When people talk about Marilyn, I feel they don’t give her the respect she was due as a performer.” Audra says. “This was someone who really knew how to interpret a song.” My personal favorite on the EP is The Fable, a silky love song with a hypnotic chorus of wolf like howls, calling from one lover to another.

Starting October 24 in Cleveland, Audra is embarking on a 28 city acoustic tour called The Revival. Click here for dates and more info. And in a Lewis Likes It exclusive, we filmed an acoustic set with Audra Mae at a loft in the Hollywood Hills. I’m presenting three songs on here today – Snake Bite, The Fable and The Moon.

The HAUNT EP is available now on iTunes.

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Audra Mae – Loft Sessions – Snake Bite

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Audra Mae – Loft Sessions – The Fable

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Audra Mae – Loft Sessions – The Moon

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